Jiang Yifan’s mom had carried him for ten months, and even after passing her due date there was still no sign of labor. The doctor had already suggested a C-section. Chen Lijuan, meanwhile, was still one week away from her due date.
After dinner, Chen Lijuan wanted to take a little walk along the road. She had only just stepped out the front door when she tripped. Right away, she felt a sharp pain in her belly, and her pants were soaked with amniotic fluid.
The two of them were born one right after the other, one by natural birth and one by C-section, on the same day, at practically the exact same hour.
A C-section required a longer observation period, while natural birth required less time, so one baby got back to the hospital room first.
And so the two families settled it, Jiang Yifan would call Jiang Zhuo Big Brother.
He’d always called him that without any problem, but after they got to middle school and Jiang Yifan found out the reason why, he refused to accept it and hounded Jiang Zhuo to call him Big Brother instead.
Jiang Zhuo knew when to bend and when to stand firm. If Jiang Yifan bought him breakfast, then he’d call him Big Brother.
Jiang Yifan: “I’m the real big brother. You ate my breakfast and promised to call me Big Brother.”
On the other end of the phone, Jiang Yunting lifted his head and looked at the sky. The two of them had started again.
Thinking of that, Jiang Yunting couldn’t help laughing again. Jiang Zhuo would definitely say that one breakfast had already expired. If he wanted to hear him say Big Brother, fine, but he’d have to renew the subscription.
He still remembered when they had just started high school. That weekend they had one day off, and Jiang Zhuo had lounged on the bed and called out “Big Brother” just once. Just that one “Big Brother” was enough to make Jiang Yifan act like he’d been injected with adrenaline and run to the school cafeteria to bring back breakfast for all three of them.
The school cafeteria ran on a fixed schedule. Miss it, and there was nothing left. A lot of people would hesitate between going to eat breakfast and sleeping in, but with that one “Big Brother” from Jiang Zhuo, he missed out on neither.
Jiang Zhuo kept skating back and forth along this little slope, getting so wrapped up in chatting that he forgot himself a little.
By the time he realized he was losing balance, the two people on the ground had already rolled over once and tumbled straight into the grass.
Jiang Zhuo felt a burning pain all over his body, and his head was buzzing too.
Still dazed, Jiang Zhuo only snapped back to himself when he heard the other person curse. Propping himself up, he moved to help him up.
Clearly, the other guy had a fiery temper too. He shoved away Jiang Zhuo’s helping hand, clutched the back of his head, and shouted, “Who the hell is it? Are you blind?”
The man yelled so loudly that Jiang Zhuo staggered from the shove and plopped back onto the ground. Still, he didn’t get angry. After all, he was in the wrong. He’d been fooling around in the middle of the road, so he should be the one apologizing. “Sorry, I was on the phone and didn’t notice. I’ll help you up.”
Before Jiang Zhuo could go over and help, the man had already gotten up by himself.
Ye Heng glanced at Jiang Zhuo and thought that, since the other guy had cushioned his fall and his attitude wasn’t bad, and since he himself wasn’t the type to keep pressing the issue, he turned and left. “Damn it, what rotten luck.”
Seeing him leave, Jiang Zhuo jogged after him. “I’ll take you to clean the wound. Are you okay? If not, we can go to the hospital.”
Ye Heng didn’t even turn his head. He stepped onto his skateboard and went straight off.
After falling that hard, Jiang Zhuo had no mood left to play. He went into the grass, found his Bluetooth earbud, and put it back on. Jiang Yunting’s concerned voice came from the other end. “I heard someone yelling. What happened?”
Jiang Zhuo didn’t want to make them worry, and he didn’t think taking a spill was a big deal, so he tossed out a casual excuse to brush it off: “It’s nothing, I was just watching some excitement. I didn’t step on my skateboard right, and my earbud fell off.”
The moment Jiang Yifan heard there was something exciting to watch, he perked right up. On the other end of the call he gestured animatedly as he imitated it: “Was it some market auntie having a fight, pointing at someone and yelling, ‘Back off, back off, back off,’ like that?”
Barning his teeth, Jiang Zhuo replied, “Yeah, yeah. I’m hanging up now.”
Being a year older, Jiang Yunting was the more careful one. Even after hanging up, he didn’t forget to call Jiang Zhuo separately to ask about it. When Jiang Zhuo picked up almost instantly, he was sure he’d been overthinking it, and only then did he hang up.
Jiang Zhuo quickened his pace on the way back. The weather was getting a little hot, and he wanted to hurry home and enjoy the air conditioning.
As soon as the pain faded, Jiang Zhuo forgot the lesson. He stepped onto his skateboard again, and by sheer rotten luck, the two of them came around a corner without stopping in time and crashed into each other again.
The two of them hit the ground hard on flat pavement and cursed each other at the exact same time, “Damn!” Inside, both only felt that they must have picked the wrong day to go out.
They climbed up off the ground, squinted their eyes, and sized each other up.
Then they both lunged forward, each wanting to pin the other to the ground.