My sister, whom I raised, has turned evil after faking her death for three years.

"Are you buying this for your younger siblings too?" Sun Yaqin asked casually, her gaze sweeping around discreetly until she spotted a little girl drawing by the window.

The little girl was fair-skinned and had two little braids. She was drawing very carefully.

Sun Yaqin thought to herself, "This little girl is so cute. I wonder whose child she is."

"For my sister," Su Qing said, tucking the blue book under her arm and then pulling out a mental arithmetic workbook to look through. "We haven't had her back for very long, so someone needs to keep an eye on her studies."

She said this in a very flat tone, as if she were saying something perfectly natural.

But as a mother herself, Sun Yaqin knew all too well what lay behind that calm tone—worry.

Only those who are truly concerned will spend a Sunday morning browsing through elementary school math textbooks at a bookstore, their brows furrowed with worry, and still unwilling to leave.

Sun Yaqin felt a growing fondness for this girl.

"Then you'd better be mentally prepared," Sun Yaqin said, leaning against the bookshelf, in a tone of someone who'd been there before. "Third and fourth grade math is a hurdle. Things like perimeter, area, fractions, decimals, and word problems are all crammed together."

"Let me tell you, when I was tutoring my son... when I was tutoring my brother, I almost tore up his homework."

She almost let slip that she was "tutoring my son," but abruptly changed her mind halfway through.

Upon hearing this, a subtle crack appeared in Su Qing's expression.

  

She looked down at the pile of elementary school supplementary books she was holding: third-grade math thinking training, a complete guide to basic knowledge, daily mental arithmetic practice, and word problem breakthroughs. She then thought about how she had already started to feel dizzy just by looking at the table of contents and remained silent for two seconds.

"I've been thinking of tearing them up," she said, "but not the exercise books, but these books."

Sun Yaqin burst out laughing at her words.

"You're lucky," Sun Yaqin waved her hand. "You haven't seen any more outrageous questions. Like this one: a pool is being filled with water while draining water out, and the question is, when will the pool be full?"

"I thought to myself, 'Isn't this crazy? If you want to fill it up, just turn off the drain!'"

Su Qing suddenly turned her head, her eyes shining brightly: "Yes! That's the kind of question! I just saw a similar one: one train travels from city A to city B, and another train travels from city B to city A. The two trains meet in the middle of the journey."

"I just don't understand, since they knew they were going to meet, couldn't they just arrange to meet at the train station?"

"And there are those that put chickens and rabbits in the same cage!" Sun Yaqin got more and more excited as she spoke.

"There are thirty-five heads from top to bottom and ninety-four legs from bottom to top," Su Qing continued seamlessly, her tone filled with genuine confusion. "You've finished counting, can't you still tell the difference between a chicken and a rabbit? Chickens have two legs and rabbits have four legs. Why don't you squat down and take a look?"

Two people who had been deeply hurt by elementary school math stood in front of a shelf of supplementary textbooks and reached a high degree of spiritual resonance in their shared experience of "complaining about math problems".

After chatting for about five or six minutes, Su Qing felt that she had said everything she had to say that day.

She wasn't the type to chat a lot with strangers, but this "young sister buying books for her younger brother" was so endearing, every word she uttered hit the nail on the head.

Sun Yaqin also felt that she had a very pleasant chat.

Since she gave birth to two sons, her family has been in a state of gender imbalance, consisting of "three men and her". Her husband is quiet, her eldest son is even quieter, and her youngest son talks a lot, but it's all nonsense.

She finally met a girl she could chat with, and she didn't want to leave.

"Oh, right, I haven't asked you your name yet," Sun Yaqin said with a smile. "My name is Sun Yaqin."

"Su Qing. Su as in 'awakening,' and Qing as in 'green.'"

Sun Yaqin's smile froze on her face for 0.3 seconds.

Su Qing.

I have a younger sister.

The two pieces of information matched in her mind with lightning speed, producing a crisp "ding-dong".

Sun Yaqin's smile widened rapidly, and the light in her eyes instantly soared to a brightness that Cheng Xiaoyu had only ever seen during major sales at shopping malls.

"Su Qing," she rolled the two words on her tongue, her smile exceptionally bright, "a good name, it suits you perfectly."

Su Qing smiled politely: "Thank you, Sister Yaqin's name is also very nice."

Sister Yaqin.

This title made the flower in Sun Yaqin's heart bloom even more brightly.

However, she did not show any abnormality. She neither asked "Do you live in XX community?" nor did she say "Do you have a younger sister named Jiang Ran?"

She's been through it all and knows that the worst thing you can do in this kind of situation is to rush things.

If you're not familiar with the girl, suddenly being too enthusiastic will only scare her away.

There is ample time.

Sun Yaqin gracefully picked up a book titled "Intensive Training for Third Grade Math Word Problems" from the shelf, flipped through it casually, and her tone returned to its previous relaxed and casual tone: "This one is alright too, the difficulty level is moderate, would you like to get one as well?"

Su Qing glanced at it, took it, flipped through it, and nodded: "Okay, thank you, Sister Yaqin."

"Why are you being so polite with me?"

Sun Yaqin glanced again at the little girl drawing by the window.

The little girl just looked up and glanced this way. When her gaze fell on Su Qing, the corners of her mouth curved slightly, and then she quickly lowered her head to continue drawing.

Sun Yaqin silently noted this down: the younger sister is very dependent on her older sister. The sisters have a good relationship. The little girl seems well-behaved and is a child who doesn't cause trouble.

"Is that your sister?" she asked, knowing the answer already.

"Hmm," Su Qing glanced back at Jiang Ran, her tone softening slightly, "Her name is Jiang Ran, she's seven years old, and she doesn't talk much."

"The little girl is so pretty and quiet; she looks like a smart child."

Su Qing slightly curved the corners of her mouth, without denying it.

Looking at her expression, Sun Yaqin silently made a mental note: This girl may not say it, but she completely changes when she talks about her sister. She's soft-hearted.

The two chatted for a few more minutes, mainly about which supplementary teaching materials were useful and which publisher had compiled more reasonable topics.

Finally, Su Qing carried five books to the cashier to pay, and Sun Yaqin followed behind her with two exercise books.

Jiang Ran had already put away her sketchbook and stood obediently next to Su Qing, her little hands clutching the hem of Su Qing's clothes.

When Sun Yaqin was paying the bill, Jiang Ran secretly glanced at her, and then looked at Su Qing, as if trying to figure out who this person was.

Sun Yaqin smiled at her. Jiang Ran was stunned for a moment, then shrank behind Su Qing. But after two seconds, she poked half her head out and smiled at Sun Yaqin with her lips pursed.

Sun Yaqin's heart melted.

What an obedient little girl! She's completely different from her two mischievous kids.

After paying the bill, Su Qing took Jiang Ran's hand and said goodbye to Sun Yaqin.

"Sister Yaqin, I'll be going now."

"Okay, drive carefully, the sun is strong, remember to use an umbrella." Sun Yaqin waved with a smile.

Only after Su Qing and Jiang Ran disappeared around the street corner did Sun Yaqin take out her phone and open the family group chat.

The group is called "Ms. Sun and her three male nannies" and has four members: her, her husband Cheng Yi, her eldest son Cheng Chengyan, and her youngest son Cheng Xiaoyu.

She types as fast as she plays the piano.

Children!!!

Guess who I ran into at the bookstore just now!!!

The first reply was from Cheng Xiaoyu: 【Who? Who? Who? Mom, tell me quickly!!!】

The second reply was from Cheng Yi: [?]

The program did not respond.

Sun Yaqin remained unaffected and continued typing: 【Su Qing!!! That little girl!!!】

Cheng Xiaoyu's reply popped up immediately: 【Ahhhhhh, beautiful sister!!!】

[Mom, how did you run into her?!]

Isn't she incredibly beautiful?!

Sun Yaqin: [It really looks good]

Sun Yaqin: [And she's a really nice person; we chatted for quite a while.]

Sun Yaqin: [She still calls me Sister Yaqin!!!]

Cheng Yi: [...]

Cheng Xiaoyu: [Mom, you're so cunning!!! Why didn't you tell her you're my mom!!!]

Sun Yaqin: [Why did you say that? Your mom looks like she's in her twenties.]

Cheng Xiaoyu: [...]

Cheng Yi: [...]

Sun Yaqin put her phone into her bag and walked home with light, quick steps.

I took two steps, and my phone vibrated again.

She took it out and looked at it.

The program responded: 【Oh.】

Just one word.

Sun Yaqin looked at the word "oh" and a slow smile appeared on her lips.

Others may not understand programming languages, but doesn't she? If her eldest son really didn't care, he wouldn't have replied at all.

If he can reply with an "oh," it means he saw it, absorbed it, and thought about it at least three times.

Sun Yaqin flipped her phone over and smiled at her reflection in the screen.

Young man, you're still too green.