After Getting Married to My Obsessive Older Sister - Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Chu Yiqiao woke up at 2 PM. The blinding sunlight outside cast a hazy yellow glow through the beige curtains. People with heatstroke shouldn’t use air conditioning, so a familiar small fan at the foot of the bed was blowing cool air with a “whoosh.” Chu Yiqiao felt parched from the sleep and lifted her hand to find her forehead damp with sweat.

As if by telepathy, the moment Chu Yiqiao sat up, the lounge door opened. Tan Ze walked in, holding a small lunch box and a cup with a straw. Chu Yiqiao called out “Sister” in a soft voice.

“Drink some water first,” Tan Ze handed over the straw cup, sitting on the edge of the bed and examining Chu Yiqiao’s complexion. A healthy pink showed beneath her fair skin, but her eyes were still drooping and lackluster. “Feeling better?”

Chu Yiqiao’s hands were weak and she was afraid of dropping the cup, so she cupped it with both hands and took small sips, then slowly turned her head: “Much better.”

Tan Ze then handed over the sushi she had specifically ordered for Chu Yiqiao: “Your sushi.”

“Thank you, Sister!” Chu Yiqiao was in a good mood. She quickly leaned down and kissed Tan Ze’s outstretched wrist with a heavy, smacking sound, like a surprise attack.

Tan Ze discreetly withdrew her hand, gazed into Chu Yiqiao’s clear eyes, then looked away: “Eat slowly.”

Chu Yiqiao always ate very slowly. She was always late for class because of it. If she was like that when time was tight, she became even worse after graduation. She ate one piece of sushi in four bites, precisely consuming one-quarter each time, clearly enjoying her own mealtime ritual. She secretly glanced at Tan Ze after sensing the gaze next to her, pursed her lips, and quietly sped up.

Tan Ze pretended not to notice Chu Yiqiao’s clumsy observation, focusing her gaze on Chu Yiqiao’s puffed-out cheeks. She felt a strange sense of peace and security.

Sometimes, when Tan Ze surfed the internet, her homepage would push videos of pets eating. They were usually under two minutes, and clicking on them only showed pets mechanically consuming food in front of the camera. Tan Ze found it nonsensical and couldn’t understand why millions of people wasted their time on such meaningless videos.

However, in thinking this, Tan Ze completely ignored the countless sleepless nights when she would secretly open Chu Yiqiao’s door and sit by her bed for hours, doing nothing but watching Chu Yiqiao sleep. She also forgot that whenever Chu Yiqiao ate, she would always “happen” to be sitting at the dining table, reading the news or working on documents.

Tan Ze had indeed gained much from Chu Yiqiao—money, power, social status… Therefore, Tan Ze rejected any assumption of “if I hadn’t become Chu Yiqiao’s older sister.”

But sometimes, she didn’t know what exactly she cherished. If it was the elusive love and warmth, then God, how could she make it all eternal?

After eating, Chu Yiqiao lounged on the bed and played on her phone for a while. She had sweated a lot during her sleep. The moment she slipped into the closet to grab a change of clothes for a shower, Tan Ze’s voice suddenly called from behind. Chu Yiqiao turned, and two large shopping bags were placed in her arms.

“Sister, you bought me clothes?” Chu Yiqiao opened the bags in surprise. Inside were three or four tops and a dress, all short-sleeved and shorts. Chu Yiqiao pulled out the only dress and found that the scratchy tag inside had been cut off, and the clothes had been washed, with a familiar floral scent lingering on them.

“Mm,” Tan Ze nodded, offering a timely suggestion: “It’s been quite hot recently. They’ll be perfect.”

Chu Yiqiao emerged from the shower wearing the dress. Her exposed arms were extremely pale from years of avoiding the sun, and her calves had smooth lines, though the muscle was very soft due to a lack of exercise. When cupped, a hand easily sank in.

The ends of her hair were a bit damp after the shower. Tan Ze took the hairdryer, set it to the lowest power, and slowly dried Chu Yiqiao’s hair.

The small fan at the foot of the bed was still diligently working. For a moment, the room was filled only with the intertwined “whooshing” sounds. The curtains had been drawn open, and the intense sunlight stopped at the edge of the bed. Chu Yiqiao sat against the light, looking as if she were glowing.

The ends of her hair were quickly dry. A slight bump of the hairdryer against the table sounded behind her. Chu Yiqiao, half-distracted by her phone, had her shoulders turned, only to meet a pair of ardent eyes.

Tan Ze kissed her. Her eyes held a heat that Chu Yiqiao couldn’t read, yet the kiss was gentle, like a trickling stream flowing from Chu Yiqiao’s lips to her heart.

Chu Yiqiao lightly wrapped her arms around Tan Ze’s waist, her almond-shaped eyes making her entire face bright and vivid.

Tan Ze blinked to avoid direct eye contact, closed her eyes, and deepened the kiss while stroking the back of Chu Yiqiao’s neck.

After recovering from her illness, Chu Yiqiao’s miserable driving practice continued. The Subject 2 test was mainly practical. Chu Yiqiao would arrive at the driving school feeling drowsy but would immediately wake up when she got behind the wheel. Her body would become extremely tense, as if the steering wheel in her hands were not a wheel, but a ticking time bomb that could blow up into a bloody mess at any moment.

The instructor next to her thought Chu Yiqiao was simply nervous and comforted her: “It’s fine, the school grounds are safe. Nothing will happen. Just drive boldly.”

Chu Yiqiao nodded and agreed: “Okay, teacher. I’ll try my best.”

However, her inner fear was difficult to overcome quickly. Chu Yiqiao was also timid, so she always took longer than other students for the same content.

Tan Ze received real-time feedback from the instructor every day. As the days passed, the messages Tan Ze received changed from “Chu Yiqiao spent an hour playing on her phone in the bushes” to “She volunteered to practice today,” and then to “She practiced for an extra hour today. She should pass the test easily.”

Tan Ze replied to each message, transferring three times the hourly fee for Chu Yiqiao’s extra practice time to the instructor: “Thank you for your hard work.”

Chu Yiqiao had no idea that her 20-year-old driving lessons involved things like “Teacher, my Xiao Qiao” and only felt that her instructor was exceptionally patient. In the evening, she excitedly shared with Tan Ze how great the driving school she chose was and how nice the instructor was, never scolding anyone.

The enthusiastic Chu Yiqiao even wrote a long, glowing review on Dianping, specifically mentioning her gentle instructor.

Three days later, the review was reported and deleted for “false advertising.”

On Sunday, the day of Bei Tong’s birthday, Chu Yiqiao still woke up early for her driving lesson. After class, she walked with her bag toward the familiar car.

As she got close, the rear car window suddenly lowered, and Tan Ze’s cold, handsome face appeared before Chu Yiqiao. The corner of her mouth held a subtle curve as she waved at Chu Yiqiao.

“Sister!” Chu Yiqiao quickly walked over and got into the car. She looked at Tan Ze’s well-cut shirt and then at Zhao Jingxing in the driver’s seat, who was in a smart, professional suit. She suddenly realized something and asked: “Are you leaving right now?”

Tan Ze nodded: “We’ll leave right after dropping you off at school. We’ll be back tomorrow morning. You can have a good time with your friends tonight.”

Unexpectedly, Chu Yiqiao didn’t show the excitement Tan Ze had anticipated. She slumped against her, responding with a muffled “Mm.”

Through Tan Ze’s relentless over-analysis, she finally interpreted a hint of reluctance and longing in Chu Yiqiao’s downcast eyes and withdrawn body language.

The driving school was not far from Jing University to begin with, and the trip felt even shorter due to the impending separation. Chu Yiqiao, unusually, developed a great interest in company affairs, asking many questions like she was checking up on Tan Ze. While asking, she persistently rubbed against Tan Ze, like an animal marking its territory.

Tan Ze looked down at her suit, which was wrinkled from Chu Yiqiao’s fuzzy head, and patiently answered every question.

“It’s just in the next city.”

“Driving there.”

“To meet a few people. The discussion might go quite late.”

“Yes, I won’t be home tonight.”

Zhao Jingxing glanced at the rearview mirror and saw their hands intertwined. Matching rings were worn on the large and small hands. Chu Yiqiao was idly playing with Tan Ze’s hand, half-heartedly answering Tan Ze’s questions.

Tan Ze’s sudden business trip to the nearby city was for the upcoming new regulation.

As the giant of the electronics components industry in Yanjing and even the whole country, Mingsheng had a certain say in the drafting of rules that could affect the entire industry. She didn’t need to make many changes, only ensure that the new production standard was slightly higher than the average level of the old production line.

After getting out of the car, Chu Yiqiao didn’t immediately leave. She stood under the shade of a tree, holding her umbrella, staring blankly.

“Bye-bye, Sister,” Chu Yiqiao waved at Tan Ze as usual.

Tan Ze would regret it if she looked for another second, so she immediately looked away: “Mm.”

She then added against her better judgment: “Have fun.”

Zhao Jingxing waited until Tan Ze rolled up the window before driving away quickly.

After only a few seconds, she felt a blast of hot air from the back seat. Without looking back, she knew Tan Ze had rolled the window down again.

But there was no Chu Yiqiao outside now, only the sweltering heat that made one sweat. Zhao Jingxing, driving in the front, felt like a sweet potato in an oven.

She hadn’t experienced passionate love, but she was definitely at the forefront of scorching-hot love.

The damn boss is a psychopath.

Chu Yiqiao couldn’t explain the unprovoked anxiety and sadness in her heart. Perhaps her sister was right when she usually called her a “clinging bug.” A person like Chu Yiqiao simply couldn’t live alone. She had lost her family early, and since then, Tan Ze had never been absent from her life for a single day.

Bei Tong and Yan Yuanjing arrived at their predetermined meeting spot. Before even sitting down, they were startled by Chu Yiqiao’s profoundly sad expression and quickly went forward to express concern: “Chu Yiqiao, what’s wrong? Did you run into a psychopath again?”

Chu Yiqiao shook her head, sadly sipping her sweet drink: “My sister went on a business trip.”

Bei Tong’s face was speechless. She glanced down at the three crumpled wads of paper on the table and didn’t quite believe Chu Yiqiao would cry over this.

But the facts were clear: her childhood friend’s mental state had always been fragile. Chu Yiqiao hadn’t recovered; she just had a trusted person to entrust her anxiety and emptiness to.

Bei Tong and Yan Yuanjing’s families were also in business. While not as fiercely developing as Mingsheng in recent years, they were still part of the circle. According to the adults in their families, Tan Ze’s style in the business world could be described as “greedy for profit.”

Everyone initially thought Chu Lingtong’s appearance would slightly counterbalance Tan Ze, but the facts proved that Chu Lingtong was no match for Tan Ze either. In the eyes of the outside world, Tan Ze’s heart was too hard, which is why she always succeeded.

Of course, Bei Tong and Yan Yuanjing had never mentioned this description in front of Chu Yiqiao. Chu Yiqiao was an obsessive sister-fan and would genuinely fight them if she heard it.

Moreover, as Chu Yiqiao’s two best friends, Bei Tong and Yan Yuanjing had indirectly or directly learned many fragments of Tan Ze’s real life over the years.

In their view, Tan Ze was at most a strict sister with a slightly bad temper, not the demonized figure the outside world portrayed.

Especially after the marriage, sometimes when the three of them video chatted, there was always a figure diligently working in Chu Yiqiao’s background, either sweeping, wiping the table, or hanging laundry.

Didn’t Bei Tong and Yan Yuanjing know Chu Yiqiao’s complete lack of domestic skills?

It seemed that during Chu Yiqiao’s over seven years of living with Tan Ze, all the household chores were handled by the “cold-blooded and iron-hearted” Tan Ze.

Just as Bei Tong was pondering how to divert Chu Yiqiao’s attention, Yan Yuanjing spoke, pulling them out of the gloomy atmosphere: “How are we going to get to the supermarket later? My little electric scooter can’t fit three people, unless Chu Yiqiao is willing to squat in the front.”

“Idiot, take a taxi!”

Bei Tong’s birthday party, a purely social occasion, was the day after tomorrow. Today was their small gathering of three. They planned to have a hot pot at Bei Tong’s apartment, exchange gifts, and then watch a movie and play Ludo.

While waiting for the water to boil, Chu Yiqiao suddenly noticed the bag she had forgotten by the side. She rummaged through it and pulled out a beautifully wrapped envelope, handing it to Bei Tong.

“Happy Birthday! 20th birthday present for you!”

“Wow!” Bei Tong took it and immediately opened it. Inside lay four pieces of A4 paper—screenshots of successfully purchased tickets. A total of four tickets. Bei Tong liked to rewatch things, so Chu Yiqiao had specially bought tickets for the same concert but for two different dates, one day apart.

“The other two tickets are for Yan Yuanjing to go with you. They’re all inner-ring seats,” After saying this, Chu Yiqiao glanced at the expressionless Yan Yuanjing playing on her phone and mischievously added: “Of course, if Yan Yuanjing doesn’t want to go, you can invite someone else.”

Yan Yuanjing’s eyes widened: “I want to go!”

Bei Tong was incredibly touched. Four inner-ring, front-row tickets—money aside, she knew her friend’s sister must have pulled some strings. Because of this, she couldn’t say anything bad about Tan Ze. When the hot pot started, she fawned over Chu Yiqiao, blanching a slice of beef and clipping it into Chu Yiqiao’s bowl.

The trio started eating hot pot at 6 PM and continued until 8 PM. The troublesome part about having hot pot at home was cleaning up afterward. Chu Yiqiao, by virtue of the four tickets, became a guest of honor and was assigned the simplest task: tidying the table.

Bei Tong and Yan Yuanjing went to the kitchen to flirt and do the dishes, while Chu Yiqiao held her phone and started harassing Tan Ze.

÷: “Sister, I finished eating. Bei Tong really likes the birthday present. I told her you helped me get the tickets, and she said thank you too.”

Tan Ze was in the nearby city, presumably meeting someone, but she didn’t seem busy. The message was replied to almost instantly.

WifeWife: “Don’t thank me, thank you. How’s the fun?”

Chu Yiqiao snapped a picture of the stack of board game boxes on the coffee table and sent it to Tan Ze.

÷: “It hasn’t started yet.”

Chu Yiqiao guessed that Tan Ze was probably about to start her main business discussion and was about to politely end the conversation herself. Suddenly, a photo popped up in the chat window, showing the dinner table in front of Tan Ze. It was taken from a high angle, and in the bottom left corner, a hand appeared deliberately—fingers long and well-proportioned, wearing the unremarkable wedding ring on the ring finger.

WifeWife: “Zhao Jingxing insisted on taking it.”

Chu Yiqiao glanced at her two friends huddled behind the sliding kitchen door. She was alone in the living room now. She pressed the voice button and leaned toward the phone.

“Wife, I miss you so much. Do you miss me?”

With a “whoosh,” the voice message was sent.

For several seconds, there was no message from the other side. Chu Yiqiao hesitated over the retract button. The next second, Tan Ze’s call came in. Chu Yiqiao quickly answered. Suspicious silence greeted her, followed by the sound of a chair scraping as someone stood up. “I do,” Tan Ze said one word and swiftly hung up the phone.

If it weren’t for the call log, Chu Yiqiao would have thought it was a hallucination.

On the other side, Zhao Jingxing was sitting nervously, the entire private room’s attention fixed on her. More than curiosity, it was shock, even a bit of horror.

Zhao Jingxing graduated with her master’s degree at 25 and had worked at Mingsheng for six years since. She had never failed a task, big or small, and had been ranked first in the CEO’s office performance review for years.

Just now, her career was almost ruined.

She had her damnable boss’s phone and accidentally pressed Chu Yiqiao’s voice message. Fortunately, she reacted quickly and didn’t let it play all the way through, only leaking a sickeningly sweet “Wife.”

Tan Ze calmly put on her headphones, listened to the message, and immediately called back.

After hanging up, the entire private room fell into a suffocating silence.

Tan Ze sat composedly, fiddling with her phone, as if none of this concerned her.

She didn’t care about her external reputation or what impact this behavior would have. Her self-willed attitude, in a way, confirmed the rumors of her being “arrogant and condescending.”

Tan Ze’s voice was neither loud nor soft, but just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear: “Zhao Jingxing, you’ve lost your performance bonus for this month.”

Zhao Jingxing: “Understood.”

Chu Yiqiao, 90 kilometers away, also received a message.

WifeWife: “Stop being spoiled.”

WifeWife: “I miss you too.”

After washing the dishes, the three friends laid out board games on the living room floor. A newly released horror movie was playing on the adjacent TV. Chu Yiqiao was not only absentminded while watching the movie, but also while playing. She kept glancing at her phone.

If Bei Tong hadn’t secretly helped Chu Yiqiao flip the dice to a six, her plane in Ludo would still be stuck at the starting point.

After distractedly playing two rounds of Ludo and one round of Monopoly, the time reached 10:30 PM.

Bei Tong’s apartment layout was similar to the one near Chu Yiqiao’s school, with only one bedroom. The other room was a study, stacked with philosophy tomes taller than a person.

Although the three had jokingly agreed to stay up all night, there was no reason to force themselves to stay awake when they were tired. After Chu Yiqiao yawned for the fourth consecutive time, Bei Tong elbowed Yan Yuanjing, who immediately stood up and pulled out a folding single bed from the kitchen.

Bei Tong stood up, hands on her hips: “Chu Yiqiao, do you want to sleep on the sofa or in the study?”

Chu Yiqiao’s mind returned to the present. She looked at the time on her phone and also stood up, suddenly saying: “No, thank you. I’m going home.”

Bei Tong frowned. She knew about Chu Yiqiao’s past: “But no one’s home? Are you going to be okay alone?”

“It’s fine,” In an instant, Chu Yiqiao had walked to the entryway and started putting on her shoes. She looked up at Bei Tong and smiled: “I can sleep.”

Yan Yuanjing also came out at this moment. Without trying to stop her, she grabbed her electric scooter key and walked to the entryway: “I’ll take you home. Consider it a thank-you for the tickets. Bei Tong will definitely take me.”

Bei Tong snatched her jacket, muttering curses as she walked over: “Are you crazy? Taking an electric scooter this late? Take a taxi!”

At the same time, Tan Ze had just finished her dinner party, smelling of alcohol, and was sitting in the car on the way to the hotel. She took out her phone and saw the small yellow dot representing Chu Yiqiao moving toward their house.

Mood: Joyful.

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