“I’ll take this dress. It suits Huaying perfectly.”

Fei chose a sapphire-blue gown as her reward, also as a gift for her wife. As for me, being the more financially driven one, I just took the promised thousand yuan.

I had considered picking something out for Rinka too, but there really wasn’t anything in the shop that would suit her.

Tony Yang personally boxed up the dress for Fei, then hoisted up the large duffel full of outfits and left the store with us.

“I’d love to treat you all to dinner, but I’ve got to rush these clothes to the factory, and the photos need to be printed. Hope you’ll forgive me for ducking out.”

Now that he mentioned it, I realized it was about dinner time.

“Oh, no worries! We’ve still got Scarlet-chan with us—we’ll just go eat together~”

“Eh? Can I come too?”

Scarlet-chan looked like she’d been planning to head home, but Rinka suddenly invited her along. She turned to her brother with wide, questioning eyes.

“If you want to go, then go. Eat whatever you like—your big bro’s paying.”

And just like that, Scarlet-chan was officially part of our dinner-and-shopping crew.

“Hey, Scarlet-chan, do you know if there’s a toy store in Tianping that sells teddy bears?”

Rinka was helping Fei pick a gift for her little cousin. From what I’d heard, Old Feng’s daughter was around thirteen—not much older than Qianxia. Probably an adorable kid too.

“You mean like a plush teddy bear? If you’re not in a hurry, I could make one for you. Mine usually turn out better than store-bought.”

“Thanks, Scarlet-chan. But this onee-san here is giving it to her ‘little sister’ tomorrow, so even if you rushed, it wouldn’t make it in time.”

Rinka subtly emphasized the word sister. Fei dipped her head slightly.

Daughter turned “little sister”—must’ve been a bitter pill for any parent to swallow.

Of course, Scarlet-chan didn’t notice Fei expression.

“I see. Then follow me—I know a big toy store upstairs. They’ll definitely have what you need!”

She puffed up proudly, thumped her chest, then turned to study Fei carefully.

“Having a big sister sounds so nice. My idiot brother never gives me anything. Went abroad for school and didn’t even bring back a souvenir when he finally came home.”

Her brother really did seem kind of clueless. Not that it mattered. After all, for every reliable older brother like me or Brother Fengwu, there’s a Tony Yang in the world… What? You’re saying I’m not a big brother?

Nonsense! Aren’t Tangerine and Qianxia basically my little sisters?

Scarlet-chan’s words hit Fei where it hurt, sending ripples through the calm surface of her heart. Her eyes grew a little distant, touched with melancholy—almost delicate in a way I’d never seen before.

Old Feng would’ve never shown this kind of vulnerability in the past.

“I’ve been away from her for so many years... I owe her so much. I honestly don’t know how to face her.”

There it was again—Fei’s habit of blaming herself for everything, as if her daughter had been suffering in silence all these years.

Sure, single parenting has its challenges, but Rinka’s cousin is still a member of the Huangfu family. She definitely had a better upbringing than Old Feng, who’d been left to drift on his own after the divorce. The kid was so young back then—she probably doesn’t even remember what her dad looks like now.

The toy store Scarlet-chan led us to was huge. Fei managed to find a life-sized teddy bear—almost as tall as Scarlet-chan herself, and awkward to carry at that.

With a bear this big, it made sense to avoid any meals with heavy smells or greasy sauces. We ended up choosing a conveyor belt sushi place instead.

And like with most conveyor belt sushi joints, the plates were priced by color. I stuck with the cheapest ones—veggie rolls, seaweed rolls—that kind of thing. I guess it started to get on Rinka’s nerves.

“Stop picking the cheapest ones, you cheapskate!”

She scolded me while stuffing a piece of salmon sushi into my mouth. Unfortunately, that piece had an extra generous dollop of wasabi hidden between the fish and rice. My eyes were watering before I could even swallow.

Okay, yes—I am stingy. But also, I don’t like spicy food, and I’m not great with raw stuff either. Even if salmon isn’t that fishy, the texture still makes me gag a little.

Oh, and by the way: those water faucets on the sushi tables? They’re for tea, not for washing your hands.

In the end, Rinka didn’t let me pay.

As the saying goes—“You take someone’s food, you owe them your words.” After being treated to both a dress and dinner by Rinka, I felt like I was drowning in IOUs and had no idea how to repay her.

Maybe that’s how Sis Xi felt about it.

After dinner, we shared a cab. Scarlet-chan was heading toward the subway, so we dropped her off first. When we reached Mifeng Street, I hopped out.

“Bye-bye~” I waved as the taxi pulled away.

I started walking home with the bag of clothes in hand—only to notice the lights on in the living room.

Crap. Dad was already home from his overtime shift. Worse yet, a red sports car was still parked outside. That meant Wu Qinglan hadn’t left either. Even if I managed to bluff past Dad by making him shutdown, I definitely wasn’t getting past her.

Keeping low to the ground, I crept through the yard, sticking to the shadows cast by the fence until I reached my bedroom window. I tried mentally summoning the Bishoujo Notebook for help.

...No response.

Notebook-sama seems to only gets excited when it’s turning people into girls.

Which meant I’d have to do this the hard way—climb. The route was straightforward: use the air conditioning unit outside the first-floor guest room to reach the windowsill, then climb up to the AC unit outside my room and sneak in through the window.

I stashed the shopping bag behind some bushes, placed my hands on the unit, and hoisted myself up. If Zhao Zhao, Xiao Lei, and even ten-year-old Qianxia could do this, then I should be fine too.

…

Except I wasn’t.

I’d seriously overestimated my athleticism.

The stamina thing I could manage. But the real problem was this damn chest. The weight and awkward angles made climbing hell—and painful too, especially when squished against the windowsill. By the time I finally got to the second-floor AC unit, I was wheezing like I’d run a marathon and needed to rest.

That’s when I noticed someone watching me from the neighboring Zhu family’s yard—little Qianxia in her martial arts uniform.

Right... this is her usual training time.

For me, this was salt on an open wound—except the salt was arsenic.

I raised a finger to my lips, signaling her to stay quiet. Not sure if she understood or misunderstood, but she took off running—straight into my yard. Now she was standing below, staring up at me with a big, excited smile.

Clearly, she was fascinated by the “big sister” perched on the AC unit. Was she thinking of climbing up here too?

If she saw me and my original body together, it’d be a mess.

I ditched my break, yanked open the window, and practically dove inside. Ignoring everything else, I shoved aside the curtain and landed hard on my desk, scrambling into the room—just in time to look back and see Qianxia already halfway up the wall. She was scaling the windowsill like it was nothing, light and nimble as a ninja.

I glanced at the notebook on my desk… then sighed and hauled my original, still-starving body off the bed and shoved it under the frame.

There was no time to deactivate the clone properly. The notebook took too long to erase a name and restore the original body. If she saw me disappear midair, that would raise way too many questions.

“Sis!”

The pint-sized parkour pro burst into my room, launched herself at me, and wrapped her arms around my neck like a monkey.

“Shh! Keep it down.”

She was light, thankfully, so I let her cling to me while I walked over and locked the bedroom door. Just in case Wu Qinglan or Dad came up to investigate, at least I’d have a few seconds to hide.

“So, what are you up to this time, little ninja?”

She didn’t answer, just giggled and cuddled closer. “You really are a big sister.”

I sat on the bed with her in my arms. She didn’t care at all how dirty my black dress was—just snuggled up and started nuzzling against my chest. Her tiny hands also started wandering...

Which I immediately swatted away.

According to my analysis, Qianxia had grown up in a single-parent household with little maternal affection. Naturally, she’d develop an emotional attachment to motherly traits—like breasts. That made sense.

But it still didn’t make this any less awkward for me.

“I’m actually a big brother who sometimes turns into a big sister. So this has to be our little secret, okay?”

She’d already seen both my real and girl forms, so I figured I might as well tell her.

Sure, trusting a ten-year-old to keep a secret is a gamble… but then again, they’re also the easiest age to dismiss things as make-believe.

“Don’t worry, sis! I won’t tell anyone! Pinky promise!”

She held out her tiny pinky finger.

She looked so serious. This little canary in a gilded cage—her innocence was purer than anyone I’d ever met.

God, I love little girls.

“Yeah… pinky promise.”

I hooked my pinky around hers, swaying it gently up and down.