Sister

He'd only been away from home for half a year, not fifty years.

His mother in the kitchen had said they'd kept his bedroom for him. So what on earth was going on?

Gao Tian knew his room well. On the bookshelf opposite his bed sat a stack of textbooks for his major and a few comics. His desk held an old desktop computer. There was only an alarm clock by his bed, and a few pairs of shoes underneath it. There certainly hadn't been any flashy decorations like posters.

But now, his bedroom had been completely transformed. The books on the shelf had been replaced by all kinds of My Little Pony and Labubu figurines, sealed behind glass. A pink carpet covered the floor, and all the bedding was pink, too. The chandelier on the ceiling had been replaced with a crystal one. The walls were covered in posters of various celebrities.

This wasn't his bedroom anymore. It had become a girl's bedroom.

Gao Tian slowly backed out of the room, closed the door again, then turned and called toward the rest of the house:

"Have we had any guests over recently?

"Why is my bedroom being used by someone else?"

Water rushed in the kitchen. A moment later, his mother's voice rang out again:

"Which bedroom did you open?"

Gao Tian said:

"The second-to-last room at the end of the hallway."

His father turned down the TV in the living room and called over to him, too:

"You've been gone too long. You went to the wrong room.

"That isn't your bedroom!"

Gao Tian said:

"Dad, are you joking?

"How could I forget where my own bedroom is?"

His father's next words made him feel as if he'd plunged into an icy cavern. He almost wondered whether something was wrong with his own mind.

"That's your sister's bedroom. You forgot?

"Come on out. If she finds out you went into her room without permission, who knows how badly she'll freak out?"

Gao Tian could hear his blood flowing through his veins, and feel every beat and contraction of every organ in his body.

That was his sister's bedroom.

How could that be possible?

Was his memory jumbled, or was there some kind of bug in this world?

Gao Tian had lost control of his throat. Like an onlooker, he listened as his own voice asked:

"Dad.

"Mom.

"When did we get a sister? When did you have another daughter?

"I'm an only child. I'm the only child in this family. There shouldn't be any sister here."

His mother finished washing the vegetables in the kitchen, not taking Gao Tian's words to heart at all. Instead, she said mildly:

"All right, all right. I know you've been under a lot of pressure with your studies lately, but don't joke about this.

"You and your sister have been bickering under this roof for over ten years. And now you're seriously telling me you're an only child? Gao Tian, did your sister ask you for spending money again? Are you trying to pull that 'we're not related anymore' stunt?

"Don't joke about this."

Hearing how calm his parents sounded, Gao Tian began to wonder for a moment if he was the one who was wrong.

Was there really something wrong with his memory? Were his parents joking with him? Or had someone who didn't exist really appeared in the family?

No matter how hard Gao Tian tried to remember, he couldn't find any trace of this so-called "sister" in his memories of growing up.

While Gao Tian was still thinking, the bathroom door slowly opened, and a cloud of steam rolled out. The twin-tailed girl was tall and slender. She casually wore a brown jacket that had originally belonged to Gao Tian, and walked out barefoot, her feet dripping wet.

"First thing in the morning, and I can already hear my brother shouting and carrying on outside.

"Hey, why did you suddenly come back from the place you're renting? Have you changed your mind about retaking the exam? Or have you finally stopped caring that I play games late at night and keep you from studying?"

Looking at the girl's face, the way she addressed him, and her familiar tone, she had to be his "sister."

But Gao Tian still couldn't remember her. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find the slightest trace of that face anywhere in his life.

As his "sister" walked toward him, Gao Tian, standing where he was, instead grew calm. He slowly spoke:

"I understand now."

The twin-tailed girl looked curious.

"What do you understand?"

Gao Tian said:

"You're a ghost. This is a ghost's illusion.

"I just escaped a hunt, and now I've fallen into a new illusion."

If this mysterious girl, who had suddenly appeared in his home and altered his parents' memories, was a ghost, then everything made sense.

Different ghosts had different killing rules. This ghost might have the ability to hypnotize his parents. The next step would be to hypnotize him.

Gao Tian wasn't as panicked as he had been when he first encountered Shattered Face. Now, he had an urn that contained the Shattered Face Ghost, and he had also gained the ghost's ability.

As long as Gao Tian met his "sister's" gaze five times, the urn could copy her killing rule and turn it against her.

Perhaps exposing "her" true identity right away wasn't the wisest choice. Gao Tian would be better off pretending he knew nothing, and stalling in front of this nonexistent "sister" as long as possible, until the Shattered Face Ghost's ability seized her killing rule.

Twin-tailed Sister let out a long sigh.

Being called a "ghost" clearly upset her, but she seemed used to it. This wasn't the first time her big brother had insulted her like this.

The girl called toward the living room:

"Dad! Mom! Did you hear that? Big Brother's picking on me again.

"Why am I always the first one he forgets? Do you think he does it on purpose?"

Their father was still watching the soccer match in the living room. To him, this was just a brother and sister squabbling, nowhere near as important as the goal on the screen.

"No matter what illness he has, he's still your brother.

"Sorry for the trouble, but could you take him to his bedroom and show him around? Maybe it'll help him remember."

After getting nowhere with their parents in the living room, Twin-tailed Sister slowly turned around and sniffed. She sounded a little impatient.

"All right, all right. I get it.

"Come with me, Big Brother."

Without waiting to see whether Gao Tian agreed, she walked right past him. (He hurriedly dodged, thinking the ghost was about to start killing.) Then she headed down the hallway.

Gao Tian stared at her back, steam still rising from it.

"Where are you going?"

His sister stopped at the second-to-last room and turned around. She looked at Gao Tian, who was still standing where he was, with a helpless expression.

"I'm taking you to your bedroom. There are lots of familiar things in there, as well as the logs you wrote yourself while you were suffering from memory loss. Maybe they'll help you recover your memories."

Gao Tian insisted:

"My bedroom is in the second-to-last room.

"I don't know why it's become your bedroom now. Even though you've left traces all over the house, I'm sure there has never been any so-called 'sister' in our family.

"You changed Mom and Dad's memories, but you haven't had time to change mine."

His sister let out a long sigh and gazed up at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle, looking deeply melancholy.

She pointed at her head.

"Big Brother, there's something seriously wrong with your brain. It's getting worse."

Gao Tian said:

"You're not our family.

"Who are you, really?"

The twin-tailed girl said:

"My name's Gao Xi. I'm the sister of you, a moron with Intermittent Memory Disorder.

"From childhood onward, you had excellent grades. You were always one of the top ten students in school. But around three years ago, maybe because of all the pressure from your studies, you started forgetting a lot of important things.

"One moment, you'd ask who Mom was. The next, you'd say Dad wasn't part of our family. Now it's finally my turn. In short, you often forget that one of our family members even exists.

"And I feel like your condition is getting worse. This has happened before, but a few simple reminders were enough to help you remember again. This time is different. You've never talked such nonsense before, or called me a ghost."

Gao Tian looked at the girl who called herself "Gao Xi" and silently noted that this was the second time their eyes had met.

He'd soon know whether she was a ghost or not. Once they'd met eyes five times, no matter what this girl was, he would take her abilities, memories, and everything else.

The Shattered Face Ghost's ability was incredibly overpowered—as long as he didn't give it the chance to activate.

Seeing Big Brother standing at the other end of the hallway, still looking as if he didn't believe her, Gao Xi had no choice but to open the bedroom at the end of the hall, which hadn't been lived in for half a year. She showed it to him as she continued:

"Look, Big Brother. Look at all the Three-Good Student certificates and awards covering your walls. This is your real bedroom.

"Have you never wondered why someone as brilliant as you, who'd always attended top schools since childhood, failed the Gaokao and had to rent a place to retake it?

"And if you were retaking the exam, why couldn't you stay at home?

"None of this makes any sense. Didn't you ever think something was wrong?

"The truth is simple. You have a rare condition called Intermittent Memory Disorder. You were under so much stress when you took the exam that, for a moment, you forgot you were in high school and thought you were still in middle school. That's why you failed your first Gaokao.

"The doctor suggested you take some time to rest and not put too much pressure on yourself. That might help ease your condition. But you couldn't accept it. You weren't willing to give up on your prestigious university letter when it was so close. So you insisted on moving out and renting a place by yourself to retake the exam.

"Mom and I often visited you at the place you were staying, too. But now you've forgotten all of that. This happens several times a month. I'm already used to it."

She gestured for Gao Tian to go into the last room and take a look.

"If you still don't believe me, come see the bedroom you really lived in. Maybe seeing some familiar things will help you remember.

"There's also a journal here. Every time you regain your memories after an episode, you write down exactly what happened, to warn your future self.

"Come take a look. You can at least recognize your own handwriting, right?"