Chapter 17

In the end...

She leaned over from behind and curiously glanced at An Yu. "Don't be sad. I really do know some aloof, beautiful girls. Want me to introduce you to one sometime?"

She was holding back a smile, but the laughter she'd barely managed to suppress seemed ready to spill out again.

"Thanks, but there's no need."

An Yu looked as though all the life had been sucked out of him. He was only slightly better off than Kiana, whose soul still hadn't caught up with her in the back seat.

Bronya chuckled and gave the still-soulless Kiana a shake.

"Come sit in my office for the afternoon first. Order some necessities by delivery, then tonight I'll take you for a ride and let you experience my driving skills."

Kiana turned her head woodenly.

When the elevator doors opened, An Yu ran into the youthful girl he'd met earlier.

Ling watched the soulless Kiana, the "coldly smiling" Bronya, and An Yu, who looked like he wanted the world to end.

After thinking it over, she decided not to get out of the elevator.

She'd watch the show a little longer.

"Did you pass the interview?"

An Yu held down the door-open button.

Ling nodded proudly. She was a fresh graduate with four years of work experience!

"See that silver-gray-haired girl beside me? She's Reson Studio's chief producer."

Ling instantly understood. You couldn't openly listen to the boss's gossip.

She hurried out of the elevator, ready to start work tomorrow.

Volume One: Chapter 24 — My Little Brother Will Come Back to Eat with Me

Night fell.

An Yu: "Sis, order yourself some takeout. I won't be coming home for dinner today."

He could order takeout at the office while making his work look a little better, doing as much of his own share as possible.

Otherwise, it would be inconvenient to take leave when he made an appointment at the clinic.

His phone vibrated, and the screen lit up.

Elysia: "Aggrieved kitty face.jpg"

Elysia: "It's okay. You eat. I'll wait for my little brother to come back so we can eat together."

Looking at the cartoon cat with drooping ears and teary eyes on the screen, An Yu could practically imagine the aggrieved shimmer in his sister's pink-and-blue eyes on the other end of the phone.

What was wrong with her this time?

An Yu could feel his sister's resentment even through the screen.

But why? They were both adults. Working late and not coming home was perfectly normal.

His fingers tapped the keyboard. A moment later, An Yu cursed, saved his work, and left his desk.

Elysia, you'd better have a reason for this!!!

Thinking that Elysia might actually be in trouble, An Yu ordered ingredients for delivery on the way home, afraid his sister might suddenly hang herself in some mental breakdown.

Bang!

The room was dark. An Yu instinctively sniffed the air.

Oh no... Sis, don't tell me you really killed yourself?

Don't! I won't call you Piggy anymore, and I won't dislike you either!

"A frivolous husband~"

A resentful operatic melody echoed through the room.

With a snap, An Yu expressionlessly turned on the lights.

Warm light spilled down. Elysia sat cross-legged on the sofa like a lazy cat, her water-red Hanfu making her skin look as pale as snow.

She deliberately kept a straight little face, though a touch of red curled at the corners of her eyes. Her wide sleeves swayed lightly with her affected motions, brushing through the air.

"It's okay, An Yu. If you're unhappy, go eat out. I believe my little brother will come back to keep me company."

As she spoke, she deliberately hugged a pillow printed with An Yu's embarrassing childhood photo tightly against her chest, looking utterly abandoned.

An Yu first let out a long breath, then set his things aside.

Only then did he start to regret it... he should've just ordered takeout.

He'd thought Elysia was having another episode. Turns out she was just acting weird. Though that was serious too, it still felt much better than actual mental illness.

"I was planning to work overtime these next few days and catch up on my workload."

An Yu explained helplessly.

"Oh."

Elysia's small nose wrinkled slightly, and she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

Her good friend Sakura had already exposed An Yu's habit of flirting with little girls during work hours.

No wonder he'd loved going to work so much after graduating.

He wouldn't even spend time with her, such a delicate and beautiful woman.

"Then I'll take a day off afterward and go out with you to relax."

He was actually going to the hospital, but An Yu didn't say that.

After all, patients avoiding treatment was a tradition passed down for hundreds, even thousands, of years.

"A new bride as fair as jade~"

Elysia started sobbing again, sniffling and whimpering.

Though she couldn't squeeze out any tears, she still reached up to wipe at the corners of her eyes, smearing the slanted red makeup like blush that didn't quite suit her face.

"Your makeup's smudged."

An Yu handed her a tissue and wiped away the red smudge on her face. He couldn't understand what kind of strange mood Elysia was in this time.

His touch made Elysia a little itchy, and she couldn't help shrinking her neck like a cat being petted the wrong way.

"Sis, you need to give me some personal space. I have things of my own too."

Being inseparable sounded nice, but An Yu had lived freely for four years in university. He really couldn't get used to how things used to be.

Elysia immediately lowered her little head. Her soft hair fell forward, hiding the way her eyes instantly dimmed. "You just like the new and hate the old. You've fallen for some other girl."

Her pale little feet kicked An Yu a few times.

What did that even have to do with anything? Sis, could you stop saying whatever you dream about?

Wait, wait!

Don't tell me word about Kiana had gotten out...?

There was a spy in the company! Was it Bronya or someone else?

"Lunch was a misunderstanding."

An Yu tried to salvage his image.

Elysia immediately shot back, "What about that white-haired girl?"

An Yu stared blankly at the ceiling. There really was a spy in the company.

Who was it?! Don't let me catch you!

"Kiana... actually..."

An Yu had just been about to explain when he suddenly realized something. Compared to seeming romantically inclined, the earlier misunderstanding was even more embarrassing. Bronya had laughed at him about it all the way back.

"That's right! I like other pretty girls, so what?!"

He shouted in complete resignation.

Elysia froze. She'd never expected An Yu to yell at her so loudly, but that wasn't important right now.

What mattered most was—

"Who is Kiana?"

Wasn't the girl in the photo Bronya? Exactly how many girls had An Yu been flirting with? Did he really not want to suffer the hardships of love at all? Not even the pain of long-term investment?

An Yu slowly typed out a question mark.

"She is my..." He hesitated. "Secret crush?"

"Love should be firm and indestructible, but listen to your own tone, Xiao Yu. Do you really have the courage to be with Kiana no matter what?"

"A devoted person must be single-minded in love. People always say sunk costs can make someone fall completely, but little brother, you just need to find someone who'll never become a sunk cost."

Elysia earnestly tried to dissuade him.

An Yu continued hesitating. Something was off, but he couldn't say exactly what. Anyway, his sister clearly wasn't on the same wavelength as him.

"And what relationship do you have with Bronya?"

"She's my boss. The only interaction I had with her today was accompanying her at noon to pick someone up."

An Yu's tone was sincere, even so plain and honest that Elysia instinctively didn't doubt him.

The problem was instantly solved. Only Kiana, that little vixen, remained.

She earnestly advised him again, "An Yu, you need to watch out for bad women outside. The prettier a girl is, the better she is at lying—especially that girl named Kiana."

Kiana... An Yu had no idea how to explain to his sister that Kiana was an idiot.

"Mm, I'll listen to you, Sis."

But he'd really had a tiring day, so he didn't want to waste any more breath explaining it.

Elysia was instantly satisfied, her smile blooming again like snow melting in spring.

"How about this? I'll cook today. Come to think of it, I haven't cooked much since I started university."

She happily rolled up the wide sleeves of her Hanfu, revealing two slender, snow-white arms.

With nimble movements, she pulled off that resentful-woman costume she'd worn for her performance and casually tossed it onto the sofa, revealing the cute loungewear beneath.

An Yu: ...

Indeed, ever since she'd gone through that fake marriage and fake divorce and taken half of her little brother's savings, Elysia seemed to have awakened some strange trait and become increasingly lazy at home.

Sometimes, An Yu wanted to point at her nose and curse, Who are you?! Get out of my hardworking, capable, beautiful, adorable, smiling, and clingy sister's body!

But people had to accept reality.

Volume One: Chapter 25 — Found You, Boss. Sakura:?

Elysia still couldn't sit still during dinner.

"An Yu." She lightly tapped the rim of her bowl with her chopsticks. "I wasn't idle today either. After thinking it over and over, I've finally established our family's rules."

Then you really were idle!

An Yu silently complained. The piece of meat he'd just picked up stopped midway to his mouth, then his wrist turned and placed it in Elysia's bowl.

"Sis, you've worked hard. Eat more."

He'd listen to what the rules were before deciding whether to eat. That way, if his sister later pointed at him and said he ate her food and drank her drinks, he could spread his hands and say, I didn't eat anything.

"First, you must be faithful in love."

An Yu recalled how his sister had tricked him into pressing his fingerprint onto a "community registration form," then told him it was actually a marriage certificate.

Then, while he was still full of fantasies about the future, she staged a "breakdown of affection" that very afternoon and forcibly took half his marriage fund.

Faithful?

If not for the restriction of gender, An Yu would've wanted to make his fortune using that method too.

First, pursue Boss Bronya. Then pursue Miss Kiana. Finally, pursue Mei Corporation's young lady Mei. A triple property-division combo!

Though the most likely outcome was being stuffed into a sack by Auntie Koko, Uncle Ryoma, or someone from Schicksal and dumped into the Huangpu River.

Elysia lightly coughed twice. Only after An Yu came back to his senses did she excitedly continue.

"Second, we once had the revolutionary bond of depending on each other for survival. If either of us likes someone in the future, we must tell the other and let them weigh in. And we must unconditionally, seriously listen to the other's advice."

Otherwise, one person might still know nothing while the family member they'd grown up with suddenly abandoned this little family... that kind of future was far too frightening.

When Elysia had frightened Sakura during the day, she'd immediately thought of this family rule.

An Yu once again recalled—

[Loving Family]

"My suggestion is that you leave that group and stop hanging around with those questionable friends."

An Yu offered his advice sincerely.