Chapter 34: The Schemed School Beauty (4)

The dim room was suddenly lit up by the stark white light.

After flicking on the switch, Bai Qian calmly covered Fu Siwan’s pink lips with her hand just as they were about to brush against her own.

She lowered her head, her thin lenses fogged over, obscuring whatever lay in her eyes behind them.

The woman’s voice was clear and cool, pleasing to the ear, carrying no trace of reproach.

“I just wanted to celebrate your birthday—in the literal sense. A birthday celebration.”

As she finished speaking, her peripheral glance caught the cake on the table, and a warm, gentle smile deepened in her eyes. “The cake’s already here. I’m hungry too, so let’s cut it together.”

Without pulling free from the hand Fu Siwan had gripped, the woman guided the girl—who’d failed in her sneak attack and was gradually settling down amid her swirling thoughts—to the table, still in that intimate hold.

As the Guardian of the Quick Transmigration World, Bai Qian had never learned how to throw birthdays for protagonists.

She had a vague sense that she might have done this sort of thing for someone once before. But when she probed deeper for the truth of that memory, it felt like nothing more than an illusion.

Bai Qian didn’t waste time chasing down what might just be a figment of her imagination. Right now, there were far more pressing matters at hand.

Never having celebrated a birthday for anyone didn’t mean she was clueless about how to do it.

The woman recalled the movies she’d watched.

On television, people always stuck candles into the cake, fashioned a birthday hat for the guest of honor and placed it on their head, then sang the birthday song while watching them make a wish.

Bai Qian followed suit. She unpacked the cake, inserted two candles marked with the numbers “1” and “8,” and finally, gently settled the birthday hat onto the girl’s head.

Alone, she sang the full birthday song for the quiet girl. At the end, she lit the two candles with a lighter. Amid the dancing flames, the woman’s gaze on the little one softened like spring waters. “Close your eyes and make a wish.”

Fu Siwan felt as if she’d been struck a heavy blow; the dazed, soul-lost haze lifted from her, replaced by a complex, inscrutable expression.

The candlelight flickered in her dark eyes. The girl spoke, her voice trembling with cautious hesitation. “Why are you doing all this for me?”

Bai Qian held her gaze. “And if I said there’s no reason?”

The little girl’s eyes gradually rimmed with red. Her voice rose in a pitiful near-roar, like a cornered beast. “There has to be a reason! In this world, no kindness comes without one!”

“The candles are burning low. For this birthday, let me make the wish for you first.” Bai Qian sidestepped the question.

With that, she clasped the girl’s hands together and raised them between them, looking at her with earnest intensity. “I hope that starting today, little Fu Siwan meets a kind soul who can give her anything she desires, no matter what it is.”

“Hoo—”

The candles snuffed out. The glimmers in the girl’s eyes faded as she heard the woman murmur softly, tenderly.

“The birthday gift Bai Qian wants to give Fu Siwan… a kind soul named Bai Qian.”

She lifted a hand to wipe away the two glistening trails that had slipped down the little girl’s cheeks unnoticed. “In this world, there’s one reason—because you are Fu Siwan.”

“Happy birthday, my little friend.”

A whole cake ended up only half-eaten.

Bai Qian had polished off most of that half. Fu Siwan had poked at hers distractedly with a fork, managing a few bites before she simply couldn’t stomach more.

Just as the woman opened her mouth to ask about it, the girl’s long-suppressed emotions shattered in an instant.

Bai Qian was caught off guard. In mere seconds, the little girl had dissolved into a tear-streaked mess. Without further delay, she coaxed her onto the bed.

She didn’t climb in beside her but half-knelt there, patiently stroking the girl’s back through the blanket with gentle pats, again and again.

It took an unknowable stretch of time, but Little Rabbit finally quieted.

The woman looked down. Red tinged the corners of her eyes, her small face so heartbreakingly pitiful.

~~~

Bai Qian awoke to the sight of the girl’s rumpled, unmade bed beside her.

Her gaze drifted lower. The hotel slippers remained, but Fu Siwan’s shoes were gone.

Rubbing her temples, she sat up and scanned the room.

Half the cake sat untouched on the table. The backpack she’d placed by the cake box before drifting off, along with the school jacket draped over the chair back, had been taken by their owner.

Bai Qian called Xie Chao. A few minutes after she’d bought a pancake wrap from the alley across from the hotel, the young man pulled up in his car.

The woman slid into the car, and Xie Chao couldn’t wait to take credit for his work. “President Bai, I stayed up all night yesterday tidying up the house for you. Everything I bought comes in pairs—guaranteed to make you and your little Rabbit fall in love with it the moment you walk through the door!”

“Thanks for the trouble. Take me back to the company.”

Xie Chao blinked. “Sure thing, but President Bai… aren’t you going to pick up my future boss lady?”

Bai Qian’s bite into her pancake wrap missed the mark, sending a shard of crispy batter bouncing out of the plastic bag and landing on her thigh.

Her face darkened as she pulled out a tissue to clean it up. “Don’t get the wrong idea. She’s just a kid I know—nothing like what you’re imagining.”

Xie Chao sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh no, then what? The stuff in the house is all couples’ items. What if the girl thinks you’re some creepy old pervert?”

Bai Qian’s fist clenched, crunching the tissue-wrapped shard with a sharp crack that echoed through the car.

“Xie Chao, are you trying to get your pay docked?”

The young man immediately clammed up, eyes fixed straight ahead, minimizing his presence as he focused on driving in silence.

After dropping her off at the company building, Xie Chao rolled down the window and poked his head out behind her. “President Bai, should I head back to Orchid Plum Pavilion and redo the place?”

“No need. I’ll handle it myself after work.”

Xie Chao hesitated, looking torn for a moment, but in the end said nothing and obediently went to park the car.

~~~

The workday wrapped up, the lock screen on her phone showing it was nearly six o’clock.

Bai Qian grabbed a pack of small biscuits from her drawer to tide her over, skipped the ride from Xie Chao, and headed to the basement garage to drive herself.

Fu Siwan’s home was in another district. Following the GPS, Bai Qian twisted and turned through the streets before finally pulling up to an rundown old neighborhood.

The gap between the two buildings flanking the road was narrow, so Bai Qian parked outside the main gate, gauged the distance, and decided to walk in.

Fu Siwan lived on the third floor.

By now, night had fully fallen.

The motion-sensor lights in the hallway were ancient and glitchy. Each step Bai Qian took on the floor triggered three frantic flickers, the strobe making her eyes ache.

At last, she reached the door and pressed the doorbell with clear distaste—it was caked in greasy grime, yellowed and blackened with age.

She waited a few minutes, but no sound came from inside, so she rang again. Still nothing.

Bai Qian tentatively rapped on the door. The weathered, musty surface thudded dully under her knocks.

About half a minute later, a loud, shrill woman’s voice bellowed from within. “Fu Siwan, are you deaf? Didn’t you hear someone knocking? Get out here and open the damn door!”

Footsteps hurried closer soon after.

The door clicked open, but only partway. Even so, Bai Qian caught sight of that strikingly beautiful face inside.

The girl’s cold expression softened just a fraction upon seeing who was at the door, but she quickly schooled it away. Her hand tightened on the knob, already moving to slam it shut.

Bai Qian was ready for it. She pushed the door open ahead of her.

Fu Siwan stumbled unsteadily, her body tipping backward. Bai Qian swiftly reached out, steadying her by the waist.

Fu Siwan was slight, barely weighing anything—like a gust of wind. With one arm, Bai Qian easily pulled her into an embrace.

“Fu Siwan, why didn’t you say anything? Who’s there?”

The woman’s voice snapped the dazed girl out of her momentary stupor from the hug. She shoved Bai Qian away and took a deliberate step back, her demeanor icy and distant.

“What are you doing here again?”

Bai Qian glanced down at her clothes, now dotted with suds from the dish soap still on Fu Siwan’s hands.

She frowned, her expression sour. “Didn’t your mother say she wouldn’t make you do these chores at home?”

Fu Siwan’s face remained blank as she stated flatly, “She thinks we’ve already done it.”

—No value left after the first time, so no need to treasure or protect her anymore.

In just one day, the little Rabbit had sprouted those irritating cold thorns again.

With that explanation, Fu Siwan turned away, tossing over her shoulder in a frigid tone, “I’m not selling myself to you anymore. Auntie, you should leave.”

The living room erupted with the woman’s furious cursing. “Are you mute, Fu Siwan? Who was at the door?”

The girl ignored it completely, shuffling numbly back to the kitchen.

Li Lanzhao grumbled as she hauled herself up from the sofa. Passing by, she spotted the woman in the entryway, and her face twisted through a series of exaggerated expressions.

“Miss Bai, it’s you.”

Up close, Bai Qian caught a whiff from the woman.

It wasn’t some tangible external stench, but a rotten, repulsive decay that seeped from her very bones.

“I’ve come to take her away.”

Li Lanzhao’s smile grew even brighter. She was just about to nod in agreement when something occurred to her. Her eyes flickered, and her expression shifted.

If one ignored the greed gleaming in her eyes, the distress on her face seemed almost genuine. “Miss Bai, you’ve come at a really inconvenient time. Just half an hour ago, I got a call from Mr. Wang. He said he regretted not being able to celebrate Siwan’s birthday with us yesterday and wants to make it up to her today with twenty thousand. Miss Bai, what do you think about that…?”

“One million. Is that enough?”

The woman was so thrilled by the staggering figure that she could barely get the words out. “Y-You mean one—one million? Today? Our Siwan, last night she—”

Bai Qian cut off her crude words with a cold expression. “One million for her. Take it or leave it.”

Li Lanzhao’s attitude flipped completely. She had always been shrewd when it came to deals involving Fu Siwan. “Miss Bai, one million is certainly a lot for us, but using it to buy out our Siwan? That seems like you’re undervaluing her, don’t you think?”

The woman sneered. “One million. If that’s not enough for you, you’ll regret it later when you can’t even get ten thousand.”

Li Lanzhao put on the aggressive, shrewish demeanor of a streetwise woman. “We’re living in a society governed by law these days. I’m just an ordinary citizen, but I won’t let anyone bully me like that.”

“Zhao Yinghao was hauled off yesterday for raping an underage girl. He’s got plenty of dirt on you, including a recording of your deal with him. Ms. Li, under the new national law passed earlier this year on forcing others into prostitution, do you have any idea how many years you’d get?”

Li Lanzhao panicked at once. “No way! I’m her mother! I just told her to make a friend. How could that possibly count as the prostitution you’re talking about? Don’t try to fool me!”

Bai Qian let out a cold laugh. Even knowing that this was the woman who had raised Fu Siwan, she felt not a shred of sympathy for her. “Ms. Li, I’ll give you one last chance. Do you take the money and cut all ties with Fu Siwan for good, or should I submit the evidence and let you spend a few years sipping tea behind bars?”

~~~

The slightly oversized sleeves had been rolled up twice, but every time she moved, the watery blue fabric slipped back down.

The girl had to keep using her other hand to push the sleeve back up to her wrist, only for it to fall again moments later, getting soaked once more by the stream of water from the faucet.

Fu Siwan irritably clicked her tongue and was about to set down the bowl she’d just soaped up when a pair of hands reached out from behind her, pressing down on the troublesome sleeve before she could.

She caught the scent of the other person—a clean, gentle fragrance that didn’t belong in this house.

A faint, clear aroma, dangerously addictive.

Bai Qian had pulled her hair into a simple ponytail, a youthful and lively style that softened the sharp, professional edge she usually carried.

The woman leaned down slightly, adjusting the girl’s sleeve with care. She folded it over once and then took the girl’s hand, guiding it under the running water.

Their pale fingers intertwined intimately. Bai Qian moved with meticulous care, her expression focused as she smiled faintly, rinsing away the white suds from the girl’s hands bit by bit.

Finally, she turned her head and bestowed that intoxicating, exclusive tenderness upon her.

“Little Fu Siwan, from today onward, you’re mine.”