One Year After Her Sister-In-Law Was Widowed - Chapter 47

The woman standing beside Ji Zhuozhou was tall and sturdy, with features that weren’t exactly delicate but were handsome and spirited. She looked like an Alpha, someone Xiao Shuangyu had never seen before.

Staring intently at the two of them walking together, Xiao Shuangyu felt a thick sense of crisis surge within her instantly.

However, where her gaze fell, the distance between the two was not overly close, and their behavior was polite and formal. This made Xiao Shuangyu think of the clients Ji Zhuozhou had mentioned meeting outside.

But Ji Zhuozhou had also said it wouldn’t be a private meeting; could it be a lawyer she hadn’t met?

Xiao Shuangyu’s mind was a mess of messy guesses. Watching Ji Zhuozhou make eye contact with that person, respond, and lower her eyelashes with a light smile, she still couldn’t suppress a pang of jealousy.

She desperately wanted to know what was going on.

She wanted to know who that person was, why Ji Zhuozhou was meeting her, and when they would part ways.

As she was thinking, the two walked toward the other side, turning their backs to Xiao Shuangyu’s line of sight.

Xiao Shuangyu instinctively moved to follow, but then saw Ji Zhuozhou and the person come to a stop. Ji Zhuozhou turned around, her gaze pointing directly in Xiao Shuangyu’s direction.

She immediately pulled her foot back, not daring to move, fearing Ji Zhuozhou would discover her.

From her peeked perspective, she saw the person extend their right hand, and Ji Zhuozhou lightly shook it, saying something else.

“Pleasant… working… with… you.”

Xiao Shuangyu mouthed the words one by one, matching Ji Zhuozhou’s lip movements. She blinked, watching the person get into a nearby car, and suddenly felt relieved.

So, it was just some business matter.

Ji Zhuozhou waved goodbye to the person’s car, stood for a moment, then turned and got into another car nearby.

It was Ji Zhuozhou’s own car.

Xiao Shuangyu was more than familiar with it; she had even instinctively hidden herself the moment she saw it, and even now, she hadn’t fully processed it.

Ji Zhuozhou started the engine. The car bypassed the traffic light, turned toward her side, and drove away.

It headed in a completely different direction from that person.

Where could she be going?

Xiao Shuangyu rushed out to hail a taxi, but at this hour, cars were few, and taxis were even fewer. Ji Zhuozhou’s car had already turned the corner and vanished. She failed to catch a cab.

She withdrew her hand sullenly, giving up on the idea of following.

Besides, that direction led both to Ji Zhuozhou’s home and to the Huarui company. Regardless of which one was the destination, she didn’t absolutely have to follow.

In the time she spent failing to find a taxi, Xiao Shuangyu suddenly realized this point.

She turned to walk back, but after a few steps, she paused, changed direction, and headed toward the cafe.

She almost truly forgot.

Xiao Shuangyu entered the cafe. It was cold and quiet. The coffee Nie Siyu had pre-ordered was already sitting on the counter. She was about to step forward to get it when she suddenly froze.

She smelled a distinct misty rain scent—the scent belonging to Ji Zhuozhou.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she took a detour, searching for the source of the scent. At the point where the fragrance was strongest, she caught a whiff of another scent.

A scent that felt vaguely familiar.

After standing there for a moment, Xiao Shuangyu suddenly realized.

This seemed to be the scent that was missing from Ji Zhuozhou last Sunday after they went to Star-flash together.

Could it be that during the time Ji Zhuozhou went to Star-flash alone, she also met this person?

Xiao Shuangyu was dazed.

In the early morning, Xiao Shuangyu returned to Ji Zhuozhou’s home.

There were an unusual number of people at the bar today.

It wasn’t surprising; a video with three or four hundred thousand likes could still attract a wave of traffic to the bar.

She hadn’t expected that by the time it ended at midnight, the suddenly viral video’s likes had nearly doubled to almost seven hundred thousand. A-Nan clamored for another celebration.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t want to be a spoilsport, but since she hadn’t told Ji Zhuozhou in advance, she only stayed for a little while and had one simple drink.

Taking advantage of Ji Xunxia’s absence, A-Nan was reckless, mocking Ji Xunxia for spending so much time hiring people to manage the bar’s account. The performance videos they posted one after another didn’t even have as many total likes as a random post by a passerby.

She even took screenshots and sent them to the group chat where Ji Xunxia was, receiving an emoji of Ji Xunxia covering her eyes, while simultaneously ignoring their requests for a potential raise.

A-Nan was so happy she grabbed the phone to show the two of them the comment section, saying the netizens were so sweet-talked and were praising them to the skies. She was stopped by Nie Siyu.

Crucially, she was stopped right in front of Xiao Shuangyu’s eyes.

Nie Siyu was afraid she would see those praises and cry out of fear again.

Of course, Xiao Shuangyu was unaware of this. She was held by the neck by the tiny A-Nan, being pulled and tugged with difficulty. She looked up wanting to ask Nie Siyu for help, only to find that on the other side, Nie Siyu’s curly hair was almost being straightened by A-Nan’s stroking.

A-Nan couldn’t manage to pass the comment section around, so she gave up and suddenly said, “What if there are four of us? The three of us are fine too.”

Xiao Shuangyu froze; she knew A-Nan was remembering the past.

But quickly, A-Nan diverted the subject herself, her high double-ponytails being tugged by Nie Siyu.

It was noisy and boisterous.

Leaving early, Xiao Shuangyu was no longer thinking about curls and double-ponytails. Carrying a faint scent of alcohol, she opened the smart lock.

Immediately, a soft, light voice greeted her, “LianLian is back.”

Xiao Shuangyu poked her head out from the entryway and saw Ji Zhuozhou on the sofa, casting her gaze toward her.

Those dark green eyes curved slightly, and they were directed at no one else.

Xiao Shuangyu couldn’t help but curve her own lips, wearing a somewhat gloomy smile. “I’m back.”

After saying that, she intended to pull her head back to change her shoes, but the moment her gaze fell, she saw a touch of green on the coffee table in front of Ji Zhuozhou.

It was that battered mint plant.

When Ji Zhuozhou went to Huarui to work overtime that day, she had still brought it back.

The mint had been trimmed and moved into a new pot with new soil on the day the original pot broke. It had been listless for a few days, but it was stubbornly alive.

As for the shattered flower pot, she had asked the “know-it-all” Ji Xunxia when she went to the bar that day and handed the ceramic shards directly to her.

Ji Xunxia had quickly found someone capable of restoration, but the person was away on vacation and wouldn’t start working until they returned, so there was no progress for the time being.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t hope for it to be fast. Restoring something Xiao Mingyi gave to Ji Zhuozhou and placing it in front of her didn’t seem like a good thing to her.

But Ji Zhuozhou cared.

She cared enough to bring the mint in front of her in the middle of the night.

She pulled her head back.

Quickly changing her shoes, she walked to Ji Zhuozhou’s side and sat down, deliberately sitting extremely close to her.

In her peripheral vision, Ji Zhuozhou was looking at her, seemingly smelling the alcohol on her, showing a faint hint of confusion.

Xiao Shuangyu was also sniffing, but Ji Zhuozhou had already washed up, and since so much time had passed, there was no other scent except for the misty rain.

She couldn’t confirm if the scent from the cafe had lingered on Ji Zhuozhou, or if it was indeed a member of the overbearing, arrogant scent mixed with Xiao Mingyi’s two friends.

She just felt it was similar; it was just a guess, and she couldn’t fully confirm it.

Xiao Shuangyu spoke first, cautiously seeking confirmation from Ji Zhuozhou, “I… I think I saw Sister today.”

Ji Zhuozhou was startled, her eye color clearly changing a bit. “Where?”

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t look at Ji Zhuozhou and intentionally ignored the mint in front of her. Even Ji Zhuozhou in her peripheral vision wasn’t very clear, so she failed to notice the change.

However, she didn’t truthfully name that cafe, after all, she hadn’t gone up to say hello after seeing Ji Zhuozhou; it was pure voyeurism.

She mentioned that road, saying she had been practicing nearby these past few days and thought she saw Ji Zhuozhou’s car.

She took a deep breath and turned to look at Ji Zhuozhou. “Did Sister go near there?”

Those distant, forest-colored eyes met hers, their color now clear and bright.

Her words made Ji Zhuozhou feel relieved. Fortunately, it was the former.

Ji Zhuozhou nodded. “Mm, I went to see a lawyer.”

She added, “She was recommended to me by Secretary Yu. She helped a lot with the Star-flash matter as well.”

A tiny spark of light suddenly appeared in Xiao Shuangyu’s dark eyes.

So that day’s scent indeed involved this lawyer, and the reason the scent at the shareholders’ meeting felt off was because this lawyer wasn’t involved.

Her heart also settled down.

She couldn’t let it go.

Or rather, it sank completely.

The next morning, Xiao Shuangyu received a message from Wan Qiyan.

This was the nameless Beta friend whom Xiao Shuangyu had mentioned to Ji Zhuozhou—the one she had gone to that private restaurant with.

However, Wan Qiyan and her had known each other for much longer than A-Nan and Nie Siyu. In fact, the one who first called her “LianLian” was her, although initially, it wasn’t “LianLian,” nor was it meant with kindness.

Being in a wealthy family but being an unremarkable and useless Beta, Wan Qiyan was a marginalized “nobody” in her clan. When she first met Xiao Shuangyu at a banquet, Wan Qiyan thought they were the same kind of people.

She had approached with an attitude of mutual sympathy, only to be pushed back by Xiao Shuangyu’s gloominess. She even said behind her back that she couldn’t understand why Xiao Shuangyu always made such a stinky face at her.

But after discovering that Xiao Shuangyu faced everyone with that same stinky face equally, Wan Qiyan happily approached again.

That year, both of them were still little kids.

However, Wan Qiyan went abroad during university and hadn’t returned for several years, so Xiao Shuangyu’s contact with her had faded quite a bit.

But that didn’t mean their relationship was estranged.

Xiao Shuangyu felt unhappy entirely because of the content of Wan Qiyan’s message.

Wan Qiyan asked her why she was suddenly getting married, and asked who it was with.

The time was early morning; Xiao Shuangyu was already asleep then. Wan Qiyan had sent a flurry of excited messages but didn’t call in the end, only telling her to call back immediately upon seeing the messages.

Xiao Shuangyu knew it must be news released by the mothers. The news had traveled through various channels to Wan Qiyan faraway abroad, bringing back Wan Qiyan’s shock and confusion.

She didn’t call Wan Qiyan back immediately.

She replied to Wan Qiyan, saying there was no such thing and that she would call her later.

Wan Qiyan replied instantly, asking with some realization what was going on, and asking if she was at home right now.

Xiao Shuangyu was certainly not at that home, but she was at Ji Zhuozhou’s home.

Ji Zhuozhou was right there. She hadn’t told Ji Zhuozhou about this, and if she made a phone call, Ji Zhuozhou would hear.

She didn’t want Ji Zhuozhou to hear.

Moreover, today was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and work started tomorrow. They had agreed last night to go fly kites by the river today, and she didn’t want this matter to ruin the mood.

Ji Zhuozhou appeared before her, carrying a perfume scent different from the misty rain.

Those dark green eyes curved toward her. Ji Zhuozhou said, “Let’s go.”

Xiao Shuangyu nodded, but her uncontrollable emotions fell into Ji Zhuozhou’s eyes.

Ji Zhuozhou slightly raised an eyebrow.