Song Yu very briefly told Yue Zhishi about the first time he had an allergic reaction, omitting any subjective emotions or his inner journey, and finished in just a few words.

After listening, Yue Zhishi had only one thought in his mind—Song Yu wouldn't give him any tasty food anymore.

This made Yue Zhishi a little dejected. But he didn't say it out loud; saying it would make him seem a bit childish. But in Song Yu's eyes, this dejection was interpreted differently, for example, as an inability to accept the fact that he had almost been killed by Song Yu.

So neither of them continued the conversation.

As soon as he returned to school in the afternoon, the girls in his class surrounded him with an onslaught of curiosity. Yue Zhishi had a headache and could only be evasive with everyone. He didn't directly mention that he had lost his parents, only saying that their fathers' generation had a good relationship and the two families were very close, so he was temporarily staying at their house. This wasn't exactly a lie.

Actually, he didn't think not having parents was something to be ashamed of. It was just that if he said it, everyone would surely show him expressions full of pity, and Yue Zhishi could never get used to that.

He felt that he was quite happy and didn't want to become a pitiful child in others' eyes.

Aside from the curiosity about their family composition, what Yue Zhishi hadn't expected was that a bigger problem would appear—Song Yu's admirers.

Peiya School's Senior High Division and Junior High Division had two classroom buildings in total. Between them was a Sky Corridor connecting the third floors of the two buildings, the only link. Coincidentally, the classes Song Yu and Yue Zhishi were in happened to be in these two buildings. As a result, finding someone across divisions became a very convenient matter.

Many of the girls pursuing Song Yu, unable to get a response, thought of an indirect approach—adding Yue Zhishi's QQ to get information from him. To put it nicely, they were asking for help. Some even went so far as to come to Yue Zhishi's classroom to corner him. Most were senior female students, and Yue Zhishi had no idea how to deal with them.

The evening self-study session ended at 9:30. Everyone counted down the seconds, waiting for the bell, and then darted out in a flash. Yue Zhishi wasn't in a hurry to leave. The Senior High Division's evening self-study didn't end until 9:50. He slowly finished his problems, then slowly packed his schoolbag, dawdling until he was the last one in the class to leave.

He was basically like this every day.

When he reached the third-floor Sky Corridor, Yue Zhishi hesitated again, looking up at the lit classroom of Class 5, Year 3 on the fifth floor of the opposite building. Time also dawdled by. Yue Zhishi sat in the corridor reading a manga. When it reached 9:50 and the bell rang, there was still no movement at the door of Class 5.

The Year 3 Rocket Class was really tough, as expected.

In the end, Yue Zhishi still rode his bike home alone. Lin Rong had stewed yam and pigeon soup, and the whole house was filled with a savory fragrance. As soon as he opened the door, a small Pomeranian trotted over to Yue Zhishi's feet. Yue Zhishi scooped it up, "Cotton Candy, have you gotten fat again? You're so heavy."

"Is that Lele? You must be tired." Lin Rong threw some rice cake slices into the pot. After the rice cakes were boiled until soft and chewy, she ladled a bowl for Yue Zhishi and also cut up a red-hearted dragon fruit and placed it in a small bowl.

Yue Zhishi sat on the carpet, looked up to take the soup bowl from Lin Rong's hands, and casually asked, "Where's Uncle?"

"He went abroad on business. He probably won't be back until next week." Lin Rong stroked his head. "He said he'd bring you a gift when he gets back."

Yue Zhishi happily took a big gulp, nearly scalding his tongue.

"Be careful." Lin Rong placed the bowl of dragon fruit next to him and turned back to the kitchen.

Sitting cross-legged on the carpet, Yue Zhishi ate the rice cake soup while watching a variety show. When the large bowl was empty, he heard the door open, immediately put down his bowl, and lay on the sofa to look outside.

Song Yu put his keys on the entryway cabinet, changed his shoes, and came in. The house cat heard the commotion, leisurely lifted its head, flicked its tail, meowed once, then turned its back and went back to sleep.

"You're back? Come over here."

Song Yu listened to Lin Rong and went into the kitchen. Yue Zhishi followed at Song Yu's heels, complaining to him about how he'd recently become a means to an end. "They all add my QQ, and the first thing they say is, 'Can you tell me Song Yu's QQ number? What's the answer to his friend request question?'"

"Just say you don't know." Song Yu calmly drank his soup, looking as if it had nothing to do with him.

"How could I not know? That would be lying," Yue Zhishi muttered to himself. Thinking of it again, he couldn't help but complain a bit more, "The way they ask questions is like a peashooter, just firing like a machine gun as soon as they show up, without even a single pleasantry."

He had spoken so childishly, yet ended by trying to sound sophisticated. Song Yu found it a little funny. "So you even know what a 'pleasantry' is."

Feeling that he was being looked down on, Yue Zhishi frowned, "Of course I know."

"Our Lele has grown up. Before, he didn't even know what a sister-in-law was." Saying this, Lin Rong couldn't help but laugh. "He even said he wanted to be his own sister-in-law."

After hearing this, Song Yu glanced at him, then casually shifted his gaze away.

That was from a long time ago. Yue Zhishi had started learning Chinese later than other kids and especially couldn't make sense of the complex familial relationships in China. Every time he heard the kids in his class talk about uncles, aunts, and nephews, he would be completely confused. That day, he heard a classmate say they had a pretty sister-in-law, and he was very curious. When he got home, he asked Song Yu what a sister-in-law was.

"A sister-in-law is an older brother's wife," Song Yu replied.

But Lin Rong just had to tease him from the side, "Once you marry a wife, you have to leave home."

This sentence left a huge shock in Yue Zhishi's young heart.

His little brain mulled it over for a long time. If Brother Song Yu got a wife, and he got a sister-in-law, then wouldn't they have to separate? He would have his own home in the future and would no longer live in the same house with him.

That wouldn't do!

Yue Zhishi hugged Song Yu's arm, acting spoiled, "Brother Xiao Yu, I don't want a sister-in-law."

Father Song teased him, "How can that be? If you don't want a sister-in-law, does that mean your brother can't get married?"

Yue Zhishi said with an innocent face, "Then I'll be your sister-in-law!"

Song Yu's face was full of question marks. Yue Zhishi suddenly realized something was wrong and immediately corrected himself, "No, no, I'll be my sister-in-law!"

From then on, this innocent childhood remark became Yue Zhishi's embarrassing past in the Song Family. Everyone would always bring it up as a running gag, and every time it was mentioned, one could see the rare sight of Yue Zhishi bristling in embarrassment.

For example, now.

"I was only five then, you guys are too mean!" he said as he walked out, looking like a stiff little robot simulating human anger.

"Exactly, at that age, he could be a child bride." Lin Rong was so amused by Yue Zhishi that she couldn't stop laughing, leaning on her son's shoulder. But then, a sudden scream erupted from outside.

After a two-second pause, Song Yu put down his bowl and went to the living room. He saw Yue Zhishi holding Cotton Candy, "How did you get so messy? Who let you sneak-eat the dragon fruit? Huh? Are you trying to dye your fur?"

Cotton Candy, who was supposed to be snow-white, now had a mouth full of rose-red juice smeared all over its face, its two black grape-like eyes looking very innocent.

"It's no use looking at me. You can't just sneak food next time. What if it's something you can't eat? Do you want to go to the hospital again? You always throw a tantrum every time we go to the hospital."

It was a false alarm. Song Yu stood at a distance, watching him lecture the little dog to himself, looking very much like a child pretending to be an adult. He spoke so logically, and every sentence sounded very familiar.

"You're really so much trouble." Yue Zhishi tossed out this last sentence, with the clear air of an adult. After finishing his lecture, he picked Cotton Candy up again, and upon turning, nearly bumped into Song Yu.

"Watch where you're going," Song Yu said.

Yue Zhishi slipped into the bathroom to wash Cotton Candy and himself. Finally, his energy depleted, he lay in bed while his QQ vibrated nonstop. Yue Zhishi had no other choice but to muster his last bit of energy to reply to them. He said that he didn't know the answer to his friend request question, that he wasn't allowed to give out the QQ number, and that things would be miserable for him if he took matters into his own hands.

Things really would be miserable; he had done something like that when he was a child.

After sending the messages, Yue Zhishi turned off his phone and fell right asleep. He dreamed about the time in elementary school when he was coaxed by an older girl into delivering a love letter to Song Yu, and as a result, was given the cold shoulder by Song Yu for a whole week. The memory almost startled him awake.

Mercilessly rejecting romantic advances on Song Yu's behalf was something Yue Zhishi rarely did, but it was indeed very effective. He had peace and quiet for many days.

But what he didn't expect was that, because of Yue Zhishi's rejection of the senior girls, coupled with the fact that the two were inseparable, many strange rumors began to spread in the school—things like being a blended family with the same mother but different fathers, or that he was living under someone else's roof, making it more exaggerated than the plot of a melodramatic novel. But among the many rumors, there was one constant theme: that the brothers were on bad terms.

As the rumors spread, they eventually reached the ears of the people involved. Yue Zhishi felt like a little mouse, scrambling and tumbling, falling from one dusty pit into another, with endless trouble. He explained it over and over again, but no one listened.

After two consecutive math classes, Yue Zhishi's head felt as if it had been injected with anesthetic. He groggily took his returned homework from the math class representative. He took out a red pen to make corrections, and as he looked at it, he started chewing on the end of the pen.

"I got the arc length wrong again..."

Jiang Yufan hadn't even opened his workbook. "We finally made it to the first PE class of the semester!" He pulled on Yue Zhishi's arm. "Let's go, let's go."

"Mph..." Yue Zhishi sucked in a breath and suddenly tasted something sweet. He looked at the end of the pen he had just been chewing—it was leaking ink!

Yue Zhishi's first reaction was to touch his mouth, and sure enough, his hand came away red.

"What's wrong with you?" Jiang Yufan watched Yue Zhishi run out, baffled. After looking around, he saw Yue Zhishi coming out of the restroom, his lips pressed tightly together, not saying a word no matter what was asked. The class bell was about to ring, so the two of them sprinted toward the field, assembling at the last possible moment, and managed to avoid being scolded by the PE teacher.

The main group ran to warm up, but Yue Zhishi kept his mouth shut the entire time. After they were dismissed, he covered his mouth with his hand and told Jiang Yufan he needed to go to the restroom. Jiang Yufan thought he really had a stomachache, so he didn't ask further and went to play basketball with the other boys.

The girls from his class walked in a group across the field toward the canteen's tuck shop, squealing when they saw the formation of another class. Yue Zhishi couldn't be bothered with anyone else; he was so embarrassed right now and just wanted to find a place to hide and clean the red ink from his mouth.

Maybe he should find an excuse to go home.

But asking for leave would require him to open his mouth...

Maybe he could go wash up again in the cafeteria restroom. He could use the mirror there.

Having made up his mind, Yue Zhishi pressed his lips together, lowered his head, and crossed the field behind the group of girls. The artificial turf flattened under his steps and then stubbornly sprang back up with a rustle as he lifted his feet.

As he was walking, he wasn't paying attention and bumped into someone. It wasn't a light bump, either. He quickly apologized, "I'm sorry."

"Isn't this Lele?"

It was a familiar voice. Yue Zhishi looked up. The speaker was Qin Yan, Song Yu's classmate since childhood and arguably his only friend.

Qin Yan glanced at Song Yu. "Looks like your little brother's big eyes are just for decoration. He seems reluctant to even use them."

Yue Zhishi wanted to retort, but he couldn't open his mouth, so he just shook his head without speaking.

"I saw you from a mile away. I watched you walk over here step by step, and then smack, you bumped right into your brother like a little magnet. Good thing you didn't run into frail, sickly me, or I would've collapsed on the spot for you to see," Qin Yan joked, his voice nasal. He even nudged the expressionless Song Yu with his elbow. "Right?"

Song Yu said lazily, "If you're sick, go get treated."

"No can do. Even with a bad cold, I have to be our Yuyu's most loyal cheer captain."

Song Yu was holding a basketball, and Yue Zhishi guessed he was going to play. In the past, he would have definitely wanted to cling to Song Yu, but it was too embarrassing now; he just wanted to run. He buried his head low and spoke quickly, "Sorry, I bumped into you by accident. I have to go, goodbye."

Bypassing the two of them, Yue Zhishi prepared to slip away, but his arm was suddenly grabbed.

Acting out of character gives you away.

Turning back, Yue Zhishi saw Song Yu's gaze move down to his mouth, studying it for a good while. Then, he tossed the basketball into Qin Yan's arms and, without a word, pulled Yue Zhishi away in another direction.

"Hey?" Yue Zhishi's steps faltered. When he came to his senses, he resisted being pulled but couldn't shake free. With his mouth closed, he mumbled and hummed, grabbing Song Yu's hand with both of his own as if in a tug-of-war, leaning back to stop him from moving.

Seeing his resistance, Song Yu also stopped. The bright sun made it hard for Yue Zhishi to open his eyes. A few girls who were walking past all turned their heads to look back at them.

Song Yu suddenly let go. Yue Zhishi stumbled backward and plopped onto the ground, a dazed expression on his face.

Song Yu squatted down in front of him, cupping Yue Zhishi's chin and pinching his cheeks with his thumb and forefinger. His lips were forced apart, revealing the red-stained front teeth inside.

"I knew it."

Yue Zhishi quickly covered his mouth and shuffled backward on the grass.

So embarrassing.

"What are you hiding for?" Song Yu pinched his face and inspected it carefully. When he was done, he pulled him to his feet. "Are you planning to attend class like this?"

Since he had been found out, Yue Zhishi gave up resisting. He followed Song Yu in resignation, as if he were a soulless balloon doll being led along.

"Can you walk a little slower? My butt hurts."

Song Yu didn't say anything, but he did slow down a little.

The infirmary again.

Yue Zhishi whispered, "I'm not having an attack," but got no response from Song Yu. He just continued to lead Yue Zhishi inside. The doctor on duty was out visiting again, and there was no one else in the room. Song Yu had Yue Zhishi sit on a chair, went next door to look for someone, and finally returned with a bottle of medical alcohol and a box of cotton swabs.

"What's this?" Yue Zhishi watched as he walked over, pulled up a chair, and sat down in front of him.

Song Yu pinched his face and ordered expressionlessly, "Open your mouth."

Yue Zhishi obediently opened his mouth. His lips were fine, but his teeth and tongue were covered in red ink from the pen refill, which looked quite comical.

Song Yu dipped a cotton swab in alcohol and carefully wiped the stained areas. Yue Zhishi's heart was pounding; he was worried it wouldn't come off, and he still had a full day of classes ahead. The feeling of having to keep his mouth shut constantly was too awful.

For some reason, he suddenly thought of Cotton Candy, who had sneak-eaten the red-hearted dragon fruit the previous night, and couldn't help but sigh. They were truly a fitting pair, an owner and his puppy.

But in the next moment, Song Yu suddenly let out a small laugh. It was so soft that Yue Zhishi suspected he had misheard.

"You're really so much trouble."