169: There's nothing new under the sun - Part 1 (Bonus Chapter)

In the evening, Jiang Ye slowly made his way home under a barrage of hints from "Yaoyao," who sent messages like "Big brother, are you home yet?" and "I ordered takeout, but my roommate isn't back yet, I'm starving!"

As soon as he pushed open the door to 1601, he saw the drama-queen girl sitting at the dining table, chin resting on her hands, staring longingly at the door.

"Big brother! You're finally back!"

The moment Su Ning saw him enter, she jumped up and pointed at the table full of exquisite Japanese takeout. "Hurry up and wash your hands for dinner! I've been waiting for ages. If we wait any longer, the sashimi won't even be cold anymore!"

Jiang Ye's eyes lit up when he saw the beautifully plated salmon, sweet shrimp, and sea urchin, along with a fancy box bearing a dessert shop's logo.

This spread, including the dessert, had to cost at least one or two thousand yuan, right? With the cashback, that would be ten or twenty thousand!

He quickly washed his hands, sat down, and expectantly picked up a thick slice of salmon, dipping it in soy sauce before popping it into his mouth.

It was rich and fatty, but after counting for several seconds, there was no sound from the system in his mind.

"..."

Jiang Ye sighed inwardly. "Is Wanxing back?"

"Yep!"

Su Ning nodded, pointing her chopsticks toward Lin Wanxing's bedroom. "She's taking a call. Sounds like it's from her family."

Jiang Ye looked at the massive spread of food with a heavy heart.

Dammit, with an extra person eating, a "treat" doesn't count as a sole gift, so it doesn't trigger the cashback! I just missed out on ten or twenty thousand for nothing!

"Go call her then, let's eat together."

"I was just about to tell you!"

Su Ning picked up a piece of tamagoyaki, glanced at the bedroom door, and lowered her voice.

"She went in not long ago... the person on the other end was quite loud, and they sounded pretty harsh. Sister Wanxing's face didn't look great when she answered, and she mentioned her brother or something... I get the feeling something's going on at home."

"..."

Seeing her "hurry up and ask more" expression, Jiang Ye curled his lip speechlessly. "If you can't hold it in, just spit it out. Are you waiting for me to play along?"

Su Ning instinctively let out an "Oh," but immediately snapped out of it—wait! This is offline! Online I'm a simp, but offline I'm the wealthy "Little Sister Su"!

She immediately tapped the table with her chopsticks and tilted her chin up. "Big brother! This is my treat!"

Jiang Ye: "..."

Seeing Su Ning's little eyes practically begging for "admiration," he rolled his eyes helplessly and played along.

"Fine, fine, Little Sister Su is so generous, Little Sister Su is amazing. Happy now? So, what's the deal with Wanxing's family?"

Su Ning smiled with satisfaction and lowered her voice again.

"I only heard the first couple of sentences. It sounded like her mom, and she was being quite aggressive, saying things like 'as the older sister, you have to help your brother' and 'it wasn't easy raising you this big'... Sister Wanxing's face went dark instantly. She just said 'I know' and went into her room. I think... they're asking her for money."

Jiang Ye just said "Oh" and went back to dealing with a piece of eel, his reaction lukewarm.

Su Ning blinked, waiting for more, and finally couldn't help but ask.

"Big brother? Just... just 'oh'?"

"What else? What kind of reaction were you expecting? Every family has its own problems; it's always the same few things."

"Huh? Those things? You know, big brother?"

Jiang Ye curled his lip and held up two fingers with an air of wisdom.

"These kinds of family dramas always boil down to two main categories. Either the parents favor the son over the daughter and treat the daughter like an ATM, or the sister herself is a 'Brother-helping demon' who's more than willing to let him bleed her dry."

He folded down his first finger. "Favoritism from parents. Typical symptoms include, but are not limited to: giving everything in the house to the brother, forcing the sister to buy him a house for marriage or cover his Bride price, making the sister pay off the brother's gambling debts, or refusing to pay the sister's tuition for a good university to force her to work and support the brother's education..."

Having said that, Jiang Ye took a sip of water and folded down his second finger.

"Then there's the 'Brother-helping demon.' This usually happens if the parents died early and the siblings relied on each other, so the sister is like a second mother and is used to sacrificing herself. Or, she grew up in that environment of favoritism and got brainwashed into thinking her brother's affairs are the most important thing in the world, so she has to help with everything..."

Seeing Su Ning's stunned expression, he shrugged.

"There's nothing new under the sun. These tropes have been done to death by web novel writers. Go download Fanqie Novel and see for yourself later; they've got every version imaginable... Um... remember to click on a few ads to support the creators."

Su Ning: "...No shameless plugging!"

As they were talking, the door to the second bedroom clicked open, and Lin Wanxing walked out.

Her face was expressionless. She silently sat down at the table, picked up her chopsticks, and began to eat quietly, clearly in low spirits.

Jiang Ye and Su Ning exchanged a glance, and Jiang Ye gestured toward her with his chin.

Su Ning understood and gave a light cough, asking with concern, "Sister Wanxing, are you... okay? You don't look very well."

"I'm fine, just a bit tired."

"That phone call just now... is something going on at home?"

Lin Wanxing's hand holding the chopsticks paused. After a few seconds of silence, she said softly, "Yeah, it was my mom."

She seemed to want to say more but swallowed it back down, simply repeating, "It's nothing big."

Su Ning waited, and seeing she wasn't continuing, followed up cautiously.

"Sister Wanxing, if something's wrong, just say it. We live together, we can help... cough, big brother might be able to help, and I can give some advice too."

Jiang Ye: "..."

Lin Wanxing looked at their concerned faces and struggled internally.

These family troubles were suffocating her, and she had nowhere to vent.

Maybe talking to her roommates would relieve some of the pressure?

Besides, her family had mentioned they might come to the Shengtian at the end of the month... She let out a long sigh, as if shedding a small burden.

"It's really nothing, I'm used to it... My mom called to say my brother wants to get married at the end of the year and told me to prepare a Bride price for him."

Having said it, Lin Wanxing felt a bit lighter. She silently waited for her roommates to offer some comfort or join her in venting about this unreasonable request.

However, what she got instead was Su Ning giving a thumbs-up of admiration and Jiang Ye wearing an expression that said, "Just as I expected, standard procedure, nothing to see here."

Lin Wanxing: "???"

The bellyful of words she had prepared to vent suddenly got stuck in her throat.

Why... aren't they asking more?

She had already started the conversation; wouldn't she burst if she didn't finish? But if they didn't ask and she kept talking, wouldn't she seem too dramatic?