VAP - Chapter 30
Chapter 30: The Sleeping Beauty Whose Words Are Law (29)
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll use my Word Spirit ability?” Qi Jiu said.
A moment of silence followed her words.
One of them was lounging on the sofa, the other stood ramrod straight. They stared at each other in silence, separated by about half a meter.
It was a subtle distance.
In human interaction, intimate distance is defined as anything within forty-five centimeters—close enough to feel each other’s body heat and breath. It’s a space reserved for only the most intimate of relationships.
Yue Du stood about half a meter from Qi Jiu. She didn’t even need to take a step; a slight lean was all it would take to cross into that intimate space.
But she just stood there, perfectly still, neither advancing nor retreating, maintaining a certain distance.
After a long moment, she said slowly, “I trust that you won’t.”
A glint appeared in Qi Jiu’s dark eyes, her lips curving into a half-smile. “What makes you think that? Do I look like someone who plays by the rules?”
“Although, Host—” Noticing the look on Qi Jiu’s face, Yue Du quickly corrected herself, speaking with a serious tone.
“Although you’re always willful, Ah Jiu, doing as you please with such unrestrained flair, you’ve always been very good to me and cared about my feelings. So I believe you wouldn’t do something like this. Forcing things is never the answer, and a melon plucked by force isn’t sweet, right?”
Qi Jiu remained completely unmoved. “The truth.”
Fine. Yue Du sighed. “If your Word Spirit ability worked for this, you would have used it already.”
That was the truth.
The truth was, Qi Jiu couldn’t care less about conventional human morality.
If she could have used her Word Spirit ability to make Yue Du rely on her, like her, and fall in love with her, she would have done it in a heartbeat. There would have been no need for all this subtle flirting… but alas, it was impossible.
Perhaps it was because she couldn’t create love from nothing—that was a true act of creation. Or perhaps it was because Yue Du herself was an existence from beyond this world, immune to the influence of Word Spirit.
In any case, it was impossible.
“You really do know me well.” After a brief silence, Qi Jiu sighed, her tone a mixture of regret and something unreadable.
Yue Du’s expression remained unchanged. “As a System, understanding my host is part of my duty.”
So what if her host had just confessed to her? She would puff out her chest, remain calm and composed, and continue to be a model System with a spine of steel!
Qi Jiu sighed again. She raised a hand to tuck a slightly curled strand of hair behind her ear, stood up, and took a step forward.
The distance shrank. Intimate distance.
Yue Du averted her gaze, uncomfortable. She wanted to retreat, but Qi Jiu gently caught her by the wrist.
“Whether you say yes or don’t answer at all, it doesn’t really make a difference,” Qi Jiu said. “Either way, you’re bound to me. We’re already bound together, aren’t we?”
Yue Du desperately wanted to remind her, coldly and mercilessly, that their bond could be severed.
The moment they completed this world’s ultimate mission, or if Yue Du chose to abandon this small world, the System could unbind and leave at any time.
If the host held the initiative while completing a mission, then the System held the ultimate authority when it came to abandoning one.
There was no such thing as being trapped by a host, unable to be recalled. A System could leave whenever it wanted. As long as it was willing to forfeit the bonus points from completing an entire world, the System was king.
But considering she still had to humor this big shot for future missions, Yue Du kept that thought to herself and answered from a different angle.
“Of course it’s different. For humans, love and desire are inseparable. Becoming a couple implies certain intimate acts, which is something I cannot accept.”
Qi Jiu said, “We can be platonic.”
Yue Du countered, “Platonic love is spiritual love. Is spiritual intimacy not still intimacy? I object.”
After saying this, Yue Du discreetly tried to pull her hand free from Qi Jiu’s grasp, but she didn’t succeed.
Qi Jiu’s strength was terrifying. Her hands, though they looked slender and beautiful, felt like handcuffs clamped firmly around her wrist.
Faced with this, Yue Du felt helpless.
It wasn’t that she had no experience rejecting confessions.
After all, a pretty girl with a good personality rarely goes unnoticed. Yue Du had been confessed to by plenty of classmates in school and pursued by colleagues and superiors at work.
She was practically an expert at turning people down, and she didn’t care whether they remained casual colleagues or cut off contact entirely afterward.
But Qi Jiu was different.
At this thought, Yue Du couldn’t help but turn her head, avoiding her host’s deep, dark gaze.
For over three years, she had been with Qi Jiu, a secret to the outside world.
A System was supposed to be just that—an unknown, silent cheat, a host’s helpful little assistant.
And what about her? She hadn’t been much of a cheat. Instead, she’d spent most of her time as a companion for playing games and chatting away the hours.
“The only one” was a phrase with significant weight, and for these past three years, Qi Jiu had always been her one and only.
Now, that one and only was saying, “I like you.”
She could reject her, of course, but how could she do it effectively? For the first time, Yue Du felt completely unconfident.
Perhaps it was this lack of confidence that made the usually eloquent Yue Du choose silence.
Qi Jiu watched her quietly, her thoughts unreadable. The stalemate lasted for a moment before Qi Jiu finally relented.
“Cat got your tongue?” she murmured with a soft sigh, her voice tinged with a helpless indulgence. “Alright, I wasn’t expecting an answer. You don’t have to figure it all out right now.”
Yue Du cautiously watched her expression. Qi Jiu smiled, relaxing her grip and ruffling her system’s hair instead. “I’m serious.”
It took a moment for Yue Du to process it. When she did, her first instinct was to shake off Qi Jiu’s hand, but she ultimately remained still.
“I thought you would press the issue…” she muttered, almost to herself.
“Do you want me to press the issue? If that’s what you want, then—”
“No, I was joking. Just give me some time to process,” Yue Du replied instantly.
Qi Jiu shrugged.
If she were to follow her heart, Qi Jiu would have absolutely pressed the issue.
To hold her, to press her for an answer, to coax her softly or command her firmly, to make her fall for her, to make her obsessed, and then to reap the rewards with satisfaction.
The “boiling a frog in warm water” approach was too slow, and it risked steering their relationship permanently into the “best friends” zone.
But taking her by force was too crude, completely unsuited for someone as independent and strong-willed as Yue Du. That would most likely end in complete failure.
The way things were progressing was already quite good. If she kept at it, she would eventually get what she wanted. Besides, it wasn’t like Yue Du could leave, right?
Take it slow, she told herself.
Take it slow.
Yue Du lay on one side of the large, soft bed, staring at the ceiling with a complicated mix of emotions.
It was the middle of the night. Qi Jiu lay on the other side of the bed, her breathing even and steady.
They were each under their own down comforter, and thanks to the exceptionally large bed, there was a full meter of space between them. A soft pillow lay like a barrier in the middle, creating a clear dividing line.
Before, Yue Du wouldn’t have thought twice about it. She might have even fallen asleep hugging Qi Jiu, only to meet her again in her mental space to pass the time.
But not anymore.
Yue Du didn’t consider herself so magnanimous that she could be completely intimate with the woman who had confessed to her just moments before.
That was why she had taken these precautions and had also declined her host’s invitation to meet in the mental space that night.
Qi Jiu hadn’t pushed it, merely sighing with regret before going to sleep.
Barring any surprises, this would be how they interacted from now on… at least until Yue Du could sort out her feelings.
Yue Du frowned, closing her eyes in frustration.
She needed to sort out her thoughts.
Her feelings for Qi Jiu were, without a doubt, complicated.
There was the friendship born from three years together, an unconscious reliance on the only person who knew she existed, an instinctual respect and wariness for an unrivaled powerhouse, and the helpless indulgence one might feel for a child in need of care…
Were there feelings approaching ‘like’? The kind of ‘like’ between lovers?
If she were to scrutinize it, the answer was yes.
From their very first meeting, seeing Qi Jiu’s stunningly beautiful and peerless face, she had been struck with awe. She had thought at the time that this was a face that could turn someone gay.
It was really just an attraction to her beauty, the most superficial kind of liking, and it had been diminished quite a bit by the fact that they were both women.
Besides that, was there anything else?
When Qi Jiu leaned in with that lazy smile, when she whispered in her ear, had she truly felt nothing out of the ordinary—
Yue Du subconsciously clenched her fists, suddenly unwilling to think about it any further.
I’ll just put it off a little longer, she thought.
There’s no rush. If I think about it more, I’ll eventually figure it out.
After that, by tacit agreement, neither of them brought the matter up again.
Yue Du, however, subtly and naturally created some distance, retreating to the safe zone of “friends.”
However, to prevent her from deluding herself into pretending nothing had happened, Qi Jiu would occasionally fix her with a look full of suggestive meaning.
Yue Du: “…” Sigh.
What else could she do? She could only continue to feign ignorance. She was a strong, little deaf-and-blind System!
The Xing Qingcang incident had a follow-up. Although his memories had been erased, Professor Xing still retained some vague, lingering impressions.
Things like: Student Qi Jiu is an esper with a story… perhaps she has a very close friend… I could ask how she’s doing.
He was the protagonist, after all, and possessed a Brain Domain Expansion ability. It was only natural that he’d be a little different.
He sent Qi Jiu a message, asking if she had any plans to come to the S City Military Region.
Qi Jiu replied with zero sincerity: “I’ll think about it.”
The three essential human traits: eating your words, ghosting, and repeating what others say. Although Qi Jiu wasn’t human, she was an expert at ghosting, so she never replied to Professor Xing again.
When he sent more messages, she just pretended she hadn’t seen them.
Aside from that, the “Subdue Mutated Creatures” mission issued by the Main System had also been completed.
Just as she had with the Chaos Faction, Qi Jiu couldn’t be bothered with any follow-up arrangements or coordination. As long as the mutated creatures submitted and allowed her to complete the mission, she ignored everything that came after.
However, that didn’t mean her actions had no lasting effects.
The Chaos Faction: They now operated under the assumption that there was an unrivaled boss out there. They didn’t dare cause any more trouble that might attract her attention and decided to keep a low profile.
The Mutated Creatures: Though they might not have seemed very bright, they were mutated, and their intelligence had increased. They now understood that there was a very powerful human out there. Submitting to the strong was an animal’s instinct, so now, whenever they saw a female human, they would turn tail and run.
For both groups, the moment they saw Qi Jiu again, any thought of resistance would be utterly extinguished.
After all, if you can live, who wants to die, right?
In a way, you could say her gains were quite substantial.
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