Chapter 1: Swimwear Photoshoot (Part 1)
A Lincoln stretch limo stopped at the end of the street in front of a Tudor-style mansion.
Jiang Bao descended from the car, wearing a black coat that reached her ankles and only showed the tip of her leather shoes. Her whole look exuded a silent, solemn feeling.
Hurriedly, the driver, wearing white gloves, came forward to open the umbrella for her but was dismissed by Jiang Bao with a wave of her hand.
“The snow isn’t heavy. I’ll go there by myself.”
Her chest felt unusually heavy. She needed to get some fresh air.
It was now the end of December, concurrent with Christmas and New Year. A joyous atmosphere filled the entire city. In London’s wintertime, it got dark at around 3 or 4 pm, and the sides of the streets were decorated with Christmas lights shining on the pure white snow, seemingly very magical.
Jiang Bao looked down as she walked forward, snowflakes falling upon the brim of her hat. It only took a few minutes to collect a whole pile of white snow. In contrast to the joyous atmosphere, she was here to attend a memorial service.
Two days ago, Lin Can drank a large amount of red wine and died in her bathtub. They claimed that her death was accidental, but it was actually… suicide.
Today was coincidentally the first anniversary of Lin Can being brought back into the Jiang family.
Lin Can didn’t have any friends in London, so there weren’t many who attended the memorial today. The entire hall was desolate.
The situation in the Jiang family was quite complicated, as Jiang Bao’s father was a womanizer. He thought it troublesome to deal with family and property matters; although he had many women, he never gave them any status. He had many children, but they were all illegitimate.
But the conflict among her older brothers did not concern Jiang Bao. It was something that happened 10 years ago, after all. She was only about ten during that time, too.
Jiang Bao was recently busy working on her master’s thesis and had to manage the family’s hotel business. She had to work day and night. There was little time available…… especially since Lin Can had a silent and taciturn character. It wasn’t very easy to get along with her.
Both of them had little of a relationship with each other. They couldn’t even get along even with Jiang Bao as the older twin sister, not even mentioning the other half-siblings.
Now that she’s mentioned it, it had been four months since she last contacted Lin Can.
Jiang Bao was still thinking about other matters when someone came up behind her and patted her shoulder. She then broke out of her thoughts.
“It’s rare for you to come back. I have a get-together tomorrow. Why don’t you come with me? Little sis, you’ve already graduated, so you need to meet more friends.” The guy smiled as he spoke.
Jiang Bao was silent. This wasn’t the first time her older brother had ‘introduced’ his friends’ sons to her. Normally it would be fine, but now was definitely not the time for that.
“I’m sorry, big brother. I have other arrangements.”
Jiang Ming was surprised to be rejected so directly, his expression suddenly darkened.
“What’s with your attitude? I’m only worried about you because we are family. Don’t even dare to learn from your second brother’s poor attitude. Nobody would like it!”
He always thought that the second oldest brother favored Jiang Bao. Of course, it was not because Jiang Bao was the youngest of the siblings, and also not because she was a girl.
To a certain degree, both of them were very similar. They were both very unpleasant.
Jiang Hao Zheng, the current head of the Jiang family, was infamous for his ruthlessness.
Jiang Bao didn’t feel like talking with her oldest brother any longer. She ignored him and continued to head toward the second floor. Rather than feeling sad, she was feeling rather surprised. This situation was incomprehensible to her. She then took out her phone and immediately called Lin Can’s psychiatrist.
Few of them knew about Lin Can’s situation. Her second brother had also hired the best psychiatrist for her.
“Doctor Su, why did she suddenly…… last week she even mailed me a New Year’s gift and a greeting card.”
There weren’t any signs at all.
“There’s no such saying as a ‘sudden suicide’ honestly. Lin Can had serious depression and PTSD, she needed to take meds every day. Although she had worked in the entertainment industry for a while, she didn’t have a cheerful personality…”
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“I’m grieved about this too, but I respect her decision. I offer my condolences.”
A snowflake flew in from the window and fell on the tip of her nose as a slight chill touched the bottom of her heart. Jiang Bao leaned on the wall beside her and only calmed down after a few moments.
To return here as soon as possible, she had to take transfer flights for over 10 hours, so her current mental state wasn’t in very good shape.
But the discomfort she was feeling wasn’t because of the tiring journey. It was because of Lin Can’s death.
Many twins had an indescribable connection between them. Both of them might have had entirely distinct personalities and looks, but they often got sick at the same time.
Jiang Bao had a low fever and stayed bedridden for two days when she was four. She had to back out of a competition because of a fever when she was 17; she was 21 when she had a sudden feeling of unrest and fell into depression for several days.
It was then that she came to understand that Lin Can was four when she was involved in a car crash; she was 17 when she drowned and was nearly at death’s door. She was 21 when she fell while using the wire-fu[1] from a height of 4 meters during a shoot.
Although they were thousands of miles away apart, these incidents still affected her. Such a healthy grown-up had suddenly become a black-and-white picture in the photo frame.
Even though they weren’t close, Jiang Bao still felt agonized physically and mentally.
She should at least see Lin Can’s room since she was already here. Only then did she realize she had never really understood Lin Can at all.
The room was at the end of the second floor. The door wasn’t locked; Jiang Bao just needed to touch the door lightly for it to swing open. The inside was neat.
Jiang Bao had walked around the room when she saw a black notebook on the table.
This was Lin Can’s diary.
Jiang Bao took the book and returned to her room. She had a terrible headache, but she still lay on the bed and flipped through the diary for an hour.
She saw that Lin Can did not write in her diary every day. Only a third of the book’s pages were used up after five years. She mostly wrote about her feelings and some trifling matters.
Jiang Bao didn’t know how much time had passed as sleep slowly overtook her.
She had a dream. It was about something that had happened long ago.
Jiang Bao had enrolled in school earlier than others and was two years younger than the rest. Another girl in her class used to bully her a lot back then. Every afternoon, the girl would use a pen to doodle on her arms and face. Sometimes, she would even use the tip of the pen to jab and hurt her. The teachers’ reprimands weren’t of any use, so they just turned a blind eye to it and didn’t bother anymore.
It was a private kindergarten. The students who could study there had parents who were either wealthy or nobles. She couldn’t say much about it, as both of their fathers knew each other.
Jiang Bao was shorter than the girl by half a head. She was thinner and weaker. It was impossible to win against her.
Two months later, during the afternoon, the girl was, as usual, holding a pen and climbing into her bed. Jiang Bao did not dodge but pretended to be asleep. Just as the girl had let down her guard, Jiang Bao pushed her down the bed and immediately used the pen that was hidden in her hand, stabbing the girl’s shoulder with excessive force.
The girl’s clothes were immediately dyed red with blood as a mix of crying and screaming resounded.
The teacher notified their parents. Jiang Bao’s Second Brother, who had just graduated from university, was the one who came. He sincerely apologized to the girl’s parents, but he did not reprimand her.
Although it was only a superficial wound, it wasn’t a light injury and would surely leave a scar after it healed. The girl’s parents condemned her as a vicious person, at the same time they were also fortunate that the injury wasn’t on her face. Because both families were acquainted, they couldn’t turn on each other.
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Afterward, Jiang Bao was suspected of having violent tendencies and had to transfer schools. She was never again bullied in her new school.
See, even though they were twins, they both handled problems in completely different ways.
——
Footnotes:
[1] – Wire-fu: The special effects-enhanced martial arts seen in movies, especially those where wires are used to suspend the actors in physically impossible positions.