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

At the end of the visit, the principal glanced at his watch and suggested with a smile that since there was less than an hour left before school ended, Xiaoran should go to the classroom and sit down to experience the classroom atmosphere.

The homeroom teacher of Class 1, Grade 1 happens to be in the office. I can take her there to meet a few classmates, and then she can come out with Xiaoyu after school.

She turned to look at Su Qing, her tone carrying the confidence of someone with experience: "Take this opportunity, you two adults can go outside for a stroll instead of waiting idly at the door."

Su Qing squatted down and looked into Jiang Ran's eyes.

There was a hint of tension in those dark, shiny eyes, but they were much calmer than she had expected.

She straightened the little guy's backpack straps and said that his sister was outside the school and would pick him up after school.

The system spoke in her mind at the opportune moment: [Host, based on Jiang Ran's recent social behavior data assessment, her current social adaptability has reached the average level of children her age.]

[In a structured campus environment, the safety risk assessment level for a short stay is A—the lowest risk level. You can rest assured.]

Jiang Ran nodded, took the initiative to release her hand from Su Qing's, and followed the homeroom teacher to Class 3, Grade 1 at the end of the corridor.

As she reached the classroom door, she glanced back, waved to Su Qing from afar, then took a deep breath, as if making a momentous decision, and stepped through the door.

Su Qing stood in the corridor watching that small figure disappear behind the door.

Sun Yaqin gently patted her shoulder and said, "Let's go, there's a pretty good coffee shop across from the school."

Su Qing glanced at the closed classroom door one last time before turning around and following Sun Yaqin out of the teaching building.

The coffee shop is small, located in the middle of a row of shops opposite the school. The facade is a full-length glass wall with beige Venetian blinds hanging on it.

Sun Yaqin chose a booth by the window, ordered two lattes, and waited until the waiter was out of sight. She then tore open the sugar packet, poured it into the cup, and stirred it in circles with a spoon for a long time without saying a word.

Su Qing leaned back in her chair, picked up her latte, and took a sip.

She didn't speak first, but she wasn't idle either, silently asking the system: [Does Sister Yaqin have something to say?]

The system quickly responded: [Based on Sun Yaqin's body language data analysis, her posture is more restrained than usual, and her hands are frequently touching each other, indicating she is unconsciously tearing a corner of the candy packet.]

[The frequency of her avoiding eye contact has increased, but her gaze will briefly lock onto your face every now and then. This is a typical "want to say something but too shy to speak" pattern, and her heart rate is also 12 percent higher than usual.]

Su Qing silently nodded in her heart.

She picked up her coffee, took another sip, then put the cup down and broke the silence in a casual tone: "Sister Yaqin, is there something you want to say? It's okay, you've helped me so much, just say whatever you're not comfortable saying."

Sun Yaqin paused for a moment as she tore the candy wrapper.

She looked up at Su Qing, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes, which slowly turned into a slight sigh of relief as if she had been seen through.

She picked up her coffee and took a sip, as if giving herself a final mental pep talk. When she put the cup down, she finally spoke.

"Su Qing, I need to apologize to you first..."

Sun Yaqin placed her hands on the table, her thumbs gently rubbing the back of her other hand.

"There's something I haven't told you the truth... Xiaoyu... he's not my brother, he's my son. And I'm not in my twenties anymore, I'm forty this year..."

  

After she finished speaking, she held her breath slightly, waiting for Su Qing's reaction.

Su Qing's expression was very calm, so calm that Sun Yaqin was stunned.

She picked up her coffee and took another sip, her tone casual as if what she had just heard wasn't a big deal: "I know."

Sun Yaqin blinked, opened her mouth, and hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say.

Su Qing looked at her unusually embarrassed expression and smiled slightly: "Girls care about their age, I understand. Besides, Sister Yaqin is really well-maintained. If I didn't know, I would never have guessed that you are forty years old."

Sun Yaqin was stunned for a while, then smiled. It wasn't her usual bright smile, but a smile that was a little helpless and self-deprecating. The fine lines at the corners of her eyes were deeper, but the curve of her eyes was gentler.

She lowered her head and stirred her coffee. When she looked up again, the smile on her face had mostly disappeared, replaced by an expression that Su Qing had never seen on her face before—a serious, almost solemn one.

"Su Qing, besides apologizing, there's something else I'd like to ask you."

She removed her hand from the coffee cup and placed it flat on the table. "This is a long story, and it might seem... inappropriate to you, but I really don't know who else to ask but you."

Su Qing put down her coffee cup and sat up a little straighter.

"I have an eldest son named Cheng Xuyan, who is nineteen years old this year."

When Sun Yaqin said this name, her voice was very soft, as if she was afraid that the word would shatter on its own. "He has a very serious psychological problem, gynophobia."

"It's not the kind of shyness that comes with seeing girls; it's a genuine, pathological fear."

"I feel nauseous, vomit, have palpitations, and have difficulty breathing when I encounter strange women. In severe cases, I may even go into shock. This has been going on for more than ten years."

Her fingers unconsciously clenched the corner of the candy packet, crumpling the thin paper into fine creases.

"When he was little... his father and I were both in the prime of our careers, so busy that we sent him to a boarding school."

She paused here, her fingers trembling slightly as she held the coffee cup. "Something happened at that school later. There was a female teacher... who was a pervert who preyed on the children. By the time we found out, Yan Yan had become a different person. After leaving that school, he could no longer touch any strange women, and he couldn't even have normal social interactions..."

The coffee cup wobbled in her hand, and she placed it back on the saucer, the porcelain clinking softly.

Her fingers clutched the sugar packet, her knuckles white. The corner of the paper was crumpled, and fine pieces of white sugar leaked out from the cracks, spilling onto the table, but she didn't notice.

"Over the years, I've taken him to see every doctor I could and tried every possible treatment, but nothing has worked."

Her voice was very low, as if she were talking to herself, "At its worst, he couldn't even see a psychologist... He would vomit if a female doctor got close to him, and it was very difficult for a male doctor to get him to open up."

She looked up at Su Qing.

There was something in those eyes that Su Qing couldn't quite put her finger on—not a plea, not a show of weakness, but the undisguised truth of a mother laying bare her deepest, most burdensome secrets to another.

"Su Qing, you should have seen him before, right? He's the one who opened the door when you brought Xiao Yu back that day."

Su Qing nodded.

She had seen it before, under the light of the corridor outside the door, a tall and silent figure.

The system analyzed his data at the time and found that his heart rate was abnormal, but it did not conform to the typical pattern of a fear attack.

She also remembered the system saying that his fear of women had no effect on her.