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

Jiang Yi nodded through her tears, her crystal bow bowing askew to her ears.

Jiang Ren straightened up, took a half step back, and tilted her chin towards Su Qing and Jiang Ran, her tone leaving no room for refusal: "Go, apologize to Miss Su and the little sister, and also to Cheng Xiaoyu. You can only call me brother again when they forgive you."

Jiang Yi climbed up from the corner, her school uniform skirt covered in a large patch of dust, her face smeared with tears and snot.

She walked up to Jiang Ran, lowered her head, and whispered the words "I'm sorry" over and over again, then turned to Cheng Xiaoyu and repeated them several times.

Su Qing didn't look down at her, nor did she say "It's okay".

She simply pulled Jiang Ran closer to her.

Cheng Xiaoyu honestly scratched the back of his head, and was about to say "It's nothing, it's nothing" when Cheng Xuyan glanced at him. He immediately shut his mouth tightly, puffed out his chest, and made an expression that said, "I'm considering whether to forgive you."

Cui Jiayi huddled in the corner, covering her swollen face. Her carefully styled curly hair was a mess, and her suit skirt was covered in mud and flowerpot fragments.

Seeing Jiang Ren's attitude towards Jiang Yi, her heart sank completely.

A person who can publicly reprimand even her own cousin would certainly not show any mercy to her step-aunt, who is not related to her by blood.

The Jiang family is her greatest support; without the Jiang family's banner, she is nothing.

She picked up her scattered high heels, put them on, covered her face with her bag, and slunk toward the door.

Teacher Wang was still lying on the ground, her cheeks swollen and shiny, and blood foam from the corner of her mouth smeared her chin.

Seeing Cui Jiayi about to leave, she panicked, scrambling over and grabbing Cui Jiayi's leg. From her swollen and deformed mouth, she managed a muffled scream: "You can't leave! I'm about to lose my job trying to help you! What about what you promised my head of the grade?!"

Cui Jiayi stumbled as she was pulled, and the high heel she had just put on slipped off her ankle.

She looked down at Teacher Wang's face, which was swollen like a pig's head, and a surge of anger rose from the bottom of her heart. She hadn't gotten her fill of pleasure today; she had been slapped by a wild girl, and her image in the Jiang family's eyes had been completely ruined. Now, she was being dragged down in public by this useless homeroom teacher.

She gritted her teeth, kicked Teacher Wang to the ground, pulled out a pair of sunglasses from her bag to cover her swollen eyes, and then took out a mask to cover half of her face before running out without looking back.

Teacher Wang fell backward onto the tiled floor, the back of his head hitting the floor with a dull thud.

She stared wide-eyed at the stark white fluorescent light tubes on the ceiling, her lips moving, but no one could hear what she was saying anymore.

The teachers in the office looked at each other. The young female teacher who had been pulled back by her colleague hesitated for a moment, then took a few tissues from the table, walked over and squatted down next to Teacher Wang, helping her up and leaning her on her shoulder.

Her hands were shaking when she did it, but she did it anyway.

A series of hurried high-heeled footsteps came from the doorway; the principal had finally arrived.

She still had her short hair neat and was dressed in a dark suit. A fine layer of sweat glistened on her forehead, and she was clutching her car keys in her hand, clearly having just rushed back from the Education Bureau.

Upon entering, she glanced around and saw Jiang Yi huddled in a corner, still sobbing; Teacher Wang, her face swollen like a pig's head, leaning on the female teacher's shoulder; Su Qing holding Jiang Ran; a chubby boy with bruises on his face; Cheng Yuyan standing expressionlessly in the middle; and Jiang Ren standing next to him with an expression that said, "I'm just here to join in the fun." Finally, she noticed the broken potted green ivy plant on the ground and the mud splattered everywhere.

She had already heard the gist of the story when she received the call in the car.

Looking at Teacher Wang's disheveled appearance, her chest heaved violently. Suddenly, she turned around and slammed her fist on the desk.

The potted green ivy on the table shook, and several teachers nearby all took a half step back.

"A teacher? You're not worthy!" The principal's voice echoed in the office.

Teacher Wang trembled at the shout, and two tears mixed with guilt and fear squeezed out from her swollen eyelids, but she couldn't come up with any excuse.

The principal suddenly turned to her, his eyes slightly red, not from crying, but from anger: "Wang Xiulan, you've taught at this school for twenty years. I've nurtured you as a key member of the school, students call you 'teacher,' parents entrust their children to you, and this is how you treat them?!"

  

"A seven-year-old child, who just transferred to this school, and instead of protecting her, you helped the people who bullied her by throwing dirty water on her. Do you deserve to be a teacher?! Are you even human?!"

Teacher Wang's lips moved as if she wanted to explain something, but she didn't say a word.

The last bit of color in her face had completely vanished, her swollen lips drooped down, and she seemed to have all her strength drained away, slumping into the chair and no longer moving.

The principal turned around, looking at Su Qing and the little girl in her arms with disheveled hair and injured knees. The anger on his face had not yet faded, but his voice had been lowered, replaced by a serious tone that was almost solemn: "Miss Su, Xiao Ran, I'm sorry. I told you those things when school started, and I failed to do so. The responsibility for what happened today lies entirely with the school. I will take full responsibility for all the consequences. No one who should be punished will be let off the hook. I promise you that."

Su Qing looked at her.

This principal was completely different from the one she remembered, standing at the school gate smiling and welcoming every child. Her hair was stuck to her forehead with sweat, and her fists were still clenched.

Su Qing shook her head, her tone calm and serious: "This is not your fault. A school this big is bound to have bad people, but it is our good fortune to have a good principal like you."

The principal gave her a deep look, said nothing more, and simply nodded solemnly.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

It was already dark when I left the hospital.

The corridor of the emergency room was filled with a faint smell of disinfectant, and the nurses on duty at the nurses' station were sorting through medical records with their heads down.

Su Qing sat on a bench in the corridor, holding Jiang Ran in her arms, supporting the little one's back with one hand and letting her chin rest in the crook of her shoulder.

The doctor had just finished treating the wound on the knee. When iodine was applied to the broken skin during the cleaning, the little guy shuddered, biting his lip without making a sound, but his fingers gripped Su Qing's collar tightly.

Su Qing gently patted her back, stroking down her spine one stroke at a time, the same motion she used every night to lull her to sleep, but her gaze fell on the white gauze on Jiang Ran's knee.

The oozing blood had been diluted with iodine, and the edges of the gauze were neatly applied, but the abrasions underneath were from rubbing against the rough cement floor; it must have hurt a lot when he fell.

She lowered her eyelashes, pulled Jiang Ran closer to her, and gently placed a kiss on the top of Jiang Ran's head.

Cheng Xuyan leaned against the opposite wall, arms crossed, watching his younger brother being bandaged by the doctor with a blank expression.

The chubby boy had a square bandage on his cheekbone, a layer of clear ointment on the small cut on his lower lip, and the doctor had wrapped the scraped skin on the back of his hand with a bandage three times and tied it into a bow at the end.

He examined the crooked bow on his hand, feeling dissatisfied. He looked up and asked the doctor if he could change to a more stylish bow, but the doctor refused him expressionlessly.

Cheng Xiaoyu turned his head to look at Xiao Ran, who was being held in Su Qing's arms, and then looked at his own brother standing next to him. He wouldn't even let him lean on his shoulder, let alone hug her.

He recalled the time he fell in the park, and how the pretty girl squatted down to help him up, brushed the dust off him, and smiled at him. The envy in his heart rose up like bubbles in a soda.

He looked up, staring longingly at Cheng Shuyan.

Cheng Xuyan looked down at him, remained silent for two seconds, and said, "Don't even think about it. Your brother isn't your Sister Su."

Cheng Xiaoyu's face fell, his lips pursed, he looked down at the bow in his hand, then looked up at his brother's expressionless face. He mentally repeated the phrase "My brother is a big ice block" several times, then puffed out his chest and swallowed back his grievances. He felt that he had done something good today and couldn't cry.

A real man is tough, he doesn't cry!

Su Qing held Jiang Ran steadily in her arms and stood up. The little one's legs were bent and rested on her arms, and the gauze on her knees brushed against the edge of her sleeve. She did not let Jiang Ran walk on her own.

Walking up to Cheng Xiaoyu, Su Qing freed one hand and ruffled the top of his head.

The chubby boy's hair was soft and thick, and when you rub it, it looked like a fluffy little dog.

She lowered her voice, unusually devoid of any arrogance or teasing: "Xiaoyu, thank you for protecting Xiaoran today."

Cheng Xiaoyu's face turned red from the base of his neck all the way to the tips of his ears. Being patted on the head by the pretty older sister made him feel like a puppy whose fur had been stroked, and he almost wagged his tail.

He puffed out his chest, wiped his nose with the back of his hand, and patted his round belly: "It's okay! Xiao Ran is my sister! A real man is like tofu, protecting his sister every day!"

Cheng Xuyan closed his eyes briefly: "You mean to say that it's a man's duty to protect his sister, right...?"

Cheng Xiaoyu paused for a moment, then waved his hand, the bandage bow on his wrist swaying slightly: "That's about right! As long as the meaning is there, it's fine!"

Cheng Xuyan looked at the bow tie dangling in his hand, his lips twitched slightly, then he turned his face away and didn't say anything more.