Chapter 9: I’m Your Older Sister (Part 1)
Jiang Bao: “What are you staring at me for? Answer the phone!”
Xie Liao Yuan: “……?”
He was upset, but he still pressed the answer button.
Jiang Bao didn’t bother to beat around the bush and asked, since Xie Liao Yuan wouldn’t understand them anyway.
“Have you remembered?”
“…… hmm.” [1]
“I know you have a lot to say. Call me in half an hour. Do you still remember my number?”
“…… hmm.”
Jiang Bao heaved a sigh of relief. “Then you should hang up first. It’s not convenient to talk here at the moment.”
After a dozen seconds of silence, the other side hung up the phone.
Xie Liao Yuan looked around. He was the only one here, so what did she mean by it’s not convenient to talk?
The original Jiang Bao had always been haughty and arrogant, but her manner in the phone call… was a bit off today.
Jiang Bao was elated. She hadn’t wasted her efforts in patiently talking him into helping her.
She had analyzed the situation beforehand. Since her fifth brother was still in the mood for a recital, this meant her body wasn’t in major trouble.
The footage of the debate competition she took part in was still uploaded online, which meant the original Jiang Bao didn’t just disappear into thin air.
It could only mean that the both of them had exchanged bodies.
According to her understanding of Lin Can, when something like this happens and she doesn’t contact her, the biggest possibility was that some of her memories were missing.
This meant… she didn’t know that she was Lin Can and not Jiang Bao.
Jiang Bao opened the car door and got up to leave.
Xie Liao Yuan then tried to get a hold of her, but the latter dodged.
“Don’t you touch me, I’m covered with electric fencing!”
Xie Liao Yuan: “Don’t you have some explaining to do?”
Jiang Bao: “I don’t have any motive towards you, nor was I stalking you. Women are inherently fickle.”
Xie Liao Yuan: “……?”
He was stunned for a moment. She sounded exactly the same as the Jiang Bao he knew.
Many people in school pursued Jiang Bao. She wouldn’t give any of them face when she rejected them, thus breaking countless hearts.
Jiang Bao ignored him as she took out her cell phone and looked at the time. It was now nine o’clock, which meant Lin Can would call around nine thirty.
She came out of the underground parking lot and hailed a cab on the sidewalk.
When the phone rang, the time was nine twenty-seven.
Lin Can said, incoherent, “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know what happened. I only just remembered.”
Jiang Bao leaned back in her seat. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”
Lin Can: “No, I’m sorry.”
Jiang Bao: “First, don’t tell anyone about this. I can’t explain much over the phone, so book a ticket back to China right away. We’ll meet and talk. Just book the nearest flight.”
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing again? Are you a recording device?” Jiang Bao had a stomach full of anger.
There was silence on the other side of the phone.
Jiang Bao knew her tone should have sounded kinder, so she patiently added, “Let Avla come with you. He’s my bodyguard. You should have met him.”
“I’ve seen him.” He was a tall foreigner with a huge build and looked like someone she shouldn’t mess with. Lin Can asked again, “But how do I ask him, and what if he doesn’t agree to come with me?”
“… You tell him to book two tickets, you needn’t explain.”
“Oh, okay.”
Jiang Bao hesitated and tentatively asked again, “What do you think of the bathtub… at home?”
“I haven’t used it.”
Jiang Bao heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this was the Lin Can from 2015, not the Lin Can who killed herself four years later. The situation didn’t seem too bad.
Jiang Bao explained a few more things one after another, stressing once more that she absolutely couldn’t tell others about what happened to them.
She then hung up the phone, staring out the window at the scenery that was quickly left behind. Flying over from the United States would take about ten hours. If everything went well, she should be able to see the other tomorrow morning.
Jiang Bao wasn’t worried that Lin Can would replace her because it was impossible for her to do so.
Graduating from MIT was quite difficult. She had seen Lin Can’s report card. Her basics in middle school weren’t half-bad, but it was nothing compared to hers.
Jiang Bao’s lecturer was famous in the industry. He spoke with a strong accent, which even those international students with excellent resumes struggle to keep up with, not to mention Lin Can.
She spent about 20 hours a week doing homework back in those days, and it wasn’t even counted as research.
In addition, the situation in the Jiang family was complicated, with her older brother, and several nephews and nieces her age, all waiting to point out her flaws.
These situations would be too much for Lin Can to handle.
Fortunately, when she contacted the other side, Lin Can had been at home recuperating and hadn’t gone outside. Otherwise, she would have been exposed immediately.
But Lin Can wouldn’t want to replace her either. Even if she was slightly selfish, with a bit of resolve, she wouldn’t have taken the step of suicide.
Jiang Bao was in a somewhat complicated mood as she pondered the next step to take.
If only there was some way to get the two of them to switch back.
She went back to the dormitory and took a shower, ready to go to bed early. But when she climbed into bed, the pillow was damp.
Someone had poured water on it.
The other two people in the room were feeling schadenfreude as they watched her, ready to laugh at her reaction.
“Who did this?”
No one answered.
Jiang Bao turned around and went to the bathroom. She came back out, carrying a big bucket of water, and dumped it onto the second bed. Someone came over to stop her. She then hurled the basin of water at the other person’s face.
“You’re going too far!” The girl screamed.
It was mid-October, so it would be chilly at night. It wouldn’t be pleasant to be splashed with cold water.
“I don’t care who did it. Whatever happens to me in the future, you all will have a part to play. As long as I am not happy, then you must all have it worse.”
“What a crazy person.” The other girl unconsciously took a step backwards when she met Jiang Bao’s eyes.
Could it be that she was bullied too much before and now she was getting back at them?
Jiang Bao pushed the person away. “Get out of my way.”
When she was the Jiang family’s Young Lady, everyone revolved around her. Everyone was very amiable, but now she had all sorts of useless people[2] bothering her.
The dormitory was now soaked. She definitely couldn’t sleep here today, so she simply left the school before the doors closed.
She was going back to the United States soon, anyway.
Footnotes:
[1] hmm as in yes/agreeing. In Chinese, ‘en’ is used to sound an agreement.
[2] A chinese idiom was used here which directly translates to ‘chicken feathers and garlic skin’ which is used extensively to express things that are unimportant. It says now there are all kinds of chicken feathers and garlic skin so I think she meant people as she used to be the center of attention and was treated amiably but now lots of trivial things/people are bothering her. (TL: That’s how I got it but I could be wrong(⌒_⌒;) )
