Big brother left. The contamination levels on the monitoring sheet gradually decreased, giving Lu Yan a brief moment to catch his breath.
The length of the iron chain was just enough for Lu Yan to walk from the bed to the restroom.
The eyeballs in the corner of the room changed their line of sight as Lu Yan moved. It was uncomfortable to have someone staring like that all the time.
Apart from the bed, there was a TV, a desk, a bookshelf, and a dressing table in the bedroom.
The table was piled with cosmetics and skincare products. Lu Yan randomly picked one up—a face cream labeled "Mystery of the Blue Sea."
Lu Yan only used Longliqi and Vaseline for skincare, but he vaguely heard about the prices of the "Mystery of the Blue Sea."
It was evident from this that his sister lived a very luxurious life.
There was no clock in the room. Lu Yan took out his phone to check the time; it was 9 a.m.
The notification center reminded him of a received text message.
Lu Yan opened it and surprisingly, the sender was Lin Sinan.
"Where are you? Why can't I find you?"
The sunlight outside was bright, but the temperature inside was a bit low.
Lu Yan exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing this message, feeling somewhat reassured. If the deceased "Lin Sinan" could still send messages, it meant that the Lin Sinan he saw wasn't the real one.
He wanted to make a call back but refrained from doing so. People who did such suicidal things, unless they were protagonists, generally didn't survive for more than ten minutes in horror movies.
What surprised him a little was that there was an unfamiliar contact in his phone's message list.
Note: Lu Jiahe.
The timestamp of the information stopped at December 2111.
Lu Yan tapped to open it; most of the messages were from the other party. He scrolled upwards, deciding to start from the first one.
The timestamp of the first message was in 2109.
[You told me you had an extra class after school, so I didn't come to pick you up. But what's going on here?]
[Image]
It seemed like a sneak shot; in the picture, there were only the backs of two people. It was clear it was a man and a woman. The distance seemed normal, nothing overly intimate.
[Are you spying on me again?]
[I'm just worried about you.]
[Are you sick? Go away.]
"Today is Mom and Dad's memorial day. Do you want to come with me to pay respects?"
[You still have the face to see Mom and Dad?]
[If it weren't for you, Mom and Dad wouldn't have died.]
"How's school going?"
"The teacher said you had a fight with a girl in the class. What happened?"
"I really worry about you like this. Maybe I should come back to City M. It's not as good as Beijing or Shanghai, but it's convenient to take care of you."
[No need.]
The relationship between these siblings was indeed peculiar.
The texts were mostly mundane, daily exchanges, until there was nearly a year-long gap without any communication.
Lu Yan furrowed his brows slightly as he scrolled through to the very end.
"[Lu Yan]."
"Where are you? Please answer me."
"Pick up the phone."
"Don't abandon your brother, please."
The phone still had no connection. Lu Yan opened WeChat, finding only his own contact. It hadn't changed to Lu Yan's account.
He pondered for a moment, then turned on the television in his room, switching to the news channel.
Sure enough, the bottom left corner of the TV displayed the current date.
July 21st, 2111.
On the screen, the anchor was reporting the local news.
"Recently, our city has witnessed a heinous criminal case..."
Lu Yan approached his desk. On the top lay a fashion magazine, while near the desk lamp stood a row of nail polishes. Below them, there was a report card with Lu Yan's name second from the bottom.
From this, it was evident that his sister's grades weren't great, explaining why Lu Jiahe was so concerned.
Combining this with her tone, an image of an ill-tempered little sister emerged in Lu Yan's mind.
Under the desk were three locked drawers.
Lu Yan couldn't find the keys, so he clasped his hands together and addressed the empty air, "Apologies."
Then, he gave each drawer a punch.
There was a cacophony of shattering sounds.
The drawer doors were left in a wreck.
Unperturbed, Lu Yan reached in and retrieved what he was looking for.
In the first drawer was a photograph of just three people—a couple and a child. The boy's expression seemed particularly restrained, but a hint of Lu Jiahe could be seen on his face. The background indicated it was taken at the "Autumn Mountain Orphanage."
Beneath it lay an adoption registration form. Lu Jiahe's parents tragically passed away in an earthquake, leaving him to be adopted by Lu Yan's childless parents.
In the second drawer, there was a death notice.
During Lu Jiahe's freshman year, he missed the Spring Festival train back home. Lu Yan's parents insisted on fetching him and tragically perished in a car accident.
The third drawer contained a diary.
Lu Yan flipped to the first page. Without a timestamp, the notes appeared quite juvenile. As he went further, the handwriting and tone gradually matured.
"I'm the real one! I'm the real one!"
"I'm not Lu Jiahe's sister."
"Today, in front of others, I said Lu Jiahe's parents died, and we adopted him. He seemed so sad. I feel a bit guilty... So annoyed, so annoyed!"
"This Spring Festival, I told Lu Jiahe not to come back. I wanted to spend time with Mom and Dad, not him."
"Darn it, my parents went to pick up that ill-fated star."
...
...
The diary flipped to its final page. Lu Yan grasped the essence of this dream's backstory.
Born into a household valuing sons over daughters, Lu Yan's parents, unable to conceive for various reasons, adopted Lu Jiahe. Unlike regular adoptions, the children adopted by the Lu couple were already quite mature.
In theory, a healthy and good-looking boy like Lu Jiahe should've been in high demand for adoption. Strangely, every family that adopted Lu Jiahe eventually encountered various misfortunes, some facing bankruptcy, others illness... resulting in Lu Jiahe being returned to the orphanage three times.
The year of his adoption marked Lu Yan's sixth year and Lu Jiahe's seventeenth.
She held no affection for this sudden elder brother, more like a territorial beast encroaching upon her space, brimming with hostility.
Yet, Lu Jiahe cherished everything she could now possess, studying diligently, honoring her parents, and learning how to be a sibling.
He endured every tantrum and burst of rage from his sister.
But misfortune continued to shadow this family.
On the journey to retrieve Lu Jiahe, Lu Yan's parents met with a fatal accident.
Fortunately, Lu Jiahe had long reached adulthood and could shoulder the responsibility of raising her younger sister—though it was a bit premature for him.
After losing their parents, Lu Jiahe's protective instincts towards her sole sibling bordered on pathological. Controlling friendships, romance, every aspect of Lu Yan's life, aiming to cocoon her in a safe, sterile, and vacuum-sealed world.
He wished he could open his chest and reveal the pulsing veins inside to her, yet his sister never once opened her heart to him.
As Lu Yan entered adolescence, his sister's behavior became increasingly erratic. But being not her blood brother, Lu Jiahe's attempts at discipline seemed earnest yet powerless.
"Is this Lu Yan's dream, or is it Lu Jiahe's dream?" Lu Yan shut the diary, lost in contemplation.
Lu Yan leaned towards this being his sister's dream. Here, surveillance took the form of irksome eyes, and the brother's protection manifested as shackles around her.