This restaurant specialized in ambiance, gorgeous decor and soft, soothing music, making it the top destination for young couples on dates.
There were no noisy children or people playing games, and the clientele was well-mannered, with only the faint murmur of conversation. The surroundings were relatively quiet, but Lin Zhizhi’s voice was loud, and she deliberately drew out her words, so much so that everyone turned to look.
Jiang Wangshu was seated not far from them, so she naturally noticed the commotion. She wasn’t the type to gawk at drama, but her seat had an excellent view, and with just a casual glance out of the corner of her eye, she precisely caught sight of Shen Qing.
She didn’t want to get involved. She kept telling herself that Shen Qing was merely her sister-in-law. Those few moments of instinctive concern had already led Shen Qing to misunderstand that they could grow closer. If she acted that way again, she absolutely could not control what would happen next.
Shen Qing was a little madman, terrifyingly stubborn when it came to emotions, whether love or family. As long as she was given the chance to hold something in her grasp, she would never let go. Back then, when she decided to marry Shen Dai, Shen Qing had done something shocking, nearly severing all ties with the Shen family and almost dying in a foreign land.
She must not waver, and she must never let Shen Qing fall into such danger again. She would go mad.
But as Jiang Wangshu watched Shen Qing standing at a dining table, being blocked and verbally humiliated by a girl, somehow she instinctively went against her own heart.
Jiang Wangshu called the waiter over to pay the bill, looking apologetically at the colleague across from her. “Sorry, I have something I need to take care of. I’ll be going ahead. I’ve paid the bill, please continue eating. Next time, dinner’s on me as an apology.”
With that, without waiting for her colleague’s response, Jiang Wangshu quickly headed toward Shen Qing’s location, completely abandoning her usual composure.
The woman stared at Jiang Wangshu’s receding figure, then shifted her gaze to Shen Qing not far away. Her eyes darkened as she fell into deep thought.
Shen Qing was about to leave her seat and rush toward Jiang Wangshu, but Zhang Zhizhi’s words tripped her up. Anyone with eyes could see Zhang Zhizhi’s deliberate provocation, yet no one spoke up for Shen Qing. Shen Qing herself only belatedly realized the hostility of this group. Furrowing her brow, she called the waiter over directly.
“Bring the bill, please.” Under Shen Qing’s burning gaze, Jiang Wangshu walked to their table, stopping the waiter who was about to fetch the bill, and pulled out her phone to pay. “This one’s on me.”
She hadn’t been paying close attention earlier, she hadn’t expected to run into a half-acquaintance here. Jiang Wangshu smiled and nodded at Lin Yue in greeting.
Someone suddenly appearing to pay their bill made Zhang Zhizhi freeze for a moment, then her eyes darted back and forth between Shen Qing and Jiang Wangshu, speculating wildly about their relationship.
Jiang Wangshu hadn’t changed much over the years, and Lin Yue recognized her at a glance, knowing this was someone she should curry favor with. A fawning smile spread across her face as she hurriedly greeted her.
“Miss Jiang, it’s been so long. After all these years, you haven’t changed a bit, just as young and beautiful as ever.”
Lin Yue was considered a mid-to-senior level employee at Shen Corporation. She had crossed paths with Jiang Wangshu once at the company’s annual gala a few years ago, so she naturally knew Jiang Wangshu’s identity.
She immediately concluded that Shen Qing’s background was no ordinary one either a close relative from a branch of the Shen family, or a member of the Jiang family. Although Shen Xiaqing hadn’t made it explicit that morning, fortunately she had her suspicions, and now she felt reassured.
In any case, no matter what Shen Qing’s identity was, she could not afford to offend her.
Watching Shen Qing rush hotly after Jiang Wangshu to the restaurant restroom, she couldn’t help feeling relieved that she hadn’t tormented Shen Qing the way Zhang Zhizhi had, and also a little annoyed at herself for clinging so tightly to that bit of money just now. Offering to pay the bill would have earned her a little goodwill with Shen Qing besides, judging by Shen Qing’s manner, she would never have let her pay anyway.
Thinking this, she let out a long sigh. They had more or less finished eating anyway, so Lin Yue took out her bag and headed to the restroom to touch up her makeup. She had barely stood in front of the mirror, head buried in her bag searching for her lipstick, when she heard voices coming from just beyond a door beside her.
That low voice, urgent and interrogative, was very familiar, Lin Yue recognized it at once as Shen Qing’s. And… there was someone else in there with her.
Sensing that something wasn’t right, Lin Yue made a snap decision. Covering her mouth, without even taking the time to put her lipstick back in her bag, she quietly slipped into a stall not far away and shut the door.
The outer door had already been closed by Shen Qing when she came in, with a “Under Maintenance” sign hung on it. As it happened, Lin Yue had accidentally witnessed this, which was why neither of the two had noticed the arrival of a third party.
“Who is she?”
In the cramped space, Shen Qing had one hand cradling the back of Jiang Wangshu’s head and the other pinning her shoulder, the scarlet in her eyes no longer concealable as she demanded sharply.
Her mind was filled with replaying the scene from moments ago. How dare that person cut Jiang Wangshu’s steak for her? How dare she wipe the stain from Jiang Wangshu’s collarbone.
Jealousy surged through her blood, spreading like vines, taking root in her heart in that instant, making the pain unbearable.
Shen Qing’s grip kept tightening, until at last a flicker of pain appeared on Jiang Wangshu’s face, written all over with protest: “Let go! You’ve gone too far!”
Shen Qing’s hand was not behaving itself, stroking carelessly over her collarbone, as if trying to erase the trace that woman had left with the napkin from forceful at first to gentle later.
Looking at the jarring red mark on Jiang Wangshu’s collarbone, she flinched as if burned and withdrew her misbehaving hand. She bent down and touched it with her soft lips, and in an instant, scalding teardrops fell onto Jiang Wangshu’s neck, sliding down into her underwear and disappearing.
“You’re not allowed to leave.” Shen Qing demanded, domineering.
Until things were explained clearly, she was not allowed to leave.
Shen Qing lifted her head and suddenly met Jiang Wangshu’s face, turned away to the side. The thought “she’s avoiding me again” quietly took root deep inside her, gradually breaking down the defenses in her heart.
Unable to hold back any longer, Shen Qing raised her right hand and gripped her chin. Her face was so small that a single palm could easily encompass it, no longer able to resist, no longer able to hide from her.
Shen Qing was like a tyrannical despot overbearing, unreasonable, and utterly arbitrary. She repeated once more: “You’re not allowed to leave.”
Gradually, Jiang Wangshu stopped struggling. She knew Shen Qing always responded to softness, never to force, and this yielding behavior indeed appeased Shen Qing, who willingly loosened her grip.
“Did you refuse me because of her?”
“Who? What nonsense are you spouting?” Jiang Wangshu was thoroughly exasperated. Sometimes she truly didn’t know what went on inside Shen Qing’s head, how could her thought process be so unlike anyone else’s?
Could it really be like they say online, a generation gap every three years? She was six years older than Shen Qing, two full generation gaps, so that whenever Shen Qing spoke, she always needed a long time to grasp the meaning behind her words.
“In the hospital lounge, at the dinner table, what you meant toward me was obvious.”
“I showed my feelings for you, and you rejected me under the guise of being my sister-in-law, constantly bringing up Shen Dai, afraid I’d forget that you are my own sister’s wife. But what are you doing now? Looking for someone new?”
“Was that person just now really that wonderful?”
Jealousy was burning through Shen Qing’s flesh. Even though she kept reminding herself to lower her voice, she grew more and more agitated as she spoke especially from the moment her eyes met Jiang Wangshu’s utterly unmoved face, she could no longer hold back.
“A-Qing, I’ve said it many times. What I want to do, who I want to be with, it really has nothing to do with you. Don’t overstep, okay?” There was no scolding in Jiang Wangshu’s tone, only deep helplessness and weariness. When she looked up at her, her eyes said everything.
“You can’t expect me to remind you every single time this isn’t allowed, that’s forbidden. It exhausts us both.”
Jiang Wangshu sighed. “Do what you’re supposed to do, get what you deserve, and stop forcing what you shouldn’t even be thinking about… Don’t make me be forced to hide far away from you.”
“Are you that tired? Is being around me already exhausting to you?”
Her tone shifted from resentment to choked sobs. Watching Jiang Wangshu say these things so calmly, large tears pooled in her eyes. She didn’t want to be so humiliated: “You want to avoid me that badly? Am I some disgusting bug on the ground you can’t get away from fast enough? Have you forgotten, you used to say we’d be together forever. If it weren’t for Shen Dai…”
“There is no ‘if’!” Jiang Wangshu’s expression changed for the first time. “Shen Qing, there is no ‘if’ anymore.”
This was only the second time Jiang Wangshu had called Shen Qing by her full name. Shen Qing froze on the spot, every word she wanted to say lodging in her throat all at once.
Shen Qing had been running after Jiang Wangshu since she was three years old. She had many names for Jiang Wangshu, each with its own origin.
For instance, when she first met Jiang Wangshu, Shen Qing always called her Wangshu-jiejie.
Later, after Shen Dai fell gravely ill from playing on the swing, her body grew ever frailer, showing signs she might die young. From then on, Shen Xiaqing regarded Shen Qing entirely as the murderer of her own family, cutting off every chance for Shen Qing to go near Shen Dai and so Shen Qing lost the sister who had taught her picture books. When Jiang Wangshu found out, she took over the little one’s lessons in characters, pictures, and pinyin, teaching Shen Qing to write her own name, and truly became her older sister. Without realizing it, Shen Qing changed what she called her, and from then on, the word “jiejie” was reserved for Jiang Wangshu alone.
Then later, Shen Qing once fell gravely ill, and no one paid any attention, no one in the entire Shen household even knew. If Jiang Wangshu hadn’t noticed Shen Qing was missing and gone to her room to look for her, she might have burned to death in her bed from fever. That night in the hospital room at Ren’ai Hospital, gravely ill and delirious, Shen Qing cried out “Mama” again and again. Getting no response triggered convulsions, and Jiang Wangshu, helpless, shed tears of heartache and could only hold Shen Qing, answering every cry, so that none of Shen Qing’s words fell on empty air.
After Shen Qing recovered, she remembered everything that happened in the hospital room that day with perfect clarity. In her adolescence, when she became aware of her confused feelings for Jiang Wangshu, she would trace the contours of Jiang Wangshu’s face in the deep of night as they slept in each other’s arms, silently calling her “Mama.”
She had always known something was wrong with her, her obsession with Jiang Wangshu went far beyond the bounds of normal affection. But she would never change. If not for Jiang Wangshu, Shen Qing would have died in the dirt at age four, rotting and stinking away.