The Unveiling of Ye Qi’s Secret

My brother approached me, adopting the air of a stern elder brother.

He bowed at a perfect ninety degrees!

“Uh… little sis, I’m going to make dinner! See ya!”

Then, as if fleeing a disaster, he vanished from my sight.

****

His culinary skills were on par with my own.

Please, never expect Ye Sakaki to actually cook.

This was crucial, so I would emphasize it again.

And please, for the love of all that is good, never let me stay in the kitchen.

For my brother, ‘cooking’ was merely a euphemism for using the microwave.

At this very moment, in Ye Sakaki’s mind, anything he personally ‘laid hands on’ became ‘his own cooking,’ regardless of how simple the process. This bizarre logic, however, was something I, his little sister, had taught him.

****

I watched my brother’s ‘diligent’ figure as he ‘busied’ himself in the kitchen.

He had taken out two bowls of instant noodles, filled them with water, shoved them into the microwave, and then leaned idly against the counter. This was the true extent of his ‘toiling.’

I couldn’t help but fall into a reverie.

In truth, as a gentleman of intellect, I naturally had no desire to live with ‘myself’ – that awkward sensation was worse than residing in a girls’ dormitory.

Well, despite never having lived in a girls’ dorm, I still believed I could endure (or rather, suppress) my loneliness (or rather, my desires)… right?

However, there was only one reason I lived here.

My body was simply too abnormal.

Compared to ordinary people, my body was several times more unusual, making me terrified to reveal my true appearance to others.

My skin was as fair as milk, my long hair shimmered like moonlight, and my pupils resembled brilliant rubies.

It sounded beautiful, yet in reality, could anyone truly accept such ‘beauty’?

For most, this wasn’t ‘beauty’ at all, but rather ‘bizarre,’ ‘eerie,’ or even ‘terrifying.’

The reason my brother and I went to Beijing to study music in third grade wasn’t as simple as our parents naturally coaxing us into it, as it had been in my previous life. No, it was because I had been ‘exposed.’

During that year, some of the young girls and even boys pompously believed that I, Ye Qi, was too ‘haughty,’ as if I looked down on them completely.

How could I possibly admit that they were actually right?

Indeed, I had very few friends in elementary school to begin with. Even my past friends naturally belonged to that scoundrel, my brother, which only made me appear even more taciturn.

After all, what common ground could an adult possibly share with a bunch of little brats? Discussing wolves that never catch sheep? Justice-seeking aliens in rubber restraint suits? Or the tale of seven calabash brothers summoning a divine dragon?

Consequently, because I always spoke to them as an adult humoring children, they constantly concocted superfluous schemes, finding every way imaginable to make me look foolish.

Thus, one day, two little girls and a little boy began to conspire their ‘revenge plan.’

According to what ‘my former self’ later recounted, the little boy’s suggestion was: “When Ye Qi is asleep, douse her until she’s a drowned rat!”

The second little girl, however, proposed: “Let’s use orange juice instead?! Water won’t be satisfying enough!”

Then the third, the only truly kind little girl, said: “Won’t cold water make Ye Qi really uncomfortable? She might get sick! Let’s just use warm water instead~”

…And then.

Warm water + orange juice.

It was dumped directly onto me when I was completely unprepared.

Suppressing the urge to murder these little brats, I resolved to let the matter rest.

****

…But the outcome was something I had never anticipated.

Who knew there was such a thing as ‘warm water + orange juice = makeup remover’…?

Then, under the gaze of the entire class, my hair, already too smooth to hold color, and my tender, delicate skin, completely reverted to their original appearance under this unexpected calamity.

A face that should never have been revealed.