The Creator's Grace (GL) - Chapter 13
It was probably because Ran Jin’s body temperature was so hot, or perhaps because Chi Yu felt that such an intimate moment shouldn’t happen between her and Ran Jin, but she quickly pulled her hand back.
Ran Jin’s hand was left empty, but she didn’t pursue it, slowly lying back down.
At some point, the top button of Ran Jin’s shirt, which had been neatly fastened, had come undone. Her neck, which had lost most of its redness, now appeared as flawless and soft as jade.
She was a little thirsty, and her throat moved slightly as she swallowed. The long, slender neck and the faintly visible collarbones hidden beneath her shirt collar made Chi Yu’s gaze linger for a moment, unable to look away immediately.
She must be mistaking me for my sister to have that kind of expression, Chi Yu thought.
The two sisters were very similar. Even with a sixteen-year age difference, their facial features were alike. Sometimes, Chi Yu even had trouble telling herself and her sister apart in childhood photos.
But wouldn’t she be scared to see the former lover she had killed in her semi-conscious state?
Chi Yu felt a little lost.
She had been convinced that Ran Jin had betrayed her sister, but now, it seemed there was still room for further investigation.
Chi Yu played Lu Siqing’s voice messages several times next to Ran Jin’s ear. She didn’t exit WeChat, leaving the chat page with Lu Siqing open, locked the screen, and then put the phone back in Ran Jin’s pocket.
When Ran Jin woke up tomorrow, unlocked her phone, and saw the chat page, she might remember hearing the voice messages and believe she had opened and listened to them herself in her drunken state last night.
Even if she remembered what happened and confronted Chi Yu for looking at her phone, that would be fine. Chi Yu would meet her head-on and, among other things, ask her when she started her affair with Lu Siqing.
Chi Yu adjusted her mindset, bent down, and nudged Ran Jin’s shoulder.
“Sister Ran, let’s go upstairs to sleep.”
Ran Jin slowly came to.
She had probably gotten some rest because she seemed more awake this time than the previous times. At least her eyes focused clearly on Chi Yu.
“How did I… get back?”
Ran Jin’s throat was very dry when she spoke, feeling as painful and parched as if she had swallowed fire.
“I saw that you were completely drunk after just two glasses of wine and couldn’t walk on your own. I was afraid no one would take care of you at your apartment, so I brought you straight back here.”
Before Ran Jin could speak, Chi Yu continued in a caring tone, “You can sleep here tonight. Aunt Su just cleaned up your and my sister’s room today.”
If a clear conscience at a funeral parlor could be an act, then sleeping in a room they once shared would surely heighten the sense of fear.
Chi Yu stared at Ran Jin, waiting for her response.
Ran Jin rubbed her aching temples. The nausea in her stomach hadn’t subsided, and now her neck was inexplicably throbbing with pain.
“It seems I really can’t go back tonight…”
By saying this, she was agreeing to stay.
Chi Yu helped her up and went upstairs with her to the second floor.
Throughout the entire climb, Ran Jin’s body was tilted toward the stair railing, keeping her distance from Chi Yu.
Chi Yu watched her silently, with her eyes lowered.
Just as she was about to push the bedroom door open, Ran Jin moved ahead, opened it, walked inside, and leaned against the door frame. “You must be tired tonight. Go rest. Goodnight.”
“Okay…”
Ran Jin still showed no reluctance or fear and walked into the bedroom.
Chi Yu’s gaze instinctively tried to explore the room, but since the lights were off and the thick blackout curtains were drawn, not even the streetlights from the garden outside could penetrate. It was pitch black, and she couldn’t see anything clearly.
As if by some supernatural impulse, Chi Yu raised her hand and refastened the undone button on Ran Jin’s shirt.
Ran Jin’s gaze fell on Chi Yu’s fingertips.
Chi Yu calmly adjusted her clothes.
“Goodnight.” Chi Yu gave a smile and left.
Ran Jin, in a daze, closed the door. She looked at the spacious double bed but didn’t lie on it. Instead, she leaned on the wall and slowly walked into the walk-in closet, expertly opened a door, and went inside.
Back in her bedroom on the third floor, Chi Yu’s mind was filled with thoughts of Ran Jin as she took a bath.
When she got out of the tub, she felt a chill and realized that her fever hadn’t gone down all day.
After taking some fever medicine, she fell asleep quickly, but had a night full of nightmares, waking up several times.
When she finally woke up the next morning and looked at the clock by her bed, it was already 11 a.m.
She washed up and went downstairs. Aunt Su brought her a coffee.
“Where’s Sister Ran?” Chi Yu sat down at the dining table, slowly sipping her coffee and stretching her sore neck.
“Miss Ran left early this morning.”
“What? She was that drunk last night, and she could leave so early?”
“Yes, she came downstairs before seven this morning. Her face was as white as a sheet, and her eyes were red. I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, and she said she wouldn’t eat here. Then she walked out while on the phone.”
Chi Yu raised her left eyebrow slightly.
Aunt Su asked her what she wanted to eat. Chi Yu said she didn’t care, put down her coffee cup, and went back upstairs.
She walked to the furthest room on the second floor, her sister’s and Ran Jin’s bedroom.
She rarely came here. To her, this was her sister’s and sister-in-law’s bedroom, an extremely private space for the two of them.
She had been taught since she was a child to respect others’ privacy, and she also wanted to avoid awkwardness, so she rarely came to this part of the second floor.
The Chi family residence was so big. If she wanted to talk to her sister or Ran Jin, she could do it anywhere.
As a result, she was very unfamiliar with this bedroom.
Click.
Chi Yu opened the bedroom door a crack and looked inside.
The curtains weren’t open. Even though it was broad daylight, the bedroom felt like a dark night.
The room was empty. Chi Yu walked in and opened the curtains first.
The brilliant midday sun streamed in, illuminating everything clearly.
The bedroom was normal: a large double bed with blankets neatly folded as if no one had slept there.
Chi Yu walked around the room and found nothing out of the ordinary.
The balcony of this room led to the attic.
Chi Yu’s memory of going into this bedroom and through the balcony to the attic was from a few years ago.
At that time, Ran Jin had just arrived at the Chi family and was living in the attic.
She had many injuries and often had fevers that made her delirious, so she couldn’t be left alone.
Initially, her sister was very busy, so Chi Yu helped take care of Ran Jin, slowly nursing her back to health.
She remembered Ran Jin being very, very thin, almost skin and bones, with many old scars. She was like a little wounded animal, her eyes full of wariness and fear.
Every time Chi Yu came to take care of her, she was extra careful and patient.
To make Ran Jin feel less nervous, Chi Yu even shared her favorite peach juice with her.
“Sister said you’ll be living with us from now on. If you drink my peach juice, you’ll be my family.”
Later, her sister brought her down from the attic and had her sleep in her own room.
Thinking back now, Ran Jin was an isolated wolf that she and her sister had raised together.
The lonely, weak animal had finally grown into a beast with ill intentions.
Chi Yu stood in the room, her memories flooding back.
The bookcase here was full of books her sister had read, thick photo albums, and souvenirs that Chi Yu had bought impulsively on her trips. Her sister had cherished all of them, arranging them neatly in a display case.
Chi Yu wandered around the room, picking up memories one by one.
Leaving the bedroom, Chi Yu took a deep breath, checked her temperature to confirm her fever was gone, and then left the house.
She had arranged to meet Qi Tong and brought a few people from her studio to secretly investigate at the live broadcast building.
The results of the investigation were pretty much what she had expected. A lot of people had seen and spoken to Ran Jin that day.
The things they had seen and heard were slightly different from person to person but were consistent with one another, so it didn’t look like they had conspired to give the same story.
Finding no clues at the live broadcast building, they then went to the home of Hong Yiling, the secretary who had been the first to discover Chi Li’s accident.
They heard that Hong Yiling hadn’t even written a resignation letter and hadn’t been to work for the past two days.
They got to the rental apartment she used to live in and knocked for a long time, but no one answered.
But the neighbor across the hall, an elderly woman, came out.
“Are you looking for Miss Hong? Don’t bother knocking. She moved out a few nights ago. Even the landlord can’t find her.”
Qi Tong stepped forward and asked the woman, “Do you know why she moved?”
The woman said, “How would I know? If you people didn’t knock so loudly all day, I wouldn’t even come out to talk to you.”
Qi Tong: “…”
Coming out of the building, Qi Tong said, “It’ll be a real pain if we can’t find this Hong Yiling.”
Chi Yu chimed in, “If we do find her, the murderer will be in trouble. Even though we haven’t seen her, the fact that someone is trying to hide her further proves that there’s something suspicious about my sister’s death.”
“Hey! Sister Yu, your brain works so fast!” Qi Tong habitually flattered her.
Chi Yu said, “Alright, you don’t need to suck up. I’m taking you to lunch anyway. What do you want to eat?”
“Anything we want?” When it came to food, Qi Tong’s eyes lit up.
Chi Yu gave her a look of disdain. “You make a lot more money than I do every month. Why are you so hungry?”
“It’s not the same. Money you earn is different from money you inherit from your family. The money I earn is all from my hard work.”
As the two were talking, a car slowly drove past them.
Qi Tong saw that Chi Yu’s gaze was drawn to the car. Her expression quickly shifted from confusion to disgust.
Qi Tong curiously glanced at it. Just that one look made her heart pound erratically.
The white SUV waiting at the red light stopped in front of them. The windows were tinted, making it hard to see inside, but just then, the window was half-rolled down. The woman driving the car leaned toward the passenger seat, her head tilted—a posture that was clearly a kiss.
The person in the passenger seat was also a woman.
And she looked very much like… Ran Jin.
The cars turning left started to move. Qi Tong carefully moved her car forward.
When they were in front of the SUV, Chi Yu looked back and got a clear look at the woman in the passenger seat.c
It was Ran Jin. She hadn’t been mistaken.
And the woman driving was the police officer, Lu.
Lu Siqing’s hand was still on Ran Jin’s chin, her whole body twisted, their faces extremely close, as if they wanted to stick to each other.
An expression of impending storm settled on Chi Yu’s face as she looked away.
Qi Tong didn’t dare to even breathe too loudly, afraid she would be caught in the crossfire.
Looks like I was right, and it’s even worse than I imagined.
A look of cold contempt slowly appeared on Chi Yu’s face.
My former sister-in-law sure gets around.
No wonder she could get a police officer to be her witness. What dirty tricks she must have used.
Chi Yu suddenly asked Qi Tong, “What commercial projects has Ran Jin been busy with lately?”
Qi Tong flinched at her sudden question.
Since it was just the two of them in the car—the other studio employees were in a separate car—she decided to speak freely to appease Chi Yu:
“Ran Jin has been trying to secure the rights to the lunar mining project. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this project, but your Chi Group has been working on it for a long time. Now it’s at a critical stage, and many other companies are eyeing it. Currently, Chi Group has the best chance, it just depends on whether Ran Jin is willing to spend the money to win the lunar orbit.”
Hearing the words “lunar orbit,” Chi Yu rested her chin on her hand, a plan already forming in her mind.