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

Cheng Xiaoyu was hunched over his seat finishing his math homework from yesterday, his pencil tip leaving tiny dents on the paper. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Jiang Ran, and then his pencil tip snapped.

He watched as Jiang Yi held up the shiny fruit candy, spun around in place, and then approached Jiang Ran, smiling as if she had won the lottery.

Cheng Xiaoyu was all too familiar with that smile. Every time he successfully got half a cookie from Jiang Ran in the park, he had that same smile on his face.

He sat up abruptly, his chubby fingers gripping the broken pencil, alarm bells ringing in his head.

What's going on?

Why is Jiang Yi holding candy?

Did Xiao Ran give it to you?

Why would Xiao Ran give Jiang Yi candy?

Weren't those two just staring at each other in the water dispenser a few days ago?

He remembered the last time Jiang Ran glared at him, and he didn't dare to say a word. Why did Jiang Yi get the candy?

Is Jiang Yi going to take his place?

  

Are he and Xiao Ran no longer the best of friends in the world?

...Although he already knew that the best people in the world were Xiao Ran and the pretty older sister.

But shouldn't Cheng Xiaoyu be the second best in the world?

No, he has to do something.

Jiang Yi definitely has ulterior motives. She cursed Xiao Ran so rudely in the office before, but now she's all smiles and coming up to her. She must be charmed by Xiao Ran's intelligence and cuteness... No, that doesn't sound right... She's definitely trying to use sweet talk to bewitch Xiao Ran!

Yes, sugar-coated bullets!

Little Ran is young and naive, and easily deceived. The important task of protecting Little Ran must be undertaken by Cheng Xiaoyu!

So during the entire break, Jiang Ran gained two guys sitting next to her, one on her left and one on her right.

On the left is Jiang Yi, who cut the fruit she brought into small pieces and neatly arranged them in a food storage container. She pushed it to Jiang Ran's side, saying that it was bought from an imported supermarket and that it was very sweet.

On the right is Cheng Xiaoyu, who took out a slightly flattened loaf of bread from his schoolbag, put it on Jiang Ran's desk, and said that it was made by his mother and that imported goods were nothing.

Jiang Yi said that her kindness to Xiao Ran was genuine, but Cheng Xiaoyu said that who knows? People who change their minds faster than flipping through a book are the least trustworthy.

Jiang Yi blushed and said she had changed. Cheng Xiaoyu said that whether she had changed or not was not a matter of words, but a true friend was someone like him who had stood by Xiao Ran's side from the beginning.

Jiang Yi pushed the cut fruit a little closer to Jiang Ran, and Cheng Xiaoyu moved his flatbread forward by half an inch as well.

Jiang Yi glanced at the bread and asked if he had bitten it first, and Cheng Xiaoyu's face immediately turned tomato red.

Jiang Ran sat expressionlessly in the middle, listening to the two of them exchange sarcastic remarks.

She felt as if two sparrows were chirping simultaneously around her, their voices rising and falling, neither willing to stop first.

She looked down at the crookedly cut apple pieces beside her and the bread with a suspicious little chip in the middle, and sighed.

She inexplicably recalled the scene where the orange cat downstairs and the corgi in the next unit had a chance encounter on the lawn, one meowing and the other barking, neither giving way to the other.

This scene made her feel like she must have been a zoo director in her past life.

Several classmates around also secretly glanced in this direction.

Someone whispered, "Why are Jiang Yi and Cheng Xiaoyu arguing again?" Another chimed in, "They seem to have done this before." A third added, "But before it was about who should be class monitor, now it seems to be about... Jiang Ran?"

The three of them were silent for a moment, then turned their gazes to the person who was doing the problem with a look of utter despair.

Finally, school was over, and Jiang Ran packed her schoolbag twice as fast as usual.

She had never been so eager to see the old sycamore tree at the school gate, with a figure with a ponytail standing under it, a figure that would completely free her from the farce of the day.

Su Qing waits for Jiang Ran here every day after school.

She was wearing a light-colored jacket today, her ponytail was still tied loosely as usual, her backpack strap was slung diagonally over her shoulder, and she was holding a small paper bag containing small cakes in her hand, looking down at her phone.

Jiang Ran quickened her pace unconsciously. Cheng Xiaoyu and Jiang Yi behind her also saw Su Qing at the same time. The two of them shut their mouths almost simultaneously and took a step forward at the same time.

Cheng Xiaoyu called out "Hello, Sister Su" first, and Jiang Yi quickly followed up with "Hello, Sister Su, this afternoon," her voice several degrees sweeter than usual.

Then the three of them surrounded Su Qing. The two guys who had been arguing fiercely just now were as docile as two little animals that had been stroked.

Su Qing distributed the small cakes to the three children, one for each of them. Looking up, she saw a black sedan in the distance with its door open. A woman in a plain long dress was bending over, preparing to get in. Half of her face was obscured by the shadow of the car roof.

Su Qing glanced at her and then looked away, patted Jiang Ran's schoolbag, and asked her how school was today.

Jiang Ran took the small cake, took a bite, her little face puffed out, and mumbled, "It's alright."

Jiang Yi ran to her car with a small cake in her hand. She had just opened the back door and hadn't even stepped inside when she froze for a moment.

Sitting in the back seat was someone she never expected to be there.

"Auntie? What brings you out?"

Cui Ying wore an elegant long dress, her hair tied back with a simple hairpin, making her look gentle and quiet, but there was a faint, barely perceptible light in her eyes.

She didn't answer Jiang Yi's question, but simply reached out and gently patted the seat next to her, signaling her to get in the car first.

After Jiang Yi was seated and the car door was closed, Cui Ying spoke softly, as if afraid of being overheard by those outside the car window: "Xiao Yi, can you point out to your aunt which one is Jiang Ran?"

Jiang Yi blinked, puzzled, but still leaned out the car window and pointed her index finger at the glass: "That's her over there, and the one next to her is Sister Su."

Cui Ying looked in the direction she was pointing.

Su Qing, she had heard this name many times.

I heard it from Jiang Mingyuan, I heard it from Jiang Yi, and I heard it from every family member who mentioned the amusement park incident that day.

But when she actually saw the girl with the ponytail bending down to wipe the cream off Jiang Ran's lips, what welled up in her heart was not curiosity, but a more complicated emotion that she herself could not explain.

Then she saw that tiny figure.

Jiang Ran was tilting her head back as Su Qing wiped her mouth. After wiping it, she tiptoed to reach the paper bag in Su Qing's hand. Su Qing raised the bag a little higher so she couldn't reach it, so Jiang Ran tugged at her sleeve and shook it gently, tilting her head back and smiling with her eyes crinkling.

That smile was so sweet and quiet, the kind of unguarded smile that only a well-protected child would have.

Cui Ying gently placed her hand on the car window.

Outside the car window, the warm glow of the setting sun bathed the two figures, one large and one small, in its light, like a picture filtered with a warm hue.

If her daughter were still alive, she would probably be like this too... She would look up at her and smile, she would tiptoe and peek at the school gate after school, and she would hold her hand and walk slowly home along this road lined with sycamore trees.

Jiang Ran.

She silently repeated the name in her mind, her tongue touching the roof of her mouth gently.

The little girl outside the window, also named Jiang Ran, was unaware that someone was watching her. She was tiptoeing to reach the paper bag in her older sister's hand. After reaching it, she smiled with her lips pursed, a smile warmer than the evening sun.

Jiang Yi kept a close eye on her aunt's expression.

She saw the thin glimmer in Cui Ying's eyes, a glimmer she had recognized since she was very young. Every time her aunt saw a little girl about her age on TV, or passed by a children's clothing store in a shopping mall, her eyes would turn like that.

She didn't know what was wrong, nor what to say, but she knew that whenever her mother was unhappy, rubbing her head would make her feel much better.

So she stretched out her two little hands, took Cui Ying's hand that was pressed against the glass, and placed it on her head.

She looked up at Cui Ying, blinking her big eyes, and didn't say anything. She just obediently let her aunt's palm touch the top of her head.

Cui Ying looked down at her little niece's clumsy yet earnest appearance, paused for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

That smile was the first one to appear in her eyes all day, dimming the faint light in them and replacing it with a warm helplessness that comes from being comforted by a child in the best of her ability.

She ruffled Jiang Yi's hair and gently pinched her cheek, saying it was nothing, that her aunt just wanted to get some fresh air and that she shouldn't worry.

Then she told the driver to drive.

As the car slowly drove out of the school gate, she couldn't help but look back one last time.

Jiang Ran was holding Su Qing's hand, walking slowly away in the opposite direction, her rabbit-shaped backpack bouncing with each step.

Jiang Ran took a few steps with her sister's hand, then suddenly turned around as if she sensed something.

There were only a few scattered parents and children on the street, and several cars parked on the side of the road were starting up and leaving one after another. The leaves of the plane trees rustled in the wind, and there was nothing else.

She turned back and gripped her sister's fingers even tighter.

Su Qing was humming a light and cheerful tune. Jiang Ran didn't know the name of the song, but she thought her sister hummed it better than the original singer.