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

Jiang Ran didn't look at the moonlight outside the window, nor did she try to figure out where this unfamiliar hospital room was.

Her gaze shifted from the warm yellow chandelier on the ceiling to the electronic calendar on the wall.

Below the date, a line of small green text appeared: "Seventh day in hospital."

Seven days.

She slept for seven whole days.

She murmured the number over and over, then suddenly looked up, her sharp gaze sweeping across the empty ward.

"I know you're here." Her voice was hoarse and low, dry from seven days of silence, yet every word was clear. "Tell me, was my sister's death an accident?!"

The ward was so quiet that only the regular beeping of the electrocardiogram monitor could be heard.

No one answered her; only the occasional sound of the wind passing by the window.

Jiang Ran threw off the covers and got out of bed.

After lying down for seven days, she felt weak and dizzy. Her legs felt as heavy as lead, and every step she took felt like countless needles pricking the soles of her feet.

She steadied herself by holding onto the edge of the bed, with the IV tape still stuck to the back of her hand. A small corner of the tape was curled up, which she casually tore off.

The image of her sister covered in blood was still etched in her mind, never fading away for a moment.

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She walked to the window and opened it.

This is the seventeenth floor. The night wind, carrying the chill of early autumn, blew in through the window, causing her hair, which was loose over her shoulders, and her oversized hospital gown to flutter in the wind.

Outside the window is the night view of the northern city, with thousands of lights spreading out like a dazzling galaxy at my feet.

She looked up at the bright moon in the night sky, her voice slightly softer than before, yet carrying a chilling certainty.

"From the orphanage to the hospital, from that balcony to that car accident... every step felt like it was preordained..."

"I don't know who you are, or what you did to my sister, but if you don't answer my questions, we can now see if you can react faster, or if I can get down here faster."

She tilted her head slightly and glanced at the open space below, illuminated by the streetlights. A faint smile curved her lips. "You've been watching me, haven't you? So you should know very well that I never doubt that I'll make the wrong bet. By any measure, I won't lose."

After saying this, she didn't hesitate for a moment, released her grip on the window frame, and leaned forward.

The night wind on the seventeenth floor instantly filled her hospital gown, and her toes had already left the windowsill.

Then her body stopped.

It was as if an invisible hand reached out from the void, gently lifting her up and pulling her back to the window.

She couldn't move, not even bend her fingers, but she wasn't panicked; she was just waiting.

That's when the sound rang out.

It wasn't something she heard through her ears, but rather something that appeared directly in the depths of her consciousness, like a signal that had been suppressed for a long time finally finding a channel to connect to.

The voice was steady and restrained, with a certain inhuman quality, yet it revealed an almost imperceptible hint of helplessness when it uttered the first word.

[What do you want to ask?]

Jiang Ran did not move.

The force that had been controlling her had silently withdrawn, and she regained feeling in her fingertips, but she did not go near the window again.

She simply stood by the window, gazing at the deep blue night sky outside, and calmly asked, "Was my sister's death an accident?"

The system was silent for a moment, then emitted a very soft sound, almost like a sigh.

[Although this violates the system's rules, I can tell you—your sister's death was an accident.]

[The impact injuries from the car accident and the organ damage caused by Cui Jiayi's stab wound to the chest were the direct causes of death. There was no evidence of human intervention.]

Jiang Ran's fingers suddenly gripped the edge of the window frame tightly.

She lowered her head, her long, loose hair obscuring most of her face, making it impossible to see her expression.

The system didn't give her much time to process this information, continuing in its calm and restrained tone: [There is a contract between me and Su Qing.]

[You've probably already seen the contents of the contract—Su Qing was already in the late stages of stomach cancer at that time and should have died in that hospital room. I made a deal with her: if she completed the task, she could be reborn.]

[The contract requires her to raise you until you are fifteen, so give up. Your destinies were completely severed the moment she died.]

"Is that so..." Jiang Ran's voice was very soft, so soft that it sounded like she was talking to herself.

She raised her eyes, a dark and ambiguous light flashing in the moonlight. "Then take another good look. Is the thread between us really broken?"

The system fell silent.

It was analyzing—using all its computing power to analyze the girl standing by the window at this moment, analyzing the fate line on her body that should have been completely severed with Su Qing's death.

Then it saw that the line was not broken.

That line should have vanished into nothingness, should have completely disappeared into the air on that torrentially rainy highway as Su Qing closed her eyes for the last time, but it didn't.

It grew from the deepest part of Jiang Ran's heart, passing through the night wind on the seventeenth floor, through the pool of blood on that rainy day, through these long and silent seven days, stretching towards a distant place that even it could not trace.

The two people's fates are being forcibly reconnected in some inexplicable way.

"What was my sister thinking when she shielded me from the torrential rain?" Jiang Ran's voice was calm to the point of being cold.

The system remained silent for a long time, so long that even the night breeze outside the window stopped… [She was thinking that she still had a strawberry candy in her pocket that she hadn't had time to give to you, wondering if you had been bumped anywhere, and afraid that you would be scared when you woke up. She wasn't thinking about herself, not even once—]

Jiang Ran did not speak.

She remained standing by the window with her back to the ward, her shoulders trembling slightly, but she made no sound.

[She adopted you, protected you, and all her kindness towards you was initially only because of that contract. She knew she could only stay with you until you were fifteen, so she planned to leave from the beginning. Even so, you still—]

"I don't care." Jiang Ran's voice suddenly became very soft and gentle, completely different from the person who had threatened to jump off a building to an unknown entity just now.

The system didn't react in time. She slowly raised her head, and the moonlight fell on her face, illuminating the surging light in her eyes.

It was a deep, passionate, almost obsessive obsession.

"I don't care if my sister only appeared in front of me because of some promise you made... I only know that my sister isn't only nice to me because of that promise. She truly treats me like family, like a little sister..." Her voice was as gentle as humming a lullaby. "The strawberry milk she gave me, the braids she braided for me, the way she held me in her arms when I had nightmares, the way she stood by me when no one believed me, the way she said she would take me to the amusement park, and she really did. She said I deserved all the best things in the world, and then she protected me with her life. How could any of this be fake..."

At this point, her voice suddenly turned cold, as if she had been abruptly pulled back from tender memories. Her eyes were so cold that they sent chills down one's spine: "So don't use your words to judge my sister's feelings for me. Now, tell me, will my sister ever come back to me?"

The system fell silent.

It calculated for a very long time, so long that the silence itself was an answer.

[I can only tell you—] The voice paused, as if making an extremely difficult decision, [She will return in three years.]

The system did not continue speaking.

Jiang Ran didn't press further, because she knew that was the limit of what it could say.

Three years.

This number was like a ray of light, piercing through the boundless darkness that had shrouded her heart for days.

She didn't know how her sister would come back, where she would be, or what she would look like.

But as long as she exists in this world, as long as she can breathe, laugh, and look at her with those eyes she has looked at for seven years.

That's it.

"I will find my sister... I will bring her back to my side... I will never let her get lost again... My sister has protected me so many times... It's my turn now." She lowered her head slightly, her long hair falling down to cover her profile, her voice as soft as if she were talking to the moon, "Never... never again will we be apart."

The system remained silent, but quietly sealed all the data about Jiang Ran's current state—the terrifyingly high levels of obsession, possessiveness, and the rekindled thread of fate—into the deepest part of the database.

Just then, a crisp cracking sound came from behind Jiang Ran.

It wasn't a system, nor an electrocardiogram monitor, but a real porcelain cup that slipped from a real person's hand and shattered on the ground.

Warm water splashed all over the floor, and several pieces of broken porcelain rolled all the way to Jiang Ran's feet.

Jiang Ran turned around.

Sun Yaqin stood at the door, her hands still holding the tray, her face drained of color.

She looked at Jiang Ran standing by the window, at the wide-open window, at the gleaming shards of porcelain on the floor, and felt as if all her strength had been drained away.

She quickly stepped forward, reached out and pulled the child back from the window, hugging her tightly.

Jiang Ran could feel Aunt Sun's body trembling violently. Those always warm and strong hands were now gripping her so tightly that it hurt, as if she was afraid that if she let go, she would disappear.

"No... Xiaoran... you can't do this... if something else happens to you, how will Aunt Sun explain it to Xiaoqing..." Sun Yaqin's voice was choked with sobs, her fingers gripping the back of her hospital gown tightly, creating deep wrinkles in the fabric. "Aunt Sun knows you're sad... knows you're in pain... but you absolutely can't do anything foolish... Aunt Sun can't lose you too..."

Jiang Ran felt warm liquid dripping onto the back of her neck.

She reached out and gently wrapped her arms around Sun Yaqin's trembling back.

Aunt Sun's embrace was warm, unlike her sister's, but it was one of the few havens she found during those dark years.

"Aunt Sun... I won't do that... My sister wants me to live well, she wants me to be safe and sound every year. I will listen to my sister, I will eat well, go to school well, and live each day well, because my sister will come back... One day, my sister will come back to my side." When she said the last sentence, two clear tears slid down her cheeks, but her tone was only a gentle and firm expectation, mixed with a determination that no one else could hear.

Sun Yaqin hugged her even tighter. This poor child, the only person in the world who could truly protect and comfort her was no longer there.

She probably will never be able to accept the fact that the person she loves most has left her...

But she wouldn't deny Xiao Ran's words; she simply buried her face in the child's thin shoulder, letting her tears silently soak her hospital gown.