Yuan Luoyi stepped back a few steps, refusing her second brother Yuan Fa's request.
She asked, "How did Big brother die?"
Yuan Fa tilted his head in confusion, "You don't know?"
Yuan Luoyi said, "I'm asking you because I don't know!"
Yuan Fa stared at Yuan Luoyi for a moment, then sighed heavily, "Big brother and Mother died the same way, they were shot."
"And there were signs of burning on their wounds, which only happens when fired at point-blank range."
"I suspect that before the explosion, he ran out and discovered the real culprit, chasing after them."
"Then, he caught the culprit, and he must have seen their face. He was probably very surprised, yet also very happy, and then he embraced the real culprit..."
"Bang!"
"He was shot, a fatal hit, dying at the hands of his own sister."
Yuan Luoyi shook her head vigorously, "That wasn't me!"
Even though she had a dark side, in the end she'd rather crumble than fall into depravity!
Just as her brothers would never harm her, she would never harm her brothers!
She persevered for 99 lifetimes, 1800 years, just to change the fate of death and save everyone!
Yuan Fa frowned worriedly, taking large strides until he stood before Yuan Luoyi. He bent down, looking into her eyes.
"My dear sister."
"Besides you, who else would we embrace?"
"Just looking at you, even my broken self feels a surge of tenderness..."
"You are our only weakness. You stretch out your little hands, using that childish voice to say, 'Brother, give me your life.'"
"We cannot refuse you."
"Those who belonged to the darkness saw the light, and can no longer bear the darkness. Now you want to abandon us, how can we go on living?"
Yuan Fa offered the gun to Yuan Luoyi again, bathed in a bloody glow by the setting sun. After waiting for a while and seeing Yuan Luoyi not take it, Yuan Fa sighed.
"Why won't you let me be free like Big brother? Didn't you say you forgave me?"
Yuan Luoyi refuted, "I told you it wasn't me!"
Yuan Fa said, "At first, I didn't believe it could be you either, because most of the time you're truly a gentle child."
"If I stole your snacks, you'd be angry for a bit, then get over it quickly."
"If I made you cry, I'd do a magic trick and you'd laugh again."
"I've always been a selfish bad brother, but you were a good sister, silently forgiving me many times."
"So when I suspected the one who killed Big brother was you, I came to this graveyard..."
With a heavy, mournful tread, Yuan Fa slowly walked to a gravestone engraved with "Yuan Luoyi." He lifted the stone slab, retrieving a round box.
It was Yuan Luoyi's ashes.
"Thump... Thump..."
Yuan Fa tapped the box lightly with his fingers, the hollow sound echoing.
He smiled, his eyes gleaming with a sickly joy, "I checked, and it's empty, there are no ashes. My sister may still be alive, hunting down her five irresponsible brothers."
"Yesterday I brought in a coroner to verify if that was really my sister's body and where she might have gone."
"I really want to see her, even if she kills me, because I went too far this time and it's normal if she doesn't want to forgive me."
"As long as I can see that she's still alive and well, I'll be satisfied."
Cradling the ashes box in his hands, Yuan Fa put it back and covered the slab.
Yuan Luoyi was completely dumbfounded. According to her memories of her previous life, she had clearly died!
She still remembered the excruciating pain, the feeling of a noose tightening around her neck, choking her. In the final second before death, she was still struggling.
Why were there no ashes? Had someone stolen them?
Yuan Fa walked over, "My dear sister, please satisfy my curiosity. How did you cheat death?"
"And why have you appeared in the form of an 11-year-old?"
He rubbed his aching temples, "Or perhaps I've gone mad and can't distinguish reality from illusion, mistaking your grown-up self for your childhood self?"
"Well... if I could have changed and been less selfish when you were 11, our relationship might not have become so distant."
"I'm sure Big brother thought the same..."
Yuan Fa stopped before Yuan Luoyi, gazing at her for a long while, a mixture of joy at their reunion and sorrow at their impending parting.
He bent down like a collapsing tree, gently falling onto Yuan Luoyi.
The cold gun was forcibly pushed into Yuan Luoyi's hand.
Yuan Fa hugged Yuan Luoyi close and whispered in her ear, "Free me. Every day is too painful. Your second brother doesn't have the strength to go on..."
Yuan Luoyi struggled, trying to throw away the gun. Yuan Fa grabbed her hand, stopping her.
Yuan Fa chuckled deeply, "Why won't you kill me?"
"Your marksmanship has always been good. This should be easy for you, right?"
"Or do you enjoy watching me suffer?"
"True, though you're not a child of the Yuan family, you are closely related. We've always been quite similar, and your dark side can be quite cruel too."
"But, that won't do..."
"I really hate pain. Seeing you, I felt at peace. Now I only want to quickly end all this."
Yuan Fa forcefully pulled Yuan Luoyi's hand, pressing the muzzle against his chest, right above his heart.
"Second brother, let me go!"
Yuan Luoyi struggled fiercely in his embrace, pushing and flailing her arms to throw away the gun. She even kicked and bit Yuan Fa's arm, the coppery taste of blood bursting on her tongue. But Yuan Fa refused to release her.
The pain his sister inflicted, he could feel. But compared to the agony of continuing to live, it was minuscule.
He coiled around her like a snake, eagerly awaiting death.
"It's alright, this is the most gentle form of atonement."
"For me, this is true liberation - from sin and from this shattered body."
"My dear sister, you are special to me. So please, be the end of my life."
Suddenly, Yuan Fa forced Yuan Luoyi's finger to pull the trigger.
"Bang!"
The deafening gunshot tore through the sky, startling flocks of birds into frantic flight, circling overhead but refusing to land.
Yuan Fa did not fall. He was utterly disappointed.
At the last moment, Yuan Luoyi had mustered all her strength to divert the muzzle.
Her hands may be small, but she could save her brothers!
Yuan Luoyi threw the gun aside and lunged into Yuan Fa's embrace, sobbing softly, "Don't die, I don't want to lose anyone else."
Yuan Fa tilted his head back and sighed, ruffling Yuan Luoyi's hair, his gaze hollow and sad.
So his sister's tearful plea for him to continue his life of torment, he would grant...
He truly could not refuse her anything.
