Chapter Five: The Twins

Lily tried flipping a few more pages and discovered that, just like the entry for September 1st, they had all been heavily blacked out with ink. This deepened her confusion—why would John do such a thing?

She glanced at Aiden’s record for September 1st, focusing on the list of those who went out that day.

Campos, Hodges, Tran, Camille...

Wait a moment—Camille?

Hadn’t she herself sought out Camille back then, hoping Camille could accompany her in searching for John?

Why hadn’t John taken Camille along on this “sifting patrol”? Wasn’t his team usually fixed?

Lily flipped further back in the booklet and realized that on previous “sifting patrols,” Camille had never participated. Only on September 1st had Camille replaced Bana and gone out with John.

Aiden hadn’t recorded the reason, so it seemed Lily could only ask Camille herself.

Knock, knock, knock...

A sudden rapping at the door interrupted Lily’s train of thought. She quickly tidied up the desk and rose to open the door.

The visitor was Xiu, and in each of Xiu’s hands was a little girl.

Lily immediately crouched down, smiling as she asked, “Natasha, Natashia, good evening! What brings you here with Sister Xiu? Did Brother Ander bully you again?”

The twins didn’t answer at once. Instead, they swung their clasped hands with Xiu, prompting Lily to look up at her.

“Um...” Xiu began, hesitating a little. “Lily... I’m sorry, I... I was just worried...”

“Lily, Sister Xiu, you mustn’t argue,” Natasha interjected, smiling at Lily.

“Yes, yes, we’re all family. We should all get along,” Natashia hurried to add, a little more nervous than her sister.

Lily understood at once: Xiu had gotten upset, Natasha and Natashia had noticed, and together they’d brought Xiu to make peace with her.

Lily’s smile grew even warmer as she turned to the twins. “Thank you, my sweet little ladies. You’re right, there’s no need to argue. We are a family, aren’t we, Xiu?”

Lily offered Xiu a graceful way out. It was clear Xiu was a little embarrassed.

“Yes! Yes!” Xiu nodded rapidly.

The twins burst into giggles. Letting go of Xiu’s hands, they clasped each other’s and, with a playful lift of their skirts, offered Lily a simple curtsy.

“Thank you, my darling little ladies. Be careful on the stairs,” Lily said, waving as she stood up.

She then turned to Xiu and smiled. “Won’t you come in for a bit?”

“Ah... all right.” Xiu brushed back her auburn bob and stepped into Lily’s room.

“Natasha and Natashia are becoming more and more adorable,” Lily remarked fondly.

“They are. When I see their eyes, I just can’t help but tell them why I was upset, and then... well, you know the rest.” Xiu sat on the edge of Lily’s bed, looking down, a little shy.

“But their story is truly heartbreaking,” Lily sighed, shaking her head.

“Yes—how could any parents be so cruel as to abandon such lovely twins?” Xiu agreed.

Natasha and Natashia were a rare pair of twins at the orphanage. It was said they’d been left together at the orphanage gate on a summer night one year. The person who brought them threw a stone wrapped in linen into the orphanage, rousing the night watchman on the first floor before vanishing.

Along with the twins, the watchman found a brief note on the linen—a confession to God, an expression of guilt for abandoning the children, and their names: the elder, Natasha, swaddled in blue, and the younger, Natashia, in yellow. No surname.

They had arrived before the fog had entirely shrouded Dunlun City, so the teachers and headmaster always assumed their parents had gotten into some kind of trouble, and foreseeing a disastrous outcome, chose to surrender Natasha and Natashia to the orphanage.

“But back to the point—I found a diary in John’s room,” Lily said, ready to discuss it with Xiu, hoping for some insight into John’s behavior.

“John? A diary?” Xiu reacted as though she’d heard some astonishing news.

Lily was momentarily speechless. She understood Xiu’s reaction—someone as rough and boisterous as John was hardly the type to patiently keep a diary.

“Well, it’s just hard to believe. Did you find anything?” Xiu composed herself and asked about the diary.

“Do you remember that day—after he came back, when we asked him what happened? Remember what he said?” Lily replied with a question.

“Hmm... He said he didn’t remember either, only that he saw a firefly with a long, trailing tail—or something like that.” Xiu tapped her chin, recalling.

“Yes, that’s what I remember too. But in his diary, he wrote about ‘another world’... I think John does remember something, but for some reason, he didn’t tell us.”

As Lily spoke, she moved to the desk, picked up John’s diary, turned to the relevant page, and handed it to Xiu.

Xiu took the diary, frowning at the handwriting—John’s scrawl was truly wild—but she did her best to read the part Lily indicated.

“But... why would John hide this from us?” Xiu was utterly perplexed.

“I don’t know. We have two choices: first, confront him directly—but that’s clearly not possible right now; or second, wait until my coming-of-age ceremony.”

After saying this, Lily fell silent, simply meeting Xiu’s gaze.

The orphanage had provided each room with a dim, old-fashioned ceiling lamp, reminiscent of gaslights, and for reading and writing, a desk lamp as well. Now, only the ceiling lamp was on in Lily’s room, casting a yellowish glow that made the space feel as weary as an old man at dusk. The desk lamp, which was set to turn off automatically, had gone dark.

Xiu glanced up at Lily’s face in the lamplight, then lowered her head and let out a heavy sigh. In a muffled voice, she said, “Of course, you’re right. And as you said, we may not even have a choice—John was wiped away, just like that, without warning.”

“I have only one request—let me and Aiden be by your side!”

Xiu raised her head again, her gaze firm, though a glimmer of tears flashed briefly at the corner of her eyes.