Chapter 406: You're also good

Xu Yanfeng had no interest in others' private affairs, but he had to admit that back when they were in college, he had indeed been quite jealous of Zhou Du, curious about Zhou Du and Xia Xi's relationship. It was a relationship much closer than ordinary friends, yet not relatives.

"I have a full-blooded younger sister, born the same day as me, only a few minutes later." Zhou Du gazed at the stars in the distant sky, raised his highball glass, and took a big gulp of wine.

Xu Yanfeng's thoughts stalled, and he stared at him in disbelief: "Xia Xi is your real sister?"

Could it be that Xia Xi's background hides something else…?

In an instant, Xu Yanfeng's thoughts scattered, imagining many scenarios, even involving the emotional relationships of the previous generation.

Zhou Du had originally brought up the matter feeling somewhat gloomy, but Xu Yanfeng's interruption scattered all those negative emotions, leaving him speechless and laughing.

He looked at Xu Yanfeng as if looking at someone with a mental issue: "You're still not sober, General Manager Xu."

Xu Yanfeng: "……"

Zhou Du let out a heavy sigh, set his glass aside, and said: "My real sister died. When she was seven."

Xu Yanfeng fell silent, and those random associations in his mind cleared instantly.

"She was very pretty, although we're twins, we don't look alike." Zhou Du said, "She clung to me; no matter what I did, she followed me like a tail. Sometimes I found her annoying and would sneak out to play without her."

After pausing for several seconds, Zhou Du seemed reluctant to continue, but he eventually said: "It's my fault she died. That day she looked at me pleadingly, begging me to take her out to play, I softened and let her come with me and my friends. We went to the wilderness, a friend suggested wading across the river to play at the temple on the other side, I was going to carry her over, but she insisted on crossing herself, and for some reason I agreed. I was ahead, I turned around, and she had already fallen into the river. It had rained a few days earlier, the water level had risen, and in the blink of an eye she disappeared…"

His sister was not rescued.

By the time the professional rescue team pulled her out, she had already stopped breathing.

The grandparents wailed heartbrokenly, the mother fainted on the spot, and the father seemed to have his spine shattered, his back gave out, and he aged several years overnight.

They blamed him, asking why he was so reckless, why he hadn't watched his sister, but after blaming him, realizing he was also a child who had witnessed that scene and couldn't let go, they hugged him and cried.

They scolded him while crying.

Zhou Du himself knew there was no excuse for him; it was his fault, his carelessness, that killed his sister. He alone caused the family's tragedy.

Time might heal the wounds, but it cannot erase the memory.

During that time, he dreamed every night, sometimes nightmares, sometimes sweet dreams. The nightmare was him watching his sister being swept into the water, swallowed by the murky flow, while he stood on the shore, frantic and drenched in sweat, powerless. The sweet dream was his sister falling into the water, him jumping in, grabbing her hand in the rushing current, and pulling her out.

But upon waking, there was nothing.

His sister would never come back.

He lived in self-blame and guilt, like stuck in a mire, no matter how he struggled he couldn't get out. He even thought of jumping into the place where his sister drowned to keep her company. Since she loved playing with him so much, he felt he should be there with her; otherwise the little girl would be too lonely and scared alone.

But he couldn't do that.

Everyone around him sympathized and felt pity, telling him, "Zhou Du, you're your parents' only child left; you must grow up healthy and safe, and later honor them well."

Grandparents often told him, "Listen, don't do dangerous things; if something happens to you, our whole family won't survive."

He lived on, carrying his family's hopes, in a daze, suffering and tormented.

After summer break, he went to school and ran into Xia Xi; she seemed to have suddenly changed, with two moles appearing on her arm that weren't there before. Zhou Du looked at her, dazed, as if seeing his own sister—the two moles were in exactly the same positions as his sister's, both one large and one small.

Zhou Du felt sure it was his sister unwilling to leave him, returning in another form to keep him company.

Having heard about his family's situation, although she couldn't agree with his idea, seeing how he could barely go on, she went along with it, giving him much comfort, treating him as a brother, chatting with him whenever, and cheering him up.

Her presence, to Zhou Du at that time, felt more like a spiritual reliance.

As they aged and both matured, Zhou Du gradually realized his foolishness, yet he had already grown accustomed to regarding Xia Xi as his sister.

Xia Xi also didn't want him to remain forever in the shadow of having killed his sister, carrying guilt his whole life and unable to live normally, so she deliberately guided him to stop calling her "brother."

Later, after several years, Zhou Du completely moved on, began living for himself, carefree and unrestrained, appearing like a reckless, dissolute playboy, heartless.

Xia Xi knew he had bounced back, and only when she occasionally needed him to do something would she sweetly call him "brother," and he accepted it without reaction, calmly.

Still, every time he heard Xia Xi call him "brother," he would think of his own sister and couldn't refuse any of her requests.

The party didn't end until late into the night, and Xia Xi was truly exhausted.

The hotel had prepared rooms; everyone could rest on their own when tired, but Xu Yanfeng insisted on taking Xia Xi back to their home—not their usual residence, but the newly renovated villa.

It was a little closer to Zi Heng's school.

Zi Heng was already asleep, wrapped in a coat by Xu Yanfeng and placed in the car. Zi Heng woke up, saw his parents beside him, said nothing, closed his eyes again, and snuggled into his father's arms to fall back asleep.

The driver drove ahead, and the roads were clear in the late night.

Xia Xi leaned against Xu Yanfeng's shoulder, dozing; he tilted his head, his chin brushing her hair, and softly reminded: "We're almost home."

Xia Xi answered with a dazed "uh," forced herself to focus, and asked: "What were you and Zhou Du talking about earlier? I saw you chatting for a long time." Their vibes didn't match; it didn't look like they had much to say.

Xu Yanfeng didn't hide it: "He told me about your situation."

Xia Xi: "Us?"

"He said that for a period of time, he regarded you as the reincarnation of his sister."

"……" Xia Xi fell silent for a moment, her drowsiness mostly gone, "He even told you that? He never mentions it to outsiders."

"Maybe he drank too much." Xu Yanfeng sighed, "I didn't expect someone who seems so out of it to have such a past. No wonder you two always have that special closeness. But he said after a summer, you suddenly changed—what's that about?"

Xia Xi rubbed the corner of her eye: "Actually, I used to keep my hair long, but that summer washing it was a hassle, so I went to a barber shop and had it cut short. The barber's skills were poor, he cut it extremely short, not even covering my ears, making me look completely different from before, like a big change. Coincidentally, Zhou Du's sister had short hair; when he saw me, he thought we looked alike, but I actually don't resemble his sister."

"What about the moles?"

"That's also a coincidence," Xia Xi said. "A mole just appeared on my arm out of nowhere."

"Weren't there two?"

"Only one grew," Xia Xi turned sideways to show him the mole on her arm, "the other looks like a mole but isn't; it's a graphite speck from Xuanxuan poking her arm with a pencil lead during summer mischief, and for some reason that tiny black dot never faded. Look, it's still there after all these years."

With all these coincidences, it's no wonder Zhou Du, upon seeing her, thought his sister had returned.

Perhaps also, in that state of mind, he wanted to grasp a piece of driftwood, turning his pain into motivation to keep living.

That's also why the notion of "spiritual reliance" exists.

Xia Xi: "Zhou Du is a good person. Although I initially had the idea of helping him, later I truly came to regard him as a real brother."

Xu Yanfeng kissed her forehead: "You're also good."

The car stopped, they had arrived home; looking up, the whole villa was lit with lights, appearing somewhat cold from outside, but there was no doubt the inside was filled with warmth.