Copycat - Chapter 18

Chapter 18 

◎Be With Me◎

Closing the car door and walking through the hotel lobby, a familiar figure brushed past Wen Jiao. A faint scent of grape fruit lingered at the tip of her nose. Wen Jiao’s steps paused slightly, and she turned to look at the woman’s hurried back, her gaze dark and contemplative.

The woman was wearing a long black down jacket that concealed her figure and a red baseball cap. Large, wide sunglasses covered the top half of her face. She was completely covered, only revealing her straight calves in leggings. She was pushing a large suitcase and walking quickly, like a temporary guest at the hotel who was in a hurry to catch a flight.

“Zhou Ziyan?” Wen Jiao frowned, tentatively calling out to the back. The person’s back stiffened, and her forward steps halted for a moment.

Wen Jiao’s eyes instantly turned cold. She walked over and somewhat roughly pulled away the hand on the suitcase. “Where are you going?”

Zhou Ziyan: “…”

Zhou Ziyan was silent for a while, trying her last resort. She squeezed her throat and said in a saccharine voice, “You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not Zhou Ziyan.”

Wen Jiao stared at her, and after a moment, she pulled off her sunglasses. The beautiful, moist almond eyes were exposed under the hotel’s bright incandescent lights. Zhou Ziyan’s eyes darted nervously.

“Come back with me.” Wen Jiao commanded in a cold voice. Zhou Ziyan didn’t move, but her shoulders trembled slightly, and she didn’t dare to look at Wen Jiao’s face, only staring at the hotel lobby floor.

As soon as Wen Jiao entered the hotel, the manager had come to greet her. Seeing the two of them at a standstill near the front desk, he quickly gave a look to a hotel staff member. The female staff member discreetly blocked Zhou Ziyan’s path and walked over to break the deadlock. “Miss Wen, please let me take your suitcase.” The staff member took the large suitcase and led the two of them to a private room on the first floor that was reserved for distinguished guests. “The elevator is being repaired. You two can rest in the private room first.”

“Thank you, you’ve been a great help.” Zhou Ziyan recognized the woman as the one who had sent her clothes this morning, so she gave her a friendly smile.

Wen Jiao frowned, her eyes shifting between the female staff member and Zhou Ziyan, finally settling on Zhou Ziyan’s radiant smile. She remained silent with a frown.

…

The private lounge.

“Click.” The moment they entered, the door to the room was locked.

Zhou Ziyan was stunned for a moment. Wen Jiao walked toward her with an unfriendly expression. She subconsciously took a step back, but the private room was small, and her back quickly hit the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat. The back of her head hit the wall hard, and Zhou Ziyan let out a muffled groan of pain.

“Hiss.”

Wen Jiao frowned slightly and raised her hand to protect the back of Zhou Ziyan’s head. “Am I some kind of monster that you’re so afraid of me?”

“Of course not…” Zhou Ziyan subconsciously defended herself. She looked up and met a pair of deep black pupils. The woman leaned forward, looking down at her, pinning her against the wall. Her aggressive gaze was fixed on her. The memory of last night came flooding back, and Zhou Ziyan nervously turned her face away, her cheeks flushed. Her voice became much weaker. “I really didn’t…”

“Then why did you try to run?”

Zhou Ziyan bit her lower lip. “I just don’t know how to face you…” After what happened last night, her first reaction when she woke up was to escape. She needed some time to calm down and rethink how to face Wen Jiao when she opened her eyes, and… what she should do if Wen Jiao rejected her because of it.

“Did you fall out of love with me?” Wen Jiao suddenly asked. Her beautiful eyebrows were furrowed, and her tone was very unfriendly.

Zhou Ziyan was stunned for a moment and couldn’t process the sudden shift in her thinking. Her hesitation seemed to annoy the young woman.

Wen Jiao leaned in closer, her leg pushing apart Zhou Ziyan’s tightly clasped knees. Her thin lips were so close they were almost touching Zhou Ziyan’s trembling eyelashes. Wen Jiao’s eyes were cold and her tone was detached. “Did you take a fancy to that female staff member?”

Wen Jiao was very close to her. Her intimate breath made every pore on Zhou Ziyan’s face tremble keenly. She could even feel the faint coolness coming from the other person’s collar. Zhou Ziyan’s Adam’s apple bobbed nervously. “What female staff member?”

“The one from just now. You not only talked to her, but you also smiled at her.”

Wen Jiao’s tone was very calm as she described the scene, but Zhou Ziyan could faintly hear a hint of resentment in it. She looked up at the slightly cold and pretty face with lowered eyes. It was hard to imagine that these words had come from Wen Jiao’s mouth.

“Are you jealous, Wen Jiao?”

Sensing the other person’s concern, Zhou Ziyan suddenly wasn’t so nervous or afraid anymore. She stared at those thin and beautiful lips and let out a chuckle.

“What are you laughing at?” Wen Jiao was so thrown off by her sudden laughter that she lost her temper. She let go of her hand on the wall, took a half-step back, turned her face away, and said in an awkward tone, “I couldn’t think of any other reason for you to run away.” When she was making her statement at the police station, she had sent Zhou Ziyan many messages, but they all went unanswered. Just now in the hotel lobby, Zhou Ziyan had also responded to the female staff member first and ignored her. In all the years they had known each other, this was the first time she had been treated this way by Zhou Ziyan, which led to a deep sense of self-doubt. Besides falling out of love with her, she couldn’t think of a second reason for her to run away after what happened between them.

“I didn’t mean to ignore you.” Zhou Ziyan stepped forward and took Wen Jiao’s hand that was hanging by her side. Her hand was so small that it wasn’t big enough to completely hold Wen Jiao’s palm. Wen Jiao’s fingers were long and slender, with a thin layer of calluses on her fingertips. The last time she held these hands was last night when their fingers were tightly intertwined. “I just…”

Zhou Ziyan paused and met Wen Jiao’s confused black eyes. She pursed her lips. “I just didn’t know how to face you, and I also don’t know…” how to tell you about the things happening in my family. Zhou Na had called her again this morning, not mentioning that she had been kidnapped at all, but only urging her to come back for the banquet that had been postponed for her. Even her own family was like this. Zhou Ziyan lowered her eyes, feeling a little dejected. “I’m sorry, Wen Jiao, for making you misunderstand. I didn’t ignore you on purpose.”

“I’ve caused you so much trouble these past few days. I was the one who insisted on going to the hot spring resort. We were targeted by robbers on the way because of my mistake. And even last night…”

“Stop.” The fingertips, as cool as jade, gently pressed against her lips, giving her a slightly cool sensation. Wen Jiao’s beautiful eyes stared at her, her expression gentle. Zhou Ziyan thought she was going to comfort her, but to her surprise, Wen Jiao said calmly, “So you know you’re a big trouble.”

Zhou Ziyan immediately lowered her head. “…I’m sorry.”

“Have you caused me too little trouble? Since freshman year, which problem have you encountered that I didn’t help you solve?”

Zhou Ziyan’s eyelashes trembled. “…I’m sorry.”

“You get bullied whenever I’m not around. Your family background is so good, yet you’re so soft-natured. Whenever you encounter a problem, all you know how to do is apologize.”

The corners of Zhou Ziyan’s eyes were red, and her eyes were glistening with tears. “…I’m sorry. I’ll leave now. I won’t be a burden to you anymore.”

“So, just stay by my side.”

Zhou Ziyan froze in place. A pair of slender hands lifted her chin. The thin calluses on the fingertips rubbed against her jawline. She saw that Wen Jiao’s lips had curved into a smile, and her beautiful peach blossom eyes were gazing at her with tenderness. “Does what you said at the cafe still count?” Wen Jiao asked with a smile. “Or is it too reckless, and you want me to pretend to need a few days to calm down before I bring up the matter of being responsible for you?”

Zhou Ziyan’s face was flushed, and she stammered, incoherently. “I-I…”

“What?”

Zhou Ziyan’s pupils were a little unfocused due to her excitement. The side effects of the drug were still affecting her body, and she was starting to feel hot again. “What’s wrong?” Wen Jiao frowned, her eyes filled with concern.

Zhou Ziyan shook her head. “I’m fine. It’s probably the residual effects of the drug in my body. I’ll be fine in a bit.” Wen Jiao was still worried about her. When faced with the choice of going back to the hospital for a follow-up or staying to observe her condition with cold water baths, they chose the latter.

…

The hotel room.

Zhou Ziyan buried herself in the bathtub. The coldness of the ice cubes relieved the agitation in her body. There was a gentle knock on the bathroom door, and she quickly got out of the cold water. “I’m in here!”

Wen Jiao’s hand paused slightly as she knocked on the door. “I’ve hung your clean pajamas on the doorknob. Are you okay by yourself?”

Zhou Ziyan’s cheeks were slightly red. “…I’m okay.”

Wen Jiao opened the door a crack, hung the cartoon pajamas she was holding on the doorknob, and quickly closed it. The person in the bathtub only saw a pair of pale hands and didn’t even catch a glimpse of Wen Jiao’s arms. Last night, she had tried to coax Wen Jiao to get in the bath with her, but Wen Jiao never agreed. Even in bed, Zhou Ziyan was naked, while Wen Jiao was fully clothed, using her fingers to help her with the pain. Zhou Ziyan felt a strange sense of regret, but instead of dragging her soft-hearted goddess down into the depths of lust, she preferred to see her goddess always remain high and mighty.

Zhou Ziyan dried herself off, put on her pajamas, and pushed open the bathroom door. A dry towel was placed on her head, and she was slightly stunned in place. Wen Jiao frowned, wiping her wet hair with the towel. “Why didn’t you dry your hair? What if you catch a cold?”

“Okay.” Zhou Ziyan said in a low voice. “I won’t do it again.”

When she was a child, she had a nanny who took care of her daily life, but after her mother passed away and her father remarried, the nanny who had always taken care of her was replaced. She could only do things in the most convenient way possible. After that, her half-siblings came into the family, and her status in the family plummeted. Besides the monthly payments from the trust fund her mother left her, the Zhou family gradually forgot about her existence.

“Are you just agreeing with everything I say?” Wen Jiao suddenly asked.

Zhou Ziyan was stunned for a moment and gave a fawning smile. “Why would I?”

Wen Jiao frowned and turned on the hair dryer’s hot air. Her brown hair was blown into the air by the wind. The faint grape scent of the shampoo wafted into the master bedroom of the presidential suite. Zhou Ziyan’s bare feet were on the carpet. She heard Wen Jiao’s calm voice. “You don’t have to smile when you don’t want to. I’m not so selfish that I need my lover to constantly suppress her emotions and smile for me.”