The meat on the grill sizzled as it cooked, the fat parts shrinking slightly and releasing rich grease that flowed down the grill.
The vegetables on top were slightly charred but perfectly so, emitting a fragrant aroma that complemented the meat's smell.
Ning Yu saw that it was about time and started sprinkling seasonings on it, first on one side, then rotating it to season the other side.
The room was pitch dark, with only the flickering light of the alcohol stove casting a glow on Ning Yu's face.
Ning Xuan sat beside Ning Yu, staring blankly, as if the fragrant aroma of the grilled skewers couldn't even draw her attention.
Seeing that the skewers were cooked, Ning Yu picked up several of them, handing half to Ning Xuan and inadvertently snapping her out of her reverie.
"I didn't expect my sister to be so skilled at this."
Ning Xuan reached out to take the skewers from Ning Yu, marveling at the evenly distributed seasonings and the appetizing meat and vegetables.
"Can you tell me about the past?"
Ning Yu bit into a fragrant piece of scallion wrapped in meat, the juices trickling down the corner of her mouth, which she quickly wiped away.
She was eager to ask Ning Xuan about their childhood, but her mind was a blank slate, devoid of any memories.
"Sister... always took good care of me."
Ning Xuan looked at Ning Yu as she ate, her smile brimming with nostalgia.
Just as she was about to continue, she noticed Ning Yu pulling out a box of strawberry milk from thin air and inserting a straw into it.
Seeing that Ning Xuan hadn't resumed speaking, Ning Yu glanced over at her and noticed her gaze fixed on the strawberry milk in her hand.
Instinctively, Ning Yu wanted to hide the milk, but then she realized something.
Although they were both created beings, they were so alike that perhaps neither of them could resist the allure of strawberry milk.
Ning Yu had seen Ning Xuan coldly and ruthlessly fight, but now, seeing her longing gaze, she found her unexpectedly endearing.
At the same time, it dawned on her:
No wonder Shen Yiyue always gave her a knowing smile whenever she drank strawberry milk.
She probably looked just like this.
Feeling a pang of reluctance, Ning Yu pulled out another box of strawberry milk from her space and handed it to Ning Xuan.
"Thank you, sister!"
Ning Xuan happily took the strawberry milk from Ning Yu, mimicking her by poking a straw into the box and starting to drink.
Ning Yu noticed that when Ning Xuan smiled, she had two tiny dimples on her cheeks.
She raised her hand to touch her own face and found that she had them too, something she had never noticed before.
"When we were young, we weren't allowed to leave the courtyard, so sister would often sneak me out."
With the strawberry milk in hand, Ning Xuan seemed to open up.
"The old butler was always headache, trying all kinds of ways to stop sister, but she always found a way around them."
"And even though it was me who wanted to go out and play, sister always took the blame, saying she led me astray."
"So sister always got punished more."
As Ning Xuan recounted these childhood memories, Ning Yu had no recollection of them, not even a single image in her mind.
"During the experiments, it hurt a lot, and sister would always comfort me."
"I knew sister was in pain too, and since she was older, she underwent more experiments than me."
Her gaze grew complicated as she looked at Ning Yu, perhaps recalling some unpleasant memories.
"Sister would hold me and promise to take me to see the sea, to a place without pollution to watch the Milky Way, to the highest point in the world to see the purest snow."
"Sister said we would definitely escape that small courtyard and break free from their control."
Ning Xuan's expression grew somber, perhaps because none of those dreams had come true, and the reality seemed even worse.
"Gulp gulp..."
"Gulp gulp..."
Both of them finished their strawberry milk at the same time, the empty boxes collapsing simultaneously.
Neither of them wanted to waste a single drop.
Ning Yu and Ning Xuan looked at each other, then suddenly burst out laughing.
The sisters were so alike, even in this small habit.
"So what happened next?"
Ning Yu handed her some more skewers, and after they had both eaten enough, she turned off the alcohol stove.
"After that..."
Ning Xuan's eyes flickered.
"Sister, the Moon Princess inside you wasn't always there."
"Huh?"
Ning Yu felt like she had heard something crucial.
"When we were created and summoned, each of us had a unique fragment, said to be 'one yin and one yang.'"
As Ning Xuan continued, Ning Yu frowned at the mention of 'one yin and one yang':
"If it's one yin and one yang, shouldn't it be between siblings, like a brother and sister, not two girls?"
"I don't know."
Ning Xuan shook her head, indicating she didn't have an answer.
"But the two fragments in us had to be taken out simultaneously to meet the requirements of their ritual."
Ning Xuan pointed at Ning Yu, then at herself.
"That means we would both be sacrificed in that ritual."
Ning Yu seemed to grasp the implications.
"So we would both die in that so-called ritual?"
Ning Xuan nodded.
"Isn't that an unfair fate? No one ever cared about our feelings; we wanted to live too."
"But how could they ever tell us something like that?"
Ning Yu frowned, deep in thought.
"Sister overheard it. One time, Father and Mother thought we had sneaked out again, but sister was hiding and heard them."
Ning Xuan explained, then turned to look intently at Ning Yu.
"When sister found out the truth, she used some method to transfer the fragment in my body into hers."
Ning Yu's eyes widened at this revelation.
"So the one who needed to die was only sister."
"Sister took on my fate for me."
"But when it was discovered, Father was furious and suffered punishment because the two fragments in sister's body caused a strange change, disrupting the original ritual."
Ning Yu had already guessed that it was those two fragments that formed the Moon Princess in her body, the key to the so-called 'root.'
And the fact that she, who should have been locked away in that 'home,' appeared near the small supermarket during the T-virus disaster likely had something to do with the Moon Princess.
This might have been the beginning of her fate.
She thought of the Moon Princess's 'shared mission,' the bizarre ritual, the sudden outbreak of the T-virus, and her inexplicable crossing into the body of a silver-haired little girl.
All these elements, like precisely meshed gears, had already begun to turn.