Chapter 23
Chapter 23: The Clueless Sister Is Innocent!
Watching Ye Youran standing before her, Ye Xiao instinctively moved to throw herself into her embrace. But she abruptly stopped herself.
Ye Youran’s warm openness was a stark contrast to Su Ruoxue’s reserved tenderness.
This kind of sister left Ye Xiao feeling conflicted, it was hard to reconcile the affectionate Ye Youran before her with the image of someone who would pursue a married man.
Reality and imagination clashed sharply at this moment, making everything seem surreal.
Had it not been for the lingering pain in her cheek from Ye Youran’s earlier pinch, Ye Xiao might have wondered if she was still fast asleep on Su Ruoxue’s bed, dreaming.
Was there some hidden story behind all this?
Lost in thought, Ye Xiao’s mind began constructing a tangled tale of love and betrayal, straight out of a CEO romance novel. Noticing her sister standing there dazed, Ye Youran smirked.
“My silly little sister, why are you not excited at all to see me? Or have you been so overwhelmed that you’re shaking, speechless, and unable to contain yourself?”
Without waiting for a response, she pulled Ye Xiao into a big hug.
Ye Xiao thought, Please, the one shaking with excitement here is you, clueless big sis!
Relishing her sister’s familiar warmth and the faint scent of orange blossoms, Ye Youran’s face lit up with a broad smile.
This was her dear sister’s scent. She inhaled deeply, savoring it as if basking in tranquility.
It was almost as if the noise around them had faded, leaving just the two of them, enveloped in this “warm” embrace.
The embrace stirred a memory in Ye Xiao of Su Ruoxue’s hug last night—it was eerily similar, right down to the feel and size. However, this hug, too, was stiflingly tight!
Ye Xiao stretched her palm and slapped at the intruding force squeezing her, only to feel waves ripple across the once-calm lake’s surface.
“Ah!”
Startled, Ye Youran released her sister, surprised that her little sister would act so boldly.
The moment Ye Xiao was free, she gasped for air, recovering from her second nearly suffocating experience in two days. She couldn’t help but think, This world really is too dangerous!
A nagging doubt crept into Ye Xiao’s mind. Are we even really sisters?
They couldn’t look more different if they tried. Their mother, Liu Yun, was a tall and curvaceous woman, and their father, Ye Cheng, had been exceptionally handsome in his youth. It would have to be some extreme genetic twist of fate to explain why she ended up short and flat-chested.
“Xiao Xiao? Xiao Xiao? Why are you spacing out again?”
Snapping out of her thoughts, Ye Xiao glanced up at Ye Youran and let out a resigned smile.
“Clueless sister, I’m fine. Did you really think those little mounds of yours would smother me? You’re far too naive!”
Ye Xiao’s usual self-assured attitude returned, as she looked at Ye Youran with smug defiance.
“Oh, good. For a second, I thought I had knocked something loose in your head!” Ye Youran replied.
“You’re the one who has something loose up there, clueless sis!”
“So, Xiao Xiao, since you’re here to pick me up, how exactly are we getting home? You can’t drive, right? I think my driver’s license here expired without renewal, so it’s probably canceled by now,” Ye Youran mused aloud, already planning ahead.
“Clueless sister! Did you really think I’d come here all by myself? You’re an adult, but your thinking is so one-dimensional! You’re such a clueless fish!”
Ye Xiao had already considered the logistics and knew that, out of her acquaintances, Shen Yunchu was the only one she could rely on to drive.
She had even borrowed one of Gu Tingyuan’s GTRs from Su Ruoxue for this purpose. With Gu Tingyuan barely able to drive all his cars himself, it was only fair she gave one of them some exercise.
Not only does she drive Big Bro’s car, but she also…dates his girl! Ye Xiao thought to herself, knowing full well Gu Tingyuan was getting the short end of the stick.
The car itself didn’t matter much to her, she only knew it from the “Initial D” series.
Just today, on the way to the airport, she and Shen Yunchu lost to an AE86 that drifted through a corner, revealing a sign advertising a tofu shop.
“Oh, so you’re not here alone? Then, who came with you? Don’t tell me it’s your boyfriend? To think you found a boyfriend while I was away—it breaks your sister’s heart!”
Ye Youran put on a dramatically pained expression as if she were genuinely heartbroken. But with her inherited memories, Ye Xiao knew this was a routine tactic Ye Youran used to playfully tease her.
“Haha? My clueless big sister, you’re practically a middle-aged single! Can you not be so gross? Don’t tell me that even after all these years studying abroad, you’re still…a clueless virgin?”
Ye Xiao wished her sister could be a respectable girl, but from what she knew of Su Ruoxue’s plotline, the odds were slim. If Ye Youran still was, then even Diao Chan could solo Anubis!
To her astonishment, her words hit a nerve.
“You brat! You dare to say that here in public? What do you take your sister for?”
Ye Youran’s expression froze for a split second before she clenched her fists and began playfully grinding her knuckles on Ye Xiao’s head with her bones and joints.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch…! You clueless sister! You may make me submit physically, but in spirit, never! Clueless fish will always be clueless fish!”
Ye Xiao continued her cheeky defiance, though her mind was anything but calm.
My sister, who was about to chase after a married man, is actually…innocent?
Shock rippled through her. What about the plots to frame Su Ruoxue? The plan to push her into a divorce? What was the real story here?
At what point did everything go off script?
For now, Ye Xiao had no answers.
If her sister wasn’t even a conniving “white lotus” but rather a clueless innocent.
She certainly couldn’t stand by and watch her sister walk step by step into the fire pit that was Gu Tingyuan.
