Bro | Extra 2

Wei Qian really did not have much talent for cooking. If you expected him to produce a full imperial banquet, that was obviously unrealistic. But he had not been born a grand master either. Cooking, that basic survival skill, was still something he knew, and for ordinary everyday meals he could manage most things.

Besides that, Wei Qian had one extra ability: fast hands and feet.

If you stuffed him into some culinary competition, then in terms of color, aroma, and flavor his finished dishes might very well hover in the middle or lower ranks, but in terms of speed he would absolutely have an unbeatable advantage.

Wei Qian had the ability to put together a whole table of dishes in the shortest possible time, and his knife work was outstanding too. Whether slicing into strips or dicing into cubes, everything came out fast and neat. He had two accomplishments that bordered on miracles: up to now he had never cut his hand, and never scalded himself.

Yet that evening, while helping in the kitchen, he actually managed to let the edge of the frying pan for making flatbread burn a whole layer of skin off his hand.

Which went to show exactly how distracted he was.

Wei Zhiyuan took hold of his wrist and shooed him out of the kitchen, frowned as he examined the wound carefully, then shoved his paw into cool water.

“Does it hurt?” Wei Zhiyuan asked with knitted brows, as though he himself were the one who had been burned.

Absent-mindedly, Wei Qian said, “It’s fine.”

Wei Zhiyuan’s hands moved gently, but his mouth was furious. “You totally deserved that. Comrade Wei Qian, I think this is the first sign of Parkinson’s. There was a half-foot-long wooden spatula separating you from it, and yet you still somehow let the edge of the pan burn you. Tell me yourself, how talented are you really?”

Wei Zhiyuan had now become more and more impolite with him. Clearly he was still a fine young man of the gentle and elegant school when he walked outside, but in private there were times he seemed almost to be possessed by Chairman Wei from years ago.

Unfortunately, Chairman Wei of years past had already evolved into his ultimate form. He waited unhurriedly for Wei Zhiyuan to finish scolding him, then ended the battle with three words.

“Motor mouth.” Lord Wei gave his precise evaluation.

“You’re such an asshole.” Wei Zhiyuan accused. After a pause, he added sourly, “Xiao Bao getting married is a good thing. Why are you so absent-minded about it?”

Wei Qian’s expression changed instantly. “Don’t bring that up!”

“Face reality.” Wei Zhiyuan spared no effort poking at his sore point. “The engagement banquet’s tomorrow. Doesn’t that require you to preside over it?”

On the spot, Wei Qian shook off his hand and turned around to go back to the room without saying a word.

That was the situation. Song Xiaobao, Miss Song Lili, was about to get married. Right now it was deep winter, and after discussion both sides had agreed to hold the engagement first, then wait until spring turned warm and flowers bloomed before selecting a good day for the actual wedding.

The whole matter was rather fantastical. The man’s name was Cui Xu, a taciturn engineer involved in aerospace research. His greatest hobby was collecting Miss Song Lili’s films, and he had always secretly been a fan of hers. Who knew that, by sheer coincidence and fate, these two people who ought never to have crossed paths would end up on the same flight one day? Engineer Cui worked up his courage and spoke to his idol, and somehow, after one thing led to another, the two of them had actually gotten together.

That night, Wei Qian lay half the night without falling asleep. He kept tossing and turning in bed, as though afraid the flatbread might heat unevenly.

By the one hundred and eighth turn, Wei Zhiyuan had finally had enough and wrapped him up in one fierce hug. “Are you not sleeping at all? Keep moving and I’m going to become worse than a beast.”

Wei Qian was quiet for a moment, then suddenly said, “I don’t think it’s suitable.”

Wei Zhiyuan cracked one eye open in confusion. “What isn’t suitable?”

“Xiao Bao and that Cui Xu.”

Wei Zhiyuan took a deep breath, tightened his arms around him, and rubbed the tip of his nose into Wei Qian’s neck hollow, suppressing the displeasure of being ignored as he patiently asked, “Why isn’t it suitable again? When Xiao Bao first brought him home, weren’t you actually pretty relieved that she hadn’t found herself the kind of fake foreigner boyfriend she used to hang around with all the time?”

Wei Qian frowned and started picking faults. “I think he looks ordinary.”

In the dark, Wei Zhiyuan raised a hand and brushed Wei Qian’s lips lightly, saying perfunctorily, “Mm, not as handsome as you. But he’s not ugly either. As long as his personality’s good, that’s what matters.”

Wei Qian said, “Too quiet. Can’t talk.”

Wei Zhiyuan sighed. “Oh, so you can talk, can you? You open your mouth and can knock a man flat with insults. Only I can tolerate you. Actually, it’s better if he’s quieter. Isn’t Xiao Bao noisy enough already?”

Wei Qian said, “No, the issue is that kid’s life and work are both too far removed from Xiao Bao’s. They’re not even in the same circle. Can they even have anything to say to each other?”

The corner of Wei Zhiyuan’s eye twitched. “You really manage to interfere far and wide. If they genuinely had nothing to say to each other, could they have stayed together for this long? You say this isn’t good and that isn’t good, then tell me, what is good? What kind of brother-in-law do you want? One with several heads?”

Wei Qian could not answer. He lay flat in the darkness, staring at the ceiling.

The boyfriend Xiao Bao had found was not bad at all. Highly educated, with good prospects, hardworking, and most importantly, upright in character and dependable. But Wei Qian was still unhappy, and this had nothing to do with Cui Xu. It did not matter whether Cui Xu was an engineer, a celebrity, a rich man, or anything else. Even if he were some three-headed, six-armed superhero, Wei Qian felt he still would not have been satisfied.

Because from now on, when his little sister talked about “going home,” it would no longer mean coming back to him. Her room and old possessions would still quietly occupy their place there forever, but she herself would probably come back to visit only during holidays and festivals.

And once she was settled down and had children of her own, the way she thought of this big brother of hers would go from “the person I depend on for my life” to “our family relative.”

That little girl of his who used to cling to him and be such a nuisance would never again pounce on him the moment he pushed the door open and rattle off, “I’m exhausted, starving, craving to death, Ge, I want to eat huge bright-red crabs!”

Wei Qian remembered how, when he had been young, he had always felt that this home was a crushing burden upon him. Xiao Bao especially had matured late and as a child had been terribly clueless. Countless times, under the pressure of all those old and young people clinging to him and weighing down his waist until he could barely straighten it, he had fallen silent, and in that silence fantasized about shaking them off and escaping.

And now Xiao Bao would finally no longer depend on him. Perhaps… she would no longer need him either.

By then the hollow, anchorless ache in Wei Qian’s heart, like something had been gouged out of it, had become almost tangible.

Wei Qian finally could not say anything more. He shifted himself into a slightly more comfortable position and patted the back of Wei Zhiyuan’s hand. “Mm, sleep.”

But Wei Zhiyuan sharply caught the trace of something strange in his tone. His drowsiness vanished all at once. In the darkness he stared straight at Wei Qian for a while, and then his fingers quietly slipped into Wei Qian’s pajama top.

By the time his movements became excessive, Wei Qian had just snapped back from that hollow sadness. “Go to sleep properly. Behave yourself.”

Unfortunately, he had tried to stop him too late.

Wei Zhiyuan turned over, pinned one of Wei Qian’s arms beneath his own weight, held down the other with an elbow, blocked his mouth, and in the time it took light to flash stripped off Wei Qian’s perfectly proper pajamas and tossed them to the side of the bed, then got to work with practiced hands.

After who knew how long, Wei Zhiyuan finally let him go.

Wei Zhiyuan lightly stroked Wei Qian’s brows and eyes, then, while the afterglow still lingered, bent down and softly kissed him. In a voice steeped in jealousy he asked, “Isn’t one me enough?”

Wei Qian’s spine was still numb and weak. Powerlessly, he touched Wei Zhiyuan’s chin. “How could it not be enough? One you is already more than enough for me.”

Wei Zhiyuan caught one of his fingers in his mouth, gently grinding it between his teeth.

“All right, baby.” Wei Qian’s voice dropped lower and lower. “Really, not again. I’m sleepy to death. Let me sleep for a while.”

This time Wei Qian genuinely had no more energy left to pick faults with his future brother-in-law. Before his sentence had even finished falling, he had already sunk into a dead sleep.

Wei Zhiyuan gently tucked Wei Qian’s hand back under the blanket, then drew him into his arms and found himself thinking back. When he was little, he had hoped Xiao Bao would be taken away by Grandma. After she came back, he had schemed and exhausted himself trying to compete with her for affection, wanting to monopolize his brother all for himself. Back then he had been like some little wild beast still unsteady on its feet, already possessing a sense of territory.

Later, he discovered that he was still a human being after all, and that his brother was not some “territory” that could be occupied merely by rubbing his scent all over it. So he had no choice but to pull back his claws and live in peace with Xiao Bao.

Gradually he discovered that his feelings had turned rotten at the core, while that possessiveness only grew more and more uncontrollable. His unstable adolescence had made him like a firecracker that would explode at a touch, always rising and falling with every smile and frown of Wei Qian’s. Back then, Wei Zhiyuan had thought, Big brother was mine alone from the start.

Later still, he had been forced to cross the ocean, and spent the longest four years of his life that way. He studied desperately, traveled to many places, and thought he had achieved a thorough enlightenment. In a kind of self-sacrificing determination that was almost like an offering or a ritual immolation, he had decided that if that person was happy, then no matter how unable to let go he might be, he would still be capable of releasing him and not disturbing him.

So what about now?

Wei Zhiyuan’s chest lay pressed against Wei Qian’s bare back. Feeling the two heartbeats almost merge into the same rhythm, he realized that the excitement of Even Xiao Bao’s getting married. From now on he’ll finally belong wholly and completely to me alone had once more risen from the ashes out of that vast tangle of thoughts, poking its head up in gladness.

How terrible, Wei Zhiyuan lectured himself solemnly in his own heart. That’s your sister too. What are you doing? Has your mental age regressed twenty years?

Sadly, psychological self-correction was entirely useless. That strange excitement in his heart simply would not go away.

The corner of Wei Zhiyuan’s mouth lifted.

He knew that the desires in his heart had never once died out. No amount of cultivation could ever eradicate the wild grass there that sprang back to life every time the spring wind blew. But for Wei Qian’s sake, he was willing to endure it painfully, just like a college boy running wildly through heavy snow only so his sick girlfriend could eat a few bites of still-hot wontons. To love someone often meant wanting to do things for them that looked terribly pathetic in outsiders’ eyes, so long as it made them happy.

But now the snow had stopped, so maybe he was allowed to push his luck just a little further?

[End of Extras]