“–His name is—Li Xingchuan…”
It was a good thing Li Xingchuan gave that explanation; with those words, the slight lack of security deep inside Su Tang’s heart was like cotton soaked in warm water, filling out and recovering bit by bit, slowly.
And so, Su Tang dared to speak again.
Lifting his watery little face, he rubbed gently against the hand Li Xingchuan was using to wipe his tears, like a well-soothed little kitten, letting out a low whimper and calling out softly and dependently: “Brother, Brother…”
He wanted to make up for everything he hadn’t dared to shout when he was scared just moments ago.
At this moment, whispered comments—some surprised, some just watching the fun—drifted over from other children around them:
“Goodness, do you still need your older brother to coax you to sleep even during naptime?”
“Hahaha, what a little crybaby!”
“I didn’t need my mom to coax me to sleep anymore when I was in senior kindergarten.”
“Isn’t this ‘brother’ from the first grade? This is the first-grade dormitory, you know. Are there any kids this tall in the first grade?”
Turning his face, Li Xingchuan swept a cold gaze across the circle. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was cold enough to feel tangible: “Shut up.”
His glare carried a high degree of deterrence.
The chattering discussions came to an abrupt halt.
Some of the braver-less kids curled their lips down under that look, their eye rims turning red. These children were treasured in the palms of their hands at home; when had they ever been scolded head-on like this?
For a time, the dormitory fell so quiet that only the sound of breathing remained, and not a single child dared to step forward to gawk at the “little crybaby” anymore.
Extending his small hand, Su Tang gently hugged Li Xingchuan’s arm, his voice soft and sweet: “Brother… you scared them~”
“They were gossiping about you, they deserved it.” Li Xingchuan didn’t care in the least. Nimbly popping open the straw on the milk carton, he handed it to Su Tang’s lips: “Drink.”
Sniffling, Su Tang obediently and dutifully took small sips of the warm milk, finishing it off with the help of his brother’s hand.
Tossing the empty carton far into the trash can, Li Xingchuan stuffed Su Tang back into the quilt: “Sleep.”
“Then… is Brother sleepy now?” Su Tang gazed at him with eager eyes.
Lying down sideways beside him, Li Xingchuan propped his head up with his left hand while gently resting his right hand over the small quilted cocoon wrapped around Su Tang: “Sleep together. I promised you.”
Su Tang’s eye rims were still watery and red. Lowering his voice with a hint of cautious, fawning obedience, he asked: “Brother… you’re angry with me, right?”
Refusing to admit it, Li Xingchuan said: “What kind of anger would I be having.”
Pulling his hand out from the quilt, Su Tang shook the back of his hand which wore the cartoon sticker: “Because Brother said the sticker was ugly… yet I… I said the exact opposite…”
Teardrops rolled down the corners of his eyes once more, hitting the pillow: “In the past, whenever I said the opposite of what Dad said, Dad would hit me…”
“Even though Brother didn’t hit me, you just ignored me…”
“But I was still so terrified just now.”
Jabbering on, he was even a bit incoherent: “I’m not afraid of Brother hitting me…”
“I’m afraid of Brother ignoring me…”
“Just like what happened a moment ago…”
His throat choked up for a second. Casting a lingering look at the sticker on the back of his hand, he closed his eyes again, looking as though he had made a huge, resolute determination with the tragic air of a “hero breaking his wrist,” and said: “Brother, I know I was wrong. After we get up later, I’ll wash it off…”
“If it had been anyone else just now, I wouldn’t have disobeyed Brother… but Li Qian is my new friend, and I don’t want to make him sad.”
Lowering his voice, Li Xingchuan asked: “Does your dad always hit you?”
Stuffing Su Tang’s exposed hand back into the quilt, he tirelessly and gently wiped away the tear tracks at the corners of Su Tang’s eyes.
With a deep sense of grievance, Su Tang let out an “Mn.”
Studying Su Tang and seeing that he stopped shedding tears after saying all this, Li Xingchuan wiped the corners of his eyes dry once more, then lightly patted the small quilt covering Su Tang with his right hand.
In a warm and deep voice, he said: “Don’t wash it.”
“Keep it.”
A heavy feeling weighed inside Li Xingchuan’s chest.
If he had felt like absolute garbage the moment he watched Su Tang secretly shed tears while pouting in anger at him earlier—then right now, he felt downright inhumane.
He thought of his mother’s words again.
——”A little cat, you see, is meant to be loved.”
——Yet Li Xingchuan, you made your little cat cry.
Whether the dormitory supervisor finally arrived or the playing kids grew sleepy themselves, the air suddenly grew extraordinarily quiet.
Quiet enough that Li Xingchuan could clearly hear Su Tang’s fine, fragile, breathy whispers.
Extending his arm, Li Xingchuan pulled the tiny Su Tang entirely into his embrace.
It was as if he had understood a few more principles in some fleeting moment.
Yet it was also as if he remained blank and ignorant, understanding nothing at all, only stubbornly and clumsily groping for new methods to adapt to this little cat that somehow resisted all attempts to raise it properly—at least, he couldn’t scare it anymore.
The little cat merely wanted to make friends with a tail-wagging, slightly noisy little puppy.
——What wrong did the little cat commit?
Uncertain and bubbling with a trace of eager excitement, Su Tang asked in a tentative whisper: “Really?”
“Can I really not wash it, Brother…”
Li Xingchuan said: “Of course it’s real.”
“But—”
Flurrying his eyes wide open, Su Tang looked at Li Xingchuan nervously.
Gently flicking the tip of his delicate little nose, Li Xingchuan continued: “You have to let Brother stick one on your other hand, too.”
Blinking his pretty eyes and parting his small mouth slightly, Su Tang froze for half a second before suddenly breaking into a low, giggling “giggle-giggle” laugh, shifting slightly beneath the covers: “Yay, yay! Then I’ll have Brother’s sticker on my hand too!”
Watching him for a moment, Li Xingchuan suddenly said: “Tangtang, you actually don’t have to be that obedient to me.”
Opening his eyes wide, Su Tang asked: “Why is that~”
Li Xingchuan said: “You don’t have to be that well-behaved either.”
Blinking his moisture-laden eyes, Su Tang looked at him in confusion.
Meeting his gaze quietly in return, Li Xingchuan lowered his voice even further: “Didn’t Brother tell you before?”
“Say whatever you want to say, do whatever you want to do.”
“Even if what you say and do is different from what Brother wants, it doesn’t matter.”
“But, but Brother will be unhappy, won’t you?” Watery moisture welled up in Su Tang’s eyes once more.
“You only need to take care of your own happiness; you don’t need to look after Brother. Because Brother is no good-for-nothing.” Giving Su Tang a reassuring smile, Li Xingchuan said: “Brother can solve his own unhappiness.”
“This is the first time I’ve heard such a novel idea, Brother!” Adoration that couldn’t be hidden shone within Su Tang’s blinking, oversized eyes.
“Then remember it.”
Yawning, Su Tang reached out to wrap his arms around Li Xingchuan’s neck, his voice soft and sweet with an obvious nasal twang: “Yay, yay, I’ll remember it… I’ll remember Brother’s words!”
Whether due to the box of warm milk before naptime or because curling up in Brother’s arms to sleep brought Su Tang warmth and peace of mind, when he woke up, his eye rims were neither red nor swollen, as if that small grievance in the afternoon had never happened. Not only that, his mood seemed even lighter than it had been before lunch—those pretty eyes were now like spring-washed glazed crystal, clearer and brighter than ever.
When Su Tang was escorted back into the classroom by Li Xingchuan, Li Qian was already sitting at his desk.
The moment the two little friends saw each other, they started exchanging silly grins.
“Good afternoon.”
“Good afternoon!”
Greeting each other like little gentlemen.
Standing to the side, Li Xingchuan watched quietly with a neutral expression.
Yet he no longer used weird glances to scare Li Qian either.
After Li Xingchuan left, Su Tang spent a remarkably peaceful afternoon.
That evening, just as he had promised before enrollment, Li Xingchuan came to pick him up after school and officially moved into Su Tang’s home.
This utterly delighted Su Tang.
Upon arriving home, instead of doing his homework, he simply spun circles around Li Xingchuan.
Seeing Su Tang giggling nonstop, Grandpa Su’s wrinkle-lined face broke into a smile as well.
The school served early dinners, and Grandpa Su boiled two bowls of small noodles for the kids to line their stomachs, fearing that children would digest quickly and go hungry later in the evening.
When the meal was ready, the two kids were doing their homework. Pushing open the door, Grandpa Su overheard their conversation:
“Brother, I’m finished writing! Huh, my Chinese and math added together, all three pages of homework are done, why hasn’t Brother finished even a single page yet.”
“Brother’s homework is high-level homework, it takes longer to make.”
“Let me see, let me see, I want to see the high-level homework too. Huh… ‘Dai Zheng Shu’? Brother, are the first three characters here pronounced ‘Dai Zheng Shu’? I only recognize the last one…”
“Tangtang, go wash up first once you’re done writing. Don’t look at Brother’s; you won’t understand it for the time being.”
When Grandpa Su pushed the door open, Li Xingchuan was turning his exercise notebook face-down onto the table. Although advanced in years, Grandpa Su still had decent eyesight and caught a glimpse of what Li Xingchuan had written: a “Letter of Guarantee.”
Sighing inwardly, Grandpa Su thought—a young master is a young master after all, unable to endure the hardship of schooling; on his very first day of enrollment, he’s already writing letters of guarantee.
Yet sighing aside, his prejudice toward Li Xingchuan had shifted somewhat for the better.
No matter how unreliable this kid might be—he was genuinely good to his grandson, and their whole family had never mistreated the grandfather-grandson pair.
Bringing out two bowls of noodles, Grandpa Su placed one in front of Li Xingchuan first: “Child, eat something to line your stomach first. I added an egg laid by our own raised chickens; it’s more nutritious.”
Only after setting down Li Xingchuan’s did he bring Su Tang’s.
He brought two bowls for Su Tang—one bowl of noodles, and one bowl of thick traditional Chinese medicine.
Wrinkling his pretty brows, Su Tang asked: “Huh, why is there medicine too…”
Grandpa Su said: “I asked the doctor. If you can’t drink it at noon, changing it to the evening is fine. You can’t break the daily routine.”
Speaking in a soft voice, he added: “Xingchuan, I won’t disturb your homework. Help me supervise Su Tang. The medicine has to be drunk while it’s warm, and the bottom of the bowl needs to be emptied too. Don’t let him leave any behind.”
Sure enough, after Grandpa Su left, Su Tang began dawdling, taking tiny, tiny sips against the Chinese medicine.
It was Li Xingchuan’s first time seeing someone drink Chinese medicine with a spoon.
Putting down the letter of guarantee in his hand, he smiled and beckoned to Su Tang: “Come here, I’ll teach you how to drink Chinese medicine.”
Three minutes later.
With reddened eye rims and a red nose tip, Su Tang made a grievance-filled accusation: “Why did you make me chug it all at once… it’s so bitter…”
Li Xingchuan had already unwrapped a piece of candy and quickly popped it into his mouth: “Now then, is it sweet?”
Su Tang’s tightly crunched face slowly unpuckered: “Sweet!”
Patting his head, Li Xingchuan said: “Drink it fast, the bitterness is short, the sweetness comes fast.”
The next day, right after Li Xingchuan dropped Su Tang off at the classroom and left, Li Qian hurried over to Su Tang’s side, gossiping away: “Su Tang, Su Tang, I’ll tell you a big piece of news!”
Su Tang was pulling out his homework, his eyes shining brightly as he looked at Li Qian when he heard this.
Li Qian didn’t care much for stirring up trouble, but he adored gossip.
Seeing Su Tang play along as an audience, he rushed to say: “It spread all over our dormitory yesterday—the third-grade ‘head honcho’ changed yesterday!”
The moment Li Qian finished speaking, a few other students gathered around as well: “Isn’t the third-grade head honcho Xu Meng from Class 3-10?”
Li Qian said: “You bet he was. But yesterday, Xu Meng got beaten up by a newly transferred freshman!”
The day-student classmates around them had slightly lagging information and chimed in all at once: “Isn’t Xu Meng’s dad management at the Top Ten Group? With his family that rich, who would dare beat him up?”
Acting mysterious, Li Qian said: “I don’t know him either; I only just found out his name last night.”
“Who is it, who is it?” Several students asked gossipingly.
With a silly grin, Li Qian said: “His name is—Li Xingchuan.”