Chapter 41: A Fragile Thread

Qian Surou was momentarily speechless, a reaction Jin Xiaoyue did not miss.

Just as Qian Surou prepared to concoct an excuse and steer the conversation away, Jin Xiaoyue, standing beside Xiao Yuqin, pre-empted her with an explanation:

“I understand this perfectly. Qian is keen to experience independence, which is why she’s paying for her rent with money earned from her part-time job, isn’t that right? I get it. I moved out of my family home in high school, and I still live alone in an apartment now.”

Jin Xiaoyue’s tone was remarkably understanding.

Qian Surou nodded along with her words, yet detected a subtle hint of self-indulgence, suggesting the sentiment might genuinely have resonated with her.

‘Oh, really?’ she heard Ji Yushu murmur, a touch distracted.

Ji Yushu then elaborated on how the single dorms provided by the school were incredibly poor value for money, and even the apartment-style dorms seemed designed solely to drain the wallets of international students.

Unable to keep pace with the conversation, Qian Surou fell silent, having been too busy lately to properly acquaint herself with the school.

Ji Yushu also realized this, and she, too, had no desire to dwell on such uninspired topics.

But then—

Glancing at Jin Xiaoyue, whose expression remained perfectly composed, Ji Yushu felt as if she were an alien presence wedged between herself and Qian Surou, wielding some strange power to gradually separate her from Susu.

The conversation felt like a fragile thread connecting them, one that could snap at any moment if not diligently maintained.

The words spoken moments ago were a sharp knife.

In a realm unknown to her, there was someone she didn’t know, who understood Susu in ways she did not.

This realization felt like an expanding pocket of air, forcing its way into her throat, bursting her alveoli, and inflicting an ethereal pain.

‘Was this the consequence of pushing Susu away herself?’

The neglected garden within the residential complex was overgrown with weeds, its rampant trees a haven for insects, while the evening cicadas continued their vociferous chirping.

As if in a silent competition, she desperately sought a topic that belonged solely to her and Susu—

“Ah, an inchworm!”

Qian Surou cried out in alarm.

Then, she issued an instruction—

‘Ji Yushu, don’t move!’

Qian Surou temporarily set down her shopping bags, extracted a clean carrot, and used its tip to dislodge the larva clinging to Ji Yushu’s collar, before finding a stone to crush it.

Though she had played with insects like pill bugs in her childhood, she rarely went as far as to kill them.

However, inchworms were absolute pests, and their habit of hanging from trees was particularly irksome; older folks often called them ‘hanging ghosts.’

“You need to be a little careful around here; there are quite a few inchworms. The trees in the complex aren’t very tall, so if you’re not paying attention, you might easily brush against one.

While they’re not aggressive, their bodies are covered in bristles, which are quite disgusting. Qian Xidong even tried to scare me with one once—hmph, but I’m not a woman who fears bugs.”

The phrase, ‘not paying attention,’ pierced Ji Yushu’s heart.

It was already an implicit reference.

If they were alone, Susu would most likely ask what she was thinking, why she seemed so distracted.

‘Should I tell Susu that I’m bothered by Jin Xiaoyue, jealous that she understands you better than I do? No, I can’t.’

‘What right do I have to ask, having been the one to reject Susu? As a friend, such a thought couldn’t be more peculiar.’

Then, there was no time to think.

Susu’s face was suddenly close.

First, a wet wipe gently moistened the area around her neck, then, in a gesture reminiscent of a wife tidying her husband’s collar, she smoothed out Ji Yushu’s own.

“—Let’s go!”

Ji Yushu suddenly found the shopping bags incredibly cumbersome, preventing them from holding hands as they once did.

After a few dozen steps, they stopped before one of the buildings.

Qian Surou asked Ji Yushu and her sister to wait, then laboriously carried all the shopping bags upstairs with Jin Xiaoyue, before returning.

Ji Yushu watched the shimmering beads of sweat tracing faint, reflective paths down Qian Surou’s face.

Her peach-pink cheeks looked as though they had been brushed with natural rouge.

She wanted to offer a casual compliment, as she usually would, but upon seeing Jin Xiaoyue also gazing at Susu, her throat tightened.

‘I can’t get along with this person,’ Ji Yushu thought.

This was the second time she had disliked someone out of jealousy.

The first had been ‘little Ji,’ who existed only in her memories.

‘Perhaps they are just ordinary friends,’ a sliver of hope still lingered in her heart.

Yet, her intuition suggested otherwise.

Reflecting on the reasons for her own evasiveness, the budding dislike she felt instantly transformed into a sense of shared plight.

‘No one can defeat little Ji.’

‘Because she is too ethereal, because she has taken her place in Susu’s memories in a perfect, flawless form. Just as the living cannot triumph over the dead, those in reality cannot win against a dream bride.’

‘Unless the promise is completely shattered.’

‘As for Susu, she might even wait until she’s thirty.’

‘Rather than becoming a fleeting lover through deceit, it’s better to remain by her side as a friend.’

‘If, at that time—’

“Ji Yushu, you’ll carry Xiao Yuqin, while Xiaowan and I will lift the wheelchair.”

The sudden words interrupted Ji Yushu’s reverie.

Carrying Xiao Yuqin into the stairwell, she finally understood Susu’s intention—it was safer with Susu, who was more accustomed to it.

She had thought the imagined environment was bad enough, but the reality of the stairwell was even more starkly primitive.

It was narrow and cold.

The concrete steps were incredibly rough, bearing unknown liquid stains, perhaps phlegm or some kind of dye.

The grime on the handrail looked like a mixture of sweat and mud, and the air was thick with an scent that could have been either herbal medicine or something fermented; mops resembling tattered rags were piled at the stair landings.

A thought instantly arose: to abandon living in the dorms and co-rent with Susu, charging only a symbolic amount for rent.

Perhaps it was Susu’s strong will that made her determined to leave that home; though Ji Yushu didn’t know much about Susu’s family situation, she was aware that Susu was not favored by her father.

Once, when she went to Susu’s house to find her, all the servants looked at her with strange expressions, as if she were a bear that had wandered into a private home, a fact a maid had secretly confided to her.

Susu never spoke of her family, and Ji Yushu never proactively asked.

The feeling of thinking one is helping others often serves no purpose other than reopening old wounds.

Therefore, even if Susu insisted on living in such a place, Ji Yushu would not meddle by urging her to move out.

“Sister, you’re a bit unaccustomed to this, aren’t you? Actually, this place is quite decent; some places abroad are truly terrible. Mom is very good at making money, so it’s normal that you haven’t experienced this.

Sister Qian certainly didn’t intentionally look for a bad place to live; old houses like this in the city center aren’t cheap either. Sister Qian probably just wants to experience the life of an ordinary person.”

Perhaps noticing her furtive glances, her sister whispered softly on her shoulder.

Ji Yushu also suspected she lacked common sense; though she considered herself unfortunate before meeting Susu, she had never truly suffered the hardships of poverty.

Jin Xiaoyue added, “A property of this type should be worth around two million yuan. Although it’s an old residential complex, it’s very close to the university district.

If there were good middle schools nearby, its value as a school district property would increase even further. However, according to current general trends, housing prices are generally falling.”

“Xiaowan is very knowledgeable, isn’t she?”

“Yes, because my major is related to finance.”

It made one want to ask which school she attended.

From her earlier, discreet analysis, Ji Yushu speculated that the likelihood of Jin Xiaoyue being from the same school was high; even if not, the distance between them must be very short.

A classmate or an upperclassman? The latter seemed highly probable, yet her pure, youthful appearance made it difficult to be certain.

Upon entering, the interior was an entirely different space.

Though it was a rented apartment, clear signs of habitation were visible, with every corner reflecting the occupant’s personality and preferences.

Cute animal stickers adorned the shoe cabinet by the door, a unique fruit-shaped pendant lamp hung above the dining area within the living room, and green plants vied for the lingering glow of the evening sun on the small balcony, filling the interior with a sense of warmth.

“Make yourselves at home; the bathroom is over there.”

Qian Surou casually gestured towards the space carved out in the narrow hallway, then rummaged through the shopping bags, preparing ingredients for dinner.

The kitchen, with its sliding glass door, offered no concealment; a glance past the shoe cabinet revealed her expertly handling the ingredients.

Her slight nod and professional-like speed in chopping vegetables transported Ji Yushu back to her elective home economics class, where Susu had similarly displayed a clean, effortless mastery, captivating the attention of the entire class.

She recalled a few girls, self-proclaimed future elites, grumbling enviously, but neither she nor Susu had cared.

Their long-standing companionship had made Ji Yushu understand that Susu had no desire to become a housewife; instead, her overarching ambition was to excel, to surpass her previous self at every moment, relentlessly like a robot.

For, in her waiting, Susu was also moving towards her ‘little Ji’; the other silver photo frame remained empty, as if no matter where she was, that ‘little Ji’ was watching her from somewhere.

Ji Yushu herself, similarly watching Susu, was unconsciously overlapping with the image of ‘little Ji.’

But it was merely an overlap.

Fully equipped.

The moment the stove was lit, Ji Yushu cooperatively opened the window on the opposite side, observing Susu at the counter, clad in an apron, wearing a mask, her hair wrapped in a slightly yellowed cloth.

Though she wanted to help, she knew deep down that in the past, she had only ever been a hindrance.

She sighed to her sister about Qian Xidong’s absence, then headed to the bathroom, intending to wipe away some sweat and retrieve a wet wipe.

Jin Xiaoyue was also in the hallway.

She stood by the inner bedroom, her gaze uninhibitedly sweeping the interior.

The moment Ji Yushu approached, Jin Xiaoyue suddenly turned, a smile of ambiguous meaning gracing her cheeks.

‘It’s very rude to explore without permission,’ the thought remained unspoken.

Jin Xiaoyue pressed her index finger to her lips, shushing softly, prompting one to wonder if she had done something improper; yet, a glance revealed the room to be perfectly neat.

Not a single detail familiar to Ji Yushu, pertaining to Susu, was present; it was clean to that extent.

‘Was she rejecting help from her family, or striving for a fresh start?’

The question lingered in her mind.

‘As for Susu, she would surely live perfectly well on her own.’

The glass door seemed merely decorative, as the kitchen’s heat inflated like a balloon, filling the entire room; her body, lacking sleep from too much worrying last night, unseasonably signaled its weariness, while her stomach, enticed by the aroma of frying meat, began to protest.

“Miss Jin, are you finished with the bathroom?”

The words were no sooner out than she regretted them, for the subtext implied, ‘Once you’re done, you can leave; there’s no need to linger in front of Susu’s room.’

Immediately, she recalled that she had an excuse to enter the room.

Even if she entered without a greeting, Susu wouldn’t mind in the slightest—a decisive difference between herself and the woman before her.