Chapter Six: New Fractures

“Get out!”
“Kexin…”
Bang! Before Nangong Yuchen could finish his sentence, the door was slammed shut, striking his nose and drawing a cry of pain.
“Ke…”
“Nangong Yuchen! I… I never imagined you could be this kind of person. I’m your sister, and you dare…”
Nangong Kexin was filled with disappointment at his actions. Her beautiful eyes were swollen and red, streaked with tears, as she leaned weakly against the door.
All her life, she had never even held hands with another boy, aside from the occasional intimacy with Nangong Yuchen as siblings. She had always valued such things deeply. Who could have thought that Nangong Yuchen would do something so perverse…
Thankfully, nothing truly happened, but if it had, she could not imagine how she would face it.
Her suspicions were, perhaps, not unfounded. After all, only the two of them lived in the house. Nangong Yuchen, unclothed, had inexplicably ended up in her bed—anyone would make the same assumption.
“Phew!” Nangong Yuchen hung his head in frustration. He had no idea what was happening. In his memories, Kexin had been killed, and yet…
Could it all have been a dream last night?
Rubbing his aching head, he made his way to his own room.
Kexin’s room and their parents’ room were on the right side of the living room, while his was on the left.
As he passed through the living room, he stopped short in shock.
Shattered glass, pools of blood on the floor, snapped ropes, a dagger, steel pipes, and other weapons.
Each one stood as irrefutable evidence that last night was no dream, but a harrowing reality!
“It’s true. Kexin really died! But why are we both perfectly fine today, without a single wound on us?”
His heart pounded wildly. He stared, pupils wide, at the chaotic living room.
He remembered every detail of last night, but it seemed Kexin had no memory of it at all. Was it because her memory had been… erased?
“Who was she?”
Suddenly, Yuchen realized he could not remember the face of the one who had saved both him and Kexin!
He remembered the five black-clad men sent by Zhou Ziqi, and how they had died, frozen. But the savior’s face remained a blank, no matter how he tried to recall it.
Every attempt to remember only brought a splitting headache and a fog of confusion.
“Who is she, really?” he whispered, massaging his throbbing temples.

At that moment, he heard his sister’s door open and rushed over. He could not—must not—let Kexin see the living room like this. Since her memories of last night were gone, that could only be a blessing.
He hurried to block her way as she emerged in her pajamas, blurting anxiously, “Kexin, wait before you come out!”
“You… You’re not even dressed?”
Kexin, seeing her brother in nothing but boxers, retreated in fright back into her room.
She had come out intending to tell Yuchen about the Star Academy’s student assembly order that morning, but the sight of him half-naked charging towards her sent her fleeing, slamming the door behind her.
She was afraid he might do something truly out of line.
“Uh…” Yuchen watched her bolt and stood there for a moment, stunned. Was he really that terrifying?
He didn’t have time to dwell on it. Grabbing cleaning supplies, he set about erasing every last trace of last night from the living room.
Half an hour later, he’d finished, though the broken window would have to wait for a professional to repair.
“Huh? My phone fell here?”
As he tidied up, he found his phone under the sofa and bent to pick it up.
Forty-one missed calls and two text messages. Thirty-eight from Wei Jie, the last three from his homeroom teacher, Huanfu Luoxuan.
He opened the first message and his eyes widened:
“A student assembly order?”
“Oh no, now I’m really dead—Shangguan Luohua’s going to kill me!”
The student assembly order was the strictest summons at Star Academy; no matter the excuse, all students were required to return at once. Yet he and Kexin…
Just remembering the last time he’d suffered at Shangguan Luohua’s hands sent chills down his spine. What about tomorrow…
With a sigh, he opened the second message.
“Kexin sent this last night at eight?”
“Yuchen, don’t come home—someone wants to kill us.”
Just that one short sentence left his heart heavy. What kind of torment had Kexin endured while he was away?
Thank goodness… she no longer remembered any of it!
But the thought soured, and he wondered bitterly, “Am I really a bringer of misfortune?”
Now, he had offended both Zhou Lingtian, the warden of District A, and his son, as well as his true nemesis, Lu Shijie of the Lu family.
These were powers far beyond his ability to challenge.
He could almost believe last night had all been a dream.
His face darkened as he returned to his room. After dressing, a thought struck him—there would be a record of sent messages on Kexin’s phone.

He raced to her room, bursting in nervously. “Kexin, where’s your phone?”
Kexin was wrapped in her blanket on the bed. Startled by her brother’s sudden entrance, she snapped, “What are you doing?”
“My phone’s out of service—I need to use yours to call the teacher!” Yuchen lied without hesitation.
“Wait, I need to text our homeroom teacher first!”
Kexin was composing a message. She didn’t know how to explain their violation of the student assembly order over the phone, so she could only do it in writing.
“You’re texting?” Yuchen’s expression changed. He lunged forward, grabbing for her phone, desperate to snatch it away.
“Nangong Yuchen! What do you think you’re doing?”
She clung to the phone, suspicious of his motives.
But Yuchen was frantic. If Kexin saw the messages first, she might remember what happened last night—he couldn’t risk it. His grip tightened.
Crack! The phone screen shattered in his hand.
The room fell silent in the wake of that sound.
“Are you insane?”
In a fit of rage, Kexin slapped Yuchen hard across the left cheek. She didn’t understand what was wrong with him today—he seemed stranger than ever.
The incident from earlier had already driven her familial affection for him to its lowest point, and now he had broken her phone on purpose. She was at her limit.
Smack!
Her slender hand left a vivid red mark on his face.
“…Kexin.” Yuchen did not even flinch. He only bowed his head and called her name softly.
“Don’t call me that. Leave.”
“Leave?”
His heart trembled. He couldn’t believe it.
“Pack your things and get out! I don’t want to see you for a while!”
“But—”
“Go!”
Her voice was nearly a scream. Yuchen could only leave, his face clouded with sorrow.
Kexin’s long, dark hair fell over her face, obscuring it.
Listening to the sounds outside, her body trembled. After a while, as the house fell silent, she buried herself in the covers.