☆、Twenty-two、Feng Zihao's Birthday Banquet (2109 words)

Li Yaxi went back to her space and took a bath, which felt great. That night, she was lying in bed, half asleep, when she thought she heard the door open. She didn't pay much attention and continued to sleep. When she finally fell asleep, she opened her eyes and saw Feng Zihao's enlarged face.

Li Yaxi was only startled for a moment. She lay on the bed without moving, reached out and smoothed Feng Zihao's furrowed brows. Her voice was soft and languid, and exceptionally pleasant to hear, "Why are you frowning? You don't want me to see you frowning after a month of not seeing you."

Feng Zihao sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Li Yaxi in silence for a long time. "...And what about you? You've gotten so thin after just one month?" How did he manage to get this thin? He told me to take good care of myself, but what about him? Why didn't he take good care of himself?

Li Yaxi smiled silently, appearing exceptionally serene and ethereal, which made Feng Zihao inexplicably uneasy. "Zihao, I miss you."

Feng Zihao pinched Li Yaxi's slender cheek. "Yaxi, tell me what happened. I'm here."

Li Yaxi's eyes darkened. "But... there are times when you're not around."

"No more... From now on... I will always be here." Feng Zihao's voice was soft, but it conveyed an undeniable firmness.

Li Yaxi sat up, hugged Feng Zihao's waist, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I went back, and I met them."

Feng Zihao had a premonition that this was definitely not a good thing. "Who are they?"

Feng Zihao felt the hand around his waist tighten.

"It was...a nightmare. My mother passed away when I was three years old. Later, that man married another woman. That woman treated me badly, very badly. That man also didn't care about me. I always thought that man was my biological father, so I endured the pain and suffering...later I found out that he was just my stepfather."

Li Yaxi nuzzled her head against Feng Zihao's shoulder and continued, "That woman's temper got even worse after she had the child. I was terrified of her beatings, so I ran away... I never expected to run into them again. I have nightmares every night, I can't sleep, Zihao... I'm scared, scared they'll beat me again."

Feng Zihao held Li Yaxi tightly, his bloodshot eyes betraying his calm expression. After a long while, his hoarse, low voice finally rang out, "Yaxi, don't be afraid. I'm here. No one will dare to bully you again. Don't be afraid."

Li Yaxi fell asleep in Feng Zihao's arms, her hand still unconsciously clutching his clothes, as if afraid he would leave. This insecure Li Yaxi was a stark contrast to the argumentative, confident, and proud Li Yaxi he usually knew, a contrast that suffocated him with pain. He pulled Li Yaxi closer to him, closed his eyes, and his heart, which had been restless for a month, finally calmed down.

When Zhan Xiaoyu saw Li Yaxi, he was shocked. "Yaxi, did you go to Africa? You're so small, you look like an African refugee!"

Li Yaxi ignored him, returned to her seat, handed in her summer homework, and then lay down on her desk to sleep. Zhan Xiaoyu looked at Feng Zihao with some concern, and Zhao Yi was also clearly worried about his unusual behavior.

Feng Zihao simply said, "He didn't sleep well," but everyone could hear the coldness in his voice.

The eldest son of the Feng family celebrated his seventeenth birthday in a grand manner. Zhou Yang, who was also his childhood friend, helped with the decorations and the reception of guests. Feng Zihao's sixteenth birthday fell during his military training period, so it wasn't celebrated in a big way. This celebration was a way of making up for the previous one.

In her past life, Li Yaxi always accompanied Han Weiming to various banquets. Although he disliked them, he handled them with ease. Feng Zihao was afraid that Li Yaxi didn't like these kinds of occasions, so as soon as Li Yaxi arrived, Feng Zihao took Yaxi to his room and let him play on the computer, so he didn't have to pretend to be friendly with the people downstairs.

The person most unhappy with this arrangement was naturally Zhou Yang. Feng Zihao was extremely conscious of his territory, and his room was considered very private; even Zhan Xiaoyu and the others hadn't been there many times. Zhou Yang was even less likely to have been there; he hadn't even stepped inside the door.

Just because he can't go in doesn't mean others can't. Zhou Yang subtly instigated Feng Zihan, and although it wasn't obvious, it made Feng Zihan realize that someone was in his brother's room, someone who would take his brother away. Feng Zihan was five years younger than his brother, and the twelve-year-old boy, once provoked, immediately ran upstairs, pushed open the door, and prepared to tell that person to get out.

But who knew he would see an angel (the Brotherhood of Brothers has the same taste). Golden sunlight shone on the person lazily lying on the bed, with a fair face, a small nose, and a bright red mouth, more beautiful than an oil painting. Feng Zihan stood by the bed, dumbfounded.

Li Yaxi sensed someone beside her and opened her eyes to see Feng Zihan. She regretted not seeing him last time she came. The grown-up Feng Zihan was awkward and not cute at all. She had heard that the young Feng Zihan was particularly well-behaved and cute, and she had always wanted to meet him.

When Feng Zihan saw the angel open her eyes, those eyes, as thick and dark as ink from his grandfather's inkstone, were so beautiful that he almost forgot to breathe. Li Yaxi beckoned, and the person who had been standing by the bed suddenly sat in his lap.

"Little one, tell your brother your name."

His voice is beautiful, like heavenly music: "Feng Zihan, the 'Han' in 'vastness'."

"Oh, it's Zihan. Zihan, tell your brother why you came in?"

I wanted to drive away the person who stole my brother, but now I don't want to anymore. So Feng Zihan looked at Li Yaxi without saying a word. This person is really beautiful, even more beautiful than those people downstairs wearing floral dresses and spraying awful perfume.

Seeing that Feng Zihan remained silent and had just stormed in angrily, Li Yaxi guessed the reason.

"Oh~~ Brother knows, Zihan, is it because you think it's not fun down there and want to come up and sleep like brother?"

Feng Zihan nodded blankly, as if possessed. Heaven knows how energetic he was; who would want to sleep? Li Yaxi chuckled and ruffled Feng Zihan's hair, pulling him to lie down beside her. She snuggled comfortably against him, thinking, "Mmm, it's so comfortable holding a little kid. His brother is too hard." The two of them fell asleep in that embrace.

Feng Zihao was worried that Li Yaxi was hungry, knowing he had a sensitive stomach, so he specially asked the kitchen to cook porridge for him and bring it up. But as soon as he entered the room, he saw a scene that made his blood vessels burst. He couldn't stand the sight of that little brat clinging to Li Yaxi! He didn't even dare to hug Li Yaxi with both arms and legs when they slept together, but his younger brother got there first.