A sister-obsessed brother had only his sister on his mind.
If someone made his sister angry, not even the person he admired most would get a pass.
Seeing Lin Zixuan yell at Wen Yan—someone even he looked up to—Jiang Xianshu knew he was truly angry.
He gestured to Wen Yan. ”Yan, what do we do?”
Wen Yan frowned, held up five fingers, and said, “I’ll give you five limited-edition figurines.”
Lin Zixuan turned his head away with a huff. “Do I look like someone who can be bought off with five limited-edition figurines?”
“Ten.” Wen Yan upped the ante.
Lin Zixuan was a little tempted. Ten of them—ones money couldn’t even buy.
Then he scorned himself. How could his sister compare to figurines?
Lin Zixuan kept shaking his head.
Wen Yan kept pushing, convinced he couldn’t resist. “Twenty.”
Lin Zixuan swallowed hard. Twenty figurines!
It was hard to refuse such a huge temptation! So he thought it over in his head: if what Brother Yan had done to upset his sister was something minor, he could help; if it was something major, he’d refuse.
He turned and asked, “What did you do to make her angry?”
Jiang Xianshu rattled off the whole story of what happened at noon.
After listening, Lin Zixuan made it clear there was no way he could help with this. “Tongtong has been in poor health since birth. At school, her classmates always looked at her with pity. Now that she’s moved somewhere new, she wants to live like a normal person—she doesn’t want people looking at her with pity in their eyes. And now you two went and exposed it.”
Hearing this, Wen Yan and Jiang Xianshu hung their heads in guilt. No wonder no matter how they tried to coax her that afternoon, their sister wouldn’t pay them any attention.
She had tried so hard to live like a normal person, and they had ruined it with a single remark.
Watching the two of them, faces full of guilt and self-reproach, Lin Zixuan felt a headache coming on. On one side was his sister, on the other his brothers—two little figures were battling it out in his head.
In the end, Lin Zixuan decided to help Wen Yan and Jiang Xianshu. After all, it was because he hadn’t told them the details of his sister’s condition that they had upset her in the first place.
Lin Zixuan patted them both on the shoulder. “I can tell you some things Tongtong likes, but whether you can win her back is up to you.”
Wen Yan’s eyes lit up. “Deal.”
For the next half hour, Lin Zixuan went through everything Hua Tong had liked from childhood to now.
Wen Yan listened and took notes, extremely serious, terrified of missing any important detail.
When he finished, Lin Zixuan said gravely, “It’s all on you two now. Good luck with your apology.”
Jiang Xianshu nodded earnestly. “Don’t worry, Xuanzi. Brother Yan and I will definitely make things right with our sister.”
After Lin Zixuan got home and saw Hua Tong sitting on the couch watching TV with his mom, he felt oddly guilty for some reason.
Ms. Lin was a little surprised to see him home so early—after all, when did her son ever come back before eight or nine at night? This time he was back before six.
“Son, why are you home so early today?”
Lin Zixuan had been planning to sneak back to his room, but Ms. Lin had spotted him. He could only scratch the back of his head and walk toward the couch. “Oh, nothing much on today, so I came back early.”
Lin Zixuan carefully glanced at Hua Tong. Seeing no expression on her face, he knew her mood wasn’t good.
Ms. Lin had noticed something off about Hua Tong ever since she came back. Although she acted the same as usual, Ms. Lin could still sense that something was wrong with her emotions.
Now, seeing her son return, she signaled with her eyes, “What’s wrong with Tongtong?”
Lin Zixuan responded with his eyes too, pulling a bitter face, “She got angry because of Wen Yan and Jiang Xianshu.”
Hua Tong had also noticed the two of them exchanging glances, so she found an excuse to leave, “Auntie, I’m going back to my room to do homework.”
Ms. Lin gently reminded her, “Alright, Tongtong, but don’t stay up too late studying.”
“Okay, Auntie.”
As soon as Hua Tong returned to her room, Ms. Lin grabbed Lin Zixuan by the ear, “Spit it out. What happened? Tongtong had only been there one day before you all made her angry.”
Lin Zixuan grimaced in pain, “Mom, go easy on me, you’re going to rip my ear off.”
Ms. Lin let go of her son’s ear and stared at him accusingly.
Lin Zixuan rubbed his ear and then explained the whole thing to his mother.
After listening, Ms. Lin glanced toward the second floor with a heartbroken look.
Then, with a serious expression, she instructed Lin Zixuan, “Tell those two brats to make it up to Tongtong and cheer her up.”
Lin Zixuan said, “Mission guaranteed.”
Back in her room, Hua Tong recalled all the pitying looks people had given her today. Couldn’t she just study and live like a normal person, even in a different place?