Chapter 17

When Yan Yang asked me that, I didn't feel too good.

Even if I was extremely unwilling to, I still had to admit that I couldn't bear to see him being treated badly. Of course, other people mistreating him was a definite no, but even if it was him getting bullied by me, I still wouldn't feel any better seeing him in pain.

I was simply not as vicious as I had thought myself to be. I was not so vicious that I could abuse and insult him freely without it weighing on me at all.

All this while, I had wanted to be an evil villain through and through, to tear his family apart until it disintegrated into nothing. But once I saw this person, once I thought of this person, the cruel words about to escape my lips would get swallowed right back down again.

I pinched his nose.

He frowned, whining through his pinched nose.

I said, "You cannot cry."

He pushed me away, laughing as he rubbed his nose, "I'm not crying."

It was likely because he had seen the expression on my face that he didn't continue pursuing that question. Instead, he tugged at my arm and pleaded in an almost whiny tone, "Ge, can we go to your dorm? I wanna see what it looks like."

The dorm was actually quite nearby. I hesitated for a moment.

Yan Yang swung my arm about like a little kid. The people who walked past us all secretly tried to peek at us two strange boys out of the corners of their eyes.

I brought him back to the dormitory. Fortunately, the others weren't around.

I didn't know why I found it fortunate, but anyway, I just didn't want them to meet.

The moment Yan Yang stepped foot into the place, he exclaimed, "Ge! Your dorm is so nice!"

What was so nice about it? He really always made a huge fuss out of everything for no reason.

He took off his scarf and outer coat and ran to the balcony.

"Ge, I like this place."

"What place do you not like?" I hung both of our coats up in the closet, then got him a cup of warm water. "Drink up," I said.

"I don't like my school." Yan Yang took the cup of water and leant on me like he was boneless.

"Isn't your school quite good? Who bothered you?" I thought of the person he said wanted to touch him and suddenly started worrying about him possibly being bullied in school.

"You're not there, so it's boring as hell." Yan Yang swallowed a big gulp of water, "Even the water here tastes better than the water at home."

I couldn't be bothered to respond and simply stepped aside and left the balcony.

He nearly toppled over. He muttered a complaint before quickly following after me.

No matter where I went, he always wanted to stick to me, as though there were magnets hidden in our bodies always drawing us to each other.

"Ge, I'm tired." Yan Yang looked up at my bed and asked, "Can I sleep here?"

"Go ahead." I wanted more than anything for him to just stop talking to me already.

He put down his cup and happily climbed up into the bed. After lying down, as though he just remembered something, he turned to lie on his side and poked his head out to ask, "Ge, are you not sleeping?"

"No."

He lay back down and finally quietened. I, on the other hand, sat in a corner carefully taking deep breaths.

I thought of that morning, when he had lain in my chest, clinging to me and rubbing against me as he made those sounds.

Yan Yang had grown up.

That day, Yan Yang didn't manage to sleep much before my roommates came back. In the end, they still met each other.

My roommates didn't say much. They just praised Yan Yang for being good-looking and obedient, and since they didn't know we didn't have the same mother, one of them even said, "You two brothers look quite alike."

I didn't like it when people said that, but Yan Yang seemed very happy.

We stayed in the dormitory until late in the afternoon, then went out to watch a movie and eat dinner before going to the main square to watch the New Year fireworks.

It was the last day of the year. The cold was penetrating, cutting to the bone.

Amidst the crowd, Yan Yang put his hand in my pocket and held my hand.

This made me feel awkward, but he looked completely at ease.

I didn't know if other biological brothers acted this way, but from that point onwards, I slowly began to realise that there was something off about Yan Yang.

He stuck so close to me that it was somewhat abnormal.

That night, we stood in the crowd, our heads tilted back as we watched the fireworks in the sky. When the new year arrived, Yan Yang asked me if I had any New Year's wishes. I said I didn't, so he asked, "Then can you help me make a wish?"

He said he had too many wishes and was scared that the gods who fulfilled wishes would find him annoying. If I helped him, the probability of his wish coming true would become much greater.

"What's your wish?"

"For you to like me," Yan Yang replied, "Just wish that in the new year, Yan Xuan will like Yan Yang super duper much."

I stared at him. Before I could say anything, someone bumped into him from behind, making him stumble a little.

In the dense crowd, I held him closer to me to protect him. I didn't help him make that dumb wish, and instead brought him back to the hotel to sleep.

That night, I didn't let him sleep in my bed anymore, forcing him to sleep in his own.

Yan Yang was reluctant, but he still obediently went and lay down. However, when I woke up in the middle of the night, I realised he had come over to my bed again at some point. Most likely because he didn't want to wake me up, he hadn't even dared to lift up the blanket to cover himself with it and was sleeping at the very edge of the bed.

He looked as though he had been bullied terribly by me.

But Heaven knew I was already treating him quite well.

In the later half of the night, the heater wasn't strong enough, so the room was quite cold. I lifted the blanket, covering him with it. Semi-conscious, he rolled onto his side and hugged the source of warmth.

Yan Yang had grabbed onto me, his face pressed against my arm.

My eyes stayed open until morning came, rays of sunlight peeking into the room through the gaps in the curtain.

He was sleeping very soundly. After struggling to fall asleep for a few hours, I grabbed my phone and snapped a photo.

That photo was later printed out by me and anonymously mailed to my father. When I took the photo, I had purposefully angled it so it looked like Yan Yang was kissing me.

Of course, there had been other photos mailed out as well. This photo was just the least shocking one of the lot.