The Extravagant Alpha And The Cold Movie Queen’s Fake Act Became Real - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Ruan Siyi, Let’s Go Home.

Too ahead of its time.

Though it was indeed a highly impactful advertisement, but…

Fu Ru’an stared at the photo for a couple of seconds, her eyebrows lifting slightly, the corners of her mouth uncontrollably twitching upward before finally bursting into laughter.

“Is this the endorsement you went to shoot before? Why did you buy so much of it?”

Honestly, the promotional image was quite striking, but having such a massive pile of durians at home was a bit overwhelming.

Ruan Siyi’s face remained expressionless, but her tone carried a hint of peculiarity: “Ask Fu Yuni about that.”

Fu Yuni pursed her lips, her expression somewhat guilty, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her clothes. After hesitating for a while, she finally stammered out, “I… I just wanted to support Ruan Siyi’s career…”

The air fell silent for a moment before Fu Ru’an spoke with a complicated expression: “Support? By buying five boxes of durians? Are you worried her endorsement won’t sell well and decided to buy them all yourself?”

“Yeah.”

Fu Yuni nodded, answering as if it were the most natural thing in the world, seemingly oblivious to what was wrong with that statement.

“Of course, I have to buy more to support my little aunt’s wife’s endorsements.”

Fu Ru’an was momentarily at a loss for words. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying hard to keep her tone calm: “Then tell me, what are you planning to do with all these durians? Can you even finish them?”

“Uh…” Fu Yuni blinked, at a loss for words. “Just… keep them?”

Fu Ru’an took a deep breath.

This kind of behavior was completely beyond her comprehension, but if it was Fu Yuni doing it, it somehow made a strange kind of sense.

She picked up her phone and quickly typed out a message to her assistant.

Ten minutes later, the sound of a panting courier echoed at the door.

“Hello! Is Miss Fu home? Did you request an urgent pickup?”

Before Fu Ru’an could move, Fu Yuni, who had just committed a major blunder, eagerly dashed to open the door, even turning back curiously to ask:

“Auntie, what are you sending?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she saw Fu Ru’an’s slender finger point toward the stacks of durian boxes.

The courier handed her the shipping form, and she swiftly filled out the sender and recipient details before passing the form and pen back.

Ruan Siyi couldn’t resist either, shifting from the sofa to sneak a curious glance.

The address was for another luxury villa district in the capital, but the recipient field was clearly written in bold, flowing script—

Yu Yuzhen.

The name sounded so familiar that Ruan Siyi felt like she’d heard it somewhere before, but she couldn’t quite place it.

It wasn’t until Fu Yuni let out a loud exclamation: “Isn’t that… our step-great-grandmother?!”

“Auntie, you’re actually sending the things I bought to that nasty old woman?!”

Hearing this, Ruan Siyi’s memory finally began to resurface.

So it was that woman who had given her trouble during her first meal at the Fu family’s old residence—the one Fu Yunxi had kicked out afterward.

But… Yu Yuzhen hated her so much, and now her endorsed products were being sent over…

Wouldn’t she be so angry she’d have a stroke?

“Sister Fu,” Ruan Siyi cautiously poked her arm, “if these get sent over and she throws them away, wouldn’t that be a waste?”

“She won’t.”

Fu Ru’an replied coolly, casually capping the pen.

“She was just publicly humiliated by Fu Yunxi, so she’s at a stage where she’s lost face. If these are sent as gifts, no matter how much she hates them, she’ll have to accept them with a smile.”

“And,” Fu Ru’an added, her angelic face utterly emotionless, her voice dripping with indifference, “I’ll have someone watch her eat every last bite.”

This was the olive branch they were extending to her.

In large families, nothing mattered more than face and interests. When their grandmother passed away, she hadn’t left Yu Yuzhen any assets.

Thus, even now, all she had left was her seniority by age. Her actual livelihood still relied entirely on the Fu family’s support.

It wasn’t that the Fu family needed her—it was that she needed the Fu family.

Her age and status had recently made her overly arrogant. Not long ago, she had even tried to meddle in Fu Corporation’s affairs, attempting to sneak a few of her relatives into the company. Fu Yunxi had blocked her, but she still remained as tactless as ever.

Ruan Siyi silently processed this information in her heart, understanding the underlying dynamics. The faint traces of romantic delusions in her mind dissipated.

So Sister Fu was just using this to reprimand Yu Yuzhen.

For a moment, she had narcissistically thought it was to avenge her.

At lunchtime, Fu Yunxi still hadn’t come downstairs.

Fu Ru’an didn’t wait for her either. After a quick meal, she prepared to take Ruan Siyi home.

—Originally, Fu Yunxi and the other elders in the family had requested to meet Ruan Siyi. Now that the meal was over, there was no reason to stay any longer.

They had planned to leave last night, but the heavy rain made driving inconvenient.

Ruan Siyi was trailing behind Fu Ru’an like a little duckling, about to swap her slippers for her own shoes and leave, when Fu Yunxi’s voice suddenly rang out from the staircase.

“Xiao Ruan, I need to talk to you.”

Ruan Siyi stiffened and turned around, her eyes meeting Fu Yunxi’s gaze.

She nervously swallowed, her heart pounding.

She had just taken off her slippers and hadn’t yet put on her own shoes, leaving her in an awkward state. The cold floor bit into her feet, but she couldn’t muster the strength to move.

This sentence instantly transported her back to her student days, when her homeroom teacher would call her in for a talk.

What a terrible opening line.

Instinctively, she looked toward Fu Ru’an, who reacted swiftly, immediately grabbing her hand and coldly stating, “Whatever you have to say, say it in front of me.”

Fu Yunxi ignored her, simply staring at Ruan Siyi.

Ruan Siyi pressed her lips together, unsure whether she should speak up or remain silent. She could feel Fu Yunxi’s gaze practically nailing her to the spot, while Fu Ru’an stood beside her like an icy wall.

Caught between the mother and daughter, Ruan Siyi found herself frozen in place.

“Ruan Siyi,” Fu Yunxi suddenly said, “come with me to the study.”

Ruan Siyi glanced at Fu Yunxi, then at Fu Ru’an, whispering to the latter, “Should I go and come back quickly? Wait for me.”

Fu Ru’an released her wrist, but just as Ruan Siyi was about to leave, she tightened her grip again.

“No matter what she says, don’t take it to heart.”

Ruan Siyi paused for a moment. “Okay.”

Fu Ru’an didn’t stay in the old residence. Instead, she went to wait in the car.

The driver’s side window was rolled halfway down. Her gaze followed the edge of the window, landing on the passage leading to the underground garage—still empty, the further depths obscured from view.

Who knew what they were talking about that was taking so long.

What could they possibly have to discuss?

She slowly withdrew her gaze and habitually opened the overhead storage compartment. A pack of women’s cigarettes and a lighter tumbled out, along with a slip of paper.

It was only then that Fu Ru’an suddenly snapped back to reality. She bent down somewhat sluggishly and tossed the S.T. Dupont lighter and cigarettes back into the drawer.

It had been a long time since she’d last smelled cigarette smoke.

With a click, the flame would ignite, like tiny little candles.

A slender stick, white smoke curling up, the ember glowing red at her fingertips.

Every time the flame flickered to life, Fu Ru’an would think of the little match girl from the fairy tale.

Curled up in a corner, the world around her silent with snow.

“The crown of the savior is a million sorrows.
All my tears flow toward you in vain.”

Thick smoke flooded her trachea and lungs like snowflakes.

The first time she’d ever felt the urge to smoke was on the night Ruan Siyi arrived.

That afternoon, Shen Jinhe had jumped to her death.

That night, she hadn’t been able to close her eyes. The moment she did, all she could see was that horrifying, vivid red.

The sticky, warm color made her wonder whether it was her imagination or just the light filtering through the capillaries in her eyelids, casting a hue onto her retinas.

That same day, she had gone alone to the convenience store near the internet café, only to be refused by the shop owner because she couldn’t prove she was of age.

At the time, the shopkeeper had stuffed a lollipop into her mouth and said, “Kid, don’t pick up bad habits. You look like a good student, don’t you? Here’s a candy—no charge. Go on home.”

Fu Ru’an hadn’t lacked the money for that single lollipop.

But she had still walked out of the store with the candy between her teeth.

That night, lying in bed, Fu Ru’an still couldn’t sleep.

The humid heat of summer clung to the world like an invisible net, the clouds heavy and low, as if soaked through by the steam.

She remembered that Fu Yunxi had several packs of cigarettes in the cabinet by the entrance.

But before she could even get her hands on them, she heard Ruan Siyi’s sniffling through the door.

In the middle of the night.

So damn noisy.

Squinting, she saw a tear-streaked girl curled up in a corner like the little match girl.

The butler had mentioned something about her being the daughter of a former Fu family maid. The maid had passed away, leaving behind an orphaned daughter, and the Fu family had taken her in under the guise of charity.

How pitiful.

But Fu Ru’an had also had a terrible day.

She had tried to comfort the girl out of kindness, only to be snapped at. Unbearable.

Perhaps it was because she had seen Ruan Siyi cry so much that day that Fu Ru’an’s own heart had calmed, not shedding a single tear.

Was there some mysterious law of conservation for tears?

That night, after being kept up all night by the girl’s fussing over porridge, she never got around to smoking.

Later, she gradually found that she no longer needed nicotine’s help.

There was an idiot more effective than nicotine.

Nicotine could quickly cross the bl00d-brain barrier and reach the brain, taking effect in just ten seconds.

But Ruan Siyi seemed to possess some mysterious talent, effortlessly barging into her mind and sticking there like glue, impossible to shake off.

As for the cigarettes and lighter in the car…

Those came later.

Fu Ru’an pressed her lips together lightly, as if trying to suppress the tangled thoughts. But the harder she tried, the more vivid those delicate, subtle emotions became.

As she closed the car’s drawer, she looked up to see Ruan Siyi skipping toward her just like before, and her heart inexplicably settled.

She no longer needed these things, just as she no longer needed that oil painting.

Because the person who could truly fill the void in her had returned.

“Sister Fu—”

Seeing her in the driver’s seat, Ruan Siyi circled around to open the passenger door.

But just as she was about to pull the handle, the door suddenly swung open from the inside.

A hand reached out, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her inside.

Ruan Siyi stumbled, her body tilting as she was forcibly pulled into the car. The air was a mix of cold air conditioning and a faint, elusive fragrance—like the sweetness of Bailey’s, yet carrying a hint of coolness.

Before she could steady herself, her head suddenly lurched forward, her heart skipping a beat as she braced for impact with the car door.

But the sharp pain she expected never came.

Fu Ru’an’s other hand had cushioned the back of her head.

That hand pressed firmly, guiding her head toward her.

A light kiss landed on Ruan Siyi’s eyelid.

Fu Ru’an said to her:

“Let’s go home.”