At seven in the evening, Ling Ling pushed open the front door right on time.
“I’m back.”
“Welcome back, big sister!”
The usual response, the usual aroma of home-cooked food.
Lin Jiu, wearing an apron printed with cartoon penguins, poked her head out from the kitchen, her azure eyes curving into crescents.
But the moment she saw Ling Ling, her smile froze on her face.
Today, big sister was wearing the white dress she had bought.
Big sister was wearing a dress.
Big sister wore the dress she bought, and went out.
With Ye Fengxue.
“Sister.” Lin Jiu’s smile recovered quickly. “Did you have fun outside today?”
“It was okay.”
Ling Ling kicked off her shoes, and this time she actually straightened them herself, because she could feel her little sister’s gaze on her in a way she couldn’t quite describe.
She walked into the living room. Lin Jiu had already taken off her apron and came over.
She first leaned into Ling Ling’s neck, sniffing carefully like a drug-sniffing dog.
“I smell crepes, strawberry and banana.” Lin Jiu listed the ingredients, then sniffed the other side. “Also the bitterness of coffee, and… a very strong cream foam scent. And the scent of another woman.”
Ling Ling’s back felt a little cold.
“It’s Ye Fengxue, right? I recognize Big Sister Ye’s perfume.”
Lin Jiu leaned close to Ling Ling’s ear, her voice dropping very low. “But whose is that cream foam scent? I can’t identify it.”
“…Is your nose a dog’s nose?”
“I want to know everything about you, big sister.”
Lin Jiu tilted her head. The usual smile was gone from her blue eyes, replaced by a deep, icy possessiveness. “So, big sister, who was that person drinking the cream foam?”
Ling Ling sighed inwardly. She hadn’t planned to hide it anyway.
“A woman named Hua Jianxi.”
She sat down at the coffee table. Lin Jiu immediately sat close to her, her arms naturally wrapping around Ling Ling.
“A woman?” Lin Jiu’s tone carried a dangerous tremor. “Weren’t you supposed to be shopping with Big Sister Ye today?”
“We were shopping, just happened to run into her.”
Ling Ling took the water Lin Jiu handed her and took a sip. “She approached me on her own. She said she was the Eighth Seat of the Round Table Knights of the Cradle, the ‘Siren.’”
As soon as she finished speaking, the temperature in the entire living room seemed to drop ten degrees.
The smile completely vanished from Lin Jiu’s face. In her azure eyes, the madness and violence that were usually suppressed tightly poured out without restraint, as if Pandora’s box had been opened.
“Cradle… Round Table Knights…” Lin Jiu repeated the words softly. “Did she come to capture big sister? Or to destroy our daily life?”
“No, it doesn’t seem so for now.”
Ling Ling quickly told Lin Jiu everything that happened today, including Hua Jianxi’s intentions, her stance, and the “Lingy” nickname that gave her a headache.
After hearing this, Lin Jiu was silent for a full half minute.
Then, she smiled.
It was the kind of smile that made one’s spine chill and sanity points plummet.
“Heh… heh heh heh…” Lin Jiu lowered her head, her black bangs covering her eyes. “ ‘Lingy’? Even I’ve never called you ‘Lingy’… What right does she have? How dare she?”
Ling Ling held her water glass, and even her breathing began to unconsciously slow down.
She could feel the tangible black aura emanating from Lin Jiu, ten thousand times more terrifying than when she faced “Iron Wall” Artyom.
If Lin Jiu back then was an evil demon from hell, then the current Lin Jiu was like an ancient god performing a dimensionality reduction strike.
“Big sister.” Lin Jiu looked up, her smile blindingly bright, but there was not a glimmer of light in her eyes. “That woman named Hua Jianxi, which seat was she? The Eighth Seat, right?”
“…What do you want to do?”
“Nothing much.”
Lin Jiu said with a smile. “I was just thinking—‘Siren’ is a sea demon, right? A sea demon should be good at singing, right? After I pull out her tongue and soak it in formaldehyde, I wonder if she can still sing so beautifully and call you ‘Lingy’ in that disgusting voice?”
After hearing her little sister’s aggressive declaration, Ling Ling decided to try her best to avoid making her little sister angry in the future.
“Also, she said you were her toy?” Lin Jiu continued smiling. “I’ve decided. Next time I see her, I will—” she took out a fruit knife and started peeling an apple, the movements fluid and pleasing to the eye, “—tell her exactly whose possession you are.”
The fruit knife reflected a chilling gleam under the light.
Ling Ling silently curled up on the sofa, hugging her knees.
This is bad, this is bad. Her yandere little sister’s possessiveness had been completely triggered by that trashy pink-haired woman.
She started seriously thinking about a problem: if Hua Jianxi really met her little sister next time, would she have to evacuate everyone within a one-kilometer radius in advance?
But watching Lin Jiu in a full defensive posture, like a cat madly hissing over its invaded territory, Ling Ling felt… a little relieved.
No matter what that Hua Jianxi wanted to do, no matter how troublesome the Ye Family’s problems were.
As long as this home was still here, as long as Xiao Jiu was still here.
She could probably handle it.
“Xiao Jiu.”
“Hmm?”
“Apple, once you’ve peeled it, give me a piece.”
Lin Jiu blinked, and the black aura around her instantly retracted, turning back into that obedient and cute little sister.
She placed a slice of peeled apple by Ling Ling’s lips, smiling with satisfaction.
“Okay, big sister!”
Watching her sister eat the apple she had peeled herself, Lin Jiu silently completed an unspoken sentence in her heart.
‘If not for Big Sister Ye and Big Sister Qian Dai being important people in Big Sister’s heart, I wouldn’t be able to act, but I will definitely not let this wild woman named Hua Jianxi off easily.’
Ling Ling leaned back on the sofa, still chewing the apple her sister had fed her, when her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket.
She pulled it out and saw a text message from an unknown number.
“Lingy, today’s strawberry cream foam was really good~ Next time, want to try a couple’s cup? (◕‿◕✿)”
Ling Ling stared at the message expressionlessly, then silently flipped the phone over and placed it screen-down on the coffee table.
“…What’s wrong, big sister?” Lin Jiu tilted her head.
“Nothing.”
“Liar, your ears are red.”
“…Maybe the heating is on too high.”
Lin Jiu didn’t say anything, because the heating wasn’t even on right now. She just looked at her sister with a smile.
However, the fruit knife in her hand had somehow already deeply embedded itself into the cutting board, the tip sunk deep into the wood, the handle still trembling lightly.
Ling Ling looked at the knife, then at her sister’s innocent smile that said “I don’t know anything,” and silently lit a stick of incense for Hua Jianxi in her heart.
This trashy pink-haired woman probably doesn’t know how to write the word “death.”