Listening to Gao Xi, Gao Tian tried his best to recall his middle school days.
For some reason, vast, blank stretches truly plagued his memory. His teachers, his classmates, his score on his first college entrance exam, and even his reasons for retaking it—all of it had been reduced to fragmented pieces.
He couldn't form a single complete memory.
Was it really as Gao Xi said? Was he suffering from intermittent memory disorder?
It was pathetic. He was a man without a past, and after his encounter with Shattered Face, his future had nearly been severed right along with it.
Hesitating, Gao Tian followed Gao Xi's gestures and stepped slowly into the dim bedroom, which was blanketed in a thin layer of dust.
Gao Xi flicked on the ceiling light with practiced ease. Looking at the elementary, middle, and high school certificates lining the walls alongside old group photos, Gao Tian felt his memory stirring. A genuine sense of familiarity welled up inside him.
Had he really just walked into the wrong room when he first got home? Was that second-to-last room actually his sister Gao Xi's bedroom all along?
Seeing Gao Tian's lingering hesitation, Gao Xi tossed her twin tails and bent down. She pulled a thick leather journal from a drawer and slid it in front of him, kicking up a heavy scent of dust.
"This is the journal you wrote in every time your memory recovered. You told me to show it to you the next time you blacked out, saying it might help you remember something."I just didn't expect this. You've forgotten Mom and Dad plenty of times, but this time, you even forgot me."
Gao Tian slowly opened the thick cover of the journal. The handwriting inside was dense and incredibly messy, making it a struggle to read.
As he studied it closely, a wave of sorrow hit him. He couldn't even tell if the handwriting was his own. He had forgotten what his own writing looked like.
"Sister," "amnesia," "episode during the exam," "intermittent memory," "remember quickly," "don't want to be a burden"... Turning page after page, he found mostly similar phrases. He quickly lost interest, finding no useful clues.
"Do you remember now?"
The twin-tailed girl who called herself Gao Xi stood in the dim room, staring at him with sparkling, expectant eyes.
Gao Tian gave a vague reply.
"Something like that."
Deep down, he was still suspicious of this sudden sister of his, but he had yet to find any solid proof to determine who was actually wrong.
The scales in his mind were already beginning to tip.
Regardless, Gao Tian temporarily suppressed the urge to use the Shattered Face Ghost to kill his "sister." Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance that she was a living human being, killing a family member over a momentary impulse would be an unforgivable sin.
There was no need to rush. He would stay alert and see exactly what this "sister" who had suddenly appeared in his home was trying to do.
Gao Xi was no fool. She could tell from Gao Tian's expression that he hadn't remembered a thing.
A look of disappointment crossed her face, but she still nudged the journal closer to him.
"You should write something down. That way, if you black out again, you can leave a message for your future self."
Gao Tian waved his hand at her, revealing the gauze and cardboard splints tightly wrapped around his palm.
"My dominant hand is injured. I can't write a single word."
Seeing that two of his fingers were heavily injured and completely fractured, a pained expression immediately appeared on Gao Xi's face. She grabbed his hand to inspect it closely.
"What in the world happened to you? When you said you were moving out, I knew a grown man like you wouldn't be able to take care of yourself.
"Have you disinfected it? I'll go get some ointment for you."
Gao Tian ignored her. Over in the kitchen, their mother had already finished cooking. The most pressing matter now was to join his parents.
His biggest worry was whether they had been brainwashed.
As he walked down the hallway, Gao Tian kept pondering an even more obscure and bizarre question. He realized that ever since he returned to this house, everything had felt abnormal.
What exactly did his father and mother look like?
Why couldn't he remember them either?
Ever since he walked through the door, his father had been sitting on the sofa watching TV, his back turned, reduced to a dark silhouette. His mother's voice, along with the sounds of chopping vegetables and running water, had only drifted out from the kitchen. He hadn't even seen her face yet.
Why couldn't he remember a single thing?
Harboring this dread of the unknown, Gao Tian walked step by step into the living room. The dark silhouette was still watching TV, and it wasn't until his father heard his approaching footsteps that he slowly turned his head.
"Has your memory recovered a bit?
"What happened to your hand? How did it get like that? Come on, let's leave it for now. I'll drive you to the hospital this afternoon to get it checked out."
The face that turned around from the sofa belonged to a completely unfamiliar middle-aged man wearing black glasses and sporting stubble on his chin.
Seeing this strange man casually greet him as if they had been family for years, Gao Tian found it absolutely impossible to connect the man before him with the image of his "father."
Gao Tian realized he had no recollection at all of what his true "father" and "mother" looked like.
Was it really as Gao Xi said? Was he a patient suffering from intermittent memory loss?
An equally unfamiliar middle-aged woman walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron, shaking the water off her hands.
"Can you even eat with your hand like that?
"Do you want Mom to feed you?"
Gao Xi chased after him from the hallway and shook her head.
"Honestly, this time you couldn't even recognize your own handwriting.
"It's your worst episode yet.
"Bro, you really shouldn't rent a place outside anymore. It feels like your condition is getting more and more severe."
In a daze, Gao Tian sat down among this completely unfamiliar family of three.
Hot dishes were served. The man called his father and the woman called his mother continuously placed food into his bowl, discussing amusing stories about relatives he had absolutely no memory of. Gao Tian couldn't wrap his head around the situation at all. Aside from silently burying his head in his food, there was nothing he could do.
Noticing Gao Tian's awkwardness, Gao Xi, who was off to the side struggling to pick out a fish eye with her chopsticks, suddenly chimed in:
"Bro.
"Seeing as... you look so pale right now.
"Don't tell me you forgot what Mom and Dad look like, too?"
The role of parents wasn't like that of a sister, a presence that was merely optional. Everyone was guaranteed to have parents. Therefore, it was impossible for Gao Tian to forget them.
However, even if he remembered the abstract roles of "father" and "mother," he had long since forgotten the specific people who filled them.
His mother smiled and reached out to stroke Gao Tian's head.
"Your dad is a businessman. He's always flying all over the country and rarely comes home. Look at you, you can't even remember what your dad looks like.
"As for me, I've been working overtime at the hospital lately, so I can only come home once a week. All year round, it's rare for our family to reunite. We usually hire a nanny to take care of you two, but mostly, you and your sister look after each other.
"It's understandable that you'd forget our faces since we're rarely around, but I never expected you to forget your sister even existed. Can you imagine how heartbroken she must be..."
As the family of four ate at the long dining table in the living room, a flurry of urgent knocks rang out from the front door.
With a mouthful of rice, Gao Xi put down her chopsticks, called out, "Coming!" and walked toward the door.
"Who is it?"
His father asked casually while wolfing down his food.
Standing on her tiptoes, Gao Xi peeked through the peephole. Mumbling, "Gao Tian's girlfriend is here to see him," she reached out to open the door.
Gao Tian's worldview suffered another heavy blow.
Gao Tian's... girlfriend?
When did he ever get a girlfriend?
In his memory, he had absolutely never had a girlfriend.
Was this his amnesia acting up again?
Ever since stepping through the front door, Gao Tian found that every person who appeared was a complete stranger to him. Yet, as fate would have it, he genuinely couldn't remember what his real parents were supposed to look like either.
Watching Gao Xi about to turn the doorknob and let his "girlfriend" inside, Gao Tian suddenly felt as if he had been struck by lightning. As if recalling something, his head snapped up.
"Wait, Gao Xi...
"Don't open the door yet. Don't open the door."
His temples throbbed wildly. Gao Tian felt that if that door opened, something extremely terrible would happen. Something very, very bad.
He remembered. He remembered some absolutely crucial information.
Gao Xi slowly turned her head, and the father and mother at the dining table cast sympathetic glances his way as well.
"Gao Tian...
"Don't tell me you can't even remember your own girlfriend, Li Xing?"
Outside, the knocking continued. A muffled female voice called out:
"Is anyone home?
"I'm here for Gao Tian. Can you let me in?"
Inside the house, everyone looked toward Gao Tian.
Gao Tian put down his chopsticks.
"I have a question.
"My coming back home today was clearly a spur-of-the-moment decision.
"If I really had a girlfriend who wanted to find me, why wouldn't she go to my Apartment to look for me, but instead come here to this house, which I haven't been back to in half a year? And just happen to bump into me returning as well.
"Could there really be such a coincidence?"
His mother laughed. She waved her mobile phone, its screen lit up, toward Gao Tian.
"Sigh, you child, you're just too paranoid.
"I was wondering why you were making such a fuss, but it turns out this is what you were talking about.
"Well... after hearing you and your sister arguing in the bedroom earlier, I sent a text to Li Xing and asked her to come over and see you. I wanted to see if having Li Xing here could jog your memory."
Gao Xi smiled and chimed in from the side:
"My bro's paranoia really is severe."
Out of the family of four, only Gao Tian wasn't smiling.
The look in his eyes grew increasingly grave. Because he remembered.
Gao Tian turned to his father.
"When I entered the house, the security door just happened to be unlocked.
"You were watching TV at the time and didn't even turn your head to look at me. Yet you called out my name with complete familiarity.
"How on earth did you know the person walking into the house was me?"
His father smiled as well.
"I've listened to your footsteps for over ten years. How could I not recognize them?"
This explanation seemed equally reasonable. Just like his girlfriend Li Xing suddenly coming to visit him at his family's home.
Of course, based on these things alone, it wasn't enough for Gao Tian to determine which was real: the past he had recalled, or the past his "father" and "mother" were telling him about.
However, there was one more question, and on this question, they absolutely could not deceive him.
Gao Tian moved his lips and asked his final question.