There was a time in the past when he was kept by his eldest brother's side to be looked after.
But Shen Ruxu had never been one to endure loneliness since childhood. The days locked in the villa made him try to cause destruction by rummaging through boxes and cabinets, causing trouble for his eldest brother.
Today he would tear documents into pieces and scatter them all over the carpet; tomorrow he would try to tie curtains into a rope to climb down from the second floor, only to get stuck in mid-air and howl.
Their eldest brother never got angry with him.
"...Eldest brother?" Shen Wenta mocked. "What does Shen Yi have to do with eldest brother? Don't drag him into everything."
He felt that this guy just wanted to use their eldest brother as a shield to escape the fate of being double-teamed and beaten by their parents.
"Really, I've actually seen a picture of her. It was a group photo with eldest brother."
"The specific background location in the photo wasn't very clear, and it was from over ten years ago."
"I asked eldest brother, but he said he didn't remember when it was taken either."
"However, he didn't look like he cared much, so I didn't overthink it at the time."
"Who knew that one day I would actually meet someone exactly like the person in the photo?"
To him, this was simply too miraculous.
"—You're crazy," Shen Wenta calmly concluded.
He could only conclude that this person had mental issues.
"Why do you always say that about me?" Shen Ruxu didn't want to argue about this with him, slowly speaking with keen interest, "The child in the photo looks exactly like her, but only the age is wrong. That girl looked to be in her teens, but Xiao Yi is only six."
"Besides, that was from when eldest brother was young. She wasn't even born yet, so unless that girl is her mother."
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why there would be people who look so similar in the world.
Shen Wenta listened intently. "But even a mother and daughter couldn't look exactly the same. It's too much of a coincidence."
"That's why I found it so strange, and why I would occasionally go find her to play during my time at the school."
The whole thing was very bizarre to Shen Ruxu.
He had indeed observed her for a very long time.
But even today, he still couldn't figure out why.
"Xiao Xun, do you want to say something?" After Shen Ruxu finished telling the story, he looked with interest at this rather smart little brother of the family, wanting to hear his opinion.
Shen Xun lowered his eyes: "Do you want to hear something more scientific, or something metaphysical?"
"Let's hear both."
"The scientific one is just a coincidence of limited gene arrangement and development."
"The metaphysical one is that there's something wrong with your brain, and you should go find a shaman to take a look."
"You don't believe me either?"
"Your words are completely baseless." Shen Xun rested his chin on his hand, his pitch-black eyes staring fixedly at him. "It doesn't rule out the possibility that you've gone mad."
He and his third brother stood on the same front.
Anyway, it wasn't just a matter of a day or two that their second brother's brain had issues.
Shen Wenta had a face that said I will send you to the best psychiatric hospital.
Shen Xun also wore a cold expression of You should go get an exorcism.
Shen Ruxu: "..."
"You two are just teaming up to bully me." He was so angry his stomach hurt, and he heavily pressed his face against the glass again.
The glass against his face was ice-cold.
Just like his utterly broken heart right now.
While the three were chatting, Shen Sixing finally hurried out of the school holding the child. Shen Wenta and Shen Xun got out of the car to greet them.
Seeing this, Shen Ruxu took the opportunity to try and open the car door to escape.
As a result, just as he leaned half his body out, he locked eyes with that group of strong and burly private mercenaries.
Shen Ruxu stared at them for two seconds, then shrank back with an expression of stomachache.
Forget it.
He wouldn't run.
"Brothers," Shen Yi trotted forward, hugged Shen Xun tightly, and then peeked at Shen Wenta, "Are you all okay?"
Shen Wenta answered briefly: "We're fine. We're not the ones in trouble."
"Did you see the person in the car?" He turned his face, looking at the wilted Shen Ruxu inside the car, speaking with a resentful tone: "Tomorrow I'm going to make him sit in prison until the floor rots!"
Shen Ruxu: "???"
"Am I a prison-bound male lead?" Seeing that the whole family seemed to be discussing him, he unhappily pulled the car door open and stepped down. "Why does everyone want to lock me up in prison?"
Shen Yi looked at him openly and honestly.
Shen Ruxu's hair was a bit messy, and he was still wearing the staff uniform of Hejing School's teachers. The speckled, dried bloodstains on his shirt all reminded Shen Yi of what the other party had done at the school.
She felt that letting this Shrimp-Rice Second Brother obediently go squat in prison actually seemed pretty good?
But the next second, she rejected this idea.
Was Shen Ruxu the kind of person with a well-behaved personality?
With this kind of criminal, it wouldn't be safe no matter which prison he was escorted to.
"But even if we send him in, he will just escape," Shen Yi suggested. "Better not do that."
That wasn't secure at all.
Shen Ruxu's eyes, however, lit up.
"I didn't expect you still loved me!"
He took the opportunity to lean close, grabbed her and pressed her into his arms, rubbing her like a large feline poking a furball, his voice soft. "I really didn't expect it. In this cold and ruthless home, my best ally is actually you! Xiao Yi."
As Shen Ruxu sighed with emotion, he genuinely felt that children were so fun to play with.
Shen Yi's head was rubbed messily by him.
Her hair was a mess.
Coming back to her senses and recounting his various intimidating actions toward her, the girl's anger flared up. She turned around and kicked him squarely on his body.
"Go die."
How dare he mess with her!
Shen Ruxu didn't dodge, so after taking a solid kick, his face turned pale, and he almost threw up.
He once again gained a new understanding of this little girl's brute strength.
During this operation, there were several kidnappers who had been taken down by her dirty tricks.
"You really are fierce," the young man quickly straightened his body, his eyes curving into crescents, gleaming with a smile. "But, you're so amazing."
He liked all vibrant and lively things.
Just like Shen Wenta; every time he provoked this younger brother, the emotional feedback he gave, whether positive or negative, would make him feel a long-lost sense of joy.
She was praised.
But Shen Yi wasn't happy at all. Right now, in her impression, Shen Ruxu was still a completely unreliable, temperamental thrill-seeker.
She bit the corner of her mouth, her whole body bristling with chills, and took the chance to push Shen Xun, this Little Bot, in front of herself.
Shifting from his sister's vivid expression to his brother's expressionless face, the corners of Shen Ruxu's mouth immediately turned down in disgust.
"Can't you see she is afraid of you?"
Shen Wenta found it somewhat odd. Shen Yi was never afraid of him, but she was actually afraid of Shen Ruxu.
Did he do something?
Shen Wenta narrowed his eyes, demanding aggressively, "What did you do?"
"I helped her take care of a terrorist who was chasing her!" Shen Ruxu lifted his chin, trying to claim credit from their father. If he had a tail behind him, it would be wagging right now. His curving eyes were filled with the words:
Praise me, praise me quickly.
"Take care of?" Shen Sixing was looking down at his messages, and this choice of words made the curve of his mouth pause slightly. He dragged out his words like a sigh: "Ruxu, are you saying that today, right in front of your sister, you killed someone?"
"Yes," Shen Ruxu broke into a bizarre smile. "That guy's carotid artery blood just sprayed right out. He ended up dying from excessive blood loss, and got me all dirty."
Shen Yi: "..."
She glanced at Shen Sixing's face.
She couldn't help but feel that her old father's expression right now was simply... chilling.
Not far away.
A black car slowly pulled to a stop.
The window rolled down halfway, revealing a cold, stern face.
As one of the main targets of the extortion, Song Guanyan was naturally brought in for the investigation. During the police questioning, his other daughter was mentioned with unusual frequency.
That girl named Shen Yi.
He watched her from a distance; she looked exceptionally lively, chattering away with her family about who-knows-what.
She wasn't scared, nor did she show the slightest bit of timidity.
From Song Yi's disjointed, trembling account, she had practically played the kidnappers for fools inside the school. She was a very smart kid.
Song Guanyan leaned lightly against the car window, trying to piece together the personality of this daughter he had only met a handful of times.
When Song Yi was rescued, she had just slowly regained consciousness. Recalling what happened today, her legs were still weak. The moment she saw her father arrive, she couldn't control herself and threw herself into his arms, sobbing.
"Dad, Shen Yi... Shen Yi hit me with a stun baton."
She whispered, her voice laced with grievance.
Song Yi hadn't suffered much at the hands of the kidnappers, but she had been genuinely knocked out cold by a vicious strike from Shen Yi's stun baton.
She couldn't help but clench her fists, trembling slightly.
Song Guanyan looked down, watching her quietly.
"Is that so?"
His voice was so calm it was unnerving.
"Why did she stun you?"
"How did the kidnappers know about her background?"
"Can you answer these questions for me, Xiao Yi?"
Every question was like a knife.
Precisely slicing open the things she tried to hide.
Song Yi was not good at lying.
She had been protected too well since childhood, so much so that after being questioned by her father, her tears began to fall in heavy drops.
"I was the one who told them..."
She choked out, "But I didn't lie... The person they were looking for was the true daughter of the richest man, and I... I'm not..."
Song Yi had thought about bravely admitting it and not implicating anyone else.
But in the end, she just didn't have the courage.
Given her age, cowardice was not a sin, and self-preservation was certainly not wrong either. However, Song Guanyan could not accept that after enjoying everything, she would hesitate not at all to push someone else to the front line.
People all have double standards. If Song Yi were his biological daughter, and she had sold out others to survive, Song Guanyan would have praised her for being smart, and even felt relieved that she was selfish enough.
But his biological daughter was someone else, and had nearly been killed by the kidnappers because of her.
Song Guanyan looked at the scene outside the window and remained silent for a long time.
So long that Song Yi thought he wasn't going to speak again.
Then he opened his mouth, "I will send you away."
"Do you want to go abroad? Or move to a place where no one knows you. I will find two people to take care of you."
"They will look after you until you are capable of living independently. I will regularly wire you money every month, and once you come of age, you can manage and allocate those funds yourself."
"From now on, there is no need for you to come looking for me ever again."
Song Yi froze.
Tears were still hanging on her face.
But she forgot to cry.
