Is this the brake?
Wan Qiu squeezed the brake handle. The feeling of the pedal being restrained was very unique.
Once you push the pedal and the wheels start turning, the rest is pretty easy.
It was Wan Qiu’s first time riding a tricycle. The feeling of moving forward quickly was very smooth and fluid.
Tried to turn and was successful.
Wanqiu was fascinated by this brand new experience.
Once, when Wan Qiu was looking at other people's tricycles, he couldn't even imagine the feeling of riding a tricycle.
And now he has a tricycle.
Yang Ze and Chu Yigui followed Wan Qiu as he rode the tricycle back and forth.
Yang Ze inexplicably had a subtle emotion, and even he couldn't find an accurate word to describe it.
Is it touching? No, it is more like a feeling of being touched.
but……
In Yang Ze's opinion, Wan Qiu should be very happy, but he didn't smile.
Can't you laugh?
Or is it that the intelligence is too low to express joy?
Wan Qiu rode his tricycle back to his doorstep, suddenly braked and stopped at the door.
Wan Qiu raised his head, his bright eyes made the evening glow flicker like a flickering candle flame, and his cheeks were slightly red from being burned.
Looking at Yang Ze, Wan Qiu pursed his lips into a line: "Thank you, second brother."
Wan Qiu's eyes consciously looked at Chu Yigui who was standing quietly not far away. Chu Yigui gently placed his fingers on the corners of his lips, slightly pulling them to make them rise.
Wan Qiu seemed to see Chu Yigui teaching him this simple movement during the day.
Wan Qiu smiled.
The corners of his mouth slightly raised, although the arc was not deep, but Wan Qiu was smiling.
"Thanks."
Thanks again, with a smile.
"Glad that you like it." Yang Ze had never imagined what kind of smile a child would show when he received a gift he loved.
Yang Ze received an unexpected reward - Wan Qiu's smile.
This is a beauty that does not require any filters to render. The dull fog that separates their world is penetrated by the sun and washed away by the rain. The world strives to present its beauty before human eyes.
Is Yang Ze happy?
Maybe.
Just looking at the unfamiliar smile, my mind seemed to be unable to remember anything, and my eyes were busy carving everything in front of me into the oil painting of memory.
——
It has been ten years since Bai Yusheng took over as the steward of the Chu family. It was also during the time when he had just taken office that the third child of the Chu family, Chu Wanqiu, was lost.
He had spent a period of time in the Chu family where he felt like he was walking on thin ice. The sticky atmosphere and the dead silence were so intense that even breathing seemed like the wrong time.
Everything gradually improved after Chu Yigui arrived.
To be honest, most of them watched Chu Yigui grow up. Except for some old people who have worked here for a long time, basically no one has any impression of Chu Wanqiu.
Chu Yigui is a very good child.
All the servants in the Chu family thought so.
Humble, polite, excellent, and good-looking, all these are the reasons why Chu Yigui impresses everyone.
Bai Yu also overheard some maids talking about the three young masters in the Chu family, each of whom possessed certain qualities of a woman's dream lover.
So Chu Wanqiu, who suddenly returned, seemed like an alien and out of place.
It can't be said to be disrespectful. When we know that the child has intellectual problems, we feel more sympathy.
Except... everyone is more or less worried about Chu Yigui's situation.
After all, the name Lian Yigui is meant to express the hope that the lost Chu Wanqiu can return.
However, Chu Yigui, who impressed and sympathized with them, did not seem to have any extra thoughts about it.
Chu Yigui is as excellent as ever, as if there are no flaws or negative emotions.
"Uncle Bai, please pay more attention to my brother. He just came back and may not be familiar with the world." Chu Yigui said to Butler Bai.
"Okay, young master, we will pay more attention." Butler Bai replied.
"My brother's way of thinking is a little different from that of ordinary people, so no matter how small the matter is, you need to pay more attention to it." Chu Yigui seemed to be just casually exuding the kindness in his character, "Thank you for your hard work."
Butler Bai felt a little complicated: "Young Master, you..."
"I'm worried about my brother, too." Butler Bai wanted to comfort him, but Chu Yigui interrupted him and he didn't succeed in saying it. "My brother must be very confused. He must need help in many ways. I'm willing to help him."
Butler Bai did not continue, but just watched Chu Yigui's back as he left.
Compared to Chu Wanqiu, who will be favored now and even for a long time to come, Butler Bai is more worried about Chu Yigui, who seems to have been ignored during this period of time.
No matter what, he is a fourteen-year-old boy. He should be more immature, impetuous and willful.
But Butler Bai would pay attention to Chu Wanqiu. Just as Chu Yigui said, he was a child who was completely unfamiliar with this place and was adopted from another family.
Walking in the quiet corridor at night, Butler Bai was doing his last patrol in the mansion before going off work.
Wan Qiu should be in his room now. Butler Bai passed by and stopped, but the bedroom was well soundproofed so he couldn't tell whether Wan Qiu needed help.
But when I passed by for the second time, I found that the door was open.
It should be Wan Qiu who came out.
Not hearing Wan Qiu calling for help, Butler Bai wondered if Wan Qiu needed help now.
Butler Bai looked around but couldn't find Wan Qiu.
After asking around, Wan Qiu got the information from the servants and asked them for the direction of the utility room.
What are you doing in the utility room?
Butler Bai walked quickly towards the utility room. Luckily, he found Chu Wanqiu, who was near the utility room but obviously lost.
"Third Young Master... Wanqiu." Thinking of Chu Wanqiu's understanding, Butler Bai directly called Wanqiu's name, "Excuse me, what are you doing here?"
Under the not-particularly-bright street light in the dark night, Butler Bai saw Wan Qiu looking up at him.
"I'm looking for a pair of scissors." Wan Qiu said in a childish voice.
What do you need scissors for?
Although Butler Bai wanted to ask, as a butler's duty it is not to take the initiative to ask about the master's private affairs, even if the master has some problems with his IQ.
"The scissors are not here. Please follow me." said Butler Bai.
Butler Bai was walking in front, paying attention to Wan Qiu behind him intentionally or unintentionally.
Wan Qiu's footsteps were very light. Although he was a child who had not received any special training, every step he took was so quiet that it seemed as if he was treading on cotton.
Having low intelligence does not mean having no emotions or sense of existence. Butler Bai also did some homework before welcoming Wan Qiu back. Although children with low IQs behave differently, they are not as low as Wan Qiu, who is as if he does not exist.
If he hadn't looked back and seen a thin figure following behind him, he would even have thought that Wan Qiu had blended into the night without realizing it.
"Wan Qiu, which kind of scissors do you need?" There are many kinds of scissors in the utility room, all with different uses. Butler Bai guessed that Wan Qiu learned about the utility room from the gardener.
Finally, a new pair of silver scissors was placed in Wan Qiu's hands.
Butler Bai noticed that after Wan Qiu took the scissors, he turned the tip of the scissors towards himself and held the tip with his hand.
But Wan Qiu's hands were a little small for the scissors, so it was a bit difficult for him to hold them like this, so he protected the tip with both hands.
"I'll be back soon." Wan Qiu said.
Butler Bai said, "Just leave it at the door when you are done, and someone will take it away for you."
Butler Bai noticed that Wan Qiu was looking up at him. Wan Qiu did not speak immediately. Butler Bai only felt that he was being strongly observed, which was considered an offensive gaze.
Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds.
Wan Qiu lowered his head again: "I understand."
Butler Bai choked for unknown reasons. This tone sounded as if he was giving orders to Wan Qiu.
Subconsciously, I wanted to say something in rebuttal, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with the conversation just now.
It was a strange, uncomfortable feeling that lingered in his throat.
Butler Bai sent Wan Qiu back until Wan Qiu closed the bedroom door.
Chu Yigui's words reappeared in his mind.
——No matter how small the matter is, you should pay more attention to it.
Butler Bai stood at the door for a long time, and finally knocked on Wan Qiu's door again.
No response.
Tension accelerated Butler Bai's heartbeat, and he knocked on Chu Yigui's door.
"What's wrong, Butler Bai?" Chu Yigui had already changed into his home pajamas, but even so, he looked very dignified. He was a person with a very strong presence.
The few short minutes spent with Wan Qiu made Butler Bai feel even more strongly about the sensory contrast between Chu Yigui and Wan Qiu.
Butler Bai hesitated and said, "The Third Young Master just asked me to borrow a pair of scissors. I don't know what he used them for."
Scissors are a common item and shouldn’t be something you think too much about.
But Chu Yigui frowned, as if he was also thinking.
It seemed that Butler Bai's continuous knocking on the door alerted Yang Ze, who was also next door, and he opened the door.
"What's wrong? Did anything happen?" Yang Ze stood at the bedroom door and looked in the direction of Butler Bai.
"Brother borrowed a pair of scissors, but I don't know what to do with them." Chu Yigui took the initiative to say to Yang Ze.
Although borrowing a pair of scissors might not be a strange thing for ordinary people, the target was Wan Qiu.
Yang Ze came out of the room and walked to Wan Qiu's door: "Go and take a look."
When Yang Ze's tall figure passed by Butler Bai, an unknown pressure was placed on Butler Bai's shoulders. He suddenly felt uneasy and wondered if giving Wan Qiu a pair of scissors was a wrong choice.
The closer Butler Bai got to Wan Qiu's room, the more obvious the uneasiness in his heart became, and he even couldn't help but quicken his pace.
Yang knocked on the door, but heard no response.
"Second brother, just open the door." Chu Yigui's voice came from beside him, and Yang didn't think much and just grabbed the door handle.
The door opened.
Wan Qiu didn't lock the door.
Butler Bai glanced at Chu Yigui in surprise, but the person he was staring at was silent, without any abnormality.
When the three of them entered the room, they were hit by extremely hot air.
Wan Qiu turned off the air conditioner and opened the floor-to-ceiling window.
There are a lot of mosquitoes in summer nights. Even if you try your best to drive them away, it is obviously impossible to be completely effective. With such a large window open, the small insects flying in your face made Butler Bai squint his eyes.
Wan Qiu not only turned off the air conditioner, but also turned off the lights, making the place pitch dark.
The only noise was coming from the bathroom.
Yang quickened his pace and quickly opened the door.
In the dark bathroom with only an extremely dim night light on, the boy stood in front of the sink, the silver scissors in his hand reflected the light of the night light, and the reflected light dazzled the eyes of the passers-by for a brief moment.
The skinny boy was as thin as a stick, with not a plump cheek, and even obvious joints could be seen in the dim light.
At this time, there were some black hair scattered at the boy's feet, and there was obvious red blood on the snow-white sink.
The boy stood with his back to the light, staring at them with eyes that seemed slightly larger than his entire face, his features lost in the darkness.
At this moment, Butler Bai's body stiffened, his brain went blank, and he almost passed out.
Chu Yigui suddenly turned on the bathroom light, and the entire dark space suddenly became bright.
At this moment, Yang Ze was obviously very frightened, his head was confused and he couldn't recover.
"What is brother doing?" Chu Yigui asked in a calm tone.
Wan Qiu raised his head and subconsciously pointed the tip of the scissors in his hand at himself after noticing the person, but Chu Yigui was already standing in front of him.
Chu Yigui's hand wrapped around Wan Qiu's hand, and his fingers gently rubbed open the gap between Wan Qiu's tightly clenched fingers, as gently as if using this force to absorb Wan Qiu's strength.
The scissors slipped from Wan Qiu's hand and fell into Chu Yigui's hand.
Chu Yigui pulled Wan Qiu's hand away and found very fresh bloodstains on Wan Qiu's fingers.
"How did you get hurt?" Yang Ze's rising voice came first.
Chu Yigui let go of Wan Qiu and went to the other side with the scissors.
"I didn't mean to do that." The scissors Wan Qiu had used before were never sharp enough to cut the skin with just a touch. Most of them were discarded scissors that were so blunt that they couldn't even cut anything. "I just think it's beautiful."
This pair of scissors is really beautiful, clean, bright and sharp, Wan Qiu was just attracted to it.
"What's so good about a pair of broken scissors?" Yang Ze angrily picked up Wan Qiu and wanted to find the medicine box in the room. However, the hot air of the summer night and the small flying insects that suddenly flew towards him made Yang Ze turn around and leave the room first.
In the huge and comfortable living room, Butler Bai brought out the medicine box and simply disinfected and bandaged the wound. God knows how Wan Qiu could have cut such a big wound.
"What did you just do..." Yang Ze really felt complicated. Thinking of the broken hair on the ground and Wan Qiu's half of his hair and bangs, his heart sank. "Are you cutting my hair?"
Wan Qiu lowered his head, obviously much quieter than before.
The slender fingers without cuts kneaded the hair on the other side of her body that had not been cut, and explained: "Mom said that my hair has grown long."
"You can't cut it yourself, how can your mother let you cut it yourself?"
However, Yang Ze's voice suddenly became hoarse halfway through.
Yang opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word.
Wan Qiu lowered his eyes, as if he didn't even have the courage to raise them, because he was afraid that he had made others "unhappy" again.
“That’s the only way I cut it.”
All the blame in Yang Ze's mouth completely disappeared at this moment.
He took it for granted.
How could a child who often makes a living by picking up garbage have money to go to a barber shop?
Wan Qiu has probably been cutting his own hair all along.
Yang Ze put several Band-Aids on Wan Qiu. The wound was a bit long, but at least the bleeding had stopped.
Wan Qiu did not show any expression of pain from beginning to end, which made Yang Ze dare not act rashly.
Wan Qiu was very good at enduring pain, but the more he did so, the more Yang Ze dared not to take action.
"Don't do this again in the future." Yang Ze was a little anxious.
"Yes, San... Wanqiu, please don't do this kind of thing again in the future. At my age, it will really shorten my life." The middle-aged man Bai Yu almost suffocated when he recalled the series of scenes just now, and expressed his fear.
This must be a punishment for his messy thoughts.
Yang Ze noticed that Wan Qiu was looking at them, and that very meticulous sense of observation came again.
Then he heard Wan Qiu say, "I know."
I know, I know what?
Yang Ze felt that Wan Qiu probably only knew the rule of "don't cut your own hair". He couldn't think beyond the scope of his thoughts to understand why they didn't let him do that.
How to teach?
Why teach?
What can he teach Wan Qiu?
Yang Ze's hand touched the messy, furry hair that Wan Qiu had partially cut but had not yet started trimming.
It was so easy for them to meet, but Yang Ze felt that he and Wan Qiu were still in two different worlds.
In this messy, mixed and dirty world, Wan Qiu worked hard with his not-so-bright brain to find a rule of survival that suits him.
And I, who had been living in another world, saw through Wanqiu's eyes the arrogance that I had never noticed before.
Wan Qiu is also trying hard to live. How should he teach such a Wan Qiu?
He couldn't understand Wan Qiu's efforts so far, so how could he make Wan Qiu, who had intellectual disabilities, understand his feelings?
"Wan Qiu, you..." Yang Ze wanted to say something.
However, his expression froze.
Wan Qiu had his eyes half closed at this time, seemingly staring down. His body was huddled, his head bent, and his slightly long hair that had not been cut hung slightly to cover his eyes. His whole body was curled up like a cooked shrimp, and he was protecting his chest intentionally or unintentionally.
Although Wan Qiu did not tremble at all.
But his every move seemed to illustrate his instinctive preparedness and fear of the pain that might come.
Yang was familiar with this action, exactly the same as the one he did in the bathroom.
Yang Ze's hand was still next to Wan Qiu's cut hair. Wan Qiu did not dodge and let him touch her, with only his tense body and slightly tilted head.
Yang Ze withdrew his hand.
Wan Qiu did not isolate himself. He was like the water in the glass jar in front of him, waiting for any possibility to come, whether it was smashed and the water poured out, or it was heated and boiled again. All this had nothing to do with Wan Qiu. He could only accept it helplessly.
Yang Ze felt his hands pressed against the glass of the tank, but he could only feel the intense coldness coming from the water.
He didn't warm Wan Qiu up, but Wan Qiu cooled him down instead.
Perhaps it was because Yang Ze had been silent for a long time, or perhaps it was because Yang Ze put down the hand that was stroking Wan Qiu's hair.
Yang Ze saw Wan Qiu open his eyes, which were half closed due to nervousness. He raised his eyes and looked at him.
The thin and somewhat weird boy was observing him carefully.
Looking at the pair of lips that had turned pale since who knows when, Yang Ze heard Wan Qiu's soft, timid voice.
"sorry."
Yang slowly opened his eyes.
Sorry for what?
Why should I say sorry to him?
What is this child thinking?
Wan Qiu's sincere apology to him only made Yang Ze feel more guilty.
"It's okay, it's okay." Yang Ze lowered his eyes, he was a little confused.
It was not appropriate to make a decision at this time, and he even lost the courage to speak to Wan Qiu.
"It's okay," he said not to Wan Qiu, but to himself.
It’s okay, he just... hasn’t had the chance to have more contact with Wan Qiu.
This apology is not a mockery, but a warning to myself.
Yang Ze just felt extremely annoyed and pinched his eyebrows. He didn't know how to communicate with Wan Qiu. He didn't have the ability like Chu Yigui.
Yang looked up at Chu Yigui, who was standing not far away and had remained silent, but his younger brother had no intention of coming forward at all.
and……
Yang Ze also didn't want the relationship between himself and Wan Qiu to always need to be conveyed through Chu Yi's return. People's experiences and emotions would be different, not to mention being conveyed through another person.
Perhaps now is the time to give Wan Qiu some peaceful time and let him know that no one here will attack him.
Let him go back?
However, I thought of Wanqiu's hot and mosquito-infested room.
——Why don’t you turn on the air conditioner or the lights?
However, there was no point in Yang Ze even asking this question.
"Butler Bai, please go and deal with Wan Qiu's room." Yang Ze said.
"Someone is already handling it." Butler Bai responded.
"How is it going now?" Yang Ze asked with a little fatigue, looking up.
Butler Bai learned about the situation through the intercom and said, "Because the Third Young Master didn't turn on the lights, there are not many mosquitoes coming in. The mosquito repellent lamp has been turned on and the air conditioner has been turned on again. The temperature is just right now."
Yang Ze sat next to Wan Qiu, but this time he did not dare to extend his hand to Wan Qiu.
"Go back to your room and sleep. Don't turn off the air conditioner. Turn on the lights if you want. Have a good sleep."
Wan Qiu probably really felt safe, and he poked his head out like a turtle in its shell and stretched out his limbs in a relaxed manner.
"Thanks."
Yang wanted to say something, but found that no word was suitable.
In the end he just responded.
Wan Qiu probably saw a look of agreement on Yang Ze's face, so he stood up boldly, walked around the other side of the coffee table and left.
Yang Ze wanted to hear Wan Qiu's footsteps, but found that Wan Qiu's footsteps were too light, and in such a quiet night, they seemed to be non-existent.
Butler Bai was also somewhat helpless and asked, "Should we tell the gentleman and the lady about this now?"
"We'll know tomorrow." Yang rubbed his brows and looked at the medicine box on the coffee table. "Let mom and dad have a good night's sleep. You should also go and rest."
Butler Bai agreed and left.
Yang Ze collapsed on the sofa, feeling powerless and irritated.
The clear water in the glass tank was a hug he wanted to cherish, but the water did not have a shape that he could embrace.
Forcibly touching the clothes will only make them absorb the clean water and hang heavily on the body, and will also take away the water that should be full, making the clean water incomplete.
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