Whenever people looked back on the past, they always liked to sigh that old line: “Times change, and people change with them.”
The saying captured it perfectly—only after growing up and glancing back did you realize how swiftly life had shifted. So many cherished joys of childhood had faded away.
And those playmates etched deep in your memory? As the years passed, even their faces had transformed.
Well… “things stay the same, but people change.” Chi Yuliang felt the phrase fit their situation perfectly right now.
Look at that—her Little Bai had grown up.
Not only had her appearance changed, but even her gender had shifted.
A girl changes so much when she comes of age, indeed.
On the way to Chi Yuliang’s home, the two of them chatted about all sorts of memories from their childhood.
The ant hills in the courtyard, games of hide-and-seek around those neat rows of ginkgo trees, and that daring escapade when they’d teamed up to sneak bites of osmanthus cake.
This upscale residential complex wasn’t the orphanage of their memories, but as long as the other was by her side, did it really matter if it wasn’t?
Every step forward, every echo of the other’s voice, felt as comforting as crunching through the autumn maple leaves atop the orphanage walls.
But that didn’t stop Ye Zhibai from voicing the odd sense of disconnect.
“Sister Liang…? Are you thinking something really naughty right now?”
“Ah?! No way, Little Bai. What kind of naughty thoughts could your sister have? I was just thinking that no matter how many times I see you, the words ‘so pretty’ always pop into my head unbidden. And since you’re pretty… well… I couldn’t help stealing a couple extra glances.”
Sister Liang, let’s not even get started on how naughty that thought already was.
And second—you’re sure it was only a couple of glances?!
From the moment they’d walked shoulder to shoulder through the gates of the residential complex all the way along the path to Building 8, Chi Yuliang’s gaze had been locked on Ye Zhibai’s face in a perfect state of stasis!
When she was with Chi Yuliang, Ye Zhibai always found herself entertaining a few extra “childish” impulses.
Take right now, for instance. Little Zhibai shot back at Sister Liang’s words like the biggest kid on the playground.
“You know perfectly well that ‘pretty’ isn’t a compliment to me—it’s more like a shock to the soul. And anyway, if we’re talking pretty, that’s clearly you. Don’t you remember? Back at the orphanage, those boys held their secret polls for campus beauty, and you always won by a landslide.”
“There was such a thing?! I had no idea!”
“That’s exactly right—they had an oral pact. No one was allowed to spill the beans to the girls, or they’d be no man at all.”
Hah, I didn’t spill anything, and look at me now—couldn’t be a man if I tried.
How cold the world is.
As they reminisced about these unknown tidbits from their past, Chi Yuliang walked a step ahead, leading the way.
Unbeknownst to her, her shoulder had drifted even closer to Ye Zhibai.
She leaned in so that even her hesitant words, spoken softly, would carry to Little Bai’s ears.
“S-So… Little Bai, back during that campus beauty vote… who did you cast your ballot for?”
“Who else? You, obviously. What kind of question is that?”
“Hiss…! Little Bai! D-Don’t tease your sister like that!!”
“？！”
Did she really have to call out someone so brutally honest?
Ye Zhibai was just speaking from the heart, plain and simple.
Sister Liang really had been pretty from a young age.
And besides, the Sister Liang of today was pretty in a way that had nothing to do with the pretty little girl of their childhood.
Did anyone think it was just Chi Yuliang staring at Ye Zhibai the whole way?
Not even close. Truth be told, Ye Zhibai’s peripheral vision wasn’t behaving itself at all. It kept drifting, uncontrollably, to Chi Yuliang’s legs!
Sister Liang… we’re just heading to your place for a meal today. No plans to go out anywhere.
So under those circumstances—
Why were you wearing black pantyhose?!
Was this your idea of loungewear?
No way that could be true. The only explanation was that Chi Yuliang had dressed up with extra care today.
The hip-hugging skirt in an azure hue flared perfectly at the hem, paired with a crisp white cotton short-sleeved blouse buttoned just so. Together, they traced the alluring curves of her slightly plush, long legs, sheathed in those sheer black pantyhose.
Sister Liang’s stockings were the perfect fit.
As she walked, the pull from her thighs tugged at her calves, causing the fabric to cinch ever so slightly against her skin. That taut, clinging firmness felt like the creamiest chocolate syrup imaginable. And at the very end, where the syrup might drip to the floor? A pair of mid-heeled shoes with gleaming buckles, their click-click-click rhythm underscoring her mature allure.
Her long purple hair cascaded down the back of her white blouse. From Ye Zhibai’s slightly uptilted gaze, that graceful neck flickered in and out of view with the breeze—like congealed cream, like fresh-fallen snow.
Up close like this, the faint milky scent of Sister Liang’s body fragrance kept wafting over, steadily eroding Ye Zhibai’s composure.
As for womanly charm? It wasn’t that Sister Liang had it mastered.
No—she embodied it entirely.
All of the above was Ye Zhibai’s fair and upright assessment as a paragon of virtue.
Everyone appreciated beauty, after all. Marveling at Sister Liang’s otherworldly looks and flawless figure naturally meant stealing an extra glance or two.
Once she’d had her fill, Ye Zhibai naturally pulled her gaze away.
Heh heh… no harm done. Even if her heart yearned toward the divine, as long as no one said a word, who’d ever know?
No “person” to say anything…?
Oh no!!
“Ye Zhibai, why do you keep staring at Chi Yuliang’s legs like that? Don’t tell me… legs are part of the naughty bits too!”
“!”
She’d forgotten there was a non-human right here! (Double entendre intended.)
The voice appeared out of nowhere, causing Chi Yuliang to halt mid-step.
She glanced down at her legs on instinct… but couldn’t see her own toes.
When you had a chest like hers, that was par for the course—humanity’s ultimate tease.
“Mmph… mmph! Mmph!! Naughty!”
Ye Zhibai hurriedly clapped a hand over the lewd little fox’s mouth to stop any more career-ending outbursts.
At the same time, she glanced nervously at Sister Liang, who’d come to a sudden stop.
Ye Zhibai’s mind raced through frantic excuses amid her panic.
Oh no, oh no… Wonder if Sister Liang heard that? If she did, please let me explain—I was just checking the brand of those pantyhose so I could buy a pair for Yun’er. It’s almost July, and the weather’s getting cold soon. We can’t fall behind on staying warm!
For real!
Chi Yuliang pondered for a long moment, head bowed in thought.
In the end, she simply turned around with a blank look on her face, her smile as gentle as ever.
“Hm? I think I heard something just now. That voice… Little Guang Yu, are you tagging along too?”
“Mmph…! Mmph!” (Yep, I’m here! Quick, help a sister out!)
Little Guang Yu was still invisible, so Chi Yuliang naturally couldn’t see her predicament. But the muffled response prompted her to offer a polite greeting anyway.
“Got it! Looks like it’s not just Little Bai visiting today—Little Guang Yu too. I’ll have to put some extra effort into lunch!”
“Mmph!” (Add an extra fish!)
Huh?
Had she… dodged the bullet?
After kindly warning Little Guang Yu via mind transmission to keep quiet, Ye Zhibai finally released her mouth.
It seemed Sister Liang really hadn’t caught any of the fox’s naughty rambling?
“Little Bai?” Chi Yuliang had already started walking again. She half-turned with a radiant smile. “Come on, come on! Why are you standing there in a daze? Your sister can’t wait to show off her cooking. Hurry—let’s head home!”
“Oh… r-right… coming.”
Was it her imagination?
Somehow, it felt like Sister Liang’s already great mood had suddenly gotten even better!
“Come on in, Little Bai.”
“Whoa, what an advanced door… It even goes click-click as it opens. So cool!”
No wonder it was an upscale residential complex—even the door locks looked nothing like ordinary ones.
From the way Sister Liang had unlocked it earlier, this had to be some kind of code lock.
Code locks weren’t anything new, but one that took three heavy clunks—ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk—after the code was entered? That level of high-security design was a first for Ye Zhibai!
Anyone else might have poked fun at Ye Zhibai’s wide-eyed, country-bumpkin curiosity. But not Chi Yuliang. She was more than happy—in fact, she’d been looking forward forever—to share every detail of her life with Little Bai.
“Little Bai, it might look fancy, but it’s really just a regular code lock made overly complicated. Haha… That said, you really have no self-awareness at all, do you?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Didn’t I visit your place last time—the discussion hall? Those doors use a code lock plus a keycard. You have to scan both layers to get in, and the programming on that card is insanely complex. Little Bai, your family’s villa is the truly… uh… in your words… cool one?”
No way!
Turns out the cool one was her all along!
The door swung open.
Chi Yuliang pushed it wide and stepped aside, making room for Ye Zhibai—and the invisible Little Guang Yu.
“Come on in, Little Bai. Why don’t you head to my room and relax for a bit? Dad’s not off work yet this time of day, and Mom said something about going out for snacks…?”
“Mm… huh?!”
“Little Bai?”
“Hold on a sec, Sister Liang. I need to give Little Guang Yu a quick word.”
“Sure…?”
Ye Zhibai had one foot across the threshold, her toes not even touching down yet, when the sight inside Sister Liang’s home made her sole freeze rigid in midair.
The crane stand—one leg only, Little Zhibai special edition!
If she hadn’t tested her balance like this, Ye Zhibai never would have realized she had such a gift for it!
Spotting Little Guang Yu about to barge right in without a care, Ye Zhibai lunged and yanked her back by the collar!
“Waaah! What? What’s wrong! Is there a bomb inside?!”
“What bomb threat? Look at the living room—it’s sparkling clean, polished to a shine. That’s a freshly mopped floor right there. We’ll leave shoe prints for sure if we go in like this. This isn’t our house; let’s show a little restraint.”
“Oh… I thought it was something serious. Afraid of dirtying the floor? Just take off your shoes! Watch the power of my divine power! I’m heading in first!”
“……”
Guang Yu hopped lightly into the room. In that brief moment while she was airborne, her shoes dissolved into specks of starlight and scattered away.
Now she was wearing little white socks—no more dirty footprints!
And then…
“Ouch!!”
“？！”
A loud crash came from the floor, followed by the sound of something skidding across it. Chi Yuliang jumped in fright and glanced around hurriedly.
No worries, Sister Liang. That was just Guang Yu landing flat on her butt. It doesn’t bother you or me at all.
Guang Yu, you should understand that shoes aren’t just for protecting your feet.
There’s another important reason—for traction, to prevent slipping.
Though Guang Yu had sacrificed herself in the process, her bold spirit of experimentation still sparked some inspiration in Ye Zhibai.
Mm, true enough. To avoid dirtying the floor, they could simply take off their shoes before entering.
Ye Zhibai stood outside the door, leaning against the frame. Suddenly, she squatted down and began fumbling with her shoelaces. To Chi Yuliang, the sight was utterly baffling.
“Little Bai…? What are you doing here?”
“I’ve stepped in plenty of dust on the way over.”
Ye Zhibai kept her head lowered, clumsily untying her laces as her silver hair bobbed up and down with the motion.
She had an extraordinary air of elegance about her, but leaning against the doorframe like that, her slender figure took on a fragile, delicate beauty when viewed from above—like a beauty too frail for the wind.
Even as she was, Ye Zhibai kept murmuring her explanation for the odd behavior.
“Sister Liang, you just mopped the floor. I don’t want to track dirt in with my shoes, so I’ll take them off fir—hey!”
A shift in balance always came without warning.
One second, Ye Zhibai had been holding steady in her squat.
The next, she felt herself yanked upward by a powerful yet gently restrained force!
Her view spun for a moment before settling into an entirely new position.
—From outside the door to inside the room.
Just one step over the threshold, and Ye Zhibai’s foot was already planted on the living room’s tile floor!
Stepping into a freshly mopped living room with shoes on wasn’t so bad.
What was truly alarming, though… was the face Ye Zhibai saw when she looked up.
“……”
This…
No, it was definite.
Absolutely definite. This was the first time in two lifetimes that Ye Zhibai had seen this expression on Sister Liang’s face.
—Pouting lips, a look of reproach, sulky and annoyed.
Glimmers of tears shimmered faintly in her dark pupils.
Ye Zhibai had once believed that big sisters were creatures incapable of pouting.
That they could never puff out their cheeks like little hamsters.
Now, though…
Hard to say.
