The next morning, the rain had stopped. The bamboo grove outside had been washed clean by the downpour, appearing even more lush and emerald-green. The entire garden was filled with the distinct fragrance of fresh grass and damp earth.
Su Chuiyun embraced the person beside her. “Morning, Sis.”
Ming Shu: “…Morning.”
Her voice was tired and raspy, as if she hadn’t closed her eyes all night.
Su Chuiyun propped herself up and brushed Ming Shu’s long hair aside. “Did you not sleep well last night?”
Ming Shu was momentarily stunned by those unfocused, smoky-grey eyes, almost mistaking Su Chuiyun for being able to see.
“No, I just woke up.” Having said that, Ming Shu sat up, not wanting to continue the small talk.
She had quietly gone to the bathroom last night and seen the clothes Su Chuiyun had changed out of…
Ming Shu knew her behavior was shameful and perverse. If Su Chuiyun ever found out, she would likely be called “disgusting” once again.
But she really couldn’t help herself. Waves of restlessness within her had forced her to sit in a bathtub full of warm water, one hand covering her mouth, not daring to make a single unrefined sound.
Su Chuiyun felt her way over. “Sis, your body is so hot.”
Ming Shu: “…It’s just a bit warm.”
Su Chuiyun: “?” Your face is very red, too.
Ming Shu quickly put on her clothes and leaned over to unbutton her ex-girlfriend’s pajamas, taking out the outfit Sister Chen had coordinated from the wardrobe.
“Arms up,” Ming Shu said calmly.
Su Chuiyun complied obediently. Throughout the entire dressing process, Ming Shu could hardly tell she was blind.
The bedroom was silent except for the rustle of fabric. Taking advantage of her “cheat code” (hidden sight), Su Chuiyun greedily gazed at Ming Shu’s face.
With her hair cascading down and her face free of makeup, she looked much softer, more like a woman in her twenties and not nearly as fierce as she appeared to outsiders.
So cute.
Exactly Su Chuiyun’s type.
What pleased Su Chuiyun most was her flushed little face and the way her lips were pursed, her eyes instinctively darting toward the bathroom.
“A-Yun,” Ming Shu suddenly spoke, “what is our relationship now?”
“I’m your girlfriend,” Su Chuiyun replied, retracting her gaze. “We’ve already shared a bed.”
Ming Shu didn’t say anything. After a long pause, she let out a soft “Mm.”
As the wheelchair passed the bathroom, Su Chuiyun asked curiously, “Was the bathroom used?”
Ming Shu instantly froze in place. “You… you can see?”
The moment the words left her mouth, Ming Shu felt it was inappropriate. Perhaps she had heard something last night? If so, what else did she hear…?
Would Su Chuiyun think she was an indecent woman?
Ming Shu’s lips trembled slightly as she stood in the shadows, feeling utterly lost.
“No, I can just feel that the humidity in the air is high.” Su Chuiyun didn’t know why her benefactor’s face had suddenly turned pale. She said gently, “Did you take a bath last night, Sis? Just treat this place like your own home; don’t be so formal.”
Ming Shu: “…”
“Okay.”
At the dining table, Auntie Wang brought out breakfast early, her eyes constantly drifting to the red mark on the corner of Ming Shu’s mouth.
Su Chuiyun set her ceramic soup spoon down heavily and said coolly:
“The wind and rain were heavy yesterday. Auntie Wang, go clear the fallen leaves in the bamboo grove.”
The moment Su Chuiyun spoke, Auntie Wang shut her mouth immediately. Her expression was conflicted; she was clearly unwilling to go work in the muddy ground.
“What are you still standing here for?”
Su Chuiyun’s tone was still smiling, but her words were icy.
“Yes, Miss Su. I’ll get to it right away.”
Just as Auntie Wang was about to leave, Su Chuiyun suddenly called out to her, “I don’t mind telling my parents to find a new maid.”
Auntie Wang’s expression changed instantly. “You’re joking, you’re joking… You still need to help my son find a job.”
Auntie Wang hunched her back, her eyes losing the calculating look typical of a petty gossip. Whether out of fear of Su Chuiyun or Ming Shu, she spent the next two minutes properly arranging the tea that should have been in the cabinet all along.
Of course, the cabinet wasn’t full, because she had already taken some of it home.
“I have to go home today.”
Once Auntie Wang left, Ming Shu put down her chopsticks.
“Eat a bit more. Don’t you like shrimp dumplings, Sis?”
Su Chuiyun placed a translucent shrimp dumpling into Ming Shu’s bowl. Every morning, the meals were prepared by the garden’s chef or delivered from nearby restaurants, the quality was excellent.
“Thank you, but I don’t want any more.”
Ming Shu swallowed the last dumpling, the smile on her face gradually fading. “It won’t rain again today. You can rest well on your own, A-Yun.”
Ming Shu quietly observed Su Chuiyun’s expression.
“When will you be back?” Su Chuiyun looked up at her.
In daily life, Su Chuiyun acted so unlike a blind person that even Ming Shu occasionally forgot she wasn’t sighted.
“I’ll be back late… or maybe I won’t come back at all. You don’t need to wait for me.”
After breakfast, Ming Shu left in a hurry. Before leaving, she didn’t forget to brew a pot of tea and prepare high-quality tea snacks for Su Chuiyun.
Just before walking out, Ming Shu leaned down and took a red velvet box from her handbag. Inside was a pair of small diamond studs.
Ming Shu stood before Su Chuiyun. Her shadow almost completely enveloped the frail beauty, like an opaque curtain.
“Don’t move.”
Ming Shu pinched her earlobe and slid the stud through Su Chuiyun’s piercing.
“It’s a set with the ring. They aren’t worth much. Your skin is fair, they look good on you.”
The sunlight hit the diamonds, creating dazzling, multicolored sparks. The girl felt her earlobe being pinched, and a stranger’s breath hovered near her ear.
Su Chuiyun’s heart hammered against her ribs as she loosely wrapped an arm around Ming Shu’s waist.
Ming Shu admired the earrings engraved with the initials of their names for a moment. She looked back three times as she walked away, finally speaking at the garden gate:
“A-Yun, you are my girlfriend, right?”
Su Chuiyun reached up and brushed a stray lock of hair from Ming Shu’s eye. “Of course. We’ve even slept together.”
“Of course you’re my girlfriend.”
Ming Shu: …
Slept together…
Do you mean the kind where you’re asleep while I’m doing… things… alone in the bathroom?
Ming Shu’s expression was momentarily stiff and speechless. “I’m leaving now. Goodbye.”
Su Chuiyun: ?
Why was her benefactor unhappy?
She looked like she was about to cry.
Wait… her benefactor had long nails yesterday. Why were they all gone today?
Su Chuiyun racked her brain but couldn’t figure out what had happened last night, assuming she had simply misremembered.
Su Chuiyun returned to the bedroom and slowly began tidying the clothes Ming Shu had left behind.
As she shook out Ming Shu’s coat, a small piece of paper fell out and landed at her feet.
Curious, Su Chuiyun leaned down to pick it up.
The paper was filled to the edges with meticulous notes: A-Yun likes shrimp dumplings and wonton noodles, she prefers sweet dishes, she dislikes scallions sizzled in oil but can eat them raw, she likes cooked onions but can handle a small amount raw, she likes freshwater fish; she only eats soft-boiled eggs…
Every character was written with earnest care. Following these notes, she had recorded every dietary preference she could recall regarding Su Chuiyun.
The final sentence read: “It has been a long time since I last saw A-Yun. I wonder if she still likes the food I cook…”
Pure….too pure.
Just looking at the neat handwriting, Su Chuiyun couldn’t bear to imagine how the “original host” of this body would have trampled over such sincerity if she were here instead. In the original novel, when the two were dating, the original host had flipped over a whole table of food that Ming Shu had worked tirelessly to prepare.
The reason? Because Ming Shu was clinging to her and didn’t want to break up.
Su Chuiyun let out a slow sigh.
What kind of peerless, pitiful soul is Ming Shu?
She folded the paper and tucked it into her pocket, pretending she hadn’t seen it. The good news was that her “benefactor” loved her. The bad news was that her benefactor wealthy and beautiful was a “hot commodity” in the eyes of others as well.
At the Ming Family Mansion
As soon as Ming Shu stepped inside, she saw her nominal younger brother leaning back on the sofa, smoking. The floor was littered with cigarette butts.
The fat on the man’s body seemed to melt into the leather sofa. Sitting opposite him were her foster mother, wearing a beaming smile, and her foster father, who was reading a newspaper.
“Dad, Mom.”
Ming Shu stood at the doorway, unwilling to step further inside. She had always hated the smell of smoke, yet ever since leaving the orphanage, she had been forced to breathe in secondhand smoke every single day.
Her foster father glanced at her without a word. Her foster mother’s smile was warm, but the folds of skin on her eyelids nearly covered her eyes.
“Xiao Shu is finally back! Come, come, sit down. Your brother was just talking about you.”
The man on the sofa snorted disdainfully and tossed a cigarette butt onto the floor.
“Mom, I told you I don’t like her. She only comes back to snatch the family inheritance. It’s only because Grandpa is soft-hearted, anyone else would have kicked her out long ago.”
“Ming Wei, don’t talk nonsense. We’re all family,” the mother said, grabbing Ming Shu’s sleeve and pulling her toward her smoke-scented son.
“We are all one family, right?”
Ming Shu looked at the three of them and remained silent.
“Xiao Shu, don’t always keep such a cold face. Men hate wives like that the most.” The foster mother nudged Ming Shu with her elbow. “You didn’t even greet your brother when you walked in.”
Ming Shu glanced at Ming Wei out of the corner of her eye. “Why did you call me back today?”
The money her foster parents had invested in her had already been paid back in full after Ming Shu earned her first “pot of gold” abroad. From tuition fees down to the cost of a single bottle of milk, Ming Shu had kept a long, detailed list.
As it stood, she owed this family nothing.
The foster mother’s expression chilled. “What kind of talk is that? Did you turn wild while abroad and don’t want to come home? You aren’t young anymore, it’s time you found someone to marry.”
“Your father and I love you. We don’t want to see you bullied in another family. Why don’t you…” The mother kicked her son. “Xiao Wei, say something!”
Ming Wei looked up at Ming Shu with cloudy eyes. At first, he didn’t care, but once he actually looked at her, he was momentarily stunned by her beauty.
“Sis, you’ve really grown up to be a beauty.”
She was even prettier than the little internet celebrity he had just tipped online.
“Sis, how about I take you out to dinner tonight? I know you have high standards, but a new Michelin restaurant just opened nearby. It’s incredibly hard to get a reservation.”
The corners of Ming Shu’s mouth twitched.
“No thanks. I have plans.”
“We aren’t meeting for the first time. Let’s talk about Grandpa’s funeral. The will he just made should include a share for me.”
Grandpa was the only person in this house who hadn’t been harsh to her, though he had become less affectionate after her brother was born. She didn’t lack the money, and in the past, she wouldn’t have bothered asking for it. But things were different now.
Ming Shu was a woman with a “family” of her own to support.
She sighed inwardly, her smile becoming increasingly cold. “By the way, after Grandpa passes, I will move my household registration out. I won’t bother the three of you ever again.”
At the Su Garden
Su Chuiyun’s phone buzzed. A WeChat message from Ming Shu popped up.
Su Chuiyun clicked the voice note. The woman’s voice sounded suppressed and sorrowful, almost as if she were slightly drunk.
“A-Yun… from now on, I have no home. My parents want me to marry my brother. I really don’t like him. I only have you now. A-Yun, will you take good care of me?”
Su Chuiyun: !
While the message was heartbreaking and concerning, why did she detect a slight “hint of tea” (manipulative/damsel behavior)? Was it just her imagination?
Was this “weeping little white flower” really the same Ming Shu from the original novel, the one who was supposed to be decisive, cold, and emotionally repressed?