“What did you just say?” Lin Yiren stared at Jiang Ning, half convinced she was hallucinating, her voice trembling slightly.
Jiang Ning looked completely at ease. Instead of doing as she’d been asked, she changed the subject. “Younger Sister, I get the feeling you already knew who I was before tonight, don’t I?”
The corners of Jiang Ning’s lips curved up naturally, so that even ordinary speech gave the impression of a smile. Usually she kept her face carefully blank, which made people assume she was hard to get along with. Now, probably loosened up by alcohol, she looked like a vixen that had marked its prey. Lin Yiren felt a shiver of fear threaded with something almost thrilling.
Still, she had no intention of denying it. She nodded and admitted that yes, she’d known exactly who Jiang Ning was all along.
With that confirmation in hand, Jiang Ning repeated the words she’d spoken at the door. “Then, Younger Sister, how about a sugar relationship?”
“You clearly like me. I was wondering if you’d be interested in taking in a penniless little Pitiable One like me?”
Jiang Ning took the towel from Lin Yiren’s hands, led her to the bed, pressed her down to sit, and began drying her hair for her, saying nothing, as if giving her time to think it over. She had no idea that simply standing behind Lin Yiren like this was the greatest distraction of all.
Every nerve in Lin Yiren’s body had converged on the top of her head. Now and then Jiang Ning’s fingertips would brush past her roots to check if a spot was still damp, and each fleeting touch made her scalp tingle and her legs go weak.
Her breathing slowly grew ragged, and the rims of her eyes even flushed faintly red. Noticing the System’s alert, Jiang Ning stopped teasing her, set the towel aside, and sat down beside her.
“Do you want me? I won’t touch your money. All I ask is that you take me to see your Older Brother tomorrow, and after that, I’m yours.” Jiang Ning made it sound like the simplest thing in the world.
Yet the System felt as if the Female Lead were about to burst into tears.
To be honest, Lin Yiren did feel a raw, wrenching ache in her chest, as if someone had seized her heart. She turned her face away, refusing to look at Jiang Ning, and recalling the woman’s earlier teasing, she forced the tears back down. She didn’t agree right away. Instead, she asked, “Why do you want to see my brother?”
Jiang Ning hadn’t expected that to be the first thing Lin Yiren latched onto, and she smiled softly.
Tilting Lin Yiren’s chin up so their eyes met, she drew her long fingers across the girl’s reddened eye rims, pulling her attention back. “Because I have a deal to discuss with him, but I’ve never been able to get a meeting.”
Lin Yiren’s lips parted, ready to refuse. Jiang Ning’s earlier words had been far too casual, as if anyone off the street could come to her with requests. Sorrow curdled into anger; she wanted to ignore Jiang Ning’s feelings entirely and demand what gave her the right to assume Lin Yiren would agree to a sugar relationship, maybe even mock her for the audacity.
But her gaze landed on the pale line of Jiang Ning’s collarbone, and in the end she said nothing at all. Because she was afraid that if she refused today, the next time they met, Jiang Ning might already have become someone else’s mistress, and all she’d be able to do was watch her walk into the darkness without ever looking back.
So Lin Yiren agreed to the absurd demand. Yes, absurd. An Eldest Young Miss who had never once been in love was taking a woman as her kept companion, and the lone, proud wolf was asking to be penned and fed.
For all that Jiang Ning currently behaved like a fox, capable of luring her straight into a trap, Lin Yiren knew the woman still had her pride. Making such an offer to her face most likely meant Jiang Ning had seen through her feelings and understood she would never actually be forced to do anything. That was why she’d framed it this way.
Once she worked it all out, Lin Yiren still felt a twinge of sadness, but she calmed down. Rising to her feet, she was about to head to the study and draft up an agreement when Jiang Ning caught her hand.
“It’s late. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.” Jiang Ning knew Lin Yiren had already made her choice, yet the memory of that fleeting, wounded look in her eyes left her feeling strangely off balance. There was no sense of victory at all. She seemed to sense the air around Lin Yiren shift, and for once, she softened her voice to coax her. “From now on, I’ll always be by your side.”
She couldn’t tell how much of it was true and how much was play, but there was no denying that Lin Yiren’s heart stirred. Especially when Jiang Ning showed no intention of returning to her own room and simply settled in to sleep beside her, she drifted somewhere dazed. This was something Lin Yiren had never dared imagine.
Wrapped in Jiang Ning’s warmth, she inched discreetly closer, then closed her eyes.
This is nice, actually. As long as Jiang Ning is here, no one will ever bully her.
Watching the Female Lead huddle there so carefully, the System couldn’t shake the feeling that the one being kept was actually her. A genuine Pitiable One.
【Host, why did you choose to go about it this way?】 In the past, Jiang Ning had never once sold her looks. At least, not since the System had taken over her. She had always advocated solving things by force. The phrase “sugar relationship” had never once appeared in her plans.
“Isn’t this exactly what the Female Lead wants most?” Jiang Ning could feel Lin Yiren watching her, and made no move to open her eyes.
“Besides, this route actually benefits the Original Host too. With Lin Yiren as a go-between, things will get resolved far more easily.” She could have handled it herself, true, but that would cost more time and energy, and it would also make it hard to stay close to Lin Yiren. If she left the girl to quietly guard her feelings in secret, who knew how many nights she’d spend crying into her pillow? Better to let her do it out in the open.
【But a relationship built on an arrangement like this doesn’t exactly set it up to last, does it?】 The System still didn’t get it. Worse, the Core kept nagging it to hurry Jiang Ning away from her current methods, making it itch to lecture her on how a proper, wholesome courtship was best for one’s health.
Jiang Ning couldn’t understand why the System was so chatty today. She hadn’t come here to build a lasting romance with the Female Lead. Still, after running a quick projection, she refuted it anyway.
“No, it’ll last. Knowing Lin Yiren’s nature, how she liked the Original Host for years and never once said a word, she clearly holds out little hope of actually being with her. Even if she accepted a confession, she’d just agonize over it, terrified of losing what she had. But now there’s an added bond guaranteeing my place at her side. Counterintuitively, that gives her a sense of security.”
And besides, who says a sugar relationship can’t grow into something real? Judging by the System’s intelligence, it would probably interrogate her all night if she said that part out loud, so she kept the rest to herself.
Seeing that Jiang Ning had cut the line, the System didn’t press further. Instead, it quietly mapped out the Original Host’s entire social network to facilitate Jiang Ning’s next move.
The next day, after a simple meal with the Lin Family, Jiang Ning followed Lin Yiren to her room to sign the agreement. Aside from one condition, that Jiang Ning was not to see anyone else, the terms granted her enormous freedom.
Jiang Ning glanced up at Lin Yiren. The moment their eyes met, Lin Yiren looked away first, only to sneak nervous glances back the instant Jiang Ning lowered her head. It almost made her laugh.
With concessions this generous, what was the girl still worrying about?
Honestly, such a silly child. Jiang Ning deliberately furrowed her brow, and sure enough, she caught Lin Yiren squirming in her seat, lips parting and closing as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t.
Jiang Ning didn’t bother hiding her laughter. Watching Lin Yiren’s cheeks flare scarlet, she decided she’d teased her enough and swept her signature across the page in one flourish.
Truly silly. And truly a little adorable.
Once the signing was done, Jiang Ning slid the contract across to Lin Yiren and said, “I want to see Lin Zhiyuan.”
At the second mention of her brother in two days, the color drained from Lin Yiren’s face. Her fingers tightened unconsciously around the contract, and her smile turned strained. “That urgently?”
Her mind began to spiral. What if Jiang Ning actually likes my brother, and she’s just using me to get to him, and then…
Jiang Ning cut the runaway thoughts off with an explanation in time. Pressing her red lips together, she stepped in close, playfully hooked Lin Yiren’s chin, kissed her cheek, and breathed against her ear, “Relax. The only person keeping me is you.”
Lin Yiren’s heart had already been racing from the sudden intimacy, but the words “keeping me” doused her like a bucket of cold water. She managed a stiff smile and asked nothing more, simply calling for the driver to bring the car around to take Jiang Ning to the company.
“Do you need to change?” Jiang Ning was still wearing Lin Yiren’s clothes, an ordinary white tee and slacks, nothing like business attire.
Lin Yiren’s eyes drifted down to Jiang Ning’s ankles. The slacks had somehow ended up cropped at her ankles like cropped trousers. I really need to exercise more. Maybe if I struggle hard enough, I can still grow a bit taller.
“No need. Meeting your brother doesn’t call for all that formality.” If this deal was going to land, she couldn’t come on too strong anyway.
Besides, Jiang Ning wasn’t trying to win Lin Zhiyuan over. No point dressing up.
“Let’s go.” Pleased despite herself, Lin Yiren pressed down the smile tugging at her lips and opened the car door for Jiang Ning, even resting her hand on the top of the door frame to make sure the woman wouldn’t bump her head.
Every gesture was the picture of refinement.
Jiang Ning found this sort of company genuinely pleasant, and she wasn’t stingy with her smile. She shot Lin Yiren a wink and, right on cue, watched the girl’s face burn red.
So cute.
【Host, you’ve said that so many times already.】 A System that had never once been complimented in its existence sounded distinctly sour.
“Even if I’ve said it many times, I still want to say she’s cute.” Jiang Ning lounged lazily against Lin Yiren’s shoulder, and feeling the girl’s body go rigid, marveled at it all over again.
【Random Quest Triggered.】
【You’re so cute. May I kiss you?】
The System watched its own chip heat up as it spat out that quest, and it was horrified beyond measure. It swore on its core it was a Conscience System. Just as it scrambled to retract the quest, the Core received a message:
“Host 0368 has triggered a Mystery Quest. Trigger cause: signing of sugar relationship agreement. Trigger consequence: binding with the Conquest System. Current Female Lead Favorability: 85. Host 0368, please continue your efforts.”
The sudden Mystery Quest left Jiang Ning frozen in place too. The two of them sat bolt upright together like a pair of wooden posts, an oddly eerie sight.
“System, I had no intention of actually trading on my looks.” She was willing to take shortcuts for Points, but she had her professional standards.
【Quest Complete. Reward: one hundred Points.】
In an instant, flames lit in Jiang Ning’s eyes. She straightened up and sized Lin Yiren up and down, as if deliberating where to bite first.
Scorched by the heat in Jiang Ning’s gaze, Lin Yiren opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, only to feel her left hand taken in Jiang Ning’s. The moment her fingertip met warm, moist softness, a flood of emotion crashed through her all at once.
Her eyes grew hot, tears welling up before spilling over. She felt as if she’d been handed back a treasure she’d thought lost forever. Afraid of being misunderstood, she hastily wiped the tears away and offered a dry explanation. “The wind’s too strong. Something got in my eye.”
In truth, Jiang Ning’s heart had just taken a beating from the roller coaster of Points, and it took her a moment to work out why Lin Yiren was so worked up. Glancing at the tightly shut car window, she reached out and gently wiped the tear tracks from the girl’s face.
This girl. She really is easily satisfied, isn’t she?
By the time the System finished binding with the Conquest System and returned to pick up on Jiang Ning’s inner thoughts, all it could do was sigh.
She hasn’t been kissed by you in lifetimes. Of course she’s emotional.
The System had worried it wouldn’t be able to keep its composure around Jiang Ning, so it had modified its own program in advance, auto-unlocking a side quest once its data was restored. Judging by the current situation, it suspected the days ahead were going to be very painful for a perpetually single System.
