“Daughter, you’re almost thirty now…” Zhong Wen’s words carried a deeper meaning.
This time, Liang Sheng had returned home alone.
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her mother’s arm in a coquettish manner, while grabbing her father’s hand with her other. “Isn’t it fine if I just stay with you both forever~? I don’t want to get married.”
Liang Wengao felt a mix of joy and worry at her words.
The joy came from knowing his daughter wouldn’t be swept away by some no-good boy. Yet he worried that, once he and his wife grew old, there would be no one to care for their precious girl.
He affectionately stroked his daughter’s head. “Daughter, is there no one you like?”
Liang Sheng hesitated for a moment, then shook her head again.
“No.”
This affection, this love—it could never be spoken aloud.
“It’s all right. Dad believes you can take good care of yourself.” Liang Wengao patted her back reassuringly.
Ding-dong~
The doorbell rang, and Liang Wengao got up to answer it.
It was Liang Jin.
“Sis!”
The door had barely opened when Liang Jin threw herself at Liang Sheng’s side, hugging one of her arms and elbowing her way into the spot Liang Wengao had just occupied.
Liang Jin’s parents followed behind her.
They smiled teasingly. “Look at these two sisters—their bond is truly something else. They shared a dorm in college, now they’re roommates in their shared apartment and running a studio together.”
With that, her father clapped Liang Wengao on the shoulder. “Not like us brothers when we were kids. We fought like we meant to kill each other—nearly ended up in the police station over it.”
Everyone laughed along with the two men.
“With you two looking out for each other, we don’t have to worry anymore,” Liang Jin’s mother said, grabbing her daughter’s fleshy arm. “Look at you, Jin’er—you’re twenty-five now, still clinging to your big sis like this. What’ll you do when she gets married? You’ll be the one crying then! At your age, you should be finding someone, not planning to stay single forever.”
Liang Sheng quickly chimed in with a smile. “No worries, Auntie. I’ll stick by Little Sister here as fellow single dogs for life. Don’t fret—we probably won’t ever get married~”
“Good, good. Thanks, Sheng. Keep an eye on this rascal for us.” Liang Jin’s mother shot her daughter a glare.
Liang Jin huffed and buried her face in Liang Sheng’s chest.
Sure enough, only big sis was the best in the world.
Perhaps watching the two so intimately close, Liang Wengao, Zhong Wen, and Liang Jin’s parents sometimes sensed something beyond sisterly love—something unusual between the girls. But they didn’t dwell on it, or perhaps they didn’t dare to.
No one would tear away that veil of secrecy, nor melt the taboo spoken of in society’s whispers.
After dinner.
“Sis Liang Sheng, I want to get plastic surgery.” Liang Jin’s head rested on Liang Sheng’s lap, her eyes closed, her emotions unreadable.
Liang Sheng paused in her scrolling on her phone and held back a laugh. “Why? No need to be that drastic, silly girl.”
Liang Jin, who had been quietly waiting, had her atmosphere ruined by Liang Sheng’s casual slang. She opened her eyes and stared fixedly at Liang Sheng’s chin, her lips pouting in a childish whine. “Sis—! How can you talk like that without any care for my feelings?!”
Liang Sheng mimicked Liang Jin’s mother from earlier, pinching her cheek. Liang Jin yelped “Ow ow!” nonstop, like a wild monkey bounding down from the hills. She leaped up on the bed, flailing and bouncing around.
“Hahaha, you’d be better off taking more brain supplements than getting surgery!” Liang Sheng pointed at Liang Jin’s bed-jumping antics, clutching her stomach in laughter. “Silly girl, plastic surgery might fix the baby fat on your face, but it can’t change that clear, utterly foolish look in your eyes!”
Liang Jin: “…”
“I should’ve known better from the start. Now I’m regretting it a little. Why did I even try discussing something so serious and heartbreaking with you, someone who bounces around like she’s having a seizure?”
Liang Sheng put on a pitiful expression.
Once she’d had her laugh, Liang Sheng beckoned Liang Jin over with a gentle wave.
Liang Jin turned her head away in a huff, refusing to look at the green-haired girl.
Liang Sheng nearly burst out laughing again—her silly little sister was just too adorable. She waved at Liang Jin once more.
Liang Jin turned back, still sulking, but her voice was unusually meek. “Be serious this time when you talk to me, sis.”
Liang Sheng couldn’t resist that soft, warm vulnerability. She immediately surrendered, scampering over without a hint of mockery, sitting obediently by Liang Jin’s side like a good puppy.
Her touch was gentle as she stroked Liang Jin’s hair, her eyes brimming with tenderness. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”
Liang Jin nodded docilely.
“You don’t need to, Liang Jin. This was never a love that society could accept.”
She spoke candidly, though her smile was tinged with sorrow.
“You don’t have to cater to the narrow views of others. They only see arrogant lust and the thrill of moral taboo—they can’t see our true feelings.” Liang Sheng pulled Liang Jin into an embrace by the neck, holding her close and patting her back gently, as if soothing a fussy infant, comforting the guilty and aching girl in her arms.
Tears streamed down the face in her embrace, soaking Liang Sheng’s chest. “Sis, if only I didn’t like you. If only… if only our hearts weren’t twisted like this. I shouldn’t have wasted so many of your youthful years as your sister. You could have been like any normal girl, enjoying a happy… joyful…”
Liang Sheng hugged her tightly, eyes squeezed shut. “Don’t cry. This is the path we chose ourselves. I don’t regret it. I can’t bear to lose you—you’ve loved me for over a decade. How could I ever abandon you?”
She felt the warm tears on her cheek.
“I love you—not for the thrill, not for lust, but simply because I love you. You’re my love, my one and only.”
Liang Jin’s tears flowed even harder. Her body trembled. “Sis…”
“Good girl, don’t cry.” Liang Sheng pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “Don’t waver. When you love someone, love them to the end.”
“Do you remember that punishment? If we strip away the eroticism, it’s about waiting in his mansion, watching the little sister grow into a young woman, then kneeling with a smile anyway. So much helplessness, so much that’s inexplicable.” Liang Sheng turned her head to gaze at the bright moon in the night sky. “In the end, they left—hand in hand, together.”
Tears clung to Liang Sheng’s lips as she smiled, running her fingers through Liang Jin’s hair. “We’ll do the same. We’ll elope for a while, then come back to visit the family who loves us.”
“Unlike in Qiong Yao’s stories, where they leave without a care because they have no family left. We’re different.”
“We’ll elope, but we must remember—it’s not just society’s gaze, but also the family who worries for us.”
Liang Jin wrapped her arms around Liang Sheng’s waist. Her voice was muffled but louder than ever, full of resolve now that she’d seen the light.
“Sis, I’ll always be with you.”
“Me too.”
“Little sister.”
