“You don’t know them!?”
Although Zhu Shuiwen quickly covered her mouth, the shock still slipped through in her lowered voice.
“It was Xian Xian who called them over. Who knows where they all came from,” Zhu Feifei shrugged.
Zhu Shuiwen: “..…”
Zhu Shuiwen said timidly, “That carpet… Uncle seems to really like it…”
That day, she had heard her uncle mention that it had been shipped all the way from Siverk, and the process had been extremely troublesome.
Although he hadn’t meant to show off in front of the younger generation, since Zhu Shuiwen had casually said, “The carpets at home aren’t as comfortable as this one,” her uncle had gotten a bit pleased with himself and poured out the entire backstory like spilling beans.
Later on, he even said that if Zhu Shuiwen liked it, he would give her one.
Zhu Shuiwen wasn’t able to refuse.
—Because before she could say “No, no, it’s fine,” a loud crash cut off her exchange with her uncle.
Zhu Feifei slammed her chopsticks down and stood up from the dining table in front of everyone.
Then she left.
Zhu Feifei’s aunt and uncle exchanged looks for a long while before the aunt tried to smooth things over. “Don’t know what kind of tantrum she’s throwing again… Xiao Shui, eat your food, don’t mind her.”
Zhu Shuiwen couldn’t remember what she had said back then, but she still remembered Zhu Feifei after throwing the chopsticks down—her expression was exactly the same as now.
A sharp, piercing cold indifference, with fury sealed beneath an icy shell.
Hearing the word “Uncle,” Zhu Feifei let out a cold laugh.
“I know,” she said. “Of course he likes it.”
“If he didn’t like it, why did he take back the carpet he said he’d give me? Why go back on his word?”
“What did he say… ‘We’ll take it out first to host guests,’ ‘We’ll buy you another one later,’ ‘This time I definitely won’t lie to you’… It’s been almost a year. Where’s the carpet?”
Zhu Feifei casually grabbed the food container beside her and, with a loud crash, tipped it over.
Thick red sauce splattered all over the dark red carpet.
The emptied container landed lightly on the stained surface.
“Fine. No one gets to use it anymore.”
Her expression was cold and composed, as if she were reciting the final line of a funeral eulogy.
For some reason, Zhu Shuiwen felt that the way her sister stood there with her arms crossed looked almost like a provocation—like she was silently saying, “Go ahead, you can scold me.”
As if she was actually hoping for a reaction from her.
Zhu Shuiwen thought hard for a moment, then gave a small clap. “So cool!”
Zhu Feifei: …
The girl clapped while desperately trying to guess her sister’s thoughts.
No reaction? Maybe it wasn’t enough?
She clapped once more and began praising extravagantly: “That move of throwing the bowl was so graceful! The sauce splattered so evenly! Without ten years of practice, you can’t achieve such an elegant posture!”
…She thought she saw the corner of Zhu Feifei’s mouth twitch.
Not sure. Say a bit more to confirm.
So, in the tone of a rookie sales clerk on her first day, she gestured vaguely at the carpet with both hands and started a clumsy pitch:
“Oh, look! A beautiful ink painting! An elegant piece of art! A leading trend in high fashion! You can even smell the rich aroma of thirteen-spice crayfish, fully capturing the artist’s hungry creative mood!”
When she reached the line, “Transformed through the brush of the famous splashing-ink artist Ms. Zhu Feifei, it has evolved from an ordinary carpet into an art carpet!” Zhu Feifei finally snapped.
“Can you stop being annoying?!”
She lunged over to cover Zhu Shuiwen’s mouth, but the girl leaned back to dodge, still loudly chanting, “It wasn’t exhibited in the Louvre—truly a loss for all humanity…”
Zhu Feifei’s face flushed red. “Shut up! You’re not allowed to say that!”
Even with her mouth being pinched into a duck-like shape, Zhu Shuiwen still managed an imposing, breathy retort: “Why! I’m going to say it!”
“Stop it!”
“I won’t!”
“You’re living in my house and still acting so arrogant?”
“So arrogant!”
Zhu Feifei was stunned. “Do you even have any shame?!”
Zhu Shuiwen whimpered, “It’s in your hand.”
Zhu Feifei: …
Fine. She lost.
Because Zhu Feifei’s hand was still hurting, the play-fighting didn’t last long.
But when the girl offered to apply medicine for her, she didn’t refuse.
After finishing, Zhu Shuiwen suddenly said, “I still think Uncle is the one at fault.”
Even after all this time, she was still fixated on it. “He promised to give it to you. How can he just go back on his word?”
The two of them were sitting on a clean patch of the carpet, each holding a can of soda.
“Yeah,” Zhu Feifei said. “Later he said I could drag it back to my room. But it wasn’t new anymore. I didn’t want it.”
Before Zhu Shuiwen could respond, she quickly added, “I know I’m being petty.”
She even let out a small laugh.
However, even she herself noticed that her voice sounded stiff.
She took a sip of soda and said casually, pretending to be relaxed, “Someone like you probably wouldn’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”
In Zhu Feifei’s mind, Zhu Shuiwen was a textbook “good girl.”
Everything is fine.
This is fine, that is fine.
This works, that also works.
If she had a choice, she would even want a worry-free daughter like Zhu Shuiwen.
“It’s not like that. I’d be unhappy too.”
The soda in her throat caught for a brief moment.
The girl didn’t notice her sudden stiffness and said seriously, “If I wasn’t the one who unwrapped the gift, then it’s not a present for me anymore.”
“Hmmm, I’ll tell Dad. I’ll ask him not to do it next time. He didn’t do it on purpose—he just didn’t know I would be upset.”
In the silence, she heard the girl continue in a matter-of-fact tone—
“Getting angry means you care.”
Zhu Feifei often felt that people seemed born unable to understand one another. But fortunately, everyone was equally subjected to different kinds of pain.
Happy moments did exist, but they were like a brief electrical spark during a short circuit—briefly brilliant, and then everything sank back into an eternal swamp.
“Isn’t it just a carpet? You’re making too much of a fuss.”
“We didn’t mistreat you materially, did we? Isn’t that enough?”
They were right.
Occasionally, Yuan Xiaxian could sense something was off. She would press her for a long time, asking what was really wrong.
After hearing everything, her friend gave a solution—
“Take this chance to ask your parents for more money.”
Yuan Xiaxian’s practicality often made her feel envious.
If only she could be like that too.
Just as she was thinking this, a small hand rested on her back.
“Sister, don’t cry.” The girl patted her clumsily.
She froze.
She wanted to say she wasn’t crying, and that there was nothing worth being sad about.
But the moment she opened her mouth, she realized in shock that warmth was rising in her previously dry eyes.
The gentle patting felt like a soft velvet fan, lightly falling again and again on her back.
…Fortunately, the only source of light was over at Zhu Shuiwen’s side.
She thought.
The only place where one could cry was in an empty corner.
Otherwise, it would just be laughed at.
…
Zhu Shuiwen was dreaming.
Countless chaotic fragments flashed through her mind, but whenever she tried to grasp them, they slipped away like water through her palms, leaving no trace.
“Xiao Shui! Xiao Shui!”
She was shaken awake.
Zhu Shuiwen opened her heavy eyelids and found herself lying on a soft bed.
The person kneeling in front of her, shaking her repeatedly with a worried expression, was her aunt.
Strange.
She clearly remembered carrying a blanket out and chatting with Zhu Feifei in the living room.
Then she got sleepy mid-conversation and lost awareness, falling asleep right there.
By logic, she should have woken up on the floor…
Huh?
Suddenly, a sense of dissonance surfaced in Zhu Shuiwen’s mind.
How could she and Zhu Feifei possibly be close enough to fall asleep under the same blanket?
Chatting?
Impossible.
Ever since she transferred schools, she hadn’t really spoken to Zhu Feifei at all.
As long as she approached, the other girl would turn away in disgust and walk off quickly.
Zhu Shuiwen thought it was probably her fault. If she lived on campus, maybe her sister wouldn’t dislike her so much.
Maybe she could even casually call her “little sister” one day.
…Just wishful thinking.
The reality was that she and Zhu Feifei were like strangers under the same roof—taking different routes to and from school, and whenever Zhu Feifei came home, she would quietly retreat into her room.
But that didn’t happen often.
Because Zhu Feifei rarely came back before she fell asleep.
This situation continued for a month. Everything had been relatively calm, until one day Zhu Feifei came home and ran into her aunt right after she had finished a mahjong game.
After that, Zhu Shuiwen began hearing arguments more frequently.
The opening line was always her aunt’s, usually something like—
“Do you even know what time it is now?!”
Since it was someone else’s family matter, Zhu Shuiwen could only lie in bed, straining her ears to listen.
Sometimes, when she got anxious, she would crouch by the door and press her ear against it in fear.
There were even several times when her fingers hovered over the emergency call button, until she heard Zhu Feifei’s footsteps going upstairs, and only then quietly moved her hand away.
But today…
Zhu Shuiwen suddenly felt a jolt run through her entire body and snapped fully awake.
She hadn’t heard anything at all.
—Zhu Feifei hadn’t come home.
Her aunt was like a lost child, muttering nonstop:
“Xiao Shui, did you see Ah Fei today? Where did Ah Fei go? Do you know who Ah Fei’s friends are? Can you help me ask around? Xiao Shui, Feifei is missing—where did that damn child run off to?”
But when they finally found her, the scene Zhu Shuiwen had imagined—of mother and daughter tearfully embracing—never appeared.
On the contrary, all of her aunt’s worry and panic seemed to have vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed in the first place.
In front of everyone, she strode forward with her head held high, fury burning on her face, and delivered a slap like a thunderclap.
“How could I have given birth to such a shameless daughter like you!”
In the dead silence, blood seeped from the corner of Zhu Feifei’s mouth. She didn’t wipe it away. She simply looked at her mother coldly and said, “That’s because you gave birth well.”
Her aunt’s face went deathly pale, her lips trembling uncontrollably. “You’re both Zhu, so why can’t you learn from Xiao Shui? She’s better behaved, more sensible, more obedient than you—she never gives the family any trouble…”
The more she spoke, the angrier she became.
“If I’d known you’d turn out like this, I should’ve strangled you the moment you were born!”
“If I embarrass you that much, then why did you give birth to me?” Zhu Feifei, who had been completely still until now, suddenly erupted. “Go ahead and strangle me! I hate myself more than you ever could—do you even understand that?”
Zhu Shuiwen jolted awake.
A helpless feeling surged up like deep water flooding her nose and throat. Cold sweat covered her entire body.
Her eyelashes, faintly glinting like they were inlaid with gold, fluttered for a long while before she finally realized—
It was already late morning.
Sunlight spilled across her face, making the girl’s pupils appear a clear amber, like a translucent gemstone.
But Zhu Shuiwen had no mood to appreciate how harsh the sunlight was.
Her aunt was standing right beside her, face dark and iron-gray as she surveyed the filthy, chaotic room that looked like a garbage dump.
The blanket had slipped from the girl’s arm, revealing Zhu Feifei’s extremely poor sleeping posture.
Perhaps sensing the cold, Zhu Feifei, still asleep, instinctively curled closer toward the girl.
“Sister—this is bad!”
In the girl’s terrified gaze, her aunt’s roar echoed through the entire villa:
“Zhu Feifei, you’re still sleeping?! Look what time it is now!”