After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

In the movie, the two characters grow closer and closer, and their conversations become less and less frequent.

There's a scene where the older sister comes out of the shower with her hair wet, and everyone is standing in the hallway. The two of them look at each other, but neither of them says a word.

The camera cut away, but the meaning was clear.

In the second half, all the hints came to light.

The house was completely isolated from the outside world, and the four children built their own order, with the relationship between the siblings being the core of this order.

Finally, that scene came.

Inside the room, the windows were sealed shut, with light leaking out through the cracks.

The visuals are not explicit, and the director handles them with great restraint, using a lot of white space and long takes, but the content leaves no room for maneuver.

The screening room was very quiet; there wasn't even the sound of popcorn being chewed.

The movie ended, and the lights came on.

People in the screening room got up slowly, as if they hadn't yet recovered from the atmosphere they had just experienced.

As the two walked out along the aisle, the mall lights flooded in as they pushed open the lobby door.

Go down the escalator from the fourth floor to the third floor. There were quite a few people in the mall, surrounded by milk tea shops and dessert shops, and the air was sweet.

It was already dark outside, and Lin asked, "Does this kind of thing even exist in reality?"

Su Nian walked to his right. He noticed that Lin Ye was particularly fond of asking her questions today, which was a good thing, better than being too withdrawn.

She patiently explained like a teacher: "These kinds of incidents are not uncommon in legal literature, especially in closed-off families, remote areas, and places where information is not readily available; there are more of them than you think."

Lin also glanced at her.

"The movie portrays it in an artistic way, but in reality, most of the real-life cases are very rough, with little visual language or white space; it's just a simple matter."

Is this kind of relationship reasonable?

"It depends on which one you mean by 'reasonable'," Su Nian said. "Legally, marriage is prohibited between direct blood relatives and collateral blood relatives within three generations. Whether that's reasonable or not is not up for debate."

"I'm not asking about the law."

Su Nian was silent for a while: "Ethically, the core issue of this relationship is not the feelings themselves, but the power structure."

"What do you mean?"

"In the movie, the four children's parents died, and the eldest sister took on the role of mother. She had a natural authority over her younger brother, and the relationship between caregiver and caregiver was inherently unequal. Any close relationship that develops on this basis is difficult to judge as a genuine two-way choice or one party's dependence on the other."

She was looking at the road ahead when she spoke, not at Lin Ye.

"In addition, in a closed environment, without external references or the intervention of others, their world consists only of each other. The feelings that develop under such conditions may not stand up at all when placed in the outside world."

Lin listened without interrupting.

"But if we set aside these preconditions, and two adults, without unequal rights or the oppression of a closed environment, simply develop feelings for each other, and their blood relationship happens to be within the prohibited range, then it's just a biological issue."

"What if you don't want offspring?"

"Marriage is still not legally permitted, but the actual social consequences are much smaller. What truly makes such relationships impossible is not the law, but the gaze of those around us."

"What if someone around you did that?" Lin also asked.

She thought for a few seconds: "It depends on the specific person and the specific situation. The other person is someone I care about, so I will understand the situation before making a judgment."

She continued, "If, after understanding the situation, I believe that one party is being controlled or is not acting rationally, I will try to intervene."

What if both of them are fully conscious?

"Then I would probably feel very awkward, knowing that it is wrong, but having no right to make choices for others."

"What you said is quite rational."

"I am a law student."

"Law students, being so rational, won't it put a lot of pressure on whoever marries you in the future? You'll be so unlucky!"

"What are you trying to say?"

"If you ever have a fight at home, you'll first bring up the Marriage Law, then argue from a legal perspective who's in the wrong, and finally give a report-like conclusion."

Su Nian walked beside her and said, "Your idea of ​​law students is quite stereotypical."

"Am I wrong?"

"No, I do consider human relationships, but I'll consider the context. For example, with your question, I answered you from the most objective perspective. If it were another question, I might take a different angle."

Her tone softened, and she continued, "What you've said—using legal statutes in arguments—is something normal people don't do. Besides, I'm independent, from a prestigious university, my looks and figure conform to mainstream beauty standards, I'm not clingy, I'm not demanding, I have my own judgment, and my family doesn't require my partner to worry about me. With all these qualities, how am I unlucky?"

She spoke these things in the same tone as reciting a menu, without any intention of showing off; she was simply stating a fact.

"But you, cousin, should be more worried about this than I am. It's hard for people to find a way to get along with you. Over time, they'll start to feel like they're unimportant and that they're not getting any feedback. Liking someone requires a response, and with you acting like this, they don't know where to direct their efforts."

Lin listened without reacting.

He felt that matters of the heart were far removed from his life, at least that's how he felt.

However, when Su Nian talked about things like not being able to find a way to get along and not getting any feedback, he remembered someone.

Shen Yi could keep the atmosphere lively on her own; she would follow even if Shen Yi ignored her, and would come again the next day if Shen Yi refused.

He didn't feel he needed to worry.

"You seem quite experienced. Have you dated before? Does your mother know?" Lin asked seriously.

"no."

"We haven't talked about this much."

"I studied law, and analyzing the relationships between people is a basic skill for me; I don't need to have firsthand experience with it."

"Then your analysis is all theoretical."

"The theory I learned is a summary of a thousand samples, a more standardized form of experience."

The school wasn't far away, and the streetlights cast a warm yellow glow as the two walked side by side.

We arrived at the school gate. The lights in the guardhouse were on, and several students were swiping their cards to enter.

After walking for a while, we reached a fork in the road.

Su Nian stopped, turned around and looked at him: "If you have any questions in the future, or if you want to talk, you can come to me."

Lin nodded.

The corridor lights in the dormitory building were already dimmed, and when I pushed open the dormitory room door, the desk lamp was on inside.

His roommate glanced up at him, then looked down again: "I just saw you come back with a woman, right?"

"Um."

"Law school? Very pretty."

"relative."

My roommate paused for a moment, opened his mouth as if to say something, but then hesitated, too embarrassed to speak.

Lin ignored him, climbed into bed, and pulled down the thin blanket.

My roommate rolled over downstairs, the light from her phone reflecting on the ceiling: "So that's what relatives look like..."

The dormitory quieted down, and the faint sounds of people playing games could be heard from the next room, with someone cursing their teammates.