After Becoming Pregnant With The Empress Cat's Cub - Chapter 12

As they drew closer, the warmth of Lan Ye’s breath brushed entirely against Ju Rin’s face.

Rin’s already flushed face grew hotter, and her calmed spiritual energy began to stir once more. She was certain of one thing now, she truly held no guard against this human. She had actually allowed this person to get so close while fully conscious. Perhaps it was because the human seemed so utterly unthreatening.

Rin reached out, using just a single finger to halt the human’s advance.

Lan Ye’s mouth was a hair’s breadth away from the lips she desperately wanted to kiss again. She tried her best to lean forward, but the finger on her forehead was like an iron pillar, keeping her from moving an inch.

Seeing those sweet red lips right in front of her but being unable to reach them, Lan Ye looked up with eyes full of accusation.

After pushing the human’s head back, Rin removed the hand that had been cupping her face. Mindful of the human’s stomach, Rin subconsciously controlled her strength as she pushed her away.

Lan Ye took a step back from the push and looked at her unhappily. “What are you doing?”

Rin frowned. That was a question she should be asking. “What are you trying to do?”

She recalled the human’s words… “At a time like this, of course you have to have a kiss.” What kind of “time” was this?

“Kissing you, obviously,” Lan Ye said matter of factly. “Shouldn’t we kiss in this kind of atmosphere?”

“What atmosphere?”

“The atmosphere of a sudden windfall of a million! You gave me so much money, so I’m kissing you to show my gratitude.”

Rin’s eyes flickered. She didn’t understand this logic, and a flash of displeasure, one she didn’t even notice—crossed her gaze. “You kiss just because someone gives you money?”

Lan Ye replied, “Well, not exactly. You’re different.”

Rin: “Hmm?”

Lan Ye: “Aren’t we married? You’re my wife.”

Hearing the colloquial term “wife,” Rin’s ears twitched slightly. Such an intimate title felt out of place between them.

“A reminder: Article 5 of the marriage agreement.”

Since there were only five articles in total, Lan Ye recalled it quickly, no overstepping with intimate behavior.

“Kissing counts as overstepping?”

Rin didn’t hesitate: “Yes.”

Lan Ye looked incredulous, her gaze filled with doubt as if wondering if something was wrong with Rin’s head. “You should have said so earlier!” This was a total trap!

“Oh?” Rin met Lan Ye’s gaze. She sensed that whatever the human was thinking wouldn’t be pleasant. Her logic told her not to pursue it, but she was genuinely curious. “What if I had said so earlier?”

“If you’d said so earlier, I would’ve married someone else! If I can’t even kiss you, how am I supposed to live?” Lan Ye looked full of regret and chagrin. “Sigh, if I’d known, I would have just lived with Hakimi.”

With Hakimi, she could at least rua (pet) those palm-sized cat paws that popped out whenever the girl got nervous. Regret. Pure regret.

Hearing “Hakimi,” Rin’s gaze darkened. After registering the marriage, Rin had wondered if she had been too impulsive. On the car ride over, she remembered the phone call Lan Ye had taken, the one that triggered her impulse. Thinking back, that call was a bit too convenient…

It happened exactly when the human proposed marriage and made those unreasonable demands, just as Rin was hesitating. Generally speaking, a cunning merchant creates a sense of urgency when a client hesitates, saying things like “someone else wants it” or “it’ll be gone if you wait.”

This shrewd human had likely used the same trick, perhaps there was no such person as “Hakimi” at all.

Rin looked at the regretful human and thought her acting was a bit much. There was zero emotion between them, this intense desire for intimacy was completely irrational. She didn’t know what play the human was running now, but since they were married, Rin felt the need to remind her:

“Article 4 of the marriage agreement: No cheating.”

“Then let me have one kiss,” Lan Ye said, not actually intending to go find Hakimi. “I just want to express my happiness.”

“Find another way to express it.”

“Fine.” Lan Ye tapped her lips with a finger. “Then you kiss me once.”

Rin: “…”

After a few seconds of silence, Rin said, “I’m taking my money back.” She made a move to close the two open suitcases of cash.

Lan Ye scrambled forward, spreading her arms to block the boxes. “I’m joking, I’m joking! No kissing, fine, no kissing!”

The money was more important. Seeing Rin stop, Lan Ye breathed a sigh of relief. Rin also breathed a sigh of relief seeing Lan Ye stop pestering her.

Lan Ye looked at Rin and added gloomily, “You better remember how you’re acting right now.”

“Today, I want to kiss you and you refuse; tomorrow, when you want to kiss me, I might not agree.”

“When that time comes, you’ll have to beg me before I say yes.”

As she spoke, Lan Ye’s eyes sparkled with mischief, as if she could already see Rin clinging to her and begging for a kiss. When that happened, she’d definitely play hard to get for at least a minute!

Rin looked at the self-indulgent Lan Ye and let out a snort, as if telling her to keep dreaming. Lan Ye wasn’t annoyed, she was extremely confident. She snorted right back.

“Just you wait. Your face is definitely going to get slapped (metaphorically). That’s how it’s written in all the novels.”

Rin didn’t know how many times she’d been left speechless today. She looked at the confident human and gave a kind reminder: “Read fewer of those unrealistic pulp books.”

How could she ever… beg to kiss her? This human was truly bold in her imagination.

Lan Ye stopped there. It was better to leave it as a “prophecy”, explaining too much would ruin the style. She was a woman of style, she only drank hand-brewed milk tea!

Lan Ye turned back to the two boxes of money. From now on, she’d have even more style!

She carefully pulled a single bill from a stack and sniffed it. Mmm, fragrant. The scent of money. She rubbed it between her fingers, the texture was similar to the cash from her world. Even the design was similar same size and color, just with different patterns.

The back of the bill featured a palace, and the front had the denomination and a portrait. Lan Ye recognized the portrait instantly, it was the King, whose birthday celebration she had seen advertised at the mall. In this world, the current King was printed on the currency.

Looking at the portrait, the man looked younger than the photos in the mall. Lan Ye seemed to realize something, she took the bill and held it up next to Rin’s face.

“Similar. So similar!”

Rin glanced at the bill and instinctively frowned, pulling away slightly.

As she moved, Lan Ye marveled, “From this side profile, you look like you were cast from the same mold as the person on this bill.”

The angle of the head, the curve of the jawline… it was identical. If she didn’t know the King was much older, Lan Ye would have suspected Rin was the King herself.

“Has anyone ever told you that you look like the King?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the bill was snatched away. Rin put the money back in the box. “Yes.” Frequently… she had heard it ever since she was a child. But she didn’t want to look like him.

Since they looked so alike, a wild theory popped into Lan Ye’s head. “You couldn’t be a Princess, could you?”

Rin paused while locking the suitcase. She turned her head to look at this human who had suddenly stopped playing dumb. She didn’t know if the human truly didn’t know her identity or was just pretending. Since Lan Ye hadn’t mentioned it, Rin hadn’t either.

Now that the human brought it up, Rin thought the timing might be right… perhaps it was time for her to reveal her true purpose. Just as she was hesitating whether to admit it, Lan Ye spoke again.

“Haha, impossible!” Lan Ye dismissed her own theory. “How could a Princess be at a gym fighting for money?”

Rin’s brow arched. “Perhaps it’s the Princess’s hobby.”

“A Princess’s hobby wouldn’t be earning money.” Lan Ye looked at Rin as if she were a fool. “A Princess’s hobby is obviously spending money.”

Rin: “…” She meant the hobby was boxing. She didn’t go to the gym to “earn” money, she just happened to get a prize for winning. And why was a Princess’s hobby spending money?

Speechless again.

Lan Ye looked at Rin, and after ruling out that Rin was the King’s child, she came up with a perfectly logical explanation for their resemblance.

“You had plastic surgery!” And she’d had it done to look like the King.

Rin: “…” Now she really wanted to perform surgery on this human’s brain.

Seeing Rin’s silence, Lan Ye thought she had hit the nail on the head. So she did get work done. Since it was a private matter, Lan Ye didn’t pry further.

Rin looked at the human who seemed to have “discovered the truth,” and the frustration in her chest felt even more blocked. She snapped the locks on the suitcases, picked them up, and walked out.

Lan Ye quickly grabbed her hat, put it on, and followed. “I’ll leave the money with you for now. You have to keep it safe for me!”

With such a large sum, Lan Ye was worried about being robbed. The process for opening a bank account was slow here and required an appointment; she’d deposit it once she had a card. Rin was also worried the money would put the human in danger, so she agreed.

After getting into a taxi, Rin asked for Lan Ye’s address, intending to drop her off. Lan Ye refused. “Let’s go to your place first.” Her reason was once again flawless: “We’re married now. I should at least know where my wife lives.”

“Wife” again… Rin’s ears twitched, her eyes showing a hint of unease. She glanced at the driver, who was staring straight ahead pretending not to listen, but whose eyes were glued to the rearview mirror.

The driver was shocked that someone was married but didn’t know where their wife lived… he guessed the beastman had been assigned to the human by the system. When he helped with the trunk earlier, he had seen the suitcases full of cash. Looking at the amount, it seemed this human had paid a hefty price.

In the rearview mirror, the human seemed dissatisfied with the beastman’s silence. “What, I can’t go?” Lan Ye guessed wildly. “Are you hiding someone at home?”

Rin: “…” She wondered how many times a day she’d be choked up by this human’s words. Sensing the driver’s gossiping gaze, Rin quickly barked out an address and replied to Lan Ye, “You can go. There’s no one there.”

Lan Ye nodded. Good. “See when it’s convenient; I want to move in with you. Since we’re married, it’s not good to live apart.”

Rin hesitated. “I might be moving soon… I might leave the Central District. Would you be willing to go with me?”

Lan Ye: “I’m willing.”

Surprised by the instant answer, Rin felt a touch of emotion and a bit of guilt. She knew humans liked stability and generally didn’t want to leave their homes.

“If you marry a chicken, you follow the chicken, if you marry a dog, you follow the dog. Since I married a cat, I’ll follow the cat,” Lan Ye joked. “Even if you were a mouse, I’d move into a mouse hole with you.”

The driver, who had been eavesdropping, couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

Rin: “…” It felt like that emotional touch in her heart had vanished in a very strange way. This human… really was enough to leave anyone speechless.

After the joke, Lan Ye asked, “Where are you moving?”

Rin: “It’s not confirmed yet.”

Lan Ye remembered something. “Oh, you need to come to my aunt’s house first.” She’d gone out and gotten married, she wondered how Lan Shan and the others would react. “How about tomorrow morning? I have a physiology class in the afternoon, but the morning is free.”

The only part of her scheduled classes Lan Ye remembered was the “physiology class.”

Hearing “physiology class,” Rin had a sudden, inexplicable bad feeling. She felt there would be many more “speechless” moments to come. She hoped it was just an illusion. “Fine.”

Lan Ye also had to apologize to Aunt Li later, the Hakimi she’d kindly found wouldn’t be needed. Also, now that she was rich, she had to pay back the medical bills, living expenses, and the money they’d transferred to her.

Thinking about spending money, Lan Ye looked down at Rin’s hand. The soda can ring was still on her finger. Buying a ring! I need to arrange that too!

Rin followed Lan Ye’s gaze to her own hand and realized she hadn’t taken the thing off yet.

“Now that I have money, don’t worry, I keep my word. Later I’ll buy you a big diamond ring, a whole carat!”

The driver let out another laugh he couldn’t hold back.

Rin: “…” She had given the woman a million, and the woman was going to give her a diamond ring worth less than a hundred… and she looked so proud of her “generosity.”

By this point, Rin added another entry to her evaluation of this human, stingy. Extremely stingy.

Lan Ye had no idea her “grand gesture” was viewed as stingy because of the value. She also didn’t expect that her earlier wild guess would come true.

Rin said there was “no one” at home, but as soon as they walked in, Lan Ye saw two women sitting on the sofa.

One had a head full of small braids. Lan Ye recognized her as the girl she’d seen earlier driving the sports car. The other wore an extravagant, pale yellow puffy dress. But because her features were so bright and regal, the dress, which should have stolen the show became a mere backdrop.

The moment they saw Rin, both of them broke into smiles. Lan Ye felt like two different flowers had just bloomed before her eyes, it was beautiful.

Mi Can saw Ju Rin and stood up excitedly from the sofa. “Rin, you’re back~”

Suppressing the urge to run to her, she maintained her poise and led Mi Xiaoman elegantly toward Rin. It was only a few steps, and they arrived in an instant.

Mi Can lifted her skirt with her left hand, raised her right hand slightly, tucked her right foot behind her left, and performed a deep curtsy. Behind her, Mi Xiaoman wasn’t wearing a skirt, but she mimicked the motion to pay respects to the Princess.

Lan Ye watched them and leaned half a step closer to Rin. “Who are they? What are they doing?”

Rin looked at Mi Can. She wasn’t surprised they had found her, just surprised they were so fast.

Mi Can stood up from her curtsy and was about to greet the Princess, but Lan Ye’s words cut her off. Seeing Lan Ye practically glued to Rin, she finally noticed there was someone else there. Mi Can’s face darkened, and she looked at Lan Ye with great displeasure.

“I am Rin’s fiancée,” Mi Can said, lifting her chin slightly. “And who are you?”

Lan Ye blinked. “Fiancée?”

Oh ho! Drama!

Even though she didn’t know what was going on, the moment that identity was revealed, she felt like there should be BGM playing! It was a classic scene! Lan Ye felt like the spotlight was on her.

If this were a TV show, the female lead should be shocked, panicked, and questioning, before tearing up with a hurt expression. Lan Ye couldn’t play the female lead, so she looked at the other woman and mimicked her posture, lifting her chin.

Her tone was even more arrogant than the other’s.

“I am Rin’s wife~”

In a battle of titles, she clearly won! A fiancée is no match for a wife!