My Girlfriend is a Cold and Aloof Sickly Beauty 145

Chapter 145: Stargazing Gathering

Perhaps due to the alcohol, Xiao Luohan slept very soundly.

When they were woken up by the alarm, it wasn’t dinner time yet.

Xiao Luohan felt a little dizzy and couldn’t help but lean against Jiang Xue, her voice slightly hoarse. “What time is it?”

“5:36,” Jiang Xue replied, putting down her phone and poking Xiao Luohan’s face. “You were drunk, remember?”

She herself was in much better shape than six months ago, she didn’t know if it was because her body had developed some kind of “alcohol tolerance” after being drunk once, or because she had eaten the leftover cupcakes and cookies before drinking today.

Because of this, she remembered everything now.

Xiao Luo, who had come into the bathroom while she was showering and sat on the sink, the stubborn, clingy, and biting Xiao Luo, and… ahem!

Xiao Luohan opened her eyes at her poking, but her gaze was blank, clearly having a blackout, just like Jiang Xue had before.

“I should record it next time we drink…” Jiang Xue muttered regretfully. She was about to get out of bed and change when a raised arm stopped her.

“What happened?” Xiao Luohan wouldn’t let her leave. “Did you embarrass yourself, or did I? I want to hear everything.”

Jiang Xue: …

Maybe she wasn’t fully sober yet.

She thought for a moment. “I’m not feeling very well. I’ll go make some hangover soup first. You can drink it while I tell you, okay?”

Just as she would prioritize Xiao Luohan’s needs when she used her physical condition as an excuse, it was the same the other way around.

Xiao Luohan obediently lowered her arm and, while waiting for Jiang Xue to return with the hangover soup, rubbed her dizzy head, trying to recall what had happened after she drank.

…She only remembered following Jiang Xue into the bathroom, worried that the drunk Jiang Xue would fall in the shower.

Unable to remember, she simply gave up, got out of bed, changed her clothes, and soon, Jiang Xue returned, holding a large mug.

“Sour plum soup, but with some other ingredients. I tried it, it’s not as sour as the store-bought kind,” she said, placing a glass of sour plum soup beside Xiao Luohan.

After “supervising” Xiao Luo as she drank a few sips, she began her story: “It was like this…”

Since Xiao Luo had even shown her the notes about using the little dolphin, she felt there was nothing to hide about their drunken interactions.

She recounted everything she could remember, leaving out no details.

Xiao Luohan hadn’t expected herself to be a “lightweight” as well. As Jiang Xue vividly recounted the story, the corresponding images gradually appeared in her mind.

“Hmm… indeed a new position,” she concluded.

Jiang Xue: …

Hearing the implication in Xiao Luohan’s words, she couldn’t help but ask, “Should we practice more when we’re sober?”

If Xiao Luo really liked it, she would also try to get used to the tingling sensation.

“We’ll see,” Xiao Luohan replied ambiguously. “Anyway, we’ve unlocked new content, which is a good thing.”

At the mention of “new content,” Jiang Xue’s thoughts shifted away from their drunken escapades, drifting back to the shopping street near the racetrack, then to the items Xiao Luo had carefully chosen and had shipped.

Fortunately, she had already messaged Sister Cheng while Xiao Luo was filling out the shipping form, so she should be able to open the package herself this time.

…There wouldn’t be another incident of finding a little dolphin on the sink when entering the bathroom.

The days of their trip flew by, and soon it was the evening before their return.

The cool air conditioning suddenly stopped, and then the bright overhead lights went out.

“Oh, there’s a power outage,” Uncle Seuss said calmly, standing up, turning on the flashlight on his phone, and taking out candles from the refrigerator. “It’s okay, power outages are common here during peak summer usage. It should be back on in an hour or two.”

He found some candle holders, lit the candles, placed them on the table, picked up his bowl, scooped up some food, and walked towards the courtyard. “Enjoy your candlelit dinner, I won’t disturb you.”

The girls: …

Under the candlelight, Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan ate their dinner without any awkwardness. Xiao Linghan, possessing the robot, leaned her “cheek” on the table, watching Cang Ling eat with amusement.

Only the atmosphere between Xie Xitong and Jiang Mei was awkward.

But a few seconds later, Jiang Mei used her serving chopsticks to place a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs in Xie Xitong’s bowl.

She had been thinking about Princess Zhemei’s suggestion these past few days.

A-Xi’s situation was truly unprecedented.

The reason she had been able to firmly reject other people’s advances during her school years and at work was precisely because there was no foundation of a “long-standing acquaintance.”

She didn’t have feelings for her pursuers and didn’t want to waste her precious time on relationships. And considering the Jiang family’s financial resources, connections, and her mothers’ views on love, there was no need for a “marriage of convenience.”

For various reasons, she had long prioritized her career over love.

During her contemplation, she had even compiled and reviewed all their significant past interactions.

…There were no incidents that required repayment of kindness, nor any particularly memorable “moments.”

It was simply that she had watched the little sister next door grow up and go to school, and then, for a while, A-Xi had seen her as a “rival to surpass.”

Later, the competitive spirit and the harmless hostility had faded, but the little sister next door’s gaze towards her had become very similar to those of her pursuers.

However, it was just similar. She knew A-Xi and understood that there was also a playful teasing hidden within that gaze.

A-Xi seemed to be anticipating a certain future—a future only between them. For this, A-Xi was even willing to “enter the game” herself as bait.

Logically, she should have rejected A-Xi, just as she had firmly rejected those pursuers in the past.

But she couldn’t explain why.

A-Xi standing beside her, A-Xi’s voice chattering in her ear, A-Xi smiling contentedly, sleeping on the other side of the thick quilt…

She didn’t know why she didn’t mind these things.

A-Xi must have been the first strange person to cross the boundaries she had set, yet she still tolerated and indulged her.

For questions she couldn’t understand, but desperately wanted answers to, she didn’t mind spending time and effort exploring.

She didn’t know if A-Xi had already anticipated this, or if there was another reason, but her actions hadn’t surprised A-Xi. A-Xi simply smiled and said, “Thank you for the food, Mei-jiejie,” and started eating the pork ribs.

Jiang Mei’s doubts deepened. As she continued eating and serving food, Cang Ling was already asking Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan if they wanted to go stargazing on the rooftop.

“The weather forecast says it will be a clear night,” Cang Ling said. Now that there was a meteorological bureau and weather forecasts in this world, she didn’t have to do everything herself. “And there’s a power outage, so we can go to the rooftop after dinner to enjoy the stars and the cool breeze.”

They were returning home tomorrow, and Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan didn’t have any plans for tonight, so they agreed. It would be nice to watch the stars, especially with a former high-ranking official from the Office of Astronomy, who could name any star.

So when Uncle Seuss returned after finishing his dinner and feeding the horses in the courtyard, he saw the girls carrying folding tables, chairs, and a bamboo bed from the storage room upstairs.

He picked up the bamboo bed, followed the girls to the rooftop, unfolded it, and wiped it clean with a damp cloth. “Just go back to your rooms when you’re ready to sleep, don’t worry about this, I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”

Then he left. He had become accustomed to this, having evolved into a skilled “tool person” over the past twenty years, from his younger sister to her daughters.

Xiao Linghan, possessing the robot, turned on a desk lamp she had found in the storage room. The cylindrical lamp, the size of a cup, stood on the table, emitting a soft, bright light.

They arranged the tables and chairs, adjusted the position of the bamboo bed, but then couldn’t agree on “who should sit on the bamboo bed.”

“It’s safest for two people to sit on the bamboo bed,” Jiang Mei said seriously, recalling a childhood incident where she had invited her friends to sit on a bamboo bed out of curiosity, and it had collapsed, making everyone scream.

“Then Mei-jiejie and A-Xi can sit,” Cang Ling said, still intent on her matchmaking plan.

“But this is Xiao Luo’s first time stargazing like this, and she’s in a foreign country,” Xie Xitong countered. “I want her to have this opportunity.”

Everyone looked at the small robot, which was already sitting cross-legged on a chair.

Jiang Xue’s suggestion was even more impactful: “If my uncle could make such a sturdy robot, the quality of the bamboo bed must also be much better now, right? We can try it. If it feels like it’s about to collapse, we can just run. We can even test its weight capacity.”

Jiang Mei: …

She opened her mouth, then realized she couldn’t refute this suggestion.

Most importantly, if her uncle were here, he would probably also support Jiang Xue’s idea—she sometimes felt that both her uncle and younger sister had unusual thought processes.

The bamboo bed wasn’t anything special, just a common item sold in stores, so after hesitating for a few seconds, she sent a message to her uncle: 【How much is the bamboo bed?】

Her uncle replied with a question mark, then, as if guessing what they were planning, said, 【Spend time with your girlfriend, don’t worry about the money, have fun!】

…So everyone ended up sitting on the bamboo bed.

It had to be said that the bamboo bed’s weight capacity was indeed impressive. It only swayed slightly and creaked a little when the last person sat down, then remained stable.

Uncle Seuss had the habit of spraying water on the rooftop in the afternoon to cool it down, which was very effective now. The summer night breeze was quite comfortable, although not as cool as the air conditioning, but it was still pleasant enough to stay there for an hour or two.

“I’m only familiar with the North Star and the Big Dipper,” Xiao Luohan said, looking up at the starry sky. “The North Star is also called the ‘Emperor Star,’ and emperors always use it to bolster their authority.”

“Here, these stars are basically ‘road signs’ at night,” Jiang Xue said. “I even did geography problems about this. In the northern hemisphere, the altitude of the North Star is equal to the latitude of the location.”

“Then what’s our current latitude?” Xiao Luohan asked curiously.

Jiang Xue was about to get up and find some tools to measure it when Xie Xitong pulled her back by her collar. “Don’t do math problems at night!! The geography exam ended ages ago!!”

The small robot chuckled, its mechanical voice making the laughter sound a bit strange, but it also brought Xiao Luohan’s attention back.

“Elder Sister, where did you sleep at my uncle’s house these past few days, with Cang Ling?”

Remembering that it was Cang Ling who had suggested stargazing here, Xiao Luohan actually already knew the answer, but she also wanted to help her elder sister’s relationship, so she asked knowingly.