Chapter 14:
They began to understand each other and even made up for their honeymoon. At that time, Ji Qianqian was in her fifth month of pregnancy, her belly slightly showing, though not yet obvious.
“Do you still want to go out and have fun?” Yan Qinghe asked gently, rubbing Ji Qianqian’s waist.
Ji Qianqian lay lazily on the bed. Recently, she had been feeling aches in her lower back and abdomen, along with various pregnancy symptoms. Her feelings about the life inside her had changed from complex to expectant.
This was the fruit of their second union. Now, Ji Qianqian was stubbornly convinced that the child was Qinghe’s. As long as the bloodline was there, that was all that mattered!
The stubbornness of her confused period, when she believed Yan Qing was the child’s mother, was long gone. She was filled with self-reproach for having hurt Qinghe in the past.
“Yes!” Ji Qianqian nodded eagerly, like a kitten pecking at a ball of fluff, rubbing her chin on Qinghe’s shoulder. Her fingers, however, slipped through from her waist, sometimes skating across her abdomen, sometimes dancing a tango.
As the principal dancer of the National Dance Academy, she had an exceptional talent for dance. Since her pregnancy prevented her from dancing with her body, she would occasionally dance with her fingers.
Poor Qinghe became her dance floor, experiencing a mix of pain and pleasure.
Here for a moment, there for another, almost every part of her body had been danced upon.
“Qianqian, stop fooling around~” Yan Qinghe blushed and grabbed Ji Qianqian’s mischievous hand. Lately, Qianqian had not only become especially dependent on her but also loved to tease her subtly.
It was hard to bear. Fortunately, she had cultivated a year’s worth of self-control in the Xianglai Dreamscape. The year Yan Qing had possessed her body, her spiritual consciousness had spent most of its time in the dreamscape.
In the middle of it, Yan Qing’s spiritual consciousness had visited once, while she was still in her body. Seeing Yan Qing, she had eagerly asked about Ji Qianqian’s recent situation.
After asking, she had fallen into a deep sleep and had a spring dream about Qianqian, a wild and blissful one.
When she woke up, she had even touched her forehead and laughed at herself, thinking that Qianqian would probably only be that proactive in a dream.
In reality… she was probably only like that with Yan Qing.
Recalling this, Yan Qinghe’s eyes darkened slightly. She couldn’t forget how Ji Qianqian had once adamantly expressed how terrible her first experience with her was, and how harmonious the second one with Yan Qing was.
These words hung over Yan Qinghe’s heart, becoming a dark shadow.
After they had reconciled, they had only shared occasional light kisses and had no further contact. Both of them had a tacit understanding not to mention their past disagreements.
Perhaps knowing the thorn in Yan Qinghe’s heart, Ji Qianqian always approached her with a hint of suggestion. As an omega, she had already cast aside her pride. All it would take was for Yan Qinghe to take the initiative and say, “Let’s try.”
Unfortunately, Qinghe never said it. She chose instead to silently do everything for Ji Qianqian, entrusting the company to a trusted elder and handling major matters remotely from home.
The rest of her time was spent learning to cook for pregnant women from a maternity nurse, learning massage techniques from a masseur, and contacting nutrition experts to plan a nutritional diet in advance. The more she didn’t say, the better she was, which made Qianqian feel even more guilty.
When Qinghe was busy cooking for her, she would help out on the side. When Qinghe told her to leave, she refused. She wished she could hang on Qinghe’s body all the time and secretly made a decision in her heart.
***
During their honeymoon, after a day of sightseeing, they cleaned up. Yan Qinghe, worried that Ji Qianqian’s feet would be sore from walking all day, started by massaging her feet.
Gradually, she moved up to her waist. Suddenly, Yan Qinghe felt the body under her hands tremble like a willow branch in the wind.
“Am I pressing too hard?” Qinghe looked up and asked.
She thought she had hit a ticklish spot and quickly pressed on the dimples of Venus, saying gently, “I’ll be gentler then.”
The lighting in the couple’s hotel room was ambiguously bright, and in Ji Qianqian’s watery, starry eyes, a determined and enchanting look was brewing.
She suddenly pressed Yan Qinghe’s hand and, like a fish, flicked her tail and sat up. She moved her hand to her own belly. “Qinghe, how does the baby feel?”
Yan Qinghe hummed in response. “Are you asking me to listen to the heartbeat?” She leaned her head over, about to listen for the baby’s movements.
Ji Qianqian took a deep breath as she was nuzzled, her eyes flashing. She bit her lip. “Do you feel like the baby has formed a little more?”
Yan Qinghe caressed the small life, her heart filled with emotion. She had always longed for a child of her own, to raise with love and patience, not like her mother, Yan Manxing, who had abandoned her.
“It’s been four months. The baby has indeed grown a little bigger,” Yan Qinghe said with a smile.
Then, Ji Qianqian leaned into her ear and whispered, shyly, “I asked the doctor. At this stage, if we… it’s okay.”
That night, Ji Qianqian was more proactive than ever before, just like in her dream.
And between them, just like in the dream, they merged like water and milk, becoming one.
**
The next day, the morning sun shone on Ji Qianqian’s curled eyelashes. Yan Qinghe gazed at her smooth face. She wondered why Qianqian’s behavior at night, and the positions they were used to, were almost identical to that dream.
When Ji Qianqian woke up, she was also a bit dazed. Many couples have their own quirks in bed. Why were the things Qinghe said in the heat of the moment the same as what Yan Qing had said to her back then?
This was their third experience, yet it was so similar to the second.
They both hesitated, then spoke at the same time, “You…”
In the end, it was Yan Qinghe who spoke first, about the Xianglai Dreamscape, about that embarrassing and sensual dream.
Checking the dates, it was the same day that Ji Qianqian had mistakenly thought she had been with Yan Qing.
After some deduction, Yan Qinghe held Ji Qianqian’s hand in disbelief. “So that time…”
“Mhm, Qinghe, that was you too. I’m sorry, I misunderstood all along.” Ji Qianqian hugged Yan Qinghe with a pang of heartache.
It turned out that Yan Qing and Qinghe’s spiritual consciousnesses had briefly swapped. Qinghe had temporarily returned to her own body and, thinking it was a dream, had been with Ji Qianqian.
With the misunderstanding cleared up, the heavy disagreements of the past seemed to dissipate like clouds and mist after their conversation. The two of them, tasting the clouds and rain again, cried and laughed, holding each other in a tearful embrace, whispering sweet nothings.
Ji Qianqian offered herself again and insisted that Yan Qinghe completely mark her again.
The consequence of a deepened marking was that this alpha could only go into heat for the omega she had completely marked. If she didn’t have this omega to get through her susceptibility period, the alpha would gradually go mad.
At that time, the S-class alpha Yan Qinghe was filled with tenderness. As Ji Qianqian wished, she completely marked her. After returning from their honeymoon, they got their marriage certificate. Before, they had only had a wedding. After returning to H City, Ji Qianqian had begged her to register their marriage.
Yan Qinghe was more than happy to.
Yan Qinghe thought they would walk hand in hand forever, that growing old with Ji Qianqian was the final destination of her love, and that marrying Ji Qianqian was the beginning of her dream come true.
At that time, she never would have imagined that this was just the beginning of the next shattered dream.