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

"Xiaoyi, calm down."

Su Qing looked at Jiang Yi, who was trembling all over, and tried to keep her voice very soft and gentle, as if she were comforting a frightened little animal.

She instinctively reached out to pat Jiang Yi's shoulder, but her wrist was still firmly gripped by him, preventing her from moving.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yi's gaze did not soften; instead, it darkened further.

"They even found out who I am... They really did their homework."

She loosened her grip on Su Qing's wrist, but instead pulled at the flesh on Su Qing's cheeks. The moment her fingers pinched, she wanted to give this imposter a good squeeze to show her what pain was, but for some reason, her fingers stopped when she was about to exert force.

Looking at Su Qing's face, which she had pinched slightly out of shape, and at those incredibly clear eyes that were helplessly looking back at her, the fire in her heart did not burn any brighter; instead, it was blocked by an inexplicable sense of irritation.

"Don't call me that with Sister Su's face on your face... um?" She gently tugged at Su Qing's cheek twice with her fingers, then suddenly stopped.

The skin beneath her fingertips was warm and soft, the touch almost too real. Unconvinced, she pinched it again, pressing her fingertips back and forth on Su Qing's cheekbones, jawline, and bridge of the nose several times.

No implants, no fillers, no thick foundation, not even a trace of makeup... This is a completely natural face.

Jiang Yi was stunned. No wonder Xiao Ran was deceived. Her face was exactly the same as Sister Su's.

Su Qing didn't struggle as Jiang Yi pinched her face; she just stood there quietly, letting Jiang Yi's fingers poke her face.

She saw a flicker of confusion in Jiang Yi's eyes, which were filled with anger. That confusion was like a small stone thrown into a raging river; although it sank quickly, it had indeed existed for a moment.

The bodyguards beside her exchanged bewildered glances. One was the eldest young lady, and the other was the second young lady's older sister. How could they persuade them? How could they stop them?

Helping the eldest young lady would offend the second young lady, helping Miss Su would offend the eldest young lady, helping both would offend both, and not helping either would still offend both.

  

They felt that no matter what they did now, the end result would either be digging potatoes in Siberia or planting cacti in the Sahara Desert.

On the other end of the surveillance footage, Jiang Ran clearly hadn't expected her sister to run into Jiang Yi under these circumstances.

She leaned back in her chair, her fingers tapping lightly on the armrest. As she watched Jiang Yi's hands kneading her sister's cheeks in the video, her eyes darkened slightly.

Su Qing rubbed her cheeks, which were slightly red from being pinched, and sighed helplessly as she looked at Jiang Yi, who was still staring at her warily.

Just as she was about to say something more, her phone suddenly rang in her pocket.

The screen lit up, and the incoming caller ID made Su Qing pause for a moment. Then, as if she had found a savior, she quickly answered the call and even pressed the speakerphone button.

"elder sister."

Jiang Ran's voice came from the other end of the phone, still with that cool yet gentle tone, but to Su Qing at that moment it sounded better than any music. "Give her the phone."

Su Qing obediently handed her phone to Jiang Yi, who was still glaring at her.

Jiang Yi answered the phone, her voice urgent as if she had grasped at a lifeline: "Xiao Ran! Listen to me, the person next to you who looks like Sister Su is a fake, she..."

"She's not a fake," Jiang Ran interrupted her, her voice calm and firm. "She is my sister."

Jiang Yi stood frozen in place, her hand holding the phone suspended in mid-air.

She glanced down at the call screen, then looked up at the person in front of her who was looking at her with a helpless yet indulgent gaze. Her lips moved several times before she managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Xiao Ran, are you missing Sister Su too much...? I know you're sad, but you can't just find anyone to pretend to be Sister Su... Even though this person looks exactly like Sister Su, it's definitely fake. Makeup and plastic surgery techniques are so advanced these days..."

"Six years ago, you fell at the entrance of the amusement park and scraped your knee. Your sister knelt down to help you apply medicine, and you cried for half an hour while hugging your sister's arm, with snot bubbles coming out of your nose. In the end, you were comforted by a cotton candy."

The person on the other end of the phone and the person in front of them spoke at the same time, and their words were exactly the same.

Jiang Yi was stunned. Before she could recover from this precise blow, Su Qing added insult to injury: "That time you cried so loudly that a little kid next to you was so scared that he dropped his ice cream."

Jiang Ran chuckled on the phone, a hint of schadenfreude in her voice.

Jiang Yi's face changed from angry red to shameful pink, and then from shameful pink to incredulous pale.

She pointed at Su Qing's nose, her voice trembling, "You...you even found out all this? That's insane..."

"Should I tell you about when you were little and you were playing at Cheng Xiaoyu's house, and you insisted on climbing that jujube tree to steal the bird's nest?" Su Qing leaned against the shelf, arms crossed, a familiar indulgent smile on her lips. "You didn't get the nest, and you got stuck in the branches and couldn't get down. In the end, Uncle Wu had to bring a ladder to rescue you. You cried even more after you got down than when you fell, and your pants were torn by a branch."

Jiang Yi froze on the spot as if a pause button had been pressed.

She stared at Su Qing with her mouth agape, her expression instantly becoming incredibly complex: shock, confusion, disbelief, and a hint of embarrassment and anger.

Her finger, pointing at Su Qing, began to tremble, and her voice was much weaker than before: "You... how long have you been investigating...?"

Su Qing smiled helplessly at her stubbornness, which showed that she had already believed seven or eight parts of the truth but was still putting on a brave face.

She reached out and gently pressed down Jiang Yi's finger that was pointing at her: "Alright then, since you think I'm fake, how do you think you can prove I'm real?"

Jiang Yi remained silent for a moment, then narrowed her eyes slightly.

Then Su Qing saw a suspicious glint flash in her beautiful eyes, a glint that seemed to be malicious, as if she had come up with some bad idea.

Jiang Yi pointed to the row of fitting rooms not far away, and a slow smile appeared on her lips.

Su Qing looked in the direction she was pointing, and then heard Jiang Yi say in a tone that said, "If you don't dare, you're lying: just look at your body for any flaws. You can get plastic surgery on your face, but you can't make your body look exactly the same, can you?"

Su Qing was silent for about two seconds, then turned and left expressionlessly: "Forget it then, just pretend I'm fake."

"Don't go!" Jiang Yi wasn't about to let her leave so easily, and quickly grabbed Su Qing's wrist.

"Hiss..." A sudden sharp pain shot through her wrist, and Su Qing gasped, shivering slightly.

Jiang Yi was taken aback, and her hand almost reflexively released itself.

She looked down and saw that Su Qing subconsciously used her other hand to protect the wrist that she had just grabbed, and the fingertips of that hand were slightly white.

Jiang Yi pursed her lips, reached out and gently pushed up the sleeve of Su Qing's cardigan. Then she saw the marks on that fair skin... a circle of purplish-blue bruises on the outside of her wrist, left when she had gripped it tightly earlier, which looked particularly glaring against the surrounding almost transparent white skin.

There were several bloody fingernail marks along the bluish-purple edge, two of which had already oozed tiny beads of blood.

Jiang Yi froze completely.

This is what she just did; it's what she left behind when she gripped this person with so much force.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but it felt like something was blocking her throat.

This face looks so much like Sister Su that when these scars appeared on "Sister Su's" wrists, she felt as if someone had twisted something hard in her heart.

She didn't say "you're fake" again, nor did she question anything further. She simply pursed her lips, rummaged through her small bag, pulled out a pack of wet wipes, and gently pressed one onto the bleeding nail marks. Her movements were very light, completely different from when she had gripped the person's wrist earlier.

"Come with me."

Her voice was muffled, as if she were sulking at herself, or perhaps at the person in front of her. "Even if it's fake... I don't want to see anyone get hurt because of me. And if Xiao Ran sees this injury, she'll definitely worry again. I just don't want Xiao Ran to worry. Don't flatter yourself."

Su Qing looked at her stubborn little face, at her harsh words but gentle movements as if afraid of breaking something, and then at the bruise on her wrist. A very faint smile appeared on her lips.

She turned to the bodyguards who were still standing there at a loss and told them to send the things back first, and that she and Jiang Yi would go and treat the injury on her hand.

The bodyguards exchanged glances. Although the young lady had just assured them that she wouldn't do anything to Miss Su, the way she acted just now didn't seem like she would let it go easily.

Seeing this, Jiang Yi didn't say anything more, but just turned around and gave them a cold glance, as if to say, "Do you have any objections?"

The four bodyguards immediately shook their heads vigorously.

Then she didn't linger any longer, and pulled Su Qing's arm to walk outside.

She walked very fast, so fast that Su Qing almost had to jog to keep up.

But the hand that was holding Su Qing's arm deliberately avoided the wound on his wrist.

The system softly reported in Su Qing's mind: [Jiang Yi's suspicion of you was over 90% before, but it has now dropped to 41%. In addition, her guilt level is as high as 83%—she is using anger to cover up her heartache.]

Su Qing watched the figure walking quickly ahead, noticing the small patch of red on her ear that hadn't yet faded, and sighed softly in her heart.

The little guy has really grown up; he has his own judgment now and can keep his feelings to himself.

But deep down, she's still that little girl who feels guilty and wants to hide herself if she hurts someone.

No matter how well you hide your secrets, they are still just hidden under a thin layer of icing.