The last dish arrived belatedly.

It was a sweet soup with tremella mushrooms as the main ingredient. The thick broth was crystal clear and embellished with the red hue of goji berries, pleasant to the eyes and overflowing with fragrance. One sip brought sweetness from the tip of the tongue to the stomach.

Aiyue was naturally excluded, as she didn’t have time for soup.

“The test paper was really too difficult!”

“Lots of people in class failed!”

“Some passed, some definitely passed, ah! How could the school stay open if there wasn’t even one who passed?”

“But what do others have to do with me? Dad said my learning IQ measures up to yours, you should be able to understand me!”

When she saw the corners of her mother’s mouth twitch, He Aiyue shrank her neck and quickly shifted to the side: “Beautiful woman, chill out. You can’t slap me on such a wonderful day!”

“If your hands are really itchy, you can…..you can slap my brother to cheer yourself up!”

In a flash of inspiration, she pointed at He Chuzhou in an attempt to divert trouble away from herself: “His bald-faced false accusation destroyed our familial harmony! Justice won’t be served unless you teach him a severe lesson!”

“I made a false accusation?”

He Chuzhou: “So you passed the math test, and you didn’t secretly ask Auntie for help?”

He Aiyue: “Failing this time was an accident. I’ll definitely make up for it and get a high score next time!”

He Chuzhou: “I’ll definitely get a high score next time~ Tsk, tsk, I stand in amazement.”

He Aiyue: “Don’t imitate me, I hate it to death!”

The brother and sister got into fights whenever they disagreed.

What Pei Xi sensed was not the smell of gunpowder, but a feeling he had never experienced before and was unable to describe it in words.

…..So this was now normal brothers and sisters got along?

They would be studying the menu in a friendly manner one second, then shamelessly throw dirt on each other and shirk responsibility the next.

Because the other person was someone they loved dearly, no matter what they said or did, they could cut loose. Even their quarrels revealed a sense of intimacy.

Was he envious?

He wasn’t sure.

He only knew that he couldn’t imagine a scene like this with Pei Zhen. Even imagining Pei Zhen’s face made him cringe away in a conditioned reflex.

He Aiyue was unable to outdo He Chuzhou and was so angry that she stomped her foot. She didn’t dare look toward Chu Yuelan, so she could only place her hopes on the only other person present who could help her: “Pei-ge, please handle your family’s troublemaker. He’s annoying as hell!”

Pei Xi came to his senses when he was unexpectedly called out, and couldn’t help but glance toward He Chuzhou.

The latter’s lips curved into a smile that made him look like he deserved a beating: “It’s no use. Your Pei-ge is mine, so he’s naturally on my side.”

He Aiyue: “Don’t be so proud, Pei-ge must have been harassed by you before he reluctantly agreed to date you!”

He Chuzhou played it cool: “The process isn’t as important as long as he agreed.”

He Aiyue: “You should be embarrassed.”

He Chuzhou: “Why should I be embarrassed over pursuing the person I like? If you have the ability, let me see you pursue someone.”

He Aiyue’s eyes widened in disbelief: “What the hell are you on about? I’m still a minor.”

He Chuzhou chuckled: “What’s wrong with being a minor? If I’d met your Pei-ge when I was a minor, I would have pursued him then too.”

He Aiyue: “Minors aren’t allowed to indulge in puppy love!”

He Chuzhou: “Confirming the relationship with your wife in advance can be considered puppy love?”

…..Why did he keep talking more and more outrageously?

Pei Xi couldn’t endure listening to this anymore, and poked He Chuzhou with his hand hidden under the table.

But He Chuzhou seemed to have misunderstood what he meant. He tilted his head with a “huh?” Then he looked at his bowl and stretched out his chopsticks, taking away half of the weird-tasting shrimp left there.

His movements flowed smoothly and naturally, as if they had been performed countless times.

Pei Xi: “…..”

He Chuzhou: “…..”

He Chuzhou: “…..?”

When He Aiyue was finally able to react, she exploded: “I give up, I give up, I really give up! I’m arguing with you here, and you’re making a public show of affection in front of me?”

She pressed hard against her chest and pinched the acupuncture point above her lips, as if she needed to be resuscitated: “Showing off in a public situation, do you still have a sense of civic-mindedness? Any Buddhist teachings? Any heavenly principles?”

“Damn it, I’m going to call the police and have you arrested!”

Pei Xi silently took a sip of the sweet soup in front of him amid He Aiyue’s fervid complaints. The base of his ears burned.

As for the long-silent Chu Yuelan, she wasn’t angry from the beginning.

After watching the sister and brother quarrel for a long enough time, her gaze happened to land on the familiar watch on Pei Xi’s wrist and her mood became even more pleasant. She rested her chin on her hand and asked with a smile: “Xinxin, do you want another bowl?”

. . . . . .

When they were leaving after dinner, children from one of the rooms were playing and chasing each other in the courtyard without adult supervision. They ran without looking at the path in front of them, and one almost collided with Pei Xi.

He Chuzhou put an arm around Pei Xi’s shoulders and moved him out of the way. Just then, Chu Yuelan turned around and asked if they wanted her to send them back, and the two came together in tacit understanding.

“No need.”

He Chuzhou declined: “The weather is nice tonight, I’ll just walk back with Xinxin. A walk to digest our food will be just right.”

Chu Yuelan naturally wouldn’t insist if this was something that would make the young couple happy. Before leaving, she asked Pei Xi in a gentle voice if he liked red bean and bacon rice dumplings and said she would send him some.

He Chuzhou agreed on his behalf and sent the mother and daughter off, then walked along the sidewalk toward home with Pei Xi.

In the quiet night, Pei Xi lowered his head and, with the aid of a street lamp, saw that they were still holding hands.

He Chuzhou’s hand was much bigger than his, with strong, slender joints, his palm broad and dry. It was obviously a mutual action, but it looked more like the other party was unilaterally enveloping his hand in his palm.

Moreover, He Chuzhou seemed to have forgotten that he could let go.

After a moment, he silently withdrew his gaze and pretended not to have noticed rather than reminding He Chuzhou. The two of them simply held hands all the way, moving forward at an unhurried pace.

“The rice dumplings Mom mentioned are a specialty in our hometown.”

He Chuzhou: “My grandma made them, and Dad should have gone over to pick them up. They’re tasty. You can give them a try.”

Gazing at their elongated, overlapping shadows, Pei Xi gave a hum.

He Chuzhou heard his absent-minded tone and turned his head to look at him.

As they walked out from under the shadows of the trees, his gaze paused briefly on the other’s drooping eyelashes: “Do you think my mom is too talkative?”

Pei Xi immediately raised his head: “I don’t!”

He Chuzhou looked at him with his eyebrows slightly raised, a bit surprised.

Pei Xi realized that he seemed to have overreacted, and looked away in discomfort: “I don’t think she’s too talkative. I just think Auntie is very similar to how I imagined my mother to be.”

This statement was actually a little strange.

But He Chuzhou didn’t seem to think so. He just asked: “So is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Pei Xi wasn’t used to speaking of emotional matters so straightforwardly, whether he was happy or sad, whether he liked or disliked something.

Sometimes, being vague wasn’t appropriate. So, after hesitating for a moment, he chose to answer frankly: “It’s a good thing.”

People liked things that were out of their reach.

He Chuzhou’s lips rose in a smile. His relaxed voice carried to Pei Xi’s ears on the night breeze, sounding particularly pleasant: “That’s fine, it’s good that you like her.”

His reaction caused Pei Xi to look up again: “Do you…..know something?”

He Chuzhou: “What are you referring to?”

Pei Xi: “About my family. My father or mother, or Pei Zhen.”

He Chuzhou didn’t prevaricate: “I suppose I know a little bit. I heard some of it from your grandpa when I accompanied you to the hospital, but don’t worry, he didn’t tell me much. He just told me to ask you myself.”

Pei Xi: “Then, do you want to know?”

He Chuzhou thought about it for a few seconds, then asked: “Will you be angry if I say I want to?”

Pei Xi was puzzled: “Why would I be angry?”

He Chuzhou: “Don’t you get angry when someone asks you about something you’re unwilling to talk about?”

Pei Xi shook his head: “There’s nothing I’m unwilling to talk about.”

Perhaps he would have overthought and hidden things before, but so many years had passed now, and time had dulled many sharp edges. Looking back, he didn’t seem to feel it was of great importance.

And He Chuzhou was different. He had already transcended the boundary of being labeled as “other people.”

“Maybe Grandpa told you to ask me not because he didn’t want to tell you, but because even he doesn’t know a lot about it.”

Pei Xi tightened his collar and gazed at the seemingly endless path ahead: “My parents divorced a long time ago. You should already know that.”

“Before they divorced, I would often go to my grandpa’s house. And later, after they divorced, I went to live with him for a while. We didn’t see each other for a long time after I left.”

His mother, Shen Xi, was a very independent and opinionated woman. She was very talented, and had always had her own career and ambitions, never willing to be restricted by her family.

The marriage had been impulsive, so as soon as she was single again, she chose to go abroad. Even her biological son couldn’t hinder her freedom and dreams.

Perhaps after a long, complicated tug-of-war, the person who finally came to pick him up was Pei Yansong, who was already preparing to start a new family.

He never saw Shen Xi again, nor did he receive a single message or call from her.

The memory of material love was already weak. As time passed, he could no longer recall Shen Xi’s appearance, let alone hope for other things.

As for Pei Yansong, he became even stricter with Pei Xi after starting a new family. Under the guise of cultivating a future heir, he continued to pile more pressure on him than his age allowed.

How old was he at that time? A teenager? Or younger?

From the moment he opened his eyes in the morning to the time he closed his eyes at night, he was surrounded by different people and had no time to breathe freely.

Pei Yansong required perfection in everything he did, more like an extremist educator than a father. He only cared about the results, and turned a blind eye to the process.

Whenever he made a small mistake, the correction process was always a hundred times more painful than the learning process.

He thought all fathers were like this, so he onced hoped that Pei Zhen would grow up quickly and be his companion, sharing his father’s passion for education and letting him relax.

But very soon, he discovered that this idea was completely wrong.

It turned out that not all fathers were harsh and cruel to their children, and that even the same father could have completely different attitudes toward different children.

Pei Yansong never held Pei Zhen to the standards Pei Xi was held to. Not to mention perfection, as long as Pei Zhen achieved passing marks, he received great praise from him.

Thus, Pei Xi slowly found that he had become an outsider in this family.

Pei Yansong would take his young wife and son on outings to hike mountains, drive on the beach to enjoy the scenery, spend time at the aquarium from morning till night, or go to an amusement park and patiently play with Pei Zhen all day long.

Pei Xi was never included.

This was clearly the place he had lived since childhood. He didn’t know when it started, but it seemed like he could only peek through a crack in the door to see everything related to the happy and beautiful family.

While the others in the family were enjoying themselves, he was always the one left alone with endless lessons, endless books, and endless homework.

Once, he truly envied Pei Zhen and went to Pei Yansong for answers. How could the way he treated his children be so different?

Was it because he symbolized a failed marriage, while Pei Zhen was the fruit of happiness?

That was the first time Pei Yansong became furious with him. The first time he hit him. The first time he was made to kneel in the living room all night in front of Pei Zhen and Jiang Ting.

Pei Yansong scolded him for being ignorant and wasting his efforts. Scolded him because, as the heir to the Pei family, why couldn’t he look to the future instead of caring about trivial, worthless matters like this all day long?

Trivial, worthless matters…..

It turned out that these were all trivial, worthless matters.

That night, he thought for a long time alone in the living room. Since Pei Yansong had such high hopes for him, why couldn’t he love him as much as he loved Pei Zhen?

But if he didn’t love him, why had he so firmly decided to give him a lifetime of hard work when he was very young?

He couldn’t figure it out, even after thinking hard about it all night.

The sky finally began to brighten, and it took him a long time to drag his numb legs back to his bedroom.

After that day, he thought everything was back on track. Back to the boring life where he continued to linger outside the family, a boring life that was so restricting that he was about to lose his sense of autonomy.

What he never suspected was that some people and things had gone through quiet, earth-shaking changes.

Previously, his relationship with Pei Zhen had always been tepid. Although the two brothers lived under the same roof, they almost never interacted, and it was difficult to meet even at the dinner table. It was no exaggeration to call them strangers.

But Pei Xi gradually discovered that Pei Zhen disliked him, for no apparent reason.

And as time went by, this dislike grew increasingly obvious, evolving by degrees into loathing. Every time Pei Zhen looked at him, this emotion was clearly revealed in his eyes.

At first, Pei Xi didn’t understand. They clearly had nothing to do with each other and barely even exchanged a few words.

Then came the day he returned from school with a competition award. Pei Zhen went crazy when he saw him. He rushed up without warning and threw the trophy, punching and kicking him as he screamed that he should just go and die.

Pei Xi finally pieced together the truth of the matter from Pei Zhen’s incoherent, illogical curses.

It turned out that since the previous incident, the seemingly weak and gentle Jiang Ting had some ideas and began to privately put pressure on Pei Zhen.

She told Pei Zhen that if he didn’t study well and got bad grades, everything that originally belonged to Pei Zhen would be taken by Pei Xi. Therefore, Pei Zhen was ordered to stop playing around, and to study hard in order to measure up to Pei Xi.

But regardless of his innate skills, he was far behind the hardworking Pei Xi, and it was impossible to catch up with him at the last minute.

Pei Zhen was unable to do it, but Jiang Ting refused to give up.

Not only did she find various teachers for Pei Zhen according to the standards set for Pei Xi, but she forced him to learn company management early and paid attention to everything related to Pei Xi.

What Pei Xi learned, exams he did well on, when he got first place, and what awards he won in competitions, she would constantly compare these things to Pei Zhen.

She used Pei Xi as a benchmark and scolded Pei Zhen for being stupid, useless, and unable to measure up to Pei Xi.

Over time, his sensitive nerves, which had been carefully tended to by Pei Yansong as he grew up, collapsed under the pressure. There was also something wrong with his state of mind, and he directly believed that all of the pain he suffered was because of Pei Xi. That everything was his fault.

The one-sided farce eventually ended with Jiang Ting rushing out and pulling Pei Zhen off him.

Pei Yansong wasn’t home, so Jiang Ting used the guise of scolding Pei Zhen to test if Pei Xi had discovered anything. Pei Xi followed her wishes and played ignorant.

He didn’t tell Pei Yansong about this, because he knew very well that even if Pei Yansong did know, he wouldn’t blame Pei Zhen for this sort of petty quarrel.

Not only would he not blame him, but he would follow the clues to discover the cause and take Pei Zhen to a doctor for treatment, then promise him that what Jiang Ting had done to him would never happen again.

But why?

Clearly Pei Xi was the one who was wronged, but it was Pei Zhen who would be cared for and comforted.

For the first time, Pei Xi realized that he wasn’t a person of benevolent character.

He was not as broad-minded as Pei Yansong said, and could not repay evil with kindness. He was just a child who had not yet reached adulthood. There were times when his thoughts were dark, and times when grievances could not be endured.

He could bear the pressure, so why couldn’t Pei Zhen?

The pressure Pei Yansong put on him was even worse than what Jiang Ting had done. He hadn’t gone crazy, so why should Pei Zhen go crazy?

He was clearly unable to take charge of his own life, so why should Pei Zhen place the responsibility on him? 

Due to his inaction, the situation snowballed out of Pei Yansong’s sight, almost to the point where it was out of control.

In the end, the fire could not be contained. Pei Zhen suffered a mental breakdown and snuck into Pei Xi’s room in the middle of the night, where he pierced his arm with a pair of scissors.

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Chapter 44 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 46