Rich Woman, But Got Dumped By A Jerk Three Times. - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Play Until You Lose Control

Because of the special nature of her business, Yun Jiushu never put her phone on silent. So, in the empty, early hours of 2 AM, the notification tone on her balcony sounded particularly clear.

In the past, as long as Yun Jiushu was awake, no matter how late, she would reply to messages immediately upon receiving them.

However, the friend request she was looking at now only filled her with annoyance.

Her long finger tapped slightly, the last bit of cigarette ash fell, and her gaze swept across the ID of the friend request.

— Drummer Aci

The jumbled thoughts that the nicotine had momentarily suppressed came flooding back. If this Aci truly wasn’t Ye Ge, then what was the point of tonight’s flawed ‘hero saves the beauty’ act?

The scalding heat and familiarity of that hug were utterly distracting to Yun Jiushu.

She pressed out the finished cigarette in the ashtray, then smoothly lit another.

As the flame brightened the night, Yun Jiushu slid her long finger across the screen and simply exited the social media app.

To hell with the things she couldn’t figure out.

Out of sight, out of mind.

The irritating little red dot vanished, leaving only the faint light of the cigarette tip.

Yun Jiushu exhaled a plume of smoke, feeling the knot in her chest loosen a little, before she began slowly closing the various apps running in the background of her phone.

After closing WeChat, the spreadsheet app popped up.

The private banquet’s operating model was based on reservations, requiring careful maintenance of the existing client base and expansion of new clientele relationships. Therefore, Yun Jiushu had a habit of syncing data in a spreadsheet every day.

It wasn’t until she had finished verifying and checking the data and was about to press the clear button that Yun Jiushu noticed a memo app was also open in the background.

She could even faintly see the words the person had typed from the small window.

The vexation that the nicotine had held in check was stirred up again. The scalding skin pressed close to hers and the deep, shallow breaths became like little ants, gnawing at her heart and logic.

The hand that was about to swipe the app away paused, and as if possessed, she tapped the memo open.

The explanations, neatly itemized into points one, two, and three, looked serious and sincere. Yun Jiushu’s mind involuntarily recalled the moment she was tightly embraced—the temperature of the palm that wandered over the tracksuit along her waistline and spine, and how the person had not made a sound despite the bloody gash caused by the rock wall.

Drummer Aci.

Before that absurd explanation—so full of holes that anyone with half a brain could see through it—came out, Yun Jiushu had almost believed that such a person genuinely existed in the world.

But now, all of it was just ridiculous.

With a cold, disdainful scoff, Yun Jiushu was about to clear the memo from the background when her finger stopped.

One: I was out for a night run, I come here every night I don’t have a gig. Tonight, I happened to see someone following you, so I deliberately hid here, thinking I could help you, after all, you gave me a chance to perform.

Two: Thank you for your concern, my hand no longer hurts.

Three: I apologize, I’ve already explained this, but I feel the need to reiterate: I am not Ye Ge. Although I don’t know why you always mistake me for her, I am genuinely not Ye Ge. I hope you will stop making this mistake.

Yun Jiushu’s gaze finished reading the three points unconsciously, locking onto the third point.

I am not Ye Ge.

I am not, Ye Ge.

“Ye Ge.”

Yun Jiushu gnashed the name out, let it grind repeatedly against her heart, and then suddenly burst into laughter: “What a brilliant ‘I am not Ye Ge.'”

To confirm she hadn’t misread, Yun Jiushu extinguished the cigarette she had just lit and immediately turned back into her room.

In the third drawer of the bedside table, besides small toys, was an ID card pressed underneath.

Due to rarely being exposed to light, it looked as new as the first day when she pulled it out from the pile of toys.

Ye Ge, Female, Han ethnicity, ID number: ……

She didn’t need to check the rest. Yun Jiushu stared at the name field, letting her gaze sweep over it three times before she suddenly laughed aloud.

If the surname ‘Ye’ was common enough that someone could type it out after hearing her say it a few times, what about the slightly rarer character (geˇ)?

There are so many characters pronounced geˇ, why was this one chosen, right on the mark?

Finally, the fog surrounding the mystery dissipated.

Ye Ge, hidden under the disguise of Aci, had revealed her tail.

The stubborn confusion clogging her heart transformed into a surge of release—a hearty laugh. Yun Jiushu tightened her grip on the ID card until her knuckles were white and red, uncaring that the pressure hurt her palm. It was as if she were clutching not just a card, but Ye Ge’s neck.

If it were the unrelated Aci, she truly had no reason to stage such a terrible, deliberate drama to get close to her.

But what if it was Ye Ge?

Ye Ge, who disappeared from Yecheng three years ago without a word and had been completely untraceable ever since?

No wonder she appeared as soon as Yun Jiushu landed in Spring City. No wonder she was at every wine party. No wonder the intense sense of familiarity had been inescapable from the very first time Yun Jiushu saw her.

“Ye Ge, oh, Ye Ge,” Yun Jiushu stared at the ID card and sneered, “I’ve been looking for you.”

The hazy confusion finally gone, Yun Jiushu, sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed, reopened WeChat. The thing that had seemed so annoying just moments ago now became interesting.

The little red dot next to her contacts had grown from one to three in the short span of half an hour.

The Drummer Aci, who had not been added as a friend, had repeatedly and tirelessly sent new requests.

Once the identity of the person before her was confirmed, the wavering ‘why’ finally bore fruit, and control returned to Yun Jiushu’s hands.

Her long finger tapped lightly, and the fox who had found a new game curled her lips into a smile.

Since she was so desperate to come back to her.

Then it was time to settle the score for what happened three years ago.

…….

…….

I have accepted your friend verification request. We can now begin chatting.

The constantly refreshing screen finally popped up with a red dot.

It was already 3 AM, nearly an hour after the initial friend request was sent.

And Yi Chengsong  had gradually moved from her initial, confident composure to a state of apprehension.

It was expected that Yun Jiushu would see through the flawed setup last night. Although it was Yun Jiushu who offered to take her back to the shop, the conversation on the way didn’t revolve around the incident but rather about a completely unrelated matter.

Did Yun Jiushu not understand the subtle hint in that detail, and was she reluctant to add her contact because of the setup?

If that were the case, this risky move would have been for nothing.

Just as Yi Chengsong was contemplating sending a fourth request, she finally received the notification that the friend request was successful.

The person who had been tense all night sighed in relief, her hanging heart finally settling.

She lowered her head and looked at the hand holding the phone; the wound was already bandaged.

The longer she worked undercover, the more Yi Chengsong adapted to the persona of Aci. Even when feeling intense pain, she could still manage to remain silent.

It was just a shame that this perfect persona needed to show a flaw now.

Shifting her gaze to the screen, ten minutes had passed since the successful friend addition, but the chat window still displayed only the official friend notification, with no new messages.

Did Yun Jiushu not notice?

But if she hadn’t noticed, why did she wait an hour to accept the friend request?

Determined not to wait any longer, Yi Chengsong took the initiative to send a message. The mission was pressing, and she had no more time to lose.

Hello, I’m Aci.

If you report the incident to the police, the information in the memo might also be useful. Of course, if you need it, I can be your witness.

Recalling the name that appeared in the third point, Yi Chengsong curled her lips into a meaningful smile after sending the message.

Yun Jiushu, being as clever as she was, would surely understand.

Not receiving a reply, Yi Chengsong immediately opened Yun Jiushu’s moments/timeline.

It was filled entirely with updates and arrangements for the “Yun Ji Private Banquet” (雲記私宴), with almost no trace of her personal life.

The memory of the hug from the night before resurfaced for no reason. The finger joints that explored her waistline and spine with a testing touch felt like a small feather, tickling her heart. That woman, who looked like fire, surprisingly had a pair of cool hands.

Calm, collected, and decisive.

If Yun Jiushu hadn’t been the leader of ‘Sanshui’ but had walked the straight path, she might have been a rare and excellent comrade.

Yi Chengsong was startled by her own thought. That little feather caused a ripple in her heart. She lowered her head to check the messages.

Half an hour passed, and the other party still hadn’t replied.

It was already 4 AM.

Having never stayed up so late, Yi Chengsong could no longer fight the exhaustion. So, after sending one more message, she turned off her phone.

…

…

If you need anything, please contact me anytime.

Yun Jiushu had just turned off her alarm when she saw the message.

She was still lying in bed, enjoying the blissful moment of waking up from a short snooze.

Her long finger slid up. Since she had accepted the friend request yesterday, Ye Ge had sent a total of three messages.

Each one was precisely spaced out by half an hour. This meant that for at least two hours after Yun Jiushu accepted her friend request, the other party’s attention had been constantly focused on the chat window.

She really is more impatient than I thought.

Yun Jiushu gave a cold laugh but did not reply.

She left without a word back then, and now she wants to return. Yun Jiushu was curious to see what scheme Ye Ge was planning.

After dealing with all the business-related messages, Yun Jiushu got out of bed.

The short rest after the hangover was an exception; since the private banquet opened, there were many things that Yun Jiushu had to personally handle every day.

By the time she was free to look at her phone again, it was already time for the evening reconciliation of accounts.

Since the Yun family incident years ago, no matter how busy she was, Yun Jiushu would reconcile the accounts. She kept track of even a single egg in the store.

Although this work was tedious and complex, she never missed a day.

After reconciling the accounts and verifying the spreadsheets, Yun Jiushu sat at the counter and began replying to texts.

The account she was using now was specifically registered to manage the Yun Ji Private Banquet after she arrived in Spring City. She didn’t separate work and life accounts, so messages from both guests and friends were piled together.

As if remembering something, Yun Jiushu scrolled through the pile of messages and found the one she had deliberately ignored.

The messages that had been left unanswered had only increased by a few more over the past day and night.

It seems Ye Ge is still Ye Ge. No matter how much she disguised herself, she couldn’t change what was fundamentally within her.

Are you feeling a bit better today?

Will you be night-running tonight? I don’t have a performance, so I’ll probably start around 8 PM.

I have finished my run.

Be careful when going out at night.

These messages were polite and distant, each one only referencing the accident from the night before, yet subtly hinting at concern.

What was Ye Ge’s purpose in approaching her again?

Finishing the messages, Yun Jiushu sank back into the soft chair, lighting a cigarette for herself.

Nicotine smoke billowed up, and the tangled thoughts burned with it.

She left for three years without a word, then reappeared so inexplicably. Even now, Ye Ge was still completely immersed in the deaf-mute drummer persona she had fabricated.

Since she loved this persona so much, Yun Jiushu wanted to see how far she could be played before she lost control.

Exhaling a plume of smoke, Yun Jiushu gave a meaningful smile and finally typed her reply—

Yun Ji Private Banquet: 1.