Jiang Zhuo waved a hand, completely unconcerned. “No need to thank me, son. I’ve always been broad-minded and happy to help. It was nothing, nothing at all.”
The second Ye Heng heard that tone, he felt his temples start throbbing. Bah, thank him my ass. “Who the hell are you calling son? Thank you my ass, just perish already!”
As he spoke, Ye Heng lunged over to grab Jiang Zhuo. The two of them started scuffling right there in the hospital room. The two people outside discussing things, including Ye Mom, heard the commotion too. They pushed open the door and walked in, only to find the two of them whacking each other with pillows, neither willing to give ground. Ye Mom hurried over to pull them apart, stopping her own son and snatching the pillow out of his hands.
Jiang Zhuo hid behind Ye Mom and made a finger-gun gesture at Ye Heng. Furious, Ye Heng sidestepped forward and reached for Jiang Zhuo’s neck again.
Normally Jiang Zhuo would definitely have dodged, but this time he put on an innocent act instead. Ye Heng could only shake his head at the sight. He finally understood now why his little brother had lost, yet still kept up that stubborn front and refused to admit the other guy looked good. It was because, at first glance, he’d found him ridiculously good-looking, and it had left him so irritated inside he had nowhere to vent it.
Having completely given up, Ye Heng could only declare, ”Anyway, you helped me, so from now on you’re my little brother. I don’t bully my own little brother. From now on, I’ll give in to you.”
In a scene like this, with such a lovely atmosphere, Jiang Zhuo should have obediently called him Big Brother, and then Ye Mom should have chimed in with, from now on you can call me Ye Mom. But Jiang Zhuo never played by the usual rules, and Ye Heng, standing nearby, was waiting for what came next.
“If you’re the one giving in to me, shouldn’t that mean you should be calling me big brother instead?” Jiang Zhuo was all mouth, but his eyes worked just fine. Seeing Ye Heng so angry he looked ready to grab a nuclear bomb and die together with him, he quickly changed his tune. “Big brother, the doctor said I need to go put medicine on my wounds in half an hour. Will you come with me?”
Hearing Jiang Zhuo really call him big brother, and with that doubled-up, cutesy way of saying it at that, Ye Heng suddenly choked on his own saliva and started coughing. He didn’t even know how he got pushed out of the hospital room.
After the two of them had their wounds treated and came back to the room, Jiang Zhuo spotted Qiu Xianzhi the moment he reached the doorway.
Even though Qiu Xianzhi was sitting in a wheelchair and couldn’t stand, no matter how many people there were, his presence could never be buried. It was as if he had his own spotlight on him, forever the main character in any crowd.
Jiang Zhuo jogged forward two quick steps and wrapped his arms around Qiu Xianzhi’s neck, his voice muffled and tinged with grievance. “Uncle Qiu, just now I thought I wouldn’t get to see you again.”
Qiu Xianzhi and Jiang Zhuo had been getting along for over two months by now, and he felt he more or less understood his personality already. He had thought this little brat was so thick-skinned he didn’t know fear at all, so he lifted a hand and gently patted Jiang Zhuo, comforting the aggrieved little thing a little.
Everyone else withdrew from the hospital room. Ye Heng was a little unwilling. He was worried Qiu Xianzhi might hit his little brother. Even if Jiang Zhuo was somebody else’s child, he’d just called him big brother, and a big brother was supposed to protect his little brother.
Brother Xian never smiled, and he looked fierce. For all he knew, he really might hit a kid. Ye Heng didn’t care what Ye Heng was thinking and just dragged him out of the room, even pinching him once in warning not to be such an idiot.
Qiu Xianzhi might hit anybody, but he absolutely would not hit the one who had just hugged him. The one who’d be left behind to get beaten would be Ye Heng himself.
The moment Qiu Xianzhi started comforting him, Jiang Zhuo’s tears fell. In that instant, he really did feel scared, scared of being bitten, scared he wouldn’t get to see Qiu Xianzhi again, scared of snakes, scared of water.