As I walked through the doorway, my mind reeling from the night's impossible accumulation of secrets and threats, I found her sitting on the edge of the bed, her eyes fixed on mine, and I asked with a voice that betrayed my mounting exhaustion, "Big sister, it's late. Is there truly something so urgent that you couldn't wait until dawn to discuss it?"
I couldn't help but press the question burning in my chest, asking whether there wasn't a more pressing reason for her to be here at such an ungodly hour, my voice laced with a defensiveness I couldn't quite suppress. I felt like I was walking on eggshells, but she simply cut me off with a sharp, imperious wave of her hand, gesturing toward the empty space on the bed beside her with a silent command that brooked no argument.
I sat down, feeling the heavy, suffocating weight of her gaze settle upon me, and she began to dissect my recent behavior, the wicked deeds and the coarse, improper language I had directed toward her, her face fixed in a mask of skin-deep smiles that didn't reach her eyes, a look so unnervingly hollow that it sent a shiver straight down my spine.
My mind raced, clawing for a justification that wouldn't invite further catastrophe. Should I tell her the truth, that I was a displaced soul in a new body, struggling to make sense of a reality that felt like a fever dream, and that my skepticism toward her affection was merely a symptom of my own existential confusion? No, that was impossible.
So I pivoted, settling on the only shield I had left. "It was all just a joke, big sister. I was just teasing you, nothing more."
The moment the words left my lips, her expression collapsed into a mask of wounded betrayal, her eyes glistening with sudden, sharp moisture as she demanded to know if everything, all my professions of affection, had been a lie. The sheer, palpable pain radiating from her forced me to backpedal with frantic, desperate energy.
I swore to her that my feelings were genuine, but when she countered by pinning me with the question of whether I merely coveted her body, my reflex to label that as a joke as well proved to be a catastrophic tactical error. Her face hardened again, a dangerous, dark cloud passing over her features as she challenged my taste. Was her figure not pleasing? Was her beauty insufficient? Did she somehow resemble a man in my eyes?
Beneath the bed, the atmosphere grew suffocating as the hidden sisters listened, their hearts pounding in rhythm with the explosive, life-altering revelations being laid bare above them, wondering if this was the opening they had all been waiting for.
I scrambled to rectify the situation, pouring on the praise, telling her she was beautiful enough to be a celestial maiden, and that marrying her would be the ultimate fortune, a sentiment that brought a flush of crimson to her cheeks. But then I made the fatal mistake of adding that I viewed her strictly as the respected eldest sister, an untouchable familial figure, and that I could never entertain improper thoughts toward someone I held in such high regard.
The light in her eyes died instantly, replaced by a dark, shimmering intensity as she let out a broken, tearful protest that it wasn't enough. That being just a sister was an intolerable conclusion.
Before I could process the sudden shift in gravity, she surged forward with terrifying, feral strength, pinning me flat against the mattress in one fluid, overwhelming motion. I felt a jolt of ice-cold dread as I saw a flicker of something truly, frighteningly unhinged, something green and predatory glowing in her eyes, and I found myself pinned beneath her, utterly unable to move despite my own physical training, wondering if I had somehow misjudged the core of the woman I called sister.
Then, with a sudden, violent claim on the space between us, she crashed her lips against mine, her tongue forcing its way past my defenses in a kiss that tasted of obsession and raw, unbridled desperation. She moved with a manic, rhythmic hunger, drinking in the very air I breathed until the metallic tang of blood bloomed in my mouth, and in a state of sheer, survival-driven panic, I found a wellspring of strength I didn't know I possessed, shoving her away with such force that she stumbled back, gasping for air.
"Big sister, what on earth are you doing?" I barked, my voice cracking with the indignity and the genuine fear of our fractured dynamic.
And as if a veil had been ripped from her eyes, she snapped back to a semblance of reality, her hands trembling as she witnessed the unmistakable, raw terror etched onto my face, her voice dissolving into a frantic, disjointed litany of apologies for a madness she couldn't seem to fully control.
I realized with a heavy heart that the boundary had been irreparably crossed, the air thick with the suffocating residue of our confrontation, so I mustered the resolve to keep my voice steady as I told my eldest sister that we would simply act as if this night had never happened, demanding she leave before the situation devolved further.
Sensing that the manic fog had lifted from her eyes, I didn't have the stomach to lash out, and though Du Qian stood frozen, her teeth sinking into her lower lip as if trying to physically suppress the turbulence within, she finally surrendered to the weight of my command and retreated toward the door with an agonizing, silent reluctance.
The moment the latch clicked into place, sealing the room in a sudden, tomb-like solitude, a violent, high-frequency jolt ripped through my skull, as if a live wire had been thrust directly into my brain, and the world dissolved into a hollow, consuming darkness before I slumped onto the mattress in a state of total collapse.
No sooner had the door shut than the floorboards creaked under the weight of three desperate souls — Du Lamei, Du Lizhi and Du Zi Yuan — who spilled out from their cramped confinement, their faces masks of confusion and lingering anxiety. They had barely begun to interrogate the stillness of the room when they discovered my limp, unresponsive form on the bed, and the panic was instantaneous.
Du Lizhi lunged forward, gripping my hand and shaking it with frantic energy, begging me not to die, while Du Zi Yuan threw herself across my chest, her sobs echoing in the confined space. Du Lamei shoved Zi Yuan aside with a sharp, authoritative command to clear the way, her fingers pressing firmly against my wrist to check my pulse, and after an eternity of silence, she let out a long, shuddering breath of relief, assuring them that I had merely fallen into an unnatural slumber, though she immediately used the emergency as a calculated pretext to claim the right to watch over me.
The sisters instantly descended into a petty, territorial dispute over who had the most legitimate right to spend the night guarding my bedside, each claiming to be the best sister, but Lamei ultimately won by feigning a clinical necessity to monitor my vitals, promptly curling up on my left side and pulling the quilt over her head with an air of smug victory. Zi Yuan, never one to be outmaneuvered, secured the right side, forcing a disgruntled Lizhi to settle for the space beside Lamei, and as they inhaled the lingering, singular scent that clung to my sheets, the exhaustion of the night finally claimed them, and they drifted into deep, rhythmic sleep.
I, however, suddenly snapped into a state of semi-consciousness, my eyes flickering open to reveal a strange, haunting blue luminescence pulsating within my pupils, and I stared at the ceiling in a daze, struggling to recall how I had succumbed to such a sudden, catatonic drop.