My Sister Isn't That Passive-Aggressive

When Le Yu returned home, he found his sister, Qian Yuya, already back. She seemed to be washing vegetables in the backyard.

The Qian Family had a backyard, and the most important tool there was the hand pump. All their domestic water came from it—while tap water technology was available, it had nothing to do with ordinary folk like them.

Le Yu thought about it. He was perfectly willing to shamelessly wait for dinner, but he had nothing to do in the meantime. He didn't have a phone or computer, and the only books at home were either Qian Yuliu's reference books or Qian Yuya's textbooks. He'd rather help cook than read those.

Qian Yuliu usually didn't come home before dinner was ready. In fact, ever since he graduated and started working, Qian Yuliu had never come home before dark. He was either overtly working overtime and covertly wiretapping at the Statistics Department, or training his Combat Arts at their training grounds.

Le Yu had also considered training in Combat Arts, but Qian Yuliu's experience told him that this wasn't a type of training where 'a few weeks of effort' would show significant results.

To draw an analogy with table tennis from his previous life, the Combat Arts proficiency of most people in this world was equivalent to that of a good amateur player in a local community. Military academy graduates were roughly at the level of city-level table tennis players. Someone like Qian Yuliu was probably just entering the threshold of a provincial-level athlete.

Therefore, if Le Yu wanted to surpass Qian Yuliu's Combat Arts proficiency, it would be akin to advancing further from the provincial athlete level—this wasn't something achievable merely through 'effort'.

Going from 0 to 60 points was easy, but the effort and talent required to go from 80 to 90 points were several times that of the former.

Even someone with Qian Yuliu's exceptional physical talent could only reach the level of 'Basic Eight-Grain Flow Bite Combat Arts' at his age. If Le Yu thought he could surpass Qian Yuliu with just a bit of effort, he would be seriously underestimating the geniuses of this world.

Moreover, Combat Arts were truly difficult. Even after Le Yu assimilated Qian Yuliu's memories, his understanding of higher-level Combat Arts applications was still a case of 'my brain seems to get it, but my body just doesn't'.

Studying? Forget it. He might as well just go home and eat with his sister.

Le Yu walked into the backyard and saw Qian Yuya sitting on a small stool by the hand pump. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail to make housework easier. Her sleeves and pants were rolled up, revealing her fair and translucent ankles and wrists. She wore a white apron over her uniform and was washing vegetables in a basin of water.

Qian Yuya heard the sound of boots, turned to glance at Le Yu, a hint of surprise in her eyes, but then lowered her head and continued picking vegetable leaves.

Le Yu curiously looked at the flowers and plants in the backyard, knowing instinctively that Qian Yuya took care of them. "Do you need any help?"

"No."

"Really no? Don't be shy, I actually know a thing or two about cooking."

Le Yu wasn't too concerned about whether he was OOC (out of character) anymore. After all, even Chen Fu had noticed anomalies, so it was impossible to hide it from his own sister, Qian Yuya. The best approach was to gradually let them get used to his changes.

Furthermore, the most important point, and the biggest difference between Le Yu and Qian Yuliu, was that Le Yu was unwilling to live with a mask on all the time.

The spy life was almost an ingrained instinct for Qian Yuliu, but for Le Yu… he wasn't the kind of tough guy like Qian Yuliu who could have everything ingrained in his DNA!

Coming home for dinner after work, for Le Yu, wasn't just about Transcending Calamity. He instinctively saw coming home as a form of relaxation, a break from the suffocatingly dangerous spy life.

Even his sister, washing vegetables, looked so adorable and pleasant.

Definitely much better than the constantly complaining Chen Fu.

"You really don't need to help, you go do your thing," Qian Yuya said without looking up, as if picking vegetable leaves was a crucial task.

Since he wasn't needed, Le Yu felt perfectly justified in freeloading. But being idle, he leaned against the wall and asked:

"How are your grades? Are you enjoying school?"

Qian Yuya raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Do you have enough pocket money lately? Do you want to buy new clothes?"

Qian Yuya twitched the corner of her mouth, accidentally picking off an edible leaf.

"Are you dating anyone? I'm very open-minded, I fully support free love, but you need to discern if the other person is a good person. It's best if you tell me so I can check them out. I've been a man for over twenty years, and I can tell if someone's good or not the moment they show their true colors…"

Thwack!

Qian Yuya slammed her hands heavily into the water basin, splashing water everywhere. Le Yu jumped in surprise, instinctively stepping back. "Wh-what's wrong?"

"…Tonight we're making steamed meat patties with preserved vegetables. Could you help me chop the preserved vegetables and mushrooms into cubes, and mince the meat?" Qian Yuya said, barely suppressing her anger.

"Your wish, I have indeed heard."

Le Yu went to the stove, picked up the large black cleaver, and began dicing the rehydrated mushrooms and preserved vegetables. The rhythmic thump-thump-thump of the knife echoed. After chopping the mushrooms and preserved vegetables, Le Yu found the knife wasn't very sharp, making the mincing difficult.

He suddenly remembered how Mental Power could manipulate light into sharp claws. Wouldn't using that to enhance a cleaver turn it into a divine weapon?

No sooner said than done, Le Yu activated his Mental Power, extending it to the edge of the cleaver. Following the techniques of Combat Arts, he simulated the effect of sharp claws, and cut down with force!

Crack! Bang!

The first sound was the cutting board splitting.

The second sound was the cleaver breaking.

"What are you doing?"

Qian Yuya shook the water off her hands, wiped them on her apron, and walked over, looking at the cleaver with several chips in it, bewildered. "Did the cleaver offend you?"

Le Yu explained his idea of trying to reinforce the cleaver with a +1, and Qian Yuya's expression grew even more perplexed. "The cleaver doesn't have a Radiant Stone chip; your Mental Power can't penetrate it at all. The light crystals you create naturally can't integrate with the cleaver and will only damage it… Only Radiant Stone devices can serve as an extension for Mental Power. Isn't that common knowledge?"

So, a plain cleaver couldn't be enhanced; forcing it would only break it… Le Yu pretended nothing had happened. "Ah, I see, I completely forgot about that for a moment."

Qian Yuya said flatly, "You're so important, you forget things easily."

"So, what now?"

Qian Yuya took the cleaver, examined it for a moment. "I'll take it to the knife sharpener at the end of the street tomorrow; it should still be usable. I'll go borrow a knife from Auntie Li's house in a bit."

Knife sharpener… This slightly wuxia-esque term, which Le Yu had only heard from his grandparents, made him blink. It was then that he realized the Qian family's cleaver seemed to have been used for many years; it was black and grimy, clearly having been repaired many times.

The Radiant Court hadn't been developing solar industrialization for long, and societal productivity hadn't reached the point where cleavers could be bought casually. Moreover, cleavers were controlled implements; every purchase had to be registered with the Judicial Department. Most families used one cleaver for their entire lives.

Le Yu looked at the un-minced meat on the cutting board. "No need to borrow a knife. I'll be able to chop this meat quickly later."

"The knife's broken, how will you…" Qian Yuya hadn't finished speaking when she saw her brother's hands distort with shimmering light.

Chop!

Grab!

Dig!

Tear!

The Eight-Grain Flow Bite Combat Arts are inherently modeled after the act of "biting and tearing." If Le Yu had to slice up marbled cuts of meat, he might be at a loss, but mincing meat? That's right within the scope of the Biting Combat Arts!

Before long, Le Yu had torn over a pound of meat into mince with his bare hands, shaping it into a ball on a plate. "Is this okay?"

Qian Yuya nodded. "It's fine. Very well minced, as expected of you."

She paused, then added, "You're practically a butcher."

P.S. This is my first time signing a contract as a newbie, and I'm so excited! Hope everyone can support me a lot.