Close Enough To Pluck the Stars” (GL) - Chapter 35

Chapter 35

“Mhm, it’s good that you know.” Liang Ke waited anxiously for the follow-up.

Though quiet and refined, Shu Qingchen was usually a decisive person. She rarely found herself this conflicted or hesitant. She gazed steadily at Liang Ke for a while, and after a long silence, she said softly, “Then again, it’s nothing special. You’re nice to everyone, after all.”

“Mhm. Wait—huh? What?!”

Liang Ke cocked an eyebrow, seriously pondering her leader’s true intentions.

“Why are you standing there like an idiot? Speechless?” Shu Qingchen, dissatisfied with the reaction, deigned to personally reach out, pinch the Calico’s nose, and give it a playful shake.

Liang Ke dodged with a laugh, her tone tinged with a bit of chagrin: “Sometimes I wonder if I should stop being such a ‘people pleaser’ and just put myself first. Life and work would probably be much easier. But those thoughts usually vanish the moment I see someone in trouble. To be shamelessly honest, having high empathy is just how I’m wired. I can’t really fight my own nature, so I end up meddling whenever I see something unfair. But most of the time, my starting point is upright and pure—it’s not like right now, where I’m doing it just to pursue someone.”

Shu Qingchen nodded, her eyes flashing with a mischievous logic as she summarized: “So, the way you treat me is neither ‘upright’ nor ‘pure’.”

The Calico was first shocked, then moved by a sudden realization: As expected of my leader, she sure knows how to catch the X-ing point.

Mentally, she was reeling; physically, she didn’t want to stay in that spot for another second.

Liang Ke hurriedly let go of Shu Qingchen’s hand and retreated to the study, her face flushed and her limbs moving in a stiff, uncoordinated rhythm.

Not only did she lock the door, but she also put on her headphones, blasting 80s and 90s pop songs one after another. With the volume turned up, her thoughts drifted a thousand miles away to the West Lake.

In a bamboo hat and a green coir raincoat… Liang Ke fantasized about herself standing at the bow of a boat, rowing the scull.

Yes, not just rowing, but singing—singing of the West Lake’s beauty, of the March days where spring rain is like wine and willows like smoke.

Just as Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian arrived to board the boat, Liang Ke would busily and joyfully welcome Suzhen into the cabin. Then, she would turn around and offer Xu Xian a sincere smile: “So sorry, we’re at capacity. This gentleman should probably head back.”

The distressed Hanwen (Xu Xian) would reach out toward the cabin: “Young lady!”

Suzhen, “coerced” by the Calico boatman, would shake her head at Hanwen with a helpless, sorrowful look: “My lord, there are many ways to repay a debt of gratitude; please do not limit yourself to marriage. How about I send you some medicinal herbs later? In short, please take good care of your shop.”

Hanwen would stand there in a daze, afraid to board by force and unable to swim if he jumped into the lake.

The Calico boatman would add: “Right, right, Baozhilin, isn’t it? I’ll visit often. After all, I love those large hawthorn pills.”

Hanwen would still shout into the rain: “Young lady!”

Finally, the Calico boatman’s patience would run out. She would squeeze out a cold smile: “While Suzhen was practicing her cultivation in the mountains for a thousand years, how many people did you marry? Besides, every time disaster strikes, you’re the one dragging her down, never showing an ounce of ‘all in the same boat’ spirit. What kind of love is that? Tsk. Come to think of it, you’ve ruined many people’s childhoods. It’s all your fault—please go reflect on yourself.”

Hanwen wouldn’t be able to keep up with the logic, but after thinking it over, he’d agree that “Baozhilin” was a great name.

Finding the scenario dull, Liang Ke untied the ropes, gave a long laugh, and lightly pushed off with the pole, spiraling away with the beauty. Thus, all the grievances inside and outside the mountain pagodas were wiped clean.

And she would have all the time and energy in the world to pursue Suzhen without anyone watching.

After all, Xiaoqing isn’t even human.

…

It seemed perfect, but she had overlooked one major problem.

Suzhen knows magic. Her fragility is just a disguise. In reality, she can split mountains and shatter rocks, coming and going like the wind. She could halt the spread of a Trojan horse, release bound server resources, and reload a backup system all within eight minutes.

So why would Suzhen ever be coerced by a boat rower? If she wanted to, she could gather all the water in West Lake and dump it onto Jinshan Temple, quickly becoming a high-priority surveillance target for various levels of the Water Resources Department.

As Liang Ke tossed and turned between reality and fantasy, she became increasingly hungry. She took off her headphones and went out to forage for food.

The light was on in the master bedroom, but no one was there. She walked to the bathroom—still no sign of life.

“Liar. You said you weren’t going back,” Liang Ke muttered, immediately feeling unhappy.

“Liang Ke? Liang Ke!”

“Hey! Coming, coming!”

Liang Ke snapped out of it and ran toward the kitchen. First, she saw Shu Qingchen’s profile—a literal gift from the heavens—and then she smelled the thick, sweet aroma of sesame paste.

“What’s this? The Director is in the mood to cook?”

“Don’t call me that!” Shu Qingchen chided.

Liang Ke thought for a moment, then squeezed her throat to say: “Chen’er.”

“…” Shu Qingchen raised a soup spoon and waved it toward the door: “Get out. Don’t show your face for three days.”

But Liang Ke didn’t listen. She swaggered over to her side, poking her head to look into the pot: “Black sesame paste? You’re making it from scratch? Impressive, impressive. I don’t even know how to do this.”

“It’s not…” Shu Qingchen’s face turned red instantly.

“Hmm?”

Liang Ke took the spoon, gave the pot a stir, and fished out several lumps of what looked like popped balloon skins—leftover glutinous rice ball skins.

“Oh…” The Calico gasped for air as she suppressed a laugh, her shoulders shaking.

Shu Qingchen was infected by the stifled laughter and gave Liang Ke’s shoulder a playful thump. “You’re enjoying this? What do we do now?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Liang Ke said. “What else can we do? Put it on the table and finish it off. We can’t waste food—especially since you made it.”

“Fine.” Shu Qingchen automatically ignored the second half of the sentence, sighing in relief as if she’d received a guarantee. “Then you eat all of it.” She turned to leave.

Liang Ke gathered her courage, took a step back, and blocked the doorway. “Why did you make this anyway? Were you hungry?”

“I’m not hungry. You, on the other hand, spent the whole way back complaining to Zhao Pu about not having a good dinner. ‘So hungry, so hungry,’ ‘how pitiful’—that sort of thing,” Shu Qingchen recalled.

Liang Ke thought to herself: I did that on purpose to trigger your sympathy and get a lighter sentence.

She went to find a large, insulated bowl and scooped out the sesame paste and rice ball skins together. Coming out of the kitchen, she saw Shu Qingchen sitting on the sofa reading. She sidled over, nesting beside her leader to eat her midnight snack.

In the dead of night, under the soft, warm light, the sound of slurping soup and the rustling of pages seemed to echo one another. The scent of books and sesame paste complemented each other perfectly.

Liang Ke’s thoughts drifted into outer space again. The sun was particularly fierce there, rekindling her hope. She realized that while Shu Qingchen was powerful, she wasn’t an all-powerful demon like Suzhen.

She can’t cook.

Ohoho.

With her mood relaxed, Liang Ke became talkative again. She asked Shu Qingchen what she had been doing at Building 1 in the middle of the night, and who that “Xiao Liu” was.

“My dad told me to go home and check on things. Xiao Liu is my uncle’s driver, and the car belongs to him too.”

“Go home?” the Calico asked, her neck stiffening.

“Strictly speaking, it’s just my family’s house. My family doesn’t live around here, but my uncle looks after it occasionally. It’s empty more than half the year.”

The Calico listened with profound respect, but then something felt off.

You have a house and you’re still staying at my place?

Liang Ke wanted to ask but felt it was too blunt. She tried to test the waters a different way: “Are you going to move back there?”

“No.” Shu Qingchen was even more direct. “It’s so much closer to work here. Besides, that house is too big. I’m scared.”

Liang Ke fell silent. She felt both relieved and melancholy. Relieved that the beauty was still willing to “mooch” off her place, but melancholy because the other woman was clearly from a wealthy background. Even if she wasn’t good at cooking, she had no shortage of drivers and chefs. Liang Ke’s value had plummeted; she would have to re-plan her pursuit. Just being a “clever little housekeeper” wasn’t going to be enough.