novelraw Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Chapter 26
There's a saying: "I could have endured the dark, had I never seen the light." So if anyone asked Yan Huan how he was feeling right now, he'd probably answer—voice trembling with sorrow—with a modern retelling of "The Farmer and the Snake."
Update the setting, and the fable becomes "Tech-Support Farmer Yan Huan and the Snake, a.k.a. Stepsister Ye Shiyu."
The moment Yan Huan looked up and saw the phone in Ye Shiyu's hand, the violet vortex on its screen yanked his mind into the abyss—exactly like last Friday. One heartbeat of paralysis, and his body sank into a tingling purgatory. He could still move, but every motion carried pins and needles.
Behind the mask of Perfect Expression Management, Yan Huan's face was a wall of question marks.
Seriously—what did I do to her this time?
I skipped lunch to fix her laptop, asked for no thanks, and she repays me by whipping out a phone and hypnotising me?
Where did she pick up this habit—late-night anime?
Ye Shiyu watched the handsome boy opposite her lose the spark in his eyes, his expression blanking, and her own face crumpled with regret.
I promised myself I'd never use hypnosis on him again...
Yet here we are.
But if he sees what's in that browser history, I'd rather die.
The phone in her hand suddenly felt heavy. She bit her lip, lowered her gaze, and whispered, "I'm sorry."
The boy in front of her, however, had already been swallowed by her greedy power; he couldn't grasp the apology. Fine—delete the evidence and release him.
She snatched the laptop from the desk, slid a thumb across the trackpad, and opened the browser. The machine, still labouring under a virus, froze every few seconds. Ye Shiyu, who considered a mouse too hot to handle, now wrestled with a trackpad—progress was torture.
"Hey, hurry up—Chris is waiting!"
"Coming, coming!"
Voices drifted in from the corridor, and Ye Shiyu's heart lurched.
I'm still in his classroom!
If any of his classmates come back and see him like this—
Her pupils shrank; her fingers flew. After heroic effort the cursor clicked the browser open. A garish search page sprang up, history exposed:
Women's Section
younger male / younger brother / sibling hypnosis
Ever since discovering that "treasure site" on Saturday, Ye Shiyu had vanished down the rabbit hole. A girl who had never glanced at R-rated films now spent every free minute in the Women's Section. She knew it wasn't proper—yet the stories were irresistible. Whenever the female lead tangled with a younger man, Ye Shiyu's pulse raced.
Back in the real classroom, she flushed scarlet and ducked behind the screen, as if even the hypnotised Yan Huan could judge her.
"Sorry—just a moment."
Yan Huan, watching Ye Shiyu snatch the computer and stab frantically at the keys, understood at once: whatever had almost loaded in that browser could socially assassinate her.
No wonder she panicked.
If I had died back then, would the police have checked my history before handing the phone to my family?
That thought alone made him want to crawl back through time and steal his old handset.
Still, he was mildly surprised—he'd never have pegged Ye Shiyu as a consumer of such material. And what exactly did she watch? Doll-on-doll Jenga?
Actually... now he was curious.
With vacant eyes, Yan Huan studied her face as she worked.
Close website—done.
Clear history—done.
Ye Shiyu exhaled. Good. Xiao Huan hadn't seen—
Wait.
She froze. Without thinking, she had used her mother's pet name for him.
Oddly, she didn't hate it. It felt like giving her favourite doll a secret nickname.
"Xiao Huan..." she murmured, testing the taste of the word.
The boy opposite, pupils still unfocused, answered on cue.
"Shiyu sis."
Was he treating every line as a command?
Right—while hypnotised, Xiao Huan would obey anything. Ye Shiyu blinked. She'd planned to release him the moment the computer was clean.
But now, looking at the beautiful boy who hung on her every word, a dark impulse unfurled.
And the classroom was so quiet. Only the two of them remained; the rest of the school was at lunch. Early-spring sunlight slanted in, warm as a caress.
Ye Shiyu opened her mouth. The words "Stop the hypnosis" stuck in her throat.
I want to hear Xiao Huan call me "Older sister."
That word the movies blur out to hide identities.
Desire spread like ink. The phone in her hand glowed a little brighter.
Just one order. Let him say it once, then I'll release him.
"Xiao Huan," she whispered, voice trembling, "say 'Older sister.'"
Older sister?
Hypnotised Yan Huan was puzzled, but his throat tingled with the need to speak. He gave in.
"Older sister."
Ye Shiyu's pupils contracted. The thudding in her ears quickened—thump, thump, thump.
Perfect.
But he wasn't looking at her, and his face was blank. Good... yet not enough.
Just one more command. Then I'll stop.
In her heart she promised again.
"Xiao Huan." Her voice shook. "Look at me, smile, and say 'Older sister,' okay?"
The command surged—then shattered against his Perfect Expression Management. When the previous "Older sister" had slipped out, Ye Shiyu's expression had cracked for an instant; Yan Huan had read the spark of excitement leaking from her.
No way...
Realisation hit him like cold water. Someone had just discovered another of his stepsister's hobbies.
Silence lingered. Yan Huan's gaze lifted inch by inch until his eyes met Ye Shiyu's.
Then he smiled faintly and spoke again, soft as a sigh. "Older Sister."
The quiet of the lunch break, the empty classroom, the handsome boy haloed by sunlight—everything fused into one perfect frame. The glazed look hypnosis usually left in his eyes was hidden behind that smile, as though Ye Shiyu had never opened the app on her phone at all.
His vivid, beautiful smile turned the single word "older sister" from something merely affectionate into something intimate.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It felt like a scene from a movie demanding she play the heroine's next move.
Some filthy corner of Ye Shiyu's heart seemed to seep through the phone screen; the violet glow turned thick and sticky. She blinked, long lashes shielding her eyes, black hair falling to frame flushed cheeks.
No. I can't.
I already said the last wish was final. I can't take it back.
Color rose in her face. Her right hand, reaching toward him on instinct, was pinned down by her left. Conscience and desire duked it out in an octagonal ring inside her chest.
She glanced at the phone—barely a few minutes had passed. Nearly ten minutes still remained. One more command, then end the hypnosis. How about it?
No. No, you've given two commands already.
What more do you think you're going to do?
This is a classroom, and he just helped you fix your computer. You're the one who got the virus from that site, the one who begged for help, and now you want to bite the hand that saved you?
Ye Shiyu, are you really this despicable?
Conscience landed a heavy punch and knocked desire to the mat. Down for the count. Perfect!
Gasping in the ring, conscience watched the fallen opponent—only to realize desire hadn't flinched. It had a trump card.
With a deep breath, desire shouted, "But you can do anything right now! He's hypnotized. When he wakes up the app will edit his memory—what's the harm?"
"What?!"
Conscience staggered, its momentum broken.
Yes... I have this tool. Nothing will happen to Yan Huan. He won't lose a single hair. As long as he never notices, it's as if nothing happened.
The timer was still ticking. One last command while the duration lasted.
"Xiao Huan..."
After an eternity of struggle, Ye Shiyu seemed to reach a decision. Her voice trembled—not with regret now, but with excitement, like an audience at the climax of a film.
Face flushed, phone clenched tight, she looked up at Yan Huan.
"Could you... become the little brother who loves his older sister more than anything, and show her some cute affection?"
???
Wait—what?
Even prepared, Yan Huan's brain felt bludgeoned by a dull hammer. Question marks flooded his mind.
Shiyu-sis, your kink is showing.
Older sister and younger brother are just that—siblings. Siblings can't—
Fine, sis. You've got the hypnosis app; you call the shots.
The most absurd part? Not even the hypnotized fragment knew what to do. For a moment there was no command—apparently it had no script for "the little brother who loves his older sister to bits" and how to act affectionately.
Seconds later a tickle in his throat delivered lines so cringeworthy Yan Huan's skin crawled just imagining them. The kind of thing that would guarantee total social death.
You call this acting affectionate?
Ye Shiyu, you forgot to clear your browser history, nearly died of embarrassment, then used the hypnosis app to keep me from finding out. Now you turn around and use the same app to embarrass me?
Don't blame me for what happens next.
Yan Huan's mood darkened in an instant. No way was he obediently parroting those mortifying lines.
He paused, then flashed a radiant smile. Under Ye Shiyu's expectant gaze he suddenly grabbed her hand.
Smack—soft, boneless fingers were swallowed by the heat of his palm. Her hand was cool, the temperature of early spring, yet ice-cold against his skin.
"!!"
Ye Shiyu's face ignited, the flush spreading like a burn. This was the first time in ages she'd been this close to a boy. She tried instinctively to pull away, but his grip was iron.
"Xiao Xiao Huan..."
Unable to bear it, she opened her mouth to refuse.
Before the words "let go" could leave her lips, Yan Huan seized the moment. He raised his eyes and called her softly, intimately—
"Older Sister."
The word froze her. She stared, forgot to resist, and felt herself being pulled closer.
Ah—ah?
No, this isn't the kind of affection I meant—
Too rough—too sudden, I'm not ready—
Only then did Ye Shiyu realize the app might interpret "show affection" as physical contact unless properly specified. Like a glitchy computer or AI, it needed training to produce the desired model.
Worse, hurried footsteps sounded outside—Class A students returning!
Thump-thump-thump.
No... we can't...
Her heart pounded. Yan Huan's hand refused to release her. She struggled, but panic scrambled her thoughts—she forgot to issue the command to stop.
If anyone saw him like this—
Her cheeks burned, eyes glistening, unable to tell excitement from distress.
Yan Huan, watching her, was speechless. Same as when she'd hypnotized him at Auntie Ye's—always these IQ-drop moves.
Say something, give the order to stop, and it's over.
But the stalemate was broken not by Ye Shiyu, but by a voice in the corridor:
"It's Bai Yi—she's actually here today!"
"Rare sight."
Not Class A after all. The voices snapped Ye Shiyu awake.
"Xiao Huan, stop."
Yan Huan froze; the hands holding Ye Shiyu relaxed. She stepped back at once, still shaken, stealing glances between his face and her own fingers.
So... if Xiao Huan loves his older sister, this is what he'd do?
Ye Shiyu's doubt lingered, along with an indefinable feeling.
Outside, the commotion continued, a stark contrast to the hush of the classroom.
"Where'd she go?"
"Didn't a couple of fan-club kids just spot Bai Yi heading for the teaching building?"
"Fake news!"
"Damn!"