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

Su Qing closed the bathroom door, turned on the tap, and splashed a handful of cold water on her face.

Cool water droplets dripped down her chin. She stood for a few seconds, leaning against the edge of the sink, waiting for the grogginess of waking up to completely dissipate before reaching for her comb.

The reflection in the mirror showed her hair in a creatively messy state, with a tuft of hair sticking up on the left side as if someone had pulled it. She had to use a comb to press it down several times before she could barely flatten it.

After combing her hair, she tied it into a loose bun, turned her head left and right to make sure no strands were missing, and then straightened her collar in front of the mirror.

She paused the moment she turned her collar up.

In the mirror, there were several light red marks scattered on the lower side of my neck. The color was not dark, like petals that had been crushed and gently imprinted on my skin, standing out against my fair complexion.

A few blossoms bloom above the collarbone, another is hidden in the soft indentation where the earlobe meets the jaw, and along the neckline, there are one or two more that are faintly visible and disappear into the edge of the collar.

She tilted her head, looked closer in the mirror, and muttered to herself, "Was it a mosquito bite?"

It didn't hurt or itch, so it didn't seem like anything serious. It was probably just a mosquito that flew in last night because the window wasn't closed properly.

She instinctively asked the system if it knew what was going on.

The system paused for a moment, its tone as calm as ever: [The specific reason cannot be confirmed. It is advised that the host not pay too much attention. It is almost nine o'clock, and Jiang Ran is waiting for you in the living room.]

Su Qing responded with an "oh." Since the system hadn't mentioned any danger, it must just be a mosquito bite, so she didn't pay much attention to it.

The system was running quietly in her mind at that moment, and it certainly knew where those marks came from.

Last night, Jiang Ran slept next to Su Qing. After Su Qing fell into a deep sleep, she sat up and, using the moonlight from the window, left some marks on Su Qing's neck in her own way.

However, the system judged that stating these facts would disrupt the host's emotional stability and hinder task completion, so it chose to remain silent.

It temporarily shelved the "honesty principle" in the logic module and instead started another topic that was more in line with the current needs.

  

[Host, when Jiang Ran said "Never mind, sister, go back to sleep" and made a gesture to leave, based on micro-expression and voiceprint analysis, 93% of her sadness was an act.]

[She wasn't really disappointed; she was just using a common tactic of being affectionate. Did you realize that?]

"I know," Su Qing replied casually, tightening her ponytail an inch more in front of the mirror.

The system paused, as if some processing node had been blocked and then circled back: [Since you know she's acting, why are you still cooperating?]

Su Qing picked up the strawberry-scented hand cream from the sink, squeezed a little into her palm, and spread it. A faint smile appeared on her lips: "It's a secret."

The system fell into a brief silence during computation.

Su Qing could sense that the code was frantically retrieving data—her behavioral patterns, past decision-making records, her choices when facing events related to Jiang Ran, and all the definitions of the word "secret" in the Chinese semantic database.

[Understood. Based on interaction data from the past seven years, the host's level of doting affection for Jiang Ran has been increasing year by year.]

The system's voice carried an almost helpless, businesslike tone: [Analyzing the host's psychological state.]

After a brief silence, it began to broadcast the analysis results, its tone still objective and calm, but its wording revealed an undisguised helplessness: [The reason why the host cooperated with Jiang Ran knowing that she was acting is as follows—]

[First, the host's level of indulgence towards Jiang Ran is as high as 97.4%, far exceeding the level of a normal guardian.]

[Secondly, the host has absolutely no resistance to the idea of ​​'accompanying Jiang Ran to do whatever she wants.']

[Third, the host finds her coquettish manner adorable.]

[Fourth, you think she's cute when she pretends to be sad.]

[Fifth, what do you think of her?]

Su Qing paused for a moment while wiping her face, her cheeks slightly flushed, whether from the steam in the bathroom or from being annoyed by the system's accurate analysis report, she couldn't tell: "Could you please shut up while I'm wiping my face?"

[You've finished wiping your face; now you're wiping your hands.]

"Then you should shut up even more." Su Qing gently placed the hand cream jar on the sink, opened the door, and walked out of the bathroom.

In the living room, Jiang Ran had already changed into her outdoor clothes, wearing a milky white thin knit sweater and dark blue cropped pants, with her hair half-tied up and hanging down her shoulders. She was sitting on the sofa, scrolling through her phone and waiting for Su Qing.

She saw Su Qing walk out of the corridor, her lips slightly upturned, the curve appearing particularly gentle in the morning light.

Su Qing sat down in front of her, tilted her head to the side, and pointed to the red marks with her finger: "Xiao Ran, can you take a look at these red marks on my neck? Are they mosquito bites? They don't hurt or itch, and I don't know when they were done."

Jiang Ran's gaze fell on Su Qing's neck, which was turned to the side.

In the morning light, that skin was almost transparently white, with a few faint red marks scattered above the collarbone and in the hollows below the ears, like petals fallen on snow, possessing a quiet, unassuming beauty.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, and the curve of her lips deepened.

"Sister, don't move, let me see."

Jiang Ran reached out her hand, her fingertips gently covering the red marks. Her fingertips slid slowly from above her collarbone to below her earlobe, and then slowly moved back to her collarbone, as if tracing the outline of a painting.

Su Qing's neck was slightly raised in her palm, like a white camellia being lifted up.

She felt her sister's pulse beating steadily under her fingertips, beating without warning.

My sister is so beautiful...

Jiang Ran lowered her eyelashes, using the angle of the examination to hide the dark light in her eyes.

She really wanted to leave a few more, to let these red marks cover her entire skin, from her earlobe to her collarbone, and from her collarbone to her shoulder...

"How is it? Does it look like a mosquito bite?" Su Qing turned her head and asked her.

Jiang Ran withdrew her hand, her tone calm and gentle, her face revealing no flaw: "It does look a bit like it. Sister, don't scratch it. Applying some ointment should make it go away."

She rummaged through the small medicine box under the coffee table and found a tube of cooling balm. She unscrewed the cap, dabbed a little with her fingertip, and put it back on Su Qing's neck.

The slightly cool ointment slowly melted under the warmth of her fingertips, and she gently massaged it in circles onto the marks that Su Qing had personally left on her skin.

Su Qing obediently tilted her head back and let her apply the ointment, without any suspicion. When the ointment touched her skin, she even slightly shrank her neck and said it was cold.

Jiang Ran looked at her sister's completely oblivious expression, and the smile in her eyes deepened.

She withdrew her hand, screwed the cap of the ointment back on, put it back in the medicine box, stood up, and casually pressed down the tuft of hair that had stuck up again on Su Qing's head.

"Let's go, sister, the mall is open."