My sister's life has been smooth sailing; she always manages to choose a broad road at every critical juncture in life, while I can confidently carve out my own path thanks to her steadiness, continuing to be her pig teammate.

Back then, my sister was admitted to a local foreign language university with excellent grades, and when she registered, she found out her student number was 001, likely the highest score admitted that year. As for why she didn't apply to a farther and better school, it was partly because our parents didn't want her to go far, and partly due to her old problem of crying after exams. After the college entrance examination, she cried so hard and so genuinely that we all believed she had really messed up. Even our usually calm father sounded anxious. In those days, we filled out applications based on estimated scores, and considering my sister's poor performance, the family decided to apply to a conservative and safe school for her. However, when the scores came out, they were astonishingly high, and the school sent a promotional team to our home with drums and gongs to deliver the good news. That’s when we realized my sister hadn’t performed poorly; she just cried excessively.

Privately, I also asked my sister, wasn’t there a standard answer? How could the estimated score be off by several points? She said there were many subjective questions in the exam, including essays, and she estimated herself at the lowest score. I nodded, thinking that my sister was still under too much psychological pressure being in the spotlight. This kind of unbearable height is something I have never reached, so I have no right to comment on my sister's reaction.

After graduating from university, my sister stayed on to teach at the same foreign language university she had underestimated. She thought she would only stay for four years, but now she has been deeply rooted there for half her life, during which she has also taken on the responsibility of caring for our parents. As for me, after graduating from university, I wandered around, traveling south and north, quitting jobs on a whim, and I have both actively and passively started businesses. During a low point in my life, I once stood on the street and called my sister. As we talked, she started crying first and asked for my bank card number. The pig teammate felt ashamed to accept her countless help.

I once thought that being in two different cities, I would never be compared to my sister, nor would my reckless actions tarnish her reputation. But in reality, how can family members be separated? My sister's halo may have brought me some pressure while growing up, but hasn’t my lack of decorum also brought her many thrilling experiences?

“No,” my sister said, “I’ve always been quite at ease with you.”

Perhaps we have both realized another possibility of life for each other, something we secretly imagine but are unwilling to venture into recklessly; just looking at each other is enough to satisfy us.

My sister said she felt at ease with me also because there is now someone else she worries about more. The successor to the pig teammate is my niece, my sister's only daughter. Not long ago in the autumn, she bought a plane ticket to return home to reunite with the family, but in a careless mistake, she got the visa date wrong and couldn’t return to Canada after arriving home. A pile of luggage and furniture, including pets, became abandoned property in Canada. I quite appreciate my niece's carefree style, but the psychological impact it has caused my sister during her growth is naturally incalculable. Since she can’t return to Canada for now, my niece plans to gain a year of work experience in the country before applying for a permanent residency card. She is also majoring in languages, and coincidentally, my sister's workplace needed a temporary teacher, so my niece and sister became colleagues in the same teaching and research office.

I was genuinely happy for the two of them; how many parents can become colleagues with their children? Such a fate is truly wonderful. However, what I didn’t know was that ever since this news was confirmed, my sister couldn’t sleep at night. This is the institution where my sister has worked for thirty years; although my niece has graduated with a master's degree, she has never had any teaching experience. If my sister's reputation was not ruined by me back then, it might now be shattered by her own daughter.

My sister began urging my niece to prepare lessons every day and personally gave her advice, but my niece casually replied, “I’ve looked at the textbook; it’s very simple, no need to prepare too much.” It was this statement and attitude that kept my sister awake at night, and even when she did sleep, it was filled with nightmares.

Until my niece taught her first class, my sister secretly watched from outside the classroom and even took photos with her phone. After class, everything was surprisingly calm. There were no protests or disturbances from the students as my sister had anticipated; in fact, even the department leaders offered comforting and encouraging words. This made my sister breathe a long sigh of relief. “Maybe I was too burdened with thoughts,” my sister summarized, “I was too tired; it’s time to relax a bit.”

However, just a couple of days after saying this, one morning my sister received an anxious call from the scheduling teacher, asking why my niece was late, as the students were all waiting. My sister broke out in a cold sweat and called my niece, who lived elsewhere, only to find out she had misremembered the schedule and was still fast asleep. This was something my sister had never experienced in her thirty years of teaching.

My sister relayed this incident to me in a painful, incredulous tone, then fell silent for a long time, seemingly fermenting her inner emotions, waiting for comfort, but I couldn’t help but want to laugh. The position of the pig teammate has already been succeeded; my heart is very comforted!

Returning to that question, everyone who carries a halo particularly needs a pig teammate, just like a pressure cooker needs a pressure relief valve. In life, some people bury their heads and climb up, while the pig teammates beside them seem to hold them back, but they can always prevent you from being crushed by a sudden avalanche through a series of small collapses. Sometimes, you exhaust all your efforts to reach a position similar to the summit of Mount Everest; at that moment, do you want to stay there for a long time or take a quick photo and leave this dreadful place? In my view, those who reach the top of the mountain are not necessarily the conquerors; only those who safely descend the mountain can be considered successful. And those pig teammates are the ones who help you safely descend the mountain.

In this light, my sister's halo and the assistance of pig teammates truly complement each other.