The brawl that occurred in the dark internet cafe⸺No, it should be called a ‘one-sided massacre’⸺ only lasted for twenty minutes. The three hooligans fell to the ground like they were on the verge of death, screaming as if they were pigs being slaughtered.
One was embracing his knees, another was clutching his stomach while the last hooligan was directly gripping his legs to hide his crotch. The three of them were badly beaten up to the extent that their faces had become so swollen that their heads resembled that of a pig.
The unfamiliar noobs who were supposed to be at the novice village insisted on showing in front of a big boss. Wasn’t this sending themselves to their own death?
For a moment, only their anguished wailing filled the lounge of the internet cafe. The others didn’t dare to make any sound.
While trembling with fear, Huang Yelun brought the other lil’ brothers to Li Cheng’s side. Someone handed Li Cheng tissues while another person kneaded his shoulders. On the other hand, Huang Yelun flicked Li Cheng’s school jacket and draped it over Li Cheng’s shoulders like a cape.
The ruthless and tyrannical expression in Li Cheng’s eyes had not disappeared. He closed his eyes and scratched his head, sweat dripping down to the tips of his hair.
He pulled off the bunny hair tie above his head that he had used to tie his hair. There were some bloodstains on the bunny hair tie due to the earlier battle.
His lips curled in disgust, “So filthy.”
As he spoke, he wiped the bunny’s face against his uniform’s bottom hem and placed the hair tie back around his wrist.
After that, Li Cheng glanced at the clock on the wall and cursed, “Fuck! It’s past the time for the guild war!”
The game had made an announcement a week ago that a divine weapon was going to be released on this day. It could only be obtained through the guild war. Li Cheng had estimated the time to head for the internet cafe to enter the instance, but he had not expected to be caught in this mess, unable to pleasantly play the game.
He looked at the hooligans rolling on the floor screaming in pain. When he thought of the divine weapon which he had missed, he was so angry that he gave them another kicking to vent his anger.
The three gangsters placed their hands over the shoe prints on their foreheads. They glared at Li Cheng with bloodshot eyes. Grimacing in pain, they asked, “Do you know who we are?! You actually had the guts to beat us up. Aren’t you afraid of our boss coming to find you?!”
Li Cheng couldn’t be bothered answering their childish provocation. Naturally, his lil’ brothers squabbled for him.
“Want to take revenge? If he has the ability, come then!” Huang Yelun pointed at the school logo on his uniform, “Open your eyes wide and look clearly. Hua, Cheng, Number, One. Hua Cheng No. 1, do you know it or not? Come then. Whoever doesn’t come is a weenie!”
The hooligan shouted in response, “If you have the guts, say your name!”
Huang Yelun was just about to voice out his name when Li Cheng suddenly reached out to stop him.
“Want to know my name? All right then.” Li Cheng spoke in a playful manner as a trace of mischief flashed in his eyes, “Laozi has nothing to hide. I’m Xiao Yiheng from HC1’s Year 3 Class 1.”
Li Cheng thought to himself, Xiao Yiheng intentionally released his pheromone and caused me this problem. As such, I must demand an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I have to give Xiao Yiheng something to do.
However, the lil’ brothers behind him became confused when they heard him.
Huang Yelun: …What’s going on? Did I miss some sort of major plot point? If he hadn’t known that Li Cheng and Xiao Yiheng had never met, he would have thought that their boss had taken on his husband’s surname!
……
The lil’ brothers of Li Cheng took care of the brawl’s aftermath. As for the damaged tables and chairs, they were to be compensated by the three hooligans he had defeated.
Li Cheng was no longer interested in playing the game so he left the internet cafe.
Evening lights were trickling and the night market was bustling with activity. Office workers who had an exhausting day, student clubs who had a lot of allowance in their pockets, and even youths who simply didn’t feel like cooking could be seen.
Grilled cold noodles, fried mung bean jelly, cold skin noodles, wolf’s tooth potatoes, stinky tofu, hand-grabbed pancakes, fried noodles, fried rice, and malatang could be seen along the stretch of road. All sorts of food stalls were lined up next to each other. Vendors selling mobile phone cases and DIY earrings made use of every space available between the stalls to set up their tricycles, enthusiastically greeting the shoppers who were passing by.
Li Cheng skipped the self-study class to play games and hadn’t had time to eat dinner. As he had to exercise a lot everyday, he also had to eat a lot. As such, he ate without restraint, eating from one end of the snack street to the other. Then, he went to a milk tea shop and ordered Four Seasons of Spring Milk Tea with lots of taro purée, oats and red beans.
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.
Li Cheng languidly leaned against the counter and stared at the beta girl who was making the milk tea. Then, he spoke with an ingratiating smile, “Add more toppings. Add more syrup. Don’t be so stingy!”
The staff rolled her eyes, “You’re a boy yet you drink such sweet milk tea?”
Li Cheng self-righteously stood with his hands on his hips, “I’m an omega. Of course I’d want my milk tea sweet!”
Staff: “……”
The staff added three tablespoons of toppings and the milk tea became a piping hot taro purée, oatmeal and red bean porridge.
Li Cheng lifted the takeaway bag which had the cup of milk tea that had been tied with a beautiful bow and strutted away.
……
Li Cheng carried the milk tea and entered a residential area.
In the ever-changing city of Huacheng, this antiquated employee housing that had not been demolished seemed to be stuck in the past century. Several six-story tube-shaped apartments were standing close to each other. Light was shining through the windows behind the security bars.
Boston ivy vines clung onto the brick-red walls from the corner of the building. A family living on the fifth floor was growing Chinese roses on their balcony and the branches were hanging downwards, the pink flowers spreading out into a beautiful wall of flowers. The vines ‘grappled at close quarters’ with the roses, contesting for supremacy.
The old residential buildings hardly had any soundproofing. A couple quarreling could be heard on a certain floor. There was also someone watching television on another floor. Someone was also teaching their child how to do their homework on a different floor… All these voices converged together into a lively and vibrant household.
Li Cheng who was standing downstairs looked up at the glimmering light.
He formed a circle with his right hand’s thumb and index finger, brought it up into his mouth and blew. A sharp whistling sound reverberated at the open space in front of the apartment.
After whistling, he patiently waited for a few minutes.
Not long after, a window on the second floor opened and a small figure appeared.
“Brother!”
She appeared to be less than ten years old. A red scarf was wrapped around her neck. She knelt on the windowsill, opened the window, and looked at Li Cheng who had suddenly appeared with a face filled with pleasant surprise.
Upon seeing her, Li Cheng raised up the milk tea in his hand and proudly said, “Guess what delicious treat I’ve brought you?”
The kid’s eyes lit up with joy, “Is it milk tea?”
However, her face became crestfallen in an instant as she whispered, “Auntie… I mean, mom, she wouldn’t allow me to drink it.”
Li Cheng made a ‘tsk’ sound, “Youyou, can’t you just keep her from knowing? Hide it inside the cupboard and drink it secretly. Tomorrow, hide the cup inside your bag and throw it away while you’re going to school. How can she find out then?”
“But……”
Seeing that his sister was still hesitating, Li Cheng looked at the heavy cup of milk tea and said in a deeply sorrowful tone, “Forget it, my sister had grown up and wouldn’t listen to her brother anymore. Your brother had journeyed from the city’s east to the west just to see you. If you won’t drink this milk tea, then don’t. I don’t like to drink such sweet things so I’ll just find a trash can later and⸺”
“I’ll drink it! I will!” When she heard her brother saying that he was going to throw the milk tea away, she felt like a cat on hot bricks, “Don’t throw it away!”
She hurriedly threw down a long skipping rope. Li Cheng tied the plastic bag to one end of the skipping rope and Youyou pulled the skipping rope with the milk tea upwards.
The little girl was unable to hold herself back from poking the straw into the cup and taking a big sip, feeling so jubilant that her whole body was emitting bubbles of happiness.
Girls her age were the most incapable of resisting this kind of sweet thing.
Standing downstairs, Li Cheng looked up at his sister’s small figure, feeling content and happy.
Li Cheng and Youyou were siblings who had an eight-year gap. Because of their parents’ untimely death and not having any close relatives by their side, they were sent to an orphanage.
Youyou was only over two years old when he had just arrived at the orphanage. She had stunted mental and physical development so she spoke and walked extremely slowly. She was doomed to be bullied because of this impairment.
Fortunately, she had Li Cheng, her older brother.
In the orphanage which could be considered as a small-scale society, Li Cheng had to have a sharp tongue and powerful fists so that they wouldn’t get bullied. Even if the older children ganged up and beat him up, he had to stand firm. He couldn’t cave in.
The children in the orphanage had shared accommodations. They were only separated after their differentiation according to both their first and second genders.
Ever since Li Cheng turned twelve years old, he would pray every night for him to differentiate into an alpha.
He obstinately believed that as long as he differentiated into an alpha, he would be able to achieve outstanding results in the field of swimming. Then, he would be able to earn enough money for he and his sister to move out of the orphanage and have a home that belonged to them.
He waited for so many years, and then… Youyou got adopted and Li Cheng differentiated into an omega.
A lot of people had the notion that omegas were innately weak and were unable to do manual labour. It was too late for Li Cheng to be resigned to his own fate. He vowed to invest twice the effort and twice the intensity that everyone else did; he strived to stand on the peak of the pyramid.
Fortunately, he… succeeded.
In the swimming pool, everyone was afraid of him. Outside it, everyone was still afraid of him.
But it didn’t matter.
As long as there was someone who was not afraid of him in this world, it was enough.
Youyou rested her body on the railing, holding the cup of milk tea in her hands. Her lips were sealed tightly around the straw as she slurped the milk tea that was almost like porridge.
She swayed her legs as she curiously asked, “Brother, why did you write the word ‘fat’ on your t-shirt?”
Li Cheng: “……”
Li Cheng replied, “What are you learning in class? This word is ‘zhen’.”
Youyou poutingly wrote the two characters in the air using her fingers and discovered that she was truly mistaken.
“‘Zhen’ and ‘fat’ are more or less the same. Both of them have the 月 character on the left. On the right, they both have two dot strokes and two horizontal strokes.”
“There’s a great difference, alright!”
Don’t tell me that being an underachiever is hereditary? Li Cheng had a headache at the thought.
Youyou asked another question, “Brother, how did your hair become blonde?”
Li Cheng ran his hand through his hair as he flaunted, “Dyed it. Does it look good?”
Youyou smacked her lips before telling the truth, “No, it’s too blonde, like Elizabeth.”
Li Cheng: “The queen?”
Youyou: “No, the melon.”
“……” Li Cheng stomped his feet in anger, “You’re only ten, How could you understand what looks good or not?” He raised his right hand and showed her the bunny hair tie on his wrist, “And this thing, you insisted on me wearing it. How could I keep my reputation as HC1’s Li ge?”
Youyou took out her glittery, pink jewellery box. Then, she attentively chose a few pieces and asked, “If you don’t want a bunny, I also have a puppy, a star and a heart. Which one do you want?”
Li Cheng’s eyelids quivered and he said with disgust, “I don’t want any of them.”
His words went in one of Youyou’s ears and out the other. She rambled on, “Ah! I also have an orange hair tie. See, it looks so real. You can have this one then.”
Li Cheng: “……”
Li Cheng was about to be vexed to death by her. He looked up at the small figure sitting on the window sill, waved his hand and said, “You better return to your room quickly. Don’t let your foster mother find out.”
Youyou’s foster parents were the most straightforward people. They wanted to adopt a cute, little daughter but they didn’t want their adopted daughter to keep in contact with her brutish brother.
As if conforming to his words, a knock was heard at the door of Youyou’s room and Youyou’s foster mother asked her if she wanted to drink milk.
Youyou didn’t have enough time to say goodbye to her brother so she hurriedly closed the window and sat upright in front of her table.
Looking at the curtains that were suddenly drawn, Li Cheng smiled and turned around to leave.
After taking two steps, something suddenly fell and hit his shoulder.
Li Cheng halted.
He turned around and saw that a hair tie had fallen at his feet with an acrylic orange attached to it.
A tiny head peeked out of the small gap between the curtains on the second floor and the girl, whose hair was tied up into two side-twintails pulled a funny face at Li Cheng.
“Stinky brother.” After saying this, she slammed the window shut again.
The ‘stinky brother’ picked up the orange hair tie and tied his hair into a short ‘tail’.
He checked his appearance through his reflection on the glass window of a car parked at the side of the road and couldn’t refrain himself from stretching his hand and flicking his short fountain of hair.
The hair tie tightly bound the boy’s blonde hair, adorned with a bright orange trinket that glinted under the street lights.
“Tsk, this thing that stinky sister gave me is quite cute.”
Ktf jeatbg tjr rbwfatlcu ab rjs:
The former Li ge: I’m a tough guy. Why would I use these bunny and orange hair ties?
The current Li ge: Tsk, this kind of hair tie is something that a macho guy like me should use!
T/N: i was planning to stockpile my chapters before my semester started but i got caught up re-watching videos of ateez (i mean, look at this! how could i not?ㅠㅠ)
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DFK, l’ii ags ab gfifjrf 1-2mtr wlvkffx ilxf atlr bcf jcv 1mt fnfgs rja.
thank you for the chapter😊
the food looks delicious.
Thank you for the chapter!!
Aww LC is such a caring older brother! My bro is so mean😭
Thanks for the chapter~! I love this a lot!
my brother’s also v mean to me TT_TT want myself a bro like LC sigh
Thank you for the chapter 🌸♥️
Thank you for the chapter!!
And hes so cute with his sister 🥺🥺
Thank you for the hardwork. The orphanage, him and sister.. Awww melts my heart
Yo, my heart. So cute. Teeth has fallen from too much fluff. Aaaarrrggghhhhhh
Thanks for the chapter!
I want also want a stinky brother~
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
Ok fine you adopt the girl but why do you dont want her to keep in contact with her brother.
Some people who adopt do that with biological parents and it annoys me so much.
Li Cheng and Youyou are adorable 😍😍
I like these kind of age gaps in stories where the older sibling genuinely cares, adores, and dotes on the younger sibling.
Thanks for the chapter ❤
Also good luck this semester! 19 units are NO joke. I understand not being able to translate as much as you want. Jiayou!
yes! it’s so sweet uwuthank you for being so understanding♥
Li Cheng is soft only to his sis for now
Thank you for the chapter
A fellow A-Tiny 😁 I’ve been re-watching their dance practice videos!
Aah, the backstory of LI Cheng is so sad but explains why he’s such a tough Omega. All the best in your studies and thanks for the chapter 💕
fellow atiny!! who’s ur bias? owothank you♥
They’re all bias wreckers! It’s Seonghwa for me 😍
Li Cheng is such a good brother! And his little sister is really cute. I hope they can be together in the future.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter!! (˘︶˘).｡*♡
I also want LC to be my big brother😭
Right???
My heart was hit ❤
JajajaJja me has hecho el día, este capítulo fue jodidamente lindo y a la vez un poco triste, pero hermoso.
Gracias por traducir!
Tis chapter is so cute and emotional!!!
Thank you for the chapter!
Baby Li Cheng:( I feel so sad for him:((( He’s this caring and gentle towards his sister, yet her foster parents what? Wtf with prohibiting her from meeting him????
This sweet, precious boy has it hard:(
Thank you so much.
God, his sister is fricking adorable.
They got separated 🙁
Foster parents that don’t want their children to keep in contact with their biological family piss me off. No matter what the biological family is like (unless they’re abusive) you don’t have the right to decide for the child.
Awww, so cute~ I also want a brother like him.
Thanks for the chapter <3
That’s so cruel, to separate the siblings…in the first place, you should always adopt siblings together, but if that’s impossible, at least let them properly keep contact… Even if they are afraid of his influence, they can always set up supervised playdates, and educate the girl properly on how they expect she should act as.
Respect to Mc for still visiting her despite her foster parents being assholes to him. My brother would never
Those foster parents disgust me. They shouldn’t have been allowed to adopt Li Cheng’s little sister in the first place, much less separate two siblings who love each other dearly.