Chapter 49
At the City People’s Hospital, Jiang Yi lay silently in bed with an IV drip attached to her arm until the woman beside her finally left in disappointment.
The door opened and closed, and the clicking of high heels faded from her ears.
Jiang Yi still felt somewhat dizzy. After sleeping for half an hour, she vaguely saw a figure standing by the window, pulling the curtains closed to block the glaring sunlight.
As the curtains swayed, a ray of sunlight flashed across her face and woke her.
Jiang Yi raised a hand to shield her forehead.
She felt much better. The earlier dizziness, weakness, and overwhelming discomfort had mostly disappeared.
The figure remained concealed in the darkness beneath the curtains. Jiang Yi could faintly hear high heels moving and make out the outline of a graceful body.
“You’re awake?”
The voice sounded ninety percent familiar.
Only then did Jiang Yi see the woman clearly.
She blinked.
Her mind fell into a long blank, making her appear slightly dazed.
The woman walked over, pulled a chair toward the bed with one hand, and sat down.
She picked up a pear that had appeared on the table at some point, lowered her eyes, and began peeling it with quiet gentleness.
“I bought you some crystal pears.”
She spoke naturally to herself, her red lips looking unusually soft beneath the dim light.
Jiang Yi closed her eyes and carefully compared this woman’s voice with Shen Siyun’s.
Under normal circumstances, Shen Siyun’s voice carried a faint, cool quality like water flowing through high mountains.
This woman possessed the same foundation, but with an additional note of pride.
Jiang Yi was sensitive to voices and never forgot a tone once she had heard it.
However, because the two women looked so extraordinarily alike, she had previously overlooked the subtle difference between their voices.
“Here. I’ve finished peeling it.”
The other Shen Siyun held the crystal pear before Jiang Yi, signaling for her to take it.
Jiang Yi studied her without moving.
The stalemate continued for two or three seconds.
The woman’s dark eyes fixed on her.
“You refused to dance with me two days ago, and now you’re refusing my pear too… Jiang Yi, could you stop being angry with me?”
“Jiang Yi?”
The door suddenly opened.
Cen Ruo entered carrying a bag of medicine and froze when she saw the two women inside.
Jiang Yi turned toward her.
“You’re back, Cen Ruo.”
“Mm.”
Cen Ruo put the medicine on the table.
“The doctor said to remember to take it and keep yourself warm.”
Jiang Yi took out her phone, intending to transfer the cost of the medicine to Cen Ruo, but Cen Ruo declined.
Suddenly, the hand holding the phone was gently pressed downward.
The woman beside the bed spoke.
“You should still be reimbursed. Deduct it from the hundred thousand yuan I deposited at your shop.
“The two puppies don’t cost much anyway. Tell me whenever the balance runs out, and I’ll add more.”
Cen Ruo said nothing.
Jiang Yi stared at the other Shen Siyun for several seconds as though looking at a thief.
Then she turned toward Cen Ruo.
“Wasn’t that hundred thousand refunded?”
“She refused to accept it, so it remained in the shop. I became busy afterward and forgot to tell you.”
“…”
By the time the IV drip finished, it was already evening.
Cen Ruo returned to the shop, while Jiang Yi prepared to leave the hospital.
After briefly gathering her belongings, she noticed the basket of crystal pears on the table.
Her fingers paused.
The moment she opened the door, she ran directly into the woman returning.
The woman carried a food container.
Holding it up before Jiang Yi, she slowly said, “I made this myself at a nearby hotel.”
Jiang Yi looked at her in confusion.
The woman explained, “I paid for an entire day’s revenue so they would let me use the kitchen. Every ingredient is fresh. Would you sit down and try it?”
This woman’s extravagance surpassed even Shen Siyun’s.
Jiang Yi studied her for a long time.
Then, as though remembering something, she reopened the door and returned to the ward.
“Come in.”
Visible delight entered the other Shen Siyun’s eyes.
She carried the food container to the table and opened it with graceful composure, taking out each dish one at a time.
Finally, she placed a small bowl and a pair of chopsticks before Jiang Yi.
There were garlic-roasted ribs, stir-fried lettuce, beef braised with butter and tomatoes, and crystal pears cut into small pieces.
The fruit had been placed in a transparent glass container.
Because peeled pears oxidized and changed color easily, a thin layer of ice had been placed beneath them to maintain their freshness.
The few simple dishes did not look particularly impressive, but the care shown in every detail was obvious.
“There’s a river-lantern festival beside the Chouqing River tonight. Would you like to see it with me? Treat it as a chance to relax.”
The other Shen Siyun sat on a chair with her long legs crossed.
She took out her phone and skillfully instructed her secretary.
“Yes. Buy me two tickets for the Chouqing River lantern festival.”
After finishing, she told Jiang Yi about the event.
“The festival is fully sponsored by the owner of an amusement park. There’s a special ticket that allows you to use every attraction there.”
“They say the river lanterns look especially beautiful from the Ferris wheel, like a glittering band of stars.”
Jiang Yi put down her chopsticks and raised her eyes to that familiar face.
The words I don’t want to go lodged in her throat, but what emerged was something else.
“What time?”
The woman froze.
Seeing that Jiang Yi had eaten some of the food, the corner of her mouth curved slightly.
She checked her watch.
“It begins at seven and lasts until ten.”
…
A Maybach stopped beside the Chouqing River, drawing curious looks from many people.
The lantern festival had already begun.
Countless visitors bought lanterns of every shape and color, wrote wishes upon them, and gently released them into the water with hopeful expressions.
More and more lanterns gradually appeared in the river.
Their glow illuminated the stone banks and the faces of the people releasing them.
The lively noise forcibly dragged the city out of the silent night and into an atmosphere of celebration.
Not far away, a Ferris wheel several dozen meters tall turned slowly.
As their cabin rose higher, the view gradually opened.
The entire nightscape along the Chouqing River appeared beneath them.
The band of lights truly resembled a luminous galaxy, exquisitely beautiful.
Jiang Yi rested her chin on her hand and quietly watched the scenery below, enjoying the brief peace.
Shen Siyun had once taken her onto a Ferris wheel too, like an ordinary couple.
That had been the first moment their feelings crossed the boundary.
Both seemed to forget their identities as patron and lover and reached toward one another.
When their lips met, each saw uncontrollable emotion in the other’s eyes, spreading wildly through the cool breeze like weeds over an open field.
In the days that followed, neither of them pierced through that thin layer between them.
It was as though they had merely ignited a block of wood lying on level ground, then allowed the sparks hidden inside its cracks to burn steadily across the remaining timber.
Perhaps too much time had passed, or perhaps too many things had happened.
Looking back now, it felt like something from a previous lifetime.
After leaving the Ferris wheel, Jiang Yi felt cold.
The other Shen Siyun prepared to remove her coat and drape it over her.
“There’s no need. Let’s go back.”
Jiang Yi politely refused.
…
Over the following days, the woman continued inviting Jiang Yi out to relax.
Sometimes she pretended to encounter her by coincidence and walked part of the way home with her after work.
She even visited Jiang Yi’s parents, chatted with them, and taught them how to use their smart appliances.
One day, Jiang Yi’s period cramps became so painful that she sat down inside a café.
The other Shen Siyun said she had been discussing business with a partner nearby and had just finished when she happened to see Jiang Yi looking uncomfortable.
She asked the café staff to prepare a cup of brown-sugar water.
Jiang Yi glanced at the briefcase in her hand and suppressed the complicated emotions in her heart.
Her slender fingers touched the warm wall of the cup before she lifted it and took a small sip.
The temperature was perfect—neither too hot nor too cold.
The woman behaved like the most attentive girlfriend imaginable.
But when too many coincidental encounters occurred, they began to look deliberate.
She had come specifically for Jiang Yi.
The other Shen Siyun sat opposite her.
As though seeing through her thoughts, she sighed.
“You’ve probably realized over the past few days that I’m not her.”
There was no need to explain whom her referred to.
“Yes, I’m trying to replace my older sister.
“I possess all the abilities she has. Look at these company owners doing business with me. As long as both sides profit, no one cares whether the person sitting opposite them is the real Shen Siyun.
“Legally, my position as president is legitimate because I own the sixty percent of shares my sister sold.
“I didn’t force her to sell them to me. I paid real money for them.
“In truth, it wouldn’t have mattered who purchased them. Since she made the decision to sell, she should have prepared for the worst possibility—that Jiayu would change presidents.”
The woman took a sip of coffee.
“Allow me to introduce myself formally. My name is Shen Siyun—the Shen of the Shen family, the Si meaning ‘priest,’ and the Yun meaning ‘rue herb.’”
Jiang Yi lifted her eyelids, her tone cool.
“Then why are you treating me so well?”
“Because I want to prove I can do better than my sister.”
She was the perfect one.
Her sister was the defective product.
How could a defective product deserve such a wonderful girlfriend?
“There is no better or worse when it comes to feelings, Miss Shen.
“How you and your sister handle your affairs is none of my business. That is a matter for your family.
“But please stop using me as an experiment. She and I have nothing to do with each other anymore.”
Jiang Yi stood.
“Thank you for the brown-sugar water. I’ll pay for it myself.”
“Jiang Yi.”
The other Shen Siyun caught her slender wrist, her expression calm.
“You have nothing to do with her anymore, so why can’t I pursue you? Don’t I have the right to pursue love?”
Jiang Yi frowned at her.
“That person shouldn’t be me. We aren’t suitable.”
The woman stood, still holding Jiang Yi’s delicate hand as she leaned slightly closer.
“You’re unmarried, and so am I. I’m not seeing several people at once or entangled ambiguously with anyone else.
“Please don’t look at me through the same lens you use for my sister.
“We may look alike, but doing that is unfair to me.
“Jiang Yi, could we try?”
“People say you need to experience several relationships before you understand what kind of future you truly want.
“Most couples who eventually enter marriage don’t marry the person they love most, or the person who loves them most.
“They marry the person most suitable for them.”
Jiang Yi’s eyelashes trembled.
She remained silent for a long time.
The other Shen Siyun smiled.
“If discussing this without any emotional foundation makes it seem frivolous or unrealistic, then look at it differently.
“You can treat our meeting in this café today as a blind date.
“You happened to meet me, and I happen to think we seem compatible. We can try spending time together.
“If it doesn’t work, we’ll speak clearly and end it.
“Don’t worry. I won’t cling to you the way my sister does.”
Jiang Yi asked, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll treat you as a replacement for your sister?”
“If that’s true, it would only prove one thing.”
“What?”
“Judged according to your standards for choosing a partner, I’m more outstanding than my sister.”
…
At the same time, on the café’s second floor, Guo Qingqing supported Tan Yiqi as they approached the woman seated in a corner.
“Why did you ask us to come here, Shen Siyun?”
The moment Guo Qingqing saw her, she became furious.
Had it not been for that lover of hers surnamed Wen, Tan Yiqi would not have fallen out with her older sister, Guo Junya, and demanded a breakup.
Shen Siyun gestured for them to sit in the booth.
Seeing Tan Yiqi’s swollen, tear-filled eyes, she tightened her jaw.
“Yiqi, I knew nothing about what happened between you and Junya.”
They had known each other since childhood.
Although Shen Siyun was quiet most of the time and rarely joined them in gossip, she had never considered harming them.
She would certainly never use such a filthy method to destroy Tan Yiqi’s relationship with Guo Junya.
“Then how do you explain that woman surnamed Wen? How would an ordinary student dare sleep with my sister?!”
Perhaps Guo Qingqing’s voice was too loud, because several customers looked over.
She had no choice but to suppress her anger.
Tan Yiqi began crying again, forcing Guo Qingqing to hurriedly comfort her.
“Shen Siyun, say what you have to say. Can’t you see Qiqi doesn’t want to look at you?”
Guo Qingqing turned and glared at her.
Shen Siyun took out a recording pen and placed it before them.
“I wanted her money! She’s the president of Zhuorui Pharmaceutical. She’s kind and beautiful. I wanted to become her girlfriend!”
“That is the truth. Wen Zhaoyun said it herself.”
Shen Siyun stared heavily at them.
“If the two of you break up, you’ll have fallen directly into her trap.”
Guo Qingqing sneered.
“Shen Siyun, we aren’t that easy to fool.
“Do you think my sister would accuse you without evidence?
“She investigated the eight-million-yuan transfer received by that Wen woman. It came from someone surnamed Shen.
“And among all of us, only you—Shen Siyun—have that surname!”
Shen Siyun pressed her red lips together tightly, her slender fingers clenching around the recording pen.
“Qingqing, I didn’t transfer that eight million to her.”
“Even if you didn’t, someone from the Shen family did. Either way, your family cannot escape responsibility for this!”
Guo Qingqing angrily pulled Tan Yiqi to her feet.
“Qiqi, let’s go.”
Shen Siyun opened her mouth.
Her voice carried a trace of heaviness as she closed her eyes.
“Qingqing, Yiqi… You don’t believe me?”
“When a friend stabs you in the back, how do you expect anyone to keep trusting you?”
Soft music continued playing through the café.
A server approached.
“Miss, would you like anything else?”
“No. Bring the bill.”
Shen Siyun left the booth, paid, and headed downstairs.
The moment she reached the first floor, she noticed two figures in the corner from the edge of her vision—
And the hands clasped tightly between them.
A layer of frost instantly covered her eyes.
…
“Judged according to your standards for choosing a partner, I’m more outstanding than my sister.”
The other Shen Siyun nodded confidently, pride visible even at the corners of her eyes.
“Jiang Yi!”
A cold voice abruptly interrupted.
Before Jiang Yi could react, pain shot through her wrist as someone forcibly tore the other woman’s hand away.
“Shen Siyun?”
Jiang Yi looked up at the furious woman before her and pressed her lips together.
“What are you doing here?”
Shen Siyun glared coldly at her, then turned toward the counterfeit beside her.
The other Shen Siyun offered her a perfect smile.
“My dear older sister. We meet again.”
“Don’t call me your sister. I don’t have a younger sister.”
Shen Siyun sneered.
“Don’t think I haven’t discovered where you came from.”
The other woman raised an eyebrow.
“So Older Sister knows now… What can you do about it? I’m Jiayu’s president now.”
Her phone vibrated.
She picked it up and waved the screen toward Shen Siyun, her red lips curving with triumphant arrogance.
“Excuse me. One of Older Sister’s former business partners, President Luo, wants to discuss a deal worth hundreds of millions.
“If everything goes smoothly, I may even take Jiayu to greater heights.
“Older Sister, I don’t mind allowing you to become my shadow. I wouldn’t even object if you stayed home doing nothing. I can afford to support you.”
Before answering, she turned to Jiang Yi.
“When you’ve made your decision, we can begin.”
With that, she walked away on thin high heels while answering the phone.
The hem of her white suit swept sharply behind her.
They could even hear her smoothly greeting the caller.
“President Luo.”
Only Jiang Yi and Shen Siyun remained standing beside the café table.
Jiang Yi glanced at the sky outside, bent down to pick up her bag from the chair, and called a server over to pay the bill.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
Shen Siyun pulled her closer.
Jiang Yi’s smooth black hair swayed slightly, releasing an alluring fragrance.
“Why did she say you could ‘begin’? What are the two of you beginning?”
Shen Siyun rubbed her forehead.
The past several days had been terrible, one crisis arriving before the previous one had ended.
“Jiang Yi, don’t believe anything she says. She’s only a counterfeit. She isn’t my sister.”
“Say something, Jiang Yi.”
Seeing Jiang Yi merely stare at her coldly again, Shen Siyun lost control of the sarcasm escaping her lips.
“I’m the one who was in a relationship with you for two years, not her. You’d even want a counterfeit? What can she possibly give you?”
“Whatever happened to you is none of my business, Shen Siyun. I’m not interested either.
“But please don’t vent your negative emotions on me.”
Jiang Yi rarely looked so serious.
“I was your lover for two years, but that ended.
“Do you expect me to remain emotionally faithful to you for the rest of my life simply because we once had a patron-and-lover relationship?
“Now that your sister has appeared, you feel threatened, don’t you?
“Do you think I’ll behave as childishly as before and date her as your replacement merely to retaliate because you found a substitute lover?”
“Shen Siyun, let me tell you clearly.
“If that day ever comes, whether the person is your sister or someone else, she will not be anyone’s substitute.
“She will be someone I, Jiang Yi, truly need.”
For a long time, Shen Siyun could not speak.
She ran her tongue over her bright-red lips and let out a soft, mocking laugh.
“Jiang Yi, how long have you even known her? What did she say to brainwash you into defending her like this?”
Jiang Yi drew a deep breath, pulled free from her hand, and left behind a cold sentence.
“You’re completely unreasonable.”
But in the next instant, she was seized again.
The woman’s voice carried the coldness of the night.
“Jiang Yi, when two identical objects are placed on a table, anyone would instinctively compare them.
“You’re the judge, so you’ll try to be fair.
“But I’m the object being judged. Do you know what I want?”
“Favoritism.
“I want you to choose me without needing a reason.”
Shen Siyun smiled bitterly.
“I thought what we shared would tilt the balance in my favor.
“Have you ever considered that she only managed to climb onto the judging table by stepping on my shoulders?
“She entered this competition unfairly from the very beginning.”
“And what about you?”
Jiang Yi looked at her steadily.
“Would the favoritism you demand make your victory truly deserved?”
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