Everyone in the silo has a system of interpersonal rules at heart.
At 16 or 7 years old, she is a young man who is very vigorous and not afraid of heaven and earth, and when she gets angry, she can beat up any man in the world.
But Lou Ying is different again.
He was not like all the other boys in the silo, he was modest and polite. He never blended in with the smoke and mirrors of the silo. He was always ashamed of himself, with his ever-present, upwardly mobile, orchid-like energy.
It is true that he is âsomeone elseâs kidâ, but after being someone elseâs kid for a long time, not only the kids who are always comparing themselves to him, but also the parents who are comparing themselves to him, inevitably have a thorn in their side.
So Auntie Chu was even a little pleased to see the semiconductors that once belonged to her family on Lou Yingâs windowsill.
âThereâs really a wormhole in that orchid.
She dared to talk about Lou Ying behind her back, but only because Lou Ying had no mother or father and was living in a house where Lou Yingâs aunt and uncle were sullen, and he was so mild-mannered and good-tempered that she was itching to take advantage of such a soft-spoken person.
Aunt Chuâs mouth dropped open and her face turned red with shame, and she couldnât even finish her sentence.
âAuntie Chu, I have all my receipts from the scrapyard.â Lou Ying said, âYou should stop. If you say something in private next time and I hear you, you will be even more embarrassed than you were today.â
Aunt Chu finally snapped back to her senses, âDonât you scare people! Do you think the police will care about this shit?â
âAuntie Chu, the police donât care, there are still the courts.â Lou Ying said gently, âI am 16 years old, have an independent income and am legally considered a fully civilized person. I donât need to go through my sister-in-law to appeal against you destroying my reputation. If the first trial doesnât work, letâs go to the second trial. If the second trial doesnât work, Iâll appeal again. Iâm still young and if I lose my reputation, my life will be ruined. Do you think, for my own sake, I will let it go so easily.â
Aunt Chu was already panicking, so she had to brace herself and talk tough: âIf you want to sue, sue, go ahead! Whoever doesnât sue is a grandson! Iâm telling you, donât fool me, you have to get connections and pay a lot of money to file a lawsuit! Go ahead and sue if you can. I donât care what the verdict is, I wonât give you a single hair anyway!â
Lou Ying smiled: âIsnât that what you earn money for, I donât mind that. Besides, itâs not certain that you will pay for the lawsuit and I will pay for it. If you donât appear in court, you are giving up your defence; if you donât pay the money, you will lose your credibility in the future, which will affect your own son, who may not even be allowed to take the civil service exam. Of course, you may not care about this. But since you are willing to be the joke of the building, I naturally donât have to stop you. Donât you think so?â
His set of half-truths provoked Aunt Chu to panic.
The civil service is the âiron rice bowlâ in the minds of the older generation of parents, and it would be a big deal if anyone were to smash this reserved rice bowl.
As Aunt Chu panicked, her head shot up and she found seven or eight heads all lying by the first floor corridor, full of inquisitive eyes.
Of the seven or eight heads, one with a shaggy, inch-shaven head saw the situation and quickly retreated.
Aunt Chu instantly found a lifeline: âBunny, are you dead? Didnât you hear what he said about your mother?!â
Aunt Chuâs youngest son was caught in the act and had to go downstairs with a bitter face, tugging Aunt Chuâs flowery sleeve and pulling him home, âMom, can you stop being embarrassed?â
Aunt Chu, having suffered a bearish loss, could not bear the thought of her own son tearing her down and pounced on him with a sobbing voice: âHow did I give birth to such a wimp as you? What? When your mother was bullied, you would cower back, what kind of man are you?â
âThatâs not how it works.â Lou Ying spoke calmly, âIf he looked like you, he wouldnât be a man.â
Lou Ying, who had always been the big brother of the children in the building, could not hold his head up in the building because of his motherâs nonsense. Iâll stopâ¦â
But Aunt Chu knew that with this retreat, she could become the laughing stock of the silo by tomorrow.
If word got out that she was almost 50 years old, she would lose her face and her reputation to a high school student.
In the middle of a tug-of-war with her youngest son, Aunt Chu turned her face and saw someone, her eyes lit up and she hastily waved her hand: âTianhao! Come here! Come here!â
The youngest sonâs head grew bigger when he saw that his elder brother had returned at this time.
Their father had gone to work in the city, and much of the reason their mother was able to roam the silos was because she had her eldest son as a talisman.
The younger son mentally cried out to be finished, and Aunt Chu had already shrugged him off and walked quickly in the direction of the older son.
The eldest son was in his early twenties, working at the nearby power plant, and was a good fighter. He gets off his bike, lifts up his white sweatshirt and wipes the sweat from his forehead. He listens sideways to Aunt Chuâs complaint for a while, and his face gradually turns unpleasant.
The youngest son got anxious and came to Lou Ying: â Brother Lou Ying, this â¦â¦â
Lou Ying Wen unbuttoned the cuffs of her long thin sleeves and pulled them up a few times.
He said, âThings always work out.â
Seeing that Lou Ying had no intention of giving up, the younger son rushed to his brotherâs side and tried to intercede, but was pushed away by a large hand.
The tall man grimaced and stared straight at Lou Ying: âBoy, how do you talk to my mother?!â
Lou Yingâs non-aggressive gaze fell on the tall man, pinpointing all of his weaknesses one by one.
He said calmly, âI speak reason.â
âWhat the fuck kind of sense is that?â The eldest son stepped forward and interrupted him roughly, âIâll show you today what reason is!â
âYeah.â Lou Ying tilted her head slightly, looked him in the eye and said approvingly, âIâd like to hear it.â
Lou Ying took two minutes to reason with him easily.
The opponent was big, but really not a competent brawler.
Because of the magnitude of the punch, his face was ushered in faster than the punch.
Lou Ying made a hollow grip, hit him in the jaw and while his face was tilted to the side, a reverse heel hook took him to the ground with ease.
Lou Ying didnât go away, taking two gentlemanly steps back and looking down at him.
His opponent, half deflated, gets up and kicks Lou Ying in the gut instead of the fist.
Lou Ying sidesteps and arches his back, dodges easily, then holds him up by the bend of the knee and lands a reverse heel hook, dropping him backwards in the same position, before moving again.
Anyone with a good eye can see that Louâs children are showing respect.
If Lou Ying had really done it, Auntie Chuâs eldest son would have been punched out with an endocrine disorder.
Auntie Chu had asked her son to take it out on her, but now that she saw him suffer, she wouldnât do it. She pounced on Lou Ying and tried to hug him, but Lou Ying dodged her and said gently, âAuntie Chu, Iâm still young, so please behave yourself.
The two sons didnât even react to what they meant, but Aunt Chu held her face until it turned purple.
The snickering and giggling around her was literally holding her over the fire.
With tears in her eyes, she pulled her eldest son to his feet and shouted at Lou Ying, âYouâre so shameless! You hit my son, wait, Iâll call the police!â
Lou Ying was courteous: âPlease. I have the phone here.â
Aunt Chu: ââ¦â¦â
Aunt Chu jumped in to interrupt, but it gave her eldest son a stepping stone.
As soon as he fought Lou Ying, he realised that he was a skilled fighter and that he was no match for him.
He was remorseful and angry, and didnât know how to stop, when Aunt Chu howled out this voice, and transferred some of his anger.
For such socialites, calling the police when you canât beat them is no less humiliating than âIâll call my dad to beat you upâ.
The eldest son pushed his mother away and got up angrily, âWhat are you calling the police? If youâre a man, if youâre good enough, weâll have a fight some day!â
Lou Ying rationalised, âNo, itâs better to call the police. We can just talk about my reputation rights.â
Older son: ââ¦â¦â
Aunt Chu: ââ¦â¦â
Lou Ying saw that the two menâs temper had been deflated in this way, and each one wilted and did not intend to go on with them.
â¦â¦ He also has Xiaochi to look after.
He lowered his sleeves, which were pulled up to the cuffs, and politely took out his mobile phone: âAunt Chu, Brother Tianhao, what just happened, Iâve recorded the video. Since you guys arenât calling the police, Iâll do what I think. â¦â¦ Excuse me.â
Saying this, he no longer cared how embarrassed the one woman and two men of the Chu family were behind him, turned around on his own and walked towards his home.
As she walked near her door, Lou Ying noticed a shadowed figure in the window, leaning in and looking out.
He gave a silent laugh and deliberately increased the sound of his footsteps.
Sure enough, there was a stomping footstep from near and far in the door.
He pushed open the door to see Chi Xiaochi, who was too late to hide his eavesdropping foxtail, flopping face down on top of the messy covers and forcing himself to pretend to be asleep.
Lou Ying gently closes the door with her foot, shutting out all the noise outside, and comes forward, picks up the corner of the quilt and carefully runs a thread through it, then rolls it up along the thread, little by little, forming Chi Xiaochi into a sushi.
Chi Xiaochiâs heart was pounding.
Lou Ying poked his finger at the heart through the blanket: âWarning, disturbing.â
Chi Xiaochi opened one eye: âDid you?â
Lou Ying smiled and raised his other hand, pointing to his heart, ââ¦â¦ resonated.â
Chi Xiaochi gave a vague âchortleâ and closed her eyes again, her cheeks slightly flushed.
Lou Ying pokes the red Arctic shell sushi, causing Chi Xiaochi, who was trying to pretend to be asleep, to pop up a little more, â Brother Lou, when did you learn to fight?â
Lou Ying pauses, frowning and pondering.
He doesnât actually remember.
After being formatted, heâd looked up his previous schedule and found that heâd set aside a day during his hostâs mission breaks to go to the system workout room and practice fighting all day.
The habit just keeps on keeping on.
â¦â¦ Why on earth would he want to learn to fight.
Lou Ying lowered his eyes and asked instead of answering, âWhat do you want to eat tonight? Lou will make it for you.â
Chi Xiaochi immediately ordered, âNoodles with shredded pork and egg.â
The answer was as good as Lou Yingâs guess, and he got up and went to check the fridge for more eggs, leaving Chi Xiaochi under the covers, looking around.
At the foot of his bed are cleaned clear glasses of water, the latest issue of National Geographic, and under his bed are nearly five yearsâ worth of geographic magazines, all tied up properly with thin string.
The duvet had the familiar fresh scent of lemon, the aroma of Lou Yingâs usual shampoo.
In the world where Chi Xiaochi came from, despite all his efforts, he was unable to retain the taste.
The smell of the quilt faded a little with time, but it was extraordinarily strong at this moment.
The light sour aroma of the lemon melted into his heart, making Chi Xiaochiâs heart soften and sink into it.
To prevent himself from dipping too deep, he had to force himself to think about what to do with Zhu Shoucheng.
He is no longer the isolated and uninformed teenager he was, he knows which paths work and which ones donât.
Soon, the beginnings of a plan had emerged in his mind.
Lou Ying, without trying to guess what Chi Xiaochi was thinking, put her bag on the wall hook for Chi Xiaochi: âTomorrow, Iâll go to school with you.â
Chi Xiaochi took a break from his vision of the plan and looked up at him.
Strangely enough, he looked at the old scene and thought of his brother Lou from the past.
But when he looked at the man in front of him, he could clearly tell from the way he looked at himself that the man in front of him was 061 .
Mature, powerful, gentle and elegant, 061 is a very different and grown-up Lou from the one he dreamed of.
He dreamed of Lou, who was good at everything, but just didnât like the grown-up version of him.
And 061 , who had accompanied him from the first world to the present, seemed to be really â¦â¦ to himself with so little extra affection.
ââ¦â¦ You left class today for no reason, some parent has to explain to the teacher, right?â Lou Ying put on her floral apron and carefully calculated the time according to the wall calendar, âAs I recall, you will be on summer vacation for another three days of school. Letâs talk about how weâre going to get Zhu Shoucheng sorted out. Then I want to pay you for a fourteen year old summer vacation.â
Lou Ying turned her head, looked at Chi Xiaochi , and said gently, ââ¦â¦ May I have the pleasure?â
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