On The Night I Confirmed My Girlfriend's Infidelity, I Kissed Her Sister (GL) - Chapter 21.2: Wanting to Give Her a Home

Outside the window, a blinding flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.

Startled out of her thoughts, Fu Chaoying flinched slightly but quickly composed herself, her expression calm once more.

For the rest of the evening, she sat quietly on the sofa, listening to the conversation and occasionally chiming in.

Ye Jiayuan’s gaze drifted toward her now and then—seemingly casual, yet carrying an unspoken attention.

“Xiaoying, are you still afraid of thunder? Do you want to sleep with Auntie tonight?” Chu Yiyun asked warmly, her tone full of maternal concern.

The moment the words left her mouth, Fu Chaoying and Ye Jiayuan exchanged a fleeting, knowing glance, both recalling the nights they had spent sharing a bed during thunderstorms in Singapore.

Fu Chaoying’s cheeks warmed imperceptibly before she averted her eyes, replying with a polite smile, “It’s alright, Auntie. I’ll be fine on my own.”

Treating it as a lighthearted remark, Chu Yiyun didn’t press further.

The gathering soon shifted to its inevitable ritual—prodding about marriage and relationships.

Chu Yiyun began urging Ye Jiayuan to find a partner, her tone earnest. “I don’t even know your orientation. How am I supposed to set you up on blind dates?”

Ye Jiayuan’s romantic history seemed blank—at least, she had never spoken of it.

To everyone else, she was the epitome of composure and rationality, a career-driven woman through and through.

But Fu Chaoying knew her orientation.

After all… Ye Jiayuan had asked her just hours ago if she wanted to be in a relationship with her.

Fu Chaoying naturally shifted her gaze toward Ye Jiayuan, only to find her looking back. Their eyes met, sparking a faint electric current between them.

An inexplicable sense of embarrassment washed over Fu Chaoying, her cheeks warming slightly. She immediately averted her eyes, but then heard Ye Jiayuan say, “I’ll handle it myself, don’t worry.”

She always said that.

Chu Yiyun was already used to it. After failing to persuade her, she could only sigh, “Fine, fine, do as you please. I can’t control you anyway.”

When Fu Chaoying glanced over again unintentionally, she caught Ye Jiayuan looking at her with a faint smile, an inscrutable glimmer flashing through her eyes.

For some reason, it felt thrillingly illicit, like sneaking around behind their elders’ backs. Fu Chaoying’s heartbeat quickened slightly as she quietly turned her gaze away.

It was getting late, and the conversation came to an end.

The Ye family had prepared guest rooms specifically for the Fu sisters, Fu Chaoying and Fu Chaohua, right next to each other. At least being together now was convenient.

Fu Chaoying stepped into her bedroom for a shower, letting the hot water cascade from head to toe as the sound of the relentless downpour outside filled her ears.

This cozy, relaxed atmosphere was perfect for deep introspection, allowing her to examine her thoughts more clearly.

Unconsciously, Fu Chaoying drifted into contemplation, fragments of memories flashing through her mind.

In a recent dream, she had reached out to Ye Jiayuan, only to be met with a cold stare.

Yet now, in reality, Ye Jiayuan had extended an olive branch to her, leaving Fu Chaoying utterly bewildered.

Amidst the steam, Fu Chaoying chuckled softly, finding herself utterly ridiculous.

Turning off the water, she wrapped herself in a bathrobe and walked to the window, drying her damp hair while watching the bright streaks of lightning split the dark sky, accompanied by deafening thunderclaps.

For some reason, thunderstorms had been unusually frequent this year.

Suddenly, a soft knock sounded at her door—just two or three light taps before silence returned.

Fu Chaoying hurried over and opened the door to find Ye Jiayuan standing there, holding a cup of warm milk, her expression calm.

Noticing Fu Chaoying’s thin sleepwear and the expanse of fair skin exposed, Ye Jiayuan kept her gaze fixed on her face and asked softly, “Are you scared?”

Recalling the events triggered by thunderstorms back in Singapore, Fu Chaoying awkwardly accepted the milk. Her fingertips accidentally brushed against Ye Jiayuan’s palm, sending a warm tingle through her. She replied obediently, “I’m fine. Thank you, Jiayuan-jie.”

Ye Jiayuan gave a slight nod and murmured, “Then rest early. Goodnight.”

With that, she gently closed the door behind her.

Fu Chaoying was no longer like she had been in Singapore, where she would actively seek Ye Jiayuan’s help.

Ye Jiayuan sighed quietly in resignation.

As soon as the door shut, Fu Chaoying took a few sips of the milk. It was the perfect temperature, and she guessed Ye Jiayuan had brought it over to help her sleep better.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, she tried to steady her emotions and untangle the jumbled thoughts in her mind, but it was futile.

After blow-drying her hair, locking the window, and drawing the heavy curtains, she flopped onto the soft bed, willing herself to sleep.

Though warm milk was usually a sleep aid, the one Ye Jiayuan had given her only reminded her of the day’s events, keeping her awake instead.

Tossing and turning, she struggled to fall asleep.

It wasn’t until much later that Fu Chaoying finally drifted into a light slumber.

But in the middle of the night, she was jolted awake by a nightmare, only to realize the storm outside still raged on.

External environments could seep into the subconscious, manifesting as nightmares that unsettled her, denying her peace.

After taking a moment to collect herself, Fu Chaoying calmly got up and headed out to fetch a glass of water, hoping to soothe her nerves.

Yet the moment she opened the door, a gentle voice asked, “Can’t sleep?”

For a second, Fu Chaoying thought she’d imagined it—until she turned and saw Ye Jiayuan sitting on the sofa at the corner of her bedroom.

Blinking in disbelief, Fu Chaoying shook her head slightly, finally regaining her senses. “I just woke up from the thunder. Jiayuan-jie… why are you still sitting here at this hour?”

Her tone held a note of confusion, but mostly surprise.

Ye Jiayuan waved the papers in her hand. “I happened to have an important document to review.”

Reviewing documents… Why not go to the study? And Ye Jiayuan’s bedroom was on the other side—why sit right outside hers to read?

Though puzzled, Fu Chaoying didn’t voice her questions and headed straight for the water dispenser, only to see Ye Jiayuan rise first to go there.

Fu Chaoying hurried over, taking three steps in two. “Jiayuan-jie, I can get it myself.”

Ye Jiayuan replied softly, “It’s fine.”

“Then, thank you, Jiayuan-jie.” Fu Chaoying stopped in her tracks, standing behind her as she watched her pour water with effortless grace.

After filling the cup, Ye Jiayuan turned to her and said quietly, “I promised to give you time to think. Don’t feel pressured—just treat me as… an ordinary neighbor.”

“Even if you reject me, I’ll still regard you as a younger sister in the future.”

Fu Chaoying took the cup, blinked, and with a faint curve in her brows, met her gaze. “Then… was watching over me while I slept also treating me as a sister?”

Her tone carried a hint of teasing, but beneath it lay a deeper probe.

Ye Jiayuan turned away with a soft hum, offering no explanation.

Fu Chaoying’s lips curled deeper, though a familiar tangle of emotions swirled in her chest. She smiled. “Jiayuan-jie, you’re really too kind.”

The words held a subtle test.

A flicker of resignation passed through Ye Jiayuan’s eyes, but her expression soon smoothed into calm observation.

Fu Chaoying took a few sips from the cup before asking casually, “What time is your flight tomorrow morning?”

“Ten o’clock.”

Setting the cup down, Fu Chaoying paused, then lightly tugged at the sleeve of Ye Jiayuan’s pajamas.

Ye Jiayuan glanced down, but Fu Chaoying’s fingers had already withdrawn. A moment later, she heard, “Then you should rest early, Jiayuan-jie. Goodnight.”

As Fu Chaoying turned to leave, Ye Jiayuan caught her wrist.

“Wait.”

Before Fu Chaoying could react, Ye Jiayuan strode toward her own bedroom, leaving behind an elegant, enigmatic silhouette.

Baffled, Fu Chaoying lifted her wrist, studying it as if the lingering warmth of that touch still clung to her skin.

A memory surfaced—a night in Singapore, rain lashing down in torrents, when Ye Jiayuan had refused her embrace but said she could hold her wrist if she was afraid.

Soon, Ye Jiayuan emerged from her room, holding a small bear.

As she approached, Fu Chaoying’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “This one looks just like mine.”

“Mn. It was given out by the university the year I graduated.”

The bear, wearing a Nanjing University graduation cap, was one Fu Chaoying had always assumed Chu Yiyun had brought back from an alumni event. She never imagined it had been passed to her by Ye Jiayuan.

Taking the bear, Fu Chaoying ran her fingers over its soft fur, catching a faint, familiar scent of magnolia.

She had already said “thank you” too many times tonight. With a quiet laugh, her eyes crinkling, she murmured, “Guess I’ll sleep well tonight.”

Ye Jiayuan gave a slight nod, her gaze resting gently on Fu Chaoying’s face. “Goodnight.”

Back in her room, Fu Chaoying held Ye Jiayuan’s bear, realizing it had been the companion through countless sleepless nights.

Now that Ye Jiayuan couldn’t stay with her, she had given her own bear in her place.

A warmth, indescribable, rose in Fu Chaoying’s chest. Clutching the bear close, she drifted into deep sleep.

She slept soundly through the night.

The alarm roused her the next morning. Rubbing her bleary eyes, she saw a WeChat notification on her phone’s lock screen:

[No need to see me off. I’ve changed my flight—sleep a little longer.]

Was Ye Jiayuan… a mind reader? Or had she already figured out Fu Chaoying’s thoughts so thoroughly that she knew she would definitely come to see her off?

Fu Chaoying turned off the alarm, thinking she could sleep a little longer, but tossed and turned restlessly, with Ye Jiayuan’s figure constantly appearing in her mind.

She decided to get up immediately, then typed in Ye Jiayuan’s chat box: [Have you arrived?]

But feeling it was too intimate, she deleted it and changed it to: [Have a safe flight~]

After washing up and going downstairs, she only heard Aunt Chu sighing in the dining room, her voice tinged with displeasure—

“Is she angry with me? Should I not have urged her to date and get married? She’s at that age already! The older she gets, the more disobedient she becomes!”

Chu Yiyun had heard early in the morning that her eldest daughter had left without a word, changing her flight overnight and already landing in Hong Kong, which left her quite unhappy.

As the only one who knew the truth, Fu Chaoying shrank her neck slightly and spoke softly, “…Jiayuan-jie might have urgent matters to attend to, Auntie. Please don’t be upset.”

“What kind of urgent matter requires flying to Hong Kong in the middle of the night? Without even saying goodbye!” Chu Yiyun complained, her tone laced with helplessness. “Forget it, forget it. I can’t control her anymore.”

Fu Chaoying had no solution either and simply smiled, “Auntie, let’s have some tea.”

After breakfast at the Ye household, Fu Chaoying drove her cousin away, first dropping her off at Nanjing University.

Fu Chaohua, full of curiosity, leaned over and asked, “So… what’s going on between you and Jiayuan-jie?”

Fu Chaoying kept her eyes on the road, calmly replying, “Friends.”

“Friends…?” Fu Chaohua raised an eyebrow, flashing a mysterious smile. “Then why did I hear the two of you whispering outside the door last night?”

Fu Chaoying’s heart skipped a beat. The traffic light ahead had only two or three seconds left, so she hit the brakes. “What exactly did you hear, sis?”

Fu Chaohua rolled her eyes, teasing her on purpose. “I heard… her saying she likes you, and you saying you like her too?”

Fu Chaohua couldn’t keep a straight face, and the two burst into laughter.

With a chuckle, Fu Chaohua sighed, “If only I’d cracked the door open a bit to get the juiciest gossip firsthand!”

“What a shame, what a shame.”

Fu Chaoying’s smile faded. “What gossip? If there really was any, would Jiayuan-jie have left without a word in the middle of the night?”

Fu Chaohua nodded thoughtfully. “True. If that were the case, you two would’ve been all lovey-dovey for days—who’d have the mind to work?”

Fu Chaoying gave a slight nod, but a faint sense of loss crept into her heart.

Long-distance was a challenge. And moreover, she couldn’t imagine how her dynamic with Ye Jiayuan would differ between a real relationship and their contractual arrangement.

After dropping Fu Chaohua off at Nanjing University, Fu Chaoying drove back to work.

Her phone vibrated a few times on the way, but she didn’t check it, focusing on driving.

Now, parked in the underground garage, she picked up her phone and saw that Ye Jiayuan had sent a PDF file along with a message: [Take a look and see which neighborhood and layout you like.]

Fu Chaoying was momentarily dazed, then received another message: [Pick two.]

Ye Jiayuan didn’t explain, but Fu Chaoying suddenly remembered their conversation in Singapore—

She had tentatively asked, “Why don’t you settle down here, sis?”

Ye Jiayuan had replied, “Very few family members visit. Whether I settle here or not makes no difference.”

So, by asking her to pick two, was Ye Jiayuan planning to establish homes in both Singapore and Hong Kong?

And had she changed her flight to Hong Kong in the early hours to secure property details sooner, just to surprise her?

Fu Chaoying felt a soft spot in her heart suddenly give way. Her fingers trembled slightly without her realizing it, hovering over the message box as she struggled to type.

She was afraid of misinterpreting the situation, afraid of reading too much into it.

After a long pause, Fu Chaoying finally opened the PDF file, carefully reviewing the listed properties before slowly typing out a reply:

“Personally, I think units 7, 16, 19, 25, and 36 might be the best options~ Just for Jiayuan-jie’s reference~”

Ye Jiayuan never explicitly stated that she was arranging a home for her, so Fu Chaoying naturally couldn’t place herself in the perspective of a girlfriend or family member.

Fu Chaoying steadied her thoughts, took a deep breath, and finally pushed open the car door to step out and head upstairs.

“Good morning, Miss Fu! You seem to be in such a great mood today—did something good happen?” A colleague greeted her, noticing the faint smile on her lips.

Fu Chaoying gave a slight nod. “Morning.”

As soon as she turned away, she forcibly suppressed her smile, inwardly chiding herself.

After their brief exchange that morning, Fu Chaoying received no further messages from Ye Jiayuan.

Over the next few days, there were only simple “Good morning” and “Good night” texts. It was as if they were merely maintaining polite pleasantries, nothing more.

Fu Chaoying spent her days working and her evenings either painting at home or going shopping and dining with Shen Guannan and Fu Chaohua, keeping herself occupied to avoid dwelling on thoughts of Ye Jiayuan.

By Friday evening, the three of them had arranged to go for a massage to unwind.

Fu Chaoying was undergoing a scalp treatment, so relaxed she was nearly asleep, when her phone suddenly buzzed repeatedly, pulling her out of her drowsy state.

It was a series of video messages from Ye Jiayuan.

Fu Chaoying scrolled through her phone screen and realized each one was a video of a house.

The moment she tapped on the first video, Ye Jiayuan’s cool, composed voice came through the speaker: “This is the seventh property from the documents…”

Fu Chaoying hadn’t expected her to personally record these and had forgotten to put on her headphones.

Now, the sound played aloud, clearly reaching Shen Guannan and Fu Chaohua’s ears. Though she immediately muted it, they had already heard the first sentence.

Both of them turned to look at her. “Why does that voice sound so familiar…?”

“Are you buying a house?”

Fu Chaoying’s heartbeat quickened slightly, but she maintained her composure on the surface, smiling nonchalantly. “No, I just happened to come across a short video.”

They eyed her skeptically. “Really?”

Fu Chaohua chuckled, teasing her deliberately. “It sounded like Jiayuan’s voice to me.”

Fu Chaoying stiffened slightly before hurriedly replying, “Nonsense, stop making things up.”

Then she fished out her earbuds and put them on before continuing to watch the videos Ye Jiayuan had sent.

The first was a duplex apartment. Ye Jiayuan, dressed in a simple white blouse, stood in the bright, spacious living room, guiding the tour from the lower floor to the upper.

Every detail was explained meticulously, like a professional real estate agent.

Each subsequent video was also personally recorded by her, covering everything from the interior design to the amenities with thorough clarity.

This meant Ye Jiayuan had personally visited every property, experiencing the pros and cons of each one firsthand.

Judging by the lighting in the videos, she had filmed them both during the day and at night. She must have sacrificed a lot of her rest time just to make these for her.

Fu Chaoying was momentarily lost in thought, a tender ache deepening in her chest, when Ye Jiayuan’s call came through unexpectedly. The ringtone sounded especially abrupt in the quiet private room.

Fu Chaoying asked the masseuse to pause before scrambling out to take the call.

“Xiao Ying, it’s been five days. Have you made up your mind?”

Hearing that composed voice on the other end, Fu Chaoying’s pulse spiked.

“Jiayuan-jie, I haven’t decided yet,” she answered softly.

A faint laugh seemed to travel through the receiver before Ye Jiayuan spoke again. “Seems I haven’t done a good enough job.”

Hearing the helpless tone in her voice, Fu Chaoying couldn’t help but pause slightly. “I…”

“Are you free tomorrow?” Ye Jiayuan immediately followed up.

Fu Chaoying fell into thought, unsure what would happen if she said yes, yet still found herself softly murmuring an affirmative.

“There’ll be a gift delivered to your home tomorrow. Remember to check for it,” Ye Jiayuan said gently. “Rest early.”

The call ended.

Standing in the hallway, Fu Chaoying suddenly felt both anticipation and nervousness. Ye Jiayuan had asked if she was free tomorrow… what was she planning?

Taking a deep breath, Fu Chaoying composed her expression before reentering the private room.

Until she made her final decision, she couldn’t rely on anyone else’s advice.

After the head massage session, the group departed together.

Fu Chaohua mentioned wanting to accompany her to the old residence, so Fu Chaoying drove them home.

Fu Chaohua’s curiosity burned brightly: “That was Jiayuan calling just now, wasn’t it?”

Fu Chaoying didn’t deny it, only worrying: “You haven’t mentioned me to Auntie recently, have you?”

She was concerned her cousin might have told their aunt about her drunken words the other night, or her situation with Ye Jiayuan.

Understanding dawned on Fu Chaohua, who patted her shoulder lightly. “After all these years as sisters, you still don’t trust me? Of course I wouldn’t say anything!”

Fu Chaoying sighed in relief, then joked: “Good. Then if Auntie ever asks in the future…”

Fu Chaohua burst out laughing. “I’ll say I know nothing at all, don’t worry.”

Fu Chaoying smiled and nodded, though a faint unease lingered in her heart.

–

Fu Chaoying slept soundly, yet within half a minute of waking, she remembered Ye Jiayuan mentioning a gift arriving today.

Just as she finished washing up and headed downstairs, a familiar cool voice reached her ears. Her heart skipped a beat as she quickened her pace, only to meet a pair of profound eyes at the staircase landing.

Ye Jiayuan had returned to Nanyan.

Could the “gift” she mentioned be herself?