On January 9th morning, Xu Si heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, he saw someone standing there. Liang Jieran was holding a toy: “Brother, can Ranran come in?”
Xu Si looked down at him coldly: “No.”
“Ranran has taken a bath, I’m not dirty, and I won’t touch brother’s things. Just play for a while, okay, brother?”
“No.” Xu Si closed his door.
Soon after, Xu Si heard another knock. He looked down and met Liang Jieran’s gaze again. He held up a cheese stick: “Brother, eat this, Ranran really likes it.”
Childish food, he didn’t like it. Immature.
“Don’t want it, stop bothering me.” Xu Si closed the door again.
He hadn’t even settled down when he saw a note slip under the door. Xu Si picked up the note. It read: Ranran really likes brother and wants to play with brother for a while. I promise I won’t be noisy or disturb brother.
Xu Si glanced at the note and threw it in the trash. He didn’t understand why this kid kept bothering him.
When Xu Si ignored him, Liang Jieran slipped another note under the door. Without even looking at it, Xu Si opened the door and pulled him in: “Play by yourself, don’t bother me.”
Liang Jieran stared at the black cat Yuan Yuan in the room and asked Xu Si: “Brother, what’s this black cat’s name?”
“Why do you care?”
Liang Jieran chased Yuan Yuan around, but the cat wouldn’t let him pet it.
“Brother, is it afraid of people? Why won’t it let me pet it?”
“It’s not afraid of people, it just dislikes you.”
Xu Si watched him sitting in the chair, expecting him to cry any second, but instead Liang Jieran just smiled: “Then I’ll just come play with it more often, and it won’t dislike me anymore.”
Yuan Yuan ran all around the room trying to escape from Liang Jieran, finally hiding on Xu Si. Liang Jieran ran to Xu Si’s side, watching him play a match-three game: “Brother, what are you playing?”
“You’re noisy.”
Liang Jieran made a zipping motion across his lips, brought over his small stool, and sat quietly beside him.
Xu Si thought he would leave when he got bored. But Liang Jieran just sat beside him watching him play match-three games all morning. Xu Si thought this kid must be really bored.
Near mealtime, a servant knocked on the door.
“I know.”
The servant seemed to have looked everywhere for Liang Jieran and reported to Shen Yuchun outside: “Madam, the young master is missing, he’s not in his room.”
Liang Jieran ran to the door, opened it, and said to Shen Yuchun: “Mom, I’m in brother’s room, I’ll come down for food soon.”
Shen Yuchun was surprised that Xu Si had let Liang Jieran in, and looked at Xu Si: “Then come down with your brother for food later.”
“Okay.” Liang Jieran ran back in to call Xu Si: “Brother, it’s mealtime, let’s go eat.”
Xu Si looked up at him: “You go first.”
Liang Jieran wanted to wait for Xu Si, but seeing him still playing on his phone, he opened the door to leave first. He turned back to tell Xu Si: “Brother, come down quickly, the food will get cold.”
“I know.” Xu Si watched him run out, then put his phone on the table and got up to leave.
The stairs spiraled down. Liang Jieran ran too fast, lost his footing, and tumbled down. Xu Si saw it from behind and rushed down the stairs, but couldn’t catch him.
Xu Hengyu heard the noise and saw Liang Jieran fallen on the ground with Xu Si behind him. He helped Liang Jieran up and found his face and back of head were injured.
The family doctor was called to treat Liang Jieran’s wounds. Xu Si watched him cry with a scrunched-up face in Shen Yuchun’s arms, thinking how ugly he looked when crying.
“It’s just surface wounds, the young master is fine. If sir is worried, we can go to the hospital for a check-up,” the doctor told Xu Hengyu.
“You may go.”
Xu Hengyu looked at Xu Si standing nearby, grabbed water from the table and splashed it on his face. The water was cold.
Xu Si wiped his face and looked at him: “What are you doing?”
“Is something wrong with your head? Xu Si, I know you hate Ranran, but did you have to push him down the stairs? How did I end up with a son like you?”
Hearing this, Xu Si found it darkly amusing: “Which eye of yours saw me push him?”
Liang Jieran poked his head out from Shen Yuchun’s arms: “It wasn’t brother, I fell by myself.”
“Don’t be afraid, Ranran. I’ll handle this for you. Don’t fear this bastard.”
“But it really wasn’t brother, Ranran fell by myself.”
Xu Hengyu rubbed his head, then started berating Xu Si: “Are your eyes just for show? Couldn’t you see him falling in front of you? What kind of brother are you? Can’t you take care of him properly? What use are you?”
“I never said I was his brother.”
“He shares half your blood, he is your brother. You worthless thing, not even half as sensible as your brother. I should have shot at the wall instead of having a child like you.”
“Oh, then you should have shot at the wall.”
If you don’t like it and don’t care, better not to have had children at all.
Xu Hengyu angrily grabbed his arm to hit him, but how could he overpower Xu Si now? Xu Si had been in so many fights at school.
Xu Si shook off his arm: “Don’t touch me.”
“What’s wrong with me touching you? I’m your father, what’s wrong with me touching you?” Xu Hengyu started throwing things from the table at him.
Xu Si couldn’t dodge in time and was hit by a vase. The vase fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.
Liang Jieran cried in Shen Yuchun’s arms: “Don’t blame brother, stop scolding him.”
Xu Hengyu continued scolding Xu Si: “You made your brother fall and he’s still defending you. Xu Si, do you understand anything at all?”
Whether he caused the fall or not no longer mattered.
Xu Si’s fingers were clenched tight as he turned to go upstairs. Xu Hengyu tried to grab him, but Shen Yuchun held him back: “Stop scolding him.”
Xu Hengyu finally stopped.
…
Back in his room, Xu Si took off his shirt in front of the mirror. The youth had the type of build that looked slim in clothes but was muscular without them – broad shoulders, narrow waist, six-pack abs, with muscle lines trailing from his waist downward. His chest and waist had several bruises.
Now his waist had another bruise added. Xu Si expressionlessly pressed the newly bruised area, then took out a bottle of medicinal alcohol from the cabinet. He rubbed the medicine on his waist, then put his shirt back on.
He heard what seemed to be some noise outside.
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