Chapter 64
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When He Xiu came to He Mansion, He Chen was five years old. That day, it was as if something momentous had occurred. Aside from the vague memories of his mother’s shrieks and tantrums or his father’s icy facade, he could very clearly remember his father leading in that older brother.
He was very good-looking, more so than any child in their kindergarten. He stood to the side silently the whole time, as if what was happening in the room had nothing to do with him. He did, however, look coldly at their father.
He Chen curiously stepped closer to him and called out with a childish voice, “Gege?”1
His father had just introduced the boy and had said this was his older brother, He Xiu.
He Xiu glanced at him before looking away, his faintly knitted brows betraying his disgust.
At the time, He Chen did not understand though.
At his kindergarten, He Chen had a classmate called…well, he forgot his name a long time ago. For the time being, his name is Da Zhu, okay? Da Zhu had an older brother, but he was only older by a few minutes. The two of them were in the same class and even sat together. Every time Da Zhu charged into a disaster at the kindergarten, his older brother shouldered the burden on his behalf. If the teacher assigned homework that he had not finished, he would grab his older brother’s homework and put his name on it instead.
Da Zhu liked to eat small pastries at kindergarten, especially fruit cake, and only picked out the fruit to eat. If he had finished eating but wasn’t satisfied, he would steal from his older brother. Every time, his older brother was only able to eat the leftover dry, bland cake.
He Chen felt that Da Zhu was too much. If it was him, he would have already beaten up Da Zhu. Da Zhu’s older brother, however, never scolded him and was always good to him. Therefore, He Chen held hidden envy in his heart. Having an older brother was really good; he also wanted an older brother like this.
He didn’t expected the heavens to have truly heard his birthday wish and actually give him an older brother! Moreover, this older brother was better looking than Da Zhu’s older brother by tenfold! No, a hundredfold!
The day after He Xiu arrived, he resolved to bring He Xiu with him to kindergarten.
He Jing Long heard his thoughts and did not know whether to laugh or cry as he explained to him, “Silly Chen’er, gege is two years older than you. He cannot go to kindergarten. He’ll be going to primary school.”
Primary school, He Chen had heard these words from his kindergarten teacher, so he raised his hand and said, “Then I will go to primary school too.” Kindergarten or primary school, it did not matter; it was okay as long as he could go to school together with He Xiu.
He Jing Long overruled him again, “You still haven’t graduated from kindergarten. No primary school wants you.”
Hearing that no primary school wanted him, He Chen felt wronged quickly. “I don’t care. I will go to school with gege. Da Zhu goes to school with his gege.”
He Jing Long knew He Chen did not clearly understood this issue and could only promise him, “After Chen’er graduates kindergarten next year, father will send you to study at the same primary school as gege, okay?”
He Chen pondered for a moment before reluctantly agreeing, “That’s okay. Pinky swear.”
He Jing Long beamed and hooked his pinky finger.
He Xiu had only been with them for a couple days, yet He Jing Long and Zhao Ying Fang’s relationship had already become very strained. The two adults, however, did not reveal this in front of He Chen, and He Chen, who was obsessed with his gege, also did not know that his older brother had been sent to the hospital for a paternity test.
He Jing Long initially held different thoughts; he felt that doing something like this was an insult to He Xiu’s mother, but Zhao Ying Fang was not willing to concede even a bit. Therefore, she and He Jing Long discussed conditions. If the test results indicated that He Xiu was indeed his biological son, then she could not drive He Xiu out of He Mansion in the future.
The test results were self-evident, and Zhao Ying Fang did not say anything further. The looks she gave He Xiu, however, became increasingly hateful.
All of this remained unknown to He Chen back then. His greatest worry in his life at that moment was his older brother ignoring him.
“Ai.” He held his face in his hands as he sat down and sighed. He was so worried that he did not finish the small pastries the kindergarten gave out.
To his side, Xu Ying caught his sigh and asked of her own accord, “What’s up with you? Is the cake not yummy?”
He Chen replied, “My older brother ignores me. Look at how good Da Zhu has it with his older brother. Why does my older brother ignore me? I’m cuter than Da Zhu.”
Xu Ying asked him, confused, “When did you get an older brother?”
“Two days ago.”
Xu Ying thought for a moment before asking, “Was your older brother also picked up from the rubbish bin?” That was what her mother had told her.
He Chen angrily glared at her. “My older brother was not picked up from a rubbish bin. He’s very good-looking! He…fell from the heavens!”
“Wa——” Xu Ying sighed. “Is it fun up in heaven?”
“Don’t know, I haven’t been there. He might not think we have fun here, so he might be unhappy?”
“Maybe~”
This chat provided He Chen with new ideas. His parents had bought him a lot of toys, a whole roomful! Gege will definitely like it!
As a result, when the students were dismissed at the end of the day, he was itching to return home and grab a pile of toys to bring to He Xiu. Because he was transferring schools, He Xiu was currently unable to attend school, so He Chen knocked onto his door with all his might.
He knocked for a very long time. Possibly because He Xiu couldn’t bear the noise anymore, he finally opened the door. Seeing the same good-looking yet cold He Xiu, He Chen felt elated. “Gege, I brought a lot of toys. Do you want to play?”
He Xiu looked down at the toys He Chen hugged to his chest and emotionlessly said, “I don’t.”
Although He Chen hit a snag, he was not discouraged at all—because gege finally spoke to him! Furthermore, his voice was very pleasant to hear!
“You don’t like these toys? Then I’ll go get different ones. I still have a lot.”
“No need.” He Xiu called out to He Chen, who was preparing to run back to his room. Looking him in the eye, He Xiu stated, “I don’t like you.”
He Chen: “…”
From being pampered by others at birth to being the current young master of He Mansion, he had never heard the three words, ‘don’t like you’, from others.
He was very hurt.
If it were someone else, according to his young master temperament, they definitely would have gotten a face full of toys. But…He Xiu was so good-looking; he did not retaliate.
Pa—He Xiu closed the door, not in the least reluctant to do so. Yet he was faced with He Chen’s exceedingly high spirit and bravery, as He Chen brought different toys every day and knocked on his door. At last, He Xiu’s patience ran dry and he simply grabbed the Transformers toy and broke it into pieces.
“Wuwa——” He Chen stared at the broken toy pieces on the ground, sobbing as he stood there. This was his favorite toy. Normally, he hated others touching it, but now He Xiu had broken it completely.
He Xiu, like the first time, shut the door without even the slightest reluctance. While crying, He Chen gathered the broken Transformers pieces. He ran to his mother. “Ma, mama, I brought my, favorite toy to give to gege, b-but he still ignored me.”
He sought out Zhao Ying Fang for comfort, but he had not expected Zhao Ying Fang to be furious with him for the first time upon hearing his words. “He is not your older brother; you are not allowed to call him gege!”
He Chen was stunned by her bellow of rage and continued crying, snot and tears covering his face—extremely miserable.
After that day, he no longer followed He Xiu around and no longer brought his toys with him to knock on He Xiu’s door.
He finally understood clearly why Da Zhu’s older brother was so good to him and why his older brother was never like that to him.
It was simply because he was not his older brother.
Zhao Ying Fang did not like He Xiu. In addition, this dislike could hardly be concealed. Even if He Chen was very young, he also was aware of this. She called He Xiu a bastard and said that He Xiu’s mother was a mistress. These words, He Chen heard it all.
He began imitating his mother’s attitude toward He Xiu. Although He Xiu still completely ignored him, this type of feeling was more obvious than his previously good relations with him.
Once, he had called He Xiu’s mother a mistress. In all honesty, he didn’t actually know what a mistress was, but he heard his mother call her that. He had not expected in a thousand years for the stoic He Xiu to explode in a split second.
He had grabbed He Chen’s collar and coldly asked him, “I am older than you by two years. Whose mother is the mistress, can’t you see? Mn?”
That day, He Chen cried again. This time, he was crying because he was scared.
The next day when he went to kindergarten, he asked his teacher what a mistress was. The teacher, very flustered, looked at him. “Why are you asking this question?”
He Chen replied, “Why not.”
The teacher patted his head, smiled, and said, “A child shouldn’t ask such a question.”
He Chen’s kindergarten was an aristocratic kindergarten. The teachers were all selected very carefully and were the considerate little jackets of the family heads.2
Therefore, He Jing Long heard about the matter of He Chen asking the teacher what a mistress was before the students were dismissed for the day.
Where He Chen learned the word ‘mistress’ was not a mystery at all. The only one in the mansion who kept saying bastard and mistress all day long was Zhao Ying Fang.
He quarreled with Zhao Ying Fang massively because of this. This time, they did not avoid He Chen either. The two of them fought viciously, and it was ultimately He Chen’s weeping that ended the fight.
Very quickly, He Chen would be entering primary school. He Jing Long thought about registering him into He Xiu’s school, but Zhao Ying Fang said that He Chen didn’t want to go there.
He Jing Long was a bit surprised, so he went to ask He Chen, “Chen’er, you don’t want to go to primary school with gege?”
Zhao Ying Fang heard the two words, ‘gege,’ and exploded like a firecracker. “Chen’er does not have a gege! That bastard is suited to act as his older brother?”
He Jing Long wrinkled his brows and stood to look at her. “How many times have I told you, don’t speak like that in front of a child. You’re corrupting Chen’er!”
“Ah, I’m corrupting him? How come you aren’t saying this is a debt you owed from back then?!”
He Jing Long pursed his lips. He didn’t want to fight with her. He kneeled down and asked He Chen as gently as possible, “Chen’er, tell father. Do you want to study at the same primary school as gege?”
He Chen very slowly shook his head. “Don’t want.”
He Jing Long was shocked and asked him again, “Why don’t you want to? Before, didn’t Chen’er make a fuss about wanting to go to school with gege?”
He Chen dropped his head and did not reply. Before his eyes was a faint image of he and his father pinky swearing and agreeing that after he graduated kindergarten, he would definitely send him to the same primary school as gege.
Some wishes, however, can not be realized after all is said and done.
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Author’s Note:
Yi, how come it feels ineffably tyrannical?『smile-cry』
Tomorrow’s update: Lin Zhen and Tang Zheng’s side story
The side stories still aren’t finished. The success list has 20,000 plus characters. I only finished half.『smile-cry』
Expressing thanks to sponsors
Notes:
1. Gege = older brother ?
2. ‘Considerate little jacket’ is a figurative saying that normally exemplifies the close mother-daughter relationship often seen in Chinese culture because the daughter will grow up and become a mother herself, therefore learning through experience a mother’s frame of mind. In this case, Chestnut is implying that the teachers are close to the parents. ?
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