Chapter 22: Go Talk to My Parents

“Don’t move!”

Liu Xie winced and furrowed her brows as she stared at Liu Anran, who was kneeling on one knee in front of her.

He was holding her swollen ankle in his right hand. Her high heel, previously on that foot, now lay on the floor.

“It’s not a fracture, thankfully. But it’s swollen this badly and you didn’t say a word? Gotta say, you’ve got some serious willpower.” Liu Anran examined the foot that had slipped out of the heel for a moment before commenting.

“Uh, thanks?”

The boy snapped back irritably, “I wasn’t complimenting you.”

Then he reached out and poked the swollen area, prompting a sharp cry of pain from the blond-haired Blue Snowflake.

Her other leg, the relatively uninjured one, moved reflexively—planting a foot squarely on Liu Anran’s face.

Time itself seemed to freeze.

Seated on the bed, Liu Xie shrank her neck back and retracted the foot that had stomped on her brother’s face.

“Not even an apology?” Liu Anran rubbed his nose. Thankfully, it wasn’t a hard kick.

Liu Xie hesitated for a long moment before muttering, “I don’t have athlete’s foot.”

“Who asked you that?”

“Well, it’s your fault for touching me!” she retorted, finding her confidence again. “If you hadn’t put your hands on me, would I have kicked you?”

She met Liu Anran’s calm gaze.

He always looked at her like this—like an old man watching a child’s tantrum, taking in all her nonsense with a silent tolerance.

Except now, he didn’t even bother with his usual biting remarks. It made him seem more patient, and made her look like a bigger brat.

“What now?” she asked warily as Liu Anran moved again, grabbing the bedsheet and inching herself away from her dear little brother.

Liu Anran grabbed her calf and dragged her back toward the edge of the bed. “Don’t move.”

Then he pulled out an ice pack he had apparently prepared ahead of time and pressed it to her swollen ankle.

“Hss—!”

It didn’t seem to hurt quite as much now—maybe the cold had numbed it.

The boy also took out two white cloth strips, making Liu Xie raise a suspicious brow.

“I’m warning you, this is totally taking advantage of a wounded person. Dare to fight me fair and square after my ankle heals?”

Liu Anran couldn’t even be bothered to answer. He swiftly and efficiently secured the ice pack around her ankle.

“Where’d you learn to do this stuff?” the blond Blue Snowflake asked curiously.

Her dear little brother seemed to know a surprising number of things.

“You need to learn this kind of thing?” Liu Anran replied with a question of his own. When he caught sight of his sister’s clear yet stupid expression, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

He gently set her ankle down. “Next time something happens, come to me. Don’t just carry everything on your own. You think you can really handle it all?”

“How do you know I can’t?” Liu Xie reflexively shot back.

Then her eyes fell on the ankle wrapped in an ice pack, and she fell silent.

Liu Anran let out a long sigh—one filled with helplessness and frustration, though Liu Xie couldn’t quite hear it.

He changed to a phrasing that Liuxie might find easier to accept. “Just think of it as being for Mom and Dad. You fell down today, and we both left the banquet early. Who do you think had to deal with the aftermath? Wasn’t it them?”

Liuxie originally wanted to snap back, to say he didn’t need to follow her back.

But looking at the ice pack wrapped around her ankle, she suddenly felt that saying something like that would make her seem heartless—like an ungrateful brat.

“Fine, I get it…” Liuxie muttered, conceding at last.

“What exactly do you get?”

The golden-haired “Blue Snowflake” closed her eyes with a look of resignation. “From now on, if anything happens, I’ll talk to you first.”

It felt like saying that stripped away something inside her—probably what remained of her male pride.

“Then get some rest, take the Sanqi pills, and apply a hot compress again tomorrow,” Liu Anran instructed in painstaking detail.

Liuxie’s expression twisted. “You’re acting weird. Why don’t you just curse me out like usual?”

“Looking for scolding? You a masochist?”

“Exactly,” Liuxie gave a thumbs-up in agreement.

Liu Anran frowned slightly, annoyed at himself for letting his mouth run again. He added, “You’re not even in a state where cursing would help. Wouldn’t make a difference anyway.”

Not like it ever did before.

With that, he walked a few steps toward the door.

Liuxie pulled her legs, which had been hanging off the bed, back under the blanket and curled up into a ball, hugging her knees.

Even her room at home had changed. That soft pinkish-white canopy hanging over her bed—there was no way she would’ve picked something like that.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, her phone rang.

“Hello? Birdie?”

As soon as she said it, she realized what she’d forgotten. “Wait—Birdie, are you still alive?”

“Your old man’s alive and well,” came Zhu Niao’s annoyed voice on the other end. “Gou Yu picked me up.”

She didn’t know why Gou Yu had shown up there, but as long as Zhu Niao hadn’t gotten entangled in anything, it was fine.

“Then what are you calling me for?” Liuxie glanced at the ice pack on her foot, her cheek pressed to the bedsheet, face drawn. “If it’s for gaming, forget it. I’m not in the mood.”

“Nah, I need a favor,” Zhu Niao’s voice turned cautious. “That guy who was bothering me—he apparently made a couple threats toward Old Dog too. I don’t really care, but I’m worried he might get dragged into trouble because of me. So could you…?”

“Oh, that’s it? No problem. I got this.”

The moment she blurted out those bold words, Liuxie’s face froze.

She was that type of spoiled rich kid who could only throw a little money around—morally not bad enough, and not capable enough to actually handle anything.

She instinctively looked toward the door.

Her emotionless good little brother was still standing there silently, listening. He hadn’t left.

But in her memory, any time she asked Liu Anran for a favor, it always came with a storm of scolding and tug-of-war. He would never directly say yes or no. He’d insult her incompetence, stall until the last possible minute, and only then get it done.

The outcome was always good—but the process was downright agonizing.

“I got it. I’ll look into who it was later,” Liu Anran said, then finally left Liuxie’s room.

To Liuxie’s surprise, her dear little brother was being far gentler with her than he used to be.

The dazed, golden-haired “Blue Snowflake” ended the call with Zhu Niao and continued curling up on the bed, hugging her knees.

She felt strangely warm inside, like something fuzzy was softly nestling in her chest.

But while Zhu Niao was calling Liuxie, in the room just one junk closet away, Gou Yu was also making a call.

“Hey, sis, your brother’s got a favor to ask…” Gou Yu’s face lit up with a bootlicking grin.

“You mean about your ‘sister-in-law’? Don’t worry, bro—it’s handled.”

Her words on the other end left Gou Yu stunned. “What sister-in-law?”

“Oh, come on. I was there today—you think you can still hide it from me?” The store manager girl couldn’t stop giggling.

“Uh…” Gou Yu struggled to explain. “Actually, it’s not exactly…”

“I already asked around. You two are so close you might as well share a pair of pants.”

“Wait, that’s not—” Gou Yu’s head was spinning.

“I already told Mom and Dad. They said to bring her home during National Day break. If you wanna explain, explain it to them.”

With that uncompromising declaration, the store manager girl hung up.

Gou Yu was left staring blankly out the window, still holding his phone.

“Ah, f*ck!”