An Adoptive Older Sister Cannot Become a Wife - Chapter 12

By the time school started that afternoon, Qi Nianshu had reverted to her usual smiling self, looking like a completely different person from the girl at lunch.

Qi Yan drove the two of them to school. Catching a glimpse of Nianshu clinging to Qi Shu’s arm again in the rearview mirror, he teased, “Looks like the coaxing worked.”

Nianshu playfully stuck her tongue out, then lowered her head and began to fidget with Qi Shu’s hand.

Qi Shu’s hands were the lean, elegant kind, the fingers long and straight, the joints well-defined but not blunt, conveying a sense of clean efficiency. When she straightened her fingers, the veins on the back of her hand would subtly surface. As her sleeve slid down, the watch on her left wrist was revealed.

Nianshu’s fingertips traced the protruding knuckles on the back of Qi Shu’s hand, pressing them down and letting them pop back up. Qi Shu didn’t seem to mind; she simply let Nianshu treat her hand like a toy.

Nianshu straightened her own hand and pressed her palm against Qi Shu’s. She huffed in annoyance, “Your hand is longer than mine.”

Qi Shu, leaning her elbow against the door armrest, let out a soft laugh but said nothing.

The laugh made Nianshu feel a bit childish, and the tips of her ears began to burn. But she couldn’t bring herself to let go. After a moment of thought, she slid her fingers into the gaps between Qi Shu’s, interlocking their hands.

Sensing the movement, Qi Shu’s fingertips curled inward ever so slightly.

Noticing this, Nianshu stole a glance at her. Qi Shu was looking out the window, her head turned away. The sunlight filtered through the glass and fell across her profile, highlighting the soft line of her jaw.

Nianshu’s ears burned even hotter, but she couldn’t resist pushing her fingers deeper into the spaces between Qi Shu’s before tightening her grip.

A Cantonese song was playing on the car radio:

“Forgive your cold logic for keeping secrets while being with me, Forgive my wild nature for wanting this love to run deeper.”

It was the transition between late summer and early autumn. The air conditioning was on, making the car a bit chilly, yet Nianshu felt her palms starting to sweat—especially once she felt Qi Shu squeeze her hand back.

Qi Shu’s movement was gentle. With a slight pressure of her fingertips, she wrapped Nianshu’s hand more firmly in her palm. Her thumb brushed accidentally against the back of Nianshu’s hand, sending a faint, tingling itch through her.

Nianshu’s heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively shrank closer to Qi Shu’s side.

She stole another look at Qi Shu’s profile. Her sister was still watching the plane trees blur past the window, her long lashes casting a small shadow over her lower eyelids.

The melody of the Cantonese song was tender and lingering, the singer’s voice carrying a trace of soulful hoarseness.

Nianshu’s palms were definitely sweating now—it felt sticky, but she didn’t want to pull away.

How strange.

She held hands with Qi Shu all the time. So why was her heart racing so fast right now?

In the front seat, Qi Yan seemed oblivious to the quiet drama in the back, focused entirely on his driving.

Nianshu suddenly felt as though a small, indescribable secret had taken root in her heart.

The drive from home to school wasn’t long, and they arrived within minutes. Qi Yan pulled up at the school gates and said with a smile, “Listen well in class.”

Qi Shu quietly released Nianshu’s hand. “Understood,” she said softly.

The release was so subtle that Nianshu couldn’t tell if it was intentional or not, but she felt Qi Shu’s fingertips graze her palm like a feather a sensation so fleeting it felt like an illusion.

An illusion?

Nianshu looked down at her now-empty palm. There was only the slight discomfort of the warm skin suddenly being hit by the cool breeze.

Qi Shu had already pushed the car door open. She stood outside, the brilliant midday sun drenching half of her body. She looked back and reached out a hand. “Come on.”

The hand that had just let her go was suspended right in front of her, fingers relaxed. Nianshu instinctively reached out, and the moment her fingertips touched Qi Shu’s palm, they were gently grasped.

This time, the grip was steadier than it had been in the car as Qi Shu helped her out of the seat.

The moment her feet hit the ground, the sounds of the school gate—chattering voices, bicycle bells, rushed in. Nianshu suddenly snapped back to reality and yanked her hand back as if she’d been burned.

There were too many people here. Everything that had happened in the car felt like it belonged in a place where no one was looking.

It was just holding hands. It was the most normal interaction in the world for them. Why did it feel so awkward now?

Qi Shu didn’t seem bothered by the sudden release. She simply closed the car door, waved goodbye to Qi Yan, and said to Nianshu, “Let’s go.”

Nianshu nodded blankly and followed Qi Shu into the school.

The first period of the afternoon was Lao Chen’s class again. After lecturing for a while, she felt something was off. It wasn’t until the bell rang that she realized what it was.

Qi Nianshu, who usually spent class in a daze, hadn’t drifted off once. She had sat up straight, listening with rapt attention the entire time.

Lao Chen’s skeptical gaze landed on Nianshu several times. Even Zhang Ruomeng, sitting in the row in front, couldn’t help but turn around to stare only to be rewarded with a precise, non-concussive chalk-flick to the head.

Nianshu was simply thinking: Qi Shu agreed to such an unreasonable request; I have to do something too.

She couldn’t always make Qi Shu stop and wait for her. It wasn’t fair.

As soon as class ended, just as Zhang Ruomeng was about to turn around to chat, Lao Chen summoned Nianshu to the office.

“What happened over lunch to give you such a shock?” Lao Chen sat at her desk, eyeing Nianshu.

Nianshu blinked and asked, “Lao… Teacher Chen, what kind of career do you think I’d be suited for in the future?”

Lao Chen was taken aback, then smiled with a touch of pride. “Well now, you’ve suddenly grown up and started thinking about the future? Anything you like?”

“The future” was such a distant word. People lived every day seemingly planning for it, yet no one could say exactly when it would arrive.

And “like”… that word was too broad. She liked Qi Shu, she liked her parents, she liked Lin Xiao and Zhang Ruomeng… She liked too many things for it to be useful as a career guide.

Nianshu shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Lao Chen saw her confusion and laughed. “It’s okay if you don’t know yet. You’ve just started your second year of high school; you have plenty of time to figure it out. As long as you want to move forward, it doesn’t matter if you go slow or even step back to start over. You’ll find your way eventually.”

Nianshu nodded, partially understanding. “Thank you, Teacher Chen.”

She turned to leave, but Lao Chen remembered something. “I saw you signed up for the 400-meter dash for the sports meet. Can you handle it?”

Thinking of what Qi Shu had promised her, Nianshu’s low mood vanished instantly. Her eyes crinkled with a smile. “I can. But you can’t blame me if I run too slowly and embarrass you, Teacher Chen.”

Seeing her cheeky grin, Chen Shuyue waved her off with feigned annoyance. “Fine, fine. As long as you aren’t dead last, I’ll be thanking the heavens.”

Nianshu felt a bit guilty. “I can’t guarantee that!”

Seeing Chen Shuyue’s expression shift again, Nianshu quickly waved goodbye and bolted from the office. Chen Shuyue laughed in spite of herself before returning to her grading.

By the time Nianshu got back to the classroom, the teacher for the next period was already there. She hurried to her seat.

As soon as she sat down, Zhang Ruomeng passed her a note with a crudely drawn stick figure on it. Next to it was written: Did Lao Chen scold you?

Nianshu turned the paper over and wrote: No.

After sliding the note back, she glanced out the window. The Grade 12 building wasn’t far away. The sun was bright, and while she couldn’t see anything clearly from this distance, she felt she could almost sense Qi Shu, listening intently and taking meticulous notes.

Nianshu took a deep breath, cleared her mind, and began to listen to the teacher. She noted down everything she didn’t understand, planning to ask Qi Shu when they got home.

Zhang Ruomeng leaned over to Lin Xiao, making faces. “What’s up with her?”

Lin Xiao shrugged, equally clueless.

The day passed quickly. After focusing intently for several classes, Nianshu felt her brain cells were completely spent. She slumped back against the desk behind her, looking like she’d lost her will to live.

Zhang Ruomeng finally found an opening to ask, “What is up with you? You’ve been a different person all afternoon.”

Nianshu didn’t answer right away. She thought back to the Confession Wall posts from noon and asked, “Do a lot of people in school ‘ship’ me and my sister as a CP?”

At the mention of gossip, Zhang Ruomeng immediately perked up. “Of course! Don’t you know? The popularity of you and Sister Qi Shu’s CP is ranked number one in our school!”

Nianshu thought about their silent hand-holding in the car that afternoon and felt confused. “Why?”

Zhang Ruomeng paused for a moment, gesturing wildly. “Well… for starters, it’s about the faces. I don’t need to emphasize how high your and Sister Qi Shu’s ‘visual value’ is, right?”

Nianshu, possessing a high degree of self-awareness, nodded. “Yeah, we’re both very good-looking.”

Zhang Ruomeng was momentarily choked by her bluntness. She rolled her eyes. “Can you be a bit more humble? It’s obviously not just the faces. Do you really not realize how clingy you are with your sister?”

Zhang Ruomeng lowered her voice, her tone full of gossipy intensity. “When you two are in the same frame, it’s like there’s an automatic lock. The atmosphere between you… no one else can even squeeze in. And I don’t need to tell you how well Sister Qi Shu treats you, right?”

Nianshu nodded in agreement. She had always known that.

“That’s only in front of you! If anyone else even looks at her, they practically turn into a block of ice.”

Nianshu looked skeptical. “Is it really that exaggerated?”

Zhang Ruomeng nodded vigorously. “Absolutely that exaggerated. Remember that time a punk from the vocational school confessed to you and you turned him down? He wanted to corner you after school. Do you know what happened after your sister found out?”

Nianshu froze. Of course she remembered.

It was shortly after the start of her first year. A delinquent from a nearby school had heard of her somehow and cornered her at the back gate to hand her a love letter. After she coldly rejected him, he had threatened her, saying he’d “show her what’s what.”

She hadn’t taken it seriously, but somehow Qi Shu had gotten wind of it. That day, Qi Shu didn’t wait for her as usual but went straight to the back gate. By the time Nianshu arrived, she saw Qi Shu standing in front of the punk. Her frame was lean, but her aura was terrifyingly cold.

Nianshu hadn’t heard what was said; she only saw the normally arrogant delinquent scramble away under Qi Shu’s gaze, never to be seen near the school again. Later, when she asked, Qi Shu had simply said, “Nothing, I just talked some sense into him.”

Now that Zhang Ruomeng brought it up, Nianshu’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively argued, “That was because he knew he was in the wrong. It had nothing to do with my sister.”

“Nothing to do with her?” Zhang Ruomeng looked at her as if she’d heard the funniest joke in the world. She raised her voice, then quickly lowered it again. “Qi Nianshu, are you stupid? That guy’s been a thug for years, do you think he’d be talked out of it by a few ‘sensible’ words? You really had no idea?”

Nianshu blinked and slowly shook her head.

Zhang Ruomeng slapped her own thigh in frustration. “A friend of mine was buying water at the end of the alley and saw the whole thing! That guy brought three others to corner you. Qi Shu just set her backpack down, didn’t say a single word, and kicked the leader right in the stomach, sent him flying.”

“Her eyes were terrifyingly cold. She stared him down and said…Zhang Ruomeng did a vivid impression, lowering her voice and looking fierce: ‘Try touching her again and see what happens.'”

Zhang Ruomeng ended with a sigh of admiration. “Seriously, she’s a woman of few words but a lot of punch.”

Nianshu stared at Zhang Ruomeng in disbelief. She wanted to argue, but then she remembered the details she had overlooked that day: the bruises on the punk’s face when she arrived, and the dust on Qi Shu’s clothes.

Zhang Ruomeng had no reason to lie to her about this. She had always known Qi Shu was good to her, but she hadn’t realized how much Qi Shu did for her in the shadows.

“The real couples in our school aren’t half as ‘ship-worthy’ as you two,” Zhang Ruomeng concluded with a long sigh as she watched Nianshu’s expression. “The way you two are inseparable… if I didn’t know you were sisters, and that you’re both girls, it would really look like you’re in a relationship.”

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