CH 31.2

Meanwhile, on the other end of the world, Ji Xinxin fiddled with her phone with a contemplative look on her face. 

She was feeling a little flustered. Ji Fanyin had suddenly changed so much that her leading words didn’t seem to work on her anymore. 

On top of that, ever since she left for France, she felt that she was gradually losing control over many things. 

The number of contacts she had had increased by twofold within a short period of time. The effort required to keep up with so many connections was really no joke. Even a skilled time manager like her was having trouble coping. 

Not to mention, problems kept cropping up one after another.

For one, Bai Zhou was suddenly unwilling to play games with her anymore.

Ji Xinxin wondered if his change of attitude came from him discovering that she had been bringing a spare tyre with her on their ‘online dates’. There was no doubt that she was making a risky maneuver here, but she had been careful to ensure that she wouldn’t be exposed. 

Her explanation to her French spare tyre was that Bai Zhou was her younger brother, and that she wanted to play together with him. 

She would be seated alongside the French spare tyre whenever they played, so there was no need for the latter to use the voice chat. On top of that, she had changed her voice chat settings to ‘Push-to-talk’ so that Bai Zhou wouldn’t hear her conversation with the French spare tyre. 

It just so happened that the very day Bai Zhou’s attitude toward her changed, Ji Xinxin received a message from Cen Xiangyang informing her of a scandal relating to the Bai Family. This led her to deduce that Bai Zhou’s anomalous behavior was caused by a conflict he had with his family. 

So, she had been devoting great effort to console Bai Zhou over the last few days lest she lost one of the biggest fishes in her fishery due to a moment of carelessness. 

Putting all things aside, she was actually quite fond of Bai Zhou. 

Bai Zhou’s appearance checked off her boxes, though she thought that it would be wonderful if she could swap his personality with Song Shiyu’s.

… Ah, of course she was referring to Song Shiyu’s superficial personality. 

And speaking of Song Shiyu, he was the one who had changed the most during this period of time. 

She rejected Song Shiyu shortly before going abroad, so it was understandable that he would be down in the dumps. Ji Xinxin also consciously gave him the cold shoulders for a prolonged period of time in case he attempted anything extreme. 

But as she dragged things out, she couldn’t help noticing that Song Shiyu’s attention was moving on from her to something else. His mind seemed to be all around the place during their recent voice calls, such that he wasn’t able to respond to her as quickly as before. 

Yet, whenever she tried to sound him out, he would always shrug off the question and change the topic. 

It was not as if Ji Xinxin was a fool. She immediately realized that something had happened, just that Song Shiyu adamantly refused to tell her what it was. 

Last of all was Ji Fanyin’s abrupt and massive change in personality. 

It wasn’t just once or twice that Mother Ji called Ji Xinxin to grumble about Ji Fanyin’s rebellious descent into depravity. While consoling Mother Ji that everything was fine, she also agreed that this was completely unlike the meek and cowardly Ji Fanyin she knew of. 

Ji Xinxin’s insistence on calling Ji Fanyin once every three days was a habit she had inculcated over the years, but at the same time, it served the purpose of keeping tabs on the latter.

The unexpected changes in these three people convinced Ji Xinxin to make a trip back to the country as soon as possible. 

She was concerned about what had happened, and she knew that she had to see what was going on with her own eyes in order to come up with a countermeasure.

“I pray that it’s not the worst-case scenario,” murmured Ji Xinxin as she booked her plane ticket and marked the day of her departure on her calendar. 

She took a look at the time and decided to send a message to Song Shiyu: 【Shiyu, are you asleep? The brand you like has recently announced the release of a new accessory, and it’ll be hitting its flagship store in France first. Shall I get it for you and send it over?】

… 

Song Shiyu was lying on his bed, struggling to fall asleep when he suddenly heard his ringtone. 

He subconsciously grabbed his phone to take a look. It was a notification that he had received a message from Ji Xinxin.

He exhaled deeply, surprised at his own lack of enthusiasm.

He tapped into the notification to check the message before falling silent. He didn’t respond right away like he usually would.

The brand that Ji Xinxin mentioned was indeed one which he deeply fancied. He would receive a message from their marketing staff whenever they released anything new. 

… The damaged bracelet that had vanished from his cupboard also came from the same brand. 

Due to that, whenever he heard the brand name, he would be immediately reminded of the words Ji Fanyin said that day—“Anyone I like? Hmm… No one at the moment.”—and inexplicable anger and frustration would gush out from his heart. 

Ji Xinxin: 【This newly-released bracelet has a casual business look. I think it’ll look good on your wrist, and it’s not expensive either. Why don’t I buy one for you? Think of it as my apology gift to you】

Song Shiyu sat up from his bed. With a hand clutching his forehead in frustration, he typed out a message and edited it over and over again before finally sending it: 【Don’t bother. I’m not into any wrist accessories other than watches at the moment.】

For the first time, he turned down Ji Xinxin’s suggestion.