After Becoming Pregnant With The Empress Cat's Cub - Chapter 38

As Lan Ye fell silent, the entrance to the sleeping quarters suddenly became quiet.

The guards around the corners were puzzled as to why the Princess and her human lover weren’t entering the chambers, but instead stood talking at the door. They caught glimpses out of the corners of their eyes, the two had stopped speaking and were just standing there in silence…

What was happening?

Looking at the person before her, Lan Ye, despite her anger, decided to give her one more chance. After all, she was a “big bellied” person, quite magnanimous.

Lan Ye thought to herself: if this person changed her mind right now, she wouldn’t act like nothing happened, but she could settle for a small punishment rather than a major crime.

She stared at her for a full three seconds, only to see that the other person had absolutely no intention of changing her mind…

Fine. Very well. Lan Ye arched an eyebrow; she really had to give this person a lesson she’d remember today!

“Fine,” Lan Ye said with a slight smile. “Then you can leave.”

Ju Rin’s brow twitched. she looked in surprise at the human who, moments ago, was talking about being afraid but now seemed perfectly fine.

Looking at the smile on the human’s face, Ju Rin frowned slightly. Usually, this human’s smiles were brilliant, the kind that made one feel happy from the bottom of their heart. This smile was clearly not that kind. Not only did it fail to make Ju Rin happy, but it even made her feel a bit uneasy.

A sense of impending trouble crept into her heart…

But after saying those words, the human said nothing more. She simply smiled, turned around, and opened the door to the sleeping quarters. It looked as though she had accepted Ju Rin’s arrangement.

Watching the human’s back, Ju Rin couldn’t discern any emotion. She was surprised that the other had accepted her arrangement so easily. More surprisingly, seeing the human accept the plan to stay separately left her feeling a strange sense of regret…

While the human had been silent just now, Ju Rin had actually been thinking: if and she meant if… the human was truly afraid, then…

Her thoughts were interrupted by the human turning around once more.

After entering, Lan Ye gripped the doorknob and turned back toward the hallway. The lights weren’t on inside the chambers, only a block of light from the corridor spilled in. Lan Ye stood in the light, but behind her was total darkness.

She looked at the person outside, her words contrasting sharply with her calm expression.

“This chamber is so big and dark, and I’m not familiar with it. This won’t do. I definitely won’t be able to sleep. I’ll be scared.”

Ju Rin blinked softly and looked over the human’s shoulder into the depths of the room. Indeed, the space was massive, and without the lights, it was quite dark.

Thinking of the home where the human currently lived, her aunt’s house, all the rooms combined probably weren’t as large as this sleeping chamber. It was normal for this human to be unaccustomed to it.

Ju Rin felt a pang of apology. Her arrangement hadn’t considered this. Actually… Ju Rin thought, she could totally stay with the human until she fell asleep before leaving…

Or, staying wouldn’t be impossible either. The bed was huge, adding another quilt wouldn’t make it crowded.

Ju Rin subconsciously ignored the calm expression on Lan Ye’s face when she spoke of being afraid. After some thought, she decided the human’s fear was reasonable. Just as she was hesitating to offer a new solution, she heard the human speak again.

“Since you won’t stay with me, I’ll just have to find someone else.”

Hearing this, Ju Rin’s eyelashes suddenly flicked up. Her gaze toward the human was filled with alarm and suspicion. She had heard something similar before, and a bad premonition surged in her heart.

Sure enough, a second later, she heard that familiar name again.

Lan Ye smiled: “Fortunately, Little Landmine is here. She’s in the palace too. I imagine you won’t mind if I ask her to come stay with me.”

Ju Rin’s brow tightened as she looked at the human with a solemn gaze. Did this human know what she was saying? It was nightfall, and she actually wanted a guard to enter her sleeping quarters. And she thought she shouldn’t mind…

What did she want to do?

As if hearing the confusion in her heart, the human spoke again.

“Don’t worry, we definitely won’t do anything. I won’t touch her beast ears or anything else. We’ll just chat and have a heart to heart.”

The human put on an ‘I’m being very obedient by not touching’ look, as if her current behavior was reasonable as long as she didn’t do those things.

“Oh, right. We can look at photos. Little Landmine said she has lots of photos from our kindergarten days saved on her phone. We can just look at the pictures and reminisce about our happy childhood.”

At this, Lan Ye snorted inwardly. Her original plan for tonight was to have dinner with Rin at the Queen’s palace, return here, show Rin the photos she’d secretly taken, and use them to threaten Rin into agreeing to some kissing and cuddling.

Who would have thought this person hadn’t planned on staying with her at all!

Lan Ye looked at her, her smile becoming even more fake: “By the way, let’s not do a video call tonight. I need my phone to share photos with Little Landmine.”

With that, Lan Ye gripped the doorknob with one hand and waved with the other.

“It’s late. You should go rest. Goodnight in advance.”

Don’t even think about a goodnight kiss. Lan Ye smiled at her, and having finished speaking, she began to close the door. She closed it decisively, with no intention of listening to a reply.

But just as the door was about to shut, with only a finger width gap remaining, a hand thrust in, preventing the door from closing!

Ju Rin controlled the closing door and exerted some backward force so the gap was wide enough to reveal the human’s face.

Lan Ye blinked and looked down at the hand holding the door. It had almost pinched her. Seeing those fingers gripping the doorframe, the nails turning white from the pressure, Lan Ye snorted. So you’re anxious now. A flash of smugness at things going according to plan darted through her eyes.

She knew it, she could handle her!

Lan Ye composed her expression and looked up at Rin at the door with a look of feigned confusion.

“Hmm? Is there something else?”

Without waiting for a reply, she acted the part of being considerate: “Don’t worry, I have Little Landmine.”

Lan Ye smiled slightly: “Go to sleep early.”

Ju Rin looked at the smile on the human’s face, her fingers on the door exerting more force until they bent into a tight, tense arc. In the depths of her amber eyes, her gaze was sharp and slightly trembling.

Clearly, she was angry.

But Lan Ye acted as though she couldn’t see the anger. She smiled with a distant and polite air, the picture of innocence.

Their eyes met. Both knew in their hearts that this was a silent contest.

Ju Rin knew the human was doing this on purpose. Her words just now were a provocation, just like this afternoon. But at the same time, she knew clearly that this human was someone who did exactly what she said!

She believed that if she left now, before she even got far, this human would call that ‘Number 2’!

Of course, she could go right now and order that ‘Number 2’ to leave her palace and forbid her from setting foot in it. While she couldn’t control the human, controlling a guard was easy. But if she did that, she wasn’t sure what the human would do next. What was certain was that she would find another, even more distressing method…

Ju Rin looked at the human, her gaze darkening. Saying she was afraid of the dark, she had almost believed it just now. What did this human have to be afraid of? She was the one who dared to sneak into the room of a beastman with unstable mental power during a Precipice (lust) period.

What didn’t she dare to do? She dared to chase a robber, she dared to ask the King for money, and now she was directly threatening her.

What didn’t she dare?!

Ju Rin felt it necessary to remind her of the agreement she had personally set, the one where this human had vowed not to cheat. Thinking of this, Ju Rin’s gaze paused. This human had even thought of that, which was why she pointedly said they “won’t do anything.”

Won’t do anything…

Late at night, alone in a room, looking at old photos together and reminiscing about the past… and she calls that “nothing”?

In Ju Rin’s mind, the scene from noon reappeared, the human and that ‘Number 2’ huddled close, talking and laughing as if they were family…

The hand hanging by her side suddenly clenched into a fist. Ju Rin felt a lump of air stuck in her chest with nowhere to release it, her chest began to heave.

“Hmm? Is there anything else?”

Lan Ye acted as if she didn’t notice the change in Rin’s breathing or the displeasure on her face. If she knew what Rin was thinking, she would have praised her for one thing, she was, indeed, very bold.

Braving Rin’s fierce gaze, which looked as if she wanted to bite her. Lan Ye still smiled casually: “If there’s nothing else, let go. I’m closing the door.”

Her black eyes sparkled in the light from the hallway, like brilliant stars. The stars are never troubled by the affairs of the human world.

In contrast, the pair of amber eyes facing them were backlit, deep and dark, as if mixed with every emotion in the world, so complex they were impossible to see through.

Ju Rin looked at those simple black eyes. This was truly a deceptive pair of eyes. Innocent and guileless on the surface, but in reality, full of calculation.

However, her calculations carried no malice. All she said and did was simply because she wanted her to stay…

Ju Rin looked past the human into the chamber, her gaze seemingly piercing through the decorations to land on the bed in the darkness at the far end. She knew that the human’s version of “staying together” was definitely not just being in the same space.

Tonight, once she entered this door, many things would change…

She couldn’t even predict what would happen.

Inopportunely, Ju Rin thought of the body she had accidentally seen this afternoon while covering the human with a quilt… and before that, the human’s kiss when she left the chamber…

Many things beyond her expectations had happened during the day, and the night was always harder to predict than the day.

Actually, regarding those things, Ju Rin didn’t hate them. The reason she subconsciously avoided them was entirely because…

Because of what? She hadn’t actually thought about it carefully… Thinking now, perhaps it started from the very beginning.

From the moment she met this human in the hospital, this human seemed extremely interested in her body. At their first meeting, she wanted to touch her beast ears. In later meetings, she expressed that interest time and again. Even on the day of her Precipice period, this human had stripped and climbed into her bed, saying she wanted to be her “medicine”…

At that time, Ju Rin felt very clearly that this human was only interested in her body. It made her feel offended…

At the same time, she was confused. She had always heard that humans valued emotions, unlike beastmen who were driven by desire, humans mostly did these things because of feelings. So, she didn’t understand why the human she met could be so enthusiastic about this without any feelings.

Since reaching adulthood, Ju Rin had met many people who were full of passion and tried their best to climb into her bed. She had also passively learned that this was a way to satisfy physiological desires and was a very stimulating sensory experience. Beastmen always pursued sensory stimulation.

But she didn’t like it…

She knew she was perhaps an outlier. She always felt that before doing these things, there should be feelings first. She had always used this as her principle to reject many people, until this human suddenly appeared that night.

She actually… had a relationship with a stranger…

The impact of this event stayed with her to this day. She still hadn’t figured out how it happened, her memories of that night were very fragmented… If it hadn’t actually happened, she wouldn’t have believed it. It was like a beastman claiming they were a vegetarian, only to wake up one day and find they had eaten a whole pot of meat. It was unclear if the meat was so delicious she abandoned her principles, or if she had always loved meat and her previous beliefs were just a misunderstanding.

Ju Rin had tried to use various reasons to explain that night, the Precipice period, her injuries, her unstable mental power. But while those excuses might fool others, Ju Rin knew that as long as she wanted to, she should have been able to control it.

So she was even more confused. Why… when she met the human before her, could she lose control like that, and even get the person pregnant…

Was it really as this human said that she was obsessed with her physical body?