Yu Zheng watched her repeatedly fan the air in front of her nose and was speechless for a long moment. “...What are you doing? Do I smell that bad?”
Yu Xiaxing rolled her eyes inwardly and couldn’t be bothered to answer him.
Just as she was about to step onto the stairs, Yu Zheng suddenly called out, “Xingxing.”
It had been a long time since he had called her that. More precisely, it had been a long time since he had spoken to her at all.
Whenever they happened to meet at home, one of them would look to the left and the other to the right without even exchanging greetings.
Whenever they needed to communicate about something, they simply skipped the formalities and got straight to the point.
She ignored him and continued fanning the air.
Yu Zheng suppressed the urge to give her a beating, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
I’m her older brother. I’m several years older than her. I have to be the mature one.
After repeatedly drilling that into his head, Yu Zheng finally managed to convince himself.
He asked directly, “I know you were the one who sent that anonymous email. You were secretly helping me, weren’t you?”
Yu Xiaxing paused, then immediately denied it. “You’re being way too full of yourself. Given our relationship, do you really think I’d help you? I wish you’d be the first one eliminated!”
With that, she turned around and started to leave again.
She had barely stepped onto the first stair when Yu Zheng said helplessly, “If you want to make up with me, just say so. Why take such a huge detour? Aren’t you tired? Could you stop acting like this... Don’t you know tsundere behavior is out of style now?”
Oh my god, how terrifying. She couldn’t believe someone like him had started convincing himself of things.
Not wanting to invite any more complications, Yu Xiaxing hurried away.
Yu Zheng stood up and strode after her. He hooked an arm around her neck so quickly that Yu Xiaxing didn’t even have time to react. He pulled her back two stumbling steps, half-holding her in his arms.
“Holy crap...” Yu Xiaxing cried out in surprise.
Yu Zheng dragged her to the sofa and pressed down on her shoulders, making her sit.
Then he crouched in front of her and looked her straight in the eye. “Xingxing, I forgive you. Let’s make up.”
The anger in Yu Xiaxing’s stomach burst into flames at once. “You forgive me? How dare you say that you forgive me?”
Yu Zheng’s expression gradually darkened. “What? You were the one who—”
Yu Xiaxing cut him off. “I was only nine at the time! You took me out to play, I fell into a ditch, and you didn’t even help me. You ran away! Later, when I woke up in the hospital, you still weren’t there! I asked Uncle where you’d gone, and he said you were busy... Mom and Dad were working as doctors in a war zone and couldn’t be reached. They told you to take good care of me, but you didn’t take the slightest responsibility for me as your little sister!”
A flicker passed through Yu Zheng’s eyes. Only then did he realize that something was wrong.
“That’s not what happened. The ditch was too deep. I was afraid that if I jumped down, I wouldn’t be able to get back out either, so I went to find some rocks. After I found them, I piled them up underneath before climbing down to carry you out. I was the one who rescued you and carried you to the hospital!”
“Afterward, I went to the hospital to see you several times. Every time, Uncle told me you were playing with your classmates and didn’t want to see me... In the end, I was sent abroad to study.”
Yu Zheng raised his right hand, palm facing up.
A long old scar ran across his palm, from the base of his thumb all the way to his wrist. Its color had faded over the years, but it was still clearly visible beneath the light.
“I was the one who saved you. A piece of sheet metal nearby sliced my hand open, too... So all these years, I kept blaming you. Why, after I’d been injured so badly trying to save you, did you never come to see me even once?”
Yu Xiaxing stared at the scar, imagining how deep the wound must have been back then.
The anger on her face slowly froze, replaced by disbelief in her eyes.
“I didn’t know. Uncle never told me you were the one who saved me. Every time I asked him in the hospital, he said you were preparing to go abroad for school and had a lot to arrange, and that I shouldn’t bother you.”
The Yu residence was enormous. Although all three branches of the family lived there, each family occupied a separate courtyard.
Running over to confront Uncle would have taken too much time, and she didn’t even know whether he was home.
Yu Zheng simply pulled out his phone and called his uncle.
The call was answered soon after.
His uncle asked, “Little Zheng, what’s up? Is there something you need me to handle with the property management?”
“No,” Yu Zheng replied politely. “I wanted to ask you something. When Xingxing was little, she fell into a ditch and was knocked unconscious. I carried her out and took her to the hospital. You never told her that, did you?”
“Huh? Did that happen?” His uncle thought for a long while. “It was so long ago. I honestly can’t remember.”
“Fine, then I’ll ask Grandpa. Someone has to know.”
His uncle hurriedly cut him off. “Wait, wait, don’t ask him! I... Well, I did it on purpose!”
Yu Zheng’s gaze darkened. “Why?”
His uncle let out a cold laugh. “You should be thanking me!”
“Back then, your third uncle abandoned you two—his own children—to rescue homeless children in the war zone. Your grandfather instructed me to take good care of you.”
“But you were always getting into fights and causing trouble. You even wanted to drop out of school. Old Master thought you were acting that way because you were too comfortable staying in the country, so he ordered me to send you abroad to study. But you refused to go because you wanted to stay and look after your sister!”
“So I told a little lie...”
What happened afterward was that Yu Zheng finished school abroad and returned just as Yu Xiaxing went overseas to study.
The siblings had hardly any opportunities to see each other.
They would be called back by their grandfather for the New Year’s Eve dinner, but once the meal was over, they would each return to their own quarters.
His uncle said, “Every New Year’s Eve, the two of you seemed to get along pretty well, so I assumed you’d cleared things up yourselves. Who would’ve thought you’d suddenly bring it up now?”
The siblings exchanged a glance.
This sudden revelation left them both at a loss.
If their uncle had deliberately driven a wedge between them, then they would have had an outlet for all their resentment and could immediately join forces against him.
But he wasn’t completely bad. If he hadn’t used that trick, thirteen-year-old Yu Zheng really might have given up on his education.
After a long silence, Yu Xiaxing spoke first in a small voice. “You can hang up.”
Yu Zheng let out a silent sigh. “Got it, Uncle. Get some rest.”
Yu Zheng stood up from in front of her and sat down beside her.
The siblings sat with a fist’s width between them. They remained silent for a long time, neither saying a word.
Finally, Yu Xiaxing said, “The reason we drifted apart wasn’t only because of what happened when we were children. None of the Yu family’s children are close once they grow up. Who gets along with a competitor? We just...”
“Let’s make up, Xingxing.” Just as he had when they were children, Yu Zheng reached out and ruffled her hair.
“Really, it was my fault. I’m so much older than you. If there was a misunderstanding, I should have been the one to help clear it up. Instead, I sulked and held a grudge against you for all these years...”
He paused, his voice dropping lower. “I’m sorry, little sister.”
Yu Xiaxing said nothing.
Diandian came running over and rubbed against her. She lowered her head to look at the dog, and suddenly felt her nose sting.
The truth was, what had happened in their childhood really wasn’t a big deal. She had stopped caring about it long ago. She had simply felt that bringing up such a trivial matter would be too childish, so she had tacitly let the past remain in the past.
She remembered her previous life. When she learned that Yu Zheng had become paralyzed and would never be able to stand again for the rest of his life, she had secretly cried.
But she had put all her time and energy into the competition because she wanted to win… And, to a very small extent, it was also because of that misunderstanding. She’d thought, You were the one who abandoned me back then. Why should I be the one to lower my pride and reach out first? In the end, she never went to see Yu Zheng even once.
Would he have been hurt back then?
Yu Zheng naturally extended an arm and draped it over the back of the sofa behind her, loosely holding her just as he had when they were children. He ruffled her hair. “Don’t be so stubborn, okay?”
“…”
After a long while, Yu Xiaxing called softly, “Brother.”
