“Sister Sang Tian, what exactly happened? This is the first time I’ve seen you like this.”
Jiang Yu coughed, lowered his head, and carefully studied Sang Tian’s current appearance, his eyes filled with anxiety and worry.
After he spoke, there was no response.
“Sister Sang Tian?”
Jiang Yu grew even more anxious.
“Your hand…”
Sang Tian finally spoke.
She looked guiltily at the back of her own hand, then suddenly saw how red it was—like it was about to bleed. She was startled.
“Sorry, was I too forceful just now?”
“No…”
His large, aching hand was cupped by the older sister’s soft little hands. Jiang Yu froze, the words he wanted to say stuck in his throat.
“I’m really sorry…”
Sang Tian held Jiang Yu’s reddened hand in both of hers, her voice growing weaker. She couldn’t help bringing her lips close and blowing on it a few times.
“Hoo… hoo hoo…”
Feeling the warm breeze on the back of his hand, Jiang Yu’s eyes narrowed. No matter how hard he tried to appear calm, his racing heart and reddening ears completely betrayed him.
In truth, the reason his hand was so red was all his brother’s doing.
As expected of big brother—his trick really worked.
Although it was a trick he often used himself. He used to “accidentally” scrape himself or fall down to earn Sister Sang Tian’s gentle care.
But today, he had been stunned by Sang Tian’s unusual behavior. After she left, he just stood there in a daze.
“Xiao Yu, does it still hurt?”
Sang Tian looked up at him and asked.
“It hurts. A lot.”
Jiang Yu furrowed his brow.
Hearing that, Sang Tian didn’t think twice. She glanced outside and said, “Then let me blow on it a bit more. Afterward, we’ll go out and get some medicine!”
“No…”
Jiang Yu shook his head.
“Huh?”
Sang Tian was confused.
“You can blow on a hand that hurts. You can put medicine on it. But what about a heart that hurts?”
Jiang Yu looked firmly into Sang Tian’s eyes.
At these words, Sang Tian froze. She looked again at the hand she had blown on, and her brow furrowed.
Something was off. It was way too red. If she really had that much strength, why would she have needed to run away just now? She could have just slapped that man across the face!
She would have sent him straight to heaven!
Realizing this, she knew she had been tricked. Her kindness and gentleness had been taken advantage of.
“What really happened to your hand? Did you do this yourself?”
She had no choice but to re-evaluate the boy standing before her, six years younger than herself.
“DE!!”
Jiang Yu had to nod, swearing he would never sell out his brother.
“That’s completely reckless!”
Sang Tian was speechless.
“You’re right, Sister Sang Tian. I won’t do it again.”
Jiang Yu apologized quickly.
Seeing how quickly he admitted fault, all the reprimands Sang Tian had meant to say got stuck in her throat.
But she still couldn’t let it go. She couldn’t help raising her hand and tapping his shoulder. “Don’t ever do that again, you hear me?”
“Okay, Sister Sang Tian! I remember!”
Jiang Yu’s face showed surprise. So Sister Sang Tian could hit people. And she could scold them too.
Noticing the strange look in Jiang Yu’s eyes, Sang Tian’s hand stopped mid-pat. She pursed her lips.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because even my parents have never hit me. So far, only two people have.”
Jiang Yu held up two fingers.
Hearing this, Sang Tian was slightly moved. After all, Jiang Yu was a good kid. When would the Jiang family ever have a reason to hit him?
Curious, she asked directly, “Who’s the other one?”
“My older sister, Jiang Li.”
Jiang Yu frowned again as he said it.
“It’s Jiang Li…”
Sang Tian’s eyes widened in surprise.
But she had heard that Jiang Li had been a student council member since childhood, the kind who enforced discipline. She could imagine Jiang Li disciplining delinquents.
But Jiang Li disciplining Jiang Yu—that was hard to picture.
“Sister Sang Tian.”
Jiang Yu’s eyes curved like a fox’s.
“Are you curious about me now?”
Hearing this, Sang Tian’s expression couldn’t hold. How was this kid so good at setting traps?
Was this really the Jiang Yu she knew? He felt so unfamiliar.
Just then, the sound of girls laughing came from outside the partition.
In that instant, Jiang Yu’s whole body stiffened. Sang Tian, after a brief pause, quickly covered the boy’s mouth with her hand.
She lowered her voice. “Shh, don’t talk. Someone’s coming!”
“Mm-hmm.”
Jiang Yu nodded obediently, offering no resistance.
He watched the older sister’s face covered in sweat, her strands of hair stuck to her cheeks by perspiration, her eyelashes fluttering like birds’ wings. His gaze deepened.
Without meaning to, he inhaled. The mature woman’s scent wafted into his nose and mouth.
He stood still, listening to the footsteps and chatter of the girls outside, and to the interwoven sounds of their breathing and heartbeats. Thinking about how panicked she had been just now, he couldn’t help biting the palm of her fair hand.
It was obvious that Sister Sang Tian was hiding something from him. Something he probably couldn’t get her to tell him no matter how much he asked.
No—in the past, she might have told him.
But from the moment he confessed, Sister Sang Tian would never tell him again.
The two of them seemed to be walking the same path as his brother and sister-in-law. Yet somehow, it was different.
“Mm…”
Sang Tian’s small hand, which had been covering the boy’s mouth, flinched. She looked at him. The way she looked at him was more and more like she was looking at a stranger.
The way Jiang Yu stared at her was like a snake’s pupils. It sent a thin layer of sweat down her back.
She was afraid. But this fear was different from the fear she felt toward the man who had kidnapped her.
Jiang Yu’s gaze never left her.
Then, trembling, Sang Tian moved her hand from his mouth upward, instead covering his eyes.
At that moment, she suddenly wanted to ask her best friend Song Qiuyu for help. If it were Song Qiuyu, she would surely understand this situation better.
She couldn’t help but wonder: if it were Qiuyu and Jiang Xiao in this position, if Jiang Xiao were doing this to Qiuyu, how would Qiuyu escape?
But she quickly realized the answer.
If it really were Qiuyu, she probably wouldn’t be able to escape. After all, the other person was Jiang Xiao…
The spot where his teeth had bitten her felt hot and itchy. Sang Tian was forced to confront her own preference again. She liked being bitten by Jiang Yu…
If he bit a little harder, she might like it even more.
Her heartbeat quickened. She desperately tried to hide her thoughts, swallowing her saliva. Guiltily, she didn’t dare look at his face.
If Jiang Yu found out that the older sister he liked was actually a pervert with a special fetish… his fantasies would probably shatter.
The girl outside the partition left.
Sang Tian was still covering Jiang Yu’s eyes, turning her face away and pressing her lips tightly together.
She really didn’t want this. She had already decided not to fall in love for the rest of her life.
Thinking back to that one moment of heart flutter at the theme park, she only felt regret.
Maybe if Jiang Yu hadn’t been her friend’s younger brother, if there wasn’t a six-year age gap, she would have easily fallen for him.
Just like at the theme park, when they were complete strangers to each other, only because they talked, only because they clicked, she felt her heart flutter.
“Sang Tian, I can’t see anything.”
Jiang Yu put on a spoiled tone again and tugged at the corner of her clothes.
Sang Tian rolled her eyes in exasperation.
He was already eighteen, so why was he still acting spoiled with her like when he was in middle school?
Was this right? No, it wasn’t. No matter how she looked at it, it wasn’t!
It was unbearable.
The Jiang family had raised Jiang Xiao and Jiang Li to be so aloof, so how did Jiang Yu end up this way?
“Sang Tian, take your hand off, okay?”
“…”
Sang Tian sighed and removed her hand.
The moment her hand came off, she met Jiang Yu’s eyes, which were curved into a smile.
“Sang Tian, everyone outside is gone now. Can you tell me what just happened?”
Jiang Yu was still clinging to her clothes, acting spoiled.
“That’s adult business. You don’t need to know.”
Sang Tian decided not to tell Jiang Yu.
But before she knew that Jiang Yu liked her, and before she accidentally liked him back, she might have told him as a joke.
She didn’t want anyone’s sympathy, nor anyone’s worry.
Because that was all in the past.
Suddenly, Jiang Yu lowered his head and pressed his forehead square against her shoulder.
“Uh…”
Sang Tian’s body stiffened slightly. She hadn’t expected him to do that.
She studied his strange behavior, assuming he was going to keep acting spoiled. “I said I won’t tell you, so I won’t. No matter how much you act spoiled, it won’t work.”
“Sang Tian, if you don’t tell me, I’ll bully you!”
Jiang Yu’s warm voice carried on his hot breath, brushing against Sang Tian’s ear.
“You won’t, right?”
Her ear felt damp and ticklish. Sang Tian swallowed hard, using the last shred of trust she had in him as a shield to protect herself.
After all, Jiang Yu was a good kid.
‘Yeah, if it’s Jiang Yu, he probably won’t bully Sang Tian.’
Jiang Yu suddenly laughed.
“?”
Sang Tian was baffled.
What did “if it’s Jiang Yu” mean? Was he not Jiang Yu? Then who was he?
“But the person holding you right now…”
Jiang Yu said in a low voice, and at the same time, he reached out and wrapped his arms around Sang Tian’s slender waist.
“Is a grown man. He’s not your friend’s younger brother, not a kid who needs your protection. Just a man.”
“Mm.”
It was like a jolt of electricity shot from her spine straight to the top of her head. Sang Tian’s whole body trembled from the shock, and she became extremely uneasy.
A man…
It was the first time she’d heard Jiang Yu emphasize those two words like that, as if he was deliberately trying to drive the image of the child from her mind.
But even so, she still couldn’t see the boy in front of her as a man.
“Sang Tian.”
Jiang Yu changed his usual way of addressing her.
Hearing that, Sang Tian’s scalp tingled, and she instinctively began to struggle.
The next second, he gave her side a hard pinch.
“Ah!”
Sang Tian let out a low cry of pain.
It hurt, but at the same time, it felt good. Somewhere in her heart, it seemed to cheer. This kind of appropriate bullying from the person she liked made her heart race.
But reason was still struggling. She didn’t want him to discover her ugliest side.
This was the dignity she wanted to preserve as his Sang Tian.
“Sang Tian, what else do you want me to do?”
Jiang Yu’s voice sounded by her ear.
“I… I don’t know…”
Sang Tian’s voice grew softer and softer, until it carried a comfortable, pleasant tremor. She felt like she could no longer hide…
“Fine then.”
Jiang Yu let go of her waist.
“…”
The warmth at her ear quickly faded in the cold winter wind, and the pain in her side rapidly subsided. Sang Tian stared blankly at the boy in front of her, a bead of sweat sliding down her cheek.
‘It’s not enough.’
She looked away, feeling disgusted with the shameful thought of her body’s dissatisfaction.
But she couldn’t help it.
“Sang Tian, can you tell me now?”
Jiang Yu smiled as if nothing had happened.
Seeing that, Sang Tian frowned. For a second, she wanted to punch him in the face. She felt she had a clearer picture of Jiang Yu’s true nature now.
“Sang Tian?”
Jiang Yu tilted his head, examining Sang Tian’s current expression. His own expression changed slightly.
‘So it wasn’t my imagination. When I bit Sang Tian’s palm earlier, I felt her reaction was a bit strange.’
‘And then when I tried bullying her just now, her reaction confirmed that guess even more.’
‘Sang Tian didn’t seem to be in pain—more like she was enjoying it?’
‘Oh my god, so Sang Tian is actually…’
“If Sang Tian doesn’t tell me, then I’ll have to…”
With that, Jiang Yu deliberately extended his Dragon Claw Hand, wiggling all ten fingers in an exaggerated way.
“Don’t mess around.”
Sang Tian pressed her back against the partition, her eyes fixed on Jiang Yu’s ten fingers, and couldn’t help feeling nervous.
If she was bullied like that, she might get addicted.
Meanwhile, outside the shop, Song Qiuyu was staring wide-eyed at a video posted by a plainclothes police officer.
The video was about a plainclothes police officer who happened to meet a young woman from the Sugar-dipped Lemon Team, heroically saved her, and brought the kidnapper to justice!
That plainclothes police officer was naturally the male fan Sang Tian had run into.
“Speaking of which, Jiang Yu and Sang Tian are so slow. What are they doing? Why aren’t they out yet?”
Song Qiuyu watched the video, gave it a like, then opened the comment section and started lurking.
“Should we call to check?”
“No need.”
Jiang Xiao tore open a pack of Orange Milk Candy he’d just bought from the shop, took out one piece, and handed it to Song Qiuyu.
“What if they’re somewhere they can’t answer the phone?”
Hearing that, a question mark popped up in Song Qiuyu’s mind.
Somewhere they can’t answer the phone?
Like where?