For several days, the sky had been gloomy, as if covered by a gray-blue film. A blurry mist hung over the horizon, and the fine drizzle that began that night had soaked the entire city.
It felt as if it would never stop.
After the breakup, there had been only a single clear morning before dark, rolling clouds began to brew this storm.
Jiangg Ning was a little worried about her sister. After finishing her work at the university, she came home particularly early, bringing along the little cakes that Jiangg Yao loved most.
But when she knocked and opened the door...
What greeted her was the sight of Jiangg Yao, sitting dazedly on the bedroom's bay window seat. She was pressed against the glass, watching the pedestrians and vehicles come and go in the residential complex below, the very picture of dejection.
She had been in this state for several days.
At first, Jiangg Ning thought her sister would recover quickly—that perhaps a good night's sleep or a long cry would fix everything.
But things weren't as she had imagined. What terrified her was that this state was identical to Jiangg Yao's past period of self-isolation.
There was never a hint of a smile on her face. She was listless toward everything and unwilling to even speak, just mechanically eating and sleeping... The only response to any question was a faint "Mm," before she would return to her room and close the door.
"Yaoyao, I bought you some cake..." Jiangg Ning's gaze fell on the untouched lunch sitting on the table. She looked away and walked over to the bay window. "You should eat a little."
Jiangg Yao didn't answer. She continued to press against the window, her gaze fixed on the world below.
After a moment, she suddenly spoke.
"Sis, what do you think Chen Yuan is doing right now?"
"Why bring him up all of a sudden?" Jiangg Ning tucked a stray strand of hair by her temple and gave an awkward little laugh.
"Did you see him at the university today?"
"No..."
"He's exactly like I imagined," a faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Jiangg Yao's lips. 'To her sister, though, it was a little creepy. She should be crying, not smiling like that. This is just not normal.' But just as quickly, Jiangg Yao's tears began to fall like pearls from a broken string. "But in the end, what did our showing up in his life ever do for him?"
Seeing her sister cry, Jiangg Ning's heart instantly ached for her.
She hurried over and wrapped an arm around her sister's shoulders.
For the past few days, Jiangg Yao had lost all appetite, living in a daze. The memory of seeing Chen Yuan that day replayed endlessly in her mind. She had broken the promises they made when they were together; she had become the one who cruelly cast him aside.
It was a horrible feeling. She was finally, truly experiencing the pain of loss.
The thought that she could never again have any contact with Chen Yuan—that from this day forward, they would be strangers...made her feel as if her heart was being squeezed, making it impossible to breathe.
Jiangg Ning whispered words of comfort, but after a few sentences, she didn't know what else to say. An adult's joys and sorrows aren't meant to be worn on their sleeve. It's best to keep them buried deep inside.
A woman like her could never cry her heart out the way Jiangg Yao could.
'She couldn't admit that it was because any idle moment would make her think of Chen Yuan.' After a meeting at the university, she would habitually pull out her phone to log into another account, only to suddenly remember that there was no reason to log into it anymore.
Walking on campus, she'd run into many students who knew her, and she always had to respond politely to their greetings.
'She had the strangest thoughts. She was afraid of running into Chen Yuan—it would be terribly awkward... yet at the same time, she wished for that slim possibility to occur.'
'Just to have that little bit of connection. Just one glance.'
'Even if they did meet, she could only turn away and pretend she didn't know him.'
Yesterday, while teaching a public lecture, Jiangg Ning pretended to casually let her gaze sweep across the classroom, but after searching for a long time, she couldn't find any sign of Chen Yuan.
She felt an inexplicable twinge of disappointment.
'How can a person be so strange? I got the result I wanted, but I don't feel happy at all.'
At noon, Jiangg Ning went to Yimei to meet a friend.
While they were chatting upstairs, she was somewhat absent-minded. Her friend noticed and, ever the gossip, pried for a long time about what was wrong.
'Was she really going to admit she was thinking about an eighteen-year-old ex-boyfriend? And about that little kiss in the restroom?'
Jiangg Ning's face instantly turned red. The other women sensed something was up and looked ready to torture a confession out of her.
Outside the window, the rain fell in a dense, slanted sheet.
Night slowly descended.
...
「Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.」
To Jiangg Ning's surprise and delight, her sister had somehow bounced back from her heartbreak, completely returning to her former lively, adorable self.
It happened one afternoon when she returned home from work as usual.
Jiangg Yao was suddenly standing at the door to welcome her home. The moment she stepped inside, her sister started clamoring for her braised pork ribs.
Jiangg Ning, of course, readily agreed. She took the ingredients from the refrigerator, hurried into the kitchen, tied on an apron, and began to cook.
The two of them chattered and laughed. Even as Jiangg Ning was busy scoring decorative patterns into shiitake mushrooms, her hands never stopping, Jiangg Yao insisted on clinging to her, wrapping her arms around her waist and refusing to let go.
"Alright, alright, go sit on the sofa and wait for me to finish."
"Sis, wait a second! Come look in the mirror with me."
"What for? I'm not done with the mushrooms, hey—"
With that, Jiangg Yao dragged her to the full-length mirror in the living room.
The two women stared at their identical faces in the mirror—their features exquisite and alluring, their figures excellent. Anyone would marvel at twins who were such perfect copies of each other. It was simply a work of art!
Unless they said something, almost no one could tell who was the older sister and who was the younger.
"Let's compare. I think my legs are a little thicker, and my waist isn't as slim as yours," Jiangg Yao suddenly commented.
"I work to maintain my figure, and you don't. You just stay home all day eating, drinking, and sleeping. It would defy all logic if you were in better shape than me."
Jiangg Yao didn't argue. Instead, she gave Jiangg Ning's butt a cheeky grope.
"You pervert!?"
"What's wrong with a little grope? You can grope mine, too."
"You're nuts! I'm going back to cooking!" Jiangg Ning scoffed, but inwardly she was delighted.
Her sister had always been this mischievous, full of weird ideas. It was just more proof that she had finally emerged from her depressive slump.
She returned to the kitchen.
From the living room, Jiangg Yao suddenly called out, "Sis, will you go for a walk with me downstairs later?"
"Huh?"
The knife in Jiangg Ning's hand froze in mid-air. She looked up in disbelief.
"I can't stay cooped up forever. I have to learn to get in touch with the outside world... You can't take care of me forever, right?" her sister said earnestly.
"Yaoyao, you've made me so happy today! Yes! We'll go for a walk right after dinner."
...
As winter gradually set in, people on the streets bundled up in thick coats. The roadsides were no longer blanketed by thick layers of fallen plane tree leaves, and the trees were mostly just lonely, withered branches.
Jiangg Yao's contact with the outside world grew. At first, Jiangg Ning would take her to various places.
Then one day, she even went downstairs by herself.
Though all she did was buy a bottle of a yogurt drink before scurrying back home.
But for someone who hadn't gone out alone in a very, very long time, it was a monumental victory.
'Still, that little brat of a sister gave her no shortage of headaches!'
One day, Jiangg Ning was in a meeting at the university, listening with a serious expression as a superior spoke. Her colleagues around her were all sitting primly and properly.
Suddenly, the phone in her pocket buzzed twice.
During a lull in her superior's speech, Jiangg Ning took a look. It was a text message from Jiangg Yao.
"Sister, I found an amazing story recently, I'm sharing it with you! It's totally my type of thing, hehe."
Jiangg Yao loved reading novels, but her taste was... peculiar. She was obsessed with YA romance, stuff like *The Domineering CEO Fell in Love With Me* or *The Queen and Her Kept Man*. She'd often lie in bed reading, a doting, vicarious grin on her face as she slapped her pale thighs in excitement.
She actually believed the plots in those stories were real, which wasn't all that surprising, considering Jiangg Ning's and Jiangg Yao's family background was straight out of a novel itself.
'In the end, her sister was just hopelessly naive.'
'That's what playing Genshin Impact does to you.'
Jiangg Ning didn't have high hopes for the story her sister had shared, but when she clicked the link, she was surprised to find the writing was actually quite good.
'It's just that the plot development... was a little weird?'
After reading for a few minutes, Jiangg Ning's eyes widened. She stared blankly for two seconds before hastily shutting off her phone screen.
She realized what kind of story it was, and a startling heat instantly rushed up from her neck, setting her cheeks ablaze.
"Jiangg Yao, I'm at work!!! Do you have a death wish? (little green crocodile banging on a table)"
After work, Jiangg Ning sped all the way home. She stormed into the living room, ready to throw open her sister's door.
Only to find the door was locked from the inside.
"Hey, open up! Jiangg Yao!"
But there was no response from the bedroom. Instead, she heard a strange noise.
Puzzled, Jiangg Ning's slender brows furrowed. She lowered her head and pressed her ear to the door, from which a muffled sound was emanating.
After listening for a moment, she bit down hard on her lip.
Her cheeks were already so red it looked as if blood might drip from them.
Although Jiangg Ning had a key, she would never open the door and go in. They had the same face, after all, so seeing her sister playing with her 'toys' shouldn't be a big deal.
'But the feeling... it was just too weird.'