Chapter 2

Bai Jin had known from the very beginning that Gu Nianxi hated her.

Bai Jin did not care.

Gu Nianxi had been far too sheltered. She was too naive, too innocent, and far too easy to read. Whoever she loved or hated was written plainly across her face, and she was so beautiful that even her anger seemed more like seasoning than anything remotely intimidating.
Bai Jin had been savoring that seasoning for a month.
Whenever Gu Nianxi looked at her, her gaze was always filled with unmistakable jealousy, fury, and hatred, along with a few nearly imperceptible traces of hurt and frustration. Every time that intensely palpable gaze fell upon Bai Jin, a secret thrill of pleasure would race up her spine, shooting through every nerve ending like an electric current and filling her with excitement.

But today, the flavor of that seasoning had changed.
It had gone from sharp and spicy to fragrant and sweet with a faint trace of astringency—sweeter and even more enticing.

The change made Bai Jin, who had grown accustomed to its former flavor, frown involuntarily.

Gu Nianxi had abandoned her here, only to reappear as her protector and even call her “Second Miss Gu”…
What new game was she playing?

Bai Jin lowered her head, rose to her feet, and wrapped the blanket around herself.
She had to admit that even though she knew Gu Nianxi was putting on an act, the protective gesture still pleased her.

The person who had poured the wine over her was utterly astonished. “Nianxi! Why bailiantales.com did you come back?”

Gu Nianxi frowned. “Who are you? Who gave you permission to address me so casually by name?”

The girl was rendered speechless. “I…”
Hadn’t they just met earlier? Besides, hadn’t Gu Nianxi been the one who told her to treat Bai Jin like this in front of everyone?

Gu Nianxi looked her up and down before finally retrieving the girl’s identity from a forgotten corner of her memory.
Yue Wenjing—one of her lackeys in her previous life. Her father’s company had business ties with the Gu Group, but the moment Gu Nianxi was expelled from the Gu family, Yue Wenjing had changed her attitude and immediately cut all contact with her.

Had she really used someone like this to bully Bai Jin in her previous life?
She had truly been unbelievably stupid.

Gu Nianxi was in a foul mood. She glared at Yue Wenjing, then at Bai Jin, who had been pretending to be mute this entire time, before grabbing Bai Jin’s hand. “All right, it’s getting late. You can all keep having fun. I’m taking my sister home. Remember this: her name is Gu Baijin, and she is my younger sister! She is not some illegitimate daughter.”

With that, she pulled Bai Jin past everyone and walked out. Her movements were far from gentle, and she tugged so abruptly that Bai Jin stumbled. Bai Jin quickly regained her balance, lowered her eyes, and obediently followed her out the door.

Once they had left the private room, Gu Nianxi released her.

She looked at the meek, submissive Bai Jin and thought that this woman was just [Read on BaiLianTales]as good at pretending as ever.

“Why didn’t you leave?” Gu Nianxi crossed her arms. “You could have escaped, couldn’t you? Or did you deliberately stay in there and wait for them to bully you so you could go home and act pitiful in front of Gu… in front of my parents?”
Only after the words left her mouth did Gu Nianxi realize that her tone was once again loaded with hostility.

Things had always been like this between her and Bai Jin. They had never gotten along, forever struggling and opposing each other—though, of course, the hostility had always been one-sided, with Gu Nianxi being the one unable to get along with Bai Jin.
It was precisely that antagonistic attitude that had ultimately led to her miserable end…

Now that she had been reborn, she should not repeat the same mistakes. It was time to change the way she spoke, Gu Nianxi thought.
Her relationship with Bai Jin should not be adversarial. Since she had already decided that they would eventually go their separate ways, she at least needed to coexist peacefully with Bai Jin for the next few years and break her habit of snapping at her.

She looked at Bai Jin. From what she knew of her, Bai Jin would first deny that she had done it deliberately, then assume a vulnerable posture and apologize.
Gu Nianxi was accustomed to Bai Jin apologizing to her. No matter what Bai Jin truly thought of her, she had always maintained at least an outward sense of propriety toward Gu Nianxi, even during the period when their relationship was at its worst and Gu Nianxi had fallen to her lowest point. No matter what Gu Nianxi did, Bai Jin would always lower her head and eyes before voluntarily taking all the blame upon herself.

“No…” Bai Jin said softly. “I was waiting for Sister to come back. I kept waiting for Sister… Thankfully, Sister came in the end.”
The wine-soaked ends of her hair still clung to her fair face. Her brows and eyes resembled the misty, dark outlines of distant mountains, cool and ethereal.
Paired with her soft voice, those features made her appear even more vulnerable. For a moment, Gu Nianxi imagined that she was looking at a large dog drenched by the rain, pitifully begging its owner for affection.

Her unexpected words sent goose bumps all over Gu Nianxi’s body.

In her previous life, Bai Jin had never spoken to her like this!
“I was waiting for you to come” would have been perfectly ordinary between sisters from any other family. But between Gu Nianxi and Bai Jin, who had never once spoken nicely to each other, it was as improbable as Mars crashing into Earth or a mule giving birth—the likelihood was infinitely close to zero.

“Are you acting spoiled with me?” Gu Nianxi blurted out without thinking.

Bai Jin looked into her wide, round eyes and felt amused.

As expected, Gu Nianxi had not realized that this was the first time she had ever held Bai Jin’s hand.
Usually, Gu Nianxi made no attempt to conceal her disgust. She avoided all physical contact with Bai Jin and did not even like remaining in the same space or breathing the same air as her.

Bai Jin did not know why she had suddenly changed today, but for now, she chose to interpret it as a signal from Gu Nianxi—a gesture of goodwill.
Perhaps that gesture concealed some malicious scheme, or perhaps it was merely Gu Nianxi’s reluctant compliance with Father and Mother Gu’s demands. Even so, Bai Jin felt that she ought to play along and give her that much face.

Besides, she had already tasted more than enough sweetness today.
The hand hanging by her side discreetly rubbed its fingertips together.

This was the hand that had just held Gu Nianxi’s, and the smooth, delicate sensation still lingered upon her fingertips. One touch was enough to tell that the owner of that hand had never performed hard labor. It was a hand raised in luxury—slender and soft, like a fine piece of mutton-fat jade, so pleasing to the touch that one could hardly bear to let go.
It felt almost exactly as Bai Jin had imagined.

In an excellent mood, she smiled. “Does Sister want me to act spoiled?”

Those eyes widened even further because of her words.
Was something this mild already enough to surprise her?
Bai Jin still had many things buried inside her heart that she had never said aloud. They were outrageously presumptuous words that Gu Nianxi would never be able to bear. If she ever heard them… her face would surely flush a red even lovelier than the evening clouds on the horizon. She would glare at Bai Jin in fury and curse her with that sharp little mouth of hers, her voice trembling ever so slightly.

“Who—who wants you to act spoiled? Are you sick in the head?!”

Yes, just like that. Her voice rose with the surge of her emotions, and the trembling note at the end was more beautiful than the loveliest music Bai Jin had ever heard.

Bai Jin pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, suppressing the impulse within her and the pleasure continually racing up her spine. She put on a wounded expression. “I’m sorry. I misspoke, Sister…”

Gu Nianxi took a deep breath.
She discovered that remaining calm in front of Bai Jin was a challenge.
Her current score was zero—she had not succeeded even once.

“Stop saying you’re sorry!” She gave up struggling and snapped viciously, “You… come with me and change your clothes before we go home. Don’t even think about using those wet clothes to frame me!”

After Bai Jin finished changing, Gu Nianxi brought her back to the Gu residence.

Gu Hongzhuo and Jiang Man were both home that day, sitting on the sofa as they waited for them to return.
When they saw Gu Nianxi leading Bai Jin through the door, they both froze. Then their attention immediately centered on Bai Jin. They pulled her close and fussed over her, asking whether she was cold or uncomfortable while completely ignoring Gu Nianxi, who had entered first.

Gu Nianxi felt upset, so she said that she was going upstairs and returned to her room.
Behind her, Gu Hongzhuo glared at her and muttered, “That child grows more inconsiderate with every passing year.”

Gu Nianxi pretended not to hear him.

Her feelings toward Gu Hongzhuo and Jiang Man, her parents in name, were extremely complicated.

Rationally speaking, Gu Nianxi ought to be grateful to them. She should thank them for providing her with an affluent life and a social status everyone envied.
But people always longed for the things they could not have, and Gu Nianxi was no exception.

Gu Nianxi wanted them to love her.
She wanted them to love her the way ordinary parents loved their children.

If they could not manage that, Gu Nianxi could lower her expectations a little further.
Even the kind of affection people gave a cat or dog would have been enough.
Even when it came to a dog that had lived in their home for seventeen years, people would instinctively show it some measure of care. But… Gu Nianxi had never experienced even that much affection.

She still remembered how, as a child, she had once tried to attract Jiang Man’s attention. On a day when she knew Jiang Man would be coming home, she deliberately wore no thick clothing and used no blanket. She opened the living room window and curled up on the sofa, all so Jiang Man would see her the moment she returned, call her a “silly child,” then order the nanny to carry her back to her warm bed and tuck the covers around her…

But Jiang Man did not come home that night, not even by midnight. Gu Nianxi eventually fell asleep on the sofa and was carried back to her bedroom by a servant.
The next day, she became ill from the cold draft, her fever rising to thirty-nine degrees Celsius. She pestered the family doctor into calling Jiang Man and refused to receive her injection unless the call connected. She remembered how everyone had gathered around her that day, looking at her with cautious gazes that concealed their pity, as though she were making a call that was destined never to be answered.

Still a child, Gu Nianxi gritted her teeth and continued calling. The more everyone believed it was pointless, the more determined she became to prove them wrong: Jiang Man did care about her.
The call was eventually answered, but not by Jiang Man. It was her secretary. In an exceptionally tactful tone, he told Gu Nianxi that President Jiang was currently in a meeting and could not take her call.

Gu Nianxi closed the door and lay back down ​stolen content​on her bed, feeling weary and heavy.
That had happened so long ago, yet remembering it still made her heart constrict and her chest ache faintly.

That was precisely why Gu Nianxi hated Bai Jin so much: Bai Jin did not have to do anything. Merely by standing there, she received all the care Gu Nianxi had failed to obtain in seventeen years.

Gu Nianxi could not understand it, and she found her own weakness laughable. In her previous life, her hand bones had been broken before she was driven out of the family. From that day onward, she had ceased to regard Gu Hongzhuo and Jiang Man as her parents. Yet just now, when she saw them sitting together on the sofa, she still could not suppress the longing that rose within her:
If only they would look at her the way they looked at Bai Jin.

How utterly pathetic, Gu Nianxi coldly passed judgment upon herself.

Breathing in the familiar fragrance around her, she wanted to remain lying there, empty her mind, and think about nothing.
As she continued to lie there, sleepiness truly began to wash over her.
Gu Nianxi yawned. Perhaps she really did need to rest. She would sleep properly, and once she woke up, she could carefully consider her future.

In her drowsy haze, Gu Nianxi heard someone knocking on her bedroom door.
Assuming it was Xiao An, she called, “Come in,” rolled over on the bed, and kept her eyes closed.

A cool hand gently closed around her ankle. The visitor removed the shoes she had not yet taken off, then hooked her fingers beneath Gu Nianxi’s white socks and slowly peeled them away.

Gu Nianxi grew a little impatient and moved her foot, accidentally pressing it against the visitor’s collarbone.
The person’s breath caught.
“Xiao An, I’m so sleepy…” She rolled over and habitually acted spoiled, rubbing her eyes. Only then did she see who was in front of her. “Bai Jin?! What are you doing in my room?”

She instinctively tried to sit up, but Bai Jin was right beside the bed, while Gu Nianxi was lying with both feet hanging over the edge. The position made it difficult to gain any leverage. If she forced herself upright, she would have to brace her feet against Bai Jin.
Moreover, because of her movements just now, the soles of her feet had already rubbed against Bai Jin’s collarbone several times.
Gu Nianxi felt somewhat embarrassed. read the original at bailiantales.com Just as she was about to tell Bai Jin to move aside, the black-haired girl’s long eyelashes fluttered and she grasped Gu Nianxi’s ankle.

Her fingers were very long. When they curled around Gu Nianxi’s ankle, they completely encircled it. The temperature of her hand against Gu Nianxi’s ankle was slightly cool, making Gu Nianxi shiver as a strange feeling stirred inside her.

It felt as though a dog she had picked up had voluntarily pressed itself against her feet, wagging its tail and nuzzling her.
Although she disliked how dirty it was, she could not bring herself to reject its affection.

But Gu Nianxi quickly realized that the person before her was not an adorable dog, but the infuriating Bai Jin. Her gaze turned cold. “What are you doing, Bai Jin? Let go.”

“Sister.” For some reason, Bai Jin’s voice sounded slightly deeper than usual.
Her hand traveled upward from Gu Nianxi’s ankle. “I came to apply medicine for Sister. You injured your knee at ‘Floating Jade’ today, didn’t you? Your gait looked slightly unnatural when you walked.
“Although it’s only a minor injury, it could still worsen if it isn’t treated promptly.
“I asked Butler Ye for some medicine to improve circulation and reduce the bruising. It may hurt a little when I apply it… Can Sister bear with it for me?”