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

On the other side, inside the antique-style copper hot pot restaurant, steam rose and the air was filled with the aroma of sesame sauce and charcoal.

Su Qing put down her chopsticks, picked up her teacup, took a sip, and exhaled a satisfied breath.

Jiang Ran smiled slightly as she watched the little curve of her lips unconsciously turn up. Making her sister happy was indeed the simplest and most fulfilling job in the world.

She paid the bill, reached out and pulled Su Qing up from the chair, and the two walked out of the store side by side.

"Sister isn't angry with Xiao Ran anymore, right?" Jiang Ran tilted her head to look at her, her tone sly.

Su Qing rolled her eyes at her, but she probably didn't realize that her stern face and those eyes that were still filled with a hint of satisfied tears didn't intimidate Jiang Ran at all.

"I'm not angry, you're just overthinking it."

Su Qing tried to keep her tone calm and indifferent.

"Really?" Jiang Ran raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing this, raised her and Su Qing's intertwined hands to her lips, and lowered her head to give the fair and delicate back of their hands a very light and quick peck.

Su Qing felt a warm, soft touch on the back of her hand, and felt as if she had been electrocuted. The heat she had managed to suppress in the hot pot restaurant suddenly surged back up.

"Xiao Ran!" she called out in a low voice, trying to pull her hand back, but Jiang Ran held it firmly and wouldn't budge.

Jiang Ran looked at her sister's face, which was as red as a ripe shrimp dumpling, and finally let go of her hand with satisfaction, but did not let go, still holding her hand with her fingers intertwined and putting it into her coat pocket.

Seeing that she had finally calmed down, Su Qing stopped struggling and simply turned her head away so that she wouldn't see her blushing face.

The evening breeze swept through the old street, lifting the stray hairs that fell over her shoulders. The streetlights cast long, thin shadows of the two of them, overlapping on the bluestone pavement.

In that casual turn of her head, Su Qing's gaze fell on a shop across the street.

Her steps suddenly slowed, and she stopped almost instinctively.

The shop's storefront was lit with warm yellow lights, and the wooden signboard bore the shop's name in handwritten script. Several rows of exquisite dessert models were displayed in the transparent glass window, and the green plants at the entrance were neatly trimmed, just like the shop in the alley full of ginkgo trees in my memory.

She saw the two characters of the shop name on the signboard... it wasn't "Half Sugar," it was "Half Star."

  

Jiang Ran followed her sister's gaze, a barely perceptible smile curving her lips.

She gently tugged at Su Qing's hand, her voice soft and gentle: "Sister, let's go take a look and buy some to take home for a late-night snack."

Su Qing came to her senses and thought that it might just be a coincidence, so she nodded.

The two crossed the road to the other side, but when she actually stood in front of the glass door, her doubts not only did not diminish, but became even stronger.

The storefront sign, the way the desserts are displayed in the window, the potted green ivy that she used to water every day... everything here is like a completely transplanted Half Sugar Dessert Shop from that alley in the North City, with a different name.

Xiao Ran had told her before that Yan Ning closed Bantang and came to Ancheng after she left.

Could it be...? She looked up at Jiang Ran, who didn't say anything, just nodded slightly, and then pushed open the glass door.

The wind chimes on the door rang out with a clear, melodious sound.

A shop assistant wearing a black apron came up to us. She was a young-looking girl with neat, short hair that reached her ears. She had delicate and pretty features, round and bright eyes, and two shallow dimples at the corners of her mouth when she smiled.

Her voice was as clear and melodious as a silver bell: "Welcome to Half-Star Dessert! What would you two like to see?"

Su Qing stood at the door and looked around. The light wood floor, the warm yellow walls, the row of light wood booths by the window, and the semi-open baking area behind the worktable.

It's exactly the same as the shop she used to work at for several years, just as she remembered.

She paused for a moment, then softly mentioned her favorite strawberry mousse and mini cream puffs to bring home.

The clerk smiled and responded, then turned and went to the kitchen.

The shop wasn't crowded at this time, so Su Qing and Jiang Ran found a seat by the window. Su Qing was silent for a moment, then spoke, her voice very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something: "Xiao Ran, did you already know?"

Jiang Ran didn't hide anything. She gently grasped her sister's hand, which was resting on the table, and said frankly, "Yes, after he closed the shop in Beicheng, he came to Ancheng and reopened this Half Star." She paused, looking into her sister's eyes, "I didn't want you to worry about him too much, so I didn't tell you before because I was afraid you'd overthink it. But if you want to see him..."

"Never mind."

Su Qing looked at the ginkgo tree outside the window that was exactly the same as the one in front of the North City Half Sugar shop, smiled and shook her head, "He finally got over it, and three years have passed. In his eyes, I'm long gone. I might as well let him continue to think that way."

She looked away from Jiang Ran, her eyes reflecting the warm yellow light, her voice filled with a mixture of relief and gratitude, "Thank you, Xiao Ran, for bringing me here. Knowing that he's alright is enough."

Jiang Ran couldn't suppress the smile on her face; the little man in her heart was already setting off fireworks.

Of course she knew Yan Ning wouldn't be in the store at this time; she had investigated everything thoroughly before daring to bring her sister.

However, her sister's decision not to see him was even better than she had expected.

Seeing the relieved and satisfied smile on her sister's face, she couldn't help but mentally give herself a credit... Her sister must be so touched right now, after all, she was such a considerate younger sister.

A short while later, the short-haired shop assistant returned from the kitchen carrying a box of packaged desserts.

She gently placed the paper bag on the table, gave a slight bow, and said, "Enjoy your meal."

Looking at her still-childish face, Su Qing recalled that she herself had started helping out at Bantang at the same age, and couldn't help but ask, "Little sister, how old are you this year?"

The shop assistant paused for a moment upon hearing this, then gave a somewhat helpless yet habitual smile: "I'm sixteen years old, but I'm not a little sister, I'm a boy."

His voice was still that clear and melodious silver bell tone, but when he said those words, Su Qing and Jiang Ran were both stunned.

boy?

Su Qing looked more closely at the face in front of her, with its delicate features and shallow dimples when it smiled. No matter how you looked at it, it was no different from a pretty and cute young girl.

Jiang Ran narrowed her big eyes slightly, leaned close to her sister's ear, and whispered in an extremely subtle, somewhat sarcastic tone, "Sister, does this Yan Ning have some kind of special fetish? Why does he always let good-looking boys work as shop assistants?"

Su Qing blushed and quickly covered her mouth with her hand: "Don't talk nonsense!" As soon as she said that, she suddenly remembered the experience of someone licking her palm in the old street, and reflexively pulled her hand back as fast as if she had been burned.

Jiang Ran couldn't help but laugh when she saw her sister's lightning-fast withdrawal.

What a pity... My sister reacted so quickly this time; she really wanted to do it again.

Just as the two were about to get up and leave with their dessert boxes, a boy ran past them quickly.

He was wearing a school uniform and carrying a backpack. He had probably just come from evening self-study, and there was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

He ran straight to the cashier, leaned against the counter to catch his breath, and then looked up at the short-haired clerk who was tidying up the cash register. A blush instantly rose on his face.

He tried to make his voice sound casual and natural, but the slight upward inflection at the end betrayed his nervousness: "Lu Yao, are you working overtime today?"

The person called Lu Yao was the same shop assistant from before. He looked up, saw Lu Yao's sweaty appearance, and smiled helplessly, his big eyes curving into two crescent moons: "No overtime today, Fu Jingxiao. But you, you come here every day after class, aren't you tired?"

Fu Jingxiao scratched the back of his head, his face turning even redder: "What do you mean I'm tired? I'm perfectly fine. Come on, let me help you get ready. We're going to eat at that newly opened Lao Li's Home-Style Restaurant later. I tried it yesterday, and it was delicious."

"You're treating again? Didn't you use up all your allowance last month?" Lu Yao tilted her head and looked at him, her tone slightly mocking.

"It's nothing, it's nothing. My mom gave me a raise this month! She said it's because I improved in my midterm exams." Fu Jingxiao said as he spontaneously picked up a rag and started wiping the work surface, his movements as practiced as if he had been working at this store for a long time.

Jiang Ran watched this scene, then looked at her sister beside her, and asked in a serious, academic tone, "Sister, do you think that boy likes her?"

Su Qing looked at her younger sister's "I'm just analyzing objectively" expression and was speechless, but her gaze still involuntarily fell on the two boys packing up side by side.

Lu Yao was sorting through the change in the cash register with her head down, while Fu Jingxiao finished wiping the counter and started sweeping the floor, rambling on about the interesting things that happened at school that day.

Lu Yao occasionally glanced up at him, a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth. She didn't say much, but her clear eyes reflected the lamplight and the shadow of the boy who was circling around her and refusing to leave.

Su Qing's lips unconsciously curled up, and she said softly, "Probably."

Meanwhile, the system within her body, which had been dormant for a long time, was now silently operating a string of data so complex that it was impossible to decipher.

Those data streams jump, reorganize, and categorize, eventually forming a new archive deep within the database.

The system made no sound, simply sealing the data away quietly and falling silent.

Su Qing was naturally unaware of these things.

As she looked at the two youthful and bright boys, a soft corner of her heart was gently touched.

But that's their own story... a story of two people who are still clueless but have already found their most comfortable place by each other's side.

She picked up the dessert box from the table and, together with Jiang Ran, pushed open the glass door.

The wind chimes on the door rang again, their clear and melodious sound seeming to bid farewell to the boy who couldn't say goodbye.

The night breeze, carrying the unique scent of bluestone slabs and roasted chestnuts from the old street, brushed against her cheeks. Su Qing glanced back at the warm yellow doorway, then turned back and walked side by side with Jiang Ran into the gentle night of Ancheng.

I may not come again in the future, but tonight's trip is enough.