Lin Luo turned toward the girl who had just passed through his body, curiosity and bewilderment swirling in equal measure. He saw her vanish into the opposite barn with no hesitation, so he followed immediately.

The structure was a crude hut more than anything else—no straw stacked within but instead a bedframe, table, and hearth. The furniture was makeshift: splintered wooden panels revealed the sky beyond their cracks; one of the bed's legs stood on stones piled together haphazardly. It was all functional yet desperately insufficient.

His gaze swept past these details to settle on the most striking sight - a boy no older than thirteen lying across the torn mattress, his face pale as wilted rice stalks. The lad appeared deathly ill, limbs unmoving even when his sister fed him crushed herbs through her mouth after mashing them into a green paste in a bowl.

"Brother, how do you feel?" she asked softly as he swallowed the bitter medicine, her fingers still cradling his neck to help ease it down. The boy's eyes were strangely bright despite his frailty, an unsettling contrast that made Lin Luo pause.

The girl continued to hold him upright, humming a tuneless melody. She had no idea he wasn't actually there - could never be there. As the spectral observer, even when standing solidly on the floor, Lin Luo merely floated through this scene like mist through air. He couldn't touch, couldn't speak; his entire existence was rendered meaningless here.

Yet something about that sickly boy stirred an ache in his chest. Not just pity - some primal recognition of kinship, as if they shared more than blood.

"I'm feeling better," the boy mumbled after a long while, smiling weakly at his sister's concerned face. She offered to take him outside but hesitated when he gazed up at the sky with such yearning it made Lin Luo start - only realizing later that the boy wasn't seeing him.

The girl caught her brother's longing look too. For an instant her expression twisted in grief before smoothing into determination. "Let me help you walk," she declared, supporting his arm as they moved toward the door. Lin Luo stepped aside instinctively despite knowing he'd never be noticed here.

Beneath the open sky, the girl chatted quietly with her brother about flying. The boy spoke of soaring through clouds in dreams since reality had stolen that freedom from him decades ago. His optimism was startling considering his condition - and it explained those bright eyes Lin Luo found so puzzling earlier.

"Maybe one day I'll fly high enough to take you with me," the boy said, craning his neck to watch birds overhead. His sister hugged him closer, promising she'd always be there for him even if he couldn't reach the sky himself.

Suddenly something sharp pierced Lin Luo's chest. Not physical pain but an agonizing emotional wound that made tears sting his eyes without warning. He staggered back as violent impulses surged through him - to destroy everything! To obliterate this world and every memory in it...

"Whatever you want..."

The girl's voice cut through the chaos like a silver blade, silencing even the roars of his own madness. As he watched her lips move soundlessly from behind the sick boy, words began spilling out that made Lin Luo scream internally:

"If I have to become the first sin itself—"

"If my soul must be torn apart—"

"If this world must burn into nothingness—"

A crimson tide swallowed them whole as she finished speaking. Blood flooded in every direction, consuming the sky and earth until all remained was a single voice echoing through the carnage:

"Everything begins anew..."