Chapter 27: The Older Brother’s Secret
The wind was warm and breezy.
Jiang Mianmian opened her mouth wide, so shocked this time that her drool was literally flowing out.
Her eldest brother Jiang Feng’s facial features were originally very honest and dependable.
From the front, he did indeed still look honest and dependable.
After being injured, there was a sense of sickly weakness about him, making him seem even more honest.
But one couldn’t look at the left side of his face.
Something miraculous had happened to the eye on the left side of his face; there was actually an extra flower there.
It looked like a tattoo.
And it was a three-dimensional relief tattoo.
A very hideous wound had actually turned into a three-dimensional flower.
Looking from the left angle, it actually had the aesthetic beauty of a fallen Guanyin demon.
It was a bit scary.
…
But Father was so amazing to actually know how to treat a wound like this. It felt equivalent to an ancient version of a high-frequency electrosurgical knife, using ultra-high temperatures to separate and coagulate body tissue, serving to stop bleeding and prevent cross-infection.
Mother let go of her eldest brother, and he spat out the cork, actually smiling foolishly.
“Father, Mother, I feel like I’m better now. I’m incredibly energetic.”
Jiang Mianmian saw Father drop the spear and lean back in the bamboo chair.
Jiang Changtian’s back was soaked through.
But a relaxed smile appeared on his face.
“Yes, you’re better. You’ll be fine from now on. Now, take a nap first.”
Jiang Feng didn’t want to sleep, couldn’t bear to sleep, didn’t dare to sleep.
In the end, he still fell asleep.
Because his biological Father, Jiang Changtian, had set up a lounge chair right next to him and fallen asleep as well.
He woke up with a start from time to time, but as long as he saw his Father nearby and heard his Father’s breathing, he would fall back asleep until he was in a deep slumber.
Jiang Mianmian was carried into the courtyard by Mother to sunbathe her bottom.
Mother folded her arms and legs up, exposed her bottom, and placed her under a tree to sunbathe.
It wasn’t direct light, but rather dappled light filtering through the leaves.
But…
But this posture was truly shameful.
She was exposing her bare bottom to the entire village!
Although people nowadays didn’t have telescopes and there probably wasn’t Google Maps, still…
Jiang Mianmian wanted to resist at first, but later she found that lying on her stomach and sunbathing was too comfortable, and she fell asleep.
She actually fell asleep just like that.
When she opened her eyes again, she remembered the matter of her bare bottom.
Fortunately, her bottom had already been covered, but she was still sleeping on her stomach.
It seemed that sleeping on her stomach was also very pleasant.
Then she saw her older sister walking back and forth in front of her wearing new embroidered shoes.
Older sister is so lighthearted…
Turning her head again, she saw her older brother lying on the bamboo chair beside her.
It was noon. Father had rested for an hour and gone to work.
As soon as Father left, Jiang Feng woke up.
He was suddenly very afraid of the dark.
Afraid of being alone.
Only by lying under the tree, basking in the sunlight, and looking at his younger sister could he feel at ease.
At this moment, he lay on the bamboo chair, gazing out at the village and occasionally turning his head to look at his sister sleeping on her stomach.
His sister woke up and was currently turning her head to give him a silly, toothless grin.
Jiang Feng also smiled.
His sister really loved to smile.
Her smile made his heart melt.
His bones ached.
Jiang Yu, with a silly expression, was wearing her new embroidered shoes and circling around him.
Circling and circling.
It made his head spin.
Jiang Feng spoke up: “Didn’t you want to go show them off to A-Cui? Why haven’t you left yet?”
Jiang Yu took careful steps and said, “Mother said I need to take care of you and sister and can’t run around. I’ll just wear them at home.”
Jiang Mianmian had enough of lying on her stomach. She propped herself up with her little arms, shifting her body’s center of gravity, exerting force, heave-ho, thud…
Rolling over failed.
She actually failed to roll over.
Her older sister’s laughter rang out beside her.
“Hahahahaha, doesn’t sister look like a little turtle? She actually can’t roll over.”
Jiang Mianmian:…
You’re barely over a month old, let’s see if you can roll over. Roll one for me to see then.
Then she was manually flipped over by her sister.
Jiang Mianmian was so angry she peed…
If you dare to laugh at me, I’ll dare to make you smell my waste.
Having had her diaper changed, Jiang Mianmian lay in the small wooden tub, seeing that her brother was still looking at her with a smile on his lips.
She gave a greeting of “yi ya ya ya” and then went to play on her own.
There was no other way; the action of turning her head to look at her brother was very tiring.
Others drank spiritual spring water to make a fortune, dominate all quarters, and turn their lives around from then on. She drank spiritual spring water just to try and roll over… and even failed at that.
Jiang Mianmian was not discouraged. The essence of humanity is that finding someone weaker to bully makes one a little happier.
She watched her little ant, which had dragged another leaf over the hole it dug. There was even a variation in height at the entrance, like a little chair. It sat there leisurely, the leaf acting like a sunshade. If she gave it a straw and a drink, Jiang Mianmian suspected it would drink while crossing its legs.
She didn’t know how an ant crossed its legs—was it two legs crossed together, or four legs?
After watching for a while, Jiang Mianmian decisively reached out and pushed that leaf off the wooden tub.
The sunlight immediately shone directly onto the little ant’s head.
Jiang Mianmian actually saw the little ant give her a helpless glare before jumping down itself.
After a while, a leaf slowly moved back up from the edge of the wooden tub.
Help.
Jiang Mianmian suddenly felt like she liked it a little.
It was so hardworking.
Jiang Mianmian was watching intently when suddenly a large hand reached over.
The little ant, together with the leaf, fell into that large hand.
Jiang Mianmian was startled.
Looking up, it was her eldest brother. He must have noticed her staring blankly at it since he woke up.
Jiang Mianmian was worried her brother would pinch her little ant to death. That was a little ant fed with spiritual spring water, after all. She hurriedly protested.
“Yi ya ya ya, yi ya ya ya.” (Give it to me, give it to me.)
She waved her arms and shouted loudly.
Jiang Feng had been staring at his sister ever since he woke up, as if it had become a habit.
He stared without blinking, watching her move, watching her try to roll over, and even seeing her play with a little ant. Seeing any of her actions made his heart feel warm.
No one understood that feeling.
It didn’t feel like a dream, it didn’t, because it was too painful—a dense, fine pain in his bones.
He also discovered that his strength had become very great, because when he propped himself up to get out of bed, he had snapped off a piece of the bed frame.
He remembered Mother saying the bed she got for him was made of very, very hard old wood, quite rare. But he took the snapped piece of wood in his hand and, with a gentle squeeze, actually crushed it, turning the block of wood into powder.
He leaned against the lounge chair, opening his hand to let the wood dust and powder scatter bit by bit.
He thought this must be related to what he had experienced. He really should have died, and his family would have all died. He was too unwilling, so he came back.
He had to hide this secret; he wouldn’t tell anyone.
He absolutely would not let his family know.
That kind of experience—just thinking about it would make one weep with bitterness.
He looked at the green leaf in his hand and the little ant on it, which was flailing its limbs.
Seeing his sister reach out so vibrantly, he could understand her. Really, he had watched his sister for a lifetime, only hoping she could respond once.
Now, she was responding to every sentence.
He gently placed the leaf and the ant back in their original spot, then reached out and stroked his sister’s head.
It was warm and soft, not hard, not brittle. He split his face into a smile.
Jiang Mianmian breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the ant return.
Then she felt her brother stroking her head. For some reason, a chill rose from the top of her head. It felt like her brother’s hand wasn’t stroking her head, but her skull…
