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

An hour passed quickly.

The school bell rang, echoing across the campus. Su Qing and Sun Yaqin stood under the shade of the old sycamore tree at the school gate, watching groups of children carrying schoolbags pour out of the teaching building.

Cheng Xiaoyu ran in the lead, his chubby figure standing out in the crowd. He held onto his backpack strap with one hand and waved the other high at them.

Jiang Ran followed a few steps behind him, not walking fast, but with steady steps. The long-eared rabbit on her backpack swayed gently with her steps.

Su Qing's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on Jiang Ran's face.

A slight blush appeared on her cheeks, probably from talking to her classmates, or perhaps because the classroom was quite warm.

But he seemed relaxed, with his shoulders not tense, his fingers not gripping the hem of his clothes, and he even watched his step when he went down the stairs.

Cheng Xiaoyu rushed over, still breathless, and began reporting, "Pretty sister! Let me tell you! Xiao Ran is such a good girl! The teacher asked her to introduce herself, and she did! Her voice wasn't very loud, but the whole class heard her! Then the teacher asked who could do the math problems on the blackboard, and she raised her hand and wrote them down! She got them all right! All the students in our class like her so much!"

Su Qing ignored his animated follow-up, squatted down, put her hands on Jiang Ran's shoulders, and looked into her eyes.

There was no resentment or pretense in those big eyes, only a little bit of embarrassment from being looked at so intently by her older sister.

"How are you feeling? Are you feeling unwell? Has anyone been bullying you?"

Su Qing's tone was ordinary, but he asked detailed questions, and his gaze swept over Su Qing's face.

Jiang Ran shook her head, her voice soft: "No. The teacher is very nice, and my classmates are very nice too. Someone even lent me an eraser."

She paused, then added, "Xiaoyu helped me borrow it first."

Su Qing mentally called out to the system.

The system quickly provided an assessment: [Jiang Ran's heart rate, electrocardiogram response, and voiceprint data are all within the normal range; no stress response indicators were detected.]

[Her brief experience on campus resulted in an excellent rating; she truly adapted very well, and it wasn't an act.]

Su Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She reached out and ruffled Jiang Ran's hair, slightly tilting the little girl's ponytail, her tone light and cheerful.

"Amazing! Much better than my sister was back then. When I first started school, I ran away by climbing over the wall, and the security guard chased me for half the playground."

Jiang Ran blinked, and the curve of her lips widened noticeably.

She imagined her sister being chased by security guards and found it funny, but she didn't laugh out loud. She just pressed her face against Su Qing's shoulder and quickly moved away.

Sun Yaqin stood by and watched this scene without saying a word.

She recalled the first time she took Cheng Xiaoyu to kindergarten. The little chubby boy cried his heart out at the door, clinging to her leg and refusing to let go. She sat in the car for more than an hour that day before daring to leave.

  

However, from the moment she spoke until now, Su Qing has not shown any sign of worry in front of Jiang Ran.

She suppressed all her tension, worry, and unease. This self-control wasn't something a mother taught her; it was something Su Qing developed on her own.

How can a child who has just come of age be so steady?

Sun Yaqin looked down at her car keys, and the thought resurfaced in her mind.

She hesitated for a moment, then spoke in her usual cheerful and straightforward tone: "Su Qing, I have an idea."

"Since Xiaoran and Xiaoyu will be in the same class and we live in the same neighborhood, I might as well let the two little ones ride in my car to and from school together."

"Anyway, I have to pick up and drop off Xiaoyu every day. It's just a matter of stepping on the gas. You can think of it as a ride."

Just as Su Qing was about to speak, Sun Yaqin raised a hand to stop her, her tone carrying an uncompromising domineering air, but her face was smiling: "It's settled then."

"You promised me such a big thing, I'd feel bad if I didn't do something about it."

She looked at Su Qing, smiled, and slowed her speech: "You're not allowed to be polite with me either. If you are, I'll get angry with you. I'm capable of crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide."

Su Qing looked at her.

Sun Yaqin was smiling, her eyes crinkling into crescents, the fine lines at the corners of her eyes still so beautiful, but Su Qing could tell she wasn't joking.

The system also confirmed this in its mind: [Sun Yaqin's micro-expressions and voiceprint data show that her words contained elements of humor, but her core intention was serious.]

[If you refuse, she most likely won't actually resort to crying,闹事, or threatening suicide, but she says she'll take more frequent and other compensatory actions. This is based on real data; she genuinely feels indebted to you.]

[Host, from a rational perspective, carpooling can reduce your daily commute time by about forty minutes, and save you about—]

"Xiao Ran".

Su Qing didn't answer the system, but instead looked down at the little guy beside her.

Jiang Ran was looking up at her, holding her schoolbag in her arms, quietly waiting for her answer.

Looking into those big eyes, Su Qing recalled many scenes.

The little hand that held her clothes tightly in the hospital, the voice that asked tremblingly on the day of discharge, "Sister, are you going to send me back?", the thin shoulders that trembled when the bun was found hidden under the blanket.

She recalled every time she had said to Jiang Ran, "You went home with your sister."

For Jiang Ran, "home" is not just an address or a house; it's the people who come to pick her up every day.

If someone else were to pick her up someday, even just once, the little one probably wouldn't say anything. She's too well-behaved; she'll hide all her anxieties and curl up in the blankets, just like when they first met.

It wasn't that she didn't trust others, but rather that she wanted Jiang Ran to know that she wasn't a piece of luggage that could be arranged, handed over, or given a ride along the way.

She is her family, and family is never something that happens by chance.

"Sister Yaqin," Su Qing finally spoke.

Her tone was neither hesitant, nor polite, nor did it leave any room for negotiation. It was simply calm and even, as if she were stating a given fact.

"Thank you, but I'll take care of picking up and dropping off Xiaoran myself."

"I'll drop you off in the morning and pick you up in the afternoon. I'll do it every day. It's not just being polite; I want to do the drop-off and pick-up myself."

She glanced down at Jiang Ran; the little one was looking up at her, his eyes sparkling.

Sun Yaqin looked at the expression on Su Qing's face, that calm and unwavering certainty that required no discussion.

She suddenly realized that her suggestion was indeed a bit unnecessary.

It wasn't that Su Qing was ungrateful, but rather that she forgot that this child had never treated Jiang Ran as a "burden" from beginning to end.

She's the kind of person who would climb over a wall in the middle of the night for this child, so why would she entrust the task of picking him up and dropping him off to someone else?

"Okay," Sun Yaqin said with a smile, putting the car keys into her bag. Her tone was no longer insistent, but rather conveyed a sense of understanding and respect.

"Then I won't take your job, but let me make this clear: if you're ever really busy, call me first, don't ask anyone else."

Upon hearing this, Su Qing smiled.

"Um."