“Huh?”

Rei never imagined her own brother would say something like that to her.

But now, regret was useless. She pressed a hand to her heart. It hurt unbearably.

Her hands were smeared with bright red. Her brother’s blood—

Rei cradled the one she loved most, her big brother. Blood dirtied her cheeks, yet a satisfied smile bloomed there.

No wonder the novels always said it: at the final moment, dying with the one you love is the greatest happiness.

Rei was blissful now, even if from birth she’d been a girl doomed to never have it.

No—wrong. The happiest thing in her life was having this brother.

Even if he’d seemed unfaithful, that woman must’ve forced him.

It had to be that! Whatever. None of it mattered anymore. Big Brother was already dead.

Dwelling on that woman wouldn’t help.

After all—

things had gone past saving.

—and it was about time she ended her own life.

Since birth, Rei had pictured this day again and again.

Living in this world hurt too much.

If she weren’t sick, she wouldn’t let go so easily.

But from the start, she’d already lost at the starting line.

Rei set the kitchen knife down. With small, blood-smeared hands, she gently stroked his face with eyes shut tight. A trace of contentment tugged at her lips.

She lowered her head and pecked his cheek, lightly.

“In the next life, let’s stay together too, Big Brother. If there really is one, Rei won’t ever let you go…”

Saying that, Rei Nidoume picked up the knife lying on the floor.

The cold tip pressed straight to her heart. This heart had made her suffer countless times, so what she had to do—

was make this noisy heart finally shut up.

“Rei will be with Big Brother too. Rei’s going to die—how wonderful! Anything that gets in the way of us being together has to die! It’s all because of this stupid thing, it kept Rei from being with Big Brother! This stupid thing ruined our chance to always be together—”

She screamed in fury, then drove the knife’s sharpest point—

straight into her heart. Not a hint of hesitation.

It had to be said: her face at the end was serene. To grow cold in the arms of the one she loved most—

for someone who’d suffered this long, it almost felt like relief.

So at the instant of death, a bright smile still lingered on her face.

“Finally. Finally nothing can get between Rei and Big Brother—”

The two of them collapsed together. Because the blade had pierced the vital spot of Rei’s heart,

her pain lasted only a moment. Blood slid slowly from the corner of her mouth. Like a doll, the girl lay on the boy’s thigh and gently closed her eyes.

That night, two lives slipped quietly from this world.

By the time their bodies were found, a night had already passed.

If Yuki hadn’t called an electrician to fix the breaker, the bodies might not have been found so soon.

After the police and ambulance were called, the Nakatani Family’s relatives came to the house.

The Nakatani Family was large, with many businesses.

Reporters soon descended on the crime scene.

Cameras kept rolling as they interviewed relatives bearing the Nakatani name.

Once they saw both heirs were dead, they started arguing the moment they arrived. And kept at it.

They had only one goal—

the inheritance Nikaido Yuki and Rei Nidoume’s parents had left behind.

Judging by the scene, the culprit Rei Nidoume had held the blade used as the weapon.

Police found only Rei Nidoume’s fingerprints on the knife.

Even so, the scene didn’t let them conclude right away that Rei Nidoume had killed her own brother.

Besides—

Rei Nidoume was a fourteen-year-old girl. How could she kill her biological brother, who was so much bigger than her?

Without an accomplice, how could a fourteen-year-old girl kill an adult male?

So the investigation followed that lead.

The police also weighed another angle: with both dead, who stood to gain the most?

Obviously, those so‑called relatives.

They marked the relatives as suspects and prepared to question them one by one.

At that moment, the inspector sat by the dining table—

“We heard Rei Nidoume filed to discharge herself from the hospital. Patients with severe conditions need a family member’s consent to do that. Did you approve her discharge on your own because you couldn’t afford Rei Nidoume’s medical bills?”

“How would I know that! Ask someone else! Damn it, they can’t even die without causing trouble! Two little brats!”

The rough man was Nikaido Yuki’s uncle.

He worked as a deputy manager in the Nakatani family company.

He had motives tied to shares in the Nakatani company, so he was suspect number one.

But he wasn’t the only one; three people had rights to inherit shares of the Nakatani company.

All three were detained on-site and questioned in turn.

The second was Nikaido Yuki’s aunt.

She was a corporate secretary. As both relative and investor, she had significant inheritance rights.

So the police questioned her.

“Were you the one who filed Rei Nidoume’s discharge with the hospital?”

“No! Not me… I didn’t do anything like that. None of this has anything to do with me!”

She glanced, flustered, at the two bodies on the floor. Cold sweat beaded her brow, likely from nerves.

The third was Nikaido Yuki’s aunt.

Glasses on, her face read calm. She seemed the most composed of the three.

“You’re the largest shareholder of the Nakatani company. By rights you should inherit the whole thing. Did you find the two in your way and instigate Rei Nidoume to kill?”

“That’s a misunderstanding. I may be the largest shareholder, but I wouldn’t murder with such base methods.”

All three claimed it had nothing to do with them, yet each bore suspicion of incitement to murder.

They were all taken to the station for further investigation.

Because of the case, the entire Nakatani business was frozen by police.

But no matter the investigation, the dead wouldn’t return.

The two youngest lives had fallen.

Nikaido Yuki’s fiancée—Hu Xiao Mayuko.

She chased after the bodies being loaded into the hearse for the funeral home, crying without stop.

Her tie to Nikaido Yuki wasn’t just an engagement on paper.

They were classmates. After a long time together, Mayuko did have real feelings for Yuki.

She even had a bit of fondness for this workaholic.

So the day he was loaded into the hearse, she ran after it for a long time.

All the way to the funeral home gates.

On the day of the memorial, Hu Xiao Mayuko cried her heart out.

Her father tried to comfort her, but she was still devastated.

He had left her side for good.

That thought made Mayuko sob like a child.

That day it rained without end, as if the sky itself wept.

In Rei Nidoume’s black‑and‑white photo, a chilling smile showed instead, as if saying: this is exactly what you all deserved.

No one dared meet Rei Nidoume’s cold eyes.

Born under misfortune, the girl smiled like she was cursing the whole world.