Chapter 12
"I'm leaving." Sakurai Minami said.
"Oh... I thought you would stay a little longer."
"It was almost dawn when I got home. I sneaked out."
A male classmate next to him interrupted sarcastically: "Hey, Cinderella is leaving?"
"This isn't really a dance party," Morimae said seriously.
Sakurai Nan smiled: "Don't see me off, I can go by myself. Thank you for inviting me."
After she said that, Morimae could only watch her leave. As Sakurai Minami left, a few onlookers started to joke around.
Sakurai Minami didn't know. She was walking down the street. It was still dark when she started, then gradually turned to a glimmer of dawn. Their homes were both in wealthy areas, not far away, but Sakurai Minami didn't want to go home quickly.
When she turned the corner, she saw a car parked where her home should be.
What time is it now? There shouldn't be any visitors.
Feeling a little uneasy, Sakurai Minami climbed over the railing and returned to her room on the second floor. As soon as she entered, she saw her door was open. Had her parents discovered her?
...That's terrible. She was thinking this when she heard the wardrobe suddenly open. Ichika rubbed her eyes and asked, "Sister? Are you back?"
Sakura Minami frowned: "You told Mom and Dad that I'm gone?"
"No."
Ichika would never lie. Sakurai Minami asked again, "Did you open the door?"
Ichika thought for a moment, "It was closed when I came in."
Something was wrong. Mom and Dad were quite respectful of their child's privacy. They rarely came to her room after she started elementary school, let alone in the middle of the night. Even if they went to check on Ichika, if she wasn't in her room and they searched everywhere, they would definitely call out her name, and Sakurai Minami's room would be a top priority—after all, it wasn't the first or second time that Sakurai Ichika insisted on sleeping with her sister. Ichika shouldn't still be here.
She became suspicious and looked more closely. She found that the bed was turned over and the things on the desk were in disarray.
"Did Mom and Dad come to see you?"
"It seems... yes?"
"Did they call your name?"
"No."
"You stay here. Don't move. Got it?" Sakurai Minami held down Sakurai Ichika, stuffed her into the pile of clothes, covered her up, and closed the closet door: "Unless I come to call you. No one is allowed to come out when they call you, do you understand?"
A soft response came from the closet. Sakurai Minami slowed down her pace and turned to walk downstairs. When she reached the stairs, she finally heard the movement downstairs.
/
"The two children are not found. There is an open bedroom window upstairs. The children may have escaped. What should I do?"
"...The adults were killed and the house burned down."
"Aren't you going to notify the Fujimori team to come and clean up?"
"Don't waste time. It's almost dawn, and the longer you delay, the more likely something will happen."
"What about two kids?"
"What the hell can we do?! Are we supposed to tell the higher-ups we let two kids get away? We'll have nothing to say to them then! Burn them down and pretend the whole family is dead. What can two kids do?! Hurry!"
Sakurai Minami found herself unable to move. Mom and Dad were going to die? She didn't want that to happen, but she couldn't move a step. Her whole body was shaking, and she couldn't even breathe.
The oil bottle fell over, the lighter was lit, and a burning smell slowly spread. The person downstairs opened the door and walked out, and the door was finally closed again.
She finally gathered her strength and stumbled downstairs. Her mother, lying in a pool of blood, looked at her with her last bit of strength.
“…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”
"Don't cry..." her mother said to her. She only then realized that she was already in tears.
Mom continued to speak intermittently: "...Hurry up, take Yihua... go... to Little Asia... find Xixiang..."
Her mother reached out her hand, not to wipe her tears, but to push her away: "Go..."
The fire grew bigger and bigger, and my throat was choked and I started coughing violently.
Her vision was already blurry. She reached out to wipe her face and wipe away her tears: "...Goodbye." She turned around and went upstairs.
"Don't, look back..."
She never looked back, went upstairs, opened the closet, and hugged Ichika, who was still unconscious: "Hold my neck tight."
Ichika thought they were playing a game and hugged her sister happily, "Where's the bear? Aren't we going to play with the bear?"
"We can't take the little bear with us. I only have you and you only have me," said Sakurai Minami.
She didn't find "Xixiang". It sounded like a name, but she had never seen anyone named "Xixiang" who had contact with her parents.
Finding a needle in a haystack is so difficult. In the end, she could only hide in Little Asia with Yihua, filled with hatred.
/
"What did he sing?" Jesse asked.
"He met a woman, fell in love with her, and married her. Eventually, his enemies found his wife and killed her."
"And then? He won't seek revenge?"
"He took revenge and killed all his enemies."
"That's pretty good," Jesse commented.
"You think this is a good story?" Noble asked.
"Why not? He avenged the one he loved."
"But he got his revenge, what happened next?"
"His future? His future... I don't know, but he should be doing pretty well."
"He's not having a good life. He failed to protect his lover. Even if he takes revenge, he will regret it for the rest of his life."
"Even so, he should still take revenge," Jesse tried to explain. "Those are the people he loves. If it were me, if it were me, I would definitely kill those people. As for what I would do... that's something I'll think about after I get my revenge. At the very least, they hurt me, so they must be punished."
"But after that, you've already lost your lover. Even if you find a new lover, you can only try to recall your past and your cowardice through her. In the end, you still have nothing."
"This, this—Okay, I don't understand love at all! But besides love, are there no other emotions left in life? Is there only one emotion called love in life? Even if it's just you, there's no way you can fall in love with a woman who doesn't look like her? Besides, the world is so big! I won't be a coward like that, and I won't give up everything I have just for this."
Noble didn't answer.
The music stopped abruptly, and no one bothered to understand the record player anymore. After a while, Noble said, "Let's change it. He and his lover met, got to know each other, and fell in love. He decided to live in seclusion with this woman, and they had a daughter. But his mortal enemy was extremely cruel and did all kinds of evil things. He killed this woman. So the man gave his daughter to his best friend and went to kill his mortal enemy alone. He was a hero. After the story ended, he felt that life was meaningless and he decided to die. But before he could act, his best friend found him with their child. His daughter was still very young and couldn't speak, but she knew her father. As soon as she saw the man, she started laughing and scratching his beard. The man thought, then I'll raise the child before I die. So he kept living, and kept living, watching the baby girl grow up, go to school, work, fall in love with a man, and get married. He never thought about dying again."
Jesse was silent for a moment, and Noble asked, "Do you think this story is bad, too?"
Jesse shook his head and said sincerely, "Don't you consider writing a book? Like Grimm's Fairy Tales?" Although this kind of death-themed book probably shouldn't be told to children.
"I'll think about it, thank you for the suggestion."
"Seriously. Do you often tell stories to your sister?"
Noble thought for a moment and said, "No, my mother can tell her stories, but I can't."
"Why don't you tell it? You seem pretty good at making up these stories."
"Because... because I don't like my sister." Noble said.
Jesse said, "Don't lie."
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