The Extra Little Sister

Lu Yuan walked cautiously out of the school gates.

After taking three steps, he grew bolder again.

It's not as bad as Ma Jin made it sound, he thought.

Although he hadn't been reborn into the world he knew, this wasn't the primordial world, either. No mighty expert would suddenly descend from the heavens and crush him for no reason, like an ant.

The cultivator named Ji Yin had seemed easy enough to talk to. Someone who could remember his high school homeroom teacher couldn't be all that bad.

Surviving in this world shouldn't be much of a problem.

I'll learn about this world first, then decide what to do.

Lu Yuan searched his pockets. His phone was still there. He was in luck.

He found a bench by the roadside, crushed an ant crawling across it, and plopped down. He opened his phone's browser, thought for a moment, typed in "cultivator," and hit search.

More than an hour later, Lu Yuan sighed and stood up. He now had a general idea of what this world was like.

This wasn't Earth at all, but a grotto-heaven world called the Divine Land. The year was already 3187 AD.

In 2039 AD, humanity had abandoned Earth because of environmental pollution and climate change.

Led by cultivators, humanity had taken refuge in the Divine Land grotto-heaven and drifted through the universe for hundreds of years. At last, they had settled here.

Outside the Divine Land's small world was a greater world called the Heavenly Yu Empire. The Divine Land was part of the Heavenly Yu Empire, and the two had many official exchanges.

The Divine Land had no government. Instead, an organization jointly established by cultivators oversaw its administration. Its full name was the Hua Ethnic Group Cultivators' Joint Council, or the Cultivators' Federation for short.

Cultivators were the ruling class of this world, possessing power, wealth, and social standing.

Anyone could become a cultivator. All they had to do was gain admission to a cultivator university and graduate successfully, and they could join the ranks of cultivators.

All of this was public information on the internet.

Some of Lu Yuan's questions had been answered, but even greater ones followed.

Before his rebirth, it had been 2033 AD, not far from 2039. Earth had indeed faced problems such as environmental pollution and climate change, but they had been nowhere near severe enough to warrant abandoning the planet.

Besides, the world he had lived in was a world of technology. Cultivators simply didn't exist! If humanity wanted to escape Earth, they would surely build spaceships, not hide in some so-called "grotto-heaven world."

Does that mean I wasn't reborn, but transmigrated into the future, more than a thousand years later?

Absolutely not!

His classmates and teachers hadn't changed. Though his memories were hazy, Lu Yuan was certain this was his high school.

Could there be another me more than a thousand years in the future, attending the same high school, with the same classmates, and even using the same model of phone?

That's... ridiculous!

Endless confusion surrounded Lu Yuan. He wanted to keep searching for information about this world on his phone, but as he dug deeper, a warning kept appearing:

[In accordance with the Cultivator Confidentiality Principle, information on this entry will not be made public]

The Cultivator Confidentiality Principle? What's that?

What exactly happened in 2039?

When did cultivators first appear?

There were other countries on Earth besides the Hua people. Where did their people go?

And if this isn't Earth, what's with the sun in the sky?

There wasn't a word about any of these questions online. Every answer led back to the Cultivator Confidentiality Principle.

It seemed that only by becoming a cultivator would he be qualified to find the answers.

"It's getting late. I should go home first..."

Muttering to himself, Lu Yuan set off for home as dusk filled the sky.

As he walked, his steps gradually grew hesitant.

Are Mom and Dad still here?

He didn't dare think too deeply about it.

His parents were the greatest pain in Lu Yuan's heart.

In his previous life, his mother, Xu Yongmei, had died of advanced lymphoma before Lu Yuan's college entrance exam.

The blow had badly affected his performance on the exam. Though his grades had originally been good, in the end he hadn't even gotten into college.

His father, Lu Wenkai, had suffered one blow after another and spent his days in gloom. One rainy night a year later, he had died in a car accident.

From then on, Lu Yuan had been all alone, tasting every bitterness the world had to offer.

At the entrance to Huating Residential Compound.

Lu Yuan lifted his eyes to the sky and prayed silently:

Heavens, you've given me another life. I, Lu Yuan, ask for neither glory nor riches, only that my parents be healthy and live to a hundred!

For someone reborn, it was a modest goal, but it meant a great deal to Lu Yuan.

Following the familiar road, Lu Yuan reached the building where his family lived. Their apartment was on the third floor, and the window was lit.

The light reassured him a little. At least someone was home.

He climbed to the third floor and unlocked the door.

His father, Lu Wenkai, was sitting at the dining table, waiting.

When Lu Wenkai saw Lu Yuan, he scolded him:

"You're home much too late today!"

Lu Yuan's throat choked up, and he couldn't speak. He put down his schoolbag, walked over, and embraced his father, his shoulders trembling.

He remembered that rainy night, when he had tidied his father's appearance at the morgue.

He had thought they were parted forever, never expecting to see him again. No joy in this world could surpass this.

Lu Wenkai had no way of knowing how moved his son was. Utterly bewildered, he thought Lu Yuan had suffered some terrible injustice at school.

"Dabao, what happened?"

Dabao was Lu Yuan's childhood nickname, one only his parents used.

Lu Yuan didn't answer. He just wiped his eyes and smiled at his father.

"Bro, what's wrong?"

A girl came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of rice, her oversized slippers going slap-slap.

Lu Yuan's eyes widened.

Who is this?!

The girl before him looked about fourteen or fifteen. She wore cartoon pajamas and was petite and sweet-looking, with a short ponytail in front of her ear tied with a pale purple hair ribbon. She was a little cute.

When Lu Yuan didn't answer, the girl tilted her head and stared at him in puzzlement for quite a while before setting the rice and chopsticks in front of him.

"I reheated the rice. Go ahead and eat."

After saying that, the girl went to the kitchen and served herself a bowl of rice too. She sat down beside Lu Yuan and began gobbling it up.

Lu Yuan picked up his chopsticks without betraying a thing.

She called me "bro."

But I'm an only child. I don't have a little sister!

That wasn't the only strange thing.

The strangest thing was that the girl looked very familiar to him.

Lu Yuan was certain he had seen her more than once.

But he couldn't remember where at all.

After a few bites, Lu Wenkai, his mind weighed down with worries, suddenly spoke.

"The Dragon Boat Festival is in a few days. I'm going to the hospital tomorrow to stay with your mom and spend the festival with her. While I'm away these next few days, Xiao Bing, look after your brother. He's preparing for his exams."

The girl's name was Xiao Bing.

She nodded obediently. "Got it, Dad. Don't worry, leave big bro to me!"

Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

He remembered this.

On the eve of the college entrance exam, his mother had been in the hospital. His father had gone to stay with her for a while, just as he was doing now.

His rebirth hadn't changed this.

And he knew very well that if he didn't do something, his mother would die despite treatment half a month from now, not long after the Dragon Boat Festival.

But his mother did have a sliver of hope.

At the time, there had been a new cellular immunotherapy that stood a good chance of saving her life.

But the treatment required a great deal of money.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan asked, "How much will Mom's treatment cost?"

Lu Wenkai glanced at his son.

"You're preparing for your exams. Focus on getting ready for the college entrance exam. You don't need to worry about the money."

"She's my mom. I have to know." Lu Yuan was firm. "How much does it cost altogether?"

Xiao Bing, who had been shoveling down her rice with her head lowered, looked up in surprise. She had never seen her brother speak to their father like that.

Bro seems off somehow today. He's been acting strange ever since he came in, she thought, puzzled.

Lu Wenkai hadn't expected his son to be so firm either. After hesitating for a moment, he gave him a figure:

"One and a half million. I'll find a way."

That matches, Lu Yuan thought. He remembered the treatment costing one and a half million.

He knew that to raise the money, his father had sold their current apartment and borrowed from relatives and friends.

But he still hadn't managed to raise enough in the end.

His parents were ordinary workers. The earlier treatments had already drained their savings, and they couldn't scrape together that sum.

Dinner came to an end.

Xiao Bing swiftly gathered the bowls and chopsticks and carried them to the sink to wash. Lu Yuan picked up his schoolbag and went back to his room, only to discover in surprise that the familiar room had been divided in two.

The space had once been reasonably roomy, but with half of it gone, it felt cramped.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then understood.

Their apartment was small, with only two bedrooms. His parents had one, and Lu Yuan had the other. Now, for some reason, he had an extra little sister, so they could only give her half of Lu Yuan's room.

If he had a little brother, they could have shared a bed. But his sister was already this old, so that was out of the question.

Lu Yuan tossed his schoolbag aside, looking at neither his books nor the application form. He lay on his back on the bed, hands pillowed beneath his head, staring at the ceiling as he thought about his mother's treatment costs.

Back then, he had been a naive high school student, and one and a half million had been a hopelessly astronomical sum.

Now, one and a half million was still an astronomical sum. Even for someone reborn, earning that much in a few days would be difficult.

But Lu Yuan wasn't despairing. He was no longer the youth he had been.

There was always a way. He could borrow from his classmates, or make videos and post them on social media, telling a pitiful story to raise money. As long as he could put aside his pointless pride, he could scrape together something. Even if he couldn't raise one and a half million, a few hundred thousand would still help. Back then, his father had only been short by a few hundred thousand.

Having made up his mind, Lu Yuan considered something else: his little sister Xiao Bing was very strange.

He was an only child and had no sister. Lu Yuan was certain of that.

But why did she look so familiar? Where had he seen her?

Could it be that my parents had a daughter before and gave her to someone else to raise?

That's impossible. I never heard them mention it...

Wait!

As though struck by lightning, Lu Yuan sprang up from the bed.

Maybe I really did have a little sister!

It had happened when Lu Yuan was young. Once, he had overheard his parents talking about how they had planned to have a second child.

His mother had been five months pregnant at the time, but because policy didn't permit it, she had ultimately gone to the hospital to have labor induced.

That wasn't all.

When Lu Yuan was very young, he had often had the same dream.

In the dream, a little girl who kept crying fell and fell into a bottomless abyss.

She reached out both hands to Lu Yuan, as though begging him to catch her.

Lu Yuan reached out both hands to her, but all he grasped was emptiness.

He hadn't understood what it meant as a child, so he had told his mother about the dream. He remembered that she had cried for a long time.

After he grew a little older, the dream stopped coming, and Lu Yuan gradually forgot it.

Thinking back now, no wonder he had felt as though he had seen Xiao Bing somewhere before. She looked exactly like the little girl in the dream.

"My god!" Lu Yuan's whole body went rigid with shock. He felt he had found the answer.

Because this world had no such policy, Xiao Bing had been born safely and grown up alongside him.

She really was his biological sister!

Fate was so strange!

Just then, the door to the room was pushed open, and Xiao Bing slipped inside.