Your Elder Sister is Kind and Virtuous

The local mall in Jingdou experienced an odd sight. One fine, refined gentleman who drowned others in his dignified and polite charisma, with a beautiful woman linking her right arm with his left and holding a child's hand in the other. Then, following behind was the innocent visage of a young girl whose beauty had just begun to ripen, and a man to her left with a crutch supporting his right shoulder.

Clearly, they were a group, for whenever an attracted male or Young Master sought to seek the young girl's hand, the woman at the lead displayed a baleful glare in their direction. And yet, why the five people who clearly knew one another split into two groups spread so far apart was baffling.

Was it some kind of special hobby of theirs?

"Little Brother, at this rate, if your Elder Sister didn't defend for you, your wife would have been stolen away thirty-six times."

"I am a patient. A patient who shouldn't have been discharged two days early."

Du Lang's distraught voice was all that awaited Du Yuexin, and she huffed in disdain and began to engage in a confusing yet endearing conversation with her husband. As the content and happy trio began to detach from the two stragglers, Du Lang sighed and glanced at Mu Wuying who was busily inspecting the various fashion displays overflowing her peripheral vision. They were designed to maximize the allure and beauty of the female figure, and given the numerous clothing and fashion designs that screamed of guilty temptation disguised under curious virtue, and the young girl quickly surrendered.

"Wuying, you didn't bring many clothes with you when you left for Jingdou, ah – do you want to go over there?"

And thus, a massive shopping spree began.

At first, Du Lang's ears were stuffed to the brim of overflowing with curious and cautious endearments of 'Mr. Du' as Mu Wuying toured around the hundreds of unique displays and clothing styles scattered across the mall. The young girl stood before the mirror and brought either a dress or combination of shirt and pants before her body and withstood barrage after barrage of encouragement and explosive bootlicking from the stores' employees. Store after store, brand after brand, the carts was filled with carefully packaged bags containing dresses, sweaters, coats, hoodies, shirts, pants, and many other articles of clothing that soared far above Du Lang's range of comprehension.

He didn't understand – why was a 'midi' dress so different from a 'halter' dress other than chopping off a third of the lower section? And why were they priced so differently for exactly the same design and maker???

"Husband, do you want iced tea, or a strawberry milkshake?"

Ah, Elder Sister, it seems that she won the bet again.

As Du Yuexin had predicted before dragging him out of Jingdou's Sixth Public Hospital, once the young girl had become more comfortable with her environment, the timid and fearful exterior was shed to reveal her natural bold and flexible personality. Mu Wuying, within a short thirty minutes, had permanently cast away 'Mr. Du', 'Lang', or any other endearment to simply label him as a husband. When the soft and charming word gently filtered itself through the sea of chatter and discourse and into his ear, Du Lang felt the part-time gofer standing behind hiss with jealousy.

"Hm… give me the iced tea," Du Lang rubbed his ear and received the cold drink.

"Wuying – is there anything else you wanted to get today? Elder Sister wants to treat us to a meal in an hour, and if you don't need it now, we can always come at a later date."

The two were seated at a couple's bench, Mu Wuying sipping at her straw while swinging her legs as she admired the densely-packed floors below her feet. Du Lang brought his newly-acquired phone to respond to Du Yuexin's suspicious text message, and cast a sympathetic glance towards the sweating young man standing behind the cart.

What a pitiful young man – since Du Lang couldn't carry the bags himself given his current physical condition, they had to hire a student working part-time at the mall. Each time Mu Wuying satisfyingly set a bag full of clothes into the cart with a contented smile, the young man's cheeks flushed scarlet with excitement, yet turned to jealousy and betrayal when the young girl turned to call another man 'Husband'.

Anyone could witness that the naïve youth had completely fallen, though nobody stood to tell him otherwise as he was left to push at the cart with gritted teeth.

"We have cooking utensils, the pantry is still stocked, and I got my clothes, a computer, phone, and laptop – I think that's everything we needed?" Mu Wuying tilted her head and counted with her fingers.

"There isn't anything special going on in the future, but maybe get a box of medicinal ginseng to send to my mother? Husband doesn't need to get anything?"

And as such, the young man bitterly cursed Du Lang to death a million times in his heart as he witnessed the pair unload the contents into the trunk of a taxi and depart from the mall. When he returned to his station, the gloomy and heartbroken expression on his countenance was sufficient to scare off any prospective opportunities for the day.

"Still, to leave us just like that and leave – Elder Sister, how irresponsible. You don't care about your limping brother – tsk, tsk!"

Du Lang scolded when they had entered the mansion to discover Du Yuexin playing with a wine bottle in the kitchen. The woman displayed a cheery smile as she popped the cork and bounced it off his forehead, and waved Mu Wuying towards the dining table. There, there were two glass cups and a stack of papers.

While Mu Wuying curiously compared the label on the wineglass and balked at the infamous price and reputation, Du Lang picked up the sheet of paper at the top. When his eyes landed onto the bold characters stamped across the header, his heart immediately sunk.

"Seriously? You got me married to someone with a marriage contract that I don't even know the terms of?"

"That's not for you to read – everything on this table is for Mu Wuying!" Du Yuexin shook her finger and snatched the papers from his hand.

"Go outside and chat with my Jiang Chen for a while – your Elder Sister needs to have a private conversation with Yingying. Understand?"

The customary, generous smile laced with murderous intent was put at full force, and Du Lang found himself kicked out of his own home. When he followed the embedded stone path to the garage, he discovered a handsome, dignified man dressed in a suit smoking a cigarette as he leaned against the wall. A slight knock against the vinyl doors caused an austere pair of eyes to shoot towards Du Lang's visage, and Jiang Chen waved with a smile.

"Ah Xin kicked you out as well?"

"Elder Sister wants to discuss something with Mu Wuying. Che, somehow her Little Brother fades into the background whenever she brings up that girl, ah."

Du Lang shrugged and sighed. He refused the cigarette offer as he joined Jiang Chen in staring at the silent neighborhood. The two mired in silence, when the man shrugged and breathed out a thick column of smoke.

"Your Elder Sister is kind and virtuous at heart. Although she might be harsh on you at times, it means she cares for you – appreciate it, Little Brother! Don't be like my own younger brother and treat kindness and love as evil, ah."

"Hmph – of course my Elder Sister is kind and virtuous – she is the perfect person of this country!" Du Lang scowled, and crossed his arms in discontent.

"She raised me as both an elder sibling and mother, and shielded me from the troubles that ordinary orphans and abandoned children face in this world. How could she not be kind nor virtuous?"

As a child without parents, she raised an even younger sibling without receiving any support from others. She could defuse the most dangerous of circumstances and conflicts without trouble and in less than three actions, resurrected the Jiang Family's corporation and prestige in a short three months after she moved to Beijing, stomped on the reputations and families of at least a hundred Young Masters and Young Misses at the top of this country's food chain, and managed to forge a throne for herself without any background or influence to her name whatsoever.

From the depths of his memory and rational mind, the figure of Du Yuexin had not experienced a single setback in her path in raising a younger sibling and surviving in a cold world mired with personal greed intermingling with collective righteousness. Her physical prowess, intelligence, natural charisma, ability to establish connections – no human could possibly accomplish similar feats as her and not suffer harm.

Only a demon in human skin could accomplish the mighty influence, wealth, and reputation as Du Yuexin.

"But you feel discontented – why is that? By living a childhood life protected by your Elder Sister, but not sheltered from the troubles of living alone – that makes you feel as though a puppet in Ah Xin's hands, no?" Jiang Chen took a long draft and grasped Du Lang's shoulder.

"By exposing you to stress and danger, but ensuring that every matter resolves the way she wants it to regardless of anyone's efforts to change the result – I guess that can feel as though being strangled after some time? However, Little Brother, you needn't worry – although you don't seem to have any interests or particular goal in life as for the moment, they'll come to you one day – like they did for me two years ago."

Jiang Chen nodded at the blank expression on Du Lang's countenance, feeling rather reassured in his heart at the satisfaction of successfully consoling a confused heart. The man prepared to indulge himself in a reminiscent drag of the cigarette, when the latter suddenly opened his mouth to speak.

"When in bed, is my Elder Sister on top, or is it you? Wait, given how you're so pampered – you're the one on the bottom, right? Have you gotten into rope play yet?"

Wha – cough!

"L-Little Brother!? You!?"

"I was wondering – the cigarette of yours had a strange smell; not of the strong stench of regular cigarettes, but more of smoked medicinal herbs. And the suit – the style and threading didn't match any of the prominent makers in my memory. The shoes, watch, and necktie are also custom build – these are all personally built by my sister, no? I recognize some of her signature patterns…"

"You weren't moping around earlier!?"

"You… actually fell for that? That was a cheapskate tactic to employ sympathetic urges – this is the basics of obtaining information as a reporter," Du Lang shrugged and inspected Jiang Chen's flustered expression with a confused expression.

"Odd – Brother-in-law, you're the chairman of the largest technology group in Beijing, and you lost to such a easy and cheap tactic? Is my Elder Sister not feeding you well these past days?"

Jiang Chen's lips twitched in embarrassment, and cautioned for Du Lang not to press too much with his eyes. However, when he witnessed the iconic, slight upward curve of the lips into a polite and encouraging smile, the former's heart filled with hope was shredded into pieces.

Only those who didn't personally know Du Yuexin could arrive to the conclusion that she was an angelic being filled with warmth and compassion! Those who had tasted or witnessed her transformation would only refer to her as a demon in human skin! How could he not realize when he noticed that smile – of course the demoness taught her younger brother how to flexibly navigate through the world!

The Elder Sister could bewitch and confuse the hearts of anyone, and the Little Sister could force the deepest of secrets from one's guarded mind!

"A-ahem! Little Brother, you better forget that – and stop writing it down! – and let your brother-in-law give you some hints," Jiang Chen reached into his pocket, and withdrew a note.

"Ah Xin didn't tell me I couldn't pass this onto you, so do keep this a secret for your brother-in-law, alright? In exchange, I'll let you freely wander around in my company headquarters if you want front seats to some Beijing-style corporate drama in the future."

Du Lang blinked and received the small piece of paper. When he unfolded the slip and underwent the painful process of interpreting a painful set of scribbles and horribly written characters partially blurred by several drops of dried blood and read the contents, his heart froze in place. When the words had registered in his mind and informed of their meaning, his hands had lurched forwards to latch onto Jiang Chen's collar, and his voice erupted into an angered hiss.

"Is this information true!? Tell me everything you know – when, who, and how this came to be!"