Chapter 61: I also want to favor her

From the time Shu Lingchen could remember, Shu Shu told him that he actually had another sister.

A sister who was his fraternal twin but unfortunately died young.

At that time, Shu Lingchen was still young and did not understand the pain of regret from yin-yang separation.

He only knew that whenever his sister was mentioned, his mother would fall silent for a long time, and that silence affected him, making him unable to help but pout and want to cry out of injustice.

After kindergarten, when his mother came to pick him up, she often stared blankly at little girls of the same age.

He inexplicably knew that his mother was thinking of his sister.

Whenever this happened, he would put his arms around his mother's neck, kiss her face, and his mother would turn her head, curl the corner of her mouth, then touch his little forehead, as if the earlier melancholy on her face had merely been an illusion.

From childhood, Shu Lingchen had a subconscious sense that his sister was extremely important to his mother.

So important that his mother could never possibly speak nonsense about his sister.

…

A wind from afar blew toward the balcony, sweeping Shu Lingchen's thoughts back to reality, and his mother's words lingered in his ears with their aftersound.

— Pei Muyin, is his sister.

He was so shocked he almost blurted out: "But you said before that the sister——"

"So I said the thing I'm about to tell you will seem unbelievable; I originally wanted to ease into telling you." Shu Shu said: "I only recognized her as Muyin a couple of days ago, but… the confirmation came through one of my dreams, in which my sister was still alive, in Jing Shi, called Pei Muyin."

"Wasn't I just in Jing Shi last weekend? I went to look for my sister, but couldn't find her."

"I never expected my sister to be right beside us."

Shu Shu paused, then spoke as simply as possible: "Xiao Chen, I know this sounds utterly ridiculous—"

Before she could finish, he cut her off.

"What does it matter if it's ridiculous? As long as the result is that Muyin is my sister, that's fine."

Shu Lingchen, excited and hardly believing, asked Shu Shu: "Mom, does that mean Muyin is my sister, and I have a sister now?"

Just moments ago, his eyes were red-rimmed, muttering "Pei Muyin" in resentment, but now a sense of joy sprang up in his brows.

"Young man, your ability to accept things is really strong."

"… Uh, yes, you have a sister now." Shu Shu was surprised for half a second, then leisurely asked Shu Lingchen: "Now, aren't you angry and accusing me of favoritism?"

"Mom, to be honest, I didn't sleep well all last night and had many nightmares." Shu Lingchen pointed to the dark circles under his eyes from the day and said: "I dreamed you threw me into the trash, then picked up Muyin and took her in as your new child, you led her by the hand and said I would no longer be your son from now on."

"Then, when I grew up, I went to your new house to work as a maid; you completely didn't recognize me, ordered me to fetch tea and water for Muyin, I wore ragged clothes, you didn't give me food, and even made me sleep by the front gate."

"???" Shu Shu was stunned: "You little brat! In your heart, you think I'm just like that, don't you?!"

"And you even threw him in the trash and made him wear rags? She really put up with that."

Shu Shu, angry, made a motion to hit him.

Shu Lingchen instinctively raised his hand to dodge and explained: "I, I was just dreaming; back then I didn't know Muyin was my sister."

"Oh?" Shu Shu sat back down, narrowed her eyes at him: "Now that you know, what do you think? Aren't you worried I'll keep favoring your sister?"

"Not worried at all, not worried at all." Shu Lingchen fell silent for a moment, his voice becoming much more serious, and said: "My sister hasn't been by our side since childhood; hearing her recount her experiences, one can tell she must have suffered a lot."

"Don't even talk about favoritism; it's only right that you devote your whole heart to your sister, because if we're really talking about favoritism, haven't I also enjoyed all your love when she wasn't around? At the end of the day, I'm the one who's been getting the advantage."

The youth lifted his gaze, his words full of sincerity, he declared solemnly: "She now has you, and also has me; not only do you favor her, I also want to favor her!"

Upon hearing this, Shu Shu was overjoyed, suppressing a faint sourness in her chest from emotion, she reached out and ruffled Shu Lingchen's hair, muttering under her breath, "You little brat."

A moment of silence.

"Right, first don't tell the sister." Shu Shu hesitated, then said: "My current state… rebirth plus transmigration—this kind of thing is hard for ordinary people to accept; I'm afraid it would frighten her."

Moreover, the most crucial point is that Shu Shu still hasn't figured out how her daughter was swapped into the Pei Family, or whether, after she left Jing Shi, a pair of eyes had been watching her from behind all the way until she gave birth…

Thinking of this, Shu Shu's eyes dimmed.

"Remember that?"

"I remember." Shu Lingchen nodded solemnly, then suddenly recalled something, his expression instantly turning guilty.

Shu Shu noticed, looked over: "What's wrong?"

Shu Lingchen said guiltily: "Because yesterday you gave me a note about me and my sister, I was in a bad mood; during the day my sister gave me cola, I refused, and then it seemed I upset her."

He looked anxious: "Mom, will my sister be angry with me and then ignore me altogether?"

No.

Shu Shu thought.

Pei Muyin is a soft‑hearted and kind child; how could she get angry over such a small thing?

But Shu Shu didn't remind Shu Lingchen of that; instead she curled her lips and said: "I can't say for sure, it might happen, and she might even move back upstairs to live on her own out of sadness."

"Ah…" This won't do, Shu Lingchen panicked completely, pleading with Shu Shu: "Mom, can't you help me say a few good words in front of my sister?"

"No." Shu Shu turned her face toward the window, hiding the amusement in her eyes, and said: "This is something you caused; you have to settle it yourself."

…

At the study door.

Shu Lingchen's hand rose for the nth time, but he still couldn't bring himself to knock.

Shu Shu watched from the kitchen as this little brat paced back and forth at the door, almost making sparks fly from the wooden floor.

He glanced at the time; it wasn't yet the moment when Pei Muyin finished her homework and review/preview.

So, Shu Shu opened WeChat—

"Pei Muyin, come out first to have some fruit."

The other side instantly replied: "Okay~"

Getting this brat to muster the courage to knock on the door might take until the ends of the earth.

On this side, Shu Lingchen was still nervously weighing his words in his mind, wondering how to apologize later, when the door clicked open with no warning.

Shu Lingchen and Pei Muyin happened to lock eyes exactly.

""

""

Pei Muyin froze, instinctively wanting to open her mouth to speak to Shu Lingchen, but not knowing what to say, the girl's eyelashes drooped slightly, and she pinched her fingers, about to mumble as she walked past Shu Lingchen to the side.

Seeing this, Shu Lingchen's chest tightened; all the various phrasings he had just been thinking about instantly went blank.

In his panic, he closed his eyes and threw his body onto the ground—