He was injured
Zhuang Yu'an opened the trunk and took out bags.
Seeing that his sister didn't move, he reminded her: "Don't just stand there and watch. Help carry two bags." But she glared at him, took Peter Pan's hand and left quickly.
"Whose little fairy is this? How can she be so pretty!" Zhuang Jinghao's mood improved as she was flattered by her grandparents upon entering the house. She fully played her role as a little cotton-padded jacket and made the elderly happy. Zhuang Yu'an went into the kitchen and immersed himself in preparing lunch.
During the meal, Zhuang Jinghao not only did not speak to his brother throughout the meal, but also took the sweet and sour pork ribs back from his bowl.
The two elders smiled at each other. Grandpa said, "Are you arguing again? Come on, tell me how your brother made you angry. Grandpa will support you!"
"Thank you, Grandpa, but that's a no-brainer," Zhuang Jinghao said slowly. "My brother won't change no matter what I tell him. It's his old habit. He loves to be a know-it-all, bossing people around. We often say he loves being a dad!"
"Becoming a father? What's this internet buzzword?" the old man asked excitedly.
Zhuang Jing explained with a smile, "Xiduandai means someone who likes to be a father to others. It describes someone who speaks and acts in a fatherly manner and loves to preach!"
Grandpa's smile froze at the corner of his mouth: "Why has 'dad' become a derogatory term?" He shook his head, "No, no..."
After dinner, Xiao Mian'ao was massaging grandma's shoulders when grandpa suddenly announced some important news:
"Yu'an, okay, your grandma and I have decided to move back to our hometown."
"Ah?" The little hand that was kneading his shoulders stopped, and his eyes widened. Zhuang Yu'an, who was making tea, was not surprised. He waited calmly for the old man's next words.
Grandma rushed in, "Actually, I've been wanting to go back for a long time! Beijing's air is too dry, the winter is too cold to go out, and in the spring it's covered in fur and the wind is howling... It's nothing like the comfort of home!"
"And the sandstorm!" Grandpa chimed in. "If your brother hadn't kept us here, we would have left two years ago!"
"But there's no one to take care of you back home!" Zhuang Jinghao said anxiously, "Without my brother and I by your side, and you can't drive, it's inconvenient for you to go anywhere!"
This was refuted on the spot:
"We can't travel far once a year."
"I'm fine. I can even do push-ups! I can drive my tricycle pretty well too!"
"Yes, your grandfather is not even seventy yet, in the prime of his life!"
Due to lack of support, Zhuang Jinghao lost with a score of 1:2. He glared at his brother angrily: "Brother! Why don't you say anything?"
Zhuang Yu'an placed the brewed tea on the table one by one and said slowly, "Grandpa and grandma, I respect your wishes. When the time comes, I'll hire an aunt to take care of you at home, and Jinghao and I will go back to visit you often. It only takes four hours by plane and car."
Zhuang Yu'an made the final decision, and the two elders smiled happily. Looking at the two children, their eyes showed reluctance to part.
Zhuang Jinghao felt even worse. Thinking that her grandparents would be thousands of miles away from her from now on, she suddenly felt so sad that her eyes were wet.
Besides reluctance, she was also filled with anger, suspicion, and panic. She stood up and said to her brother, "Come with me. I have something to tell you."
As soon as the door closed, Zhuang Jinghao folded his arms and asked, "Why did you ask grandpa and grandma to move back to their hometown?"
Zhuang Yu'an sighed slightly and corrected himself, "It wasn't me who asked them to move back, but they themselves have always wanted to move back. Haven't you noticed that grandparents are not happy in Beijing? Besides not being able to adapt to the climate and diet, their social circle is not here."
"You're talking nonsense!" Zhuang Jinghao couldn't help but raise her voice. "Don't they often go downstairs for walks, play chess, and eat out? And I come to accompany them every week. How can they not be happy?!"
"That's because you came, so they acted happy."
"Bullshit!" Zhuang Jinghao felt a pang of pain in her heart. Her brother spoke as if it was always her grandparents who had compromised for her, as if she was the only one in the family who didn't understand things!
Seeing his sister's downcast expression, Zhuang Yu'an felt sorry for her and tried to persuade her gently, "A few years ago, I couldn't understand why either, and I kept telling them to stay. But now, I think that might be selfish. Grandpa and grandma are reluctantly staying in Beijing because they're worried about us, and they want us to feel better. So, should we really put them at risk and sacrifice their life experience just for our own peace of mind?"
Zhuang Jing was very dissatisfied and glared at him angrily.
After a long pause, he questioned, "Can you honestly say that you have no other motive for getting grandpa and grandma to leave Beijing?"
Zhuang Yu'an didn't understand: his sister obviously had something in mind, but what exactly did she want to say?
Her eyes flickered for a moment, then turned firm and she said angrily, "Grandpa and grandma are gone, and you're the only relative left by my side. I can only rely on you!"
Instantly, Zhuang Yu'an's vision went dark. He seemed to have vaguely grasped the hidden meaning behind his sister's words. Even a vague guess had dealt a huge blow to his heart.
He trembled slightly, his breathing disordered: "You mean... I deliberately let grandpa and grandma leave in order to monopolize you and control you?"
"You know it in your heart!" Zhuang Jinghao said cruelly, almost shouting, "You always want me to obey you in everything! Make me become what you want! Make me rely on you for everything! You are a control freak!"
Zhuang Yu'an felt dizzy and briefly lost for words. Zhuang Jinghao's recent outburst had nearly exhausted her energy. Her eyes were red and she was panting heavily, like a bull that had just knocked over ten people. The room suddenly fell silent, with only the sound of her rapid breathing.
Looking at his sister who had been with him for more than 20 years, Zhuang Yu'an felt deeply frustrated and absurd. He even felt disheartened for a moment, as if a large part of his spiritual world had collapsed.
He thought back to the night before his sister was born.
The lights in the hotel room were off, the TV screen emitting a cold, flickering light. My mother sat on the bed, her belly bulging, her eyes numb.
He was only 4 years old at the time, so he mustered up the courage to approach her and said, "Mom, I'm hungry..."
His mother only glanced at him, then turned her gaze back to the screen. He looked at his mother, seeing a strange smile on her lips: "Starve. Starving to death is the best. When you die, you won't be hungry anymore."
I can’t cry… Grandma said, I’m a little man, I can’t cry…
He held back his tears, turned around silently, and returned to the other bed.
After his mother fell asleep, he quietly opened the door and went to the hotel front desk.
"Uncle and aunt, can you help me call the police? I can't find my home..."
When my mother was being escorted by the police to the elevator, the look she turned to give him was like the tongue of a poisonous snake on TV.
"I'm sorry, Mom..." He knew he had made a mistake and begged for forgiveness in a low voice, "I'm so hungry... Can we go home? You and Dad should never quarrel again, okay?"
The mother's eyes gradually collapsed: "It's all your fault...it's all your fault!" Tears burst out of her eyes, "Why do I have you? If it weren't for you, my life wouldn't be like this! It shouldn't be like this! I can't accept it..."
Nearly twenty hours later, my sister was born.
At that time, he hid behind the adults, looked up at the little one in his father's arms, and said in his heart:
"You're so pitiful... Why were you born?"
Two years later, his mother finally got the relief she had always dreamed of. The adults said she had gone abroad, but he knew where she had gone.
He also knew that his birth wasn't part of his parents' plan, a catastrophic accident that left everyone grappling. Yet, having only just reached adulthood, they had obeyed their parents' instructions. From then on, two strangers, and an uninvited guest in their lives, formed a new family, a loveless one. Father and Mother were like two gears that could never mesh, their friction producing only endless resentment.
If he was an unlucky child, then his sister was even more unlucky, because she was a weak girl who had been sick and crying since she was a child, as if she knew how pitiful she was from the moment she was born and so cried for herself.
Not long after his mother left, his father also left home. Besides sending money to his grandparents regularly each month, he would return once a year for Chinese New Year, stay two nights, and then leave. He soon realized that his father had also abandoned the family.
In this family without a mother or a father, he gradually realized that he would be the greatest support for his poor sister, and she would also be his support. They were unblessed children, stumbling blocks in the lives of their father and mother, but with the same fate, they were the fulcrum of each other's lives.
Along the way, he did his utmost to protect his sister, and in doing so, he was also saving himself from the hatred and rejection of his own parents. Adults praised him for being sensible, hardworking, and strong-willed, because he wanted the best for his sister, and he wanted her to enjoy the brightest and most beautiful side of the world for him.
Finally, thanks to his efforts, his sister grew up to be a healthy, lively, innocent and kind angel living under the bright sunshine, and he was able to be reborn and redefine whether he was worthy of coming to this world.
However, his overprotective approach to protecting his sister wasn't without its downsides: there was so much she didn't know, leaving her vulnerable to the world's darker tendencies. At 23, she was still addicted to online romance novels, even letting them influence her. She suspected her brother's meticulous care and attention wasn't born of love, but rather a perverse desire for possessiveness and control. He didn't blame his sister for misunderstanding him, but he deeply feared it would drive her away from him.
Zhuang Yu'an slowly exhaled and said, "Let's go home and talk about it."
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