Chapter 74: 73 Burned

73 Burned

“Everything’s already packed and stacked in your room—you can move it over tomorrow.”

Though she noticed Li Ang was changing the subject, Anna did not expose him; she smiled faintly and nodded, then helped him into the house.

Strangely, she did not lead the injured Li Ang—his thigh hurt—to a chair, but instead brought him to the small bed in the spare room, piling up pillows and bedding into a perfect pad for lying face-down.

“...”

I knew I couldn’t fool you...

He had wanted to maintain the dignity of an elder brother, hoping his sister wouldn’t learn his ass had been beaten—but now that Anna had already acted out the answer, Li Ang could no longer pretend; he stiffly lay face-down on the bedding.

Yet as he moved, the skin on his buttocks rubbed against the rough fabric, sending a searing pain through him that made him jerk violently.

“Ouch...”

That lunatic might be mentally unstable, but his grip was real—especially that slap. Even though it landed on the thickest part of my flesh, still... damn it?!

Lying on the bed, Li Ang felt a chill on his rear—his pants were yanked down a few inches, exposing half his buttocks to the cold air.

“Oh my! It’s all swollen!”

After seeing Li Ang’s swollen buttocks, Anna’s initially amused expression froze, instantly shifting into a trace of concern.

“Lie still—I’ll go get the ointment...”

“Wait!”

Hastily pulling up his pants, Li Ang sat up despite the pain and said awkwardly, “I can actually do it myself...”

“Just lie back down!”

Anna shot him a disapproving glance, then rummaged through the packed luggage while grumbling,

“I’m your sister—what’s so embarrassing about applying ointment to you? When you had that high fever and couldn’t move, lying in bed for months, wasn’t it me taking care of you?

It’s not just applying ointment—I changed your clothes, trimmed your nails, fed you water and meals, combed your hair, turned you over and washed you, even when you needed to use the toilet in the middle of the night—it was all me...”

“Stop! Stop! Enough!”

Seeing his sister unexpectedly enter her chatterbox mode, dredging up that warm yet deeply embarrassing past, Li Ang felt intensely awkward and immediately lay back down, even loosening his belt slightly himself.

Seeing he had surrendered, Anna smiled and said nothing more. She found the ointment, sat sideways on the bed, pulled his pants down another inch, and fully exposed the “wound.”

Huh?!

Seeing the palm print on Li Ang’s buttocks, the frail girl blinked in surprise, then extended her right hand and measured the mark from a slight distance.

This size... if you don’t count the swelling... it looks like a woman’s hand?

Liar! You told me it was from combat training?

Glaring at the oblivious Li Ang on the bed, Anna bit her lip in annoyance, then squeezed ointment into her palm, rubbed it in, and pressed hard right onto the center of the mark!

What kind of combat training leaves a woman’s palm print on someone’s ass?

“Ow!”

The gentle, soothing application he imagined suddenly turned into a forceful, tiger-like grip—Li Ang yelped in pain. Just as he was about to complain that his sister was too rough, Anna said anxiously:

“Oh no! I think I used too much force, Brother~ Does it hurt a lot?”

“It’s... fine...”

“If it’s fine...”

Looking at the palm print on Li Ang’s buttocks, the frail girl wrinkled her tiny nose, let out a silent huff, then raised her pale, slender hand and slammed it down again.

“Then bear with it a little longer! Rubbing it in will reduce the swelling faster!”

After enduring a gentle yet torturous “treatment,” the frail girl lifted her sleeve and gently wiped the cold sweat from Li Ang’s forehead, her face filled with concern:

“Brother, you said it didn’t hurt—why are you sweating so much?”

“Maybe it’s just hot...”

After uttering a lie he didn’t believe himself, Li Ang looked at his sister’s still gentle, tender expression. His buttocks felt better now, but he’d suffered terribly; he grimaced, his face slick with sweat, full of unspoken words.

Did I make her angry?

Was it because I said I’d help her pack? Because I came home late? Because I got injured again so soon after being discharged? Or...

“Oh, so it’s just heat? Good~”

Watching Li Ang’s suspicious, uneasy face, Anna snorted inwardly, sealed the ointment jar, and turned to tidy the disheveled luggage.

But as she wrapped the jar in a towel and placed it among a stack of folded old clothes, something else wrapped in fabric trembled slightly—then suddenly jumped out of the luggage, bounced once on the floor, and landed with a soft thud beside Li Ang’s hand.

“Huh?”

Feeling something brush his hand, Li Ang, still lying on the bed, turned curiously to look—it was his parents’ old photo album, the same one he and Anna had flipped through before.

Though he wanted to finish viewing the photos he hadn’t seen last time, he feared his sister might be reminded of painful memories; he shook his head, suppressed his curiosity, picked up the album, and handed it back without looking up.

“Anna, something fell.”

“Oh? Okay!”

Seeing Li Ang hadn’t opened the album, the pale-faced girl exhaled sharply, steadied her trembling hands with effort, took the album, and clutched its edges so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Yet despite her full strength, an old photograph still squeezed itself out from the back cover of the yellowed album, stubbornly sliding into Li Ang’s line of sight.

This... is Anna with their parents?

Looking at the couple embracing in the photo, and Anna, holding each parent’s hand, smiling happily at the camera, Li Ang, lying beside the bed, couldn’t help but smile slightly. He reached to pick up the photo and return it—but then noticed something strange, and unconsciously murmured, “Huh?”

Above the parents’ heads hung a sign reading “Family Portrait”—clearly taken at a studio—but the photo contained only the parents and Anna. There was no trace of him or his two younger siblings.

Burned! I clearly burned it!

Watching Li Ang, who was staring intently at the photo, Anna’s face turned deathly pale; she bit her lip hard and twisted her inner thigh with all her strength.

Using the pain to force herself calm, a faint blush returned to her cheeks. She sat beside the prone Li Ang, blocking her expression from his view, then bent down to pick up the photo, her voice tinged with regret:

“Oh dear, looks like the adhesive on the back dried out over time. After we move tomorrow, I’ll buy some glue and see if I can stick it back on.”