"It's not your fault," Qi Qing told her brother, as they walked hand in hand on their way home.
The sun was setting behind them, slowly shrouding the quiet part of the city, that they made their way through, into long shadows and silence.
"It's not your fault," she repeated again, her voice a little louder, a little stronger.
"How do you know that?" her brother accused, tone sharp and as if he were a wounded dog.
"How do you know that I'm not the one at fault? Didn't you see how it all happened!? He freaked out when I started offering food! That's when the voices came!" Qi Tao cried out, moving his entire body with the words that flew out of his mouth.
Qi Qing looked over, up towards the sky, to see where they went, her brother's words becoming invisible among the stars that were just beginning to peek out, above her.
"What if- what if- What if the same thing that happened to Grandfather happens to Ming Cheng?"
"What if- what if- what if one day, Ming Cheng will just shut down and stop talking to us too?"
"He did that before. Didn't he..."
Qi Tao looked down at their clasped hands, pulling his sister along on their path towards home, on their path past one of the paths to the city cemeteries.
He looked back to her, wondering why she was walking so slowly, why she was dragging her feet.
He looked back to her, and saw that she was looking up at the sky and the stars.
The sun sank behind them, disappearing along with all its light, behind the horizon, plunging the street into darkness.
There were no stalls where they were.
There were no lanterns.
There were no perpetually partying dancers.
And there were no inklings or hope of light, aside from the moon above them, and pinpricks of love that were the stars.
Qi Qing spoke.
"We don't fail this time then."
Her brother paused.
"We don't fail this time. We don't let his mother stop us. We give him all the hugs. We'll be proper friends with him. We won't ever let him be alone."
"We promise him that he won't hurt us. We make sure to never let go of his hands. We'll take him on adventures and show him cool things."
"This time, we don't let anything stop us."
She looked over to her brother, squeezing his hand tight as she began marching down the street, her eyes looking resolutely forwards as she led them home to their two parents, and their grandmother.
Qi Tao looked up towards the sky, watching his sister's words fly up to the heavens, shining among the vast, lit ocean of stars.
To him, they shone bright and bold, and not once did his sister complain of him walking too slowly and dragging his feet.
She couldn't.
They knew what they needed to do.
It wasn't Qi Tao's fault.
It wasn't your fault.