“It’s really me.”
The man’s voice came through once more, tinged with helplessness and a hint of relief.
He murmured to himself:
“All right, I know you can’t accept this all at once. I’ll give you proof. Let me think… Last time, didn’t you come to Binhai City for a visit? I gave you one of my supplementary cards and told you your trip expenses were on me.”
“At the time, you were at my villa. Now, you’re standing at my gravestone. Only you and I know about this—doesn’t that count as proof?”
As soon as the words fell, the girl on the other end of the call let out a groundhog-like screech.
Xu Yinsheng heard the noise and hurriedly moved the phone further from his ear.
“Cousin, you’re not dead?!”
“Don’t say dead, how unlucky.”
Xu Yinsheng rolled her eyes.
She snapped off a branch, crouched down, and began scribbling in the snow within the grove.
“Your cousin is currently in Hawaii hosting an open-air swimsuit party—champagne, fine wine, and high-quality beauties everywhere, one in each arm. Life is great.”
“I’m telling you, foreign exchange students really do have hot figures. One of them even fed me dumplings by hand. Isn’t today the Winter Solstice on the Huayuan Federation calendar?”
“Smack smack~ Foreign dumplings really can’t compare to ours. No wonder foreigners always say the moon over the Huayuan Federation is the roundest.”
Listening to Xu Yinsheng’s carefree, almost celestial tone, Jiang Shimo found herself believing him a bit.
She paced back and forth, recalling that funeral, and asked curiously.
“So what about that funeral before?”
“Faked my death. I had to do something, and I couldn’t get away without ‘dying’ at least once. You know how it is. Some things I can’t spell out. With our family background, if the truth got out, the negative social impact would be massive and hard to contain.”
“Cousin, you’re not…?”
“Ahem, it’s more or less what you’re thinking.”
“Hiss! Cousin, you actually did that sort of thing? How scummy!”
Xu Yinsheng’s face was lined with black marks.
Cousin, what exactly are you imagining?
She opened her mouth to explain, but in the end, she let it go.
Let her imagine what she wants; it saves her the trouble of having to explain.
“I was just saying, how could Uncle and Aunt be so heartless as to not attend your funeral? Turns out it was all part of your plan from the beginning. You scared me to death—I really thought you died in that fire.”
Jiang Shimo spoke without much thought, but Xu Yinsheng’s own heart was suddenly struck as if by something heavy, almost making it impossible to breathe.
“By the way, Cousin, why did you call this time? To let me know you’re alive?”
After learning that Xu Yinsheng wasn’t dead, Jiang Shimo’s mood was obviously much better.
On the other end, in the snowy grove.
The girl crouched in the snow rubbed her eyes, which were a little red, her nose twitching slightly.
She pressed a small hand to her chest, her heart a swirl of emotions.
“Nothing major.”
“Just letting you know, you need to call off that third-rate detective you hired. Stop messing around.”
Xu Yinsheng’s tone was bland, as if it had nothing to do with her, but under the surface, a storm was raging.
“Huh?”
Jiang Shimo scratched her head.
“Cousin, how did you know? Aren’t you abroad?”
“I am abroad, but my good brother is still in the country. You sent a detective to his company—do you think this is child’s play?”
She sneered, “That detective you hired is totally amateur. He’s already been found out. If not for my sake, he’d have been cemented and dumped in the river by now.”
“Take my advice.”
“Withdraw him immediately. My brother can’t tell you these things, so I’ll be straight with you!”
“Oh, right, Cousin, let me tell you—your good brother had your cousin-in-law pinned to that gravestone…”
“Knew it already, he sent me the video.”
She recognized every character, but put together she couldn’t make sense of a word!
“Just pouring liquor, that’s all~”
Xu Yinsheng acted unconcerned, her tone was laced with contempt.
“As the saying goes: Brothers are like arms and legs, wives are like clothes. What’s the big deal about changing your clothes?”
Jiang Shilai was rendered speechless.
Although her mother had always said Xu Yinsheng was neither a good person nor a bad one—just wild.
But her first impression of Xu Yinsheng was that she was popular, rich, and beautiful—maxing out the first impression bar!
Even after hearing Xu Yinsheng supposedly died in a fire, her memory was frozen at the most beautiful moment, like a white moonlight that had passed away.
But now…
As Xu Yinsheng revealed her true self to Jiang Shimo, Jiang Shimo finally realized…
Her cousin really wasn’t as good as she had imagined, maybe even downright scummy and wild—the kind that seemed bound to crash and burn one day.
She hesitated for a moment, then tried to persuade: “Cousin, you really should rein it in a little. I just feel like you’re digging your own grave with all this.”
“You’re spouting nothing but idioms, planning to take the graduate exams?”
Xu Yinsheng couldn’t help but retort.
“Anyway, I’m off to eat dumplings with the twin flowers.”
Beep beep beep!
The call ended.
Jiang Shimo stared at her phone, frowning at being hung up on by her cousin.
Her cousin…seemed…really not a good person.
On the other side, in the snowy grove.
The call ended. Xu Yinsheng rubbed her throat and deactivated the voice changer.
She shoved the phone in her pocket and turned to stride away—the goal was accomplished, and the rest was up to Jiang Shimo.
Good words can’t persuade someone determined to court death.
Hopefully she’ll be smart about it.
But as soon as she turned, she ran smack into a warm wall of flesh.
Rubbing her nose, Xu Yinsheng looked up, only to meet a pair of deep, dark eyes.
At some point, Zhao Yicheng had silently appeared behind her, watching her with interest, his thin lips curved in a smile that was not quite a smile.
His face was so close their foreheads could almost touch, his breath fanning over her cheeks, making Xu Yinsheng feel like she was sitting on pins and needles.
There was a hint of silver light above his brow.
He was holding the hand of another “Xu Yinsheng”—dressed as a secretary, looking identical to her in every way, except with a silver mark on her forehead.
Secretary Xu Yinsheng’s eyes were vacant, lifeless, simply holding the man’s hand in a daze, completely without self-awareness, like a lamb to the slaughter.
“You you you…”
Xu Yinsheng jumped in fright, hurriedly stepping back, her voice trembling.
Earlier, Xu Yinsheng had split herself in the restroom, creating the Secretary Xu Yinsheng to play two roles—one searching for Jiang Shimo, the other accompanying Zhao Yicheng at the meeting.
But somehow, Zhao Yicheng had used the Control Panel, not only cutting off the connection between Xu Yinsheng and her double, but also forging meeting updates, then bringing people over for a surprise attack.
No matter how many functions her magical puppet body might have, in front of the Control Panel, it was like a child meeting its father—time to kneel!
From Xu Yinsheng’s perspective, that silver dot on Secretary Xu Yinsheng’s forehead was clearly a part of the Control Panel.
“Looks like you’ve really been quite free lately.”
The man narrowed his eyes, his tone edged with danger.
“Xu Yinsheng, just how many times is this now, hiding things from me?”
“Are you trying to test my limits?”
With each word, his voice grew colder, and he stepped closer.
Xu Yinsheng could only retreat step by step…until she was cornered, with nowhere left to run…
At last, her back hit the cold trunk of a tree—no escape.
Zhao Yicheng loomed over her, his eyes bursting with a frightening light, as if he might devour her whole…