I Am Not a Vicious Stepsister! - Chapter 15

“I’m going outside to get some air,” Ni Songan whispered to Modesty, pulling her shawl tighter around her shoulders.

The main house was packed today. Adults and children were gathered in a chaotic, boisterous swarm, and Songan felt like she might suffocate if she stayed indoors a moment longer. Modesty was currently cornered by the other aunts’ children, forced into a card game she couldn’t escape, so she could only watch helplessly as Songan slipped away.

Fine, white snowflakes drifted into the courtyard, coating the ground in a thin, powdery layer. It wasn’t that Songan didn’t feel the cold, but after brushing the snow off the swing, she sat down anyway. The outdoor lights were a uniform, dim orange, making the interior light of the house seem piercingly bright by comparison.

From her spot on the swing, Songan could observe most of the people inside through the window while remaining hidden in the shadows, it was the perfect vantage point. She watched the mothers chatting happily and saw Modesty being tugged at by the younger children, who refused to let her leave until she played to their hearts’ content.

A faint smile touched Songan’s lips as she watched Modesty eventually give in with a look of resigned defeat, sitting back down to continue the game. Children and adults didn’t usually mix well, so the little ones tended to avoid Songan and gravitate toward Modesty instead. For Songan, this was a blessing, as it finally gave her a moment of solitude in the courtyard.

Several dishes at dinner had been seasoned with wine. Songan hadn’t realized it until she’d already finished her meal, but the alcohol was starting to go to her head. She had come outside specifically to clear the fog and sober up in the crisp air.

She sat there for a long time, long enough for a light dusting of snow to settle on her shoulders, long enough for her cheeks and the tip of her nose to turn a frozen red, and long enough for Modesty to find her and wrap her hands around Songan’s own.

“Why are you out here freezing?”

Songan blinked slowly, her dull gaze meeting Modesty’s worried eyes. Warmth flooded from Modesty’s palms into Songan’s stiff fingers. Once Songan’s hands were no longer like blocks of ice, Modesty released them, looking satisfied.

“I feel a bit tipsy and want to sleep, but I wanted to run some models tonight, so I thought I’d clear my head…” Songan looked down as Modesty brushed the snow off her lap.

Modesty glanced at her face, then wrinkled her nose and leaned in for a soft sniff. “Was it those dishes on the table earlier? I can smell the alcohol. Are you drunk?”

“I’m not drunk, just a bit dizzy,” Songan argued weakly.

“Alright,” Modesty shrugged, brushed the remaining snow off the swing, and squeezed in next to Songan, taking her hand again. “Why didn’t you play the game with us earlier?”

Songan tilted her head to look at her. “You mean the one where the loser gets paper strips stuck to their face? With all those people watching? That’s too embarrassing!” Just thinking about it made her skin crawl, she couldn’t stand being the center of a spectacle like that.

Modesty coaxed her, “But it’s really fun! Won’t you at least try? Just the two of us.”

Songan grew suspicious. “Why do you want me to play so badly? You looked like you were having plenty of fun in the living room.”

“I want you to have fun, too. I’ll teach you,” Modesty said, shaking Songan’s hand gently as her gaze locked onto Songan’s eyes. “Give it a try. You might actually like it.”

“Fine.” Songan rubbed her temples and followed her to Modesty’s bedroom, where they wouldn’t be disturbed by the other children in the house.

Songan picked up the rules quickly and even figured out a few clever tricks on her own. After a dozen rounds, both of their faces were covered in small stickers. Since cutting paper strips was too much hassle, they had used stickers as substitutes.

“I won again!” The alcohol had long since been metabolized, but Songan’s emotions were still closer to the surface than usual.

Outside of their trips to the amusement park or vacations, Modesty rarely saw her laugh so freely. She dazed for a moment, letting Songan press a yellow crescent moon sticker onto her cheek.

Songan’s own face was covered in tiny rabbit patterns. After placing the sticker on Modesty, Songan held the girl’s face in her hands, inspecting it closely. Finding no more room for stickers, she regretfully announced the end of the game. “Time for bed.”

“We’re supposed to wait for the New Year countdown, it’s too early to quit,” Modesty said, seeing through Songan’s attempt to wiggle out of more rounds. “Again! I’m going all out this time, just you wait!”

“Bring it on!” Songan countered, rolling up her sleeves and waiting for Modesty to shuffle the cards.

The game continued until every inch of their exposed skin was occupied by stickers. Only then did Songan helplessly admit it was a draw. Modesty grabbed a hand mirror from the table and held it up so they could both see.

The mirror reflected two faces that were completely unrecognizable. After a moment of silence, they looked at each other and burst into laughter, starting to peel the stickers off and toss them aside.

A servant knocked on the door, asking if they wanted to come downstairs to wait for the New Year with the rest of the Rodney family. Songan stood up first and offered her hand to Modesty. “Let’s go.”

Modesty used the leverage to pull herself up. “Thanks, Sister.”

When they reached the ground floor, Althea was already standing in the center of the courtyard, delivering a New Year’s blessing. As soon as she finished, the younger Rodney children enthusiastically threw streamers into the air. One child, who didn’t have much strength, failed to throw theirs far, and the streamers landed directly on the innocent Songan and Modesty as they stepped outside.

“…” Songan was the first to laugh. She struggled to pull the shimmering laser streamers off her head, looking both amused and exasperated. The others quickly jumped in to help clear the mess.

The only one who didn’t move was Modesty. She was standing very close to Songan, so the streamers had draped over them like a canopy. Tiny flickers of light filtered through the gaps, dancing across Songan’s shaking frame as she laughed. The space enclosed by the laser streamers felt isolated from the world, like a fragmented, surreal dream.

Modesty spotted a stray hair stuck to Songan’s cheek. Just as she raised her hand to brush it away, the streamers were cleared by the crowd. The sudden brightness made Modesty instinctively close her eyes, only opening them once she’d adjusted to the light.

Songan looked at her with a smile and tugged at her sleeve. “Come on, the countdown is starting!”

However, when their eyes met, Songan felt a flicker of confusion. She had a faint impression that Modesty’s mood had shifted, as if something was different than it had been just minutes ago… How could she describe it? It was as if she were being completely locked in by Modesty’s gaze.

The feeling vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Looking at Modesty’s now-normal expression, Songan figured she had just imagined it.

“Three, two, one”

“Happy New Year!” Modesty hugged Songan just as the fireworks exploded in the sky.

“Happy New Year!” Songan replied, her eyes curving into crescents.

The brilliant fireworks were captured by Songan’s camera, frozen in the night sky. She lowered the camera and looked up, the falling snow dampening her eyelashes.

I hope this new year goes smoothly.

Modesty returned to her bedroom. Once the festivities died down, Quxi Orange County returned to its usual quiet.

She heard the dejected voice of System 313. “Plot Point Three still hasn’t passed. I told you, this ‘playing around’ method probably wouldn’t count.”

The third plot point was supposed to be the step-sister’s growing malice, culminating in her physically striking the protagonist. Modesty was then supposed to hit back. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen, so she had tried a different approach, couldn’t a penalty in a game count as a punishment?

But the system had judged the task a failure, and progress remained stalled. Furthermore, regarding the future tasks… Modesty clenched her fingers and frowned.

“313, I don’t want to do those tasks anymore.”

“Eh? Why? I thought we had a deal?”

Ni Songan’s gentle eyes flashed through Modesty’s mind, as if the woman were sitting right there on the edge of the bed. “You know as well as I do that even if we keep going, Heloise’s reaction might not be what we want. We won’t achieve our goal.”

313 sounded hesitant. “That’s true… but what if she changes later? The World Consciousness…”

“What about the World Consciousness?”

“Nothing.” 313 was clearly unwilling to explain. According to their agreement, it didn’t have to disclose everything.

Modesty didn’t push it, she simply restated her decision.

“Are you really going to stop the tasks?” System 313 still didn’t want to give up. “If you do, your luck will gradually be reclaimed by the world until you become a completely ordinary person.”

When it first bound itself to Modesty, it had told her she was the “Child of Fortune” of this world. The System Management Center had detected a loophole in this world, and the Child of Fortune would be the first to suffer because the world would naturally try to fill the gap using her luck. The Center, however, didn’t want the Child of Fortune to be sacrificed. To maintain the world’s balance, 313 had been sent to cooperate with her.

If Modesty completed the “face-slapping” tasks, she could protect her luck and gain numerous benefits. It was a win-win deal that most wouldn’t refuse, and Modesty had initially agreed. Now, System 313’s plans were falling apart.

Modesty scoffed at the threat. “What’s wrong with being an ordinary person? According to you, you’ve observed countless worlds. There are billions of ordinary people in those worlds, and they’re doing just fine.”

“Yes, maybe in the script you have, my youth was supposed to be turbulent and I was supposed to be bullied. But what about after you bound to me? Am I really as easy to bully as you thought?”

She paused, her voice tinged with a hint of mockery. “I’m not irredeemably stupid. I don’t know what you want from me or from a Child of Fortune… but I suspect your goal isn’t as simple as ‘saving the world.'”

313 went silent for a moment. When it spoke again, it sounded uncertain. “But no one can defy the World Consciousness. Besides, you have no idea about the locked plot points coming up. You can only access them after finishing the prerequisite tasks.”

Modesty interrupted. “I know. But at least for now, the choices I make follow my own heart. The first antagonist I was supposed to encounter, my sister ‘Heloise,’ hasn’t followed the set path either.”

“I don’t know what the future holds. Maybe she, I, and many others controlled by the script will still be affected, but that’s a problem for later.”

“I am not willing to hurt the person I care about just to finish your stupid tasks.”

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