Shen Ruxue watched Jiang Lai’s hand tremble as she held the kitchen knife.
The gleaming blade made her heart skip a beat.
Unable to watch any longer, she rushed into the kitchen, grabbed Jiang Lai’s wrist, and looked at her with concern.
“You need to pay attention when you’re cooking. You almost cut your hand just now, do you realize that?”
Shen Ruxue held Jiang Lai’s wrist tightly.
The steady pulse beneath her fingers was so warm it made the tips of her ears turn red.
“Leave the knife work to me from now on.”
Shen Ruxue was absolutely unwilling to let Jiang Lai touch anything dangerous ever again.
If she could help it, she didn’t want her Jiang Lai to suffer even the slightest bit of harm, not even in a small matter like cooking.
Furthermore, she was dressed so thinly.
Shen Ruxue’s gaze swept over Jiang Lai’s body — she was wearing only a flimsy nightdress paired with a standard kitchen apron.
Although the white skin was mostly covered by the fabric, her slender neck and the partially exposed, alluring collarbone and arms still made it impossible to look away.
This wasn’t just cooking; it was as if she were offering herself up as a dish.
Over the past several decades, the only person Shen Ruxue had ever loved was Jiang Lai.
Because Jiang Lai had been a man in the past, she had naturally assumed she was heterosexual.
And it had been true.
Whether in this life or the last, Shen Ruxue had seen countless beautiful women.
However, she had never felt anything for them; she would simply think they were pretty without ever having any further thoughts.
But this time was different.
Looking at her husband’s appearance after the transformation into a woman, Shen Ruxue couldn’t help but start to appreciate her.
Looking at those nearly perfect feminine lines, she found herself becoming unintentionally captivated, and a sliver of greedy desire began to stir in the depths of her heart.
Jiang Lai looked at Shen Ruxue, who was gripping her wrist tightly, and realized just how dangerous her trembling hand had been with the knife.
She didn’t resist and allowed Shen Ruxue to take over.
Shen Ruxue’s movements as she took the knife were gentler than expected.
After taking over the work Jiang Lai had started, she set the knife down and washed her hands.
“Be careful, your hand hasn’t fully healed yet.”
“It’s fine, it’s just a superficial wound. You’re the one who needs to focus. Don’t let the oil splatter when you fry the eggs later.”
“I won’t.”
The two of them each took on their respective tasks and became busy in the kitchen.
For some reason, while they were cooking, Jiang Lai felt as though the scene before her was somewhat familiar, as if she had experienced it somewhere before.
Thinking of this, Jiang Lai turned her gaze toward Shen Ruxue.
Watching the other woman’s skilled knife work, she realized the source of this familiarity — in her dream last night, she had dreamt of a scene where she was cooking in the kitchen with her ‘wife.’
Recalling her past wife, Jiang Lai tried her best to suppress the turmoil in her heart and focus on the breakfast in front of her.
However, her gaze kept involuntarily drifting toward Shen Ruxue.
Perhaps because the reality was too similar to the images in her dream, Jiang Lai felt this scene was exceptionally familiar.
In other words, it felt like this wasn’t the first time they had cooked together.
As they cooked, the coordination between the two was perfectly seamless.
Jiang Lai only had to turn her body slightly for Shen Ruxue to seemingly read her mind, handing her whatever she needed.
Jiang Lai looked at the various ingredients neatly arranged on the plates.
For some reason, she felt that Shen Ruxue’s knife skills were very familiar.
But as soon as that thought emerged, she forcibly suppressed it.
Because such a thought was wrong.
She absolutely could not treat the person in front of her as a substitute.
At the thought of a ‘substitute,’ Jiang Lai’s mind drifted to her sister-in-law, who was still sleeping in her room.
She knew she shouldn’t project shadows of the past onto the people in front of her.
Yet, sometimes, her subconscious reactions were difficult to control.
Before it had been toward her sister-in-law, and now it had even extended to her daughter’s best friend.
Jiang Lai felt that such thoughts should not exist.
The breakfast preparation continued in silence, broken only by the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board and the sizzling of hot oil.
Even though she deliberately tried to ignore everything from her dream, the understanding between them seemed to require no words or practice; every movement was natural and fluid.
The more she noticed this chemistry, the more uneasy Jiang Lai became.
She had always believed she had completely let go of everything from the past.
But when she truly took the step toward change, the memories of the past came flooding back like a tide.
She began to doubt whether she had truly moved on, and whether she could wholeheartedly commit to the people currently by her side.
If she truly accepted her sister-in-law’s feelings in the future, would she be able to treat the girl properly?
Just as Jiang Lai’s thoughts were becoming increasingly chaotic because of these memories, Chi Yingyu walked out of the bedroom.
She rubbed her eyes and saw her brother-in-law busy in the kitchen with her sister.
Watching the two figures working so harmoniously in the kitchen, a surge of jealousy rose in Chi Yingyu’s heart.
her gaze moved back and forth between the two, trying to judge from the details exactly what had just happened.
She walked over to Shen Ruxue’s side and looked at her sister, her tone carrying a hint of intimacy but also a trace of hostility.
“Ruxue, you’re a guest. How could we let you help out in the kitchen? Let me do it.”
Chi Yingyu reached out her hand, clearly unwilling to let her sister and brother-in-law spend time alone.
Her goal was simple.
Shen Ruxue looked at her younger sister who was asking for the knife.
Her body stiffened slightly before she relaxed, turning to give a gentle smile.
“It’s fine, we’re almost finished.”
She was unwilling to give up this rare moment of solitude.
Having finally regained a bit of the feeling from the past, she only hoped her younger sister could forgive her for this bit of ‘selfishness.’
Shen Ruxue’s tone was gentle, but a flash of fluster flickered in her eyes when she looked at Chi Yingyu.
Looking at her sister who clearly refused to back down, Chi Yingyu understood — her sister likely couldn’t help herself anymore and was desperate to spend time with their brother-in-law.
At that thought, her jealousy as a younger sister grew even stronger.
But she didn’t say anything else.
She simply stood silently to the side, her gaze fixed on the interactions between her sister and her brother-in-law.
It had been a long time since Chi Yingyu had looked at her brother-in-law from the perspective of a ‘third party.’