Chapter 62: Till the Seas Run Dry Part 2

Wanting that one phrase she’d once overheard, originally meant for someone else…

“You didn’t call me your heart and soul,” Qiu Chao said.

Yan Muyu let out an “ah,” nearly bursting into laughter.

She pulled Qiu Chao’s hand out of her clothes once more. “Heart and soul?”

Yan Muyu savored the words. “That’s so cheesy.”

She hadn’t expected Qiu Chao to be this clingy, or to like such sticky-sweet pet names.

Even with Yan Muyu’s self-proclaimed wealth of experience, she hadn’t anticipated just how adorable Qiu Chao could be.

Not like her ex-sister-in-law, who even at the same age carried a generational distance and held back.

Not like the toe-curlingly arrogant one who still made Yan Muyu grit her teeth in memory years later.

And definitely not like the smug type who blackmailed her before this variety show while pretending to be innocent.

It was as if Qiu Chao had been starved of love for so long that she needed this high-sugar stickiness to fill the void.

Qiu Chao was exhausted and drowsy now, but that one phrase was all that kept her going.

She murmured, “You’ve called others that before…”

Her voice was soft, so soft, but Yan Muyu heard it.

“Have I? I don’t remember,” Yan Muyu said.

“You don’t remember anything,” Qiu Chao shot back.

The words came out gritted through her teeth, carrying a hint of resentment that left Yan Muyu baffled.

Qiu Chao nuzzled against her, sniffing Yan Muyu’s scent—the same one she’d caught in that heart-fluttering instant years ago when Yan Muyu had held her.

“Call me that,” Qiu Chao demanded. “Qiu Chao, my heart and soul.”

Her voice was hoarse, dripping with a vulnerability that tugged at the heartstrings.

Yan Muyu hummed in agreement.

“Qiu Chao, my heart and soul. My baby.”

Qiu Chao was utterly content.

She planted a smacking kiss on Yan Muyu’s lip corner.

Yan Muyu closed her eyes, thinking: I’m done for. This thrill is impossible to control.

Wasn’t my furious outburst back then just another form of getting what my heart desired?

But…

She just didn’t want to admit it.

~~~

The next morning, when Qiu Chao woke up, Yan Muyu was already gone.

The clothes that had been haphazardly draped over the camera lens in the middle of the night had been removed.

It was still raining outside, and she could hear voices from downstairs.

The livestream had been running for several hours, but viewers noticed there was no feed from Qiu Chao’s room.

【Where’s my big Sister Qiu?!】

【I haven’t seen her in any of the other cams either.】

【Did she go to the hospital?】

【Wahhh, I’m kinda worried. She seemed off yesterday.】

【It’s fine—the production team posted on Weibo that Qiu Chao is resting, so her solo cam is off. They announced it.】

【Damn, there she is!】

【This show is pure torture, waaah.】

【Is the upstairs cam off too?】

Everyone had the day off from fieldwork, but meals still needed preparing as usual.

That morning, Liu Song had taken Li Xi to buy groceries. The rain wasn’t heavy then, and Xi Xi had wanted to go at first, but since Li Xi could drive the three-wheeler, Xi Xi ended up staying behind to pick loofahs in the vegetable garden with Ding Yingxue.

Ding Yingxue was terrified the whole time, scared that Xi Xi might be upset. She even tried to take on more work, but Xi Xi just huffed at her.

Pei Wan, who was fiercely protective of Ding Yingxue, waited until Xi Xi was washing the picked vegetables by the courtyard well before asking, “Sister Xi, are you mad because Liu Song and Li Xi went to buy the groceries?”

It was quite the bombshell first thing in the morning.

Before leaving her room, Qiu Chao grabbed her phone to catch up on everything that had happened and returned a call to Mai Chen.

Her former manager’s WeChat messages were practically flooding in. Though Xia Yuanyuan had been keeping Mai Chen updated in sync, this agent couldn’t shake her workaholic nature even from a hospital bed—every message brimmed with anxious concern.

Once she picked up, Mai Chen’s tone flipped to the complete opposite of her texts: a roaring tirade. “You finally remember me?”

“Miss Qiu Chao is so busy!”

“Sick and still so dedicated to work.”

…

Qiu Chao chuckled. “Mai-jie, Yan Muyu says she wants to give us a try.”

Mai Chen’s heart, which had only just settled, plummeted again. “Give it a try? What does ‘try’ even mean? Dating? A relationship?”

Qiu Chao shook her head. “Just… trying it out?”

Mai Chen exploded. “Can you not?! Have some standards! You’ve done that stuff without ‘trying’ before, so why not just…”

She trailed off, struggling for ages before squeezing out, “elevate it?”

“Elevate things a bit?”

“Qiu Chao, look at your status now! Can’t you have a little confidence? Even if Yan Muyu’s family background is great, it’s not like she earned it herself. Without the Yan Family, she’s nothing—nowhere near as impressive as you!”

Qiu Chao sat cross-legged on the bed, gazing at the summer rain outside with a silly grin. “But she is pretty impressive.”

Mai Chen knew Qiu Chao wasn’t talking about accomplishments, but her mind still wandered there.

She suddenly felt like the rose she’d carefully cultivated had been ravaged by a wild boar.

Even though Qiu Chao was the wild one.

And Yan Muyu was the greenhouse flower.

Still.

It pissed her off.

“I’m really happy right now,” Qiu Chao said.

Mai Chen sighed. “I can tell. So how’s your body? Xiao Xia said you refused to go to the hospital?”

Qiu Chao replied, “The hospital’s too far—have to go down the mountain.”

“What about the on-site doctor?”

“They gave me medicine. Fever’s down. The production team didn’t turn on my solo cam today either—probably Little Yan arranged it.”

No wonder “Little Yan” sounded so intimate coming from Qiu Chao’s mouth.

Even in this context, Mai Chen found the two words dripping with ambiguity.

People always said liking someone was like a cough—uncontrollable. But Qiu Chao didn’t even have a cough; she just couldn’t help liking her. And because she was so blatant about it, plenty of folks thought it wasn’t real.

Mai Chen was speechless, convinced this generation’s audience was rebellious.

Ignoring the real deal to ship the fake.

“Is this how she treats you well?” Mai Chen asked.

The staff at Autumn Tide Studio visiting Mai Chen thought she sounded just like a nitpicky mother-in-law grilling her daughter-in-law.

They stifled laughs on the side.

“Can’t you tell from the variety show?” Qiu Chao countered.

Her inner thighs were still a bit sore, but as she glanced at her other hand during the call, the glittery nail polish was still intact.

It easily brought back the feeling of being held in Yan Muyu’s arms while she painted her nails.

Qiu Chao pursed her lips, her heart itching unbearably.

She’d been too out of it then. If there was a next time, she’d kiss Yan Muyu right while she was doing her nails.

And that woman even used the hair ribbon I’d made for her to tie me up—how…

She had quite the repertoire, but…

I love it.

Mai Chen wasn’t eager to admit she’d noticed.

Yan Muyu might brush Qiu Chao off verbally, but her actions showed how much she doted on her.

Not to mention the fans’ curiosity about their sister-in-law life—Mai Chen had gotten hooked watching too.

Her girlfriend, whom she cared for daily, watched the show with rapt attention, treating it like a romance variety program.

All that “Qiu is so lucky,” “So romantic,” “Princess carry is the best”…

Hmph. Romantic before they even dated? If they actually got together, wouldn’t Qiu Chao be completely wrapped around her finger?

Mai Chen had never pegged Qiu Chao as lovesick before. Turns out she just conquered her career first.

The flashiest oddball in Mai Chen’s career.

Qiu Chao didn’t chat much more with Mai Chen because a call came in from Qiu Yuan.

A video call, which was rare. Qiu Chao answered carefully.

Qiu Yuan lived on Tea Mountain, but that was in a famous southern city known for pre-rain Longjing tea.

Qiu Chao often received tea personally packaged by her little sister.

The weather there was decent. Qiu Yuan seemed to be in her own artist’s studio and called out, “Sis.”

“Why the video call today?” Qiu Chao asked with a smile. “This is rare.”

“Are you still resting? Did I disturb you?”

Qiu Yuan’s face had been fixed up—it looked so much better than before.

But what was lost was lost forever. Even if Qiu Chao could spend a fortune to give the other girl a complete makeover, it could never erase the trauma of the campus bullying that Qiu Yuan had endured.

The sisters’ eyes were very much alike, both resembling those of their late mother.

“I was just talking to my agent on the phone,” Qiu Chao said.

“Which agent?” Qiu Yuan asked.

“Mai Chen, obviously,” Qiu Chao replied.

The Qiu Chao on the phone screen still looked a little frail, but Qiu Yuan could sense her sister’s happiness.

She smiled. “And what about the other one?”

“If you want to ask, then just ask,” Qiu Chao said.

Qiu Yuan didn’t seem to have any intention of working on her pottery that day, but Qiu Chao could still make out the blueprints on the table in the background.

Her younger sister lived alone in the Tea Garden and had always disliked interacting with others. Qiu Chao respected that.

In the end, the reason Qiu Chao had come this far was to make money.

Enough money to give Qiu Yuan the freedom to do whatever she wanted.

As for Qiu Chao herself, she could finally love the person she wanted to love.

“So the one Sis likes is her, huh,” Qiu Yuan said.

Qiu Yuan’s face had been repaired, but she still looked much more youthful than Qiu Chao. Her chin was a bit short, and without that terrible misfortune, she would surely have grown up to be the cute type.

She gazed at Qiu Chao on the phone screen. The room was dimly lit, making it hard to see her sister’s features clearly.

But it was enough for Qiu Yuan to feel her sister’s bubbling excitement through the screen.

It was exactly like the joy Qiu Chao had shown before, whenever she mentioned the person she liked in front of Qiu Yuan.

Qiu Yuan had always assumed it was a man.

But what did it matter? Qiu Chao had already suffered enough. Qiu Yuan just hoped she would get the strongest possible response in return.

“What about her, then?” Qiu Yuan asked.

Qiu Chao had spoken of her “person of interest” with such overflowing delight that it had always given Qiu Yuan the impression of someone incredibly hard to win over.

Qiu Yuan had imagined that person’s appearance many times. They had to be beautiful, of course—her sister had even said they were gentle, so their demeanor must be soft and refined.

She had never expected it to be Yan Muyu from the show.

Yan Muyu was beautiful, sure, and “gentle” could sort of fit, but those weren’t her defining traits.

Her temperament wasn’t particularly soft, either; there was even a hint of playfulness to it.

And yet, over the course of the program, she wasn’t off-putting at all. In fact, plenty of people seemed to like her.

She was reliable, thoughtful—a woman who took responsibility.

“She likes me too,” Qiu Chao said.

“Really? That’s wonderful!” Qiu Yuan exclaimed.

“But right now, she won’t admit it,” Qiu Chao added.

Qiu Yuan let out an “Ah.” “Doesn’t that mean it hasn’t even started yet?”

The aloof, glamorous celebrity in everyone else’s eyes was just a pure-hearted big sister in Qiu Yuan’s.

Qiu Chao shook her head. “We’ve already started. She just doesn’t know it yet.”