Bai Yan’er smiled lightly and gently, but the light in her eyes was intense and burning.
If anyone had been present at that moment and seen the expression on Bai Yan’er’s face, they would probably have felt a chill down their spine. That was by no means a smile a normal younger sister would show her elder sister. It was not the warmth between family, nor the attachment between sisters, but a more complex emotion—hard to tell if it was love or obsession, fondness or possession.
Bai Yan’er ran through her chessboard again in her mind. If everything went according to her plan, Su Qinghan should be about ready to step down by now.
Who was left by Yan Yu’s side now?
Su Qinghan had already been knocked out of the game—money gone, credit gone, even starting to worry about where she was going to live.
Dai Feng? That outsider wasn’t worth mentioning.
And that ordinary, naive Bai Zhen’er?
Bai Yan’er let out a cold laugh in her heart.
‘That silly girl still hasn’t caught on. She still thinks her love for Yan Yu comes from some noble sisterly affection.’
Now was the perfect time for Bai Yan’er to launch a fierce attack.
She shifted slightly in the bathtub, adjusting to a more comfortable position against the edge. Through the misty steam, the girl’s figure was faintly visible, indistinct, which only added a hint of ambiguous beauty.
Bai Yan’er’s eyes narrowed slightly. “An aquarium, huh? How romantic.”
“Miss Su sure knows how to pick a spot. A place full of couples everywhere—it’s really suitable for two people to build feelings.” She murmured to herself, leaning back against the edge of the tub once more, beginning to plan her next move.
“But I can’t lose to you either.”
“Next weekend, I’ll go on a date with big sister too.”
—
The duration of the “Omniscient Perspective” skill wasn’t all that long. As for Su Qinghan, Yan Yu only found out that she had a conflict with Jiang Muyun and lost her keychain.
What happened after that, she had no way of knowing.
Conflict was a good entry point. Yan Yu could certainly take advantage of this opportunity to sneak in. Use gentleness and thoughtfulness to soften Su Qinghan’s heart, make Su Qinghan fall for her, and then pressure her with the keychain incident.
But she wouldn’t overdo it, because she knew that when those two made up later, as soon as Jiang Muyun waved her hand, Su Qinghan would definitely go back to her.
So, for some things, she needed to keep her guessing.
Be good to Su Qinghan, but not overly so, while also intentionally or unintentionally drawing her attention.
As for how to draw attention, Yan Yu thought of another pawn she had—Dai Feng.
Last time, she heard Dai Feng say she was interested in art. Maybe this could be an opportunity to create some interaction with her.
Unfortunately, the city’s art exhibition was coming up in a few days, and her advisor was pushing her to submit her entry.
Compared to talking to Dai Feng, Yan Yu still had to finish her own work first.
—
Tuesday.
Yan Yu had taken leave because of the art exhibition and stayed home to finish the last part of her painting.
The light outside the window wasn’t great. It was an overcast day, thick clouds pressing down over the city, filtering the sunlight into a uniform grayish white.
This kind of light was actually good for painting—no strong contrast between light and dark, eyes didn’t tire easily, and colors could be seen more accurately.
As it happened, Ruo Xiaozhen, who had no classes, was also staying in the apartment. Ruo Xiaozhen usually liked to cling to her, chattering nonstop about interesting things that happened at school, or curling up on the sofa scrolling through her phone, occasionally looking up to ask, “Yan Yu, are you thirsty?” “Yan Yu, are you hungry?”
At first, Yan Yu didn’t think much of it. But today was different.
For some reason, she was sticking to Yan Yu like a personal bodyguard, not leaving her side.
Today, Ruo Xiaozhen wasn’t talking.
She wasn’t lounging on the sofa either. Instead, she was pacing around Yan Yu—walking over, walking back, walking over, walking back.
Her footsteps weren’t heavy, but in the quiet rented room, they were especially clear, one after another, as rhythmic as a pendulum.
Yan Yu was mixing paint. She squeezed a bit of titanium white into a small compartment of the palette, then a little ultramarine blue, and slowly stirred the two colors together with the back of her brush.
While mixing, she kept an eye on Ruo Xiaozhen’s movements.
Ruo Xiaozhen walked to the other side of the table, picked up a rag, and started wiping a vase on the table.
That vase was clean.
Yan Yu had just wiped it yesterday—the glaze was so shiny it could reflect a person’s face.
But Ruo Xiaozhen wiped it very seriously, inside and out, up and down, not missing a single curve, as if it were a Qing dynasty antique covered in centuries of dust.
Yan Yu raised her eyelids slightly but said nothing. She lowered her head and continued mixing her colors.
The blue was about right.
She picked up a bit, tried a stroke on a corner of the canvas, added a little more white, and tried another stroke.
Ruo Xiaozhen finally put down the rag.
Yan Yu thought she was going to do something else and breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, only to find Ruo Xiaozhen starting to wipe the glass window.
After the window, it was the coffee table. After the coffee table, it was the desk lamp. Was Ruo Xiaozhen cleaning?
Yan Yu couldn’t figure it out. But why was she only cleaning the area around her?
A bucket of water got dirty, the paint from the brush swirling into the water.
Yan Yu set her palette down on the small table next to the easel, turned her wheelchair, and headed toward the bathroom to get a fresh bucket of water.
The wheelchair rolled over the tiles, making a faint sound.
Another set of footsteps followed behind her.
Yan Yu stopped.
She turned around and looked behind her.
Ruo Xiaozhen was standing straight at the kitchen door, hands on her hips, her posture so stiff it looked like someone had grabbed her by the collar from behind and lifted her up.
“Xiaozhen, what are you looking at?”
“I’m looking at the scenery.”
But there was no scenery at all outside that window.
On the north side of the apartment, directly opposite was the back of another residential building—gray, dusty concrete walls covered with the pipes of air conditioners.
Yan Yu stared at her for three seconds.
Ruo Xiaozhen didn’t move, maintaining that “enjoying the scenery” pose, without even blinking.
“…”
Yan Yu opened her mouth, then closed it again.
‘Forget it. I’ll just ignore her.’
She turned her wheelchair, changed the water, and went back to painting.
Not long after, the painting was finished.
Yan Yu backed up a bit, squinted, and looked at the whole picture.
The transition of light could be a little softer. The golden reflection on the river should be a little more fragmented. The silhouette on the wheelchair could be a little fainter.
But overall, she thought it was good, and it should fit the city’s “Cityscape” exhibition theme.
Sometimes, stillness is also beauty. Loneliness is also beauty. Beauty doesn’t always have to be bustling with voices. A person quietly watching a river of lights can also be a kind of beauty.
Yan Yu put down her brush with satisfaction.
She looked down at her arm. There were a few streaks of paint on her forearm—ultramarine blue, titanium white, and a bit of lemon yellow.
Got dirty with paint. She needed to take a bath.
Thinking this, Yan Yu turned her wheelchair toward the bathroom.
But what she never expected was—Ruo Xiaozhen followed again.
With a click, she stopped her wheelchair at the bathroom door, one hand holding the doorframe, the wheel of the wheelchair just catching on the edge of the threshold, making a faint sound.
This time, Yan Yu couldn’t force a smile anymore. She turned her head and looked at the girl who had been shadowing her all day.
“Xiaozhen, why are you following me?”
Ruo Xiaozhen stood less than two steps behind her, both hands behind her back, her toes rubbing against the floor, a subtle expression on her face.
Her voice was half a tone higher than usual. “Ah? It’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then why did you follow me over?” Yan Yu asked, her gaze fixed squarely on Ruo Xiaozhen’s face, leaving her no room to dodge.
“Oh, that,” Ruo Xiaozhen cleared her throat, her eyes drifting to the ceiling, then back to Yan Yu’s face. “It’s just that I happen to want to take a bath too.”
Yan Yu became even more wary.
Her fingers tightened on the doorframe, the knuckles turning slightly pale.
The bathroom door was half open, and a faint scent of body wash wafted out—the cherry blossom one she had just changed yesterday. The faucet wasn’t on, and the showerhead hung quietly on the wall, unmoving.
Drip. Drip.
Water droplets were sliding down. Ruo Xiaozhen quickly withdrew her gaze from the gap in the half-open door.
“Xiaozhen, if you want to bathe, go ahead first,” Yan Yu said, her voice steadier than before. “I’ll wait outside for you. You can go in after you’re done.”
“Oh, how could I be so rude?”
Ruo Xiaozhen chuckled and waved her hand, her smile so bright it looked fake.
“It’s obviously Xiaoyu who came first. How could I possibly go in myself?”
As she said this, she took a step forward.
“How about—” Another step.
“We take a bath together? Since we’re both girls, you have what I have, so there’s nothing to be shy about, right?”
Before she finished speaking, she reached out, grinning, and started pushing Yan Yu’s wheelchair toward the bathroom.
The wheel of the wheelchair bumped against the threshold, making a dull thud, and then Ruo Xiaozhen forced it over, rolling onto the wet tiles of the bathroom with a rumble.
Yan Yu immediately resisted.
She spun around sharply and grabbed Ruo Xiaozhen’s wrist. Her fingers clamped tightly around the bone.
Her eyes widened slightly, Ruo Xiaozhen’s embarrassed, fake smile reflected in her pupils. Her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
Something was wrong.
This Ruo Xiaozhen was very, very wrong!
Yan Yu’s instincts were screaming an alarm.
That girl who had been glued to her since morning, pretending to wipe a vase, staring at a blank wall, and now wanting to bathe together—there was definitely something off about her.
Her intuition told Yan Yu that she had to figure out immediately what this sneaky girl was thinking.