Pairing: tough big sis 1 x delicate little sis 0
Cen Yan lived in the countryside, next door to another child left behind by migrant worker parents.
The child's parents worked far away, and the elderly relatives at home had passed away one after another. At just seven or eight years old, she lived all by herself.
Cen Yan was a year older and took on the role of big sister. She took the child to bathe in the river, helped her get dressed and wash her face, and tied her hair into pretty braids.
The child's name was Shi Yunshui. Quiet and reserved, she followed Cen Yan around without a word, and whenever she saw or heard something amusing, she'd look at Cen Yan and smile.
The villagers teased that she was Cen Yan's pampered little sidekick, and would bawl her eyes out if Cen Yan wasn't around.
Cen Yan thought they would grow up together, go to the same university, and then move to a big city to find work.
But the day before Cen Yan's college entrance exam, several people barged in, claiming to be Shi Yunshui's biological parents, and took her away without a word.
-
Cen Yan did poorly on the exam and repeated a year.
Shi Yunshui came back, completely transformed. She wore fashionable clothes, and her skin was as pale and smooth as satin.
Seeing that Shi Yunshui had become the daughter of a wealthy family in the city, Cen Yan was happy for her, but also felt a little sad.
Shi Yunshui shouldn't have come back. She shouldn't be trapped here; she should go somewhere more prosperous and free. That's what Cen Yan thought.
"Why did you come back?" she asked with a stern face.
But Shi Yunshui immediately burst into tears. "Does Big Sister not want me anymore?"
Cen Yan panicked and hurriedly wiped her face with her rough palms. "Yunshui, that's not what I meant."
"I'm in the same grade as you now. We can take the college entrance exams together and go to university together." Shi Yunshui threw herself into Cen Yan's arms. "You have to promise you won't leave me behind."
-
Cen Yan and Shi Yunshui got similar scores on the college entrance exams, and both could attend prestigious universities.
But one day during the summer after the exams, their relationship was exposed against their will.
The Shi family thought it was a scandal of the highest order and sent Shi Yunshui abroad.
When Cen Yan saw her again, Shi Yunshui had become someone she could barely recognize: cool, aloof, and dignified.
At a banquet, Cen Yan watched Shi Yunshui surrounded by people. She shook her head, thinking that the dim past was beyond reclaiming, and no one here knew of their damp, muddy history in the countryside.
They had never been from the same world. She ought to forget it all for good.
Unexpectedly, after the banquet, the eldest daughter of the Shi family stopped her.
Cen Yan raised an eyebrow. "What can I do for you, Ms. Shi?"
But the cool, dignified heiress pursed her lips just as she had as a child. "I came back ages ago, but I couldn't find you. My return was all over the news. Why didn't you come looking for me?"
Theme: To be added
