Rebirth of Brotherly Love

An Ze will never forget the scene of meeting An Luo for the first time.

That was 20 years ago. Seven-year-old Anze returned to China from Paris with his mother. He grew up in France and was very unfamiliar with the domestic environment. He only learned from his mother that there are three other brothers in the An family. They will live with them, eldest brother An Luo, second brother An Yan, and third cousin An Mo.

An Yan is An Ze's elder brother. He returned to China with his father two years ago. The two brothers met occasionally. He is no stranger to An Yan, but for the other two elder brothers who have never met, An Ze only occasionally listens to his mother bring up—

The mother of the eldest brother An Luo died in a car accident when he was seven years old. Although he was young, he was very sensible. After returning to China, he should learn more from him. Remember to get along with the eldest brother and not be naughty like An Yan...

The mother's exhortation planted in little Anze's heart the idea of ​​"getting along well with his brother". After knowing that his brother's mother had passed away, Anze became more determined that he should give way to his brother and not because of him. Bullying him when his mother is gone.

The time to return home is set in winter, Christmas Eve.

When we came out of the airport, it was snowing heavily in the sky. Large flakes of snowflakes were flying in the air like feathers. The scenery outside the window was covered with a layer of hazy white mist by the falling snow. Soon there was a layer of snow on the road Under the thick snow, the snow-covered city is like a mysterious and beautiful white castle in a fairy tale.

Heavy snow caused traffic congestion. The car walked for two hours from the airport to home. Anze, who was so curious, kept lying on the edge of the window and looked at the snow scene outside the window, so that his mother said, "When I get home, I have to say hello to my brother" and "I will teach you You must remember your Chinese" and other words were all left behind by Xiao Anze.

It was afternoon when I got home, the snow had already stopped, and the afternoon sun shone on the white snow, and the reflected light was a bit dazzling.When Anze, who was wrapped in a thick coat, got out of the car, what he saw was the scene of three boys playing in the snow——

The one running around wearing gloves was of course An Yan he was familiar with, and the other two brothers he didn't know. One of them took a branch and drew seriously on the snow, while the other sat there quietly and basked in the snow with his eyes closed. sun.

Anze tugged at the corner of his mother's clothes and asked, "Mom, which one is the big brother?"

Zhou Bizhen smiled slightly, and pointed to the boy sitting there basking in the sun, "That's your elder brother An Luo." Then she waved to little An Luo, "Xiao Luo, come here."

An Luo heard someone calling him, opened his eyes, and looked this way.

——Those are a pair of very beautiful eyes, the black pupils are as clear and bright as if washed by this winter snow.His skin was very white, and he was wearing a thick white coat. Standing in the snow, he seemed to be able to blend in with the surrounding snow scene.

An Luo walked up to Zhou Bizhen and asked politely, "Aunt Zhen is back."

He turned his head and glanced at the child who was following Zhou Bizhen. Little Anze, who got out of the car with the heater on, suddenly had the tip of his nose flushed from the cold after being exposed to the cold air. Looking at it for myself, the eyes are full of doubts and curiosity.

"Is this Anze?" An Luo glanced at the cute child, then turned around and asked Zhou Bizhen.

Zhou Bizhen smiled and said, "Come on, Ze, say hello to your brother."

"Oh." Anze nodded, and obediently walked out from behind his mother, "Brother."

An Luo stretched out his hand, "Hello, Anze."

Compared with An Luo's calmness and composure, little Anze was very nervous. When he greeted those adults in France, he always leaned over and kissed their faces, but now his brother stretched out his hand... What should I do?Will he hate you if you kiss his face?

An Ze glanced at his thick gloves, then at the white hand stretched in the air, hesitated for a while, and finally decided to take off the gloves, stretched out his hand, and gently grabbed his brother's fingers.

An Luo probably sat in the snow for too long, and his fingertips were a bit cold, but An Ze's fingers were very warm because he had been wearing gloves all the time. Both hands were held together, and neither of them was quite used to the gap between the other. Great body temperature.

My brother's hands are so cold, could it be that he was frozen?Anze couldn't help but want to hold it for a while to warm him up, and even wanted to give him his gloves to wear, but An Luo quickly withdrew his hand.

Anze looked at him with some disappointment, and said in unproficient Chinese: "Hello, brother, I am Anze. From now on, please take care of me."

This is something he secretly learned from his mother when he was talking to people, and he stuttered a sentence.

An Luo seemed to think his younger brother's greeting was strange, so he didn't respond, but turned his head and said, "An Yan, An Mo, stop playing, come over to say hello to younger brother, and get ready for dinner."

"Oh!" An Mo quickly stopped moving obediently.

An Yan didn't listen to his brother, and shouted: "Eat first, I haven't finished yet!" He was wearing thick leather gloves, holding a lot of snow and making strange things there.

An Ze asked suspiciously: "Brother, what is An Yan doing?"

An Luo said, "He's making a snowman."

"Snowman?" Anze couldn't speak Chinese well, so he didn't know what a "snowman" was. He looked at An Yan's pile of images suspiciously, and asked, "Are all snowmen so ugly?"

"..." An Luo didn't answer.

An Yan was very upset when he heard this, and shouted at Anze: "Anze, you are so annoying! Who said that the snowman I made is ugly, your eyes have problems!" Then he squeezed a snowball and threw it over to hit Anze .

An Ze was hit by a snowball, and a large amount of snowflakes were stained on his thick coat. He was not angry, nor did he quarrel with An Yan. He just looked at An Yandui's four faces curiously, and said seriously: " Really ugly."

An Yan was about to pinch a snowball to hit him again, but An Luo stood in front of An Ze, reached out to wipe off the snowflakes on An Ze's clothes, frowned, looked at An Yan, and said, "An Yan, don't bully my brother. "

An Yan curled his lips, turned his head and left.

***

In the evening, many guests came to the house, Zhou Bizhen and An Yudong were busy entertaining the guests, the four children were rushed to the restaurant to open a separate table for dinner.

Little Anze, who is used to holding knives and forks in France, is very uncomfortable with the "chopsticks" tableware. He always picks up half of the dishes and then falls on the table. An Yan said with disgust: "How stupid!", An Mo kept He lowered his head and ate seriously. As the eldest brother among the children, the task of teaching his younger brother to use chopsticks naturally fell on An Luo's shoulders.

This little brother who just came back from abroad doesn't understand anything and is very curious. As the eldest brother, An Luo also cares about him a lot. Seeing him struggling with a vegetable, An Luo finally couldn't bear it anymore. Grab his hand and teach him personally: "Holding chopsticks requires fingers to be separated...Handling like this...do you understand? Come on, try it."

"Oh!" Anze imitated his brother's movement to hold chopsticks, and quickly learned it. He successfully picked up a vegetable with chopsticks, happily put it in his brother's bowl, and said, "Understood, thank you brother."

An Luo thought this younger brother was very cute, so he couldn't help reaching out and patted his head, saying, "Good boy, you're welcome."

***

At that time, An Yudong was still living in a community close to the city center, a four-bedroom, two-living room of more than 100 square meters. It didn’t seem crowded to live with three children before, but now that Anze and his mother came back, the husband and wife With two people and four children, the bedroom is naturally not enough.

After seeing off a group of guests, Zhou Bizhen packed her luggage in the bedroom, An Ze ran to take a shower, and An Yudong began to worry about the arrangement of the bedroom.

I wanted An Ze and An Yan to sleep in the same room. After all, they are brothers and are familiar with each other, but An Yan doesn't seem to like his younger brother, so he ran into the bedroom and locked the door very early. After all, An Mo is not biological. So reluctant, An Yudong had no choice but to discuss with his elder son An Luo: "Xiao Luo, let my brother sleep in your room tonight, okay?"

An Luo frowned slightly, obviously not happy.

An Yudong continued to coax him: "I know you hate being close to people, but there aren't enough bedrooms at home, and Anze is seven years old, so it's not easy for him to share a bed with his parents... Just for this week, let him Sleep with you, our new home will be decorated next week, and you can choose the bedroom at that time, okay?"

An Luo was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay."

Little Anze, who came out of the shower, was taken by his father to the door of brother An Luo's bedroom, "Anze, I will sleep here with my brother tonight. My brother has to do his homework at night. Don't be naughty and make him angry."

Anze nodded sensibly, "Oh, I see."

When he opened the door and walked into the bedroom, An Luo was sitting at the desk doing his homework. Under the warm yellow desk lamp, his skin looked very fair, and his long eyelashes drooped down, casting a faint shadow on his eyelids , the thin lips were tightly pursed, revealing a trace of unapproachable indifference.

Anze had never seen such a beautiful boy before, he suddenly felt that those blond-haired, blue-eyed naughty kids he met in France were simply ugly compared to his brother in front of him.

Children always like to be close to beautiful people. Although Anze also wanted to be close to his brother, An Luo kept his face cold. Anze was too embarrassed to disturb him who was writing seriously, so he had to stand obediently and watch him silently Silhouette of bowing his head and writing.

Sensing the child's serious gaze, An Luo raised his head and asked suspiciously, "What are you looking at?"

Anze pointed to the notebook on the table, "My brother's handwriting is beautiful, are they Chinese characters?"

An Luo asked, "You don't know Chinese?"

Anze nodded, "I can only speak, but not write."

Looking at his serious expression, An Luo couldn't help but said, "My brother will teach you how to write, okay?"

Anze nodded immediately, "OK."

An Luo picked up the pen and wanted to write on the paper, but found that the pen was just out of ink. After a moment of silence, he looked back at An Ze and said, "Come on, reach out."

Anze stretched out his hand obediently, and An Luo slowly wrote two words on the palm of his hand with his index finger.

"An... Ze... Your name is written like this, do you see it clearly?"

Anze shook his head, and replied honestly: "No."

An Luo repeated it stroke by stroke.

An Ze nodded and said, "See clearly." Then he took An Luo's hand, wrote down the word An Ze in his palm, and asked seriously, "Brother, am I right?"

"Yes..." An Luo was very surprised. This younger brother is really too smart and has an excellent memory. The word "Anze" is so difficult that he, who has never learned Chinese characters, actually memorized it after only reading it twice.

"Brother, how do you write your name?" An Ze asked again.

"It's written like this." An Luo came back to his senses, and wrote another word "Luo" in his palm.

Anze quickly learned it, and while repeating the word "Luo", he said curiously: "Brother, our names are very similar, with three dots on the left."

An Luo said, "That's three points of water."

Anze wondered, "What is three o'clock water?"

An Luo said, "It's... the radicals of Chinese characters."

"What are radicals?"

"..." What a problem child.An Luo felt that it was really difficult to communicate with children with zero Chinese foundation, so he changed the subject and said, "It's getting late, go to bed."

"Oh." Anze quickly climbed onto the bed and lay down obediently. After covering the quilt, seeing that An Luo hadn't come over, he poked his head out and asked, "Aren't you sleeping, brother?"

An Luo was silent for a while, walked to the bed, lay down on the bed, and turned off the light.

The room suddenly became quiet. Seven-year-old An Ze and ten-year-old An Luo were lying side by side on a small bed. An Ze had just returned to China and was unable to fall asleep due to the jet lag. However, he dared not sleep for fear of disturbing his brother I just lay there silently in a daze.

At first, An Luo seemed uncomfortable with the people around him, but later he fell asleep because of sleepiness. He seemed to be afraid of the cold. After falling asleep, he habitually rolled up the quilt and wrapped himself like a rice dumpling. .

An Ze's quilt was suddenly swept away by his brother, and he said with some doubts: "Brother...my quilt..."

An Luo, who was asleep, ignored him at all.

Anze wanted to pull some quilt to cover it, but An Luo wrapped it tightly. Anze couldn't get any corners of the quilt after pulling for a long time, so he had to rub his brother's side aggrievedly, stretched out his hand and shook his body, "Brother... Quilt……"

An Luo seemed to hear someone whispering next to his ear in his sleep, which was very annoying, so he stretched out his hand and pushed back, "Don't make noise."

"..." Anze was pushed to the side of the bed and almost rolled down.

He didn't dare to quarrel with him anymore, but it was so cold that he couldn't stand it, so Anze had no choice but to lean over again, stretched out his hand, and hugged his brother together with the quilt, as if hugging a big pillow to keep warm.

***

The next morning, little Anze, who had been without a quilt all night, caught a cold and had a high fever.Out of guilt, An Luo has been taking care of him by his side, guarding him all day.

When Anze woke up from a high fever, what he saw was his elder brother sitting by the bed with a concerned expression.

He said in a very gentle voice, "Are you awake? Do you feel better physically?"

The hand he put on his forehead felt a comfortable coolness, which was An Luo's unique low body temperature, and since that day, this slightly cool temperature has clearly remained in Anze's memory.

Seeing that Anze was in a daze and didn't speak, An Luo got up again and poured a glass of water, helped Anze up from the bed, held it to his lips and said, "Come on, drink some hot water first, and I'll get you something to eat when you're done. "

Anze has lived in France for many years. He has no brothers and sisters around him. He is used to entertaining himself when his mother is not at home. No one has ever treated him so well.

At this moment, sitting by the bed and caring about his elder brother made Anze feel very warm and kind.

Also from that time on, Anze stubbornly thought that his brother was actually a very nice and gentle person.

Even later, An Luo became more and more indifferent to him, An Ze never questioned his initial impression of his brother.

It's just that Anze forgot that only children who can cry will be distressed, and children who are too sensible, although they will be recognized by their elder brother, will never receive more love from him.

In the first period of time, An Luo just took care of him a little more because "the younger brother who just returned to China doesn't adapt to the environment", but after the smart Anze quickly adapted to the environment, An Luo cared more about this younger brother. become less and less.

Later, An Luo even gradually ignored the existence of An Ze, the fourth brother, because in his eyes, this fourth brother no longer needed his care, and what troubled him even more was An Yan, who was always troublesome. What he cared about was An Mo, who was not in good health. An Ze, the fourth younger brother who came back from abroad suddenly and didn't have much relationship foundation, became less and less important in his eyes.

An Luo gradually forgot those things in his childhood. He even forgot that the word "Anze" was written on his palm stroke by stroke with his index finger.

Those were the first two Chinese characters Anze learned.

The third one is the word "Luo" in "An Luo".

20 years have passed by in a hurry, but the plot of the first encounter is clearly imprinted in the bottom of my heart like a brand.

It's a pity that it is only printed in the bottom of Anze's heart.