CH 27.1

Bai Zhou sat idly on the bar stool as he watched Ji Fanyin busy herself in the kitchen. 

He didn’t want any expensive premium food today; all he wanted was an ordinary home-cooked meal. 

Very rarely would the trio from the Bai Family gather around a table and share a meal. To be more exact, Bai Zhou couldn’t even recall a single instance of that happening. 

It was either the three of them dining at a huge table with many outsiders or him eating all alone. 

The Bai Family was probably the farthest away from what one would deem a typical ordinary household. 

Bai Zhou subconsciously shut down his brain, avoiding the important question of who the person hard at work in the kitchen was. Instead, he stared at her with a glass that was as empty as his mind in his hand, choosing to immerse himself in this moment of peace. 

Is this the kind of peaceful warmth that ordinary people feel when they return home exhausted from work?

Bai Zhou had taken in far too much information today that he wanted to put a lid on his mind and not think anymore. However, a question that had been circling in his head for the last few days refused to grant him rest. 

It was getting increasingly difficult for him to endure not posing the question to the person before him. 

He tried his best to hold himself back, but when Ji Fanyin placed a pot of Pork Rib Lotus Soup on the dining table, he finally caved in.

“The person who has been playing with us for the past few days, is she really a woman?”

The accumulation of emotions that had stifled his heart all this while was released along with the voicing of that question, leaving him feeling much lighter than before. 

Ji Fanyin halted for an instant upon hearing that question. She turned to look at Bai Zhou with a smile and asked, “Are you doubting me?”

Bai Zhou pursed his lips tightly.

This doubt had been floating in his head since a few days ago. 

No, to be more accurate, he had stumbled upon an important piece of evidence just a few days ago.

Whenever he was playing with Ji Xinxin and Kitty, Kitty’s mic was always switched off and she would never talk. He asked Ji Xinxin about this, and she said that Kitty couldn’t speak Chinese and was a little shy around strangers, so she decided not to turn on her mic. 

Bai Zhou trusted those words, but he simply couldn’t help but notice some problems as they played together a few more times. 

For one, Ji Xinxin’s responses throughout the voice chat were oddly delayed at times. Sometimes, it took a long while after he asked a question before she finally responded, and her answer was off at times. It was like she was distracted by something else.

Another anomaly he noticed was Ji Xinxin abruptly turning off her mic at times. 

Kitty’s actions in the game were also rather unusual.

It was common knowledge in PUBG that giving out good equipment and determinedly defending a weaker teammate from dying were gestures of affection, and that was how Bai Zhou treated Ji Xinxin in the game.

But Kitty’s actions were identical to his. In fact, the two of them would often bump into one another while trying to save Ji Xinxin.

All of these anomalies were so apparent that Bai Zhou couldn’t help but think deeper into them.

He did raise his suspicions at the start, giving Ji Xinxin the chance to dispel his concerns. However, two days ago, when Ji Xinxin excused herself to pick a call, Bai Zhou happened to overhear her chatting with another man using French. 

The phone call itself wasn’t an issue; the problem lay in the fact that he overheard the conversation through not Ji Xinxin’s but Kitty’s mic.

There were only two possibilities. Either Kitty was currently in the same room with Ji Xinxin and another man happened to be with them at the moment, or that Kitty wasn’t a man in the first place and that Ji Xinxin had been lying to him.

… Of course, Bai Zhou knew deep down that the person standing before him couldn’t possibly answer his question. He wasn’t really expecting an answer anyway.