Chapter 18: Brother Qin
**Could you help me rub some medicine on it?**
Yuan An looked at Lu Suichu, not understanding why he was suddenly bringing up this question at this moment.
Song Chucheng, who was teasing the dog off to the side, didn’t even raise his eyes as he said with a beaming smile, “What does it have to do with you? Does Yuan An have to report to you just to make a friend?”
These words could be considered completely impolite, causing Lu Suichu to freeze on the spot, looking somewhat at a loss for words.
Chu Baihan stepped forward with a frown, wanting to chide Song Chucheng for his rudeness. Seeing this, Lu Suichu hurriedly tugged at his sleeve and shook his head slightly at him.
Afterward, he turned to Yuan An, a look of apology appearing on his face as he said, “An An, I’m just worried about you.”
Song Chucheng let out a cynical sneer upon hearing this.
He had seen plenty of this kind of green tea before; they would never speak clearly, allowing different people to interpret a thousand variations of meaning from their words.
He looked at Lu Suichu with disdain and was just about to say something when he saw Yuan An give a gentle, soft smile and speak:
“I understand, but I am already twenty-two. Brother, you don’t need to worry about me anymore.”
He sounded just like a considerate younger brother soothing his older brother’s emotions.
Song Chucheng blanked for a moment. He had initially thought Yuan An’s personality was soft and slow-tempered, and that he probably wouldn’t have any trick up his sleeve against this kind of green tea. He hadn’t expected…
Yuan An’s current behavior appeared just as gentle as when he was in front of them, but Song Chucheng knew there was still a massive difference.
In front of these people, that layer of gentleness on Yuan An was merely floating on the surface, yet it was just right, without making anyone feel it was hypocritical.
Looking at it this way, putting aside their relationship as twins, Lu Suichu and Yuan An indeed shared many similarities, such as this gentle disposition.
Song Chucheng reined in his thoughts, his face still wearing a beaming smile as he said, “So you are Yuan An’s older brother. Don’t worry, Yuan An is currently covered by my big brother. If nothing else, at the very least, his life won’t be any worse than before.”
He had seen it with his own eyes; ever since Yuan An’an’s surgery, not a single relative or friend had gone to look after him. It was easy to imagine how derelict these so-called family members were and how miserable Yuan An’an’s past life must have been.
Lu Suichu and Chu Baihan could completely catch the hidden ridicule in Song Chucheng’s words, and both froze for a moment.
However, the others weren’t clear on the context, so the moment Song Chucheng’s voice fell, a wealthy second-generation youth immediately echoed in agreement, “Young Master Song is too modest. The Qin Corporation is by no means inferior to the Lu Corporation. With President Qin looking after him, this little young master will only do better and better. Young Master Lu, you can rest easy too.”
Following that, a scattering of a few other wealthy youths also expressed their agreement one after another. Song Chucheng wasn’t blind to their intentions, but he was more than happy to provide this opportunity.
Subsequently, someone with a bit more courage even stepped forward to ask for Song Chucheng’s contact information.
The entire group failed to notice that Lu Suichu’s face was growing increasingly unsightly, his gaze resembling a knife dipped in poison, completely stripped of that gentle, weak, and sickly appearance from just a moment ago.
Lu Suichu clenched his fists tightly, managing with great effort to force a strained smile onto his face as a sentence practically squeezed out from his throat: “Heh, is that so?”
Lu Suichu’s gaze toward him gradually turned sinister and malicious, which Yuan An naturally noticed.
Although he didn’t know why Lu Suichu had suddenly dropped his facade, Yuan An still felt that the real Lu Suichu was something he was more accustomed to.
After all, the scenes from before his death in his previous life were still vivid in his memory. Meeting the hypocritical Lu Suichu again in this life—Heaven only knew how ill at ease it made him feel.
“Yes,” Yuan An looked at Lu Suichu with a flat gaze and gave a faint smile. “You can rest easy.”
These words seemed to mean far more than what appeared on the surface.
However, Lu Suichu discovered that he could no longer see through Yuan An, nor could he comprehend the meaning behind this ordinary sentence. He could no longer maintain his surface gentleness; his chest heaved a few times, and with a pale face, he turned around and left straight away.
Chu Baihan instinctively cast a glance at the faintly smiling Yuan An, hesitating on the spot for some unknown reason for a short while before fast-walking to catch up, simply because he couldn’t let his worries for Lu Suichu go.
After finishing adding the contact information of the crowd of wealthy youths, Song Chucheng left the lakeside with Yuan An, heading back to the villa with Beika.
On the way, Song Chucheng recalled Zhao Yu—the one with the foul mouth whose nose had been broken—hiding at the back of the crowd with an unsightly face when those wealthy youths came to add his contact info, and laughed heartily, saying, “I noticed that guy with the foul mouth had his nose completely crooked. Who punched him? I need to thank him properly.”
Yuan An glanced at Song Chucheng, pressed his lips into a smile, and said, “No need to thank him.”
“Ah? Why?”
Song Chucheng blanked out in instinctive confusion, taking a brief moment to react before his eyes widened in surprise as he exclaimed, “You punched him?!”
Yuan An nodded his head with a touch of embarrassment.
Song Chucheng gave a heartfelt round of applause. “I couldn’t tell you had that in you. To be able to punch someone’s nose crooked, you must have quite a lot of strength!”
“I didn’t think too much at the time.” He had merely wanted to protect himself.
He could barely manage to duck away from Zhao Yu’s first punch, but afterward, Zhao Yu would likely only grow more humiliated and enraged. Therefore, he directly used the greatest strength of his life to smash against the most fragile nasal bone of Zhao Yu, causing him to release his grip from the agonizing pain.
—*When under attack, strike directly at the enemy’s most fragile spot to buy time for yourself.*
This was something Xingxing had taught him back during his high school days.
All along the way, Song Chucheng kept marveling over the fact that Yuan An could punch Zhao Yu’s nose crooked.
After returning to the villa, so as not to make Auntie Su worry, neither of them brought up this matter again.
After dinner, Qin Sixing and Song Chucheng went to the study to discuss business, while Yuan An helped Auntie Su finish washing the dishes before returning to his own small villa next door.
He went online to look over the storylines of some classic games, then pondered the basic settings of the game project under Qin Sixing’s company. Before he knew it, it was already eight o’clock in the evening.
A sudden phone ring woke him from his train of thought.
Yuan An picked up his phone to look, discovering it was a call from Qin Sixing.
For some reason, upon seeing this incoming call, Yuan An found his heart beating a little fast.
“An An, are you asleep?” Qin Sixing’s gentle voice rang out on the other end of the line.
“Not yet, what’s wrong?” He raised his hand, touching his somewhat hot face.
“Bringing some medicine over for you, I’m already at the door.”
Yuan An’s hand paused, and he hurriedly stood up from his chair. “Okay, please wait a moment, I’ll be right down.”
After speaking, he hung up the phone and ran downstairs like a gust of wind to open the door.
Qin Sixing had the key to the courtyard gate of this villa, but he still waited outside the fence gate while holding a medical kit.
Yuan An opened the door and came out, the warm light from the living room shining into the courtyard, dispelling the slight chill of the spring night.
Qin Sixing’s heart also felt completely warm. Watching Yuan An running toward him clad in a soft sweatshirt, he suddenly felt as if his heart had been lightly nudged by a tuft of wool.
It was so itchy.
“What kind of medicine?” Yuan An ran up to stand in front of Qin Sixing, tilting his head up to ask.
“A bit of everything, I felt you might have a use for it.” Qin Sixing smiled, lifting the medical kit in his hand to shake it slightly. “While having dinner, I noticed your left hand didn’t seem quite able to exert force. Did you get hurt when you had a clash with someone today?”
Yuan An was slightly dazed. “You found out. It’s no big deal.”
Qin Sixing reached over the waist-high fence gate to stroke his hair and said, “There is safflower oil in the medicine box, as well as medicinal plasters. See if you can use them.”
Yuan An nodded, taking the medical kit.
For a moment, neither of them spoke again, yet they didn’t leave either, merely standing there separated by the fence gate.
After a long pause, Qin Sixing cleared his throat, breaking this silence. “Then, good night?”
Yuan An snapped out of it, helping by nodding his head. “Good, good night.”
Qin Sixing gave a soft smile, turning around to walk away.
As his shadow slowly vanished from outside the fence gate, a sudden surge of impulse inexplicably surfaced in Yuan An’s heart.
With a trembling hand, he abruptly threw open the fence gate, stepped out of the courtyard to stand under the streetlamp outside, and called out to stop Qin Sixing, who hadn’t yet reached the main door of the villa next door.
“Brother… Brother Qin! Could you, could you… help me rub some medicine on it?”
Qin Sixing paused in his tracks and turned his head around, only to see Yuan An with a flushed face, pointing at his own left shoulder as he spoke unnaturally:
“Here… seems to be a little dislocated. I can’t reach it, can you… help me?”
The sentence came out completely stammeringly.
Qin Sixing let out a gentle smile and turned around to walk back toward him.
“Of course I can.”
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