The Liar

Two rows of arcade cabinets stood against the walls of the cramped basement, their screens endlessly replaying brightly colored promotional animations that cast the dim space in camouflage-like fluorescent hues.

Above the row of arcade cabinets, an old ceiling fan creaked as it turned.

The first dim yellow rays of morning sunlight filtered through the white blinds and fell over Silver Wolf's somewhat messy silver-gray hair. She rolled over and buried her face in the Hoom plushie Bai Heng had won at a gaming tournament.

But no matter how unwilling she was to accept it, the alarm still rang as usual.

She had set the theme song from her favorite game, "War Wheel 32," as her alarm tone. But after having her dreams disrupted by it over and over, Silver Wolf had come to dread hearing that music.

She impatiently reached out and smacked the alarm silent, then threw off the gray cashmere blanket covering her. The rabbit-eared hood of her black pajamas drooped over her forehead.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and pushed back the hood, revealing her fluffy long hair. Her vision gradually cleared as well.

She looked at the alarm clock:

"Six... six o'clock... 7:15!?"

After steadying herself, Silver Wolf snapped out of her daze, her voice trembling.

"Why is it so late... Bro! Bro? Where did he run off to this time?"

As she looked around for Bai Heng, Silver Wolf pulled on the short white socks that went with her school uniform and changed into the neatly folded black uniform she had prepared in advance.

She found a hair tie in the cabinet beside the game machines, gathered her messy long hair behind her head, and tied it into a neat single-loop ponytail.

Once she had hurriedly finished getting ready, Silver Wolf pulled open the rust-speckled rolling shutter of the basement and went up to the fast-food restaurant on the first floor.

The restaurant had not opened yet at this hour, and its front doors were still shut. Silver Wolf had assumed Bai Heng would be downstairs preparing the ingredients for the day's business.

But after looking all around, she still found no sign of Bai Heng. All she found was hot milk still turning in the warmer, along with toast and hot dog buns, and a note that read: "Don't keep forgetting to eat."

"So naggy... Hmm, did he go out this early?"

Puzzled, Silver Wolf took two sips of the rich milk, then clamped the toast between her teeth and hurried off to catch the school bus.

Her daily trip to school was as boring as ever: listening to music on her portable player on the bus, then listening to her teacher's spittle-flecked lectures at school...

The only difference was that some classmates wished her a happy birthday.

Only then did Silver Wolf remember that today was her birthday.

After school, Silver Wolf took her birthday gifts and immediately caught the bus home.

Compared with throwing some boring birthday party, she was more excited for Bai Heng to let her try the newest game in the "War Wheel" series. Of course, she was also looking forward to whatever birthday present Bai Heng had prepared for her.

Five in the afternoon.

Silver Wolf pushed open the glass door of the fast-food restaurant. The place was packed with customers.

Quite a few of them were longtime regulars who knew it was Silver Wolf's birthday and had specifically prepared presents for her.

Even the restaurant's decorations had a bit more of a birthday atmosphere compared to how deserted it had been that morning.

After thanking everyone for their gifts one by one, Silver Wolf headed into the kitchen, hoping to find Bai Heng. Instead, all she saw was Windsor, the busy lady of the house.

"He isn't here either... Sister Windsor, where's my brother?"

"He..." Windsor looked at the excited Silver Wolf and seemed a little awkward, as if she did not know how to begin.

Seeing this, Silver Wolf suddenly understood.

"Oh, I get it. He's preparing some kind of surprise, right? Sister Windsor, you don't have to tell me. Let Silver Wolf solve the mystery herself."

As if her playful side had been stirred, she excitedly blinked her gray eyes and skipped down the stairs to the basement.

But strangely, there was not a single player in the basement today. It was as if it had not opened to the public at all.

Could this be part of the mystery too?

Thinking that, Silver Wolf began searching the basement.

Before long, however, Silver Wolf found a paper gift bag and a stack of cards in the most conspicuous spot in the basement.

For a game, how could the real reward possibly be placed somewhere so obvious?

So she did not have high expectations for the paper bag on the table.

Yet when she casually opened it, she found something inside—an Aetherium Chip she had longed for for so long.

"A fake? A bootleg? It looks pretty convincing."

That was Silver Wolf's first reaction after recovering from her surprise. She reached out with her little hand and pinched the chip between two slender fingers, about to inspect it closely.

Footsteps sounded behind her. Silver Wolf turned her head and glimpsed Sister Windsor approaching. Thinking things might be too busy upstairs, she set the chip down and said,

"Sister Windsor, is it too busy upstairs? I'll go help right away."

"No, Silver Wolf, wait a moment." Windsor forced out a stiff smile and spoke gently.

"What is it?"

Silver Wolf sensed that something was strange about the atmosphere and blinked.

As if she had fully prepared herself, Windsor stepped forward, bent down, and placed a hand on Silver Wolf's soft silver-gray hair. She said quietly,

"Silver Wolf, White Fox has left... That doesn't mean he abandoned you. It's just that he... well, he has things he needs to do, so he asked me to look after you for a while."

Windsor was not very good at putting her thoughts into words, and it took her quite a while to make herself clear.

But Silver Wolf still understood what Windsor meant. She stood there blankly, her voice very low.

"Brother left? He went... somewhere else?"

"Mm." Windsor had finally managed to say it, and her expression relaxed somewhat.

"How long?" Silver Wolf asked quietly.

Windsor shook her head, bit her lip, and said,

"He didn't say when he left... It could be a long time."

After an unknown stretch of silence, Silver Wolf finally nodded, like a sensible child trying to understand.

The cramped basement felt somewhat stifling. The fan overhead kept turning, making that unpleasant strange noise.

Neither of them spoke. Silver Wolf silently turned around and noticed the cards on the table.

She reached out and picked up the top one. A line of small words had been written on it in black ink:

"Happy tenth birthday, Brownie. Sorry I left so suddenly. The convoy's departure time was set for this morning, so I couldn't spend your birthday with you. I'll make it up to you someday. Also, that chip isn't fake or a bootleg. It's the Aetherium Chip you've been dreaming about, your birthday present. Make sure you keep it safe."

After reading the note, Silver Wolf moved the birthday card to the bottom of the stack. But as she prepared to look through the remaining birthday cards, three photographs unexpectedly slipped out from the folded card.

Silver Wolf pressed her fingers against the photographs. They were three group pictures.

The first was of that cozy little nest in the truck, built from all sorts of clutter and cardboard boxes. She was hugging her brother around the neck, her face filthy as if she had just finished rummaging through trash cans, while her brother looked utterly disgusted with her.

The second was at a church in the slums. After receiving their relief meal, a church worker had taken a picture of them holding their food to promote the charity. But she had only been five then, and she had timidly hidden behind her brother the whole time, clutching his shirt hem like a little radish sprout poking out of the soil.

The third was in this cramped yet warm basement. There was no longer the truck's endless jolting, nor cold rain drifting in from outside the church. They were gathered around an arcade cabinet, whose colorful screen showed the moment she had first scored higher than her brother in "Interstellar Cheetah." She had suggested taking a picture to commemorate it, and had even kept the cat ears from the sticker overlay when it was printed...

Staring blankly at the three photographs, Silver Wolf suddenly muttered in a hoarse voice,

"Liar... liar... li... ar..."

She had no parents. Ever since she was born, she had stayed by Bai Heng's side, holding his hand as they traveled through so many places... the snowy plains of the Great Wilderness, the ruins of Scrap Mountain, and this city with no visible borders, like an island in a sea of mist.

She seemed to have grown used to the days with Bai Heng by her side—used to slipping her hands into his pockets when she was cold, riding on his shoulders when she could not walk anymore, breaking bread apart during meals and handing half to him...

But now, he had left by himself.

Windsor silently watched the small child before her. Unable to bear it, she stepped forward and gently wrapped Silver Wolf in her arms.

That gesture finally broke the dam behind Silver Wolf's slightly reddened eyes. Scalding tears rolled down from the corners of her nose, falling one after another like snapped threads and soaking the photographs clutched tightly in her hands.