“Dad, you two can live together just fine, so why can’t I live with you both?”
The girl sitting across the table immediately looked pitiful, skillfully putting on a face as if she had been unfairly disliked.
Jiang Leyi knew very well that her father was especially soft-hearted and wouldn’t stand being firm.
As long as she put on a pitiful look, even if her requests were a bit troublesome, Dad would do his best to fulfill them.
Unknowingly, Jiang Lai was being lured into a trap set up by the two women beside her, specifically prepared for her.
Even Jiang Lai herself, without realizing it, had been hypnotized into walking right into this trap, unable to extricate herself.
Jiang Lai knew she could no longer argue with her daughter or dispel this idea from her mind by herself.
Right now, she desperately needed an ally standing firmly by her side.
With a look of subtle pleading, Jiang Lai glanced at her sister-in-law, who was holding her hand tightly.
Just moments ago, when her hand was being gripped firmly, Jiang Lai had tried to struggle a bit.
But after realizing she couldn’t slip free with small movements, she gave up.
They were still at the dinner table, and making a big scene would surely catch her daughter’s attention.
Chi Yingyu must have been well aware of this psychology, which was why she held her hand so tightly at this moment.
Jiang Lai felt her hand being gently kneaded by Chi Yingyu over and over.
Was her hand some kind of toy? It was continuously stroked by her sister-in-law with careful tenderness.
However, as long as her sister-in-law could read the unspoken message in her eyes, Jiang Lai thought she could forgive the hand-holding altogether.
So Jiang Lai sent a desperate signal through her gaze, and Chi Yingyu immediately displayed a look of understanding.
Seeing the confident expression on her sister-in-law’s face as she looked back at her, Jiang Lai finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed that after more than ten years of growing up together, the two of them had reached a point where they could guess each other’s thoughts without words.
With that in mind, Jiang Lai relaxed, while Chi Yingyu, under the watchful gaze of her brother-in-law, looked across the table at Jiang Leyi, who wore an expectant expression.
Jiang Lai could feel her sister-in-law’s grip tighten a little, but her own thoughts were elsewhere — constantly turning over how to comfort her daughter next.
Yet, in the end, Chi Yingyu merely exchanged a glance with her daughter before turning her body slightly and leaning in closer to Jiang Lai.
The two women locked eyes so tightly that Jiang Lai suddenly felt an ominous premonition.
Chi Yingyu’s voice, soft and carrying a hint of grievance just like her daughter’s, whispered near Jiang Lai’s ear, “Brother-in-law, can I go back to live there?”
Originally, Jiang Lai had hoped her sister-in-law would help her gently reject her daughter’s proposal.
But unexpectedly, the question was tossed back to her instead.
The two most important women in her life both looked at her with pitiful eyes — how could Jiang Lai possibly refuse them…
Today, she was definitely being played.
That night, Jiang Lai, sleeping on the sofa, wrapped the soft, fluffy quilt tighter around herself and kept replaying the dinner scene over and over in her mind.
After careful review, Jiang Lai was certain her sister-in-law and daughter had conspired together.
She should never have looked at her daughter’s pitiful gaze in the first place.
If she hadn’t softened and refused outright, none of this would have happened.
Was she going to live with her sister-in-law again?
But could the three of them’s lives ever return to how they were before?
She had to remember that her sister-in-law had confessed to her before.
Although they hadn’t brought it up recently, as if they had completely forgotten about it, that incident still felt like a thorn stuck deep in Jiang Lai’s heart.
Every time she saw Chi Yingyu, those thoughts inevitably surfaced.
At this moment, Jiang Lai felt certain she could no longer be with her sister-in-law as before — at least, she couldn’t return to how things used to be now.
The whole situation troubled Jiang Lai deeply, keeping her awake until dawn with no trace of sleep.
Perhaps that was also because the sofa was uncomfortable.
Even though Jiang Lai was now a woman experiencing a physiological cycle she’d never known before, some things remained unchanged — not allowing even the slightest negligence.
Her sister-in-law and daughter were sleeping together in the bedroom.
Although the bed could fit all three if they squeezed, with her daughter there, it wasn’t the same as if it was just her sister-in-law.
Two people could still lie down together…
As Jiang Lai’s thoughts abruptly stopped there, she wondered — when exactly had lying on the same bed with her sister-in-law become something she could accept?
Jiang Lai thought she must be crazy.
This was definitely something unacceptable!
She just wanted to wash the strange thoughts out of her head quickly.
It was late at night, and she needed to sleep, or else these wild imaginings would lead to even scarier ideas.
As Jiang Lai counted sheep in her mind, hoping to lull herself to sleep, the sound of the bedroom door opening shattered the few fleeting moments of drowsiness she had.
Hearing the door open, Jiang Lai instinctively wanted to know who it was — whether someone had gotten up to use the bathroom or was here for some other reason.
Jiang Lai planned to pretend she was asleep, hoping whoever came out of the bedroom wouldn’t notice her.
But footsteps approached from the bedroom, slowly moving closer until they passed right by her ear and faded away.
“Brother-in-law, I’m really sorry about today… I know you saw the look I gave you just now — you wanted me to help refuse Leyi’s proposal, but I let you down.”
“After all, living under the same roof with you, how could I possibly say no? These past two years since I came out, except for the recent time I stayed with you, every time I come home to the apartment all alone, my nose gets all sour, and I miss us being together so much.”
Chi Yingyu’s voice was unbearably soft and tender.
Just hearing it, Jiang Lai’s earlier irritation completely vanished.
If she weren’t pretending to be asleep, she would have wanted to hug her poor sister-in-law tightly.
While Jiang Lai was still silently feeling sorry for Chi Yingyu’s difficult two years living alone, Chi Yingyu gently took her hand and placed it on a spot warm and smooth, where Jiang Lai could feel a pounding heartbeat.
“Brother-in-law, can you hear how fast my heart is beating…”
Jiang Lai sensed the touch in her hand, but something felt off — she didn’t feel any fabric between their skin.
This skin-to-skin contact was like an electric current sending tingles through Jiang Lai’s mind.
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