Fifteen minutes later, the front door slammed shut with force, plunging the entire house into an eerie silence.
I counted to three hundred, got up, and pulled open the curtain. A strange black car was parked downstairs, a faint red light flickering behind its tinted window. Someone was watching our house.
My phone screen lit up. A message from Mo Wen: "Your sister just updated her feed!"
I clicked open Zhen Shunshun's long-abandoned mukbang account. The latest post was a ten-second video: she stood on some rooftop in a hospital gown, the city's nightscape behind her. The caption read: "My sister ruined me. I won't let her off even as a ghost."
Posted at: 3:21 AM.
I immediately called Mom: "Mom! Check Shunshun's account! She's on a rooftop!"
A screech of brakes tore through the phone: "Which rooftop?!"
"I don't know, but you can see the Mingzhu Tower in the background. Must be east of the city!"
The call cut off.
I grabbed my jacket to leave, but collided with Grandma in the hallway.
She was wearing a strange black robe, holding a bamboo basket containing yellow paper, incense candles, and a small knife.
"Grandma?"
Her clouded eyes fixed on me. "It's all your curse," she rasped. "Tonight, we drive out the evil."
I took two steps back. "Shunshun's on a rooftop about to jump! Mom's already—"
"Silence!" Grandma grabbed a handful of rice from her basket and threw it at me. "Evil spirit, be gone!"
The grains stung my face. I turned, dashed back to my room, locked the door, and climbed out the window onto the fire escape.
When I landed, the black car was still there, but the person inside was gone.
I flagged down a taxi outside a convenience store. "Driver! The tallest building east of the city with a view of Mingzhu Tower! Hurry!"
Ten minutes later, the driver pointed ahead. "Is that a fire over there?"
Thick smoke billowed from the roof of an old apartment building in the distance.
My heart stopped—that was Jinxiu Apartments, where we lived during elementary school!
"Go there! Fast!"
I jumped out before the car fully stopped.
An ambulance and police cars were parked at the building's entrance. A crowd looked up. I pushed to the front and craned my neck. A figure stood amidst the flames on the rooftop!
"Sis!" The shout tore from my throat.
She seemed to hear it. Her silhouette swayed slightly.
Firefighters were deploying an airbag. Police held back Mom, who was trying to charge into the building.
I slipped into the stairwell unnoticed and started climbing.
Nine floors. My lungs burned like they were on fire.
The rooftop door hung wide open. A wave of heat hit me. Zhen Shunshun had set fire to old furniture; the flames weren't huge, but the smoke was thick.
She stood on the very edge of the rooftop, her back to me.
"Sis…"
She whipped around. In the firelight, her face was gaunt, skeletal. "Why are you here? To watch me die?"
"Mom's downstairs. She's breaking down." I inched closer. "Come down."
"You know what I found?" She shook an old photo album. "Pictures from when we were five… Even back then, you were just a little bit fatter than me…"
Flames licked the old sofa beside her. The heat was searing.
I squinted. "So?"
"So the problem was always you!" she shrieked. "Even as a kid, you used that pathetic little face to steal what was mine! Now you're even stealing my weight!"
I was only three steps away. "No one can steal someone else's weight."
"You can!" She waved the album wildly. "What evil trick did you use? Did that old hag teach you?" It took me a second to realize she meant Grandma. "Grandma?"
"Not her!" Zhen Shunshun's eyes were frenzied. "It was the voice! The voice that gave me the system... It lied to me!"
My heart pounded. "What system?"
She froze, as if realizing she'd said too much. "You're tricking me?" She took half a step back, her heel hanging over the void.
"Careful!" I lunged and grabbed her wrist.
She was terrifyingly light; I could almost lift her with one hand.
Firefighters burst onto the rooftop. A jet of water from a hose sprayed towards us.
In the chaos, Zhen Shunshun stared into my eyes and whispered, "I hate you."
She wrenched her wrist free—but the firefighters caught her.
The next day, Zhen Shunshun was involuntarily transferred to the psychiatric ward.
Grandma brought in a shamaness who sprinkled chicken blood and pasted talismans in my room, chanting about dispelling the "kin-destroying curse" on me.
"Master," Grandma pressed, "is this girl the reason her sister is sick? Did she curse her?"
The shamaness squinted her triangular eyes at me. "Their fates clash. One must go far away."
I cut her off. "How much to tell the truth?"
The shamaness's face darkened.
I pulled out my phone. "I just looked it up. Unlicensed exorcism counts as fraud. Should I call the police?" She left, cursing.
Grandma tried to stop her, but I blocked the way. "Grandma, have you ever thought that maybe Jiejie is suffering the consequences of her wrongdoing?" Grandma's slap came without warning. "You viper! Cursing your sister!"
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and smiled. "Do you remember when I fell into the pond when I was six? Jiejie said I slipped."
"You did!"
"But I felt someone push me." My voice was soft. "Thinking back now... Jiejie's hands were small, but her push was strong."
For the first time, doubt flickered across Grandma's face.
That afternoon, a local reporter contacted me, wanting to interview me about the "healthy weight loss journey."
I agreed, on the condition that no family details were mentioned.