Translation Checker: asgardlucy
The two people across the screen fell into momentary silence.
Jian Changjia was a bit surprised. He thought that the other party would panic once he heard his voice. Unexpectedly, Lu Xingwang not only didn’t panic, but he was also very calm and his momentum didn’t waver in the slightest. Even Jian Changjia himself was shocked.
Even before Jian Changjia could react, Lu Xingwang took the initiative to speak and asked, “Where’s Jian Mei?”
Jian Changjia was taken aback, “Why are you looking for him?”
Instead of answering, Lu Xingwang asked him, “What are you doing with his phone?”
For a moment, the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder.
Jian Changjia inexplicably felt as if he had been suppressed by Lu Xingwang. In order to regain his momentum, he said, “I am his elder brother. Why can’t I take his phone?”
Heh, this kid should be afraid now.
Jian Changjia waited for an answer but he was unexpectedly questioned instead. “Why should I believe you?”
Jian Changjia’s breath hitched. “What the fuck, you think I’m a fake?”
As if he had achieved his goal, Lu Xingwang calmly said, “Then let him answer the phone.”
Jian Changjia was already provoked at this moment. He just wanted to prove that he was definitely not inferior to this kid, so he strode back into the room along with his blanket, opened the door, then handed the phone to Jian Mei. “Here! Answer the phone. Tell him who I am.”
Jian Mei was in a daze. Before he could react, he saw on the lit screen that it was on call. His drowsy consciousness was roused in an instant. He hurriedly rubbed his eyes, held the phone to his face, then he said softly, “Hello.”
Lu Xingwang heard that his voice was steady, so he asked. [Is everything okay?]
“Everything’s okay, everything’s okay.” After Jian Mei realized what Lu Xingwang was talking about, he hurriedly explained and then he felt a strong gaze on him. When he raised his head, he met Jian Changjia’s eyes and explained further, “Oh, right. The person who answered the call just now was my brother. No one else.”
?
A question mark appeared on Jian Changjia’s head.
Was it just his illusion? Why did it look like his own brother was explaining to his lover that he wasn’t having an affair?
Lu Xingwang replied. [I understand.]
[Then, you should rest.] After saying this, as if remembering that someone was there, Lu Xingwang added lightly, “Say hello to your brother for me.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Jian Mei agreed, then hung up the call.
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Jian Changjia asked, “Who is he?”
“He…He’s my friend.”
“A friend from where? From the class or the hospital?”
Jian Mei hesitated a bit, but Jian Changjia saw through his hesitation. He immediately scolded him. “Neither? Is he an online friend? Why don’t you speak? Are you really that stupid? Why are you talking so eagerly to an online friend whom you’ve never even met? Aren’t you afraid of being scammed?”
Jian Mei shrank in fear when he got yelled at. He retorted in a low voice, “But he never scammed me ah.”
Jian Changjia almost exploded in anger, so he sat down next to Jian Mei. This was the first time he felt that he and his parents might be too negligent towards Jian Mei, which led to him being simple-minded today, so he decided to reason with Jian Mei properly.
“This isn’t a matter of whether he is scamming you or not. I’m too lazy to bother about you making friends. However, you need to be friends with someone reliable. Understand?”
Jian Mei replied seriously, “He’s reliable. He taught me to solve homework.”
Jian Changjia took a deep breath and said, “…That’s just studying. But in reality, can he help you when you’re in trouble?”
“He can,” Jian Mei said softly. “He was the one who read the map and helped me find my way down the mountain when I got lost.”
Jian Changjia didn’t expect Dazhuang to be this capable. He was speechless and could only start from another point. “How do you know that he didn’t have ulterior motives when he helped you? A lot of people are hypocritical, not everyone who helps you is doing it sincerely for your own good. Can you tell?”
“I can.” Jian Mei sat on the bed with a blanket in his arms. When he heard this question, he thought about it carefully. Then he looked at Jian Changjia and smiled, “Isn’t that just like you, gege?”
Jian Changjia was stunned. He didn’t expect the question to backfire on him.
Yet Jian Mei’s round eyes still looked at him earnestly with a little tenderness. “Gege, you never speak hypocritical words. You look fierce, but when you’re telling me things, you’re sincerely doing it for my own good.”
It was still raining heavily outside. With the pattering sound on the window, the sound of people talking appeared a little small, but it was very clear inside the room. As if some button had been pressed, Jian Changjia who was originally aggressive became dispirited. He walked over and quickly pressed the switch to turn off the lights. Then he made a bed on the floor in the dark.
Jian Mei sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him, “Brother, why did you turn off the light? Can you see clearly?”
“I want to turn it off. It’s none of your business.”
“Okay.”
Jian Mei wanted to get out of bed to help. “You’ll get weary making the bed by yourself. I’ll help you, or why don’t you come up to the bed and I’ll sleep on the floor?”
Jian Changjia’s motion stopped for a moment, then he turned back to look at him aggressively. “Stay in bed. Do you hear me? If you dare to come down and make trouble for me, see if I don’t break your legs!”
Jian Mei flinched a little and went back to bed obediently.
The room was silent for a while and Jian Changjia had calmed down. Just when he thought it’d be peaceful for a while, a weak voice came from the bed. “Ge…”
Jian Changjia didn’t have a good temper. “You’re so annoying, what now?”
“Good night.” He whispered.
Jian Changjia didn’t say anything. He turned over, no longer facing the person on the bed. If it was true that everything had its vanquisher, then the last thing he wanted to do in this life was to deal with his younger brother. Even if he slept in the same room, there was no way he’d pay attention to Jian Mei.
A moment later, the person on the bed rolled and the blanket that originally covered him was lifted to the side. The sleeping Jian Mei laid on his back with his arms and legs stretched out. On such a cold rainy night, his body wasn’t covered by a blanket.
Jian Changjia looked at him by the moonlight and gnashed his teeth in anger.
After looking for a long time, the person on the bed still didn’t move. He couldn’t help but angrily stood up and pulled the blanket over to cover Jian Mei. However, he’d just come back to his bed and hadn’t warmed up on his bed, Jian Mei who was sleeping there, turned over again. This time, his legs were stretched out and half of his body was exposed outside.
Forget it, he’d just leave him alone.
Jian Changjia closed his eyes and prepared to sleep. Not even half a minute had passed yet, he furiously stood up, strode to the bedside, and pulled the blanket to cover Jian Mei. Afterwards, as if in a battle of wits and courage with his mischievous brother, Jian Changjia simply half-laid down on the edge of the bed, ready to subdue the misbehaving Jian Mei at any moment.
But strangely enough, as if knowing that someone was staring at him by the bedside, the person sleeping became more behaved. Jian Mei had always behaved in his sleep except for his bad habit of kicking the blanket. Soft breathing sounded in the quiet room. Probably because he was really scared tonight that he couldn’t sleep peacefully. His beautiful brows furrowed and he’d mumble a few words from having a nightmare.
Suddenly, Jian Changjia was curious. He came closer and wanted to hear what he was talking about. When he got closer, he heard Jian Mei’s soft murmur. It was a bit muffled but still audible if listening carefully. He could hear him call gently, “Ge…”
It was unclear what the dream was about, but he looked very sad.
A nightmare would make people sleep restlessly. The sound of that gentle call was like a drop of water falling on the heart, sending ripples on a calm heart.
Jian Changjia rubbed his brows, “I don’t know what he’s thinking every day.”
He looked at the child in front of him for a while and suddenly recalled what happened many years ago. He hated Jian Mei since he was a child, not only because of the incident with the stairs but also because he hated Jian Mei a very long time ago. He hated that this child took away his parent’s love and care. He hated that he was also a child of his parents but his parents always talked about Jian Mei. He hated that because he was an older brother, he had to cater to his younger brother’s needs.
Why should he accept this newcomer as a family simply because he was an older brother? No one asked him if he was willing. They asked him to tolerate his brother who appeared unexpectedly and stole everything from him.
“Stay away from me.”
This was what he often said to Jian Mei.
Things eased down when Jian Mei was five years old. It was also because of a rainy night that the school suddenly announced the temporary suspension of classes. When he returned home, he found that the nanny was resting in the nanny room. He went upstairs to Jian Mei’s room, but he didn’t find him. Just when he thought that Jian Mei was missing, a slight sound came from the wardrobe closet and then—
He saw his stupid brother sticking out his head, then he called out to him with a pitiful and aggrieved voice. “Ge…”
The bed was huge and the room was too empty and because he was too scared, he hid in the closet. He saw that in the closet there was a very simple bed that Jian Mei made for himself— the pillow was his teddy bear.
He thought it was amusing. “What are you doing here not sleeping on your bed?”
To this day, he still couldn’t forget Jian Mei’s reply at that time. The child whose height was only up to his waist said in a very joyful tone, “The closet is also my bed. This is a secret base. When the monster comes, it can’t take me away.”
Jian Mei went in and showed him. The child who, in his eyes, was always loved and seemed to lack nothing was enthusiastically trying to share with him. “Brother, do you want to come in and try?”
At that moment, he didn’t know why but he suddenly didn’t hate Jian Mei as much. A momentary soft-heartedness was a lifetime’s tenderness. No matter how many reasons there were for him to hate his brother, he had to admit that, deep down in his heart, he didn’t dislike Jian Mei as much as what appeared.
The next day.
After the rain, the air in the small village was very fresh.
Around noon, Jian Mei’s grandfather put the medicine box on his back, saying that he wanted to take advantage of this time to get to the mountains to pick up some herbs. Winter was coming soon, and some herbs need to be picked by the end of the fall season. Behind him, Jian Mei also carried a small medicine box and followed along. His physical strength had been poor since childhood, but luckily in order to collect herbs, he walked very slowly. His grandfather would also teach them techniques along the way.
Picking herbs looked very easy, but it actually required a lot of skill and experience. The quality of an herb had an important relationship with its completeness. Only if the herb itself was complete that it could yield a better medical effect.
As they walked, the old man would teach and talk to them. “You can’t dig herbs like this because the mushroom next to it is poisonous. Although this herb isn’t poisonous, it will be affected by the toxicity of the mushroom.”
“And this kind,” The old man had been a traditional Chinese medicine doctor all his life. He always tried his best to pass something on to the younger generations. “The roots of this herb should be protected and paid attention to. You can’t directly use a shovel, you have to wear gloves to dig the soil out because its medicinal properties are only in the roots.”
Jian Mei listened carefully on the side.
Jian Changjia wasn’t interested in medicine. He only acted as a helper in carrying the medicine box.
Along the way, Jian Mei actively asked his grandfather about the uses of various herbs and the methods of collecting them. He wasn’t very smart and couldn’t remember many things. He remembered to turn on the recording function on his phone so that he could also take notes once he went back.
Jian Changjia had long wanted to ask. “What’s the brand of your phone?”
Jian Mei replied honestly. “I don’t know. Grandpa picked it up on the mountain.”
“Picked it up on the mountain?” Jian Changjia was puzzled. “You’ve been recording all morning. Is the battery enough?”
Jian Mei nodded and said, “It’s enough. There’s still a lot.”
Jian Changjia didn’t believe it. He leaned over to look at the screen and found that the battery was almost full. He didn’t know what this phone grew up on that it could last so long! Moreover, he had never heard of this brand and he hadn’t seen it on the market at all. He said, “A copycat phone?”
This exquisitely-made phone with powerful functions was directly labelled as a knockoff.
Jian Mei didn’t care. “I don’t know. I think it’s very easy to use.”
Jian Changjia sincerely said to his grandfather, “Grandpa, the phone you picked has great functionality, no doubt.”
Coincidentally, they were halfway up the mountain. Grandpa pointed to a mountain step not far away and said, “I picked it up at that step. The weather was very good that day, many people went up the mountain to pick up herbs and plough the fields. That road is also a place that you must pass, but when I arrived, the phone box was there, as if it had been left there a long time ago. It’s strange, isn’t it?”
“ Why did it look like his own brother was explaining to his lover that he wasn’t having an affair?“
Well, his future lover~
TSUNDERE BROTHER!!!
Ahahaha, line line about having an affair is so funny. But also, this is to be expected.
If your trouble prone friend suddenly texts you that he’s scared, of course you’ll call! Silly Meimei fell asleep and didn’t update the fretting friend though haha.
Fufufu~ What’s this? Fist Video call huh?~
Also, MeiMei’s IQ is too poor to even think about cheating! He only has our dear Third alien prince in his heart♡♡♡
thabks for the chapter
thanks for the chapter <3
Aigoo, big bro is big big tsun tsun xDDD But he lost the battle against LXW haha.
Aww~ video call happens in the next part, eh? Aaah, I’m so curious lol
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Can’t wait for the video chat! Thanks for the chapter 🤣❤️
Thank you for the chapter 💖💕💖
Awww i had to close my eyes to not shriek a couple of times with how meng these boys are. The brother is inwardly definitely a huge bro con. It’s always the tsunderw bros that snatch my heart. The call broke me as well 🤣🤣
Thanks for the chapter!!
This chapter slapped my heart that made me shead tears😭
JCJ reminds me of Jiang Cheng xD
He’s so tsundere, he can’t tell his true feelings without getting angry and lashing out on his brother. But in truth, only his brother can make him like this <3
So cute, he does care.
Thanks for the chapter!!
JC isn’t some misunderstood, angsty soft boy who secretly cared for WWX deep down. Please do not mistake the donghua’s/cql’s hyper-woobified, fanon version of him for one.
someone who consumed all forms of mdzs media in English and Chinese, + read several hours worth of character analysis and meta
lol does this count as meeting the family? Jian Mei’s got both of them wrapped around his finger and he doesn’t even know it XD
Also, tysm for your hard work in translating these chapters!