Short, Light, Free Chapter 53: Has Always Been III

We're twins. I have a clingy sister.

We were entirely different, from looks to personalities.

Dad said that I take after Mom, and Sis took after him.

I was a naughty kid while Sis was always gentle and quiet.

Dad was a businessman who owned a small company. Mom was an art teacher.

When we turned four, Mom chose to teach us at home instead of enrolling us in kindergarten.

Her favorite subject was Art of course.

I had little interest in it, unlike Sis.

She progressed quickly. When I've just learned my own name, she was already able to recognize alphabets and even basic Chinese words.

Whenever she completed her writing exercises or drawings, she would show them to me.

I had no interest in motionless things, however. I enjoyed looking out the windows.

There was a group of children running about and I envied them.

There had been many times that I've asked Mom if I could play with those kids but she talked about how Sis would be lonely if I went out.

I could only look at them from afar, observing their every move.

There was a tan girl among them who caught my attention.

Sis would always hold her puppet up to my face, asking me to play with her. I would indulge her, albeit half-heartedly.

One day, Mom went out to get groceries and I found my chance.

I decided to drag Sis out of the house. The kids were playing badminton.

I had so much fun with that sport while Sis sat on the ground at a side, examining the ants having their meal.

She grabbed hold of one of the bigger-sized ants and shouted, "Look what I've caught, Brother!"

Before I knew it, I smacked the shuttlecock right on her forehead, leaving a red mark.

Blood flowed out slowly and my blood turned cold.

Sis started crying and held up the hand with the ant. "Brother, Brother."

At a loss, the rest of the kids packed their stuff and dispersed. I did not know what else to do so I just brought her home.

Immediately after we got back, I took a paper towel to wipe her forehead.

Panicking, I said, "Tell Mom you got it yourself, alright? Tell her that and I'll play with you every day."

She nodded even as tears continued to flow. I covered her head with the paper towel.

A few minutes later, Mom returned home and caught me all flustered.

She quickly noticed Sis' forehead and asked what was going on.

"Sh.. she... kn... knocked her head," I stammered.

Mom brought her to the hospital immediately and I stood motionless and in shock.

Mom did not say much after the trip and I asked Sis if she'd said anything.

She shook her head. "I got it myself."

Even after she grew up, there was still a white scar on the highest part of her forehead.

Ever since she became aware of it, she started using fringe to cover it. Nevertheless, I would feel a tinge of regret every time I saw her scar.

After that incident, I stopped bringing her out and resigned myself to just admiring the kids outside.

I accompanied Sis as she played with her dolls and painted.

When Mom returned to school for work, she made use of her connections to get us both into the same class.

Coincidentally, that tan girl got allocated to our class as well.

Xiaowen, as I got to know after, had long black hair.

She sat two seats in front of me, Sis in between us.

I would always write notes and ask Sis to hand them to her.

She'd been caught by the teacher quite a few times but she would always take the blame.

Whenever the school contacted the parents, Mom would barge into the teacher's office from the next door art class and give her a good scolding.

And I would always narrowly escape punishment.

Our elementary and junior high were affiliated so all three of us remained in the same school. However, I got transferred to another class while Sis and Xiaowen became deskmates.

As usual, I wrote letters and Sis delivered them to her.

Heaven was fair and the guilty would not escape. On our third year in junior high, Mom found out about my puppy love and how Sis had been my scapegoat throughout the years.

She questioned Sis about it until she finally pointed at her forehead and revealed the truth.

I was reprimanded and grounded.

As my studies were affected by my being in love, Mom went to look for Xiaowen's parents, only to realize that they had moved.

I quickly became an insignificant member of the family.

Sis did well in middle school and was able to enter a reputable senior high school.

I, on the other hand, was faring consistently bad.

I lost contact with Xiaowen, but I was aware that Sis and Xiaowen hung out in the same clique in middle school.

Through her, I got to know Xiaowen's mobile number.

Things did not end there.

I found a part-time job during the first summer vacation of high school.

I spent half of my earnings on my first ever mobile phone.

Like typical parents, mine raised Sis generously and me conservatively.

She received a weekly allowance of 200 whereas I only had 20.

Unfortunately, the call charges cost more than the mobile itself.

20 a week simply wasn't enough for my expenses.

As they say, when there's a will there's a way. I borrowed money.

From Sis, of course.

We could only meet on Sundays, and whenever we met up, I would start putting up an act.

It was extremely effective and Sis had always been surprisingly obedient.

I borrowed 100 from her each time and she never ever asked for the money back.

After graduation, I joined Dad's small company while Sis moved on to a prestigious university.

She went on to get her master's and Ph.D.

On my side, I took over the company smoothly, but the situation did not improve much.

Xiaowen became my girlfriend and we got married before Sis' graduation.

There were three types of people in the world: Men, women, and female doctors.

I thought about employing Sis as a project manager cum deputy director.

However, even with a Ph.D., Sis was willing to start from the bottom.

No one knew that she was the boss' sister.

Sis put little effort into makeup and dressing up and had little social life.

I tried introducing a man to her but she was completely disinterested.

Ever since she joined, however, many aspects of the company underwent tremendous progress.

Orders were increasing and business was turning for the better.

At 28, Xiaowen got pregnant.

With Sis' guidance, the company started thriving and excelling. 

Fast forward to the next five years, my life with Xiaowen started to improve.

Unfortunately, on my 33rd birthday, Sis died in the office from over exhaustion.

Mom and Dad took it hard.

Only when the other employees handed her belongings to me did they discover that she was my little sister.

As I flipped through her diary, its content caught me off guard.

She wrote mostly about me.

June 3rd: Brother's married. I'm heartbroken.

June 4th: My lover's married. I'm no longer interested in love.

June 27th: I got my Ph.D., but he didn't show up. I specifically reminded him a few times.

June 28th: Although he's married, I will help him fix the company.

On the next page, June 29th, there was a drawing of a black heart. 

It was irregularly shaped but extremely familiar looking.

Subconsciously, I looked down at my arm and saw our matching birthmarks.

Her journal ended here.

She stopped writing after starting work.

I ran to our parents' home and rummaged through her bedroom.

She had had a habit of keeping a diary.

I read each and every one of them, tears rolling uncontrollably down my cheeks.

Sis had never stopped loving me.

She ended every diary with a drawing of our matching birthmarks.

It was all over and I burned everything before Xiaowen's parents could have the chance to find out.

Sis returned to the underworld and to the bridge.

Sister Xiaoyu called out, "Did you reunite with your love in this life, Xiaomei?"

Sis shook her head in puzzlement. "Xiaomei? You must be mistaken?"

"Another round of reincarnation... it's normal to forget things." Sister Xiaoyu shook her head. 

She then pulled Sis to the bundle of rocks before the bridge, pointing at the rocks with Qin Xianglian and Chen Shimei's names on them. "Your rocks. And look at that matching birthmark on your arm."

Sis looked down at her arm, confused.

Sister Xiaoyu relayed the whole story to her in clear details.

Sis only shook her head in disbelief. Sister Xiaoyu then dragged her to the old lady and cow head.

The old lady and cow head explained the events to her with ease, especially since Brother Cow remembered us as the rushing couple who couldn't wait any longer.

When they finished, Sis broke down in tears. However, she did not reveal the happenings from before her death.

Helpless, Sister Xiaoyu returned to her corner under the tree and continued waiting for her lover.

Sis cried for some time.

She used a nearby rock to grind her name off her rock. She then bit her fingertip and wrote some small words at the back of it.

She walked toward Sister Xiaoyu and asked, "Do you still believe in love?"

Sister Xiaoyu nodded. "Why else would I still be waiting here?"

Sis smiled. "You told me that the woman who waited 197 years found her lover eventually, but was he really the same person she fell in love with? Perhaps, she got sick of waiting and dragged a random stranger with her to reincarnate? Who would know?"

She turned around and crossed the bridge.

Sister Xiaoyu looked on as Sis unhesitantly swallowed her Meng Po soup and proceeded to reincarnate.

There were only two things in Sister Xiaoyu's mind at that point. The face of her lover and Sis' words.

These things played inside her head and she didn't know what to do.

It was the first time she had forgotten to make a mark on the tree. In fact, she stopped keeping track of the time.

My daughter was born and I saw a similar birthmark on her arm.

She was a clingy one and possessed many traits similar to Sis'.

Epilogue.

At 55, my body was weakening due to stomach cancer. 

Not even a week later, I left this world and I wasn't surprised by what I saw in the underworld.

I went to the bridge and saw a group of people looking as though they were waiting for something.

I approached them for more details and found out that they were waiting for their lovers.

Xiaowen instantly came to mind.

A woman under the tree rushed over and hugged me tightly.

She called herself Sister Xiaoyu and told me that I was the one she'd been waiting for.

I looked at her, bewildered.

I listened to her story about the arduous wait.

She pulled me to the bridge and picked up a clean rock. 

She wrote her name on it and had me write mine with my own blood, too.

After writing, I felt an intense pain in my calf. I pulled up my trousers and saw a strange birthmark.

Sister Xiaoyu showed me hers as well.

I saw another rock at a corner with only one name on it.

I pointed at it and asked Sister Xiaoyu what it was about.

She shook her head and said she had no idea.

I flipped the rock over.

Deep ties are indestructible.

As I was pondering over this line, Sister Xiaoyu hurriedly dragged me across the bridge.

Chapter end