salt by salt

July.

An island in the Mediterranean.

"Brother, I'm going swimming."

"Okay." I was busy looking at the documents sent back by Wu, and I only nodded when I heard Andre's words, "Don't play for too long, you have a meeting tonight, and the work on the gallery is not finished yet."

He hummed twice, leaned over and kissed my lips: "Got it."

After reading nearly a hundred pages of information and rubbing my temples, which were sore and swollen, I realized that it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.Standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows and stretching, the sunset is close to the sea, and the sky is filled with magnificent clouds, which is pleasing to the eye.

The mobile phone on the table vibrated, and it was a call from Andre: "Come down for barbecue! Brother, I baked a lot of things for you!"

I wondered: "Yesterday you thought it was troublesome to prepare the barbecue, but today you are so diligent?"

"I didn't—hello!"

The other end of the call was replaced by a little girl's voice, and Wu Yanrui said with a smile: "Brother Junyan, Auntie Sun made the seasoning, Dad was grilling meat, and Andre just moved a shelf, saying that he was exhausted. "

"Why are you still complaining?"

"You are only allowed to do it, and I am not allowed to say it?"

"It's useless if you say it. Of course my brother is facing me."

"Slightly slightly slightly, brother Junyan is the most fair, and it's not sure who he is towards..."

There were a few words of bickering faintly over there, and I just found it funny: "You two stop arguing, I'll go downstairs right away."

With a gust of sea breeze, I walked along the beach to the rest area, occasionally stopping to enjoy the slowly sinking sunset.

I, specifically, "Igor", invested in a resort hotel on this island, so I spent most of my time here when I left the capital.

One is to cultivate the body, and the other is to facilitate business trips to Europe.

Art auction is a lucrative industry. At the beginning of last year, Andre took over the management from his father and immediately set up a bridge for me to invest with his family.

As for the investment money, of course it came from Lu Changbai - I took away all his belongings and ran away.

It's just a joke, running away with money is just a metaphor.To be precise, I spent a lot of energy and effort, and with the help of Xu Yucheng and Andre, I finally made the identity of "Igor" completely legal, and I possessed all the wealth justifiably.

In order to show my loyalty, I still visit Lu Changbai on a regular basis and try my best to play the role of a loving father and filial son, so that he will think that I am conscientiously working as a watchdog outside; for example, there are many problems in the process of legalizing my identity, and I have to pay a high price to bribe him. Relationship, fill in these gaps.

But because the rewards are so substantial, any effort seems worthwhile.

Thanks to my father.Now I can say affectionately: thank him for everything he has paved the way for me, thank him for thinking that I am cowardly and kind, and an obedient child who is easy to control.

Before deciding to leave, I dealt with the last two things on my mind: Sun Ning and Yang Chen.

How should I take care of Sun Ning's mother and son, I had a difficult time: I will not be in China in the future, if they stay in the capital, what if Lu Changbai makes trouble?

How can I rest assured unless they stay with me...

A flash of light came to my mind, I slapped my head, and hired Sun Ning as my special assistant—even though there was no business that needed the help of an assistant at that time.

So Sun Ning took the children, packed his luggage and came with me for a long-term vacation.Half a year later, more and more things happened, but she was too busy to touch the ground, scolding me as an unscrupulous capitalist for cheating Bao Ma into a pirate ship.

As for Yang Chen, what was left for him was another letter - saying goodbye in person would definitely be a full-fledged act of martial arts, life-saving is the most important thing.

I was not sentimental when I wrote the pen, and I even stated my bottom line in a flat tone and explained the reasons for the breakup.Facing a small crack, there may be a possibility to repair it; but Yang Chen and I are already standing in front of the cliff, the only thing we can do is turn around.

I wish him the best of luck in finding a lover who is willing to form a happy family.

This person can't be me, and it can't be me. After all, this time, "Xu Junyan" really doesn't exist anymore.

Having said that, holding Lu Changbai's property in his hand, and relying on Andre's family as his back, it is really cool to be rich and powerful-although there have been busy times in the past two years, I have witnessed my career gradually getting on the right track, and I am living a very happy life overall. Cozy.

This year, Wu Yanrui was promoted to junior high school, and she clamored to play with me during the summer vacation.It happened that Wu Mian was on vacation, so he simply brought her here and let her have fun for a while.

"Brother Junyan!"

Wu Yanrui has good eyesight, saw my figure from a distance, and ran over to offer a treasure: "Here, I baked the squid myself!"

I chuckled: "Thank you, Rui Rui."

"Brother Junyan, Andre always stuffs me with onions that he doesn't eat, it's disgusting! You hurry up and deal with him!"

"Okay, okay, let's see how I train him later."

The sun had completely sunk below the sea surface, and the sky was dark. Wu Yanrui took my hand and walked towards the brightly lit front step by step.

After eating and drinking enough, Andre was urged by me to go back to host the video conference. As an assistant, Sun Ning naturally had to work with him.

Wu Mian and I became two idlers, so we simply took the children to play in the outdoor children's playground.Sun Zhengyi's child is two years old, and it's time for him to babble and learn to speak, and his curiosity is overflowing.

Wu Yanrui couldn't put it down for this big fat boy, and suddenly wanted to let him ride a trolley.

The siblings circled the field, and their laughter attracted several foreign children.Wu Yanrui is fluent in English and has a cheerful and lively personality, so she quickly got along with them.

The hotel has someone to take care of the children, and Wu Mian and I sat in the lounge and chatted.Seeing Wu Yanrui's generous handling of things, I said with emotion: "Rui Rui will definitely achieve something in the future."

He smiled and said, "She is not sure. The day before yesterday she caught crabs and said she wanted to be a biologist. Yesterday she went surfing and said she wanted to be an athlete. I don't know what new ideas she has tomorrow."

"It shows that the little girl has a flexible mind and a lot of ideas."

Wu Mian looked at me with a sincere tone: "This time with you, she had a good time, Jun Yan, thank you for being so tolerant of Rui Rui."

I was quite embarrassed to say this, because I was busy with work a few days ago, so I didn't spend much time with Wu Yanrui: "My friend for so many years, you're welcome. Besides, I didn't contribute much, and it was Andre who took her to play. "

Wu Mian smiled slightly: "Andre seems to like children very much."

I remembered that Andre told me before that he was going to have many babies, and I couldn't help but smile: "He has trouble with Rui Rui all the time, and it's lucky that Rui Rui doesn't bother him."

Wu Mian nodded and asked gently: "Then do you plan to adopt one in the future?"

"I don't know." I sighed, "Andre's spirit... is fine now, but I'm afraid that something will happen in the future."

Seeing that I didn't want to talk more, he changed the subject thoughtfully.The two of us chatted for a long time, until Wu Yanrui pushed the kid Sun Zhengyi over: "Father, Brother Baozi fell asleep."

I looked at the time, it was almost 09:30, no wonder she was yawning too sleepy.

"It's time to go back to the room and rest. Will I take you to dive tomorrow?"

I patted her head and got a delighted smile.Wu Mian nodded to me and led Wu Yanrui upstairs.

Sun Ning and Andre were still in the meeting, and my thoughts drifted to the matter Wu Mian mentioned earlier, so I was too lazy to move for a while.He stretched out his hand to hold Sun Zhengyi in his arms and shook him. He remembered my breath, moved around a few times, found a comfortable position and continued to sleep.

In the past two years, Andre and my relationship have grown almost by leaps and bounds.

On the one hand, because he is a half patient, I need to take more care of him: Although his condition is still stable, the doctor also said that if he continues to maintain such a peaceful life, the risk of recurrence will be minimized.

Repercussions - there are still.Andre is prone to low pressure, and he will worry about gains and losses even if he leaves me for a moment, and even lose control of his emotions, so we stay together almost all day.

Fortunately, we are both brothers and partners, and we will not be too conspicuous if we appear on various occasions at the same time.

But this situation has improved a lot, at least for now he can accept not seeing me for a day or two, and can only contact me by video call.Occasionally, I will be separated from me for a short time to develop some hobbies of my own, and my behavior will gradually approach normal people.

Looking at him now, I can't tell the slightest trace of being crazy.

On the other hand, it is also because Andre's behavior is indeed remarkable.

For the sake of my career, he did not hesitate to confront his father and forcibly opened up a path of cooperation.Many of my ideas, without his full support behind, might not even have the chance to appear.

It is only when you are alone that you realize how important it is to have someone who helps you unconditionally.Being loved so passionately and with all his heart, how can he not be moved?

I looked down at Sun Zhengyi, who was soundly asleep.

In fact, I don't hate children, it's just that my actions were controlled by others in the past, and I couldn't be free, so why drag the next generation down.

Today is different from the past. I have the ability and confidence to take on the responsibility of raising a new life, and Andre really likes it.When playing with children, his expression is always particularly relaxed, and he usually pays special attention to Wu Yanrui and Sun Zhengyi.

Maybe... it's time to put adoption on the agenda.

The phone vibrated, and Andre sent a message saying that the meeting was over and asked me where I was.I coaxed Sun Zhengyi with one hand, and replied with the other: I will be right back.

Andre held a meeting for two hours, fell on the bed after taking a shower and yelled, his neck hurt for a while, and he was dizzy for a while.

I knew he was pretending to be sick, but I couldn't help thinking of his crazy and stupid appearance in the past, and my heart softened: "Does it really hurt? Then lie down and I will rub it for you."

Andre immediately lay flat, the muscles on his back were smooth, but the scars after tattoo removal were densely covered on his fair skin. No matter how many times I saw it, it was still shocking to me.

I massaged him for a long time, and he groaned and groaned in comfort like a puppy, still picking at his mouth: "Brother's hands are too weak, please use more strength."

I was so angry that I pinched his face: "Little brat, I want to enjoy myself, why didn't I see you give me a massage someday?"

"Then I'll—"

"Don't, just lie down." I said angrily, "It's not a good thing to put your body in your hands, I don't know you yet?"

Once there is an idea in the mind, the thinking will unconsciously revolve around it.Andre and I casually discussed the next auction, and while we were talking, adoption came up somehow.

His eyes lit up: "Brother is willing to raise a child?"

I hesitated for a few seconds: "Whether you want it or not, if you want such a big event, you have to make preparations early."

Andre lay back on the pillow, seemingly thinking about something.After a while, he turned over and sat up, and said to me, "Forget it, brother, children are very troublesome, and taking care of them is also hard."

Now it's my turn to be surprised: "Didn't you always like children? You've been coveting other people's homes all day long, and you have so much fun with Rui Rui."

But he shook his head and said seriously: "But you don't want to. And I like my brother more than children."

My eyes were sore, and I couldn't help but sigh.Andre hugged me, rubbed my cheek, and said softly: "Brother, you are enough for me."