novelraw Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Friday noon, outside the Student-Council Office at Yuanyue Academy.
The door stood ajar, a thin crack that looked less like an entrance and more like a border between two enemy countries.
Ye Shiyu, waiting on the outside, tilted her head at the words drifting from within. Her blank mask cracked, replaced by a chill sharp enough to frost glass.
She stared at Sakuramiya Hitomi's polite smile. "Xiao Huan is my little brother. I'm here to see him. Why do you need to relay the message?"
Anyone who knew Ye Shiyu would hear the thunder behind the short sentence.
Sakuramiya showed no sign of noticing. Hand over her mouth, she answered with perfect courtesy, "Because this is the Student-Council Office. Could you take another look at the sign by the door?"
Ye Shiyu stepped back. The plaque beside the door read:
STUDENT-COUNCIL EXECUTIVE OFFICE
UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL, KEEP OUT
She opened her mouth, but Sakuramiya continued to smile. "This area houses confidential files. Without permission, outsiders simply aren't allowed inside. It's not personal, Senior."
Rules are rigid; people bend them. Others had strolled in before—Spencer, for instance, had come to negotiate her tutoring placement. So yes, this was a quiet, deliberate obstruction.
Ye Shiyu was no fool, and her skin was far from thick. She felt the gunpowder in Sakuramiya's courtesy.
Shopping bag in one hand, phone in the other, she felt the screen light up, a cold malice seeping through the plastic. "I'm his older sister. My business with him has nothing to do with the council. Let me in."
Sakuramiya did not answer directly. "The President didn't sleep well last night; he just dozed off. If you don't want me to wake him, shall I rouse him now?"
Ye Shiyu paused, gaze slipping past the narrow gap to the sofa inside. All she could make out was part of Yan Huan's brow and lashes, yet even that fragment showed the faint bruise of exhaustion beneath his eyes.
Working late again?
"No need. I'll wait inside until he wakes."
Sakuramiya's smile never wavered. "My apologies, Senior. As I said: no outside visitors without approval. You can leave a message. I'll pass it on the moment he wakes."
Checkmate.
To enter she had to wake Xiao Huan and ask for permission—exactly what she refused to do when he looked so worn.
To stay outside meant dealing with the vice-president she now loathed.
Communication?
Too troublesome.
Hypnosis would be quicker.
Ye Shiyu's eyes lost their last warmth; the girl before her looked less and less like a person.
The violet whirlpool blooming on her phone screen yawned like a hungry abyss.
Inside the half-open door lay a private hell she could not yet feel.
Perhaps Sakuramiya barred her not from pure dislike but from the tug-of-war between duty and desire. One step across the boundary, and who knew what the barrier would tempt her to do?
"By the way, Senior Ye," Sakuramiya added, eyes glinting, "on Monday the President mentioned you're his sister. May I ask, purely out of curiosity—what exactly do you mean by 'siblings'?"
"What does it matter to you?"
Ye Shiyu's distaste sharpened when she noticed the blanket draped over Yan Huan—pink cherry blossoms, clearly a woman's throw. Instinct told her it belonged to the girl blocking her way.
Sakuramiya hid a chuckle behind her hand. "No need to answer; I'm merely curious."
Her gaze swept over Ye Shiyu's outfit, lingering on the price tags only the ultra-rich would recognize. "Everything you're wearing costs five figures or more. You transferred mid-term, and suddenly the school is offering a scholarship in the name of 'Ye International.'"
The smile vanished. "With such wealth, I can't help wondering—if he really is your brother, why is he scraping by on part-time work and sleeping in the office from exhaustion?"
The question stabbed like a needle to the heart. Ye Shiyu knew the answer too well.
Mother had wanted to adopt Xiao Huan, but she herself had sabotaged it, desperate to drive him away. Xiao Huan, sharp as ever, had sensed her malice without exposing it to their mother and left on his own.
She no longer hated him; she could ask him to come home any time. Yet she hadn't, because she knew—if he moved back, the filthy urges she kept chained would break loose. Even the occasional glimpse of him in the lower-grade corridor made her mind skid into darkness. If they lived under the same roof, who could say what she might do?
She had made him leave because of herself; she kept him away because of herself; the dark thoughts were, likewise, all her own. Despicable through and through.
And now Sakuramiya had laid that ugliness bare.
Ye Shiyu's lashes lifted. Words hovered on her tongue, then crawled back down, too ashamed to emerge. A line from the adult website she'd browsed echoed in her skull:
[Hypnosis—it was invented for filthy wishes like mine, wasn't it?]
Shame stopped expanding; a darker hunger filled the gap.
Yes, she had the hypnosis app. With it, no explanations would be necessary.
Her grip on the phone tightened; black haze seeped from her fingers.
"You're Sakuramiya Hitomi, correct?"
Sakuramiya's eyes narrowed; she noticed the whitening knuckles on the phone. Instinct screamed danger—similar to the warning she'd felt facing Spencer, though Spencer had stirred deeper disgust.
She tightened her hold on the doorknob, ready to slam the door and seal herself behind the barrier.
"That's right, Senior Ye." Her smile remained flawless.
Ye Shiyu's gaze turned arctic—one second away from activating the app on zero-frame cue.
Then Meow-chan, who had been watching from inside, suddenly arched his back and hissed.
"Meow!"
Yan Huan's eyes snapped open. One hand soothed the bristling cat, the other pushed him upright from the sofa. Hair hanging over his brow, he rubbed at his eyes with lazy, sleepy motions.
In the same movement, he let his expression soften into the drowsy look of someone still half in a dream.
"Shiyu sis?"
The voice wasn't loud, yet it swept across the smoke-filled battlefield like a gale.
Sakuramiya Hitomi, who had been covering her mouth while waiting for the other girl's next move, blinked and turned her head.
Ye Shiyu—shrouded in a dense black aura of desire—was purified in an instant; the phone she was about to raise suddenly weighed a thousand pounds and refused to obey her fingers.
Both looked toward the office at the same time and saw Yan Huan, still half-asleep, his expression adorably dazed.
President Yan—freshly woken Xiao Huan—
So cute!
The identical thought popped into both girls' heads at once.
Was he woken by our arguing?
It's all this fake sister's fault / that annoying vice-president's fault.
If she hadn't barged in / blocked me, I could've had some quality alone time with him!
Silently, the two at the doorway grew even more resentful of each other.
Sakuramiya Hitomi gave a polite smile, outwardly the polar opposite of Ye Shiyu's blank face—yet inside they were running the exact same script.
Meow-chan hopped off Yan Huan's lap and tattled,
"Just now Ye Shiyu was about to use her Modifier, meow!"
"I know."
Yan Huan sighed to himself and sat up, the blanket still draped over his shoulders.
He looked at Sakuramiya and spoke,
"Sakuramiya, could you let Shiyu sis in? She must have something to tell me."
Ye Shiyu shot Sakuramiya a smug look that said, See? Xiao Huan will let me in.
But Sakuramiya merely played her unbeatable card: "Denying entry is standard procedure."
"Since the President has given permission, of course it's fine." She stepped aside and cleared the doorway.
Ye Shiyu walked in carrying a paper bag. Seeing Yan Huan's sleepy face, she offered a soft apology.
"Sorry for waking you."
Yan Huan smiled, unconcerned.
"It's okay; I was only dozing. Sis, are you returning the uniform?"
His gaze shifted to the bag in her hand—he already seemed to know why she had come.
Though he wondered why she'd waited until Friday, almost a week later.
Uniform?
Back at her desk, Sakuramiya's smile turned thoughtful.
So the President stayed at her house last weekend and never picked up his clothes?
But the bigger question remained: what exactly was the relationship between Yan Huan and Ye Shiyu?
The term "siblings"?
Definitely not by blood—so the word carried a whole different flavor.
"Mm, Auntie Chen washed them earlier," Ye Shiyu said, nodding. She took the seat beside Yan Huan on the sofa, making Sakuramiya's brow twitch.
"Thanks, Shiyu sis. You could've just messaged me on Plane and left it in class; no need to make the trip."
Mainly because, if he took his eyes off her for a second, she'd aim her Modifier at Sakuramiya again.
All because Sakuramiya followed the rules and refused her entry?
Ye Shiyu didn't answer. Instead she stared at the blanket—Sakuramiya's blanket—still draped over Yan Huan's lap.
Gently, she pushed it aside and set the paper bag on his legs.
"Mom ordered some new clothes for you online after you left. I brought them along."
Yan Huan blinked. Across from them, Sakuramiya's smile slipped a notch.
So you just shove my blanket aside like it's nothing? Fine. Great.
After Ye Shiyu finished speaking, the office fell into another hush. She had accomplished her stated purpose, yet showed no sign of leaving.
Sakuramiya remained the perfect vice-president, quietly observing every interaction.
Yan Huan sighed inwardly, accepting the bag and fishing for something to say—when Ye Shiyu beat him to it.
"Xiao Huan, is your part-time job really exhausting?"
Sakuramiya's gaze flicked to Ye Shiyu's profile.
Yan Huan didn't answer immediately; from the corner of his eye he glanced at Meow-chan.
"Vice-President Sakuramiya seems super curious about your sibling relationship, meow," the cat whispered in his mind.
"She asked why, if Ye Shiyu's family is loaded, her little brother still has to work."
Ah, so that's it.
Thanks for the intel, Meow-chan.
Yan Huan was surprised Sakuramiya had pried into his private life. He glanced at Ye Shiyu and caught the flicker of guilt on her face.
She must be thinking it's her fault I left the Ye household.
Oddly, guilt triggered by Yan Huan could suppress Ye Shiyu's Modifier—yet when Sakuramiya accidentally poked the same spot, it spurred its activation.
Is this thing keyed to me alone?
"It's fine," Yan Huan said, tapping the corner of his eye. "Linmen's labor laws cap part-timers at twenty-eight hours a week—pretty humane. My boss is generous too."
"Last night I stayed up late on my own stuff; that's why I'm tired."
"I see."
Ye Shiyu opened her mouth, but the words "Why don't you move back?" refused to come out.
Emotionally, it was the right thing to say.
He'd admitted he longed for family warmth.
Desire itself was waving flags, urging her to drag this tender, delectable younger brother home.
That way she could—well—do this and that at night.
Reason alone held the reins, weighing consequences.
"I—"
Ding-ding-ding~
Her phone rang. She pulled it out; on the screen flashed the contact name "Driver."
After a brief exchange she hung up.
The family driver, here to pick her up?
"..."
"Shiyu sis, are you heading back?"
She nodded, gaze still on him.
"I'll walk you out; I have to wait for the school bus anyway."
"Mom says she wants to take us out to dinner tonight."
"Huh?"
Wait—wasn't that the driver on the phone?
Yan Huan was pretty sure he hadn't heard any mention of Ye Lan's invitation.
He blinked; across the room, Sakuramiya paused mid-sip, eyes flicking their way.
The look that said "I just caught you fibbing" made Ye Shiyu shift uncomfortably; she glanced away, lips pouting.
Still, she insisted,
"Mom—said so."
Yan Huan laughed at her stubbornness. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed her phone screen light up again, as if on cue.
"All right," he said. "If Auntie Ye invited me, of course I'll come."
She nodded, straightened, and turned to Sakuramiya—who was still holding her coffee, having yet to take a single sip.
Without a word, Ye Shiyu walked out of the Student-Council Office.
For some reason the room had felt suffocating; once she stepped outside, she could breathe again.
"Let's go, Xiao Huan. The car will be here any minute."
Yan Huan gave Sakuramiya Hitomi a helpless look, then turned back to carefully fold the blanket she'd lent him. He stood up, ready to return it.
"Let me take care of that, President."
"No worries—I'm heading out anyway. I'll take off for the afternoon. If anything comes up, just reach me on Plane."
"Understood, President."
Hitomi answered automatically, her gaze drifting thoughtfully between Yan Huan and Ye Shiyu, who stood just beyond the doorway.
Something felt off. President Yan's attitude toward Ye Shiyu... it was strange. Not like someone he liked. Not like a real sister either. Just... odd.
Yan Huan slung his bag over one shoulder and picked up the paper bag Ye Shiyu had just bought, then paused at the door.
"Oh, right—Sakuramiya."
"Huh?"
Still lost in thought, Hitomi snapped back to attention.
"President?"
He smiled at her, warm and genuine.
"Thanks for the blanket and the coffee. I slept well at lunch. And..."
"See you at the weekend."
The Linmen Game Expo. She'd mentioned going this weekend.
"Ah—yes, President."
Click.
The door shut behind him.
Hitomi stood frozen, eyes wide.
...
In the quiet that followed, seconds stretched out.
She didn't move, but a delicate flush crept across her pale cheeks, spreading until her entire face blazed pink.
...
Only then did she press a hand to her cheek—tingling, almost numb.
Then, unable to help herself, she covered her face with both hands, leaving only her pink earlobes exposed.