Chapter 53: Zhu Yiqiao is… One Raccoon Hill?
After getting drunk, Ming Fei’s brain processed information slowly.
Hearing Zhu Yiqiao’s confession, she first made a questioning sound, then stared intently at Zhu Yiqiao’s face, as if trying to find some clues.
She even cupped Zhu Yiqiao’s face in her hands, looking at it from all angles like a rare treasure, before finally asking in confusion,
“Are you saying you’re Kitten?”
Zhu Yiqiao indulged her: “Kitten?”
“Yes.” Ming Fei released her hands, rubbed her eyes, and said, “Kitten is Kitten.”
“Didn’t you call her Jiejie?”
Ming Fei corrected her, “She didn’t ask me to call her Jiejie. Kitten is the nickname I gave her. One Raccoon Hill is full of pear trees, and it’s the raccoon cats that guard those pear trees and other divine trees. In my opinion, she’s that smart and cute Kitten.”
Zhu Yiqiao didn’t speak.
Cute?
Kitten?
No one had ever used these words to describe her.
Moonlight streamed in, illuminating the right side of the sofa. Compared to her usual quiet demeanor, the drunk Ming Fei was like a curious question mark. After a moment of silence, she started muttering again.
“You have to give me some proof before I can believe you.”
Zhu Yiqiao: “I can tell you your nicknames on ‘Supporters of the Rose.’ Doesn’t that count as proof?”
Ming Fei was lost in a maze again.
This maze was created for her, because of her, and she couldn’t find the exit no matter how she wandered, finally turning to Kitten for help.
She blinked: “It seems… that’s true.”
Although drunk, she still asked the most important question of all these years the moment she learned the other person’s identity.
“Okay, you’re Kitten.”
“I want to know, back then…”
She hesitated, and Zhu Yiqiao finished the second half of her sentence.
“Why did you suddenly disappear back then?”
Ming Fei shook her head: “That’s not it. Compared to that question, I want to know even more, did you consider me a friend back then?”
Worried that Kitten would find it strange, Ming Fei lowered her voice and said, “Because before coming to the Independent State of Yi Meng, you were my only friend.”
“Yes.”
Zhu Yiqiao said, “A friend, a very special friend.”
Just as she finished speaking—
Ming Fei hugged her tightly.
At this moment, they weren’t just Zhu Yiqiao and Ming Fei, but also One Raccoon Hill and Tree of Mystical Jade, old friends reunited after nearly thirteen years.
She used the hug to express her happiness and longing, and also to tell Zhu Yiqiao that, to her, One Raccoon Hill was also a very special, unique friend.
Neither of them spoke. Zhu Yiqiao let Ming Fei hug her, not resisting at all from the moment they got close. Because they were so close, she could even smell the faint pear scent on Ming Fei.
Her gaze moved downwards, stopping at Ming Fei’s right wrist.
“How did you get this scar?”
Ming Fei loosened her embrace slightly and looked at her right wrist. The scar below the webbing between her thumb and index finger had once hurt so much that her eyes had reddened. Now, it had become a scar, a reminder of that terrible experience.
She lowered her sleeve to cover it and said, without any sadness,
“It was a cut.”
Zhu Yiqiao pursed her lips slightly: “When did it happen?”
Ming Fei hesitated: “Do you really want to know?”
“Would you keep secrets from Kitten?”
Hearing this, Ming Fei quickly shook her head, her metaphorical rabbit ears almost flapping off.
“When I was nine.”
Ming Fei looked at her: “I was adopted three times. I met my second adoptive parent when I was nine. She was very good to me at first, but then many things happened. She was ill, it wasn’t intentional.”
Not intentional?
This explanation was hardly convincing. Zhu Yiqiao, with her years of military experience, could tell at a glance that the wound had been very deep. A little deeper, and it would have directly severed an artery, causing dangerous bleeding.
Ming Fei didn’t want to talk about it, so Zhu Yiqiao didn’t ask any further questions, just removed her white glove and gently touched the scar with her fingertip, a dark emotion swirling in her eyes.
The old scar itched, and Ming Fei, like a kitten being soothed and petted, felt her eyelids getting heavy.
She was drowsy, even forgetting to ask the reason for One Raccoon Hill’s sudden disappearance, or perhaps, after receiving the most important answer, the answer to that question no longer mattered.
Realizing she was getting sleepier and sleepier, Ming Fei suddenly leaned forward, pressing her right cheek against Zhu Yiqiao’s left cheek, almost touching Zhu Yiqiao’s lips.
“Thank you, Kitten.”
Zhu Yiqiao was stunned for a moment.
After the cheek-to-cheek nuzzle ended, Ming Fei smiled brightly: “Cats lick each other’s fur and wounds, but I’m not a kitten, so I’ll use a cheek kiss as a return gift.”
This was very different from a formal cheek kiss, but the very drunk Ming Fei said it with such confidence, as if she would droop her ears if Zhu Yiqiao refuted her.
And Chief Judge Zhu, usually stern and strict, didn’t correct, reprimand, or push her away, just gently stroked Ming Fei’s scar and asked,
“Are you sleepy?”
“Mm-hmm!”
Ming Fei’s consciousness gradually blurred: “I’m going to sleep, Kitten, don’t go away.”
Two minutes later, snow covered the mountains.
Ming Fei, slowly closing her eyes and falling asleep, still held onto Zhu Yiqiao.
This was the first time Ming Fei experienced a splitting headache after getting drunk.
Before this, she had never touched alcohol, let alone known how she would react when drunk. After waking up in the warm bed, Ming Fei slowly sat up, looking at the hazy snow scene outside the window in a daze.
Wasn’t she watching an adventure movie in the living room?
Who brought her back to the master bedroom?
And… why did her head hurt so much?
The confused Ming Fei looked away and almost lost her balance when she got out of bed. She felt weak, and strange fragments kept flashing through her mind.
It wasn’t the movie she watched last night.
It was more like something that had actually happened before she went to bed.
She picked up her phone from the sofa and, as soon as she turned it on, received multiple messages from Ming Zaozao.
There were emojis, voice messages, and many voice-to-text messages.
[Mommy, Baby ate cake!]
[[Little panda clutching its heart.gif]]
[Baby saw many magical animals~]
…
Ming Fei read every message and replied to each one, reminding Ming Zaozao to wear a hat and scarf outside at the end.
Putting down her phone, Ming Fei started washing up in a daze. The mirror reflected her current appearance, and Ming Fei inexplicably felt that she seemed to have cried last night.
Cried?
Why… would she cry?
Ming Fei became more and more puzzled, planning to ask 008 or 0619 for clarification. Soon, after changing her clothes and leaving the master bedroom, the moment she stepped out of the room, the blurry memory fragments gradually surged and pieced together the complete truth.
—Jiejie, I really didn’t secretly drink alcohol.
—Will you remember this when you’re sober?
—Because I am her. One Raccoon Hill, it’s me.
…
—Kitten, don’t go.
All the images became incredibly clear, and Ming Fei was struck dumb, frozen in place, as if she had been turned into a malfunctioning, outdated robot by a lightning strike.
Zhu Yiqiao was… One Raccoon Hill?
One Raccoon Hill was… Zhu Yiqiao?
Before Ming Fei could react, Zhu Yiqiao, coming upstairs from the first floor, approached her, 0619 on the right carrying a tray with hangover soup.
0619 said, “Good morning, Teacher Xiao Fei.”
Ming Fei’s voice was a little hoarse: “…Morning.”
The atmosphere was silent and strange. Zhu Yiqiao’s expression was as usual, asking directly,
“Do you remember what happened last night?”
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