Wei Qian did not open his eyes, but just responded to him very softly.

Sister Xiong installed a unique reading lamp on the sofa. Wei Zhiyuan reached out and turned it on. The warm light poured down and covered the entire sofa.

It is neither dazzling nor dim, but like the sunshine on a winter afternoon, creating just the right comfort of "a little bit artificial and a little bit insufficient".

It was the first time for Wei Zhiyuan to turn on the light. He fumbled for a while before finding the switch. Then he was stunned - the light created a light golden border on Wei Qian's body, and even the scarf he didn't have time to take off seemed to soften into a ball of snow, hiding half of his chin.

Wei Qian turned his face to the side and put his hand to cover his eyes to avoid the light. The shadow of his arm was connected with his long eyebrows, as if it was about to disappear into his crow-feather-like temples.

The elegance is restrained and the brilliance is hidden.

Wei Zhiyuan's heart began beating violently. All along, desire and reason had been two lingering forces in his heart. The latter had thousands of reasons, but the former had only one - wanting, liking, and being heartbroken to give up.

At this moment, Wei Zhiyuan felt that the thousands of truths in his heart were collapsing, and only a lonely lighthouse like a pillar was left, and the motionless light fell on a person.

The young man's throat moved involuntarily. After a while, he suppressed his fluctuating emotions. He pushed Wei Qian and whispered, "Go to sleep in the room. It's cold."

Wei Qian held his hand and shook his head weakly.

Wei Zhiyuan looked at his face and said, "Brother, have you drunk too much? Can I get you a glass of water?"

Wei Qian shook his head again, his brows gradually furrowed. After a while, he took a deep breath, half-opened his eyes, glanced at Wei Zhiyuan, waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about me, go to sleep."

Wei Zhiyuan looked at him steadily: "What's wrong with you?"

Wei Qian was silent for a long time. He felt extremely tired and didn't want to say a word, especially not to deal with children.

But perhaps he was feeling too upset, or perhaps he was drunk, Wei Qian suddenly looked away, and Wei Zhiyuan was surprised to find a flash of vulnerability on his face.

Wei Qian said hoarsely: "I feel a little uncomfortable."

As soon as he finished saying this, he regretted it. Wei Qian felt that the gate of his heart had opened a small crack due to his momentary negligence. He quickly and laboriously blocked it back, fearing that even a little bit of it would leak out.

He shut his mouth and eyes and said no more, pretending to be just dizzy and drunk and wanted to take a nap.

Wei Zhiyuan waited for a while, but unfortunately did not receive any follow-up comments. So he walked into Wei Qian's bedroom silently, took out a blanket and put it on Wei Qian, then turned around and poured a cup of warm water. He then went to the kitchen and took out a bowl of rice left over from the evening, brewed it with hot water, then cut some vegetable leaves and ham, beat a bowl of egg drops, and cooked them all on the fire for a while. When the rice grains were soft and bursting, and inseparable from the milky rice soup, Wei Zhiyuan stirred it with a spoon, sprinkled a handful of salt, and turned off the fire.

Wei Zhiyuan would make a lot of simple midnight snacks. When he was growing up, he would often wake up from hunger in the middle of the night, and he had gotten used to getting up and finding something to eat by himself.

"If you feel uncomfortable, drink a few sips while it's hot, and you'll feel better after you finish it." Wei Zhiyuan stuffed the spoon into his hand, sat under the lamp, picked up a book, and accompanied him quietly.

The hot steam of the porridge hits your face, bringing with it a special fragrance.

Wei Qian was stunned for a moment, then sat up with a rustle, picked up the bowl and drank it. His cold fingertips were burned by the hot porcelain bowl and turned a light red, and the stone in his stomach was miraculously melted.

The word "home" seemed to melt into the bowl of rice porridge cooked in a small pot over a slow fire.

It seems to be able to cure all diseases and I feel better after drinking it.

Wei Zhiyuan stayed with him until Wei Qian stood up and went back to his room to sleep. Then he cleaned up the dishes, turned off the lights, and returned to his bedroom.

There is a cardboard box under his bed. Although he has just moved into the new house, he has already accumulated a lot of things in the box.

On top was a yellowed old photo of Wei Qian, and underneath were a dozen pornographic magazines, most of which were unopened.

...Unconventional, there is not a single woman in it.

Wei Zhiyuan flipped through two books out of curiosity at first, but soon lost interest in the physiological reactions that were like conditioned reflexes. However, when Wei Zhiyuan was torn between two conflicting emotions, he always irrationally kept these bomb-like things under his bed. Although he had been hiding them, he always had a crazy desire in his heart to be discovered by his elder brother.

Unfortunately, Wei Qian trusted him too much and never looked through his things, so he never found anything.

Now, Wei Zhiyuan's inner conflict has been resolved, and he has made up his mind, so he decides to deal with all of these and start to move forward step by step, which is what he is good at.

Wei Zhiyuan took out the photo of his elder brother and stuffed it into his bag. The next day, he mixed the magazines under the bed with other books and took them out to dispose of them.

Unfortunately, this time, luck seemed to have abandoned him.

Wei Zhiyuan's bed was a little low, so the cardboard box had to be turned upside down to be dragged out. When he was going out early in the morning, Xiaobao was urging him outside. Wei Zhiyuan opened his mouth to respond to her, and an open magazine took the opportunity to roll to the deepest part under the bed, and Wei Zhiyuan didn't hear it.

In order to prevent anything from being missed, Wei Zhiyuan used a long clothes hanger to sweep under the bed to ensure that there was nothing missing. However, when he swept to the innermost part, the clothes hanger got hooked on the bed leg and he had a lot of trouble taking it down.

The open magazine lying quietly under the bed leg became a "beautiful dark spot under the lamp", and he didn't sweep it out after all.

As soon as the heavy snow falls, the winter vacation comes quickly.

Wei Zhiyuan started training again - Song Xiaobao felt that he was a sinner. Ever since Wei Zhiyuan skipped a grade and was not in the same class with her for the first time, Xiaobao felt that he had actually jumped into another dimension, and had lived in dire straits ever since. He had never watched TV for a night, had no complete winter and summer vacations, and had been leaving home early and returning late every day for years.

After returning home, apart from helping my grandma and elder brother with some chores, I spent most of my time hiding in my room doing homework.

Old Mrs. Song no longer goes out to pick up rags, but every month she still bundles up Wei Zhiyuan's used calculation papers and exercise books and sells them, which can buy a big bowl of fried snails.

In this situation, Song Xiaobao, a normal girl, was almost compared to Wei Zhiyuan as an uneducated and backward student.

But even so, Xiaobao had no opinion about her little brother. The main reason was that Wei Qian always blocked her pocket money, but not Wei Zhiyuan's, so Wei Zhiyuan became her main source of food and drink, and became half of her breadwinner.

It was the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the New Year was almost over, but Wei Qian was arguing with Lao Xiong in the office.

Still about that project in another place, it was introduced by a friend of Lao Xiong. The local government has set up a business circle, which has gradually become a trend now. The prices of several residential lands around it have risen and become fat meat, which for a while attracted some covetous eyes.

Lao Xiong was very self-aware and had no intention of intervening. He just took Wei Qian there to broaden his horizons.

As a result, this knowledge caused problems.

Wei Qian was almost obsessed with that piece of land. For a while, he kept talking about the project every other day, and he almost became obsessed with it and lost his appetite. Now it was midwinter, and it was impossible to start construction in the north in winter. Therefore, this was the best time to acquire the land and go through various preliminary procedures. If he was efficient, he could start work as soon as the spring thaw came next year.

Wei Qian had been arguing with Lao Xiong about this matter in his office for more than half a month.

Sanpang was playing Tetris in Old Bear's house, while Old Bear was trying to be elegant by picking up the ashes from the incense burner. Wei Qian was sitting opposite him, looking at his leisurely look, and wished he could use a big palm-leaf fan to blow all the ashes into his nostrils.

"Give me thirty million, and I promise to do it for you."

Lao Xiong quickly reached out to hold back the wind, carefully protecting his incense, and said to Wei Qian with a sad face: "Let's not talk about whether you can do it or not. Hey, brother, do you think I look like thirty million?"

Wei Qian: "That's not a problem, didn't you say..."

Old Bear waved his hand to signal him to shut up, carefully struck a match, lit the incense, closed the lid of the incense burner, took a long puff, sniffed his nose, shook his head and blinked a few times, as if he was going to sneeze at the next moment - this guy was completely using the seal incense as a snuff bottle.

Then he gave a high-level evaluation of the elegant seal incense: "It's fragrant!"

Wei Qian rolled his eyes.

The old bear then smacked his lips and said to him, "Young man, if you let fame and fortune rush in, you will never find your way back to the North."

Wei Qian crossed his legs, leaned heavily against the back of the chair, folded his arms across his chest, and endured the old bear with his veins throbbing.

"I told you long ago, you are a quick success kid. You think you have some knowledge after going out a few times?" Old Bear said in a rhythmic voice like reciting a poem, "I read the feasibility analysis you wrote. Alas, it's all nonsense. There is a big piece of fat meat lying there, and you still need to analyze it. Anyone who is not stupid would want to take a bite. But you don't even think about why you can take a bite of that fat meat? Are your teeth made of gold and jade?"

Kim Jong-un shuddered.

The old bear glanced at him and asked, "What are you doing?"

Sanpang said, "Could you change your tone, Mr. Xiong? When you talk like that, I feel like hundreds of snails are crawling on my body. It's really annoying."

Old Bear: “…”

Sanpang whispered to Wei Qian again, "My dear, thirty million, not three thousand yuan. Don't ask for it so much. You scared me to death."

The old bear hummed and said, "Qian'er, with your intelligence, if you can be half as steady and smooth as San'er, you will definitely become a great man in the future."

Sanpang slapped his thigh and said, "That's right!"

After a moment, Sanpang realized that what he said was not right: "Wait, that sentence just now didn't seem to be a compliment to me, right? Was it to criticize me for being less smart?"

"You are so wise that you appear foolish." Old Xiong comforted him and continued to say to Wei Qian, "How many people are eyeing that piece of land? Okay, even if you, Brother Xiong, take advantage of our old man to get you 30 million, but you think you can leverage this project with 30 million? Don't dream, kid, you can't even get the land, believe it or not?"

Wei Qian was silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "You mean, we are not ready yet and don't have the strength to fight, right?"

Lao Xiong felt a little itchy after inhaling the incense ash, so he tilted his head and blew his nose, and said in a muffled voice: "You just noticed it? Then you should get a pair of glasses."

Wei Qian ignored his attempt to bully him, and looked at Lao Xiong sharply: "Boss Xiong, according to what you said, we will never be ready. The plums that no one picks on the road are bitter, and there are mouths waiting for every good project - this is just a small project in a third-tier city, something that big financial groups and large state-owned enterprises don't even bother to look at. This is already the lowest and most ideal threshold we can find now. If you can't take this step, you will be left behind by the rules of the game sooner or later, and you won't even be able to get in. Haven't you noticed? The land price is rising, can you be sure that you are ready faster than it rises? What if it's too late?"

The old bear said leisurely: "That's fate."

Wei Qian slammed the handle of his chair fiercely: "If I had accepted my fate in this life, I would not have lived to this day to sit here and challenge you!"

Boss Xiong didn't confront him. He just relaxed in his chair and asked casually, "We can't get in now. What should we do? Do you have the qualifications? Can you get the project approved? Do you have connections in the local government? Can you handle the pile of permits? Do you have enough money? If you borrow 18 million yuan from here and there, can you beat the bidder if the land is put up for public auction? It's obvious that you've never played cards before. You dare to come to the table with only 80-cent chips. The dealer can squeeze you out with a big bet."

Wei Qian: "What you said are all problems, but there are solutions."

Lao Xiong immediately tapped the table lightly: "Where is the solution? Tell me!"

Wei Qian paused.

The old bear slowed down his tone and said, "I admire your spirit of grabbing opportunities at all costs, but...young man, be more down-to-earth!"

Young men in their twenties and mature men in their thirties sat on either side of a business table. In the end, the older man won.

Lao Xiong walked to the side with square steps and made a phone call to ask his leader what vegetables to buy in the evening.

Sanpang came over and patted Wei Qian on the shoulder: "Young man, let's go."

Wei Qian shook off his bear paw and said, "Go away and stop making sarcastic remarks."

The bitterly heavy snow submerged the entire city. The cheerful Sanpang and the worried Wei Qian were like a pair of fools and unhappy people. Each of them carried two large bags of various ingredients and vegetables for hot pot and walked home.

On the way, Sanpang asked Wei Qian: "Didn't you dream of becoming a scientist in a laboratory? Why didn't you take the postgraduate entrance examination this year?"

Wei Qian seemed to be thinking about something else. He was stunned when he heard this: "Did I say that?"

Sanpang: "You are a rat, you forget as soon as you put down your claws, right?"

Wei Qian recalled the incident carefully, and a hint of self-mockery appeared on his face, which was as gloomy as the sky. "When I was little, I was stupid and thought I could become a scientist after I went to college. Now I realize my mistake and am working hard to correct it."

The fat man couldn't explain why, so he asked hopefully, "Work hard to correct the technical problems and move towards your goal?"

Wei Qian smiled lightly and exhaled a breath of white air: "Try to correct the course and stay away from the impossible place of Utopia - I don't believe it, I have to complete this project."

It's a pastime. If Song Xiaobao could be as worry-free as Wei Zhiyuan, not to mention that she wanted to dance as a pastime, Wei Qian wouldn't care even if she bungee jumped all day.

But it’s not possible now. Song Xiaobao is wasting his time on playing with things. He is absolutely wasting his time on playing with things!

Wei Qian looked at Xiao Bao, who didn't even dare to raise his head, critically. He was really dissatisfied no matter how he looked at her - it was winter, and Xiao Bao was wearing a red sweater and a plaid skirt that looked out of place in Wei Qian's opinion. Her little face looked even paler, and her long satin-like hair was draped over her shoulders. She refused to comb her hair for the sake of being pretentious. When she smiled, her thin eyebrows and eyes became more charming, and she had a standard oval face with red lips and white teeth.

A young girl in her twenties has a dazzling beauty that is about to bloom.

Wei Qian, however, did not appreciate it at all. He thought that a good girl should have short hair, wear ill-fitting school uniforms, have trouser legs that were obviously too long, and wear jackets with the hem hanging down to the knees.

It seems that only the simplicity and ugliness of being indistinguishable between male and female, with a long waist and short legs, is what a decent person should look like.

He unconsciously thought of the girl he met at Sister Xiong's place that day. The pure feminine beauty made him feel sick. He associated that kind of beauty with bad, unclean, and worldly things. When they appeared on Xiaobao, Wei Qian began to feel a kind of crisis.

He felt that Xiaobao had grown beyond his psychological safety range and was out of line.

The fiery red hem of the dress and the deliberately highlighted small chest made Wei Qian feel that the pure land in his heart was polluted. The shameful and secret memories were mixed with anger, and the five points of anger in his heart suddenly surged to ten points.

The angrier Wei Qian got, the calmer his expression became. He glanced at Xiao Bao with his dark eyes and said casually, "Is it the holiday?"

Xiaobao nodded, not understanding why.

Who knew that the next sentence would be a bolt from the blue for her.

Wei Qian said, "I'm free tomorrow, I'll take you to get your hair cut."

"Am I too indulgent towards you?" Wei Qian looked at her attire and added, "Look at what you are wearing. What do you look like? Do you look like a student?"

Song Xiaobao's mind went blank and he was speechless.

Old Mrs. Song was finally completely caught in the middle. On the one hand, as an elder, she also hoped that Xiaobao could have a bright future and could understand Wei Qian's despotism and unreasonableness. On the other hand, as a woman, she could also understand her granddaughter's love of beauty.

"Then...her brother," Old Lady Song couldn't help but speak for Xiao Bao, "Why don't you just keep the hair for now? They seem to have a performance during the New Year, and it's said that there will be a TV show..."

"Dancing?" Wei Qian's cold words finally shattered all of Song Xiaobao's hopes. "You are so poor at studying, and you still have the nerve to dance? I'll hire a tutor for you during the winter vacation. Don't go anywhere else, just stay home."

He had accumulated a lot of power in the family, and Song Xiaobao actually only dared to act like a spoiled child when he was in a good mood, and she rarely contradicted him. But for a girl of this age, cutting her hair was already a torture worse than death, and not allowing her to dance was as serious as ruining her entire "career" and completely imprisoning her.

So Song Xiaobao exploded like Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai who rebelled against the feudal patriarch: "You are totally unreasonable! Everything has to be decided by your will. You are a great dictator, you are Napoleon, you are Hitler!"

It was hard for her to name a few historical figures. I knew she was a complete ignoramus in school. Hitler was fine, but what about Napoleon? Wei Qian didn't know whether she was scolding him or praising him. So he said more firmly, "Yes, I have the final say."

When Song Xiaobao saw that there was no hope for the situation, he immediately started to throw a tantrum: "I won't cut it! I won't cut it! Cut my hair, and I...I will die in front of you!"

Wei Qian leaned on the sofa and looked at her coldly: "Die in front of me? Okay, I'll watch, then you die."

If Comrade Song Xiaobao really had the character of dying at the drop of a hat, she would have become a top student in junior high school with just these few subjects. Why would she have to get angry with him here?

Xiao Bao learned the skills of crying, making a fuss and threatening to commit suicide from his grandmother. As a veteran shrew, if Wei Qian had not been hindering his sister from doing so, she would have been unable to defeat the young version of his elder brother - and Xiao Bao only learned half of the skills, while his elder brother is now a completely different person and has become a smart one.

Old Mrs. Song was helpless and couldn't bear to watch it, but she didn't stop watching it. She just turned around and went to the kitchen to clean up.

Wei Zhiyuan pretended to be dead and didn't say a word from beginning to end as if he didn't exist.

Seeing that there was no hope, Song Xiaobao finally burst into tears.

Her hair was so beautiful that everyone would praise it when they saw it. She tried her best to stand out from the crowd of dusty middle school students, but before she had time to feel good about herself, she was ruthlessly trampled on by her eldest brother.

No matter what, at this moment, Song Xiaobao hated this cold-faced and cold-hearted elder brother.

So she spoke without restraint: "I know, you just don't like me! You always favor my second brother. From childhood to adulthood, he has always had more pocket money than me! You even secretly bought him a computer! What have you ever given me? You never even look at me in a good face!"

Wei Qian almost made her laugh out loud.

Regardless of which one is the biological child, even if they are both biological children, the older brother will love his younger sister more.

Wei Qian finally softened his tone and patiently reasoned with her, "Am I biased? Xiaoyuan skipped two grades, was exempted from the exam and entered a key school, and ranked first in the grade. He also never spends money recklessly and never goes out during holidays. Even if you want to compare yourself with him, can't you compare yourself with someone who is more ambitious? You..."

It was rare for him to speak so reasonably, but Song Xiaobao simply wouldn't listen.

"You are biased!" she screamed, "I am your biological sister! I know why you don't like me! Isn't it because of mom that you hate me?"

Wei Qian's temple began to throb.

Song Xiaobao still didn't know what was good for him, and he kept jumping up and down and yelling, "You hate mom, and you continue to hate me after she died! If you think she is shameful, then I will definitely be shameful! I will never be a good student, because you think I can never be a good student! My mom is a chicken, and the daughter of a chicken is..."

Wei Qian had already slapped him hard.

His slap came whistling with a sharp wind. Song Xiaobao's mind was blank and she had no idea how to dodge. However, the slap did not hit her face because Wei Zhiyuan, who was pretending to be dead, finally came out to stop it.

He hugged Wei Qian's waist from the side, dragged him back, and pressed him on the sofa with his four legs. He turned around and glared at Song Xiaobao with pity and anger: "Shut up!"