Yu Zhining wasn’t replying because he was currently experiencing the Corridor of Life.
An hour earlier, he had told Huo Mian that he would help her find a stable, well-paying job so she would have something to rely on mentally for the rest of her life. After that, he hadn’t said much more to her.
He had come to the Corridor of Life to look for Yu Xiaxing and Yu Zheng. Since neither of them had come out, he decided to go in and experience it for himself, to find out exactly how this tour group made people revisit their memories.
After seeing those exercises, he immediately understood how it worked.
But he didn’t answer a single one. He completely ignored its instructions for searching through his memories.
He wanted to see what memories it could read if he left everything blank.
…
Sunlight filtered through the camphor trees, falling over three children beneath them.
Thirteen-year-old Yu Zhining held an eight-year-old boy up by the collar with one hand and warned him, “If you ever bully my sister again, next time I won’t go this easy on you!”
The boy burst into tears. “I only gave her a nickname because I like her!”
Yu Xiaxing was barely tall enough to reach Yu Zhining’s waist. Standing beside him with her arms folded, she shouted, “I already told you I don’t like it, but you keep calling me that! Do you think people are idiots just because they haven’t gotten angry yet?”
Yu Zhining let go and shoved the boy aside. “You think you’re good enough for my sister? Get lost.”
The boy ran away crying.
Little Xingxing was overjoyed. Standing in the shade, she tilted her head up to look at him and took his hand. “Big brother, you’re amazing!”
Yu Zhining looked down at his sister. Her eyes were round, her face was round—she was absolutely adorable.
He deliberately kept his voice indifferent. “Come to me whenever anyone bullies you.”
Xingxing nodded hard. “Mm! I’ll always come to you, Big Brother!”
…
The two of them went home afterward.
Yu Xiaxing ran to his study and asked him to help her with her homework.
Before long, she began nodding off.
Yu Zhining finished his own homework and turned to look at her. His sister was already asleep with her head on her workbook, still clutching her pen. The flesh of her cheek had been squashed into a chubby little lump.
He looked at her workbook. Every word was crooked and lopsided.
He sighed. Even if he woke her up, she wouldn’t be able to do her homework properly in that state.
He took the pen from her hand.
Then he bent down and carefully picked her up, carrying her to the sofa behind him.
Just after he set his sister down, he turned around and saw Huo Mian standing in the doorway with a book in her hands.
By then, Huo Mian had already been brought to the Yu family to be raised.
She stared at him in astonishment and asked incredulously, “Yu Zhining, why are you carrying your sister?”
Yu Zhining found the question baffling. “She fell asleep, so I carried her to the sofa. What’s wrong?”
Huo Mian hesitated. In the end, she said, “I just feel that siblings should have boundaries. The way you two are is a little strange. You’re cousins within three generations, too.”
At their age, they had already begun to develop a vague understanding of romantic feelings. Some students in their class had even started writing love letters.
So Yu Zhining understood what she was implying, and it made him furious. “What’s wrong with you? My sister is only eight years old. What exactly are you trying to say?”
His tone frightened Huo Mian. Her eyes shifted uneasily, and she quickly shook her head. “Nothing. I was just saying it casually… Um, there’s a math problem I wanted to ask you about.”
It sounded as though she hadn’t really said anything.
But from that moment on, a thorn lodged itself in Yu Zhining’s heart.
…
The memories continued to unfold.
When Yu Zhining arrived in class, Huo Mian, who sat beside him, was reading a novel.
She suddenly looked up at him. “Yu Zhining, do you know what ‘sibling romance’ means?”
“I do. Orthopedics mainly deals with diseases related to the bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and nerves. It treats fractures, dislocations, spinal conditions, joint disorders…”
Yu Zhining had wanted to become a doctor since he was little, although at that age he hadn’t yet decided what kind. Orthopedics was one of the fields he was considering, so of course he knew what it meant.
Before he could finish explaining, Huo Mian burst out laughing. “You’re so lame.”
Yu Zhining looked at her in confusion.
“I mean this kind.”
Huo Mian waved the novel in her hand at him, casually flipping to a page and showing it to him.
I learned how to be a proper little sister and keep my distance from you as siblings. But you don’t know that every night, beneath the covers, I call your name—without “Big Brother” in front of it.
Our blood is the closest bond between us, and also the farthest distance. It gives me every right to love you openly, yet means I will never have the right to say that I love you.
After reading just two lines, Yu Zhining felt sick to his stomach.
The suggestive words crossed the boundaries of morality and made his stomach churn with discomfort.
His body instinctively shifted away. “Take it away.”
Huo Mian looked slightly innocent. “It’s only a novel. Everyone’s reading them. Why are you reacting so strongly? You look like you’ve got something to hide.”
Yu Zhining’s expression turned ugly. “Don’t show me this kind of thing.”
But Huo Mian merely smiled. “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re imagining it in real life.”
Yu Zhining ignored her and opened his Chinese textbook, finding the most obscure piece of classical prose to read.
…
A few days later, novels with that kind of subject matter began circulating throughout the class.
Everyone had read so much of them that they started using the stories’ settings in their everyday conversations, discussing them day after day.
“Ahhh, I’m obsessed! Sibling romance is the best!”
“But it only belongs in fiction. Absolutely don’t apply it to real life.”
“Exactly. In real life, when siblings cling to each other all day, it makes me want to throw up!”
“Hey, I saw them yesterday—it was his little sister. She comes to find him every day… I feel like they’re almost…”
“Ugh, just thinking about it is disgusting.”
The cruelty of adolescence often didn’t need to be explicit. Vague, suggestive remarks were enough to make the person listening torment themselves.
Yu Zhining never heard anyone mention his or Yu Xiaxing’s names, yet for some inexplicable reason, he felt that they were talking about him.
There was no way he could have feelings like that. All he wanted was to be a big brother who protected his sister.
But after hearing those comments for so long, even he no longer knew what he truly thought. He began to question where the boundaries were. It seemed as if treating his sister well was itself a sin.
That afternoon, when school let out, Yu Zhining stayed behind a little longer because he was working on a difficult problem.
Suddenly, someone called from the classroom door, “Yu Zhining, your sister came over from the elementary school again!”
Huo Mian and several friends had been chatting. At those words, they immediately exchanged glances, then looked at Yu Zhining with meaningful smiles.
She didn’t say anything, yet somehow seemed to be saying everything.
Yu Zhining looked toward the door.
Little Xingxing stood outside the classroom with her schoolbag on her back.
Xingxing understood nothing. She had no idea why Huo Mian was giving her that mysterious smile.
She waved at Yu Zhining. “Big Brother, school’s out! Why are you so slow today? Uncle Driver has been waiting at the entrance for ages.”
