Chapter 26

Gu Shuge had written for an entire night, but Shen Juan finished reading it in only three to five minutes.

After reading it, putting aside that eerie girl for the moment, Shen Juan discovered that the greatest point of suspicion lay in what had happened to prompt Gu Shuge, who had always refused to come home, to return.

She thought this, and so she asked it. Only after asking did she realize it was inappropriate. Xiao Ge not returning for years was the knot between the two of them. Shen Juan had avoided talking about it, wanting only to solve the case first and then keep Xiao Ge here. But a knot in the heart did not cease to exist simply because it was not mentioned.

Sure enough, after she asked, no new words appeared on the paper for a long time.

It was not that Shen Juan did not feel sad. But four years ago, she had not held anything against Gu Shuge, and now, she would hold even less against her. She decided to leave Gu Shuge some space to think on her own and said, “I’ll go eat breakfast first. You write. I’ll come back and read it.”

After saying that, she went out.

Gu Shuge knew that the reason she had returned was an important clue and that she definitely had to say it. It was just that no matter what, she could not find a better angle from which to describe it.

She had been at an academic banquet when she ran into an old friend. That person happened to have cooperation with Gu Group, and seeing her, the young owner of Gu Group, of course he had come over to make conversation. As they chatted, he mentioned that he had seen Shen Juan a few days earlier.

The moment Gu Shuge heard the two words “Shen Juan,” she could no longer care about anything else. She racked her brain trying to lead him into saying a little more, wanting to know whether Shen Juan was doing well. When she heard that the wallpaper on Shen Juan’s phone was a photo of her when she was little, Gu Shuge could no longer hold herself back. Her heart flew home like an arrow.

And the reason she had chosen that day was, of course, because it was Shen Juan’s birthday.

But these reasons were difficult to say. Hearing about the photo could still be attributed to family affection; she could claim she had missed Sister. But choosing that specific day was clearly for Shen Juan’s birthday. Shen Juan would definitely feel guilty and think that she had caused Gu Shuge’s death.

Gu Shuge could not bring herself to lower the pen. Instead, many things from the past came to mind. Twenty-two years—from the moment she had memory, Shen Juan had been by her side. Shen Juan had taken part in her entire life.

In truth, even if she had not come back this time, she would definitely have returned to the country next year. She could not keep treating Shen Juan like a stranger forever, nor could she bear never interacting with her again. She had been willful for four years. If she still did not return, she was very afraid Shen Juan would never pay attention to her again.

As Gu Shuge thought this, she suddenly wanted very much to see Shen Juan. She wanted to go out and take a look. She had no physical body now, so if she quietly went out, Shen Juan would not discover it.

She put down the pen and went to the dining room, only to see breakfast still arranged on the table, untouched. Shen Juan was not there.

Gu Shuge was puzzled and turned to search through the house.

She did not search for long before finding Shen Juan in a lounge on the first floor.

Her back was facing the door as she sat on the sofa. The sleeve on her left arm had been rolled up, exposing her arm, while her right hand held a blood collection needle and pierced it into her left arm. Yesterday, Dr. Mu had explained the steps of drawing blood in detail, including which area to choose, how to identify the vein, how to unauthorized copy disinfect the skin, and how to insert the needle. But even nurses in hospitals had to practice something like this countless times. How could it be easy for Shen Juan to do it to herself?

Gu Shuge slowly walked over until she was in front of her.

Shen Juan’s lips were pressed into a tight line. The needle tip pierced into her flesh. Her hand trembled a little; clearly, she had inserted it at the wrong angle. She sucked in a cold breath and pulled the needle out.

Then she chose an angle and tried again.

Gu Shuge did not know how many times she had tried. She saw many needle holes on Shen Juan’s arm, swollen and raised, while the right hand holding the needle was trembling badly too.

With flesh and blood, how could it not hurt?

Shen Juan failed again. She changed to another needle, took several deep breaths, controlled her trembling right hand, and stared calmly at her left arm, watching the needle tip pierce into her flesh.

Gu Shuge could not bear to watch and turned her head away.

She heard a soft hiss, and her heart clenched. She quickly looked at Shen Juan. Shen Juan had pierced too deeply, and blood beads flowed out when the needle went in. She bit her lower lip, her lips pale. Her right hand put down the needle and picked up an alcohol swab to wipe it.

The alcohol swab was stained with blood. Gu Shuge took it from her and pressed it Read on BaiLianTales against the needle hole for her.

Shen Juan discovered that a faint force had taken the alcohol swab and knew Gu Shuge had come. Panic flashed through her eyes, but immediately afterward, she calmed herself and said, “Why did you come? Have you finished writing?”

Gu Shuge truly wished she could speak. Yesterday, she had still been pleasantly surprised that she could communicate with Shen Juan through writing. Today, she already felt it was not enough. She could not speak to Shen Juan, but she had so many things she urgently wanted to say to her.

Shen Juan had secretly hidden here because she wanted to avoid Gu Shuge. Who would have known that Gu Shuge would still discover her? Her expression was somewhat unnatural. After a long silence, she said, “Am I rather stupid?”

She had actually considered whether she could ask Dr. Mu to come once a month to draw blood for her and then store it. But doing that would definitely raise suspicion. She had met Master Jingyun, so she also guessed that in this world, there were still capable, extraordinary people like him. If Gu Shuge’s existence were discovered, Shen Juan was worried it would be disadvantageous to her.

So when it came to things related to Gu Shuge, she tried to handle them personally as much as possible.

The red pinprick marks looked especially glaring on her snow-white arm. Gu Shuge wanted to say “not stupid,” wanted to comfort her, then ask her to stop and not try again. But such a long sentence—how long would it take her to write?

The needle holes were tiny, and the bleeding soon stopped. Gu Shuge drew a very large cross in Shen Juan’s palm, telling her not to try again.

Shen Juan said, “All right. I won’t try anymore.”

She lowered her sleeve to show that she really would [read the original at bailiantales.com]not try again, so Gu Shuge would feel reassured.

Gu Shuge stood to one side, looking gloomy. Shen Juan put away the tools. It was daytime now, so she could not sense where Gu Shuge was and could only say to the air, “Let’s go.”

Gu Shuge followed behind her and went out. Shen Juan went to the dining room, while Gu Shuge returned to the study.

She picked up the pen again and wrote down the reason she had returned to the country, clearly and honestly. Right now, the most important thing was to investigate the case. This case was growing more and more complicated. From the two points of choosing Shen Juan’s birthday to strike and stealing the corpse to torment Shen Juan, it seemed as if the culprit also held enormous hostility toward Shen Juan.

With such a sinister, perverse pair of eyes watching from the dark, no one could feel at ease.

Gu Shuge looked at what she had written about the photo and thought, How much will Shen Juan blame herself when she sees this?

Breakfast had already gone cold, but Shen Juan was not a picky person. She did not have it remade and simply ate it. Then she searched online for methods of blood collection, wanting to find whether there was an easier way.

In the end, she really found one: peripheral blood collection. It only required pricking the fingertip and was very easy to operate. The drawback was that the amount of blood was small.

Before learning how to draw venous blood, this was all she could do. As for the small amount, she would just prick a few more fingers.

When Gu Shuge finished writing, Shen Juan came in holding a glass dish. She casually threw the original one on the desk into the wastebasket. Gu Shuge saw the blood inside the glass dish, and her hands trembled a little. Worry overpowered her appetite. She wished she could immediately roll up Shen Juan’s sleeve and look at her arm to see whether she had gone and pierced herself with countless holes again.

“I added anticoagulant, so it’s fine even if you use it slowly,” Shen Juan said calmly.

Gu Shuge stared at her arm. Shen Juan picked up what she had newly written and began reading.

There was only one sentence in total. It omitted her longing and countless inner thoughts, saying simply: “At the banquet, I heard Zhong Kai say that the wallpaper on your phone’s main screen was my photo, so I wanted to come home and take a look.” Zhong Kai was the old friend who had told her about this.

As for why she had chosen that day, even if she did not say it, Shen Juan knew.

Shen Juan looked at that short sentence for a very long time—so long that Gu Shuge started to worry and no longer cared about how the blood in the glass dish had been collected. Shen Juan put down the paper, placed it together with the pages Gu Shuge had written last night, and fed them into the shredder.

These things could not be seen by a second person. Destroying them was the best method.

“Altogether, we already have quite a few clues,” Shen Juan said. “At the time, who else heard your conversation with Zhong Kai?”

Gu Shuge thought for a moment, then wrote, “Hard to say. There were many people. Anyone at the banquet might have passed by us.”

After finishing, she still looked at Shen Juan. She knew Shen Juan definitely felt terrible inside right now. After thinking for a moment, she wrote, “Even bailiantales.com if I hadn’t come back, there definitely would have been another trap waiting for me. The culprit is hiding in the dark and has planned this meticulously. There’s no way I could have avoided it.”

What she said was the truth. The culprit truly did seem to have planned this meticulously, determined to put her to death.

Author’s Note: Beep. Update check-in.