Chapter 52: Ants on the Same Rope
Tears streamed down the girl’s face.
“I-I killed someone. I really killed someone…”
Ruan Yi looked at her blood-stained hands, trembling incessantly. Her brain was invaded by panic, leaving her no room to even question why the man had appeared.
Fu Jingchen paused. His gaze landed on her blood-stained hands as he said word for word:
“Xiao Yi simply didn’t let anyone hurt you, didn’t you?”
As soon as he finished, Fu Jingchen didn’t look at her again. He turned and walked toward the man who was still twitching on the floor, his eyes bulging.
The blood on the knife handle also stained his hand. As Ruan Zhengyi opened his mouth in one final, silent plea for help, Fu Jingchen plunged the knife into the other’s heart without hesitation.
The man pulled the knife out, blood dripping from the blade.
He turned back around, his bloody hand taking Ruan Yi’s cold hand once more. The warmth of his palm, mixed with the thick blood…
Oddly, it made her stop shaking so much.
“Xiao Yi.” He looked into her eyes, his tone calm.
“You only lightly scratched his neck. It’s no big deal. Didn’t I kill the man?”
Fu Jingchen deliberately slowed his speech, his finger pad gently stroking the back of her hand as if wiping away something dirty.
Ruan Yi looked at him, so shocked her hands stopped shaking.
She forcefully pulled her hand away from Fu Jingchen, her voice carrying a sob, urgent and terrified.
“No! We’ll go to jail! Quick… quickly think of a way to clean up the scene and hide the body!”
Fu Jingchen raised his brows, seemingly not expecting Ruan Yi to react this way.
Her eyes were still watery, yet as soon as she mentioned hiding the body, she was already about to take action. How could she be so cute…
The girl who was just crying in a breakdown about killing someone was, in the blink of an eye, urgently figuring out how to hide the body. This erratic behavior…
She was like a kitten pushed to a dead end, yet still clumsily trying to find a way out.
Seeing him stunned in place, Ruan Yi became even more urgent.
“Fu Jingchen, I’m not joking! Wait… later… I’ll dig the pit, and you move the body! We can’t be caught! If news of this gets out, the company’s stock price will drop!”
The smile in the man’s eyes grew deeper.
Money really has an exceptional weight in her heart. And… are we using such a vintage method to hide the body?
“Xiao Yi, don’t worry.”
Fu Jingchen pulled a pack of disinfectant wipes from his inner suit pocket. This was clearly not something he usually carried.
Next to the wipes in the inner pocket was a sharp piece of metal that hadn’t had a chance to appear.
From the moment he learned someone intended harm toward Ruan Yi, he hadn’t planned on letting the other party leave alive.
He had already done it once; the second time was naturally exceptionally easy.
However, he didn’t expect…
[His kitten was even braver than he imagined.]
The man pulled out a disinfectant wipe and took hold of Ruan Yi’s still-trembling hand. Using the wipe, he cleaned away the bloodstains from her palm and the gaps between her fingers bit by bit.
His movements were as slow as if he were cleaning some fragile treasure. It was as if the person who just delivered the finishing blow wasn’t him at all.
“The only thing Xiao Yi needed to clean has been resolved.”
Until the last wipe was used, he let go of her hand. The girl’s hand once again revealed its original fair and delicate appearance.
“What about him? What do we do with such a big lump! He won’t even fit in a suitcase!”
The man’s gaze swept across the room. He avoided Ruan Yi’s waist as he raised his hand, loosely hooking his arm around her shoulder to guide her out, avoiding the blood on the floor.
It wasn’t until they were standing in the corridor, away from the heavy scent of blood, that he spoke. “Xiao Yi doesn’t need to worry about anything. I will handle it.”
As he spoke, the man took out his phone. his fingers tapped quickly on the screen, contacting someone. His face showed no ripples from start to finish.
By the time she snapped out of it, Ruan Yi had already been brought to a cafe. Fu Jingchen pushed a cup of hot milk in front of her.
It was as if that blood-stained room earlier was just an inconsequential interlude.
Ruan Yi opened her mouth, wanting to ask something, but she hadn’t structured her words well, and they were swallowed back down.
When she wanted to speak again, seeing his composed way of stirring his coffee, she silently closed her mouth again.
Over and over, her lips opened and closed like a goldfish.
Fu Jingchen had noticed her appearance long ago. When she held her words back for the fifth time, he finally couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
The laugh was light, carrying a bit of helpless indulgence. He looked up at her, his eyes full of fragmented smiles.
“What does Xiao Yi want to ask?”
“Fu Jingchen, why did you appear?”
Finally having him speak up, Ruan Yi’s question followed immediately.
“Mhm. I have no way to answer that question.”
He truly couldn’t say. After all, the “chance to be a hero” was given by an entirely unrelated person.
Ruan Yi’s brow furrowed tightly. She decided to just “break the jar.”
Anyway, both she and Fu Jingchen had killed someone. They were now “ants on the same rope.”
She might as well ask everything she wanted to. Even if being struck by lightning for asking was a risk, she’d just let the lightning strike her and the protagonist together.
“Fu Jingchen, does my mom’s illness have anything to do with you?”
As soon as she said this, the hand the man was using to hold the coffee cup paused almost imperceptibly.
The composure on his face cracked. A genuine shock flashed in his eyes, as if he hadn’t expected her to ask this at all.
His brow creased slightly, and he looked at her with a heavy gaze, as if confirming the meaning of her words. He looked at Ruan Yi, his tone calm but carrying an unquestionable weight.
“No.”
There was no extra explanation, no counter-question, just a simple word. It was as if the surprise of being misunderstood far outweighed the displeasure of being questioned.
It was very real—so real it didn’t look like an act. So real she couldn’t see a single flaw.
“Fu Jingchen, if you dare lie to me, I’ll reveal what happened today. This counts as excessive defense; the two of us can go to jail together.”
“I wouldn’t do such a thing. Furthermore, President Ruan and I have no conflict. Why would I do such a thing?”
The man’s voice was a bit deeper than before, but it remained peaceful, without a shred of offended gloom.
“Of course, because you li—”
“I like Xiao Yi.”
the man didn’t sound like he was joking at all. There was no deliberate sentimentality; his gaze was focused intently on her face.
Ruan Yi was stunned, her eyes wide and round. Her body froze completely, and she even forgot to breathe.
Too real. It was simply too real. If this was acting, then Fu Jingchen was already at the level of a Film Emperor.
Was he trying to use her to get close to Ah Zhi, or—was it real?
If the plot developed into a protagonist “gong” falling for the malicious female supporting character, the level of vileness wouldn’t be less than a romance between a sheep and a wolf…
It was simply—psychotic.
Ruan Yi’s mouth hung open, unable to say a word for a long time.
“It’s my turn to ask Xiao Yi.”
“Why did Xiao Yi come here?”
The man’s words were like a needle, suddenly popping Ruan Yi’s messy thoughts.
The paternal affection she had hoped for was nothing but a conspiracy.
Her father had completely disregarded whether she lived or died; he had utterly abandoned her.
Ruan Yi had even thought her father might threaten her for money, opening his mouth wide for a ransom… but she never dared to imagine that he would truly push her into a fire pit of no return.
That was her biological father.
“Because of my dad.” Ruan Yi didn’t say more.
The hand the man used to hold the coffee cup slowly tightened.
The girl’s small face held an expression he was very familiar with—the despair of being betrayed and pushed into an abyss by someone close.
Just like himself, who had been treated as a bargaining chip by his father.
The air was quiet for a long time. Ruan Yi looked away.
Despite having vastly different positions—even being opposing existences—the uncalled-for confession and the strange similarities…
Emotions that even the girl herself hadn’t detected spread quietly like fog, blurring the originally clear boundary between them.
[They were, inherently, a match made in heaven.]
Translator’s Note:
- “Ants on the same rope” (yi tiao sheng shang de ma zha): An idiom meaning people whose fates are tied together; if one falls, they both fall.
- “Breaking the jar” (po guan po shuai): An idiom meaning to stop caring about the consequences because a situation is already bad.
- Film Emperor (ying di): A term for an actor who has won a prestigious Best Actor award.
- “The chance was given by an unrelated person”: Referencing Dr. Pei Lian from the previous chapter. Fu Jingchen is technically telling the truth here!
- Ruan Yi’s logic: “The stock price will drop if we get caught for murder.” She’s a true corporate heir even in a crisis!
Wait until Ah Zhi finds out what happened. Things are about to get even crazier.
Recommended Reads
![Accidentally Turned a Tragic Romance Plotline into a Sweet and Pampering One [Transmigration]](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ACCIDENTALLY.png)
