Shen Yi froze. Her puffed-up cheeks deflated like a popped balloon, and her voice was left with nothing but bewilderment: "...Ah?"
Hate her?
Shen Wenta looked at her stunned expression and gave a soft "hmm." After saying those words, the calmness in his heart gradually expanded.
He wasn't acting out of spite.
He had once truly despised her.
He had even genuinely hated her and wanted to kill her.
"So you actually did hate me," Shen Yi's thoughts were successfully derailed by his words. Temporarily forgetting about him refusing to buy her books, she spoke with childish indignation. "You're too much. I've never hated you."
"You pointed a real gun at me before, wanting to kill me, and I still didn't hate you."
The girl tilted her head up with a smug look as she spoke, as if to say, Look how generous I am!
"Then thank you so much for letting bygones be bygones," Shen Wenta's black pupils curved, swirling with a subtle light. He told her, "But of course, you're allowed to hate me too."
"It's your right."
Hating him wouldn't be so bad, actually.
Shen Wenta had always believed that love and hate were emotions humans were extremely stingy with.
Like limited resources, they needed to be allocated with careful calculation.
Aside from his family, he kept everyone at arm's length, even acting exceptionally harsh and vicious.
He was reluctant to give any positive emotions.
But once someone was accepted by Shen Wenta and placed into the category of people he liked and deemed important...
He would be the one willing to give everything for them.
"Since you're so generous and chose not to hate me, you should just like me from now on." Shen Wenta smiled earnestly.
Shen Yi bit her lip. "Why do I have to like you just because I don't hate you?"
This kind of gangster logic wasn't right.
"I treat the people I like very well, and I'm quite useful." Shen Wenta gave a soft chuckle and lowered his voice. "There will be times you'll have to beg me in the future."
"No." Shen Yi tilted her head up, using a tone that suggested she had already seen through everything. "I won't beg you. You'll be the one begging me. You'd be dying to beg me to come find you."
This kind of guy who secretly enjoyed things was the easiest to read.
Smugly talking about making others beg him, when in reality, he had surrendered long ago. The only tough thing about him was his mouth.
Being hit right on the mark, Shen Wenta wasn't annoyed. Instead, he lowered his eyes and put on a rare display of good temper.
Oh, things were really looking up today.
Someone who usually exploded at the slightest provocation was actually so calm.
It seemed that the phrase "I don't hate you anymore" wasn't just for her to hear, but also a pardon he had spoken to himself.
He really is a strange person, Shen Yi thought.
"If you won't beg me, then consider it me begging you. Be a little more obedient from now on, okay? I'm not asking you to be a lady, but at least stop reading those stories."
Shen Wenta leaned back into the sofa, his murmuring tone as soft as a sigh.
Thinking back to the garbage she had been reading made his head ache.
Raising a younger sister at such a young age was so, so difficult.
Why did she secretly learn bad things when he wasn't paying attention?
Why on earth?
He was like an unreasonable, doting father, blaming all these problems on the school, her classmates, and her teachers.
He would complain about everything under the sun, but he would never consider that the child herself might be the problem.
"Stop associating with shady people at school." The young man's calm tone gradually grew harsh. "Those people will only lead you astray."
"What shady people?" Bringing up this topic made Shen Yi a little unhappy too, and she immediately retorted. "I don't even have any friends at school. Where would these shady people come from?"
"And all of this, absolutely all of it, is my brother's fault."
"Right," Shen Xun triggered on the keyword. "It's all my brother's fault."
Shen Wenta: "Me again?"
He was more wronged than Dou'e.
Shen Wenta truly hadn't interfered with these two kids making friends in their class.
He pointed at himself, his eyebrows slightly raised, trying to sort out this sudden chain of accusations. "I clearly said I'd let you have my friends."
"But you also said you didn't need them and told me to keep them for myself."
How could he be blamed for that?
"Oh, not you. It has nothing to do with you." Shen Yi: "I'm talking about you! Fourth Brother!"
Shen Xun quietly blinked twice. After thinking about what bad things he might have done recently, he slowly replied, "I didn't do anything wrong."
The boy tilted his face up and pursed his lips, looking completely unrepentant.
"Really?" Shen Yi leaned in and pulled at his cheek. "Do you dare say you haven't been secretly throwing away my gifts?"
Setting aside the series of events caused by Song Yi's female lead aura, under normal circumstances, the two of them weren't actually that unpopular at school.
That was just how the international class worked; socializing was largely based on both parties' family backgrounds.
After the people who messed with them were all expelled, who knows what those classmates imagined. They probably thought her family background was unfathomably deep, and some girls had already started trying to bring her small gifts.
This was a signal that they wanted to show goodwill and make friends.
But as a result, Shen Xun would tell those people to get lost every time he opened his mouth, casually tossing their gifts away in the process.
"Friends are useless," Shen Xun was not only unrepentant, but even decided to turn around and teach Shen Yi a few principles instead. "Dad said that friends exist to be betrayed."
Betraying friends was something Shen Sixing could do without a second thought.
In his eyes, his former colleagues weren't even considered human; at best, they were just a bunch of useful tools.
Therefore, it could be deduced.
The people in the international class were also a bunch of trash. Making friends with them was useless and a waste of time.
"I'm clearly helping you." Shen Xun spoke with self-righteous confidence, even carrying a hint of well-behaved eagerness for praise.
"Exactly." Shen Wenta's lips curled up. When it came to lecturing Shen Yi, he had finally found the feeling of being an older brother.
He earnestly taught her in the tone of someone with experience, "Friends are only called friends if they are useful. What is the necessity of associating with people who waste your time and drain your energy, yet bring you no practical value?"
"I generally call useless creatures like that enemies."
To him.
Being useless was the original sin, and draining energy was outright hostility.
What friends.
They were enemies!
Shen Yi: "..."
The little girl spoke in a shocked tone, "I really didn't expect that the sickest people in this family would actually be you two."
In the past, the two brothers, Shen Xun and Shen Wenta, rarely communicated with each other.
But as soon as they touched upon the topic of how to distort their sister's social values, the two brothers chattered away as if they had found a long-lost soulmate.
Just what kind of bizarre thought processes did these two brothers have!
Did they grow up listening to How to Become a Menace to Society as their bedtime stories?
"I'm going to strangle the two of you."
She said loudly.
Shen Yi completely abandoned reason. She grabbed one and then the other, shaking them vigorously back and forth to express her anger.
Shen Wenta covered his neck and shrank to the side, very ticklish.
After being choked twice, he almost laughed out tears. "Your temper really is terrible."
She lost her temper after just a few words.
Shen Xun, on the other hand, wasn't ticklish. Being bluffed and choked by his sister, he just maintained a blank expression and had no reaction.
He touched his neck, and after a long while, he lightly came to a conclusion:
"It's fine, it's normal for a younger sister to have a temper."
As an older brother, he naturally had to be more forgiving.
Shen Wenta: "..."
When this younger brother wasn't being stupid, he was actually quite smart.
But every time he was in front of Shen Yi, he really had a knack for playing dumb.
