I was born and listened to my neighbor's older sister talk about her family of origin.

The door closed.

The cushion fell to the floor, rolled twice, and came to rest in the corner.

The ward was very quiet.

The two girls, one standing by the door and the other sitting in front of the easel, neither moved.

The energy from kicking people out had dissipated, leaving only an awkward silence in the room.

After a long while, Lin Xinghe bent down, picked up the cushion from the ground, dusted it off, and hugged it to her chest.

She stole a glance at Lin Youxun by the easel, and began to speak dryly:

"Sis, he was probably just joking..."

Lin Youxun sat on a high stool, exhaled, and reached out to tuck the hair that had fallen across her forehead behind her ear.

"If you're joking, then why were you angry just now?"

Lin Xinghe was speechless when asked the question. She fiddled with the tassels on the cushion and remained silent.

After a two-second silence, she came to her senses and looked up at Lin Youxun:

"Sis, why are you angry? Didn't you say you didn't remember him?"

Lin Youxun: "..."

There was silence in the room again.

Lin Xinghe blinked, belatedly realizing that she had blurted out the truth without thinking.

She raised her hand and scratched the back of her head, her eyes drifting to the side.

Lin Youxun sat on the stool without moving, her cheeks gradually turning red.

She got off the bar stool, walked to the bedside, grabbed the blanket, and covered her head and pillow together.

A muffled sound came from under the covers:

"Xinghe, am I incredibly stupid? How could I come up with such a terrible idea as faking amnesia..."

Lin Xinghe looked at the bulge on the bed. Her usually gentle and composed older sister rarely showed such vulnerability.

She walked over, placed the cushion at the foot of the bed, and smiled slightly.

"No, there must be a reason why you did it, sister."

The blanket shifted, and Lin Youxun poked her head out from under it, a few strands of her hair disheveled.

She glanced at the closed door and whispered:

"Xinghe, go check the doorway to see if he's eavesdropping outside."

Lin Xinghe: "..."

Without asking any further questions, she turned and walked to the door, gently pressed down on the doorknob, and peeked out through a crack in the door.

The corridor was empty except for the nurses' station trolley parked not far away.

Jiang Ye didn't block the doorway; instead, he sat on a bench at the end of the corridor, looking down at his phone.

Lin Xinghe closed the door again and walked back to the bedside.

"He wasn't at the door; he was sitting at the other end of the hallway playing on his phone."

Lin Youxun propped herself up on the mattress, patted the empty seat next to her, and gestured for her to sit down.

After Lin Xinghe sat down on the edge of the bed, Lin Youxun pursed her lips, took her sister's hand and held it in her own:

"Xinghe, I can tell that Jiang Ye likes you, and you like him too."

"Therefore, I'm withdrawing."

Lin Xinghe's hand trembled, and her head shook rapidly:

"I don't like him!!"

"Xinghe, we are twins."

Lin Youxun looked into her eyes and said softly, "I can tell what you're thinking at a glance. You can't fool me."

Lin Xinghe opened her mouth, but the words of rebuttal stuck in her throat, and she couldn't utter a single word. She could only lower her head and look at the two people's hands.

Yes.

They are twins.

No one knows each other better than they do.

Lin Youxun lowered her eyelids and glanced at her calves, which felt somewhat weak:

"With this illness, it's uncertain whether I'll survive. I..."

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Lin Xinghe raised her hand to cover her mouth, panicking.

"Don't say anything unlucky! What's with all this talk about living or dying? With me here, and Jiang Ye here, you'll definitely live to be a hundred!"

Lin Youxun smiled as her mouth was covered, and patted the back of her hand to indicate that she would stop talking.

After Lin Xinghe lowered her hand, Lin Youxun continued speaking:

"Since you two like each other, you should be together. Don't worry about me, I'm really okay."

Lin Xinghe looked at her sister and asked:

"What about all the things Jiang Ye did for you?"

Lin Youxun's mouth was slightly open, and she stood there stunned.

Lin Xinghe sighed, her shoulders slumping.

"Sister, he just said he likes both of us at the same time. It sounds like he's a jerk and very casual."

"But isn't the situation we're in now the same thing?"

"You give in to me, I give in to you, pushing and shoving back and forth—what do we take him for? Something that can be transferred at will?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Youxun's eyes widened.

Previously, she was only thinking about how not to burden Jiang Ye and how to fulfill her sister's wishes, and she had never thought about the problem from this perspective.

Yes.

What does she take Jiang Ye for?

Lin Xinghe lowered her head, her fingers tracing the wrinkles in the bed sheet:

"Actually, sister, I've been thinking a lot lately."

She is not stupid.

In the past month at school, what Jiang Ye did to her had long gone beyond the boundaries of ordinary friends and deskmates.

Every morning, he would give her hot breakfast, fill her desk with snacks, and make physical contact when they got together to discuss problems during evening self-study sessions. He was spoiling her completely, treating her like a girlfriend.

Xia Xiaowen confronted her several times in private, asking if she and Jiang Ye were secretly dating behind everyone's back.

At first, she would feel awkward and make excuses to explain for Jiang Ye.

But later on, even she herself became confused and couldn't figure out what their relationship was.

She pretended not to understand, deceiving herself, and accepted every carton of milk and every breakfast he offered with a clear conscience.

Even today, she finds herself used to having this person by her side.

I've even... become somewhat dependent on him.

Lin Xinghe raised her head and looked at Lin Youxun:

What he just said might actually be true.

"He genuinely likes both of us."

"We owe him so much."

"I was suffering from anxiety disorder at first, and he pulled me out of it little by little."

"Later, when you were diagnosed with ALS, he spent day and night in the lab and managed to develop a drug to slow down the progression of the disease for you."

"Now, in order to help me get into Peking Union Medical College, he's spending so much time every day helping me with practice questions..."

Lin Xinghe recounted each and every one of these matters, her voice lowering:

"What he gave us went far beyond the affection between ordinary men and women."

"But what about us? We're sitting here, getting angry at him over some trivial relationship issues, about who he actually likes, kicking him out, and then we're still here trying to appease each other."

"Sister, why are we doing this?"

The ward fell silent again.

Lin Youxun leaned against the headboard, unable to speak for a long time.

Yes.

What Jiang Ye gave the two sisters was real salvation, a life-saving drug, and a tangible future.

Which of those things isn't more important than so-called fidelity and status?

But the two of them are still stuck in the narrow confines of worldly conventions, getting stuck on trivialities.

Lin Youxun looked at her younger sister in front of her.

She used to think that Xinghe was immature and needed her to protect her.

But only today did she realize that her younger sister saw things much more clearly than she did on this issue.

For the first time, she was at a loss, clutching the corner of the blanket, and asked blankly:

"Then... what should we do?"

"I've been pretending to have amnesia, he must think I don't like him anymore..."

Lin Xinghe gripped Lin Youxun's hand tightly and spoke frankly:

"Don't worry, sister, he figured it out less than an hour after you started pretending to have amnesia."

Upon hearing this, Lin Youxun fell completely silent.

The next second, her cheeks and earlobes turned bright red, and she felt like she was on fire.

Oh My God.

What has she been doing these past few days?!

What is she pretending for?!

Lin Youxun looked at Lin Xinghe with a hint of resentment: "Why...why didn't you tell me?"

Lin Xinghe saw the resentment in her eyes and could only give a vague smile.

"Um... I was just worried you'd feel awkward."

Before Lin Youxun could say anything more, Lin Xinghe immediately changed the subject and said seriously:

"Sister, you've always been worried that your body won't hold up, that you won't be able to stay with him forever, right?"

Lin Youxun was indeed drawn to the attention and, without denying it, nodded slightly.

"Then you shouldn't have pushed him away."

Lin Xinghe looked into her sister's eyes and said sincerely.

"In this limited time you have, love him well, don't leave any regrets for yourself, and don't leave any regrets for him."

She paused, then added:

"Sister, feelings also have a time limit."

Lin Youxun stared blankly at her younger sister, her eyes welling up with tears again.

Just as Lin Youxun's expression was complicated, Lin Xinghe suddenly leaned closer to her and whispered something:

"Besides, with Jiang Ye's current looks and physique, you might not find someone as perfect as him anywhere in the world. If you don't take advantage of him now, are you going to let other women have him later?"

Lin Youxun: "......."

Not right.

Is this really her sister, so fierce?!

……