Thinking back to her own mom, Xiaoxi almost sighed out of habit.
Although it might not sound nice coming from her, Xiaoxi truly thought her mom was a rather unreliable person.
Ever since she was a child, her mom would always vanish under the pretense of working late, leaving her at home alone.
After she entered middle school, things only got worse—her mom would disappear for ten days or even half a month without any warning.
If it hadn’t been for Su Yuening at home, Xiaoxi seriously wondered if she might have starved to death as a kid.
Not only that, her mom was always so mysterious.
When Xiaoxi was younger, she’d been curious about her father—whether he had passed away or something else—but her mom never explained anything.
Even regarding the job that took her away every now and then, she only ever said it was a “work requirement” and had to be kept secret.
To this day, Xiaoxi still had no idea what her mom did for a living.
But after so long, Xiaoxi had lost her curiosity about it.
So when her mom disappeared off the face of the earth again during high school, Xiaoxi wasn’t even surprised.
At least, every year, she would still send letters to Su Yuening, so Xiaoxi wasn’t too worried about her mom’s safety.
Compared to her own mom, though, Su Yuening was basically the model of a perfect mother!
“So…is that so? Xiaoxi, your family situation is pretty complicated.”
“Is it? Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it.”
Xiaoxi shrugged.
She was so young when her two mothers remarried that she hardly remembered it now.
Plus, Su Yuening had always treated both her and Xiao Keke equally—so much so that, in her eyes, Su Yuening was no different from her biological mother.
On the other hand, her own mom was completely unreachable now, and every year she only wrote to her wife, never to her own so—…daughter.
“Look, this is Keke’s room.”
Xiaoxi and Xiao Keke’s rooms were right next to each other.
At the doorway, Ye Xinglan stood silently for a few seconds before suddenly turning around.
“How about we go take a look at Mom’s room instead?”
“There’s nothing to see in Mom’s room! It’s all those superstitious knick-knacks she buys, like Protective Charms and Idol Figurines…”
The cabinets in the room were packed with over eighty percent of all Eternal Star merchandise available, not to mention the entire room plastered with Eternal Star Posters.
There were even Eternal Star Pillows on the bed.
The biggest difference compared to Ye Xinglan was that, in Xiao Keke’s room, the Eternal Star Pillow was actually for hugging while she slept, not for elbowing.
So Xiaoxi completely understood why Ye Xinglan squinted her eyes like she’d just seen something dirty.
With how otaku Xiao Keke’s room was, anyone who didn’t know better might think it was some kind of Eternal Star exhibition.
Glancing at all the dazzling displays inside the room, Xiaoxi couldn’t help but sigh again.
With all those giant posters of herself pasted up, anyone would feel a mountain of pressure in here!
“Big sis, you’re at it again!” Xiao Keke grumbled, punching her big sister’s shoulder.
“Tch, whatever. I don’t expect someone who writes little Magic Girl stories like you to understand Eternal Star anyway!”
“You always have something snarky to say! You just don’t get how amazing Eternal Star is as a Magic Girl!”
“Mmm…Well, I probably don’t know as much as you…”
If, before, Xiao Keke’s feelings were just simple idolization of Eternal Star, after going through the profound training from Eternal Star Senior herself, she had become utterly devoted.
But with how terrible her big sis’s character was, she’d never be able to appreciate it!
“Say what you will, at least Eternal Star really did defeat the Divine Summon Order and that jerk Blood Moon Witch, and brought an end to the Great Chaos Era—that’s just a fact, right, Xinglan?”
“Well…yeah, I guess.”
Clearly, Xiao Keke had picked the wrong ally.
Even though Ye Xinglan forced a smile, she couldn’t hide the way she was gritting her teeth.
Xiaoxi smiled helplessly.
She’d always had a headache about this. On the one hand, being her little sister’s idol brought a mountain of pressure; on the other, she lived every day at home terrified her real identity would be exposed.
It was exhausting!
For example, when Xiao Keke spent her saved allowance on a Signature Poster of Eternal Star, Xiaoxi checked and confirmed it was genuine.
But seeing her little sister sitting at her desk and grinning like an idiot at the poster every night made her temples throb.
She was terrified that, if this silly girl stared too long, she’d suddenly notice how similar Eternal Star’s handwriting was to her big sister’s.
That was why she had purposely picked a fight with Xiao Keke, making up a reason to argue and finally getting her to put the poster away.
Well, in Keke’s eyes, that behavior was probably totally unreasonable.
It was no wonder she ended up resenting her big sister.
Just as she was thinking this, Xiaoxi’s peripheral vision caught sight of a small folding bed standing in the corner of the room.
Xiao Keke had come home earlier than the others and had been tidying up, planning to take some of her merchandise to the dorm.
The whole room was a mess, and she had just pulled that small folding bed out from under her bed.
“Huh, I thought you would’ve tossed this ages ago. Didn’t expect you to keep it all this time.”
Xiaoxi’s face was full of nostalgia as she touched the little folding bed.
Xiao Keke’s face turned a little red at her words.
“I-It’s not like I kept it on purpose! I just forgot to throw it away! It’s totally useless now. I only took it out so Mom could deal with it!”
“Tsk tsk tsk, so grumpy. I still liked the little girl who used to chase after me, begging me to sleep with her every night…Hey, don’t you dare come over here!”
Faced with Xiao Keke swinging a chair at her, Xiaoxi ran off at top speed.
Clearly, her cute little sister was no longer anything close to “cute.”
Ye Xinglan curiously touched the small folding bed.
It was the first time she’d seen Xiao Keke this flustered and red-faced.
Her bystander’s instinct told her there was definitely something interesting about this.
After a while, both girls were scolded by Su Yuening for running and jumping in the room and had to sit down obediently.
When Ye Xinglan asked curiously about it, Xiaoxi smiled mysteriously.
“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just that when Keke was little, she was a scaredy-cat and didn’t dare sleep alone…”
“That’s only because you kept telling me those weird bedtime stories! How was that my fault…? I was just a little kid back then!”
Clearly, this touched on something Xiao Keke didn’t want to talk about.
Her face went even redder, and she tried to shut Xiaoxi up physically—but she didn’t succeed.
“That’s right. By the time Mom and her got remarried, I was already pretty little, but Keke was even younger—just a kid who still needed an adult to sleep with her.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Ye Xinglan interrupted. “You were just a kid too, right? Isn’t putting little kids to sleep supposed to be the mom’s job?”
“Both of them, well…”
Xiaoxi made a rather awkward expression.