Chapter 1

After the rain, the air smelled like a muddy camphor leaf.

Le Zhishi was stepped on by the orange cat that jumped onto the bed. He opened his eyes in a daze and realized that he had overslept.

It was only a few times a year, but it happened on the first day of school. How unlucky. Hearing Auntie Rong calling him from downstairs, Le Zhishi hurriedly responded a few times. The cat stepped over his stomach again and lightly jumped off the bed. He also quickly washed up and changed his clothes, grabbed his schoolbag and ran out.

"The alarm didn't ring?" Lin Rong calmly poured out a glass of milk. "Eat breakfast. The rice noodles were mixed with the braised beef yesterday. It's delicious."

Le Zhishi had already run to the entrance. He didn't have time to eat breakfast.

"I forgot to set a new alarm because I didn't have morning self-study before the opening ceremony. Aunt Rong, where's brother Song Yu? "

The little Pomeranian at home followed behind him and sat on the ground obediently to watch him change his shoes.

"Your brother left early. Isn't today the opening ceremony? He said he was on duty today. Do third-year high school students have to be on duty?" Lin Rong put down the glass, wiped the water off her hands, and turned around. "The opening ceremony of the junior high school should be held together with the senior high school …"

When she turned around, Le Zhishi had already opened the door. The Pomeranian crazily scratched his leg and wouldn't let him go.

Lin Rong anxiously shouted, "Le! You can't not eat breakfast! "

Le Zhishi squatted down, rubbed the dog's head, kissed it, and left in a hurry. "I'm going to buy rice noodles. Bye bye, Aunt Rong."

"Don't eat anything!"

Out of the house, Le Zhishi rode his bike straight to the breakfast stall outside the community. His grandmother, who had been selling rice noodles before, didn't open the stall today. Le Zhishi heard her say that her waist hurt. He estimated that she would have to rest for a few days. He must buy more next time he saw her. The soup noodles shop next door was fragrant. He could smell the fragrance of stewed beef offal from afar.

"Le, is it too early? Come and eat some powder. " The owner of the beef noodle shop pulled out a ladle with rice noodles from the big soup pot. The hot soup under the ladle was like white satin, rising and falling.

"I'm going to be late, Uncle Chen. Let's eat tomorrow!" Le Zhishi stopped the car and ran into the convenience store. He didn't have time to make a choice. He took a bag of cornbread, paid for it, and left. This was one of the few snacks that Le Zhishi could buy in the convenience store.

It rained all night last night. The rain in this city was never gentle. It was always accompanied by lightning and thunder, which made him unable to sleep for the entire night. She remembered that the first night she had arrived at Song Yu's house, it had also been this torrential rain, with lightning tearing through the night sky. When he heard the thunder, he was so scared that he cried. He ran straight to Song Yu's room and climbed onto his bed.

From then on, he instinctively began to rely on his brother, who was not related to him by blood.

Le Zhishi's father, Yue Yi, and Song Yu's father, Song Jin, were close friends who had grown up together.

The old man in the Yue family had passed away early. Before they moved to England, Yue Yi was almost a non-staff member of the Song family. They ate and lived together. Yue Yi liked extreme sports. Once, he met the English girl, Olivia, while rock climbing. The two of them fell in love and gave birth to the cute Le Zhishi. But their happy time was too short. Eleven years ago, the couple was skiing in the Alps. They were accidentally caught in an avalanche and both died.

Le Zhishi lost his parents overnight. Even Song Jin, who had flown to England to pick him up, didn't know how to explain all this to a three-year-old child.

At that time, Le Zhishi grabbed Song Jin's sleeve and only knew how to sweetly call him uncle. He didn't know what death was and what foster care was. He was brought back to the Song family, and from then on, he took root in Jiangcheng.

The red light at the intersection forced Le Zhishi to stop the bicycle. He had woken up too quickly in the morning and was still a little dazed. His gaze was fixed on the light on the red light, and his thoughts were jumping and scattered. Last night's dream was only a broken silhouette in his mind. It was as if he had turned into a small ball, following Song Yu around. He couldn't even speak Chinese properly and only knew how to pester people.

Lin Rong always teased Le Zhishi with a jealous tone, saying that the first Chinese word he learned was "brother".

However, Song Yu was a man of few words and was neither cold nor warm to anyone. Fortunately, although he didn't pay much attention to Le Zhishi, he wouldn't chase him away and let him pester him. It was just that when they grew up and started primary school, Le Zhishi's mixed-race appearance became more and more eye-catching.

Song Yu was already outstanding, and with a foreign child as a burden, he had to deal with gossip about his family almost every day. After a long time, Song Yu really lost his patience. It just so happened that he moved to a new house and left the previous school district and primary school classmates. After entering junior high school, he set three major rules:

You're not allowed to call me brother outside.

You're not allowed to go to school or go home together.

You're not allowed to let others know that you're staying at my house.

At first, Le Zhishi couldn't accept it at all. Being separated from Song Yu when he entered junior high school was a big enough blow to him, not to mention not being able to call him brother. However, he had always been a child who followed Song Yu's lead, and abiding by the rules came first. After all, compared to being ignored, Le Zhishi could still accept keeping a distance from him outside.

In Le Zhishi's heart, Song Yu was like a benchmark that always stood in front of him, and he had been chasing after him since he was a toddler. When Song Yu was six years old and he was three years old, he stumbled out of the house with his brother to see ants moving house. Song Yu was ten years old and he was seven years old. It was the first time he went to primary school with his brother, and he was so happy that he sang on the bus that his mouth was covered. Song Yu was fifteen years old and he was twelve years old. Under the hot sun, he held a small electric fan, and the grandfather who sold ice cream gave him a bench so that he could sit and wait for his brother to come out of the examination room. He still remembered that he ate three popsicles that day, and Song Yu didn't notice. He gave up taking the school bus for him and took a taxi to eat crayfish.

The crayfish that day were especially big, and he ate twenty-three of them. Fifteen of them were peeled for him by Song Yu because he was too slow. He remembered retorting, "Although I don't know how to peel crayfish, I'm good at hiding, right? Your classmates didn't see me."

Song Yu didn't think so. "But I saw you at a glance, so you didn't hide well."

Le Zhishi always insisted that he was good at hiding, including his relationship with Song Yu. Later, he had to admit that Song Yu was right.

"The light is green, let's go."

The sound of the road interrupted his thoughts. Looking at the time, Le Zhishi stepped on the pedals and sped up. His thin body arched as he pedaled hard. The early September wind was still warm, drying his body and making his summer school shirt puff up. Le Zhishi's slightly curly brown hair glowed golden under the sun, fluffy and soft.

He sped all the way to school. Just as he parked his bike, he saw a large group of people patrolling the gate. He vaguely felt that he had forgotten something.

"Le!" Someone suddenly patted his shoulder. Le Zhishi was startled and turned around. It was his close friend and deskmate, Jiang Yufan.

Le Zhishi's surname was special. Many people would pronounce it as Le, which meant happy, at first glance, rather than Le, which meant music. The frequency of his mistakes was so high that he had a nickname — Le. Not only his family, but his close friends and classmates also called him that.

After getting what he wanted, Jiang Yufan's face was full of pride. He touched his small crew cut that his mother had forced him to clean. "Why did you come to school on time today?"

"I slept." Le Zhishi pulled Jiang Yufan and rushed to the school gate. "There are so many people at the gate."

Jiang Yufan was calm. "The more you don't attend morning self-study, the more people are late." He saw the student on duty wearing an armband from afar. He checked his school uniform and glanced at Le Zhishi.

"Hey, wait." Jiang Yufan grabbed him. "Le, where's your nameplate?"

Le Zhishi, who was walking quickly, suddenly woke up. He touched his chest. Sure enough, it was empty.

"Oh no. Aunt Rong always takes off my nameplate when she washes my clothes. I left in a hurry today and forgot about it. "

"What should we do?" Jiang Yufan tiptoed and looked at the gate. "Damn, Compass is also here."

Compass was the nickname of the Dean of Junior High School. Because he was tall, skinny, and meticulous, everyone called him that.

Le Zhishi was even more anxious. Compass was famous for being very serious. He even had to report when a girl changed her school uniform. Today was the opening ceremony. Maybe he would be on the list later.

He pulled his bag and tried to cover it. "Jiang Yufan, help me cover it."

"Okay, maybe we can fool them."

Jiang Yufan covered half of his body. The two of them quickly walked to the gate like conjoined twins. They tried to sneak past a group of students who were being checked.

Compass's voice was very sharp. "You over there, take out your uniform collar. There will be a video of the opening ceremony later. It will be uploaded to the school's official website. Your image is the image of Peiya. Do you understand? "

Le Zhishi clutched his bag tightly. He stuck close to Jiang Yufan and moved forward with his head lowered.

"What's wrong with your pants?"

"Teacher, my school pants are not dry. I'm wearing a pair of similar …"

"Two pairs of school pants are not enough for you to change?!"

Le Zhishi lowered his head even more. He had already prepared an apology.

"Stop."

He was so scared that he stopped in his tracks. But he still did not dare to raise his head.

It's not me. It's definitely not me.

"I'm talking about you."

Compass walked closer. The student on duty was standing next to him. "Girl with short hair, where's your nameplate? Which class are you from? "

Le Zhishi had just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Compass say, "I've said it countless times. You have to wear a student's nameplate when you come to school. Is it that hard to do? Who else isn't wearing one? "

Me too.

Le Zhishi's body stiffened. It was as if a strange hand had suddenly appeared and pulled him out of the crowd. He slipped in front of Compass and pointed at the piece of cloth without a nameplate on his chest.

At the moment when his nerves were at their most tense, his arm was actually grabbed. His heart skipped a beat. Le Zhishi subconsciously apologized, "I'm sorry …"

But in the next second, the hand followed the line of his arm and grabbed his hand. Then, the hand separated his fingers in the crowd. A piece of metal with a warm body temperature was stuffed into it.

It sounded mysterious, but Le Zhishi recognized who it was just by looking at the hand. He looked up and saw a cold and familiar face.

The person was wearing a high school uniform with a red armband on his arm. Under the direct sunlight, his brows were slightly furrowed.

It was none other than his "big brother" who lived under the same roof as him.

Le Zhishi's eyes widened slightly. His light-colored pupils were as clear as amber under the sunlight. When he saw Song Yu, a layer of electricity ran through his body. He instinctively wanted to say something, but in the next second, he instinctively swallowed the word "big brother" that was at the tip of his tongue.

When their eyes met, Song Yu let go of his hand and looked away. His gaze was indifferent. It was as if they were really just a senior on duty and a junior who had violated the rules. He glanced at his watch and took out a pen from his pocket to jot down the latecomer list.

Everyone's attention was still on Compass and the girl who was being scolded. No one noticed this secret exchange. Le Zhishi lowered his head and looked at the nameplate in his hand. It was engraved with the words [Peiya Junior School Le Zhishi]. Before Compass noticed, Le Zhishi quickly pinned the nameplate on the front of his shirt.

As soon as he put down his hand, he saw a pair of shrewd eyes glance at him. Le Zhishi looked up and smiled at Compass. He was born with an innocent face and a pair of pure-hearted dog eyes. Although his appearance did not make him attractive, his beautiful face made it hard for people to be harsh on him.

"You were almost late." Even so, Compass still let him go. "Go in."

"Okay." Le Zhishi nodded obediently. "Thank you, sir."

At that moment, the school clock tower rang. He could not help but turn around. Song Yu was as tall as a redwood in the crowd. He looked like the kind of person who would shine when he appeared in a comic.

There was not much time left. The whole class had to gather in the classroom before the opening ceremony. Le Zhishi did not want to be late. He ran towards the classroom with all his might. However, Jiang Yufan felt that something was amiss. "No, Le Zhishi, stop! I saw everything! "

"I'm going to be late. I'm going to be late." Le Zhishi ran forward. His heart was beating fast.

Jiang Yufan chased after him until he was out of breath. "Don't … don't interrupt. Tell me the truth. How did your nameplate end up in Song Yu's hands?"

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