Chapter 37
Jiang Mi: “…”
Jiang Mi wanted to reason with Liang Jinyi.
But Liang Jinyi had his own reasoning. “Brother, you can’t fall asleep like this only because you’re not tired yet. Once you get sleepy, you’ll be able to sleep.”
Jiang Mi: “…”
Jiang Mi tried once again to move the arm Liang Jinyi had wrapped around him, but Liang Jinyi’s arm refused to budge. If anything, his hold only seemed to be getting tighter. Helpless, Jiang Mi had no choice but to give up.
Still, what the kid said did make some sense. Half an hour later, drowsiness finally overtook Jiang Mi. Although he still wasn’t used to being held so tightly while he slept, he soon drifted into a deep sleep.
Liang Jinyi listened to Jiang Mi’s breathing. When he noticed it gradually becoming slow and even, he slowly raised his head and softly called, “Brother.”
The only answer he received was Jiang Mi’s steady breathing.
Only then did Liang Jinyi prop himself up and gaze at the sleeping Jiang Mi for a long while. Then he lowered his head and greedily inhaled near the crook of Jiang Mi’s neck. Catching the faint scent of wild roses on him, Liang Jinyi finally pulled back a little in satisfaction, rested his head beside Jiang Mi’s shoulder, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
They had gone to bed far too late the night before. By the time Jiang Mi woke up, bright sunlight was streaming through the gap in the curtains, illuminating the entire bedroom.
He shifted slightly, but the moment he moved, Jiang Mi realized that something was pressing insistently against his backside.
He froze for a moment before realizing what it was.
Thinking that his little brother would probably be embarrassed if he woke up and noticed the situation, Jiang Mi reached down and began moving the arm Liang Jinyi had wrapped around his waist.
Liang Jinyi’s arm was not holding him as tightly as it had the night before. Jiang Mi carefully shifted it away until he finally managed to free himself from his little brother’s embrace.
He had just straightened up, preparing to get out of bed, when Liang Jinyi suddenly grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back onto the mattress.
Then Liang Jinyi cracked his eyes open. The young man’s morning voice carried a slight rasp as he buried his face against Jiang Mi’s neck and nuzzled him.
“Brother, you’re awake.”
Liang Jinyi was now lying over him, but judging by his condition, he clearly wasn’t fully awake yet, nor did he seem aware of what was pressing against Jiang Mi’s legs.
Jiang Mi had always been considerate. Thinking that pointing it out might embarrass his little brother, he kept his expression perfectly natural and reminded him, “I’m awake. I need to get up now. Jinyi, let go of me.”
As he spoke, he tried to push the sturdy young man off him.
Liang Jinyi took a deep breath, inhaling Jiang Mi’s scent, and refused, “No.”
As Liang Jinyi finished speaking, he seemed to feel something, but not the slightest trace of embarrassment appeared on his face. He kept his head buried against Jiang Mi’s neck, though his thigh shifted slightly.
“Liang Jinyi.” A vein throbbed violently on Jiang Mi’s forehead.
Liang Jinyi lifted his head, and there was actually a hint of grievance in his eyes. He said helplessly, “Brother, it’s been doing this a lot lately.”
Jiang Mi: “…”
Jiang Mi was ten years older than Liang Jinyi and had long grown accustomed to being his protector and guide. Seeing the younger boy looking so pitiful and helpless, Jiang Mi gently reassured him, “You’re seventeen or eighteen now, right at the age when you’re full of energy. It’ll go away after a while.”
With that, he pushed at Liang Jinyi’s broad, solid shoulder. “Let go of me first.”
Liang Jinyi propped himself up and gazed at Jiang Mi for a moment. Then he suddenly lowered his head again, pressing his body flush against Jiang Mi’s as he whined, “Brother, help me.”
Jiang Mi: “?”
When he saw Liang Jinyi grab his hand and try to pull it downward, Jiang Mi’s eyelids twitched violently. He snapped, “Liang Jinyi!”
Liang Jinyi stopped trying to pull Jiang Mi’s hand down and looked at him in confusion.
Jiang Mi took a deep breath, his tone particularly complicated. “This isn’t something Brother can help you with.”
“Can’t you?” Liang Jinyi frowned. “But I’ve seen some guys who are close do this for each other.”
Jiang Mi’s emotions were indescribably complicated. “You’ve done this with guys you’re close to?”
Liang Jinyi shook his head. Resting his head against the side of Jiang Mi’s neck, his lips seemingly brushed against Jiang Mi’s dark hair by accident. “I’m closest to Brother. I can only accept Brother doing it for me.”
For a moment, Jiang Mi didn’t know whether he should feel touched or helpless.
After calming himself for a moment, he gave his opinion. “Jinyi, Brother can’t accept doing something like that.”
He considered his wording. “Brother thinks this is something only your own partner should help you with.”
After a brief pause, Jiang Mi added, “Even if you make a very close friend in the future, Brother still doesn’t think it would be appropriate to do something like this.”
With that, he once again pushed at Liang Jinyi, whose body was still pressed over his, burning hot. “All right, let go of me.”
Liang Jinyi raised his eyes slightly and stared at Jiang Mi for a moment. Then, in an apparently calm voice, he said, “All right,” and released him.
Finally escaping that scorching heat, Jiang Mi breathed a sigh of relief and straightened his rumpled pajamas. He turned his head, intending to remind Liang Jinyi of a thing or two, only to see Liang Jinyi throw back the covers and sit openly on the bed.
That made the thing particularly conspicuous.
For the first time, Jiang Mi realized that his little brother really did seem to have grown up. He was no longer the little boy who used to trail after him and act spoiled.
Jiang Mi coughed lightly. “Just give yourself some time. Come out once you’ve calmed down.”
Then he reminded him, “There’s a girl in the house today.”
Liang Jinyi obediently replied, “I know, Brother.”
After giving him that reminder, Jiang Mi walked to the door, opened it, and left the room. He went to the bathroom to wash up first. By the time he came out, Liu Peipei had also emerged from the bedroom, still bleary-eyed with sleep. When she saw Jiang Mi, she called out, “Brother.”
Jiang Mi checked the time. It was already past ten, though that wasn’t surprising. It had already been four or five in the morning by the time he and Liang Jinyi had gone to sleep.
He walked over to the water dispenser and poured himself a cup of warm water. After drinking it and seeing that Liu Peipei was mostly awake, Jiang Mi asked what she wanted to eat so he could order delivery.
Liu Peipei took Jiang Mi’s phone and browsed for quite a while before finally deciding on pizza. Jiang Mi ordered four eight-inch pizzas.
Liu Peipei could only eat a little over half of an eight-inch pizza. Jiang Mi could finish a whole one, but with Liang Jinyi’s appetite, eating two would be no problem at all.
Afterward, Jiang Mi went back to the master bedroom and changed into a fresh set of clothes. His cotton pajamas were soft and comfortable, though they wrinkled easily. Still, Jiang Mi felt that today they seemed much more wrinkled than usual when he woke up. He didn’t think much of it, though. After changing, he left the room.
Twenty minutes later, the pizza arrived.
Liu Peipei opened the door and accepted the tall stack of tightly packed pizza boxes. Jiang Mi strode over and helped her carry them to the dining table.
Liu Peipei asked, “Brother, is Liang Jinyi still asleep? Didn’t he always need the least sleep?”
Then her brows lifted slightly. “I’ll go wake him up.”
Liu Peipei and Liang Jinyi were longtime archenemies with plenty of old grudges between them. And in Liu Peipei’s opinion, being forcibly woken from sleep was an extremely unpleasant experience. Since it was unpleasant, she was more than happy to let Liang Jinyi experience it.
Seeing Liu Peipei stride quickly toward Liang Jinyi’s room, Jiang Mi hurriedly stopped her. “Wait.”
Liu Peipei turned around in confusion.
“I’ll wake him,” Jiang Mi said. Then he reminded her, “Peipei, you’re not a little girl anymore, and Jinyi isn’t a little boy either.”
With that, Jiang Mi walked to the door of the second bedroom and knocked. About ten seconds later, a hoarse voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
Jiang Mi turned the handle and pushed the door open. Seeing that Liang Jinyi was already standing beside the bed and getting dressed, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
“Come out and eat once you’re dressed. I ordered pizza,” Jiang Mi said gently.
Liang Jinyi had both arms raised as he pulled a sweatshirt over his head. Hearing this, he turned and gave a hum of acknowledgment.
Jiang Mi closed the door behind him.
Liang Jinyi quickly pulled on his sweatshirt and changed into his pants. After taking two steps toward the door, he suddenly turned back toward the bed.
He had slept on the left side of the bed last night, but the right side was now stained with a sticky mess. After a moment’s thought, Liang Jinyi bent down, stripped off the entire bedsheet, and temporarily tossed it onto the floor.
After opening the door, Liang Jinyi didn’t go straight to the dining room. He went to the bathroom first, carefully washed his hands with soap, then brushed his teeth before finally heading to the dining room.
By the time he finished and arrived, Jiang Mi and Liu Peipei were almost done eating.
Jiang Mi pointed at the two untouched pizzas, indicating that they were for him.
Liang Jinyi gave a soft hum and pulled out the chair beside Jiang Mi before sitting down.
After eating his fill, Jiang Mi wiped his hands and asked, “Peipei, are you going home today?”
What had happened last night had indeed been his aunt’s fault, but a perfect parent-child relationship was almost impossible. Take his own parents, for example. They loved him dearly and were very understanding, yet even Jiang Mi had sometimes felt frustrated with them when he was younger.
From the moment Jiang Mi started school, he had excelled in every respect. As a result, his parents had come to believe that he was simply supposed to be far more outstanding than his peers—that there could be no area in which he fell behind anyone else.
It was just that Jiang Mi had never gone through a rebellious phase. He had also grown accustomed to being “that perfect child from someone else’s family,” praised by relatives and friends alike. And so, the small conflicts between him and his parents had remained hidden beneath the surface of an apparently tranquil lake.
Thinking about this, Jiang Mi suddenly wondered what would happen if, one day, something unexpected occurred in his life. If, for example, he was no longer outstanding enough, or developed some obvious weakness and became the subject of gossip over other people’s meals, his parents probably wouldn’t be able to accept it.
At the thought, Jiang Mi frowned slightly.
But there was a ninety-nine percent chance that something like that would never happen.
Last night, Liu Peipei had come home with her report card only to have her mother crush her spirits. The hurt she had felt was impossible to put into words. But after a night to calm down and sort through her emotions, she had mostly regained her composure.
Her parents had their bad moments, but they also had plenty of good ones. For example, every day when she came home, her mother would cook the dishes she liked. Whenever she had a fever and fell sick, her mother would already be exhausted from work, yet she would still stay awake all night, coming into Liu Peipei’s room every hour to check on her.
Sometimes, she wanted her mother to sleep beside her. After all, a fever wasn’t contagious. But her mother remembered that she wasn’t used to sleeping with someone else and worried she wouldn’t sleep well, so she would rather get out of bed every hour to come check on her.
Liu Peipei had just been about to agree when she suddenly noticed Liang Jinyi stop mid-bite and look up at her.
She immediately changed her mind. Flashing Jiang Mi a sweet smile, she said, “Brother, I’m not going back.”
After a pause, she glanced at Liang Jinyi, then added to Jiang Mi with smiling eyes, “From now on, I’m going to live with Brother too.”
Jiang Mi frowned slightly. “Peipei, if you stay with me long-term, your parents will worry. Besides, your school is quite far from here, and I don’t have time to drive you to and from school every day.”
Before Liu Peipei could say anything, Liang Jinyi smiled. Turning to Jiang Mi, he said, “Brother, you don’t have to worry about getting her to and from school. I can have Uncle Li drive her from now on.”
Liang Jinyi’s gaze fell on Liu Peipei, and for the first time, he found her remarkably pleasing to the eye. Smiling, he said, “Peipei, why don’t you live here with me and Brother from now on?”
Liu Peipei was shocked.
The source of the conflict between her and Liang Jinyi had always been perfectly clear: he wanted to monopolize her brother.
For example, she remembered how, when they were little and playing together, if she fell and hurt herself badly enough to cry, Liang Jinyi would immediately take a fall too—and somehow manage to hurt himself even worse.
Then, when Brother came over, Liang Jinyi would endure the pain with tears in his eyes, looking pitiful and aggrieved as he showed Brother his injury, making Brother’s heart ache for him.
And now, judging by the fact that Liang Jinyi came straight to her brother’s place every day after school instead of going home, it was obvious that some things about him hadn’t changed since childhood.
Liu Peipei narrowed her eyes. She freely admitted that she was no match for Liang Jinyi when it came to scheming, so the fact that he was acting so welcoming toward her made her deeply uneasy.
After hesitating for a moment, she said, “Forget it, Brother. I think I’ll go back home after all.”
Liang Jinyi swallowed the bite of fruit pizza in his mouth and earnestly tried to persuade her. “Peipei, are you sure you don’t want to reconsider? It’s really comfortable living at Brother’s place.”
“Liang Jinyi.” Jiang Mi had more or less figured out why Liang Jinyi wanted Liu Peipei to stay. Just an hour ago, he had thought his little brother had finally grown up, but now he felt that Jinyi was still a child after all—still just as clingy as ever.
Jiang Mi told him, “If Peipei stays, I’ll buy another bed and put it in the study. I’ll sleep there.”
Liang Jinyi: “…”
From the very beginning, Liang Jinyi had already known that Liu Peipei wouldn’t actually stay at his brother’s place. Although Liu Peipei was very fond of Jiang Mi, she also loved her parents deeply, and her parents would never agree to let her live with Jiang Mi.
Even though reason told him what the outcome would be, Liang Jinyi still couldn’t help hoping that Liu Peipei might stay, which was why he had tried to persuade her.
But now that he had heard what his brother said, Liang Jinyi decided it would be better for Liu Peipei to go home after all.
Jiang Mi cleared the food scraps from the dining table into the trash, washed his hands, then came out of the kitchen and said to Liu Peipei, “Then I’ll take you home in a little while. I’ll also have a proper talk with Uncle and Aunt.”
Liu Peipei had always believed that Jiang Mi could do anything, so she gave a soft hum of agreement.
Jiang Mi gently patted her head again. “But before you go home, why don’t you tell Brother what reward you want?”
“A reward?” Liu Peipei looked a little bewildered.
Jiang Mi’s lips curved into a smile. “My little sister improved by a hundred places on this month’s exam. How could something so worthy of praise and encouragement not come with a reward?”
Liu Peipei instantly jumped down from her chair and excitedly threw her arms around Jiang Mi, calling out, “Brother!”
Then she pulled away and looked up at him. “Brother, can I think about it first? I’ll tell you once I’ve decided.”
“Of course,” Jiang Mi said gently.
Liu Peipei thought about it for more than half an hour before finally deciding what gift she wanted: a set of makeup. It was something her mother would absolutely never buy for her, because in her mother’s opinion, students should focus on studying instead of dressing themselves up.
Liu Peipei was already sixteen. It was only natural for a girl her age to care about looking pretty, so Jiang Mi agreed and drove her to a cosmetics counter to buy her a set of makeup.
However, Jiang Mi also told her that at her age, studying was still the most important thing. Liu Peipei’s father was the sales director of a car dealership, while her mother was an accountant at a bookkeeping firm. Their family was comfortably middle-class, and for children from ordinary middle-class families, education could give them more choices in life.
“Brother, I know,” Liu Peipei said. “I’ll work hard at my studies from now on.”
“As long as you work hard, that’s enough.” Jiang Mi didn’t believe that everyone had to achieve some particular result. People differed in talent, just as they differed in luck.
Since Jiang Mi was going to visit his uncle and aunt today, he first drove Liang Jinyi back to the Liang residence. Only after dropping him off did he drive to Liu Peipei’s parents’ home.
Mr. Liang was home today, entertaining several business associates in the reception room. After learning this, Liang Jinyi went straight upstairs and returned to his room.
He put down his backpack, leaned backward, and collapsed onto the bed for a while. Then, all of a sudden, he sat up, strode over to his computer, thought for a moment, and typed in a web address.
Liang Jinyi pulled out the chair and sat down. After browsing for half an hour, he finally found a video he was satisfied with. He took the over-ear headphones hanging from his monitor and put them on.
He had only been watching for a few minutes when a notification popped up at the bottom of his computer screen. Liang Jinyi initially had no intention of paying attention to it, but Zhu Yurui kept messaging him over and over, asking whether he was home.
Liang Jinyi had no choice but to pick up his phone and reply that he was.
Zhu Yurui: [Then I’m coming over now. My parents brought me to visit some uncle who lives near your place today. Ah, it’s so annoying. I can’t stand staying here anymore.]
Zhu Yurui: [I’ve already left. I should be there in about ten minutes.]
Liang Jinyi replied with a single word: [Okay.]
Although Liang Jinyi was wearing headphones, they couldn’t completely block out the sounds around him. About ten minutes later, he heard a knock on the door, followed by someone calling out, “Brother Liang!”
Liang Jinyi first paused the video he was watching, took off his headphones, and went to open the door for Zhu Yurui.
“Brother Liang, what are you doing at home in broad daylight?” Zhu Yurui craned his neck, brimming with curiosity.
Liang Jinyi glanced at him and replied lazily, “What else would I be doing? Watching a video.”
Liang Jinyi closed the door and strode back toward his computer. Zhu Yurui followed him, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. “What kind of video? A movie? Action or comedy…”
His voice abruptly died the moment he saw the indecent scene on Liang Jinyi’s computer screen. Zhu Yurui froze on the spot.
Liang Jinyi casually dismissed him. “If you don’t want to watch, just find somewhere to hang out. Don’t bother—”
Zhu Yurui coughed and said with a flushed face, “Um… I’ll watch with you.”
With that, he looked around Liang Jinyi’s room and finally spotted a tall stool beside the European-style cabinet opposite the bed. Zhu Yurui hurried over and carried the stool across the room.
Liang Jinyi didn’t particularly care whether he watched or not, but since Zhu Yurui wanted to join him, he disconnected his over-ear headphones and paired a set of Bluetooth earbuds instead, handing one of them to Zhu Yurui.
Zhu Yurui had watched this kind of thing with other friends before, but only once or twice, so he was still somewhat embarrassed. His fingers felt hot as he accepted the earbud and put it in. Then he took a deep breath and stared at Brother Liang’s computer screen, his entire face flushed red.
But after watching for a few minutes, he began to sense that something was off.
He stared blankly at the screen. “Brother Liang, why… why are there two men?”
Liang Jinyi was watching the computer screen with considerable concentration. At Zhu Yurui’s question, he seemed to think of something, and the corner of his lips curved upward.
“To learn some techniques.”
