I thought I owed you something in my past life.
Shen Yi's voice was very light, as if she was just saying it casually.
Hearing these words suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.
Past life.
The phrase was like a needle, gently pricking him.
He lowered his eyes, his eyelashes drooping to conceal the fleeting emotion in his gaze. Then, he looked up and tried to defend himself softly.
"I don't know why I'm crying either. Maybe my eyes just wanted to shed tears. It has nothing to do with me."
The outer corners of his eyes curved downward, making him look incredibly innocent, and his voice was soft and delicate.
His words carried just the right amount of childish innocence.
It perfectly fit the identity of a six-year-old child.
But Shen Yi didn't buy his nonsense at all.
"Then let go of her," Shen Wenta stepped forward. For once, he didn't impulsively get physical. Instead, he stared at the boy with mockery and said coldly, "You're holding her so tightly. Let go!"
Song Sijun didn't move.
He raised his eyes and looked at the person who was speaking so rudely.
He wasn't used to showing weakness to strangers.
A long history of being bullied made him instinctively hostile toward everyone.
Even though his eyelashes were still stained with tears and his eye rims were red.
But the soft, innocent expression from just a moment ago had completely vanished.
He looked at Shen Wenta coldly, indifferent to the man's threat. Retracting his gaze, he continued to pour his attention onto Shen Yi.
"Sister," his voice was soft, "can I call you sister?"
Shen Yi just quietly watched him put on his act.
She played along and asked, "Why?"
"Because..."
The boy tilted his head, his tone carrying a touch of perfectly measured confusion.
"I feel like you look a lot like my sister."
As he spoke, he traced out a very gentle smile.
Very obedient, very soft, and very harmless.
"Don't you think so?" he said softly. "We look very similar."
He couldn't help but lean closer to her.
The two of them were of similar height and had the same facial features. They just quietly looked at each other.
Shen Wenta cast a casual glance and had to grit his teeth and admit it.
These two really looked... so alike.
The boy's features looked so innocent and pitiful.
But when those eyes looked at him, they instantly changed.
All that softness and innocence was wiped clean in a flash.
All that remained was a cold, sizing-up stare.
Shen Wenta's eyes also gleamed with malice. He detested this gloomy creature, especially when it looked at him with such a gaze.
Furthermore, this person was actually Shen Yi's younger brother.
That made it even more disgusting.
"So, can I call you sister?"
Song Sijun withdrew his gaze and turned back to look at Shen Yi. This time, without waiting for her reply, he quickly started calling out, "Sister, sister, sister, sister."
He didn't need Shen Yi's answer at all.
Shen Yi: "..."
She thought to herself.
You've grown thick-skinned, you little brat.
He wasn't like this in his past life.
Song Sijun was actually a bit confused as well.
How did she know his name?
The butterfly effect?
Perhaps.
He leaned toward the idea that Shen Yi suddenly wanted to find her biological parents, so she asked the Shen family for help, and they managed to track him down by following the clues.
He was very grateful to the Shen family.
Truly.
But it stopped at gratitude.
Someone like Shen Wenta, who was self-centered and reckless—
Song Sijun wished he would stay as far away from Shen Yi as possible.
Faced with Song Sijun's barrage of sister, sister, Shen Wenta's mood turned completely cold.
He stepped forward, looking down from a height at the boy clinging to his sister, his tone so gloomy it could drip water. "Who are you trying to claim as family, you shameless pauper?"
"She is my sister." At this point, he emphasized, "My biological sister!"
Song Sijun didn't expect this young master, who didn't even know how to properly curse at people, to say anything truly nasty. He focused his attention on the phrase biological sister.
How interesting.
If he was Shen Yi's biological brother, then what was he?
He and Shen Yi were the true blood relatives.
He and Shen Yi were the real family, nurtured and grown in their mother's womb, sharing the same blood and the same face.
He really didn't expect that in this world, aside from Song Guanyan, there was someone else who liked to deceive themselves.
Suddenly, Song Sijun wasn't angry anymore.
Not only was he not angry, but he even found it a bit funny. He curved his eyes at the man and gave two short laughs in a soft tone, "Haha~"
A simple sneer, yet ultimate sarcasm.
Shen Wenta's face darkened completely.
Meanwhile, Shen Yi just felt a massive headache coming on.
Her brother was clinging to her, playing dumb while refusing to let go.
Her third brother's expression was as ugly as if someone owed him eight million.
Her fourth brother stood to the side, watching today's farce with a calm expression, who knows what he was thinking.
"Stop. Don't rush. The situation is a bit chaotic right now, let me get it under control." Shen Yi, the center of the conflict, tried to act as the manager of this disaster zone, comforting one and then the other.
First, she reached out to try and shake off the brother who was holding onto her.
But as soon as she shook him off, Song Sijun blinked, and his quick-reacting hands grabbed her again.
Very tightly.
As if he was afraid she would run away.
Shen Yi: "..."
"Wait quietly for me first. I'll settle the score with you later." She couldn't help but bare her teeth at him, her expression a bit fierce. "If you dare to keep holding onto me, you're dead!"
Just wait for a beating.
Song Sijun blinked lightly, his long, slender eyelashes trembling slightly. He quickly tilted his small face up, his amber eyes shining.
It wasn't fear.
It was joy.
"Okay," he said softly and gently. "Please hit me."
Shen Yi: "???"
Who programmed her brother to be like this?
Shen Yi couldn't help but turn her head and shoot him a cold glare, but Song Sijun only smiled even sweeter.
He actually quite missed the days when Shen Yi bullied him. But it seemed his sister didn't feel the same way; even her originally calm expression had turned somewhat horrified.
Shen Yi took a deep breath, deciding to ignore this strange brother of hers for now.
She grabbed Shen Wenta and dragged him out of the room first. Shen Wenta seemed to have lost all his strength and tactics at this moment; he lowered his eyes and let her pull him outside.
As for Shen Xun—
She met his eyes. "Give me some time to sort this out, okay? I definitely won't leave you guys, but I need to have a proper talk with Song Sijun right now."
Shen Yi was someone with a very strong sense of self. Anyone who made her feel they weren't worth her effort would find her withdrawing everything without hesitation.
By the same logic, the people and things she approved of, she would firmly continue to choose.
She wouldn't be influenced or shaken by anything.
Shen Xun was someone who understood her relatively well.
A few seconds later, the boy nodded.
Shen Wenta, on the other hand, looked at Shen Yi, his pure black eyes holding a faint emotion.
"You are Song Guanyan's daughter."
Even now, Shen Wenta regretted not shooting Song Guanyan dead with two bullets.
Shen Yi froze for a moment, then frankly admitted, "Yes."
"I thought you had already found out."
She truly didn't expect that Shen Wenta actually knew how to respect people's privacy.
"I told you before I came that I have a younger brother." She paused. "You just didn't believe it."
Shen Wenta fell silent for a few seconds.
Then he spoke, his expression peculiar. "So what are you going to do? Since you don't plan to leave with him, how are you going to handle him?"
Shen Yi actually hadn't thought it through yet. As for exactly what to do, she still had to discuss it with Song Sijun. She couldn't make the decision for him, but if possible, she naturally wanted to keep him by her side.
The Song family was not good at all.
He was like a flower that had withered prematurely before it could even bloom, drooping, looking a bit yellowed and malnourished.
Shen Yi decided to give a heads-up first. "Do you think I can take him home? My younger brother's personality is super good."
Shen Wenta only felt that the current development was very strange, and nothing seemed right. He accurately caught one point: "How do you know what his personality is like?"
Shen Yi casually defended herself, "Because he looks a lot like me, so his personality must be very similar to mine too."
The early Song Sijun was a sweet, naive little fool with a soft personality and no temper.
Especially easy to bully.
"You, have a good personality?" He was unprecedentedly amused.
When Shen Wenta used to be pinned to the ground and hammered by her, he never in his life thought she would dare to boast about having a good temper.
Shen Yi: "What are you laughing at?"
She stepped forward, fighting the urge to punch him in the stomach, but considering her strength, Shen Yi held back and just tapped him lightly.
"Doesn't Mom like girls? Later I can dress him in my clothes." Shen Yi's eyes lit up. "That way, Mom will gain a stylish daughter!"
It was simply perfect!!
Shen Wenta was very pretty.
But his prettiness was a boyish kind of pretty, with a bit of sharp glamour, completely unsuitable for wearing girls' clothes.
Of course, his family background would never allow him to be dressed up like that either.
But her younger brother could be dressed up like that.
When Shen Yi was little, she often swapped clothes with him.
Many people couldn't tell the two of them apart.
Shen Wenta widened his eyes in astonishment.
This kind of topic was obviously a bit bizarre for a feudal young master like him. He ruthlessly refused, "That's impossible too."
Shen Yi didn't care about his opinion; she was just giving a heads-up in advance. "I'll talk to Mom about it when the time comes."
It wasn't like she was discussing it with Shen Wenta.
Counting on him to be soft-hearted? She might as well go talk to Mom.
Her mom was the only decision-maker in the family.
After saying that, Shen Yi exceptionally ruthlessly reached out and shoved him out of the room.
Shen Xun was thrown out along with him.
The door closed behind them.
Bang.
Shen Wenta stood in the corridor, looking at the tightly closed door in front of him.
Shen Xun stood next to him, also looking at that door.
"..."
The two brothers looked at each other in dismay.
"So pitiful."
Shen Xun said faintly.
It was hard to tell if this "so pitiful" was referring to himself or his older brother.
