A scream shattered the quiet. Li Xinghe pulled off his headphones without thinking. He was just wondering whether he should catch the beautiful thief when her soft, gentle reply made him realize what was going on.

“No, um... big brother? I’m Bai Xiaoxiao, your stepsister—the one you’ve never met.”

Considering how easily she’d gotten past the outer courtyard and the front door, then made it all the way up to the third floor, there was no way she was a thief.

Bai Xiaoxiao? Wasn’t she the one he’d driven out to pick up last night, only to get stuck waiting forever after a monster alert went off, then deal with the monster himself—before she told him she couldn’t come because something had come up at work?

His dad had told him ages ago that his little sister was really cute. Now that he was seeing her for himself, it was clear that hadn’t been an exaggeration.

Her shoulder-length hair looked unbelievably smooth, every strand cascading like a galaxy. Her little cherry-red lips were bright and glossy, so tempting you almost wanted to sneak a taste. A blue butterfly hair clip sat atop her head, looking so lifelike it seemed to flutter among her dark hair. Her fine, fair skin was silky smooth, its tiny wisps of down swaying in the breeze. And with a face cuter than some major stars’, she really was a promising idol.

Today she was wearing a white miniskirt. Her legs, visible beneath the hem, were long and straight. Even her simple sandals made her little feet look playful, with a neat row of toes peeking through the opening at the front. Someone with a foot fetish might even find themselves eating a few extra bites after seeing them.

“Oh, oh, so you’re Xiaoxiao! Don’t you have, um... practice today? You know, that singing, dancing, rapping, and basketball training?”

Li Xinghe hadn’t paid much attention to what idols who hadn’t debuted yet did in their spare time. But there was a pretty famous person who’d trained in all that before debuting, so he figured he must be right.

Bai Xiaoxiao, meanwhile, had no idea what he was talking about. Singing, dancing, rapping, basketball—what was all that nonsense? She usually practiced magic and occasionally went out on missions to fight monsters.

Wait, he meant her cover story! The Idol-Style Agency was supposed to be a place that trained idols who hadn’t debuted yet, right? She’d never actually debut, of course, but if someone asked her about it, she had to give the appropriate answer.

“Oh, right. The agency’s renovating today, so they gave us a month off. I thought I’d come by the house and have a look around first.”

So that was it. Then why hadn’t she called him before coming over? Now she’d seen him looking like a total loser, completely unprepared. Surely that’d given her a bad impression.

And she’d caught him seriously gaming, of all things. It probably made him look like he couldn’t be bothered to do anything useful.

Li Xinghe quickly shut down his computer, then asked Bai Xiaoxiao to put down her handbag and sit on the sofa for a while.

A little later, he went to the third-floor bathroom, washed the fruit he’d taken out of the fridge, and put together a simple fruit platter. Then he asked what temperature she wanted the air conditioner set to.

“Um... twenty-three degrees is fine.”

He pressed the button to set it to twenty-three degrees. Then the two of them sat facing each other in silence.

Li Xinghe wasn’t very good at talking to girls. The last time he’d spoken to a girl his own age, he’d been at the supermarket checkout asking how much he owed. He spent all day online learning a bunch of weird things to say, but when he actually had to talk to someone face-to-face, chatting online really was more fun.

“Ahem... so, what kind of fruit do you like?”

After struggling for ages and failing to think of anything to say, all he could come up with was this stupid question.

Bai Xiaoxiao had only eaten a few pieces of mango from the platter before stopping. She wasn’t very fond of cold fruit. Since she didn’t usually eat much of it, he’d probably just assumed she didn’t like anything on the table.

He seemed like a pretty nice person.

“Strawberries, durian, that sort of thing?”

At this time of year, strawberries were only available from greenhouses. There was plenty of durian, but Li Xinghe hadn’t bought any because he couldn’t stand food that smelled so weird.

“Strawberries and durian? All right, give me a minute.”

He pulled out his phone and quickly placed an order through the delivery app. The fresh fruit would arrive in just over ten minutes.

You had to admit, modern technology was amazing. All it took was paying through a screen, and you could enjoy delicious food with hardly any effort.

To ease the slightly awkward mood, Li Xinghe turned on the TV and flipped through a few channels.

Bai Xiaoxiao wasn’t really interested in watching. She took out her phone and kept scrolling through it, sneaking glances at Li Xinghe from time to time.

Mm, he really was just as handsome as her mother had said. He seemed well-behaved, too. The only question was whether he could keep up with her banter, like her friends could.

Before long, the fruit Li Xinghe had ordered arrived. When he carried it upstairs, Bai Xiaoxiao noticed he had another big bag with him, too. She had no idea what was inside.

It was wrapped in an exquisite box, with a colorful ribbon tied around it both ways to form a bow. The packaging was printed with a cake and a few flowers. Could it really be what Bai Xiaoxiao was thinking?

Sure enough, when Li Xinghe lifted the lid and revealed a durian cake at least five inches across, Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up.

What was this? Her big brother might not be much of a talker, but he was actually pretty nice. And he was pretty handsome, too.

“Ta-da! A six-inch durian cake! If you like durian, you should like this, too.”

Small pieces of fruit decorated the cake. Blueberries and chunks of dragon fruit, like blue gems, sat on top. A ring of cream flowers lined the second layer, each flower centered with half a strawberry.

The bottom layer was covered in a thick bed of durian. Its rich aroma wafted into Bai Xiaoxiao’s nose and went straight to her head. She could hardly resist devouring the whole thing in one go.

But her brother had just bought it for her as a welcome gift, and they’d only just met. It wouldn’t be very nice to keep it all to herself. Putting on a show of restraint, Bai Xiaoxiao got out a small plate and a plastic knife, cut herself a little piece, and ate it slowly.

Li Xinghe naturally wasn’t going to eat any of the durian cake. He didn’t like durian’s weird smell in the first place, and besides, he’d bought it especially for Bai Xiaoxiao as a welcome gift. Judging by her satisfied expression, she definitely loved durian.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Just smelling the stuff made him feel a little sick. He made up an excuse to hide in the bathroom, and it took about ten minutes for the weird smell to finally fade from his nose. When Li Xinghe came back out, half the durian cake was already gone, and Bai Xiaoxiao was still watching TV, steadily chewing away.

This was pretty nice, actually. He had a cute little sister who loved to eat. He could afford to feed her, anyway, so there was no need to worry about her eating him out of house and home.

Li Xinghe suddenly realized that having a cute little sister was pretty great.