Chu Xiaoyi decided to come home on the afternoon of New Year’s Day.
The news instantly filled the house with excitement.
While the family busily prepared ingredients in the kitchen, Chu Xiaoxiao quietly slipped out the door, intending to visit Sister Yang Yin.
Xiaoxiao was always clever and mischievous. She carefully avoided her parents’ attention, but her observant great-aunt noticed something was amiss.
Normally quiet and soft-spoken, Great-Aunt Song quickly put down the basin of vegetables she was carrying when she saw the little girl opening the courtyard gate.
“Xiaoxiao, where are you going? Should I come with you?”
“No need!” Xiaoxiao replied.
“I’ll stay inside the neighborhood and come right back!”
Wrapped in a thick, warm padded coat, she darted away before Great-Aunt Song could catch up.
Great-Aunt Song stood and called after her,
“Put your hood on!”
Xiaoxiao obediently pulled up the hood of her winter coat.
Bundled up like a little doll, she bounced happily toward the neighborhood entrance.
Security at Yurongtai Residential Community was extremely strict.
Surveillance cameras were everywhere, and even food delivery workers and couriers weren’t allowed inside.
Because of the neighborhood’s high security, nobody in the family objected to Xiaoxiao wandering out alone.
They knew she was almost certainly heading for the security office to visit Yang Yin.
Near a remote corner of the complex stood a row of low dormitory buildings where the security guards lived.
Yang Yin was fifteen or sixteen years old and currently attended high school.
She only stayed at Yurongtai during holidays, helping her father clean and cook.
Her father worked as one of the community’s security guards.
The rest of the family lived in a rural village in a neighboring province and depended largely on his income.
When Xiaoxiao arrived at the dormitory, Yang Yin was stir-frying garlic shoots in a small wok.
The aroma drifted out through a partially open window.
Yang Yin opened the door for her before returning to turn off the stove and dish out the food.
“Have you eaten, Xiaoxiao?” she asked.
“Want some?”
Xiaoxiao shook her head honestly.
“I already ate at home.”
Yang Yin nodded.
Quickly packing the food into a lunch container, she said,
“Sit and wait for me a bit. I’ll deliver this meal and come right back.”
Putting on an old coat covered with pilling, she picked up the still-hot lunchbox and headed toward the neighborhood gate to bring dinner to her father on duty.
Before leaving, she locked the dorm room and reminded Xiaoxiao not to run around.
Then she hurried away.
The security dormitory was tiny.
A metal bunk bed, a worn wooden table, and a chair crowded with cooking condiments occupied most of the space.
Alongside the washbasins and thermos bottles stacked in the corner, the room felt completely packed.
Xiaoxiao was already accustomed to it.
She pulled a small chair out from beneath the table and sat quietly waiting for Yang Yin to return.
The tabletop was covered with Yang Yin’s study materials.
Xiaoxiao casually glanced at a math problem and continued scanning down the page.
Only a few minutes later, Yang Yin returned.
Using the wok itself as a bowl, she quickly finished the remaining food before washing the cookware outside.
When Yang Yin finally put everything away, Xiaoxiao knew her work was finished for the moment.
Pointing at a number in one of the exercise books, she said,
“Sister Yang Yin, this problem is wrong.”
“Really? Let me see.”
While wiping her cold, reddened hands with a towel, Yang Yin hurried over.
After checking the problem carefully, she broke into an easy smile.
“You were right. I really did calculate it incorrectly.”
“Xiaoxiao is amazing.”
She immediately grabbed a pen and corrected the answer.
Yang Yin took her studies very seriously and spent nearly all her free time solving practice problems.
In the past, Xiaoxiao had even studied English with Yang Yin.
The two had read The Little Prince in English together.
Eventually, Xiaoxiao’s language ability surpassed Yang Yin’s.
Far from being upset, Yang Yin had started asking Xiaoxiao to help her practice spoken English.
Among all of Xiaoxiao’s friends, Yang Yin occupied a special place.
Their ages and family backgrounds were vastly different, yet they had somehow become extremely close.
At her current age, Xiaoxiao knew nothing about society’s usual rules for making friends.
Instead, she relied on her own unique method:
She judged people by the colors of their emotions.
The first time she met Yang Yin, she saw a red heart.
It was the first red heart she had ever seen outside her own family.
Naturally, she had immediately liked her.
Although Yang Yin wasn’t especially gifted with languages, she could knock persimmons down from trees using a bamboo pole.
She could weave beautiful bracelets from colored cords.
She could roast delicious potatoes.
In Xiaoxiao’s eyes, that made her practically omnipotent.
Unable to discuss her concerns with her excited family, Xiaoxiao could only seek out the person she trusted most.
She voiced her worries to Yang Yin.
“You have a biological older brother?” Yang Yin repeated in surprise.
“And he’s coming home soon?”
A troubled expression appeared on her face.
“That might actually be a bit difficult.”
“Papa says he’ll like me,” Xiaoxiao replied uneasily.
“So maybe it’s not a serious problem.”
Deep down, however, she wasn’t comforted by Chu Jiadong’s reassurance.
Over the years, she had heard plenty of horror stories about Yang Yin’s older brothers.
As a result, she remained highly suspicious of creatures known as “older brothers.”
Yang Yin suddenly let out a sarcastic laugh.
“Of course he’ll like you.”
“You’re not competing with him for the family property.”
“And when you get married someday, you’ll even bring bride-price money into the family.”
“Why would he dislike you?”
Almost unconsciously, Yang Yin projected her own experiences onto Xiaoxiao.
Thinking about the problems the little girl might face in the future filled her with irritation and anxiety.
Though Xiaoxiao was intellectually advanced for her age, there were still concepts she couldn’t understand.
“What is bride price?” she asked innocently.
Yang Yin spent quite a while explaining.
Only then did Xiaoxiao finally understand.
Immediately, she protested:
“Mom and Dad would never sell me!”
Yang Yin fell silent for a moment.
“That’s because your family is doing okay right now.”
“They don’t need to rush to marry you off for money.”
“Just like I’m still allowed to go to school.”
“If my family became desperately poor one day, I’d probably have to go back to the village, get married, and stop studying.”
“You think your parents treat everyone well now,” Yang Yin continued calmly.
“That’s only because hard times haven’t arrived yet.”
“I’ve seen plenty of examples.”
A maturity far beyond her age appeared on her face as she stated the harsh reality.
Many girls around her had never even been allowed to attend high school.
Before marriage, they worked on farms at home.
The bride price from their weddings was then used to support their brothers.
Thinking about the lively, cheerful atmosphere at home, Chu Xiaoxiao found herself feeling that Yang Yin’s words made a certain amount of sense.
Chu Xiaoyi clearly held a very important position in the family. His status had already been demonstrated before he had even arrived.
Lowering her head uneasily, she asked hesitantly,
“Isn’t there any way to deal with it?”
Yang Yin thought for a moment and sighed.
“Not for now. Just endure it.”
“You’re already so smart. Your college entrance exam scores will definitely be excellent.”
“When the time comes, choose a university far away from home.”
“The farther away you can get, the better.”
“Will Sister Yang Yin run away too?” Xiaoxiao asked.
Yang Yin nodded.
“Definitely.”
“I’m not giving up on school.”
“When I go to university, I’ll apply somewhere in southern China.”
Xiaoxiao didn’t stay long at the security dormitory.
After failing to find a solution, she said goodbye to Yang Yin and returned home.
She felt dejected.
Partly because she was worried about her newly discovered bargain-bin older brother.
Partly because the thought that Yang Yin would eventually leave made her strangely sad.
Holding her iPad, she completely lost her usual enthusiasm for studying.
For once, she didn’t even feel like opening a language-learning video.
Meanwhile, Chu Xiaoyi sat motionless inside his nanny van.
He stared at the familiar entrance of Yurongtai Residential Community.
Seeing that he wasn’t moving, He Xin spoke up.
“Shouldn’t we get out? We’re already here.”
There was nobody else in the vehicle.
Suddenly, Chu Xiaoyi let out a small laugh.
“When I left here back then, I dragged my suitcase through that gate.”
“My dad chased after me while yelling.”
“He told me that if I was so capable, I should never come back.”
He Xin looked at the complicated, nostalgic expression on his face and didn’t know what to say.
So he remained silent.
“If you’re so capable, then don’t ever come back!”
“I’ll pretend I never had a son like you!”
Those were the words eighteen-year-old Chu Xiaoyi had heard outside Yurongtai.
At the time, he had ignored his father completely.
Following his manager into a car, he had focused only on pursuing his dream of becoming a singer.
Even now, he could remember the furious look on Chu Jiadong’s face after being left behind.
His father’s face had turned red with anger.
He stared at the departing car as though he wanted to devour him alive.
Back then, Chu Xiaoyi had abandoned his studies and left his family behind.
He joined a talent agency and threw himself into training.
A stubborn fire burned inside him.
He desperately wanted to prove his father wrong.
He wanted to become successful.
To shine brilliantly.
To defeat the stubborn and domineering Chu Jiadong.
Instead, he was the one who fell first.
Hard.
The company he joined went bankrupt not long afterward.
Armed with only a tiny severance payment, he drifted through the massive city without a permanent home and without any platform from which to pursue his dreams.
His mother, Xiao Bi, tried to reconcile father and son.
She urged him to return home, finish his education, and wait for a better opportunity.
He refused.
He couldn’t bear the thought of facing Chu Jiadong in defeat.
Nor did he want to beg him for help.
From the moment he left home, something burned fiercely inside him.
It prevented him from bowing his head.
He desperately searched for work.
He contacted agency after agency.
He moved between friends’ apartments and cheap accommodations.
His determination was almost indistinguishable from adolescent stubbornness.
During that period, Chu Jiadong did something unprecedented.
For the first time, he abandoned the role of the stern father.
He humbly begged his son to come home.
At one point, his eyes even turned red with tears.
It was the first time Chu Xiaoyi had ever seen his father yield.
Yet instead of feeling victorious, he felt as though he’d been smashed into the ground.
Like a foolish child chasing impossible fantasies.
The only thing he had managed to prove was his own inadequacy.
He still refused.
Deep down, he felt that if he returned home at that moment, he would never find the courage to leave again.
At some point he had developed a strange belief:
If he accepted his father’s money, he would forever be indebted.
Forever inferior.
Forever unable to demand anything for himself again.
“What exactly are you trying to prove by fighting with me?”
“Do you think I’d ever intentionally harm you?”
“I just want to prove you’re wrong.”
Even now, Chu Xiaoyi remembered the hurt in his father’s eyes.
It was as though something inside the man had broken.
Afterward, Chu Jiadong sought him out several more times.
Each time, Xiaoyi avoided him.
He refused to return home.
He refused financial support.
He deliberately cut himself off from family news.
For a while, he didn’t even want to see his mother.
Fortunately, before long, he found a better company.
Gradually, his career began to stabilize.
Years later, Chu Xiaoyi had become enormously popular.
Yet he still didn’t feel as though he had beaten his father.
Instead, Chu Jiadong had slowly shed all of his sharp edges.
In front of his son, he had become cautious and restrained.
It wasn’t the attitude of someone genuinely convinced by his son’s success.
It felt more like reluctant surrender.
And that was what left Chu Xiaoyi feeling most powerless.
He no longer even had the opportunity to win.
His father had simply thrown down his pieces and conceded the game.
Yet many of Chu Jiadong’s original fears had gradually come true.
They still haunted Chu Xiaoyi like shadows.
His high-school-only education became a frequent source of ridicule.
His merely average singing and dancing skills were attacked by antis.
The music market’s decline forced him into acting.
Even after finding some success in film and television and winning a modestly prestigious award, critics continued mocking him as “Movie Emperor” in a sarcastic tone, as though everything he did was somehow wrong.
So he worked desperately.
He barely contacted his parents.
Years slipped by in the blink of an eye.
He feared seeing disappointment or helplessness in their eyes.
Even more, he feared seeing sympathy.
Pity.
Those expressions would make him feel that he had truly failed.
He had always imagined returning to Yurongtai proudly one day.
Instead, he had arrived here in confusion, carrying a heart full of uncertainty.
Staring absentmindedly at the neighborhood gate, he muttered,
“Why did they have a second child?”
“If they were going to start over with a new kid, shouldn’t they have done it five years ago?”
He had left home at eighteen.
In his view, if his parents wanted a replacement child, that would have been the logical time.
Why wait until only a few years ago?
He Xin laughed helplessly.
“You’re still thinking about that?”
“Why not just go home and ask?”
Unlike Chu Xiaoyi, He Xin wasn’t an only child.
Back in his hometown, he had plenty of brothers and sisters.
To him, the Chu family’s situation wasn’t particularly dramatic.
Looking down, Chu Xiaoyi said quietly,
“They didn’t even discuss it with me.”
“They didn’t respect my opinion at all.”
“Do I really need to go back?”
Seeing his artist stubbornly glued to the seat, He Xin finally raised his voice.
“Oh, stop being dramatic!”
“She’s not even three years old!”
“For all you know, she doesn’t remember anything yet!”
Chu Xiaoyi frowned.
“Wouldn’t you be angry if this happened to you?”
He Xin rolled his eyes.
“Do I look like I have enough energy to be angry about that?”
“I’ve got younger sisters and younger brothers.”
“If you were me, you’d have exploded from rage years ago.”
He Xin, as an older brother who wasn’t an only child, naturally couldn’t understand the troubles of former only children.
He was more than ten years older than Chu Xiaoyi. Back when his parents had more children, nobody asked for his opinion—they simply had them.
He Xin had even changed his younger siblings’ diapers.
If he’d gotten as upset about it as Chu Xiaoyi was now, he probably would have died of anger long ago.
Chu Xiaoyi grew increasingly annoyed.
He felt there was no point talking to He Xin.
All of his classmates growing up had been only children.
None of them had biological siblings.
Naturally, it was hard for them to accept such a situation emotionally.
The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became.
He even started blaming government policy.
Why had they suddenly relaxed the one-child policy?
Chu Xiaoyi’s inner declaration:
As a former only child, I strongly object!
In the end, he still found himself standing outside his family’s front door.
Although his father had long since softened his attitude toward him, Chu Xiaoyi still lacked the courage to knock.
Seeing him standing there doing nothing, He Xin sighed and knocked on the door for him.
The familiar door swung open.
Immediately, he was greeted by the delighted faces of his family.
“Xiaoyi’s back!”
“Come inside quickly! Is it cold outside? Work must have been exhausting!”
“Oh, oh, this is your manager? Please come in! Come in and sit!”
“Happy New Year, everyone,” He Xin replied politely. “I won’t stay long. I just brought Xiaoyi home.”
“You’re not coming in to rest for a while? Leaving already?”
Meanwhile, in her room, Chu Xiaoxiao irritably turned up the volume on her iPad.
She wanted to drown out the noisy excitement coming from the living room.
More importantly, she wanted to suppress the anxiety brewing inside her.
Unfortunately, her peace didn’t last long.
A knock sounded at the door.
Xiao Bi poked her head inside.
“Xiaoxiao, your brother’s home! Come out quickly!”
“Okaaay…”
Xiaoxiao answered weakly.
Unfortunately, her mother didn’t notice her mood.
Reluctantly setting down her iPad, Xiaoxiao slowly walked to the door.
She opened it just a crack and secretly peeked into the living room.
At that exact moment, Chu Xiaoyi seemed to sense something.
A casual glance revealed the small figure hiding behind the door.
A little girl dressed in pale yellow pajamas.
Most of her body remained hidden.
Her eyes resembled those of a young kitten peering out in the dark—cautious, wary, and probing.
Noticing his son’s distraction, Chu Jiadong followed his gaze and immediately spotted his sneaky daughter.
He waved enthusiastically.
“Xiaoxiao! Your brother’s home!”
Chu Xiaoyi watched as the little girl slowly shuffled toward her father at a snail’s pace.
She never once looked up at him.
Instead, she kept her head lowered.
Emotionally, he still hadn’t accepted the existence of this surprise little sister.
However, after years of surviving the entertainment industry, he had developed decent self-control.
Putting on a bright smile, he said,
“Hello, Xiaoxiao. I’m your older brother.”
It was a textbook professional smile.
A celebrity smile.
After years of acting and posing for magazine shoots, a situation like this wasn’t enough to throw him off balance.
No matter what he truly felt inside, he certainly wasn’t going to make a scene.
The little girl, as soft and white as a glutinous rice dumpling, finally looked up.
Her face was childish and delicate.
Her eyes were bright.
Their color was slightly lighter than an adult’s.
She quietly studied him for a long time before answering.
Finally, she lowered her gaze.
“Hello.”
Chu Jiadong hadn’t expected such a cold response.
Quickly rubbing her cheeks, he laughed and tried to ease the atmosphere.
“Is Xiaoxiao shy?”
“Did seeing her brother make her too nervous to talk?”
Xiaoxiao didn’t struggle against her father’s affection.
She silently allowed him to knead her cheeks.
The truth was that she didn’t know what to say to Chu Xiaoyi.
More importantly, she still hadn’t processed the emotions she had sensed moments earlier.
Chu Xiaoyi’s heart was gray-blue.
Like a fog-covered sea.
Restless waves churned beneath the surface.
His smile shone brightly like sunlight.
Yet inside, he was filled with heavy emotions.
He didn’t like her at all.
This was the first time Xiaoxiao had ever sensed such intense rejection from another person.
Even her kindergarten teachers had never felt this hostile.
The feeling left her deeply uneasy.
This was her biological brother.
Yet he disliked her.
And he was pretending to like her.
At her young age, Xiaoxiao understood very little about human complexity.
She still navigated life using instincts similar to those of a small animal.
Her special ability was how she judged people.
To her, her own feelings functioned like a mirror.
Other people’s emotions reflected directly onto her.
If someone liked her, she liked them.
If someone disliked her, she disliked them.
After the awkward greetings ended, the family carried Chu Xiaoyi’s luggage to his room.
Everyone became busy preparing dinner.
Since people were moving around both bedrooms, the siblings had nowhere to retreat.
They were left sitting together in the living room.
An awkward silence settled between them.
Chu Xiaoyi mindlessly scrolled through his phone.
Chu Xiaoxiao curled up in a corner watching Peppa Pig.
Neither of them looked at the other.
Truthfully, Chu Xiaoyi didn’t particularly want to talk to his surprise little sister.
But as the adult in the room, he felt the silence was becoming strange.
So he searched desperately for a conversation topic.
“Are you learning English from that?”
He had just heard from his mother about Xiaoxiao’s language talent and picked the first subject that came to mind.
Xiaoxiao glanced at him in surprise.
She didn’t understand adults’ bizarre habit of making small talk.
If two people disliked each other, why bother talking?
Still, she answered vaguely.
“Mm.”
Hearing her barely audible response, Chu Xiaoyi continued.
“So if I watch that, can I learn English too?”
After a moment’s silence, Xiaoxiao replied reluctantly,
“Not necessarily.”
“Why?”
“You learned it, didn’t you?”
Keeping her eyes on the cartoon, she answered,
“Different people learn different things from it.”
“What do you mean?”
After enduring several rounds of questioning, Xiaoxiao finally looked up.
She turned the iPad around so he could see the screen.
Pointing at the pink cartoon pig, she said calmly:
“Some people can learn English from it.”
“Some people can only learn how to oink.”
As if perfectly timed, the pink pig on the screen immediately let out a loud:
“Oink!”
For some reason, it sounded extraordinarily mocking.
Chu Xiaoyi: “???”
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