The Creator's Grace - Chapter 31

Despite the intense emotional upheaval in the parking lot, Ran Jin and Chi Yu both managed to regain their composure quickly before going upstairs to see Dong Ling. They didn’t revisit the topic that Ran Jin refused to speak about and Chi Yu couldn’t pry open.

Before entering Dong Ling’s office, Chi Yu observed Ran Jin quietly for a moment and then pulled her into the restroom.

The women’s restroom in the STAR Tower was consistent with the building’s aesthetic, featuring a dedicated vanity area. Since it was during office hours, the spacious and bright vanity room was empty, filled only with a light fragrance and soft music.

Ran Jin thought Chi Yu was going to ask more about Chi Li, but just as she was about to speak, Chi Yu asked, “Do you have anything to touch up your makeup?”

“Touch up? No.”

Most of the time, she only wore simple, light makeup. She didn’t enjoy looking at her own face in the mirror for long periods, so she didn’t know much about makeup and didn’t care to learn.

Chi Yu knew Ran Jin’s makeup skills were indeed mediocre, but her face was truly a “gift of creation.” Without embellishment, the incredible quality of her bone structure was highlighted, and her features were flawless. Her inherent coolness and sense of detachment gave her beauty a high level of distinctiveness.

Chi Yu curled her lips slightly and whispered, almost as if talking to herself, “People who are naturally beautiful can truly be reckless.”

Ran Jin: “Hm?”

Chi Yu pulled a makeup bag out of her clutch. “Your makeup got smudged by me earlier. Should I touch it up for you? Otherwise, when we see Dong Ling, they’ll think the Chi Group is too casual.”

Ran Jin wanted to say something, but Chi Yu’s fingertip was already propping up her chin. “Don’t worry, this is brand new; I haven’t used it yet.”

Ran Jin didn’t speak further.

Chi Yu gently patted the powder puff onto her face. The shade seemed correct; Ran Jin’s already delicate skin appeared supple under the vanity lights. Because they were so close, Ran Jin kept shifting her gaze elsewhere. When the eyes move, the face tends to follow instinctively.

Every time she moved, Chi Yu would lift her chin slightly. “Don’t move.”

“Mhm…” Ran Jin straightened her back, silently taking a deep breath.

As that breath settled, Chi Yu noticed that Ran Jin, who had been trembling slightly, finally suppressed her nervousness.

Thinking back to that night at the Mulan Club, Ran Jin’s tongue had carried the fruity aroma and tannins of red wine during the kiss—Ran Jin had been drinking before she arrived. Though she didn’t know how much, Chi Yu knew exactly how low Ran Jin’s alcohol tolerance was.

Did she need liquid courage for that kind of thing?

The dominant version of her from that night and the one currently being obediently pinned here for a makeup touch-up felt like two different people. And this Ran Jin was the one she was familiar with.

“Open your mouth a little.”

Ran Jin hadn’t expected Chi Yu to say that. Her eyes shifted, and she found Chi Yu even closer to her, gazing at her with an unprecedented, very adult look in her eyes. Her recently straightened back suddenly stiffened; Ran Jin was locked in by Chi Yu’s gaze.

A pang of bitterness rose in her heart, sparking an uncontrollable impulse. She hunched her shoulders and let out a small sneeze.

Chi Yu raised an eyebrow. “What happened? Luckily I pulled my hand back in time, or the lipstick would have streaked across your face. Keep your mouth open.”

Instinctively obeying, Ran Jin parted her lips slightly.

Seeing Ran Jin’s gaze deepen and her ears turn a vivid red, an unrevealed emotion couldn’t help but surge in Chi Yu’s chest. Suppressing the itch in her dry throat, Chi Yu applied the lipstick to Ran Jin’s lips, which only had a layer of balm on them.

The maple red slowly covered Ran Jin’s nearly line-free lips, moisturizing them, deepening the color, and making them look even more tender. Chi Yu used her fingertip to gently smudge the color at the edges, blurring the boundaries to create a natural, soft gradient effect.

Ran Jin, no longer knowing where to look, kept her eyes closed throughout. Deprived of sight, her sense of touch became even more sensitive. When Chi Yu’s fingertip touched her lips, the contact was so foreign that she instinctively tried to pull back.

But her chin was still held by Chi Yu; as she moved, Chi Yu gave her a light pinch to steady her.

“Don’t pull away,” Chi Yu whispered. “If you move, the makeup I just fixed will be ruined again.”

As Chi Yu applied the lipstick, she accidentally noticed a fresh and startling wound on the inside of Ran Jin’s lip. Chi Yu frowned and asked, “Did you bite that yourself?”

It was the wound Ran Jin had left earlier in the parking lot to control her emotions; she had bitten down quite hard. To her, it was a trivial matter, so she simply gave an “Mhm.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?” To see the severity of the wound, Chi Yu used the lipstick to press Ran Jin’s lower lip down slightly. “Look, it’s bleeding.”

“It doesn’t hurt…” Ran Jin felt like the lipstick was an extension of Chi Yu’s body, constantly brushing her lips and stirring her heart, threatening to bring back the aching emotions she had finally suppressed.

Unable to let this continue, Ran Jin was forced to raise her hand, grabbing a corner of Chi Yu’s clothes and pulling down slightly. “Does touching up makeup take a long time?”

Chi Yu let out a breath of laughter.

Is she acting spoiled with me?

“It won’t be long. Almost done. Bear with it a bit more.”

Ran Jin’s face was in Chi Yu’s hands, being adorned at her whim. When Chi Yu finally said, “All done,” and moved her hand from her chin, Ran Jin could finally open her eyes.

Seeing that Ran Jin was about to leave without even glancing in the mirror, Chi Yu was curious. “You’re not going to look?”

Ran Jin said, “Since you did it, it’s definitely good. No need to look.”

Chi Yu: “…”

Back when Chi Yu and Ran Jin lived together, Chi Yu was busy studying, making friends, and being rebellious. Most of the time, she simply enjoyed the pampering of her sister and Ran Jin; as a teenager, she rarely paid attention to the elders in the house. Today, as Chi Yu paused everything else and turned her attention back to the family she lived with, she discovered many details she had never noticed before.

Perhaps her sister wasn’t the perfect sister she imagined, and Ran Jin had many habits and behaviors that puzzled her.

After finishing the makeup, Ran Jin and Chi Yu followed Dong Ling’s secretary to his office.

Dong Ling was nearly fifty, tall and thin, and looked very energetic. He wasn’t wearing a stiff suit like Ran Jin but rather a light gray sweatshirt. Seeing them enter, he showed no pretension and immediately came forward to shake hands. When he shook Chi Yu’s hand, his expression was serious and solemnly silent; Chi Yu understood instantly that he was paying respects for her sister’s passing.

Afterward, to lighten the mood, he specifically complimented Ran Jin’s makeup. “I didn’t expect this. I’ve seen Miss Ran so many times, but this is the first time I’ve seen you with such vibrant makeup. Well, not vibrant exactly—it’s actually quite fitting. Your previous makeup was just too light. Was this the Young President Chi’s suggestion? You look much healthier.”

Whether it was Dong Ling’s exceptional observation skills or a lucky guess, Ran Jin smiled a bit unnaturally before quickly getting down to business.

Just as Chi Yu expected, Ran Jin had come to Dong Ling for the lunar orbits. As they talked, Dong Ling’s gaze occasionally shifted to Chi Yu. Given his status, it was impossible for him not to know about the recent friction between Chi Yu and Ran Jin; he naturally understood that the audit of the three orbits Ran Jin was desperate for was tied to Chi Yu.

Wasn’t Ran Jin here today specifically to talk about that? So why was the Young President Chi here too?

Dong Ling probed with his words, and Ran Jin didn’t hide anything, openly revealing the truth—that Chi Yu would be taking over the Chi Group in the future. Hearing this, Dong Ling’s thick eyebrows rose for a long moment before settling.

“The Chi Group has indeed had many changes lately,” Dong Ling sighed, looking at Ran Jin. “There will certainly be some adjustment issues with the transition. If there are any difficulties, just speak up. STAR and the Chi Group are interdependent and grew up together; we’re practically family.”

Dong Ling’s eyes crinkled into slits when he smiled, making one think of a sly fox from a cartoon. He added, “However, regarding the lunar orbits, we still need to have a good talk.”

Lunch was on Dong Ling at the restaurant on the top floor of the tower. While enjoying the blue sky and floating clouds, they negotiated the price of the lunar orbits.

Leaving the STAR Tower and sitting back in the car, Chi Yu said unpleasantly, “That Dong Ling is taking advantage of the situation, isn’t he? What kind of astronomical price was that?”

When it came to the price of lunar orbits, few understood it better than Chi Yu.

Ran Jin leaned against the car seat and pinched the bridge of her nose. Throughout the conversation with Dong Ling, her focus had been intense—trying to secure the best price while also ensuring Chi Yu understood the key points. In truth, she hadn’t slept well last night either; her head had been throbbing since morning. A painkiller had suppressed it for a while, but it was starting to hurt again.

Ran Jin closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, her lids were heavy and layered, giving her a slightly drowsy, muddled look.

Ran Jin said, “His price isn’t actually high; it’s quite reasonable.”

Chi Yu was silent for a moment, then said, “The three orbits you bought before will be unblocked once the three-month audit period is over. All things considered, it’s more sensible to wait those three months.”

Ran Jin looked at her with surprise.

“What?” Chi Yu met her gaze.

“I thought…”

Chi Yu said flatly, “My original plan was to revise the benchmark values for the orbits within these three months. By the time your orbits finished their audit, they would have entered another round of audits due to insufficient precision, blocking you for another three months. Over half a year, it would have become a very thorny issue for you. Even if you wanted to use the entire Group’s strength to fix it, the board would certainly give you trouble.”

After hearing this, Ran Jin wasn’t angry; instead, she felt a sense of relief. “I underestimated you. I thought you were still just a student in an ivory tower who wouldn’t know much about business competition. I didn’t expect your first move to make me stumble so hard. Even now, I’m still scrambling because of the lunar orbits.”

“It’s also because you weren’t on guard against me that I succeeded. For anyone else, your iris wouldn’t have been copied.”

Thinking of the night Ran Jin lost control upon seeing Chi Yu covered in blood, the two fell into silence once more. But this silence was different from before. Previously, their silence was a dark surge of tension at the end of a conversation; this time, the silence carried a hidden, fermenting softness.

Ran Jin was the first to break the silence—a rare occurrence. “The lipstick is a bit sweet.”

“Yeah, this brand of lipstick is a bit sweet.”

“It’s a peach scent.” Ran Jin lightly pursed her lips, tasting it. “Xiao Yu, you’ve always liked peach-flavored things.”

Hearing this, Chi Yu realized she did indeed have a preference for peach. Since childhood, she had loved peach juice; whenever she bought anything that had a peach flavor option, she would subconsciously choose it.

“And your mental math is very fast,” Ran Jin continued. “You calculated which orbit was more cost-effective so quickly.”

Chi Yu could tell Ran Jin seemed to be in a good mood. She smiled and said, “Of course. It’s how I make my living.”

The month and a half since her sister’s passing felt longer than a year. Chi Yu felt as though it had been a very long time since she had simply chatted with Ran Jin like this.

The way back was also very congested, and the driver drove slowly. The warm car and relaxed nerves allowed drowsiness to quickly capture Ran Jin, and she fell asleep unconsciously. Initially, she was leaning against the seat back, but at a turn, her body leaned uncontrollably onto Chi Yu’s shoulder.

Chi Yu felt the slight weight on her shoulder, which woke her up a bit from her own drowsiness. Ran Jin was breathing evenly, in a deep sleep. The driver glanced back and said, “President Ran actually fell asleep. That’s rare; in the past, no matter how tired she was, she could never sleep in the car.”

Chi Yu didn’t speak. She looked down at Ran Jin’s dark hair, a few strands of which were brushing against the smooth skin of Chi Yu’s neck, making her itch.

Ran Jin has no guard against me.

Chi Yu thought: If she were the killer who murdered my sister, why could she be so careless around me? Last time I got her drunk so easily and almost strangled her with my own hands, and now, she’s leaning on my shoulder, sleeping so peacefully.

Recalling how she used to always lounge on Ran Jin’s lap, using her thighs as a pillow, Chi Yu didn’t sleep. She forced her eyes open, sat up straighter, and let Ran Jin lean more comfortably…

Ran Jin went to a meeting and hadn’t returned by seven in the evening; the entire 18th floor was working overtime. Chi Yu went to ask Xiao Zhang which takeout was good. Xiao Zhang and Xiao Yang, who was sitting nearby, immediately provided recommendations for the best-rated takeout within five kilometers.

Xiao Yang said excitedly, “Young President Chi, are you treating us?”

Chi Yu looked at the recommendations on her phone. “Yeah. how many people are working overtime on the 18th floor tonight?”

Xiao Yang grew even more excited. “Is the Young President Chi treating everyone to dinner?”

Chi Yu gave her a sweet smile and an “Mhm.” That smile was like dropping a grenade into Xiao Yang’s heart—with a boom, her face turned red.

Chi Yu asked, “Does anyone have dietary restrictions?”

Xiao Zhang, Ran Jin’s former assistant who secretly disdained Xiao Yang, said, “Just as long as you don’t order from that Sichuan place.”

Chi Yu was startled. “Why?”

She had ordered from that place for more than half of her meals lately. Aside from the first day when she had no appetite, she had compared several others and found that none had as good a presentation as the Sichuan place, so she bought from them often.

Being asked, Xiao Zhang realized she had spoken too fast. She immediately said, “It’s nothing.”

Chi Yu sensed her awkwardness, put down her phone, and pressed for an answer. Xiao Zhang, intimidated by the questioning, could only tell the truth. “President Ran… she doesn’t really like that place. It’s likely too greasy; she feels nauseous every time after eating it.”

Chi Yu found it even stranger. Every time she brought back takeout from that Sichuan place, Ran Jin would eat it all. Recalling how Ran Jin made an effort to eat each time, Chi Yu’s heart skipped a beat.

Ran Jin happened to return from her meeting, talking to someone nearby. Her gaze unintentionally flickered toward Chi Yu and found her leaning against Xiao Zhang’s desk, looking back at her. After saying a few words to the person beside her, Ran Jin walked over.

“Come here.” Chi Yu called her into the office.

“I didn’t know you couldn’t handle that Sichuan place,” Chi Yu said. “I really didn’t mean to buy something you don’t like.”

Ran Jin thought she was going to say something else and had been very serious on the way in; she hadn’t expected it to be this. Ran Jin smiled and said, “It’s fine. I’ve gotten used to it lately; I don’t think it’s bad.”

Chi Yu stared at her for a moment, recalling that in all these years, she had never seen Ran Jin refuse her anything. No matter what she asked, Ran Jin would only ever say “okay.”

“Why?” Chi Yu gripped the outer edges of her shoulders. “Why do you have to ‘get used to it’? You could have told me you don’t like it.”

Ran Jin was stunned by Chi Yu’s words. Suddenly, the pain of glass cutting her mouth stabbed out of her memory. Along with that person’s words:

“Everything I give you, everything this world gives you, you must swallow. You like it or you don’t—does anyone care? You don’t deserve to pick and choose anything; remember that, no matter what.”

That sentence had been locked in Ran Jin’s heart from beginning to end, becoming the shard of glass forever piercing her mouth in her memory—it couldn’t be pulled out, and it would never heal.

Ran Jin’s face turned pale, and she broke away from Chi Yu. Chi Yu felt a pang of pain in her wrist from the sudden force and failed to hold her. Ran Jin pushed the office door open and quickly disappeared down the hallway.