She really wanted to immerse herself in the lovely face of the beautiful young man and the hints of his sexy abs on the television, but next to her, Yi Jia was practically losing her mind.
Sure enough, bringing Yi Jia home was definitely a mistake.
“Ah ah, this is the special edition CD ah, I’ve never gotten my hands on it!”
“Ah, Rourou, this throw pillow is so pretty ah!”
“Ahhhhhhh Rourou ah, this! This is the scarf I sent to KK, ah! I never thought KK kept it, ah!”
Shen Zhirou glanced at that scarf, something unnatural flashing on her face. She didn’t quite have the heart to tell Yi Jia that it was because she had thought the scarf was too cute, so she kept it.
Gifts from fans basically didn’t make it to Shen Zhifan and he didn’t really care about these things. Most of them were donated by Shen Zhirou to the orphanage she’d once stayed at.
“That’s enough ah, don’t go crazy,” Shen Zhirou was a little disturbed, afraid that an overexcited Yi Jia would directly tear their house apart, “My brother will be coming home soon, you can mess around on the first floor but you’re not allowed to go into his room.”
“Ah, Rourou! I love you QAQ!”
Shen Zhirou rubbed at her eyes, not knowing how she actually saw that emoticon on Yi Jia’s face.
“Well, you don’t need to get too excited, lately my brother’s been pretty weird,” Shen Zhirou thought back on it, reluctance on her face, “He’s probably not how you imagine him to be.”
Yi Jia turned and threw herself onto Shen Zhirou again, so happy that she’d already started rolling about and wailing.
“Rourou you’re really too amazing ah!”
“To be able to be KK’s sister, you must have saved the entire universe in your last life! Right?!”
Expressionlessly, Shen Zhirou pushed away Yi Jia’s arms, copping a feel of her chest without batting an eye, “No, but in my last life I was definitely an exceptional beauty. Otherwise, why would I be so out of luck to look like this?”
“Heehee,” Yi Jia came close to Shen Zhirou’s face, “Rourou’s pretty cute, with such a squishy face.”
Shen Zhirou pinched her own face for a moment. It was completely squishy. Without obtaining an ounce of consolation, instead she felt as if she was about to cry.
“Rourou, was KK always this handsome? I’ve seen a lot of people saying that he’s gotten plastic surgery done, and though we all say nowadays that getting surgery is normal,” Yi Jia thought for a moment, “…everyone still admires natural beauty more ah.”
“Yeah, he’s always been good-looking,” Shen Zhirou brought out an old photograph of their family from when they all lived on N-192, “Mm, he looked like this even back then, hehe.”
Yi Jia took the photo a little dazedly.
“Rourou…”
“Alright, okay, I know that our family doesn’t look like we’re the same species as him,” Shen Zhirou sighed, “What can I do? I’ve also given up hope ah…”
“Your mother’s really pretty ah.”
“Ai, it’s alright. Since I was little I’ve already gotten used to…ah, what?” Shen Zhirou paused, thinking that she’d misheard.
“Your mother is so beautiful ah.”
Yi Jia repeated. Shen Zhirou, suspecting that something was wrong, turned to look at her.
But she suddenly found that Yi Jia was actually still earnestly looking at the photo, moreover, her focus really wasn’t on Shen Zhifan but on their mother.
Yi Jia wasn’t only studying the photo extremely carefully, but her eyes suddenly overflowed with tears.
Shen Zhirou was struck dumb.
She took the photo from Yi Jia’s hand, looking at her mother’s appearance again and again. How to put it; at that point, Mother Shen was already forty, and rural planets like N-192 didn’t produce beauties. Her brother was seriously gifted by heaven. Even if other people were born good-looking, it would be destroyed by the nasty weather.
No matter how one looked, her mother in the photo was simply an ordinary middle-aged woman ah. She was even a little plump, with no shortage of freckles.
Although it wasn’t good to describe her own mother as ugly, to be honest, judging by looks alone her mother really couldn’t be counted as ‘beautiful’.
Yi Jia’s stare was rather blank. Shen Zhirou felt that something was off and was slightly frightened, shaking Yi Jia’s shoulder.
“Hey…Jiajia, you,” Shen Zhirou was a little scared, “What is it?”
Shen Zhirou had already taken away the photo, but Yi Jia still wore the same expression. Her usually beautiful and lively face now suddenly looked as if she’d lost her soul. Trembling slightly, her thin arms were propped on the table, the soft curls of her hair scattered about.
Pure, crystalline drops tumbled one after another from her eyes. If one didn’t know, one would think that she was the actual daughter of Shen Zhirou’s mother.
“Jiajia…no, what’s wrong ah? Aiya, don’t cry, look at you, just watching makes me feel bad. Come on, tell me what’s wrong ah.”
It had been a while since Shen Zhirou was so out of her wits. She had no idea why this suddenly happened, it couldn’t be because of one photograph…
“Don’t scare – ”
Yi Jia suddenly drew in a heavy breath.
Shen Zhirou’s breath hitched, looking at her somewhat nervously, then realised that it seemed Yi Jia had already calmed down. The slight redness in her eyes had also lessened, she stared blankly at Shen Zhirou.
“Rourou,” Yi Jia tilted her head, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Zhirou’s heart jumped back to her chest. Shaken, she could only keep pushing at Yi Jia’s shoulder.
“I’m, I’m fine. The point is you, just then you – do you know what happened just then?”
Shen Zhirou reached out and wiped the tears still staining Yi Jia’s cheeks, not daring to miss any hint of expression on her face.
“Just then, I…” Yi Jia blanked a little, and also wiped at her own wet cheeks. She broke into laughter, “Hahaha, aiya, it happened again?”
Shen Zhirou was still completely dazed.
“Hah, what do you mean, ‘again’?”
“I was just looking at your family photo, right?” Yi Jia rubbed at her nose, embarrassed, “I’m from the planet KUKA ah, with us there’s a few strange defects. For example, in my family we have an ability called ‘Empathy’ that was passed down through the generations. When we look at objects, it’s easy for us to have these sorts of reactions.”
“Empathy?”
Shen Zhirou had really never heard of it. Since she’d been born on a rural planet, then ended up in an orphanage – if it weren’t for her brother, she’d still be on the lowest rung of society.
Now that she was up here, she basically couldn’t get along well with other people. It was only because Yi Jia was this kind of □□ – ah, no, it was because her head was a bit like that, they got along well.
“Right ah, since it’s an ability that our ancestors passed down to us, and everyone’s an extraterrestrial, so there’s a lot of variety ah. Like the prettiest girl in our neighbouring class, she’s part of the merpeople clan! Merpeople are actually really beautiful ah – and there’s also the one from two classes down whose grades are really good. They’re from planet KZAZA, with an especially developed brain. It’s just a pity that they’re body is quite atrophied, so they always come to class in a nutrient cabin…”
Listening to this, Shen Zhirou was dumbstruck.
She really hadn’t known anything.
“Rourou, you don’t have anything? Rourou should have something as well, right?”
Shen Zhirou sighed, shaking her head sorrowfully.
“Where we lived, there wasn’t much, maybe…our mining capabilities were better?”
Yi Jia laughed a little, sidling up to Shen Zhifan and hugging her.
“Maybe Rourou has something too ah, it’s just Rourou doesn’t know,” Yi Jia pushed aside some of Shen Zhirou’s hair off her face, carefully studying her features, “It’s simply that Rourou doesn’t know.”
Inexplicably, Shen Zhirou reddened, pushing away Yi Jia, who could always make her melt and firmly saying, “Don’t you remember that you said my mother was very beautiful just then?”
Shen Zhirou took the photo and again placed it in front of Yi Jia but didn’t let her hold it, afraid that something would happen again.
“I remember ah,” Yi Jia glanced at it again. This time nothing happened, and she earnestly said, “Your mother is the most beautiful lady I’ve ever seen, no wonder KK is so handsome.”
Yi Jia never lied – Shen Zhirou thought that maybe there was something wrong with her eyes?
“Ahah, maybe you extraterrestrials and our standard of beauty isn’t the same,” It was rare for Yi Jia to laugh so bashfully, “We can see a person’s former most beautiful appearance at a glance.”
Completely shocked, Shen Zhirou looked at the picture.
“With Empathy though, Empathy is – ”
The main door of the house was suddenly opened.
“Ah! KK ah! It’s really KK ah!!”
Yi Jia said this, pointing at the door excitedly.
Shen Zhifan had just experienced the most profound act of his life, and so he wasn’t functioning too well. The moment he opened the door, he was faced with the sight of a loud, pretty girl in his house, extremely unusual.