“When I get a little older, my brother will go to Hangzhou, and we'll have fewer chances to see each other.”
"The relationship also deteriorated at this time."
“It’s not that the long periods of separation caused our relationship to deteriorate, but rather that as I grew older, I began to feel that my brother was no longer a ‘role model,’ but rather a source of ‘pressure’ for me.”
"Does Sister Qingqian understand? It's like whenever you feel you've done well, someone keeps reminding you, 'You have a much better brother,' or 'You're nowhere near as good as your brother'... That feeling?"
Shen Jingyi looked at Ji Qingqian.
Ji Qingqian's face was hidden under the helmet, so Shen Jingyi couldn't see whether her expression was cold or moved.
She guessed that Qingqian, who was also a top student at Jiangda University, couldn't understand such feelings.
But she nodded.
Chen Jingyi chuckled softly:
"That's why I hate my brother."
“When he occasionally comes back to Chaocheng, I avoid seeing him. Even if I do see him, I try not to talk to him, like a sulking child. My brother, on the other hand, is the same as always. He greets me and invites me to eat, but if he sees that I don’t want to talk, he won’t chat with me much.”
“I think my brother just sees me as a very ordinary ‘guest’.”
"After all, one of us lives in Hangzhou and the other in Chaozhou. Even if we grew up together, so many years have passed."
"Then one time, when I was in the first year of high school, I did really badly on a midterm exam, dropping more than ten places. When I got home for the weekend, my mom scolded me so badly that I was about to faint. I hid in my room, not wanting to see anyone, and I didn't eat."
"Until evening, my brother came to my house to do something. After hearing about it, he knocked on my door."
“I ignored him, and he continued talking to me inside the door… ‘No way, you’re only in the first year of high school and you’ve already fallen out of the top 30. You’ll fall out of the top 300 in the college entrance exam. You’re terrible, Chen Jingyi. I’ve never fallen out of the top three at your age.’”
"It's unbelievable! His sister already has desires, and as her brother, he's still making sarcastic remarks!"
"I'm so angry."
"My resentment towards my brother erupted at that moment."
"I rushed out, and with a courage I don't know I found, I grabbed him by the collar, yelling at him, 'You think you're so great just because you came in third place!'"
“My brother wasn’t angry or happy. He told me expressionlessly, ‘That’s amazing. If you had gotten third place, you wouldn’t be crying like this.’”
"...Then he said, 'Want to learn? I'll teach you.'"
"The tone was like when they helped me finish a puzzle I couldn't complete when I was a child, or when they helped me build a half-finished block tower."
"...That's when I realized. I've always treated my brother as an imaginary enemy, but in his eyes, I'm still that little kid following behind him."
“I really thought at the time… ‘Wow, it’s so great that he could be my brother.’”
"Lu Yibei is the most annoying guy in the world... but also the best brother."
“‘The Serenity Instrument, you are a silver-white railway track, which will rust and get stained, but it also shines, beautiful and uncertain about where it will lead’—that’s what my brother told me.”
Ji Qingqian is a very good listener.
She wouldn't interrupt or cut in, but she would give positive feedback such as nodding to let Shen Jingyi know that she was listening attentively.
After she murmured "Mmm," Shen Jingyi lowered her eyes somewhat embarrassed, her face turning red.
"I'm sorry, Sister Qingqian... I've said too much."
"Won't."
Ji Qingqian was very fortunate that she was able to describe Abei's role as an older brother through her younger sister's words.
"What I really mean is, my brother can be really annoying sometimes, but he's actually a really, really good person. If he accidentally makes you angry in the future, I hope you can... be a little more lenient with him, okay?"
Then Shen Jingyi heard Ji Qingqian chuckle from under the helmet.
Laughter was as gentle as a breeze.
Ah Bei really is the best boy in the village.
The younger sister is too young to fully understand how good her brother is.
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