Chapter One
My sister is dead.
When it comes to my unruly sister, I could talk about her for days on end.
Every day she stirred up trouble—if she wasn’t breaking something, she was making someone angry.
It’s not that she was bad, but she was indeed a lawless child. Because she had a cute face, her behavior made people even more infuriated.
But my sister is dead.
I heard that she choked to death while eating something at school. At the time, we were in class—we attended the same school. While all the students, including me, were sitting in the classroom listening attentively, she skipped class and ran up to the empty rooftop. Standing there looking over the playground, she ate a date, but ended up choking without anyone noticing. By the time she was found, she had already become a corpse on the rooftop.
Her death was ridiculous. It was more shocking than sad. Even I, who had suffered her antics since childhood, never thought she would die in such a manner. When I heard about it, I couldn’t help but shout, “No way!”
“No way, no way!” I rushed to the scene, only to find that my sister was indeed dead. Her body was covered with a white cloth; teachers stood grim-faced nearby, and a girl sat dazed beside my sister.
“Seal off the rooftop and don’t let any other students up here. Yang, you should go back to class or rest in the infirmary,” the teacher clapped his hands to disperse those around, then spoke to the girl sitting beside my sister. Finally, he turned to me, who was standing there stunned, and said:
“We’ve already contacted your parents. They’ll be here soon. You can wait here for a bit, or do you prefer not to stay?”
But at that moment, I couldn’t respond to the teacher at all. Suspecting that all this might be one of my sister’s pranks, I grabbed the white cloth and yanked it off.
Only when I saw my sister’s bloodless face beneath the cloth did I realize that all of this was real.
My sister… her eyes were rolled back, tongue sticking out, as if making a funny face. Half a date had fallen beside her.
No way! Could she really be dead? Impossible! Haha, here you go again, always playing pranks.
“Hey, Tian, stop joking around. Get up.”
“Don’t do that!”
I tried to grab Tian’s school uniform to pull her up, but was immediately pulled back by several teachers behind me.
“The police will be here soon; we need to preserve the scene!”
“Let go of me!”
“Mr. Bao, come help! This child is losing control!”
“Yes, yes.”
I hadn’t lost control; I just suspected she was faking death. Haha, even if you can fool others, you can’t fool me.
But no matter how I shook Tian, she remained motionless, lying on the ground without getting up. Tongue out, with an ugly expression on her face.
I heard that the girl who first discovered Tian’s body was investigated afterward, and the final result showed that Tian had indeed died accidentally.
My sister is dead—cause of death: choking.
I felt that this way of dying didn’t suit Tian, but also thought she was unbelievably foolish, deserving such a fate.
After all, it was my sister who broke school rules first; saying she deserved to die wasn’t unreasonable. But because the one who died was my sister, everyone felt that this manner of death didn’t seem like her at all. How could she die so easily? So no one dared to speak, fearing she hadn’t truly died and might reappear to continue causing trouble.
But my sister didn’t come back to life or appear as a ghost—until the day of the funeral.
After that, my sister—Tian’s—funeral was held at home. Her portrait was placed in the living room, offered with her favorite snacks and some fruits.
Then the deceased Tian lay in a black coffin. The coffin was too large, but fortunately, our house was standalone, so the coffin was placed in the garage beside the house.
The garage was also adorned with flowers and snacks, as well as a bowl of inverted rice and several meat and vegetable dishes. Incense smoke curled upward, making people slightly cough. Beside it was a table with candles burning all night, the wax dripping continuously like tears.
It was my first time wearing a suit, standing in front of the coffin to receive guests coming to pay their respects.
On the day of the funeral, many people came to our home to offer condolences.
Tian lay in the coffin with her eyes closed, displaying a peaceful face. With fair skin and a round face, if you only looked at her face, she could be considered cute. As long as she didn’t open those eyes that feared the world wasn’t chaotic enough, or grin with that mouth that always laughed recklessly, she looked like a somewhat cute little beauty.
However, I kept checking—glancing at the coffin every now and then, only feeling at ease when I saw her eyes still closed.
No matter how many times I looked, I felt she might jump up in the next moment, making me nervous.
“Di, you should go rest now. We can keep watch here,” my parents said to me that evening after I’d been standing most of the day. Perhaps they were considering that my leg had just healed?
My sister and I were fraternal twins. Although I’m the older brother, we’re the same age—I was just born five minutes earlier.
I’m in the third year of middle school, about to graduate, but previously, because of my sister’s prank, I broke a leg and stayed in the hospital for a month and a half, missing a lot of classes. Although the new term had just started and I could catch up, I didn’t expect that not long after I came back, the culprit would go to that world first.
When I walked out of the garage, I happened to see the setting sun sinking like a blaze.
After all, she was my sister, so I felt a bit of sorrow. Standing at the doorway where she had once spilled paint on my head, under the tree where she had jumped down and knocked me over, I couldn’t help but recall those annoying old memories.
“Hehehe…” It seemed I could still hear her irritating voice from somewhere, causing me to look around the house. Curtains fluttered by the empty windows, giving rise to an indescribable feeling of melancholy.
Little sister, you’re finally gone. Should I feel relieved or sad? Even I, your brother, don’t know.
I sniffed and immediately stood up straight again; this melancholic style doesn’t suit me.
“Who would’ve thought—Di just got back from the hospital, and Tian passed away. Could this house be tainted with something bad?” Nearby came whispers—it was some adults who had come to pay their respects. Turning my head, I saw women dressed in black, covering their mouths.
I wasn’t familiar with my relatives, but I agreed with what they said.
They weren’t wrong—the little troublemaker had already gone to that world. The worst thing in this house was her. Now that she’s gone, it feels like she took the very foundation of the house with her. Instead, I’m afraid she might return as an evil spirit.
But even such a detestable sister—once dead, would she still be missed? Seeing my parents’ tearful expressions, even I couldn’t help but sigh.
“Hello.”
At that moment, a greeting came from the doorway. I quickly went outside to answer.
“Huh? You are…”
Standing at the door was a girl with long wavy hair tied into two small braids.
I recognized her—she was the girl at the scene of Tian’s death.
We were classmates but not close; I only remembered that she was in the same class as Tian and was often seen following behind her at school.
“You’re Yang, right? What brings you here today?”
Since our conversation on the rooftop that day, we hadn’t spoken again. After all, I’d been busy with the funeral and hadn’t returned to school.
Yang lowered her head, seeming to ponder before finally mustering the courage to say:
“I heard that today is Tian’s funeral. I really wanted to come see her one last time.”
Unbelievable—someone from school actually came to pay respects to Tian.
Could it be that she was Tian’s friend? Tian actually had friends??
Tian was cute in appearance but frightening in personality, rampaging through school and offending probably two-thirds of the students—she had earned the nickname “Little Demon King.”
I knew there was a fan club for Tian at school; some admired her lawlessness, and perhaps some were attracted to her looks, but they were mostly boys.
I didn’t expect she actually had a female friend—could it be true?
“Oh, you’ve come to see Tian? This way, please.”
I pointed toward the garage. Although skeptical, I couldn’t very well turn her away since she’d come all this way.
“I’m sorry…”
The girl suddenly began to cry, tears streaming down her face before she could wipe them away. She looked up at me and said:
“I noticed that Tian wasn’t in the classroom at the time, but I didn’t go look for her… If I had gone earlier, if I had found her sooner, maybe… maybe she wouldn’t have died!”
It was the first time I’d seen a girl cry, and I was shocked, standing there dumbfounded.
Sometimes Tian would fake crying but would soon secretly stick out her tongue behind your back, so I didn’t have a good impression of crying girls. But this girl was different—she was sobbing so hard it seemed she couldn’t breathe, and I suddenly understood.
I see; this girl was the one who usually took care of Tian at school. I knew that Tian was a headache for the teachers, and only this girl always followed her, cleaning up her messes like an assistant.
At that moment, I realized Tian was truly gone.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
The girl squatted down, burying her face in her knees, continuously apologizing.
Before I knew it, I started to cry as well.
Tears fell like raindrops onto the head of the girl crouched before me, causing her to look up.
“No, I didn’t mean to cry…”
Honestly, she was unruly and annoying—I had been tormented by her since childhood. Now that she’s gone, I thought I wouldn’t be that sad… or so I believed.
But suddenly, the tears wouldn’t stop, falling one after another, forming spots on the ground. This is embarrassing, and they’re falling on the girl’s head.
The girl looked up with a tear-streaked face, eyebrows drooping, biting her lip, her pupils reflecting my crying face.
“Uuuu…”
“Waah waah waah…”
Completely infected by her, I cried uncontrollably. Damn, this doesn’t suit my image.
The girl didn’t stop crying either, looking helpless as she sniffled.
As a result, I, along with a girl I wasn’t familiar with at all, stayed at the doorway crying until nightfall.
