Chapter 25
Hearing this, Jiang Mi walked to the master bedroom, opened the bedside table drawer, took out a key, and handed it to Liang Jinyi.
The key was the common copper-brown color, heavy in the hand. Liang Jinyi lifted the key. The dusk sunlight poured down without restraint through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, and with the orange-red evening light, Liang Jinyi carefully examined the key.
He lowered his head and stared at Jiang Mi in a very good mood. “Thank you, Brother.”
Since Little Brother was in a good mood, Jiang Mi’s mood was naturally very good too. He was just about to ask Liang Jinyi what he wanted to eat tonight when his phone suddenly rang.
When he saw the caller ID, Jiang Mi was silent for a second. He tugged at his tie and helplessly answered Ms. Liu Qin’s call.
“Mom.” Jiang Mi answered, not very enthusiastically.
Mother Jiang’s tone was somewhat dissatisfied. “Little Mi, the girl added you on WeChat. Why haven’t you replied to her message after so long?”
Jiang Mi found an excuse and brushed it off. “I was a little busy. I didn’t see it.”
“What could you be busy with today? Aren’t you only starting work tomorrow?” Mother Jiang had plenty to say. She criticized him, “The girl your Aunt Yubiao introduced to you may not be comparable to you academically, but she also graduated with a master’s degree from a key university. She’s pretty, has a good personality, and a good job too. What exactly are you dissatisfied with?”
“I’m not dissatisfied.” Jiang Mi pinched the space between his brows and patiently said, “It’s just that I’ll be very busy these next two years and won’t have time to think about these things. Mom, stop arranging dates for me. In two years, I’ll consider my personal matters myself.”
Mother Jiang seemed to still want to say something, but Grandma Jiang pulled her aside and said a few words. When Mother Jiang spoke to Jiang Mi again, her tone had softened a little. “Fine, fine. Mom won’t rush you right now. But I already promised your auntie. At the very least, you have to go eat a meal with the girl this weekend. Otherwise, how am I supposed to explain things to your auntie?”
“Fine, fine. I’ll go eat a meal with her this weekend.” His tone paused slightly, and Jiang Mi added, “A polite meal.”
“All right, Mom. I haven’t eaten dinner yet. I’m going to eat now. Hanging up.”
“Then hurry and go eat dinner,” Mother Jiang said.
After hanging up on Mother Jiang, Jiang Mi let out a rare breath of relief. He even felt that the air in the living room had become much fresher.
“Brother, Auntie introduced someone to you?” Jiang Mi hadn’t avoided Liang Jinyi while answering the call. Liang Jinyi had sharp eyes and ears. Although he could only hear about sixty to seventy percent, it was enough for him to piece together the content of their conversation.
“Yeah.” Jiang Mi answered helplessly. He closed his phone and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.
A key suddenly appeared in front of him.
Jiang Mi was stunned.
The next second, Liang Jinyi shoved the key back into Jiang Mi’s palm.
“Jinyi, what are you…” Jiang Mi held the key in confusion.
Liang Jinyi stared at him, his tone somewhat mocking. “You’re about to get a girlfriend. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to hold onto the key to your home, would it?”
Jiang Mi said helplessly, “Didn’t you hear what I told Auntie Liu? I said I’ll be very busy these next two years and don’t have time to consider this matter.”
When Jiang Mi said he was busy, he wasn’t lying. The firm had just started, and as a partner, he would definitely be very busy.
“But you’re going to eat with her on Saturday.”
“It’s just a polite meal. Auntie Yu introduced her, and Auntie Liu agreed in advance. One still has to be polite.” In the past, Liang Jinyi often went to Jiang Mi’s family gatherings, so he knew half of Jiang Mi’s relatives. He knew the Auntie Yu Jiang Mi mentioned referred to Jiang Mi’s mother’s older female cousin.
“Really just a meal?”
“Of course.” Jiang Mi promised.
Liang Jinyi stared fixedly at him for a while. He reached out, took the key in Jiang Mi’s hand, lowered his eyes, and stared straight at him. “Jiang Mi, you’d better not be lying to me.”
Jiang Mi reached out and pushed Liang Jinyi, who had bent down close to him, slightly farther away. “No respect for elders.”
However, after returning to China this time, Jiang Mi had discovered that Little Brother was no longer as obedient and well-behaved as before, so he didn’t take his behavior to heart. He asked Liang Jinyi again what he wanted to eat tonight.
“Is your stomach illness better?” Liang Jinyi asked.
Jiang Mi answered, “It got better two days ago.”
Liang Jinyi thought for a moment. “Let’s go eat Cantonese food.”
Before Jiang Mi went abroad, he had been a little picky with food. But after five years abroad, his not-too-serious pickiness had long been cured. Now he could even eat hamburgers and fries for an entire month straight, so he didn’t care what they ate. “All right. We’ll listen to Little Brother.”
Jiang Mi hadn’t lived in Bei City for several years, so he knew nothing about which restaurants were good and which weren’t. The two drove around the area near the residential community and chose a Cantonese restaurant with decent business.
Jiang Mi let Liang Jinyi order. After Liang Jinyi finished ordering, the phone in his school uniform jacket vibrated.
Liang Jinyi took out his phone. After seeing the caller ID, he frowned and was just about to hang up when the corner of his eye caught sight of the man sitting to his east. Liang Jinyi answered the call.
The moment the call connected, a middle-aged man’s abusive curses came through the speaker.
“Liang Jinyi, you little bastard born of a mother but raised without one. Damn it, why weren’t you hit by a car when you went out? You think after provoking your brother into running away from home, the Liang family business will belong to a little bastard like you—”
Liang Jinyi hung up.
But two seconds later, the other party called again. Liang Jinyi pressed reject.
“Jinyi, the person who called you just now was…” Jiang Mi’s expression became grave. He and Liang Jinyi had chosen a square table by the window. The two weren’t sitting opposite each other, but one to the east and one to the south. The other party hadn’t controlled his volume, so Jiang Mi had heard those vicious, disgusting words clearly.
As if afraid of disturbing others, Liang Jinyi turned off the vibration for incoming calls and said, “Brother’s uncle.”
The “Brother” he referred to was Liang Xuping.
From the information revealed by the other party, Jiang Mi had roughly guessed the other person’s identity too.
Liang Jinyi’s grandparents were intellectuals and masters of calligraphy and painting. They didn’t do business. Liang Group had been founded by Liang’s father alone. His wife, Liang Xuping’s mother Gou Xueya, had been his university classmate and also the earliest person to start the business with him.
As for Auntie Gou’s maternal family, they were just ordinary people. Before Auntie Gou began working, they had run a small shop selling rice noodles.
More than twenty years ago, Auntie Gou passed away from illness. But for Auntie Gou’s sake, Father Liang had taken good care of his in-laws’ family.
And according to Liang Xuping, although his maternal grandparents had all kinds of little flaws and were afraid Liang Jinyi would fight with him over the family business, they weren’t truly evil people. So although Liang Xuping was sometimes helpless toward them, he didn’t dislike them. After all, the two elderly people were sincere toward him too. The only person in their family who disgusted him was his uncle.
Last year, Liang Xuping seemed to have repaid a gambling debt for his uncle, Gou Weiguo.
“Does he harass you often?” Jiang Mi asked with concern.
“In the past, he only occasionally called to remind me not to covet things that don’t belong to me. Didn’t my biological brother resign and run off to pursue freedom the day before yesterday? These past two days, he’s been calling constantly.” Liang Jinyi pretended not to care.
“Did you tell Liang Xuping?” Jiang Mi asked with a frown.
“What use is telling him? Do you think he’ll listen to him?” Liang Jinyi said.
Jiang Mi frowned. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly saw the phone Liang Jinyi had placed on the dining table light up again. It was that phone number from earlier calling again.
Seeing Liang Jinyi about to press reject, Jiang Mi gestured for Liang Jinyi to give him the phone.
Liang Jinyi looked at Jiang Mi in confusion.
“Give it to me, Little Brother,” Jiang Mi said.
Liang Jinyi handed the phone to Jiang Mi. Jiang Mi pressed the green button on the phone screen. The next second, the call connected.
Just as the other party’s curses were about to begin with one syllable, Jiang Mi struck first. He spoke very quickly, but in the slightly noisy Cantonese restaurant, every word was clearly audible, carrying a refined sense of pressure.
“Mr. Gou Weiguo, hello. I am Mr. Liang Jinyi’s lawyer. In view of your long-term intimidation and insults toward my client, and given that my client is a minor, this has already caused serious physical and psychological harm to him. According to Article 293, Subsection 2 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, insulting and intimidating others resulting in serious consequences may be punishable by fixed-term imprisonment of five to ten years. Our client has already submitted to the law—”
Before Jiang Mi could finish, the other party abruptly hung up. A beeping sound came from the phone.
Jiang Mi gave the phone a mocking smile, then reached out and returned it to Liang Jinyi. “He probably won’t dare to keep harassing you in the future.”
Gou Aiguo wasn’t very bold. If he were bold, he wouldn’t only do things like calling to threaten and insult people.
“Brother.” Liang Jinyi took the phone and turned his eyes sideways, calling Jiang Mi.
Jiang Mi answered.
Liang Jinyi stared at him and smiled. “You were so handsome just now.”
Hearing this, Jiang Mi smiled and said, “Brother has always known he’s very handsome. You don’t need to remind me.”
As they spoke, the server brought over the dishes on a tray. Jiang Mi reminded him, “All right, hurry and eat. After we finish, I’ll take you home.”
After dinner, a little past eight, Jiang Mi sent Liang Jinyi back to the Liang family old residence, then drove himself back to the city. Early the next morning, Jiang Mi got up, washed up, changed into a white shirt and black suit pants, put on his jacket, took his keys, and prepared to leave for work.
At this time, Liang Jinyi had already arrived at school and was preparing to begin morning self-study.
Morning self-study at Bei City Experimental High School began at eight o’clock.
“Brother Liang, is there something unusual about that key in your hand?” Zhu Yurui had arrived at school quite early today, and his Brother Liang had also arrived quite early. However, ever since he arrived in the classroom, he had been playing with a key for just as long. Zhu Yurui stretched his neck out and asked curiously.
Under the morning light, Liang Jinyi stared at the key for a while longer before turning his head to Zhu Yurui. “Guess.”
“Brother Liang.” Zhu Yurui clung to his arm and pleaded.
Liang Jinyi tossed the key slightly into the air. When the key fell, he firmly caught it in his palm and said, “The key to my new home.”
“New home?” Zhu Yurui’s family was well-off. He and Liang Jinyi had been classmates since seventh grade, so naturally, he knew Liang Jinyi’s family was also very well-off. He thought Liang Jinyi was talking about the key to a newly bought house.
“You really like that house?” Zhu Yurui was full of curiosity.
“Of course.” Liang Jinyi stuffed the key into his pocket. Seeing the teacher come in, he bent down and took his Chinese textbook out of the black backpack hanging from the side of his desk.
A high school student’s life was dull and full. In the blink of an eye, the last class of the afternoon ended.
Liang Jinyi and Zhu Yurui walked together toward the school gate.
However, after arriving at the school gate, Liang Jinyi didn’t, as usual, walk with Zhu Yurui toward the roadside parking spaces. He turned directly left.
“Hey, hey, Brother Liang, where are you going? The cars aren’t parked over there.” Zhu Yurui grabbed him and said.
Liang Jinyi said, “I forgot to tell you. I’m not taking the car today.”
“Not taking the car? Does your driver have something to do? No time to pick you up? Then take my family’s car. I’ll have Uncle Zhao send you first,” Zhu Yurui said enthusiastically.
“No. I’m going to my brother’s house. It’s very close. No need for a car.” The strap of the schoolbag on his right shoulder slid down slightly. Liang Jinyi reached up and tugged it back up. As he walked forward, he lazily waved at Zhu Yurui behind him. “I’m leaving.”
**
At nine-thirty that night, Jiang Mi returned home. The moment he opened the security door and saw the light in the entryway, Jiang Mi froze slightly. Only when he heard footsteps from the living room did Jiang Mi lift his head and say in surprise, “Jinyi.”
Jiang Mi closed the door behind him. While changing shoes, he asked, “When did you come?”
“After school,” Liang Jinyi answered.
“Then why didn’t you call me?” Jiang Mi put on black slippers and asked while walking toward the living room.
“I figured you were busy, so I didn’t call.” Liang Jinyi wasn’t completely ignorant of things. He still knew about Jiang Mi’s overachiever nature. Otherwise, Jiang Mi wouldn’t have clearly promised him he would return to China in two years, only to be three years late.
As they spoke, Jiang Mi walked to his side. Liang Jinyi suddenly grabbed his arm, lowered his head, and sniffed him. He frowned. “Brother, did you drink tonight?”
“Is the smell strong?” Jiang Mi lowered his head and sniffed the scent on his suit. “It was my first day at work today. Lawyer Gu had everyone at the firm gather together. I only drank a little sake.”
Jiang Mi didn’t hate drinking, but he also wasn’t obsessed with it. A few days ago, drinking had caused his gastritis to flare up. He still had to be busy with work recently, so naturally, he couldn’t lose the big for the small again.
“Have you eaten?” Jiang Mi asked again.
“Not yet.” Liang Jinyi followed Jiang Mi toward the living room. “I was doing papers the whole time just now.”
Jiang Mi raised his wrist and looked at the time on his watch. “Then I’ll order takeout for you. It’s already past nine.”
“Okay.” Liang Jinyi didn’t care what he ate.
Jiang Mi raised his hand, his slender, jade-like fingers loosening his tie slightly. He took out his phone and skillfully opened the takeout app. “Take a look at what you want to eat. You can…”
He had originally wanted to hand the phone to Liang Jinyi and let him choose takeout himself. However, Liang Jinyi suddenly leaned close to him. Jiang Mi wasn’t short, around 1.85 meters, but Little Brother was clearly two or three centimeters taller than him. He lowered his head slightly, his arm pressing against Jiang Mi’s arm, and looked at the phone screen in Jiang Mi’s hand.
It seemed the page was quickly finished. Liang Jinyi turned his head and indicated for Jiang Mi to scroll down.
Jiang Mi could only feel the scent of laundry detergent coming from Little Brother’s body as he held the phone and slid the screen down.
Five minutes later, Liang Jinyi stretched out a hand, pointed at one of the shops, and said, “Let’s eat this double-flavor pizza.”
“Okay.” Jiang Mi withdrew his hand and placed the order for Little Brother.
Twenty minutes later, Liang Jinyi’s pizza arrived. Jiang Mi told him to hurry and eat dinner, then took a set of pajamas and went to the bathroom to wash up.
When he came out after washing up, Liang Jinyi had already eaten an entire twelve-inch pizza cleanly. Jiang Mi sighed that Little Brother was indeed someone who had grown to 1.87 meters on his own. While wiping his damp hair, he asked him, “Are you still going back tonight?”
“I told Uncle Lin that I’m not going back tonight,” Liang Jinyi said.
Jiang Mi said okay, then reminded him, “Then sleep in the guest room.”
Jiang Mi’s home was a large three-bedroom apartment with a usable area of 180 square meters. One room had been converted into a study by Jiang Mi. Because the area was large, he had also placed some exercise equipment inside. Then there was a master bedroom and a guest bedroom.
Liang Jinyi had just poured a glass of water from the dispenser. Hearing Jiang Mi say this, he lifted his head and stared at Brother, who had just come out of the bathroom, so his cheeks were flushed pink. He said, “Brother, we always used to sleep together.”
