Curiosity is one of the basic building blocks of humanity (or so they say).
In any case, Ye Zhibai’s curiosity had been thoroughly piqued!
Guang Yu’s voice echoed in her mind via Mind Transmission: “Why are you still pulling such a straight face? That little girl earlier—we could tell you were clearly curious about her. Oh, right, that’s just your usual expression. Sorry about that, hehe.”
Get lost!
Does my curiosity have to be written all over my face or something?!
After hearing the Head Maid’s earlier sigh, Ye Zhiyun didn’t pursue the topic.
On the contrary, she wanted to shut it down before it could gain any traction.
With her big sister right there, there was no need to dwell on unpleasant matters.
Ye Zhiyun crossed her arms in a gentle motion, wrapping them securely around Ye Zhibai’s arm like a sloth clinging to its branch.
She gave the Head Maid a single, concise reply.
“No need to mention her.”
“Understood, Second Miss.”
?
Ye Zhibai blinked in surprise.
Don’t just drop it like that!
Imagine this: your relatives at the dinner table suddenly share an inside joke that everyone but you gets. You’ve just started leaning in to catch the details, and they pivot with a casual “Eh, never mind!”—complete with hearty “hahas.”
Infuriating, right?!
That’s straight-up bad manners!
Well, she could always let it go… After all, this probably had nothing to do with Ye Zhibai anyway.
But… they still had over an hour’s drive to their destination in East City.
With nothing to do and the truth dangling just out of reach, wouldn’t she just bore herself to death?
No, Ye Zhibai resolved to claim her right to know everything.
She pinched the cuff of Ye Zhiyun’s school uniform between her thumb and forefinger.
“Yun’er, who was that girl just now?”
Ye Zhiyun turned her head, her expression tinged with surprise.
Gazing into her sister’s serene, fathomless purple eyes—like a still pond with endless depths—Ye Zhiyun wavered for a long moment.
Well, not that long. Just a few seconds.
In those few seconds, she crumbled under Ye Zhibai’s silent pressure!
Ugh! Sister, stop staring at me like that. It’s making me want to hug you and shower you with love more than it is prompting me to answer your question!
You’re derailing everything!
Ye Zhiyun let out a heavy sigh, her response laced with helplessness and unmistakable fondness.
“Sigh… Sister, your personality is perfect in every way. You’re just too kind.”
?
When did I become “too kind” all of a sudden?!
All I did was ask who that girl was, and you slap a “kind” label on me!
Ye Zhibai’s speechless silence was taken by Ye Zhiyun as tacit agreement.
“That’s just how you are, Sister… Overly kind. You can’t even ignore a kitten caught in the rain, let alone a living person. Lin Zihan might be punchable as hell… but she’s still human. Even a scrap of your concern would make her life worthwhile.”
Hey, don’t go deciding her life’s worth for her!
She’s still alive and kicking!
Ye Zhibai quickly cut off her little sister’s musing. “So… this Lin Zihan—we used to know her pretty well, right?”
“Not really,” Ye Zhiyun answered honestly. “She’d only show up at our house occasionally during big family banquets or major business gatherings. She calls herself a childhood friend, but we didn’t see her that often. Though… we’ve been in the same school since elementary, so that’s true enough.”
That actually sounds pretty close.
Like neighbors who don’t visit much, but still childhood pals?
Wah, and if she could be neighbors with the Ye Family, she must have been a super-rich heiress too!
But… didn’t the Head Maid say “used to be” or something?
Ye Zhibai probed sideways, hoping for answers.
“Yeah, she has such a refined air—definitely from a wealthy family.”
“Used to,” the Head Maid replied from the driver’s seat. “As for now, she might be living a pretty rough life.”
“……”
Come on, spill the reason!
Good grief. Ye Zhibai could see it now: Yun’er clearly couldn’t care less about whatever happened to this Lin Zihan.
The proof was in how she was still sneaking rubs against Ye Zhibai’s cheek with her own face!
The topic had come up from the Head Maid in the first place, and she knew the Second Miss deliberately avoided dredging up old history. So… if the Eldest Miss wanted to hear it, it fell to her to explain.
“It’s like this, Eldest Miss. Back in the day, our Ye Family was the leading enterprise in Qihai City, and Miss Lin’s Lin Family was a close second—thriving at its peak. That was around the time the Second Miss was in elementary school.”
“But… after that, the Lin Family’s business took a downturn, worse year by year. Miss Lin’s father, the president of the Lin Family, was the ambitious sort. He went all-in on a massive project, only to lose everything. They barely paid off the debts, but… the Lin Family vanished from Qihai City after that. We figure Miss Lin’s living pretty hand-to-mouth these days.”
Oh… so that’s how it was?
Ye Zhibai had no real context for it. After all, there’s no first place in literature or second in martial arts—she’d only ever known the Ye Family as Qihai City’s top dog.
It was hard to fathom how a company on par with theirs could crumble so fast in just a few years.
In other words, an heiress once as glamorous as Yun’er… suddenly cast down from grace. That had to be devastating.
But earlier, Lin Zihan had seemed pretty upbeat.
Taking hits and still mouthing off!
Come to think of it, that made her a tough kid.
Ye Zhiyun promptly doused her sister’s budding sympathy.
“Sister, heads-up: that girl’s like a fox—fickle and impossible to read. Who knows what scheme she’s cooking up this time? Don’t take her words to heart or believe a thing she says. If you remember what she was like as a kid, you wouldn’t pity her one bit.”
“What she was… like as a kid?”
Up front, the Head Maid let out a chuckle at that.
“Ha… I remember! Miss Lin was such a handful back then. Second Miss, you mean that time, right? The one where you two became sworn enemies—’to the death’ kind of grudge.”
“Exactly.”
What time?! Which incident?!
This was exactly what Ye Zhibai dreaded about their vague chit-chat!
She didn’t have to wait long. Ye Zhiyun recounted the memory to her big sister.
No, it was more like a little sister tattling to her elder.
“Lin Zihan wasn’t just naughty as a kid… she was downright spoiled rotten! Sister, when we get home, watch some palace dramas—the haughty little princess types. That’s her! No, even worse!”
“You have no idea. One time, she came over and said our house wasn’t as nice as hers—not spacious enough. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but she smashed the cup I’d given you. That was your birthday gift from me, you know…? Heh heh heh…”
She’d only gotten halfway through.
But Yun’er’s eyes were already gleaming with a dark light!
Snap out of it, Yun’er! Hang in there—finish the story!
Ye Zhiyun shook her head and pressed on.
“That damn girl Lin Zihan… after breaking the cup, she still wouldn’t shut up. While you and I were cleaning up the shards, that little monster mocked you for not talking—called you a mute right to your face. The second those words left her mouth… I made her shut it.”
“How… how did you do that?”
“Gave her a thorough beating. She ran off crying.”
Nice.
That’s my girl.
The art of the physical shutdown—textbook!
Kids say dumb stuff when they’re young. Normal, forgivable.
The thrashing? Good lesson learned.
Considering Lin Zihan’s poised demeanor earlier, talk about a glow-up.
Grinning, the Head Maid added, “Oh, right—and the Second Miss made a very valiant declaration back then, all on her own!”
“What was it?”
“Miss Lin called the Eldest Miss a mute, so the Second Miss declared she’d remember it. From then on, every time she saw Miss Lin, she’d beat her once! Pfft… Kids and their rivalries. Looking back, it was pretty adorable—naive and cute.”
“……”
Ye Zhibai fell silent.
Recalling how Yun’er had abruptly swung that stick earlier without her usual restraint…
Head Maid, are you sure Yun’er wasn’t just honoring that childhood vow?!
—《Naive and Cute》.
