Reversed Life: Chapter 22 - Forget It, Maybe I Just Shouldn’t Have This Sister Anymore
Chapter 22: Forget It, Maybe I Just Shouldn’t Have This Sister Anymore
In that instant, Mu Song’s mind completely short-circuited.
His gentle, mild-mannered, slender, quiet, honest older sister — the sister most commonly seen hugging foreign-language textbooks and memorizing vocabulary —
was currently charging through a crowd swinging a wooden stick.
And radiating a murderous aura that even he, the self-proclaimed middle-school tyrant, couldn’t match.
After being yelled at, he stood there stupidly for a moment before finally snapping back to reality and joining the fight, his brain blank. Somehow, the whole thing felt strangely easy today. There were more than a dozen opponents, yet in no time, they were sprawled all over the ground. It was nothing like the “bloody battle” he’d imagined.
The real school tyrant, Qiao Nan, scoffed at the whole thing.
A bunch of middle-school brats’ grudges were laughably insignificant to an old hand like him. Besides, what did kids know about fighting? Their idea of being “ruthless” was just hitting without restraint.
Did they know where a punch hurt the most without causing serious injury?
Did they know exactly how to kick a knee so the target lost strength instantly?
Qiao Nan knew all of it. His only weakness right now was Mu Xiangxiang’s physical stamina. Fortunately, during the week and a half since they’d swapped bodies, he hadn’t skipped training once. With his obsessive control over physical conditioning, he’d steadily increased the intensity every day. As of this morning, he’d progressed to barely managing ten pull-ups after an intermittent six-kilometer run.
Still nowhere near the level of his original body, but more than enough to teach these little punks a lesson.
Middle-schoolers’ mental resilience really was weak. Once the tide of battle turned, half the lackeys immediately ran away. The remaining half quickly lost the will to fight too, leaving only the boss — some guy called Qiu Guang — sobbing under Qiao Nan’s fists…
Qiao Nan tossed the kid aside, sighed for the decline of the nation’s youth, then returned to the wall, picked up the bag he’d left there, and turned around.
Mu Song stood amid the groaning bodies scattered across the ground, his usually sharp, aggressive face frozen blankly as his sister’s calm voice rang out: “What are you standing there for?”
***
There was no way Mu Song could go home looking like that, covered in blood.
Qiao Nan led the gray-haired kid through twists and turns until they found a pharmacy. He bought bandages, gauze, and disinfectant, then dragged him into the park to treat the wound.
The cut wasn’t deep. Rinse with saline, iodine, wrap it up — his movements were practiced and efficient. After all, he’d gotten injured in fights often enough before. Long illness makes a good doctor.
Mu Song sat on the bench speechless, staring at his usually expressionless sister.
There were plenty of elderly people dancing in the square nearby, but this corner remained strangely quiet.
As he felt the bandage gradually wrapping around his forehead, he finally spoke coldly after a long silence: “You’re not going to ask?”
Qiao Nan tied off the knot with quick fingers, glanced at him while packing things away, and replied, “Ask what?”
Mu Song paused, finding it hard to say aloud. Fighting, chasing girls — it all seemed pretty shameful. Especially in the eyes of his sister, who’d always been the model student.
But Qiao Nan, having been there himself, saw through the kid instantly. He sneered. “You little brat. Your peach fuzz hasn’t even grown in yet, and you’re already pretending to be some gang boss. Let me tell you, you’re still green as hell. Don’t think dyeing your hair and swearing makes you some underworld tyrant. You and your little girlfriend’s crowd are like country bumpkins putting on a play.”
“………………”
For a moment Mu Song didn’t even know whether to complain about his sister sounding like a street thug or about what she was saying. After a long silence, he stubbornly said, “She’s not my girlfriend.”
Qiao Nan snorted. “So what? You seriously don’t see the problem? Listening to your rival trash-talk just now gave me secondhand embarrassment. What were you guys doing, filming a 90s TVB gangster drama?”
Mu Song’s expression darkened. Teenage pride was a strange thing. They could tolerate criticism for rebellious behavior and even wear it like a badge of honor. But what they absolutely could not tolerate was someone mocking the “style” of the crowd they ran with.
Normally he wouldn’t even bother responding. In his eyes, his sister’s straight-A-student image belonged to a completely different world. What the hell would she understand?
And worse, that criticism was coming from someone he’d always viewed as a boring bookworm. To him, it felt like blatant mockery. But she’d just gone full action hero moments ago. The scene had been so cool it made him and Qiu Guang’s gang of so-called school bosses look…
pathetic.
Mu Song, who’d always been worshipped by girls at school for his handsome looks and “cool” behavior, desperately tried to suppress the cracks forming in his self-confidence. He stubbornly snapped, “What the hell do you know?!”
Then the girl across from him instantly went cold.
Before he could realize things were about to go badly, her right hand shot up high—
“OW—!”
After beating him up once, Qiao Nan tied the plastic bag shut and tossed it into Mu Song’s arms. His gaze swept up and down him, pausing for several seconds on the legs practically bursting out of the holes in his jeans. Hands in pockets, he let out a mocking laugh and walked off.
The smack had left the back of Mu Song’s head burning. He felt utterly humiliated. He wanted to stay stubborn, but by the time he realized it, he’d already instinctively followed behind.
A gust of wind blew through the ripped holes in his jeans, making him shiver violently. Suddenly, he felt ashamed. Especially with the sharply dressed, effortlessly stylish figure walking ahead as a comparison.
It felt like showing up confidently to Milan Fashion Week in a carefully prepared outfit, only to realize everything you were wearing had gone out of style five years ago.
Even though, until now, he’d always sneered at his sister’s plain casual style.
Her sense of taste had suddenly changed.
****
When they got home, surprisingly, Mu Xiangxiang’s parents weren’t there.
Qiao Nan ignored Mu Song and went straight back to the room after entering. Mu Song, meanwhile, stood frozen at the doorway. He’d assumed there’d definitely be a lecture today no matter what.
But Qiao Nan himself had once been a delinquent. Why would he waste time lecturing anyone? Besides, teenagers in their rebellious phase never listened to advice anyway. Qiao Nan still remembered his own cringeworthy middle-school years — he’d been like a lit firecracker. Any tiny word from family could set him off instantly.
As the former school tyrant, nearly all the friends around him growing up had gone through the same phase. The milder cases smoked and drank; the severe ones had no limits at all. Compared to them, Mu Song — who merely fought and dated a little — practically qualified as an innocent, wholesome role model student.
No need to worry about him.
A real man should survive this phase on his own.
After changing clothes in the room, Qiao Nan texted Mu Xiangxiang’s parents asking where they were. Mother Mu soon replied that she and Father Mu were out shopping for things.
Shopping for things? Meaning they wouldn’t be back anytime soon.
Qiao Nan immediately dug a pack of cigarettes out from the back of a drawer, planning to reward his slightly exhausted body after the fight.
He’d just put one in his mouth and lit it when— Knock knock knock. Qiao Nan had already gotten the lighter going, so he could only silently stand up again.
Opening the door, he found a one-meter-seventy gray-haired kid outside. The wound on his forehead was covered by a sports headband, completely hiding the bandages underneath.
Qiao Nan glanced downward. The suffocating ripped jeans had finally been replaced with sweatpants. At least the kid can still be taught, he thought. But he was still annoyed at having his smoke interrupted. “What?”
Mu Song fell silent. His gaze swept from his sister’s face down to the rest of her body, and for a moment she felt so unfamiliar he almost didn’t dare recognize her.
In his memories, she had always been just like their parents — quiet and subdued. She endured everything without complaint. Even when their uncle’s family hurled all kinds of vicious insults at them, she could respond calmly without changing expression, and even turn around to soothe him when he got so furious he was about to lose control.
But now, that person who always suppressed herself until not a single edge showed was standing there with messy hair, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, staring at him impatiently.
She was wearing… a gray sleeveless undershirt for old men (Qiao Nan’s favorite pajama top) and a pair of Hawaiian-style beach shorts (Qiao Nan’s favorite pajama bottoms). The oversized clothes hung loosely off her body, and she shuffled around in black flip-flops. Every pore on her body radiated careless delinquency.
Qiao Nan, meanwhile, felt there was no need to restrain himself in front of another juvenile delinquent the way he did around Father Mu and Mother Mu. After waiting a while without hearing why the kid had come, his brows immediately furrowed. “Come on already. Say what you need to say and quit wasting time.”
Mu Song hesitated before asking softly, “…Sis… how did you become like this?”
Qiao Nan raised a brow. He remembered Mu Xiangxiang mentioning that Mu Song had never been particularly close to the family since starting school, and after entering middle school he barely even came home anymore. Facing someone like that, he wasn’t worried at all about exposing himself, so he answered righteously: “What do you mean ‘become like this’? I’ve always been like this.”
Walking around stiff-legged and pretending to behave every day in front of Father Mu and Mother Mu was exhausting. He couldn’t be bothered to keep acting around anyone else.
Always been like this?
That quiet, silent, patient, rule-following older sister… was secretly like this in private?!
For a moment, Mu Song couldn’t even maintain his usual wolf-cub scowl. He froze for so long that Qiao Nan was about to kick him out when he finally lowered his head and muttered: “…Thanks. For today.”
Qiao Nan looked him over for a while before stepping aside. “Come in.”
Mu Song had never entered this room before, though he knew roughly what girls’ rooms were supposed to look like. So the instant he stepped inside, he stopped short.
The room was just as cramped as his own, yet he couldn’t imagine how anyone could make such a mess of it.
A pile of clothes had been tossed chaotically across the single bed against the wall. T-shirts and sweaters hung in tangled heaps from the edge of the mattress onto the floor. Beside them, an unzipped schoolbag sprawled limply among the clothes. The desk opposite the door was so buried beneath papers that the wood surface was no longer visible — stacks of worksheets and tutoring materials towered high — while the bookshelf itself was practically empty…Qiao Nan, however, didn’t find anything strange about this at all. Lazily scratching through his hair as he walked in, he casually said, “Sit.”
Mu Song: “……”
Sit where?
Speechless, Mu Song stared at her. He had never known his sister had such a bizarre side. Wasn’t it a little excessive for a top student to secretly live more sloppily than a delinquent like him? It practically disgraced her title as “other people’s child” in the neighborhood. But when he thought about it carefully, he realized he’d barely ever spoken to her.
Or rather, he had always felt completely out of place in this family. Whenever those hateful buzzing flies — their relatives — started causing trouble, his sharp temper always clashed violently with the quiet endurance of the rest of the family.
Over time, he grew sick of the suffocating atmosphere. He constantly wanted to escape it, trying to gain power in his own way so he could solve those problems himself.
And now, this sudden discovery stirred up a strange feeling inside him. As if, all at once, he and his sister shared a secret that belonged only to them.
Qiao Nan glanced at him, clicked his tongue impatiently, and thought what a pain. He walked over, scooped the pile of clothes off the bed, and dumped them onto the chair. “Sit already.”
The room didn’t smell bad, but… Mu Song stared at the computer chair that had nearly been buried alive under clothing. He endured it for a while before finally giving in to his cleanliness obsession. Pushing his sister aside, he started tidying up himself.
His movements were fast and efficient. In no time at all, the maddening mess had been handled. The neatly folded clothes returned to the bed — taking up only one tiny corner now — and then Mu Song moved on to the desk. Tutoring books with tutoring books, textbooks with textbooks, even the worksheets were sorted into separate piles by subject.
The chaotic room instantly became far more refreshing.
It finally had a bit of the atmosphere Qiao Nan preferred when he first moved in. Qiao Nan froze for a moment, then took the cigarette from his lips, eyes lighting up with surprise.
Not bad, kid. You’re amazing at cleaning rooms!
You actually rescued me from my suffering that easily!
To be fair, the mess wasn’t entirely Qiao Nan’s fault. He’d literally never done housework growing up. The Qiao residence was enormous, and cleaners came every day. Having lived that kind of life for years, he’d been horribly uncomfortable when he first arrived at the Mu house.
Mu Xiangxiang was extremely independent. Whether studying or daily life, she never burdened her parents at all — she even washed all her own clothes.
Qiao Nan couldn’t figure out the ancient washing machine in the Mu house, and he couldn’t exactly ask anyone for help. Plus, he was obsessed with cleanliness. No matter the season, he changed clothes from head to toe every single day. Shorts and socks were fine — just wear and toss them aside — but what about large pieces like shirts?
Mu Xiangxiang already owned few clothes to begin with. At his rate of changing, they wouldn’t last even two days.
So Qiao Nan had bought a bunch more to rotate through, planning to wait until enough dirty laundry piled up before sneaking it out a window to a dry cleaner whenever Father Mu wasn’t around the doorway.
But now things were different. With diligent and hardworking Little Brother Mu around, he could skip the whole climbing-out-the-window step entirely!
Seeing that Mu Song looked ready to stop after folding the clothes and organizing the desk, Qiao Nan immediately gave an order: “While you’re at it, wash these too.”
Mu Song hugged the pile of black, gray, and white T-shirts and locked eyes with him sharply, his face screaming unwillingness.
Five minutes later.
The ancient washing machine in the Mu family bathroom began rumbling noisily to life.
*****
So when Father Mu and Mother Mu returned home carrying huge bags of supplies, they were nearly blinded by the sight before them.
Their runaway younger son was standing there with a laundry pole, hanging clothes on the line one piece at a time!
The woven sack in Mother Mu’s hand crashed to the floor with a loud clang, something metallic inside rattling noisily. The sound startled Mu Song, who turned around immediately, awkwardness flashing across his face.
The brief silence between both sides was broken by Qiao Nan emerging from the room. He looked at the mountain of bags outside the door and hurried over to help. “…What’s with all this stuff?”
Mother Mu and Father Mu barely managed to tear their eyes away from their younger son standing stiffly on the balcony with the laundry pole. Father Mu laughed sheepishly. “No need, no need, Dad can handle it. The bags are dirty. It’s just pots, bowls, coal briquettes, stuff like that.”
Ignoring the protest, Qiao Nan started hauling the woven sacks inside while shouting toward the balcony: “Come help!”
After hesitating briefly, Mu Song set down the laundry pole and walked over with a dark expression.
The moment the door shut, Mother Mu excitedly crouched down and started unpacking. She pulled things out one by one from the sack— A cast-iron wok. Spatulas. Flour. A pile of little stainless-steel plates. Enamel cups. Packs of disposable chopsticks. Qiao Nan stared in utter confusion. “What are you buying all this for?”
Mother Mu was panting heavily, but smiling brightly. Her palms were black with soot, and when she wiped sweat from her face she instantly smeared dirt across it. “Oh, my precious daughter, wasn’t it you who said yesterday that your dad’s cooking skills could make money? You got him so excited he didn’t sleep all night. First thing this morning he rushed out to start preparing.”
Father Mu smiled bashfully. “Don’t listen to your mom. She was even more excited than I was.”
Then he frowned with some distress. “Just this little bit of stuff already cost over a thousand yuan.”
That was more than he sometimes earned in an entire month.
Mother Mu immediately replied: “It’s okay, it’s okay! Starting a business always needs some startup money. Once the money’s spent, maybe we’ll earn it back ten times over in the future.”
Mu Song hadn’t tasted the noodles from last night, so he looked completely lost. Meanwhile, recalling his own casual comment from yesterday, Qiao Nan could only feel speechless. After all, when he’d eaten that bowl of noodles last night, it had already been nearly midnight.
Father Mu and Mother Mu came back with a whole pile of stuff today. Had even ten hours passed in between? The efficiency of this couple when it came to getting things done was honestly unbelievable.
They really were practical, action-oriented people. After hearing Qiao Nan’s offhand comment yesterday, the two of them had lain awake the entire night, talking back and forth until they’d basically mapped out the framework of a small business. They were so excited they didn’t sleep at all. Early this morning they skipped everything else, spent the entire morning making lists, then rushed straight to the wholesale market at noon and stayed busy until now.
Father Mu had spent the whole day riding around on the disability scooter issued by the government, yet he didn’t look tired in the slightest. After enthusiastically sorting the materials on the floor, he carried a huge bag of green chili peppers into the kitchen. Before long, a fresh spicy pepper fragrance drifted into the living room.
Qiao Nan was bewildered by how fired up he looked. They were already starting?
A moment later Father Mu came out carrying an enormous basin, set it on the dining table, and began seasoning things. Cooking wine, vinegar, soy sauce—he poured everything in with reckless generosity. For someone normally so frugal, this was practically unheard of. Several condiment bottles were emptied in one go until the liquid completely submerged the chopped chili peppers inside the basin.
The smell of peppers in the room was immediately overtaken by a sweet-and-sour aroma from the marinade. Qiao Nan was stunned by the sheer boldness of Father Mu’s cooking style. “What’s this?”
“Pickling peppers,” Father Mu explained. “We’ll use them as seasoning tomorrow.” Then he raised his voice loudly. “Alright, you two don’t need to help here! You’ve both got school tomorrow, so hurry up and get to bed!”
“Tomorrow?”
Qiao Nan almost thought he’d misheard. “In one single day you already got a storefront?!”
“As if.” Mother Mu, who was hauling over a gigantic stainless steel cart with a bunch of drawers, looked at her daughter like she was an idiot. “Store rent in City A costs a fortune, you know? We’d need tens of thousands just for that. Where would our family get money like that? Your dad and I rented a breakfast stall at Youth Plaza for three days first. We’ll test the waters. If business goes well, we can apply for the hygiene permit and license the day after tomorrow.”
The couple grinned together. Father Mu had already finished pickling the peppers and was now hauling out another huge bag of mushrooms to chop, alongside diced meat. Clearly, he still had some major project underway.
Both of them acted as though all of this was completely natural, but Qiao Nan was frozen in place.
This was ridiculously overpowered…
One day. No—more like just over ten hours—and they’d already decided on the business direction, products, operations, and sales channel, bought supplies, and apparently even started sorting out permits.
Honestly, even Qiao Corporation probably didn’t have many employees this efficient.
These two ordinary-looking people… their personalities were actually incredible.
Meanwhile, Father Mu was practically radiating killing intent as he chopped with lightning-fast knife work. In the brief moment Qiao Nan’s thoughts wandered, he’d already finished prepping a second ingredient and set a wok on the stove.
The moment diced meat, mushrooms, and various other ingredients hit the hot oil, a rich fragrance exploded through the air. Qiao Nan’s stomach growled instantly. Unable to endure it any longer, he hurriedly stood up to retreat to his room, dragging along the still-dazed Mu Song on the way.
Mu Song’s gaze remained fixed on the kitchen for a very long time. He hadn’t been home these past few days, which meant this was actually the first time he’d seen Father Mu cook.
That figure standing in the kitchen, flipping the wok with such spirited confidence, felt both incredibly familiar and incredibly strange.
He’d only been away from home for a short time—so why had his father changed so much, too? Gone was the helplessness toward life that used to seep from him during arguments, whether last night or every time before. Now he stood tall and solid, becoming more and more like the father Mu Song had once imagined in his fantasies.
Mu Song stood there in a daze. Qiao Nan tugged him once but couldn’t move him, nearly stumbling himself in the process. The hem of the jacket over his tank top caught on a nearby bag.
Plop.
Mother Mu, who was crouched on the floor organizing bags of starch, glanced up absentmindedly toward the sound. Her eyes immediately widened, and she instinctively reached out—
A bright red pack of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes.
Qiao Nan: “……………………”
He watched as Mother Mu stared blankly at the cigarette pack for a moment before her expression gradually turned serious and she slowly raised her head toward him—
In that instant, storms raged through Qiao Nan’s brain. Inspiration struck like lightning.
“Smack!”
Mu Song, still staring blankly toward the kitchen where his father was cooking, suddenly felt a sharp pain explode at the back of his head. He instinctively covered it and turned around in confusion.
The next second his sister mercilessly smacked him again. “You little brat…”
Mu Song: “……………………”
His sister met his bewildered stare without the slightest retreat. The earlier sloppy secret-sharing vibe had vanished completely, replaced by an aura of righteous integrity. “You’re barely even grown, and you already learned how to smoke?!”
“What? What?!” Father Mu, who had been boiling soup, immediately limped over. His eyes swept across the family before landing on the cigarette pack in his wife’s hand. His expression instantly changed.
“You little punk!!!”
“Dad!” Just as he was about to storm over, his daughter suddenly interrupted him. She seemed to remember something and ran back to her room before returning with a paper bag. “I almost forgot. I went to a friend’s house today, and their family asked me to bring this gift for you.”
Father Mu’s mind was still stuck on the devastating revelation that his son had learned to smoke, so he had no interest in any gift. But since his daughter had already handed it over, he gave her face and lowered his head for a look.
The moment he saw it, he froze. Pulling out the tea cake inside, he asked: “This is pu’er tea?”
Qiao Nan nodded repeatedly. This was aged pu’er tea—his dad had treasured it for years and rarely even used it to entertain guests.
Father Mu peeled back the tea wrapper and sniffed it, immediately breaking into a delighted smile. “What excellent tea—”
Qiao Nan finally relaxed. Then Father Mu cheerfully finished his sentence: “Perfect. I’ll boil some tea eggs with it tonight so you kids can bring them to school for breakfast tomorrow.”
With that, he hugged the tea cake and completely forgot about the smoking issue as he turned and left.
Qiao Nan stood frozen in place, his brain wavering back and forth between stopping him and not stopping him.
A minute later, he turned and walked back into the living room, where Mu Song was staring at him with an indescribably complicated expression.
Qiao Nan fell silent for a moment before deciding to deal with Mother Mu first. He snatched the cigarette pack from her hands. “It’s fine, Mom. You go do your thing. I’ll talk to him myself. I’ll throw the cigarettes away too.”
After successfully placating the gullible mother, he met Mu Song’s eyes again.
“…” Qiao Nan pondered for a moment. “How about you go back to hanging the laundry?”
“......”
Author’s Note:
A long time later—
Mu Song, swearing solemnly: “My sister is super unhygienic!”
Mu Song, extremely aggrieved: “She smoked herself and framed me for it!”
Mu Song, tears streaming down his face: “She even ordered me around! I washed her clothes every day until my hands got calluses!”
Mu Xiangxiang: “………………”
It wasn’t me, I didn’t, really…
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