A little girl at a magic school, she's a goofy troublemaker who can do anything.

"Senior Xing Rui, I've made up my mind. I'm willing to make a deal with you."

In the dimly lit, cramped room, two people sat facing each other at a table. A dim yellow lamp hung precariously above their heads, illuminating their faces so their expressions were indistinct.

"......Um."

"By the way, senior, how did you find a place like this?"

"secret."

"What's wrong with this light? Has our school become so poor and dilapidated?"

"Oh, this? I was thinking of adding some atmosphere."

-

"Smack."

The room lights came on, making it much brighter. Li Wenyin spoke directly, "Your brother is here..."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Xing Rui quickly stopped her, frantically pulling a box from her backpack. "Why are you in such a hurry! Aren't you afraid I'll break the contract?"

"?" Li Wenyin asked, puzzled. "Didn't you say you had the best professional ethics...?"

Her gaze was drawn to Xing Rui's box, and she curiously leaned closer: "What's this?"

"This is my sincerity." Xing Rui touched the smooth box, patted it lightly, and then gently opened it.

Inside was a magical artifact, very beautiful, like a music box or a miniature chessboard.

Above, the azure sky twinkles with fluorescent light, and above the fine white checkerboard lines, several small stars float and slowly rotate. The stars connect to form a tiny star map, moving dreamily and beautifully above the starry checkerboard.

"Thank you, senior, I really like it." Li Wenyin accepted it with a smile.

"I'm not feeding you this!" Xing Rui quickly protected the starry chessboard. "It's to show you that this is my treasure, storing a part of my memories."

"Storing memories?" Li Wenyin suddenly realized, "Ah—no wonder you're not afraid of people reading your mind. It turns out you store useful memory information separately. Wow, you shrewd businessman."

"That's a harsh way to put it," Xing Rui said with a smile. "It's just the self-discipline of a middleman."

Li Wenyin gazed at the beautiful starry sky chessboard.

"Wouldn't it save me a lot of trouble if I just took the whole thing now?"

"...Hey, you'd better not do something so unethical!"

-

After looking at the chessboard for a while, Li Wenyin understood Xing Rui's sincerity, so she spoke directly: "Your younger brother is..."

"etc!"

Xing Rui interrupted her again, pushing her own starry sky chessboard.

"I haven't finished introducing it yet. This magical artifact can not only permanently record and store memories like stars, but it can also display star maps, using star points to represent people, and show the person's movement trajectory over the past week."

Xing Rui said confidently, "This function is also known as 'The Stars Remember Everything.' Li Wenyin, I'm showing you this for two reasons: first, to reveal my secrets, and second, to give you a free viewing opportunity. How about that? Pretty sincere, right?"

It's really sincere...

Li Wenyin looked at her curiously: "Senior, since you have this, why don't you use it to find your brother?"

Xing Rui: "Well, it's hard to say between my brother and me. For certain reasons, I can't use magic on him, otherwise I would be considered to have overstepped my bounds and it would backfire on me."

Because of contract magic.

Li Wenyin nodded.

That's why he was so knowledgeable about everything, yet he was blinded by Xing Qi's limited understanding.

-

"The stars on these are...?"

Li Wenyin observed that the stars currently floating on the starry chessboard were a familiar pattern, with seven stars connected in a line, shining brightly.

This is......

"The Big Dipper?!" "A ladle!"

Li Wenyin and Xing Rui spoke at the same time.

"Ah," Xing Rui exclaimed, suddenly enlightened, "It looks like the Big Dipper! Ah—"

"..." Li Wenyin exclaimed speechlessly, "What?! Isn't this just the Big Dipper? What spoon? What ladle? Senior, isn't your North Star code name derived from this?!"

"There aren't that many symbolic meanings," Xing Rui shook her head and waved her hand. "The North Star is the North Star in the north and south of the world, which means I'm omnipresent and I come running whenever there's business."

"Roar~"

Suddenly realizing something, Li Wenyin leaned back with a wicked smile, looking at Xing Rui with ill intent.

"Senior."

"You've been joking around for so long."

"He interrupted me several times."

"Is it because you're a little scared?"

"Afraid...afraid to face the truth about your brother's disappearance?"

"..."

Xing Rui froze, avoiding Li Wenyin's gaze, swallowed hard, and remained silent.

She was scared.

-

Xing Rui is very smart.

So intelligent... that there's a chilling calmness and shrewdness deep down.

The night Xing Qi discovered her abnormal behavior, he held her and gave her breathing exercises, breaking down and murmuring his heartbreak, unwilling to accept the cruel truth.

Xing Rui, on the other hand, tasted a breath of fresh air, a breath of fresh air from Xing Qi.

She suddenly realized that if her younger brother, her master, could treat her a little better, she would feel much more at ease.

The sensation of breathing is addictive.

"If you love me, can you give me more?"

You are my only support, please.

Unconsciously, Xing Rui was instilling this idea in Xing Qi, who was fully aware of his own status and identity, yet still greedily demanded things from those above him that he should not have.

Similar to Xing Qi's breath, similar to Xing Qi's possessions, similar to Xing Qi's love.

It was like exploitation, or rather, it was indeed exploitation—an uncontrollable exploitation in the face of life's instincts.

Xing Qi was always obedient and sensible in front of her, always compliant, and with a heartbroken look in his eyes, he tried his best to give her everything.

Xing Rui isn't exactly a good person, and she probably isn't a good older sister either.

She showed him her pain, slowly eroding his love for her, to see how much he could possibly give her, greedily wanting more.

On the day of enrollment, they were both assigned to the Canghai Academy. The motto of the Canghai Academy is:

"We are the ocean, free, calm, and noble; we stand shoulder to shoulder with the vast sky; we are the hope of life."

Freedom, hope for life... for them, it was subtle and ironic.

Staying calm is definitely the right thing to do.

Calm calculation, a calmness bordering on obsession.

That day, Xing Rui, with a subtle "let's give it a try" attitude, and knowing that Xing Qi loathed the contract magic that brought her pain, jokingly said, "Wow, I also want freedom."

Xing Qi remained silent and unresponsive, seemingly lost in thought.

Xing Rui felt that she might have gone too far this time, asking for too much, so she wisely laughed it off and waved it off, not bringing it up again.

Just like... a sensible and well-behaved servant, relying on being favored, can wantonly demand expensive food and clothing, but should not even think about removing the chains and collars, as that would be a breach of duty, and such a thought would destroy the originally seemingly harmonious and happy relationship.

However, in the end, the seemingly harmonious bubble was still burst. No matter how much she ignored everything unusual around her and Xing Qi's changes, she still discovered that Xing Qi had actually left her long ago.

Did he discover her cold-hearted scheming and leave in disappointment? Or was he disgusted by her excessive greed, unreasonable overstepping of boundaries?

Xing Rui was flustered and dared not face it.

She was afraid, afraid that she had lost the only person in the world who loved her, and she was afraid to face that fact.

She ignored him, closed her eyes, and avoided talking about Xing Qi, yet she couldn't help but want to know what had happened to him.

Because Xing Rui also loves Xing Qi.

The world I hate the most, the person I love the most.