Chapter 1

On the eighth anniversary of my brother’s death, I was diagnosed with cancer.

People came and went in the hospital. The older doctor frowned as he finished reading the thick stack of test results, then asked me gently:

“Did you come here alone? Do you have any other family?”

He asked me this question twice.

Once when I had just sat down after entering the room. And again now.

I figured my illness must be pretty serious.

So I smiled and replied, “I don’t have any family. Just tell me directly what the diagnosis is.”

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel afraid of the result at all.

When the test results were handed back to me, I held the thin sheets of paper and, for a moment, they felt like experience cards in a game.

Death was nothing more than my trial pass for this world about to expire.

Thinking of this, I couldn’t help but laugh again.

That was when He Wei called.

The year things were at their worst, we both said some harsh things, swearing that if we ever met again, we’d treat each other as if the other were dead.

And now, I accidentally answered a call from an unfamiliar number.

He Wei’s voice came through the phone: “Your birthday is in a couple of days. Dad asked me to see if you wanted to have dinner together.”

I answered bluntly, “No. I don’t have time.”

Even through the phone, I could sense He Wei’s displeasure: “Every time we ask you, you say you don’t have time. What are you so busy with, anyway?”

I walked over to the trash can, stepped on the pedal, and the lid flipped open.

I tossed the waste paper in and said casually, “Busy dying.”

“Can you stop saying such depressing things all the time-”

He Wei clearly couldn’t stand me talking about dying so casually.

But I couldn’t be bothered to continue the conversation. I said, “I’m hanging up,”

and hung up the phone.