Copycat - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

◎Arranged Marriage◎

Zhou Ziyan was driving when she received a call from Zhou Na, telling her to return to the old mansion immediately. She hesitated for a moment but ultimately drove the car back to the villa.

At the Zhou family’s mansion.

Zhou Ziyan parked the car in the garage. As soon as she opened the car door, she saw Zhou Shansheng standing at the entrance with a cane, staring directly at her as if he had been waiting for a long time. She was startled and hurried over. “Grandpa, why are you out here?” Her attitude was respectful, fulfilling all the necessary formalities for her elder, but there was a lack of a younger person’s intimacy towards an older one.

Zhou Shansheng was the head of the Zhou family. He was in his sixties, and his weathered face had many new, deep wrinkles. His hair was white, but his eyes were as sharp as an eagle’s, giving a glimpse of his youthful demeanor. Zhou Shansheng was a serious person, and his attitude towards Zhou Ziyan was neither warm nor cold. When he saw her run over, he just glanced at her and walked into the house with his cane. Zhou Na gave her a look, and Zhou Ziyan quickly followed behind her, walking into the house.

Inside, everyone was gathered, with cups clinking. The Zhou family was a large and prosperous clan. With all the branches, there were a total of a hundred people, plus the many side branches that had married into the family. They were a powerful family in City A. Although the family was prosperous, there was a lot of deceit and scheming among the different branches. These people would only restrain their treacherous nature as businessmen and pretend to be a loving family during festivals and holidays at the old mansion. Zhou Ziyan was secretly surprised when she entered and wondered what day it was that could bring all the relatives from different branches together. She didn’t pay attention to family matters, so most of the faces were new to her. Not only were there people from the Zhou family, but there were also representatives from other families.

As soon as Zhou Shansheng sat down, the noise in the room stopped abruptly, and all eyes turned to the main hall. Zhou Ziyan took the teapot from the butler and warmed the cups for her elder. She looked obedient, and to anyone who saw her, she was a flawless granddaughter.

“Grandpa, here you are.” Zhou Ziyan was hunched over, holding the teacup. “Hmm.” Zhou Shansheng’s voice was deep, and he finally showed a hint of satisfaction.

After warming the tea, Zhou Ziyan wanted to find a corner to hide in, as usual, until the banquet was over. However, no matter where she went, people would come up to her and talk to her, and they were all compliments. They praised her from head to toe, and some even invited her to their homes to chat. Zhou Ziyan smiled and socialized while her heart pounded. She knew these people too well. Their family’s habit of fawning over the powerful and trampling on the weak was a family tradition. Her great-great-grandfather got rich by siding with the right person. There must be a reason for this sudden kindness. For her, a neglected youngest daughter, to receive this kind of fawning treatment, something must have happened.

Zhou Ziyan saw off the guests who had come to be polite and scanned the crowd, looking for Zhou Na, who had called her home. Zhou Na was standing not far from her, and with her were Zhou Cheng and a tall, unfamiliar man. The three of them were laughing and chatting happily. Zhou Ziyan moved around while chatting with people and finally found a good angle to see the man’s face. She was startled. To her dismay, the moment Zhou Ziyan looked at him, the man looked back. After seeing her, his expression was clearly stunned for a moment, but he quickly recovered and pointed in her direction. Zhou Na and Zhou Cheng immediately looked in the direction he was pointing.

Zhou Ziyan subconsciously wanted to hide, but the three of them walked straight toward her. She had nowhere to go, so she just stood there, putting on a natural fake smile to show she was welcoming them. “Junior student Zhou.” The man walked over with a smile. “Long time no see.” Zhou Ziyan was a little embarrassed. “Hello, Senior Cheng.”

Cheng Junfeng, the heir of the Cheng family, was the student union president of A University and an outstanding graduate. After studying abroad for a year, he returned home to inherit the family business and was now the vice president of the Cheng Group. Zhou Na clearly didn’t expect the two of them to have met before and was a little surprised. She then remembered that they were both students at A University. Zhou Ziyan was so invisible in the Zhou family that she had even forgotten that her sister hadn’t gone abroad and had been specially recruited into A University with a gold medal from a competition. Zhou Na had been working in the company for eight years and was as smooth as they come. She quickly adjusted, smiled, and clinked glasses with Cheng Junfeng. She said, “It’s fate that you two know each other. Ziyan is an introvert, so I hope you’ll take good care of her, President Cheng, since our two families will be even closer in the future.” The three of them laughed. Zhou Cheng, Zhou Na’s older brother, also raised his glass with a smile.

Zhou Ziyan was a little stunned when she heard this. She looked up at Cheng Junfeng. Her eyes seemed to be asking what was going on. Cheng Junfeng saw all this. His expression didn’t change, but he had already made a judgment in his heart. It seemed the Zhou family had put her on the market without consulting her, packaging her for an arranged marriage.

The three of them chatted for a while. Zhou Ziyan used the excuse of wanting to talk to Cheng Junfeng alone to get rid of Zhou Na and Zhou Cheng. She led Cheng Junfeng to a grassy area outside the mansion with no surveillance cameras. The two of them walked until they were near a fountain a few hundred meters away from the banquet hall. Only after they were far from the cameras and the nearby maids and butlers did Zhou Ziyan stop.

The man in the suit and tie leaned against the marble surrounding the fountain with a wine glass in his hand. He took a deep breath of the fresh air and said with some emotion, “Junior student Zhou, I didn’t expect us to meet again in this way. You gave me a lot of trouble back then.” Zhou Ziyan had her arms crossed over her chest, a clear defensive posture. Her tone was serious. “President Cheng, this is not the time for reminiscing. You need to tell me what’s going on.”

What’s going on? Cheng Junfeng seemed to be amused. He couldn’t help but smile. It was, of course, because the Zhou family wanted to join forces with the Cheng Group, and the two families each chose a direct relative to marry to achieve cooperation and strengthen their positions in the business world. Cheng Junfeng couldn’t say it directly, but he smiled slightly and said tactfully, “Junior student, I have no choice either.” “We’ve always lived in this circle. You should understand the unwritten rules. How could I not obey my family’s arrangements?”

He just didn’t expect the Zhou family’s attitude towards Zhou Ziyan to be so perfunctory. They had sold her without even consulting her. If his family hadn’t insisted on holding a banquet to celebrate, Zhou Ziyan probably wouldn’t have known who her fiancé was until the engagement banquet. Cheng Junfeng raised his wine glass, wanting to clink it with hers, but Zhou Ziyan’s hand remained by her side, not giving him any face. The expensive red wine in his glass flowed down the side of the glass and onto the sky-blue wooden board at their feet. The water from the fountain diluted the crimson color, turning it into a faint light red.

Zhou Ziyan’s expression was still serious. She didn’t relax at all because of his words, nor did she show any intention of giving him face by clinking glasses. Cheng Junfeng could only clink glasses with the air by himself. His smile was a little playful and cynical. “Don’t be so serious. If you don’t want to, we can do our own thing after we get married. We just have to put on a show in front of others during holidays.”

Cheng Junfeng’s smile was handsome, and there was a hint of teasing in his tone. “I know you like Wen Jiao. Even if we get engaged, I won’t interfere with your private life.” He spread his hands. “As long as you’re subtle about it and don’t make it too obvious that I’m being cuckolded.” It seemed that because that person’s name was mentioned, Zhou Ziyan finally reacted. Her dark eyes looked to the side, filled with complex emotions.

Cheng Junfeng was a member of the rich second-generation circle, but Zhou Ziyan didn’t mix with that crowd in City A. She avoided them whenever she could. Other than Zhou Na and Zhou Cheng, not many people in the circle had seen her. They only knew that the Zhou family had a neglected third young lady. Her connection with Cheng Junfeng was because of Wen Jiao. When he was the student union president, Cheng Junfeng had confessed to Wen Jiao and was unsurprisingly rejected. But he was different from other suitors in two ways: one, he gave up quickly after being rejected and didn’t pester her; and two, he discovered Zhou Ziyan’s presence around Wen Jiao.

The flowers Cheng Junfeng sent were once replaced by Zhou Ziyan with 999 dark-style roses. There was also a heart-shaped light wrapped around the flowers. When lit up, they were so ugly it was offensive. Wen Jiao took one look at them and didn’t even sign for them. In front of everyone, the delivery person had no choice but to leave the flowers next to the trash can to collect dust. It was summer at the time, and a swarm of flies and ants chewed up the postcard Cheng Junfeng had written. After Cheng Junfeng found out the truth, he was so angry that his teeth itched. He arranged to meet with Zhou Ziyan to settle the score and even considered exposing her, but he ultimately didn’t do something so troublesome. His attraction to Wen Jiao was just a whim based on her looks. In the long run, he was destined to marry a woman from a family that matched his own. Like the one in front of him.

Cheng Junfeng looked at his fiancée. Although Zhou Ziyan had arrived in a hurry, she was clearly well-dressed. The double-breasted suit dress outlined her slender waist and straight calves. Her dark brown curly hair was draped behind her head, and the quality of her hair was smooth and shiny in the sun. Her long eyelashes were lowered, and the corners of her eyes were slightly red, making her look pitiful. Cheng Junfeng suddenly felt that even though the Zhou family didn’t pay much attention to Zhou Ziyan, he wasn’t at a disadvantage by marrying her. He took a nonchalant sip of the red wine in his glass. His fiancée had an obedient personality and was clearly someone who could be reasoned with and would be a good wife and mother who took care of the family after marriage. She also had a good family background, which could help his career.

Although Zhou Ziyan still liked Wen Jiao now, this kind of love with a mismatched family background and not accepted by society was destined to fail. Cheng Junfeng could wait, and as a fiancé, he still had to be generous. “I’m going to take a yacht to a tropical island for vacation this winter break. Do you want to come?” Cheng Junfeng invited with a smile, ignoring his fiancée’s gloomy expression.

When Wen Jiao returned to the dorm, she was drenched in rain. As she was walking, the sky started to turn gray, and dark gray clouds seemed to be about to crush the city. Then, a silvery-white lightning bolt flashed across the sky, thunder rumbled, and a fierce wind carried heavy rain down from the sky. The ground quickly turned a wet, dark black. Wen Jiao ran back. She used her key to open the dorm door, took off her wet coat, turned on the air conditioner, and used a dry towel to wipe her wet hair.

She was about to take a hot shower when she received a call from home, asking her when she would be returning. According to Wen Jiao’s original plan, she was supposed to go home the day before the New Year, but because her internship was replaced, this was the first time in her four years of college that she could go on vacation on time. The sound of the rain outside was urgent and strong. Wen Jiao opened the dorm balcony door, and the sound of the rain suddenly grew louder. The dampness spread through her heart. Thick raindrops were blown onto her cheeks, wetting the fine hair on her face. They flowed down her jawline and dripped onto the sky-blue towel in her hand, which was not yet dry.

Wen Jiao told her mother on the phone about her internship being replaced. The other end of the phone seemed to be silent for a moment, but in the end, her mother just said, “Come home early,” and hung up. Wen Jiao took out her phone and booked a high-speed train ticket for the next day. She took off the necklace around her neck and put it in a small jewelry box. As she was tidying up her clothes, she remembered Zhou Ziyan, and her movements paused for a moment. Moving out of the dorm in her senior year was already part of her plan. Zhou Ziyan’s sudden confession had made her a little confused, so she said it out loud ahead of time.

The rain outside became more and more violent. Some people on the road even put on rain boots and stomped through the puddles to buy food from the cafeteria. The dorm was very quiet, so quiet that Wen Jiao felt she could hear the sound of raindrops hitting an umbrella. Wen Jiao leaned against the headboard of her bed, looking out the window at the sky, watching it slowly change from a gloomy gray-blue to a dense black. A few red dots appeared in the dorm group chat. Wen Jiao clicked on it.

Li Ranran: Yu Zhou and I aren’t coming back today. We’re staying in the city center for a night. Li Ranran: The rain is too heavy, and we can’t get a taxi. You don’t have to leave the door open for us. Yu Zhou: 1

Wen Jiao replied with “Okay,” and there were no more messages in the group chat. After 12 o’clock, the dorm supervisor pulled the power switch, and the entire building merged with the dark night sky. In the gloomy rainy night, in the small four-person dorm, the desk lamp on one side was lit, and the faint light illuminated the corner of the clothes and half of the floor. The rain outside pattered, sounding like the sizzling of a red-hot branding iron touching a filament. Wen Jiao left the light on, but unfortunately, Zhou Ziyan didn’t come back that night.

The next day, Wen Jiao dragged her suitcase to the high-speed train station. A child was sitting behind her without a parent and kept kicking her seat. She turned her head and gave the child a cold stare. The child was so scared that he froze. Wen Jiao immediately turned her head back, pretending nothing had happened. Then, a loud cry came from behind her, disturbing the entire train carriage. Everyone on the train glared at the child. The little boy was still crying, but his parent rushed over from the restroom and gave him a beating. The crying stopped abruptly, and Wen Jiao had a quiet and peaceful six-hour ride.

She sat by the window and watched as the bare branches of the trees in the south gradually turned into a silver-clad exhibition. She saw the ground full of yellow maple leaves turn into a tranquil white. The temperature outside the window plummeted, going from above zero to more than minus twenty degrees Celsius. This was a train heading to the north. As the high-speed train arrived at the station, the passengers got off one after another. Wen Jiao put on her down jacket and got off at the final station. The biting cold wind hit her face, and her eyelashes quickly became covered in frost. She didn’t stay at the station for long. She just drank a cup of hot tea to warm her frozen body because she still had to drag her suitcase to catch the next bus. There was no direct high-speed train from her hometown to City A.

When she got home, it was past midnight. When Wen Jiao opened the door with her key, the house was dark. She could hear her mother’s even breathing from the bedroom. Wen Jiao fumbled her way back to her room and turned on the desk lamp. The faint light illuminated a small part of the world. The competition books she had used were now covered in dust and placed in the corner of the room. Wen Jiao should have felt nothing, but for some reason, she felt like laughing a little. Maybe time had really faded the hatred in her memories. She changed into her pajamas, lay flat on the bed with her eyes open, wanting to think about something, but her mind was a blank. She couldn’t remember anything, so she closed her eyes. Without realizing it, she fell into a deep sleep.

In the darkness, the bedroom door was opened by someone. The latch made a creaking sound. The person who opened the door was very gentle, as if afraid of disturbing the light sleep of the person on the bed. Someone smoothed out the folds of her quilt, and the desk lamp she had forgotten to turn off was quietly extinguished. She had a good night’s sleep.

Zhou Ziyan didn’t return to the dorm until the next night. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and she hadn’t closed them for a full day and night. After the invited Cheng family members left, many relatives from different branches of the Zhou family also left, leaving only the immediate family members in the old mansion to discuss the company’s future development after the marriage alliance with the Cheng Group. The Zhou family never expected the usually docile Zhou Ziyan to have such a big reaction. They didn’t know how much effort they had put into talking about how great Cheng Junfeng was, but all the things that were thrown were still broken. The expensive teak floor of the old mansion was covered in porcelain fragments, and even the antique vase in the main hall was smashed. Zhou Na and Zhou Cheng were there, so shocked that their mouths could have swallowed a volcano. It was only after Zhou Ziyan’s outburst that they suddenly realized they had never truly known their half-sister. Zhou Shansheng had a heart attack from his unfilial granddaughter’s outburst. He immediately took a quick-acting heart pill and was rushed to a private hospital by the Zhou family, and the farce finally ended.

However, the first thing the angry old man did when he woke up the next day was to cut off Zhou Ziyan’s credit cards. He also confiscated all the luxury cars and mansions under her name. The Zhou family’s butler relayed a message to Zhou Ziyan: if she didn’t honestly agree to the marriage with the Cheng family, they would take back everything they had given her.

Zhou Ziyan took the subway back to school. With her swollen eyes, she opened the dorm door and saw an even more heartbreaking scene. Wen Jiao had really moved out. Her desk was empty, with only a few cardboard boxes filled with clothes neatly placed underneath it. Wen Jiao was really getting ready to move out. The thought alone was like a knife twisting in Zhou Ziyan’s heart.

When Yu Zhou and Li Ranran returned, she asked them where Wen Jiao was. Yu Zhou told her that Wen Jiao had gone home. Wen Jiao’s home was in Province B, a northern province 2,029 kilometers away from City A. Zhou Ziyan wanted to book a private jet, but when she called the pilot and explained the situation, he was hesitant. It was only then that she remembered that Zhou Shansheng had cut off her credit cards and confiscated all her cars, which naturally included the right to use the private jet.

Zhou Ziyan had rarely defied her family. Sometimes she even felt that she was willing to be a wealthy slacker. Every month, her family would put money on her card, and the numbers were so large that she could buy anything she wanted without looking at the price. Therefore, she didn’t have the habit of transferring money to an app, because as long as her bank card was linked, she could make purchases. Zhou Ziyan stared at her empty wallet and her frozen bank card, her expression a little dazed.

“Are you okay?” Yu Zhou put down her Switch, took off her gaming headset, and looked at her with her light gray eyes. Zhou Ziyan shook her head. Yu Zhou got up and poured her a glass of warm water. “Sit down and drink some water.” Zhou Ziyan’s desk was a mess, with various items on it: game cartridges, keyboard and mouse, vinyl records, signed items, and various luxury goods that couldn’t be stored. When Yu Zhou’s hand accidentally touched a ring with a blue diamond inlaid on it, Zhou Ziyan’s eyes suddenly lit up, as if a person drowning in the deep sea had grabbed a lifeline to float up. She grabbed Yu Zhou’s hand, her tone urgent. “Are there any second-hand luxury stores nearby?” Yu Zhou was stunned for a moment and nodded.

When Zhou Ziyan walked out of the store, the balance on her phone was already seven figures. At first, the owner of the second-hand luxury store was suspicious when she saw her holding so many things. She wanted to use a magnifying glass to look at the rings and watches in her plastic bag. After a few rounds of checks, the owner’s attitude towards her was as if she had seen the god of wealth. When Zhou Ziyan left, she even had an employee drive her back.

More than the arranged marriage, what she couldn’t accept was Wen Jiao’s silent departure. Zhou Ziyan bought the last high-speed train ticket to Province B. It would leave at midnight and arrive at 6 a.m. She left in such a hurry that she didn’t take anything. When she got on the train, she remembered to send a message to Wen Jiao. She clicked on the chat box and went into Wen Jiao’s almost empty Moments. Their last conversation was still the cafe location Wen Jiao had sent her. Wen Jiao’s words were always very short, making her seem cold and unapproachable, but she always inadvertently revealed a little softness.

The train started moving. Zhou Ziyan’s fingertips gently stroked the dim profile picture, her movements tender, as if she were gently stroking the fragile belly of a sick kitten. Wen Jiao… please go a little slower. Can you wait for me?