I Am Not a Vicious Stepsister! - Chapter 18

“Do you know?”

“Tiny droplets gather to form rivers, lakes, and seas. After evaporating, they accumulate into clouds, and the clouds scatter rain back upon the earth. It is a cycle that repeats forever.”

The young girl furrowed her brows, struggling to discern the intent behind the orphanage director’s words. “Then is it wrong when the TV says we need to save water? It looks like the water never actually decreases.”

The director let out a soft laugh. “An’an, that isn’t what I meant.”

She patted An’an’s head. To keep the child from further misunderstanding, she gave her the answer directly. “Sometimes, it is impossible to break certain laws. Even if you think you have rewritten the ending, you may have only added a few twists to the story. They will ultimately lead to the same result.”

After falling into the pool, Ni Songan’s wound had been submerged in water. The situation looked grim, and they had to call a doctor to tend to it. Once Ni Tianjiao found out about the mess they had made, both she and Modesty received a stern lecture. Even though the security footage made it look like Modesty had been dragged into the water by Ni Songan, she didn’t escape the criticism.

Likely because they had been truly reckless, Ni Tianjiao’s attitude was far from gentle, she was uncharacteristically severe.

When she looked at Ni Songan, the gaze made the latter shrink her neck instinctively.

Fortunately, Althea returned home. Upon learning of the incident, she immediately went to the study to rescue the two poor children.

Ni Songan and Modesty were able to end their scolding early. Before leaving the study, Ni Songan couldn’t help but steal a glance back, hearing her mothers being affectionate with each other.

Actually, it was Althea coaxing Ni Tianjiao, constantly comforting her by saying, “It’s alright, I’ve already had someone start preparing.”

Ni Songan couldn’t hear any more than that, as they had already closed the study door.

Modesty scratched Ni Songan’s palm and whispered, “I bet she bought something nice to apologize.”

Ni Songan thought about that possibility and the corners of her mouth curled slightly. The rift that had existed between them for the past few days seemed to vanish in that moment. “Well, my mom isn’t easy to coax at all.”

The two looked at each other and smiled. Ni Songan’s face looked somewhat pale under the lights, and Modesty’s eyes were full of worry. “Go back and get some rest. About today… I’m sorry.”

Modesty wasn’t really to blame for this. Ni Songan comforted her instead. “My head wasn’t clear at the time, which is why I dragged you down too. Strictly speaking, I should be the one apologizing to you.”

She did feel quite unwell, so she said goodnight to Modesty and turned back to her room to sleep.

Almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, Ni Songan’s heavy eyelids closed automatically, and her consciousness fell back into her past experiences.

In her dream, she was still living in the orphanage. The director and the other volunteers had worked tirelessly to weave a beautiful fairy-tale world for the children. At the very least, Ni Songan only realized how hard they had worked after she entered society.

The lessons the director had taught her in her youth suddenly clicked many years later.

“You are powerless to change this story…”

A strange, ethereal voice spoke in her ear. It was chilly, and Ni Songan felt as though she had fallen into ice and snow, the cold piercing her to the bone.

She wanted to ask who it was, but her mouth felt as if it were covered, and she couldn’t make a sound.

The voice left behind only that single sentence before vanishing, as if it had never existed.

Ni Songan’s limbs remained frozen, and she couldn’t even open her eyes. It wasn’t until the alarm on her phone went off that she realized, in a daze, that she could move again.

The sound from her throat was raspy and unpleasant. Ni Songan belatedly stumbled into the bathroom, only to see an unnatural flush on her face in the mirror.

As her fingertips touched the cold glass, she finally realized what was happening to her.

“Miss Heloise has a fever…”

Ni Songan lay listlessly in bed, listening to the family doctor describe her condition and the necessary precautions.

Modesty listened intently to everything the doctor said, yet her gaze never wavered from Ni Songan’s face. Once everything had been explained, the doctor stood up to leave and closed the bedroom door.

Only Ni Songan and Modesty remained in the room.

Ni Songan lifted her eyelids to glance at her, then wearily lowered her lashes again, her emotions difficult to read. “Aren’t you supposed to head back to school today?”

Modesty didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she reached out to test the temperature of Ni Songan’s forehead. “The fever seems to have gone down.”

“There’s nothing but busywork to do at school anyway, it’s boring.”

She shrugged and leaned against the side of Ni Songan’s bed, watching her as she replied, “I’ll just stay here and keep you company. This is nice, isn’t it?”

Ni Songan turned her head away, refusing to meet her eyes.

Left out in the cold, Modesty faltered slightly. “Do you not want me here?”

Ni Songan’s voice was incredibly soft. “I just think that maybe you should focus more on your studies. I don’t really need someone to accompany me.”

 Modesty bit her lip and stood up reluctantly. “Fine, then I won’t disturb you. Get some rest.”

Ni Songan heard the door being gently closed, and silence returned to the bedroom.

Only then did she open her eyes to stare at the gloomy sky outside. The hot and rainy summer of Nanzhou was fast approaching.

The eerie whisper from her dream filled Ni Songan with unease “Powerless to change this story”?

What did that mean? Was it referring to the plot of the novel world she was in?

But Ni Songan was certain that she hadn’t seen any specific plot points from the novel play out in reality yet… so where was the basis for those words?

No, there were signs.

The irritability Ni Songan felt every time she encountered Modesty lately seemed to have an explanation, and the strangeness had only begun after that car accident.

Ni Tianjiao and Modesty had said the cause of the accident was still under investigation. There were no issues with the driver or the vehicle, and the driving appeared completely normal. Theoretically, an accident shouldn’t have happened.

Yet, the car had flipped regardless, and everyone inside was injured, Ni Songan included.

The only difference was that Ni Songan, as an individual, had an abnormal situation. It was as if she had been implanted with a programmed setting: seeing Modesty would immediately trigger negative emotions. Over time, this would become a habit, and perhaps Ni Songan really would grow to hate Modesty.

Ni Songan didn’t believe this was a coincidence. So, was the voice in her dream a specific warning meant for her?

Though it sounded far-fetched, Ni Songan had already transmigrated, so could there really be anything more contrary to common sense than that? She steadied her nerves and began to review everything that had happened since her arrival, checking for any overlaps with the novel’s plot.

She and Modesty got along very well; there were no conflicts or grudges. To be honest, Ni Songan felt that using the word “friends” to describe their relationship wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Yet, intuition drove Ni Songan to climb out of bed and dig out the notes she had written down.

“There must be something I’ve overlooked…”

Modesty noticed that ever since Ni Songan recovered from her illness, she had started avoiding her. The latter would still explain practice problems for her, but she no longer agreed to meet, and she rarely even returned to Quxi Orange County.

She wanted to ask the reason directly, but she was afraid of tearing their already fragile bond. If she did that, Ni Songan might truly stop talking to her.

For now, the two of them were merely pretending to maintain a superficial relationship.

313 returned not long after Modesty fell into the water, informing her that Plot Point Three had been passed. Furthermore, the Small World Management Center would appropriately relax the mission requirements. As long as it could be explained logically and satisfied the conditions for the plot to continue, it would count as a completed mission for Modesty.

What worried the system was that Modesty hadn’t refused, but she hadn’t agreed either. It didn’t know if Modesty would continue to cooperate.

As for Ni Songan, her life was going reasonably well. She continued to do experiments with Zhou Yejia and even took on a tutoring job through her introduction. She could earn some money that way, and she was busy from morning until night almost every day.

The curriculum at Cordidus International High School was quite heavy as well. While Ni Songan was in the middle of finals week, Modesty was equally busy with her studies. The number of times she looked for Ni Songan decreased accordingly, only occasionally poking around to test her attitude.

By the time the two officially met again, summer had arrived.

Modesty’s birthday was in a few days. Ni Songan spent a long time at school thinking about it. On one hand, Zhou Yejia had invited her to work on her project, which paid well and offered a lot to learn.

On the other hand was her stepsister’s birthday, and Ni Songan had promised to give her a gift.

Ultimately, she decided to fulfill her promise.

Ni Songan forgot to check the weather forecast before returning to Quxi Orange County. It was raining outside, and since she hadn’t brought an umbrella, her hair was soaking wet by the time she dragged her suitcase into the car.

She was startled by the person clutching a bag in the back seat, she hadn’t known Modesty was there.

Modesty’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as she whispered a greeting. “Sister, good afternoon. It started raining after I came out, so I contacted the driver to pick me up. She said she was coming here to get you too, so I came along.”

It was impossible for Ni Songan to be mean to a friendly young girl. The method she had always used was to respond coldly, and she did the same now. She merely nodded a greeting to Modesty and sat on the opposite side of the car.

Modesty had known Ni Songan had been caught in the rain the moment she saw her. Being considerate, she handed over a towel. “You’re still dripping, dry yourself off first, or you’ll catch a cold.”

“Thank you.” Ni Songan didn’t make a fuss or refuse; she took it readily and began wiping away the rainwater.

She could feel Modesty’s gaze glued to her, but she didn’t pay it much mind. Once she was mostly dry, Ni Songan opened her bag, took out her laptop, and continued her simulation experiment. Zhou Yejia wanted her and the other team members to have the results ready by next week, as they needed the data for the report.

When Ni Songan finally looked up from the experiment to rest her eyes, she noticed that Modesty had been watching her for a long time, as if she had something to say but was afraid of disturbing her.

 Was being this cold really the right thing to do? Ni Songan found it hard to find the correct answer, but she chose to meet Modesty’s gaze, which was perhaps a decision in itself.

“Is there something you want to say?” Ni Songan couldn’t help but ask. She felt as if that burning gaze was about to bore a hole right through her, though that was an exaggeration.

Modesty wasn’t some kind of monster; she was just staring at her.

The girl, addressed by her stepsister, dithered for a moment, her eyes erupting with a surprised color. Her voice unconsciously rose a bit. “Hmm? Me?”

She seemed to remember something. The look she gave Ni Songan was cautious and incredibly apprehensive. “I wanted to say…”

“Sister, my birthday is coming up. Have you forgotten our promise too?”

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