Chapter 18

"I came here on a school trip with my brother when I was a child."

"Oh, I see. You must be following your brother around like a tail, right?"

"Hmm... Haha."

The familiar scene reappeared before my eyes, and I thought that a different emotion would rise in my heart, or at least a slight ripple.

Because my relationship with my brother is no longer as simple as it was in elementary school, and the people who accompany me on trips are different now.

Xiao Xing continued to take pictures wherever he went, while the guy in black and I were busy lighting him and choosing locations. Before we knew it, we had already walked halfway.

The jellyfish inside the tank were so delicate they seemed almost crushable; their transparent tentacles drooped like silk, then dissolved into the water. Drifting aimlessly with the current, I could see the person standing opposite me through the glass through their nearly transparent bodies.

Or it could be two people.

Su Yu stared intently at the round little creature in front of him, holding his phone, his joy almost identical to that of his childhood. However, the person standing next to him was not someone who couldn't even reach his shoulder, but Chen Tianmo, who was half a head taller than him.

...

So it seems he's not even as tall as me, I win.

There must have been a message pop-up. I saw Su Yu's eyes flicker for a moment, then she looked up and saw me across from her.

He opened his mouth and silently greeted me, then tugged at Chen Tianmo.

After a quick dinner, we went to see the dolphin show. I was surprised that this show was still running after all this time.

"Which child or adult would like to interact with our dolphin Lele!"

The host enthusiastically encouraged everyone to come up on stage. Before the other children could even move, an adult stood up and raised his hand high above his head.

"Holy crap..."

Xiao Xing sat behind me and kicked my back, lifting me up.

"Alright! Let our two handsome guys say hello to Lele first!"

Me and Su Yu.

There was a strange, unfamiliar feeling about him.

Su Yu stood by the pool, palms facing the dolphins. I did the same. Lele swam over and placed a kiss on both our palms.

The moment the wetness touched my skin, the image that flashed through my mind was of my brother kissing my palm that night.

From a third-person perspective, the sleeping person on the bed had a face that was already red to the roots of their ears, while the awake person had what looked like a thin layer of tears in their eyes.

"elder brother……"

I made a sound out of nowhere, a slightly hoarse and low murmur that I didn't even realize I had uttered.

"What's wrong?" Su Yu didn't turn around, but touched Lele, who was rubbing against his palm, but she was clearly responding to me.

Later, the host taught us how to feed Lele and follow the instructions. I was clearly no longer interested in this marine creature, but I still completed the task well.

Even if a handsome man is fickle, he won't make a mistake.

"Finally, let's have our Lele present the two handsome gentlemen with exclusive souvenirs from our aquarium!"

Lele was carrying a small bucket with two resealable plastic bags inside.

Su Yu picked it up, looked at it without looking at it, stuffed it into her pocket, patted Lele's head, and went back.

I opened the bag, and inside were two badges of the opposite sex and a pack of postcards.

As the crowd in the audience gradually dispersed, Xiao Xing and the man in black buried their heads in their phones, while Su Yu and Chen Tianmo, who were diagonally opposite each other, remained, examining the small gift.

"Why are you acting like you don't know your brother?"

Xiao Xing saw me and teased me.

"No, he responded when I called him."

"Want to play with your brother next?" Xiaoxing bent down and leaned closer to me, a hint of slyness in her colored contact lenses.

"He's out having fun with his friends, how could I possibly bother him?"

"Tsk, who told you to bother him?"

Next, we followed their movements throughout the aquarium. Apart from knowing that Xiaoxing was up to something, I had absolutely no idea what he was going to do.

The only unusual thing was that he was looking down at his phone and typing on the keyboard more frequently.

"Hello, Mom, what's wrong?"

“You and your brother are both out, right? That’s perfect. Don’t go home yet. Our neighborhood is out of power and it probably won’t be fixed until tomorrow morning. Your dad and I have booked a hotel. You and your brother can come over later.”

Xiao Xing stopped looking down at her phone and started seriously imitating a penguin's walk.

Su Yu answered the phone on the other end, and it was almost certainly my mother calling.

Then he walked over to me.

Then Xiaoxing tugged at the guy in black and touched my shoulder, telling me they had left.

"Let's go, I'll take you to a hotel."

That sounds a bit...well, you know.

After leaving the aquarium, we took Chen Tianmo to the subway entrance. As the escalator swallowed up the last bit of his hair, my brother pulled me to another subway entrance.

"Aren't you going to take a taxi? It's a bit far."

"I want to take the subway."

"OK."

Sure, the station is packed with people, at this rate we'll be standing all the way home.

The "let people off first, then get on" rule obviously didn't work very well. As soon as the door opened, before everyone inside had even finished getting off, people outside rushed in, leaving no room for people like my brother and me, who are generally well-mannered.

Even if it's not crowded, there's nowhere to sit.

I was holding onto the railing, while Su Yu was holding onto something shorter than me.

"You can pull the handle above," Su Yu pointed upwards.

So I changed it to holding the handle.

As soon as I regained my balance, Su Yu leaned against me, putting almost all his weight on me. He wasn't heavy, but it still made me tremble.

There were fewer people in the back, but there were still no two seats next to each other.

Su Yu felt sorry for me and walked to the other side of the car door to lean against it. I followed her and we ended up in a position that surrounded her.

This pose is a bit like... like the way the male protagonist in an anime protects the female protagonist on a train.

Su Yu and I both realized it.

I saw him silently lower his head, while one of his eyes looked up at me, like a kitten or a puppy.

"You smell so good."

"Yeah?"

I sniffed myself, but I couldn't smell anything.

"It's from your friend, isn't it?"

That is indeed a possibility.

Later, when we saw the empty seats, we didn't care whether the food was good or not. We sat down and breathed a sigh of relief.

Five stops away from our destination, Su Yu and I started talking about school from some point onwards, and we got more and more excited as we talked. I learned a lot of gossip from him.

For a moment before I was even aware of it, I felt a weight on my legs. When did they put their legs on my legs?

I massaged her thighs and tapped her calves, while he continued to talk incessantly.

We've finally arrived at our destination, though I wish this train would never stop.

When we got off the train, my brother was still clinging to me, chattering away like he'd been injected with adrenaline.

We stopped at a convenience store and bought some food. The chicken skewers, fresh from the microwave, were piping hot and sticky. Su Yu pinched a corner of the bag with a hint of disgust, then looked at me.

How could a servant born into the household not understand? I took a tissue from his pocket and wrapped it tightly around the part of the bamboo skewer he was holding. I blew on it a few times to cool it down, then scraped off the excess sauce with a bag and handed it to my brother.

"Good boy."

His approving look was a confirmation of my abilities.

Once we exited the station, we could either take a taxi or walk. The fare shown on the navigation was enough for us to take the subway several times over, so we chose to walk.

It wasn't far, but I was exhausted by the time I got there.

Following the room number my mom sent, I went to find their room key. She had brought a lot of things, including a change of clothes.

"Now that you're here, it's perfect for a good shower. You can scrub your backs yourselves or have your dads do it. We're right next door."

The colorful bag contained our two brothers' thermal underwear and long johns.

Su Yu was exhausted from taking a shower, so he told me to go first.

Taking a shower at a hotel is really comfortable. It reminds me of when I was a child, my parents would often bring us to a hotel to take a shower every winter.

It's just that we used to bathe together, but now that we're older, we have to separate.

"Yu Yu~"

I think I heard someone calling me.

"Want me to give you a back rub?"

"Aaaaaah!!"

It sounded like a question, but the bathroom door had already been pushed open. I stood inside and saw through the steam that my brother was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a bath towel, and he was about to come in. I felt a little shy and covered myself up, but not down or back.

"What are you doing? It's not like I haven't seen this before."

He's shameless.

"Mom told you to rinse it a little longer, don't rush to just smear it a couple of times and leave."

"Turn around, let me rub it for you."

...

It's hard to recall what I felt as my brother stroked my back inch by inch. Luckily, I can explain my flushed face and neck by saying it was too hot.

"Oh, you're awake."

"Hey bro!"

He flicked my Su Xiao Er.

This is simply a humiliating test for me.

Is there really no such saying as "the younger brother should avoid the older brother"?

Su Yu rinsed me clean one last time before leaving, satisfied. I wrapped myself in my bathrobe, looked at the small tent that had been bulged out of my lower body, and sighed helplessly.

...

When I went out again, Su Yu was almost asleep, but she forced herself to stay awake and wait for me.

He staggered into the bathroom like he was drunk, and to be honest, I was a little afraid he might faint.

But he washed very quickly. I thought I could take the opportunity to give him a humiliating test as well, but he came out instead.

"How come you washed so quickly?"

"Mind your own business."

Then we changed into our pajamas and lay down on the bed as if we had taken off all our armor.

"So...tired..."

He buried his head in the pillow and groaned.

So I sat down and gave him a set of traditional massage techniques to relax his muscles and bones.

Hearing him comfortably moan "Ouch, ouch," I knew I had succeeded.

In return, he would give me a good pat and spank. How could I dampen the child's enthusiasm? I sat down and waited for him to come.

It was better than I expected, although I don't know if he saw me as a beef ball or dough.

"Alright, I'm tired, let's go to sleep."

"Yeah, I'm tired too."

I was more tired than him after going through this whole process.

With the main lights off, we left a nightlight running around the ceiling, its orange strip shimmering with a faint, ethereal glow, rippling outwards like waves on water.

Neither of us slept. When he finished pinching me, he simply pulled me down onto his bed by the waist, so we still share a bed.

From the moment I was certain we were both staring blankly into space until Su Yu's breathing gradually became even, I heard his phone beep, which was under his pillow.

Honestly, doesn't he know there's radiation from placing it so close?

I tried his birthday as the lock screen password, but it wasn't right. His mom's and dad's? Those were wrong too.

That can only mean...

That's not right either.

I tried hard to recall the major events in his life, and finally managed to lock his phone for thirty seconds...

While I was still racking my brains, a hand took his phone and then entered the password and unlocked it in front of me.

Su deliberately slowed down so I could see clearly what was special about that date. I didn't recall it.

He turned on the bedside lamp to check the messages, then suddenly laughed. I was confused. Su Yu turned around and saw my curious face, then covered my eyes with her hands and forced me to shut down the phone.

Because this story unfolds from my perspective, I didn't know what was on the phone at the time, but judging from my brother's attitude towards me later, this message was a crucial turning point that could change the course of our lives.