They made an unusual family unit – two people of similar age with a loose relationship. Over the years, they rarely shared tender moments, not because they didn’t yearn for them, but because their emotional wasteland left them unable to respond.

Miao Jing hugged her pillow, looking cold and aloof, with a girlish expression on her face.

Foreign movies often had scenes like this – pillow fights, sleeplessness, fear of thunder, feeling cold, physical discomfort, and wanting to be closer.

Chen Yi wrestled with himself before finally lowering his eyes and saying, “Come in.”

They lay stiffly on the bed, with Miao Jing curling up uncertainly. During this season, her room already had a thin blanket, while his bed remained bare.

“You take my spot,” he said, rising from where he’d been lying, the place already warmed by his body heat. He then pulled out a comforter from the cabinet and shook it open.

It felt like a secret paradise.

The room had no lights on, with only faint light filtering through the curtains. Their pillows touched as they lay flat, neither speaking. After such a rainy night, what should they say or do?

Chen Yi lay still with closed eyes, his mind blank, while Miao Jing pinched the corner of the blanket. She was tired, drowsy, ready to sleep.

In the silence between wakefulness and sleep, she spoke softly.

“When we were little, we also shared a room.”

He gave a slight “mm” in response.

Strictly speaking, they weren’t that young – she was eight and he was ten when they shared the adjacent bedroom for over two years.

Miao Jing stared at the ceiling, remembering: “Sometimes when I saw you sleeping through the curtain gap, I thought you were a demon who would kill me in the middle of the night.”

He grinned: “I had those thoughts too back then – biting everyone who came near me to death, tearing their throats, blood everywhere, flesh torn open.”

The bad kid would bully the good kid with his little fists. She kept her distance, but gradually, she became less afraid of him, and they slowly grew closer.

“So violent,” she pressed her lips together. “It’s good you went to middle school…”

“I was young then, didn’t know how to control that… pent-up emotion.” He opened his eyes and turned to look at her serene profile. “A man’s fists shouldn’t be aimed at the weak.”

Perhaps they should be grateful Chen Libin died early.

Chen Yi rolled over to face her and said softly, “My mother was a gentlewoman.”

“Do you remember your mother?” Her voice was extremely soft.

He blinked very slowly, his voice flat: “No, she abandoned me.”

Miao Jing’s throat tightened.

The deep night wasn’t suitable for pouring out one’s heart or whispered confidences. It was for bitter thoughts to ferment in silence, making decisive impacts on the future. Just as they were about to fall asleep, Chen Yi’s sprawled limbs touched her cold body.

“Still cold?”

“A bit.” Her voice was soft and muffled. “Was in the water too long, my leg cramped earlier.”

He looked at her silently, moved closer, and tucked some blanket between her legs. He hesitated before speaking: “Miao Jing, we’ve known each other for almost ten years. I’m your brother now.”

“Mm.”

Their bodies were close as Chen Yi awkwardly wrapped his arms around her. She curled up slightly, her back against his embrace, with just centimeters between them. Yet their breaths and warmth transferred without hindrance. His body was slightly hotter than warm, enveloping her in an intense presence. Miao Jing felt safe and comfortable.

“Is this okay?”

“Yes.”

The room filled with her steady, soft breathing as her delicate, fragrant body drifted to sleep. Yet youthful restlessness rose like dense smoke from a stove. His body felt slight pricks from restraint. He wanted to brush aside her hair and bury his face in her nape, wanted to tightly wrap his arms around her and embed her into his body, and a strong binding rope to tie them together without any gaps.

The trembling wrists clasped together in childhood fear, the clear and graceful silhouette of adolescence, the haggard sunken eyes in loneliness, the thin yet stubborn little face, the gentle elegant smile, and soft fresh lips – from the malice of separate beds to the strange intimacy of sharing one, he didn’t know how things had fermented to this point. But he knew clearly that in his nineteen years, she was the person who had given him the richest, strangest emotions.

Everyone’s childhood wish is to have someone sleep beside them.

Night brought rain, morning brought dew. The night was full of strange dreams, yet with an underlying comfort. From pitch darkness to the first ray of dawn leaping over the horizon, in the dim twilight of daybreak, the two young bodies on the bed stirred, waking almost simultaneously, their drowsy confused eyes meeting with slight startlement.

In this quiet, peaceful moment, even the birds outside hadn’t awakened.

His half-night of torment broke through at this moment as he leaned in slightly, yearning for a kiss. She turned slightly, calmly accepting.

Their lips met, deliberately disguised as confused innocence, drifting and pecking, one touch after another, then stopping motionless.

Chen Yi suddenly threw off the covers and got up, stiffly entering the bathroom. Miao Jing sat hugging her knees, her face slightly flushed, listening to the shower sound as she picked up her pillow and returned to her room.

Their relationship underwent a subtle change, leading to an extremely strange atmosphere at home – Chen Yi dared to walk around in short sleeves and shorts, while Miao Jing’s home clothes weren’t overly conservative. Their daily interactions became more casual, but strange in that their relationship became mysteriously unfathomable, sometimes dodging each other, sometimes cold, sometimes agitated, sometimes ignoring.

On Chen Yi’s birthday, following Zhang Shi’s wishes, the nightclub gave Chen Yi a ten-thousand-yuan gift. Chen Yi used this money to book a private room and treat his brothers to food and drinks. As a junior member, he had a group of buddies he’d grown up with. Maomao, Bo’er, and Da Yong were all around twenty, following Chen Yi at the bathhouse, especially fond of bragging about his embarrassing stories from middle school and vocational school. Zhang Shi had heard a few things, particularly interested in his middle school business of dealing Swiss army knives, looking Chen Yi over and saying if he’d been born twenty years earlier, he’d have had the destiny of an arms dealer.

Chen Yi knew Zhang Shi was Zhai Fengmao’s confidant and executor in Teng City. He’d heard about Zhai Fengmao’s rise to wealth – fighting in Hong Kong gangs in the 90s, reportedly making his fortune through Burmese military factories, then washing his hands clean and transitioning to the identity of a Hong Kong business investor. Now the only visible trace was the nightclub business line – anyone in the underworld was inevitably connected to vice, gambling, and drugs.

During that time, there was an incident – a local food processing company had business troubles and couldn’t get bank loans, so through an intermediary, they borrowed ten million in high-interest loans from Zhai Fengmao. Through this loan’s principal and interest, Zhai Fengmao eventually took controlling shares in the food processing company and drove out all the old shareholders from management. At the shareholder transfer meeting, Zhai Fengmao didn’t attend – Chen Yi drove Zhang Shi and the partners to the meeting. That day, all employees protested. Chen Yi was alert, foresaw some signs, and avoided the major shareholder conflict. This impressed Zhang Shi, who praised Chen Yi quite favorably.

The birthday celebration went on until two or three in the morning. Chen Yi was drunk and was carried to an upstairs guest room by Da Yong and Maomao. He mumbled about wanting to go home. At daybreak, they finally managed to get him home. When they knocked, Miao Jing answered with an ice-cold face, brows furrowed, letting Da Yong dump Chen Yi on the sofa. She wouldn’t let Chen Yi into his room, worried he might vomit and she’d have to clean up. She showed no intention of helping or even bringing him hot tea.

Da Yong and Maomao chatted awkwardly for a bit. Miao Jing saw the lipstick marks on their faces and coldly saw them out, the door slamming shut.

Da Yong bumped Maomao’s arm.

“You think Brother Yi has a masochistic tendency? Provides everything for his sister yet gets treated like this, won’t even let him on the bed. If she were my girl, I’d slap her.”

“She’s a good student, all high and mighty, and looks down on people like us.”

Miao Jing didn’t go to school that morning. She sat by the sofa, putting a wet towel on Chen Yi’s face, and wiping off the birthday cake cream and confetti glitter. Chen Yi frowned deeply, opening his eyes hazily, his deep intense pupils under thick lashes staring straight at her, then suddenly leaning forward. Miao Jing turned her head to dodge, just avoiding his movement.

Some things weren’t clear whether they were mutually understood or tacitly acknowledged. That veil hadn’t been pierced yet, perhaps automatically attributed to unclear minds or bodily instinct. What exactly stood between them?

“Not going to school?”

“It’s a rest day.”

“Tomorrow’s makeup class fees are due. Only five and a half months until the college entrance exam. The school changed to half-day rest per week.”

“Mm.” His voice was hoarse. “Which university do you want to get into?”

“What do you think?”

“Didn’t your homeroom teacher say you could get into a good university? Where do you want to go?”

“Just those first and second-tier cities.” She pondered. “Chen Yi, do you want to register for the adult college entrance exam? There are many opportunities to study.”

“No.”

He sprawled lazily on the sofa, eyes closed, ambitious: “I’ll stay in Teng City. In a few years, there will be a time for me, Chen Yi, to make my mark.”

She turned to ask him: “How will you make your mark?”

“Be a boss, make big money.” His eyes flashed with brilliance. “You know how many assets that Boss Zhai I follow has? With over 2 billion in total assets and dozens of companies under him, nobody in Teng City dares disrespect him. All I lack is opportunity and luck… now the opportunity has come…”

Miao Jing bit her lip: “Collecting loan sharks’ debts or forcing demolitions? Being a thug or planting listening devices?”

“I know my limits.” Chen Yi’s gaze was intense: “Society needs rule-followers like you, and also needs people like me who aren’t picky about methods.”

When views don’t align, there’s no point talking more – this topic always leads to disagreement.

“You go to the big city, go to your university, see the world.” He propped his legs on the coffee table, leisurely taking out a cigarette pack. Now he always carried expensive cigarettes, occasionally enjoying one himself. He lowered his head to light up, the mellow tobacco scent spreading through the living room. “I’ll stay in Teng City, fight for my future.”

Miao Jing’s gaze asked him: then what?

Chen Yi held the smoke in his lungs, finally exhaling slowly: “The future… we’ll talk about it in three to five years.”

His slender fingers dangled as he casually flicked off the ash. Just three to five years – he could foresee his future. He would climb using Zhai Fengmao as his mountain of support, and make some waves. By then –

He would drive luxury cars and live in mansions, personally going to bring her back.