"My skin feels so raw..." Liling whined as she laid in bed. Qin Yuhuan had done good on her promise of scrubbing her clean. Her once pale skin had been scrubbed and sanitized to the point of old skin cells having been exterminated. Everything in her room smelled freshly cleaned and quite honestly, the entire house smelled like bleach.
Apart from that whole ordeal of somewhat reasonable overbearing protective actions, the ride home had been a bit tense. Well, of course it would've been. Two daughters found out their father was cheating on their mother, had photographic evidence of it and the potential affair baby, and now had to figure out a way to relay the news to their oblivious mother.
On the bright side, the house was rather nice. Large, about 5 bedrooms, and plenty of domestic workers. In fact, one a few minutes ago had delivered her medicine. Speaking of which...
"Jules, you found anything to boost my immune system or something yet?"
[ Yes, Host! Please look at the things I've picked out for you! ]
At the prompting of Jules voice, the screen she was used to appear in the air before her in the air with a list of Jule approved medicines. She began to scroll quietly before speaking again.
"Hey, Jules?"
[ Yes, Host? ]
"Would it be possible to like, transfer the System Screen into my phone? I just think it would be more practical and less suspicious."
[ Hmm... I don't know! I could try though! One moment please :D ]
After a few seconds, the System Screen disappeared and she heard her phone vibrate against the end table before picking it up. When it was properly unlocked it was like she was looking at a Amazon page. Except Amazon probably didn't sell anything that would give you laser eyes but getting to the point, it was much more convenient.
[ Did I do good? :D ]
"Exactly what I wanted actually. Good work, Jules."
[ Yay! I did something productive! :D ]
"Yes, yes you did."
While Jules continued to pat himself on the back inside of her mind, Liling set to work scrolling through all the medicines she could settle on. There were things like medicinal herbs that could be consumed either directly or put in food, potions, elixirs, and even special pills. One in particular caught Brooke's eye though.
It's name was a bit long, but simplified it was a Purification Pill. It not only purged toxins from the body but healed the body from the inside out over time. It was more effective if the one using it participated in daily exercise and had a proper diet. She bought it without hesitation and waited for a moment before a box whacked her in the head from out of nowhere.
"Goddammit, Jules! That hurt!"
[ Sorry, Host! Still figuring out the whole making matter out of thin air thing. (U•̥ᴥ•̥) ]
Brooke decided it was better to look at her item rather than argue with Jules over whatever it was they had to do to make these items. The box was heavier than expected, it seemed to be made of some sort of metal she couldn't recognize. The pill inside was a pearl-like ball, a metallic white sort of color, and smelled faintly like... pineapple?
"This is safe to actually swallow, right?"
[ There isn't any reason it wouldn't be! All items from the System Store are certified for effectiveness and quality by... I actually don't know who! :D ]
"That's really helpful, thank you."
She contemplated getting a glass of water to chug the pill down with before deciding to bite the bullet and take it dry, which wasn't as unpleasant as she would've expected. For the few seconds the pill rested on her tongue it had tasted rather sweet and had gone down smooth. Brooke hadn't expected to feel immediate effects either, so she set to work going through her hard earned library book.
Before she had even conquered the table of contents, which she believed to make up much more of the book than actual divorce law, a knock came from her door.
"Come in!" Liling didn't look up from her place on her bed, belly down and face to page in the increasingly unknown terms in the table of contents. Maybe she should've picked up a dictionary too.
Zhang Lihua closed the door behind her and took a seat on Liling's bed next to her, figuring out what to say to her younger sister. It was supposed to be a good day, she had finally came out from one of her many hospital stays and now her little sister had to carry the weight of an affair on her shoulders and in her pocket in the form of a photo.
"Lingling... How do you feel about what happened today?" Lihua cringed a bit when she heard the words come out from her mouth instead of just in her head. That was a stupid question.
Liling seemed to stare deeper into the page she was not, not truly reading what was on the page. "She was wearing it."
"What?"
"One of my old dresses. One I thought I lost. She was wearing it. Dad gave it to her."
It took a moment before Lihua realized she was talking about Su Jinjing. She could faintly remember what the girl had been wearing on the street, a baby blue dress with a white ribbon around the waist and lace at the collar. Liling hadn't worn a dress like that since a year ago when they'd gone on a family trip and the dress had disappeared from her luggage. She'd cried that day and ended up getting a fever that sent them home early.
Zhang Lihua felt her blood boil, rage coursing through her veins like nothing before. Mostly because it made no sense. There was no reason for their father to steal one of Liling's dresses and give it to Su Jinjing. He would've just bought her one. Actually, it didn't make sense at all. Maybe... She tucked the idea away for later, but it cooled her blood considerably from what little she touched on in her head.
"Lingling, I-"
"She looked my age. Do you think mom and that lady were pregnant at the same time? Dad wasn't there for my birth either. Was he there for hers?"
"I-"
"How could he?"
When Liling finally raised her head, there were tears running down her face. "How could he do this to us? To mom? Who does he think he is?" Her voice was full of anguish, but under that Lihua easily recognized an emotion that wasn't often seen in her sister. Anger.
Lihua could only bring her sister into her arms and squeeze her tight as the girl fell apart into her, sobbing and shaking as she clutched onto her, hiding her face into her shoulder. Eventually, her sobs quieted out to whimpers and her shaking to barely a tremble. Unconsciously, Lihua had begun to cry as well. It had been a long time since she had allowed such catharsis to flow through her. Tears had brought nothing but misery to her under the Su women and joy to them, holding back tears was one of her few ways of protest. Crying meant that they had won.
But now, holding her sister in her arms, in her room that had yet to be touched by the greedy hands of Su Jinjing, their house that had yet to become a hell, the older girl allowed herself the long lost luxury.
"I'm sorry, Liling. I'm so sorry." Sorry that I couldn't protect you. Sorry that you had to die without knowing why. Sorry that you lived knowing you had been betrayed in a way nothing could fix. Sorry that the world turned its back on us.
It would never happen again.
When Liling's breathing finally evened out, Lihua tipped her back to get a look at her face and realized that the girl had fallen asleep. Her expression was relaxed and her cheeks were stained with tear tracks, having cried herself into exhaustion. With the gentleness of a mother with a child she rested her sister down on the bed and covered her with a blanket before taking her phone and leaving the room, dimming the lights and closing the door softly behind her.
She didn't need to know Liling's eyes reopened as soon as she was sure the girl had left.
-------
Zhang Lihua found herself diving head first into trouble once again when she came downstairs to find the person she wished to see the least in the world seated on the living room couch talking casually with her mother.
Zhang 'Father of the Year' Guo.
It took everything in her being to keep her expression from morphing into something ugly, from screaming at him like a demon until his ears bled. From carving his lying tongue from his mouth and forcing him to swallow his words.
Acting came naturally now.
"Father," the word felt like acid. "You're home already?"
Zhang Guo was a man whose slicked back hair was beginning to pepper, with a smile that could charm the most stubborn and grumpy elders. One could guess what he used it for. The smile he gave Lihua made her want to stitch his mouth shut.
"A Hua, there you are. I brought presents for you and Liling, where is she?"
'Shove them up your ass, you fraud.'
"Oh, gifts? Well, Liling is taking a nap. Our time outside must've tired her out."
"Forget about it then, I'll give them to her later. Come here, I know you'll love what I got you."
Qin Yuhuan was smiling with great joy, looking at her own gift of a silk shawl with flowery embroidery. Oblivious to the fact that exact present that brought her so much joy would bring her the most hardship during the divorce proceedings.
Maybe she should burn it.
Despite her revulsion at the idea of spending more time than needed with the man, Lihua came and sat with room between the two of them which raised an eyebrow but nothing more. Zhang Guo pulled out a small jewelry box from his suit pocket and handed it over to his daughter practically vibrating with excitement.
Lihua already knew exactly what it was. A pair of dangling pearl earrings. They were beautiful. She'd be selling them for rainy day cash the second she had the chance.
But for now she smiled and feigned surprise as she opened the box, pretended to not be close to gagging when she hugged her father, pretended to chat with her mother with joy as the woman put the earrings on for her.
Pretended that anything about this dollhouse meant anything.
[ Life comes at ya fast. Then it holds you down and beats you- ]