Chapter 31: Without Sister, I Would Die

The moment the slap landed, both of them froze.

Pei Ruyu had always been gentle with people. Although she got angry easily, she would just sulk silently, at most putting on a sour face. She had never laid a hand on anyone.

Violence like slapping was something that had never happened in these twelve years, no matter how severe the arguments had been.

Bai Qingjia’s anger dissipated from that slap, and her whole body gradually turned cold.

She couldn’t believe it. “Pei Ruyu, you hit me?”

But Pei Ruyu’s entire hand was still trembling uncontrollably.

Looking at her own palm, which was numb with pain and flushed red, she couldn’t understand what that uncontrollable feeling just now had been.

That feeling of being manipulated, both emotionally and physically, brought her only endless chills.

But facing Bai Qingjia’s accusation, she could only temporarily suppress that moment of panic, collapsing weakly against the seat.

“Bai Qingjia, don’t make me feel only disgust for you.”

Bai Qingjia’s eyes gradually reddened, gritting her teeth and growling, “For her? You actually hit me?”

Seeing her like this, Pei Ruyu gradually calmed down.

The force of that slap was too heavy. Her hand hurt too.

“Stop it. I’m really tired.”

She had no strength to push her away anymore. She just turned her head to look out the car window, speaking weakly.

“These years with you, I’ve been so tired. Can we just let it go? Can you just let me be?”

“What do you mean, let you be? Let you go back to being that little jealous jar’s dog?”

Bai Qingjia directly cupped her face and turned it back, continuing to interrogate, “You’re tired with me? You’re not tired with her? When she was hospitalized, you waited on her hand and foot. That’s not tiring?”

Watching her tears fall one by one, Pei Ruyu’s nose also stung, but she tried hard to hold back her own tears, maintaining her composure as she asked Bai Qingjia.

“She can risk her life for me. Can you?”

The CP video edited from their brand’s official account, Bai Qingjia had watched it dozens of times. Naturally, she understood what she was talking about.

That decisive act of shielding her from the knife was something Bai Qingjia knew she couldn’t do.

She had a job, family ties.

If she were seriously injured, what would happen to her job, her family? Who would take care of her for the rest of her life if she ended up disabled?

Relying on Pei Ruyu’s love and pity, which were based entirely on her mood and preferences?

Love couldn’t be eaten.

A moment’s pity would eventually be worn away.

She wasn’t a naive little girl fresh out of school who believed love could conquer all.

So she could never risk even the slightest possibility of change to her current life for Pei Ruyu.

But she still couldn’t accept that the person she had painstakingly trained had been handed over to someone else on a silver platter.

Bai Qingjia sobbed, cupping Pei Ruyu’s face, her face covered in tears.

“Is this gratitude or love? Do you have to give yourself to her completely?”

Pei Ruyu just looked at her quietly, neither dodging nor wiping her tears for her anymore.

“Is there a difference? She’s good, and she loves me deeply. I’m happy to spoil her, and I’m happy being with her. Isn’t that enough?”

Pei Ruyu had already experienced heart-wrenching love once. She didn’t want to experience it a second time.

Now, she only needed this kind of simple, sweet love.

Did it matter if it was gratitude or love? As long as they could walk together, wasn’t that enough?

For Bai Qingjia, Pei Ruyu’s response was a kind of almost calm cruelty.

She would rather Pei Ruyu argue with her until she was furious than hear her say such cruel things so calmly.

“Pei Ruyu, do you even have a heart?”

Pei Ruyu could always leave whenever she wanted.

Bai Qingjia finally let go of her strength, lowering her head to press against Pei Ruyu’s forehead.

At that close distance, she didn’t take the opportunity to press closer. She just asked with tears, “You can cut off twelve years of feelings just like that. How long can you last for her?”

Pei Ruyu’s hand gradually recovered from the pain.

No longer the hysterical arguing and wrestling from just now, she just avoided the slightly swollen red mark on Bai Qingjia’s face and gently pushed her cheek away.

“Even if… even if in the end there’s no good outcome, as long as the memories are no longer painful, that’s enough.”

She really didn’t want much.

The warmth Miao Qingzhi brought her, that wholehearted love, was enough to soothe the shadows of her past.

She didn’t know how long “forever” was.

But at least right now, she was truly willing to walk forward with that obedient, soft, cute little girl.

Pei Ruyu knew forever couldn’t be forced, and love would gradually fade.

So she never longed for forever, only for the happiness of the present.

The sarcasm and hidden mockery in those words, Bai Qingjia naturally understood.

She directly raised her hand and returned a slap to Pei Ruyu.

“Pei Ruyu, do you think you’re the only one who’s been wronged? All these years, haven’t I been wronged too?”

The force wasn’t heavy, not even as painful as the slap she had just given.

But Pei Ruyu was still brought to tears by this slap.

Even as she cried, the corner of her mouth curled into a smile, and she asked mournfully, “But all these years, I’ve given you everything I could. What more do you want from me?”

She had tried her best.

She was just an ordinary person, without a prominent family background. She had only made a quick fortune by riding the wave of opportunity.

In this city where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, what she could give was truly limited. She couldn’t be like the CEOs in literature and film who casually handed out mansions and checks.

“But have you ever given me a sense of security?”

Bai Qingjia wrapped her arms tightly around Pei Ruyu’s neck, sobbing uncontrollably into her neck.

“Everything you gave me, you could take back at any time.”

“The house, the car. Which one is in my name? You gave them, but you were already prepared to take them back when you gave them, weren’t you?”

“When Si Yao needed money, didn’t you transfer it without a second thought every time? Every time I needed it, I had to write you an IOU!”

“One phone call from your mother, and you could leave me in the middle of the night to go do her bidding. When I needed you, were you ever there for me first?”

“Have you ever given me preferential treatment?”

“When you’re happy, you toss me a crumb. When you’re not, besides the silent treatment, what else can you do?”

“If being your friend is happier than being your lover, why can’t we just continue as friends?”

“You know my parents have been teachers their whole lives. There’s no way they’d agree to me disgracing the family. Why do you have to force me every time!”

“It’s just a title. Is it really that important?”

“Pei Ruyu, can’t you feel a little more sorry for me?”

Pei Ruyu understood from those sobbing, fragmented words the grievances she had harbored all these years.

The pain and scars that had been so hard to bury deep in her heart were once again dug out.

“Bai Qingjia, I’ve tried so hard all these years. But why are you never satisfied?”

But it was precisely because she had been hurt so much that her heart had grown cold.

Too exhausted to defend herself, when she was crying the hardest, Pei Ruyu just raised her hand and pushed her shoulder away.

The car keys were once again stuffed back into Bai Qingjia’s hand.

“Last time. Calm down for a bit and drive yourself back.”

Without Bai Qingjia’s obstruction, she finally managed to open the car door and pushed Bai Qingjia out with her.

But as she was leaving, her wrist was grabbed by Bai Qingjia again.

“Can we start over? In the future, I’ll try to spend more time with you, okay?”

Pei Ruyu only coldly shook off her hand, wiped the remaining tears from her face, and left without looking back.

She left in too much of a hurry and didn’t look back.

Naturally, she couldn’t see what Bai Qingjia did after she left.

The miniature camera hidden in the car had clearly recorded those few minutes of them embracing.

While Bai Qingjia was coldly selecting and sending those intimate embrace shots back to her phone, Pei Ruyu had already dejectedly returned home.

Forcing a smile, trying to make her expression look less sad, she dared to enter the house again.

Mm, she couldn’t let her mother worry.

“Pei Ruyu, you…”

Before Ms. Fang could say more, Pei Ruyu had already yawned and dodged into her room.

“Stop scolding, stop scolding. If you keep scolding, I won’t have time to go coax your good daughter-in-law.”

The little jealous jar had a keen nose. Pei Ruyu didn’t dare go see her reeking of someone else’s scent.

She washed herself from head to toe, sprayed on some perfume just in case, and covered the teeth marks and bloodstains on her hand with band-aids. Only then did she dare to rush to that villa in the suburbs.

She didn’t even have time to dry her hair, speeding all the way to Miao Qingzhi’s residence.

“Sister!”

Holding the little girl who excitedly pounced into her arms, Pei Ruyu couldn’t help but curl a smile.

What a clingy little thing.

An hour and a half, including washing up and driving, was enough time for her to pack away her shattered emotions.

She was an adult. Hiding a little sadness wasn’t hard.

Indulging her, she picked up Miao Qingzhi, who refused to get down from her, and headed straight for the bathroom in her room. At the same time, she didn’t forget to lightly pat her butt, scolding with a smile, “You need me even to bathe? What would you do without me?”

The bathroom was fully equipped.

Sitting on the sink, Miao Qingzhi still clung tightly to Pei Ruyu’s neck, refusing to let go.

“So I can’t be without Sister.”

The girl’s smile was sweet and innocent, always expressing her affection through intimacy.

Pei Ruyu let Miao Qingzhi press soft, pecking kisses on her lips. When their lips parted slightly, she heard the girl say seriously, “Without Sister, I would die.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Pei Ruyu took the opportunity to wrap her arms tightly around Miao Qingzhi’s shoulders, secretly drawing a trace of reassuring warmth from this embrace.

Her lips landed on Miao Qingzhi’s hair. Pei Ruyu took it as a joke, flirting with her warmly, “As long as you love me, I’ll always be here.”

She didn’t say anything else.

Didn’t mention her own sadness, didn’t mention her own pain.

And certainly didn’t dare to say what she had just done with another woman.

Pei Ruyu hugged Miao Qingzhi tightly like this, breathing in the reassuring fragrance on her, gradually calming the restlessness in her heart.

But Miao Qingzhi, leaning on her shoulder with lowered eyes, coldly raised her hand and pressed it on her chest.

The child gu inside Pei Ruyu’s body, which should have been restless and causing trouble, was briefly calmed by the mother gu’s soothing.

“Sister, I will love you. Love you forever.”

Knowing that sweet nothings should go in one ear and out the other.

But at this moment, Pei Ruyu made an exception and took those words seriously, involuntarily holding Miao Qingzhi even tighter.

Holding her fragrant, soft girlfriend, listening to those intoxicatingly sweet words, within a few minutes, Pei Ruyu was recharged, sweeping away the exhausted, heavy mood.

Pei Ruyu was happy, and only then did Miao Qingzhi smile along with her.

Sweetness overshadowed the disappointment. Re-energized, Pei Ruyu pressed a light kiss to her forehead, rolled up her sleeves, and went to run the bathwater.

The clingy little girl followed her, jumping off the sink.

Before the hot water was ready, Miao Qingzhi had already wrapped her arms around her waist.

“Sister.”

A cold hand touched her cheek, lightly brushing the remaining red mark.

“What happened to your face?”

Pei Ruyu’s heart tightened.