After Her Death, They Begged for Forgiveness - Chapter 35

While Gu Nan and the others were desperately knocking on the door, Xu Bingqi was diligently searching for a suitable rental property.

The enthusiastic landlord, observing the aloof and composed woman before her, eagerly promoted the apartment.

“Miss, as you can see, this unit doesn’t face the street, so it’s usually very quiet and won’t disturb your sleep at night. Plus, the commute is quite convenient.”

Xu Bingqi had accumulated plenty of experience in renting. She could confidently say that aside from her expertise in music composition, renting had become her second-most proficient skill.

Without interrupting the landlord’s chatter, she walked straight to the kitchen to inspect the water, electricity, and gas switches. Then, under the landlord’s slightly surprised gaze, she checked the pipes and drains in the bathroom and balcony for any blockages.

The landlord rubbed her eyes in confusion. This young woman carried an ethereal aura, her every movement exuding elegance and refinement clearly someone from a wealthy family. How was she so adept at renting?

Moreover, the landlord felt a sense of familiarity, though she couldn’t quite recall where she had seen her before. With such delicate features, she must be a newly debuted celebrity, right?

“Oh, by the way, would you mind if I replaced the password lock?”

After confirming everything was in order, Xu Bingqi turned to the landlord, who was still studying her, and asked patiently.

“No need to go through all that trouble. You can just change the administrator password.”

Xu Bingqi’s question further convinced the landlord that the woman before her was indeed a newly debuted celebrity, given her heightened concern for privacy.

“It’s fine. I’ll cover the cost of replacing the lock,” Xu Bingqi explained patiently.

The landlord breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t mind such trivial matters as long as she didn’t have to pay for it.

“Of course, that’s fine. So, Miss, have you made your decision? Shall we sign the rental contract?”

Xu Bingqi gave a slight nod.

Aside from the apartment’s excellent natural lighting and serene environment, it had another hidden advantage, it was convenient for petting cats.

After all, this apartment was in the same residential complex as Song Guanjin’s place.

The allure of cats was irresistible to Xu Bingqi. Without much hesitation, she had chosen the apartment in the same complex as Song Guanjin’s, even though there were other comparable options.

The only downside was having to go through the hassle of moving again, which troubled her slightly.

[Sister, have you picked a rental yet? Is it close to my place? Do you need help moving?]

Song Guanjin quickly sent a message.

In fact, Song Guanjin had been sending messages every 30 minutes to ask if she had found a place. Xu Bingqi even felt that if she didn’t secure a rental today, Song Guanjin would simply drag her to her own home.

[Thank you, I’ve already chosen one.]

This time, Song Guanjin didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she quickly called.

“Sister, is it close to my place? When are you moving in?”

A faint smile touched Xu Bingqi’s usually cool expression. “Guess.”

The landlord, who was about to leave, paused for a moment. The young lady hadn’t smiled since she arrived, and she had assumed she simply didn’t know how. But it turned out she could smile and when she did, it was like ice and snow melting, even more captivating than her usual demeanor.

She couldn’t help but wonder about the relationship between the caller and her new tenant. Family? Friend? Lover?

But a rising actress getting into a relationship showed such little career ambition. The landlady, who had also been an avid fan of celebrities in her youth, sighed softly for the young star whose gentle smile radiated warmth from her eyes.

It wasn’t until evening, after a long day’s work, when the landlady was leisurely scrolling through her phone, that she suddenly noticed something odd. One of the names in a trivial gossip column about wealthy families seemed identical to that of her new tenant.

Song Guanjin knew Xu Bingqi all too well by now. Her sister always enjoyed teasing her, as if coaxing a clever little cat.

“It must be nearby. If it were far, how would you dare to make me guess?”

A bright, triumphant smile spread across Song Guanjin’s lips. She had always known her sister kept her close in heart.

“Where is it? I’ll come help you move.”

Xu Bingqi directly shared her new address with Song Guanjin. Hearing a soft, kitten-like gasp from the other end, the curve of her smile deepened.

She had initially intended to decline the offer, after all, she was used to handling things on her own and didn’t want to trouble others.

But this was Song Guanjin. Xu Bingqi found it hard to voice her refusal.

She simply couldn’t resist Song Guanjin’s sweet, coaxing pleas.

Ten minutes later, Song Guanjin appeared at the door.

“How did you get here so fast?”

Xu Bingqi looked at the young woman, whose fair cheeks were tinged with a delicate blush, like petals freshly kissed by morning dew. She knew Song Guanjin must have rushed over the moment she got the address, and her tone carried a hint of reproach.

Song Guanjin grinned, her eyes crinkling into crescents. “Sister, you care about me so much.”

“Who’s caring about you?” Xu Bingqi’s cheeks warmed, and she quickly changed the subject. “Look at you smiling so happily now, but once filming starts, you’ll have to play the aloof beauty.”

Xu Bingqi was genuinely curious whether Song Guanjin could pull off her first role. She was so accustomed to seeing Song Guanjin’s cheerful, smiling face that she couldn’t imagine her cold and expressionless.

“I’m only like this around you. Usually, I’m very aloof.”

Though Xu Bingqi still believed Song Guanjin was perpetually cheerful, she nodded in agreement upon seeing the earnest look in her eyes.

“Filming starts in three days. You have to treat me tomorrow.”

Song Guanjin’s smile faded slightly. “Once we’re on set, my agent will be watching me like a hawk. I won’t get to eat anything delicious.”

Those so-called healthy, low-calorie meals were utterly unpalatable, tasting no better than cat food.

Worst of all, she could never get full!

Once filming began, how would she be any different from a stray cat abandoned by her sister?

“Alright, I’ll treat you tomorrow. How about I take our future Best Actress to her favorite grilled fish place?”

Xu Bingqi recalled how Song Guanjin looked while eating fish, the little actress resembled nothing so much as an eager kitten.

Unaware of her sister’s thoughts, Song Guanjin only noticed the growing smile on Xu Bingqi’s lips. She quickly settled into the passenger seat and urged her to drive faster.

The sooner the move was done, the sooner her sister would settle into her neighborhood, and the more time she could spend clinging to her.

Mentally, the kitten was already counting her wins. Satisfied, she closed her eyes, leaned back in the passenger seat, and drifted off to sleep.

After parking the car, Xu Bingqi turned slightly, her gaze softly resting on Song Guanjin’s sleeping face. The usually smiling eyes and brows were now serene, long eyelashes casting faint shadows on her eyelids, her breathing even and steady.

Xu Bingqi’s fingers unconsciously tapped lightly on the steering wheel, hesitating whether to wake Song Guanjin now.

At this moment, only the two of them were in the car. Outside the window, the winter sunset resembled a gentle flame, its orange-yellow light filtering through the glass like fine golden sand, evenly enveloping them in a faint golden outline.

It was as if time had frozen in that instant.

Then, she felt her sleeve being tugged.

And it seemed as if she was being pulled to do something?

A moment later, Xu Bingqi felt a warmth on her fingertip. She turned her head in disbelief to see the sleeping Song Guanjin pressing her crimson lips against the tip of her index finger, an unmistakable kiss.

Her fingertip felt as if ignited, a surge of heat racing along her nerve endings and rapidly spreading throughout her body, disrupting her once steady breathing.

Xu Bingqi’s mind went blank, leaving only a dazed confusion in the wake of her shock.

“Sister.”

Upon hearing Song Guanjin’s murmur, Xu Bingqi quickly withdrew her hand. The abrupt movement startled the sleeping Song Guanjin awake; her eyelashes fluttered slowly as she gradually opened her eyes.

She had no idea what had just happened.

“Sister, are we here now?”

Song Guanjin sat up, sensing that the atmosphere in the car felt strange, even carrying an indescribable, almost enchanting quality.

It was like a garden veiled in mist on a spring evening.

She waited a moment but received no response from Xu Bingqi.

“Sister, is the heater turned up too high?”

Song Guanjin glanced discreetly at Xu Bingqi and noticed a blush spreading from the other’s earlobes, creeping slowly across her cheeks and tinting half her face.

Finally snapping back to reality, Xu Bingqi only answered the first question: “We’re here.”

Suddenly, the way Song Guanjin called her “sister” felt grating to her ears.

Song Guanjin was unguarded with everyone did she call others “sister” with the same intimacy?

Images flashed through Xu Bingqi’s mind: Song Guanjin’s manager, her assistant, her colleagues from this drama, her colleagues from the next.

Song Guanjin felt her sister was unusually slow to react today.

Maybe she’s too tired, Song Guanjin thought. Later, she would help her sister carry more things to make her fully realize her importance.

Without overthinking it, Song Guanjin reached out to hold her sister’s hand as usual, only to find that her sister seemed unusually agile Xu Bingqi swiftly avoided her outstretched hand.

“The heater was turned up too high just now; I’m a bit hot.”

Xu Bingqi quickly found a suitable excuse.

She wasn’t yet ready to calmly hold hands with the person who had just kissed her fingertip.

“Oh, okay.”

Song Guanjin obediently withdrew her hand, though the confusion in her clear eyes only deepened.

The two walked in silence to the door of Xu Bingqi’s old rental, where they unexpectedly found a small note stuck to it.

【Bingqi, when do you have time to grab a meal? Auntie wants Xiaozhou to apologize to you in person, Gu Nan】

Xu Bingqi expressionlessly tore off the note, shredded it into pieces in her hand, but kept the fragments clenched tightly in her grasp.

After opening the door, she tossed it directly into the wastebasket as if discarding trash.

The torn pieces of paper traced countless unsightly arcs through the air before landing in the wastebasket with a few dull thuds.

Song Guanjin didn’t know who Gu Nan, the person who left the note, was. All she knew was how beautiful her sister’s slender fingers were distinctly jointed, delicate, and fair, glowing softly like mutton-fat jade in the dim light.

Moreover, the studious kitten had learned another piece of knowledge: such nimble fingers, aside from being pleasing to the eye, had other uses.

“Sister, what should we move first?”

To distract herself, Song Guanjin cleared her throat softly and began surveying the room’s furnishings.

Since it was a short-term rental, the room was sparsely decorated, with only the bare necessities in sight. It seemed there were very few items they needed to take with them.

“I’ve already called a moving company in advance.”

Xu Bingqi had been unsettled ever since Song Guanjin kissed her in her sleep. She was afraid that the “sister” Song Guanjin murmured about was her, yet also afraid it wasn’t.

In the eyes of the reincarnated composer, this matter was far more complicated to handle than the small note stuck to the door.

She couldn’t just shake off Song Guanjin the way she had discarded that note.

Xu Bingqi couldn’t even bring herself to mention the incident to Song Guanjin.

How could she suddenly say, “Hey, did you know you kissed me while you were asleep in the car?”

No matter how she phrased it, it would sound as though she were demanding accountability.

She regarded Song Guanjin as a good friend and had no intention of taking their relationship further.

As for her dazed state, it was probably because this was the first time in her life she had been kissed completely caught off guard by such unconscious intimacy.

Song Guanjin nodded and asked curiously, “Where will you stay tonight, sister? Would you like to come to my place?”

“No need, I’ve already booked a hotel.”

Xu Bingqi declined almost without thinking. Tonight, she needed to be somewhere without Song Guanjin to properly collect her thoughts.

But aside from that, there was another question she simply couldn’t bear to leave unanswered.

She and Song Guanjin were friends, so asking shouldn’t cross any boundaries, right?

She would never interfere with Song Guanjin’s friendships or how she addressed her friends. She was just curious.

Xu Bingqi gently nudged the arm of Song Guanjin, who was idly watching the movers carry things back and forth, but kept her eyes lowered, avoiding direct eye contact.

“I don’t mean anything by it, I’m just a little curious. Of course, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Hearing her sister utter such a long string of words, Song Guanjin thought she was about to ask some profound question and gazed intently at her sister, who was looking down at the floor.

Unfortunately, strands of Xu Bingqi’s hair fell, partially obscuring her expression, making it impossible for Song Guanjin to discern what she was thinking.

Holding her breath, she heard Xu Bingqi’s next question: “Do you have any other sisters?”

Other sisters? What other sisters?

The kitten didn’t understand why Xu Bingqi would suddenly ask such a thing. Before she could answer, she heard Xu Bingqi’s slightly flustered voice: “Never mind, I was just asking casually.”

“Of course not.”

Song Guanjin lightly hooked her pinky finger with Xu Bingqi’s and quickly added, “You’re the only sister I have.”

Her tone was firm and fervent.

But in truth, the kitten felt quite guilty because, in terms of actual age, Xu Bingqi should have been her younger sister.

After hearing Song Guanjin’s answer, Xu Bingqi felt as if she had landed safely on soft ground, but soon another unease crept in.

Regardless of who she liked, wasn’t it best for Song Guanjin, as an actor who hadn’t yet made a name for herself, to avoid dating?

Although the entertainment industry is quite tolerant of actors’ sexual orientations these days, it isn’t very forgiving when it comes to rising starlets getting into relationships, right?

And Song Guanjin wasn’t even at the “rising starlet” stage yet she was more like a flower bud waiting to bloom.

Xu Bingqi smiled. “I was just curious and asked casually. It gets dark early in winter. After the moving company finishes, I’ll take you home first.”

And so, Song Guanjin, still bewildered by everything that had happened that day, was quickly escorted home by her older sister.

Exhausted after a long day, Xu Bingqi lay on the large hotel bed and finally had time to take out her phone and check the composition invitations in her email.

After accepting a few promotional composition offers that interested her, Xu Bingqi noticed a music variety show invitation buried at the bottom.

She had received similar invitations before, but to avoid being recognized as Xu Bingqi, she had always declined.

This time, however, after repeatedly reviewing the invitation, she couldn’t deny that a seed of interest had quietly sprouted.

She couldn’t keep denying her identity as Xu Bingqi forever sooner or later, she would be recognized.

Why not use this music variety show as an opportunity to come clean? It would not only boost her visibility but also continue to disrupt the plot of the novel The Group Favorite.

Xu Bingqi bookmarked the email and mentally noted the deadline, planning to weigh the decision again after a good night’s sleep when her mind was clearer.

Then, idly scrolling through her social media feed, she was quickly drawn to a push notification: “Quick Test! Find Out Your Alcohol Tolerance in 10 Minutes!”

Although she had gotten drunk enough to mistake people for cats the last two times, she hadn’t experienced any lingering aftereffects not even the slightest dizziness. This made Xu Bingqi curious about her alcohol tolerance.

She remembered that in her previous life, she had been prone to getting drunk, but not to the extent of confusing people with cats after just a few glasses of fruit wine, right?

The notification included a detailed chart correlating alcohol percentage, volume, and level of intoxication.

Xu Bingqi ordered fruit wine for delivery, planning to quietly test her alcohol tolerance again in the stillness of the night.

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