My Girlfriend is a Cold and Aloof Sickly Beauty 209

Chapter 209: Shaking Champagne

They did have a bottle of champagne at home.

But choosing a location to shake it wasn’t so easy.

The most ideal place would be an empty, open space outdoors. Jiang Xue even considered shaking it on the lawn, figuring that even if the champagne spilled, it wouldn’t be wasted, and could even water the plants—but she quickly dismissed this idea after searching online and learning the consequences.

Then the only option was the bathroom. Just in case, Jiang Xue called Sister Cheng and asked if it was okay to do this, and how long it would take for the alcohol to completely evaporate.

Sister Cheng hadn’t expected the two newlyweds to suddenly decide to shake champagne, and the question was beyond her expertise.

She could only use her past experience with spraying strong cleaning agents and the time in spring when the cat had marked its territory in the bathroom as a reference and replied, “If it’s just once, it’s no problem. If you want to do it tonight, I can clear out the bathroom now.”

“No need, no need! We’ll clean up ourselves!” Jiang Xue hurriedly refused. “I was just asking, so I know what to expect.”

If ventilating it at night was too troublesome, they could just do it during the day.

Xiao Luohan, meanwhile, was recalling the painting she had made.

Before the “wedding day” when she had killed the Crown Prince, she had “moved out.”

Everything she considered valuable in Wangmei Pavilion, regardless of size, had been transported to this world through Jiang Xue’s diary.

However, before the “move,” the Crown Prince had ordered his men to burn all the books in her room, and even the surviving books and drawings had been torn to shreds.

After so many years, she couldn’t remember if that specific painting had survived, but since she had a clear image in her mind, with her current skills, she could probably recreate it with at least 70% accuracy.

Thinking this, after returning home, Xiao Luohan still cleared out the bathroom with Jiang Xue first.

They discussed it and decided that the glass shower door and the partition wall were high enough to prevent the champagne from splashing outside, and it was also the easiest place to clean with water. Shaking it here would minimize the mess. The downside was that the enclosed space wasn’t well-ventilated, and the bathroom might still smell of alcohol the next time they showered.

“Why don’t we just shake one bottle?” Jiang Xue, who had originally planned to shake one bottle each, suggested after some thought.

“We can shake two, and then we’ll stay at the new apartment near N University for a while, and let the bathroom air out for a whole week,” Xiao Luohan, however, proposed a new plan.

They were “loudly plotting” in the bedroom when Xie Xitong, who had just come out of Jiang Mei’s room to get some water, heard them and peeked in. “What two bottles?”

“Champagne,” Jiang Xue blurted out, then, feeling that Xie Xitong should also be included, hesitated for a moment and asked, “Do you want to join us?”

A few minutes later, the three girls, having changed into old clothes, were crammed into the small bathroom, each holding a bottle of champagne.

“Let’s shake them separately,” Xie Xitong suggested, heading towards the door. “The concentrated alcohol smell can trigger allergies, you two go first.”

Jiang Xue also followed her out, closed the bathroom door, and looked at Xiao Luohan expectantly.

Xiao Luohan had already researched how to safely shake a champagne bottle and consulted Sister Cheng. Under Jiang Xue’s gaze, she vigorously shook the bottle.

The champagne bottles they were using had been specially prepared, with the wire cage around the cork secured, ensuring that the champagne wouldn’t spray out until shaken vigorously enough.

As she removed the cork and watched the mixture of fruity and wheaty aromas spray out, at least at this moment, Xiao Luohan felt a sense of exhilaration.

As if some invisible shackles had been broken, and a hidden desire deep within her heart was fulfilled.

She heard Jiang Xue and Xie Xitong cheering and applauding, and she felt herself, surrounded by the increasingly strong scent of alcohol, become light and airy, as if floating on clouds.

Then it was Jiang Xue’s turn to shake the champagne in the bathroom. Xiao Luohan put down her half-empty bottle and watched with Xie Xitong outside.

“Truly stress-relieving,” she thought, watching the champagne flow down the glass walls. “Whether you’re the one shaking it, or just watching.”

Xie Xitong didn’t return for a while, and Jiang Mei, surprised, went to look for her. As she reached the hallway, she was drawn by the happy screams from her younger sister’s bedroom and couldn’t help but go over and take a look.

Opening the bathroom door and seeing what they were doing, she felt a series of question marks popping up in her mind.

She hesitated, unsure whether to enter or to pretend she hadn’t seen anything and leave them to their fun. Just then, Jiang Xue, for some reason, turned and looked at her.

“Sis, do you also want to shake some champagne?”

Jiang Xue asked seriously after a few seconds.

“Is this a whim, or part of the ‘wedding night celebration’?” Jiang Mei asked, her expression unchanged.

Jiang Xue wasn’t sure. “Xiao Luo and I both wanted to do it, so we decided to—A-Xi joined us halfway.”

Jiang Mei: …

“So that’s why you asked me? Since I already saw you,” she suddenly realized. “Have fun, I’ll leave you to it.”

She took a champagne bottle, went to the kitchen, found a funnel, and poured the remaining champagne from the other two bottles into it, planning to use it as a sleep aid tonight.

After shaking three bottles of champagne, not just the bathroom, but the entire ensuite was filled with the smell of alcohol.

Opening the door and looking at the pile of towels, bottles, and other small items in the bedroom’s trash can, Jiang Xue asked, “Shouldn’t we… ventilate this?”

“Yes, let’s leave the window open tonight,” Xie Xitong opened the window. “You two can use my bathroom to wash up. Just leave the champagne-stained clothes in a pile and we’ll throw them away.”

These were old clothes they didn’t mind ruining. It wouldn’t be a waste to discard them after shaking champagne.

The good news was that their bedroom wasn’t affected by the alcohol smell, so they didn’t have to sleep in another room tonight.

The bad news was that their “wedding night” was ruined.

However, neither Jiang Xue nor Xiao Luohan felt too disappointed. Perhaps they had a premonition, they had already been intimate during their break from the photoshoot at noon.

That night, both dreamed of a faint scent of alcohol.

The next morning, Xiao Luohan, who woke up first, went to the bathroom to check if the alcohol smell had dissipated, and finding that it was mostly gone, washed up.

After breakfast downstairs, while Jiang Xue was still asleep, she went to the study, spread out a felt mat and some xuan paper, found her ink stick, and started grinding it with water.

Since coming to this world, she had rarely used a brush and ink. She usually used pencils and sketchbooks, or drew directly on the computer.

But her skills with these traditional tools hadn’t faded. She quickly recreated the effect of the ink accidentally smudging on the xuan paper, waited for a moment, then, following the “blurred” area, added the ears, body, limbs, and tail of the large cat.

After finishing the giant cat and the small figure of herself on its back, she added the roads and tall buildings of this world.

She deliberately smudged the ink first, creating a blurred background, then added a few outlines, trying to recreate the impression from her first dream.

“Good morning! You’re up early today,” Jiang Xue’s voice suddenly came from the doorway, still a little sleepy, then her footsteps approached.

“I remembered the first drawing I made for you and couldn’t sleep,” Xiao Luohan said, putting down her brush and smiling at her. “Probably because of that first dream.”

Jiang Xue exclaimed softly and leaned in for a closer look.

“Is this… me carrying you?” she asked uncertainly.

Although it was a black cat, she could tell it was drawn with the ink that had dripped onto the paper, immediately imagining Xiao Luo’s state of mind when drawing this transtemporal piece.

Seeing her understanding, Xiao Luohan explained the origin of the drawing.

“When I first received the diary and contacted you, I saw you as a ‘ghost or spirit’ for a long time,” she recalled. “I even performed a ritual before writing in the diary.”

Even in this world, “ghosts and spirits” were still mysterious supernatural beings, and many metaphysics sects were established precisely to investigate and protect such secrets.

In her ancient world, besides the intervention of ghosts and spirits, she couldn’t think of any other explanation.

“So, this is my initial incarnation?” Jiang Xue asked, pointing at the giant black cat, half-joking, half-serious. “It’s quite cute.”

“It is. I didn’t expect that back then, I would actually be carried by a large cat later,” Xiao Luohan said, putting the drawing aside to dry and spreading out a new sheet of paper. With a few strokes, the scene of Jiang Xue, transformed into a white cat, carrying her back to the house from the snowy courtyard appeared on the paper.

“Now that I’ve graduated from N University, I have some free time, so I’m turning these vivid memories into paintings,” Xiao Luohan said. “But I won’t be displaying them publicly. I’ll set the posts to ‘friends only.'”

“Then can I have them framed and hung in our bedroom?” Jiang Xue asked. “Only a few of us go into the bedroom anyway, and they won’t be visible during livestreams.”

At this, she suddenly remembered something and went to the bedroom to retrieve a box. “By the way! I’ve kept all the drawings you gave me here!”

So, during that week, Xiao Luohan spent her days recalling and adding to the paintings.

Jiang Xue asked Teacher Sui to find a professional framer, and little by little, the paintings filled the bedroom walls.

The drafts for the “amusement park” series also started. Jiang Xue still had photos from her childhood trips to the amusement park, so she took out Ms. Wei’s cherished photo album, choosing the ones she needed as references, and explained them to Xiao Luohan while browsing.

Xia Yun, the golden retriever, would occasionally come in and interrupt their work, but since these were hobby projects, if the dog needed anything, they would prioritize it, even taking it for walks to rest their eyes and hands.

“I haven’t drawn this intensely in a long time!” Jiang Xue said, flexing her wrist during their walk. “But it’s so much fun!!”

“Perhaps this is the meaning of hobbies,” Xiao Luohan said, holding the leash and following Xia Yun. “When I was in the sketching club, I enjoyed watching everyone’s creative ideas come to life, and when I asked them, they also said that this moment was incredibly fulfilling.”

Reality wasn’t always smooth sailing, and a passion that could immerse you could become a “safe haven” during difficult times, dispelling the fog for those who were lost and uncertain, telling them that at least there was this place where they belonged.