“Hi, you scared me. Elder sister, please tell me whatever you want to speak. Don’t be polite to me. I am not a very able man, but I will never allow anyone to bully you. I will protect you for a lifetime.”

Looking at Mu Yanran with love, Ding Ning blurted out his promise without a second thought.

He could see that Mu Yanran was a woman who had many stories, but she disguised well and buried those unhappy memories in her heart, silently tasted loneliness, and would not tell them to others so easily.

He suddenly had a kind of desire to know her, comfort her, and accompany her so that she would not grieve or cry anymore and could live a happy life.

Mu Yanran blushed and coyly said, “In the future, you will marry and have your own family life. How long do you know a lifetime is? Easily giving a promise means you are not mature, and it is okay for you to speak like this to me, but never easily speak so to other girls.”

“You are not other girls, and you are my sister. Why can’t I speak like this? I mean to protect you for a lifetime, and no one can stop me.”

Ding Ning was like a boy who felt wronged and said as unconvinced.

Mu Yanran gently looked at Ding Ning without giving a word, and the image in her memory and Ding Ning gradually matched and became one.

She heaved a sigh and shook her head with a wry smile. After all, they were not the same, one being her blood brother and the other being a friend-like brother. Both of them were boys who never grew up, but they spoke the same thing.

However, that her brother spoke these words was when he was young and naive. After he grew up, he had drifted further and further away from her and long forgotten the promise he ever gave.

Although Ding Ning was already an adult when he spoke these words, he was still one full of childhood dreams from her point of view.

Her feelings toward Ding Ning were very complicated. Sometimes he was like a friend, sometimes like a brother, and sometimes like an intimate. Occasionally, he was also her support when she was physically and mentally tired.

The waitress was carrying dishes to them and they stopped talking with each other, but Ding Ning knew that Mu Yanran must have come here to meet him for something.

She didn’t speak of it, and so Ding Ning didn’t ask about it. According to the Great Master’s teaching, one should not talk while eating or make noise when it was time to sleep. So he was silently eating the vegetarian food of Yipin Vegetarian House.

Perhaps the words of Ding Ning touched the softest part of Mu Yanran’s heart so that she had gone back to her past memories and lost the mood to joke about him.

Nothing special happened during their eating time. The dishes themselves tasted not bad, but Ding Ning didn’t enjoy himself.

But he had to admit that the dishes of Yipin Vegetarian House were really delicious, merely inferior to the ones that Sister Qiao and he himself cooked. They were delicious meals that you couldn’t easily find in Ninghai.

“Tell me, sister, we are so close to each other. Don’t hide anything from me.”

After eating and drinking the soup, Ding Ning began carefully asking her.

“I… have nothing to tell, and I only wanted to treat you to a meal.”

Mu Yanran wanted to tell but stopped and finally decided not to tell him. She cherished the sister-and-brother relationship between them very much and didn’t want to make their pure relationship become a little material.

Ding Ning frowned, staring at Mu Yanran without blinking at all, and said, “Sister, you don’t treat me as a family member?”

“No, I don’t want to tell it because I treat you as one.”

Mu Yanran became a little embarrassed as he stared at her with his hot eyes, but she encouraged herself to carefully speak as she stared back at his eyes.

Ding Ning slightly raised his lips up, making an evil curve, and aggressively said, “Sister, do you know what family members are?”

“What are they?” Mu Yanran dazedly looked at him, but she was tasting the meaning of family members.

“Yes, what are family members?”

Ding Ning was meticulously pushing her. He knew Mu Yanran had emotional struggles. If she didn’t remove these struggles, she would never open her heart.

People would feel better after they told their stories, but if they always buried them in their heart and silently suffered from them, they would have emotional illnesses sooner or later.

Even though now he had no wish to make her become his lover anymore and sincerely wanted to treat her as his sister, he didn’t want to have a sister with illnesses.

Seeing her eyes losing focus as if she had lost herself in confusion, Ding Ning joyfully said,

“In my view, family members are people who have such special characteristics: having no material demands for each other, asking for no reward, purely relying on each other, supporting each other, telling their stories to each other, understanding each other, comforting each other, taking care of each other, and believing each other. Even without blood ties, they are family members, and so they have nothing to conceal from each other.”

Mu Yanran’s pupils gradually had focus, and then she attentively stared at Ding Ning and admirably asked, “Do you have such family members?”

“Of course. My father and my master are all my family members. I tell my heart to them, and they all help me analyze my problems, give me comfort and suggestions, and teach me how to deal with social affairs.”

Speaking of his father and his master, Ding Ning had pride and adoration on his face.

“Have you thought that what if your family members betrayed you?”

Mu Yanran blurted out these unsuitable words that embarrassed their talk.

“Impossible. They will never betray me and they are those who love me the most in the world.”

Ding Ning spoke firmly. His father and his master had lost contact with him for five years, but he still firmly believed that they would pay their attention to him from somewhere in the world.

Looking at Ding Ning’s firm look, Mu Yanran faintly said, “I admire you have such family members, but I don’t. With his growth, my only closest blood brother has become more and more impatient with me and has drifted further and further away from me. More and more, he doesn’t want me to care about his business. I haven’t seen him for over two years.”

“Sister, I think you have gone to extremes. Although I haven’t seen your brother, I feel that it is you who need to know how to treat the responsibility, not him. No matter who you are, men or women, everyone rebels for some time. The more you care about him and want to guide him in nearly everything, the more he will rebel against you. After all, no one wants to live under the protection of another. Even though the person were his closest family member, he wouldn’t allow it to happen.”

Ding Ning paused and carefully reorganized his words, saying, “His drifting away from you and disliking you just means that he is growing up. In the rebelling age, everyone thinks that he himself is the center of everything and he can do everything, somewhat like the young eagle, who wants to leave its parents to try to fly and will never regret no matter how much it has to suffer or how many scratches and scars it has to bear due to unsuccessful flights, because that is the pain of growth one has to go through. After going through that painful period, he will understand the good heart of its parents as well as their precious care and love.”

Mu Yanran had a surprised look in her beautiful eyes, but she had not been convinced yet, asking, “You are not him, but how can you know what he thinks about so clearly?”

“Because I also a man, and I have also gone through…”

Ding Ning suddenly stopped before he finished the rest of his words as if he had gone insane, dazedly mumbling, “I know, I know why my father and my master left me. It is not that they didn’t want me but that they wanted me to have no reliance and forced me to go through hardships independently. I was so stupid, and why haven’t I thought it through until the moment and have been stupidly thinking about the puzzles and trouble that have never existed? I have understood you. Father, master, I will never make you disappointed. Instead, I will make you fully satisfied.”

Mu Yanran frowned as she looked at Ding Ning speaking to himself, but she didn’t know what he was speaking. With some worries, she shook her fingers before his eyes, “Brother, what’s wrong with you?”

“Sister, thank you, thank you for helping me remove my biggest emotional struggle. I love you so much.”

Ding Ning jumped high out of excitement and kissed Mu Yanran on the face with ecstasy, and then he rushed to her, picked her up, and turned on the spot.

“You, you get off me, you are a rogue, and you want to touch me on purpose.”

Mu Yanran felt the joy of Ding Ning after he had thought something important through. She beat him twice on the shoulder with coy anger, but her heart couldn’t stop madly beating because his broad chest brought her a kind of unmatched sense of safety.

Feeling he lost his manners, Ding Ning released her instantly and smirked. “Sister, sorry, I have suddenly thought through the puzzle that I have been trying to find the answer to. I was overexcited.”

“It doesn’t matter. I said it for nothing, and I won’t take it seriously with you.”

Mu Yanran blushed, her eyes with love, looking quite beautiful, and she merely opened her alluring lips and weakly spoke.

Ding Ning was stunned. At this moment, Mu Yanran looked shy as if she was a graceful Jiangnan lady who had just walked out of a Chinese landscape painting, full of the exotic style.

“Sister, you are so beautiful.”

Ding Ning stared at her and sincerely complimented.

“Idiot, you are so handsome, and if I were ugly, you would lose face because of me.”

Mu Yanran felt his hot look, her heart beating rapidly and her eyes having panic, and she meant to stop his very aggressive look with a joke.

“Sister, can I hug you?”

Ding Ning asked very politely, but before Mu Yanran answered, he had rudely held her in his arms.

“You… a rogue!”

Mu Yanran shyly stomped and wanted to push him away subconsciously, but when she found he had no further move, she comforted herself by saying, “He treats me as his sister. It’s not a big deal for brother and sister to hug, and we have hugged before.”

“Sister, I want to kiss you.”

Ding Ning felt the rapid movement of her heart, prevented himself from laughing, and seriously asked for more.

Mu Yanran became stiff. F*ck, he was so insatiable, but she didn’t know why she couldn’t help herself saying yes.

Ding Ning was so happy and unceremoniously kissed her like a hungry wolf.

“Oh…”

Mu Yanran suddenly opened her eyes wide, ashamed and angry, thinking, “He is an a*shole. How, how could he have kissed my lips? This is my first kiss!”

“Bang!”

She pushed him away in panic and slapped his face instantly, her eyes turning red, and she expressionlessly glared at him, saying, “You, you’ve crossed the line!”

“So-sorry! Sister, I couldn’t help doing that just now. I apologize to you, but I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Ding Ning panicked somewhat, didn’t know the correct thing to do, and apologized repetitively.

He had forgotten who he was after too much success. Just now, he only meant to kiss her forehead but changed his target when a mischievous idea appeared unexpectedly, and she was finally infuriated.

Mu Yanran’s face turned dark, but when she saw his extremely pale face and noticed that he didn’t know what to do, she softened her heart and made her voice not that harsh anymore, saying,

“I forgive you this time, but there won’t be a second time. Otherwise, we would never even be friends anymore.”

“Oh! I see, sister!”

Ding Ning looked like a little child who had done something wrong, drooping his head and showing a poor face which suggested that he regretted and was guilty of himself.

Mu Yanran softened her heart further and gently said, “Well, don’t blame yourself anymore. I know a young man in your age is susceptible to impulse, for you have so much energy to use after all. I am not angry with you, and I was also wrong. I shouldn’t have slapped you. Do you feel painful?”

“It was my fault, I deserved it, you are not wrong, and I should be slapped!”

Ding Ning lowered his head and weakly said, but he was recalling the remaining taste of that kiss, thinking, “Sister’s lips were so soft and delicious, and I really want to have further communication with her.”

“It was my fault and I shouldn’t have slapped you. Let me give your face a massage.”

Mu Yanran held his face with sisterly love, lightly rubbed her palm print on his face, and, breathing elegantly, spoke.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep