Chapter 8: She Was Like a Joke

“Aren’t I here to talk about picking a time to get our marriage certificate?” Ji Tingjun glanced at the stares from the people around them, his face full of disgust as he looked at Ji Zhenshi.

Ji Zhenshi really had the makings of a madwoman.

“Get a marriage certificate my ass, Ji Tingjun. Do me a favor and go look at yourself in the bathroom mirror. No mirrors in prison? Can’t you show a little self-awareness? Get out.” Completely ignoring the strange looks from the others, Ji Zhenshi tried to chase Ji Tingjun away, refusing to let him set foot in the place.

But Li Yunli, who hadn’t said a word until then, tugged at Ji Zhenshi’s arm. She turned her notebook toward Ji Tingjun. “What kind of coffee would you like?”

She seemed to have just gotten her emotions under control, but the hand holding the notebook was still visibly trembling.

Deep down, Li Yunli still felt a primal fear whenever she faced Ji Tingjun.

After all, the first time they’d met, the man had tried to drag her straight into bed. If Ji Zhenshi hadn’t been there, he really would have had his way.

Ji Tingjun was momentarily stunned when he saw Li Yunli communicating with him like this. A few seconds later, he realized she was mute and that this was how they had to talk since he couldn’t understand sign language.

He read the words on the notebook with some discomfort, and his face lit up at once. He couldn’t be bothered to argue with Ji Zhenshi anymore. “Just give me whatever you’re good at making. I’m not picky.”

“Alright, have a seat and wait a moment. The coffee will be ready soon. We’ll go upstairs to talk. Don’t argue with Xiao Zhen—she’s still young and hot-tempered, but she doesn’t mean any harm.” Li Yunli wrote her response on the notebook.

Ji Zhenshi glanced over and saw it. Combined with Ji Tingjun’s smug expression, it made her face flush red with anger. Extremely displeased, she hissed, “Li Yunli!”

So she was the superfluous one now, huh? Ji Tingjun had come to discuss getting their certificate, and Li Yunli wanted to go upstairs for a private chat. It made Ji Zhenshi’s daily visits over the past couple of days feel like one big joke.

In everyone’s eyes, those two were already husband and wife. What right did she have to be sour about it?

She felt like a complete joke—utterly redundant.

“Xiao Zhen, don’t make a scene. Everyone’s watching.” Li Yunli met Ji Zhenshi’s eyes, which were practically blazing with fury, but she stiffly looked away.

She didn’t change her stance.

In Li Yunli’s eyes, Ji Zhenshi was just an immature kid!

“What scene am I making? So you two are all harmony and bliss, and I’m the extra one? Fine, fine, I’m the extra. Whatever.” Ji Zhenshi raked her fingers through her hair. Maybe Ji Tingjun was right after all—maybe there really was something wrong with her brain. She was acting like an utter idiot.

She didn’t even know what she was thinking anymore.

“How do you talk to your sister-in-law like that? No manners.” Ji Tingjun shoved at Ji Zhenshi’s shoulder as she kept advancing on him. Perhaps because her attention wasn’t fully on him, she stumbled back a step from the light push, nearly falling over.

Normally, when Ji Zhenshi called her by name like that, Li Yunli would gently correct her with indulgence. But now, with Ji Tingjun “defending” her this way, it only fueled Ji Zhenshi’s rage, threatening to burn away what little rationality she had left.

And there was Li Yunli, back turned, focused intently on making the coffee—not sparing her so much as a glance.

Ji Zhenshi was furious. Her temper flared, and she clenched her fists. She snatched her backpack and tablet from the back of the chair she’d been sitting in, her eyes bloodshot as she glared at Ji Tingjun.

“Mind your own business. You better shut your mouth, or I’ll rip it off your face.” She spat the icy words at him, then glanced at the slender back turned to her—the figure that was still trembling slightly but refused to look her way.

With a cold snort, Ji Zhenshi slung her backpack over one shoulder and stormed off in big strides.

Li Yunli turned just in time to see the girl’s figure hurrying away, backpack slung over one shoulder. There was always something free-spirited about the way she walked, one hand in her pocket, her golden hair wildly tousled.

She bit her lower lip hard, fighting the urge to call out to her and explain. In the end, she just sped up her coffee-making.

After all, this was between her and Ji Tingjun. They were blood siblings—she couldn’t let Ji Zhenshi get involved.

Besides, Ji Zhenshi did seem a bit too hot-headed about her and Ji Tingjun’s marriage issue. She exploded at the slightest provocation.

She was such a bright, lively girl—always so well-behaved.

“How do you usually raise her? Her temper’s gotten so bad. Did you hear what she just said? No father to love her, no mother to dote on her? Isn’t she being a bit too spoiled?” After getting an earful for no reason, Ji Tingjun couldn’t hold back his own short fuse. Dissatisfied, he questioned Li Yunli.

At first, he’d let it slide because he was older than Ji Zhenshi by several years and didn’t want to stoop to her level. But after repeated slights, he was getting angry. There was even accusation in the way he looked at Li Yunli.

Couldn’t Ji Tingjun see it?

It was Li Yunli who’d emboldened Ji Zhenshi, making her fights with the family worse and worse. She didn’t care about cutting off her living expenses from her parents.

Because whatever Ji Zhenshi wanted, Li Yunli would give it to her!

Li Yunli spoiled her rotten. She was the only one in Ji Zhenshi’s corner, the only one supporting her violin studies.

Li Yunli turned and placed the coffee on the counter. She hadn’t planned to pay attention to Ji Tingjun’s nonsense, but his questioning made her respond.

She wrote seriously on her notebook: “Xiao Zhen is very well-behaved and reasonable. She wouldn’t act like this unless someone crossed her bottom line. She doesn’t throw tantrums for no reason—it’s you all who’s been pushing her.”

Ji Zhenshi was the type who responded to softness but not hardness. She might seem rebellious and disobedient on the surface, but she was actually very sensible, respectful of her teachers and elders. Ji Zhenshi was a good kid through and through.

That night, she’d stepped in to help her. Even though the two of them had squeezed onto that single bed all night without sleeping well, Ji Zhenshi’s heart was as warm as her body heat.

Ji Zhenshi wasn’t a bad child.

“Whoa, defending her like that. No wonder my mom says you’re happy to spend money on her—you two have become real good sisters. Do you even realize it’s the money that’s made her so arrogant? She’s turned out like this because you’ve spoiled her rotten. Why do you give her cash? She’s twenty-two, not a kid anymore. You should be saving that money. Now that I’m out, we’ll need it to live on. That brat needs someone to knock some sense into her—let her suffer a little, and she won’t be so cocky.” Ji Tingjun took a sip of the coffee, only to grimace at the bitterness.

He quickly set it down and complained in disgust, “What the hell? It’s so bitter. Can’t you add some sugar?”

Li Yunli gave the self-righteous Ji Tingjun a cool sidelong glance. She untied her apron and wrote heavily on the notebook: “Come upstairs with me to talk.”

Li Yunli never argued with people. She let Ji Tingjun’s self-important ramblings go in one ear and out the other. She even regretted not making the coffee even more bitter.

Who wanted to live with him? A jobless layabout who looked down on Ji Zhenshi.

No matter what, she was his flesh-and-blood little sister.

“Sure, what’re you looking at? Keep working, you two. The wife and I have private matters to discuss.” Ji Tingjun winked flirtatiously at Xiao Ning, who didn’t dare speak up, then followed Li Yunli up to the loft.

“What a thug. That’s Yunli Sis’s husband? What kind of taste is that?”

“Yeah, I heard he just got out of jail, and even his own sister didn’t pick him up. How could someone as pretty and capable as Yunli Sis fall for a guy like that?”

“Even with her disability, Yunli Sis doesn’t deserve a man like him.”

“Right? She’s such a rare, wonderful woman. What a shame. Some great women just have terrible taste in men. I can’t understand it, but all we can do is wish her well.”

“Nooo, not my Yunli Sis.”

“Shut up and get back to work.”

Xiao Ning patted her colleague’s shoulder and glanced at the man ascending the stairs with Li Yunli. She shook her head with a sigh.

What a great woman Li Yunli was—ruined only by being mute.

If she were healthy, her life would surely be much better.

Li Yunli opened the door to the loft and let Ji Tingjun inside. She had him sit in the small outer room. “Sit for a bit. I have something for you.”

“Sure, and there’s a gift too? You’re so thoughtful—surprising your husband and all.” Ji Tingjun didn’t stand on ceremony. He plopped down on the fabric sofa, crossing his legs and stretching out his arms lazily as he eyed Li Yunli. He was already acting like he owned the place.

In his eyes, everything Li Yunli had was his, wasn’t it? She was his, after all.

“No gift. You’re not my husband, and this won’t be a surprise.” Li Yunli corrected him solemnly.

She hated the way he so casually made himself familiar. Just hearing it made her stomach turn. It was utterly repulsive.

“What are you gesturing at? I can’t understand that. Why not just write it down? You know I can’t read sign language—are you trying to make things hard for me?” Ji Tingjun got a headache just looking at sign language and waved her off impatiently.

He could barely tolerate reading notes, but sign language? No way.

And he certainly wasn’t going to learn it for her sake. Text was his limit.

Li Yunli’s face dimmed as she met his gaze. She paused for two seconds, then raised her hands again in sign language. “There will never be anything between us. There wasn’t before, and there won’t be in the future. Ji Tingjun, I’m not going to get a certificate with you. Please understand that. I’ve already told your mother—she might not have informed you yet.”

Ji Tingjun couldn’t understand sign language, but Li Yunli stated her position firmly, with no room for compromise.

After gesturing, she turned and pushed open the bedroom door, not caring if he’d gotten it.

Watching her figure as she entered the bedroom, Ji Tingjun propped his chin on his hand. His appraising gaze roamed shamelessly over her body. In a low voice, he muttered, “Mute or not, she’s pretty with a nice figure, good at housework and making money. Sixty thousand was a steal. Great deal.”

Aside from not being able to speak, Li Yunli was practically a dream girl.

Marrying a woman like this? No loss there.

Li Yunli overheard his mutterings. Her bloodless lips pressed into a thin line as she stood at the bedroom doorway, staring at him from afar.

Seeing her so distant, Ji Tingjun beckoned her over and patted the seat beside him. “What are you doing way over there? Come sit closer. Don’t be so formal with me—we’re family, right?”

Li Yunli walked over gracefully, stopping a meter away. As Ji Tingjun reached out to touch her, she pulled out a bank card and pressed it to his face, blocking his advance.

“Ji Tingjun, we’re not the twenty-somethings we were six years ago. You should understand that you and I aren’t from the same world, so we can never be family. As for the sixty thousand your family gave my father back then, here’s a hundred thousand—principal plus interest. We’re square now. Let’s never talk about marriage again.”

The gentleness in Li Yunli’s eyes turned somber. She handed him the notebook, now filled with nearly a full page, decisively severing ties.

Ji Tingjun’s hands froze in midair. He frowned at the notebook, and once he understood, his face darkened. “Li Yunli, are you crazy? We had a deal to get married once I got out, and now you’ve changed your mind? What, you look down on me because I did time? You’re still mute yourself—we’re even there.”

Deep down, Ji Tingjun did mind that Li Yunli was mute. Even if they married, he’d surely throw it in her face constantly.

Li Yunli’s expression cooled, but she wasn’t too swayed by his words. She patiently explained, “No, there were never any feelings between us. If the amount doesn’t satisfy you, name your price. I’ll meet anything reasonable.”

Even though it was all her savings, Li Yunli was willing to pay more to cut ties with Ji Tingjun.

She couldn’t marry a man like this and spend the rest of her life in foreseeable torment. She felt nothing for him—no affection at all. She hadn’t even considered marriage for herself. She was a committed single by choice.

She didn’t want to be anyone’s burden; supporting herself was enough to satisfy her.

Faced with Li Yunli’s gentle but unyielding demeanor, Ji Tingjun grew furious. He swatted away the notebook she used to communicate, bank card and all. He examined it and sneered, “Parents’ orders, matchmaker’s words—what feelings? Your dad agreed to the sixty thousand, and my mom handed it over without hesitation. You’re the one we bought with our money. You want feelings? We’ll make them after marriage. Sleep together a few times, and boom—feelings.”

Ji Tingjun was pushing hard, his eyes flashing with menace, as if he’d roll up his sleeves and strike any second.

Fear welled up in Li Yunli despite herself, and she stepped back. Steeling herself, she shook her head. “No, human trafficking is illegal. I wasn’t sold to your family—watch your words. Name your price.”

She wasn’t anyone’s property to be sold off lightly.

Narrowing his eyes, Ji Tingjun closed in step by step. “You think I’m stupid? If we marry, that money’s still mine. If you’re not willing, did you hook up with some other guy while I was locked up? Nice one, Li Yunli. No wonder you didn’t pick me up from jail—you’re guilty. Who’s the other man?”

Li Yunli’s mild expression cracked. Blushing with rage at his blunt accusation, she frantically signed, “No! Ji Tingjun, watch your mouth. I just don’t want to be with you.”

After thinking for two seconds, Ji Tingjun turned his head away, ignoring the signs since he couldn’t understand them. Seeing her flustered and furious, he said seriously, “Can you stop signing at me? I don’t get it—I’m not the mute here. But look at you, all worked up. Hit a nerve? It’s not impossible. Sure, you’re mute, but you’ve got some looks. Some guy not picky enough might go for you. Who knew—you’re that kind of shameless woman!”