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

Su Qing opened her eyes when a very light kiss landed on her forehead.

The kiss was so light, as light as a feather blown away by the wind, brushing across her forehead.

But her eyelashes still trembled, and then her eyes, misty with alcohol, opened without warning.

Jiang Ran hadn't even had a chance to straighten up before she froze on the spot.

Her lips were still less than an inch above Su Qing's forehead, her hands supporting her on either side of Su Qing's body, making her look like a thief caught red-handed.

Eyes facing each other.

The silence lasted only about a second, but that second felt incredibly long, so long that Jiang Ran felt her heartbeat was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire room.

She sat up abruptly, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly, her mind racing with explanations, but all her usual eloquent sentences crumbled at this moment.

She wanted to say that it wasn't what her sister thought... no, it was exactly like that.

She wanted to say it was a misunderstanding... but no, there was no misunderstanding, she was the one who kissed him.

She wanted to say that she just saw something on her sister's face... but that was no better; the excuse was so lame that even she didn't believe it.

Just as she was frantically trying to find the right words, Su Qing suddenly reached out and cupped her face in his hands.

The movements were very light and slow, as if afraid of crushing something.

Su Qing looked up at her, her eyes, which were watery from the alcohol, curved slightly, and the corners of her mouth curled up in a soft, hazy smile.

"My Xiaoran is so beautiful."

Her voice, soft and mellow with the tinge of intoxication, sounded like she was making some incredible discovery, or perhaps talking to herself.

Jiang Ran was frozen in place, her face cupped in her hands, not daring to move an inch.

Then Su Qing let go of her hand, tilted her head to look at the dark night outside the window, her brows suddenly furrowed, and she muttered, "It's so late, and I haven't made dinner for Xiao Ran yet."

As she spoke, she began to lift the covers and get out of bed.

Jiang Ran looked at her sister, who could barely stand but still tried to cook, and chuckled helplessly. She reached out and pressed her shoulder, gently pushing her back to the bedside.

"Sister, we've already had dinner, haven't you forgotten?"

Su Qing blinked, her usually sharp and clear eyes now misty, as if veiled by a thin layer of fog, filled with genuine confusion and a lingering bewilderment.

She tilted her head and thought for a long time, as if she was searching for some memory but couldn't find it. Then she stopped struggling, hugged her knees and curled up into a small ball, resting her chin between her knees.

Her nightgown neckline had shifted to one side due to her earlier movement, revealing half of her fair and rounded shoulder. A few strands of hair fell across her cheek, swaying gently as she mumbled.

  

"Seriously, another meal missed..." Her voice was very soft, as if she were talking to her knees.

Jiang Ran didn't hear clearly, but seeing her sister curled up in a ball with her knees drawn up, she felt that her sister seemed unhappy.

She knelt down in front of Su Qing, gently patted her head, and asked in a soft, gentle voice, "Sister, what's wrong?"

Su Qing looked up at her, her lips moved a few times as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she just sighed.

The sigh was very soft, yet it carried a weariness and dejection that Jiang Ran had never seen in her sister before.

"It hasn't been that long..." Her voice was muffled, as if she were talking to herself, or as if she were talking to something she couldn't grasp.

This time, Jiang Ran heard it clearly.

What does "not long time" mean? She recalled how her sister had been preoccupied lately, always looking at her with an expression she couldn't understand.

She paused for a moment, then moved forward half an inch, reached out her hands, and gently cupped Su Qing's cheeks.

The palm touched soft, tender skin, and there were faint red marks from the pillow on her cheeks. The older sister was obediently held in her hands, her misty eyes blinking blankly, like a kitten whose face was being held but who didn't know what was happening.

"Sister," her voice was very soft, as if she were soothing a dream that might shatter at any moment, "not much time left...do you mean the holiday is almost over?"

Su Qing shook her head slightly.

At this moment, the system was running silently in her mind.

It had already initiated the sobering-up process, preparing to accelerate alcohol metabolism by regulating the host's neurotransmitter levels, but it stopped the moment it detected Jiang Ran approaching the host.

It analyzed its situation: if the sobering-up process continued, the host would soon regain consciousness, and Jiang Ran's emotional state was at an extremely sensitive and critical juncture—a juncture that could have a profound impact on the host's ability to complete the task.

It retrieved all relevant data, conducted a comprehensive assessment lasting 0.3 seconds, and then made a decision that it itself could not fully explain logically: temporarily erase the system's presence so that the host would not inadvertently reveal anything about the system.

As for the others, it chose to remain silent.

The memories of the system in Su Qing's head were temporarily hidden by the system, but the word "separation" seemed to be engraved in her bones. Even though the alcohol had turned all her thoughts into mush, the word still stubbornly floated on the top layer of her muddled mind.

She didn't know what it was, only that it was bad and something she didn't want to touch.

So she simply stopped thinking about it, raised her misty eyes to look at Jiang Ran, and said with a touch of self-righteous coquettishness in her tone, "Not much time is not much time."

She pouted slightly and squinted her eyes when she said this, as if she were being coquettish or being unreasonable.

The neckline of her pajamas had slipped down lower at some point, revealing a section of her delicate collarbone and the fair skin on her shoulder, which shimmered softly in the warm yellow glow of the bedside lamp.

A few strands of hair fell on either side of her cheeks, making her already beautiful face look soft and docile, a stark contrast to her usual fearless and resilient demeanor.

Looking at her sister like this, Jiang Ran felt her heart beating unusually fast.

Her fingers, which were cupping Su Qing's cheeks, were slightly warm. Her usually calm and composed eyes were now dark and deep, as if something was churning within them.

Her gaze slid from Su Qing's slightly furrowed brows to her misty eyes, and then from her eyes to her glistening lips... Her sister's lips were already beautiful, and now, because of the alcohol, they were slightly red, like two cherry blossom petals wet with dew.

She stared at those lips for what seemed like an eternity, then heard her own voice, as if controlled by something, float lightly from her throat: "Sister, may I kiss you?"

The moment those words landed on her lips, Jiang Ran's mind caught up with her mouth.

She was completely stunned, staring blankly at Su Qing's eyes, which were clouded with a thin mist from drunkenness, as if trying to understand what the words meant when put together.

Her face flushed instantly, and she quickly released her hands from Su Qing's cheeks, speaking so fast it was as if she wanted to take back what she had just said: "That's not what I meant, I meant... it's that thing on the forehead... no, I meant..."

She was still rambling incoherently trying to explain, but Su Qing's mind was now a complete mess from the alcohol. The only thing that was still functioning was the underlying code that had been etched into her instincts seven years ago.

She didn't want to reject Xiao Ran.

She never wanted to refuse Xiao Ran.

So she obediently nodded, tilted her head back, and leaned forward, offering her face to Jiang Ran.

Jiang Ran looked at her sister's unguarded appearance, at her slightly pouting lips, and at her eyes, which were clouded by alcohol but still reflected her own image.

Reason told her that her sister was drunk and not sober now, and things might get complicated when she woke up tomorrow, so she should stop now.

But the older sister was obediently tilting her head back, her eyes half-closed, her eyelashes like two quietly resting little butterflies, her lips slightly parted, as if waiting for something, or perhaps inviting something...

She couldn't help it.