The second floor does not receive guests, and only a few warm yellow corridor lights are on. The light is a little dim, and the long corridor is covered with carpet, which is very soft to step on, and even the sound of footsteps is absorbed.
Qin Mingyuan knew the most basic courtesy and did not go to those rooms casually. He found an open-air balcony at the end of the corridor, pushed open the glass door and walked out.
There was a set of outdoor sofas on the balcony, which were cleaned regularly and looked very clean, but he did not sit on it. Instead, he walked to the railing, stood still, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. With a "click", the flame illuminated his face in the dimness and cast a spot of light on the cigarette.
He took a puff, held the cigarette between two fingers, and slowly exhaled the smoke, which was blown away into the night by the breeze.
With his other hand, he played with the metal lighter for a few seconds and put it back into his pocket.
The weather in February was still very cold, and standing outside in a thin suit was not a good choice. Qin Mingyuan didn't mind, but instead felt that the depression in his heart had dissipated a lot.
The bright light from the hall on the first floor shone through the glass windows. From this angle he could vaguely see the well-dressed people inside. He wondered if they would still be in the mood to attend the banquet now that their people were gone.
He smiled sarcastically in his heart, raised his hand and took a puff of cigarette, not knowing who the real protagonist of this birthday party was.
After finishing his cigarette, he did not light a second one. He stood there quietly waiting for the smell of smoke to dissipate. He raised his hand to look at his watch, then turned around and left the balcony.
Stepping onto the sound-deadening carpet in the room, he lowered his eyes, straightened his folded sleeves and walked forward. When he raised his eyes, his gaze paused and his steps stopped.
There was an electric wheelchair parked at the entrance of the stairs, and a thin young man was sitting on it. From the side, one could see his superior nose bridge and long eyelashes.
He half-closed his eyes and looked at the stairs in front of him, with no expression on his face, and stayed there very quietly.
"Do you need help?" Qin Mingyuan was kind for once and walked over.
The young man who heard the voice turned his head and saw a very handsome face. The eyes staring at him were large, with black pupils, which reflected the light from the corridor and made them look brighter.
His skin was very pale and not very healthy, probably because he didn't go out often to see the sun. He was very thin, and the arms resting on the armrests of the wheelchair were so thin that they didn't even look like those of an adult male.
"No, thank you."
He didn't seem surprised that there was someone here. There was no extra expression on his cold face because of his appearance. He left four brief words and controlled the wheelchair to leave, sliding into the depths of the corridor on the other side and being submerged in the dim shadows.
Qin Mingyuan raised his eyebrows indifferently, put his right hand into his trouser pocket, turned around and went downstairs, and suddenly stopped when he reached the middle platform.
He glanced at the bright lights downstairs, then looked up at the dimly lit second floor. Standing at the junction of two worlds, he suddenly remembered who that person was.
He appeared in the Yun family villa sitting in a wheelchair. There was only one character in the whole book, and that was the protagonist Yun Yuexian's half-brother, Yun Pei, the eldest son of the Yun family who was left with lifelong disability due to a car accident.
It's actually quite sad to talk about this person. Before the age of twelve, he had a happy family and a carefree life, but on his twelfth birthday, his life went completely in another direction.
A car accident took his mother's life, and he could no longer walk. However, less than a month after his mother's funeral, his father brought another strange woman home, along with a younger brother who was only two years younger than him.
He hadn't even fully recovered at that time, and he was completely unable to fight back with his broken body. He watched helplessly as the woman moved into the room where his mother had lived and sealed all of his mother's things in a dark warehouse.
The seemingly well-behaved and cute little brother would hug his father and act coquettishly, calling him dad sweetly and asking for a candy from him with a bright and beautiful smile.
And he himself, sitting in a wheelchair that he could not leave for the rest of his life, was completely separated from them and became an outsider.
When Qin Mingyuan was reading the book, he always thought that this character was gloomy and biting, like a tiger or wolf lurking in the dark waiting for the opportunity to pounce on the enemy, so he could instruct people to kidnap Yun Yuexian in the end, thus causing the death of the original body.
He had never imagined that the other person would look like this, thin, pale, with an immature face, even like a teenager who had not grown up. With his own physique, he could lift the person up with one hand.
"Brother Mingyuan."
While he was still thinking, Qin Mingyuan was brought back to his senses by a voice calling him. He raised his eyes and saw Yun Yuexian coming up from downstairs and standing in front of him.
"I've been looking for you for a long time. Why are you here?" Qin Mingyuan looked towards the second floor for a moment, then quickly looked back and said, "I found a place to smoke a cigarette."
"Is that so?" Yun Yuexian nodded and said with a smile, "Then let's go downstairs. It's time to cut the cake."
Qin Mingyuan responded casually and waited for the other party to walk in front, then looked up at the place where the wheelchair was parked on the second floor.
He remembered that the book mentioned that Yun Yuexian was two years younger than Yun Pei, but coincidentally, they had the same birthday. It was also on this day that the twelve-year-old boy lost his mother forever.
Qin Mingyuan lowered his eyes and watched Yun Yuexian's back blending into the light of the first floor, feeling extremely ironic.
Halfway down the stairs, Yun Yuexian heard no movement from behind, so he stopped and looked back. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but the man's gaze from above seemed mocking, making him feel a little uneasy. "Brother Mingyuan?"
Qin Mingyuan's eyelashes drooped, and when he raised them again, they were calm again. He followed the other person down the stairs. The lively atmosphere quieted down for two seconds after his appearance, and "Boss Qin" was heard one after another. Yun Haowei came over with a happy face and took the two of them to the exquisite and beautiful five-layer cake. At the top was the number 22 candle surrounded by cream flowers.
"Are all the people here?" Qin Mingyuan didn't rush to take the dessert knife he handed over. He glanced around and finally landed on Yun Yuexian. There was no expression on his face. "Didn't you say you had a brother? Why don't I see him?"
Yun Haowei and Huo Lijuan beside him paused their smiles, and their expressions seemed a little stiff for a moment.
There were quite a few guests at the banquet who knew what was going on. Their eyes suddenly became subtle and they waited quietly to see the show.
"Brother Mingyuan may not know..." Yun Yuexian lowered her eyes with a gloomy expression, pursed her lips, moved closer to him and lowered her voice, as if she didn't want others to hear her brother's private affairs, "Today is the anniversary of my brother's biological mother's death. He just came back from the cemetery in the evening. He is in a bad mood and has gone to rest."
Qin Mingyuan recalled what he had said. The color of the clothes the young man was wearing was indeed very dark. He paused, and unlike the other party, he said directly: "Since it is a day like this, why did you still go to such great lengths to hold a banquet? Wouldn't it make him even more upset?"
His answer didn't seem to be what Yun Yuexian expected. She showed a very surprised expression, but it was only for a moment, and soon she frowned in distress, "I thought so before, but mom and dad thought that making the house lively might make my brother feel better. I didn't expect that he still didn't want to participate. It seems that we have done something wrong again."
Qin Mingyuan lowered his eyes and looked at his lost expression, with an even stronger hint of sarcasm in his eyes. It was clear that he was happy throughout the whole banquet and didn't even think about the fact that he had a brother. Tsk, he is indeed suitable to be an actor.
Seeing that the atmosphere was beginning to become a little cold, Huo Lijuan quickly adjusted her expression and put her hand on her son's shoulder. "It's okay. Xiao Pei will understand our good intentions. After we cut the cake, Xiao Xian will personally deliver it to brother, okay?"
"Yes, yes, come on, birthdays are meant to be happy, let's cut the cake!" Yun Haowei followed up and put the knife into his son's hand, and simply took the first cut with him.
The guests consciously cooperated and clapped, not mentioning the slight embarrassment just now.
At the outer edge of the crowd, the middle-aged man who met Qin Mingyuan at the entrance of the villa raised his eyebrows and looked at his female companion. "What did I say? The waters of the rich are very deep. I'm afraid that Mr. Qin's novelty will wear off."
“Perhaps Mr. Qin really doesn’t know anything about the Yun family, so he’s asking that question. After so many years, it’s impossible to know about the family’s private affairs without special investigation.” The woman still felt that he must be happy in her heart that he was given face to come to this banquet.
"Who do you think Qin Mingyuan is? Even if he doesn't check on someone, someone else will find out and bring him to him. How could he not know?" The middle-aged man gave a look that said "you're still young" and said sarcastically, "Bringing up the eldest young master of the Yun family to make things difficult for Yun Yuexian now is probably putting pressure on him. If you keep dragging it out like this, you'll only wear out his patience."
The woman nodded, not quite understanding, thinking that rich people have so many twists and turns in their minds, and the water is really deep.
Anyway, the cake was cut successfully, and the Yun couple distributed it to the guests present. Yun Yuexian actually took one portion to the second floor, and came down not long after. Her hands were empty, but there was some cream on the side of her face and on her clothes on her shoulders.
Huo Lijuan saw it from afar, handed the cake in her hand to the waiter, and dragged him a few steps to a less crowded place. Coincidentally, she was very close to Qin Mingyuan, who didn't like sweets and deliberately stood far away.
"How did it become like this?" She rubbed the man's face with her fingers.
Yun Yuexian seemed a little embarrassed. She glanced in Qin Mingyuan's direction and rubbed her face with the back of her hand. "Brother is still angry..."
He didn't finish, but Huo Lijuan already understood what he meant, "Did he throw a cake at you?"
"No, it was my own carelessness..." Yun Yuexian pursed her lips, her face showing a little discomfort due to lying.
Huo Lijuan didn't ask any more questions. She sighed lightly, as if she had just noticed someone was next to her, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Mingyuan. I made a fool of myself."
It was indeed a joke. Qin Mingyuan sneered in his heart and did not reply to her. He raised his wrist to check the time and said calmly: "It's getting late. I'll leave first."
"Are you leaving now? There's a dance party later." Huo Lijuan was surprised and a little anxious because her husband had a project that he hadn't discussed with her. "Stay a little longer and let Xiaoxian chat with you. You two are usually busy and don't have much time to see each other."
Yun Yuexian felt someone poking him in the waist. He walked forward and asked him to stay. "Yes, Brother Mingyuan, it's still early."
Qin Mingyuan was unmoved, and glanced at his shoulder that was stained with cake, "You'd better go and take care of it first."
When he reminded her, Yun Yuexian remembered that her clothes were dirty. When she turned her head to look, the man in front of her had already walked around her.
Qin Mingyuan was tall and had long legs, and he took big strides forward very quickly. The mother and son could not catch up with him for a while, and they did not want to make too much noise, so they watched him walk out the door without looking back.
Yun Haowei was still entertaining other guests and didn't notice the situation here at all. By the time he realized what was happening here, everyone had already got into the car and left.
When the driver received the news, he was already waiting outside when he came out. Qin Mingyuan opened the back door of the car and looked back at the villa before getting in the car.
There was a warm yellow light on in a window on the second floor. There was a figure sitting in front of the window. His face could not be seen clearly because he was too far away. I could only see that he seemed to be slightly tilting his head.
Qin Mingyuan also turned his head to look at the sky. The stars in the city were very sparse, with only a few scattered there, but the moon was very round, hanging in the sticky night like a silver plate.
He quickly withdrew his gaze, lowered his head and got into the car. When he looked out through the car window again, there was no figure in front of the window. The car he was riding in also slowly slid out and gradually drove away from the villa.
(End of this chapter)