Chapter 42: Little Yangzhi, Not Little Anymore

“No matter what Duan Shihan asks you, just say you don’t know. Do you understand?”

“Uh-huh.”

Yang Zhi nodded.

Although she didn’t know what Xu Mingyuan had done, she knew its importance after seeing how silent he had been these days.

She was not a gossipy girl, so since her brother had specifically reminded her, she would just do as he said.

Xu Mingyuan was in a good mood and even whistled.

Little Yangzhi lowered his head, paid attention to the slippery road under his feet, and followed silently.

Seeing that she was silent and in a bad mood, Xu Mingyuan knew that she was thinking about Xu Jun.

After each visit, her already calm mood would become even more depressed for several days.

Xu Mingyuan grabbed a ball of snow from a branch on the roadside, squeezed it into a ball, and threw it on her head with a “whoosh”.

Yang Zhi was stunned, not understanding why Xu Mingyuan did this. Her beautiful eyes were dull and she looked a little silly.

“Aren’t you happy that it’s snowing?”

Xu Mingyuan smiled when he saw this.

“Yeah, I’m happy…”

Yang Zhi said in a low voice, looking like he was worried about something.

Hearing her hypocritical answer and seeing that she even forgot to brush off the snowball on her head, Xu Mingyuan felt helpless.

He pulled Xiao Yangzhi over, took the snowball off her head, then picked her up by the back of her collar and threw it in.

“ah……”

Yang Zhi came to his senses and felt the cold ice and snow falling from his neck to his back, slowly melting into a line and sliding down coolly.

“You silly boy, why don’t you take it out?”

Seeing that she just shrank her head and didn’t resist, Xu Mingyuan had no choice but to grab her collar and take it out again.

“it is good……”

Yang Zhi nodded again.

“Ugh……”

Xu Mingyuan sighed and suddenly felt bored.

When it snows, Xu Mingyuan would go play snowball fights and fill snow bags with his classmates.

It would have been fun if he hadn’t called in the day off, as this was something he hadn’t experienced in years.

Unfortunately, little Yangzhi didn’t know how to resist and just accepted it like a sandbag.

After finally getting out together, Xu Mingyuan didn’t rush home. Instead, he took Xiao Yangzhi to go around the nearby shops.

Although the transportation network was still under construction in 03, the vegetable basket project had already begun to take shape.

Few people noticed this project that benefits both the country and the people, but since the year 2000, people who buy vegetables regularly have discovered that in the past winter, vegetables were few and expensive, but now they are plentiful and cheap.

In the past, when winter came in Nanxi City, people only ate apples, oranges, persimmons and persimmon cakes. Although Xu Mingyuan grew up in a well-off family, these were the only things he could eat.

However, nowadays, tropical fruits such as bananas and mangoes can be bought in any fruit store, but they are relatively expensive, so ordinary people seldom afford to buy them.

Xu Mingyuan is a person who has experienced great development in the era. He observes everything around him in a new way and easily captures small details that no one has noticed.

Xiao Yangzhi is a person who lives for the day. As long as he is not starving to death, he will stay hungry forever.

Xu Mingyuan had given her a lot of pocket money, but she was as frugal as ever and never bought anything for the house. She would only buy her some when she saw Xu Mingyuan was about to finish eating some fruit.

In the past, Xu Mingyuan thought that she was simply frugal, but today, after going with her to see her cheap father Xu Jun, he realized that this evaluation was not accurate.

Although Yang Hongyu emptied out the Xu family’s assets within a few years after she came to this family, little Yang Zhi should have had a good life with Xu Jun.

Seeing that her ears were red from the cold, Xu Mingyuan put on the hat on her clothes and took the bag from her hand.

“Let me take it, bro.”

Yang Zhi felt his palm loosen and wanted to grab it.

“Shut up.” Xu Mingyuan said impatiently.

“…”

He went into another store and bought two pairs of gloves. He also bought a white knitted hat with rabbit ears for Xiao Yangzhi, unpacked it and put it on her head.

Yang Zhi thought the hat looked a bit silly, but when she saw Xu Mingyuan burst into laughter, she had no choice but to bury her head in her chest.

Now that he had the gloves, Xu Mingyuan no longer held them and handed them to Xiao Yangzhi.

“Are you afraid of me?”

“No.”

“Then why do you live so cautiously all day long?”

Xu Mingyuan put his arm around her shoulders and shook her, and little Yangzhi also swayed like a puppet.

“I didn’t.” Yang Zhi repeated.

“Not yet? What? Are you thinking of your mother?” Xu Mingyuan asked.

Yang Zhi was silent for a while, and then whispered: “My mother is sorry to my uncle, sorry to my brother…”

“Alright, alright, you keep thinking about these shitty things all day long.”

Seeing that she was about to cry again, Xu Mingyuan explained: “Whether your mother has done something wrong to my father or not, that is a matter between them. You don’t know what happened between them, and I don’t know either. You don’t need to apologize for her.”

“Saying sorry to me is even more ridiculous. I’m not close to your mom, so what has she done to me? If you have to make a connection here, then it’s a matter between me and my dad, and it has nothing to do with your mom.”

After saying that, Xiao Yangzhi remained silent. He just opened his mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing how to refute.

“Hey, actually, there’s only one person your mother feels most sorry for, and that’s you, this unlucky kid.” Xu Mingyuan smiled.

Seeing that she didn’t say anything, Xu Mingyuan continued, “In fact, you should learn from your mother and think about yourself. Don’t think that your mother is harming others for her own benefit and you should compensate her. Don’t you think about how old you are? Do you need to think about this? Look at how pitiful you are.”

“Brother… aren’t you like this too?”

Xiao Yangzhi, who had been silent for a long time, slowly uttered this sentence. Seeing that Xu Mingyuan was a little surprised, she mustered up the courage to say, “Everything is on my brother’s shoulders. Brother, you must feel very uncomfortable too…”

Although Xu Mingyuan seldom talked to her, they lived under the same roof after all, and Yang Zhi had seen him unable to resist cursing at others, or suddenly smashing the table when he was alone in the study in silence.

The restaurant was separated from the study by a door. Although Yang Zhi couldn’t see what was going on inside, he could imagine Xu Mingyuan’s frowning face.

Every time I opened the door of the study, it was filled with smoke, but Xu Mingyuan greeted me with a smile.

Yang Zhi knew that Xu Mingyuan would only smoke a few cigarettes when he was deep in thought.

Xu Mingyuan was stunned for a moment before he realized what Xiao Yangzhi was thinking.

“How can I put it? In this life, we should do everything to satisfy ourselves, right? Otherwise, it would be a waste of time.”

“elder brother……”

Yang Zhi looked at him with red eyes.

“It’s fine if you want to share, but you’re still young…”

“Brother, I’m not young anymore…”

Xiao Yangzhi interrupted him and retorted weakly.

“Okay, you’re not a kid anymore.” Xu Mingyuan smiled, knowing that children wouldn’t like this, so he said, “Your mother has disappeared anyway, so when you turn 18, just change your last name to Xu. Or wait for my dad to come out and let him change it for you. Your household registration is already in his account, so we’re all family anyway.”

“Ah.”

Yang Zhi nodded.

“Don’t make it hard on yourself. If you had half the mentality of your brother, you wouldn’t be in such a pitiful state now.”

“Ah.”

Yang Zhi still nodded.

“So, don’t think of yourself as an outsider. In a family, the taller one always has to take the lead. If I can’t hold on anymore, I’ll let you take over.” Xu Mingyuan said with a smile.

“it is good.”

Yang Zhi nodded vigorously, then put her arm through Xu Mingyuan’s arm and hugged him, tightening it inadvertently.

(End of this chapter)