Chapter 64: The Humiliated Heiress of the Arranged Marriage (9) Part 2

Now, she found herself wondering what Chi Miaohan would do if her parents discovered this relationship—one that, in their eyes, perhaps should not exist at all.

Would she continue to draw closer with unwavering determination, or—

“Sister, are you full?”

She pushed those thoughts aside for the moment. Fine, she would deal with it when that day actually arrived.

Perhaps Chi Miaohan’s answer would even sway her own decision.

~~~

In the end, Bai Qian had gravely underestimated the depth of the girl’s affection for her.

It seemed that from the very moment her “true soulmate” had confessed, the girl’s approach to “liking Bai Qian” had shifted into something proactive and earnest.

“I like Sister, and I’m pursuing her right now. My ultimate goal is to marry her.

“I’m not joking around. I truly like her, and she’ll be the only one for me—now and forever into the future. I can promise you that my feelings will never waver.

“I know we haven’t officially started dating yet, and telling you now might seem premature. But I’ve decided to lay it all out because I hope you won’t try to stop us when the time comes.

“Pursuing Sister isn’t easy to begin with. If there’s even a one-in-ten-thousand chance she’ll agree to be with me someday, I want to clear away every potential threat to our future happiness in advance. And your stance is the most critical factor of all.

“To be honest, I don’t care much whether you accept this. Yes, we’re blood-related, but to me, you’re just strangers who vanished from my life without warning and then popped back up out of nowhere. I’ve tried to embrace you as my parents, but it’s incredibly difficult—frankly, I’m sorry, but it’s next to impossible.

“That said, it doesn’t mean I won’t make an effort to win over Sister’s parents. You’re still the same people, but the context is different for me. That’s what I came here to say today. I know it’s sudden, so I’m prepared for the worst. This has nothing to do with Sister—it’s all on me and my feelings for her. If you want to yell, hit, or scold someone, direct it at me alone.”

The two adults froze the instant Chi Miaohan began speaking.

By the time she finished, their expressions had shifted in starkly opposing directions.

Bai Lianan remained locked in stunned disbelief, while Zhang Ruoyao regarded her with calm composure.

—The weighty stone pressing on her heart had finally settled into its rightful place.

As for the other central figure in all this, her expression grew even more inscrutable than theirs.

Bai Qian suddenly realized she had misjudged everything—terribly so.

The depths of the girl’s love ran far beyond anything she could have imagined.

Silence blanketed the room.

In the end, Zhang Ruoyao was the one to break it.

The woman showed no disgust-fueled curses calling her a pervert, no tearful demands to throw her out the door. There wasn’t even a hint of reproach. Instead, she spoke gently, in the most ordinary tone imaginable, uttering words that seemed almost incongruous with the moment.

“Little Han, you know, from the moment I got pregnant with you, I decided on one thing: whoever you choose as your partner, as long as you love them, I’ll love them too. And now it’s Sister—to me, it’s exactly the same.”

Everyone present grasped the unspoken meaning behind her words.

Chi Miaohan had steeled herself for a torrent of backlash, but what enveloped her instead was a warm spring breeze she had never dared to expect.

Stunned beyond measure, she couldn’t help but ask, “Why… agree so readily?”

Zhang Ruoyao’s gaze softened with affection. “Because I’m your mom.”

A flicker lit the girl’s eyes, as if words were tumbling on the tip of her tongue. In the end, though, she held them back.

“Thank you.”

Bai Lianan’s unspoken turmoil went ignored. With Zhang Ruoyao’s response securing her peace of mind, Chi Miaohan led the dazed Bai Qian out the door.

Once their figures had vanished from sight, the man who held little sway in family matters finally found his voice. “Wifey, do you even realize what you just said? That’s our daughter! Sure, Little Qian isn’t biological, but we’ve raised her all these years—we’ve treated her like our own flesh and blood! And now Little Han is in love with her big sister, and you just… agree to it like that?”

“Or what? Haven’t you figured out Little Han’s temperament by now? From the very start, she had everything planned out. Not to mention anything else—didn’t you catch what she meant at the end? If you want her to call you ‘Dad’ someday, it’ll only happen after she and Little Qian are together, and only then as Little Qian’s father, making her willing to say it from the heart!”

Bai Lianan sounded a bit aggrieved. “Why, though? After Little Han came home, we’ve been trying our best to make it up to her. Why won’t she acknowledge me?”

Zhang Ruoyao blinked, hiding the complicated emotions in her eyes. “Who told us to vanish from her world for so many years?”

Perhaps it was the will of the heavens playing tricks, scrambling everything into the most unbearable mess.

But thankfully, things weren’t at their worst yet. At least they were reunited now.

Bai Lianan fell silent, lost in thought.

Seeing this, Zhang Ruoyao tried to soothe him. “As long as our family of four—”

The man cut her off, his face showing not a trace of sadness. “Can those two get their marriage certificate now? Why not have them do it right away? Hey, did Little Han say she’d call me Dad once she’s with Little Qian, or only after they get married? Do you remember, Wifey?”

“…”

Zhang Ruoyao rolled her eyes at the man—the first white-eye she’d ever given in her life.

~~~

Chi Miaohan opened the passenger door first. Bai Qian seemed lost in thought and let herself be pulled out of the car without saying a word the whole way.

“Sister?”

Seeing her standing by the door without moving, Chi Miaohan had no choice but to call out.

Bai Qian snapped back to reality with a start, nodded, and slid into the seat.

Chi Miaohan leaned in almost halfway, fastened the seatbelt for her, and was about to pull back when she noticed the unusually serious expression on Bai Qian’s face. Her heart skipped a beat, and the habitual smile faded from her own face without her realizing it.

The good mood from being accepted by Zhang Ruoyao was instantly overshadowed. Suddenly, she didn’t dare meet Bai Qian’s gaze like this and panicked, trying to escape the cramped space.

A hand caught her wrist before she could move.

Bai Qian wasn’t gripping hard—if Chi Miaohan wanted, she could easily shake free.

But she had always been compliant in front of this girl, her heart filled with unease and resistance, yet her body refused to show even a hint of it.

Chi Miaohan’s voice trembled as she pleaded, “Sister, let’s go, okay?”

“I was wrong. From now on, without your permission, I absolutely won’t do anything like that again. Sister, come with me, okay?”

Bai Qian hadn’t even spoken when Chi Miaohan’s utterly helpless and pitiful expression startled her. “Chi Miaohan, did I hit you or something?”

At those words, Chi Miaohan seemed inspired. She hurriedly gripped Bai Qian’s hand and swung it toward her own face.

Fortunately, Bai Qian had already calmed down. She tightened her grip just enough to stop the slap from landing.

Chi Miaohan didn’t feel any relief—instead, she grew more uneasy. With a patter, tears suddenly streamed down the cheeks of the girl who had never cried in front of Bai Qian.

“Sister, I was wrong. Don’t ignore me. I won’t do it again, I swear. I really didn’t mean to force you into anything, I truly—”

Bai Qian’s slender fingers pinched her chin, lifting her increasingly bowed head. From this angle of eye contact, she finally saw clearly the complex emotions buried deep in those dark eyes.

Tension, regret, panic, fear.

Bai Qian sighed. She instinctively wanted to wipe away the tears but stopped herself midway, grabbing a few tissues from the box nearby and stuffing them into Chi Miaohan’s hand instead.

“Wipe your tears first.”

Chi Miaohan’s tears flowed even harder at that. “If I wipe them, are you going to kick me out? I won’t. Sister, I was wrong, I really know—”

“Shut up.”

The young lady frowned at her babbling, letting out a coquettish rebuke in a petulant tone.

It was like the little dog she’d raised for years, covered in mud, pouncing on her and sloppily licking her face. She felt nothing but disdain yet was utterly helpless against it, reduced to this helpless expression.

“Chi Miaohan, what are you thinking? Who said anything about kicking you out?”

Chi Miaohan stared in disbelief, her eyes wide. She quickly wiped her tears, and as her vision cleared, she saw no trace of the disgust she’d feared in Bai Qian’s eyes.

Before Bai Qian could say another word, the newly revived Little Wild Dog lunged straight into her arms.

She buried her face in her chest, sobbing with aggrieved sobs as she poured out the tangled emotions she’d wrestled with over those few short minutes. “I thought you were mad at me, Sister. I thought you’d never talk to me again. I thought you were going to kick me out. Sister, wuwuwu, you can hit me, you can yell at me, but you can’t abandon me—wuwuwu, you can never abandon me. You’re all I have, Sister. You’re all I have!”

Mumbling on and on like that, she looked so insecure it tugged painfully at the heart.

Perhaps her body sensed it too, for it surprisingly didn’t shove Bai Qian away.

Moments later, Chi Miaohan finally calmed down.

She pulled back, her teary eyes brimming with eager hope. “Then let’s go home, Sister.”

“I haven’t finished what I wanted to say.”

“Hm?”

Chi Miaohan turned to look at her. They were so close that the earnest intensity in the girl’s lovely eyes was impossible to miss, even if she’d wanted to.

“We’re both adults now, so there’s no point in me beating around the bush anymore. Truth be told, up until today, I’ve only ever seen you as a little sister. Even after you confessed to me, I never planned to change things between us. But starting now, Chi Miaohan, I’ll try to stop seeing you that way. You understand what I mean, right?”

Little Wild Dog stared blankly for a long moment. Just as Bai Qian wondered if she needed to spell it out more clearly, the girl suddenly lunged at her again in a burst of excitement.

This time, she didn’t bury herself in Bai Qian’s embrace. Instead, she leaned in close to her face, her gaze burning with heat and fascination as it fixed on the girl’s softly pink lips. Emboldened, she pressed, “So when will you finally agree to date me, Sister? I really want to kiss you.”

“…”

Bai Qian suddenly regretted her decision.