"Was it good?"
"It was."
"How did it compare to before?"
"Both were good."
"You really know what to say..."
Chen Shu smiled and said to her, "Once we're done eating, I'll take you out for a walk. Where would you like to go?"
"I... anywhere..." Ning Qing paused, then added, "Chang'an Gate."
"All right, Chang'an Gate."
Chen Shu glanced at Xiaoxiao beside them.
The girl's eyes were vacant, her expression dazed and numb. Holding a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, she kept her head lowered, mouth close to the rim, mechanically shoveling Sour Soup Noodles into her mouth. Who knew what she was thinking?
"Does Xiaoxiao have class this afternoon?"
"..."
"Xiaoxiao?"
"Oh!" The girl woke as if from a dream and looked at her brother-in-law. "What is it?"
"Do you have class this afternoon?"
"Are we going out? If we are, then no."
"I'm taking your sister to Chang'an Gate."
"No class."
"Then come with us."
"Okay..."
The girl lowered her head again and ate her noodles numbly—
Being bullied by her sister was normal. Her sister was her sister, and she was older; there was good reason Xiaoxiao couldn't beat her. Or rather, even if being bullied by her sister wasn't normal, she had long since grown used to it.
But being bullied by a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child dealt her a crushing blow.
Can't I even beat a kid?
Disbelief, unbearable shame, even the urge to give up on herself—every feeling came flooding in at once...
The girl's heart was so tired.
An hour later, the three of them and a cat arrived at Chang'an Gate.
Ning Qing held half a skewer of candied strawberries. Standing before the bare Chang'an Gate, she looked toward the trees by the road.
"No flowers."
"It's