After the Divorce, I Ended Up with My Ex-Husband’s "White Moonlight" [Transmigration] - Chapter 49

“What?” Ning Qi mumbled, rolling over in a daze.

“I said,” Qin Shi began, running her fingers through Ning Qi’s hair. She knew the girl was exhausted, but she didn’t want her to drift back to sleep just yet. “Let’s not live here anymore, okay?”

“Noisy…” Ning Qi was so deep in her drowsiness that she had already forgotten what they were talking about. Finding the voice disruptive, she tried to bury her head deeper into the throw pillow.

“Ning Qi,” Qin Shi called out softly. Seeing that there was no hope of getting a coherent response, she couldn’t help but tweak Ning Qi’s ear to show her dissatisfaction.

“It itches…” Ning Qi swatted at her ear with a small hand, trying to hide it.

“Forget it.” Qin Shi sighed, pulling a blanket over Ning Qi. “Sleep well.”

Ning Qi slept for an hour. When she woke up, she rubbed her eyes and saw a familiar silhouette. Above her, a voice drifted down: “Awake?”

“Qin Shi,” Ning Qi sat up, noticing the blanket draped over her. “You didn’t sleep?”

Qin Shi was in almost the exact same position she’d been in before Ning Qi fell asleep, though she now held a folder of documents. “I slept for a bit.”

“You can sleep sitting like that?” Ning Qi felt a wave of guilt. She began folding the blanket. “You should have woken me up. I didn’t mean to hog the sofa.” She huddled closer to Qin Shi, massaging the elder woman’s leg. “Are you okay? Does it hurt?”

“Not really,” Qin Shi said.

“Oh no,” Ning Qi thought she was being serious. “I must have tortured you for an hour. To let me sleep, you probably didn’t move an inch! Let me rub it for you.”

Qin Shi didn’t stop her but asked, “Do you remember what I said before you fell asleep?”

“What did you say?” Ning Qi blinked her large, curious eyes.

Qin Shi set her documents aside and poured a glass of water. “Drink some water first.”

“Oh!” Ning Qi took it, but instead of drinking, she held it to Qin Shi’s lips. “You first.” She was worried she’d missed something vital in her sleep-induced stupor.

Qin Shi took a small sip and finally said, “We’re moving.”

The Misunderstanding

“Moving?” Ning Qi froze. “Why? What’s wrong with this place? I like living here.”

“You think this place is good?”

“Yeah!” Seeing that Qin Shi didn’t seem too forceful yet, Ning Qi continued, “It’s so cozy. When I lived here alone, it was perfect. Now that you’re here to visit, it’s still plenty of space!” She paused. “Wait… do you think it’s too small?” Compared to the Qin family mansion, this apartment was practically a closet.

“Ning Qi,” Qin Shi smiled, “are you afraid of moving in with me?”

Ning Qi laughed nervously, trying to dodge the topic. She was a little afraid. Move where? To the Qin mansion? That was a terrifying thought. She hadn’t even met the parents yet, and moving in together felt like skipping ten steps at once.

“Since you’re not afraid, let’s move,” Qin Shi said.

“Wait, wait!” Ning Qi protested. “I really do like it here. But… I guess it is a bit small for both of us.” She remembered being confined to a small room in the Ning house and had never cared for grand spaces, but Qin Shi was different. They came from similar backgrounds, but their life experiences were worlds apart.

“How about this? I’ll find a bigger place tomorrow,” Ning Qi suggested, nodding to herself. That way, she could have more space without the “meeting the parents” pressure.

“Really?”

“Of course! I’ll look tomorrow. As long as we aren’t… well, I mean, moving is easy!”

Qin Shi saw right through her. Ning Qi thought she was being pressured to move into the Qin family home. While Qin Shi did want to live together, there was a much more “petty” reason driving her.

“And what will you do with this apartment?”

“What will I do?” Ning Qi hadn’t thought that far. She was just terrified of moving into the lions’ den of the Qin family. “I’ll just leave it as it is for now.” She looked around the apartment she had decorated herself, feeling a pang of sadness.

“No need,” Qin Shi said. “If you like the decor, we’ll move everything exactly as it is to the new place.”

“But then this place will be empty.”

“Do you really care about this place that much?”

“Yeah,” Ning Qi said wistfully. “I’ve lived here for a while now. It’s a bit small, but I don’t mind it.”

“I don’t allow you to be attached to it!” Qin Shi’s voice suddenly turned firm.

“Huh? Why?”

The “Petty” Truth

Qin Shi bit her lip, hesitating, but she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She had hated this apartment since the first day.

“Do you even know whose house this is?”

“Whose?” Ning Qi was genuinely confused. She looked around. “Mine? My name is on the deed!”

Qin Shi stared at her silently, waiting for the realization to dawn.

“This house is mine now,” Ning Qi calculated. “Before that, it belonged to Lu Mingze’s mother. And before that…”

“It was Lu Mingze’s,” Qin Shi finished.

The silence that followed was heavy until Ning Qi burst into a fit of laughter. “So… that’s it? That’s why you want me to move? Just because of that?”

“Just because of that?” Qin Shi repeated the words, her eyes narrowing.

“No, no! I didn’t mean it like that!” Ning Qi immediately tried to look serious. “I think you’re absolutely right. This is a very important reason. Extremely important. We must move. Immediately!”

“Hahaha!” Ning Qi couldn’t keep the act up and went back to laughing. “I have to ask, Miss Qin—what about my other assets? I got a lot of divorce settlement money, you know!”

“Ning Qi!” Qin Shi barked. She was annoyed that she’d been caught being so jealous, yet she couldn’t find a way to argue. She turned her head away, refusing to look at the laughing girl behind her.

“Hahaha!” Ning Qi’s laughter filled the small living room. When Qin Shi started to turn back, Ning Qi lunged forward, resting her head on the back of the sofa to look up at Qin Shi, studying her face. “What goes on in that head of yours all day?”

“Are you moving or not?” Qin Shi asked, focusing on the only question that mattered.

“I’m moving!” Ning Qi jumped up. “I already said we’d move. But move where? We can’t sleep on the streets!”

“I would never let you sleep on the streets,” Qin Shi said seriously. “I’ve already found a place.”

“Of course you have,” Ning Qi giggled. “I should have known you had it all ready.”

How long had Qin Shi been secretly stewing over this? The thought was both hilarious and strangely touching. Here Ning Qi was, thinking Qin Shi was making a bold move for cohabitation, when in reality, she was just being a “jealous jar” over the apartment’s history.

“Qin Shi, come on, tell me—how long have you been planning this?”

“Not long.”

“How long is ‘not long’?”

“It’s just not long,” Qin Shi insisted.

“Alright, alright,” Ning Qi shrugged, suppressing her grin. “I won’t ask. Since Miss Qin has arranged everything so perfectly, I shall obey. I’ll go pack my things now.”

But before she left the room, Ning Qi grabbed Qin Shi’s hand and looked her in the eye. Qin Shi looked confused until Ning Qi gave her a radiant, genuine smile.

“What am I going to do with you, Qin Shi? I think… I think I love you even more now.”

In the past, Ning Qi thought love took years to build—like her brother and his childhood sweetheart. But looking at the woman in front of her, she realized falling for Qin Shi was the easiest thing in the world. Because this person was simply worth loving.