Fang Ji had a dream.

In the dream, it was spring, ten years later, on his brother’s birthday.
As he had been doing for all those years, he created a unique piece of jewelry music for his brother as a birthday gift.

His brother was overjoyed. He recorded the gift, saying he would wait until he went to school the next day to let his students and professor friends listen, to show off his younger brother to them.

At that time, his brother was already approaching forty. The gentle and mature charm of a man was perfectly and exquisitely displayed in him.

He was still teaching at B University, now a doctoral supervisor and professor, with a group of somewhat annoying master’s and doctoral students under him. These students always loved to post his brother’s name on the confession wall. His brother didn’t mind, but he always found it a bit annoying.

Fortunately, after so many years, his brother had successfully been infected by him with the habit of wearing jewelry every day.

Whenever his brother’s name was put on the confession wall, a third of the comments would be discussing and praising the jewelry sets his brother changed daily—little did they know, all these jewelry sets were personally selected or even designed by him. After ten years of accumulation, he could already guarantee that his brother’s jewelry would be different every day, 365 days a year!

Ten years later, he was much more mature than he was now.

He had also become an outstanding person, an internationally renowned jewelry music artist, who often had to perform on international stages and had even led a fashion wave of jewelry music around the world. He hadn’t brought shame to the Fang family name.

He had become the pride of his brother and his parents, older brother, and older sister.

When his brother had dinner with his professor friends, he could openly, proudly, and smugly mention him, describing him as his “very impressive younger brother.”

His brother also often showed his friends the unique music he had created for him—

Yes, in these ten years, every New Year’s Eve and birthday, he would create a unique piece of jewelry music for his brother as a gift.

He kept these musical pieces in a special album. Whenever he was performing abroad and the audience requested an encore, he would choose a gift piece from it and perform it for the whole world to hear.

His brother always attended his concerts without fail. Whenever this happened, his brother would smile and say a few words to him after the show, telling him to choose some encore pieces that were more to the audience’s liking next time.

But he wouldn’t.

He thought to himself that he wanted to show these gift songs to the world as much as possible. He wanted the whole world to know what a wonderful brother he had!

Everything in the dream was so natural, so beautiful.

From the day his brother came home, from the moment his brother suggested he try jewelry music, this whole series of future developments seemed to have been expected.

Ten years, twenty years, thirty years…

He believed without a doubt that he had the ability to maintain all this beauty.

Just as the atmosphere was joyous and bright, darkness suddenly began to invade the dream from all sides.

His brother, who was cutting the cake at the dining table and gently talking to him about his plans for the new year, suddenly began to distort and shatter.

He was startled by his brother and scrambled to his feet, wanting to grab him.

But his brother’s figure seemed to have become an illusion at that moment. His five fingers passed through, grabbing nothing, just like that, passing through his brother’s body.

He shouted in a daze and panic, “Brother!”

But his brother did not answer him.

His brother seemed to still be smiling, seemed to still be gently saying something, and the motion of cutting the cake did not stop, but his figure gradually dissolved into countless specks of light, then faded, and scattered, and amidst his desperate grasping, dispersed into countless points of light flying into the darkness.

The darkness was re-illuminated by the points of light.

They quickly receded along the path they had invaded from.

But, his brother was gone. On the table in front of him, only a half-cut birthday cake remained.

Fang Ji was instantly scared awake.

He shot up from the bed, his body tense, gasping for air.

He subconsciously reached out beside him. He remembered he had grabbed his brother, hugged his brother. As long as he held on to his brother and didn’t let go, his brother would never just disappear for no reason…

Huh?

Where was his brother?!

Fang Ji looked down and only then realized that he was lying on a portable medical gurney.

The room around him was unfamiliar. His brother was nowhere in sight. Only his second brother and his mother were sitting to the side, very surprised by his awakening.

Fang Ji couldn’t care less about why he was here at this moment.

He jumped off the bed in a panic, grabbed his brother and mother, and asked anxiously, “Second Brother, Mom, where’s my brother?”

---

In the early morning, on a deserted road.

The hearse sped along. Fang Dad and Fang Sister urged anxiously, “Faster, go faster!”

At this moment, in the GreenLetter group chat, messages from Fang Brother and Fang Mom popped up in anxious succession.

Fang Brother: [Xiao Ji has woken up and is angry. You guys speed up!]

Fang Mom: [Little Lian and I are trying to hold Xiao Ji back… We are trying hard to hold Xiao Ji back… Xiao Ji has broken through our line of defense!]

Fang Brother: [The entire defense line has collapsed, interception failed, Xiao Ji has left the hospital!]

Fang Mom: [Xiao Ji took a taxi and is already on his way to the funeral home!]

The hearse driver was still slowly shaking his head. “Hey, you can’t rush driving. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in the back of the car yourself…”

Fang Dad angrily threw money at him. “Stop talking and drive faster!!!”

They hurriedly arrived at the funeral home.

They hurriedly paid their way through, handling a series of cremation procedures.

Fang Sister hurriedly confirmed, “Is it really okay not to hold a farewell ceremony for the body? This will cause bad rumors about our family.”

Fang Dad hurriedly replied, “It’s fine, it won’t affect our market!”

Fang Sister lowered her voice, “Xiao Ji will definitely be furious with us for this.”

Father Fang sighed helplessly, “A fake corpse is still a bit inconvenient.”

One, it doesn’t decompose. Two, it doesn’t get liver spots. Three, it still needs to eat. What kind of proper corpse looks like that?

Fang Sister thought so too.

The two reached a consensus. Time taken: 17 seconds.

They then hurriedly sent the person into the incinerator. After a flurry of activity, they finally managed to send him off before Xiao Ji arrived.

---

Fang Ji never thought that he had just given in to sleepiness and dozed off for a little while, and his brother would disappear from before him.

Even though he broke through his brother’s and mother’s line of defense, urged the driver to go at top speed the whole way, and rushed to the funeral home without a second’s delay…

His brother was still gone forever.

In the end, what fell into his hands was only a cold urn, and a set of clothes and jewelry taken from the body.

Fang Ji stared blankly at the box in his hands.

In his original plan, he had wanted to stay with his brother after he was gone, until the day he could no longer stay.

But how could his parents, brother, and sister… how could they… steal his brother away while he was unprepared, and even cremate him!

Fang Ji found it hard to accept, hard to understand.

He wailed, “Why did you cremate my brother? Why were you in such a hurry? Why didn’t you wait for me?!”

He shouted sadly, “You didn’t even let me take off his jewelry one last time!!”

Fang Lian stepped forward, his heart aching. “Xiao Ji…”

Fang Ji cried and dodged his arm, running to a corner by himself, holding the box and the clothes and jewelry. “You… you stole my brother, don’t touch me!”

His parents, brother, and sister were having a bit of a headache. They took turns trying to coax Xiao Ji.

But Xiao Ji was crying his heart out, his mind a mess, and he wouldn’t listen to them at all.

The four of them huddled together, plotting in low voices, appropriately seeking help in the group chat, and quickly received quality advice and formed a unified opinion.

Fang Lian, as the designated executor, approached Fang Ji.

Fang Ji was sitting in the corner, holding the urn and the clothes and jewelry, sobbing continuously, crying all the time.

Fang Lian did not speak to him directly, but squatted down and sat beside him.

This action managed to divert a little of Fang Ji’s attention from his crying.

Fang Ji cried and turned his head, saying fiercely, “Don’t touch me!”

Fang Lian did not touch him, but sighed and said, “Sorry, Xiao Ji, we know you’d be unhappy with us doing this, but… you have to know, only by doing this can Big Brother Chengyu rest in peace as soon as possible.”

“Ever since big brother came home last year, you were the person he cared about the most. Every time he chatted with me, big brother would ask me about your preferences, your past. He once told me that what he liked most was the way Xiao Ji smiled while shaking the bells.”

Fang Ji’s sobbing paused, and then he cried even louder. “If brother cares about me, then he should come back from heaven!”

Fang Lian patted Fang Ji’s shoulder comfortingly and continued, “So I think, big brother definitely wouldn’t want to see you crying for him so distractedly after he passed away.”

He asked, “Xiao Ji, you don’t want to make Big Brother Chengyu’s spirit sad for you in heaven, do you?”

Fang Ji froze in a daze.

Fang Lian said gently, “Let’s go home, Xiao Ji. Big brother definitely wouldn’t like to stay in a place like this. It’s time to take him home for a good rest.”

He pointed to the urn in Fang Ji’s arms.

He paused, then said, “I won’t be leaving for the next few days either. I’ll stay at home with you and big brother.”

Fang Ji’s eyes were completely blurred by tears. He silently lowered his head, tears falling drop by drop onto the urn.

His mind was a mess at this moment, all sorts of things about his brother jumbled together in his head.

His second brother’s words seemed to make some sense.

“Take big brother home”…

Yes. At the very least, he should take his brother home first.

Fang Ji finally stopped rejecting Fang Lian’s approach.

He was dazedly pulled up from the ground by Fang Lian.

When he first got up, he couldn’t even stand steadily. His legs were numb, and he staggered a few steps before he finally stood firm.

His parents, brother, and sister gathered around, asking after his well-being. They finally managed to coax the urn from Fang Ji’s hands with reasons like “finding a monk to help the soul find peace” and “finding a Taoist priest to bless the next life,” leaving him with only a set of clothes and jewelry that were indeed from Fang Chengyu.

After sending Xiao Ji back to his room, the parents, brother, and sister huddled for a meeting.

The older brother worried, “Am I going to be the second brother for the rest of my life?”

The older sister said calmly, “Big brother is dead, you’re still alive. You always have a chance.”

The mother suggested, “Teacher Chengyu will still provide us with seven days of free help in the group. Take this opportunity to quickly ask how to formalize your status as ‘older brother’.”

After the three had spoken, they waited for a while and realized one person was missing from the discussion.

They turned their heads in confusion, only to see Fang Dad holding his phone, typing passionately.

The three curiously peeked.

Jingming: [Is the son useful?]

Yecheng: [Very much worth recommending!]

Jingming: [If I promote him, give me a 20% commission [handshake]]

Yecheng: [[bye bye][bye bye][bye bye]]