There's Something Wrong With My Little White Flower - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Elder Sister of a Brother-Obsessed Family X University Professor

Ruan Jiabao’s banquet for his teachers was quite successful.

Ruan’s father and mother chose the same seafood restaurant they had used to celebrate Ruan Jiyun’s admission to CST. There were quite a few guests who came to offer congratulations: Ruan’s father’s colleagues, Ruan’s mother’s colleagues from the tutoring center, plus neighbors and relatives. They filled several tables with lively chatter.

However, for many of them, the purpose of attending the banquet was not Ruan Jiabao, but Ruan Jiyun.

“I heard Xiao Yun got into graduate school at CST… Come on, quickly give some pointers to your sister who doesn’t like to study!”

“This red envelope is from your aunt. Keep it safe so your mother doesn’t see! Thank you for the reference books you sent to your cousin last time. She said they were all great… You’re such a good child, thinking of her even though you’re so busy…”

“Leaving on Friday? Then you must come over for a meal at our house!”

Compared to the celebrated Ruan Jiyun, Ruan Jiabao’s side was much quieter. He was pulled by Ruan’s father to toast all the tables in sullen reluctance. Sitting down, he complained: “I told you, with my scores, why bother with a teachers’ banquet?”

“You child!” Cheng Nuoe, who overheard him, immediately bristled. “You got into university, why can’t we have a teachers’ banquet? Besides, how many people can compare with your sister’s grades? I don’t know if it’s a feng shui issue, but all the study genes in our family seem to have been absorbed by her alone…”

Ruan Jiabao wasn’t interested in this topic, but he remembered a promise his mother had made: “Mom, you promised to buy me a new phone before the exam. I want an Apple!”

His current Android phone was an old model that lagged terribly when playing games. He had to delete memory just to install a new app. Now that he was going to university, having such a phone was too embarrassing.

Cheng Nuoe retorted casually: “You look like an apple. That phone costs several thousand yuan. Why don’t you try selling your mother to buy one!”

Ruan Jiabao turned away unhappily: “You promised me… Besides, my sister uses an Apple too… I don’t care! Since she has one, I want one too!”

Speaking of this, Cheng Nuoe felt a surge of frustration. She vaguely sensed that since her daughter started university, her clothes, food, and general consumption were noticeably more refined. But after careful inquiry, she found that these things were either gifts from Jiang Peifeng or prizes from various competitions and activities. She couldn’t very well claim them all for herself.

For instance, this new phone was supposedly a birthday gift her daughter had recently received. If she demanded Ruan Jiyun give it to Jiabao, it would be difficult to explain to the giver.

“Her wings have really hardened…” She responded distractedly, unable to withstand her son’s persistent whining. “Fine, fine, I’ll take you to buy one tomorrow!”

The next morning, Cheng Nuoe, bothered by her son, went to the electronics market. Not long after, Ruan Jiabao returned home happily clutching a white paper bag.

“Don’t just focus on playing with your phone!” Ruan’s mother was rushing to the training center. After scolding him a few times, she hurriedly left, not forgetting to remind Ruan Jiyun to make lunch for her brother.

Ruan Jiabao, having received the phone, was too happy to think about food. Ruan Jiyun thought for a moment and decided to make fried rice with the leftover ingredients in the fridge. Just as she tied on her apron, she heard her brother shouting from the other room: “Sister! How do I download an app on this phone?”

The range hood was roaring loudly, forcing Ruan Jiyun to step out: “…Tap into this store… Yes, what do you want to download?”

“Hehe… You wouldn’t understand if I told you. You definitely don’t play games.” Ruan Jiabao answered while operating the phone. “Why does it need me to log in with a store ID?”

Eager to play games, he pestered Ruan Jiyun to show him how to operate it. After struggling a few times, he became a little impatient: “It’s so much trouble… Hey, right, Sis, can you lend me your ID to log in? I just need to download a game! My team is about to start, and they’re all waiting for me!”

In terms of gaming, Ruan Jiabao’s enthusiasm probably surpassed Ruan Jiyun’s by a hundredfold. He whined, pestered, and begged, eventually wearing down Ruan Jiyun, who logged her ID into the new phone. He treasured the opportunity and went to download the game.

Seeing him finally settle down, Ruan Jiyun returned to the kitchen to continue cooking.

Ruan Jiabao happily downloaded the game. He then thought to download a few commonly used apps as well, saving himself the hassle later. A few prompt lines appeared on the screen, and he clicked “Confirm” without thinking.

A few minutes later, he suddenly froze.

Ruan Jiyun actually had her own vision for her relationship with Jiang Peifeng.

She planned to wait until she finished her graduate studies. If she could progress further and become more stable in the lab, then perhaps she could try to leave home and buy a house with Jiang Peifeng in A City. If Jiang Peifeng was willing, getting married abroad wasn’t out of the question either.

The foundation for all of this was contingent upon her gaining more say and achieving a better economic parity.

However, she hadn’t expected this idea to be shattered so soon.

The moment she saw her enraged mother, thousands of thoughts flashed through Ruan Jiyun’s mind. The conditioned reflex developed over more than a decade of living together made her instinctively fearful, habitually self-reflecting on what she had done wrong this time. In the next second, Cheng Nuoe shoved an object in front of her.

“My wonderful daughter,” Cheng Nuoe’s voice sounded like it was trembling, or perhaps struggling to contain some kind of disgust. In her hand was Ruan Jiabao’s phone, which had somehow opened a digital photo album. With just one look, Ruan Jiyun knew what it was.

“You tell me yourself, what is this?” Seeing her daughter remain silent, Cheng Nuoe took another step forward, pressing the phone closer to her face. Her voice was sharp, as if she intended to force Ruan Jiyun into submission with the high pitch. “What is this?”

On the small screen, Ruan Jiyun’s knuckles were white, and the area tightly pressed by her thumb showed Ruan Jiyun’s smiling face, next to Jiang Peifeng, who was tightly embracing her, smiling just as openly and naturally.

Ruan Jiabao was terrified and dared not breathe. When the photos from the cloud album were automatically synced, he initially paid no attention. It wasn’t until he saw the content of a particular photo that he could no longer fool himself into thinking his sister was just like the self-obsessed female classmates in his class.

He was too panicked and forgot to quickly delete the photos, which is how his mother, who came home for an inspection, caught him red-handed.

“You’re truly accomplished!” Cheng Nuoe was still raging. She wanted to smash the phone but held back, instead slamming her palm heavily on the table in a venting motion. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips trembled as she said, “How could I give birth to something so shameless!”

Ruan Jiyun was slowly regaining her composure from the shock. Her carefully hidden secret had been exposed to the person who should least know about it. Facing her furious mother, the childhood trauma of being insulted and suppressed flooded back into her heart. She instinctively flinched, unable to speak.

Cheng Nuoe was now even more furious. For a long time, she had held a resentment. Since being reported and fired from the middle school, she felt everyone was laughing at her. She gritted her teeth, desperate to build a better life, yet her husband was still just a junior teacher after decades, and her son was an utterly hopeless case. Now her daughter was doing this…

“You’re trying to literally kill me with anger,” she forced out a heavy sob from her throat. “I thought you were going to university and making something of yourself, but I didn’t expect you to learn to be so filthy as a person, doing something like this…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the words. They were too dirty, too disgusting. Was this still her daughter?

The people in the room stood frozen, the atmosphere so heavy it was about to explode. Suddenly, the door lock clicked, and Ruan’s father walked in cheerfully, carrying a few bags of cooked food.

He immediately sensed the wrong atmosphere. After looking at his wife, he asked hesitantly.

“Who upset Mom now? Hmm? What are you two doing?”

Cheng Nuoe mechanically turned her head, handing over the phone containing the “evidence,” and said sarcastically: “Look at your good daughter.”

Ruan Jiyun desperately wanted to stop her. She didn’t want them to judge her and Jiang Peifeng’s feelings in this manner, as if these photos were some kind of virus—disgusting and unacceptable to look at.

Ruan’s father took the phone, confused. After seeing the content, his brow furrowed, and he then slowly placed the phone face down on the coffee table as if avoiding a monster.

“Xiao Yun, you know you’ve made a huge mistake, don’t you?” He pondered for a moment before finally speaking. “You’ve disappointed your father and mother too much.”

Ruan Jiyun knew no one here would support her. She steadied herself and whispered: “We didn’t make a mistake.”

“What else is this if not a mistake?” Cheng Nuoe seemed stung by her words and almost screamed, “Are you proud of it? Do you know… that just a few years ago, people like you… people like you could be imprisoned!”

“Enough… don’t frighten the child like that,” Ruan’s father pulled his wife’s arm. “Let’s forget about that for now. Father only asks you one thing: was it that Jiang Peifeng who seduced you?”

No wonder he always felt that the Jiang siblings seemed overly concerned about their family. That Jiang daughter was almost thirty, yet she idled around all the time. She probably picked up those bad habits while messing around overseas.

Hearing Jiang Peifeng’s name, Ruan Jiyun immediately retorted: “It’s not like that! She didn’t… I like her.”

Even though she knew saying this would incite greater anger from her parents, she instinctively refused to hear any more malice about her loved one from their mouths.

Jiang Peifeng was such a good, gentle person. She couldn’t bear for her to suffer any injustice.

“You’re still young,” Ruan’s father said sternly. “You don’t know what ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ means. I think that girl from the Jiang family has bad habits and led you astray… This matter cannot be simply dropped!”

Hearing this, Cheng Nuoe seemed to find a life raft in the chaos and hastily agreed: “Yes! Your father is right! Our daughter, whom we raised purely, wouldn’t be like this unless she deliberately seduced her!”

If this were any other circumstance, where she could find a sliver of survival amidst her parents’ angry accusations, Ruan Jiyun would never have refused. But now, she could only offer a bitter smile, repeating every word: “No, it’s not like that.”

“It’s my fault. I fell in love with her on my own. So please, stop talking about her.”

A sharp sound of shattering glass rang in her ear, and it felt like a heavy blow to her heart.

The little girl who desperately tried to gain a second look from her parents; the little girl who never dared to say what she wanted, who always had to choose the right answer against her inner voice; the little girl who was ignored, forgotten, and shackled by the curse of “my child would never do this”…

This time, she would finally fight for herself.

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