“–Your cousin, in Qing…”
“Thief!”
His cousin bent over and spat toward Su Tang.
Su Tang’s tears finally fell. He lifted his small face and defended himself: “I’m not a thief…”
“The clothes were given to me by Brother!”
“If you don’t believe me, you can ask Grandpa!”
“Ha! Ha!” His cousin laughed exaggeratedly, staring dead into Su Tang’s eyes, “You’re a thief, you’re just a thief.”
“And I don’t need to ask your grandpa.”
“If your grandpa could watch you wear them out, who knows, maybe even your grandpa is a thief.”
He blinked at Su Tang, distorting his expression as he stuck out his tongue: “A den of thieves!”
Su Tang’s entire face was soaked through. He sobbed intermittently and said, “How could you, how could you say that about your maternal grandfather… You’re a bad child… I won’t talk to you anymore… You’re so bad… Brother loves eating… bad children like you…”
He cried until he was out of breath, his vision blurred with tears, his consciousness even somewhat scattered. Pushed to the verge of breakdown, he could only repeatedly murmur harmless words like “so bad” and “so bad.”
His cousin grew anxious and nudged Su Tang’s calf with the tip of his shoe:
“Stop crying! Are you annoying or what?”
“Keep crying and my mom’s going to come out and beat me… Believe it or not, I’ll beat you even harder?”
Su Tang’s sobbing abruptly stuttered to a halt.
Yet because of forcibly suppressing his breathing, an even sharper wheeze accompanied by a cough issued from his throat.
His cousin didn’t care whether he coughed or not, as long as he stopped crying and making a fuss. He breathed a sigh of relief and muttered:
“Seriously, mention the word thief and you lose your temper…”
“My dad even said your grandpa is an old fossil.”
Seeing the corners of Su Tang’s mouth droop as if he was about to cry again, his cousin hurriedly reached out and covered his mouth:
“You’re clearly a boy, but you don’t look manly at all, and you talk all sissified, crying at the drop of a hat…”
“No wonder nobody wants to play with you.”
He dragged Su Tang over to the sofa, randomly flicked on the television, and switched it to the children’s channel:
“Watch! Watch your fill!”
“Just as long as you don’t bother me while I play video games.”
Su Tang couldn’t see the television clearly at all.
His eyes felt as though a patch of fog was blocking them; no matter how much he wiped, he couldn’t clear them up.
He felt extremely uncomfortable, but he didn’t dare cough loudly.
Continuing like this for who knows how long, his consciousness gradually blurred.
Just as he was about to curl up and fall asleep, someone came over and touched his forehead.
It was Grandpa’s voice: “Oh my, why is the little darling sleeping with tear tracks?”
“Xu Meng, did you bully your younger cousin?”
“As if I did. I even put on cartoons for him. What’s wrong with him? Oh man, I didn’t pay attention, how did he manage to fall asleep while watching cartoons?”
Vaguely, Su Tang also heard his aunt scolding his cousin.
But he lacked the strength to distinguish it.
He felt a burning throat being forced down with medicine mixed with a bitter taste.
Grandpa’s voice carried heartache and helplessness: “Xu Meng, if you bully your younger cousin again, Grandpa really is going to beat you.”
“Come Tangtang, can you hear me? Swallow, drink the fever medicine and you’ll be fine…”
When Su Tang woke up, it was early morning, and a wisp of faint dawn light filtered through the thin curtains.
Huddled in Grandpa’s arms, he was sleeping in the guest room at his aunt’s house.
The light was still on, and Grandpa was lying sideways looking at him. Seeing him wake up, Grandpa let out a breath: “Does your head still hurt?”
“Do you still want to cough?”
Su Tang shook his head, finding that he had very little strength.
He shrank further into Grandpa’s arms: “Grandpa, I want to go home~”
As soon as he finished speaking, the corners of his mouth drooped as if he wanted to cry.
Yet remembering how Grandpa had lowered his head and wiped away tears in front of his aunt, he held his tears back.
Grandpa stroked his head: “Your aunt strained her ligament and it’s inconvenient for her to walk.”
“Grandpa came over to look after her.”
“When your prospective uncle comes, we’ll go home.”
“Otherwise, your aunt being a woman alone with a child makes eating and living inconvenient. It’s too pitiful.”
Su Tang thought about it: “So pitiful~”
Grandpa patted him: “Go to sleep.”
“But Grandpa… I’ll stay right by your side tomorrow and obediently practice calligraphy, okay?”
“Okay, I won’t play with your cousin anymore.”
“Mn!” Thus, Su Tang cast aside the unpleasantness that had already occurred, hugged Grandpa’s neck, and obediently closed his eyes. When faced with helpless situations, he was well-accustomed to numbing himself.
Before Su Tang could fall asleep, however, the bedroom door was lightly knocked on.
His aunt’s voice sounded outside the door, lowered to a whisper: “Dad, Dad, open the door.”
Su Tang crawled up and watched Grandpa walk over to open the door. Leaning against the wall outside, his aunt spoke with a pale face: “Dad, you guys go back early… Xu Chen called to say he’s almost here. Oh my, why did he come back a day early…”
Grandpa paused and asked: “Is it that urgent? I still wanted to give Xu Chen a few words in person, telling him to look after you more…”
“Oh, what’s there to give words for.” His aunt’s expression grew somewhat urgent, “You mustn’t carelessly shout a name like ‘Xu Chen’. I usually only ever dare call him ‘Sir’… What status do you have to directly call him by his name? How presumptuous is that? He’s a regional department director of the top ten listed company—the Li Group. You giving him words of advice? Isn’t that laughable if word gets out?”
Grandpa was stunned: “The Li Group? I know this group, I also work in a Li…”
His aunt finally couldn’t help pulling down her face: “Of course you know, it’s on TV every day, who doesn’t know… Dad, hurry, hurry up. If he sees you later, I’ll get nagged at again. He doesn’t like me keeping ties with my maiden family.”
“He said you’re all poor relatives.”
Grandpa didn’t speak again, simply and silently pulling a second-hand paper box out of his canvas bag. He stated briefly: “Laid by the chickens I raised.”
Then, under his aunt’s watchful gaze, he sat back down on the bedside and dressed Su Tang, who was keeping his pretty eyes wide open and staring curiously at his aunt.
As Su Tang was led by the hand out the door by Grandpa, his aunt suddenly leaned against the wall and shouted once more:
ー”Dad.”
Su Tang and Grandpa both turned their heads back.
They saw his aunt’s eye rims were red. She glanced at Su Tang, then looked toward Grandpa: “I’m sorry.”
“Just now… I was too anxious and spoke too harshly.”
“But you know, I have no choice.”
“This house isn’t mine.”
“Eh, eh! Understood, understood. It’s fine.” Su Tang saw that Grandpa’s eye rims had grown red too. Grandpa waved his hand, “Hurry back to your room, daughter. As long as you’re doing well yourself, that’s enough. I’ll pull the door shut.”
When they pushed the door open, a fine drizzle of rain was still drifting outside.
Fortunately, Grandpa Su’s little electric scooter was fully “equipped with all organs.” Pulling out that oversized parent-child raincoat, he first stuffed Su Tang into the child-exclusive rain cape in the back seat, then wormed his way into it from the front himself.
Su Tang found it magical.
——The thin raincoat could actually block the wind and rain.
Feeling that Grandpa definitely wasn’t happy, he hugged Grandpa a bit tighter.
Grandpa didn’t speak the whole way.
Watching the scenery recede behind them, Su Tang suddenly called out “Grandpa.”
He said: “Grandpa, just wait until I grow up.”
Grandpa’s voice came from the front, carrying the rustling sound of raincoat friction: “What will you do when you grow up?”
Pressing his face against Grandpa’s back, Su Tang said: “I’ll earn lots and lots of money to support you and turn Grandpa into a ‘rich relative’.”
“Hahaha…” Grandpa Su lifted his face, the corners of his eyes flashing as he laughed out loud.
“Then my darling must grow up well.”
——Grow up well.
Yesterday’s rain had actually trickled all the way through to this morning.
With a restless mind, Li Xingchuan had not been able to sleep a wink all night.
Just as the sky was turning pale with dawn, wearing faint dark circles under his eyes, carrying a mini projection egg in his arms, he had paced back and forth like a ghost through the empty corridors of the villa several times.
Later on, he somehow wandered out onto the second-floor outdoor balcony.
He sat unprotected right on the edge of the wet terrace, one leg dangling in mid-air, looking gloomy and staring blankly into the courtyard washed bright by the rain below.
Idly tossing and catching that small projection egg in his hand without even holding an umbrella, he let the fine strands of rain dampen his hair and shoulder lines.
“Oh my lord, Young Master, why are you sitting there! Uncle De, Uncle De, quickly bring a ladder over! Auntie Wang, Auntie Wang, go call the housekeeper!”
“Aiyo my ancestor! Sit tight, don’t move a muscle! Uncle De is coming right now!”
A flurry of noisy shouts swept past Li Xingchuan’s ears, yet he still stared dazedly into the curtain of rain, not hearing what they were yelling.
Until he snapped back to his senses, he gave a single-handed push and lightly leapt down from the edge of the second floor, landing steadily on the wet turf of the first floor.
The servant who had just been bustling about to fetch a ladder went weak at the knees and nearly passed out. Seeing that her young master had stood up with sound arms and legs, walking unsteadily forward without even dusting off his pants, she clutched her chest and spoke with a trembling voice: “Heaven… Heaven be praised…”
Li Xingchuan took two steps, a pair of black leather shoes stopping right in front of him.
Lifting his eyes, he met Steward Ye’s calm gaze. Still expressionless with a dark and gloomy face, he continued forward.
Steward Ye turned around, watched his aimless retreating figure, and suddenly spoke out:
“Su Tang is back.”
Like a puppet suddenly injected with soul, a spark of light abruptly flared within Li Xingchuan’s dead-silent pupils.
He whipped around and ran swiftly toward the direction of the small western-style building.
Leaning against the mailbox in front of the building, Li Xingchuan regulated his somewhat hurried breathing. Just as he was about to step forward, he suddenly saw Grandpa Su push open the front door and walk into the courtyard with its low surrounding wall.
Su Tang followed closely behind him like a little tail, sticky and clingy.
Grandpa Su bent down and patted his head: “Be a good boy and catch up on some sleep at home. Grandpa will make a trip to the work zone and be right back—I asked for leave in a rush, and some tasks weren’t explained clearly at the time, I can’t just leave them hanging.”
Su Tang lifted his small face and nodded obediently, but as if suddenly sensing something, he turned his head to look toward the mailbox.
The next second, his eyes lit up abruptly. Like a brisk little gust of wind sweeping across the ground, completely disregarding the wet rainwater covering the earth, he ran swiftly toward Li Xingchuan:
“Brother’s here, Brother’s here! Brother—Brother!”
Li Xingchuan walked over quickly to catch Su Tang: “So early.”
Su Tang gave a soft “Mn.”
Li Xingchuan exchanged a glance with the looking-over Grandpa Su, his hand instinctively dropping down to tidy up Su Tang’s rain-dampened collar. As he straightened it, he took Su Tang’s hand, gently leading him under the eaves.
Grandpa Su laughed from across the yard: “Hurry inside with Tangtang, don’t get yourself drenched in the rain either. Have Tangtang steam an egg for you to eat.”
Su Tang hurriedly lifted his head to supplement, his eyes sparkling: “It’s an egg laid by Grandpa’s chickens~”
A flash of visible delight crossed Li Xingchuan’s face, yet the polite words that slipped out of his mouth still carried a raw awkwardness, sounding like he was reciting from a template: “I know. Have a safe trip, Grandpa.”
Pulled by Li Xingchuan, Su Tang entered the house. Watching Li Xingchuan turn around to shut the door, he said in a soft, sweet voice: “Play in the room, Brother, wait for me for a moment oh.”
“I’ll go steam the eggs~”
The moment he turned around, his delicate, slender wrist was suddenly gently grasped by Li Xingchuan.
Li Xingchuan wasn’t using force.
Yet when Su Tang tried to move, he couldn’t pull away.
Lifting his pretty, small face, his watery eyes held a look of surprise: “Brother, what’s wrong?”
Lowering his gaze to scrutinize him, Li Xingchuan asked in a deep voice:
“Who bullied you.”
Su Tang parted his lips slightly.
He didn’t know how Brother had figured it out.
Yet with Brother not asking, he had almost completely forgotten yesterday’s upset.
But now that Brother asked, all the grievances he had suffered yesterday, before, and even a long, long time ago at his cousin’s place, suddenly seemed to breach a dam.
Su Tang let out an “waah” and cried without any reservation.
Feeling Brother’s thumb gently wiping his face, he sobbed intermittently:
“Brother…”
“Cousin… snort… Cousin said…”
“Said I’m, I’m a thief! Stealing money to buy new clothes…”
“Said the clothes you bought me are super, super expensive, and at their Qinghe Elite School, nobody wears them every day… So I’m, I’m a thief… waah…”
Li Xingchuan’s thumb gently brushed across Su Tang’s wet cheeks with a very light motion: “Don’t cry anymore, you’ll start coughing if you keep crying.”
With that, he narrowed his eyes, a dangerous dark glint flashing across the depths of his pupils:
“——Your cousin, in Qinghe?”