Chapter 69: The Humiliated Heiress of the Arranged Marriage (14)

Before Bai Qian could respond, Chi Miaohan tilted her face slightly. The instant their touching noses parted, her thin lips pressed forward, inevitably brushing against the other’s in an inescapable kiss.

She savored just a light taste before releasing her. Laughter shimmered in the girl’s eyes, her low voice carrying a coaxing lilt.

“Sister, marry me. Just nod, and I’ll go call them right now.”

A visible flush bloomed across Bai Qian’s fair cheeks like twin clouds of dawn. She stepped back, shooting her a coquettish glare. “How old are you! You’re not even of legal age—marry a ghost!”

Chi Miaohan sighed in mock regret, her hand slipping to the other’s wrist. She tugged the girl back into her arms and dipped her chin, her tone warm and gentle. “If Sister really wants me to call them, I’ll do it for you, of course.”

Hearing this, Bai Qian relaxed her resistance. “Then promise me you’ll do it—for me. Go right now, call out a few extra times, and make them happy.”

Chi Miaohan, who seemed ready to indulge her, didn’t step out of the kitchen as expected. Instead, she held the pose, her gaze expectant. “If I obey Sister and go call them now, could you give me a little reward?”

Bai Qian’s eyelid twitched. She had a bad feeling this girl, whose mind was full of nonsense, wasn’t about to say anything proper. Sure enough, the next moment, the hand on her waist began to wander. A slender index finger hooked meaningfully against her. “I won’t lose control like last time. If Sister tells me to stop this time, I promise I’ll obey—exactly as many times as you say, no more, no greed. So, Sister, when we get home later, will you join me in the bathtub again?”

The word “bathtub” carried memories Bai Qian had no desire to revisit.

It had left her with full-blown PTSD toward the thing.

Hearing such brazen words, Bai Qian flushed crimson and muttered a curse. “Chi Miaohan, what kind of filthy nonsense fills that head of yours all day!”

In a fit of embarrassed fury, the young lady stormed off to the living room, abandoning her.

The flush hadn’t even faded from her face when a man’s sour remark doused her like cold water, snapping her back to clarity.

“Girls grow up and leave you behind. I’m not even old yet, and Daughter’s already ignoring me. I dread to think how it’ll be when I’m truly ancient.”

“…”

She started toward him, but before she reached his side, Bai Lianan rose from the sofa with a stern face. As he brushed past her, he let out an exaggerated huff.

Bai Qian: “…” How old was this man, acting like such a child!

Bai Lianan sulked upstairs until dinnertime.

Zhang Ruoyao placed a piece of meat in each of their bowls, utterly unconcerned. “Let him be. He’s a grown man—he won’t starve himself to death. I thought all these years might’ve matured him, but he’s still just as childish.”

Bai Qian blinked curiously. “Was Dad this immature when he was young?”

“You bet—a total jealous jar. This made him jealous, that made him jealous. Anyway, enough about him. Auntie made some great fish today. Little Qian loves fish, right? Have some more.”

She glanced at the person beside her, meticulously picking bones from a tender piece of fish. A saying popped into her mind: daughters take after their fathers.

Chi Miaohan rarely spoke at the table. Once the bones were cleared, she naturally placed the fillet into Bai Qian’s bowl.

Across from them, Zhang Ruoyao watched with a gentle smile tugging at her lips.

By the time Bai Qian had nearly finished eating, Bai Lianan finally descended, face dark as thunder.

He ignored the two girls completely, ladled himself some rice, and sat beside Zhang Ruoyao. He ate in sullen silence.

Bai Qian called to him. “Dad?”

No response.

After several tries, she gave up with a quiet sigh and pulled her companion toward the study.

Chi Miaohan seemed to already know what she had in mind, the amusement in her eyes growing even more captivating.

Bai Qian shut the door firmly. The moment she turned, she found herself pinned between the girl’s arms and the door.

“Sister’s decided on my reward, hasn’t she?”

The girl solemnly held up one finger. “Just once. Any more, and we’re breaking up tonight!”

Chi Miaohan nodded eagerly in agreement.

With terms settled, Bai Qian moved to leave. “Alright, you can go call them no—mmph.”

The unsuspecting little cat, already slated as the main course, now found herself reduced to an appetizer. She was pressed into an embrace and thoroughly savored.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, Bai Lianan’s eating slowed the moment the pair departed.

After just a couple bites, he couldn’t help brooding.

Had he gone too far?

Would they fight because of him?

They’d only just gotten together—surely this wouldn’t spark a relationship crisis already?

The thought made the man shoot to his feet.

He was as panicked and uneasy now as he had been aloof and dismissive moments before.

He had been about to step in and break up the argument, but the pair mistaken for heading off to quarrel appeared together at the study door.

Bai Lianan carefully scrutinized their faces. Seeing no untoward emotions, he breathed a secret sigh of relief before instantly switching back to his earlier expression, like flipping the page of a book.

Bai Qian pulled her hand free from her grip and poked Chi Miaohan, signaling her to hurry up and call out to them.

This time, the girl was straightforward about it.

She stepped in front of the pair and called out in a flat tone, devoid of any real emotion.

“Dad. Mom.”

The utterly ordinary form of address hit like a thunderbolt simply because it came from Chi Miaohan’s lips, leaving the two quietly eating at the table wide-eyed with shock.

Bai Lianan thought he’d misheard and dug at his ear, asking in disbelief, “Did you just say something?”

Chi Miaohan had fulfilled the request and was about to leave when she caught the girl’s dissatisfied gaze from nearby. With a reluctant softening of her expression, she repeated herself. “Dad, Mom. Sis and I are heading back first. We’ll come again next weekend.”

With that, she eagerly returned to Bai Qian’s side, grabbed her hand, and urged, “Sis, it’s so hot today—I’m all sweaty. Let’s go home and take a bath.”

Bai Qian: ?

The two parents at the table finally snapped out of it. They exchanged a glance before turning back to the girls.

Perhaps caught off guard by hearing the words they’d longed for in such an unexpected moment, they didn’t know what to say. Bai Lianan’s mind short-circuited, and he blurted out, “If you don’t call me that next time you come back, I won’t let you return.”

The air went still for two seconds.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he regretted them.

Oh no—with his daughter’s temper, would she just never come back at all?

He was still fumbling for a way to take it back when her reply came, laced with a faint, hard-to-detect amusement.

“Okay.”

Bai Lianan blinked in surprise, then broke into a wide grin.

~~~

The car pulled into the underground garage.

Once it was parked, Bai Qian reached to unbuckle her seatbelt. The person who had stayed silent the entire drive suddenly spoke up.

“Sis, do you hate me for doing that? They’re my parents, after all, but I—”

The girl’s hand reached over, gently covering Bai Qian’s, which still gripped the steering wheel.

“I get it. You’ve been on your own all these years, after all. If that’s really how you feel—if you can only see them as my parents—then starting now, why not give them double the love you would have given mine?”

Chi Miaohan fell silent for a long moment before replying in a slightly hoarse voice, “Okay.”

But her mood didn’t lift. Back at home, she seemed to have forgotten all about her earlier excitement over dragging someone into the bathtub.

Instead, she curled up with Bai Qian on the sofa, watching the crime drama alongside her with lackluster interest.

She looked so listless and downcast—like a sick little dog, all wilted and utterly pitiful.

Bai Qian had never seen her like this before. Her heart ached for the girl, and she soothed her softly. “It’s fine. Just be a little kinder to Dad and Mom from now on, okay?”

Chi Miaohan nodded and nestled her head deeper into Bai Qian’s embrace. Her voice sounded faint. “Sis, I’m just not in a good mood.”

Bai Qian ruffled her hair, her tone growing even gentler. “Then let’s turn off the TV. We’ll take a bath and head to bed early, alright?”

“Okay.”

With Chi Miaohan in such an uncharacteristic state, Bai Qian wanted to lay out clothes and everything for her. But her body wouldn’t cooperate, so she settled for sitting on the edge of the bed with her tablet. “You go first, then. I’ll wash after you’re done.”

Chi Miaohan shook her head. “Sis, I’m not feeling great. Bathe with me.”

“…”

Bai Qian met her innocent gaze and hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

But as it turned out, the little wild dog who had sheathed her fangs was a master at playing pitiful—and no ordinary person could see through it.

By the time the little cat realized she’d been had, the bathtub was once again being put to a use it was never intended for.