A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

An hour ago, Xia Ningzhi stood behind an abandoned building, poking half her head past the edge of the wall to look into the distance.

She watched the magical girl Ember take a blue figure’s hand and soar up into the endless, howling wind, carrying an umbrella as they vanished into the heavily clouded sky.

They disappeared entirely into the cumulonimbus clouds, where muffled thunder rolled.

Xia Ningzhi stood frozen in place.

The world was dead silent. The Wind and Fire Wheels beneath the girl’s feet flickered, and her jacket collar fluttered in the wind.

She didn’t snap out of it until the girl’s figure completely vanished into the clouds. Unsettled, she stood alone and thought for a long time. She neither chased after them nor lingered in the restricted zone.

Stepping down from her Wind and Fire Wheels, she began the walk home.

In truth, Xia Ningzhi hadn’t gotten a clear look at the blue figure. But she knew in her heart that Ember was her younger sister, Xia Zili.

As for the other person... could it be anyone but A’Qing, who had gone out with Xiao Li today? Otherwise, how else could she explain how Ke Mingqing had vanished into thin air at the train station?

”Was that really A’Qing...”Xia Ningzhi murmured soundlessly, a faint light wavering in her eyes.

The heavy rain poured down.

Stepping through puddles and getting drenched in the downpour, she made her way toward the old apartment building.

A couple of pedestrians in raincoats hurried past with hunched backs, looking at her like she was a fool. Xia Ningzhi’s hair was soaked. She undid her hairband, letting her small bun fall loose into a wet cascade down her back.

”It’s fine... It hasn’t been confirmed that it was A’Qing, right? Maybe White Jack was just talking nonsense. Tricking people with his nonsense is his favorite thing to do.”

Stopping at the front door of her house, Xia Ningzhi let out a breath and patted her rain-soaked cheeks.

She remembered that White Jack had also mentioned the rest of her family.

Who was it again?

Dad?

Right... White Jack said Dad was known as the ”Spirited-Away Police Officer” at the station, and that he would suddenly disappear right when he was supposed to dispatch. Was Dad hiding some secret, too?

Thinking of this, Xia Ningzhi reached out and pressed the doorbell.

She raised her eyes, looking at the familiar wooden door and the house number pasted on it.

For some unknown reason, even the door to her own home made her feel a trace of fear and unease.

Just as she was lost in thought, Ke Linye’s voice came from inside:

”Coming.”

Ke Linye slowly crossed the entryway, opened the door, and looked at the rain-drenched Xia Ningzhi with a curious expression.

”Did something happen?” he asked after a moment.

”Hehe, I just forgot my umbrella when I went out,” Xia Ningzhi chuckled. She looked up, forcing a carefree smile. Ke Linye studied her face in silence for a moment, then smiled back.

”Remember to check the weather forecast before you go out next time.”

He reached out and rubbed her dripping hair. ”Go straight up to the second floor and take a shower. I’ll have Mom find you some clothes and leave them by the bathroom door.”

”Yeah, yeah. Tell Mom not to pick out anything too old-fashioned for me.”

Leaving behind that absentminded remark, Xia Ningzhi kicked off her soaked sandals and hurried through the entryway, her footsteps thudding loudly against the floorboards. ”Oh, right, A’Zhi. I think I heard you talking to yourself outside. White... what?” Ke Linye closed the door and turned around, casting a sideways glance at the girl’s retreating back.

Xia Ningzhi paused slightly. Brushing back a few wet strands of hair plastered to her forehead, she said casually, ”White... white, white, white butt! The legend of the white butt at the Leijing Iron Tower. I was discussing that picture with a classmate on my phone!”

Ke Linye raised an eyebrow. ”Is White Jack really that popular?”

”I guess?”

Xia Ningzhi gave a perfunctory reply before quickly crossing the living room. She climbed the stairs to the second floor, entered the washroom, and locked the door.

The girl leaned against the door and lowered her head, letting out a long breath of relief.

A moment later, she peeled off her soaked clothes and turned on the shower, letting the warm water wash over her back.

Mist crawled up the shower walls like a gecko.

Amid the splashing of the water, a possibility suddenly occurred to Xia Ningzhi.

White Jack’s personality was very strange. He could be neurotic and rambling, yet highly intelligent, occasionally blurting out a heartwarming or romantic sentence. Most crucially, he knew her family incredibly well.

”Could it be... White Jack is my older brother?”

Xia Ningzhi looked up, her eyes widening slightly as if waking from a dream.

The washroom steam drifted in a haze across her vision, and the figures of Ke Linye and White Jack overlapped before her eyes. Her older brother could act incredibly neurotic sometimes, just like White Jack... Perhaps that was exactly what he was like once he put on a mask and let loose. And it would explain everything—because he had already somehow discovered she was Red Lotus, he used that crazy, rambling persona to remind her to look out for her younger brother and sister!

The clues in Xia Ningzhi’s mind suddenly linked together, bringing a refreshing rush of clarity, much like pouring toilet bowl cleaner into a toilet that had been clogged for days.

She took a deep breath and secretly resolved to keep a close eye on Ke Linye and Ke Mingwei over the next few days!

”Still, to think all the men in this house are secretly so wild?”

The girl muttered.

Just thinking that Ke Linye was actually the ”Iron Tower Legend: White Butt” that had recently blown up on the internet gave her goosebumps all over. ”Achoo!”

Xia Ningzhi suddenly sneezed.

She turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, and dried her hair with a towel. Wrapping it around her body, she sat on the toilet and played with her phone for a while. Lowering her eyes, Xia Ningzhi opened the Magical Girl Company’s official website to check Ember’s recent activity. To her surprise, a livestream was featured right on the homepage.

The title of the livestream read:

[Friendly Exhibition Match Between the Magical Girl Company and the Super Hero Company. Ember and Little Red Riding Hood will appear in this competition. As for the Super Hero Company side, four mystery guests will show up.]

If one were to switch over to the Super Hero Company’s official website, they would find the featured characters in the title had become ”Team Blue Pigeon,” while the mystery guests were ”Ember” and ”Little Red Riding Hood.”

The titles on the two websites were reversed.

However, that didn’t matter. Xia Ningzhi’s attention was already completely drawn to the video feed.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away for even a second, her gaze glued to the screen.

On the screen, the girl in the gothic dress and Blue Pigeon were clashing. Back and forth they fought, black lightning and magic rippling through the air, scattering like chaotic blossoms.

Watching Blue Pigeon’s figure, Xia Ningzhi’s pupils shrank slightly. She finally understood exactly who that blue figure at the train station was. ”Blue Pigeon...” she murmured softly, her brow furrowing.

She noticed the official website had an introductory page for him—likely meant to drive traffic—so she clicked on it.

She quietly studied Blue Pigeon’s full-body photo and height data, then compared it to Ke Mingqing’s height. It was an almost perfect match.

Xia Ningzhi stared blankly for a long time.

Had this been the past, there was no way she could have connected her listless younger brother with the flamboyant superhero on the screen, moving like lightning and captivating everyone’s attention.

But the facts were laid out right in front of her.

Her younger brother, Ke Mingqing... was this superhero.

Xia Ningzhi felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She had thought the only one in this house she needed to worry about was Xia Zili, and that as long as she took Xia Zili and left this place in half a year, everything would be fine.

That way, the rest of the family could at least continue to live peacefully. Missing the two of them wouldn’t change too much.

But she was wrong, completely wrong... Such a massive change had happened to her brother, yet she had been completely unaware.

If not for White Jack’s well-intentioned reminder, she would still be in the dark.

Xia Ningzhi suddenly felt rotten to the core. She had kept all her attention focused on herself, wondering when she was going to break, convincing herself that everything would be solved as long as she just left this house.

Yet she had completely failed to notice that her younger brother and sister had both been dragged into such dangerous matters.

A flurry of thoughts raced through her mind.

”Like this... can I even be considered a good older sister?”

After her brief shock faded, all that remained was gloom and self-blame.

”Did Xiao Li know all along that A’Qing was an Esper? That he even became a superhero? Speaking of which, when exactly did they get so close? Weren’t they super distant before?”

Xia Ningzhi remembered a time when Xia Zili would often act entirely estranged from the family at home.

Thinking about it now, she must have been doing it to keep her family out of danger. And the reason her relationship with Ke Mingqing had gotten so close was because the two of them had seen through each other’s secret identities?

The very next second, the image on the screen interrupted her thoughts.

She saw the girl in the gothic dress hugging Blue Pigeon’s waist, holding him in her arms. Without even lifting her head, she raised her umbrella, aiming its tip right at Top Hero, who was sprinting over from the distance.

The arena was dead silent.

The girl lowered her eyes, gazing playfully at the Blue Pigeon in her arms, completely unwilling to let him go.

Xia Ningzhi’s eyes widened. Pressing her face practically against the screen, she stared at the frozen frame, dumbstruck for a moment as past scenes flashed through her mind.

For instance, a sentence Ke Mingqing had accidentally blurted out at the birthday party:

”She had the magical girl Ember kiss me on the cheek, and then said it was her birthday present to me.”

At the time, Xia Ningzhi thought it was just a joke and hadn’t taken it to heart.

But right here and now, watching her own younger sister openly flirting with her own younger brother, the heavy stone hanging in Xia Ningzhi’s heart finally plummeted.

Th-th-th-this... what exactly are you doing, Xiao Li?! she thought, her face flushing red. You two are siblings who grew up together! How can you do this!

She reached up and covered her face, too afraid to keep watching. How was this any different from seeing two of her family members go on a blind dating show, one pretending to be the female guest and the other the male guest?

”We’re doomed... we’re really doomed.”

Xia Ningzhi shook her head with a blushing face, murmuring to herself, ”When Dad finds out about all this, what are those two going to do?”

She didn’t even dare to glance at the livestream’s chat, but she still caught sight of a few messages:

[Nanquan Li: Big Sis Ember is so badass. Just look at how well she’s trained that little blue bird.]

[Lili Bu Jue Xiao: An affair, there’s definitely an illicit affair.]

[Li Hui: What affair? It’s obviously the website hyping up a ship for traffic.]

”Mom, this family... what is it going to turn into?” She pulled her knees up, squatting on the toilet with her arms wrapped around them. Burying her head in her arms, she let out a deep sigh.

Knock, knock...

Someone knocked on the bathroom door, followed by Xia Wenna’s lazy voice drifting in:

”A’Zhi, I left your clothes by the door for you. Grab them yourself later.”

Xia Ningzhi trembled slightly, turning her head to stare at her mother’s silhouette through the glass door.

”Okay! Thanks, Mom!”

she called out guiltily.

At this moment, Xia Ningzhi’s mind was completely filled with the sentence Ke Mingqing had said at the birthday party.

She imagined the magical girl Ember giving Blue Pigeon a kiss, only to awkwardly bump into that weird Bird Beak. Groaning, she turned her head and bumped it against the wooden door.

”Hey, kid, why are you making so much banging noise while taking a shower?” Xia Wenna asked.

”It’s nothing, I just slipped and fell!” Xia Ningzhi stopped banging her head against the door. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. After a pause, she added, ”Mom, I have a question to ask you.”

”What question?”

”I mean, what if our A’Qing and Xiao Xiao Xiao...” Xia Ningzhi shook her head, stopping herself from saying her younger sister’s name. Wouldn’t that just be selling Xiao Li out?!

So she quickly corrected herself, ”No, wait. What if A’Qing and I were dating!” Right as she said it, she accidentally bit her tongue. Clutching her chest, she coughed a few times. After thinking it over one last time, Xia Ningzhi settled on her final draft.

She asked in a serious tone, ”If... I’m saying if... A’Qing and Second Sister started dating, what would you think about it, Mom?” The bathroom fell dead quiet, and the hallway outside was equally silent.

When her mother didn’t reply for a good while, Xia Ningzhi clicked her tongue and guiltily tried to backtrack:

”After all, A’Qing is an adopted son. He’s not related to us by blood.”

Xia Wenna stayed silent for a while before finally speaking up.

Her voice was very light. ”Mom would support it... When A’Qing was little, didn’t he always feel out of place in our house? I thought back then that he must have felt that way because he doesn’t share blood with the rest of you.”

”And then?”

Xia Ningzhi asked cautiously.

Xia Wenna thought for a moment. ”And then... if he married your second sister, wouldn’t he truly become a member of our family?” Xia Ningzhi lowered her head, stunned for a moment.

A moment later, she breathed a sigh of relief. Curving her lips into a smile, she continued to probe:

”Then what about Dad? What do you think he’d think about Second Sister and A’Qing?”

”Hmm... Your Dad would probably break A’Qing’s legs. Oh, wait, no... since your second sister is older, and Mingwei is a reasonable man, he would break your second sister’s legs first.”

Xia Ningzhi shivered in fear. She looked down at her towel-wrapped calves, her toes curling tightly against the wet floor.

A’Qing, Xiao Li, you’re on your own... This is as far as your big sister can help you, she thought.