Chapter 16

After Song Rao finished applying the medicinal oil, she told Jiang Yi to rest in the bedroom while she and Xiaogu went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

The instant the bedroom door closed, Jiang Yi immediately turned toward the wardrobe. Supporting herself against the wall, she made her way over and called softly, “Shen Siyun?”

The person inside did not respond.

Uneasily, Jiang Yi opened the right-hand wardrobe door.

Shen Siyun was sitting on one of the shelves, half her body leaning against the side of the wardrobe, her temple resting against the wooden panel. Her long hair spilled around her like dark ink, curling slightly at the ends. A pair of jade earrings worth over a hundred thousand yuan adorned her delicate, porcelain-white earlobes.

The evening glow broke apart as it streamed in through the window and fell across her face. An orange halo shimmered over the swanlike neck revealed by her V-neckline, lending her a touch of mottled warmth.

Shen Siyun’s eyes were closed as though she were deep in thought. Her lashes curled upward, casting a curved shadow beneath them.

Unable to tell what was wrong with her, Jiang Yi reached out to touch her forehead.

“What’s wrong? Did it get too stuffy in the wardrobe?”

“Do you prefer someone like Song Rao?”

The moment Shen Siyun opened her eyes, the setting sunlight outside stung them. She narrowed her gaze as she looked out at the densely packed residential towers beyond the window.

Jiang Yi looked into her dark eyes.

“I once heard that a person meets three kinds of people in their lifetime: the person they love, the person who loves them, and the person best suited to them. Song Rao happens to be the third kind.”

Song Rao was someone suited to her.

She had a stable job, an approachable personality, and a heart that valued family.

Even if Jiang Yi set aside the purpose behind their fake marriage, Song Rao would still be the first choice for a spouse.

“Why do you have to get married?” Shen Siyun rested her head against the wardrobe and turned her gaze back to Jiang Yi, looking up at the woman standing before her with genuine incomprehension. “Isn’t it enough to enjoy the present, Jiang Yi?”

She did not believe marriage could hold every family together.

Even the most loving couples could enter the marriage hall only to tear away all pretense in the end, despising and hating each other.

Her own parents were a perfect example. They acted loving in public, but in private, each played around however they pleased. One was more unrestrained than the other. Their marriage had become the final scrap of cloth concealing their shame, forever on the verge of collapse.

At the end of the day, a marriage certificate was nothing more than a legal document. People could marry, and they could divorce.

Wasn’t love what truly mattered?

“Is marriage really that important? Can it strengthen love or preserve it?”

“Shen Siyun, you don’t understand.”

A sense of helplessness suddenly surged from the depths of Jiang Yi’s heart. She gave an ugly smile.

“I don’t understand?” Shen Siyun mocked her. “Then do you know that all I have to do is call out once from here, and your marriage with Song Rao will never return to what it was before?”

“Shen Siyun, you promised me.”

“So what if I did?”

Shen Siyun’s gaze swept over Jiang Yi’s injured foot as she recalled everything that had happened that day.

“You say you and Song Rao have a good relationship, but when you told her about your injury, didn’t you still leave out all those details? After that student leaves, will you let me walk out in front of Song Rao? Do you dare?”

Jiang Yi was left speechless.

“How can those things possibly be compared?”

“You don’t dare.”

Shen Siyun coldly uttered those three words, then slowly began closing the wardrobe door.

Jiang Yi stopped the door from shutting and bit her lip.

“Shen Siyun, it isn’t that I don’t dare. There’s simply no need. A relationship requires mutual understanding and tolerance. Telling read the original at bailiantales.comher would only create an unnecessary misunderstanding.”

Shen Siyun looked at the hand resting over hers along the edge of the door.

It was slender and fair as jade. Warmth that did not belong to her slowly seeped into her skin.

She stared at it for a long while, then withdrew her hand and looked at Jiang Yi coldly.

“Why would two people who truly love each other misunderstand one another? In the end, it’s nothing more than a lack of trust. If Song Rao genuinely chose to believe you no matter what happened, then even if she found you lying naked in someone else’s bed, she would still believe you had remained faithful.”

“Then what about you?”

Jiang Yi noticed the subtle motion of Shen Siyun pulling her hand away. Her eyes briefly lost focus.

“If I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t be so determined to make you divorce her.”

Shen Siyun gave a self-mocking smile, pushed Jiang Yi’s hand away, and closed the wardrobe door again.

This time, it finally separated them completely.

But this is the only way you ‘believe’ me.

Jiang Yi stared at the tightly shut white wardrobe doors.

“Shen Siyun…”

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

Shen Siyun’s indifferent voice came from inside the wardrobe.

Jiang Yi’s chest tightened.

“If you’re uncomfortable in there, you can come out and rest on the bed. You can leave after they finish eating.”

The kitchen was semi-open, so there was no way Jiang Yi could quietly escort Shen Siyun out without Song Rao and Xiaogu noticing.

“No need. Otherwise, Song Rao might discover someone in your bed and develop an unnecessary misunderstanding.”

Jiang Yi’s raised hand, which had been about to open the door, stopped in midair.

At those words, she slowly lowered it.

She stood in front of the wardrobe for a long time. When she finally grew tired, she supported herself against the vanity and returned to the bed.

She lifted the blanket and lay down with her back toward the wardrobe.

From an angle no one could see, she silently closed her eyes.

At that moment, her eyes reddened with grievance.

Half an hour later, Song Rao came to call her for dinner.

Jiang Yi answered and sat up, preparing to get out of bed.

Song Rao entered carrying a cup of warm water.

“Do you want some water?”

“Put it on the bedside table. I happen to be thirsty.”

Jiang Yi lowered her legs from the bed.

The moment she raised her head, she saw the tightly closed wardrobe doors, and her heart became a complicated jumble of emotions.

“Jiang Yi, your period started.”

Song Rao had just set down the cup when she noticed a bloodstain on the mattress. She clicked her tongue in annoyance at herself.

“I forgot to remind you. I’ll get you a sanitary pad now. I remember they’re in the wardrobe, right?”

As she spoke, Song Rao walked over to open the wardrobe.

“Wait!”

Seeing Song Rao reach for the door, Jiang Yi had no time to think. Ignoring the injury to her foot, she threw herself forward.

But the movement did not merely knock Song Rao to the floor.

Before falling, Song Rao had already grasped the wardrobe handle with one hand, and the impact pulled half the door open.

There was no way Shen Siyun could fail to notice.

“Jiang Yi, are you all right?”

Song Rao loosely supported her. Her back was pressed against the floor, and the fall had hurt somewhat.

“I-I’m fine.”

Jiang Yi pushed herself up from Song Rao’s body and sat on the floor.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Shen Siyun inside the wardrobe.

The woman turned her head slightly and looked coldly down at her from above. Their gazes met.

Then, expressionless, Shen Siyun reached out and closed the half-open door.

Jiang Yi’s heart lurched violently.

She hurriedly raised her hand and covered the exposed section of Shen Siyun’s fair fingers, pretending that she was the one closing the door.

But in the few seconds before it shut, Jiang Yi’s little finger accidentally hooked around Shen Siyun’s long finger.