Heavy clouds crawled across the darkened sky, signalling an impending downpour.
It was the first day of the rainy season.
Pei Rujin received a frantic and incoherent call from his younger brother at this moment.
On the other end, Pei Ruxiao was hysterical, occasionally breaking into sobs.
“Calm down and speak clearly,” Pei Rujin instructed his brother. Then, as he listened, his expression changed abruptly. “Share your location with me.”
It wasn’t long before Pei Rujin arrived at the edge of the Shitong River. This river cut through the entire city, though there were many desolate spots along its banks. The sky was dark, obscuring the trees on both sides, and all that could be seen was the rushing water.
Pei Ruxiao was sprawled on the ground, seemingly in shock.
Not far from him, beneath a bridge, lay a tall man in a suit, someone with a face strikingly similar to Pei Ruxiao’s. A small knife was plunged into the man’s chest, and blood had soaked through his shirt.
Pei Rujin walked over and checked the man’s carotid artery with one hand while listening for a heartbeat.
A minute later, he closed his eyes and gave his final verdict: “He’s gone.”
Pei Ruxiao’s face turned ashen, and he became even more frantic, tugging at Pei Rujin’s sleeve. “I didn’t mean to! He kept calling me useless, and I…!”
Recently, Pei Ruxiao had been taking advantage of Pei Ruyin’s absences to deliver things to Xu Luling. When Xu Luling first met the brothers, she often confused the two, which helped Pei Ruxiao get away with certain behaviours. They had cemented her initial impression of them.
At first, Pei Ruyin tolerated his brother’s occasional boundary-crossing. Over the past five years, he had been making amends for the consequences of their study abroad, so he didn’t criticise Pei Ruxiao too harshly. Plus, the brothers alternating meant someone was always with Xu Luling. But recently, Pei Ruxiao had gone too far. After getting off his flight, Pei Ruyin confronted his brother, choosing a secluded place to have a serious talk.
However, Pei Ruyin was already exhausted from his business trip, and he never minced words with his brother. When he called Pei Ruxiao “useless” again, years of resentment boiled over.
The brothers started fighting, but Pei Ruyin, who practiced martial arts, quickly overpowered Pei Ruxiao.
As Pei Ruxiao was being beaten, he remembered that he always carried knives for dissecting small animals.
It wasn’t until Pei Ruyin fell completely that Pei Ruxiao snapped out of his daze.
Though he hated Pei Ruyin, he had never intended to kill him.
After hearing the story, Pei Rujin examined Pei Ruyin’s body and noticed the obvious ring mark on his middle finger. “Where’s his ring?”
Pei Ruxiao looked confused. “I… I don’t know.”
Pei Rujin searched the area but couldn’t find it, assuming it had been knocked away during the fight.
“The ring is a problem,” Pei Rujin said.
He gave his brother two options: “First, you turn yourself in. This is manslaughter, not premeditated murder. The sentence should be lenient. Second, you pretend to be your brother. Right now, Xu Luling is probably waiting at the airport to pick him up, so you’ll have to hurry. The rooftop stunt with the mannequin scared her pretty badly, remember?”
At the mention of Xu Luling’s name, Pei Ruxiao became even more anxious.
He immediately rejected the first option—how could a “dead man” turn himself in? There was no way to explain how he was still alive.
That left the second option, but Pei Ruxiao despaired. “I can’t do it. I can only impersonate him for a few minutes at a time. Any longer, and she’ll see through me for sure.” He knew his limits—he and Pei Ruyin were fundamentally different.
Pei Rujin glanced around the area. “So what do you plan to do?”
Suddenly, Pei Ruxiao’s eyes lit up as he looked at his older brother’s face. Inspiration struck him, and he excitedly said, “Big brother, help me! You can pretend to be Pei Ruyin and stabilize things with Xu Luling. Don’t underestimate her—she’s sharp.”
Pei Rujin chuckled, amused. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
Pei Ruxiao had always been the dullest of the brothers, but in this crisis, his intelligence suddenly kicked in.
“Big brother, you snuck back into the country this time, didn’t you? You’ve swindled a lot of powerful people over there, and they won’t let you go easily,” Pei Ruxiao reasoned. “Everyone says Pei Ruyin has an extraordinary mind, but I think it’s not enough. If it’s you, big brother, you could perfectly play the role.”
Pei Rujin narrowed his eyes slightly, hiding a faint gleam behind them.
Pei Ruxiao wanted him to play Pei Ruyin.
But Pei Rujin intended to play the role of Pei Ruxiao pretending to be Pei Ruyin.
Xu Luling was observant, and once she suspected something, she would dig until she found the truth.
She trusted only herself, so the only way for her to fully believe something was for her to figure it out on her own, step by step.
To make her completely disgusted with the past five years and the Pei brothers, Pei Rujin needed 20 days to set everything in motion.
He planned to use 20 days to dismantle five years.
Moreover, he needed to assume a new identity to move his assets, and in the meantime, he could use another identity as cover.
In a flash, Pei Rujin weighed all the pros and cons and made his decision.
“What if I slip up?” Pei Rujin asked.
Pei Ruxiao answered with certainty, “Then it would be on purpose.”
Exactly—Pei Rujin could pull it off flawlessly.
Unless he chose not to.
Pei Rujin smiled, not commenting further. “Clean up the scene. I trust you haven’t forgotten the methods I taught you. Be careful when you go home—you’re still staying at the old place. I’ll leave the door open for you tonight.”
Pei Rujin never participated, but he knew all of his brothers’ secrets.
Pei Ruxiao stared in a daze as Pei Rujin calmly put on Pei Ruyin’s jacket and pocketed the broken watch. Without another word, he walked out of sight.
Clutching his racing heart, Pei Ruxiao sensed that the days ahead would be terrifying.
What he didn’t know was that he had just invited a truly dangerous beast into his life.
✨Translation complete!✨
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