The city mall was crowded, but Lia Ming didn't mind. Shopping was one of the few things that made her forget the restless chaos of her own household. She walked slowly, a small smile tugging at her lips as she clutched a new bag of clothes against her chest.
Then, at the edge of the street, she noticed them. A girl bending low, carefully tying her girlfriend's shoelaces. The tenderness of the gesture struck Lia like an arrow. For a moment she forgot the noise of the city around her. Desire—strange, heavy, and uninvited—rose in her chest. She wanted that. Someone who would care for her with such quiet devotion. Someone who would love her without fear.
Her steps faltered. She lingered, watching longer than she should have, before forcing herself to turn away. She tucked her hair behind her ear, masking the softness in her eyes with her usual cold, unreadable expression. To strangers, she was just another elegant girl leaving the mall. But inside, she carried a hunger no one at home had ever seen.
Home.
Back at the Ming residence, chaos had already erupted. Ming Feng Hai and Ming Wei Tao were at it again, their voices booming from the living room as if the house were a battlefield. One was laughing too loudly, the other yelling with mock outrage. Their storm-like energy always consumed the air when they were together.
Xiao Ming, tall and composed, was caught in the middle, though not entirely against her will. She leaned against the sofa with folded arms, her long hair cascading down her shoulder, trying to look unaffected. Yet even she couldn't stop herself from laughing occasionally at her brothers' antics.
Only one problem loomed like a dark cloud: Lia.
They all knew what would happen if she returned to find the house in disarray. Lia hated messes as much as she hated betrayal. She had always been the one who quietly restored order, cleaned the dishes, remembered the chores, kept the house from falling apart. She valued peace, and she valued silence. If she came home to chaos, her anger would strike like fire.
When Xiao's phone buzzed with a message—Lia's on her way, thirty minutes—panic surged through the siblings.
"Quick, clean up!" Feng Hai barked, though his grin betrayed the fun he found in the urgency.
Wei Tao groaned but obeyed, scooping magazines from the floor and tossing them onto a shelf. "This is why I don't study. My life is already full of rules."
Xiao Ming rolled her eyes but joined in, setting cushions in place. "You two are hopeless."
They moved fast, tidying what they could, though the storm of their presence still lingered in the air. In the kitchen, a pot simmered. Lia had asked Xiao to watch the fish soup—a simple responsibility. But Xiao, distracted by the boys, forgot. The pot hissed quietly, steam rising, the fish overcooking until the broth grew dark and bitter.
By the time the front door clicked open, the three siblings froze.
Lia stepped inside, the weight of her shopping bags hanging at her side. She scanned the room, her sharp gaze sweeping over the suspiciously tidy space, then narrowed at the faint burnt smell drifting from the kitchen.
Her voice was quiet, but her tone carried fire."Xiao Ming. The soup."
A silence fell.