My sister, whom I raised, has turned evil after faking her death for three years.

The system was silent for a moment, then softly reported: [Target's vital signs have disappeared. Cui Jiayi, confirmed dead.]

Su Qing did not respond upon hearing this.

She looked down at the wound on her chest, from which blood was still gushing out. The front of her white dress was completely soaked in blood, clinging wetly to her skin.

The rain was still falling, washing away the bloodstains on the knife, and the blade gleamed with a cold white light in the puddles.

She tried to stand up, her knees slipping several times before she could barely keep her balance. With each step, blood dripped from the wound on her chest and the penetrating wound on her right palm, spreading a small patch of pale red in the puddle.

She walked to the deformed black car, leaned against the twisted door, and slowly squatted down. She reached out her left hand and gently stroked Jiang Ran's cheek with trembling hands.

His face was covered in grime, and he had a small abrasion on his forehead, but his breathing was steady, and his chest was rising and falling slightly, as if he were just asleep.

The system softly reported in her mind: [Jiang Ran's vital signs are stable. The impact mainly occurred at the rear side of the vehicle. The vehicle's structure absorbed most of the impact force, and with the cushioning protection of the host's body, she only suffered minor abrasions and a brief period of unconsciousness. She is otherwise unharmed. The driver's injuries are slightly more serious, with a mild concussion, but he is also not in life-threatening danger.]

Su Qing didn't speak, but quietly felt the warmth coming from her fingertips.

That was Xiao Ran's temperature—warm, steady, and alive.

That's good.

As long as she's alright, as long as she's safe and sound, that's all that matters.

"[Host,]" the system's voice sounded again, its tone still calm, but she detected an unusual undertone. "[Your current mobility relies entirely on the system's stored energy, which is about to run out.]"

[Your injuries are beyond the reach of any external treatment. The knife just now pierced your left fourth intercostal space, the tip passing through the intercostal space into your chest cavity, piercing your pericardium, and touching the anterior wall of your left ventricle—every heartbeat you're having now is pumping blood out. The reason you're still standing is because the system is using its last reserves of energy to fill the cardiac tamponade.]

[You will die instantly the moment the system's energy runs out; therefore, this incident will be your means of escaping the mission.]

After hearing this, Su Qing lightly brushed her finger across Jiang Ran's cheek, a very faint smile curving her lips. Then, she said to the system in her mind, "Thank you for your hard work."

The system was silent for a moment. Then, in a very soft, almost gentle tone, it replied: [Host, you've worked hard too.]

The rain intensified.

This time it wasn't a light drizzle, but a torrential downpour. Large raindrops pounded densely on the road, on the twisted roof of the car, on Su Qing's shoulders and the top of her hair, completely soaking her white dress.

The rain washed away the bloodstains on her body, turning the still-seeping crimson into a light red, which flowed down her arms and fingertips to Jiang Ran's cheeks, then slid down her cheeks like silent tear tracks.

Jiang Ran slowly opened her eyes, stimulated by the rain.

She first saw the gray sky and the pouring rain, then her pupils slowly focused and landed on the face in front of her.

She froze instantly, her pupils contracting in a flash.

"elder sister……"

She sprang up from the ground and reached out to help Su Qing.

But Su Qing had no strength left. She slumped to the side, her back against the twisted car door, her head hanging limply.

Jiang Ran rushed over and hugged her, her arms encircling her back. Just as her fingers touched her back, she felt a warm, sticky liquid.

She pulled her hand back and looked down.

Large swaths of blood, still glaringly red even after being washed by the rain.

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She looked down into the mess behind her sister and saw scattered pieces of the car door, and then she saw Cui Jiayi lying in the puddles not far away, with a hideous wound on her neck.

I saw the knife still in her hand, its blade stained with blood.

Jiang Ran's world was compressed into an extremely small dot in those few seconds.

There was no sound, no color, no temperature, only my sister's increasingly pale face and the blood that wouldn't stop flowing from her chest.

"Sister...no, nothing will happen, you'll be alright..." She tore off her skirt and pressed it against the wound on Su Qing's chest, then pressed it hard with both hands, desperately pressing it down.

But blood still seeped from between her fingers, warm and viscous, with a temperature that chilled her to the bone.

She turned around and rummaged through her pockets, her fingers trembling so much she could barely hold anything. She finally managed to touch her phone, but the screen had already shattered and was leaking liquid from the impact, leaving it completely black. No matter how she pressed the buttons, it wouldn't light up.

She then looked for the driver's phone, rummaging through the inside pocket of his coat. The screen was mostly shattered, the touchscreen was completely unresponsive, and there was a small piece of glass stuck to the bottom right corner.

She staggered to her feet, looked around, trying to find someone to help her, to flag down a car, to ask for help.

But this road, which should have been bustling with traffic, was now deserted. The only things on the road were torrential rain and increasingly thick fog. The sycamore trees along the roadside were battered by the wind and rain, their branches and leaves dancing wildly, like a group of silent, indifferent giants.

"Xiao Ran...you don't need to go."

Su Qing grabbed her hand, her grip so light it was as if she were afraid of crushing something.

Her voice was very soft, each word as if squeezed out of her throat with the last of her strength, almost inaudible in the sound of the pouring rain.

"Your sister has something else to tell you..."

Jiang Ran knelt back beside her sister and pressed her hands against the wound on her chest again.

Rainwater streamed down her forehead, mingling with her tears and dripping onto the back of Su Qing's hand.

Her voice trembled, but she enunciated each word with great force, as if trying to persuade Su Qing, and also as if trying to persuade herself: "Sister, please don't say anymore... Wait until we get home... Wait until we get home safely... then you can say it, okay... I'll make you some hot soup... I'll put you in bed and cover you with a blanket... and I'll listen to whatever you say for as long as you want... please, sister... I beg you..."

Su Qing looked at her; in the rain, tears and rainwater mingled on her face, her hair was soaked and clung to her cheeks, and her lips were slightly blue from fear.

Her eyes, her Xiao Ran's eyes, those eyes that had only reflected her since she was seven, were now filled with the sadness she least wanted to see.

She raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, but she was too weak. Her hand fell down before it even touched her cheek, and Jiang Ran grabbed it and pressed it against her own face.

Jiang Ran's hands were cold, but her face was warm, and her tears were scalding hot.

"Xiao Ran... I might not be able to attend your birthday party..." She looked at Jiang Ran's eyes, which were blurred with tears and rain, and smiled slightly. "I really... wanted to see you eat the cake. I wrote the little flag on it, and the filling in the chocolate castle was strawberry. I wanted to see your eyes light up when you took the first bite... I even prepared a recipe and put it in the rightmost drawer in the kitchen. It's all your favorite dishes... I wanted to raise you to be plump and healthy, to see you grow taller than me, to see you go to university and make more friends... I promised you that I would make you a super luxurious cake and celebrate your fifteenth birthday with you... But this time, it seems I have to break my promise..."

"I don't want the cake anymore!" Jiang Ran almost shouted, her voice breaking into fragments in the torrential rain. "I don't want anything! As long as you get better, I don't want anything! I don't want to celebrate my birthday anymore, I just want you! I just want you, sister! Please don't go... please, please..."

Su Qing raised her left hand and, with her last bit of strength, gently stroked Jiang Ran's cheek.

Her fingertips were very cold, but the touch was very soft, just like every night seven years ago when I would lull her to sleep.

"Don't cry... Xiao Ran, don't cry... You must live well, live peacefully every year, and live happily for a very long time... Just think of it as going to see a bigger world for your sister... to experience the things I couldn't go with you... My Xiao Ran, you must be well, you deserve all the best things in this world..."

Her fingers gently brushed Jiang Ran's cheek one last time, then slowly slid down, tracing a very light arc in the air before landing in the cold puddle beside her.

Her eyes were still half-open, but they had lost their former luster. A very faint, gentle curve hung at the corner of her mouth, like a crescent moon fixed on her pale lips.

Jiang Ran knelt in the rain, her whole body trembling violently.

She lowered her head and buried her face in Su Qing's cold palms, letting out a broken, suppressed cry. The sound wasn't loud, but it echoed for a long time on the empty road, "No...don't go, don't leave me, please...sister, sister, sister..."

The rain washed away all traces on the road—the bloodstains, the shards, the scattered broken glass—all were mercilessly washed away by the heavy rain.

The leaves of the old sycamore tree by the roadside trembled in the rain. The few remaining withered yellow leaves finally gave way and fell from the branches, swirling helplessly in the puddles.

Su Qing lay there quietly, the rain washing over her face, scattering the stray hairs on her forehead and revealing her slightly open eyes gazing at the gray sky. Raindrops fell on them and slid down, as if she were crying.

Jiang Ran pressed her sister's icy hand tightly against her face, huddled close to her, her hair soaked and plastered to her cheeks, her lips turning a pale bluish-purple from the cold and despair.

She stretched out a hand, just like her older sister used to shield her from the rain when she was little, and held it above Su Qing's face.

She thought this would shield her sister from some of the rain, but the rain was too heavy and her hands were too small. The rainwater leaked through her fingers and kept falling into her sister's eyes.

"Sister...it's raining so hard...aren't you cold? Why aren't you answering me...?"