Fifteen years ago, one afternoon, the sunlight was soft and warm.
Yu Xiaxing and Yu Zheng were playing at their grandfather’s house, while their grandfather played chess with another old man nearby.
The two of them ran circles around a statue of Guan Yu.
Little Yu Zheng had thick eyebrows, a straight nose, and a touch of baby fat in his cheeks. He wore comfortable loungewear, with a white towel draped over his shoulders to serve as a heroic cape billowing in the wind.
Suddenly, he climbed onto a rock and shouted, his blood boiling with heroic fervor, “The greatest heroes are those who serve their country and their people!”
Yu Xiaxing clapped her hands, her voice bright and crisp. “Big Brother is amazing!”
Yu Zheng proudly lifted his chin. “Of course. I’m going to become a great hero!”
Yu Xiaxing asked, “Then do you know any amazing martial arts?”
“Of course!” Yu Zheng answered without a moment’s hesitation.
Yu Xiaxing took one of Grandfather’s collectible walnuts and placed it on the ground. “Then can you split this open? Great heroes can split boulders with one strike!”
She swallowed. She had been wanting to eat it for ages.
As a great hero, little Yu Zheng naturally couldn’t back down in front of his little sister. He struck a pose, his expression grim and solemn, his heroic aura at full force!
Smack!
He brought his palm down hard on the walnut.
The walnut didn’t move an inch.
Yu Zheng froze for a moment, then immediately clutched his hand and began bouncing in place. “Ow, ow, ow! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Waaah…”
He burst into tears.
Yu Xiaxing immediately reached out and pulled his hand over to inspect it. It was bright red.
Even at her young age, she realized that this was her fault. She hurriedly lowered her head and blew on it. “It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt!”
Yu Zheng slowly stopped crying. Then, reasserting the dignity of a great hero, he sniffed and said, “It’s fine now. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Just then, a gentle voice floated in from outside.
“Xingxing, Zhengzheng, dinner’s ready.”
Their mother stood beneath the veranda in a light-colored dress, a smile in her eyes.
Their father had come over as well, with a refined and gentle air about him.
He glanced at the collectible walnut on the tea table, then at Yu Zheng’s reddened palm. He hurried over to examine the walnut, and after confirming that it was unharmed, took the two children inside.
…
After dinner.
Beside the pond in the back courtyard of the Yu residence stood the large water jar Grandfather liked most. Lotus leaves crowded together around it, and several small water lilies floated on the surface.
Yu Zheng was crouching beneath a tree, holding a wooden stick and earnestly practicing his swordsmanship.
Yu Xiaxing came running over with a yellow object clutched in both hands.
“Big Brother, Big Brother, Big Brother, Big Brother, Big Brother!”
Yu Zheng turned around. “What?”
“Here! This is for you!” Yu Xiaxing held out the object with both hands.
Yu Zheng took a closer look and realized that it was a yellow toad.
He frowned. “Why are you giving me this?”
Yu Xiaxing said, “I saw it in a TV show. Duan Yu wasn’t very powerful at first, either. Then he ate a toad and became super strong. You should take a bite!”
Yu Zheng’s face turned green. He was highly resistant to the idea. “But I think that’s kind of disgusting.”
Yu Xiaxing said, “You don’t dare to eat it?”
Yu Zheng huffed. “Hmph. No one in the world would dare eat a toad. There’s nothing embarrassing about that. Do you dare?”
Yu Xiaxing thought about it, then answered honestly, “I don’t dare to eat it, but I dare to lick it.”
Yu Zheng said, “Then lick it. If you dare, I’ll lick it too!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the toad had already been lifted closer. Yu Xiaxing lowered her head and gave it a lick.
Yu Zheng’s eyes widened. He leaned closer and asked, “You really licked it? What does it feel like?”
Yu Xiaxing said, “Tingly.”
Yu Zheng asked, “Anything else?”
A few seconds later, Yu Xiaxing’s body began to sway from side to side, and her voice suddenly became light and dreamy.
“Big Brother! I think I’m about to become a great hero! I’m flying! I can see so many swords in the sky!”
Yu Zheng looked up at the sky.
There were blue skies and white clouds. Nothing else.
Yu Xiaxing said, “I’m flying! There are so many clouds…”
Shocked and envious, Yu Zheng finally made up his mind. “Then I’ll lick it too.”
He lowered his head and licked the toad.
Before long, the two of them were lying side by side on the grass, staring blankly at the sky.
“I’m flying too!” Yu Zheng said happily.
A servant passed by and saw the siblings lying on the ground watching the clouds. Assuming they were simply playing, the servant had no idea that they had been poisoned by licking a toad.
With fond, indulgent smiles, everyone went on their way.
Not long afterward, Yu Yuanchen happened to pass by. He looked over curiously. “What are you two doing lying here?”
Yu Xiaxing held the toad in one hand and pointed toward a corner of the sky with the other. “Second Brother, look over there! There’s a ship flying through the sky. It’s so pretty! There are so many people on it!”
Yu Yuanchen looked up. “There’s nothing there.”
Yu Zheng said, “Lick it once and you’ll be able to see it. We all licked it.”
Yu Xiaxing immediately held the toad out to him.
Yu Yuanchen was the most willing in the family to try all sorts of new things.
He had dared to poke an electrical outlet with his finger and stick his head into a washing machine while it was spinning… There was practically nothing he wouldn’t dare to do.
Licking a toad was nothing.
So he gave it a try as well.
A few minutes later, another Yu family member was lying on the grass.
Then Yu Zhining and the others passed by, got curious, asked what was going on, and joined in.
The last person to arrive was Big Brother Yu Guan.
At the time, Yu Guan was already a twelve-year-old boy.
The moment he entered the back courtyard and saw his younger siblings sprawled all over the ground, his expression changed completely.
“What happened to all of you?”
No one answered him.
Yu Guan walked closer and shook the nearest person, Yu Zheng. “Yu Zheng? Wake up!”
Yu Zheng was foaming at the mouth, an expression of blissful serenity on his face.
Yu Guan immediately backed away and said anxiously, “Don’t die yet! I’m going to get Third Uncle and Third Aunt to come take a look at you!”
He turned around and was about to run.
But after taking only two steps, he stopped. He paced back and forth, muttering to himself.
“No, that won’t do. Dad and Mom are always saying I don’t fit in.”
“If I don’t lie down with them, will they suspect that I’m the one who knocked them all out?”
After saying this, he hadn’t even licked the toad, but he still ran over to Yu Xiaxing’s side and lay down neatly beside her, placing both hands over his chest with an utterly peaceful expression.
“I fit in now.” He let out a relieved sigh.
That afternoon, the breeze was wonderfully gentle.
The toad slowly puffed out its cheeks once, then hopped out of Yu Xiaxing’s hand and made its way back into the garden.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Eldest Aunt returned and looked at everyone with a smile. “What are you little ones playing?”
Though everyone had their eyes open, and some of the children even wore mysterious smiles, not one of them answered her.
The color drained from Eldest Aunt’s face. She hurriedly crouched down and shook the children one by one. “Yu Guan! Xingxing! What’s wrong with all of you?”
She shook every single one of them, but none of them reacted!
All the blood vanished from Eldest Aunt’s face.
Trembling, she pulled out her phone, dialed a number, and cried out, “Something terrible has happened! The Yu family is going to have no descendants left!”
