Chapter 91

Chapter 91

"..."

Luo Ye flipped to the last page to check the answer—it was indeed C.

"..." His fingers tightened around the pen, and he froze for several seconds, his eyes widening slightly.

Luo Ye had always been calm, even when his milk was snatched away, he took it in stride, and he stayed unbothered even when Ji Mian ignored or mocked him daily.

Back when Ji Mian called him a "dummy," Luo Ye would just pretend not to hear.

But now, after messing up the problem and getting called out, he couldn’t just brush off the taunt.

Even though Ji Mian was way older, and his shameless brother was already in high school, and their knowledge levels were worlds apart, he still... felt pretty defeated.

"Finish checking the answer and head back," Ji Mian said flatly.

Even after figuring out the solution, Luo Ye didn’t budge.

He glanced at the textbook in Ji Mian’s hands and asked, "You going to sleep?"

Ji Mian hesitated, "...No."

He wouldn’t hit the sack until at least eleven.

Luo Ye pursed his lips, flipped back to the previous problem, and moved on to the next, muttering, "I’m not tired either."

But despite his words, the spark in his eyes was dim, clearly not very lively.

Ji Mian, catching the tension in Luo Ye’s lips, sensed something and blinked slowly.

His little brother seemed pretty competitive.

Noticing it was almost ten, Ji Mian twirled his pen and said, "Go shower first, don’t crash here later."

Luo Ye hesitated, then set the pen down, hopped off the chair, and headed to shower.

By the time he showered and dried his hair, it was already 10:30.

He shuffled to Ji Mian’s bedroom door in his pajamas, rubbing his sleepy eyes, and tried the doorknob, but it didn’t budge.

The door was locked from the inside.

The second-floor hallway was dark, and the light from Ji Mian’s room seeped under the door, casting an orange-yellow line in the darkness.

Whoever was inside clearly wasn’t asleep yet.

Luo Ye paused, knocked twice, and called out, "Brother?"

No answer.

"..."

Luo Ye lowered his hand, straightened up, and glared at the closed door.

*

He’d been tricked.

Luo Ye didn’t get a shot at turning the tables. Because the next night, his shameless brother straight-up brought his schoolbag and camped out in his bedroom to study.

He wrapped up his writing a little after nine, packed his things, and left, then shut his bedroom door to keep studying in solitude.

Luo Ye never even got the chance to step foot in Ji Mian’s bedroom.

...

After just a week of school, Luo Ye had already fit right in with his classmates.

He still wasn’t much of a talker, but he was well-liked by both teachers and students.

Luo Ye was smart, so his quietness came off as "well-behaved." Add his good looks to the mix, and the whole class was pretty friendly with him.

The only one who had it out for him was Fang Zihao. Luo Ye wasn’t one to start trouble, but when he retaliated, he had a way of driving people up the wall.

Therefore, after the conflict on the first day of school, the tension between him and the chubby kid in front of him only got worse.

During the break, Luo Ye returned to the classroom from the restroom, and his desk mate, a girl, gave him a hesitant look.

After Luo Ye sat down, she scribbled a note and slid it over to him.

[Fang Zihao put bugs in your pencil case.]

The troublemaker was snickering up front, and the girl didn’t dare to warn Luo Ye directly.

Luo Ye skimmed the note and scribbled back: [Thanks.]

[Feel free to use my stuff.]

[No need.]

After that, Luo Ye popped open his pencil case, where, as expected, a few fat green caterpillars were squirming inside.

The girl saw it and yanked her chair away from him.

Luo Ye grabbed the caterpillars bare-handed, yanked open the back of Fang Zihao’s collar—who was still smugly hunched over his desk—and tossed the squirming bugs down his shirt.

Two seconds later, a bloodcurdling shriek cut through the classroom chatter.

Luo Ye sat down, fished a wet wipe out of his bag, and calmly cleaned his hands.

Fang Zihao shrieked and flailed around until the caterpillars hit the floor. After the initial shock, he felt a mix of shame and anger.

Blinded by rage, he snatched his metal pencil case and lashed out.

The metal case, swung with Fang Zihao’s full force, landed on Luo Ye’s head with a loud thud.

Luo Ye was stunned for a second, and the attacker was also startled by his own force.

Fang Zihao stammered, "I, I..."

Before he could finish, the boy in front of him just stared him down, his dark eyes cold and unblinking.

Luo Ye wasn’t good at handling physical conflicts. He usually didn’t tell his mother about school matters, nor did he like to report things to teachers.

But he knew how to intimidate people.

Fang Zihao met his icy gaze and immediately sat down, instinctively wanting to apologize but too embarrassed to do so. He just sat there, staring back, completely lost.

A few seconds later, he quickly turned around with his pencil case, choosing to dodge the issue.

Luo Ye raised his hand to touch the spot where he had been hit. It hurt, but it wasn’t serious.

He glanced at Fang Zihao, who had noticeably settled down, then lowered his eyes, too tired to deal with him anymore.

*

After dinner, Luo Ye went to his room to study.

After a while, he heard the door behind him open and knew it was Ji Mian coming in.

Neither brother bothered to knock, as they were around the same age, of the same gender, and the door had a lock. If they needed to change, they’d just lock the door.

Ji Mian brought his books and sat down to the left of Luo Ye's desk.

They didn’t greet each other; they just started flipping through their books.

They got along fine for an hour, with Ji Mian quickly finishing his homework for the day and taking a quick breather.

Using his height, he looked down at his brother, who was deep in solving problems, watching as Luo Ye wrote line after line of calculations in his scratch pad.

Until a green bug suddenly showed up on the paper, its segmented body slowly crawling.

Ji Mian: "..."

Luo Ye noticed the bug crawling out of his pencil case and calmly put it back in.

—He must have accidentally missed one. He’d give it back to that guy tomorrow.

Ji Mian felt mixed emotions as he looked at Luo Ye’s fluffy head, wondering how to teach the kid to respect life, given Xiang Nian’s character.

He quietly looked at the top of Luo Ye’s head, his gaze pausing.

Suddenly, Luo Ye felt Ji Mian move beside him. Ji Mian’s hand reached past the back of his neck.

Then, a hand gently hooked Luo Ye’s neck.

Luo Ye swayed a bit, and his forehead bumped against Ji Mian’s right shoulder.

He tried to sit up, but Ji Mian leaned in closer, his right hand gripping the back of Luo Ye’s neck.

Luo Ye realized his brother was very close. "Brother?"

Ji Mian brushed the hair off Luo Ye’s forehead, checking out the red mark on his temple, which disappeared into the dark hair.

"What happened to your forehead?"

Luo Ye paused and didn’t answer.

He knew Ji Mian had noticed the spot where Fang Zihao had hit him with the pencil case earlier. The spot didn’t hurt anymore, but his young skin bruised easily.

Ji Mian’s lips dropped, but he kept his tone casual. "Who hit you?"

Hearing his tone, a strange look flashed in Luo Ye’s eyes.

If it had been their mother, she would have probably asked with concern if he had been fighting with another child.

There was a subtle difference in the way the two asked.

He lowered his head, blinked, and still didn’t say anything.

Ji Mian had a thought and changed his question: "Did you catch the bug?"

Luo Ye answered obediently this time: "No."

"..."

Ji Mian looked at Luo Ye's innocent and harmless profile, his heart heavy.

He released his grip.

Luo Ye’s head was free again.

He was unaware of his brother’s complex thoughts at the moment, nor did he expect that his single reply would lead Ji Mian to paint him as a pitiful victim of school bullying.

Getting beaten up and having bugs tossed into his pencil case...

"Brother, I didn’t fight with anyone," Luo Ye tugged at Ji Mian’s sleeve, "Don’t tell Mom."

As soon as the words fell, he heard a voice dripping with disappointment from above: "No backbone."

Luo Ye: "?"

He looked up.

Ji Mian looked at him with disdain: "You don’t even know how to fight back when you’re hit?"

"..."

Another cold snort followed, "Don’t go around saying you’re my brother—I’d be embarrassed."

Luo Ye: "..." I wasn’t planning to.

*

The next day, at the affiliated elementary school’s dismissal time.

Luo Ye’s school had strict dismissal rules. After all grades were dismissed, day students had to queue up at the school gate, waiting for their rides, and the rest could head home.

Luo Ye followed the line to the school gate.

Only during the first week of school did Xiang Yanming worry about him walking home alone and sent Auntie Lin to pick him up. After that, he walked home alone.

Luo Ye was in the middle of the line. He was of average height among his peers, neither tall nor short.

Just as he was waiting to be dismissed and go home, his gaze swept the periphery and instantly locked onto a striking head of red hair.

Luo Ye blinked hard, thinking he was seeing things.

This wasn’t the affiliated middle school’s dismissal time, and that person had no business being here.

However, when the striking red hair moved toward the fifth-grade line, Luo Ye had to admit that the person was indeed his brother.

Ji Mian was still searching for Luo Ye in the line, unaware that he was being scrutinized from head to toe.

He was wearing the affiliated middle school's uniform, with the cuffs of his pants rolled up unevenly, his uniform jacket wide open, with various colored signatures on the back, and his gaze under the red hair was particularly sharp.

The jacket was borrowed by Ji Mian, and the cuffs were temporarily rolled up by him.

But to Luo Ye, it was a different story.

He looked at Ji Mian's delinquent style of dressing and remained silent for a long time. The shameless top student image Ji Mian had built in Luo Ye's mind in the past few days collapsed completely.

So this is how my brother usually is at school?