The Grace of Creation – Chapter 1

The Perfect One They Called “Grace of Creation”

This was Ran Jin’s bedroom — one push of the door and you could smell it, a fragrance identical to the one she wore on her skin.

The room was immaculate. Meticulous, even — not one thing out of place.

            

Standing in the middle of it, Chi Yu looked to her left: an ordinary walk-in closet. To the right ran a corridor hung with oil paintings and fossil rubbings, leading through to a spacious study.

In the study, the warm yellow reading lamp still burned; a few books lay on the desk, bookmarks wedged between their pages.

Easy enough to imagine: after fleeing so gracelessly from her car last night, Ran Jin had likely never slept at all. Perhaps she had read straight through until morning.

            

The closet held nothing in excess — black-toned workwear ranked in tidy rows, and long gowns reserved for evenings of entertaining.

Accessories hung and lay sorted by kind: watches, cufflinks, rings.

Chi Yu lifted a necklace on one fingertip, considered it for a moment, then let it drop carelessly back into place.

            

Its style was as austere as the woman herself — the same, year in, year out.

Apart from a bed a mere meter and a half wide, the bedroom held no entertainment equipment of any kind — not even a television — and the spacious work desk and two computers stood out all the more starkly.

Neat stacks of file folders sat upon it. Chi Yu flipped them open: project documents and blueprints, every one of them handled by Ran Jin, all bearing her handwritten annotations.

            

Pale gray bedding. A work desk installed inside the bedroom. Everything about the room suited her down to the ground — it was Jiejie it didn’t suit.

And the size of that bed took Chi Yu by surprise.

She couldn’t picture it: Jiejie and her, once upon a time, folded into a bed too narrow to stretch out in.

            

Chi Yu had always assumed that at the very least, Jiejie was a woman who knew how to enjoy life.

As far as Chi Yu knew, Jiejie had bought this apartment five years ago — close to the office, so that on late nights she could rest here directly, and rise early the next morning with the company only minutes away.

Looking at it now, this stopover palace bore no trace of Jiejie anymore.

            

Chi Yu leaned back in the chair and turned a slow, lazy circle. Through the bright windows, beneath a sky of unbroken blue, the U.P Tower stood close enough to touch.

Colossal as some structure reared by an off-world civilization, the U.P Tower was the commercial empire Jiejie — Chi Li — had built with her own two hands.

The tower crouched over the crisscrossing expressways like some alien creature, one of the most conspicuous landmarks in this megacity.

            

The Chi Empire was a ravenous beast, greedily swallowing the energy industry.

And now the fruit of Jiejie’s long years of labor had fallen into the hands of Ran Jin — the onetime lover she had raised up herself. Far from halting, the beast had only grown fiercer, more blood-chilling than before.

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Six years ago, Jiejie had brought this woman called Ran Jin home to the Chi family.

            

When she first arrived, no one knew who the half-dead woman was, where she had come from, or how she had ever crossed paths with Jiejie.

All anyone saw was the Eldest Miss patiently cultivating this woman of unknown provenance, gradually handing over to her the bulk of the businesses under the Chi name.

Ran Jin had been only twenty-three that year. She took root in the Chi Empire and began to grow.

            

With half the Chi Empire already in her grip, that beautiful face of hers kept appearing — across the major business magazines, on the big screen — until it became the most riveting face in the headlines of the business, technology, and entertainment pages alike.

Beautiful. Brilliant. Seemingly without flaw. Exposure by exposure, Ran Jin climbed her way to the highest summit of the world’s gaze.

Showered in the affection of millions, the perfect woman came to be called the “Grace of Creation.”

            

In her devotees’ eyes, Ran Jin was flawless — a Venus the heavens had carved with the utmost care.

At the time, Chi Yu was a high school student with her head bent over her schoolwork, paying the family business little mind.

Their parents had died early. Jiejie — Chi Li, sixteen years her elder — had looked after her tenderly, an eldest sister standing in as a mother, and the two of them had depended on each other to get by, bound by deep affection.

            

Jiejie never forced her into anything she disliked. She let go of Chi Yu’s hand and let her chart her own course through life.

The words Jiejie said to her most often were these: “You don’t have to walk roads that other people have walked a thousand times over. You only have to do what you love, and grow into whoever you like.”

Losing her parents so young never gave Chi Yu so much as a taste of hardship. She knew it was because Jiejie had held the sky up for her — a childhood without a single cloud.

            

With her nose buried in her books, Chi Yu raised no objection to Jiejie gradually entrusting the corporation to Ran Jin. She knew Jiejie was a clear-eyed woman who always understood exactly what she was doing.

Besides, this “outsider” had shed her outsider status almost as soon as she entered the Chi household, transforming in the space of a breath into its mistress.

There was no disputing how close Jiejie and Ran Jin were. However relentlessly the gossip press blanketed the world with coverage of the business titan and her girlfriend, however luridly they cooked up the “scandal,” nothing ever kept the two of them from stepping out side by side.

            

Ran Jin had long since become a rightful member of the Chi family. Whenever Chi Yu saw her, she would greet her respectfully as “Sister-in-law,” and the subordinates called her President Ran.

Though every time she faced those titles, Ran Jin merely answered with a faint smile and let them pass.

Chi Yu knew her “Sister-in-law” was a touch shy behind closed doors — but she was Jiejie’s capable helpmeet, decisive in action, hard-handed in method. And with Jiejie’s might shielding her all the way, Ran Jin’s position within Chi Corporation had long since become unshakable.

            

Ran Jin’s incursion had simply been too swift — so swift that from the Chi Empire to the entire energy-sector circuit, people were left astonished, and unable to comprehend.

Inevitably, rumors rose on every side.

Whatever the outside world said, Ran Jin seemed to hear none of it. She bent herself solely to Jiejie’s work.

            

Ran Jin possessed a crystalline business mind and a keen nose for the market. In the years Chi Yu was away studying overseas, Ran Jin had already helped Jiejie eliminate their most formidable competitor and win the extraction rights to the Lunar Zone’s mare basalt and Helium-3.

When she left the country, Chi Yu had bid Jiejie a clinging, reluctant farewell.

Jiejie had soothed her gently then, promising that once her studies were finished and she came home, the two sisters would never again be parted.

            

Who could have known that would be the last time she ever saw Jiejie?

When she next returned, it was for Jiejie’s funeral…

They said that Jiejie — forever optimistic, brimming with ideals and ambitions — had taken her own life.

            

Chi Yu couldn’t possibly believe it.

The feeling at the funeral, of a heart breaking past the point of death, was still carved into her marrow when she thought of it now.

Jiejie, who had toiled and sweated to raise her — she had been Chi Yu’s last refuge in this world.

            

And now the Jiejie who had loved her most was gone, dead in a way no one could explain.

Losing Jiejie had already wrenched her insides apart; the police’s careless closing of the case fanned her fury to a white heat.

The eeriness leaking from that verdict — a thing shot through with holes — left Chi Yu no choice but to think, and think again.

            

Jiejie wouldn’t kill herself. She had no reason to.

Still less would she slip away without a sound, leaving her dearest kin not even half a sentence behind.

Chi Yu had begun digging into the whole affair on her way home for the funeral.

            

Every scrap of evidence hidden in the gray corners of the world, everything Chi Yu had unearthed by digging three feet down — all of it pointed to the same woman—

Ran Jin.

Four years ago, when she left the country, Chi Yu had already heard certain rumors about Ran Jin’s origins.

            

In that gossip’s telling, Ran Jin had never been sincere toward the girlfriend who loved her truly and cherished her dearly. Her purpose was impure: she had come to devour the Chi fortune and take her revenge on the Chi family.

The Chi Yu of those days had dismissed it all as nonsense — gutter rumors that could never survive the light of day.

After years beneath one roof, she had genuinely been fond of this beautiful, brilliant sister-in-law.

            

Before going abroad, she had even put the most boisterous of the rumor-mongers into prison, venting a breath of anger on Jiejie’s and her sister-in-law’s behalf.

Who could have guessed that matters would unfold exactly as the rumors foretold — curving toward the most terrible of ends.

At the thought of Jiejie, sleeping forever underground for no reason anyone could name, grief and rage tore at Chi Yu’s chest — and with one violent “shrrrip” she ripped the curtains of Ran Jin’s bedroom clean down, so hard the curtain rod nearly ripped loose along with them.

            

Perhaps it had never been slander at all.

Every word, every line her investigation had produced proved it: behind Jiejie’s back, Ran Jin had long been quietly expanding her own power within the Chi Empire. A woman of unknown origins — and a woman who truly advanced step by careful step.

Before Jiejie died, the two of them had broken up. The parting had come without the faintest warning.

            

Chi Yu had always believed the breakup was the fuse that lit Jiejie’s murder.

Perhaps Jiejie had discovered the secret she had hidden away for so long — and so she killed her, and meant to swallow whole everything Jiejie had ever built.

What a pretty little dream.

            

The Chi family isn’t dead yet.

Chi Yu had never hated anyone as she hated now.

To remember how sincerely she had once embraced this woman, had taken her in as family of her own — it turned her stomach to the very bottom.

            

Her phone rang. It was the assistant calling.

“I’m on my way,” Chi Yu said. “Where is she?”

“President Ran left an hour ago,” the assistant replied, “together with Miss Lu.”

            

Lu Siqing. That police officer. Her, again.

No wonder the police could wave aside evidence that even Chi Yu had managed to uncover — no wonder the suspect still walked free.

Chi Yu hung up, walked into Ran Jin’s closet, and went through it once more. True enough: not one garment in it had been Jiejie’s.

            

Chi Yu laughed coldly. That eager to kick Jiejie out of your world?

No matter.

Chi Yu thought to herself: I will make you remember her — remember the one who saved you, and cherished you beyond all reason.

            

The guilt will follow you like your own shadow.

Tonight there was to be a banquet — in truth, a Chi Corporation press conference, at which Ran Jin would announce the Lunar Zone energy extraction rights she had just wrestled into her hands.

As if Chi Yu would miss the one night every eye in the world was watching.

            

Chi Yu meant to make Ran Jin regret it. To make her suffer. To shatter her name and grind her reputation into the dirt — and then drag that colluding cop surnamed Lu before the law along with her.

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Before attending the banquet, Chi Yu had summoned the woman who was once Jiejie’s assistant.

“Second Miss, I’ve brought what you asked for. Shall we get you changed now?”

            

Chi Yu took the dress from her hands.

A silk gown in a pecan-dusted heather gray — gorgeous, and cut to make the waist devastating.

The makeup artist on Chi Corporation’s retainer had been waiting in readiness for some time; she set to work on Chi Yu’s face.

            

Thick, dark-red curls spilled over her delicate collarbones. Chi Yu opened her eyes, looked at herself in the mirror wearing Jiejie’s clothes, and her scarlet lips lifted into a smile.

“The perfume too — my Jiejie’s.”

“Of course.”

            

The opening notes seeped into her senses — fir, black truffle, and jasmine. The scent Jiejie had always worn.

Surely Ran Jin was going to “love” it.

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Inside the car it was as silent as outer space. Ran Jin sat in the passenger seat, arms folded across her chest, eyes closed, only just sinking into the shallowest film of sleep.

            

Lu Siqing’s phone rang, sudden and rude.

Ran Jin opened her eyes.

“Sorry. I woke you.”

            

One hand on the wheel, frowning, Lu Siqing picked up her Bluetooth earpiece and spoke very quietly:

“…I’m out right now — I’m with Xiao Jin. Mm-hm. Later. Gotta go.”

She ended the call quickly and looked over at Ran Jin.

            

With some effort, Ran Jin cracked her reddened, swollen eyes open to a slit. There were dark shadows beneath them. She looked wrung out.

She glanced out at the passing scenery — still some distance from the destination.

“Rough night?”

            

“It was fine.”

“Rough night, or no night at all?”

“…”

            

The silence gave Lu Siqing her answer. She knew this old friend of hers far too well.

Lu Siqing couldn’t keep a spark of temper from catching. “And here I thought once she died, you’d finally be free of it. Instead it’s come to this.”

Ran Jin’s clear, fine brows knitted; her eyes shut a shade tighter.

            

Lu Siqing’s gaze dropped to the cufflinks at Ran Jin’s wrists, fastened neat to the last. Those slender wrists stayed hidden inside her sleeves — Lu Siqing had never once seen her in short sleeves, no matter how hot the day.

Even with the cuffs sealed tight as could be, you could still faintly make out the pale red marks ringing her wrists.

Lu Siqing asked, low: “Is it Chi Yu?”

            

At the name, Ran Jin opened her eyes, slowly. Before her, reflected in the car window, was herself — long black hair lying straight against her shoulders, her eyes brimming with a silence that would not dissolve. The whites were threaded with more bloodshot red than even she had expected — and somehow that too fell precisely into place, composing a portrait in burning color.

Ran Jin’s voice carried no emotion whatsoever. “What about her?”

That lit Lu Siqing’s fuse. “Don’t you dare tell me the person tormenting you lately isn’t her!”

            

She drove on, restless and out of sorts, then felt it was hardly humane to snap at a victim, and wrestled her temper down enough to ask: “Are you really going tonight?”

“A press conference this important — naturally I will attend.”

Lu Siqing gave an “Mm.” “Then I’m coming with you.”

            

Ran Jin turned her head and offered her a faint smile. “No need. I can manage on my own.”

“You? Manage Chi Yu? Manage that little bastard? You say that out loud and you believe it yourself? Fine — you’re a marvel. The rivals you’ve played into the grave fill whole mountains and valleys, and the people kneeling at your front door could knock their skulls against the ground — thud, thud, thud — loud enough to wake every ghost in the underworld. Take this fight over the Lunar Zone’s energy: Yidai Technology went up against you, and where are they now? Filed for bankruptcy protection — and their founder Wang Yan has gone off to meet the King of Hell¹. I know you have your methods, Ran-jie, but in this world everything has its vanquisher — there is exactly one person who can pin you down. That person is back — and she’s targeting you at every turn. So what’s your plan now? Let everything you’ve built come to nothing?”

Somewhere in the middle of saying all this, Lu Siqing worked herself into a proper lather:

            

“You really have the heart to let it all wash away — for Chi Yu?”

Her voice boomed around the cabin. Ran Jin sat perfectly steady through all of it, fished a mint from the center console, unwrapped it, and held it out to her, smiling.

Lu Siqing: “…”

            

Before closing her eyes again, Ran Jin smiled at her, utterly unbothered:

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle my own affairs.”

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