My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister - Chapter 316 - 213: Peeking at Her Sister’s Happiness
“BURP~ I’m stuffed. I can’t eat another bite.” Chen Yuan picked up his bowl, then set it back down. He grabbed the bottle of mineral water from the table and took a few big gulps.
He flopped onto the sofa and let out a long sigh.
“Wipe your mouth. Here’s a napkin.”
Jiangg Yao’s first instinct was to go over and wipe his mouth for him, but as she started to stand up, she froze and quickly sat back down.
’No!’
’I’m supposed to be Ningning right now,’ she realized.
’Ningning is always so poised and reserved. In a situation like this, the most she’d do is pull out a napkin and hand it over.’
’That’s right.’
With that thought, Yaoyao gracefully picked up a napkin, doing her best to imitate her sister’s mannerisms.
But to Jiangg Yao’s surprise, after Chen Yuan took the napkin and wiped his mouth, he gave her a radiant smile.
“Thanks, Ningning,” he said.
Yaoyao’s fists clenched instantly.
’What the hell!? You’re not usually this nice, Chen Yuan.’
’And you’re actually thanking me?!’
Jiangg Yao pouted, stabbed her chopsticks into a soft, braised pig’s trotter, and dropped it into her bowl. She began to gnaw on it resentfully.
It was as if she weren’t gnawing on a pig’s trotter, but on Chen Yuan’s hand.
“You know, I haven’t really spent much time here. How come the light in 1301 is so good? It’s much better than at my place.”
Chen Yuan stood up and walked toward the balcony.
“Does it?”
“Of course it does. My place feels so empty in comparison. I barely have any stuff.”
“That’s true, but you accumulate things one by one. When I first moved in, I only had the essential furniture. The display shelf, the table, the fish tank… it took nearly two years of effort to arrange everything and give the place a warm, homey feel.”
“Right. You have to buy all the pots and pans piece by piece.”
Chen Yuan’s gaze swept over the clothes-drying rack on the balcony, and he immediately spotted underwear of two different styles.
A chill suddenly ran down his spine.
’Is this really not a case of multiple personalities? Is it just a lie?’
If Jiangg didn’t have any psychological condition, then buying two different styles of panties was just too absurd. Was it all a disguise for his benefit? ’That seems impossible. How could she be so manipulative? To the point of predicting I would come over and inspect her apartment one day?’
Chen Yuan lowered his head, momentarily hiding the emotion in his eyes.
He slowly backed away from the balcony.
“Looks like our two apartments aren’t exact mirror images of each other. I’m going to go check the second bedroom.”
“The second bedroom!?”
Jiangg Yao shot up from her seat, startling Chen Yuan.
“Wh-what’s wrong? Why such a strong reaction all of a sudden?”
“It’s nothing. The lock on the second bedroom is broken. I was just thinking about calling someone to fix it.”
“Broken? Let me see.”
Chen Yuan keenly sensed something was off. Ignoring Jiangg Yao’s attempts to stop him, he strode over to the door.
He quickly gripped the doorknob.
“CLICK—”
The instant he pushed down on it!
Jiangg Yao’s heart leaped into her throat. But in the next moment, the door to the second bedroom didn’t swing open.
The door hadn’t moved an inch.
Only then did her trembling heart settle back into her chest.
Jiangg Yao had been terrified that her sister went in earlier and forgot to lock the door from the inside. In her own frantic state, she couldn’t even remember if she had reminded her sister to lock it when she came out.
In her eyes, that was a door to hell.
If it opened, everything would be over.
“So it really is broken?”
“A few days ago, I shut the door a little too hard and must have shaken a screw in the handle loose from the inside.”
“You should have called me to fix it. I might have been able to get it working,” Chen Yuan replied, bending down to examine the keyhole.
“It’s better to leave professional jobs to the professionals. Besides, it’s under warranty.”
“Fair enough.”
Chen Yuan straightened up and stretched. From the moment he’d stepped into 1301, he had been silently observing everything, but his scrutiny was hidden beneath seemingly normal behavior. The two sisters remained completely unaware that they were teetering on the edge of exposure.
In reality, Chen Yuan was completely trapped by a fixed mindset. He was so fixated on the multiple personality diagnosis that he only wanted to investigate whether or not he was being deceived on that front.
If only he were to consider it from another angle.
That everything about Jiangg Yao and Jiangg Ning was not a deliberate performance, but the natural result of them being two completely different people.
A pair of identical twins!
All of Chen Yuan’s questions would be answered in an instant, and everything would become crystal clear.
However, he was now getting closer and closer to the truth, seemingly just a single step away.
…
After wandering around the living room for a bit, Chen Yuan headed to the master bedroom.
Unlike his earlier minor discoveries, the master bedroom yielded no clues whatsoever, likely because Ningning straightened it up every morning.
The bed was a little messy—one pillow was tossed under the covers, the other lay askew. It looked perfectly normal.
He pulled open a drawer to find it filled with women’s cosmetics, small accessories, and various boxes for necklaces and earrings.
He even found the badge he had given Jiangg Yao. It was placed carefully inside a luxury watch box, while the expensive watch itself had been tossed carelessly to the side.
It was clear which of the two items held more value in Jiangg Yao’s heart.
Chen Yuan felt a wave of complex emotions. Even as he searched for the truth, the softer parts of his heart were being repeatedly touched. He could be certain, at least, that their love for each other was real. But if the feelings weren’t fake…
’…then why weave such a lie?’
He placed the badge back in the box, flopped onto the bed, and sighed.
Chen Yuan stared blankly at the ceiling, so conflicted he felt like he was twisting himself into a pretzel.
The uncontrollable anger he’d felt at first had gradually subsided as his rational mind took over. Now, all he felt was an infinite sadness, a grief that grew with each passing moment.
“Sleepy?”
At some point, Jiangg Ning and Jiangg Yao had switched places. A gentle voice sounded, as languid and lazy as the tips of hair brushing across one’s fingertips.
“Mmm… a little. It’s probably the carb overload. YAWN~”
Chen Yuan hadn’t actually been tired, but her question was so suggestive that he suddenly let out a yawn.
Jiangg Ning went over and drew the curtains, blocking out the harsh sunlight. Then she took Chen Yuan’s hand and pulled him to his feet.
“Let’s go wash up. I’m going to take a nap, too.”
“Okay.”
When she first came in, she had actually intended to tell Chen Yuan to go home and rest, especially since lunch was over. But seeing him lying there on the bed, she suddenly didn’t have the heart to.
Ningning thought to herself, ’Sorry, Yaoyao. You’ll just have to endure it a little longer.’
「A moment later.」
The two of them stood before the sink, hugging while they brushed their teeth and washed their faces, their cheerful laughter filling the entire apartment.
Jiangg Ning even brought out her super-expensive facial cleanser for Chen Yuan to use and used a headband to pull his bangs off his forehead.
He glanced at his reflection and did a double take.
His entire face was covered in white foam, leaving only his eyes and mouth exposed.
“Don’t look yet, I’m not finished. I still have to get your chin,” Jiangg Ning said, rising slightly onto her tiptoes. Her expression was serious, and she refused to miss a single spot.
If it weren’t for the foam…
…Chen Yuan really wanted to lean down and kiss her.
“So once you’re done applying it, I just wash it off and that’s it, right?”
“Nope. We’re doing face masks after this. Mine is amazing for your skin; you have to experience it.”
“I’ve never used one before. My skin seems fine already.”
“Is that so? Then you don’t get to use it.”
“Hey! I was kidding. My bad, Ningning.”
As they were talking, a playful lock of hair slipped out from under the headband and fell onto Chen Yuan’s forehead.
Jiangg Ning reached out to tuck it back.
But as soon as she smoothed that strand back, another lock on the other side fell down.
She would fix one side, only for the other to fall.
Jiangg Ning narrowed her eyes, tilting her head back to study him for a moment.
“I’ve got it!” She scurried into the master bedroom and trotted back out a moment later.
“Got what?”
Chen Yuan was completely bewildered. Jiangg Ning returned holding a few strawberry hair clips and a hair tie, and she patted his forehead.
“Head down. Be good~”
「Half a minute later.」
He couldn’t feel what she had done, but he saw Jiangg Ning’s lips suddenly curl into a smile before she covered her mouth, trying to stifle a giggle.
Chen Yuan looked at himself in the mirror again.
A small pigtail stuck straight up from the top of his head, and his bangs were pinned back with several strawberry barrettes.
“This is so ugly,” he muttered, instinctively reaching up to pull them out.
“How is it ugly? It’s adorable,” Jiangg Ning said, pursing her lips in a rare display of coquettishness. “You’re not allowed to take them off. Wear them for me, okay?”
…
All of this, from the other side of a wall.
Jiangg Yao heard it all clearly.
Her face was ashen, her strength giving out… She slumped against the door, peeking through the crack at her sister’s happiness with Chen Yuan.
She was on her last breath.
