“Don’t you like spicy food anymore?” Ji Qingyou asked, a little nervous.
“No, I love spicy food.” Yu Qinjiu shook her head. “But you can’t eat spicy food. I remember when you were a kid, just a little bit of spice would make your lips swell.”
“I added some bean paste. It makes the flavor better.” Ji Qingyou breathed a sigh of relief. “Besides, I can handle spicy food now.”
Yu Qinjiu was skeptical. “Really?”
Ji Qingyou nodded. To prove it, she even put a rib in her mouth. Her movements were a bit slow, but she managed it, spitting out the bone and not letting the meat stay in her mouth too long. She just asked, “Do you like it?”
“It’s delicious.” Yu Qinjiu really loved spicy food. Especially after living in England for a few years, her craving for chili had grown deeper.
But after a few bites, perhaps because she wasn’t used to it, a wave of nausea hit her. She quickly got up and, covering her mouth, rushed to the bathroom.
Ji Qingyou was stunned for a few seconds before following. She saw Yu Qinjiu crouched by the toilet, looking like she was vomiting, but she didn’t seem to be able to bring anything up. She seemed to be in pain.
She walked over, helped gather the hair that had fallen over Yu Qinjiu’s shoulders, and instinctively raised her hand. But she paused in mid-air, then eventually rested it on Yu Qinjiu’s back.
Her touch was very light, but she could feel the other woman’s thinness.
Even through her sweater, Yu Qinjiu’s slightly protruding shoulder blades were very prominent. They looked fragile and weak, as if they could snap with a little pressure.
After retching for a while without bringing anything up, Yu Qinjiu forced herself to stand. She looked pale. Her collar was crooked, the skin on her collarbone bone-white and fragile like fine porcelain. She managed a strained smile at Ji Qingyou. “It’s probably just irregular eating habits the past few days.”
Ji Qingyou handed her a tissue. “Have you been drinking these past few days?”
“No.” Yu Qinjiu shook her head in denial, flushed the toilet, and left the bathroom. She said curtly, “I quit.”
Ji Qingyou poured her a glass of warm water. Still worried, she suggested, “How about you come to the hospital for a check-up in a few days?”
Yu Qinjiu obediently took a few sips of water. At her words, her eyes curved into beautiful crescent moons. “This is the first time I’ve thrown up. I just have a bit of an upset stomach.”
Ji Qingyou still frowned.
Yu Qinjiu conceded. “Alright. I’ll make an appointment right away.”
Ji Qingyou’s brow finally relaxed a little. Then she thought of what Yu Qinjiu had just said. “Why did you suddenly decide to quit drinking?”
“Because…” Yu Qinjiu dragged out the word, thinking seriously for a moment, then said with a beaming smile, “My doctor said alcohol is bad for you, so I replaced it with the wontons and soup dumplings from downstairs!”
Ji Qingyou pursed her lips. “Your doctor also said to go to the hospital for a check-up.”
She didn’t refer to herself as “your doctor.”
Yu Qinjiu smiled again. “Okay, mission accepted!”
The long dinner finally ended. Yu Qinjiu wouldn’t let Ji Qingyou do the dishes. She told her to just sit outside and wait for her.
Ji Qingyou looked around Yu Qinjiu’s temporary residence in China. There wasn’t much stuff. Most of the furniture was the landlord’s. Only a few daily necessities were scattered around. It lacked any sense of life.
The fullest place was the study.
Seeing the messy drawing paper on the study desk, Ji Qingyou couldn’t help but tidy the open books and untidy drawing tools for her. While doing so, she saw Yu Qinjiu’s computer screen, which was still on.
Politeness and upbringing made her look away immediately.
But her restless attention still caught the name of a blue folder on the screen before she looked away.
The folder name was: YQJ28-19.
Before she could think about the meaning of the name, Yu Qinjiu, who had finished washing the dishes, appeared. She explained the name naturally. “From nineteen to twenty-eight. Love letters from others to Yu Qinjiu.”
Ji Qingyou was silent for a moment.
Yu Qinjiu’s eyes curved into a smile as she handed her a cup of tea, her voice filled with laughter. “Just kidding. How could you fall for that? It’s just work files.”
Ji Qingyou took a sip of tea. “I wasn’t really curious anyway.”
“Mm-hmm, I know.” Yu Qinjiu hummed dismissively, then closed the laptop. She saw her clean desk. “Wow, you tidied my desk again. My personal house elf?”
Yu Qinjiu always easily gave people nicknames.
And they were always very fitting.
Ji Qingyou didn’t accept the nickname, but she didn’t refuse it either.
Yu Qinjiu’s study also had a large floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the dense cityscape. The faint sound of water and ship horns could be heard.
The scenes she had imagined in her youth were now all coming true, one by one.
And unbelievably, the two of them had miraculously reunited, checking off these conditions, recalling those not-so-worrisome past times.
The city lights were reflected on the glass window. Ji Qingyou suddenly remembered the question that had been lingering in her mind all day. She asked hesitantly, “Did you pay Li Nanli’s medical bills?”
“How did you know?” Yu Qinjiu was a bit surprised.
Ji Qingyou looked at her reflection on the window. “Domestic crowdfunding platforms aren’t as good as you think. It’s usually very difficult to raise that much money in such a short time.”
“Okay.” Yu Qinjiu didn’t seem upset by this. “I wasn’t careful enough, I guess.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ji Qingyou pressed.
Yu Qinjiu lowered her eyes slightly, her thumb gently rubbing her water glass. “You’ve been so tired these past few days. You have other patients to manage, and you’re spending all your energy on Li Nanli. Why would I bother you with this? Besides, it’s not like I couldn’t handle it.”
The tone she used was not as relaxed as the words suggested. But the tenseness didn’t seem to come from a financial problem.
Ji Qingyou stared at her for a moment before speaking. “How did you handle it?”
Yu Qinjiu didn’t answer immediately. She took another couple of sips of her tea. After a while, she gently put down her glass, took out her phone, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it to Ji Qingyou. Her voice was soft as she emphasized,
“I have a lot of money.”
The account balance displayed on the screen was over eight figures.
And in the details below, there were many transfer records for seven-figure sums. All from the same name:
Yu Cheng.
Yu Qinjiu’s father.
Ji Qingyou was stunned for a few seconds. The phone screen went dark, reflecting her shocked expression. Yu Qinjiu smiled again, tossed the phone onto the desk, and picked up her tea again.
“After I got back, I don’t know how he got my number and account, but he kept calling me. I didn’t answer, so he kept transferring money. Later, I broke my SIM card and didn’t get a new number, but he still found me through other accounts. Do you know what he wants me to do?”
Ji Qingyou found it hard to describe the feeling. “Does it have something to do with the wedding?”
“Mm.” Yu Qinjiu let out a soft laugh, her tone clear-headed. “He wants me to put on an act of a loving father and devoted daughter at his wedding, look obedient and sensible. Then, preferably, in front of all the guests, I would call that woman ‘Mom’ to make her happy, to show the perfect harmony. That way, all the gossip at the company about him abandoning his wife and daughter will die down.”
It seemed like if Yu Qinjiu would just give in, everyone involved in this mess could be better off. They could all cut ties with the past.
Everyone except Yu Qinjiu herself.
Maybe it was inappropriate.
But in that moment, Ji Qingyou couldn’t help but recall the crushed little goldfish.
Yu Qinjiu was smiling. But the emotion in that smile was different. It wasn’t happiness. It was the endless, sour feeling overflowing, like a freshly cut lemon.
The sourness didn’t stop.
So her smile didn’t either. “In TV shows, when this happens, the heroine takes the money, converts it all to cash, and throws it right in his face, seriously injuring him…”
She looked at Ji Qingyou. “But I really did use his money. When I heard Li Nanli’s mother worrying about the surgery costs, I thought I should help them. But I don’t have that much money in my domestic account right now. So I thought of this money. Li Nanli said she’ll pay me back, but I never planned to ask her to…”
Ji Qingyou watched as her eyes reddened. Her thoughts began to wander. She didn’t know what position to take, what words to use to comfort Yu Qinjiu.
Because the other protagonist of this wedding was Qin Shuangchi.
Because, barring any accidents, Ji Qingyou would definitely be at this wedding, in a calm and congratulatory manner, as Qin Shuangchi’s sister, standing on a completely different, even opposing side from Yu Qinjiu. She would even be sitting at the same table as Yu Cheng.
And she couldn’t change any of that.
In her blurry, tear-filled vision, Yu Qinjiu lowered her lashes and continued in a very soft voice.
“After spending the money, I didn’t feel free. So I thought I’d spend more. I bought a lot of things, even donated some. I wanted to donate even more…”
“I used the money, but I don’t plan to attend the wedding. And I didn’t donate it all.” She looked at Ji Qingyou. “Do you know why?”
Yu Qinjiu had decided to bare all her emotions in front of Ji Qingyou.
She herself found it strange. At first, when she received the money from Yu Cheng, her reaction was exactly like a movie heroine’s: sick to her stomach, not wanting to see his name.
But later, she thought, why not treat this money as compensation from Yu Cheng? He was so rich, why shouldn’t she use it? It had nothing to do with attending the wedding or not. It was what Yu Cheng owed her.
Once she thought of it that way, there was no burden in using it.
But when she told Li Nanli about it, Li Nanli thought she was going to use attending the wedding as a condition to cover the surgery costs. She was so upset she almost kicked Yu Qinjiu out of the ward, saying she would rather die than use that money.
Li Nanli thought it was an equal exchange.
Yu Cheng probably also thought that feelings were transactional. If he paid enough, she would eventually give in.
But she gritted her teeth and held firm.
Even after ten years, everyone told her to let it go, to forget the past and move on. But she still clung to that thread, unwilling to let go, unwilling to forget.
No one understood why she had to hold on so tightly, exhausting her spirit. It was like how, in her eyes, this couldn’t be considered a fair exchange. But to most people, it was just a transaction.
There is no true empathy in the world.
“Because I don’t want to bring him any good karma.” Yu Qinjiu said very quietly. “I don’t want to use his money for good things. I don’t want him to accumulate any merit because of the good things his money does. If there really is a heaven and hell after death, I would be the one who most wants him to go to hell.”
She didn’t smile when she said this.
Her beautiful, languid face was reflected in the clear window, hazy and full.
Tears gradually welled up in her eyes, filling her pupils bit by bit, like a rising tide, an ocean beginning to surge.
“Am I being too cruel, Ji Qingyou?” Her voice sounded very low. “Using his money, and still wanting him to go to hell.”
The room was silent, save for the soft sound of breathing.
Yu Qinjiu’s eyes were lowered, red-rimmed, trembling teardrops threatening to spill over. Through her blurry vision, she saw Ji Qingyou lower her head slightly, as if to study her expression.
She turned her head away, feeling her expression wasn’t very pretty at the moment.
But Ji Qingyou still stared intently at her. Then, she slowly reached out her fingers, gently wiping away the tears spilling from her eyes with her slightly warm knuckles.
The touch was light, and the tears were many.
But Ji Qingyou still gently caught all her salty, wet tears. She was silent, but her expression and movements held a subtle tenderness.
In that instant, Yu Qinjiu thought of a soft sofa she could sink completely into. She thought of the fragrant smell of freshly baked bread. She thought of the relaxing crunch of stepping on dead leaves in her teens…
In the midst of these warm, comforting images.
Ji Qingyou was probably the warmest of them all. She tirelessly wiped away all of Yu Qinjiu’s salty, suffering tears.
“You’re being too lenient. I think he should go to the eighteenth level of hell.”
Her tone was calm, but it sounded like a rebellious teenager.
