Chi Qingyao stood at the door, her face full of fear.
Looking at the messy state of the room, she couldn’t even tell the difference between walking in and stepping into a garbage dump.
Pinching her nose in disgust, Chi Qingyao stared at Chi Qingya as if she were a stranger.
When she used to live with her sister, she never thought Chi Qingya was this slovenly.
No, that wasn’t right.
Back then, Chi Qingya could keep her room spotless.
She even kept the entire house clean.
She even took care of Chi Qingyao’s room.
Chi Qingyao couldn’t understand what had happened to Chi Qingya to make her change so drastically.
“I’ll… I’ll call a janitor right now to help clean up.”
Chi Qingya said somewhat flustered. She looked at the disdain in her younger sister’s eyes, lowered her head, and quickly pulled out her phone.
“Chi Qingya, how can you even live like this?”
“No wonder no one at school wants to hang out with you.”
“You can’t even keep your own room tidy.”
“It’s honestly terrifying to think about.”
“Does the big city make people degenerate that easily?”
Even though she was standing far away, Chi Qingyao still found the stench overwhelming.
She could even see a neighbor in the hallway open their door, sniff the air, and quickly shut it again, looking disgusted.
Chi Qingyao glanced at Chi Qingya standing by the doorway and said:
“I’m going downstairs to get some fresh air. Call me when you’re done cleaning the room.”
“Of course, if you’re willing to pay me, I can help you clean too.”
Chi Qingyao looked at Chi Qingya very seriously.
Coming all the way to S City now wasn’t just to visit Chi Qingya.
She also wanted to make some money.
And add to her little savings.
Going out of town meant her parents would definitely give her some money.
And her older sister definitely had money too.
Chi Qingyao knew her family was pretty well off.
College students like her sister were treated like treasures at home.
Her parents definitely wouldn’t shortchange Chi Qingya.
She could make a lot of money from Chi Qingya.
Hehe.
“Sis, I’ll clean this room for you for a thousand bucks.”
Chi Qingyao looked at the trash in the room very seriously.
Back home, after Chi Qingya left, cleaning the room became her responsibility.
To act like a good daughter, her parents would give her a hundred bucks, and she’d do a quick tidy-up.
Of course, her sister was easier to squeeze money out of than her parents.
Just by having one meal together, she’d made over seventy thousand bucks.
Her sister’s money was practically saved just for her.
Better she earn that money than let some outsider get it.
Besides, if she cleaned the room, could her sister just stand there and do nothing?
Absolutely not.
They’d end up cleaning the room together.
Even if Chi Qingya seemed super sloppy in general, Chi Qingyao believed that in front of her younger sister, she would still try to act like an older sister.
“Okay.”
Chi Qingya thought it over and decided it really was fine to let her sister clean.
Even though she didn’t really want her sister to see how messy she was.
But it was better to give the money to her sister.
“I was joking earlier. Staying in a hotel is too expensive, and I’d have to spend more.”
“With the money for a hotel, I could buy a couple of skins.”
Chi Qingyao laughed, took off her shoes, and walked barefoot into the room.
She was going to wash up anyway.
If she wore shoes, they’d get dirty too.
“But seriously, Chi Qingya, this place is no different from a pigsty.”
“I really want to take a picture and send it to Mom and Dad.”
“Let them see what you’ve become.”
“Come to think of it, you haven’t video-called them in a long time.”
Chi Qingya lowered her head, nervously looking at her younger sister. She didn’t want her parents to see a photo of this.
If they saw it, they’d definitely worry.
“Don’t… don’t let Mom and Dad know.”
“I don’t want them to worry.”
Chi Qingya said softly, standing there dumbly.
Chi Qingyao tiptoed across the greasy floor, her bare soles sticking to a few hard grains of rice. She grabbed the yellowed curtain by the window and yanked it open. Moonlight burst in with a swoosh, making the scattered beer bottles on the floor glint sharply.
“What are you standing there like an idiot for?”
“Go boil some water!”
She kicked aside a trash can blocking the way. The plastic bucket banged against the wall with a clang, startling a few cockroaches.
Chi Qingya stood in the kitchen doorway holding the hot water kettle, watching her younger sister tear through the room like an angry cat.
Chi Qingyao shoved her fingers into her messy curls, pulled out a hair tie, and bit it between her teeth. Grabbing a broom, she swept aside a pile of bottles with a whoosh.
“What are you staring at? Grab a rag!”
She shouted, muffled, with cobwebs clinging to her hair.
Getting money and bossing her big sister around—Chi Qingyao found it pretty relaxing.
A thousand bucks, easy peasy.
Opportunities like this didn’t come often.
Not like working for her parents, where they’d dock part of her pay.
Telling her she was a kid and didn’t need that much money.
As they piled up the sour-smelling delivery food bags into a small mountain, Chi Qingyao suddenly stepped on something slimy.
She picked up a bra stained with sauce and tossed it into the trash pile, then turned to see her sister sneakily hiding a picture frame behind her back.
“Chi Qingya, you really…”
“I don’t even know what to say to you anymore.”
“Back then, at least you had the good point of studying hard.”
“What do you have left now?”
She sighed, looking at the sister who still resembled the one in her memory.
“What are you hiding? What’s so shameful?”
She snatched the picture frame smeared with instant noodle soup. In the photo, two girls were sitting on a park bench.
The edge of the frame had a few grease stains. The white-haired girl in the photo was turned sideways to the camera, her eyelashes casting a small shadow across the bridge of her nose. Her mouth was pressed into a straight line, but it made her jawline look as sharp as if cut by a paper knife.
Chi Qingya was leaning against her shoulder, laughing with two dimples showing, her hair lifted by the wind and tucked behind her ear. Sunlight poured in from the sea of flowers behind them, making her white shirt glow.
“Who is she?”
“Su Li?”
Chi Qingyao stared at the girl in the photo, stunned.
Even she had never seen such a beautiful girl before.
The aura this girl gave off was completely different from the girls she saw on phone apps.
It even felt like she didn’t belong to this world.
She looked at Su Li, then at Chi Qingya.
She remembered those girls she’d run into at dinner tonight, with makeup caked on their faces so thick that just slapping them left powder on your hand.
Chi Qingyao said, puzzled:
“With a girl this pretty, you don’t eat with her?”
“Instead, you eat with those cheap, flashy bitches?”