Chapter 17: Brother

Xia Wenhan walked out of the teaching building with big strides, his anger wrapped around him. Xia Zhinian looked at his brother's back and sighed softly, then quickly followed him.

At the Xia family, Jiang Yuan had been anxiously waiting downstairs for a long time. She almost wanted to go to the school herself, but finally heard someone coming back.

Xia Wenhan handed the car key to the butler and took his brother into the villa. Jiang Yuan greeted them, her delicate face full of worry.

"What happened? Is what the class teacher said true?"

Teacher Qin had called her first, but she was in the suburbs and couldn't leave right away. Xia's father was abroad, so she asked her eldest son to go to the school.

As a result, she had been back for half a day, and Xia Wenhan had just arrived home...and brought his younger brother back with him.

Xia Wenhan gave Xia Zhinian a cold look. "It's true. I knew about it a while ago. I thought he would change after I taught him a lesson, but he became more and more arrogant. Since that's the case, why bother staying in school and causing trouble for others?"

Jiang Yuan pursed her lips slightly. Xia Zhinian's clear apricot eyes, which were identical to hers, flashed with a hint of worry. She looked at her younger son, who was lowering his head and not speaking, and spoke softly.

"Nian Nian, never mind your grades for now. Tell mom, did you really use a toy snake to scare someone?"

Xia Zhinian's fingertips turned white. His chest felt like it was blocked for a moment, and he couldn't breathe.

Xia Wenhan scolded him and brought him home from school. That was all within his expectations and matched the original plot.

He could keep his head down and not say anything, acting sullen and gloomy. But his mother's sadness, her concern that she might have misunderstood him, and her gentle inquiry made him...a little at a loss.

He looked up at her, clenched his fingers, and whispered: "It's true."

Jiang Yuan's eyes reddened in an instant. "Nian Nian, how could you, how could you..."

She stopped, turned her head away, and tears fell down her cheeks without warning. She quickly wiped them away.

Xia Zhinian panicked for a moment. His eyes widened and he moved forward a little. He raised his hand hesitantly and opened his mouth to say something, but didn't know what to say.

Xia Wenhan handed Jiang Yuan two tissues and looked at his brother with icy eyes. "Xia Zhinian, we know you were kidnapped when you were young and suffered a lot outside. We have been trying our best to compensate you, but what about you?"

"You had been home for more than two months, but you still refuses to call them your parents."

Xia Zhinian understood what he meant. His fingertips turned white, his lips pressed tightly, and he lowered his head without answering.

...After all, he was not the original owner.

Jiang Yuan calmed her emotions and sighed softly. "Xiao Han, don't be angry. It's me and your dad who lost Nian Nian. It's our fault."

"Nian Nian, go back and rest first."

Xia Zhinian glanced at her with his apricot eyes, then lowered them again. He sighed in his heart and silently turned around and went upstairs.

In the original text, the Xia family found out about the original owner's deeds after the midterm exam. They tried to discipline him for a while, but failed.

The original owner claimed that he loved Chu Qingjian to the bone and couldn't live without him. He had been kidnapped for more than a decade, and the Xia family felt guilty and sympathetic to him. They could only beg the Chu family to take care of him a little.

But later, the original owner became more and more excessive, and finally died in a car accident. The Xia family gave half of their business resources to the Chu family as a thank you and an apology. Then they immigrated as a family.

The Xia family had good intentions in educating their children, but unfortunately the original owner was dead, and he had to return to his original world.

The "Xia Zhinian" in this world would die sooner or later.

At noon, it started raining heavily outside. The sky was dark as if night had fallen. The raindrops hit the glass with a crackling sound, splashing small droplets of water, then sliding down.

The dense and continuous sound of raindrops, which seemed impossible to isolate, did not make people feel annoyed, but rather more peaceful.

Xia Zhinian liked this kind of heavy rain. He pushed open the window, and the moist and cold air rushed towards him.

The plot followed the original text exactly. He knew he would be locked up at home for a week to reflect on himself. He had nothing to do, so he simply lay back on the bed and closed his eyes to sleep.

For several days, he stayed in his room except for eating, trying to avoid communicating with the Xia family.

The night was deep, and the raindrops outside kept hitting the ground. Jiang Yuan watched him go upstairs, his figure disappearing behind the door. Her worry became more obvious on her face.

"Xiao Han, is he resentful that we didn't let him go to school to see that Chu kid?"

Xia Wenhan had no expression on his face. He took Jiang Yuan back to the sofa and sat down. "He grew up in an orphanage and was surrounded and extorted by people. He was able to escape unscathed because of Chu Qingjian's appearance, so it's not strange that he thinks about Chu Qingjian."

"But thinking about him can't be an excuse for him to cause trouble for others."

Xia Wenhan paused and said, "We'll discipline him slowly in the future."

Jiang Yuan sighed and still looked in the direction of upstairs. "But we didn't stop him from going out. He stays in his room all day. I hope he doesn't get depressed."

Xia Wenhan snorted coldly. "He won't. He dares to use a fake snake to scare people. He won't hold back his anger and not vent it."

Jiang Yuan sighed softly.

But the next day, until noon, Xia Zhinian didn't come out of his room.

The boy lay on the bed, feeling dizzy and cold. He had no strength in his body. He curled up in the quilt, but felt hot. He stretched out his hands and legs.

"Knock knock."

The door was knocked lightly, and Jiang Yuan's voice sounded concerned. "Nian Nian, are you awake? It's noon. Get up and eat something before you sleep again."

Xia Zhinian had a ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes vaguely, looked at the door, but found no movement. He closed his eyes again.

Jiang Yuan was worried. Another polite and elegant boy at the door nodded and said gently, "Aunt Jiang, let me go in and see him. Classmate Xia is weak and has been sick several times lately. It rained yesterday. I hope he didn't catch a cold."

Jiang Yuan hesitated and looked at the boy. "Xiao Ci, I know you are the class leader, but Nian Nian always makes trouble for you at school. You still..."

The boy had a clear and handsome face, a slender figure, a shirt buttoned up to the top, a deep scar on his right eye that extended out like an eyeliner, making his smile more calm and gentle.

--It was the protagonist shou Yan Ci.

Yan Ci smiled. "Classmate Xia used to have a bad temper, but he has improved a lot lately. The toy snake was just a joke and didn't cause any trouble."

"He is the student that the class teacher assigned me to help. He hasn't come for a while, and I guess he has missed a lot of lessons, so I came to see him."

He went out to look for him as soon as the Chinese class was over, but he didn't see the rice cake dumpling who was supposed to be standing at the door as a punishment. He asked the class teacher, who said that he felt unwell when he was standing there and asked for leave to go home.

He guessed then that he was taken home by his parents.

He thought he would be scolded for a day and come back to school on Tuesday, but he didn't show up for a week. He regretted it a bit.

He should have been less harsh.

He almost lost the special medicine.

Jiang Yuan sighed softly, knocked on the door, but there was no response. She said something to the door and opened it.

Yan Ci entered the room.

The light inside was dim. The boy curled up on the bed, his fair and slender hands and feet exposed outside. The quilt covered half of his face.

His eyes were closed, his ears were red, and his breathing was heavy.

He glanced at the window that was wide open, went to close it first, then turned his gaze back to the boy and walked closer.

"Classmate Xia."

Xia Zhinian vaguely sensed the sound of opening and closing the door. He tried to open his eyes and saw a tall boy. His head was fuzzy, he opened his mouth, and his voice was soft.

"Brother? Is that you?"