The Impostor's Two "Contradictory" Requests

Rin's body was weaker than hers. Many times, it was Sakura who stood in front of Rin and took more beatings and scoldings.

Coat hangers, brooms, hitting her body until it was black and blue... but it would be fine after a few days' rest. Her body recovered quickly.

Looking at the unfamiliar door, Rin suddenly felt physically

unwell. She frowned and took a deep breath.

Just as Rin was hesitating, the door suddenly opened.

A kind-faced middle-aged couple

appeared in front of the door at the same time. They were her stepfather and stepmother.

This was what the couple had asked them to call them, to avoid the gossip of other relatives who coveted the high insurance money.

"It's cold outside, come in quickly!" the man made way and bent down to place two pairs of slippers at the entrance.

"I've already made dinner. Go change your clothes and then eat. You must be starving outside," the woman asked with concern.

Judging from their words and actions, the couple in front of them made Rin feel extremely unfamiliar. Although their faces had not changed at all, they were still the same.

Sakura carefully glanced at Rin. Rin did not say a word, just silently nodded, pulled Sakura's hand, and quickly entered the house, walking towards the bedroom, trying her best to remain calm during the process.

They did not put on the slippers prepared by the man.

The man's smile came to an abrupt halt, but the woman's smile continued.

In the bedroom, after the two of them entered, Rin immediately closed the door and locked it. Her tense nerves could finally rest.

But Sakura did not. She looked at Rin nervously and said in a hurried tone, "Rin, do you feel that today... they are a bit strange? It can't be the Impostor that Sister Beichen told us about, right?"

"No, no, no, I can't scare myself. How can there be such a thing... I have to change my clothes first. My clothes are wet from the rain..."

As she spoke, Sakura opened the wardrobe, wanting to take out some old clothes from inside.

But to her surprise, the wardrobe was full of new, beautiful clothes that suited them.

Could it be that their stepfather and stepmother had a change of heart?

"Rin, look! Did they buy these clothes for us? They're so beautiful!" Sakura was a little excited. As she spoke, she took out a piece of clothing and threw it on the bed, then prepared to take off her partially wet clothes.

Since they had been living under someone else's roof, let alone new clothes, even whether they had food to eat depended on the couple's mood.

"Wait," Rin stopped Sakura's changing and said in a deep voice, "Don't change your clothes yet."

"Why? Rin, you don't really think that Impostors exist and that they are them, do you?" Sakura shook her head, pretending to be calm.

Although she was scared, she was still willing to believe that such a strange creature did not exist, and only existed in people's fiction.

But...

Looking at the colorful new clothes in the wardrobe, her mind was full of the couple's behavior that did not match their image when she returned home...

Yes, their actions were in line with the general public's perception of parents.

It was far from the actual situation.

But to make her believe in urban legends, the existence of Impostors was too fantastic, unheard of. Sakura was unwilling to admit it.

Rin was silent for a moment, then said to Sakura, "Sister, for safety's sake, we should be more careful. I think the story Sister Beichen told us is definitely not groundless. There is only one thing we have to do tonight: absolutely do not agree to any of their requests!"

"But... what if they suddenly feel guilty about us and change their attitude towards us? Wouldn't that be very heartless of us?" Sakura asked timidly.

A change of heart?

More absurd than ghosts existing in the world.

The corners of Rin's mouth twitched.

After seeing the couple's ugly faces, it was hard to associate them with kindness.

Rin would rather believe in the existence of Impostors, that this couple had been replaced by Impostors, than believe that they had changed their personalities.

But in the end, there was no evidence for this.

"Listen to me, sister. Anyway, we have already eaten. Sister Beichen must have known that this would happen, which is why she bought so much delicious food for us."

"Let's go to bed early today. Don't think about anything, and don't do anything extra. It's fine to change into our old clothes."

"We haven't finished today's homework yet. Let's do some homework."

As she spoke, Rin took off her clothes, walked to the wardrobe, ignored the new clothes, and took out her old clothes to put on.

Sakura did not answer and did the same as Rin. She put down the new clothes with some reluctance, but she completely trusted her sister.

The two of them were not prepared to leave the bedroom, walking around the small bedroom barefoot.

Small was just small compared to the couple's bedroom. In fact, it was dozens of square meters, not crowded.

It was pitch black outside the window, and it was drizzling. The original scene could not be seen clearly.

In front of the window, Rin sat on a chair and taught Sakura to do her homework.

Because she had been helping Li Mo all afternoon and had delayed her own affairs, but the homework for primary school was very little, and Rin had already finished it during class.

The honest Sakura would definitely not do anything extra in class, so her homework was untouched. Of course, most of the knowledge had also been returned to the teacher.

In the room, Rin's teaching voice continued, and Sakura kept nodding.

On the window glass, which no one had noticed, two strange shadows were reflected.

Knock, knock... knock, knock...

A regular knocking sound suddenly sounded. Rin's body suddenly stiffened. She turned around stiffly and murmured, "Sister, don't speak. Let me handle it."

Then, Rin walked to the door, took a deep breath, and squeezed out a smile.

Her mind was racing.

In the story Beichen told, the owner of the house heard a knock and opened the door. The Impostor outside asked to come in to take shelter from the rain, and the owner of the house agreed.

An accident happened after one night.

Rin didn't know why there would be such a strange phenomenon, but now was not the time to think about these things.

Compared to agreeing to a request, perhaps opening the door after hearing a knock was also a different kind of "agreement."

Her eyes narrowed, and a plan came to her.

She wanted to force the other party to break down the door, even if it meant getting a beating...

The premise of everything was that the person on the other side of the door was a living person, that couple, not an Impostor...

"What's the matter?"

Outside the door, the knocking stopped. After about two seconds, a gentle female voice came out, "Rin, Sakura, dinner is ready. Come and eat, or it won't be delicious when it gets cold."

As soon as she finished speaking, Rin answered without any hesitation, "Forget it. My sister and I have no appetite and don't want to eat. You can eat by yourselves!"

Her speech was very fast, directly refuting the speaker outside the door.

"..."

Time passed second by second, and there was no response from outside the door for a long time.

Rin swallowed her saliva, her heart in her throat. Could she have bet wrong?

Forget it. It was better to be beaten than to be replaced by an Impostor.

"Is that so... alright, it's okay if you don't eat... we'll go back to our room first. Rin, Sakura, remember to go to bed early at night, but it's okay to stay up late."

With that, the "thump, thump, thump" of footsteps grew smaller and smaller. The two people outside the door seemed to have really left.

"..."

"..."

"..."

However, at this moment, Rin had no thoughts of having survived a disaster. A chill ran down her spine, and a cold feeling rushed straight to her heart.

The new request was contradictory...

As an older sister, Sakura knew very well what kind of body movements Rin would show when she was scared, just like now, she was motionless, staring at the floor woodenly.

This was Rin's subconscious action when she was in a panic.

Sakura quickly walked to Rin's side and asked with concern, "What's wrong, Rin? Is there... a problem? They're gone. We're safe."

In Sakura's opinion, whether the couple were Impostors or living people.

It was a good thing that they had left for the time being.

Although if it was the latter, it was very strange that their personalities had changed so much, but all in all, it was a good thing.

It didn't matter if it was the former. As long as they stayed in the room, they wouldn't agree to any requests.

"Sister..." Rin's voice trembled slightly. She pursed her lips and hesitated for a long time before saying, "We might not be able to live through tonight..."

Sakura was stunned.

Rin sat on the ground and explained calmly, "They are the Impostors in the story Sister Beichen told us. Their behavior deviates too much. I tried to provoke them, but I failed. It's hard to change a person's nature, let alone the arrogance and prejudice that are ingrained in their bones. Parents work hard to cook a meal. If the children say they don't want to eat and don't even open the door, they will definitely be very angry."

"But they were too calm, and didn't care about us at all. But if they really didn't care about us, why would they be so good to us?"

"They have been replaced. If I had opened the door for them just now, I'm afraid you and I would have been replaced."

After Rin finished speaking, Sakura fell into silence.

After a long while, Sakura asked, "Is there no other way?"

Perhaps it was the temporary safety that made Sakura not feel very scared, and she still wanted to struggle.

Rin shook her head, "There is, but it's very difficult."

"They said something before they left. Do you still remember?"

Sakura immediately replied, "They called our names, and then said: remember to go to bed early at night, but it's okay to stay up late..."

"Wait, is this also a request?"

Rin nodded and showed a desperate smile.

"Go to bed early, stay up late. Doing either of these counts as agreeing to a request. If it were just two conditions, it would be fine. The key is that these two conditions are very contradictory."

"If you go to bed, you can't stay up late. If you stay up late, you can't go to bed..."

Rin got up somewhat weakly, threw herself on the bed, which was very soft. She just didn't know if she would still be herself when she woke up.

Sakura thought for a while and asked again, "Is there no other way? Is there really... no chance at all?"

Rin raised her head listlessly and pointed to the old clock on the wall.

Although it was old, it could still operate normally.

The hour hand, minute hand, and second hand turned without error, making a "tick-tock, tick-tock" sound.

"There is, but the chance is too small."

"It says to go to bed early. We just need to go to bed later to avoid the request to go to bed early, and we can also avoid staying up late."

"The key is... we don't know what time to go to bed is not considered early."

"What if we don't choose the right time and fall asleep early..."

Rin did not continue. At this point, even if Sakura was unwilling to admit it, she understood that the situation was not optimistic.

From the couple's behavior and thinking, there was no trace of their true selves. It was very likely that being replaced by an Impostor meant the complete demise of one's own consciousness, without any chance of mitigation.

Rin's test also confirmed this point.

Sleeping too early would lead to death. Sleeping too late would be considered staying up late, which would also lead to death.

The only chance of survival was to rest at the right time, but there was no reference standard. This approach was tantamount to handing over one's life to the goddess of luck.

However, most of the time, the goddess of luck would not favor the children who longed for her gaze.

Tick-tock... tick-tock...

The room was silent. The clock on the wall was still ticking, and the crisp sound echoed in the quiet room.

Death was approaching, and life was fading away.

Sakura and Rin lay on the bed, the blanket covering their entire bodies, their heads and limbs not exposed.

The room was filled with darkness. Exposing their limbs... always felt like there would be strange things peeping.

Sakura didn't dare to speak, and neither did Rin. Gradually, their little faces turned red.

It was too stuffy under the blanket, and the temperature was very high. After being in the blanket for a long time, the heat quickly accumulated, and their foreheads were covered with beads of sweat. Their backs were soaked, and they couldn't sleep at all.

"Hah!"

Sakura was the first to stick her head out. It wasn't that she couldn't stand it. She just wanted to see if it was safe outside first.

The two of them couldn't sleep in the blanket, so they had to stick their heads out of the blanket to breathe.

Then Rin also stuck her head out, opened her eyes wide, and looked around. The room was pitch black, and nothing could be seen.

Although she had already gotten out of the blanket, she still felt suffocated and couldn't breathe.

Tick-tock... tick-tock...

Time never stopped flowing. When was late sleep, what time was considered staying up late... everything was too strange and unsolvable, all depending on luck...

"Rin, look," Sakura said in a low voice, pointing her finger at the flashing light outside the window.

"That direction..." Rin squinted, concentrating, and cast her gaze on the flashing room outside the window.

"That's his and Sister Beichen's home."

The green light flashed, at a frequency of two seconds, as if someone was deliberately manipulating the switch, making the bright light in the room change. It flashed a total of thirty times.

"Sister Beichen told us the story. She must know our current situation. So what does the green light flashing every two seconds mean?" Rin murmured to herself.

Before Rin could figure it out, the green light turned red, and the flashing frequency quickened, flashing at a frequency of one second. It flashed a total of ten times.

This action attracted a lot of attention, from the passers-by on the street, and... the couple hiding under Rin and Sakura's bed.

Suddenly, the light stopped flashing and went out.

"Sister, let's sleep!"

Rin immediately shouted.

Sakura did not ask why, but closed her eyes calmly, trying her best to calm the chaotic thoughts in her mind.

Rin also closed her eyes, without putting her head under the blanket.

She couldn't sleep because of the temperature, but Beichen had clearly given a hint. Now was the "late sleep" time. There was no time to hesitate. She had to fall asleep immediately.

For some reason, when she confirmed that it was a safe time to sleep, a wave of sleepiness rushed into her brain.

There was no insomnia.

Her breathing gradually became even and weak, her aura calm, and her body no longer moved.

Creak—

Creak—

The sound of joints twisting came from under the bed.

Creak—

Creak—