Waiting for You for a Long Time, But You Haven't Arrived - Chapter 12

You Deceive Me

Jiang Qionghua closed her eyes and said to Ming Yishu, “I have a bit of a headache. Massage it for me.”

“Alright.” Ming Yishu suppressed her love, affecting a casual tone as she tried to keep her there. “Auntie, please stay tonight.”

Jiang Qionghua gave her tacit consent, allowing the other to lead her to the bedside.

The scene was normal enough—it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen it before—but this time, a strange sense of nuance stirred in Jiang Qionghua’s heart. She couldn’t say exactly what was wrong; perhaps the atmosphere was too quiet, or perhaps it was because of Ming Yishu’s silence along the way.

“Why do you keep refusing to look back at me?” Jiang Qionghua squeezed her hand and commanded, “Look at me.”

Ming Yishu’s silhouette stiffened. She turned around in silence, and after a moment, she tilted her head and whispered, “Let Yishu undress Auntie.”

It wasn’t until Jiang Qionghua was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching Ming Yishu lean in to remove her outer robes, that Jiang Qionghua reached out and grabbed the other’s wrist.

She hadn’t intended to do this, but Ming Yishu’s behavior and attitude were truly teasing. In the stillness of the hall, it was easy for stray thoughts to take root.

Jiang Qionghua froze, quickly realizing her own abnormality. She snapped back to her senses and silently released her grip.

Ming Yishu didn’t speak either; she simply knelt in silence to remove Jiang Qionghua’s shoes and socks, attending to her as she prepared to rest.

“Ming Yishu.”

Jiang Qionghua couldn’t help but call her name, reaching out her hand to stroke those dark tresses.

Ming Yishu didn’t dodge the hand, but she didn’t let it fall onto her hair either. Instead, she tilted her head up, actively leaning in closer. Like a clever cat, she rubbed her cheek against Jiang Qionghua’s palm, then brushed against it with the tip of her nose in a lingering touch. Her expression remained cold and indifferent throughout, as if she weren’t actively trying to please the person before her, but merely performing a habitual task.

A warm, cool breath disturbed Jiang Qionghua’s palm. Her raised hand froze in mid-air, the shock she felt exceptionally intense.

—The habitually cold and aloof Ming Yishu would actually do such a thing?

Jiang Qionghua checked the other’s gaze once more, only to find that Ming Yishu’s eyes were consistently cold and self-possessed, without a hint of deliberate flattery or fawning. Her actions were humble to the bone, yet her posture remained noble—a striking contradiction.

“You…”

Just as Jiang Qionghua was about to withdraw her fingers, she looked down and saw Ming Yishu gazing up at her. This time, there was a trace of piety and intoxication in her eyes, as if Jiang Qionghua weren’t her elder, but a deity she meticulously enshrined, requiring pure faith to sustain.

This was a sight rarely seen in the past. Jiang Qionghua admitted she was completely defenseless against Ming Yishu looking like this. She hadn’t been able to resist in her dream last time; every frown and smile from the girl was bewitching, holding her completely captive.

Dream and reality bore a strange resemblance once again. Jiang Qionghua’s habitually cold heart began to burn with heat.

In the past, Jiang Qionghua would have certainly put her thoughts into action. But things were different now. Jiang Qionghua had made up her mind to treat her well, to cherish Ming Yishu as a junior. How could she still commit such a beastly act?

Besides, something similar had happened once before, and Ming Yishu had cried so sorrowfully then, looking as if she had been deeply hurt.

That look was too heartbreaking; Jiang Qionghua did not want to see it again.

Therefore, no matter how much her mind wandered, she ultimately restrained those improper thoughts.

“Fine, you’re acting just like a kitten.” Jiang Qionghua withdrew her hand and lay down on the bed. She beckoned, signaling Ming Yishu to join her. “Stop dawdling. My head aches terribly; if we wait any longer, I’ll start feeling restless again.”

“Alright.”

Ming Yishu reigned in her emotions, her pale hands hidden beneath her sleeves—clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms.

Just now, she had been possessed, doing such a thing for reasons unknown. The moment her Auntie raised her hand, she couldn’t help but draw near…

Ming Yishu’s heart throbbed with a dense, prickly pain once more.

She thought that perhaps the pain of being killed in the real world had followed her through the “book-transmigration.” It had accompanied her for six years, and every flare-up was a torment to both body and soul.

In the real world, she had killed a frenzied criminal in self-defense, but she hadn’t expected him to have an accomplice who attacked her from behind. A blade through the heart—that kind of pain was something she truly never wanted to remember. She wasn’t afraid of vicious criminals, but she feared the feeling of being alone. She had felt that isolation for many years, and thus craved warmth with exceptional intensity.

After transmigrating into this book, Ming Yishu learned for the first time that someone would actually care for and worry about her when she was sick.

When the pain in her chest flared, her longing for the person before her grew even deeper. Just now, she had failed to restrain herself…

Seeing her distracted, Jiang Qionghua asked, “What are you thinking about? Tell Auntie.”

Thinking about my past life.

But Ming Yishu could not speak of it, nor could she lie. She chose a middle ground: “I was thinking of a dream I once had.”

Jiang Qionghua: “What did you dream about?”

Ming Yishu gave a faint smile, her tone somewhat joking: “Perhaps because my chest always hurts, I dreamed of a sharp blade piercing my heart. It hurt terribly.”

That way of dying…

Jiang Qionghua’s mind suddenly flashed to something. Her face darkened instantly as her paranoia uncontrollably bubbled to the surface.

She continued to press coldly: “Why would someone kill you?”

To save someone.

Ming Yishu slipped into the memory. At the place where she lived, a criminal had started killing people indiscriminately after an argument. she had hidden in her room with her large dog. The dog was very well-behaved and didn’t bark. She didn’t need to go out and risk her life, but then she saw a little girl through the security monitor. The girl had no idea what was happening; if she encountered the criminal, she would surely be harmed.

Before the criminal could turn his attention toward them, Ming Yishu grabbed a self-defense knife, rushed to open the door, and pulled the girl inside.

—Before she could even recover from the tension of the rescue, she heard the sound of the criminal hacking at her door.

He was truly insane, killing his way through until he found her home.

There was almost nowhere to hide in the house, but a child could be hidden. Ming Yishu quickly hid the little girl and then ducked behind the door with her knife. Taking advantage of the moment the criminal entered and was off-guard, she ambushed him.

She had killed the man in self-defense. Hearing the police sirens wailing downstairs, she was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when she suddenly noticed her large dog lunging ferociously at something behind her. She turned around just as another criminal thrust a blade into her chest. Immediately afterward, the dog tackled the man to the ground, and the two became locked in a savage struggle.

—Following that, she had been rushed to the hospital, slipping in and out of consciousness with bouts of fever, before dying and transmigrating into this book.

Ming Yishu gazed at the corner of Jiang Qionghua’s robe and found a justification to answer her: “Why was I killed… because of an accident. I encountered unpardonable people and was backstabbed by a villain. I did nothing wrong, yet I ended up dying.”

Jiang Qionghua’s brow twitched, and a surge of jealous resentment suddenly welled up in her eyes.

—Years ago, when she killed Tang Guangjun, that person had said similar things, accusing her of not being on the righteous path, calling her a wicked person to her core, and claiming to be an innocent victim of her betrayal.

Could it be such a coincidence?

How could there be such a dream? Did Ming Yishu know something and deliberately speak of it to test her?

Did she know the truth about what happened back then?

The tenderness that had finally begun to sprout in Jiang Qionghua’s heart was completely shattered by Ming Yishu’s “dream.” Her mood turned irritable once again, and her knuckles turned white from clenching her fists too hard.

Ming Yishu quickly noticed Jiang Qionghua’s discomfort and hurried to support her, letting the older woman lean into her embrace. She said, “Auntie’s headache has come on sharply. Close your eyes and do not dwell on other matters.”

Jiang Qionghua ground her teeth, frowning as she lay back to let the other woman massage her.

An unknown amount of time passed. Though Jiang Qionghua’s mind was in a state of chaos, Ming Yishu’s touch was soothing, eventually causing her to drift into an unconscious sleep.

Ming Yishu lowered her head, checking the other’s steady breathing with her finger, then gently settled her onto the couch. Taking advantage of her sleep, she gazed intently at Jiang Qionghua’s cold, glamorous features, not daring to touch her.

She watched for a long time.

Finally, Ming Yishu remembered her purpose. She first retrieved her medicine from Jiang Qionghua’s person, then rose and went over to the writing desk.

She thought—

For Auntie’s safety, she needed to report certain matters to her Teacher, asking them to keep watch, lest someone truly grow desperate and hire assassins to target Auntie.

The moonlight was bright and clear. Ming Yishu did not hide from Jiang Qionghua while writing the letter; she assumed this was a matter of tacit understanding between them that required no deliberate concealment. Therefore, when a shadow fell across the desk, Ming Yishu did not react strongly.

Jiang Qionghua had actually woken up the moment Ming Yishu stood. She saw Ming Yishu retrieve something from her outer robes and leave, and her eyes instantly cleared with sharp awareness.

She was naturally suspicious. Thinking of Ming Yishu’s previous secretive actions and that “dream” filled with double meanings, it was hard for her not to overthink.

Thus, she followed Ming Yishu. Just as the girl was about to set down her brush, Jiang Qionghua stepped forward and snatched the letter from the desk.

“How bold,” Jiang Qionghua said, her expression cold and solemn as she reprimanded her. “No wonder you acted so flatteringly toward me just now. It turns out it was all to make me lower my guard so you could secretly write to your Teacher.”

She still suspects me?

Ming Yishu looked up in shock, defending herself: “Auntie, I did not.”

Jiang Qionghua’s face remained frozen in a cold mask. “You deceive me.”

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