Bro | Chapter 9

When Wei Qian was little, he had also read plenty of inspirational stories like these, but he had forgotten them all. Probably because his emotional development had not quite kept pace with the average standard, he had felt absolutely nothing when he read them back then. It was only now that they stirred him a little.

He casually said to the two children, “Your teacher knows what she’s doing. The extracurricular reading she picked is pretty good.”

San Pang, who was cooking, stuck his head out of the kitchen and shouted over the sounds of frying and stir-frying, “What’s it about? Read it out loud for your brother.”

Wei Qian cleared his throat, planning to show off the voice he used for the flag-raising speeches. But before he even had time to read a single word, that little brat Wei Zhiyuan suddenly ruined the mood by saying from the side, “Ge, I don’t want to go to school anymore.”

Bringing up the same old matter again, Wei Qian ignored him and did not take it seriously. As a qualified feudal parent, he intended to carry the glorious tradition of dictatorship through to the end. On a matter like whether to go to school or not, it simply was not a little brat’s turn to voice his own opinion.

Wei Qian shouted toward the kitchen at San Pang, “Let you get some education too. Let me see where to start… Mm, this one then. ‘Dreams’…”

“Ge.” Wei Zhiyuan walked over, squatted down in front of Wei Qian, stared straight at him, and repeated, “I don’t want to go to school.”

Xiao Bao, who was used to stirring up trouble, immediately scampered over and chirped brightly, “Ge, he’s learning bad things. Hit him.”

Wei Zhiyuan frowned and said to her in righteous indignation, “Get over there. You’re everywhere.”

“You get over there,” Wei Qian said, casually smacking Wei Zhiyuan on the head with the extracurricular reading booklet, and smoothly tossing out, “Say one more word and I’ll break your leg.”

That line had a source. When Wei Qian was little, there had been a classmate in his class who had been so naughty that the teacher called in his parents. The boy’s father had smacked him on the head like this and viciously said, “Skip school one more time and I’ll break your leg.”

The young Wei Qian had always thought that way of speaking had a real parent-like bearing. At the time he had still been young and ignorant, so he had copied that sentence into his excerpt notebook, only for the teacher to cross it out with a huge X…

In any case, he had always longed to use that line once to lecture somebody.

Wei Zhiyuan looked at the arm he had hanging in a sling, his expression complicated.

The first time he resisted school, it had been because he simply did not know what school was for. But this time, after deep and careful consideration, the little boy stated his thoughts with logic and reason: “I don’t want to go to school anymore. School is pretty good, but it takes so many years and costs so much money. I’d rather go out and make money with you. I can work, I can fight, I can feed myself, and I can feed you too.”

Unfortunately, Wei Qian was the sort of person you simply could not communicate with. Xiao Yuan’s well-reasoned argument was treated like wind by the ear.

Wei Qian lowered his head and glanced at Wei Zhiyuan, feeling that this little brat simply did not know the immensity of heaven and earth. His hand itched, and he wanted to beat this little brat up. Wei Qian thought that every day he went out before dawn and came back after dark, and now that competition in the trade had grown fiercer, he had to be ready at every moment, bleeding and sweating, to battle wits and strength with all kinds of peers. Yet the way this little brat said it, it sounded as if something this technically demanding was something any random person could do. Damn it, if you are not the one running the household, you do not know how expensive firewood and rice are. He simply had no idea how hard other people worked to keep him.

But when Wei Qian saw how serious and earnest he looked while swearing he would support him, he did not bring his hand down.

The little thing… at least he had some conscience.

So Wei Qian perfunctorily said to him, “Then go study hard. In the future, college graduation won’t do, a master’s won’t do, a doctorate won’t do either. You’ll have to get a postdoc. Postdoc postdoc postdoc. Let people call you ‘Doctor Wei.’ You do your best to get us a ‘Scissortor Wei.’ That’d be really badass.”

Wei Zhiyuan lowered his head. He had read a little, understood a little, and could tell that big brother was teasing him. On this matter, there was clearly no room for discussion.

Song Xiaobao, that little troublemaker, grinned and scooted over, wagging herself around asking for a beating. “Scissortor Wei, hehehehe.”

Wei Zhiyuan said, “Get over there, little brat girl.”

Song Xiaobao refused to be outdone. “I’m not a ‘brat,’ I’m a ‘drum’! You’re a sheep dung ball perched on a reed stick!”

Wei Zhiyuan said, “…Ugly little brat girl.”

Song Xiaobao shrieked angrily, “Sheep dung ball!”

Wei Zhiyuan calmly replied, “You’re calling yourself.”

And so the two of them got into it. Wei Qian watched from the side with absolutely no intention of breaking them up. He would have preferred if they fought even more noisily. Watching children fight was one of his forms of entertainment anyway. They could not hurt each other, after all.

When Wei Zhiyuan had first arrived, the look in his eyes had been very wild and untamable, and his temperament had always been more gloomy than other children his age. Every day he had formed a sharp contrast with Xiao Bao, who chattered on at home endlessly, expressing one useless opinion after another. Back then, at first glance, Wei Zhiyuan had looked like some adolescent big kid stuffed into a little child’s body. He always felt mismatched with his appearance.

But over the past half year, he had grown more and more “small,” and even his words and actions had turned childish along with it.

While squabbling with Xiao Bao, Wei Zhiyuan kept glancing at Wei Qian out of the corner of his eye. Once he noticed that big brother, with one arm hanging in a sling, was delightedly watching the fight between the two of them, he continued provoking Song Xiaobao with a somewhat performative flair.

Ever since the last time he had made a fool of himself over losing his teeth, Wei Zhiyuan had accidentally found a way to please big brother: lower his intelligence to the same level as Song Xiaobao and often do ridiculous stupid things together with her that made people laugh and cry at the same time.

The more childish and scatterbrained the two of them acted, the more relaxed big brother’s attitude became, and the less he put on airs.

So Wei Zhiyuan went farther and farther down this road.

His inborn talents originally could have let him grow up into someone cool, yet he ended up walking down a moronic path instead. The twists and turns of life really were impossible to predict.

Wei Zhiyuan’s feelings toward Wei Qian and this home were burning hot. He was different from other children. Other children were born with a home. Wei Zhiyuan was not. He treated “home” as a kind of enterprise to be managed.

As long as he could stay, stay in this home, forget pretending to be stupid and playing dumb, even if he had to risk his life, he could do it.

Xiao Yuan always remembered that one day, he had been so cold at school during the day that he caught a chill. He was always freezing, and after he fell asleep, he unconsciously burrowed into Wei Qian’s arms and curled up in that warm embrace, sleeping there all the way until the next day.

In the early morning, when the boy woke up, he lay there for a long time without wanting to move. He opened his eyes wide and looked up at the sleeping face of the young man beside him, and in silence he suddenly called out once in his own heart, Ge.

Of course big brother could not hear it, but Wei Zhiyuan had called him that in his heart.

The lively war between Xiao Yuan and Xiao Bao was ultimately brought to an end by San Pang. One in each hand, he hauled the two little brats apart like he was carrying puppies. “Oh, little ancestors, are you trying to wreak havoc in Heaven? Truce first, alright? Eat first, then pick up your spears and fight again after. No rush.”

San Pang brought out the egg fried rice from the kitchen and served it in a little basin. He did not even bring bowls, just grabbed four spoons, one for each person, and the four of them ate around the basin.

San Pang loved acting like a teacher. He nagged even more than Tang Monk. Not even food could shut up his sausage mouth. As he ate, he lectured the children. “Kids need ideals. You can’t spend all day bickering like pot-bellied grasshoppers with no end to it. Your brother here is a complete idiot too, he can’t even keep you under control…”

Wei Qian was innocently dragged into it. He had just been about to teach this fatty a lesson so he would know exactly how many eyes the Horse King had, but before he could speak, the two little brats suddenly united against a common enemy and shouted at San Pang, “You are not allowed to talk about my Ge!”

San Pang: “…”

Wei Qian put a slice of sausage into each of their bowls. “Well done. Eat more.”

San Pang’s pancake face twisted for a moment. Relying on his thick skin, he forcibly continued the topic from before. “Fine, fine, we won’t talk about your brother. Come on then, after learning so many texts about ideals at school, tell San-ge about it. What are your ideals?”

Xiao Bao said, “I want to be a singer.”

Wei Zhiyuan plainly said, “Make money. Support my Ge.”

Xiao Bao glanced at him, then added, “When I become a singer, I’ll earn lots of money and support my Ge.”

San Pang was like a sleazy child kidnapper… no, like a great educator, patiently and persuasively guiding Wei Zhiyuan. “See, Xiao Bao’s ideal has more of a target. So what about you, Xiao Yuan? You want to support your brother, but how are you going to make money?”

Without even lifting his eyelids, Wei Zhiyuan said, “I can guard venues, sell discs, forge certificates, throw my weight around…”

San Pang instantly looked heartbroken and turned to Wei Qian. “Qian’er, I think your kid is hopeless.”

Wei Qian looked toward the solemnly serious Wei Zhiyuan, and his gaze landed on his puffed-up cheeks. Suddenly he felt like laughing, so he did. And while he was at it, he gave San Pang a clear, concise way out: “Get lost.”

Once he laughed, Wei Zhiyuan felt that all the crying, rolling, and fussing he had done that evening had been worth it. So he stopped making noise, saved his strength, lowered his head fiercely, and shoveled rice into his mouth.

Wei Zhiyuan ate in an extremely ferocious way, as though he wanted to turn every single grain of rice into his bones and flesh.

Actually, Wei Qian had ideals too. His original ideal had been to become a scientist, wearing a white coat and moving around in a laboratory, recording all kinds of data, writing papers, testing materials, researching something or other, researching even while he ate, researching even while he slept, keeping nothing else in his heart besides what he was studying, with no worries about food or clothing.

Of course, Wei Qian understood in his heart that at present this ideal had already turned into a fantasy, so he had never mentioned it to anyone, pretending that the moment he was born he had already been some slick old hand from society and had never once been stupid.

San Pang had cooked, and after the meal he still had to wash the dishes. As he washed, he grumbled, “Sigh, your San-ge must have owed you money in a past life, and in this one I’m your child bride…”

These words happened to be heard by Wei Zhiyuan as he passed by. Without a second word, Wei Zhiyuan rolled up his sleeves. “San-ge, I’ll wash.”

San Pang waved him off, half laughing and half crying. “I’ve heard of people fighting to become a child bride now. You’d better hurry and go watch cartoons with Xiao Bao.”

Wei Zhiyuan looked up and sought Wei Qian’s permission. Wei Qian gave him a nod with about one centimeter of vertical movement. “Go on. Don’t stand here tripping people.”

Once the children had been sent away, San Pang finally opened his mouth to the Wei Qian who was leaning against the kitchen doorframe. “Does that arm of yours still hurt?”

Wei Qian lit a cigarette. “It’s okay. A bit.”

San Pang did not joke around with him. After a moment of silence, he asked seriously, something rare for him, “What do you want to do? Keep going on like this forever?”

Wei Qian had already seen that he was holding something back. He did not say anything, just waited for him to continue.

San Pang was a few years older than he and Ma Zi, already close to twenty, and he thought more than his two little brothers did. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but Le-ge, Le Xiaodong, that guy is no good. If you follow him around, what good end can possibly come of it? Even if you go carry bricks on a construction site, what you’re selling is your strength. The two bucks Le Xiaodong gives you, that’s for you to sell your life.”

It was a good while before Wei Qian finally asked back, “What can I go do?”

“What is there that you can’t do and still eat?”

Wei Qian leaned against the doorframe and thought vaguely for a moment. Then he lowered his head and looked at his hand, wrapped up like a rice dumpling, and felt the threadlike, piercing pain leaking out from inside. In a low voice he said, “I can’t do anything.”

“Whether you work a job or run a little business,” San Pang paused, then said, “At worst, you can follow San-ge. The two of us can drive around delivering cooked food. Wouldn’t that count as a livelihood too?”

Wei Qian smiled faintly and said nothing.

“As long as you nod, once I go back I’ll talk to my dad…” At that point, San Pang suddenly seemed to sense something and turned his head. He discovered that Wei Qian was already gone, having nonviolently refused to cooperate by simply walking off and not listening anymore.

San Pang shut his mouth, angrily flicked the water off his hands, and said in a huff, “You bastard, sooner or later you’ll have your day of regret!”

San Pang had known him since childhood. He would never harm him. Wei Qian knew that in his heart, and he knew that everything San Pang said made sense.

He had already been in the entertainment venue business for more than a year, and by now he had gradually let go of his blind worship of Le-ge. He also knew, more or less, what kind of business Le-ge was doing.

Sometimes Wei Qian would think, why was it that no matter how bitter or difficult other people’s lives were, they could still walk a proper road, but only he himself was such a coward?

Did he want to be a hooligan?

Even though he mixed with that crowd, he still knew right from wrong. He had been such a good student at school for so many years, and it was not so that he could drop out and become a thug.

Was it for money?

Yes, Wei Qian admitted it, Le-ge gave him a lot of money. But San Pang was right. What he was selling was his life. Even if the money were doubled, it still would not be worth it.

Then was it because he was afraid of hardship?

Probably not either. Was the pain of huge blisters rubbed up on the hands from carrying bricks and skin scorched and split by the sun worse, or was the pain of having an arm smashed cleanly in two by someone else’s stick worse? That was hard to compare.

Then what was it for?

Wei Qian asked himself this countless times, and later discovered that it was probably still that little bit of pride of his, the kind that could kill a person, causing trouble.

From the day he was born into this world, from his very first cry, he had been destined to rank lower than others. So when he grew a little older and had just a tiny bit of room to choose, he would rather die than bow his head again, even if it meant becoming fierce like this, making everyone fear him and hate him.

Better to make other people afraid of him than let them look down on him.