One Year After Her Sister-In-Law Was Widowed - Chapter 22.3

However, this stiffness was too obvious—so obvious that Ji Zhuozhou couldn’t help but squeeze her hand.

Xiao Shuangyu jumped. She quickly let go and sprang away, her ears turning bright red.

She… she had been found out.

No, this wasn’t right.

Xiao Shuangyu blinked. Her pitch-black eyes looked up cautiously. “Are… are you okay?”

They were clearly words of concern, but because of her guilty conscience after being caught in her little scheme, they sounded guilty as well.

At least she didn’t look like she was going to run away. Ji Zhuozhou thought for no reason that if Xiao Shuangyu wanted to run now, she would probably choose to turn around and scratch at the door or run toward the living room. After all, Xiao Shuangyu had already fled from her more than once.

“I’m fine,” Ji Zhuozhou’s lashes curved. “Is this all you brought, LianLian?”

Xiao Shuangyu wasn’t sure if she believed it or not, but she didn’t feel anything was wrong with Ji Zhuozhou’s state. She stopped dwelling on it for now and nodded rapidly.

Ji Zhuozhou nodded and started walking toward the living room. “It’s late. Why not organize things tomorrow? Let’s sleep for now.”

Xiao Shuangyu followed behind her, nodding and saying okay.

Ji Zhuozhou was in her rut and should be getting plenty of rest, rather than waking up early and waiting up late for her until now and then being disturbed by the sound of her packing.

So Xiao Shuangyu just pushed the suitcase into the room next to Ji Zhuozhou’s, and without even opening it, she turned and reached for the headboard. She was looking for her pajamas.

Not the set she took off before leaving, but the set from the night before last. That set was the same one she had worn the last time she stayed; Ji Zhuozhou had insisted on taking it away, along with that silk nightgown, and putting them in the washing machine.

At that time, Xiao Shuangyu had just entered the bathroom. When she heard Ji Zhuozhou say she was taking them to be washed, she immediately rushed out wrapped in a towel and watched the whole process. Listening to the rushing water submerging the fabric, she felt such heartache that she could barely breathe.

It wasn’t until Ji Zhuozhou found another set for her and said, “It’s mine. It’s not new, but it’s clean,” that she found her breath again and returned to the bathroom. Or rather, she returned to the bathroom very happily.

She hadn’t left them lying around; that soft set of pajamas had been neatly folded and placed under her pillow. With just a reach, she could pull them out.

Xiao Shuangyu walked out of the room holding those pajamas.

The room wasn’t without a bathroom, but since that rainy day two weeks ago when she moved in, the one she had always used was the one in Ji Zhuozhou’s room. There were hot water, shampoo, and body washing everything she needed that the other bathroom didn’t have.

Ji Zhuozhou seemingly never thought people would live in the other rooms of her house and hadn’t prepared many extra things. This made Xiao Shuangyu happy. If Ji Zhuozhou had prepared them, she wouldn’t have been able to stay close to Ji Zhuozhou, use the same bathroom as Ji Zhuozhou, and use the same shampoo and body wash as Ji Zhuozhou.

Ji Zhuozhou wasn’t in the living room. She looked around and turned the corner to the adjacent room.

The door to the adjacent room wasn’t closed. Ji Zhuozhou was about to walk into the bathroom. Seeing her, Ji Zhuozhou simply stopped and handed her the blocker patch. “This is for you.”

Xiao Shuangyu was dazed for a moment, then looked down at the blocker patch and realized. She nodded and took it, then looked up with some worry. “Is it… really okay now?”

Ji Zhuozhou’s lashes curved slightly as she stepped aside for her. “With LianLian accompanying me, how could anything be wrong?”

Xiao Shuangyu looked elsewhere and blinked. She gave a low “oh,” said nothing more, and hurried toward the bathroom.

But Ji Zhuozhou glanced at the clothes in her arms as they brushed past each other.

She said they would organize tomorrow, and she absolutely wouldn’t open the suitcase today, not even to take out a set of pajamas.

So well-behaved.

And so fragrant.

Inside the bathroom, Xiao Shuangyu buried her head in the pajamas and took a deep sniff. This wasn’t the first time she had sighed over this set of pajamas, but she was still as happy as when she first got them. Wearing Ji Zhuozhou’s clothes would be discovered, but wearing Ji Zhuozhou’s pajamas wouldn’t be.

However, if she never washed them, Ji Zhuozhou would notice. Xiao Shuangyu reluctantly pulled away from the pajamas.

Xiao Shuangyu realized Xiao Mingyi’s photo was gone.

After coming out of the bathroom with her whole body saturated in Ji Zhuozhou’s scent, she didn’t see Ji Zhuozhou. Thinking that Ji Zhuozhou might be in the living room and would say goodnight once she went out, she started to dawdle.

She was looking at that bed with a sticky gaze from a distance, but then she suddenly noticed that the photo frame on the nightstand, which had been turned away, was gone.

When did it disappear? Was it still there when she just came in? Xiao Shuangyu couldn’t remember; she hadn’t noticed at all.

Could it be that Ji Zhuozhou, who was now outside, was holding that photo frame in her hand? Didn’t she say she had her now? Didn’t she ask her to stay? Was she still not enough? Would she not do it?

Her pitch-black eyes trembled slightly. Countless sticky tentacles around her quivered. Xiao Shuangyu withdrew her gaze. She lowered her head, turned around, and left the room.

She knew the photo frame wasn’t important. She needed to confirm if Ji Zhuozhou was okay—if the pheromones were acting up again and affecting Ji Zhuozhou once more.

In the living room, Ji Zhuozhou was indeed on the sofa. As expected, she spoke once she saw her. “Are you done washing, LianLian? Then let’s both go to sleep. Goodnight.”

Her voice was soft and light, like a gentle consolation. No leaked pheromones, no sign of Ji Zhuozhou being unwell; even her voice was calm and steady.

In those fair, soft hands, there was no photo frame.

Xiao Shuangyu instinctively looked around Ji Zhuozhou’s vicinity but couldn’t see it either. She stepped forward, not offering a “goodnight” in return. She looked into those deep green eyes and spoke with a hoarse voice. “Can I sleep with you?”

Her voice was tight, with a barely perceptible tremor.

Ji Zhuozhou was slightly stunned, then her smile curved. “LianLian doesn’t even call me anything at home.”

Xiao Shuangyu froze.

Ji Zhuozhou looked to the side as if reminiscing. “In the company, you still call me ‘Teacher Ji,’ but outside you only say ‘you’.”

Xiao Shuangyu was dazed and hurriedly explained. “I… I didn’t…”

Ji Zhuozhou pressed. “Didn’t what?”

Xiao Shuangyu fell silent.

What should she call her? Because of her sister’s relationship, should she call Ji Zhuozhou “Sister-in-law” or “Sister-wife”? Or should she follow her sister and call her “Zhuozhou” or the even more intimate “Zhouzhou”?

The former she would never acknowledge, and the latter she didn’t have the kind of relationship where she could call Ji Zhuozhou so intimately. That “Teacher Ji” was the only title she had the chance to use after joining the Huari Company.

Now, having moved into Ji Zhuozhou’s home, she seemed to still be there under the status of “sister-in-law,” yet it also seemed like something that couldn’t see the light of day. She didn’t know what to call Ji Zhuozhou. She didn’t know how to address her.

What… what was her relationship with Ji Zhuozhou?

Her eyes, like deep pools, became turbid and stirred. Xiao Shuangyu lowered her head and said very dejectedly, “I don’t know.”

A pair of deep green eyes watched her quietly, the color profound. Ji Zhuozhou said, “How about calling me ‘Sister’?”

Her voice was very light and soft. It wasn’t just the ending—it was soft from start to finish.

Xiao Shuangyu froze, her eyes shaking violently. Her mind was a mess, and she couldn’t help but think: Why “Sister”?

Ji Zhuozhou was seven years older than her and four years older than Xiao Mingyi. In the past, when Xiao Mingyi was still alive, had she also called Ji Zhuozhou that in private?

Ji Zhuozhou took her hand. Her thick lashes lifted lightly, and that forest-green gaze sought her eyes. “I will be your sister.”

She was dazed, her whole-body stiff. Yet her lips curled up, the smile pressing into her excessively black pupils. Sticky tentacles erupted and danced wildly around her, their blackness waving as they instantly filled every corner of the living room, surrounding Ji Zhuozhou completely.

She said, “Okay.” She also said, “Sister.”

Xiao Shuangyu lay back on her bed, a smile still on her lips.

The smile was sticky and sinister, yet it was an attempt to replicate the beautiful lip shape Ji Zhuozhou had when she responded to her “Sister.”

Her mind was empty yet full; she didn’t even realize when she had been led astray, completely forgetting that she had actually wanted to sleep with Ji Zhuozhou.

She curled up her limbs and faced the direction of the room next door. Her pitch-black eyes were wide open, with no hint of a desire to sleep.

After a long time, she suddenly remembered Xiao Mingyi. Right, she still didn’t know where the photo frame with Xiao Mingyi’s picture had gone.

It was very late; Ji Zhuozhou should be asleep by now.

She didn’t hesitate for long. She quickly climbed out of bed, her footsteps extremely light, and walked to the door of Ji Zhuozhou’s room. That door was closed, tightly sealing away all the scenery inside. The rain-and-mist scent wafting through the cracks was strong, but it couldn’t envelop her.

After standing silently for a moment, she turned and walked toward another room she hadn’t investigated at all.

In the study, there was only one exquisite photo frame sitting on the desk, face down. Xiao Shuangyu propped it up and saw the black-and-white Xiao Mingyi. Through the transparent protector, she instinctively poked at the small mole on the bridge of Xiao Mingyi’s nose, that small black mole that was in the same position, the same size, and looked exactly like her own.

In the past, she was a failed replica of Xiao Mingyi in everyone’s eyes. Now, she had come to replace her.

Xiao Shuangyu put down the photo frame, carefully restoring it to its original state, and left the room.

She stood once more outside Ji Zhuozhou’s door.

Soundlessly, she said: “Sister…”

It just seemed like… she didn’t know who she was calling.