Shen Wanli looked at Jiang Rou’s attitude and said, “Do you think acting like this is meaningful?”
“Meaningful? What do you mean by meaningful? Tell me what counts as meaningful to you?”
Jiang Rou asked, “Is watching you being sweet with Qin Miao what you call meaningful?”
Shen Wanli inexplicably felt a splitting headache. “Why does everything have to involve Qin Miao?”
Jiang Rou said chillingly, “If Qin Miao had not dared to covet what is mine, why would I bring her into it?”
“Covet what is mine?”
Shen Wanli chuckled. “When did I ever become yours?”
When bringing up this topic, Jiang Rou’s tone was deeply ambiguous. “Do you not know when you became mine?”
Faced with Jiang Rou’s attitude, Shen Wanli did not know what to say. She felt that Jiang Rou was acting like an unreasonable child.
She only cared about whether she herself was happy, completely failing to consider the feelings of others.
Why did she feel like a summon-at-will, discard-at-pleasure toy to Jiang Rou? When Jiang Rou needed her, she would call her sister and act spoiled to smooth over everything; but when she was no longer wanted, Jiang Rou would put on a cold face and utter hurtful words.
Seeing Shen Wanli fall silent once again, Jiang Rou’s anger flared up. Every time this issue came up, Shen Wanli would grow taciturn and say nothing at all.
Was this question really that hard to answer? Why did you keep running away, Shen Wanli? The two of you had already experienced everything, and last night it was Shen Wanli herself who held onto Jiang Rou’s hand.
It was also Shen Wanli who acted spoiled and claimed she could not bear to leave her. Why did she turn so cold right after waking up, and instead go straight to find another woman?
“Why are you not speaking again?”
Jiang Rou asked.
“I do not know what to say. Regarding this topic, we have nothing left to talk about.”
Shen Wanli said coldly.
“Fine, a fine nothing to talk about. You have nothing to say to me, but you have so many things you want to say to Qin Miao.”
Jiang Rou said with another wave of sarcasm.
Shen Wanli was driven to the verge of breathlessness by Jiang Rou’s attitude.
She let out a sigh and said, “Why do our problems always have to involve Qin Miao?”
Hearing Shen Wanli’s words, Jiang Rou retorted, “If it were not for her, you would not have rushed off to the company first thing in the morning. If it were not for her, why would you have transferred her to your company? Does not all of this already explain the problem?”
Shen Wanli felt that their core issue was that whenever she wanted to communicate purely, Jiang Rou would tie every single problem back to Qin Miao.
It felt as though, if not for Qin Miao’s existence, the two of them could actually get along properly.
Shen Wanli sighed, pulled away Jiang Rou’s hand that was gripping her arm, and prepared to leave. But who would have known that Jiang Rou refused to let go no matter what.
Shen Wanli was originally quite furious and wanted to ask what on earth Jiang Rou was trying to do, but when she turned back to look, she saw something unexpected.
There were actually two trails of tears welling up in Jiang Rou’s eyes.
This sight made Shen Wanli’s heart give a jolt.
Ever since they were children, she had never been able to bear Jiang Rou’s tears; seeing them always caused her to feel an involuntary heartache.
She hurriedly asked, “Why are you crying?”
Jiang Rou, who had originally expected the two of them to continue clashing head-on, heard Shen Wanli’s tender words.
Her tears became completely uncontrollable and flowed down, and her aggressive momentum instantly vanished.
Watching Jiang Rou’s tears stream down in greater and greater numbers, Shen Wanli felt a sense of panic and quickly stepped forward, wanting to wipe them away. But Jiang Rou turned her head away and said, “Since you already do not care about me anymore, why bother putting on this act?”
Shen Wanli said, “I have never stopped caring about you. I just feel that there is a problem with how we communicate. That is why I do not know how to carry on our conversations anymore.”
“A problem?”
Jiang Rou let out a soft laugh. “What problem could there be, other than the fact that you like Qin Miao?”
When Shen Wanli heard Jiang Rou’s words, a realization exploded in her mind like a sudden flash.
Suddenly, many things she had not understood before made complete sense. Why did Jiang Rou hold such intense hostility? It turned out she had all along believed that she liked Qin Miao.
Shen Wanli found herself caught between laughter and tears.
Jiang Rou’s tears dissolved the sharp confrontation between them, easing the atmosphere into something lighter. Shen Wanli chuckled softly, “When did I ever start liking Qin Miao?”
It was meant to be a casual remark.
Yet it caused Jiang Rou’s eyes to widen, her breathing tightening as she hurriedly asked, “Do you mean to say that you do not like Qin Miao?”
Shen Wanli smiled and said, “From beginning to end, I have never said that I liked Qin Miao.”
The strength drained out of Jiang Rou’s body all at once, and the look in her eyes softened. “Not liking her is great. Remember what you said.”
Shen Wanli nodded, after which Jiang Rou asked cautiously, “Then do you currently have someone you like?”
Shen Wanli nodded, then shook her head. She said, “I do not know. I do not know if I like that person or not.”
The light that had just appeared in Jiang Rou’s eyes dimmed down once again.
In the end, she comforted herself by thinking that without herself, and without anyone else either, it meant her efforts were still having an effect.
Jiang Rou looked at Shen Wanli and said, “You said it yourself, stay away from Qin Miao in the future.”
Shen Wanli asked, “Why?”
Jiang Rou suddenly recalled her last visit to Old Madame Qin’s home and the words Old Madame Qin had spoken to her. She felt this was a rather good opportunity.
“Do you know what she said to me the last time we were at Old Madame Qin’s house?”
Jiang Rou said.
“What did she say?”
Shen Wanli was also somewhat curious. After all, the last time Jiang Rou emerged from Old Madame Qin’s place, her expression had turned very strange, and seeing that Jiang Rou had not said anything, she had not felt comfortable asking what had happened.
Jiang Rou smiled mysteriously and said, “Old Madame Qin has taken a liking to me and wanted to ask my opinion about Qin Miao.”
Shen Wanli’s eyes widened in surprise; she had completely not expected things to turn out in this direction.
She asked in astonishment, “So the reason you keep telling me not to get close to Qin Miao is because you have feelings for Qin Miao?”
Jiang Rou was momentarily left speechless. Her original intention was to tell Shen Wanli that Old Madame Qin had chosen her alone for a private conversation instead of choosing Shen Wanli, so as to make Shen Wanli stop wasting time on Qin Miao and focus more on herself.
Yet she never expected Shen Wanli to misunderstand it in this way.
Still, this direction didn’t seem bad at all, Jiang Rou thought to herself.
Since the two of them working in the same company would inevitably lead to growing fondness over time, if she could make Shen Wanli think that she fancied Qin Miao, then at the very least, Shen Wanli would proactively keep her distance from Qin Miao.
She could perceive the affection in Qin Miao’s eyes toward Shen Wanli; since she could not stop Qin Miao from pursuing Shen Wanli, she would find the key point right in the person being pursued.
The effect might even undergo a qualitative transformation.
In an instant, Jiang Rou felt like a genius. Knowing that Shen Wanli always felt indebted to her, Shen Wanli would certainly never snatch someone that she, Jiang Rou, supposedly liked. No matter how diligently Qin Miao tried to curry favor with Shen Wanli in the future, Shen Wanli would not entertain any other thoughts.
Jiang Rou nodded and said, “That is right, I like Qin Miao.”