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

"Are you sure that if I dress like this, the other person will look at me more?" Cheng Xuyan stood in front of the mirror, turning half a circle to the left and half a circle to the right. No matter how he looked at it, the person in the mirror seemed completely different from the person he usually knew.

The pure white suit was sharply tailored, with very fine silver patterns adorning the cuffs. The light gray shirt underneath had a crisp collar and was tied with a pink tie.

He had lived for almost thirty years and had never tried a pink tie before. Looking at himself in the mirror, a figure that was both unfamiliar and strangely attractive, he recalled Jiang Ren's words when she handed him the outfit: "Trust me, this is it."

He believed it, and now he regrets it a little.

"Are you questioning your brother's judgment?" Jiang Ren leaned back lazily on the sofa, with two obvious dark circles under his eyes.

He barely slept a wink last night to help Cheng Yuyan set up this place, and now he was slumped in the sofa, yawning for what felt like the umpteenth time today. "You must have had nothing better to do than come to Ancheng and pull this stunt right now, when people are supposed to be working here, just to treat them to a meal?"

Cheng Xuyan turned his gaze away from the mirror and sighed, "What can I do? People usually don't even bother to look at me."

Jiang Ren suddenly became interested upon hearing this, sat up straight on the sofa, and a gossipy glint flashed in her eyes: "You really want to confess your feelings to him that much? If he doesn't accept, won't you lose him as a friend?"

Cheng Xuyan finally looked away from the increasingly uneasy reflection in the mirror, then turned and glared at Jiang Ren: "So, the prerequisite for expressing feelings is that we have to be friends? Don't think that far ahead."

"Heh, you're doing this even though you're not even sure if we're friends?" Jiang Ren looked around at the flowers, balloons, exquisite tablecloth, and the set of handmade crystal glasses that he had specially arranged to be flown in from Country Y.

The restaurant was decorated more exquisitely than a wedding venue. Anyone who didn't know better would think that some grand ceremony was about to take place here, rather than a private dinner party where even the "friends" were not yet certain.

He laughed meaningfully, the sarcasm and ill intent in his laughter almost overflowing.

Cheng Xuyan blushed and his voice lowered: "This, isn't it better to be more formal and leave a good impression...?" Jiang Ren didn't say anything, but just leaned back on the sofa and continued to laugh.

Chengxu Yan decided to ignore him and turned back to continue arguing with the pink tie in the mirror.

Meanwhile, Su Qing and Jiang Ran also arrived in Ancheng.

Su Qing thought that she would just need to book a hotel for a few days of travel, but when Jiang Ran led her to a building, she was completely stunned.

It was a Chinese courtyard house located in the bustling city center, with gray tiles, white walls, upturned eaves, and two pomegranate trees swaying gently in the morning light in front of the door.

The vermilion gate is studded with brass nails. Pushing it open, you enter a path paved with bluestone slabs, with bamboo and banana trees planted on both sides.

Just as Su Qing was about to marvel at how elegant the place was, she walked around the screen wall and pushed open the door of the main house, only to be stunned. The interior decoration was completely different from what she had imagined a "traditional Chinese house".

The entire house is equipped with smart home technology, and the floor-to-ceiling windows overlook a dry landscape garden. The open kitchen island is even larger than the living room of her previous rental apartment.

Jiang Ran led her around the room with practiced ease, stopping at each door to wait for her sister to finish looking at it before continuing on, just like when Su Qing first brought her home.

Su Qing looked at the walk-in closet, which was even bigger than her and Xiao Ran's previous home, and then at the huge bed that she could roll around on. In the end, only one thought remained in her mind.

She turned to look at Xiao Ran, who was waiting for her evaluation, with a serious and sincere expression, and asked in a low voice how much it would cost, as if her little money wasn't even enough to buy a toilet.

Seeing her dazed expression, Jiang Ran finally couldn't help but reach out and gently pinch her sister's cheek. The smile on her lips looked anything but malicious: "Try to think positively, sister. Actually, we can't even afford a toilet."

Su Qing's face immediately fell, her expression changing from blank to pitiful after being severely hit by reality, screaming in her heart... She didn't understand the world of the rich.

But she quickly straightened her face, looking down at the hand that was pinching her cheek, her eyes saying, "I don't care how much money you have, but you can't pinch my cheek."

Jiang Ran looked at her sister's adorable appearance, where she was clearly hurt but still trying to maintain her dignity, and felt as if she had been hit hard in the chest.

She released her fingers from her sister's cheek, then took Su Qing's hand, their fingers intertwined, her voice filled with undisguised laughter: "Would you be interested in accompanying me to try some of the famous local dishes, sister?"

Su Qing was still wondering what "Big Sister" meant when Jiang Ran grabbed her arm and led her out the door.

Since the place to eat was not far from their courtyard, the two chose to walk.

  

Ancheng's old street retains its layout from a hundred years ago. Shops line both sides of the bluestone road, red lanterns sway gently under the eaves, and the air is filled with the sweet aroma of roasted chestnuts and osmanthus cakes.

Su Qing was just marveling at how perfect this place was for taking photos when she suddenly heard a loud, energetic shout from ahead—

"Candied hawthorn!" Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Jiang Ran's hand and walked forward.

The vendor selling candied hawthorns had a mobile stall with neatly arranged skewers of candied hawthorns on his cart. The red hawthorns and pink strawberries glistened in the sunlight.

Su Qing bought two skewers, one with hawthorn and one with strawberries. The strawberry one was naturally for Xiao Ran.

Jiang Ran took the string of candied strawberries from her hand, looked at the evenly coated and translucent sugar coating, and then at her sister's satisfied expression as she squinted her eyes after taking a bite of the hawthorn. A meaningful smile appeared on her lips.

She didn't eat her own skewer immediately, but turned her head to look at Su Qing and said in a matter-of-fact tone that she wanted to try her sister's too.

Su Qing was stunned for a moment upon hearing this. She looked down at the hawthorn berries in her hand that she had already bitten half of. She was about to say that she would give her the whole berries at the bottom, but before she could speak, Jiang Ran had already taken her hand, lowered her head slightly, and very gently bit off the half hawthorn berry.

Her eyelashes brushed lightly against Su Qing's fingertips as she bit into the hawthorn, and her lips made a very subtle crunching sound when they touched the sugar coating.

She straightened up and chewed slowly, a serious, commenting expression on her face, and finally said, "It tastes good."

Su Qing was stunned by her series of actions, and her heart skipped a beat for no reason.

She looked down at the four hawthorns that were now left on her bamboo skewer. A voice in her mind said that something seemed wrong, but another voice immediately retorted that Xiao Ran had always been like this since she was little, and she wanted to try everything that looked delicious. She probably just didn't want to waste anything.

Yes, it is like that.

She handed the bamboo skewer to Xiao Ran and asked if she wanted more.

Jiang Ran looked at her sister's face, which seemed to say "I didn't think much of it," and shook her head with a smile.

Su Qing said "oh" and continued eating her hawthorn. Then, before she could swallow the half hawthorn she had just bitten off, Jiang Ran turned her head slightly again and very naturally took the half hawthorn that Su Qing had just bitten off.

Okay, if she still can't see it after all this, then she's really a fool.

Su Qing looked at Xiao Ran's matter-of-fact, even somewhat smug expression, and her gaze fell on the strawberry candied hawthorn skewer in Xiao Ran's hand that she had just taken a bite of.

Then she did something she hadn't expected.

She leaned closer, tiptoed slightly, and very gently bit off the half-eaten strawberry from the very top of Jiang Ran's candied hawthorn skewer.

The strawberry juice burst in her mouth, so sweet that she unconsciously squinted her eyes. Then she looked up at Jiang Ran's face, which rarely showed such surprise, and mimicked her tone from before, asking innocently, "What's wrong? Can't I have a taste?"

Jiang Ran looked down at her candied hawthorn skewer, which was missing half a strawberry, then looked up at her older sister's smug little face, which was full of "an eye for an eye" attitude. The corners of her mouth slowly curved up.

That smile was beautiful, but Su Qing felt that there was something deeper churning in those eyes than before, like something she couldn't quite see hidden beneath a seemingly calm lake.

She unconsciously swallowed the strawberry in her mouth, thinking... This strawberry was clearly much sweeter than the previous bunch, so why did Xiao Ran's gaze make her feel like the candied hawthorn that was being eaten?