One Year After Her Sister-In-Law Was Widowed - Chapter 7

Xiao Shuangyu was retreating uncontrollably.

It was because of the ethereal breath falling on her neck, because of the dark green eyes drawing near, and because of Ji Zhuozhou’s soft-spoken request.

Clearly, she had only drunk a small glass last night to help her fall asleep—why did she feel so excessively drunk, as if she still hadn’t woken up?

Her backward step created a slight distance. Xiao Shuangyu frantically thought she had found room to breathe, but in her peripheral vision, Ji Zhuozhou followed her again.

Xiao Shuangyu grew visibly more panicked. She retreated once more, the heel of her shoe scraping against the wall she was leaning on, nearly causing her to trip.

She immediately reached out and pressed her palm against the wall. After stabilizing herself, she didn’t retreat further, finally managing to squeeze a very faint, questioning sound from her throat: “Why?”

Ji Zhuozhou let out a soft hum. “Hmm?”

After several internal struggles, Xiao Shuangyu finally raised her head to look directly at Ji Zhuozhou, who was standing extremely close. Suddenly, she felt a sense of trance.

Looking at her from this slight upward angle, the Omega appeared even more delicate and moving than from a distance. Her slender eyes were gentle and beautiful, her deep green pupils felt as remote as a forest mountain, and her elegantly shaped lips were a tender red. With her hair pinned up and her long dress, she looked like a banished immortal walking out of a painting.

Xiao Shuangyu was speechless.

It was her honor that Ji Zhuozhou was willing to approach her and speak to her; how could she avoid it?

Even if it was a dream, she should make the dream last longer.

She blinked, lowered her hand from the wall, and looked at Ji Zhuozhou, speaking firmly: “Okay.”

Her heart was pounding wildly, filled with both trepidation and unease.

Before her eyes, Ji Zhuozhou paused for a moment, as if she hadn’t expected her to agree so readily.

Leaning back slightly to regain her balance, Ji Zhuozhou curved her eyelashes in a small smile. “Do you need any instructions?”

Xiao Shuangyu shook her head, her gaze dropping unconsciously.

Even if she didn’t need instructions, Xiao Shuangyu needed some preparation. She tried hard to recall the movements of her facial muscles from earlier, pursed her lips, and looked up.

Frowning, pursing her lips, and tucking her chin—the movements were performed in one go.

Facing this “vicious” expression, Ji Zhuozhou remained expressionless, watching her without blinking.

Xiao Shuangyu quickly relaxed her face, her dark eyes filling with terror. She immediately prepared to hang her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t do it we”

“Why didn’t you continue? What about the part where the kitten bared its teeth?”

Ji Zhuozhou’s voice interrupted her, sounding somewhat regretful yet expectant.

Xiao Shuangyu’s heartbeat suddenly returned to its frantic pace as she stammered, mulling over Ji Zhuozhou’s words.

Kitten? Baring its teeth?

In Ji Zhuozhou’s eyes, was she… like that?

She carefully looked up and confirmed in a small voice, “Kitten?”

Ji Zhuozhou gave a very straightforward confirmation. She even took her phone out of her bag, scrolled through a search app, and suddenly leaned in close to sharing the screen with her.

“Yes, like this.”

The sudden closeness of softness and warmth brushed against Xiao Shuangyu’s arm, instantly making her freeze like a block of wood.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t know where to look for a moment, but she accidentally ended up staring at the phone screen Ji Zhuozhou was sharing.

Among the many images searched, the one Ji Zhuozhou had specifically clicked on was a fluffy, soft little kitten baring its teeth in a tiny “hiss” that lacked any real threat.

Beside her rounded shoulder, Ji Zhuozhou tilted her head up, her eyelashes curve slightly. “But LianLian is cuter than it. You are a very well-behaved baby.”

Those lustrous, beautiful red lips opened and closed, delivering the words to her with a hint of a smile.

Heat suddenly rushed to her cheeks. Xiao Shuangyu’s ear-tips turned a deep red, followed by the base of her ears, the color even spreading down until it nearly dyed her entire neck.

She averted her eyes in a panic, feeling helpless amidst her equally frantic heartbeat.

Suddenly, Xiao Shuangyu took a giant step back, turned around, and ran with her head down. She ran all the way to the elevator she had come from, unable to stay for even another second.

Leaving her behind, Ji Zhuozhou watched her run away with a slightly strange expression, then leaned back against the wall.

Ji Zhuozhou’s expression could be described as calm; she was neither angry nor anxious, quietly watching the direction in which Xiao Shuangyu had fled.

After a moment, from the direction Ji Zhuozhou was watching, the Xiao Shuangyu who had run away at full speed came walking back with slow, dragging steps.

She walked all the way back to Ji Zhuozhou and stood there obediently.

That face, which usually looked gloomy, was now flushed red. She stared at the tips of her own feet without speaking, looking sullen as if she were pretending nothing had happened.

Or perhaps, as if she were waiting for a reprimand or criticism.

Ji Zhuozhou finally showed some confusion. “Why did you come back?”

Such a question was enough to show that Ji Zhuozhou didn’t think the fleeing Xiao Shuangyu would return. The Xiao Shuangyu before her was clearly impacted, her whole demeanor wilting a bit more.

Xiao Shuangyu uncomfortably fiddled with the hem of her clothes, her voice weak. “I haven’t helped carrying the things yet…”

For no apparent reason, Ji Zhuozhou was momentarily stunned.

That was right. She had used the excuse of needing to carry things to call Xiao Shuangyu down.

She just hadn’t expected Xiao Shuangyu to be so responsible toward her work.

She looked at her lit-up screen; it was the response she had just got from the warehouse. After tapping in a few words to reply, she looked back at Xiao Shuangyu, who was still red-faced and hanging her head.

Ji Zhuozhou’s thick lashes fluttered down. “The warehouse said it will be another ten minutes. Wait with me a little longer.”

Xiao Shuangyu stole a glance, then lowered her gaze and nodded quickly. Without saying a word, she turned and stood to the side, secretly taking deep breaths, trying hard to calm her violent heartbeat and the heat on her face.

Ji Zhuozhou watched her movements. Her deep green eyes flickered several times before she couldn’t help but speak, “Are you really this shy?”

The young Alpha visibly stiffened, like a massive building on the verge of collapse—at the slightest vibration, countless pieces of herself would come crashing down.

Her beautifully shaped lips curved slightly. Ji Zhuozhou looked at the screen that lit up again in a very good mood. The warehouse had replied with an “ok.”

Above that was Ji Zhuozhou’s message:

Come in twenty minutes.

Since helping Ji Zhuozhou carry things in the morning, Xiao Shuangyu had been in a daze whenever she had a free moment throughout the rest of the day.

Even with praise of that magnitude, Xiao Shuangyu’s body didn’t feel the slightest bit of discomfort.

In fact, because of the impact of that encounter, she had no reaction even when she vaguely heard the praise from the security team, including Wang Ran and the others.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t pay any attention to those things at all. Her brain was busy replaying the scent of rain and mist on Ji Zhuozhou, the softness of her arms, the warmth of her body, and most importantly, her voice and tone.

But during this entire day, Xiao Shuangyu barely saw Ji Zhuozhou.

Except for the lunch break, when she used the time difference between her and Ji Zhuozhou’s mealtimes to squat at the stairwell early, did she finally saw Ji Zhuozhou again.

Only this time, her gaze was no longer as quiet as usual; it noisily landed on different parts of her over and over again, awakening her brain’s memories.

This time, Ji Zhuozhou didn’t look in her direction at all, allowing her to safely peek around.

And then, there was the commute after work, which also had a time difference.

The meeting at this time had never met with an accident and today was no exception.

After watching Ji Zhuozhou’s car drive away, Xiao Shuangyu walked slowly toward the subway. Nearly two hours later, she appeared outside TH Bar.

The neon lights flashing on the sign outlined the dancing font of the bar’s name, truly matching its original meaning.

Tactile Hallucination.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t even look up as she bypassed the front door and walked toward the back entrance, entering the bar’s backstage area directly.

Bowing her head in response to a greeting from a staff member, she walked familiarly into a dressing room. Seeing that the other two hadn’t arrived yet, she sat down at the vanity mirror marked “Lenn” and began to apply her makeup.

The bar had already started business, but at 8:00 PM on a Wednesday, it wasn’t particularly lively. The sounds coming from the front hall were not very clear.

Xiao Shuangyu was already used to it and paid no attention, her hands moving rapidly.

With a few strokes, she drew heavy, full-rimmed eyeliner and smoky eye makeup, then applied a thick layer of deep purple lipstick, slightly overlining her lips. Finally, she stuck on a row of eyebrow studs, a nose ring, and a lip stud. A natural yet exaggerated rock-and-roll face was formed.

She was extremely familiar with this process, and the whole set didn’t take much time. The other two still hadn’t arrived, and it was less than half an hour until nine o’clock.

After taking off her security uniform, she was still wearing the clothes she had worn to Huari—an oversized, design-less hoodie and sweatpants, pitch black, hiding her body within.

She always liked to dress this way; she would never stand out in a crowd.

Such clothing did not match her makeup.

Xiao Shuangyu knew this clearly, so she took a change of clothes out of her tote bag, pulled the curtain, and began to change.

Halfway through changing, A-Nan’s boisterous voice drifted through the wall. “…It was just so weird, so I argued with her for three hundred rounds!”

The dressing room door opened. Xiao Shuangyu poked her head out from the curtain upon hearing the voice and immediately saw A-Nan and Nie Siyu walking in one after the other.

Nie Siyu, in the back, saw her first and nodded to her.

A-Nan turned her head and immediately forgot the previous topic. She hopped over in a few steps and threw an arm around her neck, grinning. “LianLian is so early today too! Congratulations on your graduation! Hey, where’s my flower?”

Nie Siyu also stepped forward and handed her both bouquets of flowers. “Congratulations, congratulations. Now that you’ve graduated, aren’t you going out to have fun? Why are you coming here to work already?”

Both of them were a year older than Xiao Shuangyu and had already experienced a year of corporate life. Although one was full of passion and the other felt like a “barely living person,” the difference between the two was significant.

They had met in university and formed the band “Rain Shower.” Since A-Nan and Nie Siyu graduated last year and started working, they only appeared at TH Bar on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

A-Nan, whose original name was Qin Xiangbei, was the band’s guitarist and lead singer. She was a petite Beta who dressed in puffy skirts, had a playful bob cut, and hugged Xiao Shuangyu so tightly that Xiao Shuangyu had to crouch down a bit.

Nie Siyu was also an Alpha and the bassist. Her stage name was her real name. She was quite a bit taller than Xiao Shuangyu, wore a plaid shirt and pants, had messy, grabbed-up curly hair, and wore thick, black-framed glasses.

Xiao Shuangyu found it difficult even to look up at her now. She was a bit too preoccupied to take the two bouquets of flowers. After a moment’s hesitation, she responded, “I might as well, since I’m free anyway.”

Hearing this, A-Nan immediately shook Xiao Shuangyu while hugging her. “Oh, our Lian-er, who are you earning all this money for? What was the result of that confession the day before yesterday? You’re not allowed to ignore me this time.”

Nie Siyu placed the flowers on the table nearby, turned back, and grabbed A-Nan by the back of her collar to pull her away. “Stop talking and start working.”

A-Nan obediently sat in the vanity mirror with Nie Siyu, her hands moving constantly and her mouth never stopping.

Xiao Shuangyu used to change her clothes as an excuse to dodge the topic of the so-called confession.

The day before yesterday was her graduation ceremony and… the anniversary of Xiao Mingyi’s death.

The conversation with A-Nan over the phone that morning was entirely something she had gone along with to avoid a long list of unnecessary explanations. She had just randomly agreed with A-Nan’s guess; there was no such thing as a confession.

So, she really couldn’t respond.

The three of them chatted about everything under the sun in the dressing room until nearly nine o’clock. The fully prepared “Explosive Guitar Twin-tails” and the “Curly-haired Bassist Cool Girl” stood up together and beckoned to Xiao Shuangyu, whose aura hadn’t changed at all while she squatted to the side.

Xiao Shuangyu gripped her drumsticks, stood up, and followed closely behind.

The sound of the drum kit was even noisier than the various sounds in the bar. She stayed in the back row of the dimly lit stage, forcefully pushing the chaotic thoughts out of her head.

The set ended at midnight. Thursday was still a working day, so they didn’t stay for a drink and simply went home.

Returning home, Xiao Shuangyu put down the flowers and gifts. She first stood in front of the refrigerator and poured herself a small glass to drink before finally cleaning up and lying down on the small bed in her rented room.

Closing her eyes, the rhythm still seemed to be thumping in her ears.

The thumping accompanied the scent of alcohol to send her to sleep. In her deep dreams, a beautiful figure kept approaching, enticing red lips opening and closing, as an ethereal breath blew toward her…

On the small bed, Xiao Shuangyu suddenly sat up, her face a deep, blood-red deep in the darkness.

Her heart was thumping “dong-dong.” Xiao Shuangyu slowly… touched her own lips.