Chapter 17
Liang Jinyi: “…”
He immediately felt wronged and called pitifully, “Brother.”
Jiang Mi’s heart softened. “Jinyi, although you’ll miss a week of class, it’ll be enough if Brother tutors you on Wednesday and Saturday.”
Liang Jinyi was a very smart child, and second-grade content was simple. There really was no need for Jiang Mi to come tutor him every day.
“And Brother is very busy too. Brother has classes every day, has to handle Student Union and club matters, and still has to study for a certificate exam. I can’t make time to tutor you every day.”
Seeing that Jiang Mi had explained his reasons in such detail, Liang Jinyi knew it would be impossible to shake Brother’s decision. He could only say, “Okay.”
In any case, being able to see Brother once on Wednesday was already an unexpected joy.
Liang Hong had gone on a business trip to Europe, and Liang Xuping had gone out of province this week to photograph the sunrise. Jiang Mi stayed with Liang Jinyi until ten o’clock before asking the driver to take him back to school.
The moment he entered the dorm, Jiang Mi was surrounded by his three roommates. The three of them even whooped at him excitedly.
“What’s going on?” Jiang Mi tossed his black schoolbag onto his desk, opened his wardrobe, and prepared to find clothes for a shower.
Zhan Peng followed him the closest. “I heard you were studying with the campus belle of the School of Literature again today.”
Lu Tianyun said, “Face to face, less than one point five meters apart.”
Zhang Dameng said, “And you ate lunch together too.”
Lu Tianyun smiled and pressed, “Tell the truth. What stage have you two progressed to? Did you eat dinner together tonight? Was it at the cafeteria again?”
“No.” Jiang Mi pulled out a loose T-shirt and answered his roommates, “We didn’t eat dinner together.”
Zhang Dameng said, “Brother Jiang, you’re not that stingy, are you?” Surely he wouldn’t refuse to treat a girl to even one dinner.
Jiang Mi said, “In the afternoon, my uncle called and said my little brother fractured a bone and went to the hospital. I went to the hospital and only just came back.”
All three roommates had seen Jiang Mi’s little brother before. His little brother loved coming to the school to play, and they all remembered that beautiful little boy vividly. Lu Tianyun asked with concern, “Is your little brother’s injury serious?”
“A mild fracture. It’s not serious. He’ll be fine after resting for a while.”
Only then did the three roommates relax.
Jiang Mi picked up his clothes and went to the bathroom to wash up. Jing University’s dorms all had independent bathrooms. After he finished showering and sat at his desk drying his hair, he casually picked up his phone and glanced at it. Only then did he notice the message Lin Wan had sent around seven o’clock, asking if his little brother’s injury was serious.
Jiang Mi: [Not serious. He’ll be fine after resting quietly for some time.]
After Lin Wan replied, she tried to find a few things to chat about. However, Lin Wan wasn’t a talkative girl who was good at finding topics, so after a few sentences, the conversation had no follow-up. Jiang Mi’s study plan today had been disrupted. Seeing that it was only a little past ten, he took out the reference book he hadn’t finished reading today.
**
In the blink of an eye, it was Wednesday.
This Wednesday, Jiang Mi had two classes in the afternoon.
After finishing class and walking to the school gate, he saw that the Liang family’s car was already waiting at the entrance.
More than twenty minutes later, the Bentley arrived at the Liang family garden. Jiang Mi opened the car door and got out, then saw a familiar person in the Liang family garden.
The Liang family garden had always been cared for by the Liang family gardeners. May was the season when irises, corn poppies, and locust flowers bloomed in abundance, decorating the emerald-green courtyard in brilliant purples and reds.
A woman had her hair lazily pinned behind her head. She wore a loose purple long T-shirt and cotton pants of the same color. Her hands were slightly extended, protecting the little girl in front of her, who was standing on tiptoe and trying to pick a flower.
A minute later, the little girl finally picked a blue iris as she wished. Jiang Mi walked up behind the woman and called with a smile, “Auntie Liang.”
Liang Rong turned around, and a pleasantly surprised expression appeared on her face. “Little Mi.”
She took a step back, carefully looked him over, and fine crow’s feet appeared at the corners of her smiling eyes. “You’ve grown a bit taller since I saw you last year. Are you one eighty-five now?”
“About that.” After Jiang Mi answered, he lowered his head and looked at the little girl holding an iris larger than her own hand, timidly gazing at him.
“Lasei has grown quite a bit too.”
Liang Rong was Liang Hong’s biological younger sister, more than ten years younger than him. She had gone abroad for university. After graduating, she didn’t want to have a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend, so she stayed overseas. Lasei was her daughter and was three years old this year.
The last time Jiang Mi saw her was during winter break a year and a half ago. Every year on the third day of the Lunar New Year, Liang Xuping had to go to his maternal grandmother’s house. That day was his grandmother’s birthday.
Although Liang Jinyi was Liang Xuping’s biological brother, the two did not have the same mother. Liang Xuping’s maternal family had always disliked Liang Jinyi, feeling that this child would one day fight their own grandson for things.
Liang Xuping’s mother had been Liang Hong’s first wife. Although she had passed away many years ago, every year on the third day of the Lunar New Year, as long as Liang Hong had no particularly urgent matters, he would go to Liang Xuping’s grandmother’s house. During the New Year period, Uncle Lin would also return home to accompany his own wife and children. So every year on the third day, Jiang Mi would feel sorry for Liang Jinyi and bring him to his own house to play.
Last year, Liang Rong’s family of three had returned to China to spend the Spring Festival with her older brother’s family. Because Jiang Mi was close to Liang Xuping and Liang Jinyi, he had met Liang Rong’s family several times.
But at that time, Lasei had only been a year and a half old. She could only say a few scattered words, and her walking was still unsteady.
“Lasei.” Liang Rong lowered her head and said gently to her daughter, “Do you still remember Jiang Mi-brother? He held you before.”
Lasei was mixed-race. She had a pair of bright blue eyes and a head of golden curls. One small hand clutched her mother’s pants as she leaned beside her mother’s leg. She quickly met Jiang Mi’s smiling eyes as he crouched in front of her, then buried her head behind her mother’s leg again.
“Lasei is a little shy,” Liang Rong said.
“Lasei is very cute,” Jiang Mi said.
But seeing that Lasei no longer remembered him and had no intention of talking to him, Jiang Mi stood and said to Liang Rong, “Auntie Liang, I’ll go upstairs to tutor Jinyi.”
“Go ahead,” Liang Rong said.
Jiang Mi straightened up and was about to walk into the Liang villa, but before he could take a step, the sound of staggering footsteps came from behind him. Jiang Mi lowered his head. Lasei had grabbed his pant leg.
Lasei’s blue eyes glanced at Jiang Mi, then she took out the blue iris she had just picked.
Jiang Mi thought for a moment about what she meant, crouched down in front of Lasei, and asked softly, “Do you want to give this flower to Brother?”
Lasei nodded and shyly held the blue iris a little farther toward Jiang Mi.
Naturally, Jiang Mi couldn’t disappoint a child’s kind intention. He took the blue iris and said thank you to her.
Jiang Mi was about to say a few more words, but suddenly, from the Liang family’s front door came the sound of someone hurriedly calling Brother.
Liang Jinyi wished he could pounce to Jiang Mi’s side, but he was currently sitting in a small wheelchair, so he could only urge Uncle Lin to push him over faster. He didn’t forget to remind Jiang Mi, “Brother, didn’t you come… to tutor me?”
Jiang Mi turned around and said helplessly to the anxious Liang Jinyi, “I remember.”
Lasei was shy. After giving him the flower, she retreated back to her mother’s side again. Jiang Mi carried the iris and walked to Liang Jinyi. He took over the wheelchair Uncle Lin had been pushing and brought Liang Jinyi up to the second floor.
Liang Jinyi had long been looking forward to Jiang Mi’s arrival. His textbooks, paper, and pens had already been neatly placed on the desk. Liang Jinyi was still young, so his desk was a custom-made children’s desk. Uncle Lin brought Jiang Mi a small stool.
Second-grade math was nothing more than some two-digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Although Liang Jinyi hadn’t gone to class for three days, because the content was simple, Jiang Mi took just over an hour to teach him up to content the teacher hadn’t even covered yet.
There was a faint rustling sound at the door.
Jiang Mi stopped writing and looked over. At the walnut-colored door of Liang Jinyi’s room, a blue-eyed little figure appeared, standing on tiptoe and looking curiously inside.
Seeing Jiang Mi look over, Lasei walked into the room in small steps. After reaching Jiang Mi’s side, she brought out a little flower she had been hiding behind her back, her eyes carrying a bit of excitement.
Liang Rong explained, “She thought the iris she first gave you wasn’t pretty enough, so she chose another one.”
Lasei was a little like Liang Jinyi. Although one had black pupils and the other had bright blue ones, both of their eyes had a watery sense of expectation.
Jiang Mi crouched in front of the child, took the newly picked blue iris from her, and said, “Thank you, Lasei. Brother likes it very much.”
Hearing that, Lasei shyly ran back to her mother’s side and rubbed her face against her mother’s pant leg.
Only after her little face wasn’t so red anymore did Lasei run to Liang Jinyi’s side and lift up another blue iris in her hand.
Liang Jinyi reached out, took it, and said, “Thank you.”
With her task complete, Lasei turned around and left Liang Jinyi’s room with her mother.
Liang Jinyi’s desk was very large. Jiang Mi had temporarily placed the previous iris on the upper right corner of the desk. After admiring this one for two seconds, he placed it beside the first iris.
Liang Jinyi casually placed the iris in his own hand to the side. Watching Jiang Mi’s movements, he pressed his lips together hard.
After finishing the tutoring for the new math topic, Jiang Mi began tutoring Chinese. The main purpose of second-grade Chinese lessons was to help children recognize characters. Liang Jinyi’s vocabulary was already larger than that of ordinary elementary school students, so tutoring him in Chinese was even easier than tutoring him in math.
The two studied for another hour before Uncle Lin came upstairs to inform them that dinner was ready.
After Jiang Mi finished explaining the last obscure character, he set the Chinese textbook aside, first pushed Liang Jinyi to the bathroom to wash up, then pushed him to the dining room for dinner.
The Liang family usually ate in the small dining room, at a round table that could seat around ten people. Jiang Mi sat in a seat toward the right. Liang Jinyi sat on his right, and further to the right were Liang Rong and Lasei. Lasei had just turned three, and the dining table was too high and too large for her, so she sat in a child’s dining chair.
The auntie placed Lasei’s food on her child dining tray, but today she didn’t pick up her spoon to eat. Instead, she called softly, “Mommy.”
Liang Rong looked at her gently.
Lasei glanced toward Jiang Mi.
Liang Rong understood her daughter very well and asked with a smile, “Does Lasei want to sit with Brother?”
“Can I?” Lasei asked in a tiny voice.
Jiang Mi was serving soup for Liang Jinyi. Bone soup nourished bones through similarity. He placed the bowl of soup beside Liang Jinyi and answered Lasei with a smile, “Of course.”
Liang Rong moved Lasei’s food from the child safety tray onto the dining table and lifted Lasei out. Jiang Mi moved Lasei’s child dining chair to his left side.
Lasei was a very well-brought-up little girl. After moving to the seat she wanted, she lifted her head and glanced at the pretty brother sitting beside her. Then she picked up her spoon and ate in small mouthfuls. Only, after eating two bites, she would look once at the pretty brother and then quickly withdraw her gaze.
Liang Jinyi took a sip of soup, glanced at Lasei from the corner of his eye, and unhappily furrowed his little brows.
After dinner, following a short rest, Jiang Mi went upstairs and tutored Liang Jinyi in a few other secondary subjects. He also accompanied him as he completed his math and Chinese exercise books. At ten o’clock that night, he left the Liang house. He still had class tomorrow.
After watching Jiang Mi leave at the doorway, Liang Jinyi was pushed upstairs by Uncle Lin. It was still early, and Liang Jinyi didn’t want to go to bed yet. He wanted to play for a while, so Uncle Lin left him alone in his room.
After Uncle Lin left, Liang Jinyi operated his child-sized wheelchair by himself and moved to the guest room door.
Auntie was downstairs, and Lasei was playing with Barbie dolls alone in the room.
Liang Jinyi rolled the wheelchair inside. Operating the wheelchair by himself took a lot of effort, and Liang Jinyi’s little face was flushed from exhaustion.
Hearing the movement, Lasei put down her doll and lifted her eyes to look at Liang Jinyi.
Liang Jinyi’s gaze swept around the room.
Very good. There was no one else.
He said to Lasei, “Lasei, I’m going to tell you a secret.”
A secret?
Lasei’s eyes lit up. She quickly moved in small steps to Liang Jinyi, looking forward to his secret.
Liang Jinyi said, “In the future, don’t go near Jiang Mi-brother anymore.”
Lasei became a little unhappy. She pouted and asked, “Why?”
Liang Jinyi said, “Because Jiang Mi-brother is a red-headed snake in disguise. Besides eating Bubble and Remi, he also eats children.”
Lasei widened her round eyes in surprise.
The red-headed snake was the villain in a cartoon she loved to watch. It was always bullying the protagonists, Bubble and Remi. She hated it very much.
“But how could Brother… be a red-headed snake?” Lasei had her own thoughts.
“When the red-headed snake turns into a person, don’t Bubble and the others say he’s good-looking and smells very nice?”
Lasei quickly nodded and said yes.
Liang Jinyi said, “Isn’t Brother also good-looking… and nice-smelling?”
Liang Jinyi was very unwilling to slander his brother by saying he was the red-headed snake. After all, even when the red-headed snake turned into a person, it wasn’t as good-looking as Brother. As for the scent, although he couldn’t smell the red-headed snake’s fragrance, without a doubt, no one in the world smelled better than his brother.
