With My Ability To Swap, I Will Never End Up In A Love Triangle Mess - Chapter 17

“Bro, why aren’t you eating?”

Xia Yue asked while shoveling a mouthful of stir-fried potato shreds mixed with rice from her bowl.

Her older brother sat across the table, not eating, just typing away on his phone with rapid taps—probably chatting with some pretty girl.

“Isn’t Brother saving the best for my precious Princess Yueyue? How could I possibly deserve such a fine meal?”

Xia Yue silently glanced at the plate of green pepper and potato shreds on the table, then at the plump, perfectly round grains of rice in her bowl. “Ugh, spare me the guilt-tripping! I’m a senior in high school now! And ‘Princess Yueyue’? Gross! Seriously, bro, promise me you’ll never say that again, okay?”

Of course, Xia Yue knew her brother was just teasing.

In their household, guilt-tripping was never a thing. The two of them had relied on each other to get through life—neither had it easy.

But now that Xia Xi had annoyed her, Xia Yue was determined to get back at him.

Her eyes sparkled mischievously as she picked up a piece from the plate and held it out to Xia Xi, who was still busy with whatever he was doing on his phone.

“Onii-chan~ Look at you, working so hard to cook these potato shreds but not even tasting them yourself. Let your dear little sister feed you a bite~”

The moment Xia Xi heard that tone, alarm bells rang in his head. He instinctively opened his mouth to retort—

But before he could say anything, two hard chopsticks shoved something inside.

“Eat up, you!”

With a triumphant grin, Xia Yue half-climbed onto the table, cupped Xia Xi’s chin, and forced his mouth shut.

A sharp, spicy flavor exploded in his mouth—Xia Yue had just fed him an entire slice of ginger.

“Pfft—ptui! You’re asking for a beating, aren’t you?!”

Xia Xi spat out the ginger and glared at her indignantly.

“Wuwuwu~ Onii-chan’s true colors are finally showing! You’re going to abuse your poor, adorable little sister now?”

Xia Yue had already retreated to her seat, pretending to wipe away tears with her hands. She blinked up at him with pitiful, watery eyes.

“But it’s okay… If it’s Onii-chan, Xia Yue will endure anything~”

Xia Xi sighed, rubbing his forehead.

What did I do to deserve such a devilish little sister?

Just as the siblings were bickering, a knock came at the door.

“Hello! ‘Are You Full Yet?’ delivery! Your order’s at the door—please give us a good review!”

The atmosphere froze instantly.

Xia Xi coughed awkwardly under his sister’s accusing stare. “Uh… What if I told you this was just a grocery delivery?”

“LIAR!!! ‘Freshly cooked groceries,’ huh?!”

Xia Yue slammed her chopsticks down, leapt up, and dashed to the door before Xia Xi could stop her.

She flung it open, grabbed the delivery bag, and pulled out the receipt.

“Wuwuwu… I thought you were giving me the best potato shreds while you suffered with just plain water… But no! You were secretly ordering fried chicken behind my back!”

She dramatically clutched her chest as she placed the bag on the table.

“Ah… Is this the pain of betrayal? The agony of being deceived by your own flesh and blood? Why… why would you do this to me?!”

She even stretched out a trembling hand, as if trying to grasp at him in despair.

Xia Xi was speechless. Where does she even learn these theatrics?

He was sure his sister was in the humanities track, not performing arts. Could she have picked this up from him?

“Alright, alright, enough acting. I ordered two servings.”

He tore open the large bag—inside were two whole boxes of crispy, golden fried chicken and two cups of ice-cold cola.

“Then why did you trick me with potato shreds?”

Xia Yue rolled her eyes, ignoring the disposable gloves and tearing off a drumstick with her bare hands.

“I was worried the delivery would take too long and you’d starve.”

“Wuwu~ Brother, you’re so kind! I misjudged you~”

The truth was, Xia Xi had only realized after cooking the potato shreds that there wasn’t enough food. Worried the single dish wouldn’t fill them up, he’d ordered takeout.

As for why two servings? Well… He just didn’t want to go hungry. And there was a “second order half-off” deal. Definitely not because he cared about his sister.

As he munched on fried chicken, Xia Xi kept tapping away on his battered, years-old phone.

“Bro, what are you even doing? You’ve been glued to that thing all day.”

From the moment he woke up until now, Xia Xi had barely put his phone down except to cook. He’d never been this obsessed with electronics before.

“Don’t worry about it. Your brother’s working on something big.”

After releasing Dragon Clan last night, Xia Xi had already “copied” over 50,000 words—ten chapters at 5,000 words each.

But he’d only published 20,000 so far. According to Tomato Novel’s rules, 20,000 words was enough to qualify for a contract, but real exposure only came at the 80,000-word verification period. So he planned to save up to 80,000 before dumping the rest all at once.

His nonstop typing? That was him “copying” the novel from memory—and he was really into it.

“You didn’t become an online dealer, did you?”

Xia Yue suddenly gasped, her chicken leg slipping from her fingers.

“A what?” Xia Xi frowned.

“You know… ‘Hot croupiers, dealing live~’ You keep tapping like you’re shuffling cards or something!”

She then adopted a grave, lecturing tone, staring at him with solemn eyes.

“Bro, I know we’re broke, but you can’t stoop to indecent work! If you’re that desperate, just marry Jia Ying-jie and live off her! There’s no shame in relying on Jia Ying-jie~”

The “Jia Ying-jie” she mentioned was none other than Liu Jiaying—the obsessive boss lady who kept trying to make Xia Xi her personal servant. When Xia Xi first started his new job, Xia Yue had visited the shop under the guise of “checking if her brother was in some shady business.”

So she knew Liu Jiaying.

But first of all, he wasn’t a dealer. And second, wasn’t being a sugar baby also indecent?!

“Stop browsing sketchy sites! Look at you, even knowing terms like ‘hot croupiers’ now. And no, your brother’s doing legit work. Focus on your studies—grown-up stuff isn’t your concern.”

Sure, his sister enjoyed playing galgames at home, but she wouldn’t actually visit those kinds of sites, right? She must’ve just picked up the term from some troublemaker classmates. Yeah, that had to be it.

“Tch. My beloved Onii-chan, whom I’ve known my whole life, now has secrets he won’t share with his dearest little sister… How heartbreaking~”