Chapter 51.1

(Wife, greet the guest in my stead!)

25 years ago, a pair of twins were born.

The older brother was called Xiao Cao, the younger brother was called Xiao Yun. Their parents were met with an untimely death, so the pair of brothers had to rely on one another for survival.

Ever since their childhood, Xiao Yun had slight defects in his personality: he only talked to his older brother, he did not like going to school, nor did he like communicating with others.

Xiao Yun did not go to school. He constantly stayed at home and self-studied. He did not attend the college entrance examinations either.

After Xiao Cao reported to “I Am Super Intelligent” University, he thought that his younger brother could not go on like this.

Xiao Yun could learn the junior high and senior high syllabus by himself.

But when they reached the university level, they were all high level knowledge which differed from high school completely. Xiao Cao hoped that, apart from gaining knowledge, Xiao Yun could experience student life by attending university, and he could slowly learn to interact with others.

When Xiao Cao and Xiao Yun discussed this matter, Xiao Yun agreed to it as well.

However, because Xiao Yun did not attend the college entrance examinations, Xiao Cao used his own name to request for a double degree. He studied literature while Xiao Yun studied chemistry.

Hence, in front of the brothers’ teachers and schoolmates, they shared the named ident.i.ty of Xiao Cao.

They did not stay in school, always made sure to arrange their time properly, and informed each other of their appearances. Hence, they were never exposed.

Xiao Yun thought he could keep living with his older brother like this until they graduated.

What he did not expect was that his brother would fall in love with a girl called Xiao Hua.

She was an eighteen year old lady in her blossoming years. She constantly wore an artlessly romantic smile on her face, and everyone liked her upon meeting her.

But Xiao Yun had no way of liking her. Because she had stolen his older brother.

In the fourth year of their university life, the older brother Xiao Cao became more cheerful by the day, whereas the younger brother Xiao Yun became increasingly depressed.

Xiao Yun felt himself regretting it a little— Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to his brother’s request?

If he had stayed at home all day long, his brother would spend more time at home taking care of him instead of joining the adventuring team.

During their fourth year, there was a graduation trip.

Xiao Yun heard his older brother say that he was going to go to Huilong Snow Mountain with Xiao Hua to find an object called the Rainbow Crystal.

Reportedly, the first person to see the Rainbow Crystal would attain happiness.

Xiao Cao told Xiao Yun: “I can sense that Xiao Hua likes me. I have to find the Rainbow Crystal first. When that time comes, I will confess to Xiao Hua and spend the rest of my life with her.”

Xiao Yun did not speak. However, after his older brother went out of the house, he immediately departed for Huilong Snow Mountain as well.

Since the older brother Xiao Cao was travelling with his friends, his journey was lengthened slightly due to some of his friends’ shenanigans.

Hence, Xiao Yun arrived at Huilong Snow Mountain earlier.

And before he went to the snow mountain, he brought two items with him, one of them being the anesthetic he had developed with his PhD tutor for their project. As long as the human skin came into contact with the anesthetic, they would faint immediately.

The other item was a small machine he had created: it broke the pharmaceutical liquid into tiny granules, which could blend into the air like vapour. The machine’s opening also had an installation that could direct the wind direction, thus directing the flow of the sedative vapour.

When both items were used simultaneously, it could knock people unconscious while they were none the wiser.

In the middle of that night, Xiao Yun watched his older brother and his teammates find the cave with wide eyes. They were incredibly excited, believing that the Rainbow Crystal was inside.

But Xiao Yun had already entered that cave before, he knew that the Rainbow Crystal was not inside.

However, Xiao Yun did not say anything. Because he wanted to find the crystal first.

That night, Xiao Yun trekked in the northeast-east direction of the slope, and found a second mountain cave.

Of course, out of safety considerations, he did not go in for the time being, and only planned to investigate it on the second day.

Moreover, Xiao Yun wanted to test his older brother with the time that he had.

When the night eventually deepened, Xiao Yun sent his older brother a message, saying that he was at the snow mountain as well, close to their camping ground.

Carrying the worries of an older brother, Xiao Cao went out to meet Xiao Yun.

In order not to disturb his sleeping teammates, the older brother made sure to keep his movements light. Sure enough, no one woke up from his actions.

After the older brother met Xiao Yun, he was knocked out by Xiao Yun.

Subsequently, Xiao Yun dragged him back to sleep in the small tent he had pitched nearby.

Then, Xiao Yun went back to the bigger group’s camping ground, and pretended to be his older brother Xiao Cao as he slipped into the sleeping bag.

Early the next morning, the Xiao Cao-guised Xiao Yun entered the cave together with the team. He had worn protective clothing to ensure that his skin would not come in contact with the anesthetic. As he pretended to faint, he used the machine to spray the anesthetic and knocked out the other teammates.

Afterwards, he took out Xiao Hua’s phone and his own phone to individually send his brother two messages.

“Xiao Cao, I’m at the cave we went to last night, something bad has happened to me, come and save me quickly!”

“Older brother, northeast-east direction, there’s a cave, I encountered something dangerous, please save me.”

As Xiao Yun continued to sit in the cave, he saw his older brother walk in with his own eyes.

This meant that his brother chose Xiao Hua, instead of him.

“Xiao Hua! Xiao Hua, are you alright?!”

Upon seeing Xiao Hua collapsed on the ground, Xiao Cao was extremely shocked. “Xiao Yun, what is the meaning of this? What did you do to them?”

Aggrieved, Xiao Yun stared at his brother, saying: “I didn’t do anything. I only wanted to test the position I had in your heart.”

Xiao Cao was very irate. “Stop messing around.”

“I’m not messing around. Originally I was even wondering… If I should give you the crystal, if I found it first. But now I understand. I can’t give it to you. I have to find the crystal for myself. This happiness, I can’t give it to you and Xiao Hua.”

After saying that, Xiao Yun used the machine to sedate his older brother Xiao Cao. Then, he left the east-side cave on his lonesome and made his way towards the mountain cave that was skewed north.

After entering the cave and traversing to the end of the small path, Xiao Yun saw the rainbow.

The rainbow was being emitted by a crystal.

As it turns out, the Rainbow Crystal that the legends spoke of was in this cave.

Wild with joy, Xiao Yun picked up the crystal.

He felt that this was fate.

The person who saw the crystal could attain happiness.

The three boys came here to brave the dangers for the sake of a girl’s happiness.

But this crystal had been taken by Xiao Yun, and Xiao Yun wanted to share this piece of happiness with his older brother.

Xiao Yun did not expect that when he pulled the crystal out from the cracks, it would unexpectedly cause a small-scale avalanche.

Xiao Yu dashed out of the cave like he had gone insane, but the heavy snow had already blocked up the entrance of the cave that his older brother was in.

He dug for five days and nights before he finally cleared out the snow in front of the cave’s entrance.

However, his older brother had already died by then.

He never intended to kill any one. He had never intended to kill his older brother. But when all was said and done, his older brother had died because of him.

From that moment onwards, he was virtually insane.

After that, Xiao Yun relied on the food in the camp to survive. Once all of the food was exhausted, he either went to pick up the unwanted food sc.r.a.ps from the villagers who resided at the bottom of the mountain, or he relied on the food that the travellers left behind in their hurry to survive after he scared them.

Three years pa.s.sed in a blur. He was akin to a spectre as he watched over his older brother’s corpse.

Three years later. An inspection team arrived for an expedition.

As Xiao Yun watched them take away his older brother’s corpse from the darkness, he was extremely anxious and he did not know what to do. Hence. he could only pretend to be a ghost to deceive them, wanting to scare them away.

At the same time, it could not be denied that Xiao Yun was a little mentally confused too. He would treat every person he met as his older brother, and asked them insistently: Why did he believe Xiao Hua, instead of believing in him? Why did he choose to save Xiao Hua, and not save him?

If he chose to save him and went to the other cave, he would not have died!

And even later, Xiao Yun encountered Xiao Yuan.

In the instant where he saw Xiao Yuan’s face clearly, Xiao Yun’s anger burned— On what basis do you get to survive? Why did you run off on your own? Why didn’t you save my older brother!

Thus, Xiao Yun punched Xiao Yuan.

Beside Xiao Yuan was a female, who was also the inspection team’s Doctor Xu. In order to save Xiao Yuan, she grabbed some snow from the ground and smashed it towards Xiao Yun.

When the snow smashed onto his head, it made his head hurt so much it threatened to crack.

However, the pain also sobered the nearly insane Xiao Yun, and he turned around to leave.

He realised that his brother was dead, and he would never come back again.

But with how things were right now, he might not even be able to protect his older brother’s corpse anymore.

No way.

This could not happen.

How could he possibly allow other people to treat his older brother’s corpse like this?

He could not bear the thought of his older brother’s corpse being sent to the police station and then dissected.

He would rather destroy his brother completely with his own hands.

Hence, he chose to burn the corpses.

After he was done committing arson, Xiao Yun staggered towards the cave that his older brother had died in.

In front of the mountain cave was the precipice. By sitting close to the precipice, he could burn the entire scene of huge fire into his retinas.

Quietly, Xiao Yun watched the huge fire burn down everything, leaving behind a lump of black evenness. This was probably his brother’s corpse.

During that period of time, he ate the energy bars that he had taken from the camp. It was not because he wanted to live longer, he just wanted to hold on until the inspection team left.

Fortunately, all the supplies had been summarily destroyed in the fire. Since the water and food were also gone, the inspection team could no longer care for the corpses so they left the area swiftly to make for the big base camp.

After the inspection team left, Xiao Yun pushed Xiao Hua and Xiao Dong’s corpses off the precipice, before he hugged his older brother’s corpse to sit at the brink.

And at this moment, in front of the players reading the story, the card played the ending scene.

“Older brother, even though you’re burnt to this state, I can still recognise you.”

“Is it because we look exactly the same?”

Having said that, Xiao Yun took out the Rainbow Crystal.

Underneath the sunlight’s illumination, the crystal emitted seven colours of the rainbow, s.h.i.+ning from the precipice and across the snowy field.

In the snow white world, there was finally the splendour of seven colours.

Under the rainbow, Xiao Yun’s silhouette appeared slender and gentle.

He looked at the carbonised corpse in his embrace obsessively, and asked: “Older brother, didn’t you say… the person who finds the Rainbow Crystal, can attain happiness? Why is it that, because of it, I lost you instead?”

Naturally, there was no one there to respond to the question that Xiao Yun asked.

At the very end of the cutscene, Xiao Yun jumped off the precipice as he was hugging his older brother, to bury them together underneath the cliff.

Above the snowy lands, only intense light remained, alongside a seven-coloured rainbow that did not disperse for a long time.

Hence, the real murderer of this case was Xiao Yun who was acting as Xiao Cao.

Owing to the fact that their ident.i.ties as twins had never been exposed, the pair of brothers shared the same ident.i.ty. Thus, there was only the choice of “Xiao Cao” in the voting options.

* * *

Gu Liang yawned, and then took a sip of his coffee.

Presently, he was sitting in a coffee shop on the first floor of the hotel in the resting area.

The resting area was not large; there was a hotel, three to five restaurants, and a garden filled with flowers and fauna.

However, the surroundings of the resting area was just like any other scenario, since it was wrapped up in thick fog which obscured everything beyond.

Putting down his coffee cup, Gu Liang glanced outside the window and noted that the sky was going to brighten soon.

Professor w.a.n.g was dozing off in front of him. “Why do we have to adjust to different time zones when playing scripts? Do you think I should sleep, or stay awake?”

Gu Liang did not reply, merely sipping on his coffee silently.

Professor w.a.n.g looked at him. “This isn’t like your style. I thought you were going to sleep immediately.”

Gu Liang continued to keep his silence.

However, Professor w.a.n.g had gotten used to his ice-cold appearance and he did not care much for it. Instead, he only sighed with emotion, “I couldn’t get my mind off the plot as I was travelling here just now. The cave in the north was situated on lower ground, whereas the eastern cave stood on a high terrain, and it even had two stone walls to act as a bulwark. Hence, the little brother got out unscathed, but the older brother was harmed in the avalanche. Had the older brother chosen to save his younger brother first upon seeing the two messages, he would have gone to the cave in the east, and he wouldn’t have died.”

Gu Liang’s eyebrows raised briefly, not speaking.

Professor w.a.n.g asked him: “Hey, if it was you, who would you have chosen? If one side was your lover, and the other was your close relative, who would you choose to save if they were both met with danger?”

Gu Liang glanced towards Professor w.a.n.g, before stating simply: “You’re wrong with regards to the crucial part of the problem.”

“Where did I go wrong?” Professor w.a.n.g asked.

“The fundamental reason why this happened was because the younger brother used the anesthetic to sedate his older brother and everyone else.”

Placidly, Gu Liang uttered, “The older brother died, not because he made the wrong choice, but because his younger brother knocked him unconscious. All of this happened because the younger brother recklessly courted disaster for the sake of sounding him out.”

Professor w.a.n.g thought about it. “That much is true.”

“If we put it nicely, he sedated everyone because he wanted to find the crystal first. But if we’re disregarding the pleasantries, who knows if he would suddenly go insane and kill someone later? Perhaps, even if the snow avalanche didn’t happen, he might have killed someone, out of the mounting anger of having to see his older brother together with Xiao Hua, which is also a reminder of the choice that his older brother has made.”

Gu Liang: “When we get to the bottom of the matter, it’s Xiao Yun who has a problem.”

Professor w.a.n.g: “Actually, he’s quite pitiful as well. He has mental issues.”

Gu Liang replied calmly, “His brother was too lenient towards him. People like him should have gone for treatment earlier. And if they can’t be treated, lock them up. Or else they’ll harm their schoolmates and harm themselves, or worse still, harm humanity as a whole.

“If we want to persist in the notion that the older brother’s death was his own fault, then his only mistake was not carrying out such measures for his younger brother at an earlier stage.”

“Tsk, you’re quite, what’s the word…. If a person like you had a younger brother, you’d be too willing to sacrifice your ties of blood to righteousness.”

“Some people in this world are born evil. If he was truly what we described, I would do it.”