Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Pei Qian and I are twins.

When I was born, I weighed five and a half pounds.

She was only three.

Held in your arms, she was as light as a feather, so fragile you barely dared to breathe.

And she was very weak.

She spent a month in an incubator. Spitting up milk, pneumonia, high fevers. Every day brought more bad news.

Meanwhile, I was at home, eating well, sleeping well, and filling my diapers just fine.

Mom stopped wanting to hold me around then.

She cried and said,

“Guo Guo is such a selfish child.”

“If she had shared even half the nutrition with Qianqian, how could Qianqian have suffered like this?”

Later, Pei Qian was finally discharged from the hospital.

Mom fed only her breast milk, hoping it would strengthen her immune system.

But Mom’s milk wasn’t good, and the more Pei Qian drank, the thinner she became.

Meanwhile, the nanny fed me formula, and I grew so plump I looked like a little submarine.

Mom cried again.

“Why doesn’t she know to wait for her little sister?”

“Her sister is so weak, but she’s so fat. How am I supposed to feel okay about that?”

Later, Pei Qian finally put on a little weight.

But she was still allergic to everything.

In spring, she was allergic to pollen. In summer, to mosquito bites. In autumn and winter, to cold air.

At the slightest thing, her face would go pale and she couldn’t breathe.

But I could roll around in the mud, come and go through wind and rain, and never get sick.

By then, the difference in our features had become obvious.

Mom often held Pei Qian and analyzed her very seriously.

“A high nose bridge, big eyes, double eyelids, thick black hair, and skin so fair. She’s definitely my child.”

Then her gaze would move to me, and she would sigh.

“A flat nose bridge and single eyelids. So ugly.”

“She doesn’t look like me, and she doesn’t look like Qianqian either.”

Dad and Mom had a very good relationship.

He saw through Mom’s worries, put his arm around her, and said,

“Blame me. It’s all my fault.”

“Of our two daughters, Guo Guo takes after me, and Qianqian takes after you.”

So Mom smiled again.

But the question of why I was so healthy while Pei Qian was always sick truly troubled Mom for a long time.

So much so that later, she began looking for reasons in superstition.

The one I remembered most clearly was when she said she had met other children named Guo Guo, and all their parents had divorced.

That day, she stared into my eyes and said, “You’re called Guo Guo, you know that?”

“Maybe you’re the reason your sister is always sick.”

By then, I almost never cried anymore.

Because Pei Qian was much better at crying than I was.

When her tears fell, they came fierce and fast.

The weaker child was always in the right.

Mom and Dad were always telling me,

“Pei Guo, you’re the older sister. You have to give in to your little sister.”

But I was only born five minutes before Pei Qian.

Later, Mom and Dad received a brochure for a nursing home.

Then they came up with countless reasons to persuade me.

For example, the nursing home was only five kilometers from our house.

For example, the room I would live in was top-tier VIP.

More importantly, if I wasn’t at home, my sister wouldn’t get sick anymore.

All three of them looked at me with expectant eyes.

So I nodded.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

The truth was, I didn’t want to go.

But this way, they would be happy.