Chapter 9
Ever since I sensed my brother's subtle hostility towards Xiaoxing, a belated rebellious streak began to sprout within me.
Just like Su Yuyue forbids me from associating with Xiaoxing, I insist on being good friends with Xiaoxing.
We were about to return to school, and Su Yu and I sat quietly on the sofa waiting for Dad to come out of the bathroom. I was grinning at my phone, which naturally caught my brother's attention.
"Who are you chatting with that makes you so happy?"
"friend."
I only replied with those two short words, and my brother, realizing he'd made a fool of himself, stopped asking about it.
Helping him carry his things has become a habit of mine. I carry his luggage in my left hand and mine in my right. My brother only needs to carry a backpack, and besides, he doesn't have many books in his bag; most of them are in my bag.
We went downstairs one after the other. When my dad opened the trunk and took the things from me, I felt like I had lost hundreds of pounds.
Looking at the red marks on my knuckles, I was stunned for three seconds until Su Yu slammed the passenger door shut, and I finally realized what was happening and sat in the back.
We used to sit together.
I just stared listlessly at the scenery flashing by outside the car window. Even though so many years have passed, I still can't get used to it.
"Once you cross this bridge, you'll reach your school. You're really lucky today, with all the green lights!"
Dad was still marveling at how good the road conditions were today, ensuring we weren't late for school, unaware that while he was happy, the other two in the car were already filled with despair.
I casually looked around, but was drawn to a small, transparent object.
It's on my brother's ear, no, it also has an earlobe? How come it also has an auricle?
One...two...three...four...
To my silent astonishment, I discovered my brother had four piercings in his left ear! That's quite a number. If it were just one, I might have considered it a minor inconvenience, but four seems rather excessive for him…
Another question arose in my mind—why didn't he tell me?
Why did he tell me this? It's his business, what does it have to do with me?
He's my brother! You didn't even tell my parents this, let alone me!
I felt incredibly wronged in an instant, and Su Yu looked up and saw my stiff neck.
He didn't say anything, but I understand that he couldn't say anything at this moment.
As usual, Su wanted to get off the bus and give his phone to his dad to take home, but I was prepared and told him to leave it at a shop near the school gate.
I waited until Su Yu got off the bus before I spoke to her.
My dad just laughed it off and asked a few casual questions before agreeing. I carried Su Yu's things in my hands and walked behind him. This stretch of road was longer than the one from home to the car.
I took a deep breath and mentally went over what I wanted to say. Finally, when I was a few meters away from the school gate, I spoke up, "Brother, can you handle this? I'm a little tired."
My brother didn't say anything. He took all the things from my hands, took two or three steps, stopped, and put them next to the tree near the school gate.
Why didn't you say so sooner?
"I don't know either."
I made an excuse to go see a classmate, and while my brother wasn't looking, I ran away, turned off my phone, hid it, and then went over.
Su Yu was chatting with his friend. "He's so handsome," I thought to myself.
Suddenly, a strong impact hit my shoulder, almost sending me flying. I took a few steps and turned around, only to see Qiu Jiajia violently attacking me with her bag filled with bricks.
"Hey, look over there." She raised an eyebrow, and I looked in the direction she was pointing. A blond man and a black man got out of the car.
"Guess what their relationship is."
This is a declarative sentence, but it should be an interrogative sentence.
"brother?"
Qiu Jiajia shook her head knowingly.
"brother?"
Are you an idiot?
She clenched her hands into fists and tapped the dots up and down with her thumbs.
Holy crap!
The encrypted call was quite long, and for some reason I glanced at my brother; he was still laughing and chatting with the person next to him.
Holy crap!
This is because I saw that black-haired man walk into the school.
"Our teacher?"
I was filled with disbelief; how could such a thing happen to someone like me?
"Wait a few days, I'll find out for you." Secretary Qiu pounded her chest, "But it's mine."
As it approached opening time, people began to line up. I squeezed next to my brother to help him with his things. My brother wouldn't let me carry them, saying he could carry them himself.
I gave him my small crossbody bag so he could carry it for me, as it was harder to carry with the backpack in the way.
My brother readily agreed.
This time, our grade's homeroom teachers were checking for contraband. If girls brought contraband, they could choose to avoid the male teachers' offices, but for a roughneck like me, it wouldn't matter who I went to...
My brother stood in front of me, so I followed him.
Holy crap, how come it's the PE teacher who's causing the most trouble?
As the group slowly approached, the table next to the PE teacher was already piled high with lighters, cigarettes, and bottles of alcohol.
"Hey, isn't this Xiao Su? Didn't bring any contraband?" the buzz-cut PE teacher asked my brother with a grin.
Su Yu put all the bags on the table, shook her head, and waited for him to check them.
"Alright, let's go." The man with the buzz cut waved his hand and let my brother go.
I stepped forward and, like my brother, placed my things on the table.
"You... let me take a good look at you."
"..."
The guy with the buzz cut charged me for two cans of cocktails.
My brother didn't wait for me. By the time I crawled to the dorm exhausted, he was almost done packing.
"What was taken away this time?"
"He took my drink."
The person on the bed nodded thoughtfully.
I took the bag from my brother, and I heard his advice: "Be careful with your valuables, Su Yu."
I'm really impressed; nothing can be hidden from him.
Three days have passed, and I have gleaned some information about the male teacher from snippets of conversation:
I teach senior high school students and now live on campus. I see that blond guy every day.
I felt it was all irrelevant information and wasn't particularly interested, until Qiu Jiajia told me that there was also a gay couple in that teacher's class.
Where do so many homosexuals come from?
I am completely baffled.
I treated this as pure entertainment and didn't pay much attention to it, because I've been keeping in touch with Xiaoxing via my phone these past few days.
Although I usually initiate the messages, it doesn't matter. College students like him must be very busy, and it's good enough that he has time to reply to me.
At this point, I had quietly moved Xiaoxing's position in my heart to almost the same level as my brother. I no longer rushed to my brother's class whenever I had time, and I would finish my own things in the dormitory early and go to bed.
My brother and I eat together much less often now; it's become the norm to buy a steamed bun and rush back to the dorm to play on our phones.
Su Yu sensed something, but he just waited.
That day, Su Yu and Su Yu's class had their first physical education class together, and the two classes played a friendly basketball match.
In the past, Su Yu would have rushed over to find him the moment she heard the news, but this time she didn't.
Not to mention anything, even during class that day, Su Yu seemed absent-minded, sitting on the floor with her chin in her hand, lost in thought.
This wasn't the first time he'd been like this. Starting this week, Su Yu always seemed to have too little time, rushing to finish one thing and then another, not even eating properly.
Although Su Yu, as the older brother, didn't want to control his younger brother too much, wasn't it a bit excessive for him to only eat one leftover bun from the morning for lunch?
But this dim-witted younger brother forgot that before he developed his intelligence, he was "transparent" in front of his older brother.
So, during that PE class, Su Yu made an excuse that she was feeling unwell and went back to her dormitory.
He first lifted Su Yu's pillow and saw that the things they had agreed to put there were still lying there safely.
He then pulled out the key to Su Yu's wardrobe from under the mattress, and two little voices in his heart were advising him.
Xiao Su Yu, dressed in white, said he needed his brother to help him reform, and besides, they were brothers, so there was nothing wrong with doing so.
Su Yu said that the black-clad girl was invading his personal privacy, which was a big mistake!
Holding the key, Su Yu squatted in front of Su Yu's cabinet, but still didn't open it.
But hey! This idiot actually put his phone inside the pillowcase and didn't turn off the vibrator.
Su Yu couldn't help but rub her forehead.
He entered Su Yu's birthday, but it didn't open. He entered it in reverse order, but it still didn't open.
He was a little unsure, but he couldn't resist his narcissistic nature and typed in his own birthday.
It's open.
The screen lit up suddenly, and the wallpaper was a photo of them as children. Su Yu smiled immediately, but then, realizing what she was doing, she changed her expression to a serious one.
He opened WeChat and found that besides himself and his family, there was another person pinned to the top of his chat list.
One profile picture has a star icon.
Su Yu clicked on it and started reading from the beginning. When he couldn't finish flipping through it, he scrolled to the most recent date.
This was quite a surprise; the little fox was about to be seduced by her younger brother. However, when Su Yu thought back on it later, she realized that the other party had no intention of having anything happen between her and Su Yu.
It's just Su Yu's self-satisfaction as an innocent young virgin.
He returned to his classroom, and sure enough, as soon as get out of class ended, Su Yu ran over and stood at the classroom door, asking him if he felt unwell.
I didn't see my brother during that class. I thought he was taking a while because he was on the toilet, but half an hour passed and he still hadn't come back.
I sat down in their classroom and asked my brother what was going on, but most of them didn't know.
Later, their class's sports representative told the teacher that my brother had taken leave and was in the infirmary.
The infirmary is no place like this! What kind of mess could that "veterinarian" have made of my brother?! I quickly made an excuse to buy water and left, hoping to rescue my brother.
But I didn't see him, and he wasn't in the class either.
Where did he go? I don't know. Everyone is in class now, and no one at school will notice me.
I turned a corner and limped back to my dorm.
But what did I see?
To avoid disturbing the dorm supervisor, I lowered my voice. But when I got to the door, I saw a shadow on the wall next to my bed. I almost screamed. I turned off the sound completely and pressed myself against the door to see what was inside.
It was my brother. He was lying face down on my bed with his knees on the floor, fiddling with something in his hands.
It's my phone.
I couldn't believe my eyes. He's been so cold to me lately, and now he's looking at my phone? What's he doing?
I didn't dare go in, so I turned around and left, returning to the playground. I still couldn't forget or explain what I had seen.
The students were cheering and applauding the teacher's goal. Those who weren't participating were playing other things in small groups and chatting about some hot topic, but I didn't hear a word of it.
Ke Wen and Qiu Jiajia noticed something was wrong with me and pulled me to play with them, but I felt like I was nailed to the spot.
After class, I saw my brother sitting in the classroom. As he had planned, should I rush in and ask him what was wrong or if he felt unwell?
I did that, and when I saw that barely perceptible smile on his face, my heart felt like it had been doused with a large bottle of bitter melon juice.
He told me it was nothing, and I said okay. When I got back to the classroom, I collapsed onto my desk and fell asleep. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought I'd had a fierce battle with my brother's class.
But when I closed my eyes, all I could see in my mind was my brother lying on my bed, his back arched and his buttocks slightly upturned. I remembered the male teacher Qiu Jiajia had told me about, so after school, I ran to the senior high school building and took a peek from afar.
Then I left. I don't know what I was looking at; I just really wanted to see him at that moment.
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