Chapter 22

The sudden downpour assaulted them, blurring Bai Tongsheng’s figure almost entirely.

Bai Shuangshuang didn’t notice her darkened expression. Though somewhat surprised to see her there, she quickly trotted over with a happy cry. “A-Sheng, why are you here?”

Bai Tongsheng’s face remained grim and silent as she turned on her heel and strode ahead.

Bai Shuangshuang was halfway through folding her umbrella when she realized Bai Tongsheng had already walked several steps away. She hastily tucked the rest away and darted under her umbrella, reaching out quite naturally to link arms with her.

But the moment her hand made contact, Bai Tongsheng swatted it away.

Only then did Bai Shuangshuang realize something was wrong. Softening her voice, she called out to her and tentatively reached out again. Just like before, however, her hand was slapped away ruthlessly before it could touch.

Rejected twice in a row, Bai Shuangshuang didn’t dare try again. She hurried along at her side instead, racking her brains to figure out what she might have done wrong.

Normally, when Bai Shuangshuang stopped taking the initiative, Bai Tongsheng would be the one to reach out and pull her close. But for the first time, she didn’t.

“A-Sheng, I won’t stay out so late anymore,” said Bai Shuangshuang. “Today was a special case, but I promise, from now on I’ll head straight home after class.”

She watched Bai Tongsheng’s expression closely as she spoke.

The girl’s face remained coldly impassive, and Bai Shuangshuang realized this wasn’t what had upset her.

Frowning, she tried to think of something else, but she truly couldn’t come up with another reason for Bai Tongsheng to be angry.

Before long, she gave up, her voice turning soft and aggrieved. “A-Sheng, what are you mad about? Tell me, okay? How can I apologize if you won’t say?”

In the past, this coquettish tone of hers had been as effective as planting a kiss on Bai Tongsheng’s forehead. But today, Bai Tongsheng was clearly in a towering rage. No matter how gently Bai Shuangshuang pleaded, her expression didn’t soften in the slightest.

At her wits’ end, Bai Shuangshuang spent most of the walk coaxing and begging, yet she couldn’t even coax a single glance from Bai Tongsheng.

Panic welled up inside her. What if Bai Tongsheng stayed angry forever and never spoke to her again?

The person she wanted to avoid was the iron-hearted Bai Tongsheng from her previous life—the one whose affections she could never win no matter what. Not this version, sharp-tongued yet soft-hearted, who actually cared for her.

In her anxiety, she suddenly noticed the milk tea in her hand. She hurriedly held it out with an ingratiating smile. “A-Sheng, Jiang Chan bought this especially for you. Do you want—”

“Pa.”

The cup was smacked mercilessly to the ground. The fragile container shattered on impact, its contents splashing out and leaving a faint brown streak across Bai Shuangshuang’s white sneakers.

Bai Shuangshuang froze in place. She stared blankly at the figure striding away under the umbrella alone. With no shelter of her own, rain dripped steadily onto her body, but she felt none of its chill—only a deeper cold blooming in her heart.

She blinked, uncertain whether the wetness at the corner of her eye was falling rain or something bursting forth from within.

Squatting down, she tremblingly pulled a tissue from her pocket. The moment it emerged, rain soaked it through.

Gripping the sodden paper, she rubbed fiercely at the stain on her shoe. It wouldn’t come clean, but she stubbornly wiped at it again and again.

The rain from above had stopped—she hadn’t even noticed—until Bai Tongsheng bent halfway down and seized her trembling hand.

Bai Tongsheng’s hand was warm, a stark contrast to her own chilled fingers.

Without a word, Bai Shuangshuang wrenched her hand free and stubbornly resumed scrubbing at the shoe, as if she could erase that ugly mark through sheer force of will.

Bai Tongsheng grabbed her hand once more, refusing to let go this time. With a firm pull, she drew the girl—who was half a head shorter than her—tightly into her arms. Bai Shuangshuang struggled fiercely in her embrace, but Bai Tongsheng’s gaze fixed straight ahead, as if peering through the hazy curtain of rain to see those two figures laughing and chatting just moments before.

The beast in her heart roared savagely, and she couldn’t hold it back.

“Bai Shuangshuang.”

“I’m so jealous.”

“If I were just a little older, would it be me waiting for you after class?”

……

No one brought it up of their own accord, yet they tacitly buried what had happened in the rain that day.

As if Bai Tongsheng had never clutched her tightly beneath the umbrella, never whispered those loaded words into her ear.

Still, Bai Shuangshuang could sense that something had begun to shift.

It was like a tangle of knotted threads—she didn’t dare touch it.

Just like that night, and the kiss that hardly qualified as one.

As long as she didn’t think about it, nothing should change, right.

……

“Shuangshuang, Auntie has to go deliver some documents to your uncle right now, and it’s on the way for you too. Why don’t you just ride in my car to school later?”

“Delivering documents?”

Yu Xichi nodded, picked up the folder, and walked over to her side. The two of them headed downstairs together. “Your uncle plans to go straight to the company after dropping off his friends. He left a file at home and just called me to bring it over so he doesn’t have to make a special trip back.”

“Is Uncle at the Joy Hotel?”

Bai Bingyang’s university friends had come to see him a couple of days ago. Since there weren’t enough rooms at home, he had booked some outside at a hotel for them.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Then let me take it to Uncle for you. Auntie, don’t you still need to make dinner later? It’d be such a hassle to go back and forth. Auntie, just call Uncle and tell him. I’ll head straight over to meet him.”

Yu Xichi thought about it for a moment but didn’t refuse. “Sure, then I’ll trouble you, Shuangshuang, to make the delivery for me. I’ll give him a call and have him wait for you downstairs first. If you don’t run into him and time’s short, just go up to the room. 412. Just knock.”

Bai Shuangshuang didn’t bring her phone to school, so she couldn’t contact Bai Bingyang directly anyway.

“Okay.”

……

“Thanks for making the special trip, Shuangshuang.”

“No trouble at all. It was right on my way. Uncle, if you don’t have anything else, I’ll head to school now.”

Bai Bingyang set the folder down on the table. When he saw that her hands were empty, he thought for a moment and called after her. “Shuangshuang, hold on.”

“Huh?”

The man pulled two red bills out of his wallet and pressed them into her hand. “I see the other kids coming back to school loaded up with big bags of snacks. How come you didn’t get anything? Did your auntie forget to give you money? Good thing I brought some. There’s a supermarket right by your school—swing by and grab some. Okay, off to school with you. See you Friday.”

Bai Shuangshuang handed the money back. “Auntie already gave me some, Uncle. You don’t need to give me any. I don’t like snacks that much, so that’s why I didn’t buy any.”

Bai Bingyang didn’t take it. “Then get some milk or whatever. You have classes all day. Don’t you get a few minutes to rest between them? Grab some little breads or pastries. Have one if your stomach growls.”

She was insistent. “Uncle, really, no need. I truly can’t accept this money.”

Bai Bingyang had a silent standoff with her for a moment, then sighed and took the money back. “You… you don’t have to be quite so well-behaved. Sure, you call me Uncle, but Xichi and I—we’ve thought of you as our second daughter for a long time now, you know?”

Her eyes warmed a little. She smiled and nodded. “I know, Uncle.”

“Alright then. Be careful on your way. Call us if anything comes up.”

“Okay.”

Bai Shuangshuang turned and headed downstairs. She’d only reached the second floor when someone tapped her shoulder. Her back went rigid at first, but she relaxed once she caught the familiar scent from the other person.

“Uncle?”

Bai Bingyang said, “It’s rare to catch you like this. If I don’t buy you something, I feel like I’m slacking on my elder duties. C’mon—you won’t get it yourself, so I’ll get it for you. No refusing this time, or your uncle’s gonna get mad. And I’m pretty scary when I blow up.”

She fell silent for a moment, then nodded helplessly. “Okay.”

——Sometimes, accepting someone’s sincere kindness turns out to be better than turning it down.

But right as they reached the hotel entrance, they spotted a figure standing with her back to the setting sun, her expression dark and brooding.

Even Bai Bingyang, who’d weathered all sorts of storms, couldn’t help shivering at the sight of that man-eating glare.

Bai Tongsheng strode toward them step by step and said coldly to the man, “Get your hand off her.”

Her body moved faster than her brain. By the time Bai Bingyang snapped out of it, he had an extra document in his hand—probably something Yu Xichi realized she’d forgotten in the folder and sent Bai Tongsheng to deliver. Meanwhile, Bai Shuangshuang, who’d been right beside him moments ago, had already been dragged off without a word by the scowling Bai Tongsheng.

Bai Bingyang, who hadn’t projected an ounce of paternal authority, scratched his head innocently. What’s going on here?

……

Bai Shuangshuang tried to pull her hand free. “A-Sheng, you’re hurting me.”

At that, Bai Tongsheng gripped even harder. She only loosened her hold after hearing the pained hiss—like she’d finally come back to her senses.

The moment Bai Tongsheng let go, Bai Shuangshuang hurriedly checked her hand. A faint red mark had already formed where it’d been squeezed.

Before Bai Shuangshuang could say a word, Bai Tongsheng had already lifted her hand to her lips and gently blew on the reddened spot.

A warm puff of air brushed over her skin, moist and ticklish.

Shuangshuang’s heart fluttered. She yanked her hand back, tucking it behind her, and stammered, “W-Why were you so harsh with Uncle earlier?”

Bai Tongsheng’s dark eyes took in her unease. Without a word of explanation, she firmly seized Shuangshuang’s hand again and led her onward.

“What were you two planning to do?”

“Huh? Oh, Uncle wanted to take me to the supermarket for some shopping, but good thing you showed up. Now we don’t have to. Hey, where are you dragging me?”

Bai Tongsheng pointed at the shopping basket. “Fill this up, or don’t even think about leaving.”

Shuangshuang’s face fell. “I just said I don’t want your dad buying me stuff. Didn’t you get that?”

Her expression wooden and her mood sour, she shot back, “You’d accept it from my dad, but not from me?”

“I wasn’t planning to accept it anyway—”

“Then go pick things out. If you don’t fill it, I’ve got a dozen ways to make sure you don’t leave.”

“Bai Tongsheng! Are you ignoring everything I say?”

She curved her lips in a faint smile. “Bai Shuangshuang, do you believe me if I say I’m barely holding back my temper while talking to you right now?”

Shuangshuang clamped her mouth shut at once. This side of Bai Tongsheng was downright terrifying.

She was like a venomous snake flicking its red tongue—vibrant and seemingly harmless on the surface, but one bite could drop you dead on the spot.

~~~

“From now on, don’t let me catch any other man touching you.”

Bai Tongsheng delivered the words gravely after walking her to the School Gate.

Even someone as oblivious as Shuangshuang could detect the unusual possessiveness in her tone. Blushing with a mix of embarrassment and irritation, she hissed under her breath, “Bai Tongsheng, are you out of your mind? That was your dad! And I’m your sister! You have no business saying things like that!”

Bai Tongsheng’s gaze bored into her, sending an inexplicable chill racing down Shuangshuang’s spine.

She parted her lips and spoke just four simple words, then turned and strode away alone into the soft glow of the dying sun.

“Bai Shuangshuang, I really am sick.”

—That’s why the jealousy burns so fiercely.

—Even when it’s my own father.