Chapter 32: Cohabitation

You have no idea what my mom said about you!

Returning to the hotel, He Zhiwen’s heart was still palpitating with lingering fear. She put the pearl hairpin into her bag; the letter, she set down on the table.

She didn’t notice the person approaching from behind.

Jiang Yue had just finished showering. Still wearing her bathrobe, she gathered the woman into her arms, rubbing her damp hair against He Zhiwen’s face.

“Ah—!” He Zhiwen’s reaction was startlingly extreme. She let out a yelp of fright.

“It’s just me,” Jiang Yue soothed. “What’s wrong? Did things not go well with your friend?”

He Zhiwen came back to her senses. The corners of her lips tugged upward with great effort. She shook her head. “It went very well. Registration is next week. Bring that letter of recommendation with you.”

Hearing this, Jiang Yue released her and followed her gaze to the letter. Holding it in her hands, she couldn’t hide her excitement. “Wife, you’re incredible! Should we find time to treat your friend to a meal?”

Properly reciprocating favors and maintaining relationships was necessary after all. Jiang Yue might be young, but she wasn’t sloppy about this.

He Zhiwen’s eyes darted elsewhere as she stammered, “Mm… No need. She’s very busy. Didn’t we already eat together today? Too much formality can hurt friendships.”

Jiang Yue thought about it. That was true; generally, the deeper the friendship, the more awkward excessive courtesy could feel.

She held the letter, examining it over and over. The seal was still intact; she didn’t open it, unsure of its contents. Judging by the packaging and the gold-embossed crimson lettering, the sender’s status was clearly exceptional.

Overjoyed, Jiang Yue scooped He Zhiwen up and fell with her onto the bed. Her cool lips caught that soft ear between them, nibbling lightly. “Sister… I want you.”

He Zhiwen’s face flew into a deep blush. Moments later, a white snake tail slithered out from under the blanket. Its coloration was already exceedingly rare. Upon closer inspection of its scales, one could see scattered markings shaped like Bridal Veil Jasmine—the exclusive pattern of a Spirit Snake.

When the young snake is still forming, the pattern can be vaguely seen through specialized instruments. After hatching, the patterns recede and stay hidden until adulthood, when the snake can finally control their manifestation. This was a self-preserving evolutionary adaptation forced upon the Spirit Snakes over centuries.

Jiang Yue’s fingertips traced the pattern lovingly, unable to get enough of it. She let out a soft laugh. “What are you thinking about? Feeling this strongly?”

The woman shook her head without a word. She was even more passionate than usual. She climbed up onto Jiang Yue’s shoulders and murmured in a low voice, “A’Yue…”

Near dawn, the sky was still murky gray with rain. After one round of Mating Joy and one Mating, the woman in bed had fallen fast asleep.

Jiang Yue had ordered a substantial amount of food. They needed to consume large quantities.

She walked out to the balcony to make a phone call, deliberately lowering her voice. “Can’t a single one be examined?”

“I took them all out and illuminated them. None of these four snake eggs have taken form yet; you can’t see any patterns at all. The earliest would be August. Don’t rush.”

The man’s reply made Jiang Yue irritable. “Nonsense. Do you have any idea how disgusting it is to sleep with a woman? How can I not be in a hurry? Will this even work? The ancient texts say the heritability of the Spirit Snake gene is only a three percent probability. If none of these snake eggs carry it, I don’t want them. Get rid of them for me.”

“Yue Yue, don’t be like this. Even if they aren’t Spirit Snakes, we can still raise the children. They’re your flesh and blood after all…” The man was shocked by her ruthlessness. He was only after money, not murder. “If you don’t like them, just leave them with He Zhiwen. By then, the hatchlings will already be formed. How do you even ‘get rid’ of them?”

Jiang Yue sneered. “Are you insane? The kids are with He Zhiwen. Don’t you know homosexuality is genetic? What if four little homosexuals hatch out? Just thinking about it makes me sick. If you’re so generous, go adopt everyone from the orphanage.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s not discuss this now. Calm down. Don’t let anything slip; it’d be terrible if He Zhiwen overheard…”

After ending the call, Jiang Yue returned to the room. The woman on the bed had let the blanket slip, revealing skin like ice, muscles like jade, skin as smooth as congealed cream. Even before drawing near, one could almost smell the soft fragrance of her body.

Such an alluring sight, yet Jiang Yue only felt wave after wave of disgust. A flash of revulsion crossed her eyes. Seeing the snake tail that had been intimately entwined with hers last night made her stomach churn violently.

She knelt on the bed and gathered the woman, blankets and all, into her arms, nuzzling her forehead affectionately against He Zhiwen’s face. “Wife, time to get up and eat~”

On the very first day of cohabitation, Bu Yao had deliberately set an alarm clock.

Xing Yue initially thought Bu Yao intended to get up and make breakfast for her, only to realize she’d set the alarm merely to call her family chef to cook and deliver the meal.

“Eldest Miss, Madam says if you want to learn independence, you should learn to solve your three meals a day by yourself. Of course, if you can’t stomach outside food, Madam can personally cook for you.”

Bu Yao’s face fell. Petulantly, she said, “Forget it then.”

She scrolled through her phone and found the restaurant she usually went to. She placed an order for some of her favorites, then handed the phone over to Xing Yue. “Here. You order.”

It was a merchant mini-program, not available on any delivery platform—clearly catering to a very specific clientele.

Xing Yue looked it over. One basket of sauce-braised chicken feet was 700 yuan. Two pieces of sushi were 2,600 yuan. Just the four items Bu Yao had ordered totaled over 5,000 yuan—and that was just for one person’s meal. Every item consisted of only two or three bites’ worth of food.

“How much do you earn in a month?” Xing Yue did the math for her. “Breakfast alone is 5,000 a day. Add lunch and dinner, and that’s easily around 20,000 a day. You’d need to earn 600,000 yuan a month just for living expenses.”

Selling Xing Yue’s car would only cover Bu Yao’s food and drink for one month—not even counting other expenses.

“Is 600,000 yuan even real money?” Bu Yao thought Xing Yue was making a fuss over nothing. “If you have money, you spend it. I’m not going to earn any.”

She only took on cases when she felt like it, on a whim. That pittance of a salary—could it even be called money? It wasn’t even worth factoring into the equation.

Xing Yue flicked her on the forehead. “Then what’s the point of moving out? You’re still spending your parents’ money.”

Bu Yao covered her forehead. Thinking about it, she was right. How could she let her mother look down on her? Right now, her mother was just waiting for her to give up and come crawling home.

She gave Xing Yue a kiss. “Fine! Then we won’t order from restaurants. You cook for me.”

Aside from the home chef’s cooking and her mother’s, only Xing Yue’s cooking ever appealed to her appetite.

After saying this, she burrowed back under the covers like a cat, clearly intending to go back to sleep.

Xing Yue’s expression darkened, her eyes unfathomable. “I shouldn’t restrict you from spending your parents’ money. The Bu family has a vast estate and business. If you have to compromise even on what you eat, that’s far too unfair to you. You should still go home.”

She didn’t want to bind Bu Yao to anything either. If being with her meant scrimping and saving, meticulously calculating every expense, how could that life be happy?

The best solution was for Bu Yao to reconcile with her mother and spend however she pleased. She didn’t know how the argument between Bu Yao and Madam Bu had escalated to the point of Bu Yao running away from home.

Hearing this, Bu Yao shot up from the bed. “You’re doing it again! Sending me away again?!”

“Why do you have to run away from home?” Xing Yue, seeing she was about to explode, pulled her over and smoothed down her ruffled fur, softening her voice to coax her. “Making up with your mom won’t affect your feelings for me.”

Bu Yao pushed Xing Yue away, her eyes burning hot with threatening tears. “It does affect it! You have no idea what my mom said about you!”

The reason she stubbornly refused to go home—it wasn’t for anything else. It was to stand up for Xing Yue, to show her mother through her actions: even if she left the Bu family, she could still live well with Xing Yue. Xing Yue wasn’t that awful at all!

But the facts had proven that she wasn’t living well. The tiniest, most trivial thing could spark contention between her and Xing Yue.

Leaving the Bu family, Bu Yao, who had never in her life possessed any concept of money, for the first time pondered what Xing Yue had said—how exactly did one earn 600,000 yuan a month for living expenses?

“I want to eat your cooking. Is that not allowed?” she asked.

Xing Yue: “It’s not that it’s not allowed. But I can’t make breakfast for you every single day. There will always be times when I’m busy.”

A day or two was fine. A month or two wasn’t a problem. But ten years, twenty years, even a whole lifetime of her always being the one in the kitchen? No.

She didn’t feel loved. A woman who didn’t cherish her—she didn’t want that kind of woman.

Upon hearing this, Bu Yao flung the blanket aside and got out of bed barefoot. She pulled Xing Yue up. “Oh. Then teach me. Next time, I’ll cook for you.”

Tsk tsk tsk. Such words coming from the mouth of the Eldest Miss Bu—how rare.

Xing Yue was led by the hand by Bu Yao into the kitchen. Seeing the fridge was nearly empty, they came back out, changed clothes, and prepared to head out to the wet market.

A fine, drizzling rain fell. Holding her umbrella, Xing Yue glanced at the woman beside her. A very subtle and delicate feeling suddenly bloomed within her. Someone was accompanying her to the wet market. Someone was going to make breakfast together with her.

She had fantasized about this kind of life countless times. And the person accompanying her to do these things was actually the Eldest Miss Bu… Even more a fantasy within a fantasy.

Bu Yao held Xing Yue’s hand as they strolled down the street. Her eyes still held traces of sleepiness, in a little dazed, half-awake state. She suddenly spoke up: “Xing Yue, from now on, when you run into problems, can you try thinking of a solution first and then let me carry it out? Don’t just open your mouth and send me away, okay? Can you swap ‘get out’ with ‘I need you to do this for me’?”