After Lian Shang left, because the rain was too heavy, Ji Hua asked Wen Huaiyue to text her sister that she would be sleeping over tonight.
Wen Yao predictably threw a fit. Wen Huaiyue, feeling utterly helpless, repeatedly promised that she would be home early the next day before Wen Yao finally calmed down.
Just like usual, Ji Hua bit her again, though it was brief. Wen Huaiyue used the ointment Ji Hua had given her last time to dab at her neck; it worked quite well, and the scar had faded a little.
Ji Hua usually bit her in the exact same spot anyway. Wen Huaiyue thought applying the cream was pointless since scars were bound to form regardless, but she kept that thought to herself.
Actually, Ji Hua hadn’t intended it as a scar remover at all. The ointment simply had blood-regenerating properties, and Ji Hua applied it solely because she feared the girl was growing too frail.
When it was time for sleep, Wen Huaiyue still curled up in Ji Hua’s arms. Ji Hua was used to it by now and let her do as she pleased.
“Sister?” Wen Huaiyue broke the silence in the quiet night.
“Mm.”
“Do you have a mom and dad?”
Ji Hua opened her eyes, remained silent for a few seconds, and then said, “No, they are dead.”
Wen Huaiyue hugged her tighter and said in a muffled voice, “I do not have a mom, only a dad. Dad said last time that he missed Mom very much and wanted to go keep her company. Sister, what does my dad mean by that?”
Ji Hua stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. She seemed lost in some distant memory, her gaze carrying a rare trace of bewilderment and helplessness, before she finally spoke coldly after a long pause, “Go to sleep.”
Sensing Ji Hua’s unhappiness, Wen Huaiyue obediently replied, “Oh.”
Days drifted by in a blur. Ji Hua had been busy signing contracts lately, but whenever she had a moment, she would visit Wen Huaiyue at school and take her back home. Although Wen Yao had called Ji Hua a few times initially, she eventually gave up and accepted it.
Wen Huaiyue’s classmates curiously asked her who Ji Hua was, and Wen Huaiyue proudly declared that she was her older sister. Her little classmates all envied her for having two pretty sisters.
Wen Huaiyue felt extremely pleased.
As the time they spent together grew longer, Wen Huaiyue’s dependence on Ji Hua reached a whole new level.
Before long, the weather grew warm, carrying the distinct feel of early summer.
June 1st had arrived, which was also Wen Huaiyue’s birthday.
She had reminded her family and Ji Hua days in advance, but unfortunately, just the day before Children’s Day, Wen Yao and Meng Wang traveled abroad for business and couldn’t possibly make it back.
Feeling deeply wronged, she vented her grievances to Ji Hua, who simply couldn’t understand. “It is just a birthday. Is it really that big of a deal?”
Wen Huaiyue ignored her for half a day in a huff. Seeing the little girl pouting so hard she could practically hang a moon on her lip, and unable to bear her pitiful, sulking act, Ji Hua impatiently conceded, “Fine, we will celebrate, we will celebrate. Humans are truly annoying.”
That day, Wen Huaiyue stayed at Ji Hua’s place the whole time. While Ji Hua was in the kitchen preparing the cake ingredients, Wen Huaiyue followed right behind her like a little shadow, occasionally sneaking bites of the batter.
Annoyed to no end, Ji Hua snapped, “Shoo, shoo, shoo! Go watch cartoons and stop bothering me.”
“No,” Wen Huaiyue said with a beaming smile. “I want to stick right behind Sister.”
Speechless, Ji Hua was driven half-mad by her.
At that moment, heavy knocks pounded against the door. Wen Huaiyue went to open it, and Lian Shang rushed into the house in a panic.
“Ji Hua, one of the game characters you designed has been accused of plagiarism! We spent some effort suppressing the news online, but now the person claiming to be the original artist is right here at our company. You need to come take a look,” Lian Shang panted. “I could not get through on your phone either. I am exhausted.”
Ji Hua’s expression chilled as she set down the fruit. “A thing like that happened?”
“Yeah,” Lian Shang said. “I have a feeling she is just here to shake us down and stir up trouble. You had better come see for yourself.”
In artistic creation, plagiarism accusations were the ultimate dread. Once slapped with that label, one’s reputation was practically ruined, as it was the greatest taboo.
Moreover, this incident threatened Lian Shang’s company reputation and the game’s operation, making it a serious crisis.
Frowning, Ji Hua walked toward the door. Wen Huaiyue hurried over and said anxiously, “Sister…”
With an irritated scratch at her head, Ji Hua patted the girl’s cheek. “I will be right back.” With that, she pulled open the door to leave. When Lian Shang tried to follow, Ji Hua pressed a hand firmly onto his shoulder.
“You stay right here and keep Wen Huaiyue company. If…” Ji Hua paused, “If I am not back by a certain time, order a cake for her and send her home.”
Wen Huaiyue stood frozen in place, while Lian Shang looked equally dumbfounded. Scratching the back of his head, he turned around to find Wen Huaiyue’s eyes turning red, and he panicked. “Hey, what is wrong with you?”
“It is all your fault!” Wen Huaiyue shouted angrily. “You ruined my birthday!”
Lian Shang felt utterly awkward, as he had no idea how to comfort a child, leaving the two of them staring blankly at each other.
Wen Huaiyue cried. She rarely cried anymore, but this time she felt too wronged. On her own birthday, she was stuck celebrating with a stranger.
She felt so aggrieved she didn’t know what to do with herself.
And Lian Shang had no clue what to do either.
Wen Huaiyue curled up on the sofa, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the front door, making Lian Shang squirm with discomfort.
They waited until nine o’clock at night. Midway through, Lian Shang ordered a cake, but Wen Huaiyue didn’t even glance at it.
Around nine-thirty, Ji Hua sent Lian Shang a message telling him to take Wen Huaiyue home.
Reading the message, Wen Huaiyue showed no expression. She silently grabbed her school bag and got into his car with a blank face.
Lian Shang was on the verge of a breakdown.
Good grief, what kind of mess was this?
Wen Huaiyue didn’t utter a single word, acting like a mute wooden doll, until she finally whispered a soft “thank you” right as they arrived home.
Lian Shang watched her retreating figure. Over this period, he had grown somewhat aware of the bond between the two, realizing that Ji Hua truly treated Wen Huaiyue differently.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so heartbroken.
Returning to an empty house, since Aunt Liu had gone back to spend the evening with her granddaughter, leaving only a few quiet servants behind, Wen Huaiyue walked straight to her room without a word, switched on the light, and pulled the covers entirely over her head. The bedding quickly grew stuffy and hot, but she refused to come out.
She wanted to cry. Today was supposed to be her birthday, yet not a single person had come to celebrate with her.
She felt profoundly annoyed.
And heartbroken.
Drifting off into a daze, Wen Huaiyue fell asleep, only to be jolted awake in the middle of the night by a crack of thunder amidst a raging storm outside.
Terrified of thunder, she let out a sharp shriek and curled herself tightly into a ball in the corner of the bed. Trembling, she fished out her phone to call Ji Hua, but the moment the call connected, another flash of lightning struck. Startled out of her wits, Wen Huaiyue flung the phone away and huddled beneath the blankets, paralyzed and shaking.
The rain fell in a dense sheet, the thunder rolls seemingly endless. Stark, blinding flashes of lightning illuminated the darkened room, each burst of light terrifyingly close.
Huddled under the covers, she shivered like a frightened little puppy.
After what felt like an eternity, the thunder grew slightly muffled, and Wen Huaiyue faintly heard someone calling her name downstairs.
It must be her imagination.
Yet the voice grew clearer, as if someone had just opened the front door. Who opened it? A servant?
Who was looking for her?
“Wen Huaiyue!” Ji Hua shoved the door open roughly.
Tearing off the blankets, Wen Huaiyue scrambled out of bed. Another flash of lightning pierced the air, laying bare Ji Hua’s gloomy, damp, and deathly pale face.
“Sister!” Without a second thought, Wen Huaiyue vaulted off the bed, threw her arms around Ji Hua, and wept uncontrollably. “Sister, I was so scared! I was so terrified!”
Ji Hua drew a deep breath. She had managed to resolve that messy situation after great difficulty. The plagiarism accusation turned out to be a complete farce orchestrated by a rival who was actually the real plagiarist and had tried to shift the blame.
It took Ji Hua some time to handle, and she had rushed back anxiously, hoping to salvage her birthday and calling her phone along the way, only for the calls to go unanswered.
When Wen Huaiyue finally called back, Ji Hua had heard a sudden scream before the line went dead. Without overthinking, she had jumped into her car and sped over.
Now it was one in the morning. Her birthday had long since passed.
Wen Huaiyue clung to her with all her might, her tears soaking straight through Ji Hua’s trousers. Ji Hua couldn’t pry her loose no matter how hard she tried.
“Enough,” Ji Hua said, giving the girl’s head a light slap. “Crying and wailing like this, what kind of sight are you?”
Wen Huaiyue got up from the bed, hugged her again, and asked in a muffled voice, “Will you still celebrate my birthday with me in the future?”
“I will,” Ji Hua conceded, utterly out of patience. “You humans are really troublesome.”
With the rain still pouring outside, Ji Hua stayed to sleep beside her. As the thunder rumbled intermittently, Wen Huaiyue lost all her fear. Wrapping her arms around Ji Hua’s neck, she murmured sleepily, “Sister, you cannot lie to me.”
“I know, stop nagging.”
Outside raged a torrential downpour, while Wen Huaiyue drifted deep within her own world, clinging to Ji Hua like a tiny boat afloat on a dark sea.
Ji Hua was her white beacon of safety.
From then on, every single year, Ji Hua tried her best never to miss Wen Huaiyue’s birthday. Yet, on the rare occasions when unavoidable circumstances forced her to miss it, Wen Huaiyue would inevitably complain.
Ji Hua’s temper wasn’t exactly pleasant, and she reserved this shred of patience exclusively for Wen Huaiyue, even if that patience was perpetually wrapped in a skin of annoyance. Having lived for centuries, Ji Hua possessed an inherently malicious streak that surfaced endlessly, leaving poor Wen Huaiyue reduced to tears on multiple occasions thanks to her antics.
Devoid of standard human morality, Ji Hua frequently dragged Wen Huaiyue into bizarre, incomprehensible escapades. These included, but were not limited to, sending a young child alone into a haunted house under the guise of building her courage, and unapologetically letting her look at pictures of adults making love, leaving the terrified little girl half-frightened to death while Ji Hua stood by laughing uproariously.
Since the girl spent the vast majority of her time glued to Ji Hua, Wen Yao could never have imagined what kind of warped lessons Ji Hua was instilling in her, nearly skewing Wen Huaiyue’s entire worldview.
Though Wen Huaiyue feared Ji Hua, she remained utterly attached to her.
Both Wen Yao and Meng Wang were exceptionally busy. Sometimes, looking back, Ji Hua had actually spent far more time keeping her company. Gradually letting go of her prejudices, Wen Yao even joined them for meals on occasion.
Though Wen Yao and Ji Hua still bickered from time to time, mostly because Ji Hua deliberately provoked her, it could roughly be considered harmonious.
Wen Huaiyue’s classmates all regarded Ji Hua as her older sister.
Once a week, Ji Hua would feed on her blood, but thanks to the medicinal ointment, the scars never grew very deep.
Wen Huaiyue’s attachment to Ji Hua only grew deeper with each passing day.
Years flew by. They remained side by side, not quite family, not quite friends, neither of them quite knowing what label defined their bond.
Whatever it was, it was a connection that could never be severed.
Before long, Wen Huaiyue entered the sixth grade. She had grown significantly taller, her features losing their childhood roundness to reveal a lean frame, slender posture, and delicate, picturesque brows.
Her birthday was approaching once more, coinciding closely with final exams as she prepared applications for middle school.
She warned Ji Hua fiercely that this time she demanded a truly gorgeous gift, insisted that Ji Hua clear her schedule no matter what to spend the day with her, and threatened to stop talking to her entirely if she missed it.
Pestered to the point of exasperation, Ji Hua grudgingly agreed. Her temperament had always been this way; after all these years, she remained perpetually impatient.
To outsiders, her prickly personality made her impossible to get along with, yet Wen Huaiyue had adapted to it perfectly.
On the eve of Children’s Day, Ji Hua had nearly wrapped up all her business affairs. One of her company’s games had caught the eye of an animation and film studio, which wanted to adapt the characters into an anime series and asked Ji Hua to act as supervisor.
Accompanied by Lian Shang, she headed out to sign the preliminary agreement with the studio, holding a small box in her hand the entire way.
“What is that? A ring? Are you getting married?” Lian Shang asked casually.
“No,” Ji Hua replied. “A protective amulet necklace for the little girl.”
“You are really good to her, huh,” Lian Shang teased.
With a soft snort, Ji Hua muttered, “The little girl threw a fit demanding a gift, such a pain.” Rolling her shoulders, she added, “Step on it, I still have to go back and bake her a cake.”
Tsk tsk, you really—Lian Shang’s voice abruptly cut off.
Crash! A massive truck barreled straight toward them. Even as Lian Shang violently spun the steering wheel, it was already too late!
With wide eyes and plunging vision, Ji Hua was swallowed by boundless darkness and agony.
On June 1st, Wen Huaiyue was brimming with excitement. Eagerly anticipating whatever gift Ji Hua had prepared, she found it impossible to stay inside her room and paced anxiously back and forth by the front entrance.
Ji Hua said she would come pick her up today.
She wouldn’t lie to her.
She waited from morning until noon, her fair face flushed red from the scorching sun, drenched in sweat yet refusing to budge from her spot.
Like a withered flower, she drooped her head in dejection. Then, the sound of an engine in the distance made her snap upright, only to realize it wasn’t Ji Hua’s car.
It was Wen Yao’s car.
Stepping out of the vehicle, Wen Yao and Meng Wang wore expressions that looked distinctly unnatural.
“What are you doing out here?” Wen Yao asked with a forced smile.
“I am waiting for Sister Ji Hua,” Wen Huaiyue said earnestly, her eyes sparkling. “She said she would make me a princess cake today and bring me a really pretty present.”
Wen Yao’s expression soured further. She opened her mouth, struggling for words, while Meng Wang gently squeezed her hand and crouched down in front of Wen Huaiyue. “A-yue, let us go inside first. It is too hot out here.”
“No,” Wen Huaiyue shook her head. “I have to wait for her.”
Meng Wang stroked her hair. “Be a good girl. Brother-in-law has something to tell you. Let us go inside, okay?”
“Please, let us go inside first, A-yue,” Wen Yao urged.
Wen Huaiyue bit her lip. “Okay.”
Entering the villa, Wen Yao instructed the servants and Aunt Liu to return to their rooms, leaving just the three of them in the living room.
With a puzzled gaze, Wen Huaiyue looked between them.
Taking a deep breath, Wen Yao retrieved a blood-stained box from her bag. Wen Huaiyue blinked.
Crouching down, Wen Yao spoke in a gentle voice, “A-yue, this is a gift from your Ji Hua sister.”
Staring expressionless at the bloody box, Wen Huaiyue tilted her head in confusion. “Why is there blood on it? And why did Sister Ji Hua not come deliver it herself?”
Knowing what Ji Hua meant to Wen Huaiyue made it all the harder for Wen Yao to speak.
How was she supposed to tell her sister that she might never come back?
A car accident, severe facial disfigurement, massive blood loss, incompatible with matching blood types, rejecting all transfusions. She had heard that when they loaded her onto the stretcher, blood soaked the entire thing.
Unable to stanch the bleeding, unable to replenish the blood, her internal organs severely ruptured no matter how anyone looked at it, she simply couldn’t survive.
How could she possibly use gentle words to tell her sister?
With her lips tightly pressed together and her face drained of color, Wen Huaiyue maintained her innocent tone. “Sister Yao, I am going outside to wait for Sister Ji Hua now.”
Catching her by the arm, Meng Wang delivered the cruel blow. “She is not coming.”
With a blank expression, Wen Huaiyue asked in a daze, “Then when is she coming back?”
With great difficulty, Wen Yao forced out the words.
She might never come back.