They are still close to me today despite their negative feelings

—Wait a minute, wasn't your last comment a little scary?

"Then shall I sleep with you?"

"Eat your food properly, and shut your mouth."

Chapter 82: Like melting ice, without a ripple

"Hello everyone, I am Li Yueyao from Class C of Grade 11 at Linwai High School."

"Regarding the recent online buzz about Qiu Luxi's situation at school, I actually have some video recordings of her participating in club activities."

"..." I looked at the short video playing on my phone and opened the comments section.

It was as deserted as a suburban icehouse, with only a few discussions, many of which were from new accounts asking for mutual follows.

"good to eat!"

The moment Qiu Luxi put the spoon in her mouth, her eyes widened.

"Ning Ruoyu, eat well!"

"Don't talk while we're eating. If you must talk, don't omit the subject, verb, and object."

I looked at the girl in front of me, who was eating here and there with her chopsticks, like a curious kitten without any manners, and sighed softly.

Who would have thought that the girl at the heart of the current trending topic would be living in my run-down rented room?

"Brother is actually very good at cooking. By the way, Senior Qiu Luxi, do you prefer orange juice or milk?"

"Ugh, milk! The orange juice is too sour!"

The orange juice is sour! Cats' tongues are supposed to be sensitive to heat, so why can't they even tolerate sourness?

I shook my head.

Cats are good and weak, cats are bad.

Ning Ruoxin, who was rummaging through the small refrigerator, brought over the milk and placed it in front of Qiu Luxi.

"Thank you!"

Qiu Luxi happily thanked Ning Ruoxin, then picked up the milk bottle and shook it at me.

"Want to drink together?"

"Please spare my stomach."

There are three types of milk I don't drink: during the day, at noon, and at night.

"Brother, I've poured you some tea."

Ning Ruoxin, who was next to me, placed another cup in her hand in front of me.

"Oh my god, thank you so much."

Even though Ning Ruoxin would sometimes bring me tea during meals last semester, her attitude wasn't like this. So, even now that we're living together, I always feel flattered and overwhelmed.

"Brother, I've already told you, don't be so polite every time."

Ning Ruoxin sat down next to me as if it were the most natural thing in the world and whispered something in my ear.

"I didn't have a hand to hold my own cup, but I was a little thirsty, so brother..."

She blushed as she spoke, but her gaze followed the rise and fall of my teacup.

Just as I was about to drink my tea, I hurriedly put down the cup and pushed it towards her.

"You can just drink it first, you don't need to ask my opinion." Actually, it's not uncommon for siblings to occasionally share cups.

“No, it’s my brother’s stuff after all, I need to get his permission first.” However, Ning Ruoxin was a very well-behaved child, so serious that it was almost exasperating.

"Moreover, it's different when my brother hands it to me voluntarily after agreeing."

She spoke softly, smiling as she took the cup, carefully bringing it to her lips along the rim, a fleeting hint of joy flashing in her eyes.

—Wait a minute, wasn't your last comment a little scary?

During the time we lived together, Ning Ruoxin became increasingly fond of using my things. Even on weekend afternoons, after finishing her homework in the living room, she would often use the excuse that going back to her room to sleep was too troublesome to run to my metal bed and sleep fully clothed.

"This is ridiculous, no way!" Although I really want to say this, every time I make up my mind not to spoil my sister anymore, when I see her hugging the blanket, burying her face in the pillow, breathing evenly and sleeping peacefully, I can only comfort myself that I will do it next time.

I have a feeling this little guy is getting better and better at pushing his luck...

"stare--"

Qiu Luxi glanced at me and Ning Ruoxin, then tilted her head.

"A strange sibling relationship."

"So, I kicked you out?"

Feeling a little guilty, I tried to scare this clueless cat.

"!" Qiu Luxi's eyes widened, as if she had heard that the snack bars for lunch were going to be canceled, filled with disbelief.

"Brother, you can't treat your senior like that. She's a guest!"

Under Ning Ruoxin's somewhat reproachful gaze, I gave in.

"Just kidding. I've already spoken with people your grandfather knows, and we've reached a mutual agreement that you'll be staying at my house for the time being, so don't worry."

In this situation, Qiu Luxi is absolutely not under their control. I'm tentatively planning to try diplomacy first, and then resort to force, to make initial negotiations. I'm also prepared for the worst-case scenario of simply disappearing for a few days if the negotiations fail.

Surprisingly, the other party seemed to think they had the upper hand, or perhaps they were wary of Qiu Luxi's frequenting of luxury homes, which was the focus of the discussion at the time, and readily agreed to my request.

Of course, Uncle Gold Tooth also made it clear that this was the last concession the gray market would make to us. What follows will be a real fight.

"Then shall I sleep with you?"

Qiu Luxi's words almost made me spit out my tea.

"elder brother?"

Ning Ruoxin looked at me with a smile.

"How does my brother usually live at school? Why did Senior Qiu Luxi come to this conclusion?"

"No, my dear sister, you can't blame me for this, can you?"

I felt like I had the word "wronged" written on my forehead, and I glared fiercely at the innocent-looking idol girl.

"I kindly took you in, but you repay kindness with enmity! What are you really up to!"

"Because the house is very small, the room over there feels like Ning Ruoxin's."

Qiu Luxi said matter-of-factly.

Well, ever since she started living with my sister, she's been constantly adding things to the bedroom. Now the bedroom definitely has a more girly feel.

"We're sleeping in the living room here, aren't we?"

"Next time, please use subject, verb, and object when you speak. I'm begging you."

Finally cleared up the misunderstanding, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead.

"Actually, if you'd like, Senior Qiu Luxi, why don't you stay in the bedroom for now? My brother and I are siblings, so it's more natural for us to share a room."

Ning Ruoxin took the initiative to make the suggestion, her eyes sparkling.

To insist on calling the living room a room... well, it's not entirely wrong. But it still feels a bit odd.

"Hmm, no need. I don't mind sleeping with Ning Ruoyu."

I felt my foot being gently kicked; it was from my sister.

It must be just my imagination. Ning Ruoxin has always been well-behaved and adorable, so why would she deliberately kick her dear brother?

I took that as my thought and then used chopsticks to serve Qiu Luxi a lot of food.

"?"

Qiu Luxi looked at me with some confusion.

"Eat your food properly and shut your mouth."

I said with a smile.

"Ah, did you treat An Yu this way before, so that she held back and confessed to you on the radio at noon?" Qiu Luxi threw C4 into the calm water again.

I'm numb.

Seemingly sensing the awkward atmosphere, Qiu Luxi, who was picking up food with her chopsticks, looked up and glanced around before timidly lowering her head. "Hey, this isn't important, so it shouldn't be mentioned, right?"

This time, I felt my leg being kicked by the person next to me, and my sister looked at me with a half-smile, her hand holding my mug tightening a little.

"Brother, could you briefly explain this 'unimportant' thing to me, since I'm not at school and can't participate in your lives at all?"

There are reasons why house cats become strays.

I'm talking about myself.

……

[Hey Ning Ruoyu, that video was just posted, but the view count seems really low, and there doesn't seem to be much discussion about it.]

Let it ferment a little longer. Are there any other abnormalities in the data?

【No, not really. At first, some people did flood in with messages, but seeing that the discussion wasn't going well, after we deleted a few really offensive comments, nobody paid any attention to us anymore.】

[Well, that's a good thing. Besides the basketball club, other clubs have probably posted similar videos too, right?]

[Yes, track and field, choir, music, calligraphy, painting... the mainstream clubs with large numbers of members have already sent it out, and the smaller clubs are rushing to finish. But Ning Ruoyu's popularity is really too low; at this rate, she probably won't get any push notifications, and tomorrow's data might be even worse.]

Well, for now, we can only let it settle down. Don't worry, this level of buzz is about what Chen Di and I estimated back then. No, we didn't expect so many clubs to participate, so we didn't even dare to hope for this much buzz.

Okay, then we'll wait and see. In the meantime, we'll remain vigilant against malicious spamming and paid trolls. Although, for now, it seems those trolls aren't taking us seriously.

After all, professional online trolls are paid according to the amount of work they do, so it's normal that they can't be bothered with these obscure and trivial matters.

I checked with Chen Di again to confirm the other follow-up preparations. Just as I was about to put my phone down, I received another message.

From my good friend, "Man-eating Flower".

Are you asleep?

I was just about to open the chat interface to reply when I saw the other party quickly recall the message.

[(Animated emoticon) Sorry to bother you]

Then came another quick withdrawal.

[(Animated emoticon) Kneeling]

I waited for about a minute or two to make sure she wasn't going to withdraw her message.

[I didn't sleep.]

【! ! ! ! 】

Since you've seen it, please reply as soon as possible!

Miss “Man-eating Flower” complained.

So, if you're not asleep, is there anything I can help you with?

The other end remained silent, and the screen at the top continued to display "The other party is typing..."

I waited patiently for a while, and after I started to wonder if she had accidentally opened the input method, a message finally came from the other end.

I hope I didn't cause you any trouble this afternoon?

[Well, rather than saying that after you rejected Plan One, this commotion actually helped unite those who could be united. Not bad, An Yu, very passionate and eloquent. Keep up the good work with these kinds of inflammatory speeches in the future.]

There was no reply from the other end for a long time, so I could only continue holding my phone, listlessly counting down in my mind.

[(Animated emoticon) Yay!]

Okay, I'll try my best.

This is how she replied.

Instead of replying, I opened my notes and started editing my responses to potential trending topics tomorrow, as well as the online strategy I needed to prepare in advance.

About thirty minutes later, out of the blue, a message suddenly appeared from "Man-eating Flower".

This is neither incitement nor a speech.