"Mm."
The girl patiently gave the same affirmative answer again and again.
"It's my snake."
"How could you keep a snake?!"
Mom Xi couldn't help shouting.
"What's a girl like you doing keeping a snake?"
"How could you like snakes?!"
Mom Xi really couldn't understand it at all.
"When did you get it?"
"When did you start liking snakes?!"
"You..."
Mom Xi fired off one question after another.
Like a rapid-fire barrage.
The girl could barely keep up.
The girl couldn't help shouting.
"Mom, you're asking too many questions."
"Which one do you want me to answer first?!"
"Answer them one by one!"
Mom Xi declared firmly.
The girl: ...
She took a deep breath.
Actually, she'd known for a long time... that she couldn't hide the fact that she kept a snake from her family forever...
She'd also wondered what kind of situation would lead her to tell her family she had a snake.
Maybe she'd get really good grades... and tell them while her parents were in a good mood...
Hmm.
But with her brother setting the bar so high, getting good enough grades for her parents to let her keep a snake...
That was so hard.
Why, with the same parents, wasn't she as smart as her brother?
Her grades were pretty good, too.
But compared with her brother's outstanding performance—or, to put it more dramatically, his ability to "look down on all the mountains below"—she still fell a little short.
She could guarantee a place in the top ten of her class every time.
But her brother was almost always first.
Or maybe she could wait until her birthday...
And ask her parents to let her keep a snake as a birthday present...
Would that work?
She'd thought about