“You… have something to tell me?”
Chu Xin paused slightly, then looked at Su Jin, whose expression remained as cold as ever. He noticed a faint blush on her face, her breathing uneven and slightly ragged, her chest rising and falling with suppressed breaths.
She didn’t look like someone who had just woken up; rather, she seemed to have just returned from outside.
Combined with her shorts and the single black over-the-knee sock she wore, the visual impact was quite striking.
Chu Xin didn’t stare at his foster sister. It was merely a casual glance. Though he felt a moment of awkwardness upon waking, and his ‘little brother’ couldn’t help but stir, Chu Xin managed to suppress the reaction admirably.
To wake up and find his high-achieving, yet aloof, and quite well-endowed younger sister standing by his bed in such attire felt somewhat like a scene from certain adult comics or doujinshi.
However, Chu Xin still viewed her with the eyes of an older brother.
When he had first transmigrated, he endured about a week of impoverished living before the storyline was triggered, and he was fostered into this family.
Thus, he was quite caring towards this younger sister. Especially after Su Jin’s mother took his foster sister on a trip a few days prior, he had been responsible for their three meals and some household chores, such as drawing baths.
Su Jin was in her third year of junior high, nearing the entrance exams for senior high. He estimated that Su Jin would likely choose Maria Academy, which wasn’t far from home—a mere ten-minute subway ride away. Although the entrance exams were quite rigorous, Su Jin’s grades posed no problem.
Chu Xin, for his part, had been able to transfer in not only due to Su Jin’s mother’s financial influence and connections but also thanks to his own excellent academic abilities, coupled with his status as a so-called “experimental student” at Maria Academy.
Returning from his thoughts, Chu Xin found Su Jin still staring at him expressionlessly.
He recalled the “hypnosis APP” incident from that morning and felt a pang of embarrassment. He surmised that whatever she had to say was likely about that, as Su Jin usually didn’t call him ‘brother’ or address him by name, opting instead to state her requests directly.
Chu Xin tentatively began, “Su… Su Jin, when did you come in?”
She remained seated on the chair, staring at him blankly. Chu Xin scratched his head, then sat on the edge of the bed. After a moment of thought, he suddenly realized, “Su Jin, just say what you need to say.”
“This morning…” Su Jin finally spoke, her voice trailing off to a whisper.
“What about this morning?” Chu Xin asked, puzzled.
Su Jin’s expression remained neutral, yet her hands clasped nervously behind her back. “This morning at ten…”
“Oh? What happened at ten this morning?”
After taking a deep breath, Su Jin spoke clearly and distinctly, “What happened at ten this morning was just a prank of mine. I just saw a hypnosis APP online and thought I’d use you as a test subject. I’m sorry, I lied to you.”
Chu Xin was somewhat stunned to hear Su Jin speak so many words for the first time, let alone apologize to him. However, he quickly processed it: she had actually confessed?
‘That was definitely not some prank APP downloaded from the internet,’ he thought. ‘And I still don’t know what her true intentions were. But since she put it that way, perhaps it means there’s no malice involved.’
‘Still, I should remain vigilant,’ he mused. ‘After all, that incident happened right after that guy warned me to be careful.’
‘However, Su Jin seems a bit too formal,’ he observed. ‘Speaking so clearly and distinctly makes it sound like she’s reciting lines, and her apologetic expression is still so utterly cold.’
Chu Xin sighed, and Su Jin immediately tensed. But the next second, Chu Xin said, “I thought it was something serious. It’s fine, Su Jin. After all, you can only prank me at home, but you must be careful not to prank others.”
Su Jin simply hummed in acknowledgment. The subtle rise and fall of her chest, due to her earlier shallow breaths, had now slowly subsided. She rose and walked out without another word.
Upon returning to her own room, she lay on her bed and instinctively inhaled the scent within the space. Sensing Chu Xin’s presence, a satisfied smile immediately graced her lips, a look of deep contentment.
‘It’s a good thing I deliberately opened all the doors and windows after my brother left,’ she thought.
She then noticed a corner of a photo peeking out from her wardrobe, untouched. This brought her a mix of relief and disappointment.
Her relief stemmed from the fact that Chu Xin hadn’t discovered the wardrobe was filled with photos she had secretly taken of him.
Her disappointment was that Chu Xin hadn’t discovered them. After all, if he had, she would have immediately confessed.
But the current feeling was somewhat strange.
‘Well, I won’t think about it too much,’ she decided.
She opened the “hypnosis APP” on her phone and found that “Task 2” was already complete.
[Task 2: Explain everything clearly to Chu Xin (Su Jin’s brother) in private.]
[Task Status: Completed.]
[Reward has been issued.]
[Note: Task 3 will be issued after Task 1 is completed.]
She ignored the note; there was no time limit, so there was no rush. Besides, she hadn’t yet figured out how to identify other ability users with similar powers.
Following the prompts, she discovered a bottle containing a blue-pink potion, with no label, resting quietly in a [Task Reward Storage] area.
She extracted it. The potion materialized on her computer desk. She walked over, picked it up, and sniffed it, feeling her mind grow somewhat erratic, struggling to suppress the urge to drink it.
She held it up to the light, a sickly, satisfied smile gracing her face.
‘Just wait, Brother,’ she thought. ‘Sooner or later, you will be mine, and mine alone. Your back will only ever be watched by me.’
‘After all, in my heart, you have long become a part of me. If… if you were to be taken by someone else, I wouldn’t be able to live.’
‘Then I would have no choice but to protect you in my own way.’
‘It’s a good thing I wasn’t discovered tracking you. At the mall, Brother inexplicably looked my way.’
‘And because I wasn’t discovered, I was able to find even more rivals.’
‘But, I don’t need this item yet. The time isn’t right.’
She put it away, then took out a photo of Chu Xin, hugged it to her chest, and fell into a deep sleep on the bed.
****
After Su Jin left, Chu Xin rubbed his hair and glanced at his phone. He noticed the time was roughly as Su Jin had said—it was past four o’clock, meaning he had slept for about an hour and a half.
That person hadn’t sent any more messages.
The restaurant reservation was for half past six.
The movie was after eight, and they could still explore the area afterward.
Chu Xin was very satisfied with his schedule. He then began to get ready, picking out a few good-looking, yet not overly formal, clothes that Su Jin’s mother had insisted he buy. Afterward, he took a shower, meticulously styling his hair for the first time.
Once dressed, he even ostentatiously sprayed on some perfume that his foster sister had inexplicably shoved at him previously, remarking, “You fodder, you should use this!”
By the time he finished all this, it was nearly five o’clock. Chu Xin prepared to set off. Although Ji Yue Xuan’s house wasn’t very far, he at least wanted to wait for her, then mercilessly tease her.
A wicked, charming smile touched his lips. He sent Ji Yue Xuan a message and then departed.
He didn’t forget to send Su Jin money for her dinner.