Youyou suddenly hugged Mu Yazhe and put his arms around the man’s shoulders. With reddened eyes, he said, “Daddy, just take it that I’m begging you, okay?! Trust me this time. Believe in your sons’ abilities!”
Mu Yazhe clenched his fists tightly and suddenly loosened them, gently drawing the two little lads into his embrace.
“Wait for me!”
“Uh huh.”
…
2am.
Past midnight, the night sky was gloomy and dark clouds obscured the moon. It was about to rain heavily again.
The driver sent Youyou and Little Yichen to the harbor early and left quickly.
Little Yichen held his brother’s hand tightly, unwilling to let go. The two little lads stood at the harbor. The night wind was strong, and the cold sea breeze stung their cheeks painfully.
“Youyou, you know, actually, I’m not stupid. I know a lot of things. It’s not like I don’t know how to do those math questions!”
Startled, Youyou turned to look at him.
Memories came back and he recalled their first encounter. The two of them sat on the Ferris wheel, facing each other. A math question. He clumsily counted with his fingers in front of Youyou.
Youyou mocked him mercilessly. “You have to make up for your lack of IQ with your height?”
From the first time they met, he had thought that Little Yichen was an idiot.
“What’s 4+5+6+7+8+9+10? I’ll give you ten seconds to calculate!”
Little Yichen immediately counted with his fingers.
Youyou looked at him speechlessly and thought to himself, this brother of mine – are we really from the same womb?
How could he be so stupid?
In reality?
Little Yichen was not stupid at all. On the contrary, he was smart enough to deliberately pretend to be stupid. This gave him an excuse to pester Youyou to teach him math.
At that time, Youyou was not close to his father.
This seemed to be the only way to get close to this arrogant brother.
However, as the older brother, he had always pretended to be dumb and foolish, as if he was always looked down upon by this younger brother.
But now, he did not want to be looked down upon.
He wanted Youyou to know that although he was not as smart as him, he had the ability to protect him and his mother.
…
“Youyou – Daddy, Mommy, and I, together with you, staying in the same house, and living our lives together – what do you think of that?”
He remembered how he had stood before him and helplessly confessed, “I really like it this way. I like Mommy, and I like you too. I want our whole family to live together! This way! It will feel like home, right?”
…
“Are you afraid that I’ll steal Mommy’s love? I swear! I won’t snatch Mommy away from you. On the contrary, you’ll have Daddy’s love and my love! The three of us will dote on you, okay?”
…
Recovering from his thoughts, he smiled as tears welled up in his eyes.
How could he not know that Little Yichen was playing dumb? As his older brother, he was only giving in to him!
No matter how he bullied Little Yichen, that boy merely smiled.
“See!” Little Yichen lifted his wrist and waved it in front of Youyou. “Do you remember this necklace?”
Under the moonlight, a purple crystal necklace sparkled around his wrist.
“Of course I remember!”
Youyou also raised his wrist and placed it next to his brother’s wrist. On both wrists, were two identical purple necklaces. They were beautiful and silently attested to their oneness!
“I swear that I will protect you forever!”