Gu Chengcheng looked at Gu Chengan with tearful eyes, "Brother, can I..."
"No, you can't." Gu Chengan's already dark face looked even darker.
Gu Chengcheng, looking at Gu Chengan's darkened face, could only purse her lips, continuing to count her candies with aggrieved resignation.
Gu Zhiqi naturally noticed Gu Chengan's dislike for her, but she didn't take it to heart and instead walked out of the living room.
Gu Chengan's gaze fell upon Gu Chengcheng, but his peripheral vision always remained on Gu Zhiqi.
Seeing Gu Zhiqi leave, Gu Chengan tossed a remark, "Count them carefully. If you can't count them right, I won't buy you candies next time," and then he left.
"Oh." Gu Chengcheng let out a plaintive sound and then rested her chin on her arm, slowly counting the candies.
**
The sun was setting in the west.
The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the clouds at the edge of the sky with a splendid and dazzling array of colors, blinding and striking.
By the flowerbed in the courtyard, a girl slightly lowered her gaze, her back to the sunset, staring intently at the flowerbed.
The girl stood there quietly, as if surrounded by an ethereal and illusory aura, which separated her from the world around her. The orange hue of the light fell on her back, encircling her completely, yet it couldn't penetrate her own world.
When Gu Chengan saw this scene, he paused for a moment, then displeasure and hostility colored his brow, "What are you doing?"
The youth was at the age of voice change, his voice somewhat hoarse and a little immature, not unpleasant to hear, but not particularly pleasant either.
Hearing Gu Chengan's unfriendly tone, Gu Zhiqi glanced at him lazily from the corner of her eye.
"Something wrong?"
"These are all my sister's things. You'd better not touch them," Gu Chengan warned her with a stern face.
"I didn't touch, just looking," said Gu Zhiqi, shrugging her shoulders and speaking carelessly.
"You'd better stick to your word. If you really did touch them, my sister would definitely break your hands," Gu Chengan continued to warn Gu Zhiqi, his disapproval growing stronger by the second.
Gu Zhiqi didn't bother with him anymore, just turned her head and continued to stare at the flowerbed.
Seeing Gu Zhiqi ignore him, Gu Chengan felt a blockage in his heart and continued in an unfriendly tone, calling out her name, "Gu Zhiqi."
This time, Gu Zhiqi didn't even turn her head, her gaze on the ice-white flower at the center of the flowerbed, and she responded faintly, "If you have something to say, then say it."
"I won't acknowledge you. I only have one sister, Gu Xiyue. Don't expect me to call you sister."
"That's fine," Gu Zhiqi replied perfunctorily to Gu Chengan.
Sensing the perfunctoriness in Gu Zhiqi's response, Gu Chengan felt even more stifled, mockingly saying, "No one in my family welcomes you. If I were you, I wouldn't have the face to show up."
"Oh," Perfunctory +1.
Seeing her react like this, Gu Chengan felt as if his punch had hit cotton, his irritation caught in his throat, neither able to go down nor come up. He gritted his teeth and continued sternly, "Gu Zhiqi, can't you understand human speech? I don't like you, and I don't welcome you here. If you had any self-awareness, you'd leave right away."
Finally, Gu Zhiqi turned to look at Gu Chengan.
In the girl's deep, misty eyes, as if shrouded in smoke, there was a moment, when locking eyes with her, that Gu Chengan felt as if he was trapped in an illusionary realm.
But the feeling vanished quickly, and Gu Chengan came back to his senses, though the disoriented feeling of being lost in an illusionary realm still made him take two steps back unwittingly.
Realizing his own reaction, a flash of annoyance crossed his eyes, then he straightened his chest to seem more imposing as he stiffened deliberately, staring at Gu Zhiqi.
"You don't like me?" Gu Zhiqi's lips curved into a slight smile, her ethereal aura faded away, her smile now a bit playful and unrestrained.