Chapter 26: CH 26

He Qianmin kept looking at the school doors, staring at everyone who came out, for fear of missing Jiang Chen, and worried whether Jiang Chen would think it was impolite for him to come here without notifying him in advance.

However, the moment he saw Jiang Chen coming out, his nervousness was quickly forgotten. His eyes lit up, and he waved and shouted, “Big Brother!”

Jiang Chen paused and looked in the direction of the voice.

He Qianmin ran to Jiang Chen in a few steps, and after seeing Jiang Chen’s surprised expression, he pursed his lips tightly: “Big Brother, you said I could come to you, so…..”

“Wait!” Shen Xu raised his hand, interrupted He Qianmin, walked in front of him and looked him up and down carefully for nearly half a minute, then turned to look at Jiang Chen, looked at him several times, and finally said in a daze: “This is your younger brother? Your real younger brother?”

He Qianmin paused in his movements to push Shen Xu away, and looked past him to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen pulled Shen Xu away and asked He Qianmin, “Came here after school?”

“Yes.” He Qianmin glanced at Shen Xu: “Big Brother, who is he?”

“My friend, Shen Xu.” Jiang Chen kicked Shen Xu lightly, motioning him to come back to his senses: “This is He Qianmin.”

Shen Xu breathed a sigh of relief: “It’s not your younger brother! I knew it, how could I not know that you still have a younger brother in hiding.” Turning his head and smiling, he said to He Qianmin: “Hello, I am Shen Xu, one of Jiang Chen’s best friends.”

“Hello.” He Qianmin nodded casually, turned to look at Jiang Chen, with a tense face: “Are you going home?”

“No, I’m going to eat hot pot.” Jiang Chen said, “Do you eat hot pot? If you don’t, we’ll——”

“I eat!” Answering too quickly, He Qianmin’s eyes flickered for a moment: “I haven’t eaten hot pot for a long time.”

Jiang Chen smiled: “Let’s go.”

He Qianmin suppressed the corners of his raised mouth, and followed Jiang Chen step by step.

Shen Xu lagged a few steps behind, looked thoughtfully at the two people standing side by side in front of him, and murmured to himself: “They look so similar, it can’t be that Uncle Jiang…..outside…..cough cough, it’s impossible, absolutely impossible, forget it.”

He patted his forehead and took a few quick steps to keep up with the two of them.

In the hot pot restaurant, the table was placed full with ingredients, and the three of them were sweating profusely from the eating.

Jiang Chen picked up the last piece of fat beef, put it into He Qianmin’s bowl under Shen Xu’s mournful eyes, and said, “Eat less at night, you will feel uncomfortable later.”

He Qianmin nodded obediently, took the time to glance at Shen Xu, and lowered his head to eat the meat.

The corner of Shen Xu’s mouth twitched, and he complained, “He ate the most tonight. Since you told him to eat less, you should have given me that piece of meat.”

Jiang Chen took a sip of sour plum soup: “He’s still growing.”

“I’m still growing too!” Shen Xu sat up straight with a very hurt expression on his face: “Although I’m already seventeen! But I still have great growth potential, okay?”

Jiang Chen didn’t bother to pay attention to him. Seeing that He Qianmin had finished wiping his mouth, he also put down the bowl of sour plum soup in his hand, and leaned back: “Tell me, why did you come to see me today? Why were you unhappy?”

He Qianmin froze, and his face tightened: “I came just because I wanted to, and who says I’m unhappy.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to say it.” Jiang Chen looked away, got up and said, “I’ll go to pay the bill first, and we’ll go back soon…..”

“I didn’t do well on the exam!” He Qianmin held Jiang Chen’s hand tightly. Seeing Jiang Chen looking down at him, he suddenly felt aggrieved for some reason, his eyes misted over uncontrollably, and he whispered, “I didn’t do well in the exam so I’m unhappy.”

“Where are your test papers?” Jiang Chen rubbed his head, and asked softly, “Did you bring it?”

Shen Xu also comforted on the side: “It’s normal to not do well on exams, what a normal thing, your Brother Shen Xu, I also did not do well on the exam, the most important thing is to look at things calmly, a person’s grades can’t mean everything, like me…..F**k——you call this not doing well?”

Seeing He Qianmin’s test papers and the complete report card inside, Shen Xu clutched his chest, and patted him on the shoulder with a fake smile: “Little friend, you are seventh in the whole year, and you call this not doing well?”

Jiang Chen looked at his test papers carefully, and said, “You lost the most points on memory questions and Chinese and English compositions. You can improve these things with more practice. The second is geography…..I’ll help you look over the test paper when we go back and make a detailed explanation of the questions you missed, and then make a few test papers with similar questions. You won’t be making mistakes after enough practice.”

He Qianmin looked up: “Really?”

Jiang Chen nodded: “It’s already pretty good for you to have grades like this, there’s no need to be unhappy.”

“Seventh…..how is that good.” He Qianmin lowered his eyelashes and said, “The difference between the first and the seventh is too great.”

“There would there be a bigger difference between the seventh and the forty-seventh?” Shen Xu nudged He Qianmin with his elbow, and pointed to himself: “I placed forty-seventh on the exam, and I want to say that I have to catch up with these forty-five people. There are so many people, but did I say anything? You, on the other hand, placed seventh in the exam, and there are only six people in front of you, so just break through one by one, there is nothing to be sad about.”

“Why do you say forty-five?” He Qianmin asked, “Aren’t there forty-six people in front of you?”

Shen Xu raised his chin and gestured to Jiang Chen who was reading over the test papers: “There is your brother here. You’re from Chenghua, right? Do you know that he scored 742 in the joint midterm exam of the three schools this time, and he ranked first overall, known as ‘God Jiang. But these are not the point, the point is that he is my brother, how can brothers brawl with each other, so I will yield to him.”

He Qianmin snorted a sneer from his nasal cavity: “Heh.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Shen Xu tilted his head, hooked Jiang Chen’s neck, raised his chin and said, “Tell your little brother, are we brothers or not, and am I yielding you?”

Jiang Chen folded the papers, “Yes, let’s go.”

Shen Xu raised his eyebrows proudly: “Did you hear that?”

He Qianmin simply glanced at him, and then quickly walked a few steps to catch up with Jiang Chen.

It was already eight o’clock in the evening when they came out of the hot pot restaurant.

Jiang Chen rejected Shen Xu’s proposal to go to another stall, ignored He Qianmin’s expression of not wanting to go home, and stuffed him onto the bus.

“Send me a text when you get home.”

He Qianmin squeezed his phone, thought of Jiang Chen’s words just now, and sent a safe text message the first moment he got off the bus. After receiving Jiang Chen’s reply, he put the phone in his trouser pocket, hummed a tune and entered the door.

“…..It’s nothing, just do a good job on the exam next time. A success or failure doesn’t mean anything. There will be greater progress only when there are setbacks.”

The figure of his mother came from the dining room, and He Qianmin turned around and walked into the dining room.

He glanced over He Qianjian, who for once had a dark face, and sat down in a happier mood, “Mom, what were you talking about?”

“Talking about your big brother’s midterm exam results.” Yang Yun put the plate of ribs in front of He Qianmin and said, “Mom left you your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs. Next time you come home so late, remember to call back, or your father and I will worry about you.”

He Qianmin pouted: “I’m not a child, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

He Yanfeng came down from upstairs, and just happened to hear these words. He scolded with a smile: “You still know to come back, I thought you went to someone’s house for dinner again.”

“I have already eaten.” He Qianmin picked up a rib and said with a smile, “But I can still eat a few ribs.”

Yang Yun pinched his face, turned to He Qianjian and said, “Da Bao, you eat too, don’t think anymore about it.” (TN: da bao=big treasure/big precious)

He Qianmin put down his chopsticks, crossed his arms over his chest and looked at He Qianjian with a smile, “Yes, failure is the mother of success. In some things, being the best might not necessarily mean the most right, because some people can’t compare at all. This was originally what you said to me. So why can’t you use what you said to me to encourage yourself?”

He Qianjian lowered his head to eat, but did not speak.

Yang Yun gave He Qianmin an admonishing look, motioning him not to speak.

He Qianyu swung her legs and asked curiously, “Second Brother, who did you go eat dinner with?”

The corner of He Qianmin’s mouth raised: “My big brother.”

He Qianyu pursed her mouth: “You lied to me, Eldest Brother is clearly at home.”

He Qianmin glanced at He Qianjian, and sneered, “I don’t think of him as my big brother.”

He Yanfeng slapped him on the back, but he was not too angry: “How did your big brother offend you recently? Don’t you know to talk nicely?”

“Qian Min.” Yang Yun frowned and said: “No matter how big the conflict between you two brothers, you can’t say such words. Now I apologize to your big brother.”

“Why?” He Qianmin put down his chopsticks heavily, stood up and said word by word: “If there was a choice, I would definitely not be his younger brother.”

“He Qianmin!”

He Qianmin went straight upstairs.

He Qianjian raised his head and smiled helplessly: “Mom and Dad, it’s okay. Qian Min is now in a rebellious period. I can understand. Maybe he was not in a good mood at school today, so came back to vent, just let him be.”

He Yanfeng shook his head: “This brat, his temper is getting worse. Since he had eaten already, let’s eat by ourselves first.”

After dinner, He Qianyu went upstairs with dessert and fruit.

In the living room, only He Yanfeng, Yang Yun and He Qianjian were sitting.

Seeing He Qianjian’s still sullen expression, He Yanfeng asked with a smile, “The results came out, did you do bad in the exam?”

He Qianjian clenched his fists: “Second place.”

“Second is pretty good too.” He Yanfeng said with a smile: “You have always been number one before, and occasionally experiencing what it’s like to be second is also a kind of life experience, isn’t it?”

Yang Yun also comforted: “Yes, Da Bao, there’s nothing wrong with being second, don’t be unhappy, don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

He Qianjian hummed lightly, lowering his eyes, lost in his thoughts.

Seeing this, He Yanfeng sighed inwardly, and said: “It’s a good thing to be competitive, but it’s not a good thing to be too competitive or to be too frustrated. Qian Jian, everything has gone so smoothly since you were young, so encountering setbacks to sharpen your fortitude is a good thing for you. Besides, if there is no challenge in a person’s life, isn’t it too boring?”

“I know, Dad.” He Qianjian raised the corners of his mouth and said in a gentle voice, “It’s just my first mistake, and I’m not used to it. I’ll be fine after a while.”

He Yanfeng patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, “That’s right, that’s my son.”

He Qianjian lowered his eyes, suppressing the cold light in his eyes.

He didn’t like challenges at all, and he didn’t like or allow anyone to step on his head, especially when this person was Jiang Chen, which made him feel like he had a fish bone stuck in his throat. He must think of some way to make Jiang Chen…..

“One more thing. The physical examination results came out. I don’t know what went wrong with the blood test. Your blood type is different from before.” He Yanfeng said: “It just so happens that your Uncle Xiang is coming to the house tomorrow morning. So when you get up in the morning don’t eat immediately, wait until he comes to help you draw blood, and then let him take it back to the hospital for a retest.”

“The blood type is different? How is it possible!”

He Qianjian raised his head suddenly, his voice during puberty was hoarse, and right now, currently with a trace of panic.

AN: He Qianmin: Big Brother, I feel bad for not doing well on the exam.

Shen Xu: Your Big Brother, I shall comfort you! (After seeing the grades) I’m not your Big Brother anymore.

Jiang Chen: Be good, Big Brother will help you with tutoring.