I Am Not a Vicious Stepsister! - Chapter 11

Before the weather officially turned cold, rain fell once again over Nanzhou.

Worried about Modesty’s health, Ni Songan stayed at Quxi Orange County for several days straight, only returning to school once to grab her textbooks and laptop from the dorm. It happened to be the weeks designated for course design, so physical attendance wasn’t required, students only had to submit their design reports and attend the final defense before the deadline.

Songan’s assigned topic was using simulation software to create a six-person electronic buzzer system. While this might be challenging for a typical sophomore, it was quite easy for someone with her experience.

Initially, she could have finished it smoothly, handed it in, and ignored everything else to focus on her own business. However, after seeing several classmates in the group chat looking completely lost and pleading for help, Songan couldn’t bring herself to ignore them. She reached out via private message to ask if they needed assistance.

Once she received a flood of “yeses,” and realizing how many people were struggling, she simply set up a study group. Every night, she carved out an hour to explain the concepts they didn’t understand.

Consequently, shortly after finishing Modesty’s language homework tutoring, Songan had to jump into teaching another group of people. Combined with her own packed schedule, she was spinning like a top from dawn to dusk.

She preferred to regain her energy through quiet meditation. Tonight, however, the sky was restless. Frequent flashes of lightning accompanied by rolling thunder felt a bit daunting.

It reminded her of a story the director of the orphanage loved to tell the children a long time ago. She’d say that when it thunders, you shouldn’t run wild in the rain or stand under trees, or you’ll get struck by electricity.

Because of that, Songan and the other children never dared to go near the big tree in the orphanage during a thunderstorm. Instead, they stayed inside, watching the raindrops dampen the soil or picking out droplets on the windowpane to race and see which one reached the bottom first.

She reached out and touched the glass. Quxi Orange County didn’t have trees that towering, it was mostly filled with neatly trimmed shrubs, meticulously designed flower beds, and lawns that stayed green no matter the season.

As the rain pattered against the glass, Songan watched it for a moment before turning toward the bathroom.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door nearby.

“Who is it?” Songan asked, raising her voice. At this hour, no one should be coming by.

The voice from outside was familiar, it was Modesty. “Sister, it’s me.”

Songan felt a flicker of confusion but opened the door to let her in anyway. “It’s so late, is there something urgent?”

Her question was answered the moment she saw the pillow cradled in Modesty’s arms.

“What’s this?” Songan found the scene quite amusing.

Modesty looked at her with a pitiful expression, occasionally glancing into the room while hugging her pillow tighter. She didn’t say a word, yet her silence spoke volumes.

“The glass in my room shattered on its own,” Modesty whispered. “I’m a little scared of the thunder, so I came to find you.”

This reason caught Songan off guard. “Ah? Is the quality really that bad? We’ll have to get Rosaline to contact the manufacturer tomorrow. You can sleep with me tonight.”

The girl was already at her bedroom door, it would be heartless to refuse, especially since Modesty said she was afraid of the storm.

“Mhm, mhm.” Having secured Songan’s permission, Modesty dashed straight to the bed, dropped her pillow, peeled back a corner of the duvet, and climbed in.

The speed of it left Songan stunned. She looked at Modesty, who now only had her head poking out from the covers, and felt a wave of softness. “Don’t be scared. I’ll be right there after I finish washing up.”

When Songan came out of the bathroom, she first glanced toward the bed. Modesty’s head was buried in the gap between the pillow and the duvet, it was unclear if she was asleep yet.

She tiptoed to the wall and switched off the lights. After waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness, she walked toward the other side of the bed once she could make out the furniture.

Approaching the bed, she realized Modesty had been so tired she’d drifted off. Songan shook her head with a smile, trying her best to minimize any noise as she lay down. She checked on Modesty once more to ensure she hadn’t woken her.

However, after another crack of thunder, Songan felt movement from Modesty’s side. The latter quietly pulled herself closer, narrowing the gap between them.

“You don’t have to be so cautious. If you’re scared, you can hold my hand,” Songan said, recalling their experience at the amusement park and mimicking Modesty’s own words from back then.

 Modesty didn’t say anything, but her actions were honest. She firmly grasped Songan’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

This way of holding hands felt a bit foreign to Songan, but considering the thunderstorm outside, she managed to put up with it.

Perhaps Songan’s permission to hold hands gave Modesty the wrong signal, because she began to push her luck, eventually clinging directly to Songan.

Songan was exhausted herself, and the scent of Modesty’s body wash was strangely comforting, so she let it happen.

The rain was noisy, yet it felt completely sealed away outside. Songan was buried in the soft bed, her eyes wide open and clear.

“Sister, can’t you sleep?” Modesty, who she thought was dead to the world, asked in a low voice near her shoulder.

“I’m alright, just thinking about the things I need to do tomorrow.” Songan was mentally creating a list, organizing every task into a proper time slot.

Modesty nudged closer again. “You’ve been so busy lately. Maybe you shouldn’t tutor me at night for a while. Actually, my language skills have improved a lot.”

Songan just smiled, not taking the words to heart. Having worked as a tutor before, she knew that a student’s self-assessment wasn’t always reliable, only their independent test scores told the truth. She praised her anyway, “You really have improved. If your score goes up next time, we can reduce the lesson time.”

Modesty agreed obediently.

Another bolt of lightning struck, and the hand gripping Songan’s clothes wouldn’t stop trembling. Sensing this, Songan turned on her side to pull Modesty into a hug, lightly patting her back. “It’s okay, don’t be afraid. I’m right here with you.”

Modesty didn’t make a sound, resting her head against Songan’s shoulder.

When Songan woke up, Modesty was still sleeping.

She quietly climbed out of bed, hesitated for a second while looking at her slippers, and then walked barefoot to the curtains. She pulled them back slightly, letting a sliver of sunlight into the room. The brightness made her eyes water for a moment.

Checking the time on her phone, she saw there was still enough time for a nap, so she didn’t wake Modesty. Instead, she went to a guest room to wash up so she wouldn’t disturb her.

“Rosaline, could you please contact a repairman today? Modesty said her bedroom window spontaneously shattered. It’s too dangerous, we need the manufacturer to handle it. We should probably check the other windows in the house too.”

Songan happened to see Rosaline standing in the first-floor living room, so she stopped by the railing and called out to her.

Rosaline turned around, her expression shifting to one of mild surprise after hearing the request. “But, I just went to Miss Modesty’s room today to look for something of the Master’s, and the windows were perfectly fine…”

“Huh?” Songan hadn’t expected there to be another side to the story. Modesty had clearly lied.

But the matter wasn’t serious, she likely just fabricated the excuse because she was terrified of the thunder.

Since there was no real issue, Songan offered a quick “sorry” to Rosaline without explaining further and headed back to her bedroom.

Modesty had woken up in the meantime and was lying on the bed, looking bleary-eyed.

Looking at her youthful, innocent face, Songan decided not to bring up the lie. “Are you awake? Get up then, the sun is quite nice today.”

“Okay…” Modesty let out a lazy yawn before sitting up under Songan’s gentle gaze.

Seeing that Modesty was still battling the urge to go back to sleep, Songan turned to her own tasks. Today, she wanted to organize the original owner’s belongings and seal them away in the bedroom safe as much as possible. If the original owner, Heloise, ever returned, she would have a proper account to give her.

Since her transmigration, Songan had only done a cursory search to find clues about Heloise’s whereabouts, but she had found nothing.

She looked at the items in the suitcase and cabinets, letting out a soft sigh.

Seeing that Songan was busy, Modesty silently slipped out of the room without saying goodbye.

Songan only caught a glimpse of the door closing, but it was more convenient to tidy up this way. If Modesty were watching, she might ask all sorts of questions that Songan wouldn’t necessarily be able to answer.

She took everything out of the suitcase and spread it across the carpet. The sunlight through the window felt warm on her skin, casting a pale golden glow over the objects.

Inside were several exquisite notebooks. Judging by the wear on the edges, they had been used for a long time, and they seemed to be filled to the brim.

However, prying into someone else’s privacy wasn’t a good habit, so Songan hadn’t opened them yet.

Aside from those, Heloise had kept several plush dolls in the suitcase. They were tattered and torn, their original shapes barely recognizable.

Looking at the cuts, Songan suspected someone had used scissors to ruin them, and the most likely culprit was Heloise herself. But why would she keep them in her suitcase along with her notebooks?

Songan couldn’t guess her thoughts. She picked up a doll to inspect it, much of the stuffing had leaked out, leaving the limbs shriveled.

“Maybe I can salvage them…” Songan muttered to herself. She had learned a bit of sewing from online tutorials before, so fixing these dolls wouldn’t be a problem.

Besides, they must have been very important to the original owner, right?

This sudden thought seemed to connect with something. Songan’s mind raced—wasn’t the thing the original Heloise fought over at the very beginning a doll?

Songan realized that Heloise probably cared deeply about these things, she just didn’t know the reason why.

She planned to set the ruined dolls aside and continue looking through the other items.

One particular toy caught her eye a small dog plushie wearing overalls with a few crumpled pieces of paper stuffed into the front pocket. She pulled them out. The paper was thin, and ink had bled through to the back.

Usually, these kinds of notes didn’t contain anything important, at least, Songan and her former classmates only used them to write gossip. She naturally assumed these were the same.

However, one of the notes wasn’t folded but completely spread out. On it were layers upon layers of overlapping circles, and Songan immediately spotted the name circled in red marker right in the center “Heloise.”

“Heloise” was a new name the original owner was only supposed to receive after arriving at Quxi Orange County. Since the “Ni Songan” who appeared out of nowhere had taken her place, how could the original owner have known this name beforehand?