Chapter 226: Yezi
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2188414
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Xi Mo's face froze at that moment. Even her heartbeat seemed to stop for an instant. Then, in the next second, her whole body trembled, and a loud ringing filled her ears.
...Yezi.
The woman in the baseball cap was actually... Yezi.
Her mind was in complete chaos. The joy that Yezi was still alive, and the cruel reality that Yezi had conspired with Gu Qisong to kidnap her, mixed together in conflict. The fear she had felt before because the woman in the baseball cap had stalked her many times and used all kinds of methods to threaten her, had now turned into confusion.
…Why?
What happened to Yezi? What had she gone through these years?
Xi Mo lay on the ground. Her body struggled as she tried to speak, but no words came out. She could only make urgent, muffled whimpers.
Jian Ye crouched beside her. She seemed to deliberately observe her for a while. After looking at her curled up on the ground in such a helpless and miserable state, she finally reached out and removed the gag from her mouth.
Xi Mo breathed heavily and looked at Jian Ye's face hidden behind the mask. In a low voice, she murmured, "...Yezi."
"You can talk now. Are you thinking of finding a chance to call for help?" Yezi looked at her coldly.
"...I won't do that." Xi Mo trembled as she tried hard to steady her breathing.
Jian Ye gave her two choices. "Really? Are you afraid that if you call for help and make me angry, your life will be in danger? Or... are you afraid that if people find out I committed a crime, the police will come and arrest me? Which one is it?"
When Xi Mo heard those words, her expression became complicated. She felt heartache and disbelief at the same time.
"...Why are you saying these things? I'm very happy to see that you're still alive, but I don't understand why you're acting like this now. Did... did you run into some difficulty? Or is there some misunderstanding? I... really don't understand. Can you tell me? Let me know what happened."
Jian Ye paused for a moment.
Xi Mo's voice trembled slightly. "Zhou Wenxu said Gu Qisong has a younger sister who is sick... and needs a lot of money for treatment. Are you that sister?"
Jian Ye's face immediately darkened. "I'm not his sister."
Xi Mo finally understood. Gu Qisong had only told others that Jian Ye was his sister. It was just a cover story. Zhou Wenxu might have met Yezi before and believed that explanation. This meant that... at that time, Yezi probably really appeared seriously ill.
"I’m only your younger sister, your only younger sister." Jian Ye's eyes became more vicious, and there was even a madness she seemed unable to suppress. "How could you want me to become someone else's sister?"
"I look like this, yet I'm your younger sister. Do you think... it's embarrassing?" Jian Ye's teeth seemed to be chattering too.
Xi Mo quickly explained, "I've never thought that. When Mom brought you home, you were all alone. I thought that over the years, you had found relatives connected to you by blood. I'm sorry. I misunderstood."
Darkness filled Jian Ye's eyes. "My family is only Mom and you. Sister, are you abandoning me? You want me to find some blood relatives? You want me to reunite with some kind of kin?"
"I absolutely don't think that." Xi Mo realized she needed to speak to Jian Ye more carefully. Jian Ye's way of thinking seemed different now. One careless word could touch a sore spot. She quickly softened her voice even more and said, "I only misunderstood. Please forgive me for saying the wrong thing."
The gloom in Jian Ye's eyes eased a little.
"Then what about the illness Zhou Wenxu mentioned? That..." Xi Mo carefully shifted a little and asked cautiously.
Zhou Wenxu believed Gu Qisong needed a lot of money to treat his younger sister. He was worried Gu Qisong would not get hired, so he guaranteed for him. Based on Xi Mo's understanding of Zhou Wenxu over the years, Zhou Wenxu would not lie to her. But Gu Qisong's sister was a lie. Since the sister was fake, was the illness real?
...If it needed a lot of money, then it had to be a very serious disease.
Thinking of this, Xi Mo carefully looked at Jian Ye, trying to see if she showed any signs of illness. But Jian Ye wore a mask, so it was hard to judge.
"I'm not sick!" Jian Ye shouted angrily.
Xi Mo was startled, and became increasingly worried.
Jian Ye leaned closer to Xi Mo and said, "You care about me and don't want me to get sick, right?"
Xi Mo felt an immense pressure bearing down on her and dared not answer.
Perhaps... Yezi is sick.
Her mental state can't be called healthy.
Xi Mo turned her almost stiff neck and looked around. The range lit by the night light was very limited. But she could roughly see that she was lying on a wooden floor. This kind of floor looked very cheap and was usually used in temporary living spaces. There was not a speck of dust on the floor, which showed it had been cleaned carefully. Judging from the dark outlines around her, there was no furniture, only a simple table.
The decoration here was very simple.
"Sister, what are you thinking about?" Jian Ye followed her gaze, looked over there, then stared at Xi Mo again.
Xi Mo stayed silent for the moment, thinking about how she should answer.
But Jian Ye said, "Do you want to know what place this is?"
Xi Mo could only nod.
"After analyzing the environment, are you preparing to escape?" Jian Ye asked again.
"...No." Xi Mo said.
Jian Ye suddenly smiled. "It doesn't matter if I tell you. This is a residential complex that was handed over not long ago. Most of the units are unfinished. A small number of owners are renovating. The property management has moved in, but much of the work hasn't started yet. I rented an unfinished unit on the fifteenth floor here especially for you."
"...For me?" Xi Mo murmured softly, feeling how strange those words sounded.
"Yes." Jian Ye said. "The decoration is simple, but don't worry. I installed flooring. Knowing you would come, I cleaned the floor very carefully in advance. Don't you have a cleanliness obsession? You wouldn't be happy staying in the dust of an unfinished unit."
Xi Mo subconsciously made a slight movement backward. But her hands and feet were tied, and even moving was difficult.
"The clothes you're wearing are so expensive. They must be custom-made, right?" Jian Ye placed a hand on Xi Mo's clothes and patted them lightly. "They won't get dirty."
Xi Mo felt even breathing become difficult.
"The balconies of all the unfinished units here are open. Above, below, left, and right, nobody lives here yet. Even if some units are being renovated during the day, the workers all leave at night." Jian Ye carefully described the environment around Xi Mo. "Right now it's nighttime. If a person jumped from this building, with a bang, and their body hit the ground, nobody would discover it quickly. It would probably be tomorrow morning, right?"
"...Yezi." Xi Mo shivered.
She is now completely certain. Yezi is sick. What exactly had happened to make Yezi become like this?
"What happened when the fire started back then?" Xi Mo asked with a trembling voice. "Since you're still alive, why didn't you come home and see me? Everyone was looking for you at the time. Or... were you unable to come home then?"
A twisted expression flashed across Jian Ye's eyes.
"We were kidnapped together, but you were the lucky one who got rescued." The smile at Jian Ye's lips seemed frozen there. "Of course you wouldn't know what I went through."
Her voice sounded as if it came from hell.
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2188414
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
"The fire was too big. I couldn't get out. I collapsed on the ground and was already losing consciousness. At the time, I was thinking, Mom saved me once before. If she could save me a second time now, that would be great. Then someone passed by me. That person wanted to run away, so I grabbed her pant leg and said, 'Mom, save me.'"
...Mom, save me.
"Mom was already dead. She wouldn't stay behind for me anymore." Jian Ye's eyes were filled with despair. "But I was already confused then. I called out for Mom, and that person actually stayed for me."
As Xi Mo listened to her story, it felt as if a sea of fire appeared before her eyes. Her heart suffered in the flames.
"That kidnapper nanny stopped." Jian Ye let out a mocking laugh. "Because she was confused too. She thought I was the young lady she had raised since childhood. That young lady had died. She thought I was still that young lady as a child. When she heard me call her Mom, she actually... took me away too."
"I managed to survive that fire." Jian Ye said. "After leaving the fire scene, I was sick for a while. Then that nanny took me to Southeast Asia."
