Chapter 1 - Secret Love of the Sister

[ Translator: Zky, Proofreaders: Maralynx ]

“Are you going out and fooling around again?”

“What fooling around! Xiao Wang and I had an operation that took more than six hours to end, if you don’t believe me, you can ask him.”

“Operation? Yu Hai Zhang, do you take me for a three-year-old child who you can trick? Do you think that I wouldn’t be able to see that lipstick stain on your sleeve, especially when it’s so big?

”Hey,” he whispered: ‘’Miao Miao is sleeping. ”

“You’re whispering? Oho, Yu Hai Zhang. You have the guts to do it, but not the guts to let your daughter know? What’s up with that?! ”

“You…”

Yu Miaoyin hugged the quilt tightly and rolled on the bed several times. She’s trying to go back into her dream once again. Although the door was tightly closed, the noise in the living room was too loud, so it invaded her room. It kept on stimulating her nerves, which made Yu Miaoyin sit up frantically from the bed, feeling so distracted while bearing a head of chicken cob-like hair. The air-con remote in her hands was thrown on the bed.

Again.

Yu Miaoyin sighed, silently looking at the closed door. She grabbed her head while putting on slippers, staggered to the door, and opened it.

“Dad, mom, what are you guys arguing about?” Yu Miaoyin asked with her arms folded and leaning against the door frame.

“Miao Miao, are you awake?” Yu Hai Zhang suddenly rubbed his hands and laughed, “Why don’t you sleep more on Saturday?”

Yu Miaoyin glanced at the wall clock in the living room, the hour hand slipped past 7. She straightened up and grabbed her hair. “I slept early last night and had enough of it. Dad, were you on the night shift?”

“Yeah, the hospital had an emergency operation, it just finished.”

Yu Miaoyin’s father, Yu Hai Zhang is a surgeon, just this year he was promoted to a vice-president. Since he was promoted, Yu Miaoyin’s mother, Feng Jiawan began to be suspicious. Today, Yu Hai Zhang was suspected to go out and play with a woman. She’s suspecting Yu Hai Zhang was hiding something like a lover behind his back because he’s not always at home. At first, Yu Miaoyin had persuaded her several times. Later, after quarrelling, Yu Miaoyin even felt a little used to it.

Yu Miaoyin looked at her father with two huge black circles and blood-red capillaries in her eyes. She didn’t understand why her mother didn’t believe that her father was working overtime.

“Did you have dinner? I ordered some egg noodles, would you like a bowl?” Yu Miaoyin walked into the kitchen skillfully while washing the pot and poured half a pot of tap water into it, turning the gas stove on neatly.

Yu Hai Zhang took off his suit jacket and said with a smile: “That’s good, your dad hasn’t eaten Miao Miao’s egg noodles for a long time.”

“Okay, what noodles? It’s not nutritious to eat in the morning.” Feng Jiawan snatched the suit in Yu Hai Zhang’s hands and hung it neatly on the balcony outside. She greeted her husband and her daughter in the living room: ‘’There is seafood porridge in the rice cooker, steamed meat buns and boiled eggs in the pan. The buns were made by me yesterday. Yu Hai Zhang, eat it and go to bed quickly!’’

Yu Miaoyin and her dad stared at each other for a few seconds and smiled silently. Yu Hai Zhang pointed to the balcony and moved his mouth: ‘She’s always like that.’

Yu Miaoyin spread her hands and shrugged while making a helpless expression. Although the husband and wife quarrelled from the head to the end of the bed, it was not a problem for her parents to continue to quarrel this way.

After washing and eating breakfast, Yu Miaoyin posted her Weibo in her room and within a few hours, Feng Jiawan came to the living room to question again.

‘’ Why is there a woman calling you? Who is she !?’’

Yu Hai Zhang said tiredly: ‘’This is the head nurse in my hospital. What’s wrong with you…?’’

’’Then why are you guys so close even call after work? Is the lipstick mark on your sleeve is hers? Talk to me!’’

” … ”

Feng Jiawan was being unreasonable. Her shrill voice rang loudly in Yu Miaoyin’s eardrums. Yu Miaoyin put on the headphones and covered herself with a pillow which still could not withstand Feng Jiawan’s high pitched scream.

Suddenly there was a crisp notification tone in the headset. Yu Miaoyin picked up the phone and looked at the name of the caller, her roommate Sun Qian.

Yu Miaoyin answered the phone weakly, “Sun Qian, what’s wrong?”

Sun Qian heard Yu Miaoyin’s voice was not quite right and asked: “Miao Miao, what’s wrong with you? Why do you sound so lifeless? Are you sick?”

“I’m bored at home, is there a place to go?”

“Yes!” Sun Qian got excited, “Recently there’s a new movie and it’s amazing! Miao Miao, let’s go and watch it?”

Her parents continued quarrelling outside the room, making Yu Miaoyin grab the pillow and hit the ground, upset with the situation: “I’ll go, my family will make me go crazy, I’ll tell you later. I’m so annoyed!”

Sun Qian heard Yu Miaoyin’s mood was not good, so she didn’t dare talk more. She set a time and place and hurriedly ended the call.

Hanging up the phone, Yu Miaoyin looked at the phone screensaver.

The screensaver is a woman’s side face. A pair of silver-white thin-rim frames of spectacles placed on the tall nose bridge. The half-length black hair is snuggled behind the ears. There were some distance and indifference in her expression.

“Good morning, Older Sister Xue.” Yu Miaoyin whispered while extending her index finger to the screensaver where the girl’s light thin lips were.

Yu Miaoyin has a secret. She likes a girl’s younger sister who is majoring in architecture next door.

The younger sister was named Xiao Man. When the freshmen entered the school that year, they had given speeches to Yu Miaoyin as freshman representatives.

At that time, Yu Miaoyin was still in military training. She was exhausted every day, and her skin was tanned with two colours. She didn’t grow tall, just less than one meter six. Every time she lined up at the end of the queue, she looked like a little black monkey. After a long and tiring day of working like a dog, the instructor brought good news: today, she didn’t have to stand in a military position or kick her leg. She would instead go to an air-conditioned auditorium to listen to a lecture.

(T/N: military training: especially for reservists or new recruits / military training as a (sometimes compulsory) subject in schools and colleges/drill

The freshmen in the college listened to lectures attentively. Yu Miaoyin belonged to the first class of the Fine Arts Department and naturally sat in the first row. While complaining that the seat was too forward to take a nap, she glanced at the podium feebly and was instantly attracted by the girl standing on the podium.

The girl was very tall with a simple white T-shirt and jeans while leaning against the wall while holding a speech. There’s a little impatience in her eyes behind those glasses, and it seemed to be saying “don’t come near me” all over her. Her cold and sharp features were like a work of art.

The ghost really messed up this time, Yu Miaoyin took out her phone and photographed the scene quietly. The ghost was so bad that she set this candid photo as a screensaver.

(T/N: the ghost that she mentioned is actually an idiom in which means demons and gods at work on sort of unexplained situation and even crying out for a supernatural explanation and curious coincidence)

The girl was really beautiful, Yu Miaoyin looked at the freshly caught candid photo and thought for a while. She couldn’t tell where exactly Xiao Man looked good, how she managed to look nice like that.

In this way, Yu Miaoyin began to do research about Xiao Man.

She admits she is an outspoken person. She asked all the things about the sister and she has “encountered” her a hundred times in the classrooms and other schools where her beloved older sister taught every day. But later, her roommates made fun of her: “Yu Miaoyin, can’t you like someone else?”

Yu Miaoyin realized afterwards that she seemed to really like going to school. Since she was so assured, Yu Miaoyin realized for the first time that it was obvious that she had a crush. But, her crush didn’t even know she existed.

Next time! Next time you must say a word to Sister Xue! Yu Miaoyin vowed to herself secretly every day, but as soon as she saw Xiao Mian, she would go weak in the knees before she reached her. As she watched the older sister leave, she stood there, stunned, let alone say anything.

So from the freshman to the junior year, Yu Miaoyin could only “encounter” Xiao Man countless times a day.

“Older sister xue, if I chase you, would you say yes?” Yu Miaoyin muttered to the cold face on her phone. After a while, she put her phone down in despair and got out of bed to change clothes.

How is it even possible to succeed; the probability that the older sister also likes women is very small. And to like Miaoyin? It’s a stupid fantasy. Wake up, Yu Miaoyin, stop dreaming. She patted her cheek and recovered from her fantasy.

After tidying up, Yu Miaoyin looked at the time and it was almost the time to go. She put on her shoes and opened the door, but then she saw Aunt Yang, who was opening the door while holding a cat and was going out too.

Aunt Yang stroked her cat’s head lovingly and asked: “Miao Miao, you dressed up so pretty today, are you going out to play?”

“Yeah, Aunt Yang, and you …?”

“The weather is good today. I will take Huahua from our house to bask in the sun.” Huahua was the name of Aunt Yang’s cat. It was a domesticated cat. The soft fur was black and white. Aunt Yang named it Huahua.

Yu Miaoyin scratched Huahua’s chin and Huahua narrowed her eyes and licked Yu Miaoyin’s fingers. Very comfortable indeed.

While waiting for Aunt Yang to leave first, Yu Miaoyin thought it’s quite good to be a cat. Being carefree and spoiled by the owner every day. If you are in a good mood, you would caress against the owner‘s legs. Nobody would care, it was beautiful when you think about it in your childhood.

(T/N: in this paragraph, the author wants you to imagine you as a cat that adores the sister)

I wonder if older Sister Xue likes cats? Yu Miaoyin started getting lost in her thoughts again. She wonders if the cat who became the sister’s pet is the happiest creature in the world- because that is the older Sister! If you think about it, you could see the sister every day. Yu Miaoyin was happy until she almost burst like a bubble!

Moreover … if she became the cat of the older sister’s house, wouldn’t the older sister pat her everyday? If you want to caress against your legs, you can caress against your legs, and if you want to caress against the hands, you can instead caress against the chest…

Yu Miaoyin’s face was red now as she kept on thinking wild things, then … that’s not impossible! Anyway, it’s all cat theory, so it won’t make anyone doubt it.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt that being a pet for Xiao Man must be a blessing she could experience in a few years she had as a cat. Her brain was so immersed in it that she really felt that she was a cat of Xiao Man’s family. However, that didn’t last for long. Soon she started feeling desolate.

The movie starts at 2:40 pm. Yu Miaoyin arrived at the cinema ten minutes early. Sun Qian was already waiting at the entrance of the cinema.

“Miao Miao, here, here!” Sun Qian saw Yu Miaoyin at a glance and waved excitedly.

Yu Miaoyin walked to Sun Qian, “Have you waited a long time?”

“No, I just arrived and walked around a bit, then I went to buy popcorn and coke!” Sun Qian took Yu Miaoyin to the counter that’s selling snacks.

“Eh? Isn’t that Sun Qian? Are you here for the movie too?” Just when Yu Miaoyin turned around, a brisk hello came from behind.

When Sun Qian heard someone call her name, she turned her head first, and then happily said: “Sister Mi Lin? What a coincidence!”

Yu Miaoyin also knew Mi Lin and then turned around and stiffened on the spot as if she had been turned into stone.

Mi Lin is Yu Miaoyin’s colleague, they are also from the Department of Architecture and Xiao Man is their classmate, but that’s not important! The important thing is that there are two people standing next to Mi Lin, the woman on the side who is not close to anyone is Xiao Man.

(T/N: hello dear readers, thanks for reading. this is my first GL novel that I mtl. sorry for any complicated words and mistakes, please do tell me about it in the comment section below?~ for the next chapter I might publish it around the weekend so see u guys again by then~!)