My Brother Has Been Following Me Since His Death
CHAPTER 1:
1.
In front of the mirror, I trembled uncontrollably, my whole body shaking.
The invitation to my classmate's birthday party lay torn to shreds.
In the mirror, a boy with a face identical to mine stood behind me, pressed close against my back. He was viciously strangling me, whispering in my ear:
“Xia Yuan, made a new friend?”
“You can't!”
“You promised you wouldn't leave your brother, that you'd always be together!”
His breath was icy, raising goosebumps all over me. His tone was resentful and unnervingly sinister.
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to ignore the suffocating chill.
“Xia Shang, you're not real.”
“Not real.”
“The doctor said if I take my medicine, I won't see you…”
I trembled, pulling out my pill bottle.
My hand shook uncontrollably, scattering the white pills across the floor.
Xia Shang watched me with a sneer, letting out a derisive laugh. He maliciously shattered the mirror in front of me, letting the shards cut me until I was covered in wounds.
“Ha... not real?”
Crimson blood flowed from my wounds, dripping onto the white tiles.
Behind me, my sister Xia Xi screamed.
“Xia Yuan, are you crazy? Do you think this will get Mom and Dad's attention?”
Ignoring her harsh words, I turned and grabbed her hand tightly, sobbing.
“Sister, brother is here, save me, save me…”
Xia Xi slapped me.
“What are you doing? Do you think by pretending Xia Shang is still here, Mom and Dad will forgive you for killing him?”
“If it weren't for you, Dad wouldn't have had another son with that woman.”
“Now that woman and her son are here, forcing Mom to step down, we're about to lose everything. Are you happy?”
My face paled, not because Xia Xi hit me, but because she was about to get hurt.
Sure enough, the next second I saw her fall straight down from the top of the stairs.
I lunged forward, trying to grab her.
But she tumbled down the stairs, her face pale and her cries ringing out.
I wanted to help her, but Xia Shang held me back.
“Don't be scared, Yuan Yuan, brother will protect you.”
“No one can bully you but me…”
2.
My mom came back to see this scene and cried as if the earth were shaking.
She went crazy and started hitting me.
“You little monster! If it weren't for you, your brother wouldn't have died, and now you're trying to kill your sister too!?”
I cried and tried to explain: “Mom, I didn't.”
“It wasn't me, it was brother…”
Mom shoved me to the ground: “Your brother died long ago, are you even going to leave a dead person alone?”
“How could I have a child like you, so cruel and full of lies?”
“If your brother had lived, how great it would have been. Xia Shang, he wouldn't have been like you!”
She didn't know that the boy who had died hours after birth was sitting on the sofa, legs crossed, munching on an apple and watching me, his face full of smugness.
My mother, who constantly yearned for her son who had died at birth, was using the cruelest words to curse me, her surviving daughter.
I was superfluous in this family, wasn't I?
Maybe it would be better if I died.
I said to Xia Shang:
“Brother, you actually want my body, don't you?”
“Drive me crazy, then replace me and live as me?”
“But if I die, you'll get nothing!”
Xia Shang's face instantly darkened. He glared at me, a hint of viciousness and fear in his eyes.
“What are you trying to do?”
I said, “A deal, I want to make a deal.”
“I want to go to Xiao Yi's birthday party.”
“If you let me go, I'll give you my body.”
Xiao Yi was my deskmate, a girl as beautiful as a doll.
I had never had a birthday party, because my birthday was the anniversary of Xia Shang's death.
I wanted to see what a birthday party for another girl was like.
Xia Shang seemed stunned by my words. After a long silence, he laughed in a mock-amused way, “Alright, I'll let you go.”
3.
Xia Xi was sent to the hospital. She had a fracture and would be bedridden for months.
She told Mom that I pushed her down the stairs.
I killed my brother, and now I was trying to kill her.
Mom, furious, locked me in the basement and wouldn't let me out.
But with Xia Shang, she couldn't keep me confined.
I still went to Xiao Yi's birthday party, and I gave her a beautiful gift I had saved up for.
She hugged me and said sweetly, “Yuan Yuan, I love your gift.”
“We'll be best friends forever.”
I nodded and said, “Okay!”
My brother glared at me from the side.
“For this little girl, you're even willing to throw your own life away?”
“Don't you know, you'll have your legs broken when you go back?”
I knew a little bit about what he meant, in my heart.
Ever since I was little, Mom hated me. In her eyes, if I hadn't killed her son, she would have had a perfect life with a son and a daughter, a happy marriage.
But because of me, her happy marriage was shattered. Her husband left her to have a son with another woman.
Now, her most beloved daughter, Xia Xi, was also injured by me, falling down the stairs and breaking her leg.
And I, even more disobedient, snuck out of the basement.
She probably didn't want me anymore.
But Xia Shang didn't know, this was what I wanted.
If Mom killed me, we would both die.
He wouldn't get my body, and I wouldn't be in pain anymore.
I forced a smile that was more pathetic than crying, trying to appear strong.
“Isn't that what you wanted, brother?”
“Seeing me hated, are you happy, brother?”
Xia Shang said, “Yes, everything you have should have been mine.”
But I was also Mom and Dad's child.
Did I deserve nothing?
If I had died and Xia Shang had lived, would Mom and Dad have treated him the way they treated me?
Probably not.
After all, even Xia Xi said the Xia family only needed one daughter.
4.
That night, I ate a lot of delicious cake at Xiao Yi's house. When it was time to go, Xiao Yi offered to have her dad drive me home.
I politely declined, telling her someone would be picking me up.
Actually, no one was coming to pick me up. If I disappeared, everyone would probably be happy.
For Xiao Yi's birthday, I had specially worn my favorite dress.
A light blue, puffy-sleeved dress.
Xia Shang said I looked like a bubblegum in it.
He didn't understand, it was a girl's romance.
Xia Shang reminded me:
“You shouldn't have refused your classmate's offer.”
“It's dangerous for a girl to walk alone at night.”
He lowered his voice and whispered in my ear, “Didn't you watch the news lately?”
“There's a serial killer, a pervert, targeting female students.”
“He kills them, dismembers them, and then throws the body in a suitcase.”
I felt like he was trying to scare me.
“Oh, do you want me to be killed by a perverted old man, then dismembered into pieces, and stuffed into a suitcase?”
Xia Shang curled his lips into a wicked smile.
“Of course not. If that happened, I would also dismember that person into pieces and stuff them into a suitcase.”
I wasn't moved at all. “Oh, then brother, remember to buy a bigger suitcase. I think that killer is a very tall, fat guy.”
As soon as I finished speaking, a tall, fat man appeared at the intersection, struggling to drag a suitcase behind him.
The scene froze. I locked eyes with the man, and the air was thick with the stench of decay and blood.
The man felt my gaze and turned to look at me.
He had a fat face, a thick beard, and icy, triangular eyes.
I forced a smile and greeted him, “Sir, is it heavy? Do you need any help carrying it?”
The man seemed flustered and mumbled, “Mind your own business!”
Then he quickly pushed his suitcase and disappeared into the night.
I watched him disappear and fell into thought. Then I smiled at Xia Shang beside me.
“Brother, if I secretly followed him, would he catch me and kill me?”
Xia Shang glared at me, his tone cold, “You dare!”
I thought I might be asking for trouble.
5.
I followed the fat man in the direction he left.
The suitcase was heavy, leaving faint marks on the ground that had just been rained on.
I followed those marks, onto the bridge, and then down the riverbank.
Xia Shang followed me, cursing me constantly:
“Damn it! Xia Yuan! Get back!”
“I order you to go back immediately! Do you hear me?!”
I ignored him.
All I could think about was what was in the man's suitcase.
Was it really a human corpse?
If he discovered I was following him, would he kill me too?
Really, it would be better to die at the hands of a stranger than at the hands of my mother.
Xia Shang seemed to sense my thoughts and compromised, saying to me, “I won't take your body, don't do anything stupid.”
“Yuan Yuan, listen to your brother…”
As soon as he finished speaking, I saw a figure walking up the steps from under the riverbank.
It was a girl who looked sixteen or seventeen years old, with shoulder-length bangs, a backpack, and a uniform from the First High School.
I felt like I recognized her face; it was as if I'd seen her somewhere before.
“Classmate, it's so late, why are you alone by the river?”
“Just now... a man carrying a suitcase went down there. Did you see him?”
The girl didn't look at me, but walked straight ahead.
I stared at her back for a long time, and suddenly felt a chill run down my spine.
She was wearing a winter uniform, but it was already summer…
The man with the suitcase was standing a few steps below, looking at me.
Realizing what I had said, he screamed in terror, clutching his head, and tumbled down the steps.
He was a big, sturdy guy, so falling a few steps shouldn't have been a big deal.
He was gasping for breath and struggling to get up, but the wet rocks on the riverbank were slippery, and he'd barely gotten to his feet before he slipped down again.
The bridge lights cast a faint glow, and I could vaguely make out a suitcase in the reeds by the river.
“Was that girl stuffed in that suitcase?” I asked the man.
“Her name was Li Meixin. She disappeared last winter. There were missing posters at the school gate.”
“Did you kill her?”
“Can you... kill me too?”
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