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

The next day, when Jiang Ran returned to school, she keenly sensed that Jiang Yi was acting differently than usual.

She still appeared at her desk on time during the break as usual, and still cheerfully found various reasons to strike up a conversation.

But beneath her eyes lay a thin layer of anxiety. When she spoke, her fingers would unconsciously twist the hem of her school uniform skirt. Occasionally, she would suddenly stop halfway through a sentence, her lips opening and closing again. She looked just like the woman her sister had described, with something very important stuck in her throat, unable to spit it out no matter what.

Jiang Ran found it a bit strange, but she also had something unfinished on her mind, so she didn't think much of it.

She remembered yesterday evening when her sister squatted in front of the sofa, her hand covering the hand she was holding the rabbit. Her voice was soft, without any reproach, yet she remembered every word. She should not tease others like that again. She should go to school tomorrow and apologize to her, okay?

Jiang Ran picked up the collection of math Olympiad problems in her hand and took a deep breath.

She wanted to be a good child that her older sister liked.

Then she stood up from her seat and walked straight toward Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi, who was lying on the edge of the table, caught a glimpse of Jiang Ran standing up and walking towards her out of the corner of her eye, and sat up abruptly as if she had been sprung up.

Her eyes lit up instantly, and her heart pounded in her chest. Xiao Ran was walking towards her. Xiao Ran was walking towards her on her own initiative!

But then, the confident smile on Jiang Ren's face as she leaned against the doorframe last night flashed through her mind, and her words, "She might apologize to you again tomorrow," struck her like a bolt of lightning.

Wait, wait... Could Xiao Ran really be here to apologize?

But her candy... no way!

Seeing Jiang Ran approaching, her lips moving as if about to speak, Jiang Yi reflexively reached out a "pause" gesture and hurriedly blurted out, "Wait, wait!"

Jiang Ran stopped in her tracks.

She tilted her head slightly to look at Jiang Yi, a puzzled expression furrowing between her brows.

Then she saw Jiang Yi stand there awkwardly for a while, twisting her hands in front of her, before finally looking up at her with an expression that seemed to have mustered all her courage and asking, "Xiao Ran... you're not trying to apologize to me, are you?"

Jiang Ran was genuinely surprised this time.

She really didn't want to apologize to the person who had insulted both her sister and her, but she would do what her sister had told her to do.

She suppressed her awkwardness and calmly asked, "How did you know?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Yi collapsed like a punctured balloon, visibly shrinking from head to toe.

She slumped limply onto the desk, arms outstretched, face buried in her arms, letting out a long, muffled moan: "It's over...it's over...it's really true...my candy...I'm going to be...no way...ahhhhhh..."

Jiang Ran looked at her, who looked like the end of the world had come, and remained silent for a moment. Then she reached out and pinched Jiang Yi's cheek, which was slumped on the table, with two fingers.

The force wasn't strong, but just enough to lift Jiang Yi's face off her arm.

  

"What's wrong with you? Are you that disgusted by my apology?" Jiang Ran's voice was a few degrees colder than before.

Jiang Yi was startled when Jiang Ran pinched her cheek, then realized what she meant. She shook her head frantically, her cheeks jiggling slightly under Jiang Ran's fingertips: "No, no, no! I'm not against it! My brother told me yesterday that you might apologize, so I made a bet with him... If I lose, I can't eat candy for a month!"

She leaned back down after saying that, her voice muffled, "I'm not going to say anything more. I need to mourn for my candy for a while. Just leave me alone."

Jiang Ran looked at the guy in front of her, who was hanging his head and crying because he hadn't been able to eat candy for a month, and silently made a four-word comment in her mind: What a loser.

But she put her hand into her pocket.

This morning, my sister slipped a small bag of fruit candies into her pocket. The transparent bag contained five or six colorful candies. She said she could eat them herself or share them with her friends.

She kept it, intending to eat it herself slowly.

But looking at this fool who was so desperate for candy, Jiang Ran reluctantly took one out, placed it in her palm, and handed it to Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi was engrossed in the grief of "Farewell to my candy" when she suddenly felt someone poke her face.

She looked up, her eyes blurry with tears, and saw Jiang Ran standing expressionlessly in front of her, her small hand outstretched, a fruit candy with a shiny wrapper lying in her palm.

She froze, her eyes darting from Jiang Ran's face to the candy, then back to Jiang Ran's face, looking at it several times before finally asking in a hesitant, cautious tone, "For...for me?"

Jiang Ran felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze, so she turned her face away and stared at the wood grain on the desk next to her. Her tone was still indifferent, but her ears were secretly flushed: "Never mind."

Just as she was about to pull her hand back, Jiang Yi suddenly sprang up from the table, grabbed Jiang Ran's wrists with both hands, and cried out in a hoarse voice, "No, no, no! I want it! I want it!"

Jiang Ran's hand was grabbed by her, and the candy was taken away by her as well.

Jiang Yi held the fruit candy, looked down at it, then looked up at Jiang Ran. Her lips slowly parted into a wide grin that seemed to stretch her face out of shape.

Her eyes were still a little red, and the tip of her nose was still pink, but her smile was brighter than the sunlight outside the window. Xiao Ran not only apologized to her but also gave her candy. So what are they now?

Are you friends now?

We're friends now, right?

She looked like a kitten that had just been pulled out of the rain and suddenly stuffed with a whole dried fish. Holding the candy, she spun around in place and shouted "Thank you, Xiao Ran!" to Jiang Ran. Her voice was so loud that it startled the class monitor who was wiping the blackboard next to her.

Jiang Ran looked at her silly appearance and turned her face away in disgust.

She thought to herself, "This guy is like a completely different person. Is the arrogant and domineering Jiang Yi from before really this idiot?"