After a moment of panic, Gao Yang quickly regained his composure. With a smile, he reached out to tuck a strand of wet hair behind her sister’s ear.
“What are you talking about? We are family.”
“I know.”
Gao Xinxin’s eyes lowered, looking a little down. “But you’ll find me a sister-in-law and start a family, and I’ll marry someone and have a child. Then we will belong to two families. Although we will still be siblings, we won’t be as close as we are now.”
“Whenever I think about that, I feel down.”
“If only we could be like this forever.”
Gao Yang stood side by side with Gao Xinxin, looking into the distant horizon for a long, silent moment.
Finally, he reached out to press her head to his chest. “Stop saying nonsense. You’ll always be my little sister no matter how old we are. Nothing is going to change that.”
“Promise?” Gao Xinxin asked.
“Promise.” Gao Yang suddenly extended his hand. “It will be our witness!”
Gao Xinxin looked down to see Gao Yang holding onto a crab. She screamed and fell on her bottom, the seawater almost submerging her to the head.
She shot to her feet with a splash and wiped her face, chasing and swinging her fists at Gao Yang. “You’re dead, Gao Yang!”
“Hahaha!” Gao Yang cast the crab aside and ran while holding his head. The siblings started fighting again.
...
When the night fell, Gao Yang and Gao Xinxin returned to the villa.
Gao Yang had a quick shower and got changed before heading to Wang Zikai’s place on the jet ski he rented.
The sea was dark and lonesome at night, and the Fairytale Villa floated on the pitch black water, brightly lit like a small fantastical castle.
From what Gao Yang remembered, Wang Zikai always kept the light on at night wherever he was staying.
He couldn’t be afraid of the dark given the kind of person he was. Perhaps it was because he was deeply lonely at heart that he instinctively chased warmth and shied away from anything that would bring about a lonesome atmosphere.
Gao Yang left the jet ski at the pier and locked it before opening the front door of the villa.
“Wang Zikai...”
He paused as soon as the name was out of his mouth.
In the living room, Wang Zikai had his back to Gao Yang, and he knelt behind the sofa busy with something. Only half of his body was visible.
He stood up as soon as he heard Gao Yang’s voice.
That was when Gao Yang saw it—there were drops of blood on Wang Zikai’s face.
Three sharp bone claws protruded from the back of his right hand, and they were drenched in blood too; so were the chest area of his shirt.
“Here you are, Gao Yang.” He smiled. There was a burnt-out look to his expression that Gao Yang couldn’t decipher.
What’s going on?!
No, don’t jump to conclusions!
It can’t be what you’re thinking!
He tried his best to convince himself, but then his gaze lowered, and instantly, his scalp went numb, and it felt as if his blood was going the opposite direction.
Silver hair could be seen behind the sofa, and the owner of the hair lay on the floor, unmoving.
Fresh Snow!
“Wang Zikai, you...” Gao Yang blanched, his voice trembling. “What did you do?”
“Gao Yang.” Wang Zikai smiled and retracted his bone claws swiftly. “You came at just the right time. I was just finished with the kill.”
Gao Yang wished that he had heard it wrong, that the red on Wang Zikai’s body was nothing but tomato juice like in those funny commercials.
But he smelt blood. While it didn’t smell human, it was no tomato.
Wang Zikai killed Fresh Snow!
But why? Even if Fresh Snow had left the room instead of listening to me, Wang Zikai would only be surprised, not consider her an enemy.
No, Fresh Snow has been in a strange state lately. Could it be that she lost control and turned into a real ghost, going after Wang Zikai?
Or has Wang Zikai’s monsterhood finally awakened?
Wang Zikai walked up to him with a smile, and Gao Yang immediately backed away.
Wang Zikai paused, noticing Gao Yang’s fear and shock.
He put on a pleasing smile and wiped his bloodied hands on his shirt. “Are you mad, bro? I’m sorry. I promise that next time...”
Gao Yang’s head was a mess. Anger, shock, regret, fear, pain, and a myriad of other emotions rushed to his head. A second later, he tapped into the energy in his body.
Swoosh!
Gao Yang teleported to Wang Zikai and slammed into him. He didn’t want to hurt him, but he had to stop him.
“Whoa!”
Caught completely off guard, Wang Zikai slammed through the window with a yell and fell into the sea.
“Fresh Snow!”
Gao Yang then rushed to the back of the sofa to check if Fresh Snow was still breathing. He had even started to plan in his head how he should bring her back. Within 24 hours of her death, Vermilion Bird would be able to resurrect her! It would be worth a try no matter the price! And if she wouldn’t do it, there was also Fresh Snow’s sister!
Weren’t the Spectres able to bring people back to life? They would have a way.
But how should he go about contacting her sister?
Gao Yang hurriedly helped Fresh Snow up, only to find to his shock that Fresh Snow, having changed into a large, white t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts, didn’t have any blood on her. She was wholly intact.
“Fresh Snow!” Gao Yang called out again.
She opened her eyes by a crack sleepily. “...Gao Yang?”
She giggled, looking a little weak. “You’re back. Hm, when did I fall asleep again?”
What? Fell asleep?!
Gao Yang came to his senses suddenly.
What just happened?!
He picked Fresh Snow up and placed her on the sofa. Then he looked around and rushed to the kitchen, face ashen. Immediately, he caught sight of the unknown fish that was almost a meter long, having been cut open and into pieces.
Realization struck him.
What had happened the past few days left him with an almost pathological paranoia. It didn’t help that he was an overly cautious and imaginative person by nature.
What the hell did you do, Gao Yang?!
“Gao Yang!”
Wang Zikai, drenched from head to toe, swam back from the sea. He kicked the door open and wiped the water off his face, stalking up to Gao Yang angrily. “What the fuck was that...”
He trailed off.
Gao Yang had quickly walked up to a matt on the living room floor and dropped to his knees with a thud.
“Brother Kai! I’m sorry!”
“Huh? Huuuuuh...??”
Wang Zikai gaped at him, his anger suddenly evaporated. He rushed up to Gao Yang and helped him up. “You don’t need to do this, bro, seriously.”
“I made a mistake. I misunderstood. Hit me or curse me, I’ll take it!”
“Geez, bro. It’s not a big deal. I’ll consider that a quick bath to wash off the fishy smell...”
Ten minutes later, in the living room.
Wang Zikai had three pieces of fatty fish skewered on his bone claws, while Gao Yang roasted the fish by conjuring fire with one hand and seasoning the fish with the other hand.
Fresh Snow knelt on the sofa with her arms around her knees, staring at the almost-done fish with her red eyes. “Whoa, it smells good! Gao Yang, can I have a bite?”
“Just one bite,” Gao Yang said.
“Yeah!” She nodded happily. “I’ll open my mouth this big...”
“A small bite,” Gao Yang cut her off.
“Ah.” Fresh Snow was a little disappointed, but quickly broke into a smile. “Fine, I’ll have a small bite.”
While they roasted the fish, Gao Yang heard about what had happened.
Fresh Snow had a good nap throughout the afternoon in the room on the second floor. When she woke up, the sun had already set. She saw the note Gao Yang left her.
But she was practically illiterate.
So she rushed downstairs excitedly, running into Wang Zikai, who had just returned to the hotel.
Wang Zikai was surprised by her sudden appearance, but quickly accepted it when he heard that she had followed them secretly.
The two of them played a fighting game on the sofa for a while. Wang Zikai, again, lost the matches to her, but he refused to admit defeat, and they started arguing.
To prove that he was strong, Wang Zikai somehow started talking about catching fish, and as a cat, Fresh Snow was naturally interested in fish; she asked Wang Zikai to catch her one.
Wang Zikai did. He jumped into the sea and caught a fish in less than ten minutes, and a big one at that.
He returned to the kitchen and cut the fish open with difficulty, getting blood all over himself. When he walked out, Fresh Snow had somehow rolled off the sofa and fallen asleep on the floor behind it.
Wang Zikai was going to wake her, and just when he knelt down, the door opened, and Gao Yang showed up.
That was when Gao Yang conjured a terrible murder entirely in his head and slammed Wang Zikai out of the window with a teleport.
The rest was history. Wang Zikai swam back angrily, but before he could lay in on Gao Yang, Gao Yang had already knelt down out of survival instinct...
A mouthwatering smell came from the fish once it was done.
Wang Zikai cut it into small pieces and placed them on a plate, adding some additional seasoning and the juice of a lemon slice.
He used his bone claws as a fork and had a piece. “Whoa! It’s so good!”
He jumped up and rushed to the kitchen. “I’m getting drinks! It’s gonna be perfect!”
Gao Yang picked up a piece with a fork and handed it to Fresh Snow. “Come on. Have this. But only this.”
“Ah—”
Rather than taking the fork herself, Fresh Snow opened her mouth and waited for Gao Yang to feed her.
He shook his head in resignation, shoving the fish into her mouth.
“Hm...hmm!”
She put her hands on her cheeks, her eyes glinting with content. “So good!”
She quickly swallowed the fish. “Gao Yang! I want more!”
“We agreed on only one bite.” Gao Yang reasoned with her patiently. “You’re a ghost. It’s bad for you to have more.”
“Fine.”
Fresh Snow didn’t argue. She leaned into Gao Yang and nuzzled his arm. “Let’s play, Gao Yang.”
“Okay, but you have to answer my questions first.”
“Go on.”
“Did your sister know you’ve snuck out to come to me?” Gao Yang asked seriously. “I want the truth.”
Fresh Snow wouldn’t meet Gao Yang’s eyes as she shook her head.
“Your sister is gonna be worried when you’re so far away from home.”
“Hmph!” Fresh Snow turned away, fuming.
Gao Yang had a bad feeling about this. “Fresh Snow, did you get into a fight with your sister?”
After a moment of panic, Gao Yang quickly regained his composure. With a smile, he reached out to tuck a strand of wet hair behind her sister’s ear.
“What are you talking about? We are family.”
“I know.”
Gao Xinxin’s eyes lowered, looking a little down. “But you’ll find me a sister-in-law and start a family, and I’ll marry someone and have a child. Then we will belong to two families. Although we will still be siblings, we won’t be as close as we are now.”
“Whenever I think about that, I feel down.”
“If only we could be like this forever.”
Gao Yang stood side by side with Gao Xinxin, looking into the distant horizon for a long, silent moment.
Finally, he reached out to press her head to his chest. “Stop saying nonsense. You’ll always be my little sister no matter how old we are. Nothing is going to change that.”
“Promise?” Gao Xinxin asked.
“Promise.” Gao Yang suddenly extended his hand. “It will be our witness!”
Gao Xinxin looked down to see Gao Yang holding onto a crab. She screamed and fell on her bottom, the seawater almost submerging her to the head.
She shot to her feet with a splash and wiped her face, chasing and swinging her fists at Gao Yang. “You’re dead, Gao Yang!”
“Hahaha!” Gao Yang cast the crab aside and ran while holding his head. The siblings started fighting again.
...
When the night fell, Gao Yang and Gao Xinxin returned to the villa.
Gao Yang had a quick shower and got changed before heading to Wang Zikai’s place on the jet ski he rented.
The sea was dark and lonesome at night, and the Fairytale Villa floated on the pitch black water, brightly lit like a small fantastical castle.
From what Gao Yang remembered, Wang Zikai always kept the light on at night wherever he was staying.
He couldn’t be afraid of the dark given the kind of person he was. Perhaps it was because he was deeply lonely at heart that he instinctively chased warmth and shied away from anything that would bring about a lonesome atmosphere.
Gao Yang left the jet ski at the pier and locked it before opening the front door of the villa.
“Wang Zikai...”
He paused as soon as the name was out of his mouth.
In the living room, Wang Zikai had his back to Gao Yang, and he knelt behind the sofa busy with something. Only half of his body was visible.
He stood up as soon as he heard Gao Yang’s voice.
That was when Gao Yang saw it—there were drops of blood on Wang Zikai’s face.
Three sharp bone claws protruded from the back of his right hand, and they were drenched in blood too; so were the chest area of his shirt.
“Here you are, Gao Yang.” He smiled. There was a burnt-out look to his expression that Gao Yang couldn’t decipher.
What’s going on?!
No, don’t jump to conclusions!
It can’t be what you’re thinking!
He tried his best to convince himself, but then his gaze lowered, and instantly, his scalp went numb, and it felt as if his blood was going the opposite direction.
Silver hair could be seen behind the sofa, and the owner of the hair lay on the floor, unmoving.
Fresh Snow!
“Wang Zikai, you...” Gao Yang blanched, his voice trembling. “What did you do?”
“Gao Yang.” Wang Zikai smiled and retracted his bone claws swiftly. “You came at just the right time. I was just finished with the kill.”
Gao Yang wished that he had heard it wrong, that the red on Wang Zikai’s body was nothing but tomato juice like in those funny commercials.
But he smelt blood. While it didn’t smell human, it was no tomato.
Wang Zikai killed Fresh Snow!
But why? Even if Fresh Snow had left the room instead of listening to me, Wang Zikai would only be surprised, not consider her an enemy.
No, Fresh Snow has been in a strange state lately. Could it be that she lost control and turned into a real ghost, going after Wang Zikai?
Or has Wang Zikai’s monsterhood finally awakened?
Wang Zikai walked up to him with a smile, and Gao Yang immediately backed away.
Wang Zikai paused, noticing Gao Yang’s fear and shock.
He put on a pleasing smile and wiped his bloodied hands on his shirt. “Are you mad, bro? I’m sorry. I promise that next time...”
Gao Yang’s head was a mess. Anger, shock, regret, fear, pain, and a myriad of other emotions rushed to his head. A second later, he tapped into the energy in his body.
Swoosh!
Gao Yang teleported to Wang Zikai and slammed into him. He didn’t want to hurt him, but he had to stop him.
“Whoa!”
Caught completely off guard, Wang Zikai slammed through the window with a yell and fell into the sea.
“Fresh Snow!”
Gao Yang then rushed to the back of the sofa to check if Fresh Snow was still breathing. He had even started to plan in his head how he should bring her back. Within 24 hours of her death, Vermilion Bird would be able to resurrect her! It would be worth a try no matter the price! And if she wouldn’t do it, there was also Fresh Snow’s sister!
Weren’t the Spectres able to bring people back to life? They would have a way.
But how should he go about contacting her sister?
Gao Yang hurriedly helped Fresh Snow up, only to find to his shock that Fresh Snow, having changed into a large, white t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts, didn’t have any blood on her. She was wholly intact.
“Fresh Snow!” Gao Yang called out again.
She opened her eyes by a crack sleepily. “...Gao Yang?”
She giggled, looking a little weak. “You’re back. Hm, when did I fall asleep again?”
What? Fell asleep?!
Gao Yang came to his senses suddenly.
What just happened?!
He picked Fresh Snow up and placed her on the sofa. Then he looked around and rushed to the kitchen, face ashen. Immediately, he caught sight of the unknown fish that was almost a meter long, having been cut open and into pieces.
Realization struck him.
What had happened the past few days left him with an almost pathological paranoia. It didn’t help that he was an overly cautious and imaginative person by nature.
What the hell did you do, Gao Yang?!
“Gao Yang!”
Wang Zikai, drenched from head to toe, swam back from the sea. He kicked the door open and wiped the water off his face, stalking up to Gao Yang angrily. “What the fuck was that...”
He trailed off.
Gao Yang had quickly walked up to a matt on the living room floor and dropped to his knees with a thud.
“Brother Kai! I’m sorry!”
“Huh? Huuuuuh...??”
Wang Zikai gaped at him, his anger suddenly evaporated. He rushed up to Gao Yang and helped him up. “You don’t need to do this, bro, seriously.”
“I made a mistake. I misunderstood. Hit me or curse me, I’ll take it!”
“Geez, bro. It’s not a big deal. I’ll consider that a quick bath to wash off the fishy smell...”
Ten minutes later, in the living room.
Wang Zikai had three pieces of fatty fish skewered on his bone claws, while Gao Yang roasted the fish by conjuring fire with one hand and seasoning the fish with the other hand.
Fresh Snow knelt on the sofa with her arms around her knees, staring at the almost-done fish with her red eyes. “Whoa, it smells good! Gao Yang, can I have a bite?”
“Just one bite,” Gao Yang said.
“Yeah!” She nodded happily. “I’ll open my mouth this big...”
“A small bite,” Gao Yang cut her off.
“Ah.” Fresh Snow was a little disappointed, but quickly broke into a smile. “Fine, I’ll have a small bite.”
While they roasted the fish, Gao Yang heard about what had happened.
Fresh Snow had a good nap throughout the afternoon in the room on the second floor. When she woke up, the sun had already set. She saw the note Gao Yang left her.
But she was practically illiterate.
So she rushed downstairs excitedly, running into Wang Zikai, who had just returned to the hotel.
Wang Zikai was surprised by her sudden appearance, but quickly accepted it when he heard that she had followed them secretly.
The two of them played a fighting game on the sofa for a while. Wang Zikai, again, lost the matches to her, but he refused to admit defeat, and they started arguing.
To prove that he was strong, Wang Zikai somehow started talking about catching fish, and as a cat, Fresh Snow was naturally interested in fish; she asked Wang Zikai to catch her one.
Wang Zikai did. He jumped into the sea and caught a fish in less than ten minutes, and a big one at that.
He returned to the kitchen and cut the fish open with difficulty, getting blood all over himself. When he walked out, Fresh Snow had somehow rolled off the sofa and fallen asleep on the floor behind it.
Wang Zikai was going to wake her, and just when he knelt down, the door opened, and Gao Yang showed up.
That was when Gao Yang conjured a terrible murder entirely in his head and slammed Wang Zikai out of the window with a teleport.
The rest was history. Wang Zikai swam back angrily, but before he could lay in on Gao Yang, Gao Yang had already knelt down out of survival instinct...
A mouthwatering smell came from the fish once it was done.
Wang Zikai cut it into small pieces and placed them on a plate, adding some additional seasoning and the juice of a lemon slice.
He used his bone claws as a fork and had a piece. “Whoa! It’s so good!”
He jumped up and rushed to the kitchen. “I’m getting drinks! It’s gonna be perfect!”
Gao Yang picked up a piece with a fork and handed it to Fresh Snow. “Come on. Have this. But only this.”
“Ah—”
Rather than taking the fork herself, Fresh Snow opened her mouth and waited for Gao Yang to feed her.
He shook his head in resignation, shoving the fish into her mouth.
“Hm...hmm!”
She put her hands on her cheeks, her eyes glinting with content. “So good!”
She quickly swallowed the fish. “Gao Yang! I want more!”
“We agreed on only one bite.” Gao Yang reasoned with her patiently. “You’re a ghost. It’s bad for you to have more.”
“Fine.”
Fresh Snow didn’t argue. She leaned into Gao Yang and nuzzled his arm. “Let’s play, Gao Yang.”
“Okay, but you have to answer my questions first.”
“Go on.”
“Did your sister know you’ve snuck out to come to me?” Gao Yang asked seriously. “I want the truth.”
Fresh Snow wouldn’t meet Gao Yang’s eyes as she shook her head.
“Your sister is gonna be worried when you’re so far away from home.”
“Hmph!” Fresh Snow turned away, fuming.
Gao Yang had a bad feeling about this. “Fresh Snow, did you get into a fight with your sister?”
