To Covet (GL) - Chapter 54

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t unsettled. I couldn’t associate someone who seemed, if not harmless, at least not outwardly anti-social, with the act of murder.

Gao Rui seemed satisfied with my astonished and stunned expression, so much so that I suspected her words were nothing more than a sensational fabrication to grab attention.

“How did you… kill him?”

Gao Rui was only fourteen when he died last year. My mind quickly flashed through cold cases I’d seen in various movies. Although Gao Rui was smart, my intuition told me her methods had nothing to do with the image of a criminal mastermind. I didn’t think such a fictionalized character should exist next to me.

“That’s not important.”

Just as the crucial part of the story was on her lips, Gao Rui withdrew her words. “If you want to tell Grandma and the others, it’s fine. Everyone in my family is well aware of what happened that day.”

I acknowledged with an “mhm.” I wasn’t a vigilante. I had no spare energy to preside over their family matters and pass judgment. I tried hard to look uninterested in the subject, though she certainly wasn’t fooled by the pretense.

“Yu Keyi, tell me, why did he and I end up like this?” Gao Rui sighed. “We were full siblings, but I had no feelings for him. He saw me as a rival for the inheritance. In the end, when he asked me for help right before he died, all I felt was a desire for him to just stop breathing, with no intention of saving him. I watched the seconds tick by, and then he really died.”

“Blood relation is only a small factor,” I peeled an orange. It was icy cold and sweet. “Incompatible personalities… that’s not something deliberate change can reverse.”

“What about you and Yu Zhouwan? Can you genuinely accept her? What exactly do you feel towards her right now?” Gao Rui suddenly changed the subject. “I know that you and Yu Zhouwan don’t share the same mother, and that not long after your mother passed away, he married his current wife. So, your father was chronically in a state of mutual cheating in both marriages, is that right?”

“Yes.”

Gao Rui’s focus on the blood relation actually relieved me.

The instant she asked the first question, my guilty conscience instantly put me on high alert, fearing she had discovered the boundary-crossing nature of my relationship with Yu Zhouwan. Although no matter how I analyzed it, the probability of that was currently zero.

“My mother probably knew while she was alive, but she didn’t have the power to bring my dad down. Her only option was to play ostrich, avoid reality, and wait out the two-year separation period to get a divorce.”

“Did she tell you all this?” Seeing me nod, Gao Rui pressed further, “And then?”

By the principle of fairness, since Gao Rui had laid out her past, I felt compelled to offer my secret in exchange.

“My mother always had a bad heart. Her myocarditis relapsed, got worse, and she died not long after.”

“Does Yu Zhouwan genuinely not dislike you?” Gao Rui leaned her arm on the railing, opening her mouth with a hint of sarcasm. “What you’ve done is considered disrupting her family.”

“I don’t care.”

Loose lips sink ships. I didn’t want to elaborate on my relationship with Yu Zhouwan. Outwardly, I just needed to act like a stranger sharing a roof and wearing a mask.

When I calmly reconsidered, the attachment Yu Zhouwan showed toward me and the budding possessiveness made me somewhat stunned.

Yu Zhouwan unhesitatingly accepted all the manipulation and treatment stemming from ill will, and she relished it, as if her fetish had been shaped and grown by it. This made me almost forget that my initial goal was to pull her down from her pedestal and make her suffer greatly, thereby making me feel I had successfully taken revenge on Shi Yunya and Yu Hanyang.

“I’m definitely leaving this place eventually, so I don’t want to be bothered by things that don’t matter. Whether she dislikes or accepts me isn’t important.”

“Keyi, I want to ask an offensive question,” Gao Rui’s lips curved, giving me a standard polite smile. “Have you ever genuinely doubted the cause of your mother’s death?”

“Rui Rui, she’s here.” The nanny rushed over. “You should go now. I’m afraid the old lady will start arguing with her.”

This “she” must be Gao Anqin. Sure enough, passing the living room, I heard Gao Anqin’s rapid-fire questioning. The old woman in the wheelchair was silent, her back to me, looking as if she had fallen asleep.

“I apologize for the scene. I have to deal with family matters first. I planned to have you stay for dinner, but it might not be convenient today. I’ll have the driver take you back.” Gao Rui brushed off invisible dust from her clothes. “See you tomorrow. I’ll treat you to whatever you want when we go to the winter camp.”

I repeatedly pondered the question Gao Rui left me with. I wasn’t a detective with connections and evidence. Regarding Yang Chun’s death, beyond the medical records from that year—which might have been burned long ago—I had no way to investigate.

“Where is your sister?” I got home around six. Usually, by this time, according to Shi Yunya’s rules, Yu Zhouwan should have been back long ago on days without classes, as she wasn’t allowed to stay out past dark.

“I don’t know. Weren’t you with her?” Shi Yunya put down her phone, looking very anxious. “Her phone isn’t answering either. I don’t know where she went. She’s been missing all afternoon.”

“She probably just went out for dinner with classmates. What’s the big deal about staying out a little longer? Don’t control the child so strictly.”

Yu Hanyang, however, was cheerful today, scrolling through short videos with his legs crossed.

Shi Yunya ignored him with a cold face. Yu Hanyang immediately realized he had said the wrong thing, so he turned his attention to me: “Keyi, why don’t you call your sister?”

I agreed, sent Yu Zhouwan a message asking “Where are you,” and was inwardly wondering why Shi Yunya was so anxious but hadn’t contacted her daughter. Yu Zhouwan suddenly sent a location, then retracted the fleeting message:

“Want to come find me?”

“No.”

I glanced at Shi Yunya next to me. She was anxiously making a voice call to someone else. Yu Hanyang, as always, was detached, turning the video volume up to max.

“Come home yourself. Your mom is looking for you.”

I washed my hands, peeling an orange while staring at my phone screen. Every time it lit up, I grabbed a piece of tissue to clean my hands before unlocking the screen and swiping down the notification bar. Without realizing it, the wads of tissue on the kitchen counter had piled up into a small mountain.

No key messages. App notifications and casual group chats kept coming one after another, pushing Yu Zhouwan’s small chat window to the very bottom.

I glanced at the two people sitting on the sofa, scrolling on their phones. I grabbed the peeled orange, quietly pushed the door open, and slipped out.

After finishing the orange and playing a couple of the small games included with WeChat, I arrived at the park indicated by the location pin.

Yu Zhouwan was sitting on the stone steps, a bouquet of flowers by her feet. If it weren’t for the fact that the park was mostly empty at this hour, I would have had a hard time seeing her clearly under the intermittent lights.

It was very windy on the slope. I sneezed several times.

“Come on, let’s go home.”

I thought Yu Zhouwan was unwilling to return because she had argued with Shi Yunya, but she didn’t procrastinate and immediately stood up.

“Why are you out so late?” I took off my scarf and threw it to Yu Zhouwan. The cold wind instantly made me wish I could shrink entirely into my down jacket.

She looked extremely tired. She took the scarf but only casually draped it over her neck.

I fumbled in the dark to tie an ugly knot for her.

“That’s not how you tie a scarf.” Yu Zhouwan stood under the streetlight and untied the scarf. “There are specific tutorials. Just search for one.”

“Of course I know how, I just can’t do it the other way around for someone else,” I stared at the flowers on the ground. “Where did you go?”

“A get-together with classmates. We had dinner, then hung out for a bit.”

“Oh,” I replied casually. “Then why didn’t you tell your mom? Did you guys argue?”

“Too lazy to say.”

Yu Zhouwan picked up the bouquet from the ground.

I scratched my face. I felt like that line sounded exactly like something I would say.

“What excuse are you going to use when she asks later? Say you were in an external study room and your phone was on silent, something like that?”

An excuse would be easy to concoct. I was just curious why she had run off alone to a park so far from home.