Grandpa Su watched the man count the last banknote, turn around, and walk toward the electric scooter. Just as the man straddled the seat and twisted the key—
The man suddenly slammed his hand down on the handlebars, leaned half his body over, glared with his eyes wide, and breathed reeking alcohol fumes straight into the old man’s face: “How much money do you actually have in your hands right now? You can just pull out ten thousand in cash like that?”
Grandpa Su pushed him hard, but couldn’t budge him. His eyes turned red with anger: “The money has already been given to you, what else do you want?”
“What else?” The man straightened up and shrugged, “Dad, seeing that it wasn’t easy for you to raise that little sickly thing over the past few years, I was considerate and kept something from you—the kid’s mother and I had another one.”
He paused, as if announcing some joyous news: “It’s a stolid little boy, doesn’t cough or wheeze.”
“How about it? You’re even willing to raise that medicine bottle Su棠. Since my little son is so healthy and doesn’t need you to take care of him, as a grandpa, isn’t it reasonable to give some child support?”
Grandpa Su froze completely, taking a long time before asking with a trembling voice: “… You guys had another one?”
“Yeah!” The man’s tone was full of complacency, “His little body is super healthy.”
He even held up a thumb to compare: “No need to take medicine, much less worry than Su棠!”
He stretched out his hand: “So ten thousand for child support shouldn’t be a problem, right? Who knows how much your little western-style house is worth!”
“How old is he?”
“Six years old.”
Six years old.
Ten months of pregnancy, five years of raising.
——Just covering the entirety of Su棠’s elementary school years.
No wonder, no wonder…
Two streams of turbid tears rolled down Grandpa Su’s eyes: “Considerate of me?”
“It’s that you guys never considered me a human being at all…”
“I don’t have culture, and I don’t have skills. Back in the early years for the sake of making a living, I had no choice but to leave you guys in the village… It was my fault. You growing up like this, I share the blame, I own up to it.”
“What you want, whatever I could give, I’ve given… As for the rest—your little son, or even however many sons you might have in the future—”
His voice was hoarse, but every word was clear: “They have nothing to do with me anymore!”
With that, he violently twisted the handlebar, originally thinking he could leave right then and there, leaving this unfilial son with a resolute back view and making a clean break from then on.
Who would have thought that man was like a thousand-pound rock, pressing heavily onto the back seat. The electric scooter only shook, and didn’t move an inch at all.
“Dad, bring out another ten thousand, transferring it now works too. Otherwise don’t even think about leaving today.”
The man pressed heavily on the back seat, his tone rogue-like.
Grandpa Su caught sight of people gradually stopping and watching at the mouth of the alley.
Steeling his heart, he suddenly came up with an idea.
He stopped twisting the throttle.
Instead, he pulled out the key in a flash, and under the man’s suspicious gaze, he bypassed the front of the scooter, threw himself forward onto the ground with a plop, and shrieked with all his might:
“Ow—getting hit by someone!”
“Help—the son is going to run over his own dad!”
The crowd swarmed over instantly.
Pointing, discussing, and whispering instantly flooded the narrow alley:
“Just a moment ago I saw these two tugging and pulling, how come in the blink of an eye the old man fell down?”
“Yeah, clearly he was standing just fine a moment ago…”
“Such a beast, hitting his own dad! I’ve already called the police!”
Someone had even fished out a mobile phone, the camera silently aiming right at the center of this farce.
Half of the man’s body was still frozen on the back seat, his eyes wide open in disbelief.
——Who… who is this person?!
Was this his honest-to-goodness father?
He rubbed his eyes: Damn it, ate too much wild mushroom this morning and got poisoned and hallucinated?!
He was someone who worked nearby.
The company was just not far away.
He couldn’t afford to swallow this dumb loss; he still needed to save face in front of his colleagues!
Amidst the beast-like gazes of the crowd, he cursed and jumped off the back seat: “Are you all blind? Look clearly! What I sat on was the back seat! How the hell does a back seat hit someone?!”
Grandpa Su was clutching his stomach “convulsing” in performance. Seeing his unfilial son arguing with the onlookers, how could he still care about him?
He scrambled up from the ground in one go, righted the electric scooter, inserted the key firmly—
With a “hum” he twisted the throttle, and under the astonished and dazed gazes of the crowd, the little electric scooter cleverly turned a corner and vanished in a flash around the alley corner.
Near noon, the cicada chirps gradually grew to a boil.
Su棠 was curled up in the soft sofa of the living room, playing a video game facing a big screen that almost filled the entire wall.
Actually, he didn’t really play games much. Only occasionally.
But precisely because of this “occasionally”, the family’s television had been replaced by this big screen by Li Xingchuan.
He wasn’t playing very attentively either.
Because the social media software window at the top of the screen was still flashing on and off, and he was chatting back and forth with Li Qian—
[Li Qian]: How is it, did you tell your grandpa or not yet?! If you don’t say it soon, school is about to start!
[Love Eating Chocolate]: Haven’t figured out how to say it yet… and even if Grandpa agrees, it’s useless, Brother has to agree too.
[Li Qian]: Then hurry up and tell Brother Li! Brother Li is so good to you, he’ll definitely agree!
[Love Eating Chocolate]: You don’t understand.
[Love Eating Chocolate]: Yes, yes, I don’t understand, hurry up! Begging you!
[Love Eating Chocolate]: Alright, alright… Let me think…
While absentmindedly thinking about this matter, Su棠 mechanically operated the controller.
On the screen, Super Mario popped out a huge mushroom, and Su棠 was manipulating the little figure to catch it—
The living room door suddenly made a very faint “click” sound.
The pair of moist, limpid eyes beneath Su棠’s long lashes instantly lit up.
Without a second thought, he cast aside the controller, stepped into his fluffy slippers, and ran toward the doorway with a patter-patter.
“Brother, Brother—Brother!”
A twelve-year-old teenage boy had already shed much of his childishness in front of others.
Yet the moment he saw Li Xingchuan, he reverted back to that clingy little kid from when he was six, hurtling straight into the other’s embrace like a little cannonball.
Though Su棠 had grown a bit taller over the years, he still fell far short of Li Xingchuan’s trajectory heading straight toward one meter eight.
When he was steadily caught and held in Li Xingchuan’s arms by a leaning-over Li Xingchuan, he still looked like a child easily picked up by an adult, appearing tiny inside Brother’s broad embrace.
Yet Li Xingchuan merely held him loosely for a split second, then gently pushed him away right after.
He only smoothly grasped Su棠’s little hand and softened his voice: “Full of sweat, dirty. I’ll go take a cool shower first.”
However, Su棠 refused to make way, instead leaning forward a bit, his little nose twitching slightly, circling around Li Xingchuan like a little puppy to carefully sniff the sweat odor on his body.
Then he lifted his face, his eyes shining brightly: “Not very stinky, don’t despise Brother~”
Li Xingchuan couldn’t do anything with him, so he could only hold his hand and bring him upstairs together.
In the bedroom.
Su棠 spread out his arms, obediently letting Li Xingchuan fuss over changing his clothes for him, while guiltily replying to Brother’s inquiries: “Breakfast… didn’t finish… because I really couldn’t finish it anymore… milk… half a cup… really couldn’t drink any more…”
Li Xingchuan didn’t say much, simply replying calmly: “Then you’ll have to eat an extra bowl at lunch.”
Su棠’s eyes instantly moistened up.
Pinched against the hem of the newly worn shirt printed with cartoon graffiti, his eyelashes drooped down, trembling softly in flutters, and his voice also carried a bit of aggrieved nasal tone: “Brother hasn’t fed me rice for ages and ages… and still scolds me every day for eating too little… I used to eat a lot because you would always feed me…”
Hearing this, Li Xingchuan’s brows immediately arched up, and he hurried to bend over close to him, his tone and posture both softening down: “Indeed it’s Brother’s fault.”
“Lunch will penalize Brother to feed Tangtang an extra bowl.”
Su棠’s eyes brightened, happy that Brother was going to feed him again.
Completely ignoring the implication of “an extra bowl.”
Like a chirping little bird, he stood on tiptoe to reach Li Xingchuan’s neck, responding happily: “Yay, yay~”
Li Xingchuan covertly hooked the corner of his lips, bending over to match Su棠 and pulling him into his embrace. Then, following Su棠’s childhood “custom,” he patted him gently on the back ten-odd times before letting go: “Alright, go look in the mirror and see if you’re satisfied. Brother is going to wash up.”
After taking a shower and changing into a refreshing set of clothes, Li Xingchuan—a tall, upright youth carrying the sunny, refreshing scent of his surroundings—truly entered the kitchen to perform wok-tossing. Amidst the clanging and flying of the spatula, he coaxed Su棠 into giggling non-stop.
Su棠 watched with itchy hands and wanted to try too, but couldn’t even lift the wok. Stretching out his slender arms and blinking his teary, watery eyes, he whispered: “Brother, Brother, I can’t hold it steady~”
Li Xingchuan watched from right behind him, how could he really let him do it himself. The youth, smelling of sunshine and clean freshness after changing clothes, stepped forward, enclosed Su棠 from behind, and steadily wrapped his large, fair hand around Su棠’s delicate white hand, lifting it upward with his own strength—
And the frying pan steadily left the stove.
Holding his hand, Li Xingchuan casually tossed the pan twice.
Su棠 immediately let out a bouncy, whispered exclamation: “It tossed up, it tossed up! Brother is so amazing!”
Li Xingchuan chuckled lowly right beside his ear, warm breath brushing across his earlobe: “Mhm.”
Su棠’s ear-tips twitched imperceptibly.
His voice suddenly turned softer and sweeter, first calling out very obediently: “Brother~”
Li Xingchuan’s response was low and deep: “Mhm?”
Su棠 felt that Brother’s mood seemed quite good right then.
His body leaned slightly backward, pressing closer into Brother’s embrace, his tone spoiled and soft with a hint of probing: “Brother~ Li Qian said lots of junior high students choose to live in the dorms…”
The embrace behind him seemed to freeze for half a second.
Immediately, Li Xingchuan’s decisive voice rang out: “Don’t even think about it.”
Su棠’s pretty brows immediately hitched up.
He wriggled slightly in Li Xingchuan’s arms. The two of them had been too busy talking just now, and the dishes in the wok were getting a bit burnt. He reached out to turn off the stove with a crisp, light “pop” sound.
Turning around with his back resting against the slightly cool stove, facing the wall-like Li Xingchuan, he raised his little face, opening those wide, watery eyes: “Why?”
“Can’t Brother stay in the dorms too? We apply for the same dorm and live together, wouldn’t that be good?”
“Li Qian has lived in the dorms since elementary school… Many of my friends also live in dorms… When I was little, you and Grandpa wouldn’t let me live there because I was young, but now I’ve grown up…”
Looking down at him, Li Xingchuan’s gaze was as deep and black as ink: “It’s not a matter of age.”
Over these years, Su棠’s health had improved a lot; he no longer ran fevers or went into convulsions on a whim, and his symptoms of coughing and wheezing easily had also lessened quite a bit. But that didn’t mean the problem had completely vanished. Especially—
His trait of never being allowed to be startled while in a sleep state still persisted to this day.
And as a public school, No. 1 High School’s dorms were all standard rooms, with at least six people to a room, and sometimes more than ten. With crowds and a chaotic environment, aside from mixed living being extremely inconvenient, it was even more easily prone to disturbing the special-constitutioned Su棠.
Li Xingchuan refused to loosen his stance.
Su棠 instantly wilted all over, like a little seedling withered by the sun.
When Li Xingchuan fed him meals, he no longer raised his watery, pretty eyes to smile at Brother, whole person radiating a stuffy, sulky, suppressed state.
Li Xingchuan fed him soup with a small spoon, and he lightly clamped down on the rim of the spoon delivered to his lips.
Reading the situation and seeing that Brother wasn’t angry, when Brother reached out again to feed him a small broken piece of egg, he peeked sideways, then went “Auwu,” pretending to accidentally—but actually testily and gently—bite Brother’s fingertip.
Li Xingchuan’s gaze was deep black, indulging all his little actions.
Even varying his methods with explicit praises and implicit encouragements: “Little tiger teeth are fierce, can bite people now.”
Su棠 looked away, his cheeks slightly red, guiltily whispering in self-defense: “I… I didn’t mean to…”
Li Xingchuan chuckled lightly: “You can be.”
With that, Su棠’s heart felt even more grounded, and his courage quietly grew a bit bigger.
Avoiding the hand Li Xingchuan had extended to wipe his mouth, he picked up the napkin and wiped haphazardly: “I’m full!”
“Brother, go play ball in the afternoon!”
“I, I won’t bother Brother anymore!”
“I’m going to wait for Li Qian to come play with me!”
“Anyway, after school starts… Brother doesn’t want to take me to live in the dorms either~”
Having finished, like a little cat that deliberately knocked over a cup and then observed the owner’s reaction, he used his peripheral vision to secretly eye Li Xingchuan.
Seeing that Li Xingchuan only showed a helpless yet thoughtful expression and didn’t fly into a rage,
he put on what he considered his most “acting up” posture, testing and slowly shuffling to the edge of the stairs.
Stealing a glance at Brother, wanting to step up and then pulling it back.
Hesitating for a second, stealing another glance.
Finally hardening his heart, he let out a light, weak-spirited “hmph,” and then one small step by one small step, carrying a full load of guilt and trepidation, he dragged himself upstairs alone.
Worried, Li Xingchuan followed up.
Only to be met with a solid, shut door.
——The little fellow actually locked the door from the inside.
A soft, slightly aggrieved voice muffled through the door crack: “Who is it…”
“Tangtang is going to take a afternoon nap oh.”
“Already fell asleep… can’t open the door anymore.”
So Li Xingchuan took a detour, walking to the wall directly beneath the window of Su棠’s bedroom on the first floor.
——It would take him only ten seconds to free-hand climb up to the second-floor windowsill, push open the window, and jump inside.
Yet he was afraid Su棠 might really be brewing some sleepiness and would get scared.
Just as he was hesitating, he saw Grandpa Su riding his small electric scooter back, bumping up and down.
Grandpa Su spotted him standing beneath the window at a single glance, hastily waving his arms and lowering his voice: “Xingchuan, Xingchuan, I just washed this wall with water this morning, it’s slippery as anything. Don’t you go climbing up.”
Calmly turning around, Li Xingchuan met him: “It’s not what you think. I’m looking at the scenery.”
Grandpa Su looked at the bare, wet wall, gave a doubting “Oh,” and then followed up.
Immediately after, Li Xingchuan suddenly asked him: “Grandpa, were you burgled?”
Grandpa Su froze, following his gaze to look at the front basket of his electric scooter—it was completely empty. The sundries he usually piled in there were entirely gone. The basket was also wrenched out of shape.
He let out an “Aiya” and waved his hand: “Who’s to say no…”
Li Xingchuan immediately offered to have Housekeeper Ye help investigate and seek justice, but Grandpa Su repeatedly sighed and shook his head: “Forget it, forget it, just treat it as losing property to avert disaster.”
He raised his head to gaze at the sky, his voice carrying a sense of relieved lightness: “It’ll be good from now on!”
——Upon returning, he had deliberately gone to look for the security guard, completely deleting the identity information he had helped his son register at the guard station years ago.
The entry and exit management of this estate was extremely strict.
That unfilial son of his, if he wanted to come in and find them again in the future, wouldn’t even have a chance in a million.
Grandpa Su had long since grown accustomed to Li Xingchuan’s sharp insight.
Raising his head to look at Li Xingchuan, seeing his expression somewhat gloomy, he asked worriedly: “What, did Tangtang disobey?”
Having spent these years together, Grandpa Su had witnessed Li Xingchuan’s meticulous tolerance and indulgence toward Su棠 firsthand. Those past prejudices had long since vanished like smoke. Today’s Grandpa Su even viewed Li Xingchuan as the backbone of this household.
——Many matters that an old man like him couldn’t handle or found inconvenient to handle, once Li Xingchuan knew, he could often give effective suggestions or even step out in reality to help solve them.
And Su棠, spoiled by Li Xingchuan, had grown increasingly temperamental, even learning to throw small tantrums and act up, sometimes startling Grandpa Su into a cold sweat for fear he’d go too far. He had privately corrected Su棠 a few times, but the results were minimal.
At this moment, he could only comfort Li Xingchuan: “Tell me what happened, I’ll definitely give him a good talk later.”
Yet Li Xingchuan stated instantly: “Don’t lecture him.”
“He wants to live in the dorms, and I refused him.”
“He’s throwing a bit of a small temper, it’s only right.”
Grandpa Su parked the electric scooter under the shed roof and sighed: “Xingchuan, though as a grandfather speaking ill of my own grandson behind his back isn’t right… but don’t spoil him like this all the time either. He’s already twelve years old, look at any twelve-year-old kid on the street, when they go out do they still insist on waiting for Brother to dress them?”
“I support you on not letting him live in the dorms. That’s for his own good.”
“Such an obedient, sensible child when he was little, how is it that the older he gets, the less he listens to reason…” Grandpa Su muttered, quite distressed.
Fearing that Grandpa Su might really go lecture Su棠 later, Li Xingchuan hurried to correct him: “Grandpa, it’s not that Tangtang doesn’t know how to dress. It’s that I insist on dressing him.”
Grandpa Su was truly helpless.
Scratching his head, he simply didn’t know what else to say.
In the past, whenever Su棠 threw a small temper, within ten minutes he would be coaxed back by Li Xingchuan.
But this time was different. Li Xingchuan had coaxed him for several days, and Su棠 had tested and tested again, yet stubbornly failed to probe where Li Xingchuan’s bottom line of tolerance lay—Brother seemed to never grow impatient.
Thus his courage grew exponentially bolder.
Relying on Li Xingchuan coming to coax him every single time, he continuously “expanded his territory” outward, eagerly matching wits with Li Xingchuan, secretly anticipating that Brother could “coax with a big one” this time—such as ultimately compromising, stepping back, and agreeing to let him stay in the dorms.
Yet even though Li Xingchuan was willing to indulge him and coax him, he stubbornly refused to blindly satisfy him on the matter of “living in the dorms” like he usually did.
Therefore, right up until the day before school started—
Su棠 still maintained an aggrieved, twisted expression, refusing to proactively converse with Li Xingchuan.
Even though several times he almost couldn’t help wanting to sniffle in front of Brother, asking Brother to hug him tightly and pat him…
However…
In order to be able to live in the dorms.
No matter how much he wanted to, he stubbornly held it in!
Even when sleeping at night, his body instinctively couldn’t bear to part, and in the middle of the night he would always fumble and drill into the other’s arms in a daze, once he woke up clear-headed during the day and found Li Xingchuan still beside him, he would immediately “hmph,” wriggle out of the other’s warm embrace, turn away, and display his “persistence” with his slender spine facing Li Xingchuan.
The start of school for the first-year junior high students at City No. 1 High School was one day earlier than the third-year senior high students.
This day also happened to be the day Li Xingchuan’s basketball team had agreed upon for a wild match. The match had originally been scheduled for a week ago, but because the opposing team’s core player had something temporary come up, the time was postponed to today.
There was a match in the afternoon, and by convention the team had to hold a training session in the morning.
However, Li Xingchuan was absent.
Helplessly, the team split up to search for people in the few places Li Xingchuan frequented.
When the boy nicknamed “Quick-Witted” and a few No. 1 High School teammates found Li Xingchuan, he was standing at the entrance of a coffee shop, bending over to organize the trunk of a black sedan.
Quick-Witted trotted over—
Only to see that the entire trunk was paved with brightly colored, unfamiliar-to-them flowers. Red, yellow, blue, and purple, glaringly dazzling, with no particular design sense, looking more like Li Xingchuan’s own quirky “masterpiece.” Whatever flowers were large and eye-catching were crammed in, and chocolate boxes and candy jars of all shapes and sizes were wedged tightly between the floral clusters… messy to a somewhat suffocating degree.
And Li Xingchuan was pressing his lips tightly, expressionlessly hauling heavy cardboard boxes one after another from a tricycle parked nearby.
Quick-Witted and his teammates widened their eyes, staring at the words printed on the boxes:
《Must-Brush Questions Collection for Junior High》…
《Five Years of High School Entrance Examination, Three Years of Simulation》…
《Experimental Class Advantage Training Collection》…
Quick-Witted cautiously sidled over, his voice distorted: “Li, Li Brother… You guys… busy?”
Without lifting his head, Li Xingchuan said: “Since you’re here, go move some. There are still three or four boxes over there.”
Obediently, the group began moving boxes, discussing tentatively while hauling:
“Li Brother, who on earth provoked you? Is it worth spending this much money buying test papers to crush them to death?”
“Yeah yeah… Li Brother, just say the word, we’ll go block them!”
As the group was about to say more, Li Xingchuan interrupted them with a cold voice: “Shut up.”
“What nonsense are you talking about.”
“This is an entrance gift for my younger brother.”
Quick-Witted retreated half a step in fright, even forgetting he was supposed to call Li Xingchuan to training. Quick-witted by nature, his brain short-circuited for a moment too, blurting out in a tiny voice: “Oh lord…”
Could it be that legendary…
——The illegitimate younger brother from rumors whom Li Xingchuan kept hidden in the dark and never brought out to introduce to people?
That “little elementary school chicken” younger brother whom Li Xingchuan both detested and restrained himself over out of sibling bonds, yet couldn’t personally step up to discipline?
——Is he about to enter junior high now?
Could it be Li Xingchuan found his chance to subtly torment him using this method?
Quick-Witted felt his opportunity to show loyalty had arrived.
The teammates around him evidently thought the same way.
Setting down their boxes, they rolled up their sleeves and rubbed their palms, their faces revealing a tacit understanding of excitement:
“Heh-yo-wei!”
“Damn it, Li Brother, you don’t need to dirty your own hands—”
“Is it starting junior high right? Our school, right? Tomorrow school starts, you just watch from the side, we’ll go give your ‘cheap younger brother’ a proper show of force, guaranteed to scare him shitless so he never dares get in your way again!”