"Why do I look so happy?" Su Anyun stopped the car, with a smile in his eyes.
The sticky gaze that had been bothering Tang Ning disappeared, just like a piece of chewing gum accidentally stuck on a shoe being peeled off. Tang Ning's mood naturally improved.
"It's not what it looks like." Tang Ning smiled with his eyes curved. He stood intimately beside Su Anyun and looked around the crowd with a hint of smugness between his eyebrows, which made his eyes look particularly bright.
A passerby looked at him, but Tang Ning did not dodge or avoid them. The passerby who was stared at by him left in a hurry with red ears.
Tangning was like he had won a battle. He complained to Su Anyun, "Brother, someone was following me on the road just now!"
Su Anyun, who was originally smiling, frowned and looked around with a cold face, "Who is it?"
"Gone." Tangning felt a little regretful. She felt sorry for Jiang Mianmian's stepfather who only bullied the weak and feared the strong. If this guy had the guts to fight with his family—
Tang Ning was so confident that he had completely forgotten how suspicious and frightened he was not long ago.
"I think that man is my friend's stepfather." Tangning spoke louder after finding someone to back her up.
Su Anyun heard this and asked, "Does Xiao Ning have any evidence?"
"I was visiting my friend's house. My old phone was infected with a virus because it was connected to her Wi-Fi. I suspect it was my friend's stepfather who did it," Tangning said hurriedly.
"Xiao Ning, do you have any evidence to prove that the virus was created by your friend's stepfather?" Su Anyun asked again.
Such detailed questioning made Tang Ning stunned for a moment. He looked at Su Anyun's face, which was between a young man and a teenager. The lines on this face were clear and clean, without any childishness. However, when he asked for evidence, there was a very pure recognition, as if it only existed in the black and white world of children.
— “It has great power, but it must abide by the rules.”
Bai Yingxue's description of the monster in the confinement room came to Tang Ning's mind.
Tangning shook his head and cautiously asked, "Is the evidence too much for you, brother?"
Su Anyun nodded gently, "Everything must be based on reason and evidence. This is my rule."
Tang Ning increasingly felt that Su Anyun was the monster in the confinement room, or that Su Anyun had some connection with the monster in the confinement room. In order to explore the secrets of Su Anyun, he would go to the orphanage again.
Su Anyun touched Tangning's head and said, "If you find any evidence, Xiaoning, you can tell me."
Her fingertips traced Tangning's wet hair, "Xiaoning, why is your hair wet? Did you just wash your hair? Your face looks a little red..."
This was because Tang Ning had been flushed by a broken water pipe not long ago, and even though he had used the Suck-Suck brand, there was still some redness left on his skin.
Recalling this incident, Tangning didn't have time to continue complaining to Su Anyun about Jiang Mianmian's stepfather. He held up the bag containing the cheongsam to Su Anyun and said, "Brother, I accidentally stained Mom's cheongsam. What should I do?"
Su Anyun also hissed softly after seeing it. He picked up the cheongsam in the bag and immediately noticed the blood-stained plum blossom: "This kind of thing is not easy to wash. Auntie will be angry when she sees it."
Tangning became nervous. He then heard Su Anyun say, "The person who gets his clothes dirty will be in trouble."
The unlucky Tang Ning who had soiled his clothes became even more nervous after hearing this. He stared at Su Anyun, only to see Su Anyun blink at him with a hint of cunning in his eyes.
Seeing Su Anyun's expression, Tangning suddenly realized that there was another unlucky person in the world who had soiled his clothes.
Is that what he understood?!
Tangning had a hard time organizing his words. He stared at Su Anyun with his eyes wide open. The smile in Su Anyun's eyes became even more intense. He reached out and gently rubbed Tangning's head, "Go home and tell Auntie what you just said to me."
"I'm a very disciplined person."
"Auntie is not."
Tangning: “!!!”
The feeling of loss that had been building up in Tang Ning's heart suddenly dissipated. Tang Ning finally understood why Su Anyun asked him to borrow a skirt from his mother. It turned out that she was waiting here!
Su Anyun got on his bicycle and called out to Tangning, "Hurry up and get on."
Tang Ning immediately sat on the back of the bicycle holding the bag. The summer breeze blew on Su Anyun and him. The bicycle passed by green trees, and spots of light fell on Tang Ning. Tang Ning squinted his eyes and leaned his face on Su Anyun's back.
OK.
His brother, his mother, his home.
A new message popped up on the phone, from Bai Wuliang, Tangning and Lin Yun: "The three of us are the only ones left to invite anyone to our home. We have some time now, so let's sort out our own home situation and choose who will be the host this afternoon."
Tang Ning turned off the phone and closed his eyes, still leaning on Su Anyun's back. The slight bumps caused by the bicycle made Tang Ning's head collide with Su Anyun's broad back. The sunlight passed through his thin eyelids, ironing Tang Ning's vision into a reddish and black color. The noisy sounds around his ears were also made lazy and comfortable by the sunlight.
Everything is so good at this moment.
Like a prince, he protects his brother and his mother who is waiting for them to come back for dinner at home.
If he invited everyone to his home, would his home be as nice as it is now? Would the warmth and happiness he could experience be gone for the remaining four days? Would it be exposed in an instant
"Yes." Su Anyun turned his head and looked at Tangning. His tone was a little surprised. "Xiaoning, why are you crying?"
Tang Ning was stunned for a moment, he reached out and touched the moisture at the corner of his eye.
Did he just cry
"Maybe the sun is too bright today." Tangning smiled, "Come on, brother, let's go home."
Su Anyun looked at Tang Ning worriedly. After confirming that Tang Ning was in a normal mood, he pulled Tang Ning towards the narrow corridor.
The corridor in the old residential building was very cold even in broad daylight. The higher up one went, the colder it became. Only when Su Anyun held his hand did he feel warm.
"By the way, Xiao Ning, the dish Auntie cooked for lunch today, was it my dish?" Su Anyun asked Tang Ning.
"I, I." Tangning gave the older person's answer.
Su Anyun smiled and said, "Why are you so greedy? I can give it all today, but next time..."
Those dark eyes looked deeply at Tangning, and Su Anyun said meaningfully, "We'll definitely choose one."
Tangning blinked blankly.
He felt that Su Anyun was talking about more than just cooking.
Su Anyun seemed to have just said this casually. He lowered his head, avoiding Tang Ning's sight, took out a key from his pocket, opened the door, and fierce gunfire and fighting sounds came from inside the house.
Tang Ning stood by the door and looked at her mother who was sitting on the sofa and concentrating on watching TV. The battle on TV was getting intense and both sides were killing each other. Her mother seemed to be completely absorbed in the plot and had no time or energy to pay attention to Tang Ning and Su Anyun who had just walked in.
Tang Ning unconsciously used a little strength in his fingers while holding the bag, and his knuckles turned slightly white from the tension. Although Su Anyun said that he could tell his mother about that, it was a fact that he failed to protect his mother's most beloved skirt.
Before Tangning could think of a way to say anything, her mother, who was staring at the TV, suddenly asked, "Are you back?"
Tangning nodded quickly.
"Ningning, who is going to cook for lunch today?" Mom asked a similar question to Su Anyun.
Tangning's heart suddenly rose to her throat. She felt empty and weak inside, "Can mom do half and brother do the other half?"
After hearing these words, her mother, who had been watching TV, finally turned her eyes away from the TV and focused on Tangning's nervous face.
"An Yun and I are so tired, we can't be lazy in the afternoon." Mom smiled, but there was no smile in her eyes, "We have to choose one, Ningning, who will you choose?"
Tang Ning's mind went blank.
Su Anyun and her mother looked at him, waiting for his answer, just like when they first asked Tangning whose cooking she liked. Now they were even more persistent about the answer than before.
I like it. This kind of vague answer is not enough.
"I, I..." Tangning's mind suddenly came to an idea and he patted his chest: "I!"
The two gazes that were staring at Tangning paused, as if no one had expected Tangning to say this.
Tangning shouted, "I'll cook lunch today!"
Mom was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help laughing: "You can cook? I don't know what your skills are. I'll be very grateful if you don't blow up the kitchen."
Even Su Anyun, who had been mainly encouraging Tangning, said, "The kitchen is too hot in this weather, Xiaoning, please don't go into the kitchen."
At first, Tangning was just forced to answer out of desperation. However, when he looked at his mother sitting on the sofa and smiling, and Su Anyun looking at him with concern and tenderness, an inexplicable warmth surged into Tangning's heart. Tangning said, "I'll cook."
"Mom, you've been the one cooking for me since I was little." Tangning looked at his mother, who had crow's feet from laughing. After he said this, his mother, who had been shaking her head and laughing at him, paused. Tangning's throat tightened, "I also cook for you myself."
His mother stopped smiling. Her expression was very calm, but her eyes made Tang Ning feel familiar. He suddenly remembered that when he was a child, when he first brought the foot basin and said he would wash his mother's feet, his mother looked at him with the same eyes.
The mother on the sofa and the mother in his memory overlapped again. Tang Ning couldn't bear to look at it anymore, so he forced himself to turn his head and look at Su Anyun.
"Brother." Tangning's voice was trembling a little, "You cook so deliciously, can you teach me your secret recipe?"
"Then I won't have to worry about eating my brother's cooking in the future." During those countless sleepless days and nights, he missed her, tossed and turned, and his tears soaked the pillowcase.
"Eat up the tears."
His clear eyes were filled with mist, full of fragility and attachment. Su Anyun's heart trembled slightly, and he said softly to Tangning, "Okay."