Chapter 24
Once Gu Sijiu returned to her room, the sorrow she had been forcefully suppressing finally broke free of her control. She stood leaning against the door, her ragged breaths mixed with choked sobs, a sound that made her feel even worse just hearing it herself. She was angry at Song Jinzhi for accusing her without cause, and angry at the things that bastard of an Original Host had done, but what angered her most was that, despite being wrongfully accused, she could not even manage to voice a single word of rebuttal.
Gu Sijiu wiped her tears in frustration. Part of her felt that getting angry over a dead eyed woman like Song Jinzhi was pointless, yet she still felt wronged. She was not a person of this world, nor had she received this world's education. She had none of that so called Alpha decorum. She was just an ordinary person who also wanted to be treated gently.
Gu Sijiu felt dejected. She gritted her teeth and forced her tears back, walked alone into the bathroom to shower, and then lay down on the bed. The large bed that usually felt so comfortable was impossible to settle into tonight. Gu Sijiu tossed and turned, too angry to sleep. Naturally, someone else was just as sleepless: Song Jinzhi.
She did not know what was wrong with her. The moment she closed her eyes, her mind was filled with the image of Gu Sijiu's face struggling to hold back tears. In the past, whenever disputes arose, Gu Sijiu would curse, she would use violence. But now, she had done nothing at all, yet it filled Song Jinzhi with an unprecedented unease. She found it somewhat unbearable to see Gu Sijiu looking so disappointed, because the reason for that disappointment was herself.
Song Jinzhi tossed and turned, thinking it over, convinced there had to be something wrong with her. It was clearly Gu Sijiu who had done something wrong, so why should she feel guilt and self reproach?
Song Jinzhi admonished herself again and again, but that face of Gu Sijiu holding back tears kept intruding upon her thoughts. Irritated, Song Jinzhi simply opened the window, stepped out onto the balcony, and stood quietly by the railing to smoke. The night breeze was somewhat cool, and it cleared her mind along with it.
After pondering for a moment, she sent a message to her secretary, Jennifer. First, she asked if the results of the previous investigation into Gu Sijiu's DNA had come in, and incidentally, she also instructed Jennifer to look into the full story behind the bar incident. Once she had delegated these tasks, Song Jinzhi finally felt fatigue setting in. She rubbed her aching neck, lay down on the bed, and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, Song Jinzhi woke according to her biological clock. She got out of bed and went to the living room, intending to head straight to the office and have breakfast there. She assumed Gu Sijiu would still be resting. She never expected that as she walked downstairs, the other woman would be standing there holding two boiled eggs, pressing them against her eyes. Her eyes were visibly swollen, and the skin around her eye sockets was still rimmed with red. She had clearly been crying the night before. Gu Sijiu froze for a moment upon seeing her, then walked right past her and went upstairs without a single word.
Being treated like a transparent person by Gu Sijiu was something Song Jinzhi had once dreamed of, yet now it felt utterly miserable. The source of that misery was her own discourtesy in starting it all. Song Jinzhi felt that her words the previous night had been excessively harsh, those venomous remarks so extreme that even she herself found them unbelievable. Her good upbringing made Song Jinzhi very much want to apologize, but when the recipient of that apology was Gu Sijiu, it became an exceedingly difficult thing for her to do.
Gu Sijiu took her boiled eggs and huffily retreated to her room. She had long since figured out Song Jinzhi's schedule and had specifically woken up early to apply a compress to her eyes, never expecting the other woman to be up just as early. Knowing that her eyes must look hideous and that Song Jinzhi had seen them, Gu Sijiu felt a surge of discomfort. She pressed the warm eggs against her eyes, internally cursing Song Jinzhi over and over: Wooden Face, big boobs and no brains, old stick in the mud, venomous tongue, ugly thing. She ran through every insult she could think of before she was finally satisfied.
Song Jinzhi left for work. As soon as she arrived at her office, she had her assistant summon Jennifer. Jennifer had seen Song Jinzhi's message first thing that morning and knew her boss was anxious; otherwise, she would not have sent a message in the middle of the night. Seeing that Song Jinzhi was calling for her first thing, she hurried over immediately.
"President Song, I received the message you sent last night. This morning, I assigned someone to investigate the bar incident, and I expect results very soon. The report on Major General Gu's DNA analysis will also be delivered today," Jennifer reported systematically. Song Jinzhi was satisfied with her assistant's efficiency and told her to continue her work. All day long, Song Jinzhi was restless. As long as she thought about how the answers she sought would arrive today, she felt an indescribable mixture of anticipation and anxiety.
By the afternoon, Jennifer came in again, delivering the long awaited reports. There were two kraft paper envelopes: one contained the truth about last night's bar incident, and the other was the result of Gu Sijiu's DNA analysis. Song Jinzhi opened the file on the bar incident first and saw the full video documentation.
Understanding the whole sequence of events only amplified the guilt already lurking in Song Jinzhi's heart. She could not dwell on it for long and quickly opened the DNA analysis report. Song Jinzhi had always harbored a degree of suspicion toward Gu Sijiu. After the car accident, Gu Sijiu's change had simply been too drastic. Even though it was a change for the better, it inevitably raised doubts.
With current technology, falsifying a person's appearance was not difficult, but a complete forgery of DNA was still impossible. Song Jinzhi had taken strands of Gu Sijiu's hair at the hot spring inn and submitted them for analysis. Staring at the report that stated a complete match, Song Jinzhi breathed a sigh of relief, yet simultaneously felt a strange sense of loss.
If she had not believed in Gu Sijiu's amnesia before, its credibility had now risen to eighty percent. A person's character is extremely difficult to change, absolutely impossible to alter so fundamentally from a single car accident. Yet Gu Sijiu now was like a completely different person. Song Jinzhi believed she had lost her memories, forgotten many things from her past. Even the way she looked at her had changed.
The former Gu Sijiu had always regarded her with a desire to conquer and possess, a hunger so intense it felt suffocating, miserable, and deeply repellent. That included the way Gu Sijiu looked at others, always shaded with a gloomy, repulsive malice. The Gu Sijiu of today was always smiling, and her style of dress had changed significantly as well. Song Jinzhi's feelings were complicated. She was angry that Gu Sijiu had hurt her, yet had forgotten all of that past, and at the same time, she was relieved that she no longer had to face that violent Gu Sijiu. If Gu Sijiu could remain amnesiac forever, then this marriage would not be unbearable after all.
Song Jinzhi thought this, but then mocked herself for the fact that even now, she still could not bring herself to propose dissolving the engagement. The person she feared had never been Gu Sijiu, but the formidable power of the Gu Family. The Song Family commanded unchallenged authority in the business world, but merchants could not fight officials. Song Jinzhi understood clearly that the Song Family's remarkable growth in recent years was entirely due to the Gu Family's backing and support.
On the night of their engagement, Gu Sijiu had gotten drunk. While taking care of her, Song Jinzhi discovered the physical deformity on the other woman's body. At that time, Song Jinzhi did not know what to do, nor how to soothe the suddenly rampaging Gu Sijiu. Father Gu and Mother Gu had rushed in upon hearing the commotion, and she was then summoned to the study by Gu Nancheng.
"Xiao Jin, my daughter's condition... now you know of it. She is the most beloved child of your Auntie Gu and me, and there is nothing we would not do for her. Now that you two are engaged, you should get along well. She may not be perfect in certain aspects, but as long as you are married into the Gu Family, the Song Family's future will undoubtedly be bright. The Gu Family needs an heir. You should understand my meaning."
Gu Nancheng's tone had been perfectly pleasant, his face even wearing a benevolent smile, yet those words were, in truth, a veiled threat. Song Jinzhi understood that the Song Family's success or failure rested entirely in the hands of the Gu Family. Her marriage to Gu Sijiu was a foregone conclusion; there was no escaping it. She let out a soft sigh, placed the documents in her hands onto the desk, and her thoughts gradually found some clarity.
Judging from the current situation, Gu Sijiu's amnesia was a good thing for her. At least after losing her memory, she was much easier to get along with in every respect. Apart from being somewhat annoying at times, she was a vast improvement over the original. Setting aside whether she would ever recover her memories, for now, the only path was to take things one step at a time.
Having resolved her misgivings, Song Jinzhi's mood could not exactly be described as light. Although she now knew the truth behind the previous night's events, it was not something she had put behind her. She returned home with complicated feelings, only to find Gu Sijiu still sitting on the sofa watching television. Her eyes were much better, no longer red and swollen, and she was eating a plate of cut fruit. Song Jinzhi had long since noticed that this person seemed to dislike the meals prepared by the hired cook. The cook had been hired before her amnesia, but the post amnesia Gu Sijiu clearly did not care for the cook's food, showing instead a particular fondness for fruit and nutrient supplements.
Could amnesia even change a person's tastes? Song Jinzhi wondered, puzzled. She went upstairs to shower, then came back down and silently ate the dinner laid out on the table. She still remembered that during the time when the two of them had been getting along well, after every meal, Gu Sijiu would always, with a beaming smile, bring over some of the fruit she had cut for herself. But now, the plate on the table was clearly a single serving of fruit, and none had been prepared for her.
Song Jinzhi had not craved fruit anyway. What troubled her was regret over her impulsive actions the night before, leaving her with the feeling that she somehow owed Gu Sijiu something. Even if Gu Sijiu had been scum before her amnesia, that did not make her own behavior in casually slandering Gu Sijiu last night right. Song Jinzhi respected others, and more so, she understood self reflection. Now that she had done something wrong, guilt and regret were inevitable. Yet even thinking this, Song Jinzhi still could not easily bring herself to bow her head before Gu Sijiu.
After dinner, Song Jinzhi paced restlessly back and forth on the balcony. Her gaze landed on the swimming pool below, and her eyes narrowed slightly in contemplation.
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