Chapter 13
Holding that thought, Liang Jinyi began to resist playing with other children a little less.
Then he discovered that although playing with them wasn’t as happy as playing with Brother, sometimes it was still pretty good. For example, when he kicked a ball by himself, no one fought him for it, so it wasn’t very challenging.
Also, when he played with other children—for example, when they built blocks together—if he finished building before the other children, Brother would praise him and say he was amazing, so impressive. And if he was slower than the other children, Brother would comfort him and tell him not to be sad.
In short, having friends seemed to have benefits.
And so, although Liang Jinyi was still slightly withdrawn, by the time he graduated from Red Sun Kindergarten, he had still managed to make a few children he got along fairly well with.
By the time he entered elementary school in 2009, he also had two or three playmates he was on good terms with.
Time passed in the blink of an eye. In the turn of an eye, both 2009 and 2010 came to an end, and the year arrived at 2011.
**
2011, early summer.
The dormitory of Jing University’s Law School.
“Jiang Mi.”
Lu Tianyun saw that the phone on Jiang Mi’s desk had been ringing for a full minute, yet Jiang Mi on the bed showed no reaction at all. He picked up the phone, stood on the ladder between the beds, and called Jiang Mi twice. Seeing that Jiang Mi still didn’t respond, he shook him hard a few times.
Jiang Mi on the bed finally reacted. He rubbed his aching, swollen head, opened his heavy eyelids, and saw a familiar face. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Tianyun, what’s wrong?”
“Your little brother keeps calling you.” Lu Tianyun handed the phone to Jiang Mi.
Jiang Mi took the phone and yawned before answering. “Jinyi, wha—”
Before he could finish speaking, Liang Jinyi’s expectant voice came through from the other end of the phone.
“Brother, I’m almost at the aquarium entrance. Where are you?”
Aquarium?
Because he had stayed up late for two consecutive nights, Jiang Mi’s groggy brain instantly cleared. He lowered his head and glanced at the time in the upper right corner of his phone. Inwardly, he cursed, then hurriedly climbed out of bed.
“Jinyi, wait for Brother, okay? Brother will be a little late.”
“How late?” Liang Jinyi asked.
Jiang Mi estimated the time it would take to get from Jing University to the aquarium. Standing in front of the sink, he said somewhat guiltily, “About fifty minutes.”
The other end of the phone went silent for a while. Then Liang Jinyi suddenly asked, “Brother, did you forget that you promised to go to the aquarium with me, so you still haven’t set off yet?”
Jiang Mi: “…”
Fifty minutes later, Jiang Mi finally rushed from Jing University to the newly opened aquarium in Bei City.
After getting out of the taxi, he hadn’t walked far toward the main entrance when he saw eight-year-old Liang Jinyi not far away, wearing a black hoodie printed with dinosaur patterns, his little face stinking with displeasure.
Jiang Mi strode over.
When Liang Jinyi saw Jiang Mi, he gave a cold hmph and turned his head away, looking as if he didn’t want to pay attention to him.
Liang Jinyi’s biological mother had been an eighteenth-tier actress who had once gained a little fame for her beauty. Liang Jinyi had completely inherited his biological mother’s beauty. It was just that as he grew older, the flesh on his cheeks had clearly lessened, and the contours of his face had begun to emerge.
But in the end, he was only eight years old now. Both physically and mentally, he was still a child. That face still couldn’t be called handsome or beautiful in an adult sense. It was the good looks of a child.
“Young Master Jiang, I’ll head back first,” Uncle Lin said.
Before Jiang Mi arrived, Uncle Lin hadn’t left. He had been standing at the aquarium entrance, accompanying Liang Jinyi as he waited for Jiang Mi.
“Uncle Lin, you can go back. I’ll send Jinyi home this afternoon,” Jiang Mi said.
Uncle Lin agreed and turned to walk toward the parking lot.
After Uncle Lin left, Jiang Mi looked at Liang Jinyi, who was still puffed up with anger, and couldn’t help laughing. “Didn’t Brother already explain to you? Yesterday, your biological brother won first prize in a photography competition and dragged me out to celebrate. I ended up sleeping a little late. Brother didn’t intentionally forget about going to the aquarium with you.”
In June of last year, Jiang Mi and Liang Xuping had taken the college entrance examination together. Jiang Mi chose the law major at Jing University. Liang Xuping’s family background was very good, but he had been raised by his intellectual grandparents, and his grades were also good. He had never planned to study abroad.
However, although his grades were good, he wasn’t like Jiang Mi, who could freely choose any university and major in the country. Jing University’s School of Economics and Management was also a highly competitive program, and his score wasn’t enough. After considering everything, he applied to the economics and management major at Hua University next door to Jing University.
Although they no longer spent every morning and evening together like before, their schools were on the same street, and Jiang Mi and Liang Xuping’s relationship remained the same as always.
Liang Xuping liked photography and had joined the photography association as soon as university started. Some time ago, he had entered a photography competition just to try it out, but unexpectedly, he actually won an award.
Liang Xuping had dragged Jiang Mi around showing off for most of the night and only let him go when it was nearly dawn. The night before that, Jiang Mi had also stayed up until dawn because of student council matters and had only dozed for two hours. With less than four hours of sleep in forty-eight hours, even though Jiang Mi had plenty of energy, it was inevitable that he overslept this morning.
Liang Jinyi gave a hmph and turned to walk toward the aquarium entrance, still looking as if he didn’t want to pay attention to Jiang Mi.
Jiang Mi smiled helplessly, bought the tickets, and entered the aquarium with Liang Jinyi.
This aquarium was newly built in Bei City, with a building area of around forty thousand square meters. It had only opened at the beginning of the year. Today was Saturday, so there were quite a few visitors at the aquarium.
After they entered the main gate and walked about a few dozen meters, Jiang Mi suddenly pulled Liang Jinyi, who had been walking ahead on his own, to a stop.
“Jinyi, there’s a photo sticker booth up ahead. Do you want to take a few photo stickers?”
Liang Jinyi’s steps paused.
Jiang Mi secretly laughed inwardly. He himself didn’t particularly like this kind of photo sticker—too pink and childish. But because Liang Jinyi was young, he quite liked them. Especially when he was in kindergarten and discovered such a thing existed, he would often drag Jiang Mi to take photos. Liang Jinyi had an album filled entirely with photo stickers of him and Jiang Mi, and it was almost full.
However, in the past two years, phone cameras had clearly improved, and the photo sticker machines that had been seen everywhere in earlier years were gradually becoming harder to find.
“Let’s go.”
Seeing Liang Jinyi standing still, Jiang Mi knew he still needed a way out. He took Liang Jinyi’s wrist and led him to a photo sticker machine.
Next to the booth was a small shop selling photo props, such as hats, glasses, headbands, and so on.
Jiang Mi picked out a pair of little frog glasses for Liang Jinyi, casually chose a pair of sunflower glasses for himself, then lifted the blue curtain of the photo sticker machine and brought Liang Jinyi inside. He chose the simple photo mode.
After taking several photo stickers with Brother, Liang Jinyi’s expression finally loosened. He no longer kept his pretty little face tense. He pursed his lips and smiled, revealing the little dimple on his right cheek, as well as… a mouthful of white teeth with two black gaps.
Seeing that Liang Jinyi had finally smiled, Jiang Mi also breathed a sigh of relief.
Liang Jinyi was a child with a temper, and when he got angry, he was quite hard to coax.
After the photo sticker machine printed the photos, Jiang Mi took them to the small shop next door and asked the clerk to cut them. Once they were cut smaller, they would be easier to carry.
Taking advantage of this bit of time, Jiang Mi pinched Liang Jinyi’s little chin and made him lift his head and open his mouth. He observed the lateral incisors beside his front teeth on both sides.
“These two teeth have been gone for more than four months, right? Why haven’t they grown out yet?”
“I remember your front teeth grew back in two or three months after they fell out.” Jiang Mi frowned slightly.
Seeing that Jiang Mi still remembered how long it had taken for his front teeth to grow back, and also remembered that the lateral incisors beside his front teeth had been gone for four months, the last bit of displeasure in Liang Jinyi’s heart vanished completely.
Because Jiang Mi was lifting his chin, Liang Jinyi’s voice sounded a little muffled. “Uncle Lin said… some children’s teeth… just grow slower.”
Uncle Lin was over fifty years old, so he naturally had much more experience than Jiang Mi, a university student. Jiang Mi released the hand pinching Liang Jinyi’s chin.
At that moment, Liang Jinyi brought up the thing that had made him unhappy earlier again.
“Brother, in the future, you can’t… forget your promises to me.”
Over the past two years, Liang Jinyi’s stutter had improved a lot. But perhaps because when he had first learned to speak, he had spoken by forcing out two or three words at a time, when his sentences became slightly longer, he still liked to pause briefly in the middle.
After a slight pause, Liang Jinyi added somewhat resentfully, “I’ve never forgotten… my promises to you.”
“All right. This time, Brother was wrong. Brother promises you that in the future, I definitely won’t forget my promises to you,” Jiang Mi said.
After Liang Jinyi received Jiang Mi’s promise and even linked pinkies with him, he was finally satisfied. When Brother took the cut photos in their plastic bag from the clerk, Liang Jinyi stretched his hand toward him, indicating that he wanted to hold hands.
The aquarium was crowded with people. Jiang Mi was also afraid of accidentally losing Liang Jinyi, so he held his hand and walked deeper into the aquarium.
Of course, Bei City had had aquariums before. Jiang Mi and Liang Xuping had once brought Liang Jinyi to one twice. However, that aquarium had been built more than fifteen years ago. Its facilities were old, and the variety of animals wasn’t very rich.
The newly opened aquarium, however, had an abundant range of species. From discus fish to African cichlids, from arapaima and batfish to whitetip reef sharks and kissing gourami, more than half the creatures one could see in the ocean seemed to have been gathered here.
Jiang Mi had originally come along to accompany a child, but in the end, even he himself was dazzled.
After they had wandered for about two hours and seen half of the underwater animals, Jiang Mi suddenly heard a pleasantly surprised voice behind him.
“Jiang Mi.”
Jiang Mi turned his head, and a trace of surprise also appeared on his face. “Xuejie.”
“You’re here visiting the aquarium too? What a coincidence.” After saying that, the senior’s gaze landed on the child beside Jiang Mi. She paused. “Is this your little brother?”
Jiang Mi gave an “Mm.”
The senior looked at him, then at Liang Jinyi beside him, and sighed sincerely, “Your parents really know how to have children.”
After sighing, the senior said warmly, “Which areas have you visited so far?”
Jiang Mi told her their route.
“Same as us.” The senior was Jiang Mi’s direct senior and had an incurable case of social butterfly syndrome. Seeing this, she said enthusiastically, “Then let’s walk around together next. It’s livelier with more people.”
Before Jiang Mi could decide how to answer, Liang Jinyi, who was pressed close beside him, immediately opened his mouth.
“No.”
The senior froze at his words. She bent down and looked at Liang Jinyi in shock. “Why not?”
Liang Jinyi was still only obedient and well-behaved in front of Jiang Mi. Toward people he didn’t care about, especially people trying to steal Brother from him, he had never had a good expression. His tone was cold as he said, “I only want… to walk around… with my brother.”
“But Jiejie can buy you toys and snacks. Do you see that big supermarket downstairs? Whatever you want, Jiejie can buy it for you,” the senior coaxed patiently.
Liang Jinyi remained unmoved. “Don’t want it.”
Senior: “…”
Jiang Mi tried to smooth things over. “Xuejie, my little brother is rather shy around strangers. This is your first time meeting…”
The senior had a cheerful personality and didn’t mind such a small thing. She straightened up and said, “All right, all right, I know I’m not liked enough by this little handsome guy.”
After saying that, she waved. “Then you and your little brother keep walking around.”
Jiang Mi agreed, and the senior left with her friend.
At that moment, Jiang Mi’s hand was suddenly tugged by Liang Jinyi.
Jiang Mi lowered his head and heard Liang Jinyi ask with a complicated expression, “Brother, do lots of people… want to play with you?”
Jiang Mi knew Liang Jinyi was both jealous and possessive, so he answered this question very tactfully. “Jinyi, at school, there are also lots of children who want to play with you, right?”
Hearing that, Liang Jinyi hugged Jiang Mi’s thigh. “But I like playing… with Brother the most.”
After saying that, Liang Jinyi lifted his eyes to look at Jiang Mi and pressed him for an answer. “What about Brother? Who does Brother like playing with the most?”
Of course Jiang Mi knew the standard answer to this question. He raised a hand and patted Liang Jinyi’s head. Curving his lips, he answered, “Of course Brother likes playing with you the most.”
But Liang Jinyi, who had grown two years older, was no longer as easy to fool as when he was little. He narrowed his pitch-black eyes slightly and pressed, “Brother, you’re not lying to me?”
“Of course not. When has Brother ever lied to Jinyi?”
Liang Jinyi lowered his head and thought about it. Brother’s credibility had always been very high. Thinking of this, he finally felt satisfied and stretched both little arms toward Jiang Mi, asking Jiang Mi to hold him.
Jiang Mi bent down slightly, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Liang Jinyi, you’re already eight. You’re not a five- or six-year-old child anymore.”
Liang Jinyi had his own logic. “It’s exactly because I’m eight that in another two years, Brother won’t be able to carry me anymore. So while Brother can still carry me now, you should carry me more.”
Jiang Mi: “…”
For a moment, Jiang Mi was actually speechless.
Liang Jinyi had abundant energy. Last year, in order to burn off his stamina, Liang Xuping had even asked Uncle Lin to take him to learn taekwondo. After practicing for a year, Liang Jinyi had gained quite a bit of strength, and his movements had become even more agile. However, he still hadn’t grown much taller.
His height was still on the shorter side among children his age.
But the Liang family’s family doctor said that Jinyi’s height was within the normal range. For now, they only needed to strengthen his nutrition. In a few years, when he reached a boy’s growth period, if he was still short, they could then take some medical measures.
So Jiang Mi carrying the eight-year-old Liang Jinyi around the aquarium didn’t look that out of place.
The aquarium was packed today. Two attractions were too crowded, so Jiang Mi didn’t take Liang Jinyi there. Not only was Liang Jinyi not disappointed, he was very happy.
“Brother can bring me… to see them next time.”
At this moment, Jiang Mi had already put Liang Jinyi down. Holding his hand, they walked toward the aquarium exit. Hearing this, Jiang Mi patted Liang Jinyi’s head and asked what he wanted to eat.
There were too many people in the restaurants inside the aquarium, and the food wasn’t very good either. Earlier, the two of them had only eaten a few snacks to fill their stomachs.
“Anything is fine. What does Brother want to eat?” Liang Jinyi asked, clinging to Jiang Mi’s thigh.
Liang Jinyi wasn’t picky about food. He had a few foods he liked more, but apart from those, he was indifferent to most other foods. He didn’t have high demands when it came to eating.
Jiang Mi wasn’t someone with a particularly strong appetite either, but compared to Liang Jinyi, he was interested in more restaurants and foods.
It was already almost two in the afternoon. Jiang Mi brought Liang Jinyi around the area near the aquarium and chose a restaurant specializing in soups and congee. When eating with a child, it was still better to choose something light.
Jiang Mi ordered the dishes, and while they were waiting for the food, his phone rang. It was his grandmother calling.
Jiang Mi answered, but it wasn’t his grandmother’s voice that came through. It was Liu Peipei’s voice.
“Brother, it’s already two in the afternoon. How long until you come over?”
“Didn’t Brother tell you? Around five.”
He was quite busy today. During the day, he had to accompany Liang Jinyi to the aquarium, and at night, he had to tutor his little cousin. After all, in her last exam, she had failed both Chinese and math.
Jiang Mi asked again, “What are you doing now? Are you doing homework?”
“Yes! If you don’t believe me, you can check when you come later. I’m writing it very well,” Liu Peipei praised herself.
Jiang Mi did believe those two sentences from Liu Peipei, for no other reason than the fact that a few days ago, after her exam results came out, her mother had given her a fierce beating. According to Grandma, her study attitude had been excellent these past two days.
“Come earlier. Grandpa said we’ll eat dinner together, and he’s making fried shrimp cakes,” Liu Peipei said like a little adult.
Jiang Mi agreed, then hung up.
The moment the call ended, Liang Jinyi, who was sitting beside him, asked, “Brother, are you going… to tutor Liu Peipei… again tonight?”
This wasn’t Jiang Mi’s first time tutoring Liu Peipei. Liu Peipei was clearly a rather quick-witted child, but her grades—when commented on by Jiang Mi, who had been a top student since childhood—could only be described with eight words: too awful to look at, and impossible to believe.
He gave an “Mm.”
Hearing that, Liang Jinyi propped his head on his hand and stared at Jiang Mi. “Brother, Liu Peipei is your biological little sister, right?”
“She is.” A younger female cousin related by blood was still a real little sister.
“But I don’t think she’s like… your real little sister at all,” Liang Jinyi said.
“Hm?”
Liang Jinyi continued supporting his cheek maturely with his little hand and said, “Brother is very smart, but Liu Peipei is an idiot.”
Jiang Mi was using hot water to rinse the tableware provided by the restaurant. Hearing this, he lifted his eyes to look at Liang Jinyi and said, “You can’t say that about Peipei.”
Liang Jinyi immediately felt a little wronged. He sniffed and said, “But I’m telling the truth.”
Before Jiang Mi could speak, Liang Jinyi continued, “Second-grade exam papers—if I closed my eyes in class and only listened, I could still get full marks. Liu Peipei has tutoring every day and still fails. Isn’t that an idiot?”
He seemed to ask this with genuine sincerity.
Jiang Mi said, “Peipei isn’t dumb. She just isn’t focused enough. She’s a little too playful, and her mind isn’t on studying.”
Liu Peipei’s thoughts jumped around too much, and her concentration wasn’t good, but she wasn’t stupid. If someone properly pressed her to study for a while, Liu Peipei could get pretty good grades.
After listening to Jiang Mi’s words, Liang Jinyi showed an expression of sudden realization on his little face. He sighed sincerely, “Brother, so Liu Peipei actually has… this many flaws.”
Jiang Mi: “…”
Liang Jinyi shifted a little closer to Brother and said, “Brother, I don’t have these flaws.”
Author’s Note
Writing a little about the important milestones in Brother’s life.
Also, our Brother Liang doesn’t need medical intervention. He can grow to 189 cm and 19 cm all on his own.
