my brother is not cute at all

When Yang Xing found them with wet shoes, the two of them were standing face to face, staring at each other with big eyes and small eyes. From a distance, the difference in height and degree of fit seemed quite affectionate.

But when he got closer, he realized that one of them had a smug smile on his face, and the other had a blushing face full of righteousness.

"Brother, what are you two doing in this corner? Didn't you go to the show?" Yang Xing ran over and looked at the two of them from side to side, and asked Yang Yue, "What's wrong with your face? Why are you so red?"

"It's nothing." Yang Yue returned to her usual coldness: "You are blind."

Yang Xing: "..."

"Have you found the shoes?" Hou Zeqi looked down at his feet and asked, "Want to go to the show?"

"Forget it, my feet are rowing in the shoes now, it's so uncomfortable," Yang Xing muttered unhappily: "Brother Shui is going to make an appointment with a friend, let's go too."

"Okay, let's go eat, I ordered fresh seafood at the hotel, let's drive there to eat," Hou Zeqi said.

Yang Xing was still a little bit wronged: "But my feet are too uncomfortable."

Hou Zeqi grabbed his neck and left: "There are so many things, I will ask the waiter to prepare slippers for you later."

The road conditions were not congested at night, and the three of them drove smoothly all the way to the main entrance of the seafood restaurant in Mi Yalan Hotel. Hou Zeqi said hello and threw the car keys to the reception doorman, asking him to drive the car to the above-ground parking lot.

King crab, yellow lip fish, and the top Boston lobster set up a dazzling table. Yang Xing was dumbfounded at the sight, and finally he didn't even want to leave the shredded ginger in the keel abalone soup.

After eating and drinking enough, the night was already very dark, Hou Zeqi drove the car back to Lanting smoothly all the way, and when he got out of the garage, he found that the two brothers had fallen asleep in a drowsy state for some time. No wonder it was so quiet all the way.

After turning off the engine, Yang Xing slowly woke up from the disappearing sound of the engine, rubbed his sleepy eyes and muttered: "Well, is it already here?"

"Hush," Hou Zeqi turned around from the driver's seat, with his index finger sticking to his thin sharp lips, his light brown eyes shining brightly in the dim garage.

Yang Xing immediately fell silent.

Hou Zeqi turned his gaze to the co-pilot, Yang Yue was still sleeping, her slender eyelashes were like a black butterfly perched on her eyelids, fluttering lightly in the long night, a child who was originally cold and rigid, was unexpectedly sleeping There is a slight sense of tranquility and fragility in it, which makes people unable to bear to disturb it.

Yang Xing followed his gaze and leaned over, lowered his voice and muttered softly: "Asleep? Strange, don't you never sleep in the car?"

Although his voice was very small, Hou Zeqi keenly caught him.

"Let him sleep, I'll accompany him for a while, you go upstairs first," he said, taking out the key from his pocket and gently handing it to him.

Yang Xing took the key, and before getting out of the car, he suddenly thought of something, leaned over and asked, "By the way, Seventh Brother, do we know each other? I can add your contact information, and I will ask you to drive black together later." Is it?"

"Of course," Hou Zeqi smiled softly.

He casually took out his cell phone, and before turning it on, he suddenly realized that the strong light might disturb his sleeping ancestors, so he opened the car door calmly and motioned to Yang Xing: "If you have anything to say, come down and say it."

The two got out of the car lightly, Hou Zeqi pressed a few times on the phone and handed it to Yang Xing: "Enter your number first and click Add, and then pass the verification when you have a mobile phone later."

Yang Xing thanked him with a smile, took the phone and clicked it. Hou Zeqi took out a cigarette case in the gap and popped a cigarette. Smoke, the smooth and tight neck line can be seen at a glance, and the raised Adam's apple is clearly defined under the dim light, revealing a charming danger.

"Brother, you... smoke?" Yang Xing looked at the flickering light at his fingertips, and the next words seemed to be hesitantly choked in his throat.

Hou Zeqi tilted his head, gave a faint "hmm", and smiled: "You don't even know this, are you my fake fan?"

Yang Xing stared at the fire and stopped talking.

Seeing through his little thoughts, Hou Zeqi took out the cigarette case in a reasonable manner and asked, "Would you like one?"

"Then... thank you bro," Yang Xing didn't refuse, caught a cigarette he popped up and eagerly lit it.

Seeing his skillful look, Hou Zeqi was a little amused: "Smoking and skipping classes to go to Internet cafes, no wonder your brother is angry with you."

Yang Xing didn't make any excuses, just muttered in a low voice: "No one in my family knows that I smoke."

"Really? Then you're good at hiding it," Hou Zeqi teased him.

"How dare I let them know?" Yang Xing complained with eye circles: "My grandma is hypocritical and can't smell the smell of cigarettes. If my elder brother knows that I learned to smoke secretly, he must force me like he did to my brother back then— —”

The picture peeked through the crack of the door scraped through his mind like a sharp blade. Yang Xing stared at the distant auto-sensing lights dimming in the night, and the words he was holding back suddenly stuck.

"What's forcing you?" Hou Zeqi asked.

"Forget it, it's nothing," Yang Xing took a deep breath of the cigarette, and let out a long puff of smoke in silence.

Hou Zeqi stared at the thoughtful light in his eyes, and started chatting with him as if he changed the subject.

"Your brother seems to seldom mention the family affairs to me. It was only when I heard you two talking that day that I realized that he seems to have two older brothers?"

He suddenly recalled the scene on the sofa. Yang Yue's snow-white shoulders and sharp butterfly bones exposed in the air were a little paler than the loose bathrobe, but her fierce eyes were as red as blood. Dazzling, bursting out a cold cold light and staring at him fiercely, squeezed out a few words from the gap between his teeth with his canthus cracked——

"You're the same as those bastards..."

Which bastards are they like?

Hou Zeqi closed his eyes and cleared the images in his mind, seemingly unintentionally, but actually quietly waiting for Yang Xing to take the bait.

Sure enough, Yang Xing sneered, and cursed with contempt and disdain in his eyes: "Hmph, those two trashes are also worthy of being brothers?"

Hou Zeqi tilted his head and squinted his deep eyes. Under the dim light, his light brown pupils looked like a sharp and dangerous leopard. The reflective film behind the retina refracted a sharp afterglow under the light source.

Yang Xing took a puff of cigarette irritably, and it took a long time before he let out a long sigh of relief. He looked in through the car window, Yang Yue was still sleeping, and seeing her peaceful and steady sleeping face, he felt even more blocked in his heart.

He frowned his thick black brows rarely, like a little sun, and finally opened his mouth after a long time of deliberation.

"Brother Seven, my dad came out of the army to change jobs, you know that, right?"

Hou Zeqi gave an inaudible "hmm" and exhaled a puff of smoke ring to signal him to continue.

"The eldest brother and the second brother are twins. Their mother is a military doctor. She became a vegetative state during the earthquake relief work in the early years and was lying in the hospital for almost four years. During these four years, my father met my mother when he was an instructor at a university. He has been lying to my mother that he is divorced, and secretly fell in love with her, so that my mother was pregnant with my brother before graduation. Later, my mother was brought into the house and found out that my father's ex-wife had just passed away for a month , In fact, he has never been divorced."

"That's the thing that made those two trash hate my mom so much, but they were still young and couldn't do anything to an adult, so after my brother was born, he became the object of their anger," Yang Xing pointed out. A large portion of the sharp ash had been burnt down, and it hung precariously on the cigarette butt and forgot to fall off: "The reason why my mother sent my brother to the dance middle school when he was eight years old was because he used various dance skills almost every day. They were beaten, scolded, bullied, and insulted for various reasons.”

Yang Xing seemed to recall some scenes that made him uncomfortable. He took two puffs of cigarettes, extinguished the last cigarette butt and threw it into the drain hole of the underground garage, looking into the distance.

"My parents are busy with work. When we were young, the eldest brother took care of us. He had a big temper and was ruthless. He often dragged my brother into the attic and beat him. He would be beaten for making mistakes, he would be beaten for talking back, and he was called to run errands and buy things. If he makes a mistake, he will be beaten. The family specially set up a set of perverted house rules for him. If he does anything wrong, he will copy the house rules dozens of times in the attic. If he cannot finish the copy, he will not be allowed to eat or drink. water."

Thinking of Yang Yue sleeping peacefully in the car just now, Yang Xing smiled wryly, and continued: "I just saw him fall asleep in the car, I was actually shocked, because he never sleeps in the car."

"When he was young, he went back to my grandpa's house with his eldest and second brothers, and fell asleep on the bus. The two of them threw my brother on the bus and got out of the car secretly. When my brother woke up, the bus had already arrived. When he stopped, the driver drove him out of the car. Later, the kind conductor called the police for him, and he was sent home. Since then, he has not dared to sleep in the car, maybe he was afraid that he would wake up in the morning , I will never find my way home.”

Can't find my way home...

Yang Xing's words hit Hou Zeqi's chest like a heavy hammer, broke the hard bones, smashed the living heart, and smashed the chest with force through the chest, causing blood to splatter and bloody.

No wonder he would suddenly go crazy when he was scolded for being ill-bred, no wonder he would be so angry when he was taught a lesson, no wonder he would say that he was like those bastards when he was taught a lesson, and no wonder he would run away from home so stubbornly the next day.

It turns out that brother has always been a synonym for making him resentful, desperate, and insecure. But that night, I happened to touch his backlash, breaking down the solid barrier built in his heart with my own hands, and making him feel insecure. He lost the sense of security that he should have.

"Then it's not just because of your grandma that you dare not smoke at home?" he asked.

He can guess the general reason, but he believes that the reality is far more brutal than he imagined.

"That's because..." Yang Xing turned his head and glanced at the fire light held between his fingertips, and the frightening image flashed through his mind again: "My brother learned to smoke when he was twelve or thirteen years old. After the eldest brother found out, in order to get him to quit this problem, he burned a whole cigarette to ashes, put it in water and forced him to drink it..."

--Snapped.

The last piece of soot that burned in the air silently fell to the ground, and Hou Zeqi sneered sadly.

"Your two older brothers are really trash."

He let go of his two fingers, and the burnt cigarette butt fell to the ground lightly with its scarlet tail. Without even looking at it, he crushed it with the toe of his shoe.

Useless rubbish, let's crush it.

Yang Xing watched the light of the fire being crushed, looked with lingering fear, and found that Hou Zeqi's eyes were shining with a cold and ruthless light, then slowly raised his hand and rubbed the tip of his nose.

He didn't understand the meaning of this movement, so he just swallowed his saliva and whispered: "Seventh brother, I'm telling you this, can you not let my brother know?"

Hou Zeqi lowered his head, his face was dark and unclear. After a while, he raised his head and smiled again: "Don't worry, I won't talk nonsense."

Only then did Yang Xing breathe a sigh of relief.

"Then... will you treat my brother well?" When he looked over, his eyes were dark, like a sincere puppy in the gloom of night.

Hou Zeqi didn't answer, but just patted his head: "It's getting late, and you've passed your addiction to cigarettes, so you can go up first with the key, and I'll stay here until he wakes up."

"...Okay," Yang Xing nodded.

Although he didn't get a positive answer, at this moment, he already had a firm answer in his heart.

Hou Zeqi looked at his back as he disappeared at the entrance of the safe passage, the flickering light in his eyes finally cooled down completely like a burnt oil lamp.

He returned to the car, lowered the window, popped out another cigarette and lit it in the night, and his thoughts became long and distant along the lingering smoke.

When Yang Yue woke up, what she saw was him squinting his deep eyes and staring at the distance in a daze.

He blinked his sleepy eyes, and slowly twisted his sore waist, the small movements moved his body, and then, a coat on his shoulders slid down his chest.

The fabric made a rustling sound, Hou Zeqi exhaled a puff of smoke ring, turned his head to look over, and happened to bump into a pair of obsidian-like bright eyes shining dimly in the night.

"woke up?"

Yang Yue regained her consciousness in the darkness, hurriedly propped up her body and looked around for a while before asking him with wide eyes: "Did I fall asleep in the car?"

Hou Zeqi gave a faint "um", his eyes sank for a brief moment, and soon he laughed again to tease him: "You are still snoring, talking in your sleep, grinding your teeth, dreaming..."

Sleepwalking is a bit outrageous.

"Master Meng," Yang Yue guessed that this person was talking nonsense again, yawned and said disdainfully, "I sleep very well, I never do such things."

"Pull it down," Hou Zeqi was amused by him, and scolded with a smile: "It's not you who punched, split and kicked on the bed? Are you safe? You're almost doing a set of Longyang Eighteen Styles on the bed, so sorry Say you're safe?"

"You're only doing the Eighteen Forms of Longyang." Yang Yue lifted the coat covering her body and covered his face, asking, "What time is it? How long have I been asleep?"

"It's already past midnight, and you can really sleep. Those who didn't know it thought you were pricked by a cursed spindle," Hou Zeqi caught the coat at the moment when it was about to fly on his face, Laughing and teasing him.

Yang Yue was stunned for a moment: "Is it that long? Then you...why don't you go up?"

"I'm not waiting for you to go home," Hou Zeqi said.

Some broken images from childhood rushed into my mind, the strange passenger terminal, the bearded driver who threw him out of the car, the cold and noisy waiting hall, the missing persons notice echoing over the hall over and over again...

Yang Yue's pupils flickered, and unexpectedly bumped into Hou Zeqi's gentle smiling eyes.

"I'm afraid you won't find a home when you wake up, so I stay here and wait for you."

The author says:

Quiet Mimi, for those of you who have read the Bamboo Horse chapter, there will be a familiar character appearing in the next chapter, guess who it will be?