21 Extra: Sour Apricot (also has a story)
◎Talking is Huo Yan's past◎
[Huo Qubing loved his younger brother very much.
There was no way. Young Master Huo often felt that no one understood him except Ah Yan and his uncle.
For example, he likes to deploy troops, capture cities and plunder territories, and he enjoys it.
Others just thought that he was playing with his younger brother by working tirelessly to devour the power of those older kids and researching strategies.
Just like the old teacher who had already started teaching them to read "Shangshu" saw that the two of them did not leave after class every day, but huddled together, squatting on the ground, head to head, holding a wooden stick to study the distribution of large and small forces on the simple hand-drawn map, analyzing the combat power of both sides. He often rolled up the scroll in his hand and tapped it gently on their little hands, signaling them not to waste their time on trivial matters. He also specifically asked the usually quiet Ah Yan why he followed him to make trouble.
Anyone would be happy about this.
He would drag his younger brother into things he thought were fun, just like his younger brother dragged him to the toy house. That was the good brotherhood between the two of them, working together to build their careers.
This kind of thing happens a lot, mainly because he and Ayan have different focuses. Sometimes Ayan disturbs him, and sometimes he disturbs Ayan.
He always speaks out when he is dissatisfied.
It seems that Ayan is the same.
He always said, Brother, if I don’t think you’re disturbing me, then it’s not disturbing me.
This is what Huo Yan thought, and coincidentally, Huo Qubing thought the same.
So Ah Yan told his teacher that he wasn't wasting his time on trivial matters; they had already completed their studies. He wasn't messing around with him; he was helping him accomplish a major milestone in his life.
Ah Yan would always bow slightly, and never give in in his words.
Sir, my brother and I were complicit in this depravity. There was no one leading the other in misbehavior. If there is any guilt, my brother and I share the blame. And it's not that just because we two act out of line, my brother has failed to set a good example. That's not fair to my brother.
Huo Qubing liked such a younger brother. He did not think that A Yan was wrong to refute his teacher, nor did he think that A Yan was wrong to cheat the powerful and wealthy for their money.
He didn't think his younger brother was wrong.
Later, as they grew older, it was not an exaggeration to say that they held high positions and had great power.
Ah Yan's skill in cultivating his Qi became better and better, and he no longer got angry. When he encountered someone he disliked pointing fingers at him, he would always hold his chin with his hands and smile, with a cunning look like a civet cat between his eyebrows, and say, "My happiness is priceless."
He would always smile, curl up the corners of his lips, and look at that person with his brother. His black almond-shaped eyes were different from the spring apricot blossoms of others. They were sharp, like a long sword dripping with blood.
"How he behaves is up to me and him. Don't worry about it."
Others would always run away in fear.
He didn't mean it, but he was getting older, and even the slightest hint of his bloodiness on the battlefield was enough to scare people.
His words were just a reminder.
Because if his younger brother gets angry, the person in front of him will not end up well.
He probably meant well, well, he was mainly annoyed that these people wanted to get their recommendation but were unwilling to say anything useful, only eyeing A Yan's high position above everyone else, and it was very annoying that his poor offspring had irrelevant worries.
It disturbed him.
Ah Yan would always lean on the soft couch and laugh at his ferocious look.
But no one knew better than him that after forcing people away, A Yan's smile would always deepen, his eyes would be gentle, and he would say, "Brother, I don't eat people. At most, I will send him as a Han envoy to scout the way for your army."
I told you before, Ayan has a bad temper.
His temper is not good either.
Speaking of which, the servants they currently employ are still the ones who were transferred from their uncle's family.
Uncle carefully selected, trustworthy.
Neither of them was too lazy to recommend anyone, or even to ask for someone to recommend them.
But no one believed it except the two of them and their uncle.
It's really ridiculous.
According to Ah Yan, I'm so busy with accounting every day, and if you bring those crappy things to me again, you'll have to get out of here.
So Ah Yan and I were always alone, standing on the left and right of my uncle who presided over the court meetings.
One was yawning with dark circles under his eyes, and the other was resting with his eyes closed.
A Yanchun was tired from dealing with internal affairs. As for me, I just went back to Chang'an, turned on the low-energy mode, and was too lazy to attend the morning court.
According to my uncle, we felt like we had been trapped for eight hundred years.
As soon as he said that, Ayan cut military spending.
My uncle had to ask me to persuade Ayan. Fortunately, everyone knew that Huo Sinong would not refuse the championship candidate.
This is indeed the case.
And Master Huo, Lord Huo, and General Huo have always had this confidence.
My brother loves me the most.]
Huo Yan loved Huo Qubing so much that he wanted to give his all to him.
There's no way, he loved it when he was young.
But he found himself liking him more and more, and he even wanted to lean on his brother occasionally because his brother was so nice.
He loves his brother who is quiet, decisive and proud.
He loves his brother very much and he protects him. Even if he has to bear the blame, he will stand firmly behind him and tell him that this is just a matter between you and me and no one else has the right to interfere.
So he always knew that his occasional cold face and silence did not mean he was heartless. His brother had always been a raging fire, and even if it was just a corner, he had the courage to burn everything.
He always sighed, if there is anyone in the world who can drink ice without feeling cold, it must be my brother.
It is what I wish for and what I want.
So he always wanted to be the wind, carrying the fire up.
When he got older, people always said that he had a good temper. In fact, Huo Yan knew better than others that he still had a bad temper. Even when he was getting along with his brothers, he was always the one who needed to be tolerated and could do whatever he wanted.
He is a proud, sensitive, unpleasant and twisted person, but he just likes to be favored.
He and his brother also had sharp conflicts.
He once even got angry with his brother over an apricot.
It’s not a big deal, actually it’s very childish.
But he still gets angry when he thinks about it now.
That day, Liu Che invited them to go out for horseback riding. Huo Qubing picked two apricots, gave one to Wei Qing, and Liu Che shamelessly took the other one away.
Huo Yan, who had been waiting obediently for Huo Qubing, suddenly felt aggrieved when he saw Liu Che showing off.
Maybe it's because he is used to his brother having everything.
There were only two apricots that day.
My brother gave it to my uncle and His Majesty, but there was nothing for him.
It's obviously just a small matter. It's obviously what should be done.
Obviously if it were him, he would do the same.
Huo Yan still felt like he was being pricked by needles in his heart. The more unhappy he became, the more he couldn't help but think about Huo Qubing and Wei Qing's preference for Liu Che. The more he ruminated on it, the angrier he became, like a thorn stuck in his throat.
"Hey, Xiao Xing, do you want Ah Yan?" Liu Che poked Huo Yan's elbow, showing off a bit. "Qu Bing made it for me personally!"
Huo Yan hit his hand, and seeing how frivolous he was, he lost control and yelled, "You bastard! It's all your fault. That's mine."
Liu Che picked him up and sat him next to him. "Ayan, can you be reasonable? This belongs to me."
Liu Che never thought that one day he would be able to say this.
As soon as he said this, he was stunned.
Huo Yan was emo again, putting on a deadpan face and saying, "Give me the apricots!"
Liu Che twitched his lips and told him to get out of here and have a relapse.
"Go back to where you came from."
Huo Yan groaned, "My apricots, you apricot thief!"
Liu Che waved his sleeves and walked him to Huo Qubing who was leading the pony. Wei Qing smiled and urged Liu Che to move forward in the carriage to leave space for the child.
As soon as Huo Yan arrived in front of Huo Qubing, he lowered his eyes, turned around slowly in his own posture, and held Huo Qubing's hand, like a piece of snow covering Huo Qubing.
"Brother, you can't side with him."
The sound is very soft.
He wanted to bury his head in the crook of Huo Qubing's neck and act like a spoiled child, but at this point, he raised his head high and spoke in a low voice, even with a hint of command.
He was dead like this.
"Huo Qubing, you can't."
I am your biological brother, and we have always been connected in spirit.
You can't, at least you shouldn't.
Brother, Bingbing, brother, you can't.
You can't abandon me like mom did.
Huo Qubing hated being restricted and ordered the most. Although he looked calm and stern, he was actually very violent.
Someone like Huo Yan, who was being forced to surrender for no apparent reason, deserved a beating and a scolding before leaving: "What the hell are you, you dare to meddle in my business?"
But Huo Yan is not.
He is not.
Because he couldn't see other people's eyes, but he could see his brother clearly when he was born.
In these eyes, which were similar to his but as dark as the bottom of the sea, there was constant anxiety, fear, and an urgent need to hold on to something tightly.
If it's Ah Yan, I can tolerate him touching my reverse scale.
"Ayan, tell me why you are angry."
He spoke softly, revealing the small canine teeth on his right cheek, and his tiny laughter sounded like snow falling on branches.
Huo Yan refused to do so. He clung to Huo Qubing tightly. When he heard Huo Qubing laugh, his ears turned red. He ordered again, "You are not allowed to laugh, and you are not allowed to side with him."
"Ah Yan, if you don't tell me, I don't know how to comfort you." Huo Qubing put down Huo Yan's dog-skin plaster, then held Huo Yan's face and said, "Come on, stop nagging and tell me what you are dissatisfied with. If I am the one who makes you sad, I am willing to do it, and I will change."
Twins can be very similar, even if they are different in normal life.
So no one knew how rare it was for Huo Qubing to make such a concession, but Huo Yan knew it.
He shook his head, said I was crazy, and refused to say anything more.
He could silently make concessions for Huo Qubing, but he didn't want Huo Qubing to make concessions because of his boredom.
Huo Qubing simply held it up again for him and said, "I think you might be willing to talk about it in this position."
Huo Yan looked around and put down his hands that were covering his face when he saw that there was no one around.
"I'm not a puppy, don't hold me up!"
Huo Qubing then bounced up a bit and changed to the lift in The Lion King.
"Go ahead, go ahead, brother is listening!"
Huo Yan clenched his fist and swung it at him.
"Put it down!"
Huo Qubing dodged it skillfully, then raised it again, raised his eyebrows and smiled at him, "This is a trading game. If you tell the truth, I will let you down."
Huo Yan gritted his teeth in anger, but he didn't lie and just told everyone how uncomfortable he felt.
I told you. I want to be fair to myself because I have paid for it myself. I don't like your insanity of being partial to others.
Come on, let your brother Yan hear me curse you as a selfish and sick-brained person.
I just like you to be bored with me.
Seeing Huo Qubing's helpless expression, he immediately put on a heartless, infuriating laugh and said, "Brother, ah, I can still call you that, right?"
Huo Qubing didn't bother to pay attention to him and just forced him to carry the body and get off the car.
"If you don't want to laugh, then don't laugh."
Huo Qubing could draw a bow at that time, which shows how strong his arm strength was. He could carry Huo Yan, a weakling who was half a head smaller than him, as if it were a piece of cake.
"But Ah Yan, haven't I always favored you the most?"
Huo Yan stopped struggling. Huo Qubing patted his back. He really didn't understand. Wasn't his performance obvious?
He counted his preferences, pulled the branches of the apricot tree, and put the apricots into Huo Yan's arms.
"I'm picky, but I'll eat anything you give me. I'll give you money too. You call me by my full name, and I won't get angry. Your moods change like a mother's every day, and I pamper you like a son every day."
He became angrier and angrier as he spoke, and finally his brows hardened and he sneered again.
"You have a lot of potential, Huo Yan. You will bite me back."
Huo Yan is no different from being half dead.
"Brother."
He shouted weakly.
"I'm just used to it. I'm used to you loving me the most."
Huo Qubing threw an apricot on his head.
"You know it, but you're still talking nonsense? Get out of here!"
Huo Yan couldn't wait to take a bite of the apricot, but it was so sour that his teeth were shaking.
"Brother, brother, no more! It's so sour!"
Huo Qubing chuckled and threw another one into his arms.
"Don't you like to eat?"
"You're going too far. Brother, you're biased, shouldn't I be angry?" Huo Yan felt so wronged that he lowered his head to chew on the sour apricots, blinking his eyes repeatedly to prevent tears from falling. "I thought there were only two apricots, but there were so many, and you wouldn't give them to me!"
Huo Qubing would always touch his younger brother's hair, little by little with his slender fingers covered with thick calluses, as if he was soothing a cat with its fur standing on end.
The present time is no exception.
"Of course I love you the most, so how could I forget to bring it to you? It's just that I wanted to bring you here and pick it with you."
Ayan occasionally reveals a heartbreaking fragility, like a lion cat.
Coincidentally, Huo Qubing didn't feel annoyed.
But he liked his younger brother to be high-spirited and it didn't matter if he was a little domineering.
He, Huo Qubing, was able to protect his younger brother.
His younger brother always said, what can I give you, brother.
But now he asked and begged for something, he said, Brother, I need a lot of love.
Fortunately, Huo Qubing was not short of love.
He can afford it.
Like Ah Xi's arms full of apricots.
He can afford it.
But in the end, His Majesty found out about this matter.
Your Majesty is still making fun of A Yan because of this.
My uncle said he didn't know, but when Ah Yan's apricots were ripe that day, there were still quite a few on my uncle's table.
【Author’s words】
Huo Yan was quite young when he left home, and he doesn't remember much about it.
He was probably in the first or second year of high school, as young as a water chestnut. In the middle of winter, he carried all the belongings he had saved, put on his school uniform jacket, and strolled on the street.
He remembered that it was quite cold, but he didn't feel cold in his heart.
nothing.
It was just that he had just beaten that old beast and the little turtle half to death.
He remembered this so clearly that he would remember it even if it turned to ashes.
Whenever he thought of the old bastard and the little bastard who were beaten to the ground by him, he could laugh to himself.
I thought this old beast who cheated on his wife first and then forced her to commit suicide had some great abilities, only violence.
You are such an idiot. If I could be beaten into submission, I would have knelt down and acted like a dog when my mother committed suicide. How could you take her place?
He thought that he must have pulled the corners of his lips too far, which caused him to hiss in pain.
Later, he remembered finding a convenience store, ordering a rice ball, taking a bite, grinning, and rubbing his red, frozen hands. Blood was oozing from the wound when he rubbed it, but he should still be smiling, looking heartless.
Yeah, he's heartless.
He has no heart.
Look how good the old beast treated him after his mother died.
What a great and loving father he was. He said that the aunt was just an aunt and his brother was just the nanny's son. He sent him to a prestigious college, gave him lots of money, and never asked for his grades.
He just beat him as if breaking his bones would break his bones.
He hoped that he would rot away, rot away quickly, and become a second-generation rich kid, forgetting his mother who didn't know how to back down even after she grew old and lost her looks, and who questioned him in public why he cheated on her, and be a good son to him, a good father.
But he just likes to be an ungrateful person, and he hates being a good son the most.
He wanted to tear apart everything the old man cared about bit by bit, tear open his dignified exterior and reveal his smelly insides.
He took another bite of the rice ball, and blood oozed from his waist, which was torn by the yellow thorn branches.
It tasted so bad that he couldn’t remember anything about it. He only remembered the rice balls from that day.
Oh, right.
Come to think of it, the convenience store clerk was probably the most interesting. He probably thought he was a gangster who had gone astray, so he didn't dare to approach him and just stayed away from him.
What did he do at that time? It seemed like he suddenly had a bad taste in his mouth.
He raised his lips and smiled, his expression was gloomy and sinister, and his eyes were as cold as ice.
"Hello." His lips were straight. "Get another Band-Aid."
The tone was casual, and the voice was low and cold, like snow falling on the ground.
The clerk took a Band-Aid from the shelf.
"Um, alcohol, do you want more?"
He spoke in a halting manner.
The boy was probably about the same size as him or a little bigger. Huo Yan couldn't remember exactly. He only remembered that the boy also gave him a small bag of opened cotton swabs.
It didn't seem like he was afraid. The shop assistant was quite brave.
He seemed to have cleaned his wound and touched his head, and the little canine teeth at the corners of his lips seemed to be tense.
"What's your name?"
He couldn't remember clearly, but it seemed that the boy's hands were shaking a little, and he was probably sad, sad for him.
It was a truly novel experience, nothing like this had happened to me since my mother died.
He didn't know what happened to him, probably because he was rebellious and angry.
He only remembered the boy's hand and the fleeting warmth.
"Leave."
From a distance, he saw a young man touching the head of the boy who opened the door, smiling gently.
The boy shook his head and called him uncle.
The young man was startled when he saw him, and subconscious concern was revealed in his eyes.
Huo Yan didn't know what happened, he fled in panic like a defeated sick dog.
He thought about it again and again, and finally felt that it was probably because his dog's sparse, bare fur could not fall under the light, and once the light hit it, its true appearance was revealed.
He was a person who always forgot the pain, so he could not remember those cold nights when he walked alone, but he remembered the tenderness and unspeakable embarrassment of this moment for a long time.
So after he killed the old beast, he would occasionally walk to that street, always dressing himself up nicely, hoping in his heart that he would not be in a mess the next time they met.
But he never saw those two people again.
I asked the owner but he said it was too long ago and he couldn't remember clearly.
I can't remember.
He tightened his collar against the wind and subconsciously touched his forehead. It was as if a boy his own size had touched his head and tightened his lips for him on a winter day a few years ago.
Why record this irrelevant thing?
This time he didn't even have the chance to be the doll standing outside the glass window watching him run towards happiness.
He is always thinking.
Just like he always questioned his teacher who cut his soul apart and stuffed himself into the machine again and again, "Are you stupid, teacher? You are hurting yourself and still grinning."
Just like he always despised his teacher for being stupid, but always admired his teacher's courage to follow the light.
All his life he had been eccentric, arrogant, and annoying.
He always watches other people's happiness from afar.
Until he opened his eyes again.
He was no longer able to just watch others from afar, his happiness was right in the palm of his hand, he just needed to clench his fist tightly, so he clenched it tightly.
What the teacher said is true. It turns out that if you embrace the sun, your bones and blood will become abundant.
In an instant, greed arose.
So this time, can you please not leave like your mother?
I will protect you.
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