At noon, Jiang Xiaotang stood under the teaching building, waiting anxiously. Her classmates had already been picked up. Normally, when half the students were gone, her sister should have arrived. Why wasn’t she here yet?
Jiang Xiaotang wasn’t afraid of not being able to get home. She usually walked home with her sister. She knew the way. But if her sister didn’t come to pick her up, where could she have gone?
She thought of the little stories on her phone. Had her sister been kidnapped by some weirdo on the street? They would lock her sister in a basement, take everything from her without hesitation, until they broke her completely! ‘No… not like that…’
Jiang Xiaotang was getting anxious. If her sister really got caught, she would never see her again. From then on, she would be alone again.
“Hey, Jiang Xiaotang,” Lin Luoying walked up and unceremoniously patted her shoulder. “What are you doing here all by yourself? Where’s your sister? Isn’t she coming to pick you up?”
“Go away, scram…” Xiaotang didn’t even want to deal with this chatterbox. She was already worried.
“Tch, I think your sister can’t make it today. Why don’t you just come to my house? Then we can call your sister… Hey, my car is here!”
Jiang Xiaotang instinctively looked up. It was a car that looked expensive from first glance, parked by the roadside. A tall girl in a maid outfit got out.
Lin Luoying waved her hand. “Little Aunt… Huh, no? Why is it Sister An Xin?”
“Miss Luoying, please get in the car first,” An Xin said, smiling.
Then she walked straight toward Jiang Xiaotang.
“Oh, okay.”
After watching Lin Luoying hop into the car, An Xin turned to look at Jiang Xiaotang.
“You’re Little Sister Jiang Xiaotang, right? Your sister was busy at noon, so she asked me to…”
Before she could finish, Jiang Xiaotang grabbed her backpack straps and backed away warily, looking ready to bolt at any moment.
It wasn’t Jiang Xiaotang’s fault—what An Xin said was just too classic, almost like “You can scream all you want, no one will save you.”
‘Tiny one, you’re really interesting.’ A barely perceptible curve lifted the corner of An Xin’s mouth.
“Little girl, don’t be scared. Big sister has candy for you. It’s in the car. Come get it.”
Jiang Xiaotang turned around, ready to run.
“Oh my, big sister won’t do anything. Hurry up and come to the car.”
Jiang Xiaotang’s little motor kicked into full gear. Her short legs churned as she ran faster and faster.
Just as the girl was about to escape, An Xin unhurriedly raised her hands to her mouth, forming a megaphone.
“Little girl, your sister is in our hands. If you don’t come, we’ll show your sister a thing or two!”
‘Well, snow white is a color too,’ An Xin thought.
Sure enough, Jiang Xiaotang slammed on the brakes and stopped.
She turned around and looked at An Xin with a determined gaze.
“Let my sister go! Take it out on Xiaotang instead!”
***
“Hey, Jiang Xiaotang, why are you getting in the car too?”
“You’re coming to my house too?”
“Hey hey hey, why aren’t you talking?”
The girl tried to keep a straight face, putting on a tough act.
“Back off! Don’t bother me!”
But sitting beside Lin Luoying, she was a full half-head shorter, and her voice was so thin that even when she tried hard, her volume only matched Lin Luoying’s normal speaking level.
No matter how you looked at it, she was just a sulking elementary school kid.
Really… fine, don’t talk then. Acting like she’s so tough. Hmph!
Lin Luoying turned away, determined never to talk to this stupid shorty again.
But after a while.
crack—crack—crack—
“Hey, Jiang Xiaotang, want some sunflower seeds?”
“No.”
chew—chew—chew—
“Hey, you wanna… gulp… jerky?”
“No!”
“Fine.”
crunch—crunch—
Jiang Xiaotang couldn’t take it anymore. “Idiot! Can’t you eat without smacking your lips? So noisy! So noisy!”
“Nya nya, mind your own business.”
“You’re driving me crazy! You’re an idiot! A super idiot! And mean too!”
“Oh.”
chew—chew—chew—
An Xin sat in the front seat, listening to the two little lolis… well, Lin Luoying couldn’t be called a little loli anymore. Anyway, listening to the sounds and watching the two interact in the rearview mirror, the smile on her face simply wouldn’t stop. Usually, most kids her age got kicked out of the car by Miss Lin Luoying as soon as they got in. It was rare to see someone have so much fun with the Little Miss.
—After all, Lin Luoying had already learned to judge people by their looks at such a young age.
Hmm, this is when I should say, “I haven’t seen the Little Miss smile so happily in a long time.”
Today, the little maid An Xin was in a good mood. As long as the Miss and the Little Miss were happy, she was happy too. After all, she had basically no family left. The only two people she cherished were these childhood companions.
She couldn’t help but remember: when she first met Lin Shuangxue, Lin Luoying was just a little baby crying for milk. Now she had grown so tall, almost catching up to her. She couldn’t help but sigh—time really flies.
Before long, An Xin parked the car outside the villa and got out.
“Please, you two young ladies.”
She opened the car door.
She had indeed promised Jiang Cheng to bring Jiang Xiaotang home, but she never said which home. She wondered what expression Jiang Xiaotang would have when she ran into Jiang Cheng and discovered that her beloved sister was actually… what kind of look would be on her face? Really looking forward to it…
“Whoa, finally home.” Lin Luoying stretched. “I’m starving~”
“You’ve been eating the whole way, and you’re still hungry?” Jiang Xiaotang couldn’t help but retort.
“By the way, this is your house? So… my sister is at your Little Aunt’s place? That tall, scary big sister with a weird fetish?”
“Weird fetish?” Lin Luoying blinked. “I dunno. But why would Little Aunt want your sister? And bring her home? That doesn’t seem likely.”
Jiang Xiaotang ignored her.
The girl looked up at the gate with two pillars, feeling like it was a giant beast’s open maw. Her sister was inside, suffering who knows what torment. Maybe she was already being whipped to the brink of death, with no energy left…
No!
Jiang Xiaotang clenched her fists and strode into the villa.
I won’t let you break my sister!
“I think Little Aunt probably wants to find a maid again, and she’ll throw her away soon enough. After all, the only maid who can stay with sister is Sister An Xin… Hey! Where are you going?”
“Wait for me!”
Jiang Xiaotang completely ignored Lin Luoying. She walked into the living room, looking left and right, trying to find a basement. Unfortunately, she didn’t see any clues. Speaking of which, basements should be in bedrooms, right? Push the bed aside and there’s a passageway or something. That’s absolutely it!
The girl decided to look for the bedroom first. Fortunately, the doors were labeled: “Storage Room,” “Yoga Room,” etc. Jiang Xiaotang quickly found a room with a “Bedroom” label. This should be the place. She walked up and grabbed the handle.
“Hey, I’ll warn you out of kindness,” Lin Luoying stepped forward, blocking the girl and the door. “This is Little Aunt’s room. If you go in and make her angry, you’ll be punished into doing splits.”
So it’s that big sister’s room… An image of that woman with an aura formed in Jiang Xiaotang’s mind—the woman who looked scary, who looked like she really knew how to torture people. Then even more reason not to let her stay with my sister!
“Little Aunt hates children. If you do this… Hey! Listen to me!”
Jiang Xiaotang pushed the door open abruptly and looked inside. She saw a simple but large room. She saw a large white bed. She saw a big woman lying sideways on the bed, holding her little sister in her arms.
Jiang Cheng, who had been worrying about her sister, heard the door open and instinctively lifted her head to look at the entrance. She saw Jiang Xiaotang. Their eyes met.