Chapter 4

Only five years earlier, on her deathbed, had the old woman pressed a slip of paper into her hand.

On it were Lin Shu’s grandfather’s name and an address.

Lin Yao had followed that trail for five years before finally uncovering her origins.

She learned that her own grandfather had abandoned her.

She learned that her twin sister was named Lin Shu and lived in wealth and comfort.

She also learned that the Lin family’s company was worth tens of billions.

That was where the hatred began.

Why?

Why did she and Lin Shu share the same blood, yet she had been thrown into a burial ground to die?

Why did Lin Shu get to live in a villa, attend prestigious schools, and inherit the family business, while she scraped by on vegetables and porridge in poverty?

Why?

The hatred burned for five years, until it changed her completely.

Jiang Yue was a distant relative of the family that had raised Lin Yao. In name, he was her older brother. In reality, they had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.

He knew where she came from. He knew her hatred.

He loved her enough to do anything for her.

Even murder.

Three years earlier, Lin Shu’s parents had died in a car crash.

Jiang Yue had arranged it.

He had tampered with her father’s car so that the brakes failed. The car rolled three times on the expressway. Both parents died at the scene.

Lin Shu had been shopping with me when the call came.

Her phone fell to the ground. She looked as though her soul had left her.

That night, she held me and cried until morning.

“Xiaoyu, I don’t have parents anymore.”

I held her. “You still have me.”

She had not known that the person who took her parents away was standing right beside her.

Jiang Yue appeared when Lin Shu was at her most vulnerable.

He was an intern at her father’s company. He used a condolence visit as an excuse to approach her.

Gentle. Attentive. Understanding.

He stayed with her through the hardest time of her life, helped arrange her parents’ funeral, and helped her take over the affairs of Lin Group.

It was almost inevitable that she would fall in love with him.

“Jiang Yue is different,” she had told me. “He really cares about me.”

Her eyes had shone like stars.

I believed her.

We both believed.

Jiang Yue spent three years telling Lin Yao everything about Lin Shu.

Her likes, her habits, her social connections, her relationship with every person she knew.

He even took Lin Yao for minor cosmetic surgery to make their faces harder to tell apart.

Lin Yao spent two years turning herself into another Lin Shu.

Her speech. Her walk. Her eating habits.

The plan was for her to replace Lin Shu and take over Lin Group.

Lin Shu owned thirty percent of the company, worth more than ten billion.

Once Lin Yao became Lin Shu, all that money would belong to her and Jiang Yue.

Originally, they had not intended to move so soon.

Lin Yao still needed time to learn everything about her sister, and more practice to make sure nothing went wrong.

Then, at the airport, Lin Shu happened to overhear Jiang Yue calling Lin Yao.

She heard him say, “Yaoyao, once I’ve dealt with Lin Shu, we can run away together.”

She heard him say, “It’s been three years since those two old fools. No one will uncover it.”

She heard him say, “Give me a little more time. I’ll have control of the Lin family.”

Lin Shu stood in the airport corridor, gripping her ticket, cold all over.

At last, she knew everything.

Her parents’ deaths had not been an accident.

Jiang Yue had not approached her out of love.

Her happiness over the past three years had been a lie.

Unexpectedly exposed, they had no choice but to accelerate the plan.

I do not know what Lin Shu thought before she died.

But Jiang Yue said that when he put his hands around her throat, she did not struggle.

She only looked at him. Kept looking at him.

He said her eyes frightened him.

There was hatred in them, and pain, and incomprehension.

He loosened his grip, then tightened it again.

Loosened it, then tightened it.

Three times.

The last time, he did not let go.

Lin Shu’s body crumpled.

On the day the case was transferred to the procuratorate, I went to see Lin Yao.

Behind the bars, she was much thinner than when I had last seen her. Her cheekbones stood out, her eyes were sunken.

But that face was still exactly Lin Shu’s.

I looked at her, an emotion I could not name rising inside me.

“Do you know,” I said, “a few days before she died, Lin Shu signed a share-transfer agreement?”

Lin Yao raised her eyes.

“She wanted to give you half the Lin Group shares in her name.”

Her expression changed.

It was complicated. I could not read it.

“Fifteen percent of the company. Worth several billion.”

“She couldn’t even wait to meet you once. She signed the agreement in advance.”

“Because she thought of you as family. As her older sister.”

“She was so happy. Before the trip, she hugged me and said, ‘Xiaoyu, when I get back, I’ll have good news for you.’”

“You were the good news.”

Lin Yao’s lips trembled.

“She didn’t even know you hated her.”

“She didn’t even know you had spent two years learning everything about her so you could replace her. Kill her.”

“All she knew was that she had another relative in the world.”

“But her own sister and the man she loved killed her together.”

Lin Yao bowed her head.

I saw her shoulders tremble.

She said nothing.

Not one word, from beginning to end.

I did not know what she was thinking.

Perhaps she regretted it.

Perhaps not.

Perhaps she was only remembering that girl with her own face, who had spent the last days of her life joyfully waiting to be reunited.

I stood and turned to leave.

At the door, I paused.

“Oh. One more thing.”

I did not look back.

“Lin Shu was so happy to have a sister like you.”

“What a pity you no longer deserve her.”

A stifled sob came from behind me.

I did not turn.

Three months later, the court passed sentence.

Jiang Yue was convicted of intentional homicide and sentenced to death, with lifelong deprivation of political rights.

Lin Yao was convicted of intentional homicide and fraud and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

I did not attend the sentencing.

I spent the whole day at Lin Shu’s grave.

The weather was beautiful. Sunlight fell on the headstone. In her photograph, Lin Shu was still smiling.

It was her favorite picture, taken on the day she graduated from university.

In her graduation gown, she tilted her head and smiled radiantly, showing those two little canine teeth.

I brought flowers. White chrysanthemums, her favorite.

And a bubble tea: taro with tapioca pearls, less sugar, no ice. The order she always chose.

I placed it before the headstone, sat down, and leaned against the stone.

“Shushu, they’ve been sentenced.”

“Jiang Yue got death. Lin Yao got a suspended death sentence.”

A breeze passed, carrying the smell of green grass.

“They’ve cleared up your parents’ case too. Jiang Yue did it. The court sentenced him for that as well.”

“I gave the share-transfer agreement you signed to a lawyer.”

“And Lin Group… I’ve sorted things out for you.”

“The fifteen percent you gave Lin Yao will automatically be recovered under the law now that she’s been convicted.”

I fell silent for a while.

“There’s something else. My family’s company has bought Lin Group. Don’t be angry. I’m not trying to profit from your misfortune.”

“I just… don’t want it falling into someone else’s hands. You put your heart into it. I’ll look after it for you.”

“My father says it will still be called Lin Group. The name won’t change. I’ll keep your family’s sign for you.”

I looked up at Lin Shu in the photograph.

She was still smiling, carefree, as though nothing had ever happened.

“Shushu, do you know what Lin Yao said in court?”

“She said the greatest regret of her life wasn’t killing you. It was not knowing sooner that you meant to give her the shares.”

“What do you suppose goes on in her head?”

I laughed, then cried.

“But I’m different.”

“The greatest regret of my life is not being with you when you needed me most.”

“If only you’d called me at the airport.”

“I would have come running. I would never have let Jiang Yue take you away.”

The breeze strengthened, stirring the white chrysanthemum petals.

I wiped my tears and stood.

“All right. No more of that. You probably don’t want to hear me ramble.”

I reached out and gently touched Lin Shu’s face in the photograph.

“I’ll come see you again.”

I turned and walked a few steps, then looked back once more.

On the headstone, Lin Shu was still smiling.

The sunlight was beautiful. The chrysanthemums were pure white. The bubble tea still sat there, droplets clinging to its straw.

Everything was lovely.

Except you were gone.