Shen Zhizhao seemed genuinely stumped, staring silently at Shen Yi.
He had never been good at dealing with people who had a screw loose.
Shen Ruxu was one.
She was the second.
—Was she no longer afraid of him?
Shen Zhizhao said dryly, "Then you're really something."
Shen Yi naturally heard the thin veil of sarcasm and suddenly lost the desire to speak. She just stared at him intently, as if trying to find some crack in his cold facade.
After a long while, she asked in return, "So what do you want me to do?"
Her voice carried a sting.
The living room fell quiet for a moment. Shen Sixing held his teacup without moving, his gaze shifting quietly between the siblings.
Shen Zhizhao pondered for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was lower than usual. "I had a dream."
"A blurry dream."
"So? I was in the dream?" Shen Yi took a step forward, her retort heavy with hostility.
Shen Zhizhao didn't speak; silence stood between them.
Shen Yi thought to herself that it was actually quite good that Shen Zhizhao had no memory.
Otherwise, she really wouldn't know how to face this person.
The Dahei from those three months and the older brother standing before her were too disjointed, like a piece of jade shattered into two halves that could never be pieced back together.
Shen Zhizhao wasn't angry. His gaze darkened, carrying a deep, quiet earnestness.
Surprisingly, he admitted it: "Yes, you were in the dream."
He was testing her.
Shen Yi could feel it.
Did he have his memories? It didn't seem like it.
Shen Zhizhao was the most emotionally expressive of all her brothers, the one closest to a normal person. If he had his complete memories, he wouldn't have this attitude.
Of this, Shen Yi was absolutely certain.
She didn't know whether to feel relieved or a little sad.
Relieved because she didn't want to drag up the past with him.
In Shen Yi's eyes, Dahei and Shen Zhizhao were simply two different people.
One was a pitiful little thing who needed her protection, and the other was the aggressive eldest son of the Shen family standing right here.
Sad because she would never see Little Zhizhao again.
"So, are the things in the dream important?" Shen Yi suppressed that bit of bitterness and put on a smiling face. "Big brother, did you call me over just for a dream that doesn't exist?"
"Not important."
Shen Zhizhao answered quickly.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, he couldn't help but question himself in his heart.
Was it really not important? Then why had he cried? When he woke up from the dream, it felt as if his heart had been squeezed, and that dull ache hadn't completely dissipated even now.
He couldn't figure it out.
So he wanted to try and see if he could find the answer in her.
Even if, in his eyes, she was just an ignorant child and her answers might be meaningless, Shen Zhizhao still wanted to talk to her.
"But I'm still curious. We had something that served as proof of your existence."
"Therefore, it's hard for me to chalk everything up to just a dream."
Shen Zhizhao leaned forward slightly, his gaze locking onto her. "You know something, don't you?"
His tone was a question, but his aura was exceptionally oppressive.
Like an unsheathed blade, all its sharpness pressed into that one casual sentence.
Shen Yi bristled.
Almost instinctively, her back tensed and she lifted her chin slightly—a classic defensive posture. "I don't know."
Shen Sixing watched the confrontation between the siblings.
Both Shen Zhizhao and Shen Yi had a bit of a tit-for-tat, aggressive vibe going on.
Shen Zhizhao was highly offensive, trying to force something out of her.
That was his personality; his status as the eldest son of the Shen family meant he rarely had to bow his head.
And he unconsciously adopted this coercive questioning attitude toward Shen Yi as well.
Shen Yi clearly wasn't buying it.
Both of them were acting very strangely.
There was a contradictory and alienated feeling to it, like acquaintances meeting but not actually being very close.
It was like two entangled threads that had been forcefully pulled apart, and when put back together, they just couldn't align.
Wen Ya was still smiling foolishly, simply assuming the siblings had a good relationship.
"Are Xiao Yi and Zhizhao this close?" Only his silly, sweet wife was genuinely happy, covering her face. "The siblings really have such a good bond."
Shen Sixing: "..."
Shen Yi really didn't like talking about the past with Shen Zhizhao.
It always left her feeling an indescribable emptiness.
She really liked Dahei. Their three months together weren't fake, and her desire to protect him wasn't fake either.
But that had nothing to do with Shen Zhizhao.
His sudden, aggressive questioning only made Shen Yi feel like she was being repeatedly reminded—
That the Dahei who had spent every day with her for three months and this aggressive Shen Zhizhao were two different people.
She lowered her eyes, pushing those surging emotions back down bit by bit.
When she looked up again, she wore that nonchalant expression once more.
"By the way, Big Brother, you're the one arranging the specifics of our training on the island after the New Year, right?"
Shen Yi remembered the contents of the previous phone call.
Shen Zhizhao gave a "mm," looking down at her.
The original plan was to separate her and Shen Xun.
He really didn't want Shen Xun to be dragged down by Shen Yi. This kind of sibling duo usually meant one dragging the other down.
Useless emotions in the face of life and death would only sacrifice the other person's condition and energy.
Shen Zhizhao thought highly of Shen Xun.
He wouldn't allow Shen Xun to be burdened by any factor.
"You don't have to participate." For some reason, Shen Zhizhao didn't really want her to go in. "I can go explain it clearly to Grandpa for you."
Shen Yi kept her head down, her expression unreadable. "What about Shen Xun?"
"He has to go." Shen Zhizhao's expression instantly turned cold.
"He has no choice."
"..."
Shen Yi thought, Dahei had indeed grown up into the kind of person he hated the most.
Was this authoritarian demeanor any different from the elders of his family?
"Then I'll go too," Shen Yi said without hesitation. "The two of us will be together, right?"
Shen Zhizhao had originally wanted to separate them. He looked at her and said lightly, "Mm."
"I will let you two be together."
That was enough.
Shen Yi didn't pester him any further. She knew very well that Shen Zhizhao giving in this once was already his limit.
Behind her, Shen Xun had been listening quietly, his hand unknowingly gripping Shen Yi's cuff.
As soon as Shen Zhizhao finished speaking, he almost instinctively pulled her back, stepping in front of Shen Yi. The boy quickly spoke up with tact:
"Thank you, Big Brother. Goodbye, Big Brother."
After saying that, without waiting for Shen Zhizhao to respond, he dragged Shen Yi out of the living room.
Seeing this, Shen Ruxu casually tossed the building blocks in his hand. The blocks clattered all over the floor, but without even a glance, he slipped right into the two kids' room.
It wasn't just their dad who heard the special history between their eldest brother and Shen Yi.
Anyone who wasn't stupid could guess a few clues.
Shen Ruxu had previously felt that Shen Yi was very strange—why did she have a photo with their eldest brother?
But he didn't want to dig to the bottom of it.
One had to appropriately play dumb and learn to ignore anomalies.
Once the door closed and Shen Zhizhao's cold face was out of sight, Shen Yi finally seemed to unload a heavy burden, collapsing onto the bed.
"Talking to Big Brother is so exhausting."
She mumbled, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow.
Shen Xun sat on the edge of the bed, thought quietly for a moment, and slowly said, "Are you and Big Brother fighting?"
He thought their conversation just now was too strange.
They clearly wanted to get close to each other, yet for some unknown reason, it was mixed with a faint sense of unfamiliarity.
"It is not just a petty argument," Shen Yi sat up, blurting out the words with a touch of childishness. "Arguments are for friends. We are enemies now."
Shen Xun did not really want to go against their eldest brother; from what he could remember, anyone who crossed him usually met a miserable end.
But since Shen Yi put it that way, he declared without hesitation, "Then Big Brother is my enemy too."
Just as he pushed the door open, he overheard this childish exchange between his younger siblings.
The sudden burst of innocence and cuteness struck Shen Ruxu right in the heart.
A warm smile rippled across the young man's face. He stepped forward and ruffled both of their heads. "Then he is my enemy too. Now he has three enemies!"
"How about that, huh?" Shen Ruxu's voice lilted upward, wearing an expression that practically begged for praise.
Shen Yi could not help but bury her face in a pillow. Her muffled voice drifted out from behind the fabric: "You guys are so cute."
The world was a weird place, but her brothers were absolutely adorable, always willing to be weird right alongside her.
No matter what kind of nonsense she spouted, they would unconditionally play along.
She felt so incredibly happy.
...
