Chapter 1
Mrs. Haruhi, carrying a basket of dirty laundry, peeked halfway through the door and greeted me warmly, "Good morning, Madam."
This villa has been uninhabited for a long time, but Natsume Kanon sends her money every year and asks her to come and clean it three times a month, so that her sister, who is often unreachable, won't have nowhere to stay if she suddenly comes back.
Natsume Kanon smiled and nodded, adjusting the beautiful pearl necklace around her neck, and asked, "Has Rina not woken up yet?"
Her voice was pleasant and well-mannered, and her slender figure and charming appearance, combined with her long dress, gave her a unique elegance that comes with being a wife.
Mrs. Haruhi smiled sheepishly, “Miss came back in the early hours of the morning and probably won’t wake up until noon. She’s been on this schedule for the past few days.”
She is the maid of this apartment building and has worked here for nearly ten years. She has watched the two sisters grow up. Although Natsume Kanon got married at the age of twenty and her younger sister went abroad to study and they could not see each other for a long time, their relationship was still very deep.
Kanon Natsume sighed silently, bent down to pick up the white coat from the ground, and was immediately hit by a pungent smell of alcohol and perfume.
"She went to the bar?"
Mrs. Kasuga still wanted to keep it a secret for Rina, but given the current situation, she must have already guessed it.
Moreover, when the garment was picked up, a delicate and beautiful card also fell out.
Xiangyin picked up the card from the ground and read it aloud, "The 30th Day Meeting?"
As she spoke, she unfolded her clothes again, looking at the perfectly intact lipstick mark on the neckline, "What exactly is this place?"
The lipstick stain wasn't accidentally applied, so why would Lina's clothes have a woman's lipstick stain?
Mrs. Kasuga shook her head. "Miss, she didn't say."
With a helpless expression, Xiangyin put the clothes in the laundry basket and walked down the corridor to the door of her room.
There was a wooden plaque hanging on the door with four crookedly carved characters on it.
Previously, she and Rina lived in the same room and were very close. They could lie on the same bed and talk until late at night.
From street food to the boys in class, to hobbies... they had endless things to talk about all night long.
Later, when they were in middle school, they had a fight, and Rina angrily moved out of the room and refused to live with her anymore. She even hung a sign on the door to assert her ownership and not let her in anymore.
In short, Rina is a very interesting person and full of energy.
She realized it when she was in middle school.
Although they look alike, they are completely different in personality.
She herself is quiet and enjoys gardening and cooking, but Rina likes to study strange and unusual things, such as collecting animal specimens or conducting dangerous chemical experiments.
That time, she even found a skull in her schoolbag.
She couldn't stand having such a terrifying thing in the room, so they started arguing, and the argument escalated.
At that time, she never imagined that after that incident, they would never live together again, and would even drift apart...
With a heart full of affection, Xiangyin gently stroked the engravings on it, remained silent for a while, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and returned to her room.
She waited until noon before knocking on the door, pushing it open, and using her foot to prop it ajar.
The room was piled high with clothes, newspapers, books, glassware... Xiangyin had nowhere to stand when she came in with her tray.
As for the luxurious bed that was more than two meters wide, there was only a skeleton model lying on it, with its hands neatly folded, posing in an extremely peaceful manner.
The room was a mess, and the small porcelain vase on the desk with blooming red roses looked out of place.
This terrifyingly strange habit is so bad that it can scare a thief half to death if they break into the house.
Natsume Kanon took a deep breath, walked to the desk, and put down the plate. "Rina, you need to tidy up your room. Boys won't like it if it's messy."
Hearing the noise, the person on the sofa turned over, his long gray hair disheveled like a bird's nest, and blinked at her, seemingly still half asleep.
Rina possesses a beautiful face and a lively, cheerful personality, both of which make her popular.
But why doesn't she have a boyfriend?
This was something she couldn't understand at all.
"Rina, are you like this outside too?" Xiangyin habitually tidied the table, removing the messy papers on it, and found a stack of plates underneath. "These things are scattered everywhere."
“My things are always a mess but organized,” Rina said, lying on the sofa with a grin. “For example, the newspaper my sister is holding is the Kano Daily from May 26th last year. The second page is the autopsy report of the girl who committed suicide at the Seaside Girls’ Academy. The third page, well, the third page is my apology for skipping class. There’s also an invitation to the White Tea Estate tucked inside the folded pages.”
Natsume Kanon was already used to her younger sister's amazing memory, having experienced it firsthand when they attended the same school together in their early years.
Xiangyin smiled absentmindedly, her gaze finally settling on the second autopsy report.
She had also read the report at the manor. At the time, the matter had caused quite a stir and seemed to involve the school leaders as well.
However, not long after, there was no further news about this matter.
Xiangyin asked casually, "Did she commit suicide?"
"Yes and no." Rina stretched her arms and yawned, then stood up and went to the table. She poured herself a cup of coffee, took two slices of smoked fish, and sat down at the desk.
Natsume Kanon continued reading the report and asked her, "Why do you say that?"
“She committed suicide by poisoning herself after returning to her dormitory from evening self-study. At the time, she was lying on her bed with a glass of orange juice next to her. The police detected highly toxic substances in the orange juice. Also, the room door was locked from the inside, and there were no signs of a struggle inside.” Rina put the smoked fish on a slice of bread, took a bite, chewed for a long time before swallowing, “With all suspicions eliminated, what remains is the truth.”
She is still investigating who sold the poison.
Xiangyin asked, puzzled, "But how do you explain the other injuries on her body?"
Rina glanced at the words above, seemingly deep in thought. "She suffered multiple assaults during her lifetime, and that person was her teacher."
Xiangyin glared at her angrily, "This is outrageous!"
“After the girl died, her family sought a private settlement,” Rina shrugged helplessly, “but in fact, the girl had reported the incident to the police before she died. As a result, her family accepted a large sum of money, locked her in the house, and the matter was dropped. In the end, she committed suicide in her dormitory when school started.”
“Perhaps this is also a relief…” After a long silence, Xiangyin lowered her eyes and murmured to herself, “Rather than failing again and again, only to shed tears of despair and helplessness, death is a relief.”
Rina turned to look at her, "Sister?"
"I'm fine, I was just talking nonsense." Xiangyin looked slightly flustered, but quickly regained her usual gentleness. "By the way, I saw a lipstick mark on your clothes. You have a girlfriend?"
Rina was taken aback. "Sister, what does this mean?"
“You’ve been different from others since you were little… so it’s normal that your sexual orientation is different from others,” Xiangyin thought, becoming even more certain of her guess. “Although I won’t say anything, you’ll inevitably come into contact with all sorts of people, and I think you should find someone who is devoted to you—”
“For a woman, marrying the right person is the most important thing.” Rina interrupted her, perfectly imitating Mrs. Kasuga’s earnest tone, with a touch of melancholy.
Xiangyin burst out laughing, making the atmosphere much more cheerful.
Just then, Mrs. Kasuga knocked on the door and handed Natsume Kanon a letter, saying, "This is a letter from the Kaijo Manor."
Rina was drinking coffee when she glanced over casually and noticed that Kanon looked terrible and her fingers were trembling slightly.
Before she could even speak, Natsume Kanon suddenly stood up, took the letter, and walked out, looking completely lost.
Mrs. Haruhi shuddered involuntarily, hesitated for a moment, and whispered, "Miss, I feel that Madam is not quite right. Especially when we were on vacation at the beach, she seemed distracted the whole time."
Rina nodded in agreement, but then her phone in the drawer rang, distracting her.
In those days, mobile phones were expensive and not widely available, and their functions were mainly limited to making calls and sending text messages.
It was a message from Junji Sato.
The cyanide test results from the 30th came back, and the concentration was the same as the concentration of poison taken by the girl who committed suicide at the Seaside Girls' Academy.
Mrs. Kasuga, being older, would occasionally indulge in her talkativeness. "Could it be that her husband's family did something to her? Honestly, the first time I saw Kawashima, I felt something was off about him. Really, everything about him was wrong! He's a hereditary nobleman, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He's clearly not a good match for us. Yet, after only three months of knowing each other, why did Kanon insist on marrying him? And I've heard he's been divorced twice! He's just a rich old man; there's really nothing else to criticize him for. He may be rich, but his character is nothing special. He deceived Kanon, who always longed for true love..."
She talked on and on, while Rina put on her gold-rimmed glasses, looked down at her phone to reply to messages, and just gave a perfunctory "hmm," not listening at all.
Mrs. Kasuga patted her on the shoulder, but Rina just smiled at her and then quickly ran into the bathroom. "I'm going out for a bit. We can talk about it tonight!"
After she left, Mrs. Kasuga managed a bitter smile.
After returning to her room, Xiangyin was pale and sat blankly at the table for a long time, shrouded in an indescribable eeriness.
Suddenly, the clock on the mantel began to chime, and she snapped out of her daze, realizing that cold sweat was streaming down her body.
The envelope was opened, and inside was a photograph that could not be shown in the light of day.
The woman in the photo is lying naked on the bed, her two slender arms wrapped around the man's shoulders, her head tilted back as if asking for a kiss.
She appeared very proactive and completely absorbed in the act.
All of this was etched deeply into her mind, and she would never forget it.
"Rina, my sister has made an irreparable mistake..."
She had originally kept this a secret, but now people keep telling her about it.
Everything is set in stone; there's no going back.
This torment will continue indefinitely.
Before we knew it, it was already dark, and the windowpanes had become dark mirrors.
Xiangyin's eyes were filled with tears as she looked at herself in the mirror, took a deep drag on her cigarette, and waited for the smoke rings to slowly dissipate into haze and wrap around her.
Like a obsessed madman, he stopped making futile struggles.
Anyway, it's already beyond saving.
The next day, Natsume Rina rushed to the hospital, where Mrs. Kasuga leaned on her shoulder and cried uncontrollably.
Her only remaining relative in the world is gone.
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