Jiang Lai had assumed that today’s events would end in nothing but pain, but the twisted fetish Si Yina displayed caused the volatile atmosphere to suddenly turn cold.
Jiang Lai no longer felt the urge to vent her anger; her only desire now was to get as far away from Si Yina as possible. A massive wave of fear drove her; she didn’t want to spend another second by Si Yina’s side.
Straightening her clothes, Jiang Lai began looking around for the way back.
Seeing Jiang Lai glancing about, Si Yina took the initiative to grab her hand. “You want to go back now? I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with that girl we just saw, but I doubt you want the image of your current state to be spread around.”
“It’s a bit too late to say that now.”
If Si Yina hadn’t been making a mess of things earlier, Jiang Lai’s tightly wrapped clothes wouldn’t have come undone, and those filthy marks on her body would never have been seen by Shen Ruxue.
Jiang Lai wasn’t finished with this grievance yet. How did Si Yina have the face to even bring it up? Seeing Si Yina’s “none of my business” attitude, Jiang Lai turned her head away with difficulty.
In her heart, Jiang Lai was truly afraid of seeing that face. She had the urge to strike her, but she worried that the moment she reached out, Si Yina would find another way to disgust her like she did before. In the end, Jiang Lai could only turn away and try her best not to look at Si Yina, as that was the only way to keep her fury in check.
Compared to Jiang Lai’s evasive gaze, Si Yina’s look could only be described as greedy—she was one step away from cupping Jiang Lai’s face in her hands.
The moonlight shone from across the sea, casting shadows across Jiang Lai’s face beneath her black hair, making her features appear even more delicate. Her eyes were rimmed with red from crying, and her red lips were slightly parted in anger. She was clearly a person with zero threat, yet she had been so fierce just moments ago—it was truly intriguing.
“I don’t think it’s late at all. If you don’t want too many people knowing about your current state, I can go ‘warn’ her a little. I’m sure she’ll keep her mouth shut.”
“Why is your way of solving things always so extreme…?”
Jiang Lai couldn’t understand Si Yina’s logic at all. Couldn’t there be a gentler way? No matter how much Jiang Lai cared about this situation, she would never escalate it to the level of threats or warnings.
“But it’s the fastest way.”
Si Yina preferred such crude and simple methods simply because they were efficient. She didn’t want to think about complications or invest too much energy into it; this “efficiency-first” mindset had long since become her default.
It was this very sense of entitlement that made Jiang Lai loathe her from the bottom of her heart, because it felt as if Si Yina had never respected another human being in her life. Finally, unwilling to waste any more energy on her, Jiang Lai left the beach without looking back, refusing to stay near Si Yina a moment longer.
In a hotel room elsewhere on the resort island, Chi Yingyu hadn’t slept long, even with the help of sleep aids. After lying in bed for a few hours, she woke up in agony.
Chi Yingyu felt that those few hours of deep sleep were worse than no sleep at all. Due to the fatigue of the past two days, her entire body was wracked with pain; as she stepped off the bed, every muscle ached. In this condition, how was she supposed to go out and search for her brother-in-law?
Having just woken up, Chi Yingyu walked into the living room and found a note left by her sister, along with some simple food on the table.
[Xiaoyu, if you’re hungry, I’ve prepared some sandwiches on the table. Eat slowly and don’t rush.
I hope that after you wake up, you can stay in the room and rest. Don’t go out again; seeing you like this breaks my heart.
I will help you look for him. If I can’t find him today, I’ll call in more people tomorrow. Please trust me on this. Wait for me to come back.]
Looking at the note, Chi Yingyu knew in her heart that her aimless wandering around the resort was like looking for a needle in a haystack—it was useless. The only effect it had was giving her a tiny bit of peace of mind.
But she couldn’t stop. If she stopped, her heart would wander, and she would feel more and more useless. Her brother-in-law had protected her for so long, yet now she couldn’t even find a trace of him.
Chi Yingyu picked up the sandwich her sister had made. Her sister was exactly the same as always. So many years had passed and everyone had changed immensely, yet the impression her sister gave her remained unchanged from the past.
Chi Yingyu pursed her lips tightly. At this moment, no one knew what she was thinking.
Shen Ruxue returned to the room fuming with rage. Recalling that “shameless couple” on the way back, she got angrier the more she thought about it. She felt from the bottom of her heart that everything her sister was sacrificing right now simply wasn’t worth it.
When she reached the door, she tried her best to calm her anger, knowing she had to face her sister. She swiped the keycard and walked in, only to see her sister curled up in a ball on the sofa.
“Xiaoyu…”
Shen Ruxue closed the door and called out softly. Seeing no reaction, she walked straight over. Seeing the untouched sandwiches on the coffee table and then her sister asleep on the sofa, a wave of bitterness washed over her.
Frowning painfully, she eventually chose to gently take Chi Yingyu’s wrist, intending to pull her into her arms. You should sleep in a bed! Although the weather wasn’t cold, wearing thin clothes in the chilly living room made it easy to get sick.
The moment Shen Ruxue touched her, Chi Yingyu opened her eyes. Gazing at her sister, she asked in a low, raspy voice, “Sister, you’re back. Did you find anything?”
Seeing how much her sister cared, Shen Ruxue would have normally felt that “a grown girl’s heart belongs elsewhere,” but thinking of the scene she had just witnessed, she couldn’t help but feel that her sister was a bit of a “love-brain” (hopeless romantic)…
Looking at her sister’s extreme worry, Shen Ruxue silently turned her face away and bit her lip. After her thoughts raced for a moment, she slowly asked, “Do you really want to hear it now?”
“There’s news?!”
Chi Yingyu’s lifeless eyes suddenly lit up. In an instant, she tightly gripped Shen Ruxue’s hand.