Chapter 2
Ten minutes later, Jiang Mi carried Liang Jinyi into Liang Xuping’s room.
They had been sitting on the carpet to play games today, so Jiang Mi set Liang Jinyi down on the wool carpet beside him, picked up the game controller, and said, “Jinyi, how about watching the brothers play games?”
Liang Jinyi looked at the huge television screen on the snow-white wall, then at the controller in Jiang Mi’s hand. Suddenly, his little body leaned forward. He lifted one of Jiang Mi’s arms and wriggled himself into the space in front of Jiang Mi.
Jiang Mi raised both hands and watched his movements. “Do you want to sit in Brother’s lap?”
Liang Jinyi lifted his round little head and looked at Jiang Mi. A sound came from his throat, something close to an “Mm.”
Jiang Mi smiled, then shifted back a little so that little Liang Jinyi could sit in front of him.
After little Liang Jinyi sat down in front of Jiang Mi, he didn’t fidget. He simply tilted his head back to look at Jiang Mi, as though asking, Why haven’t you started the game yet?
Jiang Mi turned to glance at Liang Xuping.
Liang Xuping was still staring at his little brother in utter shock. Jiang Mi called him several times before he finally snapped back to his senses.
Jiang Mi jerked his chin toward the television screen. “Switch games. Your brother’s watching. Let’s play something gentler.”
“The least gentle thing in our family is him,” Liang Xuping said, glancing at Liang Jinyi, who was sitting obediently in front of his friend.
That said, he still walked over to the cabinet where he kept his game cartridges. After rummaging around for a while, he asked Jiang Mi, “Is Gold Miner okay? This is the gentlest game I have.”
“Sure,” Jiang Mi said.
Liang Xuping pulled the King of Fighters cartridge out of the console and replaced it with Gold Miner.
After Jiang Mi played attentively for a while, he saw Liang Jinyi turn his little head and stare fixedly at him. He thought the child must be bored watching him play.
Once Jiang Mi finished that round, he lowered his head and asked Liang Jinyi, “Should Brother teach you how to play?”
After saying that, he stuffed the controller into Liang Jinyi’s hands. But the moment he did, Jiang Mi realized he had been careless.
For him, the controller was something he could hold with both hands while using several fingers to operate the buttons. But for a child who had only just turned six, it was far too big.
If Liang Jinyi’s two small hands held the controller, all he could do was stare helplessly at the buttons. His hands were too small. He couldn’t hold the controller and operate it by himself at all.
Jiang Mi had no choice but to hold the controller himself in front of Liang Jinyi and demonstrate.
“This game is very simple. The miner uncle uses his hook to grab gold mines under the sea. All you need to do is press this button when the hook lines up with the gold mine or the diamond. Then the gold or diamond will be hooked up.”
“Do you understand?” Jiang Mi asked again.
Liang Jinyi nodded his head heavily.
Then Liang Jinyi began playing the game.
Jiang Mi held the controller for him, so all he needed to do was press the button whenever the gold miner’s hook lined up with gold, diamonds, or sacks.
And every time Liang Jinyi dug up a piece of gold and saw the smile on the miner uncle’s face, he would turn his head and look at Jiang Mi with bright, sparkling eyes.
Jiang Mi would then pat his head and praise him.
So Liang Jinyi played with even greater enthusiasm, the small dimple on his right cheek appearing and disappearing.
Liang Xuping watched from the side, dumbfounded.
Four months ago, when he learned that he had a half-brother from the same father who had been living outside the family and was about to be brought home, he had been completely unwilling to accept it.
After all, he had been an only child for seventeen years.
But the first time he saw his little brother’s photo, when he saw that little face even prettier than an angel’s, Liang Xuping felt that maybe he could be a little nicer to him.
Especially that very same night, when he learned from his father that after his little brother was born, his mother had suffered from postpartum depression and bipolar disorder, and had abused and tormented his little brother for a long time.
She would often lock his two- or three-year-old little brother in a dark room for days without food. Sometimes, there had even been physical abuse.
After hearing that, Liang Xuping became even more determined to love and protect his little brother properly.
After all, although his own mother had passed away from illness when he was six, from his memories and Uncle Lin’s descriptions, he knew that when his mother was alive, she had loved him very much and treated him very well.
His little brother, however, had never received a mother’s love.
So Liang Xuping had even prepared a gift for him with particular eagerness.
But on the very day his little brother returned home, his determination to be a good older brother shattered by more than half.
The gift he had prepared that day was a cute little puppy plushie. It wasn’t something he had bought from a supermarket. It was something his mother had bought for him when he was little. He had hugged it to sleep for more than two or three years.
Although he no longer needed to hug a puppy plushie to sleep now, that plushie still held a special meaning to him. So he prepared to give it to his little brother as a way of expressing his friendliness as an older brother.
Yet the next day, when he went to wake his little brother up, he saw his little brother sitting on the floor, having cut the puppy plushie he had given him the night before beyond recognition.
The entire room was filled with the plushie’s torn-up limbs and shredded remains.
He was shocked and asked, “Liang Jinyi, what did you do?”
That sentence was like poking a hornet’s nest.
His little brother suddenly flew into a rage and smashed every smashable and breakable thing in the room.
That night, the psychologist told him that his little brother had developed certain personality issues from long-term abuse and would need a very long time to correct them. Liang Xuping reminded himself that he should have some brotherly love.
But he discovered that the more he took the initiative to get close to Liang Jinyi, the more Liang Jinyi would lose control and throw tantrums.
In fact, it wasn’t only when Liang Xuping approached him that he became easily upset.
Rather, as long as anyone got close to him, his mood would turn extremely foul.
If no one approached him, however, he could stay quietly by himself for an entire day.
After discovering this, Liang Xuping began keeping a respectful distance from Liang Jinyi.
Of course, this absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that he had been frightened after his six-year-old brother stared straight at him.
Absolutely nothing.
So everything before his eyes now felt like an unrealistic dream.
His little brother was actually leaning his entire body into someone’s arms.
And he was even interacting with someone like a normal child.
Even… acting spoiled.
Yes. Acting spoiled.
When Liang Jinyi pressed the button too slowly and failed to dig up the gold mine under the sea, instead laboriously dragging up a heavy rock, he turned his head, bit his lips, and looked at Jiang Mi pitifully.
Liang Xuping was certain.
He was certain his little brother was acting spoiled.
Because in the very next moment after he made that expression, Jiang Mi gently patted his little head.
“It’s okay. Brother sometimes digs up rocks too. Our Jinyi is already amazing. You only dug up one rock after playing for so long.”
After receiving Jiang Mi’s comfort and praise, Liang Jinyi turned back to stare at the screen, preparing to dig up the next gold ore.
Liang Xuping continued to stare at the scene, his jaw practically on the floor, until he heard a burst of urgent knocking at the door. Only then did he abruptly come back to his senses and go open it.
The door opened.
Standing outside was Uncle Lin, the housekeeper, looking rather anxious.
Uncle Lin’s tone was nervous. “Young Master, have you seen the Young Master? The surveillance cameras in the living room and hallway broke today. Several aunties have been looking for the Young Master for half an hour. They’ve nearly turned the whole house upside down, but they still haven’t seen him.”
Uncle Lin had only just finished speaking when, from the middle of Liang Xuping’s room, there suddenly came a childlike, muffled, unclear sound from the throat—something like a little “ha” of laughter.
Uncle Lin’s gaze shot toward the source of the sound.
Jiang Mi heard the movement at the door and turned his head to look over.
And little Liang Jinyi, who was leaning against his chest, saw his pretty brother looking toward the doorway, so he hurriedly followed his movements and looked over as well.
Uncle Lin, who was nearly fifty years old, felt as though his presbyopia had reached a whole new level.
He had actually seen their family’s Young Master narrowing his eyes, looking delighted, while leaning in the arms of a teenage boy.
**
They played for another half hour.
Jiang Mi was already slightly nearsighted now, though his prescription was very low, and he usually didn’t wear glasses. But in order to protect the child’s vision, Jiang Mi told Liang Jinyi not to play anymore.
Liang Jinyi was truly obedient.
The moment Jiang Mi said he couldn’t play anymore, he immediately put down the controller and obediently leaned back into Jiang Mi’s arms.
This scene once again made Uncle Lin click his tongue in amazement.
Although he had known Liang Jinyi for less than four months, he knew clearly that Liang Jinyi was an extremely self-centered person—no, rather, he was someone trapped in his own world.
He did things solely based on whether he wanted to do them or not. He never cared whether he should.
For example, if he was building blocks and it was mealtime, when the auntie asked him to eat, little Liang Jinyi wouldn’t pay attention to her at all. He would simply continue immersing himself in his world of building blocks.
And if they dared to forcibly interrupt that world of building blocks, the Young Master would go mad.
Earlier, the Young Master had clearly been having a wonderful time playing the game. At the very least, Uncle Lin had noticed that he had never smiled like that when playing with any other toys before.
Yet the moment Young Master Jiang called him, he actually obediently stopped the game he had been enjoying so much.
Housekeeper Lin couldn’t help taking another look at this friend of the Eldest Young Master.
The group went downstairs.
The aunties had already placed dinner on the table.
Jiang Mi set Liang Jinyi down on the chair in the middle of the dining table, then pulled out the chair beside him and sat down.
But the moment Jiang Mi sat down, short-limbed little Liang Jinyi looked at the long gap between them. He braced his small hands against the chair and climbed down from his seat.
The Liang family’s dining chairs were made of solid wood—thick and heavy. Because little Liang Jinyi hadn’t eaten lunch, he was rather hungry, and he didn’t have as much strength as usual.
Standing beside the chair, he struggled to push the chair he had been sitting on toward the right. His little mouth even pressed together slightly from the effort.
“Young Master, what are you doing?” Uncle Lin hurriedly asked.
Liang Jinyi didn’t answer. He only stubbornly pushed the chair to the right.
Jiang Mi guessed, “Jinyi, do you want to push your chair over beside Brother?”
Hearing Jiang Mi’s voice, Liang Jinyi lifted his head and nodded hard at his pretty brother.
Jiang Mi smiled, then simply reached out and moved his own chair over beside Liang Jinyi’s chair.
Liang Jinyi stood on tiptoe again and struggled to check whether there was still a gap between the two chairs. Only after confirming that there was no space left between them did he press both hands against the chair and climb his small body back onto it.
He sat very close to the right side of the chair, pressed tightly against Jiang Mi.
While eating, he kept glancing at Jiang Mi from time to time.
When he saw Jiang Mi pick up a red dish three times in a row, Liang Jinyi also stretched out his arm and tried to pick up that same red dish.
“Fuck—Liang Jinyi, you can’t eat that! It’ll be too spicy for you!” Liang Xuping noticed what Liang Jinyi was doing and hurriedly shouted.
Liang Jinyi realized someone was about to stop him from doing what he wanted.
He quickly withdrew his small arm and stuffed the red thing into his mouth.
The next instant—
Liang Jinyi’s entire face turned into a wrinkled little bun. His expression twisted in a way that didn’t look like something a five- or six-year-old child should be capable of making.
He endured it for two seconds.
In the end, he couldn’t bear it and opened his mouth, spitting the piece of food onto the dining table.
Jiang Mi felt that he probably ought to sympathize with the child who had eaten spicy chicken, but the child’s expression after tasting chili was honestly so vivid and adorable that he couldn’t help laughing.
When he saw Liang Jinyi turning to look at him pitifully, his big eyes already misty with tears, Jiang Mi turned sideways, picked up the glass of water, and fed the child two mouthfuls.
After drinking the water, Liang Jinyi recovered a little, but he still looked at Jiang Mi pitifully.
“Children can’t eat spicy food,” Jiang Mi said.
Liang Jinyi looked at the bright red dish, then looked at Jiang Mi.
Jiang Mi thought for a moment and roughly understood what Liang Jinyi meant.
“Brother is an adult. Adults can naturally eat spicy food.”
He picked up a pair of unused chopsticks and placed a mild shrimp into Liang Jinyi’s plate.
“Eat this instead.”
Liang Jinyi looked at Jiang Mi, then lowered his head to look at the shrimp in his bowl. Obediently, he picked up his own chopsticks and stuffed the shrimp into his little mouth.
As he ate the shrimp, he kept looking at Jiang Mi.
His expression seemed to say…
Brother, I’m very obedient.
Jiang Mi couldn’t help being amused by him again.
After dinner, Liang Jinyi tugged Jiang Mi upstairs again.
Once they got upstairs, he directly pulled Jiang Mi into his own room.
Uncle Lin and Liang Xuping wanted to follow them in. Liang Jinyi released Jiang Mi’s hand, turned around, and used his small body to push the two of them out the door.
Neither of them dared to use much force against a child, so Liang Jinyi easily pushed them outside.
Then Liang Xuping watched as Liang Jinyi tried to close the door and shut both him and Uncle Lin outside.
Author’s Note
Brother, hold me. This title didn’t comply with the rules, so I changed it. Wuwuwuwu.
