Marking My Arch-Rival [Rebirth] - Chapter 3

Ji Shihuan instinctively felt that something was off.

But Jiang Boyan quickly returned to her usual cool and aloof demeanor, giving Ji Shihuan no opportunity to investigate further.

“You still have the leisure to sit here coaxing your little girlfriend. It seems Miss Ji is already completely confident about securing the position of Huanji’s CEO.”

Her words were polite, but her tone carried an undercurrent of mockery.

Ji Shihuan drew in a soft breath through her teeth.

Jiang Boyan paused, then could not resist secretly glancing at her.

“As expected of President Jiang.” Ji Shihuan dramatically covered her chest. “You managed to misunderstand me twice in a single sentence.”

Jiang Boyan turned to look out the window.

Although the rain that had lasted for several days had finally stopped, damp traces still covered the long street. Pedestrians wrapped tightly in their coats hurried past, their footsteps splashing up fine droplets of water.

Jiang Boyan pulled her collar closer around herself. Her long, slender neck was as delicate as the stem of an orchid.

“Before leaving home today, I checked the almanac,” Ji Shihuan said. “It said today is auspicious for travel and that I might encounter a benefactor.”

“Mhm.” Jiang Boyan replied absentmindedly, “Then Miss Ji should be even less inclined to waste her time on me.”

“Is President Jiang belittling herself?”

Ji Shihuan raised an eyebrow.

Resting her chin on one hand, she studied the woman opposite her.

“I think my benefactor is sitting right in front of me. Naturally, I should seize the opportunity.”

Jiang Boyan finally looked at her directly.

Ji Shihuan took a pen and a sheet of paper from her handbag.

“I remember President Jiang also experienced a great deal of turmoil when you first took power. Could you share some of your experience with me?”

The employee was grinding coffee beans nearby. The sound of them being crushed and ground was unexpectedly pleasant.

“Our situations are different. My experience would not offer you much useful guidance.”

Jiang Boyan’s voice rose clearly above the white noise.

“Did your brother protect you too well? You must truly be desperate if you’ve come to me for advice.”

She shook her head.

“Ji Shihuan, honestly speaking, I think surrendering your authority and remaining a wealthy young heiress would suit you better.”

Ji Shihuan discovered that this sworn enemy differed greatly from the woman she remembered.

“You didn’t need to say that first sentence,” she said while awkwardly adjusting her grip on the pen. “It sounded like an explanation.”

“It might make people misunderstand and think it isn’t that you don’t want to teach me, but that you’re incapable of doing so.”

Jiang Boyan fell silent.

“If I relinquished my authority, who do you think would be a suitable replacement?”

As she spoke, Ji Shihuan began taking notes with an air of complete seriousness.

Jiang Boyan could hear the pen scratching against the paper, but she could not see what Ji Shihuan was actually writing.

“Dong Zheng is ambitious but lacks ability. Guo Hongqi can maintain the current state of affairs, but he refuses to adapt. Neither is a good choice.”

“If you search farther down, you could examine the team your brother left behind. Those people may lack seniority, but given some time, they may still be able to grow into their roles.”

Ji Shihuan chuckled.

Without raising her head, she asked, “What about Shu Ni?”

“No.”

Ji Shihuan’s pen stopped.

She looked at Jiang Boyan seriously, narrowing her eyes.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Jiang Boyan shook her head.

“You can review the projects she has handled over the past year.”

“I remember…” Ji Shihuan considered it. “All of Shu Ni’s projects were stable money-makers within Huanji.”

“Stable profits?”

Jiang Boyan gave a faint, derisive laugh.

“At the expense of draining Huanji’s credibility and shortening its lifespan?”

The server had already packaged the hand-ground coffee she had ordered and called out from behind the counter.

Jiang Boyan bid farewell with her eyes, only to see Ji Shihuan covering her lips with a soft laugh.

The Ji family’s second daughter had benefited from her beauty her entire life.

Although she did not believe she could attract someone on Jiang Boyan’s level, the other woman had indeed paused because of her.

“President Jiang…”

Ji Shihuan tilted her head back to look at her. Something Jiang Boyan could not understand was hidden in the depths of her eyes.

“So you’re actually this kind to your competitors?”

Jiang Boyan said nothing.

Just as she had the day before, she turned away. She walked to the counter and picked up her coffee, but before she could leave, her phone rang.

While Jiang Boyan answered the call, Ji Shihuan completed her work.

She packed away her things and approached Jiang Boyan. Under the other woman’s puzzled gaze, she folded the sheet of paper and slipped it into the pocket of Jiang Boyan’s coat.

Then she smiled faintly, waved, pushed open the café door, and disappeared first into the long street after the rain.

A cold breeze swept through the opening and closing glass door, lifting the loose strands beside Jiang Boyan’s temples.

Her pitch-black hair made her serene, emotionless face appear even paler and more aloof.

“I understand.”

She exchanged a few more words with the person on the phone before instructing the doctor,

“Thank you for taking care of them. I’ll come by tomorrow.”

After hanging up, she reached into her pocket.

The lingering chill of spring had been intensified by the consecutive days of rain, making even the faintest trace of warmth especially precious.

Jiang Boyan’s fingers lingered inside her pocket for a moment.

Reluctantly suppressing her attachment to the warmth, she pulled out the folded sheet of paper.

When she opened it, she found clean yet gentle lines drawn across the blank white page.

The lines were arranged with precision, accurately capturing a woman’s features.

The woman in the sketch had turned her head to gaze into the distance. Her eyes were half-lidded, and beneath her languid expression lay an unmistakable air of refinement and nobility.

Two elegant characters were written in the lower-right corner of the spontaneous sketch.

They were not a signature, but the word:

Payment.

It took Jiang Boyan a second to recognize that the woman in the drawing was herself.

She recalled how, not long ago, she had suddenly driven to the outskirts to admire the flowers.

She had been somewhat disappointed by the scenery, believing it inferior to the paintings in her private collection.

Perhaps the world seen through certain people’s eyes truly was thousands of times more beautiful than reality.

The employee began grinding coffee again.

Jiang Boyan returned to her senses, carefully folded the paper, and placed it back inside her warm pocket.

The fresh air unique to the aftermath of rain washed over her as she pushed open the door and left, climbing into the black sedan waiting at the end of the street.

Meanwhile, Ji Shihuan ate lunch with Lin Dan before bringing her belongings home.

The servants took care of the painting, while she returned to her room alone with the cardboard box in her arms.

The afternoon sunlight made people drowsy, but Ji Shihuan had too much on her mind to feel sleepy.

She found a utility knife, cut through the tape, and reorganized her brother’s belongings one by one.

Two years earlier, after becoming engaged, Ji Shiqin had moved out of the ancestral residence and into a spacious apartment in the city center with Shu Ni.

Ji Shihuan had not visited the apartment since being reborn.

The items she had brought back were the belongings Ji Shiqin had left at the company.

A framed photograph, a wristwatch, cuff links…

Ji Shihuan’s emotions did not fluctuate greatly.

Having lived through this once before, she merely looked at the familiar objects and silently mourned him.

Then her hand suddenly froze above a white medicine bottle.

The words Lamotrigine Tablets were printed on the label.

Ji Shihuan took out her phone, photographed the bottle, and searched for it.

The description that appeared on the screen instantly stung her eyes.

“Lamotrigine tablets are commonly used to treat bipolar disorder and manic episodes. Their primary effect is to stabilize the patient’s mood…”

Across two lifetimes, this was the first time Ji Shihuan had learned that her brother appeared to have suffered deeply from a psychiatric illness.

A bitter smile escaped her.

She suddenly felt something on her cheek and raised a hand to wipe it away, only to discover that she was crying.

Taking a deep breath, she struggled to regain control of her emotions before reaching for the medicine bottle again.

But when she lifted the small white container, she was startled once more.

It was empty.

Ji Shihuan twisted off the cap and confirmed that nothing remained inside.

She immediately called Nie Zheng and verified Ji Shiqin’s condition.

“…President Ji instructed us not to tell you. He didn’t want you to worry.”

Ji Shihuan clenched the bottle.

“This bottle in his office is already empty.”

“Mhm,” Nie Zheng answered. “I noticed that when I was packing his belongings.”

Ji Shihuan continued questioning him, but Nie Zheng said he did not know the details.

These matters concerned Ji Shiqin’s personal privacy. Now, the only person they could ask was Shu Ni, the person who had been closest to him.

Ji Shihuan gritted her teeth, enduring the dull pain spreading through her chest.

She steadied herself and organized her thoughts.

“So… during the days before the car accident, was his mental state extremely unstable?”

Nie Zheng thought for a moment before answering affirmatively.

“Yes.”

Ji Shihuan’s breathing suddenly grew heavier.

“At the time, President Ji had just discovered that Zhang Boshi had leaked confidential information. The two of them had a huge argument, and President Ji drove him out of the company.”

“For the following several days, President Ji was unusually irritable. He lost his temper repeatedly and berated several senior executives who came to report to him so severely that they couldn’t even raise their heads.”

Ji Shihuan’s limbs went weak.

“Did no one notice that something was wrong?”

Nie Zheng remained silent for a long time.

Eventually, he replied,

“Miss Shu stepped in to smooth things over and bought afternoon tea for the entire company. She also told us not to worry and said she would take care of everything.”

As Ji Shiqin’s fiancée, Shu Ni had not yet legally married him, but everyone inside and outside Huanji already regarded her as the lady of the company.

Once the boss’s future wife had spoken, naturally no one continued to question the situation.

After ending the call, Ji Shihuan stared blankly at the medicine bottle in her hand for a long time.

It was too late.

The point in time to which she had returned was simply too late.

While this version of herself had still been devastated and overwhelmed by the news of her brother’s death, Shu Ni had probably already dealt with everything in an orderly manner.

Ji Shihuan inhaled deeply and warned herself not to rush.

Then she raised her hand and slowly—very slowly—placed the white plastic bottle back into the box.

The following day, Shu Ni visited and found Ji Shihuan mixing pigments in the studio.

After exchanging a brief greeting, her attention was drawn to the brightly smiling girl on the canvas.

“Who is this?”

“My ex-girlfriend,” Ji Shihuan replied.

They had dated during winter.

In the painting, Gu Xiyue wore a cashmere scarf. Her bright eyes were the only vivid presence amid the desolate winter scenery.

Shu Ni’s gaze fell upon the top of Ji Shihuan’s head.

Her voice was very soft, seeming to drift through the air.

“Come to think of it, you haven’t painted me in a very long time.”

The brush was tipped with white paint, gradually refining the details of the cashmere scarf.

“When was the last time? When you had just started high school?”

Shu Ni crossed the normal boundary of personal space and squeezed in front of her.

Ji Shihuan’s expression remained indifferent.

“I’ve forgotten.”

“How could you forget?”

Shu Ni placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You were so adorable back then. You would blush after only a few words.”

“In the blink of an eye, you’ve graduated from university and become an adult who has already experienced romance.”

She turned back toward the painting.

“What a beautiful young woman. Why did you break up?”

Ji Shihuan put down her brush.

Her voice was low.

“Liking someone and being able to get along with them are two different things. Two people can be attracted to each other without being capable of remaining together for long.”

Then she looked at Shu Ni.

“You and my brother were together for many years. Did you still love each other?”

Shu Ni’s hand remained on her shoulder.

Ji Shihuan felt the woman stiffen for the briefest instant.

But Shu Ni concealed it quickly, lowering her eyes with a sorrowful expression.

“Of course… Shiqin and I had long since become the most important people in each other’s lives…”

Compared with Shu Ni’s display of sincere emotion, Ji Shihuan appeared far colder.

She lowered her head and rinsed her brush, stirring the water and producing a soft gurgling sound.

“Ahuan! We can’t allow Shiqin to die without knowing the truth!”

Shu Ni’s voice became shrill.

“I came today because I wanted to discuss something with you. You must take over Shiqin’s position and avenge him!”

“Against whom?” Ji Shihuan asked.

Shu Ni enunciated every syllable.

“Jiang Boyan!”

Her eyes reddened.

“The Jiang family was the mastermind behind everything!”

Ji Shihuan lowered her head, avoiding Shu Ni’s probing gaze.

“I may not be able to gain the approval of the board members…”

Shu Ni’s lips curved upward.

She took hold of Ji Shihuan’s brush-holding hand.

“Don’t be afraid,” she comforted softly. “I’ll help you.”

“No matter the cost, I will help you.”