When Chen Ke pushed open the door, Chen Zhi was lying stiffly on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. From inside the room came Chen Yu's uncontrollable sobbing.
Chen Ke hung the cloth bag on the wall and asked knowingly, "Did you bully Chen Yu?"
Chen Zhi turned his face away abruptly, complaining with some grievance, "It was you, it was you who bullied the two of us, you—" Chen Zhi wanted to say that he was going to get married and not want them anymore, but then he thought, what would happen to them if his older brother really agreed to that? They would be helpless if his older brother really didn't want them anymore.
Then Chen Zhi changed the subject and said, "Chen Yu came back and said that he saw you go to a restaurant to eat something delicious but didn't take us with you. Brother, we haven't eaten meat in a long time."
He sounded aggrieved. If it were the original owner, he would have been trying his best to get meat for the two little ones to eat. But Chen Ke said directly, "What meat? We haven't even saved enough money to pay your tuition yet."
Chen Zhi's eyes lit up when he heard this. His older brother had always hoped that they could study hard and become successful. Every time he said he didn't want to study, his older brother would get very anxious and try to persuade him for a long time. In the end, he would often have to promise him many benefits before he would reluctantly agree.
If he makes a scene again now, will his older brother change his mind and go back to his old ways?
Thinking about it, Chen Zhi suddenly sat up. "Why save up for tuition? I don't want to go to school. You might as well use the money to buy meat."
Chen Ke turned around and looked at Chen Zhi, "What can you do if you don't go to school now?"
"I'll go to work like you. Didn't you start working and earning money when you were sixteen? It's so comfortable. I'll go too."
Chen Ke scoffed inwardly. The original owner's forced dropout from school and job was described so easily by Chen Zhi, who might even think that this was true happiness, being able to do whatever he wanted without having to go to school.
If you keep sending someone like that to school, they'll feel like you're harming them, locking them up, and preventing them from being free.
Seeing Chen Ke remain silent, Chen Zhi couldn't help but feel smug. His brother was definitely going to start persuading him. His brother had even gone to a restaurant; he had to be allowed to go at least once before he would agree to continue his studies.
But Chen Ke's answer this time was unexpected for Chen Zhi. He had no expression on his face and said indifferently, "Since you don't want to study so much, then I will respect your wishes. You don't need to go tomorrow. Start looking for a job, but you need to do it as soon as possible. I don't support idle people."
Chen Zhi stared in disbelief, his voice filled with disbelief, "Brother, what did you just say? I, I can stop going to school? School, the kind of school that makes people successful."
Hearing Chen Zhi's surprised emphasis, it turned out that he knew that studying could lead to great success. That day, he even used this to threaten the original owner, demanding this and that. It was clear that he only used studying as a bargaining chip to threaten the original owner.
Haha, then why bother studying? Just go out and get a job.
"Yes, no need to emphasize it, I'll grant your wish. Haven't you always wanted to avoid studying?"
Chen Zhi's mind went blank for a moment. If it were before, he would have been overjoyed, finally able to stop studying. But now, having suddenly received his older brother's permission, he felt empty and lost.
So what will he do after that? Will he really go to work? I wonder if it will be tiring, and if there will be a lot of work.
Chen Yu began to listen intently as the two spoke, occasionally letting out a sob to indicate that she was still crying.
When she heard her second brother say he was not going to study anymore, she knew that he was going to use the same old trick again and pull out all the stops. As a result, her eldest brother, who had always been insistent on this matter, surprisingly agreed.
Chen Yu could no longer sit still; she lifted the curtain and rushed out.
But the angry words stuck in Chen Yu's throat when he saw Chen Ke's calm and composed face. Chen Yu felt a little flustered, feeling that his older brother was completely different from the one before.
Chen Ke frowned slightly as he looked at Chen Yu, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was streaked with tears. "Go out and wash your face and tidy yourself up. If you want to eat, cook for yourself. If you don't want to eat, go back to sleep. Keep it down."
Hearing that fierce tone, tears streamed down Chen Yu's face, making her look extremely pitiful.
But Chen Ke had already taken his toiletries and turned to leave.
Chen Yu: "…Waaaaah…Big brother really doesn't love me anymore…Waaaah…Poor me, I've never had a father or mother since I was little, and now even my older brother doesn't care about me anymore, waaaah, I'm so pitiful…"
Chen Yu was in tears, sobbing uncontrollably; this time, she was truly heartbroken and cried.
Chen Zhi, who had been sitting on the bed in a daze, finally couldn't bear to see Chen Yu crying so sadly, so he got up and hugged her. "Alright, at least your older brother has cared for you for so many years, hasn't he? How are you pitiful? Unlike me, I was the one who was neglected when Mom and Dad were alive. Now that Mom and Dad are gone, your older brother cares for you even more. Between pitiful and pitiful, who is more pitiful?"
Chen Yu glanced at Chen Zhi, sobbing, "Fine, it seems you're more pitiful... Now you can't even go to school."
Chen Zhi: ""
I should have known better than to comfort this clueless little sister. Not only are her words not comforting at all, but they also keep hurting my feelings.
"Alright, wipe your face and think about what to do next."
"Sniffle..." Chen Yu sniffled, her voice weak. "What can I do? If you don't want to go to school, you can go find a job. I... I'll just obediently follow my older brother and study." She also needed to be more diligent so that her older brother wouldn't find a way to leave her!
She couldn't compare to Chen Zhi, after all, he was a boy and already sixteen years old. Her older brother was already able to support them when he was sixteen, so Chen Zhi, putting aside everything else, should have no problem supporting himself.
How could a thirteen-year-old girl survive without her brother's protection?
As she thought about it, Chen Yu was overcome with sadness again. She couldn't understand how she had gone from being her older brother's beloved little sister to a disliked burden. Waaah, her older brother really didn't give her even a little time to adjust.
"...Shall we have dinner tonight?" Chen Yu, who had already eaten a quick and easy breakfast and hadn't eaten much at school for lunch (the school's food was even worse than the factory's), was now in a rumbling stomach after another bout of crying.
Chen Zhi slapped his forehead, "Oh no, I haven't washed the dishes from this morning!" He had finally managed to make that pot of porridge in the morning, and after eating it in a hurry, he went straight to school, thinking that his older brother would definitely wash it when he came back in the evening. But he didn't expect that his older brother would come back even later than them.
And they had already eaten.
The two men approached the stove with long faces, and unsurprisingly, the leftover batter in the pot had already turned sour and rancid.
Chen Yu pinched her nose. "Second brother, what did you eat for breakfast?"
Chen Zhi scratched his head and said in a dry, fierce tone, "What do you know? This is my first time cooking. It's good enough if I can even cook it properly. If you don't believe me, come and see what you can make later." After saying that, Chen Zhi took the pot out to wash it.
When Chen Ke came out of the shower, Chen Zhi was washing a pot in the sink. Thinking about the scene of washing diapers that morning, Chen Ke kindly reminded Chen Zhi, "Wash the pot outside, don't put it in the sink."
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