My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister

He had no idea he had lipstick on his mouth. He stood in the entryway, lost in thought for a long while. Seeing that Jiangg Yao wasn’t coming back and had instead retreated to her apartment, he finally hesitated before stepping inside.

’Women are truly a mystery. One second everything’s fine, and then her mood changes on a dime. I never saw it coming...’

Chen Yuan arrived at 1301 but still didn’t see any sign of Jiangg Yao, so he just sat down on the sofa.

"Dinner’s ready," Jiangg Ning said, carrying a spread of fragrant, colorful dishes out from the kitchen. She placed them on the coffee table. "Go wash your hands. Let’s eat."

"Where’s Yaoyao?"

"Oh, she’s angry and hiding in her room. This afternoon, I got annoyed because she was eating instant noodles with her door open and the smell filled the whole apartment, so we had an argument," Jiangg Ning explained. She was about to look down for a blotting paper, but then she glanced at Chen Yuan’s thigh and noticed a footprint. She asked in confusion, "What’s this? Who kicked you? That wasn’t there a moment ago."

"Yaoyao did..."

"Serves you right."

"?" Chen Yuan was completely baffled. ’What the hell?’ he thought. ’Why is Ningning saying that too?’ "What did I even do?"

"I told you to keep your hands to yourself earlier, but you just had to kiss me. Take a look at your own mouth."

The moment she spoke, Chen Yuan snatched the small mirror from the coffee table. The smooth surface reflected his face, revealing a bright red smear across his mouth. In that instant, everything clicked.

Embarrassed, Chen Yuan tried to wipe it off with his hand, but the more he scrubbed, the worse it got. He ended up smearing it all around his lips until he looked like he had chili-induced sausage lips.

He remembered pinning Ningning down for that kiss. The more shyly she resisted, the more into it he got. That must have been when he got a thick layer smeared on him.

"Chen, you’re making your mouth look like a baboon’s butt," Jiangg Ning said, both amused and exasperated. She patted his head, then went to the bedroom to grab a clean tissue. Pinching a corner of it, she sat down beside him and began to wipe his mouth carefully. "Have you forgotten? The first time we met, in the restaurant? You kissed me then, too."

Jiangg Ning said softly, "Most lipstick won’t come off with just water. A lot of them are waterproof. You need cleansing oil or makeup remover to dissolve it."

"Fine..." he muttered, dejected.

"That’s why you deserved it. Did you think Yaoyao would be happy seeing that? Don’t do this again. It’s not that I won’t let you kiss me, but you need to pick the right moment. Be a little more considerate of her feelings."

’Sigh, that’s the grace and maturity of an older sister for you,’ he thought. ’She never throws her weight around, whether she’s the favored one or not.’

Chen Yuan was instantly filled with admiration for Jiangg Ning’s maturity. An older sister really is different.

If the two sisters knew what he was thinking right now, they would’ve both rolled their eyes at him. Chen Yuan had gotten so used to having a girl on each arm, he was really starting to think he was an emperor.

After cleaning off the lipstick, Chen Yuan went to the spare bedroom with Jiangg Ning’s silent consent. It took a lot of pleading, a good deal of shameless groveling, and considerable effort, but he finally managed to coax Jiangg Yao out of her bad mood.

The three of them ate dinner together.

He had thought they were in for a wonderful evening together, but Yaoyao’s anger clearly lingered. She was cold to him, retreated to her bedroom to rest, and locked the door from the inside.

Ningning had online classes to attend as well. Despite his pleading gaze, she closed the door to the study, waving goodbye through the closing gap.

Suddenly, he was left all alone in the vast living room.

At a loss, Chen Yuan lingered for a moment before heading back to his own apartment.

...

Gaming alone was no fun at all. Chen Yuan played a couple of matches in his gaming room, but his head wasn’t in it, and he kept losing focus during the laning phase.

Usually, Yaoyao would be there with him. Whenever he got a solo kill in lane, she’d shower him with praise and admiration, hyping him up like crazy.

He was so used to playing with her that now he felt a little lonely.

Chen Yuan gave up on gaming and went to his bedroom. Lying on his bed, he started watching an anime series he was halfway through.

He lay on his side, a faint, sweet smile gracing his lips whenever the cute, airheaded female lead did something amusing.

He shifted positions as he watched—sometimes lying on his back, sometimes on his stomach, sometimes propping a pillow behind him.

Two hours flew by.

...

"What do you think they want? Nothing more than to be treated a little better than everyone else. So-called ’equal treatment’ is the one thing they secretly despise the most..."

"Every woman is like this. No exceptions. What they really want isn’t for you to be good to them, but for you to be *better* to them than you are to anyone else."

"As long as you create that illusion and make them truly believe they’re getting more than the others, you won’t have to say another word. They’ll automatically become magnanimous and condescending toward those treated with less favor, all because of the dazzling ’main girl’ halo shining above their heads."

A clear, somewhat androgynous boy’s voice drifted from the phone’s speaker. Onscreen, a shota-style protagonist was shamelessly pontificating. Chen Yuan’s brow furrowed as he watched, a sudden sense of shock washing over him.

"This kid..."

He was watching a niche, hero-centric, Western-style fantasy harem anime. The protagonist was a 1.6-meter-tall, silver-haired shota who was also a scheming, sinister little brat. The story began after an evil dragon was slain; the king was old, and his ministers were vying for power.

The kingdom was mired in a power struggle between the church and the royal nobility. The protagonist, having returned from his adventuring party, was hired as the personal bodyguard for the blonde "loser-dog" princess, and that’s where the plot kicked off.

To put it bluntly, it was just a Western fantasy version of *School Beauty’s Personal Bodyguard* or *Soldier King Returns to the City*. Power-fantasy stories from every country follow the same template: it’s all about chasing tits and cash, while all the leaders in charge are incompetent fools.

Logically, the values promoted by this power-fantasy anime were pretty trashy. But it had a ton of fight scenes, the protagonist was on a constant killing spree, and his characterization was solid. Even the way the harem was built felt "fresh and unconventional." After watching it, Chen Yuan found himself feeling inexplicably satisfied.