Chapter 12 The Pale Ghost "Brother, was this your first kiss?"...
Lan Jia looked at Meng Cenjun, whose lips were swollen and red from being ravaged by her, and how she could still look down at her and question her. She couldn't help but feel furious.
She had been too soft-hearted towards him just now. She only regretted that she hadn't bitten hard enough. She should have bitten his mouth so badly that he would never be able to speak again.
Who else could she learn from? Who else could she learn from? Is it wrong to watch movies? He never gives her a chance to date, and she still has the nerve to ask? It's all Meng Cenjun's fault! It's all his fault!
"Get up!" Meng Cenjun pushed her.
Lan Jia remained motionless, seemingly rooted to the bed.
Seeing her stubbornness, Meng Cenjun turned cold and slammed the door shut as she left.
Although not much force was used, the door still slammed shut with a loud bang, sending shivers down the spines of both men.
Lan Jia curled up on the bed, sweating profusely, her whole body aching as if ants were biting her. The wound on her hand had reopened during her struggle with Meng Cenjun, blood seeping through the gauze, a shockingly red sight.
No matter how chaotic things were before, they had never resorted to such violence. When they were fighting just now, they abandoned all notions of status, dignity, and seniority. The two of them became mortal enemies, like wounded and trapped beasts, fighting to the death in the mud, determined to subdue each other.
Lan Jia thought that this was not an ordinary struggle, but a struggle for territory and dominance. Since only one person could be in charge of this family, Lan Jia wanted to let him know that she would protest, that she would not submit to him, and that she could live without him!
Although she was injured, he wasn't much better off. Lan Jia thought of the bite she'd taken on his arm earlier, the one that had drawn blood, and felt a surge of satisfaction. She hadn't lost to him; in fact, one could say she'd won.
Lan Jia, immersed in the joy and pain of impending victory, slowly and gradually closed her eyes, her consciousness becoming hazy.
The door opened, but it wasn't Meng Cenjun.
The doctor from before came in carrying a box, smiled at her, and said, "Let me take a look at your injury."
Lan Jia thanked her for making the trip so late.
She sat cross-legged on the bed, extending her hand for examination. The doctor frowned upon seeing her: "It's only just started to heal. Be careful; if it keeps recurring, it will leave a scar."
Hearing her concerned words, Lan Jia responded sullenly. It wasn't that she didn't want to pay attention, but she was too angry to care about such things.
Then she thought of Meng Cenjun. He actually agreed to get a doctor for her? Lan Jia felt a mix of emotions and asked softly, "What about him?"
The doctor disinfected her wound with a cotton swab soaked in iodine and replied, "His injury is more serious than yours."
Lan Jia fell silent.
The doctor thought to himself: These two are really strange. One rushed her over, giving her countless instructions to be careful and meticulous, but then avoided seeing her at the last minute. The other was concerned, looking ashamed and remorseful, but deliberately concealing it. Anyone with eyes could see that they cared about each other, yet they both kept the other in the dark.
Thinking back to my own love life when I was young, I was just like that, proud and unwilling to back down, as if loving the other person even a little more would make me look inferior.
Seeing Lan Jia with tears in her eyes and a melancholy expression, he couldn't help but feel pity for her and decided to try to mediate.
"Did he hit you?" the doctor asked.
Lan Jia shook her head; on the contrary, she kept kicking and hitting Meng Cenjun.
"Then he must have insulted you."
Lan Jia nodded hesitantly, but it seemed as if she had cursed him first. Meng Cenjun never allowed her to swear, and since she wanted to rebel and demonstrate, her curses were especially harsh.
The doctor secretly intensified his efforts, earnestly offering her advice: "Why don't I call the police for you, testify on your behalf, and have the police arrest him on charges of domestic violence?"
Lan Jia shook her head vigorously, like a rattle-drum.
"don't want."
Actually, Lan Jia is in the wrong. If an investigation finds her to be the culprit, wouldn't she have to go to jail? After all, Meng Cenjun still has evidence of her crimes on her person.
The doctor smiled: "That's right. Wouldn't it be better to minimize the problem and compromise on both sides?"
"Actually, there's nothing difficult about being in a relationship. The problem is when neither side is willing to back down. Over time, even the most loving couples will grow cold-hearted and lose their affection."
Lan Jia, doubting she had misheard, said awkwardly, "Actually, we are siblings."
Now it was the doctor's turn to be stunned. Could it be that she had misunderstood? But having had dating experience since she was a teenager, she didn't believe she could be wrong.
She looked at Lan Jia suspiciously, and the more she looked and thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong, and a forbidden shadow quietly fell over her heart regarding the two of them.
She couldn't control this. She stopped trying to persuade the doctor, silently treated Lan Jia's wound, and then kept her distance.
So much so that when she later treated Meng Cenjun's injury, her gaze became unusually strange when she saw the cut on his lip.
After being bandaged, Lan Jia felt inexplicably depressed and collapsed again.
Meng Cenjun will not forgive her this time.
She committed an unforgivable sin against him.
Unable to stop thinking about the kiss from earlier, she still remembered every detail clearly. Slippery, soft, dizzying—for some reason, a few words popped into her mind.
Once you've tasted the marrow, you'll find it unforgettable and difficult to digest.
I forgot which movie I saw the line in.
But she was genuinely startled, her face flushed, and she felt incredibly embarrassed.
Lan Jia buried her face in the pillow, her thoughts suffocating. She had to explain to Meng Cenjun that she didn't mean it that way, she had to explain to him, explain...
She drooped her eyelids wearily; the commotion just now had really taken its toll. She was exhausted, but she wanted to wait for him to come back.
Why isn't he back yet? Is he going to sleep on the sofa again? What a cheapskate! If he's so capable, he should just avoid her forever.
I was in pain and exhausted. Finally, I started to lose patience and curse him under my breath: idiot, bastard, son of a bitch, all sorts of idiots...
After an unknown amount of time, the door finally opened a crack.
Seeing no movement inside, Meng Cenjun quietly walked in.
Lan Jia was already fast asleep, lying face down, haphazardly taking over his bed.
What's this? He's thirty years old. He doesn't have the patience to argue with disobedient kids anymore. He needs sleep. He needs to recharge his energy to deal with a whole bunch of headaches. He doesn't want to sleep on a hard sofa for another night.
Feeling stifled, Meng Cenjun walked straight over and lay down in the narrow space.
The bedside lamp was still on, casting a warm glow.
The person next to me was breathing lightly, impossible to ignore.
He turned his head to look at her and saw that half of her face was sunken in the pillow, her soft eyelashes hanging under her eyes, appearing thin and translucent like butterfly wings in the lamplight. Her hair, however, was a mess, like a bird's nest after all the commotion. Now, fast asleep, she was like a little bird in its nest, no longer chirping and giving him a headache.
Meng Cenjun gazed at her silently, thinking: Is she really so unguarded?
Indeed, she can never develop a sense of self-protection; she always cares more about others than him.
Now, she's started helping outsiders bully him.
She almost bit off a piece of flesh from his arm. What kind of bloodthirsty beast had he raised?
The intense anger has subsided, leaving only a desolate disappointment, like the lonely reefs of a white cliff that have stood for millennia.
Yi Lanjia. He truly didn't know what to do with her.
He was too tired to think about it again tomorrow and resolve everything there.
Meng Cenjun reached out and turned off the light, lay down, and closed her eyes.
The two of them stopped fighting and lay down together peacefully, a rare occurrence.
Their hands, wrapped in gauze, were pressed close together, one injured on the left and the other on the right, one palm facing up and the other palm facing down, delicately and slightly coolly touching.
Two pale ghosts in the darkness.
He and Yi Lanjia will never be separated.
Before falling asleep, Meng Cenjun thought vaguely.
With that name imprinted in his mind, he dreamed about it all night.
In the dream, Lan Jia was a picky eater as a child, throwing the food she didn't like into his bowl, and saying with a grin, "Brother, it seems like we always like opposites." A little older, Lan Jia held a mirror, turning it this way and that, returning from summer camp with a freckle on her cheekbone, feeling distressed. Seeing him beside her, she held out the mirror, "Brother, let me see if you have any freckles." The mirror reflected their heads close together, their features distinctly different. "Brother, we don't even look alike," she said, somewhat dejectedly.
"What's the difference? Aren't we both eyes, nose, and mouth?" He never felt there was any difference between him and Lan Jia. Even if there was, he would use a magnifying glass to find a single similarity to prove it to her.
"Our hair is different too. Why is my hair color so much lighter than yours?"
"That's because you're a picky eater and malnourished."
"The eyelid creases are different too. Why is my double eyelid just a narrow strip?"
"Did you stay up late again? Your eyes are swollen."
He searched for every reason, but refused to admit that they weren't related by blood. The closest bonds in the world are held together by blood, and he dared not think about what would be left between him and Lan Jia if they were stripped of the veneer of brotherhood and sisterhood.
He didn't want to become a stranger to her; he didn't want to walk alone in the rainy night anymore.
The scene shifts to a bright sunny day, and Lan Jia runs over, still wearing the same white dress she wore today—a light and flowing gauze dress with a circle of small flowers adorning the neckline.
A mischievous glint in her eyes as she said to him, "Brother, I've finally discovered what we have in common."
"What?" he asked, bewildered.
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him quickly and without warning.
He froze, frozen... like a stiff wooden puppet.
After some time, Lan Jia released him, beaming with pride: "You have to close your eyes when you kiss, right?"
Yes, he closed his eyes just now. And today… he closed his eyes too.
Then, she blinked her clear black and white eyes and asked him, "Brother, is this your first kiss?"
He looked at her and remained silent for a long time.
She glared at him angrily, then shoved him hard with both hands. Meng Cenjun felt a chill and fell into the pool.
Dark clouds obscured the sun, dimming the light. When he came to his senses, he saw Lan Jia snatching his blanket.
He lay on the bed, feeling cold all over, staring at the dark ceiling for a long time, thinking: How could he possibly tell her?
How could he possibly tell her...?
A note from the author:
Recommended song: Sandy Lam's "I'm Not Strong Enough"
Brother wasn't as invincible as sister imagined. [Pity]
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