After Flirting with the God-Tier Beautiful Tycoon - Chapter 60

After running for a while, Shen Xiaojiang grew tired. She stopped and stood by the roadside, gasping for air.

After tonight’s turmoil, she and Chen Yi would probably never see each other again.

At that thought, Shen Xiaojiang’s eyes suddenly stung, and something warm slid down her face.

Her phone was in the chest bag in front of her. Through the layers of fabric, the vibration pulsed against her chest.

She stiffly pulled out her phone and realized there were two missed calls from Sister Meng.

Just as she was about to call back, Sun Jiabao’s call came through.

She swiped the screen to answer.

“Ginger, Ginger! Why aren’t you back yet? A lady came looking for you, a Ms. Meng. She said her baby is a month old and came to bring you a full month gift. The box looks incredibly high-end. I’m dying to know what’s inside!”

Sun Jiabao rambled on, her excitement and curiosity palpable.

“Then open it,” Shen Xiaojiang said.

Sun Jiabao replied, “That wouldn’t be right. I’ll wait for you to come back so we can open it together. But wait… where are you? Your voice sounds strange.”

Shen Xiaojiang remained silent.

Sun Jiabao continued, “Ginger, are you listening? You’re not out fooling around without me, are you? Don’t tell me you’re with your girlfriend…”

“Jiabao,” Shen Xiaojiang spoke slowly, her voice calm, though the end of her sentence trembled slightly. “I’ve had my heart broken.”

When Sun Jiabao rushed over, Shen Xiaojiang was sitting alone under a camphor tree.

Her arms were wrapped around her knees, her face buried in the crook of her elbows.

She was as still as a stone.

“Ginger! Ginger!” Sun Jiabao hopped out of the taxi, running and skipping until she reached Shen Xiaojiang.

Among all her friends in Nancheng, Shen Xiaojiang was the only one she truly cared about.

“Why are you sitting on the ground?” she asked, reaching out to pull her up.

Shen Xiaojiang remained seated, unmoved.

Panic set in for Sun Jiabao. She shook Shen Xiaojiang’s shoulder. “Shen Xiaojiang!”

Her voice was loud enough to be heard by Chen Yi, who had followed them out and stood a short distance away.

Chen Yi’s footsteps faltered. Her hands gripped the fabric of her qipao tightly. She glanced up at the scene ahead but didn’t dare take another step forward.

She admitted it this time, she was a coward.

Even when she had been stabbed in the back with a fruit knife, or when debt collectors had cornered her and splashed red paint on her door, she had never felt this cowardly.

Shen Xiaojiang was the thorn in her heart that she didn’t want to pull out and never could.

“Ginger, don’t scare me! If you go crazy, what am I going to do about my finals? I’ll definitely fail! Ahhh!”

“I’m the one heartbroken, why are you crying?” Shen Xiaojiang looked up, staring speechlessly at the sobbing Sun Jiabao.

“I… I don’t know how to comfort people,” Sun Jiabao squatted down.

“I can tell,” Shen Xiaojiang replied flatly.

Silence fell between them.

“Sit with me for a while.” Shen Xiaojiang’s expression was solemn and her tone was cold completely different from her usual self.

In all the years they had known each other, Sun Jiabao had never seen Shen Xiaojiang this serious. She obediently sat down beside her.

Their shadows were stretched long by the streetlights.

Shen Xiaojiang looked up at a certain spot. “Tell me, what is it actually like to love someone?”

Sun Jiabao pouted, thinking for a few seconds before leaning toward Shen Xiaojiang. “You think about them every single second.”

“What else?”

“And… you only want to smile at them, only want to act spoiled with them. You only show your childish side to them.”

“Mhm,” Shen Xiaojiang said. “Do you become… a coward?”

“A coward?” Sun Jiabao looked confused. “Aren’t you supposed to become brave for the person you love?”

Under the dim yellow streetlamp, a few moths circled exhausted, yet persistent.

“Then, does feeling insecure and constantly worried about losing them count as normal?” Shen Xiaojiang watched the moths as if she were looking at herself.

Sun Jiabao looked at Shen Xiaojiang’s profile, felt a wave of sadness, and pulled out her phone. “Wait, let me look it up for you, girl.”

A few seconds later, Sun Jiabao held the phone up to Shen Xiaojiang’s face. “Here, look.”

Shen Xiaojiang was in no mood to read tedious text.

She shifted her gaze to two withered leaves on a branch near the lamp, clinging on but ready to fall.

“I want to take her away, to hide her somewhere no one else can find her, where only I know where she is. But in the next second, I feel like she’s so good so wonderful that I want the whole world to know her, to like her, and to envy me for having her. It’s like seeing my name at the top of a list or winning a major award; I’d cry with joy, I’d be so proud.”

As she spoke, Shen Xiaojiang lowered her head again, looking at the grey ground between her feet. “Even if everyone expects things from her, even if everyone forces her to grow up, I still feel like she’s the little girl in my heart. She’s the person I want to protect. I want to see her smile, and I’m willing to stay with her when she cries. I don’t need her to be strong, and I don’t even need her to work hard. I wouldn’t set goals for her or try to mold her into some box.”

“She can be whatever she wants, as long as she wants it.”

At the end, Shen Xiaojiang softly repeated, “As long as… she wants it.”

Standing in the shadow of the camphor tree, Chen Yi’s eyes grew hot. Unnamed droplets fell from the corners of her eyes, blooming into dark flowers on the grey pavement.

“Shen Xiaojiang…” Her red lips parted slightly, silently calling the name over and over again.

Sun Jiabao leaned closer to Shen Xiaojiang, her heart aching for her.

She knew how good Shen Xiaojiang was. She felt that no one in the world was truly worthy of the best version of her friend. “So, what does she want?”

“What does she want?” Shen Xiaojiang repeated the question mechanically.

Sun Jiabao asked, “How does she feel about you? Does she like you?”

Shen Xiaojiang remembered Chen Yi’s cold, detached gaze and lowered her head even further. “I don’t know.”

Chen Yi is an absolute coward, Shen Xiaojiang thought.

Sun Jiabao asked, “Then why did you say you’re heartbroken?”

“Confession rejected,” Shen Xiaojiang muttered, staring at a stray hair on the ground.

Sun Jiabao’s eyes filled with sorrow. “Could she have some hidden reason?”

“Then she should have told me! If there’s a problem, say it, and we can solve it together!” Shen Xiaojiang’s emotions spiked. “Instead of hiding and keeping things from me. This feeling of being kept in the dark is truly suffocating.”

“I don’t like guessing.” Her eyes turned red, and tears began to flow uncontrollably.

Drop by drop, they hit the grey ground.

And bit by bit, they were evaporated by the heat.

Sun Jiabao suddenly reached out and hooked her arm around Shen Xiaojiang’s neck. “Since you put it so well, how about I be your girlfriend instead?”

Shen Xiaojiang pushed her away. “You’re crazy.”

Sun Jiabao wrapped her hands around Shen Xiaojiang’s shoulders. “Ginger, you know, I was really worried about you just now. But seeing you like this, I actually feel relieved.”

Shen Xiaojiang didn’t respond. She lacked the energy to resist and let the other girl hold her.

“There are plenty of fish in the sea! You’re so great, there’s no need to hang yourself on one tree,” Sun Jiabao pulled Shen Xiaojiang into a hug. “I told you before, the people who like you could line up from the teaching building to the dorms. Come on, I’ll take you to see for yourself.”

Shen Xiaojiang asked, “See what?”

Sun Jiabao replied, “I’m setting up a gathering today to introduce you to new friends. I want you to realize just how much charm you have.”

“I don’t want to.” Shen Xiaojiang looked reluctant.

“Oh, come on!”

“I really don’t want to.”

Sun Jiabao pulled Shen Xiaojiang up and brushed the dust off her pants.

“Let’s go.” She hooked her arm firmly through Shen Xiaojiang’s, giving her no room to think.

Before they had even taken a few steps, Sun Jiabao made a call. “Cousin? Still at the shop?”

The person on the other end responded.

Shen Xiaojiang’s heart had been heavy, but talking about it had made her feel a little better. She looked at Sun Jiabao with confusion. “I’m really not going.”

Sun Jiabao glanced at her and spoke excitedly into the phone. “My best friend just got dumped. We’re heading over to your place now. And… my friend is a total beauty.”

“What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”

Sun Jiabao stuck out her tongue and mimicked the shape of a glass with her hand against her lips. She made a “tsk” sound. “We’re celebrating your return to being single. Shouldn’t we have a drink?”

The two of them got into a taxi.

Chen Yi stepped out from the shadow of the camphor tree. She watched the taxi disappear into the distance, feeling as though a piece of her heart was missing.

Once again, she was alone.

Or perhaps, it had all been her own delusion. She had never really been able to hold onto that light.

She had always been alone.

The car stopped at an old alleyway.

Shen Xiaojiang followed Sun Jiabao deep into the alley with a skeptical look.

The brick walls were covered in climbing plants she couldn’t name. The old streetlamps flickered occasionally. An occasional bark from a dog sent chills down her spine.

If it weren’t for Sun Jiabao, she wouldn’t have known that such a place existed in the prime real estate of Nancheng. It wasn’t exactly dilapidated; it just looked different from the Nancheng the outside world knew. The houses here varied in height and few people seemed to live there, giving it a desolate feel.

At a corner that looked like a crossroads, Shen Xiaojiang heard the faint sound of music. It wasn’t the kind that would disturb neighbors, but a soft, fragmented melody.

“Seriously, where are you taking me?” Shen Xiaojiang grabbed Sun Jiabao’s shoulder.

“This is the old town district,” Sun Jiabao pointed around. “My cousin’s family home is here. It’s scheduled for demolition in a couple of years. My old home was across the way that part has already been torn down.”

As she listened to Sun Jiabao, Shen Xiaojiang scanned her surroundings.

“Just relax. I could never bring myself to sell you off,” Sun Jiabao said, turning into a path.

Just as Shen Xiaojiang was about to turn, she heard a sound behind her.

It sounded like someone stepping on a piece of broken tile.

She instinctively turned around. Under the shadow of the eaves, a yellow and white cat stood on a pile of sharp scrap metal.

Upon seeing Shen Xiaojiang, the kitten poked its head out, blinked its round eyes twice, and then timidly retreated back into the shadows. From the darkness, it carefully observed the exceptionally beautiful person in front of it.

“Kitty,” Shen Xiaojiang’s interest was piqued.

“Come here, kitty,” she called out twice.

The kitten poked its head out a bit more, making Shen Xiaojiang think it was responding to her.

So, ignoring Sun Jiabao’s calls, she stepped closer, hoping to touch the cat and become its friend.

However, at that moment, the kitten vanished completely into the shadows. Before Shen Xiaojiang could get any closer, it used its hind legs to leap up, vanishing across the rooftops under the moonlight.

Like a gust of wind, it was as if it had never been there.

Just like a certain person.

“If you had a name, it should be Chen Xiaoqi,” Shen Xiaojiang looked helplessly at the spot where the cat had vanished. “You and her… you’re both just as cowardly, and just as heartless.”

Having said that, she looked down at her own shadow under the dim light.

She whispered softly, “Chen Yi, you coward.”

“Huh?” Sun Jiabao, who was replying to a message from her cousin, looked at Shen Xiaojiang’s profile. “Ginger, were you talking to me?”

“Are we going or not?” She hooked her arm around Shen Xiaojiang’s neck.

“Yeah, okay.”

Shen Xiaojiang followed Sun Jiabao toward their destination, glancing back every so often, hoping the cat might return.

The two reached the end of the path and were greeted by a uniquely decorated storefront.

To call it a shop would be an understatement it was more like a small courtyard decorated with atmospheric lighting.

“What is this place?” Shen Xiaojiang asked, puzzled.

Sun Jiabao smiled without saying a word.

They pushed open the wooden gate to the courtyard and saw several low wooden dining tables set out, surrounded by canvas folding chairs. On the tables were small, warm yellow lamps and ashtrays of various designs.

“There, that’s my cousin.” After gesturing to Shen Xiaojiang, Sun Jiabao waved at a woman playing a guitar on a simple stage.

The woman had shoulder length black hair and wore a white tank top under an open army green short-sleeved shirt.

Upon seeing Sun Jiabao, her cousin flashed an incredibly warm smile.

Shen Xiaojiang sat down with Sun Jiabao and casually ordered two drinks.

“See her? My cousin,” Sun Jiabao whispered.

Shen Xiaojiang took a sip of her drink and gave a soft, “Mhm.”

“She’s the one I told you about the one who’s already out,” Sun Jiabao added, shooting her a meaningful look.

Shen Xiaojiang instinctively glanced at the woman with the guitar and nodded calmly. She admired her cousin after all, it wasn’t easy for two women to meet, fall in love, and actually make a life together.

A moment later, the cousin set down her guitar and walked over to them.

“Why didn’t you order the house specialty?” she asked with a smile.

Sun Jiabao grinned at her. “My girl here doesn’t drink.”

“Doesn’t drink?” The cousin arched an eyebrow. “My little bistro might not be Venus, but I still have plenty of tasty things. Want to give it a try?”

Venus?

Sun Jiabao was about to decline on her behalf, but Shen Xiaojiang spoke up without hesitation: “I can drink.”

“Right on.” The cousin snapped her fingers at someone. “Table 5, one signature set, on my tab.”

Before long, not only did the alcohol arrive, but two beautiful women joined them as well.

“Let me introduce you, this is my girlfriend,” the cousin said, taking one woman’s hand.

The other woman, Vicky, sat down next to Shen Xiaojiang. She didn’t say much, merely casting a quiet glance at Shen Xiaojiang’s hands resting on the table.

“This is Vicky, my girlfriend’s classmate. She’s one of us, so feel free to drink and listen to the music together,” the cousin said before heading off to greet other guests.

Suddenly, the small table was crowded. Although Shen Xiaojiang didn’t have social anxiety, she felt a lingering sense of awkwardness.