Chapter 86 – Extra
Lu Xiao went to look for his second brother again, and Lu Yushu remembered two incidents.
The first incident.
The Lu family and the Bee Clan went on a spring outing to the forest park. Eight-year-old Lu Xiao saw Meng Xueyuan picking up an abandoned beehive from the ground to play with.
The hive was tattered. It had originally been attached to a tree; presumably a branch had broken and fallen, bringing the hive down with it.
Meng Xueyuan merely held it for a while, examining it, then reluctantly put it back.
Lu Xiao followed behind him, took out a plastic bag, and efficiently put the hive inside. Meng Xueyuan liked it—he could take it away, fix it up, and give it to his little brother. Beehives were extremely intricate structures, though; Lu Xiao hadn’t yet figured out how to repair it.
Back at the campsite, Lu Xiao crawled into his two older brothers’ tent and, acting mysterious, untied the bag, wanting his brothers to help with some handicraft work.
Lu Yushu thought Lu Xiao had picked up a bag of pinecones and was just about to praise him for finally acting like a proper little brother. The moment the bag was opened, dozens of bees flew out, buzzing angrily around them.
The three brothers were horrified. They fled the tent in a panic, not daring to run toward the crowd.
Seeing Lu Xiao being chased by bees, Meng Xueyuan hurriedly shouted, “Brother Xiao, come over here!”
Lu Xiao didn’t dare bring the bees to Meng Xueyuan and ran in the opposite direction. Meng Xueyuan could only chase after him anxiously and call out, “Bai He, Xilan—go after the other two brothers!”
All three boys had excellent stamina. By the time the Bee Clan caught up to them, they had already been stung.
As soon as the Bee Clan arrived, with the “famous flower already claimed,” the bees instantly behaved themselves and scattered.
Lu Xiao, with a red welt on each side of his face, looked at Meng Xueyuan in lingering fear. “There were still bees inside—how dare you pick it up and look at it for so long!”
He had thought it was empty. Fortunately, it was he who got stung.
At this age, Lu Xiao’s baby fat had already faded. With his cheeks swollen now, he looked like he’d shrunk by two years.
Worried, Meng Xueyuan hugged his head, stood on tiptoe, and carefully licked the bumps on his cheeks. “If I lick it, it won’t hurt.”
Lu Xiao ended up with his face smeared in saliva and thought the little puppy-like brother was so cute. Wait—itchiness really was gone!
Lu Xiao’s welts disappeared quickly. The two older brothers didn’t get such treatment and could only apply medicine themselves. That evening, seeing the miserable state of the three sons, Shen Ning laughed. After discussing it with the Bee Queen Chu Jiexian, they decided to tell the boys the truth.
Before, they had been afraid the kids were too young to keep secrets or understand. But now… Lu Xiao was already eight and understood a lot. If he didn’t understand now, he’d probably get stung again next time.
Lu Xiao understood immediately after hearing it. No wonder he liked playing with Meng Xueyuan so much—it turned out they were naturally meant to play together.
He no longer disliked the bees that had stung him either, but he warned Meng Xueyuan, “You can’t go stinging other people. You’ll die.”
Meng Xueyuan said, “Oh, I don’t have a stinger.”
Lu Xiao liked his little brother even more. A bee without a poisonous stinger was just too cute.
…
The second incident.
In middle school, Lu Xiao and Meng Xueyuan boarded at school. Lu Xiao wanted to walk with his little brother for every meal, every bathroom break, and every trip to and from school. But Meng Xueyuan was always surrounded by a group of worker bees. They walked together, ate together, and even shared a dorm. Lu Xiao simply couldn’t squeeze in.
Especially those two named Bai He and Lin Xilan. They were only two years older than Meng Xueyuan, in ninth grade, with excellent grades. They sat on his left and right doing homework. Whenever Meng Xueyuan didn’t understand something, he’d randomly ask one of them for help.
Lu Xiao didn’t want to do homework, but he wanted to sit next to Meng Xueyuan.
When he was five or six, Lu Xiao would just shove his way in and take the spot. Somehow, once he hit puberty, his skin wasn’t that thick anymore.
He thought of his two older brothers, who were in their second year of high school.
Little bees were all eager learners, so none of them attended cram schools or hired private tutors—of course, there were also those who weren’t studious and were even lazier about cram schools. They relied on internal solidarity for studying: the older taught the younger. They politely declined the Lu family’s offer to hire tutors. Seeing how well they studied independently, Shen Ning didn’t bring it up again.
The oldest worker bee, Brother Meng Tang, had just started university this year. Meng Xueyuan could have Xilan, Bai He, or Fang Furong tutor him—but who would Xilan and Bai He rely on when they ran into difficult problems?
Of course, the eldest and second brothers!
Lu Xiao immediately went home and invited his two older brothers to come do homework with them. “Dad said we should help each other. Brother Bai He and Brother Xilan are in ninth grade now and want to get full scholarships.”
Their school’s tuition was very expensive. Full scholarships for the high school division were very limited—only the top five. In the Bee Clan alone, there were three students from this cohort aiming for them, so there was not only external competition but internal competition as well.
The scholarship didn’t consider the high school entrance exam ranking—since that exam was relatively easy and didn’t separate scores well—but instead used internally written exams, which were much harder. Lu Xiao’s eldest and second brothers had won before. The money was secondary; the main thing was that it made Lu Fengge look very impressive in business circles.
Lu Xiao exaggerated, “Brother Bai He and Brother Xilan are anxious every day. If they don’t do well, they even cry from stress.”
The eldest and second brothers were moved by pity.
Lu Xiao added, “The Bee Clan doesn’t like accepting outside help. You have to take the initiative.”
So Eldest Lu and Second Lu proactively went to tutor the little bees, even turning down internships at their father’s company.
They diligently tutored for half a month. When they saw the other side’s monthly exam rankings, they realized the truth—them kids had already been solidly in the top five! So the initial refusal hadn’t been polite modesty at all.
That sneaky sixth brother!
Meanwhile, Lu Xiao happily spent half a month doing homework alone with Meng Xueyuan, and both of their grades soared.
Shen Ning looked at Lu Xiao’s report card, then at the tutoring plans the eldest and second had made. At dinner, he praised them nonstop. The third child’s academic foundation really was a bit weaker—when the brothers stepped in, one was worth two, two were worth four.
Lu Dalu and Lu Er looked absolutely miserable. After dinner, they beat their little brother up.
…
By now, there was no way Lu Yushu would offer Lu Xiao any help. “Get lost.”
Lu Xiao said, “You think my plan is bad?”
Lu Yushu said, “If you dare to have an early romance with Meng Xueyuan, wait and see if Ning Dad doesn’t break your legs.”
Lu Xiao said, “I won’t say it’s him.”
Lu Yushu said, “Who else could it be but him?”
Lu Xiao fell silent for a moment and felt his early romance had come to an untimely end.
Ning Dad had brought the kids out of Baihua Village to study, not to start early romances. Early romance would make it hard for Ning Dad to face the villagers.
But other people’s early romances weren’t affected. Lu Xiao watched helplessly as many girls gave Meng Xueyuan love letters. Most students at the school came from wealthy families—even their love letters were very sophisticated.
It was over. He hadn’t written a single one yet, and Meng Xueyuan had already become numb to love letters.
He put on a cold face and acted as Meng Xueyuan’s gatekeeper—discover one letter, deal with one. Then, late at night, he’d write a love letter himself with genuine emotion. It would start full of ardent love, but as he wrote, it would veer into dissatisfaction with the phenomenon of writing love letters on campus.
When Second Brother Lu went into the study to look for a book, he accidentally saw his stupid little brother writing a love letter. Hands on his hips, he watched from behind for a while and asked, “Are you submitting this to the mayor’s inbox?”
Between the lines, it was all criticism of reality and indignation, hoping the phenomenon would be strongly rectified. Since he himself couldn’t have an early romance, he wanted to flip the table.
Lu Xiao rolled his eyes. “Wrong. I’m going to burn it for the ancestors.”
Lu Yushu: “……”
Lu Xiao said, “Sincerity moves the heavens. Haven’t you heard that? Your wishes don’t come true because you don’t trust the ancestors enough.”
He was just talking back out of habit—burning it was impossible. Every letter here was evidence, to be used later when he demanded an explanation from Meng Xueyuan. Endure it. Just endure until senior year ended. After the college entrance exam, he’d pursue Meng Xueyuan.
Lu Yushu said, “If I trusted the ancestors enough, you wouldn’t be in this pathetic state.”
In senior year, Lu Xiao suddenly became obsessed with racing and often skipped class.
The wild wind roared past his ears. At the end of the track stood a figure, stamping his feet from the cold.
Lu Xiao slammed the brakes, tumbled out of the car, and flipped up his helmet. “Yuan-yuan?”
Senior-year Meng Xueyuan had grown even more handsome. The first thing he said upon seeing Lu Xiao was, “Lu Xiao, there’s a monthly exam tomorrow.”
“Is a monthly exam worth you coming all this way to find me?” Lu Xiao raised a hand and took off his racing suit. “Come on, I’ll take you back to school.”
Lu Xiao already had his driver’s license and drove very smoothly.
Meng Xueyuan asked, “Aren’t you taking the college entrance exam?”
Not taking it would mean going abroad for university. Lu Xiao’s eldest and second brothers had both studied abroad.
Lu Xiao said, “No.”
Meng Xueyuan said, “I really want to go to the same university as you.”
He discussed it with him. “Aim for a 211 university. I can apply to the same school as you.”
The implication was that he was willing to lower his application choices.
Lu Xiao suddenly had a complete epiphany. Damn—what was he doing? He and Meng Xueyuan had gone to school together from kindergarten all the way through high school. How had he suddenly lost his mind and let university separate them? Because he had suppressed his love for Meng Xueyuan, he’d sought a hobby to vent his restlessness. Compared to Meng Xueyuan, his love for racing was nothing. The most urgent thing now was the college entrance exam.
He had previously thought that with his scores, it would be fine to apply to a university next to Meng Xueyuan’s. He’d even picked one out. But after Meng Xueyuan said this, Lu Xiao broke out in a cold sweat.
Fortunately, Meng Xueyuan said it today. If he’d waited until application time, Lu Xiao would have been finished—he really would have dragged Meng Xueyuan down!
Lu Xiao started studying like crazy, not sleeping before two in the morning. His foundation wasn’t bad; after all, when he did homework with Meng Xueyuan, he actually did real homework. Once he charged forward like this, his ranking rose faster than the market value of his dad’s company.
He didn’t just study himself—he also had Shen Ning hire famous teachers to tutor him.
After every monthly exam, when the papers were handed back, before they even reached Lu Xiao’s hands, they’d be intercepted by Meng Xueyuan. Later on, even the class reps knew to give Lu Xiao’s papers directly to Meng Xueyuan.
When Meng Xueyuan looked over his papers, Lu Xiao broke out in a cold sweat. This time his ranking hadn’t improved as fast as last time—the closer you got to the top, the harder it was.
Meng Xueyuan smiled as he finished reading and handed them back, circling a key point. “Have Teacher Wang focus on this tonight.”
Lu Xiao’s sudden diligence astonished Shen Ning. Given the youngest son’s personality, he wouldn’t turn into a model student for no reason.
This definitely had something to do with Meng Xueyuan. Shen Ning probed, asking Meng Xueyuan if he knew the reason.
Meng Xueyuan said, “I just told him I’d go to the same university as him.”
Shen Ning said, “Yuan-yuan, sweetheart, I don’t think you should gamble with your future…”
Meng Xueyuan said, “I was just scaring him a bit.”
If Lu Xiao messed up the exam, he’d probably coax him into going to university, then repeat a year himself. If their scores were only a little apart, Meng Xueyuan felt that attending the same university as Lu Xiao wasn’t a big deal—he could even get a scholarship as soon as he enrolled.
Shen Ning: “……”
The third son, rebellious all his life, was actually very easy to handle—just like Lu Fengge. Hmm… where exactly had his thinking gone astray?
Meng Xueyuan scaring Lu Xiao had another, more important reason: racing was dangerous, especially driving at night.
It was very cool—but there were many other professions in the world that were even cooler.
