Chapter 40 Adopted Brother [VIP]

...

We moved all the paper, pens, and test papers to the living room table, where the light is bright and it won't hurt our eyes when doing the problems.

Someone went into the kitchen and didn't come out; you could faintly hear them wandering around inside.

Pei Xuhui smiled slightly.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the adorable ostrich's behavior, but I also breathed a brief sigh of relief.

He lowered his gaze and sat down at the table, with a stack of math papers on top of him.

Mathematics... The boy's thoughts drifted away.

Qingran's humanities scores were much better than her science scores.

However, in terms of interests, he is far more interested in the latter than the former.

In his words, humanities questions require too many words to write, unlike science questions where you only need to write a few lines of formulas.

Qingran has an exceptional talent for memory; she can remember any formula she has ever seen, truly living up to her reputation of being able to recall anything she has seen.

However, when it comes to practical application...

Anyway, when Pei Xu explained the problem to him, the most common reaction he saw was Qing Ran asking him in confusion, "Why use this formula?"

There's no why; the correct answer is simply to use this formula.

You can't say this directly, otherwise someone will get upset and say you're being perfunctory, then they'll twist around and rub against you.

Therefore, the most difficult part of explaining problems to Qingran is never the problem itself, but the process of "explaining" it.

It's a little trouble in Pei Xu's happy life, a sweet trouble.

Qingran excels in humanities subjects and has strong comprehension skills, so it's definitely not his problem if he doesn't understand.

His communication skills are a bit weak.

A slight, unconscious smile played on the boy's lips; his smile was refreshing and exuded youthful energy.

Suddenly remembering something, the fleeting smile slowly faded away.

"Are you thinking about something inappropriate for children? Your expression keeps changing."

Qingran leaned lazily against the kitchen doorway and asked him.

Pei Xu raised his eyes indifferently: "Thinking about how to deal with you."

Is Qingran afraid?

"Oh~" She casually lifted the flower garland by her collar and smelled it. The charm in that lowered gaze was like a delicate flower reflected in water, flowing wind, and swirling snow.

"Is it the kind of tidying up that's unsuitable for children?"

After speaking, she looked up and met the boy's gaze. Her eyes were brimming with dew, a half-smile playing on her lips, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.

"..."

Qingran has always been bold in his speech. He may be tactless, but that's because he's young and doesn't know any better.

But you can't take it seriously, Pei Xuhui.

That's disgusting.

The boy casually picked up a pen from the table and twirled it around. His relaxed and lazy posture, propping his head up with his hand, was as he said, "If you have a lot of energy and nowhere to vent it, why don't you come out for a run with me for a couple of laps?"

Qing Ran gave him a cold look.

She was furious and went to the table, kicked off her slippers, and kicked him hard.

Pei Xuhui hugged his leg and shouted exaggeratedly, "Yu Qingran, you're trying to murder your own brother!"

Yes, my older brother.

He would rather his relationship with Qingran remain like this forever than be looked at with disgust by her, or one day become like strangers.

He won't be able to stand it.

After some playful bickering, the two finally started doing their homework.

To be precise, Qingran was doing her homework while Pei Xuhui was playing on his phone.

At the small round table directly opposite the living room door, a boy was typing with his right hand while his left hand was being played with in front of him by someone doing homework.

After typing and sending the message, I looked away from the screen and glanced down my left arm at the person next to me who was deep in thought.

When others are thinking, they might twirl a pen, tug at their hair, or touch their chin, but Qingran prefers to play with his hands.

I don't know how I developed this habit.

No one spoke in the room, except for the occasional scratching sound of a pen nib on paper.

The atmosphere inside was peaceful, the air outside was filled with the fragrance of flowers, and even the annoying chirping of cicadas in the trees gave people a sense of vitality.

The silence was shattered by a sudden, sharp knocking sound.

"Bang!"

"Bang! Bang!"

Pei Xu withdrew his hand and stood up, saying to Qing Ran, who was clearly disturbed, "Write yours, I'm going out to take a look."

He turned and walked out, but the closer he got to the gate, the more uneasy he felt.

A middle-aged man was banging on their iron gate outside the courtyard; the sound they heard was coming from the banging.

Moreover, the man was dressed sloppily, had a blank look in his eyes, and seemed rather abnormal.

Pei Xu asked the other person through the door what they were doing.

The other person ignored him as if they hadn't heard him, muttering incomprehensible words to themselves, and just kept banging on the door.

An elderly neighbor who came out to observe couldn't stand it any longer and whispered a warning: "This person is mentally unstable and can't understand human speech."

Pei Xu replied, "You know him? Where does he live?"

The old neighbor knew about the two grandsons of the Yu family and patiently explained, "There are only two or three households next door. His family usually doesn't care. They leave when he gets tired of knocking."

If we wait for the other person to get tired of banging on the phone, how long will the argument go on?

Qingran, who had overheard the conversation, came out and asked, "What's going on?"

Pei Xuhui stopped him from approaching the gate and continued to ask the neighbor across the street, "Have you called the police?"

An old neighbor sighed, "How could we not have reported it? But the other party has mental problems, and we can't reason with them. Every time the guardian is in front of the police, they complain about how hard life is. After a while, the police stopped coming even after receiving the report."

Qingran and Pei Xuhui frowned upon hearing this.

Qingran asked, "I don't think I've seen this person around here before?"

The old neighbor nodded: "They just moved here after the New Year. I heard they're from out of town."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man suddenly stopped tapping and slowly turned around.

The neighbor across the street was so startled that he quickly shrank back, afraid of being noticed.

Without any other attraction, the man stood there blankly for a while, then turned back to continue making noise.

Pei Xuhui frowned as he stared at the scene, and said to Qingran, "I'll go see if anyone's home."

Some people are even discussing whether or not to take the person back.

Then a male voice said he wouldn't answer, and even seemed impatient, asking why he didn't go further away, and that he was just making a fuss around and was about to offend all the neighbors.

“I’ll go with you,” Qingran said.

The two carefully went out, avoiding the middle-aged man, and ran to the next room.

As a result, the courtyard, which had been filled with discussion just moments before, became eerily quiet. No matter how much they knocked on the door, there was no response; they were playing dead.

Qingran laughed. Very good, it's been a long time since I've seen someone so clueless.

"Look at your expression, is the little snake about to bare its fangs?" Pei Xu pinched his nose affectionately.

He frowned, looking like a little old man.

He originally wanted to say kitten, but then he remembered that Qingran seemed to prefer snakes, so he changed his mind.

"Aren't you annoyed?" Qingran asked him, pursing her lips.

Pei Xu replied, "It's annoying, but this matter is easy to resolve."

Qingran: "How do we solve this?"

Pei Xuhui told him to wait a moment.

He then temporarily put aside the illegal thoughts in his mind.

They waited until noon.

Grandpa Yu and Grandma Yu had just finished playing chess and were preparing to cook dinner when the person knocking on the door was still there.

Upon learning that they had been knocking for several hours, the two elderly people even felt guilty for something that wasn't their fault.

Feeling that Qingran and Pei Xu had finally taken a break and come all this way, they hadn't been allowed to rest properly, so they advised them to go home first.

Pei Xu replied, "No need, Grandma. I have a solution, but I need you and Grandpa to cooperate."

At lunchtime, the sounds of washing clothes and cooking could be heard from the courtyards of two households across the street.

Having confirmed this, Pei Xuhui finally took action.

His method was to defeat magic with magic.

In other words, you pay someone to knock on the neighbor's door at a fixed time every day, and ideally, this person should also have some kind of mental health issue.

During this time, he would book tours for his grandparents, and the family next door would either take good care of the patient or move away voluntarily.

"Isn't this a bit inappropriate?" Grandma Yu, who was always kind to others, hesitated a little.

“I think it’s a good idea. Since they’ve done something so shameless, they should have the guts to bear the consequences,” Grandpa Yu said indignantly.

He'd wanted to teach this family a lesson for a long time; he'd even secretly thrown out the trash at their doorstep in the middle of the night before.

Now that his eldest grandson has come up with a better idea, he immediately agrees: "I'll go and let the other neighbors know first."

After saying that, he rushed out the door.

"Hey—" Grandma Yu, who hadn't managed to stop him, stamped her foot and asked Pei Xuhui for confirmation, "Isn't this illegal?"

That's what she's worried about.

It's okay to argue sometimes, we can just put up with it and it will pass. But it's unacceptable to ruin the two children because of this.

Pei Xuhui comforted her, "Don't worry, Grandma, it's alright."

Anyway, they'll just turn a blind eye. Since the police didn't do anything about it before, they probably won't do anything about it now either.

They might even thank them for solving a troublesome problem.

After persuading his grandmother to leave, he gestured with his chin towards Qingran and asked, "How is it? Is it resolved?"

Qingran nodded: "Okay, I admit that you are better at word problems than I am."

Even someone who has read the legal provisions couldn't come up with a solution; his thinking is still stuck in the old ways.

Pei Xu laughed and said, "We're even, but I can't compare to your excellent Chinese language skills. Your metaphors are very apt."

They even treated this response like a word problem.

After exchanging compliments, the two glanced at the people at the door and calmly walked into the house.

Qingran: "Did the tour group ask Grandma Pei?"

Pei Xu replied, "I asked, and she said she needed to look after the shop."

Qingran: "...It's playing cards, isn't it?"

Pei Xu replied, "I see through it, but I won't say it out loud."

Qingran: "And what about paying someone to help us? Where are we supposed to find someone?"

“Why do you think so linearly?” Pei Xuhui said helplessly. “This kind of thing can be handled by my dad’s assistant.”

"You need to learn to make use of the resources around you, you idiot."

Qingran stamped his feet.

As the person next to her stepped forward, she headbutted the boy on the back: "You're the stupid one."

Pei Xuhui pretended to stumble slightly, then smirked and said, "Of course I'm stupid." How could I fall for someone I shouldn't if I weren't stupid?

He didn't let Qingran see his expression, went to the refrigerator, grabbed a watermelon, and cut it open.

This is one of those small watermelons, cut in half, so that each of the two of us can have half.

The small round table where she did her homework had been cleaned up. Qingran sat in front of the table and used a spoon to scoop out the sweetest piece from the center and put it in her mouth.

The sweet and cool juice bursts in your mouth.

Qingran squinted her eyes contentedly and asked, "Grandma and the others are going on a trip. Do we want to come along?"

“You were with them,” Pei Xuhui said as he sat down after washing the knives in the kitchen.

Qingran stared at him intently: "And you?"

Pei Xu replied in his usual tone, "He Anzhou said that his grandparents planted several acres of grapes in the countryside, and it's harvest season now, so he asked a few of us close friends to help with the picking."

Something's not right.

Qingran: "Didn't you always say you wanted to travel around? Why not take such a good opportunity to travel?"

Pei Xu replied, "We can go on the trip anytime. He Anzhou already promised, so it's not good to go back on our word."

Qingran: "How about I go help too?"

"What are you going to do?" the boy laughed. "Working is tiring and hot. It would be better to accompany Grandma and the others to see the scenery and relax."

He wanted to test whether the distance to T University was far enough, so no matter how reluctant he was, Qingran couldn't go.

Qingran didn't say anything, but slowly and deliberately cut off a piece of fruit.

[Zero Zero, check his chat history with He Anzhou for me.]

A note from the author: