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

"Is that the boss's friend?"

"I've never seen her before, she's so beautiful."

"You didn't see how she was talking to herself at the door just now. The boss just leaned against the door frame and stared at her for a long time. It was the first time I'd ever seen the boss look at someone like that."

"What kind of look is that?"

"I can't quite put my finger on it, it's like... I felt both angry and relieved at the same time, it was a complicated feeling."

The young woman wiping the coffee machine lowered her voice and leaned closer to her colleague: "I bet a latte that we're definitely not just ordinary friends."

Her colleague rolled her eyes at her and threw the rag on the table: "Do you even need to bet on this? You've seen what kind of state the boss has been in these past two months. All he does is work and look at his phone. His dark circles are practically down to his chin."

"Now, he personally opens the door whenever someone shows up, but he doesn't even flinch when the health bureau comes to inspect."

Just as the young girl was about to reply, Chef Zhong from the kitchen poked his head out and tapped on the counter at the food delivery point, signaling them to stop gossiping and get back to what they were doing, but he couldn't help but add a comment himself.

"I overheard the boss calling that girl 'Su Qing' when I was delivering water. Wasn't that very handsome boy also named Su Qing? The names are exactly the same, and they even look alike, but the genders don't match."

The three people looked at each other, and finally turned their attention to the booth in the corner.

In the corner, the atmosphere was completely different from the relaxed atmosphere at the other tables.

Su Qing sat against the wall, her hands on her knees, her back ramrod straight, like a student who had made a mistake and was called to the office for a talk.

Yan Ning sat opposite her, arms crossed, back against the chair. His slightly upturned eyes were fixed on her face, expressionless, but his gaze never left her.

Su Qing felt uncomfortable under his gaze. She unconsciously rubbed her fingers on her knees a couple of times, took a deep breath, and thought that she might as well admit her mistake first since she was going to be in trouble anyway.

"Brother Yan Ning," she tried to make her voice sound less guilty, "I'm so sorry about what happened these past two months. I was sick at the time, and the doctor said it was quite serious. I didn't want you to worry, so..."

"Su Qing".

Yan Ning interrupted her.

His voice wasn't loud, but the air pressure was extremely low, like the muffled rumble of thunder rolling across the ground before a storm.

He lowered his hands from his chest, rested his elbows on the table, leaned forward slightly, and became more focused.

He stared at Su Qing for a few seconds, then asked a short question in a tone that said he had seen through everything and didn't need her to make up any excuses.

  

"You're not a boy?"

Su Qing's brain went blank for a full two seconds.

Her pupils dilated slightly, her lips opened and closed, and a million questions and exclamation marks exploded in her mind.

Did he find out?

How did he know?

She hadn't even started using her rhetoric yet, and he had already seen through her gender?

This level of accuracy is abnormal, extremely abnormal. Could this kid have a system too? No way.

How much did he actually think about in the last two months?

"System," she frantically called out in her mind, "Does he know you exist?"

The system responded quickly: [Impossible.]

[The existence of the Fate Completion System cannot be detected or inferred by any non-host individual in any form. It can know your original gender, but this is unrelated to the system.]

Before Su Qing could recover from the shock, Yan Ning spoke again.

His tone remained indifferent, but there was something different about it compared to before. He spoke more slowly and lowered his voice at the end, as if he were talking about something he had thought about for a long time before finally understanding it, but saying it out loud would still make him feel uncomfortable.

The look in his eyes when he looked at Su Qing was no longer one of scrutiny, but a deeper, more complex one, tinged with reluctance and helplessness.

"Something really serious must have happened to you in the last two months to make you like this."

His fingers tapped lightly on the table, then stopped there without moving.

He scanned Su Qing from head to toe, then turned his head slightly away, as if he didn't know how to face this conclusion.

"But you can't agree to anything just to make money, can you? Everything was fine before, but now..."

He stopped, not saying anything more, his thin lips pressed into a line, as if trying to swallow back what he was about to say.

But his eyes said it all; they were a look that conveyed unspoken words—a look of reluctance, sympathy, helplessness, guilt, and a hint of self-reproach.

Su Qing finally realized something was wrong.

She didn't hear the shock or confusion a friend should have when discovering that the other person has changed gender in Yan Ning's tone. Instead, she sensed a cautiousness, a fear of saying the wrong thing and hurting her self-esteem.

Did he think she had agreed to some strange thing to make money, which was why she was acting this way?

"System," Su Qing asked in her mind, "what exactly does he think I did?"

The system's electronic voice paused unusually, as if carefully choosing its words: [Based on his context, tone, and facial expressions, he most likely believes you're in some kind of... industry that requires women to work for money.]

[Simply put, he feels guilty that you were forced to change your gender and wear women's clothing for a living, and that he felt it was because he couldn't find you in time that you ended up on this path.]

[Analysis shows that Yan Ning's sympathy and guilt towards you are off the charts.]

Su Qing felt her blood pressure rising to her head at an unhealthy speed.

Her fingers curled up on the table, her knuckles pressing against the surface, and her lips twitched uncontrollably, then twitched again.

My cheeks started to burn, not the kind of burning sensation from being cared for, but the kind of burning sensation from being shocked but too embarrassed to vent my anger directly, a burning sensation of holding back my anger with nowhere to go.

It wasn't that I was moved; it was that I was both angry and wanted to laugh.

She was angry because his brain circuits had veered in that direction, but she laughed because his expression, which seemed to say "I don't discriminate against you, I understand your predicament, and I'll help you in the future," was so serious that she couldn't bring herself to slap him.

"Banquet! Ning!"

Su Qing slammed her hand on the table and stood up.

The booth table was made of solid wood, and when she slammed it down, it made a dull thud. Both glasses of water on the table shook, and Yan Ning almost spilled hers.

His hand holding the cup froze in mid-air, completely stunned by the sudden outburst.

The store fell silent instantly.

The young woman at the front desk who was wiping the coffee machine slipped, and the rag fell into the drip tray.

Her colleague remained frozen in place, holding the tray, with two lattes on it tilted slightly.

Chef Zhong, standing in the kitchen, poked half his body out of the food delivery hatch, clutching a piping bag in his hand. His eyes were wide open, and his expression clearly said, "Did a woman slam her hand on the table, Boss?"

The other scattered guests also turned their heads, their eyes scanning back and forth between Yan Ning and Su Qing.

Then a buzzing sound arose, like a hornet's nest that had been disturbed.

"Is that the boss?"

"Who's that girl who slammed her hand on the table? She's so pretty."

"I haven't seen her before, is she the boss's wife?"

"No way, the proprietress dares to slam her hand on the boss's table?"

"Didn't you see? The boss opened the door for her himself, poured her water himself, and kept his eyes glued to her the whole time."

"They had a fight? It doesn't look like a fight. The boss looks really strange."

"This is the first time I've seen the boss being yelled at; I've only ever seen him yell at others before."

"So, is she actually the boss's wife?"

Yan Ning held her water glass, her expression changing several times in just a few seconds. First, she was surprised, then confused, then quickly reviewed the conversation, and finally settled on an awkward but dignified calm.

He put down the cup and coughed lightly, covering his mouth with the back of his hand.

He was quick-witted; the moment Su Qing slammed her hand on the table, he knew he had misunderstood, and quite ridiculously so.

The surgery and the forced cross-dressing were all his own imagination. He even imagined a whole tragic story of Su Qing enduring humiliation for the past two months in order to make a living.

Looking at Su Qing's face, which was flushed red to the roots of her ears, and her eyes, which were unusually bright with shame and indignation, he suddenly felt that his two months of insomnia had probably made him stupid.

"Feel sorry……"

He lowered his voice, his tone unusually sincere with a hint of embarrassment, and said, "Please don't take what I just said to heart. I was just confused and misunderstood. I'm sorry."

Su Qing took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the heat that rushed to the top of her head.

Then she turned around and bowed slightly to the others in the store. Her face was still flushed, but her tone had returned to its usual calm: "I'm sorry to bother everyone. I couldn't control myself just now. I'm really sorry."

Upon hearing this, the staff all lowered their heads and pretended to work. Some wiped the tables and others served coffee, each trying their best to act as if they hadn't seen anything.

Su Qing sat down again, straightened the hem of her hoodie, picked up the glass of lemonade in front of her that had gone mostly cold, took a sip, and used the bottom of the glass to cover her face.

Yan Ning sat opposite him, tapping her fingers unconsciously on the table twice before withdrawing her hand and placing it on her knees, looking unusually restless.