Chapter 6: Is getting into a car accident funny to you?

After the taxi drove away, Charlotte looked up at the high-rise residential complex before her and couldn’t help but exclaim.

“I think I remember this place.”

“Our home is in Building 114 of this complex, fifth floor, apartment 14. You’d better remember that, brother.”

“Don’t worry, Yukina. Your brother has a great memory. I definitely won’t forget,” Charlotte said, patting her underdeveloped chest with full confidence.

‘Why does she have to pat her chest when she says she has a good memory? Does my brother usually think with his chest?’ Yukina couldn’t help but inwardly retort.

Yukina and Charlotte walked down a long path, arrived at Building 114, took the elevator to the fifth floor, and walked familiarly to the door of apartment 14. After taking out the key, opening the door, and stepping into the living room, Yukina collapsed onto the sofa with an exhausted look on her face.

“Finally home.”

Just thinking about all the chaotic things that had happened today made Yukina feel mentally and physically drained.

In the morning, she had a big fight with her brother because he made a breakfast she didn’t like.

On the way to school, she ran into a strange guy who tried to invite her to join some kind of “Superpower Club,” which she ignored as complete nonsense.

After school, she suddenly received the news that her brother had died in a car accident.

Then, when she rushed to the hospital, her brother, now turned into a little white-haired witch, suddenly appeared and dragged her for a ten-minute joyride in the sky…

Needless to say, Yukina could write a full ten pages in her diary about this day alone.

As for Charlotte, after entering the living room, she was like a little kitten in a new environment, her eyes lighting up as she darted around all the furniture.

“Wow! A TV, an air conditioner, a refrigerator… How nostalgic! I can’t believe all this furniture is still like new after so long!”

“Of course it is! Less than half a day has passed here in my timeline!”

As Yukina responded to Charlotte, Charlotte sat down next to her, bouncing on the sofa a few times with excitement written all over her face.

“Wow! This sofa really is the most comfortable!”

“Brother, why are you as excited as a country kid who’s never been to the city? Don’t you have things like this in your other world?”

“Nope! Our world over there is terribly poor. The technology level is still stuck in the medieval period. We don’t have phones or TVs or anything.”

“Hmm, no phone. It’s hard to imagine how my brother, who would die without his phone, managed to survive in that world.”

“Heehee, Yukina, do you want to know how I lived in the other world?” Charlotte stared at Yukina excitedly, her eyes screaming with the desire to tell a story.

“I’m not actually that curious…” Yukina had zero interest in this, but before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a snap of Charlotte’s fingers.

Then, to Yukina’s surprise, she heard the sizzling sound of hot oil in a pan coming from the kitchen.

Because their parents worked overseas year-round, only Yukina and her brother lived in this house. It was impossible for a third person to suddenly appear.

Yukina quickly turned to look towards the kitchen and saw, clear as day, the image of Xinghe in an apron, cooking.

“Eh?”
Seeing this, Yukina froze on the spot in shock.

‘Isn’t Brother Xinghe already dead? I saw him get wheeled into the morgue with my own eyes. How is he now alive and cooking in the kitchen?’

‘And…’

Yukina turned her head. Charlotte was still sitting right beside her, watching her.

Her brother, reincarnated as a witch, was right here next to her!

So where did this other Brother Xinghe crawl out from?

“Brother, this is…”

Yukina pointed at Xinghe, about to ask Charlotte, but then she was shocked to find that she herself had also walked into the center of the scene.

Yukina rubbed her eyes and looked closer, confirming that she wasn’t mistaken. The person who had appeared before her was indeed Yukina herself, authentically real.

“Eh?”
Seeing another version of herself suddenly appear, Yukina’s brain immediately started to smoke.
“Wait, if she’s Yukina, then who am I?”

There was a slight difference between the two Yukinas. The one who walked out of the room was wearing a cute pink pajama set, while the one on the sofa was wearing a white and blue-collared summer school uniform.

“I must be dreaming, right!”
School Uniform Yukina pinched her own cheek, trying to wake herself from this dream. However, it couldn’t be said to have no effect, only that it had no effect at all. Pajama Yukina was still moving around in front of her, and a stinging pain bloomed on her cheek.

But right at that moment, Pajama Yukina slammed her hand down hard on the table with a smack.

“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t eat cilantro! Why did you still put so much cilantro in the food, brother? Are you trying to gross me out on purpose?”

“…”
School Uniform Yukina instantly fell silent.

Sometimes, a person could be just that speechless.

This scene was extremely familiar to her because this was the exact fight she’d had with her brother this morning.

And the reason she could see this scene again…

School Uniform Yukina reached out with both hands and began to pinch and knead the cheeks of the Charlotte beside her.

“Brother, what the hell are you doing, suddenly bringing up this scene!”

In the vision, Pajama Yukina and Brother Xinghe were arguing fiercely, and outside the vision, School Uniform Yukina was also arguing fiercely with “Brother Xinghe.”

Without a doubt, the Brother Xinghe and Pajama Yukina in the kitchen were illusions created by Charlotte.

“Ngh… because… this is the beginning of the story. I thought it would be more intuitive to just show you the scene instead of describing it… Yukina, stop pinching, you’re going to make my cute face swell up…”

“Then fast forward! I don’t want to see this part!”

This argument was like a boomerang that had come back and hit her hard right when she had been crying and begging over Xinghe’s body for him to wake up.

“Okay, okay… I’ll switch to the next scene now, just let go of my face, Yukina!”

After Yukina let go of Charlotte’s face, Charlotte snapped her fingers again.

Then, Yukina found that the entire scenery around her had changed.

This was a crossroads. Pedestrians and cars flowed ceaselessly around them, while she and Charlotte stood on the side of the street.

“This is…”

Just as Yukina was wondering why the next scene would be a crossroads, a pedestrian walked straight towards her as if he couldn’t see her at all.

Yukina quickly tried to dodge, but her foot hit an invisible block. She couldn’t help but fall backward, landing on something soft.

“Eh? This feeling… isn’t this the sofa from home?”

“Don’t run around, Yukina! I only replaced the image in front of us. We’re both still sitting on the sofa at home.”

“You should have said so earlier, brother. You made me look like an idiot,” Yukina complained. “So where is this place, anyway?”

“The place where I had my car accident,” Charlotte said nonchalantly, a terrifying statement.

“Hmm?”
Yukina couldn’t help but let out a low murmur like an MC Villager.¹

“Look, there I am,” Charlotte said, pointing across the street.

Yukina followed the direction Charlotte was pointing and saw Xinghe walking down the street, head bowed as he read a manga.

“Hey, don’t tell me you got into an accident because you were too engrossed in your manga, brother? If so, you really deserved it!”

“Of course not! I was looking properly when I crossed the road!” Charlotte retorted, puffing up her cheeks indignantly.

Just as Charlotte said, when Xinghe reached the intersection, the signal turned green. He put down his manga, looked both left and right, and after confirming it was safe, he continued to cross the road while reading his manga as he pleased.

“What’s the difference?” Yukina asked, her tone slightly cold.

“Of course there’s a difference. I was crossing the road very lawfully. The one not following the rules was this guy!”

Just as Xinghe reached the middle of the crosswalk, a large truck suddenly came rushing out, barreling straight towards him.

Right before Xinghe was about to be hit by the truck, Charlotte snapped her fingers, pausing the scene.

Charlotte pointed at the driver in the truck’s cabin, who was slumped over the steering wheel asleep, and her face turned red with anger.

“Who would have thought someone would actually fall asleep while driving?”

“Alright, I get it. I’ll have the words ‘The Other Party Was Entirely at Fault’ engraved on your tombstone.”

¹ MC Villager: A reference to the video game Minecraft. The villagers in the game are known for making a distinctive “hmmm” or “hrrrrmm” sound.