“Wuqiu, since it’s Ayu’s fault, I, as her mother, will never tolerate her. If you don’t want to hear her speak right now, then I won’t let her speak.”
Shen Wuqiu peeked through her fingers and saw that the white cat had turned into a weak, pitiful, and helpless meme again. Despite her annoyance, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for it.
Out of sight, out of mind. Shen Wuqiu turned her face away, sat up, and said, "I'll go back to my room and calm down first..."
Daiying called out to her, "Wuqiu."
"Um?"
"For thousands of years, our relationship with the human race has only had two outcomes. One is to become partners, swear a blood oath, and never betray our race; the other is to become strangers and forget each other in the vast land."
Shen Wuqiu understood what she meant, but at this moment, her confused mind made it impossible for her to make a decision.
Daiying clearly saw her dilemma. "I know this is hard for you to accept right now. I will give you time. If you choose the second option, I will take Ayu away, and I will also take away all your memories of her."
The white cat immediately began to meow in dissatisfaction: "Meow~~~"
Daiying ignored her and just looked at Shen Wuqiu, waiting for her answer.
After a long silence, Shen Wuqiu finally nodded, "Okay."
As she pushed open the door, Daiying called out to her again, "Oh, right..."
Shen Wuqiu stopped.
"Wuqiu, I'm handing over the control of Ayu's human form to you. As long as you don't want to see her appearance, she won't appear in front of you."
Shen Wuqiu then turned around, looking at her with confusion, "Me?"
Daiying blew a breath towards her lips, and the cool fragrance of gardenias immediately wafted over, as if it were a tangible substance, and slid straight into her mouth.
Shen Wuqiu swallowed it subconsciously.
"If Wuqiu thinks Ayu has behaved well and can tolerate her appearance, then just kiss her. Otherwise, she will never bother you in human form. Of course, as for her now, she is like meat on your chopping board, you can knead and soften her as you please."
"..."
A note from the author:
Hopefully, after this chapter, everyone will no longer feel that Ayu is ungrateful to Qiuqiu, or that Ayu's act of sneaking into Qiuqiu's bed at night is rape.
There was another power outage last night, so it's better to update sooner rather than later.
Chapter 31 Matchmaking
Perhaps because of the fantastical story of "getting pregnant from eating a fruit" that preceded it, the shocking revelation that "Gu Lingyu is the white cat, and the white cat is Gu Lingyu" only left Shen Wuqiu somewhat stunned on the spot, without much lasting impact.
In less than a morning, she accepted the fact.
The first thing she did after accepting this fact was to lock her room window from the inside.
Putting aside feelings and love, as a normal person, even though Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen were a proper married couple, he was still terrified to death when he saw Bai Suzhen turn into a snake.
In contrast, she was much more accepting; she was only symbolically startled and wanted to distance herself from the cat for a short period of time.
As for when Gu Lingyu, the cat, will transform into human form, Shen Wuqiu is not planning to consider that question for the time being; she doesn't even like the white cat right now.
Gu Lingyu was nowhere to be seen all morning, and even Mr. Shen became curious during lunch.
"Lingyu didn't come downstairs for breakfast, and why isn't she here for lunch either?"
Gu Junshan and Dai Ying, the couple, continued picking at the fish without changing their expressions, acting as if it were none of their business, showing neither concern nor any intention to speak.
This indifferent attitude made Mr. Shen wonder if the couple favored sons over daughters.
Helpless, Mr. Shen looked at Shen Wuqiu again and asked, "Qiuqiu, isn't she always inseparable from you? What's wrong with her today?"
Shen Wuqiu readily agreed: "Oh, I don't know either."
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the white cat huddled pitifully in the corner of the sofa—since she didn't plan to let anyone appear anytime soon, she needed to arrange a place for them. After a pause, she turned to Daiying and asked, "Auntie, didn't you go to Lingyu's room earlier? Is she feeling unwell today?"
When she was called out by name, Daiying couldn't pretend not to hear. She put down her chopsticks, pushed the plate of fish she had just picked out in front of Shen Wuqiu, and then casually said, "Oh, it's like this, her father and I were in a hurry to come over because we still had some things to take care of at home, so I asked her to go back for a while."
His acting was familiar and flawless.
Su Yunzhi was the first to get anxious: "When did this happen? You guys are really something, how could you just leave the child like that?"
Mr. Shen was also somewhat dissatisfied with this. People in the countryside value these kinds of etiquette the most. "They've been staying at our house for quite some time now, how come they didn't even say hello?"
It's one thing to dislike your own child, but you can't let her offend her father-in-law without knowing why.
Upon being glanced at by his partner, Gu Junshan immediately understood and added, "This is also our fault. It was an emergency, and we urged her to go back. At the time, we saw Mr. Shen talking to someone, so we didn't let her come and greet you."
Mr. Shen's expression was still somewhat displeased, so Daiying continued, "Don't worry, she'll be back in a few days. We'll have her come and apologize to you then. Wuqiu, don't you think so?"
The topic inexplicably circled back to her, and Shen Wuqiu had no choice but to respond, so she could only nod vaguely and say "hmm".
In Shen Wujun's view, this scene was somewhat like his older sister making concessions, and he said in an annoyed tone, "It seems that my family is doing quite well, making your whole family quite happy and reluctant to leave."
An awkward silence fell over the table for a few seconds.
Su Yunzhi quickly smiled and said, "Oh dear, my son is just like me, he can't say anything. What he really meant was that he hoped you could stay at home longer..."
"You're not planning to stay at our house permanently, are you?" Shen Wujun showed no respect for his mother.
The disdain was palpable.
The teenager's blunt words were so outrageous that even Mr. Shen couldn't stand it anymore. "Junjun, how can you talk to a guest like that?"
Mr. Shen was always serious and rarely smiled, and Shen Wujun had some respect for his father. Hearing this, he didn't dare to talk back like he did when he talked back to Su Yunzhi. He quickly shoveled a few mouthfuls of rice into his mouth and put down his bowl, saying, "I'm done eating."
Mr. Shen frowned, but didn't say much, and continued to urge the others to eat.
His daughter's premarital pregnancy was always a sore point for him, but since the dead cannot be brought back to life, he had no way to hold a grudge.
He had mixed feelings about Gu Junshan and Dai Ying, the couple. He couldn't treat them as ordinary strangers, but he also couldn't treat them as complete relatives.
Every meal was unpleasant and unpleasant.
Shen Wuqiu is currently pregnant and feels sleepy after eating, so she goes back to her room for a nap after digesting her food.
As soon as she left, the white cat immediately followed her, wagging its tail.
Shen Wuqiu, of course, wouldn't let her in.
With no door, the white cat, familiar with the way, tried to climb through the window, but after circling around, it realized it couldn't open the window and started meowing anxiously outside.
Shen Wuqiu didn't want to pay any attention to her, and finding the cat's meowing annoying, she could only scare her through the window: "If you keep meowing, you'll never become human again."
The white cat was quiet for a few seconds, then cautiously scratched at the window with its little paws, meowing softly.
The meows, seemingly angry but unable to express it, sounded like pitiful whimpers.
A cat's affection is truly irresistible.
Shen Wuqiu couldn't bring herself to say anything harsh, so she had to resort to a conciliatory approach: "You disturbed my and Zai Zai's rest."
The white cat reluctantly retracted its paws, stopped meowing, and just stared at her before slowly curling up on the narrow windowsill outside.
She looked docile, as if saying, "I won't make a fuss anymore."
So well-behaved and adorable.
Shen Wuqiu stared at it for two seconds, then lowered her eyes, drew the curtains, and quickly climbed into bed.
The windowsill is so small, won't this silly cat fall off while sleeping?
Everyone says cats can't die from falls. It's only two stories high, so even if it falls, it'll be fine, right?
...
Despite her worry that the white cat might fall, Shen Wuqiu managed to fall asleep.
As a result, she was awakened by a sudden feeling that she was about to fall off the bed after sleeping for less than half an hour.
When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was lying peacefully in the middle of the bed.
It was a false alarm.
Shen Wuqiu couldn't fall asleep either. When she came to her senses, she was still thinking about the cat outside the window. After hesitating for a moment, she tiptoed to the window and carefully pulled back the curtains.
To her surprise, the moment the curtains were pulled open even a tiny crack, her eyes met those bright, blue eyes.
It felt like being caught by your rival during a Cold War secretly caring for you.
It feels weird.
Shen Wuqiu immediately put on a stern face, subtly shifted her gaze, and casually pulled open the curtains, stretching towards the small bamboo grove behind the window.
Meow~~
Shen Wuqiu then pretended to notice her, glanced down at her, and frowned, "Still standing here?"
Meow~~
Shen Wuqiu glanced at her again, then drew the curtains again and left the room with an air of nonchalance.
When she went downstairs, Uncle Zheng was there too, talking to Shen's father. When he saw her come down, he immediately waved to her and said, "I was talking to your dad about you. I heard you haven't been feeling well lately. I was just saying that your dad is exploiting you, a young lady."
Shen Wuqiu knew he was joking, so she smiled in response, "Uncle Zheng, what brings you here today?"
"Nothing much, just came over to chat with your dad. I also wanted to tell you about the situation at the Xishan Orchard."
"I haven't checked on them for quite some time. Are the fruit trees alright?"
"The tangerine trees are small, and I checked them all; they're all alive. But about ten of the bayberry trees seem a bit weak. I wonder if they're not getting enough nutrients. I'll try giving them some water for a few days."
"Hmm." Shen Wuqiu was satisfied with the result. "Then I'll trouble Uncle Zheng to take care of it."
These bayberry trees are all large trees that have already borne fruit this year. Out of thousands of trees, only ten or so might have a problem, but it's really not a problem.
"Isn't this my duty?" Uncle Zheng waved his hand, finding her too polite, and said, "The tree species that your village provided for you are really good. Most of the trees are already bearing fruit. You'll have a bumper harvest in your first year."
"Really?" Shen Wuqiu was pleasantly surprised. Although Shen Yan had said that these bayberry trees were already in the fruiting period, she hadn't expected the fruit trees she had planted in such a hurry to have a bumper harvest in the first year.
"Would I lie to you? If the weather keeps up with this, you'll probably be able to taste bayberries by the end of the month."
At this point, Uncle Zheng was quite pleased, but then he thought of a new problem. "I've made an estimate for you. Based on this year's yield, the average yield of the two thousand bayberry trees should be at least five jin. So you should start thinking about the sales channels for this first batch, since bayberries have a very short ripening period and are not easy to store."
Such a bumper harvest was beyond Shen Wuqiu's expectations, and naturally, he hadn't had time to consider the issue yet. "That is indeed a problem."
Mr. Shen was worried that she might get tired, so he quickly comforted her, "Don't worry, a good harvest is a good omen. We'll talk about it when the bayberries are ripe."
Uncle Zheng also said, "I was just saying this to you. Your dad has been contracting land for so many years, he must have connections."