“Your sister doesn’t understand anything! How could she possibly read that kind of novel! Stop slandering your sister!”

Xiang Sheng had held a grudge over this incident until now. Even though his sister was already eighteen and about to become a college student, their parents still thought their daughter understood nothing, still believed she was that naïve little girl who thought a man and a woman would get pregnant and have a baby just by kissing.

Because Xiang Di was far too good at pretending in front of adults, not only their parents thought this way—every relative in the family thought the same.

Only Xiang Sheng knew his sister’s true face: an out-and-out little pervert.

Before, he had thought his sister was just a bit dirty-minded. He hadn’t expected that she was not only dirty-minded, but also downright abnormal.

As an adult, Xiang Sheng himself would occasionally watch some twisted adult films for stimulation, but sibling incest was a genre he would absolutely never touch. Once, a roommate had seen a photo of his sister on his phone and joked, “Damn, your sister’s pretty cute. Why don’t you go for some incest?”

He had cursed the roommate out on the spot, calling him disgusting.

And now, the one joking about incest with him wasn’t anyone else—

It was his own sister.

Xiang Sheng felt even worse than if he had swallowed a fly. Gritting his teeth, he thought viciously: Damn sister, trying to disgust your brother, huh? Pretending to be pure, huh? Just you wait—when you get a boyfriend in the future, I’ll tell him everything about your true colors and scare him off. That’s the price you pay for disgusting me.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

On her hard-earned day off, Xiang Di had originally planned to sleep until she woke up naturally. Instead, she naturally woke up at eight in the morning.

Damn biological clock. After the college entrance exam, she was definitely going to sleep hard for three days and three nights.

With no choice, she got up and opened her bedroom door. The house was quiet. Xiang Sheng was still asleep. Ever since his senior year of college, he had completely reversed his day and night schedule. He had pulled another all-nighter last night, so there was no way he’d be getting up before noon.

Xiang Di had no choice but to rummage through the fridge for something to eat. The cheese puffs Bai Jiangxin had given her yesterday were still untouched. She thought about it, and in the end, couldn’t bear to take them out to eat.

She ate something simple to fill her stomach, then did her homework while waiting for Xiang Sheng to wake up and take her out to eat.

She worked like that until a little past twelve. There was still no movement from Xiang Sheng. Her brain had burned too much energy, her stomach was hungry again, and she could only get up and go out to find something to eat.

As soon as she opened her door, she saw that Xiang Sheng had no idea when he’d woken up. With a head of messy, chicken-nest hair, he was lying on the couch eating.

“You woke up and didn’t call me?” Xiang Di complained. “I waited forever. I’m starving.”

“I thought you were focused on your homework, so I didn’t disturb you,” Xiang Sheng waved her over. “Come eat a bit first to tide you over. I’ll tidy up and then take you out to eat.”

Xiang Di said “oh” and walked over, only to discover that Xiang Sheng was actually eating her cheese puffs—and he’d already eaten most of them. There were only two left.

She panicked immediately. “Hey! Who told you to eat my puffs?!”

Xiang Sheng frowned. “Why are you shouting? You put them in the fridge and never said they couldn’t be eaten.”

“You—!”

Xiang Di was so angry she ground her teeth and hurriedly snatched the last two puffs back.

Seeing her exaggerated, food-guarding behavior, like a little dog, Xiang Sheng burst out laughing.

“Is it that serious? They’re just from the bakery downstairs. I’ll just buy you another box.”

“You don’t know shit!” Xiang Di shouted at him. “This isn’t the same, okay!”

“How’s it not the same?” Xiang Sheng smacked his lips, savoring the taste. “Did they stuff gold inside these puffs? I didn’t taste any.”

Xiang Di couldn’t explain it. She could only stand there seething. Then she turned around, stormed back to her room, and slammed the door hard.

Xiang Sheng was completely baffled.

After waiting for a long time, Xiang Di still didn’t come out, clearly determined to fight him to the end. With no other choice—he couldn’t just let her starve—Xiang Sheng finally lowered his head and said that not only would he compensate her with a box of puffs, but today she could eat whatever she wanted, and he’d pay for everything.

After coaxing her for more than ten minutes, Xiang Di finally came out and said, “I can forgive you, but you have to agree to one condition.”

Xiang Sheng said, “Say it. As long as it’s not too excessive.”

It wasn’t excessive. The puffs at the bakery downstairs were usually freshly made around ten in the morning, but by then Xiang Di would already be at school. So she asked Xiang Sheng to bring her a box of puffs to school on Monday.

Xiang Sheng found it troublesome. “I’ll buy you a box today. You can just take it to school tomorrow and eat it.”

“No,” Xiang Di refused. “I want the freshest ones.”

Xiang Sheng: “…”

Was she a dog? Eating shit had to be eating it fresh and warm right after it was taken out.

Xiang Di said, “If you won’t agree, then forget it. I won’t eat anymore. Just let me starve to death.”

“Agree, agree.” Xiang Sheng gave in. “You are Yang Guifei, and I’m your puff servant, alright? I guarantee that on Monday I’ll bring Her Highness the Imperial Consort the freshest, just-baked, big cheese puffs.”

Xiang Di let out a soft hum.

They went out for a big meal. In the afternoon, she did some homework at home, played on her phone for a bit, and slept for a while. As the daylight gradually deepened, the orange glow of the sunset dyed the windowsill, and the short day off passed by just like that, without warning.

Boarding students should already be dragging their suitcases back to school, half-dead. Xiang Di was a day student, so she didn’t have to go to evening self-study today.

Tomorrow was another day of school. For others, it might be bad news—they wished tomorrow would never come. But for Xiang Di, she was full of anticipation.

Because tomorrow, she could see Bai Jiangxin again.

If it weren’t for Bai Jiangxin, she didn’t even know how she would have endured this senior year. Having someone you liked and constantly thought about at school, how could that not also be a kind of motivation for studying?

It was just that tomorrow, after getting to school, she wouldn’t be able to continue being Bai Jiangxin’s deskmate. Her motivation dropped just a tiny bit.

She hoped that when seats were rearranged tomorrow, the teacher would give her a seat from which she could easily see him. For her, that would be enough.

Xiang Di started praying again to God Mom and Buddha Dad.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

On Monday, Xiang Di got up amid the relentless bombardment of her alarm.

Another beautiful day had begun. Xiang Di washed up as fast as she could, slung her backpack over her shoulders, and before leaving, went to Xiang Sheng’s room and knocked hard on the door.

She knocked several times before there was finally some movement inside.

“Knock knock knock my ass! I didn’t fall asleep until after four, do you know that?!”

Xiang Di wasn’t afraid of her brother at all. She acted like she hadn’t heard him and shouted through the door, “I’m going to school! Don’t forget to buy my puffs!”

To keep her brother from coming out to beat her up, Xiang Di quickly fled the scene.

Her home wasn’t far from school. There were direct subway and bus routes. Senior year was all about racing against time. To make it easier to eat breakfast on the way and save time, Xiang Di usually took the bus.

When the bus arrived at the school gate, she had just finished her breakfast. Getting off the bus, she took a refreshing breath of the fresh air at the school entrance and strode into the campus.

Humming a tune as she walked along the campus path, Xiang Di suddenly saw a figure ahead of her.

A tall, slender back; the habit of carrying a bag on one shoulder—even in a school uniform, she could recognize him at a glance.

Xiang Di took a deep breath. They were already WeChat friends. Going up to greet him shouldn’t be awkward, right?

Thinking that, she quickened her pace. When she was finally close enough, she adjusted her tone and spoke. “Hi, Bai Jiangxin.”

The boy turned around. The handsome, cool eyebrows and eyes—it was Bai Jiangxin.

She thought of a very natural opening line. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

“I have.”

“Did you buy it at the school gate?”

“No.” Bai Jiangxin said, “The aunt at home made breakfast.”

“Your family even hired an aunt?”

“Mm.”

There wasn’t much substance to the conversation, but Bai Jiangxin responded to every sentence. Whatever Xiang Di asked, he answered. There was no awkward silence between them at all, and they walked side by side toward the teaching building very naturally.

Xiang Di secretly felt pleased inside. She really was too clever—without any effort at all, she had gotten the chance to walk the same way as Bai Jiangxin.

However, after walking for a short while, Bai Jiangxin suddenly stopped. He lowered his gaze and looked at her, his expression a little strange.

Xiang Di was confused. “What’s wrong?”

Bai Jiangxin frowned slightly and didn’t speak. The two of them suddenly stopped like this on the busy path.

The students walking behind them naturally detoured around them. Just then, several boys who were chasing and fooling around ran up from behind, darting through the crowd like loaches. One of the boys accidentally bumped into Xiang Di’s backpack, knocking her forward.

Xiang Di lurched forward. She didn’t fall, because Bai Jiangxin reacted quickly and stretched out his arm to block her, just in time to support her and keep her from falling face-first onto the ground.

The boy running ahead realized he had knocked into someone, shouted a quick “sorry,” and disappeared in an instant.

There was no time to go after that boy to settle accounts. Still shaken, Xiang Di grabbed onto Bai Jiangxin’s arm.

In her heart, she felt relieved—damn, that was scary, she almost got disfigured.

When she came back to her senses, she realized she was holding onto Bai Jiangxin’s arm. She hurriedly stood up straight and let go of him.

The moment she released him, Bai Jiangxin’s brows knit even more tightly than before.

Seeing that his expression looked a bit strange, Xiang Di asked, “What’s wrong with you?”

“…Nothing.” Bai Jiangxin withdrew his gaze. “Did you get hurt?”

“No, no.” Xiang Di said. “Luckily you caught me. Thanks.”

Bai Jiangxin said, “It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

The two of them walked side by side again. It was the peak time for arriving at school, and the road was full of people. Bai Jiangxin’s ears were filled everywhere with chattering sounds, yet among them, there was only one thing missing—

Xiang Di’s inner voice.

At this moment, Xiang Di spoke again. “Oh right, when are we going to look for Teacher Chen today to have him change our seats?”

Bai Jiangxin’s expression froze.