“I… I want to go home…”
Su Tang’s new home is only a hundred paces away from the garden villa where Li Xingchuan lives.
But today is the first time Su Tang has truly walked into Li Xingchuan’s house since moving over.
Before coming inside, Su Tang had only seen from afar the high courtyard walls of Brother’s house and those sharp, castle-like roofs on the walls.
It wasn’t until he walked inside that Su Tang truly realized—
Brother’s home is far larger than he had imagined.
Su Tang didn’t dare to look around as casually as he did in his new home. He just opened his big, watery eyes, his pupils rolling about as he curiously sized up everything around him—
Underfoot was a black floor, gleaming with the luster of tiny, scattered stars. In front of him hung heavy, floor-to-ceiling curtains woven with beige and gray. Suspended from the ceiling overhead was a giant, strangely shaped chandelier. Hanging on the walls were quite a few… portrait paintings of figures who weren’t wearing their clothes properly.
This place is too big; it’s big enough to make one panic.
The main hall is brightly lit, yet the furniture is all in dull colors. Even though it is clearly daytime outside, the light seems unable to penetrate.
So stifling, Su Tang thought.
He was still a bit afraid of this place.
While climbing the stairs, he suddenly felt a gaze sticking to his back.
With a sudden turn of his head, he caught himself off guard as he crashed into the “eyes” in a painting—against a gloomy background, a figure with giant black wings on its back was about to burst out of the frame, its copper-bell-like eyes seemingly staring fixedly at him, as if it wanted to drag him into the painting.
Su Tang was so frightened that all the hairs on his body stood on end. He shuddered and hurriedly grabbed Li Xingchuan’s sleeve.
“What?” Li Xingchuan paused, turning his head to look at him.
Su Tang couldn’t say something like “your house is terrifying,” so he just clenched his fingers tighter, his fingertips turning a bit white, his voice trembling thinly: “Brother… wait for me.”
Li Xingchuan lowered his eyes, his gaze landing on the little hand that was shivering slightly. He didn’t say anything, just reached out to hold it, took the ice-cold hand, and slowed his pace.
The so-called “classroom” was at the end of the corridor.
When they pushed open the door, two female teachers were already sitting properly beside the podium, waiting. The room was spacious and the layout simple; a projector hung quietly from the roof, the screen was snow-white, and two desks were placed separately under the podium, distinctly divided.
Su Tang stood straight, acting reserved, as if searching for something in his head. After a moment, he bent his waist toward the two teachers and said: “Hello, teachers!”
The two teachers couldn’t help but laugh. The older one reached out and touched Su Tang’s soft hair: “Good child, hurry and go sit down.”
Afraid of causing a delay, Su Tang trotted to the desk on the outside and sat down. The chair was slightly too high for him, so he cautiously sat only on the front half, his spine straight as an arrow.
Only then did Li Xingchuan saunter over, but he didn’t head toward the other desk. He stopped right beside Su Tang, and then—moved the person and the chair, quite unceremoniously. Scratch, the sound of the chair legs rubbing against the floor. Then another sound; the two desks, originally a meter apart, were forcibly pushed together by Li Xingchuan.
The two teachers exchanged a knowing look and didn’t speak up to stop him. Each holding their lesson plans, they sat down on the tutoring chairs beside the two children.
“Teacher,” Li Xingchuan said suddenly, “Su Tang has to start from the simplest stuff.”
“The butler already explained that,” Teacher Wang smiled, “so starting today, we will be teaching separately.”
Teacher Li added, “In the morning, I will teach you third-grade foreign language while Teacher Wang teaches Su Tang first-grade Chinese. In the afternoon, it will be the other way around: Teacher Wang will teach you Chinese, and I will come to teach Su Tang introductory foreign language. Is this arrangement okay?”
Su Tang clutched his fingers, extremely uneasy.
His big, watery eyes looked at the teacher, then at Li Xingchuan.
—He suddenly felt that he was such a bother to others.
He had thought that coming to class meant being with Brother, and at the same time learning characters with more strokes.
He never expected his arrival to disrupt Brother’s original plan and even change the teachers’ teaching mode.
However, this unease eased up quite a bit after they started studying.
At six in the evening, the last class ended.
The teachers walked out of the classroom, and Su Tang also hugged the textbooks and exercise books the teachers had handed out, walked up to Li Xingchuan, and whispered: “Brother, I’m going home.”
Just as he turned around, the books in his arms were pressed onto the table by a palm.
Su Tang pulled gently, but they didn’t budge. He raised his face, and beneath his thick lashes, his clear eyes carried confusion: “Brother, what’s wrong?”
Li Xingchuan didn’t answer; he just lifted his chin: “Look outside the window.”
Su Tang obediently turned his head. The glass window, which had been透着 (transparent with) the dusk just a moment ago, was now blurred by dense lines of rain; water droplets snaked down, staining the outside world into a hazy gray-blue.
“It’s raining,” he exclaimed softly, as if discovering a secret.
“Yeah, it’s raining.” Li Xingchuan’s voice didn’t have much fluctuation, but his conclusion was indisputable, “So, don’t go back.”
Su Tang hurriedly explained: “Grandpa will definitely bring an umbrella to pick me up at seven! Brother, don’t worry, I won’t get soaked…”
Before he could finish, the books in his arms were pulled away entirely. Li Xingchuan flipped through that brand-new English workbook at random, his fingertips stopping at the crooked red-traced characters on the first lesson.
“You really like English?” he asked suddenly.
Su Tang’s eyes instantly lit up like stars washed by rain: “I like it!” He couldn’t wait to show off, his voice filled with youthful joy: “Hello! My-e name is Su Tang, and you?”
The pronunciation was rough and the grammar was chaotic, but that pure love was almost overflowing.
Li Xingchuan looked at him, his thin lips spitting out a few clear, standard syllables: “You’re a cat.”
Su Tang was stunned, his little mouth slightly open, forming a cute circle. He blinked his eyes, digesting this sentence that completely exceeded the textbook, and immediately a greater curiosity welled up: “Brother’s first lesson, is it different from mine?”
Why was what he learned “Hello,” while Brother’s sounded different?
Did Brother use a more advanced answer?
“What is a ‘cat’?” he asked, his body leaning toward Li Xingchuan unconsciously, completely forgetting about going home and the rain.
Li Xingchuan closed his book and held it in his hand, like holding a fresh bargaining chip. He lowered his eyelashes, looking at Su Tang’s little face tilted up, filled with thirst for knowledge, and said: “If you don’t leave, I’ll teach you.”
Raindrops flowed in a little stream across the glass window.
The world outside the window was damp and dark, while the room was brightly lit, casting Li Xingchuan’s figure over Su Tang like a web, or a cage.
Su Tang looked at Brother, then at his own new book in his hand, then at the continuous curtain of rain outside the window. He licked his somewhat dry lips, his toes rubbing unconsciously on the spot, his voice soft: “…Then, help me call Grandpa~”
“And also… Brother, you have to keep your word, okay.”
When Grandpa Su received the call, his brows were deeply furrowed.
At first, he disagreed, but later he discovered that his precious grandson was sometimes even more stubborn than those naughty children.
He had no choice but to compromise.
He wanted to say more, but worrying about whether only Su Tang could hear his voice on the other end, he could only instruct him obscurely: “Remember Grandpa’s words.”
“When you are a guest at someone else’s house, you must, must, must be a good child, you know!”
The words “good child” were bitten out very heavily by him.
It was Su Tang’s first time being a guest at someone else’s house.
And it was the kind of “wealthy household” that he only knew existed on TV.
Besides nervousness and uneasiness, there was more secret curiosity and excitement.
Especially during dinner; Su Tang sat before the long table set with silver candlesticks, so excited it was like he was dreaming.
When he was picked up by the servant and sat in the chair, both his feet couldn’t reach the ground.
There were many delicious dishes originally that were very far away from him, and he didn’t dare stretch his arms to reach for them. Fortunately, the kind-hearted auntie servant behind him would actively serve food for him to eat.
He was originally eating very cautiously. Suddenly, while eating, he discovered Li Xingchuan was glaring with a dark face at Uncle Li at the end of the long table, and he hadn’t even touched his chopsticks, knife, or fork yet. He immediately set down his chopsticks uneasily.
Uncle Li seemed to notice his gaze and said to the servant: “Cut some truffle cake for Su Tang.”
When the servant placed the cake in front of Su Tang, Li Xingchuan finally stopped glaring at Li Shenglan.
He turned his gaze to Su Tang and moved the truffle cake in front of Su Tang away.
He picked up the knife and fork himself, deftly cutting off a large piece of creamy shortbread with a whole fresh red strawberry, and with a soft “clack,” placed it in the spot where Su Tang’s cake had originally been.
“Children don’t grow tall eating truffles.” He stared at Su Tang, his voice without fluctuation, yet carrying a kind of categorical meaning: “Eat the strawberry.”
Su Tang looked at the strange cake in front of him that smelled good, then at the strawberry shortbread that looked equally enticing and had been forcibly pushed over by Brother. Finally, his gaze drifted timorously toward Uncle Li at the end of the long table, whose mood could not be distinguished.
He strained to pull the truffle cake back in front of him and whispered to Li Xingchuan: “Eat… eating one piece is fine… anyway, what’s already grown won’t shrink…”
He took a bite of the truffle cake, then took a bite of the strawberry shortbread: “They are both so delicious!”
He laughed, laughing without any gloom, his beautiful eyes squinting.
The servants standing behind breathed a sigh of relief.
Just now, they thought the Young Master was going to make things difficult for Li Shenglan at the dining table again, and they were all prepared to clean up the battlefield. Unexpectedly, this meal was so peaceful, and the Young Master had surprisingly eaten a bit for the first time in forever.
After dinner, Li Shenglan had wanted to keep Su Tang for a while and talk to him.
But Li Xingchuan didn’t give him the slightest chance; he threw down his knife and fork and dragged Su Tang to the second floor.
He heard the “clunk” sound of a door closing from the second floor and knew that if he wanted to chat with Su Tang alone, it would have to be another time.
At nightfall, the two children sat cross-legged on Li Xingchuan’s two-meter-wide bed, preparing to change clothes and take a bath.
Li Xingchuan’s movements were nimble, even with a hint of impatient roughness; in two or three swipes, he tore off his loungewear and threw it casually onto the carpet. He picked up the prepared bathrobe and put it on with a stretch of his arm.
After putting it on, he looked up and discovered that progress on Su Tang’s side was surprisingly slow.
Beside the little guy, the clothes he had taken off had already piled up into a colorful little hill, and he was actually still continuing to take them off.
Li Xingchuan raised an eyebrow, simply sat cross-legged back on the bed, his elbows propped on his knees and his palms supporting his chin, watching with a freshness he had never experienced before, eyes unblinking—
He saw him start by taking off a sleeveless jacket.
Once the sleeveless jacket was off, he started taking off a fiery red thermal undershirt.
Li Xingchuan thought, That should be all, right?
Who would have thought that inside the red thermal undershirt, there was actually a black tight-fitting thermal base layer…
Su Tang also discovered the difference between himself and Li Xingchuan.
He even more perceived Li Xingchuan’s gaze.
That thirst for knowledge about “cat” suddenly decayed, and a feeling of shyness and embarrassment climbed into his heart, along with some grievance. His beautiful little face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even the tips of his ears were stained with a crimson hue.
He was like a little squirrel that had been startled; he suddenly grabbed the fluffy, soft down quilt on the bed and used the slightly shivering quilt to block himself.
His nose sniffled, and his voice was wet, as if he were about to cry: “Brother, I don’t want to learn ‘cat’ anymore…”
“I… I want to go home…”