When they returned from their morning run, the two elder sisters were already seated at the dining table, waiting for them. Neither had started eating. The knives and forks were arranged in perfect order.

“Mu Yao, come with me.”

Nangong Ling rose, took Mu Yao by the hand, and pulled him aside.

“Sis Ling, Sis Jing, what’s going on?”

Nangong Ruihui noticed the strange atmosphere the moment she returned. Both elder sisters looked grim, which was highly unusual. She tried to go over to Mu Yao, but Nangong Jing stopped her.

“Don’t ask questions. Sit down and wait for breakfast.” Nangong Jing stared at her plate and spoke coldly.

“Oh…”

Nangong Jing and Nangong Ling had changed their strategy at the last moment. For such a personal matter, it was better to question Mu Yao directly. After all, she looked soft and delicate, like an easy target. Surely she’d answer whatever they asked.

Nangong Yao had gone out on business, so Mu Yao wasn’t under too much pressure. Nangong Ling didn’t look like she intended to make things difficult for him.

“Mu Yao, do you have feelings for our Ruihui?” Nangong Ling secretly glanced at Nangong Ruihui. When she saw that Ruihui hadn’t turned around, she knew they were far enough away that she probably couldn’t hear them.

“Huh? I guess I do. Ruihui takes pretty good care of me…”

“Of course she does. The Nangong Clan and the Mu Clan have always been close. I mean, do you like her?”

Nangong Ling tried her best to smooth out her brows. Girls could joke around about this kind of thing, but once they got serious, it became a matter that demanded attention.

One girl having an unusual sexual orientation wasn’t frightening. Two girls with unusual orientations falling for each other was. More importantly, the two of them were engaged—and both were children of great clans.

What were the odds?

“Do you mean the kind of liking between lovers, Sis Ling? Then… no.” Mu Yao lowered her voice.

“But I think Ruihui seems to like you quite a lot~”

Nangong Ling assumed Mu Yao already knew that Nangong Ruihui was a girl. She asked the question with heavy implications.

“There’s nothing I can do about that. Ruihui hasn’t confessed to me. We’re just good friends, I suppose.”

Nangong Ling’s thoughts: *Why can you say so calmly that she hasn’t confessed to you? Has a girl confessing to another girl become the latest trend of the twenty-first century?*

“I was just asking. Come on, let’s go eat.”

Nangong Ling still wasn’t willing to give up. She suddenly moved closer to Mu Yao, wanting to see whether her reaction to another girl was normal.

“Sis Ling, don’t do this…”

With no one here knowing that she was actually a boy, Mu Yao would naturally treat herself as a girl first and foremost. If people could easily discover that she was male, that wouldn’t be the bearing Long Xueer ought to have.

Nangong Ling had studied microexpressions at university for a while. Mu Yao’s reaction to her was perfectly normal. It seemed there was no problem after all.

Perhaps she really had been overthinking it. There was nothing between the two of them but simple friendship.

Nangong Ling draped an arm over Mu Yao’s shoulders and returned to her seat with him. She cut off a small piece of Spanish sausage, placed it on Mu Yao’s plate, and asked, “Ruihui, which do you think is more important—love or family?”

“Thank you, Sis Ling~” Mu Yao said softly.

“They’re equally important.” Nangong Ruihui had no idea why Nangong Ling was asking such a question.

“I’ll give you one more chance to organize your answer—”

The knife and fork in Nangong Jing’s hands began to tremble. Her forearms shook so hard that the table rattled with them.

“Family is more important…”

Her life was more important. Nangong Ruihui’s survival instincts kicked in, and she immediately abandoned her answer of “equally important.”

After living with her four elder sisters for so many years, Nangong Ruihui knew exactly how good they were to her. When she was little, she had been the most dazzling child wherever she went, with four beautiful women accompanying her everywhere.

Other little boys would burst into tears when they saw them. They’d run to their mothers, begging for an elder sister. Even boys who weren’t sister-complexed ended up developing one.

Nangong Ruihui wasn’t as ungrateful as Nangong Ling claimed. She understood how much her sisters cared for her. Nangong Ling and Nangong Jing, especially, were the ones who usually called her whenever they spoke with the family.

She had been so spoiled that she was nearly numb to it.

“That’s more like it.” Nangong Ling suppressed the urge to explode.

Mu Yao’s appearance had successfully made both her and Nangong Jing feel threatened. Mu Yao had taken away precious time that used to belong to Nangong Ruihui. Perhaps those happy days would never return.

Even if it couldn’t be avoided, the thought still left her disappointed.

They were only good friends, yet they were already close enough to sleep in the same bed and hold hands. Once Ruihui found someone she truly loved, wouldn’t she forget her sisters altogether?

Nangong Ling couldn’t accept that.

…

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Nangong Yao returned home, and Nangong Ling sat in the living room chatting with him.

“Dad, you were the one who told Ruihui to bring Mu Yao home?”

“Yes, I was.” Nangong Yao extinguished the cigarette he was about to light between his fingers. “I had Little Wang investigate Mu Yao. It turns out she’s a contracted artist with Leji Entertainment.”

“Oh? Really? So that was the part-time job she mentioned. I never would’ve guessed.” Nangong Ling was a little surprised.

“That child seems to be someone the Xia Clan is focusing on developing. In a short time, her grades have already caught up with Ruihui. Her manners are refined and proper. She’s almost certainly received special training.”

Nangong Yao narrowed his eyes.

“I suspect the Xia Clan wants her to become Yingshengya Academy’s Elder Sister.”

“Dad, what do you mean by that…?”

“It’s nothing complicated. It won’t hurt for Ruihui to spend more time with her. The new company has run into a bottleneck. Once it’s officially registered, Ruihui will be the legal representative, while Mu Yao will be the trump card in our hands.”

Nangong Yao revealed a businessman’s smile.

He had already decided how to get the new idol-training company off the ground. As the academy’s chairman, he had the authority to learn which way the wind was blowing regarding the Elder Sister election half a month in advance.

All he had to do was poach Mu Yao before then.

Every Elder Sister election at Yingshengya Academy was a major event that shook the entire world. At present, buying out Mu Yao wouldn’t cost too much.

But once Mu Yao truly became the Elder Sister, the Xia Clan definitely wouldn’t let her go. It wouldn’t matter who came knocking or how much money they offered.

By then, they’d suffer a devastating loss.

Nangong Yao wasn’t the only one who wanted to buy Mu Yao’s freedom. Nangong Ruihui wanted the same thing—and she had thought of it even earlier than her father.

Their motives were simply different.

One put profit above all else. The other wanted Mu Yao to be free.

The attention brought by “Long Xueer” three years ago, combined with the influence of Yingshengya’s Elder Sister…

Nangong Yao didn’t even dare imagine what would happen next.

He could only hope the plan went smoothly. Whether the new company could soar into the heavens would depend entirely on whether Mu Yao had what it took.

One move could affect the whole body.

Nangong Yao had already become like a startled bird. This was the butterfly effect. If he succeeded, it would determine whether he could remain in the position of clan head.

If he fell, everyone would kick him while he was down. Then Nangong Ruihui’s chances of becoming his successor would become even slimmer.

The impact was enormous.

Mu Yao becoming the Elder Sister would be icing on the cake for the Xia Clan.

For Nangong Yao, however, it would be a devastating blow.

The trade industry had been less prosperous than the entertainment industry lately, and the pressure from within the clan was nearly crushing him. He had to produce some results.

As chairman of Yingshengya Academy, Nangong Yao genuinely didn’t believe the Elder Sister would fall into the Xia Clan’s hands.

He intended to let the Xia Clan fatten the fish for him.