Chapter 25

“It’s Xu Xiaowen.”

Owen looked at everyone and repeated it once more.

This time, several of them looked at one another in shock. Only Jian Lan remained calm.

“As expected.”

Hearing Jian Lan say this, everyone’s gazes fell on her again.

“Teacher Jian, do you have some clue?” Lu Bin could not help asking.

“No. Just a guess.” Jian Lan shook her head, then looked at Owen. “What did he say?”

“He was the one who left the note. His purpose was to have me find Madam Xu, then find the reason behind everything,” Owen said.

“What else?” Jian Lan asked again.

Owen spread his hands. “He said the truth is inside this mansion and told us to work hard ourselves.”

Everyone: “…”

How was that any different from saying nothing?

“Maybe it was to make us keep searching carefully. But he probably didn’t expect Teacher Jian to stumble upon it directly by accident,” Owen said.

Everyone was speechless for a while. Then Owen asked, “Teacher Jian, what did you find?”

Hearing this, Jian Lan looked at Gu Jingxi. Gu Jingxi immediately said, “Wait for me.”

Then Gu Jingxi quickly left. A moment later, she ran back with a small box in her hands. It was precisely the box Fang Zixu had found in her room.

Then, in front of everyone, she used the key found in the hand of the white-qipao “female corpse” to open the box.

Inside the box were three photos and a white jade hairpin. Unlike the photo found in Jian Lan’s room, the faces in these three photos were visible.

One photo showed two women and one man sitting together. From their clothing, it could be seen that the two women were the two deceased people they had found.

Another photo showed the woman in the white qipao together with a young man in a bachelor’s gown. The hairpin worn by the woman in white in that photo was exactly the hairpin inside the box.

The last photo showed the woman in the white qipao lying on another man’s lap, while the man held an opened gift box in his hand. Inside that box was clearly the same hairpin.

Seeing these three photos, everyone looked at one another.

“Good heavens, what does this mean? The three men who appeared all seem to be related to the deceased in the white qipao?” Luo Wentao blinked and said.

Owen, however, stared at the photo and fell into deep thought.

“What’s wrong? Teacher Owen, did you discover something?” Jian Lan noticed Owen’s condition and could not help asking.

Owen shook his head. “I can’t be sure yet. We’re still missing a key clue.”

Jian Lan nodded. She looked at the sky outside the window, then glanced at the watch on her wrist. “It’s ten o’clock. It’s getting late.”

“What? It’s already ten?” Lu Bin could not help freezing.

“Did we really spend that long inside?” Lu Bin clearly did not believe it.

Fang Zixu could not help saying, “Did you forget that when we went to find Teacher Owen, we spent more than ten minutes walking through a secret passage that might not even have been five meters long?”

Lu Bin touched his nose and coughed lightly. “Brother Fang, exposing someone’s weakness like that isn’t right.”

“Alright, let’s not talk about that for now. It’s getting late. Everyone has worked hard all night, so go wash up and rest early.” Owen stood up, then reminded them, “The switch for the camera in the room is at the head of the bed. Remember to turn it off.”

“Got it, got it.” Lu Bin smiled and stood, patting Luo Wentao beside him.

“Put the things away properly. Don’t lose them tomorrow,” Gu Jingxi said, placing all the clues in her hands into the drawer of the small coffee table beside them.

“Let’s go, let’s go. Time to rest.” Only then did everyone noisily turn off the lights and head up to the second floor.

Fortunately, the hallway lights had stayed on the whole time. Otherwise, if they had to walk in the dark, mm…

The trio afraid of the dark expressed that it would be fatal.

But Gu Jingxi soon discovered an even more fatal matter!

That was, tonight, she either had to sleep alone in that terrifying room, or—

She could only share a room with Jian Lan.

Help. She did not want to choose either option.

Suffocating.

However, reality did not allow her to avoid it. When they reached the front of her room, Jian Lan looked at her and said, “Move your luggage to my room first.”

“Oh…” Gu Jingxi answered unwillingly. With Jian Lan accompanying her, she took out her luggage and returned with her to Jian Lan’s room.

Jian Lan turned on the light, then said, “You go wash up first. Rest early.”

After saying that, Jian Lan took her own suitcase out of the wardrobe and placed Gu Jingxi’s suitcase inside instead.

Seeing this series of actions, Gu Jingxi froze and could not help asking, “Teacher Jian, what are you doing?”

Jian Lan curved her lips and smiled. “Nothing. You stay here. I’ll sleep in your room.”

Gu Jingxi looked at her in astonishment, then her eyes shifted slightly.

“It’s fine, Teacher Jian. You can stay here.”

This time, Jian Lan was the one who looked surprised.

She knew that Gu Jingxi was unwilling to get close to her in private. Even if Jian Lan wanted Gu Jingxi to change her mind, such a change was absolutely not something that could happen overnight.

So she chose to move forward gradually, advancing and retreating in moderation, letting Gu Jingxi slowly lower the defenses in her heart.

If she really chose to sleep in the same bed with Gu Jingxi tonight, she was afraid that after they left, Gu Jingxi would resent her even more.

So she chose to take a step back and leave Gu Jingxi enough space to feel comfortable.

But unexpectedly, Gu Jingxi had actually taken the initiative to ask her to stay.

Under Jian Lan’s surprised gaze, Gu Jingxi turned her eyes away with some embarrassment and said, “That room… Even if you might not be afraid, looking at it for too long would still feel uncomfortable. This bed isn’t small. The two of us won’t be squeezed. We can just make do for one night.”

Jian Lan looked at her. A moment later, she smiled softly. “Alright. Then you wash up first. I’ll tidy up.”

“Uh, mm…” Realizing what she had done, Gu Jingxi nodded stiffly. She took her toiletries from her suitcase and went to the bathroom to wash up.

Jian Lan, meanwhile, made the bed, turned off the camera, and changed into her pajamas. Just read the original at bailiantales.com then, Gu Jingxi finished washing up and came out. Her small face was still a little damp. Jian Lan saw this, and her gaze unconsciously darkened slightly.

“I’m done. Teacher Jian, you can go,” Gu Jingxi said.

“Okay.” Jian Lan quietly withdrew her gaze, picked up her toiletries, and entered the bathroom.

After closing the door and looking at the mirror inside the bathroom, Jian Lan’s mind uncontrollably brought up Gu Jingxi’s appearance just now.

That tender, fair face, faintly tinted with cherry pink, had been dotted with a few water droplets. Under the warm yellow light, those amber eyes looked damp and glistening.

It made one…

Unable to resist wanting to bully her.

She quickly took a deep breath and suppressed that unspeakable desire. Turning on the faucet, she scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it onto her face, making herself completely calm down before washing up.

When she came out, Gu Jingxi had finished her simple skincare routine and made room for Jian Lan, while she herself sat back on the bed and slipped under the blanket.

Jian Lan said nothing. She merely sat at the table and began her own skincare routine.

Inside the blanket, Gu Jingxi could not help staring at Jian Lan’s back.

Her family and the Jian family had been old family friends. It was not as if they had never slept in the same bed before. But this time…

It seemed that from junior high—no, maybe from when Jian Lan entered high school—the two of them had completely ​Read on BaiLianTales​begun to be at odds. They gradually drifted farther and farther apart, and the more they looked at each other, the more displeased they became.

At that time, Gu Jingxi had only been in junior high, while Jian Lan was in high school. However, their junior high and high school were both on the same campus, so they often saw each other when going to and from school.

Jian Lan was the good child in everyone’s eyes, and naturally became the person Gu Jingxi was compared to.

At first, Gu Jingxi did not mind. Honestly, she had originally thought Jian Lan was quite good. But she could not endure being compared to her day after day, year after year. Added to that, Gu Jingxi was heavily rebellious back then, while Jian Lan always had that look of “you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that.” Later, quite a few more things happened.

That caused Gu Jingxi to completely explode, and the relationship between the two dropped straight to freezing point.

From then on, everyone knew the two of them did not get along. In high school and university, their friends all knew exactly what their relationship was like. Added to the way Gu Jingxi would bristle whenever Jian Lan was mentioned, everyone knew.

Gu Jingxi truly hated Jian Lan.

In fact, she really did hate Jian Lan. Her forever high-and-mighty appearance and her attitude that seemed to look down on everything made Gu Jingxi grit her teeth with hatred whenever she thought of it.

Yet everyone around her thought Jian Lan was very good. This made Gu Jingxi almost childishly insist that Jian Lan was not good.

But there was one thing she had never noticed.

If someone said Jian Lan was bad, then her relationship with that person absolutely could not be considered very good.

For example, that eldest miss of the Tian family.

But ever since joining this show—

Jian Lan seemed like a different person. At first, Gu Jingxi thought Jian Lan was pretending to get along with her for the sake of the program effect, but very quickly, she knew she was wrong.

After all, she could tell that Jian Lan was not pretending.

Although they were both actresses, and Jian Lan’s achievements were far higher than hers, Gu Jingxi’s professionalism as an actress was enough to tell her whether the other party was putting on an act.

Eyes did not lie. Jian Lan’s care toward her was not false either.

From beginning to end, the only one trapped in those hostile emotions was herself.

This realization made Gu Jingxi feel somewhat awkward. Rather than awkward, it was more that she did not want to admit that the “cold war” between her and Jian Lan all this time had been maintained by her alone.

Jian Lan’s skincare routine was very simple, and she finished tidying herself up before long. But as an actress, her sensitivity toward cameras and gazes was extraordinary. So naturally, she also sensed Gu Jingxi’s gaze lingering on her the whole time.

She simply let that gaze freely examine her while she slowly and unhurriedly went through her skincare steps.

After all, too many things had happened today. The words she and Gu Jingxi had exchanged in this single day exceeded what they had said to each other over the entire past year.

For Gu Jingxi, this was definitely something difficult to accept. She needed time to digest it, to understand that Jian Lan had never held any hostility toward her.

She also needed Gu Jingxi to slowly learn to let go of her past prejudices.

This would require no small amount of time.

But as it happened, Jian Lan was willing to leave that time for her.