Gu Rou.
She is my elder sister, the person I like and love the most, the one who taught me what courage and love are.
It was in autumn when I first saw her. I was four years old and she was seven. I still remember it was an afternoon. The autumn sky was filled with white clouds, and the sunlight shone through the clouds, casting a golden glow everywhere. That sister, who was only a head taller than me, gave me a gentle and serene smile and then hugged me, saying, "Hello, little brother."
Since then, I've had an elder sister, and she's had a little brother. She was the daughter of my parents' close friends. Due to certain circumstances, they had no choice but to entrust her to my parents.
Her name was Rou, and since then, she was renamed Gu Rou.
She was forever nineteen years old and passed away 102 days ago.
After that car accident, I was almost on the verge of a breakdown waiting for her to come back, only to receive the news of her death.
She was my sun, but now the sun has gone out, sinking in the middle of the sea of my heart.
This name from the bottom of my heart was drawn out, surfacing. I clenched my fists. There was no sharp stabbing pain as the tactical gloves protected me from the harm of my fingernails.
But the pain to my heart was inevitable. Under unimaginable anger, I remained extremely calm instead. Perhaps this calmness was just my self-delusion.
Standing on the seashore made of thoughts, I gazed into the distance where the black sky met the water, and in the lapping of the tides, a repeated sentence was constantly forming:
Kill her.
"Speaking of which, that girl was so pitiful. Her family couldn't even attend her funeral, and the most important person to her didn't even know the cause of her death..." Hedwig lowered her head, her long hair brushing past her cheeks, and a glimmer of light shimmered in her eyes.
I said softly, "How did Gu Rou die?"
"So you're that little brother of hers!" Hedwig beamed with joy and then, ignoring me, turned to Dongfang Muxue, saying, "You old hag, he looks so fierce. Will he hit me? You'll protect me, right?"
"With that comment of yours, I won't." Dongfang Muxue tore open the packaging of a bubble gum, stuffed it into her mouth, and then blew pink bubbles, rhythmically pulsating.
"Alright then." Hedwig sighed, "Oh dear~ Actually, I'm a pacifist... Do you believe it?"
In a flash, the figure in front of me disappeared, leaving only a spinning office chair. The girl sprinted towards me like lightning. Her preemptive elbow strike was blocked by me in the same way. Then she twisted her waist, and her slender legs lashed out like whips, with great force.
I took a step back, steadied my stance, and turned my hand into a palm to deflect the force of the attack by using her strength against her, and then took the opportunity to move forward and launch an attack.
Hedwig placed her hands on the ground, did a backflip to avoid it, and then greeted me with a series of straight punches. I crossed my arms to block them. While being on the defensive, I quickly grabbed her wrist and lifted it up, trying to throw her over my shoulder to disrupt her series of movements.
Hedwig's reaction was far faster than mine. She countered by grabbing my dominant hand and slammed her head into my forehead like a rocket.
As my eyes were seeing stars, Hedwig took advantage of the attack opportunity and rushed at me. I relied on my instincts to half-avoid and half-block her continuous high kicks. Her rapid attacks sliced through the air with a whistling sound, but this kept her center of gravity at a relatively high level, giving me a chance to counterattack.
Now! I lifted my palm upwards, drawing an arc. The gentle force made Hedwig lose her balance in a hurry.
Her extraordinary reaction speed once again came to her aid. With a push of her hands and a roll, the girl immediately got out of my attack range, staring at me like a clouded leopard.
"Is it Wing Chun? Taiji? Yixing Quan? Or... Tianwen Baji?" She stared at me, and both of us were trying to read something from each other's expressions.
I didn't answer her. I was breathing heavily to speed up my recovery. The brief encounter had actually consumed a lot of my energy. I regularly filled my lungs with air and then slowly exhaled it.
"Did I guess right?" Her eyes were full of cold, mocking banter. Hedwig continued, "Gu Rou was really good to you. Say, if I crippled you here, would she be so angry that she'd want to climb out of the ground to beat me up?"
"That won't be a necessity." I took a deep breath and then focused my attention on her. The angrier I was, the calmer I became - although this calmness was probably just what I thought it was.
"I'll deal with you myself."
Come on.
Hedwig brushed past me, the clothes rubbing against each other with a rustling sound. She seemed to want to use some kind of back throw on me. Naturally, I wouldn't let her succeed. I swept my leg in a circle on the ground to push her back.
Then it was finally my turn. Using the remaining force, I charged forward, throwing a series of straight punches straight at her face, forcing her to block and retreat all the way.
During the exchange, she suddenly raised her hand and clamped her arm. I kicked out sideways to free my hand. Krav Maga, one of the most effective and brutal martial arts in the world, is a must-learn skill for military personnel and law enforcement officers.
The fighting style of this so-called "world's strongest martial art" is extremely brutal. If that move had hit me just now, I'm afraid my arm would have been dislocated. She really wanted to cripple me.
After confirming Hedwig's real danger, I focused even more on this confrontation. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elsa not far away. I didn't know if she would come to my rescue - judging by her four large cups of iced coke every day, even if she wanted to, she probably couldn't.
Both sides were motionless, building up momentum. Hedwig's blue eyes were as cold as the polar deep sea. During the confrontation, it seemed that her whole body was starting to become stiff, and the emptiest corner of her heart was directly exposed toBefore all, I descended in the extremely cold water, gradually sinking in the sensation of losing all my senses, losing myself--
No, that wasn't me who was sinking!
I woke up from the illusion created by myself, took a step back, and tried not to look at those strange eyes.
"Boring." Hedwig suddenly ended her fighting stance and walked past me alone, leaving a random comment: "None of the Gu family are any good."
Dongfang Muxue, on the other hand, greeted me with a smile and then left, following Hedwig's back.
Ye Fan patted Danny's little head and said, "Let's go."
Danny was greatly disappointed and said, "No fight?"
"Girls should not always be thinking about fighting."
"But last time old..."
The onlookers gradually dispersed. I let out a long sigh and forced myself to relax. Sweat had already soaked my back. The student union members in the distance returned to their posts and started their own busy work.
I patted my hands on my pants and then turned to Zhuge Yu and said, "Let's go."
"Captain..." Zhuge Yu was very cautious. "May I ask you a question?"
"What?"
"Was that person named Gu Rou... very important to you?"
"Yes."