0086 086 Ji-You hour, auspicious for opening a business.
Qi Yu looked like he was about to collapse. Qi Shuyao was worried about him going back alone, so she supported him until Zhou Cheng came over before letting go. She watched the car disappear on the road before turning back.
It was already very late at night, and standing at the door, she realized that she had no idea how to get around here.
The lights in the central hall were still on. Suddenly wanting another drink, she walked straight to the bar, placed her hand on it, and was startled when Tu Mi suddenly poked her head out from inside, causing her to stumble.
"Why aren't you asleep yet!"
"I'll wait for you. Didn't you say you couldn't find your way?"
She threw off the blanket from her shoulders, slapped away Qi Shuyao's hand that was trying to touch the wine, and pulled her to the innermost room on the second floor.
"You'll be living here from now on?"
“I was planning to stay in the basement. That’s just how people are. I still prefer living underground. It makes me feel safe. But you definitely won’t be used to it. We’ll sleep here tonight.”
After tidying up and washing up, Tu Mi had already closed her eyes, but when she heard the sound, she still waved her hand to tell her to come over quickly. Qi Shuyao crawled from under her feet to the inside of the bed, and after thinking for a while, she touched her face and made her face her.
Do you think I look like Xu Mei?
"Huh? Yes, you look alike. The lower half of your face is especially similar. But your eyes look like your father's, and so do mine."
Tu Mi spoke these words almost with her eyes closed, and fell asleep again before the last syllable of her words had faded. Qi Shuyao turned off the light, leaned against the wall, and pressed her face against the cold wall.
Unable to sleep, she stared at the ceiling all night.
On June 1st, at 5 PM, the Xuan Sha Club reopened. The young proprietress, dressed in her finest attire, warmly welcomed every guest. Countless people flocked into the most beautiful building on the entire street, filling every room to capacity.
Soon after, a man, completely drunk, staggered out of the bathroom. He pressed the doorknob with his eyes closed, but couldn't open the door no matter what he did. He cursed and raised his hand to smash the door, but was restrained by two bodyguards on either side.
Hearing the commotion upstairs, Tu Mi ran up from the second floor and rushed to the door to explain.
"Look, the room number isn't even labeled properly, it's confusing you, sir. Your room is here, come on."
She pushed the drunken man into his private room, fanned herself with her hand, and smiled at the guests inside. As the door closed, she frowned slightly, turned around, and rushed over to stop the deliveryman who was about to bring more drinks into the locked room.
"Take it away, take it away, don't send any more in."
"Boss? This is what the customers inside ordered."
"What guest? That's my sister. She's had too much to drink. You'd better go and do something else."
The young man, still bewildered, carried the wine downstairs again. The two bodyguards went off to attend to other matters, leaving only Tu Mi standing alone at the door. Amidst the surrounding noise, the faint sound of sobbing could still be heard coming from inside.
Nine o'clock in the morning.
The talkative manager, who lived downstairs, carefully went up to the second floor and knocked on the innermost door.
Last night, no, early this morning, after the two of them had completely lain down, it was already past three o'clock. Tu Mi fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, while Qi Shuyao, who had been staring at the ceiling all night, fell asleep as dawn broke. She turned over and nestled between the two pillows, fast asleep.
Tu Mi heard the knocking first, rubbed her eyes, got out of bed, opened the door a crack, and her explosive hairstyle startled the manager, who took a step back.
"What's wrong?"
"A beautiful young woman was brought in by a luxury car. She looked frail and said she was here to see Miss Qi."
Just pulled from a sweet dream, Tu Mi's mind was still foggy. It took her a while to suddenly remember what happened yesterday and tell her to quickly bring people up.
The manager remained stuck in the door crack, not moving.
"No, boss, come straight to this room. Aren't you going to tidy it up?"
"Why bother packing? We're all family. Let us in."
The manager went downstairs, and Tu Mi woke up. She turned to look at Qi Shuyao, who was still asleep on the bed, and casually tugged at the straps of her camisole that were positioned incorrectly.
Her understanding of family is actually quite one-sided. She probably thinks that anyone she can meet in any clothes is family.
Jiang Yu followed the tall female manager up to the second floor. The manager walked very fast, and Jiang Yu couldn't keep up after a few steps. Today, she had specially chosen a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that she wouldn't normally wear, but she didn't expect the atmosphere here to be so unrestrained.
She grew up in the dance hall until she was five or six years old, witnessing the last splendor of Jingyang before its decline. But nearly twenty years on earth had long since sealed her free soul within a rigid body.
She had also bought a lot of sexy outfits and rock clothes online or in physical stores. After those pretty little clothes were neatly arranged at home, she didn't even have the courage to try them on. She would put them at the bottom of the cabinet before even opening them, and she would destroy the order records and receipts. The curse that Xu Mei had been instilling in her ears for decades was completely impossible to shake off.
"You must be dignified. You must learn from the manners of those young ladies. You are the eldest daughter in our family. You must make something of yourself and set an example for your younger sisters."
Then she changed into the cheongsam that Zhu Jiangxu had prepared for her, turned around, and walked towards him with a smile.
The manager walked to the door and left. Jiang Yu composed herself, tugged at the strangely worn hem of her hoodie, knocked on the door, and then pushed it open.
The girl standing in front of her looked very young, but her face was exactly the same as her father's face in her memory, as if her father's skin had been peeled off and pasted onto her bones.
The girl's expression also stiffened. She opened her mouth but didn't know how to speak, so she pointed to Qi Shuyao on the bed and stood by the table.
Jiang Yu smiled at her, walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. Qi Shuyao felt the sound, turned her face out from under the pillow and slammed it onto Tu Mi's pillow. She then swung her arm and put it on Jiang Yu's leg.
Gently brushing aside the stray hairs obscuring her face, long eyelashes slipped between her fingers. Both of them paused for a moment. Qi Shuyao opened her eyes, her hazy gaze fixed on Jiang Yu's slightly lowered head, and suddenly sat up.
The bed in the room had a raised design. When she sat on the bed and looked down, Tu Mi, who was standing below, looked like a big-headed doll with sleepy eyes. Jiang Yu, sitting next to her, was as usual, with eyes full of autumn water.
She leaned back against the crooked pillow and waved to Tu Mi.
"Come on, let's get to know each other as a family. This is the youngest sister, and this one must be the eldest sister."
Tu Mi walked towards them, and Jiang Yu stood up excitedly, wanting to hug her, but she didn't dare to fully extend her arms. The little girl in front of her was half a head shorter than her and was very thin.
She obediently stood over, tilted her head back, and called to her.
"Sister? You're really our sister?"
Jiang Yu grasped her hand, speechless, and tears streamed down her face.
"Yes, I am the older sister, I am the older sister."
Tu Mi casually grabbed a long coat over her tank top, while Qi Shuyao rummaged through her closet and found a dress. Tu Mi's dress, which was almost knee-length, turned into a mini-skirt when she put it on Qi Shuyao. The three of them went upstairs, booked a private room, and brought over a case of wine.
"So, the three of us are really sisters, born to the same mother and father?"
"That's it. I didn't expect this man to be so loyal."
The two of them were talking, one sentence at a time, but Jiang Yu didn't respond. She just kept pouring wine, toasting, pouring wine, and her tears never stopped.
Just now, Tu Mi briefly recounted the first half of her life, omitting most of the details, but it still made her sister unable to stop crying. She felt a little guilty and secretly nudged Qi Shuyao's arm to ask her to comfort her, but Qi Shuyao was also thinking about her own things.
"Sister, were you always by Xu Mei's side when you were little?"
"Yes, it was there before you were born."
"Were there no other children born before me?"
"Who else?"
Jiang Yu finally put down her wine glass, but her eyes looked even redder. She grabbed Qi Shuyao's arm and pressed it, leaving red marks.
“Li Qing was also a girl, five years older than me. One year I went to the Fairy Gathering, the place where Xu Mei was born. The grandmother of that family was also Li Qing’s maternal grandmother.”
She spoke in a roundabout way, and Jiang Yu's alcohol-soaked mind also went through several twists and turns before he could understand what she was saying.
"She's five years older than you, which means she's two years younger than me. My memories of that time are hazy, but it's unlikely that I have no recollection of her entire pregnancy and childbirth process. Do you have any photos of her?"
She never took a photo with Li Qing, but now when you search for her name online, you'll find photos of her in prison everywhere—no makeup, no photoshopping, her features are clearly visible.
I don't resemble any of them.
"Wait, the one from before."
Jiang Yu then flipped to the previous photo, a side profile shot of someone wearing prison clothes. Qi Shuyao took the phone and zoomed in on the photo.
"What's wrong?"
"How come I never noticed this angle before? It looks so familiar."
Can you remember who he looks like?
"I don't know, I just have this feeling."
Tu Mi also went over to take a look. She didn't remember this person; she was just offering her opinion.
"Isn't she in prison? She can be visited, right? Just go and ask her."
"She has been taken away."
"People in prison can be taken away? What does that mean?"
“Shen Yan took her away; he confessed to everything during Yang Jianlin’s interrogation.”
These few words shattered the understanding of modern society that Tu Mi had painstakingly built up. She looked left and right, and asked cautiously,
"What do you mean? Isn't this illegal?"
Jiang Yu put down her phone and sighed.
"The Shen family, Shen Yan, lives in Changgang, but his nationality has long been changed to a foreign country. His family has many underground connections and is completely above the law. At least our country can't deal with him right now."
"Do you know him? Does Zhu Jiangxu know him?" Qi Shuyao asked.
Jiang Yu shook his head.
“I knew him, but he and Zhu Jiangxu were practically on opposite sides in Changgang at the time. Their only interaction was competing for business. Every time they met, they would end up fighting. They were completely different people.”
The three of them fell silent, each holding their own glass. Jiang Yu poured herself another drink and downed it in one gulp. Qi Shuyao looked at her and pressed her hand down.
"What did you want to say when you called me yesterday?"
Hearing her words, Jiang Yu gave a bitter smile and downed another glass of wine.
"Yaoyao, do you want to know why our family is separated?"
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