Chapter 109: A Friend’s Scheme
“I don’t know.” Lian Li knew very little about Jin Shi Yue; what she knew of him now was gained through their interactions, bit by bit.
Junior Sister isn’t one to gossip and rarely probes into others’ affairs. Xue Shufan shifted her posture, tucking one leg up, her arm resting on her knee. Her pose was bold, but her voice was cautious.
“It’s normal that you don’t know. The Jin family’s private matters are kept under tight wraps, let alone classified files like this.”
Seeing Xue Shufan speak vaguely, Lian Li became a little interested. “Do you know the reason he left the military region early?”
Xue Shufan nodded. “I exhausted all my tricks to interrogate Pei Qingji before he told me. This matter, in short, cannot be spread outside.”
Junior Sister has always been tight-lipped. Xue Shufan wasn’t worried about her spilling any secrets.
Lian Li, having eaten her fill, took a pillow and hugged it, leaning back bonelessly. She asked, “Brother Qingji doesn’t seem like someone who would be coerced or tempted by beauty into revealing unknown secrets, right?”
“What beauty? That’s sisterhood, brotherhood,” Xue Shufan said righteously.
Lian Li smiled faintly. “Alright, alright, sisterhood.”
Xue Shufan began to get to the main point. “A few years ago, Jin Shi Yue went on a mission to Anguo, and during a battle, a brother who fought alongside him died.”
Lian Li’s brow twitched violently, a bad premonition striking her. “Did he do it?”
Xue Shufan lowered her voice. “Yes. But there’s another version to this. That guy Pei Qingji told me two versions and asked me to guess which one was normal. The other version said that someone kidnapped Doctors Without Borders, and Jin Shi Yue, to save them, violated regulations without authorization, and that’s why he returned. To make me believe him, Pei Qingji even specially found a report by war correspondent Xu Jingxi about the rescue of Doctors Without Borders for me to see.”
“Lili, which one do you think is more credible?”
Lian Li pondered for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m not sure. They both seem quite credible.”
Regarding Jin Shi Yue, Lian Li wouldn’t find anything he did surprising.
She always felt he was a very crazy person, just restrained because he was confined.
If Lian Li had known beforehand that Jin Shi Yue would one day like her, she wouldn’t have just kept her distance from him; she would have stayed far away.
After all, in the beginning, she thought he disliked her, teased her, and would never like her.
Lian Li never avoided people who disliked her. It was their business that they didn’t like her; to her, they were just walking dead, incapable of stirring any emotional waves.
Junior Sister’s judgment was rarely influenced by others. She held onto her original intentions and trusted the facts she personally learned more.
Xue Shufan looked at her for a moment, and seeing her expression unchanged, continued, “The reason for leaving the military region early is indeed still in question, but there’s one thing that is 100% believable.”
Lian Li’s left leg was a little numb, so she changed her position. “What thing?”
“Jin family internal affairs.” Xue Shufan said, “You know Jin Shi Yue’s father, Jin Zhengchuan, and his mother, Chen Shifei, right?”
Lian Li nodded. “A match made in heaven. The wedding was very sensational, considered the pinnacle of political and business marriage alliances.”
“They were indeed a model couple in public, but…”
Xue Shufan paused, then continued, “When Chen Shifei was pregnant with Jin Shi Yue, Jin Zhengchuan had an affair.”
Lian Li frowned. “An affair?”
“Yes. Jin Zhengchuan often brought that woman around, claiming she was his secretary to the public, but in reality, they had already been involved behind the scenes. When Chen Shifei found out, she was in her late pregnancy. Already very fragile, under the dual blow to her mental and physical state, she developed bipolar affective disorder.”
Xue Shufan took a couple of sips of wine. “People with emotional disorders tend to get agitated and act impulsively. I heard… I heard that Jin Shi Yue was almost killed by her several times when he was a child.”
Lian Li recalled what Zhong Yang had said that night, her brow furrowing. “Didn’t anyone notice?”
There were so many servants in the Jin family, and Chen Shifei wasn’t the only one taking care of Jin Shi Yue. They should have noticed.
“No one noticed. Chen Shifei acted normally, and the servants who took care of the Second Young Master were her confidantes, highly loyal, and wouldn’t inform others,” Xue Shufan said. “Moreover, Jin Yan Ting was groomed as the heir from a young age and raised by Old Master Jin. Old Master Jin and Old Madam Jin felt pity for Chen Shifei, unable to see Jin Yan Ting at all times, and hardly interfered with how Chen Shifei took care of Jin Shi Yue.”
Chen Shifei’s bipolar disorder was primarily caused by Jin Zhengchuan. When the victim becomes the perpetrator, coupled with a blood relation, it’s hard to understand with common sense.
“I suspect Chen Shifei blamed Jin Shi Yue for Jin Zhengchuan’s infidelity, like, ‘if I hadn’t been pregnant with you and given birth to you, he wouldn’t have cheated.’” Xue Shufan sighed. “Girls always tend to find fault with themselves.”
Lian Li inexplicably thought of Jin Shi Yue’s entry into the military region. If he was forcibly sent to a dangerous place by Old Master Jin with a military order… then he was abused by his own mother since childhood; and when he grew up, his grandfather sent him into gunfire and rain of bullets for the sake of family interests.
The depths of wealthy families are vast, as if storms of love and hate could erupt at any moment.
Beneath the glamorous exterior of high society, how many unknown matters lie hidden is impossible to ascertain.
What Xue Shufan said were all hearsay; whether they were true or false remained to be verified.
The two girls chatted and drank. Lian Li was too full to drink much, and Xue Shufan drank almost both bottles of wine.
The phone screen lit up with a message from the Eldest Young Master: 「Finished yet?」
Lian Li glanced at her sister, who was clearly drunk, and typed nimbly: 「Senior Sister is drunk. It’s not safe for her to go back alone. She might stay here.」
Below the residential building, a black Koenigsegg was parked nearby. The driver’s side window was open, and Jin Shi Yue’s wrist rested casually on the window frame, his slender, pale fingers holding a cigarette. He flicked the ash and, upon seeing this message, narrowed his eyes slightly.
Afterward, he held his phone in one hand and dialed a contact, stating concisely, “Go to Qing Teng Road, number 21, and bring Xue Shufan away.”
Pei Family Crown Prince, workaholic Pei Qingji, was in his study handling official business when he received his friend’s call, feeling a bit bewildered.
However, he still changed his clothes and instructed his driver to go to Qing Teng Road, number 21.
The Bentley stopped smoothly parallel to the Koenigsegg, the lowered windows of the two cars facing each other.
Pei Qingji looked at a hand extended from the car opposite and his peculiar friend who was holding a cigarette but not smoking, and asked, “Is that Junior Sister up there?”
His tone was about eighty percent certain.
Jin Shi Yue said casually, “My girlfriend.”
Pei Qingji gently reminded him, “Delusions are a medical condition.”
As Pei Qingji went upstairs to knock on the door, Lian Li was putting the bowls and chopsticks into the dishwasher, preparing to help Xue Shufan into the bedroom.
Hearing the doorbell, she thought it was Jin Shi Yue and ran to open the door: “Senior Sister drank, she can’t… Brother Qingji?”
