Yang Wanxi believed her words had come straight from the heart, delivered with utmost sincerity.
But Bai Doudou merely blinked in a daze, neither giving her a joyful bear hug while saying “I need you, Yang Kuikui,” nor tearing up with emotion.
Yang Wanxi waited and waited as the wind swept fallen leaves through the gap between their shoes.
……Stupid Bai Doudou, what was she daydreaming about?
Helpless, Yang Wanxi no longer wanted to stalemate with Bai Kou. She reached out and pushed Bai Kou’s forehead with her fingertip.
Only then did Bai Kou react. She nodded and smiled at her. “Oh, sure!”
Sure about what?
After all that, just a sure.
Yang Wanxi was utterly speechless.
She pressed down on Bai Kou’s shoulders and turned her around. “Let’s go back.”
Bai Kou crossed the street alone. When she turned her head to look, Yang Wanxi had already entered the residential compound with her pet bag on her back.
She withdrew her gaze. The rain continued to pour endlessly.
Bai Kou lowered her head and suddenly poked a puddle with her shoe tip. The reflection turned into trembling ripples.
Then, she too lifted her head and stepped forward.
Home.
She swiped the key card at the door lock.
Bai Kou frowned and stood in the doorway, twisting the lock back and forth with “click click” sounds.
At that moment, from the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Bai Yuqiao suddenly emerging from the room.
Bai Kou’s hands kept exerting force. She turned her face toward Bai Yuqiao and called out with a smile, “Sis!”
Bai Yuqiao did not head straight for Bai Kou upon hearing her. Her gaze lingered on Bai Kou’s face for two seconds, then shifted to the door handle. Next, she turned left, squatted in front of the TV cabinet in the living room, pulled open a drawer, and rummaged twice.
She retrieved a thumb-sized white oil bottle.
Under Bai Kou’s bewildered gaze, Bai Yuqiao approached with the oil bottle. She pulled Bai Kou back with one hand while dipping the bottle’s tip into the keyhole with the other.
“Click click.” She twisted lightly counterclockwise twice, then added two drops of oil.
“Click.” Finally, one clockwise turn.
“Wow……” Bai Kou caught the key her sister removed and exclaimed involuntarily.
The two entered the room. Bai Kou trailed behind like a cute little tag-along, her eyes shining with admiration as she watched her sister pull open a drawer, put away the oil bottle, and head to the kitchen past her.
She waited for a moment when their eyes would meet……
So she could give her sister a big thumbs-up in praise!
But for some reason, Bai Yuqiao seemed especially busy. She opened a drawer in the kitchen, rummaged, and right in front of Bai Kou, took out a roll of plastic wrap.
She tore off two sheets.
As she turned, she was about to meet eyes with Bai Kou, who stood straight at the doorway—
“Sis—” Bai Kou was just about to smile.
Unexpectedly, Bai Yuqiao feinted at her sister, turned away expressionless, and drew a pair of chopsticks from the kitchen rack.
Bai Kou couldn’t hold back. She stepped forward two paces and asked, “Sis, are you doing some experiment?”
【……】
Bai Yuqiao frowned, her profile clearly showing annoyance. After a few seconds, she turned to Bai Kou with a smile, crossed her index and middle fingers, pointed in the air, and signed, 【Yes.】
“Oh.” Bai Kou glanced again at the pile of items in her sister’s hands and guessed, “Physics experiment?”
【Yes.】
After repeating the answer with a faint smile, Bai Yuqiao touched her sister’s face, circled around her, and returned to her room first.
Bai Kou leaned against the kitchen doorframe and stood there alone for a while.
Fine, fine.
Since her sister was studying, she should hurry and do her own things too.
Bai Kou picked up her backpack from the edge of the sofa and, upon entering her room, first pulled out the data cable, turned on the computer, and connected her phone to the host.
She uploaded photos to her QQ space album and, while at it, opened a webpage and navigated to Li Wan’s forum.
As expected, the little forum admin Lu Tongtong had been much faster than her.
The front page already had a towering thread over five hundred floors high: “【Aftermath】Airport pickup report + on-site videos + fan support display~~”
Bai Kou sat up straight, clicked in, and scrolled the mouse wheel with a grin, enjoying comments like “OP took great shots!” and “You captured Xianxian so cutely, OP!”.
When she scrolled to the bottom, Bai Kou pulled the keyboard closer and was about to type a reply when her door was knocked on.
Since Bai Xiaochu had told the kids in advance that she wouldn’t be home tonight,
there was no doubt.
The one knocking right now was Bai Yuqiao.
She opened the door. Outside, Bai Yuqiao had changed into pajamas. The moment Bai Kou opened it, she looked up and met her sister’s eyes.
But this time, Bai Yuqiao didn’t state her purpose directly as before. She stood silently, her gaze still gentle as it slowly swept over her sister’s face.
So Bai Kou took the initiative and smiled. “What’s up, sis?”
Bai Yuqiao took her sister’s right hand and gently placed a Clow Card-patterned sticky note on the web of her thumb—still the little gift Bai Kou had “reluctantly” given her as a child.
Two lines of text were written on the horizontal line of the sticky note.
But since Bai Yuqiao had placed it upside down on Bai Kou’s hand, when Bai Kou looked down immediately, she couldn’t make it out at first.
She even acted silly, forgetting she could just turn her wrist. Her body spun 360 degrees first, and only then did her wrist follow.
With her back to her sister, Bai Kou softly read the first line on the sticky note: “Did you have fun these past couple days…… Yeah!” She finished reading, turned her head to her sister, and said, “Yeah! Sis, did you see the two super long texts I sent you last night?”
Bai Yuqiao nodded.
“Hee hee.” Bai Kou was very satisfied. She turned back and read the next line, “Did your friends all get home safe…… Yeah! Tongtong and I dropped off Pei Yue first, then took a cab back together.”
After answering these, Bai Kou peeled off the sticky note, pinched it between her fingers, turned back to look into her sister’s eyes, and waited expectantly, feeling like her sister had come specifically, so there must be more to ask, right?
No.
Bai Yuqiao paused for two seconds, then only signed to her sister: 【Go to bed early, good night.】
Back in her room, Bai Yuqiao twisted the door lock shut.
She stood quietly by the door, listening to the sound of a chair sliding in her sister’s room next door. Soon, “tap tap tap,” the keyboard clacked.
Bai Yuqiao lowered her eyes, slowly leaned back against the door, and when she lifted her gaze again, she looked toward the desk.
An exercise booklet lay open on it.
Along with over a dozen crumpled discarded sticky notes.
“……”
Bai Yuqiao straightened up, walked over quietly, pushed aside the pile of scrap paper with the back of her hand, closed the exercise booklet, and turned off the desk lamp.
Only moonlight remained in the room.
Bai Yuqiao sat in the moonlight, opened her phone, went to contacts, and entered.
【Physics CompetitionShida Affiliated MiddleXiao Qian】
Option.
Delete contact.
Confirm.
“Snap.”
Bai Yuqiao closed her phone flip.
Time flew into summer, entering June. The junior high section where Bai Kou attended was selected as a gaokao exam venue, so grades one through three had a pre-gaokao holiday for a full-campus cleaning.
They had to ensure no text remained on the walls.
The grade distributed reddish-pink on one side, ink-green on the other sandpaper sheets to each class. “Scrub scrub scrub, scrub scrub scrub.” In each classroom, students gathered in rows before the white walls, manually grinding away the writings and drawings.
Bai Kou was among them.
She finished the section of wall in front of her, turned her head, and saw Zhang Yang about to lift a bucket of dirty water to dump. She quickly set down her sandpaper, ran over, and helped him carry the bucket together.
Very unluckily, the drainpipe in their floor’s bathroom was clogged with a plastic bag. The two exchanged pained looks, then huffed and puffed as they turned toward the stairs.
Coming face to face, Bai Kou spotted Pei Yue.
She and a group of senior sisters Bai Kou didn’t recognize were carrying mops, originally listening expressionlessly to someone speak. After Bai Kou watched for a few seconds, as if sensing her gaze, Pei Yue suddenly turned to look at her.
Bai Kou’s hands were both helping with the bucket, so she couldn’t raise her arms. She just lifted her chin, curved her eyes, and smiled at Pei Yue.
Pei Yue handed her mop to a classmate nearby and hurried over.
“That’s heavy, let me help.”
Bai Kou said no no no need, but Pei Yue wouldn’t hear it. She insisted on joining, and the three of them carried the dirty water bucket downstairs together.
Splash—
The black water with foam rolled into the drain.
“We’ll probably move to your class’s current classroom next semester.” In the restroom, Bai Kou turned her head to Pei Yue.
Pei Yue didn’t reply, but a smile appeared on her face.
That evening at home, Bai Kou and Yang Wanxi huddled in front of the computer, opened PS, and happily discussed making a ten-meter-long banner for Bai Yuqiao.
The content would be—
“Congrats to our sis Bai Yuqiao on returning from gaokao!!! Your little sisters love you!!! Mwah mwah=3=!!!”
Bai Xiaochu passed by, stuck her head in to look, saw the string of bright yellow regular script characters on the bright red image, and heard her daughter excitedly directing, “Yang Kuikui! When the time comes, we have to shout it out loud! Let everyone hear!”
“No problem, I’ll bring a couple megaphones.”
Bai Xiaochu: “……” Poor you, Yuqiao. Looks like gaokao wasn’t your “ordeal” after all.
These two sisters of yours are^_^.
The day the citywide gaokao officially began brought blazing sun.
The four sat in the car heading to the exam venue. The driver focused on driving, while the two in the back held their breaths the whole way, not daring to make a sound, afraid of disturbing the exam-taker in the passenger seat.
Through the car window, Bai Kou saw the gaokao candidate in the next car cramming a little booklet for every precious second.
Her brows furrowed instantly. She sat up straight and turned to look at her sister.
Bai Yuqiao’s hands rested calmly on a transparent document pouch containing her admission ticket, black neutral pen……but no little booklet for last-minute glances.
“……” Oh no! Bai Kou fretted for her sister, but seeing her lips pursed as she stared ahead, she worried asking would make her even more nervous.
In her anxiety, Bai Kou quickly typed a line on her phone and nudged Yang Wanxi, who was gazing at the scenery beside her.
“?” Yang Wanxi, lost in thought, turned back. She first looked at Bai Kou’s face, then noticed the 5300 dangling by her leg.
She picked it up and saw the screen read: 【Yang Kuikui! What do we do! Sis definitely forgot her review materials!】
Yang Wanxi furrowed her brows with a smile and typed below: 【Does Yuqiao sis even need to review?】
Bai Kou took it back with a “tsk”: 【Of course! This isn’t some regular exam! It’s gaokao!】
Yang Wanxi: 【Hahaha okay okay don’t worry, I think you’re the most nervous one in this car.】
Bai Kou: 【TAT I need to pee.】
Back and forth, even Bai Yuqiao, who had been spacing out watching the car ahead, noticed.
She glanced up at the center rearview mirror and saw Bai Kou suddenly look tragic, close her eyes, lean back against the headrest, and dramatically clutch her heart with both hands.
—So cute.
She thought.
Gaokao lasted two days: Chinese, math, comprehensive sciences, English.
Bai Xiaochu closed the shop and stayed home, simmering crucian carp soup to boost brains for the exam-taker, then driving with her two bleeding hearts to pick up Bai Yuqiao from the exam venue for meals.
Normally, on days when both junior and senior high were on break, Bai Kou and Yang Wanxi would definitely go out to play, but these two days, with Bai Yuqiao at the exam venue, they sat in Bai Kou’s living room.
The TV broadcast gaokao news live.
They ate fruit, sat primly, more solemn than the one actually taking gaokao.
When Bai Yuqiao came home for lunch, Bai Kou held her chopsticks in her mouth. Wherever her sister picked up food, her gaze followed; when her sister put it in her mouth, she watched how many chews it took.
“Hey, hey.” Bai Xiaochu waved her chopsticks at her youngest. “Just staring will fill you up. Why not crawl into your sis’s stomach?”
“I wish.” Bai Kou muttered.
Bai Yuqiao glanced at Bai Kou, smiled, and picked a piece of fish into her bowl.
