Brother and Sister

Several more hours passed.

The sky gradually darkened as evening approached.

Li Wei finally let out a long breath and closed the notebook he and Janna had worked together to create, its dozens of pages filled from cover to cover.

Just then, a set of approaching footsteps sounded outside the door.

The footsteps soon stopped at the entrance. Before long, a black-haired girl with glasses unlocked the door with a key.

"Brother, I'm back."

The girl was Li Wei's younger sister, Lina.

Their ancestors had been Eastern immigrants from Ionia, so like Li Wei, she had beautiful black hair and black eyes. Her features and skin were also more delicate than those of the Zaunite Natives.

Unlike her scruffy older brother, Lina wore her thick ponytail in a simple, demure style. Dressed in Piltover University's standard uniform, she was clean from head to toe without a single stain.

The fitted women's suit, knee-length skirt, white stockings, black leather shoes, and gold-rimmed glasses made her look more like a refined young lady of Piltover than a little Zaunite girl struggling to make a living here with her apprentice-worker brother.

"Lina!"

Li Wei smiled and welcomed her inside, imitating the feeling from his memories.

That Li Wei had loved his sister dearly. Before dying, he had thought of it as a release, but when he remembered that no one would care for his sister after his death, he had quickly begun struggling to gulp down air again.

"Brother, where did this pet bird come from?"

Lina noticed the tiny Blue Bird perched on Li Wei's shoulder.

But she seemed to be in a bad mood. Even adorable Janna failed to pique the girl's interest.

So before Li Wei could answer, she furrowed her brows slightly.

"Brother, did you go through my box? Why are all my books and notebooks out here? You can barely read. What are you doing with this stuff? The school only gives us a few free notebooks, and I only have one fountain pen. I still need them for school."

Lina grumbled on and on, but Li Wei did not get angry.

"You must be tired after a whole day of classes, right?"

"Lina, eat first."

As he spoke, he carefully set up a chair as a dining table and pulled a lunchbox out from under the bed.

"Today, it's your favorite—"

"Marinated Bog Toad!"

Li Wei opened the lunchbox with great ceremony, but instead of any golden glow, it revealed a large lump of Bog Toad meat soaked in all kinds of strange, colorful spices. It looked rather like some specialty from the Ganges.

Bog Toads were magical creatures that lived in Zaun's filthy sewers.

Though they looked terrible and were despised by the Piltovan Upper Class, they tasted surprisingly good. They were Zaunites' favorite delicacy and one of the few kinds of meat they could afford.

After working through the night, that Li Wei had been exhausted and sleepy. Yet when he saw Bog Toad meat being sold on the street, he had still waited in a long line to bring a box home for his sister.

"Bog Toad?!"

For some reason, Lina frowned even more deeply.

"Brother, didn't I tell you I don't want to eat this stuff anymore?!"

"It's because we keep eating these weird things that those Piltovans look down on us, calling us 'sewer rats who eat anything'!"

"..." Li Wei finally stopped smiling.

He did not lecture her. He simply handed her a fork.

"Mr. Bill came by to collect the rent today."

Lina: "..."

All the resentment in her chest caught in her throat, and she could not say a word.

Only then did Li Wei quietly ask, "You were mistreated at school again, weren't you?"

"Mm..." Lina's eyes grew a little moist.

"Sorry, Brother..."

"Tell me about it. Keeping it bottled up isn't good."

"It was that Young Lady of House Ferros again! Just because she has some damn family backing her up, she spends all day picking on people. Insulting me would have been one thing, but she called all us Zaunites sewer rats who eat garbage. She said we're stinking outsiders who keep running to Piltover to beg for food."

"What a bitch, stuffing dog shit in her mouth. Born from a mother but never taught by one. Cough, cough!"

Lina vented in a string of Zaunite curses, then awkwardly covered her mouth.

"Hahaha." Li Wei encouraged her as he patted her head. "Don't put on an act in your own home."

"Look—no matter how much you pretend, you're still a Zaunite."

"Mm..." Lina lowered her head, blushing.

Then she said nothing more and began wolfing down the Bog Toad with her fork.

At first, she ate quite elegantly. But as she kept eating, her true nature emerged, and she began tearing apart the Bog Toad with her hands.

"Brother." After a while, the girl finally looked up as if only just remembering. "Did the landlord say anything when he came for the rent this time?"

"He won't just call the Enforcers to throw us out, will he? If that happens... we'll have to go back to Zaun."

"Don't worry. Mr. Bill promised it won't come to that." Li Wei reassured her without changing expression. "Just focus on your studies. I'll take care of the money."

"Mm." Lina nodded.

She seemed ready to continue eating, but after hesitating for a moment, she said to Li Wei:

"After dinner, I'm going back to school."

"There's an interview assessment tonight. If I pass it—Brother, do you know what that means? I can be accepted into Professor Jayce Talis's research group as a priority trainee."

"Research group members get additional stipends..."

"Brother, our family will have money then!"

"Professor Jayce..." Li Wei could hear that this really was an incredible opportunity.

Jayce Talis, one of the founders of Hextech and currently Piltover's hottest scientific star.

When Li Wei went downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes, he could see more than a dozen different promotional posters of Mr. Jayce.

Who would have thought?

Before crossing over, if Li Wei had heard the name Jayce, he would only have thought, This little Jayce dares to show off before an expert? Then he would have sneered, given him a monitor, and let the other side learn what Ionian Spirit Unyielding was.

But now that he had crossed over, Jayce had become an important figure far beyond his reach. It was truly ironic.

Still, no matter what, this was indeed an incredible opportunity.

If Lina could become Jayce's student, then the siblings would no longer have to fear the Enforcers sending them back to Zaun.

"Still, it won't be easy, will it?"

"Huh?" Lina's forced smile stiffened.

Li Wei patted her head again. "Just do your best tonight. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."

"Even if you fail, we won't have lost anything."

"Mm..." Lina was nearly speechless. She only bit her lip tightly. "Mm!"

"You eat first." Li Wei slowly stood up, maneuvered around his sister, and squeezed his way to the door. "I'm going to the night shift."

"You're leaving now?" Lina was reluctant to see him go. Her schedule and her brother's were completely opposite, and dusk was the only time each day they could see each other.

"Mm. I'll go see whether Mr. Ervin is there."

Li Wei worked at a Hextech Sound Factory, and Mr. Ervin was his boss.

In the original owner's memories, this boss who carried considerable authority before the workers was actually a good man with a cold exterior and a warm heart.

A good man who sympathized with Zaunite workers—among Piltover's business owners, that was practically an endangered species.

"If I can, I'll ask Mr. Ervin for an advance on next month's wages. He should agree."

It would not be enough to pay the rent, but at least he could use it to ask the landlord for more time and avoid getting kicked back to Zaun by the Enforcers tomorrow.

"What about next month?"

His sister was still asking worriedly.

"Don't worry, I can handle it." Li Wei was very confident. He was, after all, a well-traveled man from Earth. As long as he could buy some time first, he would naturally find a way to make money.

"Do well in your interview tonight. Don't worry about things at home."

After giving her one last instruction, Li Wei took Azure Finch Janna, who was perched on his shoulder, and pushed open the door.

"Hey, Brother, aren't you eating?" Lina called after him, but before she could stop him, the door had already closed.

After thinking for a moment, she slowly put down the lunchbox in her hands.

Then she crouched down and dug a bag of salt out of the storage box beneath the bed. Stingily, she sprinkled a layer of coarse salt over the remaining half-lump of Bog Toad meat before carefully closing the lunchbox and placing it back on the bed.

"Brother, I didn't finish it. Eat it when you get back from your night shift. If you don't, it'll go bad."

Lina picked up the notebook Li Wei had used earlier, carefully tore off a scrap from the last page, and left her brother a note.

After leaving the note, she casually stuffed the notebook into her schoolbag.

Just as she had said, she never had enough notebooks.

Even though Li Wei had already used this blank notebook to write something, she could only take it to school and use it as scratch paper for her interview assessment that evening.

"Wait." Lina had just stuffed the notebook into her schoolbag when she belatedly realized something.

"What did my brother even write?"

"Doesn't he usually never read?"

Driven by curiosity and confusion, she finally opened the notes Li Wei had left behind.

The first thing that entered her sight was a line of dedication:

"For you, Mr. Li Wei."

The handwriting was firm and powerful, every stroke distinct. It did not even look like something her rough, uncultured brother could have written.

"Since when has my brother's handwriting become this good? And why is he dedicating this to himself?"

As Lina was still puzzled, she saw that the preface after the dedication read:

"Goddess Janna truly exists."

It was a shocking opening.

"This author was fortunate enough to speak with Goddess Janna several times. Enlightened by the Goddess's grace, this author has gained wisdom and preliminarily studied and mastered a revolutionary tool for understanding the world."

"Huh??" Lina was completely dumbfounded.

Her brother claimed he had personally met Janna? The legendary Guardian of Zaun, Janna, the Storm's Fury?

What kind of joke was that?!

Janna was clearly just a story told to fool children!

Even if she really existed, so what?

She called herself Zaun's guardian, yet Zaunites were living like this, and Lina had never seen her work a single day!

"Oh no. Brother hasn't been tricked by some charlatan, has he?" Lina was deeply worried.

Yet after reading just a little further, she discovered:

"First, this author must make one thing clear: Janna truly exists, and she is indeed a god."

"But gods are not omnipotent. Gods are merely powerful magical beings and are not fundamentally different from humans."

"Huh?" Lina could not understand it again.

It had been all mystical nonsense at first. Why did it suddenly describe gods like this afterward? If gods were written as people, would anyone still fall for it?

Li Wei then wrote:

"Janna bestowed divine grace upon this author not to use this author's mouth to promote herself, but to spread wisdom to the world and share her thoughts and ideals."

"As the goddess of compassion and equality, the protector of countless people, her spirit has drifted above Runeterra for thousands of years."

"She has observed the development and changes of human history, analyzing society's past, present, and future. After long research and contemplation, she ultimately summarized a set of tools to help us understand and transform the world."

"This author shall briefly summarize it here as Janna's Ideology: the true meaning of Goddess Janna."

"Here, I will attempt to use Janna's Ideology to briefly organize and analyze the history of Zaun and Piltover over the past seven thousand years—"

By this point, Lina's curiosity had been thoroughly aroused.

Janna's Ideology? Instead of deceiving believers, a god had come to be a philosophy teacher? That was certainly something new!

She continued reading.

Li Wei had used plain language that was both eye-catching and understandable to anyone, giving his article a striking title:

"Zaun: Where Did It Come From?"