It is snowing.

Cherry Adams says she wants to eat lamb to keep warm.

"It's good for Pascal Lee's health," she says.

So the three of them go to a hot pot restaurant and eat a big bowl of lamb hot pot. They sweat profusely.

Cherry Adams can't drink because she's driving, so she doesn't order wine, but the owner still gives her a bottle of MaoPu bittersweet buckwheat.

　　The owner is a friend of Xie Xue's and knows that Cherry Adams went to the capital the year before last, but doesn't know that she has returned.

When asked how the two children got here, Cherry Adams has a meaningful expression on her face, doesn't say anything, and just points to the sky.

The owner knows what's going on.

"Unfortunately, it's also bad karma to be so young," the owner said sympathetically, "just tell me if you have any problems. I have also watched you grow up."

　　"I don't have any problems right now," Cherry Adams said as she paid the bill, "problems are caused by poverty. People here are good at everything except being poor.

Poverty is a disease," the boss laughed.

"Don't pay, I'll treat you."

"Nobody's doing well in business this year,"

but Cherry Adams paid the bill anyway.

　　Back at home, Cherry Adams asked Jasper Lee to carry the new bedding and pillows upstairs and asked Pascal Lee to mop the bedroom floor again.

She herself was lazy, tilting her feet to watch a short video and smiling as she chewed her teeth. It wasn't until Jasper Lee came over and said the floor had been mopped that Cherry Adams gestured to him, "Spread your mattress out on the floor.

It's the end of the bed where Pascal Lee used to sleep, and it's a little more spacious."

　　"No way, where will Pascal Lee sleep?"

"In the bed," Cherry Adams said matter-of-factly.

"He sleeps in the bed? Where will you sleep then?"

"What do you mean? I sleep in the bed too!"

"Pascal Lee sleeps with you?"

　　It's better not to say it, but as soon as Cherry Adams heard it, she was furious: "What's wrong with your brother? He has to pee two or three times a night! And he keeps kicking the covers! Do you think I want to sleep with your brother? It's not like that. The old Chinese doctor said we shouldn't sleep on the floor because of the dampness and the risk of a weak spleen and stomach. I told him to sleep on the sofa, but he said it was too cold. I said I would sleep on the sofa, but he didn't want to either. Tell me, why is he so hard to please?"

　　"And you took him to a Chinese medicine practitioner?" Jasper Lee knows how to avoid the important questions. Did it work? What else did the old Chinese doctor say?"

"What else? By the time you get back, your brother will be as good as dead. Cherry Adams rolls her eyes. "What can a Chinese medicine man say? Isn't it just taking the pulse and prescribing Chinese medicine? We're almost out of the stuff in the fridge. Oh, by the way, the cost of the medicine will be deducted from your compensation."

　　"......Okay." Jasper Lee had no complaints, "Thank you for taking Pascal to the doctor. Pascal was never willing to take Chinese medicine before."

How could Cherry Adams not know that when they lived with the Lee family, a bunch of servants would chase after Pascal Lee to give him medicine at mealtimes. But she was different:

"Look at this iron hanger on the coffee table. Come on, count the number of places where the paint is peeling?"

　　Jasper Lee picked up the hanger and noticed that it was bent. Cherry Adams: "As soon as I picked it up..."

Pascal Lee, who had just come out of the bedroom, saw this and thought that Cherry Adams was going to hit Jasper Lee, so he got scared and his legs went weak.

"Don't hit my brother! Don't hit my brother! Don't hit my brother!" Despite his fear, he unwaveringly protected Jasper Lee: "If you want to hit someone, hit me! Hit me!"

　　"Look!" Cherry Adams clapped and laughed.

She threw the coat hanger back at Jasper Lee. Jasper Lee took it with a complex look on his face, and after a long silence, he gently set it aside.

Pascal Lee looked left and right before realizing he had thought too much: "I told you, brother, you're so good, how could you get hit?"

　　"Come on, your brother and I will both get beaten up." Cherry Adams folded her arms, "What? You like your brother so much? Then are you going with him?"

"I'm not going, I'm not going," Pascal Lee laughed and came over to give Cherry Adams a shoulder massage.

Jasper Lee watched the young and old being so witty, and for a moment he actually had the illusion that he was an outsider.

　　To be fair, Cherry Adams is the kind of person who is easy to like, even if she doesn't think she is. Cherry Adams is a sharp-tongued person, but she has a particularly soft heart.

For a young master like Pascal Lee, there have been too many people who have been polite and respectful to him in the past, and Cherry Adams is the only one who has a bad attitude like that - a good person who suddenly becomes bad will make you hold a grudge against them, but a bad person who suddenly treats you better will make you feel closer to them.

　　Cherry Adams is the latter.

Not to mention that although Cherry Adams has a sharp tongue, what she says is basically the truth.

For a long time, Pascal Lee's perception of his sister was that she knew everything and could do anything.

This perception lasted until the beginning of puberty, when he began to form his own opinions about the world around him, and gradually faded.

　　It's getting late, so Cherry Adams tells Pascal Lee to go to bed. Pascal Lee says his brother isn't sleeping either, and Cherry Adams immediately reaches for the coat rack.

Pascal Lee reluctantly goes back into the bedroom.

Cherry Adams says to her brother, "Look at your brother's manners.

Jasper Lee smiles back, his dark eyelashes quivering slightly.

Cherry Adams is moved to say, "You are like your father, especially when you smile.

　　Jasper Lee said that everyone said the same thing, and that Pascal Lee was more like her mother.

"Your father..." Cherry Adams thought for a moment, then changed her words, "I think our father has an attitude of wanting his children to succeed in life when it comes to you two brothers.

Jasper Lee nodded, "He's always been very strict with us, regularly setting goals for us, but he doesn't get overly critical when we don't achieve them.

"That's right, he usually gets critical with your mother."

　　Jasper Lee didn't know this and asked, "Really?"

"You must not know, how would you know when your parents are fighting?" At this point, Cherry Adams' advantage as an outsider came into play, and she gave a logical analysis.

"From your father's perspective, you are the one who will inherit the family business, and you still have to work hard among your peers, especially your younger brother. From your mother's perspective, she sacrificed her career to take care of the family, so it must not have been easy."

Those past events.

　　Jasper Lee rarely thought about them.

"Back then..." Jasper Lee said, "Don't blame us, Pascal and I both hated you. It would have been easier for us if our parents had been colder to you. I just don't understand why they treated you like their own daughter."

"They were good to me just because they weren't close to me."

Cherry Adams looked at Jasper Lee and saw that he didn't understand. Normal, for a fourteen-year-old.

　　She made a guess: "Have you ever wondered what would have happened if your family hadn't gone bankrupt?"

Jasper Lee froze for a moment.

Back then, he had been the Lee family's eldest son, the Rising Sun, and the family had pinned all its hopes on him. And Pascal Lee? He also carried a heavy burden.

Only Cherry Adams hadn't been with them from the beginning to the end, and the only thing she was sure of was that she wasn't part of the plan.

　　"See, the reason they're being nice to me is because I'm not important," Cherry Adams knows for sure. "I am not important, so a lot of things can be said to me. Look at your parents, from what I know, if I told them, who wouldn't be embarrassed?"

　　"You have no idea what the servants at home gossip about: power, inheritance, power struggles..." Cherry Adams laughed unrestrainedly, "They don't dare say anything in front of you, but in front of me, they can talk about whatever they want, because I can't even understand what they're saying.

After that, Cherry Adams felt ridiculous herself.

"Forget it, what's the point of talking to a kid like you?"

Jasper Lee pursed his lips and whispered, "I'm sorry.

　　Cherry Adams was surprised that Jasper Lee would apologize at that moment and then said, "No need. The adults are wrong, and it is always the children who apologize.

"Let's not talk about this nonsense," she began to get down to business, "I asked a friend who studies at Xiangyang University. She rents an apartment outside and has extra rooms where you can stay." After another pause, "She's a girl, so you have to be careful and don't talk about such nonsense.

　　What nonsense? Jasper Lee looked up at her.

"Just don't touch other people's things, don't ask personal questions, and behave yourself under the same roof," Cherry Adams frowned, "Do I really need to teach you these things? And don't be home late, no later than 10:00, 10:30 at the latest, got it?"

Jasper Lee nodded, "I know all that.

　　"In the future, you don't have to pay me the 4,000 yuan. Keep it for yourself. I have your pension, so that's enough... Don't you still want to send your younger brother to school? Save some for tuition. It also costs money to transfer school records. By the way, have you looked at any schools yet?"

Not yet. Cherry Adams told him to hurry up and find out.

"Okay, I'll go tomorrow," Jasper Lee agreed.

　　"And..." Cherry Adams tapped her head, which had taken in too much information, "unplug the SIM card in your phone. I'll take you to the phone store tomorrow to get your own number. You know who uses black numbers? People who commit fraud! You really need to learn something!"

"I'll also get your ID card during this time, which will be convenient for taking the bullet train, buses, etc. And don't take rides from strangers anymore!"

　　Jasper Lee continued to lecture.

Cherry Adams thought, okay, that's it.

She got up to go to bed in the bedroom, and Jasper Lee followed her.

"Eww, it's dirty," Cherry Adams said, pinching her nose. It smells like motor oil. What kind of car did you take?"

"A truck," Jasper Lee said, at a loss for words. He had never been considered dirty before.

　　"Go take a shower, go take a shower." Cherry Adams was behind him, ordering him again. "By the way, since you're back, I'll leave the job of keeping your brother awake at night to you. Don't sleep too much at night either. Get up and see if your brother has kicked off the covers and caught a cold."

　　Okay. Jasper Lee agreed immediately. He turned to get some fresh clothes and tiptoed into the bathroom.

He washed himself inside and out, and when he thought of Cherry Adams' disgusted expression, he washed again.

The small bathroom was filled with fog.

Jasper Lee looked at his body.

It was very thin and bony.

He was still a child.

　　When would he grow up?

He stared into his dark eyes.

Jasper Lee didn't dare use the hairdryer for fear of waking Cherry Adams. He dried his hair in the cold living room before returning to the heated bedroom. Cherry Adams slept on the left side of the bed while Pascal Lee slept on the right, wrapped in thick blankets like a caterpillar.

It was obvious whose work it was.

　　He didn't want to judge Cherry Adams right now. But there had indeed been a lot to go through, from getting close to her to relying on her.

　　Jasper Lee had never looked at her so closely before and discovered that Cherry Adams had a beautiful, plain face.

She usually frowned and smiled a lot, and her pale face was hung with frivolous mercenaryism. So when she slept, she was so different from her usual self, and her gentle demeanor was shaky.

Jasper Lee knew in his heart that she was his elder sister.

That was why he had called softly, "Sister.