When Su Jianchen came back home, he happened to encounter Su Chi walking from the small courtyard back to the living room, emitting a faint lotus aura.
Su Jianchen frowned slightly. Does the courtyard have lotus flowers in bloom?
He glanced inside, but there was no lotus flower. Only a head was peeking out, the wispy strands on top fluttering in the wind.
Su Jianchen's mind was set. 'Oh, so it was from talking to our little white lotus. Yeah, how could my big brother emit white lotus vibes?'
Su Huanyi was taking a small shovel to loosen the soil for the Lohan pine when the sliding door opened. He thought it was Su Chi who had returned, so he didn't even look up. "Big Brother, what's wrong?"
"What are you doing?"
A mellow voice rang out from above his head. Su Huanyi raised his head and found that it was Su Jianchen. He hurriedly stood up, so swiftly that his eyes saw stars.
Su Huanyi was holding his forehead when his arm was lifted.
Two or three seconds later, he recovered and slowly straightened up. "Second Brother, you're back."
Su Jianchen let go of his hand and gestured with his gaze to explain the potted Lohan pine at his feet.
Su Huanyi understood. "The pine hasn't been in the sun for a long time, so I moved it to the courtyard to get some sunshine and loosen the soil."
Su Jianchen asked, "Didn't you give it all to me?"
Su Huanyi immediately said, "The ownership belongs to Second Brother. I'm just a volunteer."
"..." Su Jianchen lost his breath. "As you wish."
Su Huanyi took the opportunity to climb up the pole and said, "Then I'll take care of it with Second Brother from now on."
Su Jianchen glanced at the dirt on his palm and the red marks on his fingertips and swallowed his words of rejection. "Just don't kill it."
"I won't." Su Huanyi felt that Su Jianchen was overly concerned and said, "It will live long enough to send me off when I'm old."
...…..
Dinner was only for Yu Xinyan and the three brothers. Su Jitong had a dinner party and would not be back until at least nine o'clock.
After dinner, Wu Ma came to the table to collect the dishes. Yu Xinyan stayed seated and did not leave. "Wu Ma, you will be going home next week, right?"
The dishes were stacked together, and Wu Ma said, "En. I'll be back in four days. The young master is filial. He said that he would cook while I am away. But if I can come back earlier, I will come back sooner."
Yu Xinyan's heart suddenly rang with alarm bells. "Then you'd better come back as early as possible."
Wu Ma, "..."
Wu Ma took away the dishes and chopsticks and leaned over to look at the sky outside. "The weather was fine this afternoon, but it's now suddenly dark. It looks a bit windy, so it's probably going to rain."
Yu Xinyan got up. "I also think so. I'll go call Jitong and tell him to come back early."
Su Huanyi had returned to his room. He chatted with Sun Heyu and Zhou Qingcheng on WeChat for a while and agreed to visit various sales outlets next month.
Su Huanyi was working hard to earn money, while Sun Heyu and Zhou Qingcheng were just bored and looking for something to do, so it was fun to follow Su Huanyi's lead.
It was already an hour after the three of them hung up the phone.
The room was quiet again, and only then did Su Huanyi hear a rustling outside.
He stepped out of bed and pulled open the curtains of the balcony, only to see that it was dark outside. The trees around the mansion were blown by the wind, and the sound of the wind squeezed in through the gap in the balcony door, making a whistling sound.
It was a precursor to a rainstorm.
A late summer/early autumn night was due for a torrential downpour to wash away all the dry heat that had been hoarded in the air all summer.
Su Jitong said he would be back at nine or ten, but at around eight o'clock, the sound of a car horn came from downstairs.
Su Huanyi's balcony was on the other side of the courtyard gate, so he looked out and saw two white lights sweeping through the darkness.
The wind was blowing harder.
The driver pulled up in front of the gate. Su Jitong had just opened the door when bean-sized raindrops came down and poured down on the ground in a flash.
There was still a long way to go from the gate to the house, so Su Huanyi rushed downstairs, grabbed the umbrella from the bucket, and pushed the door to open the rain curtain!
The summer night wind and rain came fast and furious. In the time it took to get downstairs, the ground was already wet and mud puddles were all over the lawn. Su Huanyi ran to the gate in his slippers. When Su Jitong saw him through the car window, he was excited. "Xiao Yi!"
"Dad, it's raining too much. I've come to pick you up!" His voice was blown to pieces as the car door opened and an umbrella-covered the top of the door, drenching Su Huanyi's back.
Su Jitong came out of the car, reached over his youngest son's shoulders, and pulled them both under the umbrella. His tone was both reproachful and happy, "You've got yourself all wet." His tone was faintly reproachful and happy.
The father and son ran towards the entrance of the mansion, under the umbrella. Su Huanyi felt like he was being blown away by the wind. His trouser legs were stuck to his calves, his feet were covered in rain and mud, and his shoes and socks were all wet.
Five or six metres from the gate, the door suddenly opened from the inside, and a bright light broke through the darkness to illuminate the stone path beneath their feet.
Su Huanyi looked up from under the umbrella and saw Su Chi standing in the doorway.
As always, he was tall, calm, and upright.
Through the curtain of rain, the emotions in Su Chi's eyes were complicated and hard to understand.
The moment he came back inside from outside, it was like two worlds. It was warm and bright inside. Su Jitong and Su Huanyi stood in the entrance hall, dripping rainwater all over the floor.
Su Jitong closed the door and put away the umbrella. Su Huanyi shook his head like a puppy shaking its fur, and the water droplets splashed on Su Chi's face.
Su Chi: "..."
It was rare that he did not say anything mocking but only took off his jacket and threw it on Su Huanyi's head. "First use this to wipe the water off casually."
Su Jitong was relieved to see this. "Su Chi is the most considerate. I was careless. Xiao Yi, hurry upstairs and take a hot shower. Don't catch a cold."
"Okay." Su Huanyi squeezed Su Chi's jacket. The latter's body heat remained on it, as well as the faint scent of his body.
The fabric was very soft and he could not resist putting a handful of it on his face. After the action, he happened to lock eyes with Su Chi, "..."
Su Huanyi pretended to be calm. "This fabric is quite skin-friendly."
Su Chi didn't play along. "A 30,000 jacket must be soft on the skin."
Su Huanyi almost passed out – thirty thousand!
'I wiped my head with a 30,000 yuan jacket! Help!'
The three went upstairs together, and Su Huanyi made a comment. "Dad, I think the yard is too big. It felt like ages running to the door of the house."
Su Jitong was speechless. "Dad didn't expect to be such a hindrance at first either."
"Then should we make the yard smaller?"
"No, we'll just make the house bigger."
Su Huanyi, "..." It was poverty that limited his imagination.
Su Jitong's bedroom was still upstairs. After he left, Su Huanyi and Su Chi turned into the first-floor corridor.
Su Huanyi asked, "Big rBother, why were you waiting at the door?"
Su Chi said, "For the same as you."
Only then did Su Huanyi remember that their balconies were facing the same direction. He puffed out his small chest proudly. "Then you're not as fast as me."
Su Chi gazed at his face for two seconds, then moved away.
Yes, he was really fast.
That kind of speed almost made people believe that he was spontaneous and instinctive.
Su Huanyi got up the next day to brush his teeth and sneezed into the mirror, "Ah ch-choo-!" A mouthful of foam sprayed all over the mirror.
He was dumbfounded for a moment. ... What the hell? Why am I foaming at the mouth? Oh… whoops, it was toothpaste foam.
When he went downstairs and sat down at the table, Su Huanyi's brain was groggy. His eyelids were drooping, and even the hairs that usually stood up drooped a few degrees.
Su Jitong worriedly stroked them to stand up, but after three seconds of standing up, they dropped down again.
Su Jitong was even more worried! It was as if the strands of hair were Su Huanyi's body.
"Little Yi, you're not catching a cold, are you?"
Su Huanyi didn't have much appetite, he only took a small sip of hot milk. His lips were covered with white foam, and he hummed breathlessly.
Yu Xinyan reached out to check his forehead. "You don't seem hot. Let's take your temperature after eating."
Su Huanyi twitched his eyelashes to show his agreement.
Su Jilting sat across from him without saying a word. Su Jianchen, who didn't know what was going on, asked, "What's going on?"
Su Jitong said, "When I came back yesterday, it was raining heavily, and Xiao Yi came out to pick me up and got wet."
Su Jianchen then stared at Su Huanyi for a few moments.
After breakfast, Su Huanyi took his temperature in the living room, and Su Jianchen suddenly came over and stopped in front of him. He hung his head for a while and finally squeezed out a "Thanks."
Su Huanyi paused on the sofa, his white toes digging into the edge of the sofa. He said in a jarring voice, "What are you thanking me for? He's my father too."
Su Jianchen's throat moved as he turned to leave, dropping the phrase "Remember to put on your socks."
Su Jitong and his sons went to work. Su Huanyi found his temperature was 37.4 degrees, which wasn't too high. He took some medicine, and Yu Xinyan tucked him back under the blanket.
"This child is really… letting your father experience a little storm is nothing. You are the flower of the motherland. You don't know how to take care of yourself."
Yu Xinyan was nagging heartily. Su Huanyi was so sleepy that his eyes were squinting into a slit. "Mom, the flower of the motherland wants to sleep."
Yu Xinyan, "..."
Su Huanyi lay under the covers for almost a day, getting dizzier and dizzier, and fell when he went to the toilet, almost shoving his head into it. He propped himself up sluggishly, another large bruise appearing on his knee and elbow.
Outside the window, the rain had turned lighter, drizzling a crisp splash on the balcony.
It was Friday, the best day of the week to retire early.
It was not yet five o'clock when Su Chi came back with ginger soup. Yu Xinyan saw the thermos bucket in his hand and asked, "What's this?"
Su Chi handed it to Wu Ma, who greeted him, "It's ginger soup from Quexifang, it's very effective. I brought it on my way."
Wu Ma took it and turned to the kitchen to serve the bowl. "Young Master is really kind."
Yu Xinyan also smiled and said, "Bring it up for Xiao Yi later."
She looked at her handsome eldest son and said to herself that the eldest was not being honest. Their family lives in the south of the city. How is Quexifang, which is to the west of the city, on his route home?
As soon as the ginger soup was ready, Su Huanyi floated down from upstairs, as if he had installed automatic navigation. "I came down to drink some water...eh, big brother is back?"
"Just in time, drink some ginger soup." Yu Xinyan rushed to credit Su Chi. "Your big brother specially bought it for you on his way from the west of the city."
The phrase "specially bought" was a masterpiece in the art of language.
The corner of Su Chi's forehead twitched.
Su Huanyi gave Su Chi a surprised look, took the ginger soup and tested the temperature. It was still warm, and the taste was pure and strong.
He was suspicious. "Along the way? Is it along the bypass highway?"
"..." Su Chi, "Aren't you still drinking?"
Su Huanyi hurriedly buried himself in the bowl to sip. "I'm drinking, I'm drinking..."
When he finished the bowl of ginger soup, like a dream, Yu Xinyan then asked Su Chi to help the person upstairs.
Su Huanyi loved this type of drama. He had to get the best out of it. He put one hand on Su Chi's arm and half of his body leaned upon the latter, pressing against him as they walked upstairs.
Su Chi held his elbow in his palm. The bones were small, and the delicate joints were wrapped in the warm, dry palm of his hand, making him feel very secure.
Su Huanyi thought back to the times Su Chi had applied medicine to him. The slender fingers had thin calluses. The rough palm brushed against his skin, making it burn with a tingle.
He said dizzily, "Brother, your hands are so rough."
Su Chi glanced at the two layers of clothes between their skins and asked, "Are you the pea princess?"
Su Huanyi, "..."
***He is referring to the fairytale of The Princess and the Pea. A small pea was put under a huge stack of mattresses to test the sensitivity of the princess***
Su Jitong brought his doctor back in the evening to see Su Huanyi. When he took his temperature, he found that it had risen to 38.5 degrees. Su Huanyi leaned against the bed like a real cute waste, sipping medicine with a straw in his mouth.
The doctor said, "It's just a common cold, but it will be cool and rainy for the next few days, so it's hard to get well."
After the medicine was prescribed, Su Jitong sent the doctor away and turned his head back to Su Huanyi's room.
He sat on the edge of the bed and stroked the fluffy hair. "Xiao Yi, Dad thought about it. It's Golden Week soon. When your fever subsides, we'll go to Nangang for a family holiday. The climate there is suitable for your health."
Su Huanyi answered, "Okay."
Su Jitong was pleased and continued to stroke his hair. "Third Brother will also be on vacation, so I will call him then. Didn't you say that you liked your third brother the most? You're going to meet him soon. Aren't you happy?"
Su Huanyi: ...? Shit!
He almost jumped up from the bed. The original bastard had even spread rumors of himself!