Uneasy daily life

"No, no, that's not it."

The momentum he had built up deflated like a punctured balloon, and Azusagawa Kaede stammered.

Bai Ying squeezed in a little, raised her hand to show an area about a palm's width by the bed, and said generously, "Then I'll save a place for you. Come on up, and then praise my benevolence."

Azusagawa Kaede stared intently at the narrow gap beside the bed and couldn't help but say, "I can only sleep on half of it, with the other half hanging out..."

"Little Dragon Girl can sleep with just a rope, I believe in your abilities."

"I don't know any Little Dragon Girl... No, get off your brother's bed right now."

Kaede Azusagawa mustered her courage: I will protect my brother!

A white figure rolled out of the blankets, landing in a spinning push-up motion, startling Azusagawa Kaede so much that she stumbled back several steps like a rabbit.

"Okay, I'm getting down." Bai Ying pushed herself up with both hands, reached out and lifted a corner of the blanket, bowing politely to invite her sister into bed. "Please—hmm? Why are you standing there?"

"Ah, um... um... I mean, I mean..."

Azusaka Kaede stammered, looking flustered, "How am I supposed to get into my brother's bed if you're standing here?"

The white figure was startled and said in disbelief, "Are you going to kick me out to sleep on the sofa? Make me sleep on that sofa that's completely ergonomically unsound, spend the whole morning with a stiff neck, and if I'm unlucky enough to develop back pain and other symptoms, I might get hit by a dump truck while crossing the street while rubbing my neck and end up in another world..."

"No—um." Azusagawa Kaede quickly suppressed her raised voice, feeling guilty for her thoughts. After all, he was a guest at home, a friend of her brother.

"It's fine if you don't."

Bai Ying breathed a sigh of relief, as if granted a reprieve, and burrowed back into bed: "Then your brother and I will go to sleep first. You should go back and catch up on your sleep; there's still plenty of time. People should sleep more while they're young. Later on, with rent, world events, economic crises, personal achievements, the meaning of life, and free overtime, it'll be impossible to sleep at all..."

Azusagawa Kaede: "..."

He's a really bad guy who wants to take his brother away!

Azusagawa Kaede silently puffed out her cheeks, unwilling to leave the room. She dared not imagine what this big bad guy would do without her supervision! She hugged the pillow by the door back to her chest, walked to the futon on the floor and sat down, her eyes fixed on the white figure.

The white figure opened its eyes and slowly emitted a series of even breaths.

Sleeping with your eyes open? Like Zhang Fei from the Three Kingdoms?

Azusagawa Kaede tilted her head, curiously observing the other person's unusual sleeping posture.

You thought I was asleep?

Azusagawa Kaede sat up abruptly, continuing to keep a watchful eye on things, and asked curiously, "Can't you sleep?"

"Tomorrow night, I'll first beat Azusagawa down, then go to your room, stare at you, look at you, and have only you in my eyes..." Bai Ying described vividly, and concluded, "If you can sleep soundly, then I will bestow upon you the title of Hero SSR."

"Uh... sorry." Azusagawa Kaede's buttocks had just left the blanket when she quickly sank back in, and she said firmly, "I'm not leaving."

"Fine, it's your home after all, we can accommodate your freedom."

Bai Ying said lazily, "I can't sleep anyway, so tell me a few stories to help me fall asleep."

"A story?" Azusagawa Kaede thought for a moment and said, "Nasuno is a cat my brother gave me..."

"Why are you talking about cats during this leisurely and beautiful time before getting out of bed? Cats are devils, cats are cunning, cats are haunting..." Bai Ying mumbled a string of words, then lazily said, "Anyway, I'm just killing time, so I'll tell you a few stories and maybe gather some inspiration..."

Azusagawa Kaede tried her best to maintain the serious demeanor of a supervising officer, but her eyes couldn't help but glance over there.

Once upon a time, there was a little match girl...

Kaede Azusagawa muttered, "The Little Match Girl, I know such a famous story."

"On Christmas Day, snow was falling from the sky. A little girl, wearing oversized slippers, walked down the street, thinking of her sick mother and deceased grandmother. Wiping away tears, she called out, 'Matches for sale! Anyone want matches?' But even late into the night, no one bought her matches. You now have three choices: 1. The little girl stepped into a discarded lamp in the snow, and the genie gave her three magic matches. 2. A kind customer bought all of the little girl's matches. 3. The little girl couldn't sell any matches, and as the weather grew colder, she couldn't help but use the matches to keep warm."

Bai Ying asked, "Which one do you choose?"

"My choice?"

“Yes,” Bai Ying nodded. “Your choice will determine how the story unfolds.”

Kaede Azusagawa began to ponder. First, he ruled out the third option, which was the same as the one in the original story. The second option wasn't magical enough. As for the first option... could that lamp be Aladdin's lamp?

"I choose the first one." Azusagawa Kaede looked forward to what would happen next.

"So, the lucky little girl fell in the snow and turned around to find that an old lamp had tripped her."

……

……

The little girl picked up the old lamp, patted off the snow, and suddenly heard a sound.

"Kind person, I am the sealed genie," the voice in my heart said. "If you can light a match and drop it into the lamp, I can be freed from the seal."

The little girl was cold and hungry, and couldn't help but ask, "Do you want to buy my matches?"

“I’m sorry, God has no money,” the genie said, “but you will surely be rewarded.”

No one wanted to buy her matches anymore. Lighting them and putting them in the lamp made her feel warmer. The little girl struck the matches one by one and dropped them into the lamp, and soon the lamp emitted a gentle, expanding light.

The little girl, bathed in light, discovered she had three matches in her hand.

"Kind child, these are three matches that can light up the future. You have three chances to make a wish. After you light them, they will show you how your wish will come true and what the future holds."

The genie's voice gradually faded into the distance.

The night is deep, the wind and snow are cold, and the lights of thousands of homes are on in the streets.

The little girl struck a match and pleaded, "I want a warm stove to keep me warm."

In the tiny glow of the match, a method and vision for fulfilling her wish emerged—if she walked another hundred steps from here, her trembling figure would pass by the window and be seen by the homeowner. Out of pity, the homeowner lent her a small stove with burning charcoal, repeatedly gesturing with his trembling mustache, emphasizing that she was not allowed to take it and must return it to him the next day.

The little girl shivered with cold and walked on sadly, stumbling a few times along the way because of the cold. She staggered past the window and realized she didn't need to pretend to shiver; her whole body was almost frozen by the wind and snow.

The homeowner, sporting a thick mustache, opened the door, placed the small stove he was carrying beside the door, and called out, "Little girl! Come and warm yourself up!"

The little girl wrapped her clothes tighter, leaned close to the small stove, and said with trembling lips, "Thank you for your generosity."

"The charcoal in here can burn all night, but you can't take the stove away. Even if you do, you won't be able to sell it; my family's name is engraved on it." The homeowner said a few words with a hint of wariness, then turned and closed the door, emphasizing again, "You absolutely cannot take it; it's mine!"

So the little girl carefully kept a distance from the stove to avoid being mistaken for a thief. Fortunately, the stove was full of burning coals, which provided warmth to dispel the cold and prevent her from shivering.

The warmth dispelled the chill that had frozen my body, and hunger surged into my heart along with the warmth.

I can endure the hunger, but my mother needs medical treatment.

She picked up a second match, struck it, and wished, "I want... lots and lots of money."

In the glow of the burning match, there was nothing. No matter how much the little girl stared and questioned, the match only emitted a gentle light until it disappeared.

The little girl realized she had been tricked. With her last glimmer of hope, she struck the last match and cried out in a tearful voice, "I want to see my grandma."

The match burned silently, unable to melt a single falling snowflake.

The little girl felt very cold.

The next day, passersby found the little girl dead in the snow on the side of the street, her eyes dull and lifeless, her lips curved with sorrow.

"well--?!"

Kaede Azusagawa hunched the pillow into a gourd shape: "Why is it like this?"

"Because that's the story."

"What about when I chose three?"

"Choose option three, which is the original ending, where the little girl loses her life in a dream of coldness and matches."

"What about choosing option two?"

"Option two is that the little girl got some money and planned to take it back to treat her mother's illness, but she was tired and hungry, so she could only spend the money with guilt, buying some sawdust bread to fill her stomach, and then she froze to death on the street."

Azusagawa Kaede angrily slammed her pillow down, protesting, "Isn't this exactly the same?!"

“Of course they’re different,” Bai Ying corrected. “In ending one, the little girl dies in despair and sorrow. In ending two, the little girl dies in pain and struggle. In ending three, the little girl dies in hallucination and peace.”

"They're all going to die anyway! Do you have a grudge against that little girl?" Azusagawa Kaede snapped.

Bai Ying said confidently, "Think about it carefully—a little match girl, in the middle of the night, helpless, cold and hungry, it would be a disservice to biology if she didn't die."

"But isn't this a story?"

“Yes,” Bai Ying nodded, “that’s why I let her die with a different meaning, with a sense of depth.”

"Think about it carefully. In the first ending, the little girl deeply realized that she had no choice. The match given by the gods was just a vague hope. She had lost her grandmother forever and was bound to lose her mother. Even meeting her again after death was a pipe dream. The warmth she received through sympathy could not dispel the coldness in her heart. She died in despair and sorrow."

"In the second ending, the little girl realizes that her efforts are futile. The money she earns from selling matches is barely enough to fill her stomach, let alone treat her mother's illness, but it is still money. She is about to freeze to death and has wasted the money she saved for her mother's treatment, so she dies in pain and struggle."

"The third ending, of course, is the original story, where one dies peacefully amidst illusions and tranquility, with a beautiful heart. The terrible death, coupled with the little girl's smile, evokes intense conflict and sympathy in the reader. In short, the more beautiful something is, the more tragically it is shattered. I adapted this story, partly by borrowing the image of 'The Little Match Girl,' because she is a classic character who has been created, widely known, and is particularly suited to death."

Azusagawa Kaede gasped, sensing a metallic taste of blood in her mouth and nose.

A terrifying cannibalistic monster has moved into our house!

"Um..."

Sakuta Azusagawa rolled over groggily, seemingly disturbed by the chatter.

Azusagawa Kaede panicked, calculating that it wasn't long before her brother woke up, but unfortunately, she hadn't managed to get into bed. She glared at her brother's devilish friend, who loved to kill in creative ways, and then ran away like a little rabbit, clutching her pillow.

"Hmph, a mere little girl, trying to steal my bed?"

Bai Ying smiled smugly, glancing sideways at the shattered Stand that had sprung up beside his head. He stared at it with a smile, his gaze seemingly carrying power, slowly pressing Killer Queen back into his body.

If we're talking about a stand-in rebellion, the scale of the rebellion isn't that big; if we're talking about no problem, it just pops up every now and then out of nowhere.

You really want my hand? Here you go!

Bai Ying solemnly took Azusagawa Sakuta's hand.

Friction, friction, friction...

"maple……?"

Sakuta Azusagawa woke up groggily, and even with his usual flirtatious nature, he froze at the sight of the white figure grabbing his hand and rubbing it: "Are you trying to rub my hand together to start a fire?"

"It's a pity that people's threshold for ignition is a bit too high."

The white figure rolled off the bed and pulled the curtains shut: "Take this—Dawn Sunshine with a radius of twenty meters!"

The blinding sunlight, bright enough to pull any sleepy creature out of bed, burst in through the window.

Sakuta Azusagawa narrowed his eyes and retorted, "I don't have the ability to turn to ashes when exposed to sunlight..."

The two washed up and prepared for breakfast and school.

Listening to the commotion outside, Azusagawa Kaede estimated the time and continued writing in her diary at the table.

The notebook has slightly yellowed edges and the cover is wrinkled from frequent flipping, but it doesn't have many pages written on it.

[My brother's friend is a weirdo. He told a really horrible story that made a poor little girl die three times! Even Hans Christian Andersen only made a little girl die once! I don't know how my brother became friends with the white shadow... The most, most, most, most, most infuriating thing is—the white shadow seems to want to steal my brother from me!]

I will protect my brother!

【And Nasuno!】

After writing a few words to vent his emotions, Azusagawa Kaede thought for a moment, then picked up his pen and continued writing.

Although the strange man said the little girl died in this way or that way, I feel that no matter what, the little girl must have been lonely when she died, even if she died beautifully in her hallucinations and longings...

Kaede Azusagawa hesitated for a moment, wanting to erase the line, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to write it.

Feeling a bit down? Go touch Nasuno to cheer yourself up.

When it was time for breakfast, Kaede Azusagawa noticed that her brother's friend was up to his old tricks again. He was spreading a dark red sauce with a label full of Chinese characters evenly on a slice of bread. She sniffed the spicy aroma and asked, "Brother, what is he doing?"

"Of course, spread Lao Gan Ma chili sauce on the bread slices and pair it with miso soup, a perfect trio!"

Bai Ying enthusiastically promoted, "Little girl, would you like some? If you're not used to spicy food, I have other sauces here!"

Bang! Bang bang! Bottles were slammed onto the table, some containing irregularly shaped, oil-soaked green chilies, others red, and still others small black and yellow granules...

"Green pepper sauce, bird's eye chili sauce, mushroom and bamboo shoot sauce, pick one you like."

Sakuta Azusagawa reached out, took a bottle, looked at it, and said knowingly, "You're still getting your supplies from your old boss?"

"After all, for me, if I feel like cooking on a whim, it would be a waste if I didn't have the right ingredients," Bai Ying sighed. "If I want to cook but don't really want to, then a simple pot of white rice mixed with sauce is also very delicious."

Sakuta Azusagawa asked curiously, "Why did you come up with so many seasonings?"

Bai Ying clenched her fist, full of fighting spirit: "Because there is a final home economics class in a few days, I will prepare the logistics in advance and show what Chinese cuisine is all about, so that everyone doesn't just know Mapo Tofu."

"Oh, so you want to get the highest score by dragging everyone down with you."

Sakuta Azusagawa explained to his confused sister, "He used to work with me at the shop. Every time he cooked, the kitchen was a no-go zone. If you went in recklessly, you would get choked and your eyes would water."

Kaede Azusagawa tilted her head and said, "Home economics class sounds interesting."