Copycat - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 

◎Mother’s Slap◎

Wen Jiao left at 4 a.m., when the sky was still a gloomy black. She arrived at Wen Yilian’s residence, where she could hear the man’s roars and the woman’s hysterics even through the door. It was a little funny because the building’s original doors were not soundproof, so Ren Jinggen, with a wave of his hand, had all the doors in the building replaced with soundproof ones to make it easier for them to argue. The new doors were effective, but not by much, because both of them had such loud voices.

When Wen Jiao was unlocking the door, the neighbor across the hall quietly opened their door a crack and beckoned to her. “Xiao Wen,” the neighbor said cautiously in a low voice. “Don’t go back yet. Your parents… are arguing pretty fiercely.” Wen Jiao smiled at her kindness. She had long been accustomed to the strange way Ren Jinggen and Wen Yilian interacted. The neighbor knew that was a rejection, shook her head helplessly, and quietly closed the door.

The smile on Wen Jiao’s face disappeared. She silently unlocked the door and stood at the entrance with her arms crossed. The two people arguing fiercely inside stopped what they were doing when they heard the door open. Both of them looked at her in surprise, as if they didn’t expect their daughter to come back at this hour.

“Are you done arguing?” Wen Jiao’s tone was a little annoyed. Her eyelids drooped, making her look listless. Seeing his daughter, the few strands of hair that had stood up on Ren Jinggen’s head immediately drooped. His tone softened, and he looked a little cautious. “We weren’t arguing, I was just chatting with your mom…”

No matter where these two people met, they always had a fixed routine. First, they would discuss whose fault it was back in the day, then they would talk about custody, and finally, when their conversation turned sour, they would start arguing. When their voices became hoarse, they would drink some water, go eat, and come back to continue arguing. Wen Jiao didn’t know how many times she had gone through this routine. In the beginning, she would feel a little emotional, but now it was a dead calm. Even if the two of them went to court again and never spoke to each other again, she wouldn’t even bat an eye.

Wen Yilian sat on the sofa, her chest rising and falling, as if she was angry. Ren Jinggen was wearing a suit and looked like a decent person, but he was actually a parvenu who wanted to have a gold chain embedded in his forehead.

“Yueyue,” Wen Yilian called her daughter by her nickname. She reached out her hand to hold her, but Wen Jiao dodged her and walked straight to Ren Jinggen, holding out her hand. “The money,” Wen Jiao said with an indifferent look and thin lips. Wen Yilian immediately stood up, her face cold and her eyes filled with anger. “Wen Jiao!” Ren Jinggen was flattered. He immediately handed the bank card with the highest denomination from his wallet to his daughter. He spoke quickly. “The PIN is your mom’s birthday.” He left very quickly, afraid that Wen Yilian would react, or that Wen Jiao would change her mind and give the money back. Wen Yilian had refused to take his money all these years.

“Wen Jiao, give the money back.” Wen Yilian walked to her daughter and reached for the bank card. Wen Jiao turned sideways to avoid her hand. Wen Yilian’s movements paused, and when she spoke again, she was angry. “Is this how I taught you, to just take other people’s money?!” Wen Jiao looked at her, her expression indifferent and showing no reaction to her words, but she also didn’t leave immediately.

Wen Yilian’s anger grew stronger. Wen Jiao had her bl00d in her veins, but she also had Ren Jinggen’s. In the way they handled certain things, the father and daughter were too similar, to the point that Wen Yilian would sometimes hallucinate her daughter as her ex-husband. The gentle and elegant mask she wore on a daily basis was torn off. Wen Yilian’s expression was fierce and fanatical, and she shouted hoarsely. “You just have to take that dirty money. No matter how I teach you, you’re exactly the same as that beast Ren Jinggen. I really regret giving birth to you. Without you, I wouldn’t have been trapped in this small county!”

Wen Yilian walked over and tried to snatch the bank card again. No matter how hard she tried to pry Wen Jiao’s hand open, Wen Jiao stubbornly refused to let go. The bank card left two deep, bloody marks on her palm, as if it was embedded in her skin. The burning anger mixed with a strong hatred for the past, and Wen Yilian slapped her. Wen Jiao hadn’t tried to dodge, but this time Wen Yilian used a lot of force. “Slap.” The fierce palm hit the delicate skin. A bloody handprint immediately appeared on Wen Jiao’s pale cheek, but she just stood there quietly, looking at her mother with an indifferent expression, as if she were looking at a stranger.

Wen Yilian’s heart trembled, and her expression was in a trance for a moment. Ren Jinggen’s shadow on Wen Jiao slowly faded, revealing her true appearance. Wen Jiao inherited the best features of both of them. Her eyebrows were like her mother’s when she was young, cold and proud. After snapping out of her rage, she reverted to being the gentle and elegant university professor she was, reaching out cautiously to touch her daughter’s face. “Yueyue, Mommy…”

“Has the retrial result been released?” Wen Jiao frowned and turned her face away with a look of weariness, as if she was tired of her mother’s unpredictable mood swings. Her ears rang for a moment. This made her frown even more, creating a deep vertical line between her eyebrows. She pushed the suitcase she had brought back from the dorm to the door and said coldly, “Did the judge change the verdict according to my request?” Wen Yilian was silent for a moment, her eyes complex. Her voice was muffled, with a hint of a sob. “…Yes, they changed it.” “That’s good.” Wen Jiao opened the door. “From now on, you’re free. There’s nothing that can hold you back.” The cold wind from outside rushed into the room, blowing Wen Jiao’s hair, and a few strands ran across her eyelashes, obscuring her expression.

The bedroom she had lived in for many years was empty, with only an old bed and a few worn-out chemistry books left, like sealed memories. Before she left, she said indifferently, “This time, you have no excuse to blame me anymore.” Wen Yilian’s tears suddenly fell. Wen Jiao turned and walked downstairs, vaguely hearing the woman’s suppressed sobs as she knelt on the floor, but this time, she didn’t look back.

A blizzard had sealed off the city. The temperature dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius, and elementary and middle schools had closed a day early. The streets were empty, and there wasn’t even a taxi. Wen Jiao carried her suitcase with one hand, stepping lightly and heavily in the thick snow. This was the street she had to take to get to school, and she had walked it countless times. However, after only a few years of not being back, many of the signs she was familiar with on both sides of the street were gone, and it had become an unfamiliar place. Everything was quietly changing. The past became blurred, as if it had never existed. This made Wen Jiao’s memories blurry as well. Her foot sank into the snow, unable to touch the bottom. She could only step out a footprint in the thick snow, stomping the soft snow down to form a path of human footprints. Everything around her was a vast expanse of white. No one had walked on the snowy road yet. She could only test it with each step, walking very slowly.

The city was too quiet under the blizzard, so when Wen Jiao heard her name, she almost thought that the slap from Wen Yilian had given her an auditory hallucination. It wasn’t until she heard the sound of footsteps in the snow that she suddenly looked up. She saw a small figure running toward her. It was Zhou Ziyan. She was wearing a scarf, and her skin was fairer than the snow. Her nose was red, and there were still sparkling water droplets on her eyelashes, smelling of melted snow. Wen Jiao was surprised. She had never brought Zhou Ziyan here, but the other person had still found her.

“How did you find this place?” she asked. Zhou Ziyan suddenly grabbed her hand, and the tip of her other hand’s finger carefully brushed against her cheek. Wen Jiao’s right cheek was numb, and she couldn’t feel any pain. She had even forgotten that she had been hit. However, Zhou Ziyan had noticed that something was wrong with Wen Jiao from a distance. She had run all the way here. “What’s wrong with your face? Did someone hit you?” “Who bullied you?” Zhou Ziyan’s words came out fast, and she was angry and anxious. Tears of distress were about to fall. Her imposing manner and red eyes made her look like an angry rabbit. “Who is she? I’ll go settle the score with her!” Wen Jiao thought that the word “rabbit” was a good description of Zhou Ziyan. She suddenly felt like laughing. As the corner of her lips began to curl up, the dull pain in her chest made her cough heavily.

Zhou Ziyan immediately held her, worried, and took the suitcase from her hand. The suitcase was heavy, filled with many books and clothes. She staggered and almost fell.

“Unit 13, fourth floor.”

Zhou Ziyan was stunned for a moment. “What?” Wen Jiao’s lips curled into a mocking smile, her tone a little nasty. “I’m saying the person who hit me lives on the fourth floor of Unit 13.” Aren’t you going to teach her a lesson for me? Aren’t you so in love with me that you’re willing to die for it? Go ahead. Wen Jiao saw Zhou Ziyan’s stunned expression and let out a cold laugh to herself. She snatched the suitcase that had sunk into the snow from her hand, left the person where she was, and walked forward in silence. She knew it was all a lie. She wouldn’t fall for a lie like that. The wind lifted the girl’s scarf, which fluttered in the air like a black and white flag. Wen Jiao walked alone in the heavy snow, a lone figure. The falling snow covered her shoulders. A few snowflakes fell on her cheek, melted into water droplets upon touching her hot skin, like tears. Zhou Ziyan stayed where she was, watching the back of the figure grow smaller, fainter, and eventually disappear into the wind and snow.

Ren Group, Province B.

“President Ren, here’s today’s schedule. There are three meetings you need to attend.” A man who looked like a secretary respectfully handed a document to Ren Jinggen. Ren Jinggen rubbed his aching forehead, his voice hoarse. “Push back all the ones that can be pushed back. Postpone the ones that can’t.” He had been too engrossed in the argument just now, and his voice had become hoarse again. The secretary nodded and stood to the side with the document. He booked a return flight and contacted the meeting’s负责人 on his phone.

Ren Jinggen suddenly let out a cold laugh. He took a box of throat lozenges from a drawer, peeled one open, threw it in his mouth, and chewed it loudly. The secretary was startled, thinking he had done something wrong. Ren Jinggen looked at the family photo on the table, staring at Wen Yilian’s gentle and serene face, grinding his teeth in hatred. He had spent money to hire a top team of lawyers, but they were all useless. Wen Yilian had rendered them speechless in court with just a few sentences. He didn’t win custody of his daughter and only got some useless money back. Money could be earned again. Would they have to give birth to another amazing daughter?

“President Ren, the meeting this afternoon…” The secretary’s tone was hesitant. Ren Jinggen lifted his eyelids and glanced at him, his tone as cold as ice. “Postpone it. Do I have to tell you a third time?” “We have an online meeting with ER Investment Bank this afternoon. You specifically instructed that we must cooperate with ER for this market acquisition.” “Oh, right.” “I was so angry at Wen Yilian that I almost forgot about ER.” Ren Jinggen laughed even louder. The somewhat neurotic cold laugh gave the secretary goosebumps. He stood next to him, trembling. Even after working together for a year and a half, he still had a hard time figuring out his boss’s sudden fits of madness. Ever since his divorce five years ago, his boss had been like this.

“The meeting will proceed as scheduled this afternoon,” Ren Jinggen said, his smile gone and his face cold. He opened the document with force, and his rough fingers crumpled the printed paper in a few seconds. The assistant quickly agreed. After a while, Ren Jinggen stared at the market acquisition plan provided by ER and ordered, “Tell ER that the head of the market acquisition department must attend the meeting.” The assistant immediately relayed his request to ER’s liaison. Ren Jinggen cracked his knuckles loudly, a cold smile on his lips. He wanted to see what kind of idiot the head of ER’s market acquisition department was.