After leaving Zhao Yan's shop, Wu Jiahui hurried home.
When she woke up, she found herself by a pool of water.
She didn't understand why she was there.
All she remembered was that it was raining heavily, and she had specially bought a pound of pork ribs to stew soup for her sister.
She had lived with her sister since they were young. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was seven while on a delivery.
Their relatives treated them like pariahs, only her uncle kindly took them in.
But her uncle also had children and his own family.
Her uncle had argued with his wife countless times because of them.
There were even times when divorce was mentioned.
She didn't want to burden her uncle, so she stopped studying after high school and came to Jiangcheng City to work.
Although she was only two years older than her sister, she wanted her sister to fulfill her dream of going to college, a dream she couldn't achieve.
She worked as a delivery person. This job was physically demanding. Sometimes, customers lived in older districts without elevators, and she had to carry refrigerators upstairs.
It was very hard work, but the pay was good.
She had something important to tell her sister, but she couldn't recall what it was.
A sense of inexplicable panic filled her, as if something was chasing her.
With the rain getting heavier, she had to run into a shop to take shelter.
It was strange, some shops were very close to her, but that particular shop seemed to have a certain magic that drew her in.
The shop owner was a beautiful young lady. She would thank her properly next time they met.
Wu Jiahui ran to her doorstep and patted her forehead in annoyance, realizing she had probably left her keys inside again.
She couldn't remember how many times this had happened.
She hadn't brought her phone either, so she had to wait for her sister to come home.
She couldn't help but shiver. Her clothes were soaked, and she had to adjust them from time to time to prevent them from clinging to her body.
Wu Jiahui sat on the stairs for several hours, listening to footsteps in the hallway.
She leaned sideways to look down the hallway and her face lit up; her sister had returned.
Seeing Wu Jiaxin getting closer, Wu Jiahui stood up and mumbled, "Hurry up and open the door, I need to change. I've been sitting here for hours, I'm freezing to death."
Wu Jiahui stood to Wu Jiaxin's left and saw her sister with a glum expression, looking very unhappy.
She seemed to have lost her soul, listlessly opening her bag and taking out the keys.
"Heartbreak?" Wu Jiahui asked softly.
Seeing Wu Jiaxin ignore her, she raised her voice slightly, "What's wrong with you! Your sister is a drowned rat, and you don't even care about her."
"If you don't care, fine, but treating me like air and not seeing me is too much!"
Wu Jiaxin inserted the key into the lock, opened the door, and walked inside.
She kicked the door shut with her foot.
Wu Jiahui quickly dodged aside, almost getting hit by the closing door.
She felt speechless, wondering what was wrong with her sister today.
She was also getting a little angry.
"If you keep giving me the cold shoulder, your living expenses will be halved!" Wu Jiahui huffed.
This was her trump card. Usually, Wu Jiaxin would become much more subdued when she used it.
But this trump card was ineffective today.
Wu Jiaxin walked into the room in a daze, pushed open the door, and collapsed onto the bed, her body devoid of strength.
She stared blankly at the ceiling.
Her sister was dead.
When she heard the news while staying at the dormitory, she was stunned. In that instant, she felt all her strength drain away.
Her heart was pierced fiercely. That day, her stomach pain flared up. The pain in her stomach, combined with the pain in her heart, made her feel like she was dying.
She didn't even have the courage to go to the funeral home to see her sister's body.
She opened her bag and took out a photograph.
The moment she took out her sister's photo, she couldn't hold back anymore.
"Sister."
Wu Jiaxin clutched the photo tightly, curled herself up, and pressed her face against the picture.
She sobbed uncontrollably, her body convulsing. Her sister was gone.
The last person who loved her was gone.
Her world had collapsed.
Seeing her sister crying so hard, Wu Jiahui felt an inexplicable panic.
"Don't cry, sister. I was just joking. I won't cut your living expenses," Wu Jiahui patted Wu Jiaxin's back.
As she patted, she realized her hand passed through Wu Jiaxin.
Wu Jiahui was so startled that her face filled with fear, and she retreated backward.
She looked at her hand in utter terror.
She saw a black and white photo of herself on the table, with an incense burner in front of it.
Wu Jiahui stood up in a panic and went to the table, looking at her black and white photo.
She looked to her left and saw a mirror, but she was no longer in the mirror.
"Ah!"
She clutched her chest tightly.
She realized she was dead.
But how had she died? Why couldn't she recall any memory of her death?
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember.
She now understood why her sister couldn't see her and ignored her words.
"Don't cry, sister."
Wu Jiahui walked over and leaned by the bed, wanting to wipe away her sister's tears, but she could only fret helplessly.
Watching Wu Jiaxin cry for over half an hour, Wu Jiahui felt heartbroken. She walked to the table, wanting to prepare a good meal for her sister.
She couldn't even turn on the basic induction cooker.
Wanting to make her sister notice her presence, she started walking back and forth in front of Wu Jiaxin.
She found it was useless.
Seeing Wu Jiaxin cry herself to sleep, Wu Jiahui kept thinking about how she had died.
What was the urgent thing she wanted to tell her sister?
She sat on the bed.
As she thought, she suddenly noticed something: there were faint traces of dirt on the floor.
Then she looked at Wu Jiaxin's shoe soles. There was no dirt on them.
Following the trail of dirt residue, Wu Jiahui slowly discovered that the dirt residue disappeared at the foot of the bed.
She looked down under the bed.
She was suddenly startled and recoiled backward.
A man in black clothes was crouching under the bed.
He wore a black sports cap and was dressed entirely in black.
Suddenly, he turned his head. He was wearing a mask, so Wu Jiahui couldn't see his face.
However, looking at his eyes, they seemed to be anticipating something.
As she looked further, Wu Jiahui suddenly understood.
That day, after she finished work, she was stewing soup at home.
Because the soup took a long time to cook, she went back to bed and played on her phone.
She was scrolling through short videos, watching a blogger dubbing for dogs.
Just like today, she had started noticing dirt residue on the floor.
She thought it was from her own shoe soles and started sweeping it with a broom. As she swept towards the edge of the bed, she saw a pair of hands quickly retract under the bed.
She suddenly realized someone had entered the house.
She pretended to be calm, as if nothing had happened. She wanted to call the police but thought of her sister.
At that moment, her sister should have been on her way home from school.
She remembered. The one thing she wanted to tell her sister was not to come home.