A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

The sky had grown dark, the snow-white curtains rising and falling in the wind.

The setting sun slanted westward, casting its afterglow across the wooden floor. The light shifted from a pale, egg-white yellow to a deep, vibrant red.

The moment he got home, eldest brother Ke Linye sat on the sofa and pulled a copy of Ulysses from the communal bookshelf. The living room shelf held books the family had already finished or were currently reading.

The idea of a "communal bookshelf" had been proposed by third sister Xia Ningzhi a few years ago. She had pestered Ke Mingwei, sweet-talking him with "handsome old man" and "good daddy" until she successfully coaxed him into buying a folding bookshelf online.

She had sat right there in the living room, quietly and earnestly tinkering with the parts, piecing the shelf together bit by bit.

Ke Mingqing had been the first to put something on it. He added his fully read set of the Bakuman manga. After that, Ke Mingwei added Self-Cultivation of a Superhero: The Legend of the Rain Crow, their alien mother put in a Comprehensive Home Cooking Guide, and Xia Lingxue contributed The Chronicles of Norse Mythology.

And now, the out-of-place literary classic in Ke Linye's hands—Ulysses—was the very book he had placed there years ago.

Even though Xia Ningzhi was the one who built the shelf, she went to a boarding school for junior high. By the time she came home for the weekend, she could only stare indignantly at a shelf already stuffed with novels, belatedly squeezing in a copy of The Eccentric Family.

Year after year passed, and the children gradually grew taller. The back of the bookshelf still bore the marks carved by a knife. Each notch represented a child's height at the time, their names written next to them in crooked handwriting.

Eventually, they grew taller than the bookshelf itself, and those notches on the back were never updated again.

Yet, as the years went by, the books on the shelf only grew thicker and more numerous.

Only Xia Zili had never put a book on the shelf.

Recalling this, Ke Mingqing thought, She's probably just illiterate. Time to look up the average education level of magical girls.

In truth, he remembered several times when a little Xia Zili had stood before the shelf with her head bowed. She would hide a book behind her back, glancing left and right, sneaking peeks to make sure no one in the living room was watching.

She would hesitate over whether to add her favorite Charlie IX detective series or her shoujo manga. But every time she stood before the shelf, she would deliberate for a long time before invariably giving up.

"Are Zili and Ningzhi home?" Ke Linye asked, interrupting Ke Mingqing's thoughts. "Why is the house so quiet today?"

As he spoke, the eldest brother grabbed the remote to turn on the TV, then pulled a deck of cards from his trench coat pocket and spread them across the table.

"Mom sent her and third sister to the supermarket," Ke Mingqing said flatly. "They'll be back soon."

"I see. I thought they were hiding from me."

Ke Linye smiled. He kept his eyes on Ulysses, simultaneously building a pyramid out of the playing cards on the table.

Ke Mingqing grabbed a popsicle from the fridge and shot his brother a sideways glance.

In the memories of this body's original owner, eldest brother Ke Linye had been exceptionally outstanding since childhood. He had skipped grades in high school and tested into the best university. He was a veritable genius, far surpassing the standard of the ordinary "neighbor's kid."

But he was also incredibly neurotic. Since they were little, most of the children in the family couldn't get along with him.

Only second sister Xia Lingxue had a slightly better relationship with him.

As an adopted son, Ke Mingqing had always believed his eldest brother didn't care about him. He was a latecomer, someone who had inserted himself into this family halfway through. But a single incident had upended that assumption.

It happened on a day of torrential rain, when Ke Mingqing and his classmates were trapped at their junior high school. He had just started junior high back then, and his interpersonal skills were a disaster. When his classmates found out he was adopted, most of them started calling him a "parasite."

Because of his personality flaws, he was ostracized by the rest of the class.

Ke Mingwei happened to be busy that day and couldn't drive over to pick him up.

Ke Mingqing waited alone at the school gate for a long time, clutching his backpack. The bullies from his class threw their arms around his shoulders, taking turns making fun of him before finally tossing his bag into the muddy rainwater.

He simply lowered his eyes, quietly watching his books get soaked by the rain, his face completely expressionless.

It was as if none of it had anything to do with him.

But then, Ke Linye pulled up to the school in Ke Mingwei's car. He looked over at Ke Mingqing through the window, a smile lingering in his clear eyes.

Ke Mingqing froze before looking up, as if waking from a dream.

Terrified of his eldest brother seeing his sorry state, he plunged into the downpour and snatched up his soaked bag. He hurriedly shoved the sodden, sticky workbooks back inside, clutching the bag to his chest as he climbed into the car.

Ke Linye paused, the smile fading from his face.

He glanced at the backpack in Ke Mingqing's arms, then looked through the window at the kids hiding behind the curtain of rain, snickering. He asked curiously, "What's your relationship with those kids?"

"Friends," Ke Mingqing sneezed, his voice low.

"Are they really?"

"Yeah."

Ke Mingqing rubbed his red nose, rainwater matting his bangs to his forehead.

The torrential rain pounded down. Ke Linye watched him silently through the rearview mirror, his fingers tapping lightly against the steering wheel.

After a moment, he shrugged and drove away.

"I was like this in the orphanage too. I'm used to it," Ke Mingqing muttered, breaking the silence between them.

Ke Linye thought for a second. "Are the kids in the orphanage all that rough?"

"No... most of them are like me. So the occasional rough kid ends up becoming a little tyrant." Ke Mingqing watched the rain outside the window. "No one has a family anyway, so there's no need to worry about anyone snitching. Whoever has the hardest fists makes the rules."

Ke Linye stayed quiet for a moment. He tilted his head and said casually, "Hmm... that's fine. Just pretend you're still in the orphanage, then."

His voice pierced through the rustling rain and fell into Ke Mingqing's ears. Young Ke Mingqing stiffened. He tightened his grip on his soaked backpack, his lowered bangs hiding his eyes.

That night, Ke Mingqing ran away from home. He walked through the rain back to the familiar orphanage and climbed the wall to enter the dorm room where he had lived for so long. It was completely empty now. He lay on a bed, staring blankly at the moon outside the window. Sometimes, being alone made him feel more secure. He didn't know why, but having his eldest brother witness his humiliation at school had actually made him feel terribly upset.

It was because he couldn't stop thinking that he wasn't an orphan anymore. He had unconsciously started to expect things—expecting someone to actually stand up for him, expecting someone to feel angry because he was hurt. Expecting that, maybe, he really wasn't someone with no one to rely on anymore.

But he had been wrong. Completely wrong. Ke Linye's expression in the rearview mirror had been entirely unbothered. Dashed hopes always brought heartbreak, which was why the first lesson children in the orphanage learned as they grew up was not to expect anything. Those kids who sat around desperately hoping to be adopted all felt the same way.

Ke Mingqing stared at that high wall and closed his eyes. Later that night, when the rain finally stopped, he went back home.

When Ke Linye opened the front door, he was standing silently on the porch, trembling, his head hung low like a drenched stray dog.

Ke Linye stared at him in silence for a while. He led him up to the second-floor bathroom, threw him a towel, and shut the door behind him.

Ke Linye crossed his arms and leaned against the back of the door. After a moment, he spoke in a low voice.

"What I meant was..."

Ke Mingqing paused in rubbing his hair with the towel and looked back. He stared at the silhouette cast against the frosted glass door, saying nothing.

"Opening your mouth to ask for help isn't that hard," Ke Linye's voice drifted in from outside the bathroom. "I might not be all that reliable, but I'm still your big brother."

Tossing down those words, Ke Linye walked away.

After that day, an unbelievable thing happened. The gang of bullies in his class dropped out of school one after another. Ke Mingqing guessed that Ke Linye might have done something, but he had no proof.

Then, one night, Ke Linye stopped him while he was reading in the living room. Keeping his eyes lowered as he turned a page, he gave a word of advice:

"You need to be more careful about making friends in the future. Hang out with trash, and you'll turn into trash too."

Ke Mingqing stood there, stunned, for a long, long time. Finally, he nodded, muttered an "Oh, okay," and headed upstairs.

Back in the present, Ke Mingqing quietly reminisced as he sipped his drink.

Big bro wouldn't have used his powers to traumatize those kids for life, would he? No, no, no... knowing his twisted sense of humor, he definitely did something way worse.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Ke Mingqing sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, not even bothering to bat an eyelid.

Ke Linye glanced through the window at the figures outside. It was Xia Zili and Xia Ningzhi returning home with shopping bags. The former looked displeased, clearly unhappy about being ordered around by their alien mother, while the latter had a faint smile on her lips.

"They're back."

Ke Linye smiled faintly, set his book down, and walked over to the entryway to open the door.

Seeing his face, both Xia Zili and Xia Ningzhi paused in surprise.

"Whoa, big bro is back?" Xia Ningzhi said, reacting a beat late. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I mentioned it yesterday, but none of you replied," Ke Linye said, tilting his head.

"It's good you're back. You can run errands for Mom from now on, otherwise she just keeps bossing me around."

Xia Zili grumbled under her breath. If Xia Ningzhi hadn't insisted on tagging along, she would have transformed into a magical girl and flown to the supermarket with her umbrella to grab the groceries. Why go through all this hassle?

"Don't we have delivery apps now? Why did you have to go to the supermarket?" Ke Linye asked in confusion.

"Discounts," Xia Zili deadpanned, carrying her shopping bags into the house.

"My dear brother, we'll catch up later. I've got a score to settle with Ah Qing."

Xia Ningzhi puffed out her cheeks in a huff, forcefully shoving her shopping bags into Ke Linye's arms.

Ke Linye caught the heavy bags. He looked down at the eggs and luncheon meat inside and asked curiously, "What did Ah Qing do?"

Xia Ningzhi ignored his question. She kicked off her sandals, crossed the entryway, marched right behind the sofa, and reached out to vigorously rub Ke Mingqing's hair.

"Are you crazy?"

Ke Mingqing swatted her hand away and went back to playing Snake on his phone.

"I heard from Zili on the way back! You actually have a girlfriend now, you little punk. Look at you, all grown up!" Xia Ningzhi huffed angrily.

"Girlfriend?"

Ke Linye walked in, setting the bags on the table. Looking over with genuine curiosity, he asked, "Really? Our Ah Qing is so awkward. He actually managed to get a girlfriend?"

"Yes, he did," Xia Zili said, setting her bags down with an indifferent tone.

Ke Mingqing froze. Little sister, you are absolutely evil, he thought. Why did you have to bring that up?

He didn't even dare to imagine what would happen if his big brother suddenly got a bright idea one day and decided to use that eyeball-testing device on Kuroki Hitomi...

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