Originally, Jiangg Ning had planned to grab a casual bite with Chen Yuan and Lan before heading home, but after their argument, she clearly wasn't in the mood anymore.

Lan wasn't stupid. She could see the two of them were fighting and probably needed to sort things out urgently. Being stuck in the middle would just be asking for trouble.

They were all adults. If she couldn't even figure that out, she'd be pretty hopeless.

So, after helping them load their things into the trunk, Lan said she had a very busy evening and wouldn't see them off, just telling them to be safe on their way back.

Chen Yuan, of course, accepted her excuse politely.

...

CLICK—

Whether it was psychological or he was just tired, the slam of the closing door felt unusually heavy.

Chen Yuan was terribly thirsty. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and started chugging it down—GLUG GLUG GLUG. Some of it even dribbled down his chin and into his collar.

"Drinking ice-cold water is bad for your stomach. Why don't you have some room-temperature water..."

Jiangg Ning hadn't even taken off her shoes or put down her bag. She hurried to the cabinet, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, and offered it to Chen Yuan.

"No need. I've had enough."

Chen Yuan didn't even take it. He put the bottle back in the fridge, and with a cold expression, flopped onto the sofa by himself, his mind a total mess.

Jiangg Ning was left standing there awkwardly. She lowered her head and, after a moment of silence, went to change her shoes.

The palpable coldness was like an arrow that pierced her heart, chilling her to the core.

This was their first fight.

Unexpectedly, it wasn't the slightly headstrong Jiangg Yao who set this precedent. Between the two sisters, it was the gentle Jiangg Ning who first experienced what a cold and distant Chen Yuan was like.

He just sat there on the sofa, legs splayed out, head turned to stare at a lone, wilting flower on the balcony.

Not saying a word.

His whole body radiated a low-pressure aura that screamed, 'I don't want to talk.'

After changing her shoes, Jiangg Ning cast a somewhat pitiful glance at Chen Yuan. She pouted, wanting to speak, but the frozen atmosphere in the living room forced the words back down.

...

「Just one wall away.」

Jiangg Yao had no idea that she and her sister, who were in the same boat, were facing their first difficult crisis.

When her sister left, she grumbled, but she still tried her best to remember the instructions she'd been given.

She arranged the books properly.

She also tidied up the somewhat messy entryway.

Now that she was back in Lanjing, Jiangg Yao needed to start streaming again as soon as possible. Otherwise, if she waited any longer, her fans would start to forget her.

Jiangg Yao unboxed a few packages and went into the secondary bedroom—her streaming room.

She rearranged her background, moving the shelf she used for display to the left. She then stacked up the cute plushies she had just unboxed and stood them up behind her.

Jiangg Yao had recently gotten into the popular manga *Giyu Kawa* and had specially bought a few Ushaki Baby figures to decorate her room.

At heart, she was still a young girl who liked all these cute little things. Seeing these trinkets during her streams would inexplicably put her in a good mood.

While tidying the background, she carefully took down her favorite photo frame and placed it on her computer desk. Once she was done, she picked it up again to put it back.

The photo in the frame was of her in Sanya, standing by a stone wall, hugging Chen Yuan's arm tightly. Both of them were beaming at the camera. A passerby had taken the picture for them back then. After she had it developed and framed, the more she looked at it, the more she felt it was a perfect shot.

At that moment, an exceptionally sweet smile spread across Jiangg Yao's face as she rejoiced inwardly.

'This is my special memory with the young master, one of a kind. My sister doesn't have one like this.'

She giggled foolishly a few times, her cheeks flushing for no reason. Since no one was around, she went ahead and planted a few kisses on the Chen Yuan in the photo. "MWAH MWAH MWAH."

Lost in her affection, a hopeful vision of the future flickered in Jiangg Yao's eyes, and her heart fluttered uncontrollably.

...

After a long hesitation, Jiangg Ning decided to try and talk things through. Problems had to be solved with communication, and she didn't think Chen Yuan was truly angry with her just yet.

'Maybe I really did handle it poorly...' she thought. 'It might have been better if I had talked to him about it beforehand.'

For so many years, Jiangg Ning had always made her own decisions. After struggling for so long, she was no longer a naive young girl. She was used to being assertive and rarely thought to consult anyone.

There's a saying that goes, "Don't speak of a matter until it's accomplished." It was best to keep things to yourself and complete them quietly. Grand plans announced with loud gongs and drums rarely ever succeeded.

She would sometimes discuss things with Jiangg Yao and share her inner thoughts, but who else was there to talk to?

Besides, it all came back to the original problem.

Given Chen Yuan's age, was it really necessary to discuss so many practical plans with him while he was still enjoying a carefree life?

AHEM—

Jiangg Ning's cough caught Chen Yuan's attention.

He glanced at her, then turned his head away again.

Jiangg Ning mustered some courage, trying to keep her tone as gentle as possible.

"Are you hungry? Should I make something for us to eat?"

"Not hungry."

"..."

Hearing that, Jiangg Ning pursed her lips but still sat down next to Chen Yuan, deliberately scooting a little closer.

"Come on, don't be angry anymore," she said.

"I'm not."

When one person in a couple says, "I'm not angry," they're definitely angry. They're just being stubborn.

Jiangg Ning, of course, understood this.

She wasn't blind; she could see how sour Chen Yuan's expression was.

"Alright, I apologize. From now on, I'll definitely talk things like this over with you. I won't make decisions on my own anymore, I promise."

Jiangg Ning grabbed Chen Yuan's hand and tried to turn his body, forcing him to look at her.

Her sparkling eyes, filled with sincerity and a hint of pity, blinked at him, accompanied by that gentle tone of hers.

Chen Yuan frowned.

"You don't have to apologize. I'm not asking you to."

"It's not about whether you want me to or not. When you do something wrong, you should apologize. Admitting my mistake and fixing it makes me a good girl, right?"

"Hmph."

Chen Yuan forced a grunt from his throat, but his expression seemed to have softened a little.

"Let's talk this through properly now and solve the problem, okay?" Jiangg Ning said.

"No, the thing is, I feel like you still don't get what I'm really angry about. This isn't just about consulting me, and it has nothing to do with an apology."

"Then tell me, what are you angry about?"

"I'm angry because I feel like our relationship is so different from a normal one. I don't know why it feels so strange."

"It's not strange at all," Jiangg Ning said, completely baffled. "Isn't everything going great?"

"No, it's not. Maybe that's just what you think."

Suddenly, when Chen Yuan said that, a chill went through Jiangg Ning's heart, and the color drained from her face.

In fact, ever since before summer break, Chen Yuan had been feeling this way.

It was like he couldn't quite fit into Jiangg Ning's life, as if they lived in completely different worlds.

Because of their age gap and different perspectives, he couldn't understand the decisions Jiangg Ning made. Nor could he comprehend why Ningning, who had been tormented by Jiangg Ruxue since childhood, was so overly cautious about so many things.

She seemed to be living such a tiring life.

And Chen Yuan... he was supposed to be her one warm harbor, a place of solace amid all her trials. Being with him was joyful and happy.

She could forget all her worries.

But outside of their relationship, there were simply too many other things in life that she had to worry about.

This was the world of an adult.

She had to find her purpose in life, her own value. She had to seek that utopian ideal that philosophers pondered and build impenetrable walls around her heart. Only then could she cope with the trivialities of life and the pain brought by her family.

Because Jiangg Ning had no one to rely on—at least, that's how it used to be.

But she was, and always had been, Jiangg Yao's support.

That was her responsibility as an older sister.

She didn't even have a father. When she wanted to cry, who could she turn to?