I smiled. “Well, you are not wrong. I have a big sister to look after. Since I was young, I lived under her terror. Whenever she was unhappy, my day would be over. Because of that, I am used to living with close attention to other people’s emotions. As an extension of that, I am good at taking care of others. Look at Jing Ni and Mai Qi, I’ve taken such good care of them, right? You’re always away from the dorm or I’d do my best to take care of you too!”
Mai Qi rolled her eyes. “Nanxing, aren’t you full of yourself? The face of the second Nan miss sure is thick.”
I pulled on Mai Qi’s braids. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Lu Yan’s shoulders relax.
“Nanyang in the news is really your big sister?” Lu Yan sounded more at ease.
I shrugged. “Cousin, her father is my eldest uncle. My parents died when I was young so I grew up with them. My sister, Nanyang didn’t like me when we were young, however, she had to act like a good big sister when we were around others so my life before I left home was truly hell on earth.”
“Wait, so your big sister also acts one way before you and another way before others?” Lu Yan was shocked.
I skipped over the term ‘also’ in her statement and chuckled. “Nanyang is such a good actor that I am already used to it. I became so attuned to her behavior that whenever I hear her voice soften, I knew tragedy was coming.”
Lu Yan bit on her lips.
I chuckled. “Mai Qi probably doesn’t have that experience though.”
Mai Qi shook her head. “Of course, I’ve always been the ruler of my own life!” Mai Qi raised her head proudly. While we spoke, Mai Qi brought out 3 sets of dresses from her closet. One for herself, one for me, one for Lu Yan. I once again gave Mai Qi a thumbs up.
To make Lu Yan not feel so awkward, I allowed Mai Qi to dress me too. I nodded at Lu Yan and Lu Yan accepted the dress.
I smiled. “Wow, the logos are still there. The dresses are new. Lu Yan, thank you so much. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to steal these new dresses from Mai Qi. But there’s no need to thank the princess. We’re really helping her clean out her dresser!”
Mai Qi glared at me. “Nanxing, you are such a beautiful girl, why you do have such an annoying mouth? You don’t thank me after taking my things and expect me to thank you instead?”
Lu Yan hurriedly said, “Mai Qi, thank you!”
Mai Qi sighed. “I was joking. Stop taking everything so seriously. Why do you always take the wrong thing to heart? What are we to do with you?”
I hugged Lu Yan and said, “Lu Yan, just ignore her. Later, we shall raid her dresser to see if she has any clothes with attached logos. We shall release them to see the light of day!”
Under my arm, Lu Yan was incredibly tense but her smile was small and humble. She was averse to me being so close to her but she tried her best to not offend me.
Mai Qi started to dress us up, saying that it was a dress rehearsal for the wedding. This was the first time Lu Yan actually joined in our activity. She wasn’t just watching us laugh. She tried her best to mingle with us.
On the side, I sent a message to Tan Si to get him to investigate Lu Yan. At that moment, I realized our database was lacking.
For example, it was hard to come up with instant info on ‘ordinary people’ like Lu Yan. We normally didn’t have much interest in them. However, many ordinary people had extraordinary stories behind them.
Lu Yan was the best example. I was reminded of the awkward meeting between Ye Qian and Lu Yan when Ye Qian first came to our dorm.
Lu Yan didn’t want to go to the wedding to see Nanyang but to see Ye Qian.