The Creator's Grace - Chapter 26

Chi Yu had always wanted to invite Zhou Yu out for a chat to test him face-to-face. She wanted to gauge his stance and find out how deep his entanglement with Ran Jin went—why he was so steadfastly standing by her side, completely refusing to consider other partners.

Unfortunately, it seemed Zhou Yu had no intention of giving her an opening.

Two days later, Qi Tong told Chi Yu that she had discovered a habit of Zhou Yu’s: he frequently dined at an Italian restaurant near his office. Having grown up abroad, Zhou Yu’s palate leaned toward Western tastes, and this restaurant was his favorite. Every other Wednesday, the restaurant’s head chef would introduce a new dish, which Zhou Yu insisted on being among the first to taste. He was guaranteed to show up.

Armed with this information, Chi Yu ate at the restaurant for several days and indeed ran into Zhou Yu. Observing him from the shadows, she noticed he was expressionless while eating and ate very quickly. After observing him for a few days, Wednesday arrived. Chi Yu arrived early and sat at the table adjacent to Zhou Yu’s usual spot, ordering some food and drinks while waiting for him.

When Zhou Yu arrived, he sat in his old spot as expected. Chi Yu stood up, walked to his table, and sat directly opposite him without a word. He was startled by the sudden appearance. Looking up and seeing it was Chi Yu, he spoke before she could even open her mouth:

“There’s nothing to discuss regarding the lunar orbit. I am definitely cooperating with Miss Ran.”

Chi Yu leaned back in her chair and asked, “May I know the reason you’ve chosen Ran Jin so resolutely?”

“No reason, I trust her character.” Zhou Yu’s tone was extremely unfriendly. He gave a mocking smile and added, “She isn’t like you—scum who plots and schemes to snatch things away from others!”

Chi Yu: “…”

Though she was insulted right out of the gate, Chi Yu didn’t walk away empty-handed. The Zhou Yu before her was radical and stubborn, and his expression was somewhat stunted—he didn’t seem like a smooth, tactful businessman at all. Furthermore, she thought to herself: What I want to take back is my family’s property. Since when did it become ‘someone else’s’?

Zhou Yu made no effort to hide his irritation at Chi Yu for ruining his appetite; he clearly didn’t want to stay a moment longer. Just then, a waiter brought over the cream puffs Chi Yu had casually ordered. Seeing Chi Yu sitting at the adjacent table, the waiter brought them over.

Zhou Yu glanced at the waiter, staring specifically at the puffs, and said, “I didn’t order this bread.”

The waiter smiled and said, “The puffs were ordered by the lady opposite you.” He then placed the plate in front of Chi Yu.

Zhou Yu’s expression looked uncomfortable for a split second. Chi Yu noticed this. After a brief frown, she said intentionally:

“I heard from Chu Wei that you love cream puffs, so I ordered one especially. Even if we can’t make a deal, we can still sit down and enjoy food we like.”

Hearing this, Zhou Yu sat up visibly straighter, appearing somewhat angry. His speech became fast, as if trying to cover up his guilt: “Well, I don’t want to eat them now.”

He stood up abruptly and left the restaurant.

Chi Yu had lied to him, of course. Chu Wei had never mentioned that Zhou Yu liked cream puffs; Chi Yu had ordered them for herself. Recalling the process of watching Zhou Yu eat over the last few days, his style could be described as “gobbling”—there was no sense of savoring or enjoying the meal at all. It was as if he were completing a task.

And this was his favorite restaurant.

Furthermore, why would someone who lived abroad for so long refer to a cream puff in his regular restaurant as “bread”?

Chi Yu touched the back of her hand to her lips, lost in thought.

After the class reunion, Chi Yu and Qi Tong maintained contact with Chu Wei. Chu Wei had her own business to attend to, and after several attempts to schedule a meeting, she finally found time to have a meal with them.

Chu Wei was still preoccupied with her husband’s abnormalities and intended to use this meeting to ask Qi Tong for help with an investigation. She hadn’t expected her two old classmates to have already taken her situation to heart and started looking into it. Chu Wei was about to thank them when she was stunned by a sudden statement from Chi Yu.

“Have you ever considered that the Mr. Zhou currently by your side might not be your husband, but someone else?” Chi Yu said. “Someone who looks remarkably similar to him.”

The expression on Chu Wei’s face turned visibly stiff. Her hand, which had been reaching for her water glass, stopped; she held the glass for a long time, forgetting to pick it up.

“Did you find something?”

Chi Yu told Chu Wei about her encounter with Zhou Yu at the Italian restaurant and the anomalies she noticed. “As far as I know, your husband grew up overseas and should be familiar with Western pastries, especially at a restaurant he frequents. When the puffs were brought out, he looked at them and called them ‘bread’… it doesn’t seem very logical.”

Listening to Chi Yu, Chu Wei’s shoulders shrank slightly. Her gaze remained fixed on Chi Yu’s eyes, unblinking. Her mind was racing at high speed, trying to link all the suspicious points and previously unnoticed details with what Chi Yu was saying.

Qi Tong followed up: “Even if it was just a slip of the tongue… Wei, haven’t you noticed that since your husband returned from Shanghai, his behavior in various interviews and public events has been very unprofessional and off? Do you know that he had an accident in Shanghai?”

As it turned out, Chu Wei wasn’t completely in the dark. “Actually, I looked into it. A car from his Shanghai branch hit a highway guardrail; the front of the car was completely totaled. Some say Zhou Yu was in it and was seriously injured. But others say he wasn’t, and it was his assistant in the car. The highway surveillance didn’t capture it, so I don’t have definitive proof. But he was only in Shanghai for about two weeks, and when he came back, I saw no scars on him at all. It didn’t look like he’d been in such a severe accident.”

Qi Tong and Chi Yu stopped eating and drinking, focusing entirely on her.

Chu Wei continued: “I’m not afraid of you laughing at me, but since he returned from Shanghai, we haven’t had an intimate life as a couple. Most of the time he sleeps in the study, saying there’s too much work at the company and too many programs to attend, and he has no time for me. Occasionally, when we lie in the same bed, his perfunctory attitude is sometimes so bad he doesn’t even bother to hide it. Once, I even saw a look of disgust in his eyes that he couldn’t hide in time. He really… I feel like he hates me, loathes me. And there’s this… feeling I can’t quite describe, as if we are strangers who have never met.”

“You suggested he might be someone else. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it—like in those movies where someone is replaced by an identical twin they never knew they had, or swapped with someone who had plastic surgery to look exactly like them.”

Qi Tong was about to say, “Then he’s definitely been swapped,” but after saying all that, Chu Wei added: “But I can be one hundred percent certain that he is still him. He hasn’t been replaced.”

Qi Tong blurted out, “Why?”

In Chu Wei’s sorrowful eyes, a rare sense of certainty appeared. “Because he is allergic to peanuts.”

Chi Yu roughly guessed what Chu Wei was about to say next.

“First, I ruled out the possibility of a twin. No matter how similar twins are, there will be differences; it’s impossible for them to be identical to the point where even I, his wife, couldn’t tell. Then there was the other possibility—plastic surgery. I heard modern surgery is amazing and can be precise down to the millimeter. But then I thought: a person can have surgery to look like him, but they can’t change his allergic constitution. I suspected he was cheating before, but then I read a novel that inspired me—I thought being swapped was more likely than cheating. To find the truth, I put peanut butter into his breakfast. As I watched him eat it, I hoped so much that he wouldn’t react, that nothing would change, because that would prove this man who was suddenly cold to me wasn’t my husband. But… to my despair, he really had an allergic reaction after eating it. He broke out in the exact same red rash he always gets.”

At this point, Chu Wei’s shoulders slumped powerlessly. “Besides, aside from the face, his physique is identical. So I’m sure it’s him, it’s Zhou Yu. He is still the same person; it’s just that his heart has changed.”

By the end of the meal, Chi Yu and Chu Wei had barely eaten a few bites. The things discussed were too bizarre, leaving them in a nightmare-like state of confusion they couldn’t wake up from. Qi Tong, on the other hand, didn’t want to waste anything and ended up eating until she was stuffed to the gills.

“We will continue to investigate Mr. Zhou,” Chi Yu said on behalf of Qi Tong before leaving. “If there’s any news, we’ll contact you immediately.”

Chu Wei’s thoughts were still a bit muddled, and her smile was forced. “Mhm, thank you for listening to me. I’ve been so stressed lately, keeping everything inside. You’ve probably heard, but the Zhou family is at a very critical stage. Any little rumor about Zhou Yu could kill the company. His father even came to see me while on an IV drip, hoping I could keep helping him. His father has always been good to me, so… sigh! If you find anything, please don’t make it public. Just tell me. I’ll pay double.”

Upon hearing this, Qi Tong—who had been clutching her stomach and groaning—suddenly had a glint in her eye. Alright, with that sentence, I have motivation again!

Chi Yu comforted her for a bit. Chu Wei smiled at Chi Yu and said, “I will do my best to help you secure the lunar orbit from Zhou Yu’s side. I hope my words still carry some weight.”

Even wandering through the fog, Chu Wei was still sharp; she had known Chi Yu’s intention all along.

Chi Yu watched her car drive away, her long hair suddenly whipped up by the cold wind. Dense snow began to fall, quickly blanketing the city in a layer of dazzling silver-white. As she sat in the car, Qi Tong was babbling about something, but Chi Yu didn’t hear a word of it. The city neon covered by snow felt like an endless phantom.

“I’m going to work at the Chi Group.”

Qi Tong was just saying she planned to assign a staff member to monitor Zhou Yu’s every move twenty-four hours a day when Chi Yu made the sudden announcement.

“Ran Jin was right.” Chi Yu leaned back against the seat tiredly, her head turned to the side, her long wavy hair framing her face and obscuring her expression. “Right now, I am no different from my uncles. All these years I’ve focused only on my specialty and know nothing about Sister’s business. I don’t understand the Chi Group at all. Even if Ran Jin handed the group to me, I’d likely mess it up.”

Chi Yu gave a self-mocking smile and said, “If I were Zhou Yu, I would also choose to cooperate with Ran Jin rather than an amateur.”

Qi Tong said, “My Sister Yu really does have high self-awareness. Going to work at the Chi Group is a good idea, but… what are you going to do? Like you said, you have no concept of the energy industry. How are you going to work?”

Chi Yu had already made up her mind. “As Ran Jin’s assistant.”

Qi Tong: “…Assistant? Hey, that’s a great idea. Being her assistant means you can learn from her, and you can track her movements and the people she contacts. It might even help with your sister’s case.”

Chi Yu gave an “Mhm.” “That’s what I was thinking.”

“But wouldn’t that expose her personal schedule? And once you’ve untangled the inner workings of the group, wouldn’t that give you more leverage to replace her? Do you think she’ll agree to it?”

Chi Yu glanced sideways and said, “She has to agree, whether she wants to or not.”

Having found a clear direction, Chi Yu didn’t toss and turn in bed that night and fell asleep early. The next morning, she arrived at the 18th floor of the tower. The receptionist immediately came forward and said, “Young President Chi! President Ran hasn’t arrived yet.”

“I’m not looking for her,” Chi Yu said. “Where is President Ran’s assistant?”

“President Ran’s assistant? Oh, oh! I’ll call Xiao Zhang over right away.”

“Call HR too.”

“Alright…”

Xiao Zhang, who hadn’t even had a sip of water yet, and the HR representative, who had been hounded by phone calls at the parking lot, were led into Ran Jin’s office by the receptionist. The two pushed the door open to find that the face sitting behind President Ran’s desk was not the familiar one.

By the time they emerged from the office, they were still in a daze.

“Then…” HR said to Xiao Zhang, “you go to the Planning Department for now? I’ll talk to the higher-ups and see how this situation should be handled. But since the Young President Chi has spoken, it should…”

Chi Yu held shares in the company and was a major shareholder. Coupled with recent events, HR could sense the board’s leaning toward Chi Yu.

“What’s going on?”

Halfway through their conversation, Ran Jin appeared at the end of the hallway. It was exceptionally cold today; Ran Jin was in her standard black suit, with a knee-length wool trench coat of the same color over it. A royal blue cashmere scarf was wrapped around her neck, making her fair face look even more crystalline amidst the black clothes and hair.

HR repeated what Chi Yu had just told them.

Ran Jin was silent for a moment, then said, “Go back to your work for now.”

With President Ran giving the order, HR and Xiao Zhang could only head toward the Planning Department first. On the way, Xiao Zhang looked back and saw Ran Jin entering the office. Xiao Zhang recalled the countless times she had lived in fear under the strictly serious Ran Jin and thanked the Young President Chi from the bottom of her heart for rescuing her from that misery.

Ran Jin pushed the office door open to find Chi Yu misting the pothos plant in the corner. Hearing the sound of the door, Chi Yu didn’t look at Ran Jin. “You’re quite something—you even managed to make a pothos wilt. How long has it been since you watered it? Or have you never watered it at all?”

Ran Jin had indeed forgotten. She had been too busy lately, and she had kept her assistant Xiao Zhang running off her feet. Furthermore, no one dared enter her office except for thorns like Chi Yu, so this poor pothos had been drooping for some time.

“I heard you want to be my assistant.” Ran Jin unwrapped her scarf. “And you transferred Xiao Zhang to the Planning Department?”

“Mhm.” Chi Yu set the spray bottle down and turned around, propping one hand on the desk. “That’s right, President Ran. From today on, I am your assistant.”