As the sound drifted on, the sky slowly opened its eyes once more.
Yin Xiu's eyes turned bloodshot as he gripped the knife tightly and met the sky's gaze.
He hated this instance more than he had ever hated it at this moment.
His eyes closed again, and the surrounding scene changed rapidly, as if unfolding his entire life, exposing it completely to him, and analyzing all his emotions.
Yin Xiu stood still, staring intently at the ever-changing scene around him.
A gloomy orphanage appeared before Yin Xiu. The gray sky seemed to be watching everything here, and the dilapidated gray walls of the orphanage almost blended into the sky.
The place was old and dirty; the grass growing on the walls was so withered it barely looked alive. In the small courtyard, several dirty children were thrashing about on the ground. A young child was being held down and pulled hard by the others, their voices fierce, "Give us back our candy!!"
The children on the ground were torn and disheveled. A cold smile curled on his pale, thin face as he stared at them unmoved. "You dare to take my sister's things, so I'll take yours. What's the problem?"
The children swarmed him in a rage, trying to snatch the few candies from his palm.
The man on the ground shoved the candy into his mouth, chewed it up along with the wrapper, and swallowed it whole. He grinned sinisterly, his childish face devoid of any childlike expression. "If you're so capable, then cut open my stomach and steal it!"
A group of children, enraged, rushed up and beat him.
One of the children suddenly turned around and stared intently at Yin Xiu, who was standing in the yard, and uttered a shrill voice, "He has gluttony! He has gluttony! He has gluttony!"
Yin Xiu stared coldly at the scene before him, his face expressionless.
The next second, an innocent and adorable little girl rushed out of the orphanage and hugged Yin Xiu. She angrily threw a few loose candies at them, "I have more! I'll give them all to you! Get away!"
The children picked up the candy and turned to leave.
The child on the ground tried to jump up, but was held back by the little girl. Even in the dim environment, her eyes were bright and she said in a sweet voice, "Brother, don't pay attention to them. Xiaoxiao doesn't like candy. Don't fight with them for my sake."
The child silently touched the little girl's hair and didn't chase after her.
A rare touch of warmth amidst the somber atmosphere.
The child on the ground suddenly looked up and glared at Yin Xiu, shouting angrily, "Why didn't you help your sister get her candy back! You could have helped her get everything back! That's what you, as her older brother, should have done!"
"You're really tired, aren't you? You can barely take care of yourself, yet you still have to look after a frail younger sister, getting hurt all over for her. You've thought about giving up on her, haven't you?"
He slowly and coldly uttered a sharp, cutting remark: "He's lazy, he's lazy, he's lazy!"
Yin Xiu's eyes turned red, and he gripped his knife tightly as he stepped forward, but the scene before him vanished in an instant.
A simply dressed woman stood in front of the boy whose cheeks were gradually opening up. She whispered, "Actually, someone really likes you and wants to adopt you. Boys are more likely to be adopted than girls. Leave your sister here and go with them. That would be a better life for you."
The boy's face showed a stubborn expression. "I don't want to. I'm already fifteen years old. When I'm a little older, I can support Xiaoxiao on my own. I don't need them."
"At fifteen, you're still just a child." She stroked his hair earnestly. "The director is starting to think the orphanage can't support so many children. Maybe it won't be long before the orphanage closes down and you'll be homeless again."
He slowly lowered his eyes and murmured, "I'm enough on my own. I don't need anyone else's help. I can take care of my sister. I can..."
The woman slowly raised her head and looked at Yin Xiu, muttering expressionlessly, "It's arrogance. He's arrogant. He's arrogant. He's arrogant."
Suddenly, a small hand grabbed the hand that was holding the knife in Yin Xiu's hand.
He turned around sharply, alert, and saw the familiar, innocent face of the little girl. She held up a small flower in her hand and said happily, "Brother, look, I found a flower in the yard and I'm giving it to you!"
Yin Xiu stared blankly at the flower in front of him, his brows furrowed, a complex mix of emotions welling up inside him. He didn't even know whether he should accept it or not.
But the little girl shook the small flower in her hand and began to earnestly recite, "I know my brother likes flowers the most. When I leave here in the future, I will plant a lot of pretty little flowers where my brother lives, so that he can see flowers every day when he goes out."
"Brother, let's stay together forever, okay?" The little girl blinked and smiled innocently.
Yin Xiu's gaze wavered slightly, and he slowly uttered, "...Okay."
The little girl's lips curled into a sneer, but the smile gradually turned sinister and mocking. She stared at Yin Xiu and said with a low, sarcastic tone, "You're clearly an unwanted child, yet you dare to dream of being with your family forever? No one will be by your side. You have nothing. Stop daydreaming."
She crushed the small flower in her hand, her gaze icy. "He's greedy! He's greedy! He! Is greedy!"
Yin Xiu suddenly swung his hand back, gritting his teeth as he used the knife to clear the scene before him, only to see that behind the darkness was Lazy's room.
He lay peacefully in Li Mo's black coffin, quietly letting down his guard and falling into a deep sleep.
He did not refuse Li Mo's help, nor did he refuse the entanglement of the tentacles, even though those were things that he used to be wary of and dangerous to him.
"You don't actually think of me as your boyfriend, do you?" A swaying tentacle crawled up the edge of the coffin, and the mouth on it muttered softly, "Humans can only have lust with humans. You would react even if you were surrounded by monsters. You are not human, you are a monster too, a monster like me."
The mouth on the tentacle grinned maliciously, shouting, "He's lustful! He's lustful! He's lustful towards monsters!"
Yin Xiu stood still, but the scene before him shattered like glass.
He stood under the gloomy sky, a light drizzle falling and wetting his clothes, and a faint sound echoed from the rain.
"You have the sins that every human being has; you are human."
The sound of wind slowly rose from the raindrops, and as that faint sound rang out, the wind grew stronger and stronger.
"You as a whole contain seven sins."
"You have no warm sunshine, you only have a barren, cold, and painful past."
The rain was getting heavier and the wind was getting stronger.
The cold wind, mixed with snowflakes, swept over Yin Xiu's figure like a blizzard. Snow fog filled the entire space, and the wind swirled wildly. There was nothing but coldness here.
"This is your life, like a childhood with a biting cold wind, a long and lonely drizzle. Countless people have passed by you, like the wind blowing by. You have committed all the sins that a person should have, but you have left nothing behind."
"You are a human being, you are the most pitiful person."
The sound gradually faded away.
The wind stopped, and the rain and snow gradually ceased.
Once again, only Yin Xiu remained in the darkness.
The space remained silent for a long time before a voice slowly broke the silence, "But I can give you everything you don't have. Do you want to stay here?"
The surrounding scene showed an orphanage, no longer gloomy, but full of vitality and sunshine, with flowers blooming and clustering on the walls.
The little girl excitedly grabbed Yin Xiu's hand, holding a handful of small flowers, and pulled him towards the orphanage. "Brother, come quick! The director gave us lots of candy, and everyone is waiting for you."
Yin Xiu stared at her calmly, his emotions completely unmoved. "I don't need it."
"Brother?" The little girl stared at him in confusion. "Don't you want me anymore, brother?"
Yin Xiu took a deep breath, slowly closed his eyes, and raised his knife to cut through everything in front of him.
"You don't want to… You will have nothing, you will only have sin, and become lonely, just like you six years ago."
As the sound rang out, a masked figure covered in blood appeared before Yin Xiu.
He slowly removed his mask, revealing a face identical to Yin Xiu's.
"I am you." He looked at Yin Xiu and whispered in the same voice as Yin Xiu, "I am you from six years ago."