Although by the logic of “see the living or see the dead,” Su Ziyan was at most missing, his whereabouts unknown, both she and Su Xiaoyan had already prepared for the worst.
And if he truly had committed suicide…
Thinking about how he had resisted her closeness before, Xu Duyan already had a clear answer in her heart.
‘If he really killed himself, then it was she who had driven Su Ziyan to his death.’
‘She, this despicable, cowardly old woman, had personally driven her own younger brother to death.’
‘Driven her lover to death.’
‘She couldn’t possibly imagine that Su Ziyan was insecure; she could only think that he no longer loved her.’
Because love meant appreciating an imperfect person with perfect eyes.
That was how Su Ziyan used to see Xu Duyan, so in his eyes, the option of Xu Duyan rejecting his confession due to insecurity didn’t exist. Now, Xu Duyan treated Su Ziyan the same way.
So Xu Duyan could only think of that one possibility.
‘The moment she thought about such a possible outcome—that she had driven her lover to death—Xu Duyan felt like she was going crazy.’
But thankfully, a knock sounded at the door.
‘Is it Su Ziyan back?’
‘Su Ziyan is back.’
‘Su Ziyan is back!’
Hypnotized by this thought, Xu Duyan felt her steps lighten, as if the exhaustion from staying up all night had vanished in an instant.
‘He’s finally back. He didn’t kill himself.’
‘She must take good care of him, and never let him come so close to death again. From now on, no matter what, she would listen to Su Ziyan.’
‘Su Ziyan is finally back. He didn’t kill himself.’
‘She is his sister. She must protect her younger brother well.’
‘If he still insists on committing suicide no matter what, even if she has to tie him up or lock him up, she must stop him!’
Xu Duyan opened the door and saw a girl before her. All her joyful words got stuck in her throat.
“Ziyan, you’re back…”
In that instant, she felt her entire world darken. The lightness she had felt a moment ago was just an illusion; the exhaustion from a sleepless night pressed down on her stiff body, nearly making her faint. She stood in a daze for a long time before snapping back to reality at the other’s prompting.
“Hello, are you Xu Duyan?”
The girl’s voice woke her.
“Su Ziyan’s sister?”
Xu Duyan immediately came to her senses, about to ask if she had seen Su Ziyan somewhere, but she froze again.
Because she could clearly see the girl’s face.
This girl looked far too much like her.
No, rather than similar, it was as if they were identical twins.
The only difference was that compared to her more mature figure, this girl’s figure was far too “girlish.”
Like her when she was younger.
“I’m Cheng Qingyun, Su Ziyan’s ex-girlfriend.”
Surprise flickered in the girl’s eyes, as if she hadn’t expected Xu Duyan to look so haggard.
“Is Su Ziyan home? Please, I need to see him.”
“Hello, I’m Xu Duyan, Su Ziyan’s sister. Su Ziyan… he’s not home right now because of some things. If you don’t mind, you can come in and sit for a while.”
Xu Duyan had just realized her own rudeness and pulled herself together to invite the girl inside.
She didn’t know the story between Cheng Qingyun and Su Ziyan, so for a moment she couldn’t figure out why her brother’s ex-girlfriend had come looking for him.
‘After all, in the past, when she learned that Su Ziyan had a girlfriend, she almost hid under the blanket and cried day and night. How could she have had the courage to ask him about his girlfriend?’
‘Wouldn’t that be death by a thousand cuts on herself?’
She had no idea why this girl had shown up.
‘But the reason or not, it doesn’t matter now, right?’
After all, Su Ziyan’s life or death was unknown, and the outlook was grim…
Of course, Xu Duyan wasn’t a fool either.
After seeing Cheng Qingyun’s face, she had already thought of many possibilities.
But perhaps because her mind was too dull from staying up all night, or because she didn’t have the courage to think it through…
She didn’t dwell on the most likely possibility and simply invited Cheng Qingyun in.
‘Xu Duyan invited her in with a bit of wishful thinking. After all, she had been with Su Ziyan for four years. She probably knew a side of Su Ziyan that she didn’t. So maybe she had a way to contact him? Or at least she could provide more places where Su Ziyan might be.’
And so she sat down on the sofa with this former sister-in-law who looked at least 80% like her.
“You’re Su Ziyan’s sister? Su Ziyan always mentioned you, but he never showed me your photo. It’s better to meet once than hear a hundred times…”
Cheng Qingyun spoke first, her eyes carrying a hint of complexity as she looked at Xu Duyan.
“Now that I’ve actually met you, I understand why he never showed me your photo back then.”
Xu Duyan could naturally feel the obvious complexity in her expression.
After all, given her previous tendency to be a head-in-the-sand turtle in matters of the heart, she never took the initiative to ask Su Ziyan about his romantic experiences with Cheng Qingyun. She didn’t know much about Cheng Qingyun either.
She only knew that Cheng Qingyun was the same age as Su Ziyan, and according to him, she was a girl with a great personality who loved him deeply.
If Su Ziyan had been sitting here, he would have seen at a glance that all the complexity on Cheng Qingyun’s face was faked, deliberately intended to provoke…
No.
Su Ziyan wouldn’t see it now either.
Because he couldn’t see.
But to Xu Duyan, who didn’t know Cheng Qingyun, this girl was just a 20-year-old little girl; it was normal for her emotions to be written on her face.
So she could naturally read the reason behind her complexity.
A reason she didn’t want to face.
That Su Ziyan had probably used this innocent girl as a substitute for her.
‘In fact, the first time she saw the other girl’s face when she opened the door, Xu Duyan had already thought of this. If Su Ziyan really only treated Cheng Qingyun as her substitute, then it meant that all these years, he had actually loved her all along.’
‘He loved her so obsessively that he used a girl who looked like her as a substitute. This was something Xu Duyan found even harder to accept. Because if this was true, it meant that all these years, Su Ziyan had never stopped loving her. She hadn’t just driven her lover to death—she had driven a person who loved her to the bone to death…’
Thinking of this, Xu Duyan felt her heart ache.
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