Please Marry Me (GL) - Chapter 16

After finishing with the medicine, Song Rao told Jiang Yi to rest in the bedroom while she and Xiaogu busied themselves in the kitchen with dinner.

The moment the bedroom door closed, Jiang Yi immediately turned toward the wardrobe. Supporting herself against the wall, she hobbled over and whispered, “Shen Siyun?”

There was no response from inside. Anxious, Jiang Yi opened the right-side door. She found Shen Siyun sitting on the middle shelf, half-leaning against the side of the cabinet with her forehead resting against the wood. Her long, dark hair fell in slight waves; her porcelain-white earlobes were adorned with emerald earrings worth hundreds of thousands. The fading twilight filtered through the window, scattering across her face and casting an orange glow on the swan-like curve of her neck visible above her V-neck collar, adding a touch of mottled warmth.

Shen Siyun’s eyes were closed as if she were deep in thought. Her long, curled lashes cast an arched shadow over her cheeks.

Not knowing what was wrong, Jiang Yi reached out to touch her forehead. “What’s the matter? Is the wardrobe too stuffy for you?”

“Do you prefer Song Rao’s type more?” The moment Shen Siyun opened her eyes, the sunset outside the window stung them. She squinted at the rows of high-rise buildings in the residential complex.

Jiang Yi looked into her pitch-black eyes. “I’ve heard people say that a person meets three kinds of people in their life: the one they love, the one who loves them, and the one who is suitable for them. Song Rao just happens to be the third kind.”

Song Rao was suitable: a stable job, an approachable personality, and a heart that loved family. Even if the motive of the fake marriage were stripped away, Song Rao would still be the top choice for marriage.

“Why is marriage a necessity?” Shen Siyun leaned her head back against the wardrobe and turned her gaze toward Jiang Yi. Looking up at the woman standing before her, she looked puzzled. “Is it not enough to enjoy the present? Jiang Yi.”

She didn’t believe that marriage could sustain a family. No matter how much a couple loved each other, entering the halls of matrimony often ended with them tearing at each other’s throats in mutual hatred. Take her parents, for example—affectionate in public but leading completely separate, hedonistic lives in private. Marriage was merely their final, crumbling fig leaf.

At the end of the day, a marriage certificate was just a piece of legal paper; it could be signed, and it could be torn up. Wasn’t the emotion what mattered?

“Is marriage really that important? Does it consolidate feelings or maintain them?”

“Shen Siyun, you don’t understand.” Jiang Yi suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion well up from her heart. She managed a pained smile.

“I don’t understand?” Shen Siyun mocked her. “Then do you realize that if I just shouted right now, your marriage with Song Rao would never be the same again?”

“Shen Siyun, you promised me.”

“So what if I promised?” Shen Siyun’s gaze swept over the bruise on Jiang Yi’s foot, thinking of the day’s events. “You say you and Song Rao have a good relationship, yet when you told her about your injury, you still omitted all those details. After that student leaves, will you let me walk out in front of Song Rao? Do you dare?”

Jiang Yi was momentarily speechless. “How can you conflate the two?”

“You don’t dare.” Shen Siyun spat out those three words coldly and raised her hand to slowly pull the wardrobe door shut.

Jiang Yi blocked the door, preventing it from closing. She bit her lip. “Shen Siyun, it’s not that I don’t dare. It’s because it’s unnecessary. Relationships are about mutual tolerance. Telling her would only create needless misunderstandings.”

Shen Siyun looked at the hand covering hers on the edge of the door—slender as jade, transferring a warmth that didn’t belong to her. She stared at it for a long while before withdrawing her hand. She met Jiang Yi’s eyes with a cold stare. “Why would people who truly love each other have misunderstandings? In the end, it’s just a lack of trust. If Song Rao truly believed in you no matter what, she would believe you were faithful even if she found you naked in someone else’s bed.”

“And if it were you?” Jiang Yi’s eyes lost their focus for a split second as she noticed the small movement of Shen Siyun pulling her hand back.

“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be so obsessed with making you get a divorce.” Shen Siyun gave a self-deprecating laugh and pushed Jiang Yi’s hand away, finally closing the door and separating them once more.

But you only have this kind of “distrust.”

Jiang Yi looked at the closed white door. “Shen Siyun…”

“Don’t compare me to Song Rao. I’m not her, and she’s not me.”

Shen Siyun’s indifferent voice drifted out from the wardrobe. Jiang Yi’s chest felt constricted. “If it’s uncomfortable in there, you can come out and rest on the bed. You can leave after they finish eating.”

The kitchen was semi-open; there was no way to sneak Shen Siyun out past Song Rao and Xiaogu.

“No need. I wouldn’t want Song Rao to find someone in your bed and cause a ‘needless misunderstanding’.”

Jiang Yi’s hand, which had been about to open the door, froze in mid-air. Hearing this, she slowly lowered it. She stood before the wardrobe for a long time until, exhausted, she used the vanity for support to get back to bed. She pulled up the covers and lay down with her back to the wardrobe. In a corner where no one could see, she quietly closed her eyes, her rims turning a hurt, watery red.

Half an hour later, Song Rao came to call her for dinner. Jiang Yi responded and prepared to get out of bed.

Song Rao brought in a glass of warm water. “Want some water?”

“Just put it on the nightstand, I am thirsty.” Jiang Yi swung her legs off the bed. Looking up, she saw the tightly shut wardrobe door, and her heart felt like a jar of mixed spices—tangled and messy.

“Jiang Yi, you started your period.” Song Rao had just put down the glass when she saw bloodstains on the mattress. She felt a bit chagrined. “I forgot to remind you. I’ll get you a pad—I think they’re in the wardrobe?”

As she spoke, Song Rao reached out to open the wardrobe door.

“Wait!” Seeing Song Rao’s hand move, Jiang Yi didn’t have time to think. Ignoring the injury to her foot, she lunged forward. Not only did she tackle Song Rao to the floor, but in the process, one of Song Rao’s hands had already caught the handle. As they fell, the door swung halfway open.

It was impossible for Shen Siyun not to notice.

“Jiang Yi, are you okay?” Song Rao supported her slightly, her back flat against the floor. The fall had been somewhat painful.

“I-I’m fine.” Jiang Yi propped herself up on Song Rao’s body and sat on the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shen Siyun in the wardrobe. The woman turned her head slightly, peering down coldly, her eyes meeting Jiang Yi’s. Then, with an expressionless face, Shen Siyun reached out her hand to pull the door shut.

Jiang Yi’s heart leaped in shock. She quickly raised her hand to cover Shen Siyun’s exposed, pale fingers, pretending she was the one closing the door.

In those few seconds as the door shut, her pinky finger accidentally hooked around Shen Siyun’s long, slender finger.