To distract himself, Lin Yan did what any man in his twenties would do—
He opened his phone.
It had been nearly a week since they'd last been in contact, and the unread messages from Xu Zhiyi had already piled up to 99+.
They were all adorable little records of his sister's daily life, chattering away. Each message was like a twig, building an airtight nest that gave him an immense sense of security.
She had been thinking of him all along.
The last message was from two days ago—she had excitedly arranged a video call time with him, and mysteriously told him there were lots of surprises waiting for him in the fridge.
No messages after that. Counting the days, it seemed to be around the time he had turned into the pitch-black ghostly phantom.
It wasn't that his sister didn't care about him.
It was that she couldn't reach him, couldn't find any trace of him in her life anymore.
Lin Yan closed his eyes and held his sister tightly.
Xu Zhiyi didn't sleep peacefully.
Her body still hadn't gotten used to Lin Yan's ice-cold temperature. Even though he was this close, she kept drifting in and out of sleep, opening her eyes to confirm Lin Yan was really by her side before closing them again.
Every time she checked, she met Lin Yan's gaze—he was wide awake, watching her.
After several rounds of this, Xu Zhiyi's sleep-addled brain partially booted up, and she asked him in a daze, on pure instinct, "Brother… aren't you going to sleep…?"
Lin Yan lowered his eyes and hummed in acknowledgment.
He began gently patting her back to lull her to sleep, and when Xu Zhiyi was drifting in a hazy slumber, he spoke in a gentle, low voice words that would have set off every alarm in her head.
"Sleeping with me isn't comfortable for you."
Xu Zhiyi wanted to say that wasn't it—she wasn't sleeping restfully simply because she hadn't changed into pajamas, hadn't showered, because she'd just come out of her first Instance and was too excited.
But just then, she was frozen, as if a ghost were pressing down on her, unable to move.
Xu Zhiyi sank into a deep sleep.
In her dream, Lin Yan, who no longer considered himself human, began avoiding appearing before her. From then on, he would only stand far away in the shadows, keeping her company from a distance.
It was the most terrifying nightmare imaginable.
She was so preoccupied with this that the first thing she did upon waking again was tilt her face up to stare at Lin Yan beside her and rattle off a flurry of announcements: "I slept super well, brother, tonight we're sleeping together again, you can't refuse—"
After saying her piece, she didn't wait for his reaction. She quickly scurried to the bathroom outside the room and turned on the showerhead. Her attitude made it clear the topic was closed and Lin Yan couldn't bring it up again.
A moment later, there were two knocks on the bathroom door.
"Going to shower without grabbing your clothes?"
Xu Zhiyi rolled up her sleeves, revealing a stretch of pale arm, twisted the doorknob halfway open, and poked her head out through the gap, pretending she'd already taken off her clothes and couldn't be dragged out for a lecture.
Her palm was lightly tapped.
"Your pajamas are on the rack by the wall," Lin Yan's gentle voice came from outside the door. "Leave your dirty clothes by the sink—I'll wash them later."
Admittedly, Xu Zhiyi was used to Lin Yan taking care of her daily needs, and she knew he was aware of nearly everything she did.
But when she turned and saw that he'd even found her clean underwear and hung it on the wall for her, she still felt a surge of irritation at how thoroughly he seemed to know her every move.
He had anticipated her waking up and throwing this little tantrum long before it happened.
Yet she hadn't kept an eye on him, giving him the chance to slip away while she slept. This time he'd only left to put away her clothes, but what about later? Who knew how long he might be gone.
Xu Zhiyi pulled her hand back and said with slight displeasure, "How could you sneak off while I was sleeping?"
Eventually, she'd do something that made Lin Yan feel like he'd lost control too.
Lin Yan closed the door tightly for her.
"…"
By the time Xu Zhiyi had washed away the exhaustion from Huamei Junior High and emerged as a fresh version of herself, her bedsheets and quilt cover had already been replaced with new ones. In the kitchen, Lin Yan, wearing an apron with his shirt sleeves rolled up halfway, was dealing with pork ribs.
She wasn't about to let Lin Yan wash everything for her. After poking her head out to confirm he was still home, she grabbed her freshly washed undergarments and ran to the balcony, hanging them on the drying rack. When she finished, she hurried to the kitchen to help out.
But suddenly, the door was knocked on urgently.
The person knocking was frantic, as if something earth-shattering was about to happen. Xu Zhiyi's face turned pale in an instant—she feared a new Instance had come knocking.
"Brother!" She didn't even check the peephole, calling for her brother first.
Lin Yan wiped his hands, walked over from the kitchen, stood in front of her, and turned the doorknob.
As the door opened, an anxious cry of "Xu Zhiyi!" came crashing in.
Lin Yan turned his head: "Zhizhi, it's your friend."
"Song Yu?" Xu Zhiyi, standing behind Lin Yan, poked her head out in surprise. She quickly pulled Lin Yan aside to make room for Song Yu to enter. "Shouldn't you be at school right now? What happened?"
Although it wasn't an Instance coming to the door, judging by how awful Song Yu's expression looked when she opened the door, she was certain her friend had come to deal with something major.
But who would've thought that once Song Yu got inside, she'd clam up, her expression growing more and more bewildered. She rambled on about this and that for quite a while before Xu Zhiyi gradually understood what she meant.
It was still about her.
Yesterday, she'd acted too much like someone brainwashed by a cult, constantly asking the people around her if they remembered Lin Yan, searching for that "nonexistent brother."
After hanging up the phone, Song Yu grew more and more uneasy, deeply worried that Xu Zhiyi might have been lured in by some organization. After tossing and turning all night, she decided to come check on her, and it seemed she'd already prepared herself to help Xu Zhiyi escape from her misery.
—Pointing to the 110 dial screen on her phone.
Her heart was truly kind!
But Lin Yan was back, and reality was right here. Xu Zhiyi's strange behavior yesterday could no longer be called strange—a sister looking for her brother she couldn't reach was nothing more normal than that.
So Song Yu, who had come all this way, fell into deep confusion. Although she still felt she'd needed to come, she also felt that since Xu Zhiyi's brother was here, he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
She was now very puzzled about why she'd come, sitting on the sofa feeling both awkward and uneasy. But that didn't stop Xu Zhiyi from being deeply moved, her glistening eyes shining.
Being stared at with such tearful eyes, Song Yu had no choice but to steel herself and raise a question: "Then… why did you suddenly look for your brother yesterday? Did something happen?"
Xu Zhiyi, who had been about to answer seriously, froze.
Hmm… She'd been captured into a fake school and spent a quiet, peaceful night with a field full of corpses.
She thought about the alarm page on Song Yu's phone and swallowed the words, but she wasn't good at lying to people close to her either. Her gaze flickered, visibly suspicious: "It's just… his phone was off, so I…"
Song Yu's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
"We got trapped in a fake school and had to deal with a corpse the whole time, so we couldn't get out right away." Lin Yan, who had been pouring water for the two of them, set down the thermos and recounted casually, "Classmate Song Yu, thank you for worrying about her."
Xu Zhiyi was stunned!
Did her brother have connections at the mental hospital, to dare speak so arrogantly?!
But Song Yu just went "ah, ah" a couple of times, then wore an expression of understanding. She took a sip of water, stood up, and said she needed to hurry back to school.
"…"
Xu Zhiyi quickly pulled her back and packed a full bag of snacks she'd bought from the supermarket a couple days ago, nearly emptying half of the stock she'd painstakingly carried back. She told Song Yu to take them to school.
This was what it meant to not let a kind person's heart grow cold.
After seeing Song Yu off, Xu Zhiyi took out the last two red bean pudding cups, handed one to Lin Yan, and took a couple of bites before asking him what was really going on.
"The game automatically corrects people's memories," Lin Yan said.
Xu Zhiyi recalled her past phone calls with Lin Yan. She hadn't expected that all those ridiculous-sounding excuses were actually terrifying events he'd experienced in the Instances. She felt her eyes welling up with tears again.
Lin Yan chuckled: "Those ones really were nonsense."
"…"
She then punished him in her embarrassment, shooing him into the kitchen and forbidding him from coming out until he'd made ribs worthy of a five-star chef.
While waiting, she opened her phone to scroll through short videos, only to see hundreds of unread messages on WeChat.
Xu Zhiyi: "?"
She tapped to open them—they were all replies from Lin Yan, catching every single message she'd ever sent.
Xu Zhiyi's heart felt soft and warm. Even while eating the ribs, she was grinning like an idiot.
"Brother, I like you the most," she said in a syrupy voice.
Lin Yan touched her forehead: "Mm, glad you like them. We'll go to the hospital for a check-up tomorrow."
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
In the end, she couldn't escape the hospital. Lin Yan dragged her there for an examination, and the result was that her heart was perfectly healthy—strong and vigorous.
"Your sister's fine," the doctor said, giving Lin Yan a sharp look. "But you—you look pale. Why don't you register for a check-up while you're here?"
Xu Zhiyi waved her hands repeatedly like a villain who refused to let her family member get treatment, utterly lacking in filial piety, terrified that her brother would be taken away for experiments.
Doctor: "…"
Lin Yan let out a laugh: "Whatever my sister says."
Doctor: "…"
Normally, they would set off back to school that same evening. Only when they'd been out wandering and lost track of time, making it truly impossible to make it back before curfew, would Lin Yan drive her to the school gate on Monday morning instead.
Poor college students had to do campus check-in at noon on Mondays even if they had no classes.
This situation was extremely rare, because it usually meant waking up early—getting up at seven-something on a day with no 8 AM class.
So in the past, no matter how much Xu Zhiyi wanted to stay home a little longer, she would still drag her feet and head back to school on Sunday afternoon.
But today was different, of course.
Xu Zhiyi overcame her fear of waking up early and picked out, well in advance, the sleep essential she'd need for staying home tonight.
Her red scarf.
All day, her gaze and her body followed Lin Yan. Even when she was being supervised while reviewing for final exams, she'd slide down to sit on the blanket in the gap between the coffee table and the sofa, stubbornly draping her arm over Lin Yan's leg—switching to the other side once it went numb.
Given this level of clinginess, when Xu Zhiyi proposed tying their hands together with a scarf for the night, Lin Yan only showed a faint flicker of surprise.
He nodded with a hint of amusement.
His quick agreement wasn't part of Xu Zhiyi's plan. All those detailed, persuasive reasons she'd prepared got stuck in her throat.
"…"
She explained as she tied.
Rope would be too rough—their wrists would definitely get chafed red. But a scarf was different. It was one Lin Yan had knitted, beautiful and soft, with a large surface area that wouldn't dig into the skin. It was perfect for binding them together.
Lin Yan looked down at Xu Zhiyi, who was winding the scarf around both their wrists in circles, and smiled. "Do you need handcuffs?"
Xu Zhiyi seriously considered it for two seconds.
"That would be too uncomfortable." She shook her head with careful deliberation. "The scarf is better."
It was as if their hands, wrapped up like a wasp's nest, wouldn't affect their sleep at all.
Xu Zhiyi, for her part, was thoroughly satisfied with her handiwork. She pressed close to Lin Yan, settling into the same sleeping position as the night before, breathing in the slightly more familiar damp, cool scent. She barely managed to murmur "Don't sneak out of bed tonight" before she was truly asleep.
But she forgot that she wasn't exactly a still sleeper.
Especially with her wrist bound, she instinctively began to struggle. The loosely tied scarf quickly slipped off both their wrists as she tossed and turned—half of it still hanging on Lin Yan's hand, but she had completely broken free of its restraint.
Lin Yan untied the scarf, folded it twice, and placed it by her pillow.
He didn't get out of bed.
A soft shadow, like a black ribbon, crawled out from his own shadow and hooked around Xu Zhiyi's wrist, binding them together again.
This time, no matter how much Xu Zhiyi struggled, she couldn't break free.
But before long, the shadow's grip loosened considerably, giving Xu Zhiyi the chance to roll over, pull away, and regain her freedom.
She didn't move.
Lin Yan's fingertip poked at her soft, warm cheek, still flushed with sleep. Her body didn't retreat. Instead, she leaned even closer, showing him a trust so absolute it was almost reckless.
Most of the shadow wrapped around their wrists retreated back into his, leaving only a small wisp—curled beside her like a cat tucking in its tail, quietly pressed against her arm.
The next morning, when it was time to leave.
Xu Zhiyi found it truly hard to part from Lin Yan. She packed up at a snail's pace, dawdling by the entryway, until Lin Yan had also changed into his shoes and they had no choice but to head out.
"Got everything?" Lin Yan asked. "Phone charger in there?"
He casually unzipped her backpack to check.
Sure enough, it wasn't there.
Xu Zhiyi gave an awkward little laugh and turned to go get it, but Lin Yan held her in place, pulling the charger she'd deliberately hidden from his pocket.
"…"
Seeing her excuse to turn back halfway gone, Xu Zhiyi looked at Lin Yan with pure resentment, unable to understand how, after something so surreal had happened, her brother could still trust her to go to school properly.
She, on the other hand, didn't trust Lin Yan one bit to return to school on his own.
Xu Zhiyi tilted her face upward, staring at her brother, whose gaze was warm and gentle, as if he could always control everything. Her eyes revealed a glint that made the elder immediately sense trouble.
She began to smile innocently and simply. In the quiet, she suddenly rose onto her tiptoes, wrapped both arms around Lin Yan's neck, and planted a kiss right on the scar on his neck.
—She didn't succeed.
Lin Yan's palm pressed her down.
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
Is there any logic in this?!
Although Lin Yan had stopped her in time, his pupils still trembled. In a low voice, he called her full name: "Xu Zhiyi."
Xu Zhiyi's reaction was equally dramatic. Even with her lips covered, she argued with conviction: "Why dodge? When we left Meihua Middle School, didn't you kiss me too?"
"That was just the forehead."
There was no more double-standard answer than this.
But actually, what she was doing made no sense either—after all, no younger sister would use a kiss to keep her brother from leaving.
"…Fine, go back to school then. Anyway, finals will be over soon, and winter break will start."
Xu Zhiyi glared at Lin Yan with a tangled heart, twisted the doorknob, and clattered down the stairs, with a hint of running away.
Behind her.
Lin Yan lowered his gaze and gently kissed his own palm.