Jin Yizhu’s voice sounded a bit angry.
Wei Shuyu hooked up the corner of her lips. Though it was a bit excessive to say so, she did feel a little happy that Jin Yizhu was angry for her sake.
This anger was different from before. Jin Yizhu was no longer just saying some words that sounded ambiguous without any real intentions in her heart.
The current Jin Yizhu truly cared about her.
“You make a good point,” Wei Shuyu quit while she was ahead. “Then I’ll handle it when I have time.”
Faced with her compliance, Jin Yizhu didn’t know what to do instead, and the bit of anger in her heart dissipated into thin air.
She even felt she had gone a bit too far. How could she demand so much of her?
Wei Shuyu hadn’t even returned to the country before, so where would she have had time to handle a visa? If not for her request, she really had no such need.
“Alright,” Jin Yizhu’s voice softened. “This way will be more convenient.”
Wei Shuyu chatted idly with her for a few more sentences before putting down the phone and no longer looking at it.
She lifted her head and looked toward the desk. “Wei Qinglu, are you done with the contract?”
The contract Tang Su had given her included a confidentiality agreement, so it wasn’t convenient to just show it to anyone.
Wei Qinglu had studied law and was interning at a law firm, so she had her look it over first before finding a familiar lawyer to confirm.
“Almost done,” Wei Qinglu said with her brows tightly furrowed, as if she were working on some thesis assignment. “Are you done with your lovey-dovey talk?”
“No, who’s talking love?” Wei Shuyu sprawled on the bed flipping through a magazine. “Jin Yizhu isn’t my girlfriend.”
“If she’s not your girlfriend, why are you sending her so many messages and reporting your whereabouts? Isn’t that just enjoying girlfriend privileges?”
After interning for a while, Wei Qinglu had become even more sharp-tongued. She fired off a string of questions before waving her hand at her:
“This contract has great terms, way better than your previous ones. Who gave it to you?”
“Jin Yizhu gave it.”
Wei Shuyu said coolly:
“She wants to be my sugar mommy in every way.”
“…”
Wei Qinglu was speechless for a moment and simply skipped the topic. She looked around and asked:
“You’re back in the country but not going home. Don’t your parents have any objections?”
Wei Shuyu’s guest room was fairly large, with dark wooden flooring that made almost no sound when stepped on.
There was only one bed with snow-white sheets laid out neatly. Wei Shuyu sprawled on it, flipping the magazine with a rustling sound. For some reason, Wei Qinglu felt that she seemed a bit irritable.
“Of course they do. They’re probably about to show up at the door. Do you want to head back first?”
Wei Shuyu glanced at the time, closed the magazine, and couldn’t help sighing.
“After being a missing person for so long, it would be strange if they didn’t go crazy.”
The curtains in the room were drawn, blocking out the light well, with only a small gap letting in a sliver of light that fell just right on the water glass on the desk.
The sofa was in the corner, with a half-drunk cup of coffee on the coffee table that had gone cold, along with a few magazines left open, some pages dog-eared as reference material.
The room was a bit quiet, with the air conditioning on at a comfortable 27 degrees for the human body.
“Actually… Sis, you’re pretty heartless too. You just up and left without going home for so long.”
Wei Qinglu spoke cautiously, sneaking peeks at her expression, a bit afraid to continue.
“Mom and Dad said you didn’t want to go on blind dates, so just don’t go. No need to make such a big fuss with the family…”
“They told you I didn’t want to go on blind dates?”
Wei Shuyu laughed, sat up from the bed, tossed a pillow at Wei Qinglu, and said leisurely:
“In whose family does a blind date mean you go home for dinner, find a man sitting at your family table, and they say that’s your husband, with the household registry and ID ready, and you can go get the marriage certificate tomorrow? If it were you, would you run or not?”
Wei Qinglu’s hair stood on end. “Ah?”
“Yeah, they even beat gongs and drums for the wedding banquet, prepared the bridal chamber, just waiting for the bride. Fun, right?”
Wei Shuyu stretched out her hand. Yesterday, Jin Yizhu’s makeup artist had done a set of long, beautiful nails for her. Now they gleamed radiantly, pretty like works of art.
Paired with her light, offhand tone, it was as if she were talking about someone else’s affairs.
“If I’d hesitated even a second, your niece would be old enough to be carrying soy sauce by now, and as for me, I’d just be a dish that’s already been eaten.”
Wei Qinglu didn’t dare think about it in detail. “So their intention is…”
She was over five years younger than Wei Shuyu and hadn’t even graduated yet. Marriage and kids were even more distant for her.
She wasn’t even Wei Shuyu’s blood sister. Her understanding of this sister mostly came from her parents’ mouths, family gatherings at the dinner table, and a few sparse trips.
How much of what Wei Shuyu hadn’t told her was because she was unwilling to say, and how much was because she feared she couldn’t accept it?
“They said that guy’s conditions are great,” Wei Shuyu sneered. “I won’t say much about their thinking. You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”
Wei Qinglu fell silent. She had been smart since childhood, excelled in her studies, and didn’t need things spelled out to understand.
Great conditions, so even without feelings, they had to force their daughter to marry, even tricking her home and eager to shove her into someone else’s bed. Wasn’t that just selling their daughter?
Yet in their mouths, it became the sister unwilling to go on blind dates, making a fuss with the family, unfilial. Was that right?
Wei Qinglu felt the air growing thin. She breathed in small sips and exhaled in small sips.
A terrifying possibility occurred to her. Wei Shuyu’s parents thought this way, so what about her own parents? Did they think the same?
“Qinglu, you’re about to graduate. You should think about some things.”
Wei Shuyu lowered her eyelashes, not looking at her expression, and said very softly:
“Good grades, talented, gentle personality, pretty face… Are these your bargaining chips or your shackles?
“How you view them and how you use them is very important to you.”
Wei Qinglu stared at her in a daze. No one had ever said such things to her. She had always thought she was on a bright and open path.
“Many people believe that anything that can’t be turned into money is worthless,” Wei Shuyu patted her back. “But I hope you don’t think that way.”
Wei Qinglu was lost in thought and hadn’t yet figured out what her sister really meant when the phone rang suddenly, like a violent storm shattering the room’s tranquility.
She grabbed the phone and looked at the caller ID, her face paling even more. “Sis, should I pick up?”
Wei Shuyu asked, “Who is it?”
“My parents,” Wei Qinglu said. “Why are they calling now… I told them I was out playing with classmates today.”
Her palms were sweaty, the phone pressed to her ear as if it might explode any second. Her voice involuntarily lowered, hesitant in speech, completely different from moments ago.
“Pick up,” Wei Shuyu replied. “It’s about time.”
Wei Qinglu didn’t know what she meant. “What do you mean about time…”
Wei Shuyu didn’t speak, just shook her head and watched her quietly.
Wei Qinglu always felt that her gaze seemed very sad.
“Hello? I’m out playing with classmates, really classmates.” Wei Qinglu answered the call. Judging by the tone on the other end, it wasn’t good. In just a few sentences, she was already stumbling over her words. “It’s real, it’s that classmate who came to our house for dinner last time. Why don’t you believe me?”
She didn’t dare look at her sister, afraid that eye contact would give her away. She didn’t want to worry Wei Shuyu, but she felt… Wei Shuyu might have guessed everything, yet she still couldn’t help pretending, even if it wasn’t very convincing.
Every extra sentence from the other end made her more panicked. Even her breathing became cautious, not too loud, not too silent.
She wanted to say more, but then her aunt’s voice came through, asking her, “Qinglu, is Xiao Yu back? Where are you?”
Wei Qinglu was immediately at a loss and subconsciously answered, “No…”
Wei Shuyu shrugged and mouthed: See?
“And you say no? Her IP address has changed. After being gone so long, she finally deigns to return to the country? Back and doesn’t even come see us, doesn’t go home to see the elders…”
A string of complaints rained down on Wei Qinglu like pellets. She was tongue-tied for half a second, glanced at her sister’s slender shoulders, then perked up and brushed them off into the phone.
Moments later, she hung up and let out a long sigh. “Why is Aunt still checking your IP address?”
“It’s just the IP address. That’s nothing.”
Wei Shuyu knew this confrontation was inevitable and intended to let Wei Qinglu see the reality clearly.
“They’ll be coming over soon.”
“Coming… over here?”
Wei Qinglu’s eyes widened. Her fingers clutched the throw pillow tightly, unsure if from shock or disbelief, her voice even smaller.
“How would they know where we are?”
“There are always ways, as long as you booked with an ID,” Wei Shuyu smiled and reached out her hand. “Give me my contract first.”
Wei Qinglu jumped up from the chair like a bird startled by the twang of a bow, grabbed the contract, and handed it to Wei Shuyu.
“Better not let them see this kind of thing.”
She pulled open the drawer, took out scissors, and began boldly cutting up the contract. White pages mixed with black text fluttered down.
Wei Shuyu was extremely patient, snipping the contract into tiny pieces until it was unrecognizable as anything, then wetting it and tossing it into the trash bin, letting the ink blur into a hazy mess.
By the time she finished, footsteps echoed from the corridor.
With such thick carpet and a heavy door in between, why were the footsteps so clear? Was it because she was too nervous? Wei Qinglu couldn’t figure it out and didn’t know what to do.
The knocking hadn’t even started when Wei Shuyu opened the door.
A crowd squeezed at the doorway. Wei Qinglu looked closely: at the front was her aunt in a beige suit, hair neatly clipped behind her ears. She stood ramrod straight, her presence alone intimidating.
Uncle’s expression was stern, brows knitted as if he harbored some deep grudge against Wei Shuyu. The moment the door opened, he stared at her fixedly.
Her parents stood behind, faces with forced smiles, followed by a few male cousins with blank expressions, unclear what they were here for.
This formation…
No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like they were here to pick up their daughter.
“You’re here?”
Wei Shuyu’s voice was quite calm. She was long accustomed to such things.
“I was wondering if you’d learned your lesson, knowing that children have privacy rights and wouldn’t check my address anymore. Looks like I thought too much.”
Wei Qinglu shrank on the sofa, watching everything unfold, feeling it all surreal.
Why were they checking her sister’s address? From what her sister said, they did this often? So our family was like this? They used to put on an act before, but now they weren’t even pretending?
“What privacy rights? You’re still a child. Mom and Dad are just concerned about you.”
Wei Qingguo’s voice boomed like a bell, speaking righteously and sternly as he stared at Wei Shuyu, his tone full of strange concern.
“Xiao Yu, back in the country and you don’t even tell Mom and Dad? Grandpa and Grandma miss you so much. You know they’re getting old, won’t live many more years. You don’t even visit them more. Truly raised you for nothing.”
Wei Shuyu stood at the door, her smile turning cold. “So concerned about me? I thought you only cared about money.”
Listening to their bickering, Wei Qinglu felt even more disoriented.
She had never thought there was anything wrong with her uncle’s words before, but after checking her sister’s address and calling it concern, mentioning Grandpa and Grandma’s age, explicitly and implicitly accusing her sister of being unfilial—who says their own parents “won’t live many more years”?
She looked at Wei Shuyu’s back. Back home, her sister had always been silent, silent as if turning into stone.
She hadn’t understood that silence before, but now she felt that faced with these words, what else could she say besides staying silent?
“You child, how did your speech get so harsh? One trip outside and you’ve truly learned bad habits.”
Zhao Rou had a gentle name, but her personality didn’t match it at all; she was always particularly overbearing.
Hearing her daughter speak like that, she couldn’t stand it and squeezed in from outside. Her gaze swept the room and landed on Wei Shuyu’s suitcase.
“You sure know how to enjoy yourself, staying in such a big room alone.”
Wei Qingguo followed them in and chimed in, “Bought so many clothes again. With that money, it would be better to save it up.”
Everyone filed in one after another. Wei Qinglu felt dizzy from this barrage of words. She subconsciously looked toward her mother, but Liu Liu averted her gaze. Then she glanced at her father, and Wei Qingye shook his head at her, signaling her not to get involved.
Wei Qinglu did not know what to do, so she could only look toward Wei Shuyu.
She thought that if her sister needed it, she would definitely help her sister.
Wei Qinglu kept taking deep breaths. She felt scared, but even more, she felt a strange energy pent up in her chest that made her unwilling to back down.
If it were not for Wei Shuyu… she would not even know how big the world was, nor would she see any possibilities beyond graduating, finding a job, getting married, and having children. Many times, when she looked at her sister, it did not feel like looking at someone else—it felt like looking at her future self.
Wei Shuyu smiled at her, signaling that she did not need to worry.
“You didn’t even greet the family and just ran off to such a faraway place. I see you really don’t want to come back to this home?”
Wei Qingguo saw the eye contact between them and snorted from his nose. He casually picked up the bag Wei Shuyu had placed on the sofa.
“All day long, you just know how to buy these things. Before, you insisted on doing that exhibition thing. You finally earned a bit of money, and now you’re not doing it anymore. Tell me, what exactly do you want to do?”
“What do I want to do?”
Wei Shuyu looked at him leisurely and smiled faintly.
“I’m being kept by a woman now. Are you satisfied?”
