Lin Zhexia was caught off guard by the sudden pull.

By the time she found her footing, the child’s bicycle had wobbled past her side.

Lin Zhexia: “You’re the idiot.”

Chi Yao: “Do you have a problem with that word?”

Lin Zhexia was about to say, “Who would be satisfied with ‘idiot’?”

When she heard Chi Yao release her hand and add with a hint of mockery, “Then, stupid?”

“…”

“I don’t want to walk anymore,” she turned around and headed back, “normal walks extend your life, walking with you shortens it.”

On the eve of Spring Festival, Lin Zhexia was dragged out by Lin He to purchase New Year supplies, returning with a pile of items.

Lin He still needed to rest and recover, mainly lying on the sofa, giving them instructions: “You and your Uncle Wei, put the Spring Festival couplets on the door, then put that pile of things in the kitchen, and the new clothes in the bedroom.”

“Also,” Lin He pointed around, “the floor needs mopping too.”

After bustling about for half the day, Lin Zhexia took a short break while hanging the Spring Festival couplets.

She handed the couplets to Wei Ping: “Uncle Wei, I’ve always thought you were very tall.”

Wei Ping understood immediately: “Alright, go and rest, I’ll do it.”

Hearing this, she gave a large portion of the couplets to Wei Ping, but kept three sheets in her hand.

Wei Ping asked: “Aren’t you hanging the ones in your hand?”

Lin Zhexia said, “It’s a secret.”

“Well, tell uncle secretly, I promise not to tell anyone.”

“If I tell you,” Lin Zhexia shook her head, “then it won’t be a secret anymore.”

Wei Ping didn’t get an answer, but he didn’t mind, and smiled saying: “Alright, our Xia Xia now has little secrets.”

It wasn’t much of a secret.

Lin Zhexia, holding the couplets in her hand, thought that she was planning to go to Chi Yao’s door later to put them up for him.

Even though Chi Yao didn’t say anything and always had that indifferent attitude, it was still somewhat desolate to have only him alone at home during such a festive time as the Spring Festival.

She wanted to give Chi Yao a surprise.

She deliberately snuck out late at night before bed, carefully pasting the three bright red couplets on his door.

She didn’t even change her clothes, wearing a blue hooded coral fleece pajama, coming and going like a gust of wind. After finishing, she went back home to continue sleeping.

Before sleeping, she also looked forward to Chi Yao seeing the couplets she had put up early the next day.

So she left him a message: Make sure you don’t sleep in tomorrow.

Early the next morning.

Chi Yao woke up very early.

He would have found it difficult to sleep longer even if he wanted to, with the crackling sounds of firecrackers everywhere outside.

Different from these festive and chaotic sounds was the empty house he was now in.

He lay in bed, eyes half-closed, scratched his head, then put on his slippers to wash up.

After simply washing his face, his phone rang, and he leaned against the bathroom doorway to answer: “Dad, Mom.”

The voice from the other end of the phone carried little warmth: “It’s New Year’s today, I’ve transferred money to your account, buy whatever you want. Also, did you receive the New Year’s gift box we sent? There are some New Year goods inside. Your mom and I have something urgent at the company, there’s a batch of goods that needs to be delivered urgently, so we can’t make it back.”

Then his mother cut in to add: “Have you been well at home lately? Take good care of yourself.”

Chi Yao: “I know.”

“If there’s nothing else,” he added, “I’ll hang up.”

At the end.

He added another sentence, “Happy New Year.”

“…”

After a few brief exchanges, there was nothing else to say.

The call quickly ended.

After hanging up, he casually opened WeChat.

Today was the festival.

Many people were sending group messages, and the WeChat list was full of unread red dots.

He didn’t look at other messages, directly clicking on a certain pinned conversation that always sat at the very top of the list.

[Coward].

There were several messages from Lin Zhexia.

He read them one by one-

Don’t wake up too late-

You’d better get up early-

Then go out and breathe some fresh air-

Because this way you can-

Open your arms-

And embrace a brilliant tomorrow!

“…”

Chi Yao looked at these messages for a while: “What madness is this again?”

Although these messages seemed puzzling, based on his understanding of Lin Zhexia, there must be some intention behind them.

And this intention wasn’t hard for him to guess.

So he walked to the door and opened it.

There were no strange packages at the door. He shifted his gaze, and that’s when he noticed the three red Spring Festival couplets on the door.

On the couplets, vigorous black ink read:

Smooth sailing year after year.

Success in everything, step by step.

Horizontal inscription: May the lucky star shine upon you.

It was evident that these three couplets had been put up very carefully, arranged neatly, with even the corners pasted meticulously.

However.

Chi Yao looked at the door, unable to hold back a laugh.

It’s just that other households had their couplets pasted at the top of the door, while a certain shorty, due to height limitations, could only paste the couplets in a lower position-

Seen it, quite brilliant.

He typed with one hand in the chat box and replied with two more sentences:-

Very unique position-

Next time, if you can’t reach, you can come in and grab a chair

Lin Zhexia also woke up very early today.

Her response was almost instant.

Coward: Today is the New Year

Coward: I don’t want to commit murder, I advise you to behave yourself [fist]

“It’s already good enough that I put them up for you,” on the other side, Lin Zhexia mumbled while brushing her teeth, “and you still have so much to say.”

“…I’m not a two-meter-tall giant.”

“The door is so high, isn’t it normal to paste them a bit lower?”

But after her complaints, the matter was over.

After a while, she changed into new clothes and happily went out, saying: “Mom, Uncle Wei, I’m going to find Chi Yao—”

Lin He: “I was just about to tell you, invite Chi Yao to come celebrate the New Year together.”

Wei Ping also said, “Yes, it’s the New Year, it should be lively, how can someone spend it alone at home?”

When Chi Yao came, he brought a gift box. Lin He said, “No need to be so polite,” and invited him to sit in the living room.

The Spring Festival was busy for adults.

But for students like them, when the day arrived, it wasn’t much different from usual—lying on the sofa playing with phones, watching TV, and occasionally having to entertain naughty children of relatives.

Today, a little boy came to Lin Zhexia’s home.

At first, the little boy was very reserved, but after sitting for a while, he began to look around restlessly.

He looked at Lin Zhexia: “Sister.”

Lin Zhexia was busy replying to friends’ messages. She had replied with New Year’s greetings to Chen Lin and Tang Shuxuan, then asked: “What is it?”

The little boy solemnly introduced himself: “My name is Kang Jiahao, I’m six years old this year.”

Seeing how serious he was, Lin Zhexia also sat up straight, put down her phone, and instinctively responded: “I, I’m Lin Zhexia, I’m… sixteen this year.”

The little boy had rehearsed a standard visiting relatives speech before coming out: “I got 97 points in all three of my final exams, ranking third in my class. My hobby is playing badminton.”

Lin Zhexia praised: “You did well.”

The little boy asked her: “How many points did you get?”

Lin Zhexia: “Our exam scores are different; you might not understand. My hobby is reading books.”

After Lin Zhexia said, “I like reading books,” someone nearby laughed lightly.

Chi Yao: “That copy of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ you bought when you were ten, in the past six years, how many pages have you read?”

“…”

“If you don’t speak,” Lin Zhexia gritted her teeth, “no one would think you’re mute.”

She just wanted to establish a good image in front of the child.

She couldn’t exactly say her hobbies were eating, sleeping, and playing on her phone.

That would be too unenergetic.

However, after Chi Yao spoke, the little boy immediately shifted his attention to the handsome brother wearing a gray sweater beside them, and asked him: “What’s your name?”

Chi Yao glanced at him: “Why should I tell you?”

Little boy: “Let’s get to know each other.”

Chi Yao looked away: “No need, I don’t make friends with little brats.”

“…”

The little boy hit a wall and was stunned.

After a moment, he recovered, tugged at Lin Zhexia’s clothing, and asked: “This person, is he your brother?”

Celebrating the New Year together easily led to this perception.

The little boy didn’t even need Lin Zhexia to answer before taking it upon himself to confirm: “He is your brother, right?”

Lin Zhexia: “???”

She felt shocked.

“Him, my brother?”

The little boy nodded.

Although Chi Yao was indeed born a month or so earlier than her.

Lin Zhexia was still very surprised: “How could he possibly be my brother? Do I look like him?”

The little boy’s method of determining who was older was simple and pure: “He’s much taller than you.”

Lin Zhexia: “……”

The little boy didn’t have time to continue the conversation as he was soon called away by his mother, needing to hurry to visit the next relative’s house for New Year greetings, leaving this mess behind.

Lin Zhexia watched as the little boy left. After he was gone, only she and Chi Yao remained in the living room.

She felt that the current scene had become somewhat awkward because of the word “brother.”

She took a sip of water, then said: “…Children, they don’t know any better. Their eyesight isn’t good.”

Chi Yao made no comment.

She couldn’t help but add another sentence, “And although I don’t have an advantage in terms of height, I’m much better looking than you.”

In the evening, all the people coming and going for New Year visits had left.

The remaining people sat together watching the Spring Festival Gala. Lin Zhexia had a low threshold for humor and was always the first to laugh.

Wei Ping took out two red envelopes from his pocket, one for her and one for Chi Yao.

“No need,” Chi Yao initially didn’t accept, “please keep it.”

Wei Ping: “It’s not much, just two hundred yuan for good luck. Take it.”

Lin He also said, “Yes, you’ve already brought so many gifts today, don’t be polite with your Uncle Wei.”

Lin Zhexia chimed in with “If you don’t want it, you can give it to me,” and was warned with a look from Lin He.

Of course, she was just joking.

After Chi Yao reached out to accept the New Year’s red envelope, as they continued watching the Spring Festival Gala, Lin Zhexia secretly opened her own New Year money and took out one bill.

“For you.”

A banknote suddenly appeared in Chi Yao’s line of sight.

She had received many red envelopes today, but Chi Yao had only received this one, so she wanted to share a bit with him.

Lin Zhexia originally had another line prepared. Fearing Chi Yao would refuse, she planned to continue with “take it, fatherly love is like a mountain, don’t be too moved.”

However, unexpectedly, Chi Yao took the hundred-yuan note without any hesitation.

But as he reached out, holding the banknote between his fingers, at the moment of accepting it, he said meaningfully: “…Is this, New Year money for your brother?”

…

Outside the window, someone started setting off fireworks.

Lin Zhexia felt her ears were also crackling along with them.

She hadn’t anticipated that the little boy’s words from earlier would be suddenly brought up by him this way to tease her.

Moreover, the words “brother.”

Coming from the little boy’s mouth versus coming from Chi Yao’s mouth.

They had completely different tones.

Chi Yao usually spoke with an arrogant manner, but occasionally, like now, when he slightly elongated the ending of his words, it created an indescribable feeling.

“Bang—”

Fireworks continued outside the window.

At one moment, brilliant flowers of light illuminated the entire night sky, brightness shining in through the windows.

“If you don’t speak,” that voice said again, “then brother will accept it.”

Author’s Note:

It’s been a long time since you all praised him for being arrogant.

The merciless, arrogant king has painfully transformed into the gentle little Chi.