Chapter 17

“Okay, the bell’s rung, focus up. I’ll finish explaining this question and then class is dismissed.”

At the blackboard, the teacher circled the three characters “aldosterone” with chalk.

Down in the seats, Bai Yuqiao was in the third row from the back by the window, frowning at the blackboard for a moment before jotting down “A→ketone.” She didn’t notice the three sneaky figures that flashed past the back door on her right.

“Yang Kuikui, I think I saw my sister!” Bai Kou whispered.

“You saw her—so what? That’s totally normal. Hurry up and go, don’t stop. Don’t get me in trouble for sneaking you two in…” Yang Wanxi kept shooing them along.

“So dramatic,” Lu Tongtong whispered too. “Sis, no one’s slacking off in their class—they’re all staring at the blackboard. Way too serious!”

“This is their senior-year rocket class. Basically the top thirty in the whole grade are in here. Okay, okay, you go too. Why can’t I push you two little brats along?” Yang Wanxi was dying of anxiety. If the senior-year teachers caught them, it’d be a disaster.

Earlier, they’d agreed to just wait outside for Bai Yuqiao. But Bai Kou and Lu Tongtong—these two little sisters—insisted they’d never been inside a high school and started begging and coquettishly tugging at Yang Wanxi’s arms to take them in for a peek.

Yang Wanxi knocked Bai Kou on the head. “You came to see your sister off on the first day of school—dare say you haven’t been in before?!”

She said it, but she really couldn’t hold out against the two kids desperately yanking her arms. Leveraging her status as a sophomore, after writing a guarantee and registering their info, the gatekeepers finally let them in.

They’d clearly agreed before entering: no going upstairs, just head to the playground and sit and wait.

But the moment they passed through the teaching building lobby, Bai Kou couldn’t move another step. Her big, round eyes—still just as shiny and innocent as when she was little—sincerely grabbed Yang Wanxi’s hand.

“Yang Kuikui, let’s just go upstairs and peek at Sis real quick. We’ll zip past their classroom, no noise at all, look and then come right back down. Pleeease?”

By the time the three of them—like glitchy machines—passed Bai Yuqiao’s classroom back door for the twelfth time, Yang Wanxi was being dragged along by Bai Kou’s hand, trailing at the end, walking super slow and utterly helpless—

Why on earth did I fall for Bai Doudou’s “just one peek” bullshit?

Inside the classroom, the biology teacher finally wrapped up the last major question in the workbook and flipped open her clipboard. “Take out the papers from this morning. I’ll mark a few questions—focus on those.”

“Choices 4, 9, 11, 12—”

4, 9, 11, 12… Bai Yuqiao recited silently in her head, circling them with her red pen. It was so weird—normally she wouldn’t get distracted like this, but for some reason, she suddenly felt like glancing at the back door.

She slowly raised her eyes, turned her head, and looked.

Her pupils dilated slightly.

Bai Kou—who absolutely shouldn’t have been there right then—locked eyes with her. In an instant, her face lit up with joy. She pressed her hands to her lips, then flung them out wide!

Sending an incredibly vivid flying kiss.

“…” Bai Yuqiao froze for a moment, the teacher’s voice and all the classmates’ noises vanishing entirely.

“Teacher, we skipping the second subquestion on 18?” her deskmate suddenly raised her hand, snapping Bai Yuqiao back to reality.

She blinked and hurriedly refocused. The page in front of her only went up to choice 15.

Everyone else had turned the page ages ago.

Forty minutes later, a taxi pulled up downstairs from the new Dio Cafe in the city center.

Yang Wanxi and Lu Tongtong got out one after another from the front and back doors.

Then Bai Yuqiao stepped out, holding the door with one hand and shielding the top frame with the other, waiting for Bai Kou to climb down safely before letting go and gently closing the back door.

They entered the first floor of Dio Cafe; the dining area was upstairs.

The long, dark-green retro staircase had lamps on both sides flickering like candlelight, as if they were stepping into a mysterious castle.

Bai Kou and Lu Tongtong—the two junior high girls—walked hand in hand, faces full of curiosity as they looked all around. Every so often, they’d huddle their heads together, whispering and giggling nonstop, laughing their hearts out.

Yang Wanxi trailed behind, staring at Bai Kou’s shoulder for a bit. Suddenly, a flicker of displeasure crossed her eyes.

She turned her face away, climbing the stairs while admiring the murals they passed.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep. A QQ notification chimed.

Yang Wanxi frowned and twisted back to look ahead. Bai Kou was chattering away excitedly with Lu Tongtong. Then, glancing right—surprisingly, it was Bai Yuqiao beside her who’d pulled out her phone.

Staring at that red-and-white 5300, Yang Wanxi’s mood shifted from irritation over Bai Kou to bewilderment. She really didn’t get why Bai Yuqiao had ultimately chosen this 5300 as her everyday phone.

The performance was mediocre, and looking stuff up was way less convenient than her other two phones. Just ’cause her little sister gave it to her?

As she was thinking that, Bai Yuqiao suddenly turned from the phone screen to look at her, gesturing a question mark.

Yang Wanxi licked her lips, glancing at Bai Kou who had already stepped onto the final stair. She leaned close to Bai Yuqiao and whispered, “Sis, I’ll tell you something about Bai Kou later.”

Unexpectedly, Bai Yuqiao stopped dead in her tracks, her expression turning serious. Without signing, she typed directly into the phone chat box: 【Say it now.】

They stared at each other, a massive black speaker from the cafe looming overhead to their left, drifting out melodious tones interwoven with saxophone and harmonica.

“Sis, Yang Kuikui.” Bai Kou came back down, proactively grabbing the two dawdlers. “Hurry up! The place inside is too fancy… We’re too embarrassed to go in and sit!”

“Pfft.” Yang Wanxi laughed, grabbing Bai Kou’s wrist in return. “You’re embarrassed? Come on.”

She pulled Bai Kou up the stairs while quietly mouthing back to Bai Yuqiao, “Tell you later.”

“I want this, cappuccino.” Lu Tongtong pointed at the menu.

Bai Kou craned her neck, frowning. “What’s a cappuccino?”

“It’s sweet coffee.”

“Oh—” Bai Kou looked up at the waiter with a smile. “Two, thanks!”

Across from them, Yang Wanxi propped her chin, grinning as she watched the two kids’ exchange like they were at a zoo. Once they finished ordering, she turned and got a Blue Mountain.

Bai Kou asked again, “What’s Blue Mountain?”

Lu Tongtong: “Bitter coffee. Only adults dare to drink it.”

While waiting for their orders, there was a pool table in the cafe’s far corner, empty at the moment. Bai Kou and Lu Tongtong went over hand in hand, circling it and inspecting.

Yang Wanxi stretched her neck to watch when suddenly a hand waved in front of her eyes.

The usually taciturn Bai Yuqiao proactively asked her again: 【What’s up with her?】

Yang Wanxi glanced over, confirming Bai Kou and the others wouldn’t be back anytime soon, then crossed her arms and complained seriously: “She didn’t keep our agreement today. She didn’t go home at five.”

Bai Yuqiao, puzzled: 【Didn’t go home? Where did she go?】

Yang Wanxi replied: “She went out to play with her new big sis—the one she told us about last time.”

Bai Yuqiao froze for a moment, then spread the thumbs and index fingers of both hands with fingertips touching opposite each other, before pulling them apart to the sides and slowly pinching each into a crescent moon shape.

【Moon?】

“?” Yang Wanxi didn’t get it, mimicking the gesture with a baffled expression. “You mean I should go separate them?”

【……】Bai Yuqiao pursed her lips, picked up her phone, typed, 【Pei Yue?】

“Oh, so that’s what Pei Yue means?” Yang Wanxi repeated Bai Yuqiao’s action once more before saying, “Yeah, it’s Pei Yue. Sigh, but she’s not important. The key point is, I feel like Bai Doudou is slowly growing up now… Hmm, look, when she comes here, she’s dragging Lu Tongtong off to play. Do you think one day she won’t want to bother with us two anymore?”

Bai Yuqiao furrowed her brow for a few seconds, then turned to look toward her younger sister.

Bai Kou wore a very thin beige knit top today, her black hair—which had unknowingly grown down to her back—scattered behind her shoulders. From behind, she no longer looked like the little sister from those days.

Bai Yuqiao was in her senior year of high school. On normal days, she wouldn’t think about these things, but some things… or rather, some people, didn’t even require her to deliberately consider them—they were always quietly kept in her heart.

Occasionally think of it during class, when fetching water, when eating.

She was the person who spent the longest time apart from Bai Kou each week; actually, there was no need for Yang Wanxi to tell her…

Just seeing her younger sister, who seemed a little more unfamiliar each time she came home, made her feel extremely uneasy.

Bai Yuqiao thought this to herself, quietly watching her little sister happily clapping hands with her friends for a moment, then withdrew her gaze. She sighed inwardly, but a faint smile appeared on her face as she typed to Yang Wanxi:

【Perhaps. She’ll grow up sooner or later anyway.】

“Hmm…” Yang Wanxi finished reading what Bai Yuqiao had typed, propped her chin on her hand, and turned to gaze out the window. “Alright, it seems you’re not very worried…”

Bai Yuqiao lowered her gaze, her thumb stroking the phone Bai Kou had given her.

In the evening, Bai Yuqiao returned home, didn’t turn on the room lights, and only switched on the desk lamp.

Under the dim light, she sat at her desk and opened the letter Bai Kou had given her on her previous 18th birthday.

The letter says: Sister, we’re going to be together forever, oh!