Lu Xingyan certainly did not have the courage to say any of that in front of his father. He only dared cling to his brother and spout nonsense.
Later, when they reached home and parked the car, Lu Xingyan finally stopped delivering his twisted arguments. He pinched Jiang Ji’s sleeve. “Think about it, okay?”
“…”
This man had become highly skilled at acting spoiled, and his skin was getting thicker by the day.
Jiang Ji pretended the alcohol had made him unable to understand. He pushed the car door open and got out, ignoring Lu Xingyan, who followed him step for step. Only when they reached the bedroom doors did Jiang Ji finally answer quietly, “Fine. I’ll think about it.”
“Really?” Lu Xingyan lit up. “You agreed! You’re not allowed to take it back!”
“I only said I’d think about it.” Jiang Ji opened his door and blocked his little follower from entering. “Go sleep in your own room. Until I give you an answer, you’re not allowed to harass me. Understand?”
“Understood, understood.”
There was actually such a wonderful deal? He drove him home once and that was enough?
Lu Xingyan returned happily to his room and replayed the entire conversation they had had on the road—though Jiang Ji had barely spoken. Most of it had been Lu Xingyan muttering and talking to himself.
Unfortunately, he had been driving and needed to watch the road, so he had not been able to observe Jiang Ji’s expression. Otherwise, he could have identified the exact second Jiang Ji began wavering…
No matter. Wavering at all was already good.
Lu Xingyan suppressed his excitement and waited patiently.
Unfortunately, Jiang Ji thought about it for many days and still had not given him an answer by May Day.
They lived under the same roof. To demonstrate sincerity, Lu Xingyan got up early every morning and personally saw his brother off to work—since he was forbidden from harassing him, all he could do was watch. At night, he went to sleep early as well. His biological clock had completely shifted into “Jiang Ji mode,” yet Jiang Ji still had not finished “thinking.”
What was there to think about?
Did it really require this long?
Lu Xingyan was impatient but refused to look impatient. He could only subtly remind Jiang Ji of his existence by occasionally sending a WeChat sticker.
Sometimes Jiang Ji replied, sometimes he ignored him, and every so often he sent a sticker back.
They were cute puppy stickers Jiang Ji had saved from Lu Xingyan.
For some reason, even though it was exactly the same puppy, Lu Xingyan found it especially adorable whenever Jiang Ji sent it.
Every time he received one, his mood became wonderful, and he could not help staring stupidly at his phone and smiling for ages.
The day before the May Day holiday, Lu Xingyan finished his graduation project. His thesis was almost complete as well, and all that remained was the defense.
Sun Cheng returned from Japan with his girlfriend and finally removed Lu Xingyan from his WeChat block list. He proactively messaged, “Brother Lu, are you there?”
Lu Xingyan sneered. “Who are you?”
Sun Cheng lowered himself humbly. “Little Sun. Do you remember promising to help me revise my thesis?”
“…”
Lu Xingyan blocked him.
Two minutes later, Sun Cheng called directly.
Sun Cheng knew exactly how to begin a conversation with Lu Xingyan. He avoided mentioning the thesis at first and took a roundabout route instead. “Oh, right. How are things going with your brother?”
Lu Xingyan’s finger paused over the hang-up button. “Same as always.”
“What does ‘same as always’ mean?” Sun Cheng was genuinely curious.
“You might not believe this,” Lu Xingyan said, “but I’ve almost won him over.”
Sun Cheng was shocked. “Seriously?”
He had only gone to Japan for a few days. How much had he missed?
Lu Xingyan had originally planned to stream, but Sun Cheng’s call interrupted him. He was in no hurry, so he remained seated in front of his still-dark computer and briefly recounted everything that had happened between him and Jiang Ji recently.
He omitted the details he considered unnecessary and focused mainly on Jiang Ji’s supposed change in attitude.
“What are you so surprised about?” Lu Xingyan said. “I even started calling him bro. I gave him an emotional confession, offered myself to him in bed, made him breakfast, and drove him home. I’ve worked this hard and done this much. Wouldn’t it be strange if he didn’t fall for me?”
For the sake of getting his thesis revised, Sun Cheng abandoned his conscience. “Totally normal.”
“Exactly,” Lu Xingyan said. “So I’ve been thinking about it these past few days. When he said he’d ‘think about it,’ he probably already accepted me in his heart. He’s just too embarrassed to admit it and is deliberately playing hard to get.”
“…”
Sun Cheng was speechless. From what he knew of Lu Xingyan, the Jiang Ji in Lu Xingyan’s description and the actual Jiang Ji were not completely unrelated, but there was certainly considerable distance between them.
Still, Sun Cheng thought Jiang Ji was also something of a remarkable person.
If he ignored the parts Lu Xingyan had embellished or wildly imagined, at least Jiang Ji’s behavior inside the car and his promise to “think about” Lu Xingyan’s pursuit should both be real.
Everyone knew the two of them were not related by blood, but stepbrothers were still brothers.
If an ordinary person heard that his younger brother liked him, he would probably feel at least some moral or familial conflict. At minimum he would educate the younger brother; at maximum he might tell the parents. Jiang Ji, however, acted as though nothing were wrong and continued trading moves with Lu Xingyan.
Perhaps there really was truth in the saying that people from the same family belonged together.
“You two aren’t actually going to end up dating, are you?” Sun Cheng became slightly worried. “Don’t play yourself into a corner and then discover you can’t get out.”
“You’re joking. Who wouldn’t be able to get out?” Lu Xingyan said. “I’m the one with control. No matter how this goes, I’m the one playing him. What do you know?”
Sun Cheng had no choice but to agree. “Yes, yes, yes. So about my thesis…”
Lu Xingyan replayed the sticker Jiang Ji had sent that day in his mind, immediately becoming charitable. “How much have you written? Send it over.”
While Lu Xingyan helped Sun Cheng revise his thesis, Jiang Ji had already gotten off work.
Today was the last working day before the statutory May Day holiday. Jiang Ji did not require his employees to work overtime, though he still had his own arrangements and effectively only had two days off.
Li Ling knew Jiang Ji’s schedule extremely well. Knowing he had nothing planned tonight, he invited him out yet again and finally transformed the vague “another day” into today.
They met at a Japanese restaurant in a small private room decorated in Japanese style, refined and vaguely intimate.
Jiang Ji liked Japanese food. Sashimi, yakitori, sukiyaki—every kind appealed to his palate. Even while facing Li Ling, he could eat without difficulty.
Li Ling sometimes felt helpless. Jiang Ji kept him at arm’s length, alternately near and distant, mostly ignoring him, yet did not appear to dislike him either. It was as though Li Ling were either air or some clingy pet that could not be chased away. No matter how much the pet made noise, the owner’s mood remained unaffected.
“You didn’t like the guy from that night?” Li Ling proactively opened a subject. “Didn’t you say you liked obedient ones?”
Jiang Ji ate elegantly without looking up. “He wasn’t what I imagined.”
“What did you imagine?”
Jiang Ji paused. “I don’t know.”
“…”
How was anyone supposed to respond to that?
Li Ling guessed, “Was he bad at conversation? Did he annoy you?”
“Not exactly.” Jiang Ji thought, Who could possibly be worse at conversation than Lu Xingyan? Lu Xingyan had trained him thoroughly. Jiang Ji’s threshold for irritation was not that low. The other guy had simply been boring.
Li Ling, unable to win over the person he liked, painfully played the role of understanding friend. “Sometimes there’s just no chemistry. This sort of thing depends on fate. If there’s no spark, there’s no spark.”
“Mm.” Jiang Ji nodded.
“Do you still want to try? I can introduce someone else.”
“…”
Jiang Ji admired his persistence but had no interest. “Don’t bother. Forget it.”
Li Ling fell silent. Recently, Jiang Ji had become colder toward him than before, as though preparing to kick him away entirely. Li Ling could sense it and still wanted one final struggle.
But before he managed to bring up the new subject he had been preparing, Jiang Ji unexpectedly spoke first. “Right.”
“Mm?”
“Recently, someone around me has been sticking to me constantly.” Jiang Ji had eaten until he was about seventy percent full and put down his chopsticks. “Someone I know wants to date me. I don’t think he genuinely likes me. He’s probably just playing around, so I’ve been considering whether I should play along with him for a few days.”
“…”
Li Ling froze slightly, and his expression became ugly.
He was not stupid enough to think Jiang Ji was asking his opinion. This was merely an indirect way of saying, “I’m willing to try with anyone except you.”
Li Ling struggled for a moment. “What are his circumstances like?”
“Pretty good,” Jiang Ji said. “He has everything going for him except that he’s a little stupid.”
“You like stupid people?”
Jiang Ji did not answer.
Li Ling forced a bitter smile. “Actually, I’m not that smart either, Jiang Ji. I…”
“You’re very smart.” Jiang Ji interrupted him. “You know what I’m saying, so there’s no need to bring up things that don’t need to be said. Eat more. Dinner is on me today.”
“…”
On the final night of April, after serving Li Ling what amounted to his last meal before execution, Jiang Ji drove home in a perfectly calm mood.
The drive from the Japanese restaurant back to their villa neighborhood took around forty minutes. Jiang Ji lit a cigarette and slowly smoked while waiting at traffic lights.
In truth, everything he had told Li Ling had only been for Li Ling’s benefit.
Jiang Ji did not intend to play along with Lu Xingyan. His promise to “think about it” had merely been a disguised method of placating him so Lu Xingyan would settle down.
But once the thought of “playing along” entered his mind, the mischievous part of Jiang Ji that enjoyed teasing cats and dogs immediately became active.
Lu Xingyan constantly played ridiculous games with him. Jiang Ji suddenly wanted to see Lu Xingyan jumping with frustration too.
Unfortunately, Jiang Ji was the older brother. There had to be limits to the games he played. He did not want things to go too far and make Jiang Wanyi angry.
After finishing the cigarette, Jiang Ji morally suppressed the thought and checked WeChat. Lu Xingyan had sent him several more cute stickers.
When he parked and entered the house, Jiang Wanyi was watching television in the living room, a currently popular costume idol drama. One lead was destroying heaven and earth for love while the other was saving the world, the melodrama practically dripping from the screen.
Jiang Ji sat with her for several minutes and was force-fed two pieces of mango by his mother.
Jiang Wanyi said, “Xiao Yan is upstairs studying. Take him some fruit.”
She knew the two of them constantly argued and always tried to encourage them to be closer. Jiang Ji obeyed the enthusiastic lady’s arrangement and carried the fruit plate upstairs.
Lu Xingyan really was studying.
His bedroom door was slightly ajar. Before Jiang Ji reached it, he could hear Lu Xingyan apparently talking with a classmate on the phone and muttering about programming code.
Lu Xingyan complained, “It’s full of bugs. It won’t run. What the hell did you learn in your major, you useless idiot?”
The other side replied with complete confidence, “If I understood any of it, why would I need you?”
It was Sun Cheng’s voice.
Jiang Ji nearly laughed. Sun Cheng also studied computer science, though at a different university.
He was about to knock when he suddenly heard Lu Xingyan sigh. “Sigh, my brother has barely been paying attention to me these past few days. Do you think I should put a few bugs into my graduation project and ask him to fix it for me?”
“Will you die if you spend five minutes away from him?” Sun Cheng finally snapped. “You’ve said ‘bro’ dozens of times tonight. I’m begging you, man.”
Lu Xingyan replied, “You don’t know shit. I’m trying to move the plan forward. If he doesn’t answer me, how am I supposed to date him? If we don’t date, how am I supposed to make him dependent on me? If he doesn’t become dependent on me, how can I dump him? If I don’t dump him, how can I humiliate him? It’s all part of my strategy, my tempo. Watch carefully and learn.”
Sun Cheng: “…”
Jiang Ji froze slightly and raised one eyebrow.
He speared a piece of mango with the fork, bit through it, waited until Lu Xingyan finished speaking and confirmed the subject had changed, then knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
Lu Xingyan answered absentmindedly, “Who is it? Auntie?”
Jiang Ji said, “Me.”
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