Chapter 2

On our second day in Uncle’s mansion, my brother resumed his food-blogging ambitions. After two hours in the kitchen, the chef practically begged him to leave.

I came downstairs yawning and heard the chef complaining to Uncle on the phone. In all his years in the profession, he said, he’d never seen food in such bizarre shapes.

“…”

That was putting it mildly.

What my brother made was unfit for human consumption.

Uncle’s neighbors didn’t keep dogs, which left me with no one to argue with. For the first time in ages, I felt a little lonely.

“Xie Shuyao, have you noticed something’s off with Uncle?”

We’d been there a few days when my brother suddenly asked.

Uncle left early and came home late every day. He seemed busy, but he was in a terrible mood.

“I asked Mom. His company’s thriving. It’s not work.”

If it wasn’t his career, it had to be his love life.

Family, friends, romance—we could rule out the first one immediately.

We were incredibly close. Only yesterday, Uncle had showered us with spending money, far more generously than our parents ever did.

Friendship and romance… we didn’t know much about those parts of his life.

But—

My brother pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of a photo album. It was filled with pictures of a young woman.

“He’s heartbroken.”

I recognized Uncle’s study in the background at once and widened my eyes. “Xie Yanchi, how could you sneak into his study? Have you no manners?”

“I’m looking out for him,” my brother said, utterly shameless despite being in the wrong. “Besides, I’ve only told you. Not even Mom and Dad. This album was right in his desk drawer. Aren’t you curious who she is?”

“…Who is she?”

“No idea.”

“Then what are you babbling about?”

He sounded certain. “But she’s in his high school graduation photo, and the album has selfies she took back then. I reckon he printed them off her WeChat feed. Either they broke up, or it’s unrequited love.”

Ouch.

The first possibility was one thing. But if it was the second… someone with Uncle’s ridiculously perfect face could get nowhere in love?

The girl in the photos was beautiful, exactly the sort of unattainable school crush you’d never forget.

It was perfectly natural that someone would fall for her.

“Shuyao, Yanchi, there’s an auction tomorrow evening. Would you like to come?”

Uncle had apparently noticed our daily surplus of energy at last and decided to take us out into the wider world.

We had no objections whatsoever.

On the night of the auction, I put on a little black dress. My brother wore a suit too. We looked almost respectable.

The auction hadn’t started when we arrived, but people immediately crowded around Uncle, showering him with compliments.

My brother and I couldn’t stand still for long. We slipped away in a flash.

The venue was enormous.

Carpet covered the floor, muffling almost every click of my heels.

We wandered to a deserted corner beside a stairwell. Just as we were about to turn back, voices drifted up from below.

An argument.

How could we resist?

Taking advantage of a spot where we couldn’t be seen, we peered down—and froze.

The woman arguing with the man had a very familiar face.

I’d seen it on my brother’s phone not long ago. In a picture taken in Uncle’s study.

My brother and I exchanged a glance and both held our breath.