Chapter 30
“Sister, why aren’t you saying anything?”
Fu Jing stared at her and asked as if urging her, “Is it because you like the gifts I gave you so much that you can’t bear to unwrap them all at once, so you’re slowly opening them bit by bit?”
She had meant it as a joke.
But Gu Qingci lifted her eyes and looked at her with slightly furrowed brows. After a pause, she said lightly, “Do you want water? Or should I order some drink you like?”
She did not ask whether Fu Jing needed anything. Instead, she directly threw out two choices.
Fu Jing subconsciously chose one. “Water, then.”
“All right.” After answering, Gu Qingci turned and walked into the kitchen.
Fu Jing was left alone in the study.
Fu Jing raised a hand and scratched her face, thinking about what had just happened… Had Gu Qingci glared at her??
But it did not really seem like it…
—
Fu Jing stood in the study and quietly looked around. The study was quite spacious. Beside the window against the wall stood a large solid-wood desk. Everything was arranged cleanly and neatly, somewhat like the style of an old professor at school.
Two walls were covered with bookcases that reached from floor to ceiling.
Fu Jing walked over and quickly scanned through the glass doors, trying to see what books Gu Qingci usually liked reading.
—She could not figure it out at all.
There were many types of books, uneven and varied.
This place was practically like a small reading room. The books seemed to be arranged according to the library classification system, orderly but without much personal feeling.
Qin Zijin’s home also had many books. She would layer the shelves according to the types of authors, then arrange them by the order in which they had written. With just a few glances, one could tell which authors and books she liked.
Fu Jing walked around and felt that Gu Qingci’s place was practically like a model home.
Forget inner personality—she could not even see any information about her preferences… Perhaps she preferred simplicity?
Fu Jing stood around bored for a while. After thinking, she still wandered into the kitchen to find Gu Qingci.
She stuck close beside her. “Sister, do you usually not cook?”
The kitchen also had the atmosphere of a showroom. It was clean and simple, with so few kitchen tools placed on the counter that there were almost none at all. A single electric kettle sat on the white countertop.
Gu Qingci nodded. Remembering that Fu Jing had once said she wanted to eat food made by her, she curved her lips and laughed softly. “Do I look like a virtuous person?”
“You look like a capable person,” Fu Jing said seriously.
“…Sorry to disappoint you.”
“No.” Fu Jing was somehow amused by her light tone. She pressed her lips together, her expression young and proud as she said, “Wait for me to practice cooking. In the future, I’ll cook for you every day.”
She said from the bottom of her heart, “I want to support you!”
Gu Qingci raised her hand and tapped her forehead, saying lightly, “Those words… do you know how many times you’ve said them?”
She turned around, opened the fridge, and took out a bottle of mineral water.
Then she placed it aside.
In the few seconds while the fridge was opened and closed, Fu Jing saw that there was almost nothing inside. The double-door smart fridge looked like an empty, spacious cold palace.
“Sister.” Fu Jing opened it again and looked. It really was as clean as a display item in an appliance store, with only a few bottles of mineral water and an ice tray freezing ice cubes. “Don’t you keep some fruit or things like that in here?”
Before Gu Qingci could answer,
Fu Jing suddenly reacted again. “Wait, there’s mineral water. Why are you boiling water?”
Gu Qingci said, “These have been chilled. Can you drink them?”
Although it was a question, Fu Jing understood that Gu Qingci meant she was not allowed to drink them.
That rising tone gave her the feeling of being disciplined by an elder.
Fu Jing felt displeased.
She put on a stern face and asked especially seriously, “Why can’t I drink it? Does the bottle say that the chilled version can only be drunk by people over twenty-five?”
Gu Qingci looked at her, her voice gentle. “Kid, don’t you have a bad stomach?”
“…”
With one sentence, Fu Jing immediately lowered her flag and ceased fire.
After a long pause, she asked, “Sister, how do you know I have a bad stomach? I think I only mentioned it to Sister Anjiu once.”
“She told me.” Gu Qingci took a cup, poured hot water to scald it once, then unscrewed the mineral water bottle and poured half a cup into the glass. Only after carefully mixing it into warm water did she hand it to Fu Jing, reminding her, “You should pay attention to it yourself too. Don’t keep wanting cold things just because the weather is a little hot.”
Again, it was the speech of an elder.
Fu Jing did not say anything. She turned, opened the fridge, silently took out the ice tray, and knocked out a few ice cubes.
Then she conveniently poured them into her own cup. Raising the cup as she drank, she said, “Sister, I may still be in my rebellious phase.”
The expression on her face was particularly serious.
Gu Qingci: “…”
She pressed her lips together, a helpless look showing in her eyes. After a few seconds, she said nothing more.
Instead, she asked, “Do you eat apples?”
Fu Jing nodded, not particularly caring either way, and answered, “Mm.”
She watched Gu Qingci take a bright red apple from the fruit basket beside them, place it under the faucet, and carefully wash it clean. Then Gu Qingci wiped it dry and handed it to her.
Fu Jing tilted her head. She was purely curious. “Sister, when you eat apples, you don’t peel them?”
“…”
Gu Qingci said nothing. She pulled open the large drawer below and found a small knife.
After washing it, she helped peel the apple.
Her expression was serene, and even the posture with which she held the knife was beautiful. Her slender, fair fingers held the red apple. Unfortunately, the way she brought the knife down looked more like chopping than peeling. The smooth apple gradually became uneven and pitted.
“…”
Fu Jing watched from the side, her heart pounding with fear, very afraid that in the next second, Gu Qingci would cut her hand.
After a few seconds, she could no longer hold back and went over.
She lightly held Gu Qingci’s wrist and naturally took the knife and apple from her. “Sister, I’ll do it myself.”
Gu Qingci: “…”
She had just been about to tell her not to touch the knife, but then she discovered that this “child” used a knife much better than she did.
Fu Jing lowered her brows and eyes, moving lightly. She peeled the apple above the trash can, and a thin layer of peel continuously fell into the bin.
It did not break until the entire apple was peeled.
Gu Qingci watched from the side. “Do you usually like eating apples?”
“They’re all right. Everything is all right.” Fu Jing thought about it and said, “I don’t think there’s any fruit I especially like or dislike.”
“Then why are you so skilled at peeling them?”
“When I was little, an auntie taught me.”
“Which auntie?”
“The nanny hired to live at home and take care of me.” Fu Jing tilted her head. “Isn’t that what auntie means?”
“…”
Gu Qingci paused before asking, “Since she was the nanny taking care of you, shouldn’t she have peeled the apple for you?”
Her gaze landed on the hand Fu Jing used to hold the knife.
She felt a slight discomfort, thinking that a child like Fu Jing should have been carefully taken care of by the people around her.
“Is that so?” Fu Jing did not seem to agree. “I actually think it was pretty good that she taught me more things. Unfortunately, later my mother fired her.”
Gu Qingci asked, “Why?”
Why…
The reason Fu Jing’s mother had given for dismissing her was: the nanny abused the child.
But Auntie had not deliberately abused her.
Fu Jing felt that she had always treated her quite well. She worked quickly and efficiently, was especially capable in all kinds of housework, and would chat with Fu Jing enthusiastically while cooking.
It was only because Fu Jing’s parents were away from home all year round, with no adults supervising. And Fu Jing, this child, was too easy to take care of. She ate whatever she was given, rarely made requests, and was never willful.
People were naturally lazy.
So Auntie’s work became more and more casual. Often, she would only come every few days to clean, and while she was there, she would prepare the next several days’ worth of meals and place them all in the fridge to be stored.
She would remind Fu Jing to heat them in the microwave when it was time to eat.
Fu Jing had been young and ignorant, and could not possibly have had the awareness to eat meals at fixed times.
She often curled up in her room to study. Even after doing science problems for an entire day, she did not feel tired. Whether playing or studying, she would only go to the fridge and find something to eat when she was unbearably hungry.
She was also too lazy to heat it, directly eating the cold food.
As time passed, she developed stomach problems.
Only when her stomach hurt so badly that she could not help telling her mother
and was taken to the hospital for an examination did they discover that this illness had been forced out by hunger.
So that auntie was dismissed.
When Auntie faced the overwhelming anger and scolding from Fu Jing’s mother, she did not explain or argue at all. She kept apologizing and saying she had not taken good care of the child, that she was sorry.
The guilty look Auntie gave Fu Jing before leaving made Fu Jing sleep badly for several days, her heart filled with the feeling that she had done something wrong.
Fu Jing had quite liked that auntie.
But she had only been a child. No one would listen to a child’s opinion.
“…”
Fu Jing noticed Gu Qingci’s gaze and washed the small knife clean before putting it away. “What’s wrong? Do you want to learn how to peel apples…”
Gu Qingci turned her face away. “Are you hoping I’ll peel apples for you in the future?”
“Of course not.” Fu Jing spoke in a tone as if it were only natural. “You’re my princess, not my nanny.”
“…”
Gu Qingci turned her face aside, her gaze lightly falling on the teacup without looking at her. In her heart, she was thinking about how to tell Fu Jing that there was still a layer of kinship between them.
The lighting at the bar counter was not bright enough to clearly reflect her expression.
Seeing that Gu Qingci had been silent for a long while,
Fu Jing could not help leaning closer, her final syllables soft and drawn out as she teased, “Why aren’t you talking again? Are you especially moved?”
Before entering the kitchen, Gu Qingci had already taken off her suit jacket.
She wore a simple white shirt tucked into her suit pants. The top two buttons were undone, revealing part of her collarbone. Her shoulders looked as if they had been carved, her waist as slender as bound silk.
Fu Jing had originally leaned over only wanting to act spoiled.
Gu Qingci did not avoid her.
Their shoulders touched. With that warm and soft contact, a desire to go a step further and pull Gu Qingci into her arms immediately surged in Fu Jing’s heart.
Fu Jing’s throat moved slightly, and she quietly lifted her eyes to look at her.
But she saw that Gu Qingci was also looking at her.
Their gazes met for several seconds.
In Fu Jing’s eyes, Gu Qingci once again saw that deep, obsessive affection directed at herself. On that sweet, delicate young face, there was no change in expression, but her eyes flickered with the desire of first love.
She no longer looked like a child.
Gu Qingci’s long lashes trembled, and her heart suddenly beat faster. She propped a hand on the counter, stood, and turned sideways to avoid Fu Jing.
This movement, as if she were afraid of not avoiding Fu Jing quickly enough, was very wide.
It was completely unlike her previous calm indifference.
Fu Jing: “…”
Gu Qingci’s gaze shifted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only picked up the glass and drank a sip of water.
She did not look at Fu Jing again.
After a long silence,
“Sister, don’t you treat me like a child?” Fu Jing lifted her eyes. When her almond eyes were not smiling, they were clear and calm. Her tone seemed purely curious as she asked, “Then when a child hugs you, what are you hiding from?”
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