Bai Kou held Pei Yue’s arm as they walked toward the sports field. On the way, they ran into the homeroom teacher and stopped to chat for a few sentences.
As they continued forward, she inexplicably sensed something and glanced back—
Then, she saw Bai Yuqiao and Yang Wanxi, who had said they would keep sitting at the canteen, walking out together.
Bai Yuqiao’s expression was extremely serious.
Even when Bai Kou immediately smiled and greeted her, Bai Yuqiao did not smile back.
Meanwhile, Yang Wanxi’s profile looked very anxious, her mouth moving nonstop.
“Yuqiao-jie.”
Yang Wanxi was at her wits’ end and tugged hard at Bai Yuqiao’s wrist. “Although it’s not good that Bai Kou is dating early, calm down, don’t get agitated. She’s still young—”
Bai Yuqiao’s footsteps halted. She turned her head to look at Yang Wanxi, her eyes icy cold.
“…”
Yang Wanxi thought, ‘We’re done for, Bai Doudou. This is the first time I’ve seen your sister this angry.’
“Hm? Strange… what on earth are they talking about?”
Bai Kou saw the two of them stop abruptly while walking, and her sister was giving Yang Kuikui a cold face…
The atmosphere really didn’t look good.
Bai Kou grew worried. After turning back around, she unconsciously switched arms with Pei Yue, her fingers gripping tighter without thinking.
Pei Yue had also been puzzled, gazing into the distance, but suddenly felt her arm pinched. She startled, withdrew her gaze, and looked down.
Her sleeve was tightly pinched into wrinkles by Bai Kou.
“Are those two fighting?” Bai Kou muttered. “But what could Sis possibly fight with Yang Kuikui about?”
Pei Yue lifted her gaze.
But her mind was already full of the way Bai Kou had gripped her.
“No way—” Bai Kou waited two more seconds and said, “Pei Yue, wait for me. I’ll go check out the situation first.”
By the time Pei Yue nodded to agree, Bai Kou had already let go and run off.
Bai Kou jogged at first, then slowed to a brisk walk as she got closer. When she was almost in front of her two sisters, she hesitantly called out softly, “…Sis?”
Only then did her sister turn around. She seemed not yet recovered from the “fighting” mood, and there was a trace of coldness in the way she looked at Bai Kou.
Hm?
Bai Kou wasn’t sure if she had seen wrong, but Yang Kuikui next to her seemed to be giving her a meaningful look, frowning and shaking her head lightly, as if saying “don’t say anything rash.”
She puzzled over it silently for two seconds.
Bai Kou looked back at Bai Yuqiao. The latter had let go of Yang Wanxi’s hand, letting it hang at her side, her five fingers slightly curled.
Finally, Bai Yuqiao uncurled her fingers, regained her calm expression, pointed at herself, then at Bai Kou.
—【Let’s talk.】
Yang Wanxi smiled and led Pei Yue away, having Pei Yue take her back to watch Bai Kou’s class 4×100 relay and cheer for Bai Kou in her place.
Meanwhile, Bai Kou followed closely behind her sister toward a narrow alley between the canteen and the basketball court.
As she walked, Bai Kou marvelously looked all around.
The gray walls were covered in green vines, with occasional cherry-pink flowers dotted among the vines.
She and Tao Miao often gazed at this path from outside when buying snacks, but they had never actually entered it.
“Screech—”
“Screech—”
Her sister pulled back an iron bolt, then naturally pushed the door.
A gap opened between the rusted iron doors.
Bai Yuqiao withdrew her hand, lifted her arm, lowered her eyes coldly, and pinched the rust stain between her fingers. Then she gave it a light kick with her foot.
“Screech—”
The right side of the door opened fully.
Bai Kou’s eyes widened in shock.
So inside was…
A swimming pool?
Bai Yuqiao glanced at her sister, then took half a step back. Her left hand hung at her side as her right hand pointed inside, gesturing for Bai Kou to enter.
Bai Kou took half a step forward, but it looked rundown and eerie inside. She directly grabbed her sister’s sleeve and said, “Sis, can we really go in here?”
Bai Yuqiao looked down at the way Bai Kou was pulling her, then turned her face away and nodded.
After all, Sis had been a student at this school before. Bai Kou thought. I’m only in my first year of high school, but Sis stayed for three years, much longer than me. If Sis says it’s fine, it must be fine.
After mulling it over inwardly and reassuring herself, Bai Kou’s hand slid from Bai Yuqiao’s sleeve to grasp her sister’s fingers.
“OK! Then let’s go in and take a look!”
Her hand was suddenly pulled like that by Bai Kou.
Bai Yuqiao’s expression froze slightly. Then, she was like a kite tugged by a string, her figure floating lightly as she followed Bai Kou inside.
After entering, Bai Kou didn’t forget to carefully kick the door shut with her foot from behind. She saw her sister staring at her thoughtfully.
Bai Kou: “Better safe than sorry.”
Bai Yuqiao’s expression remained indifferent, ignoring her sister’s words as she withdrew her hand, intending to walk a few more steps toward the abandoned pool.
Feeling her sister ignoring her.
Bai Kou simply reached out, grabbed Bai Yuqiao, and forcibly made her turn back. “Sis, look me in the eyes.”
Bai Yuqiao paused for a moment before turning back. She glanced at Bai Kou, then looked away, gazing toward the sports field past the railing and weeds.
Bai Kou stubbornly circled in front of Bai Yuqiao again.
This time, she said nothing.
Bai Kou pointed at her sister’s shoulder in a very serious posture, pointed at her sister, clenched her five fingers tightly and brought them close to her own chest, then forcefully spread them upward.
—【Are you mad?】
After gesturing, Bai Kou frowned and stared into Bai Yuqiao’s eyes without speaking further.
Her eyes gradually warmed from cold. Bai Yuqiao only felt helpless—helpless with herself. In her heart, her sister had merely made this insignificant hand sign, and she realized she could no longer stay angry.
Even seeing the somewhat uneasy look on her sister’s face as she waited, she felt heartbroken.
At the same time, she suddenly realized clearly that in just a few short years, Bai Kou would turn eighteen. After that, let alone dating—whatever Bai Kou wanted to do, she wouldn’t have the right to interfere too much.
Besides, in everyone’s eyes, Bai Kou was her sister.
And Bai Kou only saw her as a sister.
Now, aside from the bad-sounding label of “dating early” on paper, Bai Kou had done nothing wrong.
Even “dating early”… was there anything wrong with truly liking someone?
Bai Yuqiao raised her hand. After a moment’s hesitation, she gently patted her sister’s shoulder.
This time, she didn’t answer her sister’s question. She only blinked slowly at Bai Kou, indicating: 【I’m heading home first.】
Then, she sidestepped Bai Kou. “Screech—”, and pulled open the iron door that Bai Kou had just shut moments ago.
Leaving Bai Kou standing there alone. She pursed her lips and breathed slowly, very slowly.
That evening after school, sure enough, only Yang Wanxi waited for her. Bai Kou walked beside Yang Wanxi, taking out her phone several times, but in the end only sent her sister one message:
【Sis, are you still coming out for dinner?】
Bai Yuqiao did not reply.
“Looks like Yuqiao-jie is still mad.” As they reached the crosswalk, Yang Wanxi grabbed the distracted Bai Kou. “What exactly did you two talk about? Why did she leave alone? Did she… criticize you?” She said the last five words very softly and gently.
“Sigh.” Bai Kou sighed and pocketed her phone. “If she’d criticized me, that would be better. She didn’t say anything to me at all. She didn’t even tell me if she was mad or not.”
“Haha, does she need to tell you?” Yang Wanxi chuckled lightly. “From childhood to now, Yuqiao-jie shows her anger the most obviously, right?”
“Huh?” Bai Kou completely disagreed. “Where is it obvious?”
Yang Wanxi raised her brows, turned her face away with a smile, and said, “If it’s not obvious to you, it’s probably because you’re not afraid of her. Anyway, I think it’s pretty obvious.”
“How am I not afraid…” Bai Kou muttered first, then said softly, “What I fear most is her being unhappy in this family.”
The smile faded from Yang Wanxi’s face.
After a moment, she chuckled lightly.
She didn’t know why she was suddenly getting worked up like this, but she asked anyway.
“What about me? Are you afraid of me being unhappy?”
Unfortunately, cars streamed by on the road, and Bai Kou was entirely focused on recalling her sister, so she didn’t hear Yang Wanxi’s words.
Yang Wanxi didn’t ask a second time.
They planned to eat dinner on the street.
In the car, Bai Kou leaned against the seatback, her head drooping, hands cupping her phone as she still hoped for her sister’s message.
Suddenly, Yang Wanxi snapped her fingers in front of her—not too light, not too heavy.
“Snap.”
Bai Kou turned her head and saw a bag of green apple-flavored QQ Candy in Yang Wanxi’s hand.
“I grabbed it from your canteen on the way.” Yang Wanxi tore it open and handed it to her. “Do you still like these?” She took a green gummy from the bag herself, popped it in her mouth, and chewed. “Mm, still that super weird flavor.”
“It’s not weird.” Bai Kou laughed, popping two into her mouth at once. “Sour and sweet, delicious.”
Yang Wanxi smiled, crossed her arms, tilted her head forward, and said softly, “Why is your grade’s uniform so ugly? Pei Yue wears it willingly too.”
Hearing Yang Wanxi bring up “Pei Yue” on her own, Bai Kou paused and said, “The high school second-years’ color is different from ours.”
“Oh, right.” Yang Wanxi nodded slowly. “Theirs is red-black trim, yours is tomato scrambled eggs.”
“You’re the tomato scrambled eggs!” The tomato scrambled eggs herself said angrily.
Bai Kou’s mood finally lifted.
Yang Wanxi was very satisfied. Her eyes curved in a smile as she patted the back of Bai Kou’s hand. “Don’t worry. It’s normal for Yuqiao-jie not to reply for now. Even if she’s super mature, she needs time to process her emotions sometimes. Maybe it’ll be fine by the time you get home tonight.”
Bai Kou looked at Yang Wanxi’s smile for a while.
She asked, “So before, when you didn’t reply to my messages, was it because I made you unhappy and you were processing your emotions?”
“…” Yang Wanxi was stunned for several seconds before saying, “In your dreams. If you gave me emotions to process, I’d just block you outright and let you regret it and cry on your own.”
Bai Kou smiled and lowered her eyes, gripping the bag of candy tightly.
No.
She thought, how did Yang Kuikui get so bad at lying?
Or have I just grown up enough to see through it?
Bai Kou fell silent.
Yang Wanxi grew a bit flustered. In the noisy car, she lowered her voice to keep covering. “Don’t just randomly assume things about me because of Yuqiao-jie, Bai Doudou. Bai Yuqiao is your sister, so it’s only natural she’s mad about your early dating. At most, when I first found out, I was a bit… frustrated that you’re not living up to your potential toward you. Yeah, just that feeling, nothing else.”
Bai Kou turned her head and looked at Yang Wanxi quietly, unblinking.
Yang Wanxi grew increasingly uneasy.
Her ears burned. She raised a hand to block Bai Kou’s gaze.
“Alright, alright. Stop paying attention to me when nothing’s wrong. Focus on your sister’s messages.”
Before getting out of the car, the two discussed for a good while what to eat. But as soon as they got out, they saw the “M” logo.
Bai Kou turned her head. Yang Wanxi did too.
Bai Kou: “Maybe—” She pointed at the McDonald’s door.
Yang Wanxi nodded: “Exactly what I was thinking.”
They went in. The greasy aroma of fried chicken and fries wafted straight at their faces.
Yang Wanxi glanced at three intact coupons next to a half-eaten plate on the right. She picked them up and muttered, “Prices went up, huh.”
She hadn’t eaten at McDonald’s for about a year or two.
Though her dorm mates often brought back fries to share, after Bai Kou wasn’t around, Yang Wanxi suddenly lost interest in the place.
The last time she’d come to McDonald’s was probably right before heading to university, when Bai Kou treated her to a “farewell feast.”
