Chapter 3: Do You Want to Enter Sister’s Fish Pond

The bar was built on the edge of the lake in the city center of Beijing. After leaving the bar, Jian Jinci went to the bridge by the lake.

She sat on the ground, leaning against the bridge railing. She was kicking her feet, next to her was a pair of high heels.

The April breeze was cool, blowing her hair. The surface of the lake rippled.

The temperature difference between day and night in Beijing was large. It was already ten o’clock at night, Jian Jinci sneezed and wrapped her coat tighter around her.

She looked at the lake, crying in frustration, like a child. Then, her mood changed, she didn’t know what she thought of, she put her hands on both sides of her lips, closed her eyes and shouted: “All scumbags should die!”

Including her father, they should all die. If the species of scumbags didn’t exist in this world, there would be many more happy people.

Scumbags not only hurt the women who love them deeply, but also their children.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a pair of long legs. Her gaze moved upwards, stopping on the man’s face: “Why did you follow me? Brother, I really don’t have any money. I’ll definitely pay you back when I have some.”

The man’s voice was cold: “I don’t want money.”

“Then you must be captivated by my beauty and have evil intentions.” After she finished speaking, Jian Jinci crossed her arms to cover her chest, watching him warily.

Seeing that he didn’t speak, she thought he was really caught, she stared at him vigilantly: “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll call the police.”

She fumbled around on the ground, grabbed her high heels, her white fingertips tapped on them a few times, she put the high heels to her ear, her movements were smooth and flowing. She cried out loudly: “Police officer, help me~”

The man squatted down in front of her, one hand resting on his knee, a slight curve appeared at the corner of his lips: “What did the police say?”

Jian Jinci took the high heels away from her ear, frowned, pouted, her expression was extremely aggrieved: “The police officer didn’t answer the phone.”

She grabbed his arm and looked at him pleadingly: “I’ll give in to you, please don’t kill me, just spare my life, okay? I still have a brother to support, what will happen to him if I die?”

His eyes were filled with complex emotions: “Where is your family?”

Even though she was drunk and unconscious, the word “family” could still hurt her. Jian Jinci’s eyes flashed with bitterness, she pushed herself up from the ground: “My brother is my only family. Do you know who I am?”

She muttered to herself: “I’m Miss Jian, in Beijing, even if you haven’t seen me, you should have heard of me. Everyone envies my status and wealth, I have countless fortunes, but in reality, even my father doesn’t care if I live or die. Isn’t it funny?”

Even so, she still had to maintain the setting of a harmonious family in front of outsiders.

His hand tightened at his side, he didn’t speak.

She leaned on the railing, tears glistening on her cheeks, she turned her head to look at the person behind her: “Do you have any candy? It’s too bitter.”

Life is too bitter, living is too bitter, everyone fears death, perhaps death is the real liberation for some people.

The cool breeze dissipated some of her drunkenness. These words, she could only say to a stranger under the influence of alcohol.

“Forget it, how could a man like you carry candy with him.”

He took two steps forward, spread out his palm, and in his palm was a piece of candy.

Jian Jinci stared blankly at the candy in his palm. She recognized the packaging, it was the kind she had eaten since she was a child, her favorite lychee flavor.

A strong sense of familiarity came over her inexplicably.

She didn’t take the candy immediately, she just stared blankly at it. He said calmly: “Don’t you want it?”

“I do.” Her thoughts were interrupted, Jian Jinci took the candy from his palm, peeled off the wrapper and put it in her mouth: “Thank you for the candy. I’m Jian Jinci, I don’t know your name?”

He didn’t speak, after a long time, he slowly said: “Pei Yanzhou.”

Jian Jinci’s fingertips twitched, she turned her head: “Your surname is Pei?”

Pei Yanzhou: “Can’t I have the surname Pei?”

She shook her head, the lychee-flavored candy and the word “Pei” made her think of someone, a person who was no longer alive.

That person’s departure was a pain from her youth.

Jian Jinci didn’t want to think about that, she lifted Pei Yanzhou’s chin and looked him up and down, saying: “Are you following me because you want to enter Sister’s Fish Pond? Or do you want Sister to enter your Fish Pond?”

Pei Yanzhou said coldly: “I don’t raise fish.”

“You’re so good-looking, why don’t you enter Sister’s Fish Pond.” Jian Jinci hooked her arm around his neck, her eyes hazy, her cheeks flushed.

The next day, at ten in the morning, in a hotel room.

The room was in disarray.

Jian Jinci opened her eyes, looked at the unfamiliar furnishings in the room, and sat up abruptly from the bed. The blanket slipped off, and she realized she was naked.

She tried to recall the memories of the previous night. She had blacked out from drinking. Last night, her mind was sometimes clear, sometimes blurry.

She only remembered teasing a man named Pei Yanzhou, then she insisted on making him enter her fish pond, and then…

To thank him for helping her pay at the bar, she insisted on giving him her first kiss as a token of gratitude. She didn’t know if she actually kissed him or not, and then she completely blacked out.

She pulled back the blanket and looked down. She slapped her head hard. Did she sleep with him last night?

But she was alone in the room.

Her memory was a blank.

What if she really did something…

It was best to leave as soon as possible.

She got out of bed, picked up her clothes from the floor and put them on, then left the hotel.

She kept telling herself to forget last night, forget the man named Pei Yanzhou. It was just an episode in her life, she didn’t need to dwell on it. Beijing was so big, they wouldn’t have any intersection. He wasn’t from Beijing either, she thought.

Back at her rented apartment, Jian Jinci had just put on her slippers when an unhappy voice came from behind: “Jian Jinci.”

She looked up and saw a young man with his hands in his pockets, leaning lazily against the wall. She laughed and scolded: “Don’t be so disrespectful, you dare to call your sister by her name, are you looking for a beating?”

The young man’s eyebrows and eyes were similar to Jian Jinci’s. A young man of this age should be clear and bright, but he had a gloomy look.

Jian Xu frowned: “Jian Jinci, how old are you? Can you stop worrying people? You didn’t come home last night, and your phone was off.”

“You little brat, you’re lecturing your sister.” Jian Jinci took her phone out of her bag. It must have run out of battery and shut down: “My phone was dead.”

Jian Jinci plugged her phone in. “You said it yourself, I’m a grown-up. Your sister wouldn’t do anything stupid, don’t worry.”

Jian Xu didn’t speak, he put the food he had made in the microwave, heated it up, and brought it to the dining table: “Eat.”

He said again: “Go back to school in the afternoon, come back during the summer vacation.”

“I’ll take you in the afternoon.”

“No need.” Jian Xu looked at her: “I’ll figure out the tuition fees myself, you take care of yourself.”

Jian Jinci put down her chopsticks and looked at him seriously: “You’re not an adult yet, I’m your sister, how can I not take care of you? Study hard, you don’t need to worry about the rest, you’re just a kid.”

Jian Xu’s voice was faint: “We’re not related by blood.”

Jian Jinci was a little angry and slapped him on the head: “What are you talking about? We have the same father, how can we not be related?”

Jian Xu’s eyes were gloomy: “Does he even deserve to be called a father?”

Jian Xu was Jian Senran’s illegitimate son. She was eight years old at the time, and Jian Xu was still a baby in swaddling clothes. His mother couldn’t afford to raise him, so she found her grandfather, who was also Jian Jinci’s grandfather, and asked him to raise Jian Xu. After all, he was a grandson, and the old man agreed.

The day Jian Xu’s mother sent him to the Jian family, she was in a car accident and died on the spot. If it hadn’t been for Jian Xu’s mother, she would have been the one who died in the car accident. It was Jian Xu’s mother who pushed her away, and she didn’t dodge in time.

At that time, she felt very guilty about it, and she couldn’t let it go. The old man had repeatedly tried to persuade and comfort her. She was young at the time and didn’t understand much about human affairs. The old man told her that Jian Xu’s mother pushed her away just so that Jian Xu could have a better life in the Jian family, and she shouldn’t blame herself.

Because everyone knew that Jian Jinci was the old man’s most beloved granddaughter.

But Jian Jinci couldn’t do it. Jian Xu could have had a mother, but because of her, he lost his mother.

At that time, she had the old man’s protection. Although her father and stepmother didn’t like them, they couldn’t do anything to them. But that winter, the old man passed away, and she and Jian Xu were arranged by Jian Senran to live in a side courtyard. The reason was that the stepmother didn’t want to see them.

Jian Xu lost his mother because of her, and she endured the pressure from her stepmother and raised Jian Xu. She was only eight years old at the time.

She and Jian Xu lived a life worse than the servants in the Jian family. Jian Senran doted on his current wife, Liang Jinyu, and the daughter Liang Jinyu had given birth to for him, Jian Ying. Everything in the family was decided by Liang Jinyu.

Jian Senran was a playboy.