Wei Qian remained unmoved... and dropped the fishing rod into the water.

He stared at the shallow section of the fishing rod floating on the water for a while, and his ears were filled with the sound of raindrops as soft as whispers.

After a while, Wei Qian squatted down expressionlessly, rolled up his trouser legs, stepped into the water, and picked up the fishing rod again.

Wei Zhiyuan had been looking at him with a strange look. Wei Qian caught a glimpse of him and felt that his eyes had a kind of calmness and peace as if he had lost all hope.

The two of them performed like a pantomime, and no one made a sound.

Wei Qian retracted the fishing line and hook, and holding the sharp float, he seemed to be unconsciously scribbling on the soft mud on the shore. With each stroke, he counted silently in his mind, as if trying to forcibly straighten out and calm his throbbing blood vessels.

Finally, a turtle was left on the muddy ground, carrying an exceptionally large shell on its back, looking listless and bearing the humiliation.

Wei Qian felt like there was a sharp long sword in his chest that could roar through the ages, sharp enough to pierce through everything that stood in his way. But at this moment, the sharp sword that was advancing forward and backward had nowhere to put. He heard a "puff" sound and felt a hole in his lung.

Wei Qian finally sat down slowly, took out a few pieces of paper, and slowly wiped the water droplets on the end of the fishing rod. After a long while, he deliberately softened his voice to make himself sound reasonable and said, "You are deliberately trying to piss me off to death, right?"

Wei Zhiyuan remained silent.

Wei Qian: "I want to hear what you think."

Wei Zhiyuan stared at him with that strange look for a long time before he whispered, "There is a person I have liked for several years, but I didn't dare let him know, nor did I dare let anyone else know. Every day... Every day I fall in love with him once. I know what you are going to say, brother. Your argument is exactly the same as that of my high school dean. You mean to say that no matter how unforgettable a relationship is, it will change with time, right?"

The words that Wei Qian was about to say were snatched away by him, so he had to shut up dejectedly.

Wei Zhiyuan took a deep breath and smiled strangely: "But a person is always made up of the past. Have you ever let someone live in your heart uniquely? Just try it and you will know. If you keep him in your heart for a month, that month is his. If you keep him in your heart for a year, that whole year is his. Even if time has really passed and things have changed, so what? He has become a part of me."

Wei Qian thought about it carefully and felt that his mind was filled with trivial livelihoods. It was as messy as a live poultry market. How could there be room for something as big as a human being?

He had no choice but to emphasize in a depressing way: "Part of you is made up of cells and tissues, which has nothing to do with another carbon-based organism. Don't use this bullshit analogy to evade me - now you're done?"

Wei Zhiyuan looked at him helplessly and nodded.

Wei Qian couldn't help but turn his head away to avoid Wei Zhiyuan's gaze. He didn't know if Wei Zhiyuan behaved like this when talking to others, but when Wei Zhiyuan talked to him, he always liked to look directly into his eyes. This kind of long, unobstructed eye contact would make even the gentlest gaze become aggressive, giving people the illusion that there was no way to escape.

Wei Qian fished out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and exhaled a puff of white smoke like a sigh. His temper seemed to have been smoothed over by time and the long tug of war. Only a little bit of pent-up anger could be heard between the lines: "Then tell me what I think. I can't understand and I can't accept it. Even if you talk nonsense, I still have this attitude. Student Wei Zhiyuan, I suggest you go out and ask around. Nine out of ten parents will not accept it, and the remaining one is most likely not their biological child..."

He said this completely fluently, and only then did he realize what he had just said. Wei Qian was stunned for a moment and rubbed his nose in embarrassment... It seems that this person is not a biological child either.

After a while, they both laughed out loud, and the tense atmosphere suddenly dissipated.

Wei Zhiyuan: "Brother, are you confused because of anger?"

Wei Qian: "That's right. Let me tell you, if it was Song Xiaobao, I would have slapped him a long time ago. What's the use of time? I'll hit you, a young man with amnesia, with a hammer. One year, one month? You don't even need to remember a single second."

At this point, Wei Qian slowly stopped smiling. "You've been smarter than her since you were little, and now you're old enough. I won't use the same method I used against her on you. I don't know if you remember, but I also went astray when I was little. Now that I think about it, part of the reason was that I had no choice, and part of the reason was... maybe I just couldn't accept it. It was your third brother and... and brother Mazi who pulled me back. Can I pull you back now?"

After a while, Wei Qian did not get a reply from Wei Zhiyuan. He said, "I beg you, okay? Xiaoyuan, life is just a blink of an eye. Living a good life is so difficult. Why do you want to be so different and make yourself uncomfortable?"

Wei Zhiyuan remained silent. He suddenly lost his previous tentative mood and felt an indescribable sadness in his heart.

He would rather his elder brother, who was unaware of the truth, jumped up and slapped him, or simply ordered him to find a girlfriend the next day like he ordered Xiaobao to cut his hair two years ago.

...I also don't want to see him say such words from the bottom of his heart like a real adult man with indescribable helplessness.

Wei Qian stretched out his hand and rubbed the raindrops on his fingertips: "Xiaoyuan, are you like this because I didn't make a good start? Is it because I have always..."

Wei Zhiyuan interrupted him: "Brother, stop talking."

Wei Qian stared blankly at the misty surface of the pond: "I'm sorry."

He neglected his family so much that he didn't even know what kind of bizarre youth Wei Zhiyuan had experienced...

But he really did his best.

At that moment, Wei Zhiyuan almost wanted to rush over and hug him desperately, wanting to pour out all the pent-up desire in his heart.

However, when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he held them back. The heavy burden on his heart was narrowly pulled back by his rationality, which was as delicate as a hair. In the end, he did not reveal a single word.

It's not the right time yet, his heartstrings, tense along with the blue veins on the back of his hands, told him so.

Later, the rain stopped, and Wei Qian and his friends carried the fish basket and several pounds of small crucian carp and walked towards the parking lot.

The sky, which had just cleared up, poured out a lot of afterglow, casting Wei Qian's long shadow on the ground. Wei Zhiyuan kept his head down, following the long and twisted shadow step by step.

With every step he took, he said in his heart as if to vent his feelings: "I like you, it's you I like."

He kept muttering to himself all the way.

Wei Qian threw the fishing gear into the trunk, and suddenly remembered something. He turned around and asked Wei Zhiyuan unexpectedly: "Who is the person you like? What does he do?"

Wei Zhiyuan didn't expect him to ask this suddenly, and for a moment he almost blurted out what he was thinking. He bit his tongue hard, his face turned pale, he was almost dumbfounded, and was speechless for a moment.

It looked like it was defending someone in horror.

When Wei Qian saw him like this, his heart sank. He really didn't realize that his brother was such a lovesick person.

A sense of resentment without a source suddenly hit him, and Wei Qian thought, is that person really that good? Is he worth it for you to defend him in front of me?

He suddenly couldn't help but miss the old days when they were poor and destitute. At least when they were together and dependent on each other, there was no vague and omnipresent "stranger" in between. They were all obedient and silly, and needed him as their brother all the time.

It was not until then that Wei Qian realized that one day, these little guys would finally grow up, and when they had grown wings, they would each fly away.

He drove slowly out of the suburban wilderness. The green wheat seedlings swayed like waves in the wind, and he felt a strong and endless loneliness.

From then on, Wei Qian and Wei Zhiyuan involuntarily avoided this topic together. They maintained a calm appearance, but seemed to be deadlocked inside and no one could convince the other.

In this way, another half year passed in an awkward manner.

That day, Wei Qian was in his office, drinking half a cup of tea and hastily swallowing a piece of bread for breakfast, preparing to start a full day of work, when Sanpang suddenly came in: "Qian'er, Mr. Zhang is here."

Wei Qian didn't react for a moment: "Which Mr. Zhang?"

"That one," Sanpang said, gesturing, "the nominal shareholder when we were working on our first project, the guy who always acted like he was going to build a spaceship, but was actually better at talking nonsense than me - Brother Xiong wants us to go over, hurry up."

Mr. Zhang is a noble and cold person who likes to show off. He is extremely difficult to approach at first and always regards pretending to be cool as his top priority in life. However, after getting to know him a little, people can discover his otherworldly nature, as if he came from an alien planet.

He is a die-hard fan of conception. Every time the word "concept" is mentioned, he gets so excited that nails grow on his butt.

At this moment, Mr. Zhang was giving his personal speech in Lao Xiong's office with great enthusiasm. No one could interrupt him while he was talking, which was quite Mrs. Xiong's style. Fortunately, Lao Xiong had been trained by his spendthrift wife and did not show any impatience at all.

As soon as Mr. Zhang saw Wei Qian and Sanpang, he stood up quickly, ignored Wei Qian's outstretched hand, and gave him a hug like a fake foreign devil. The cologne on his collar got into Wei Qian's nose without warning, just like mustard oil, making his nose wake up. Wei Qian hurriedly took a half step back, turned his face and sneezed: "Sorry, Brother Zhang, I have a cold these two days."

Mr. Zhang smiled tolerantly, then ignored Mr. Sanpang's attempt to give him a hug. He grabbed Mr. Sanpang's pig's trotter with both hands and shook it up and down: "Mr. Tan!"

Kim Jong-un's facial expression was a little dull, and he felt that he had been subjected to some subtle discrimination.

Mr. Zhang came all the way here specifically to find someone to cooperate on a new project, which is said to be a sea view holiday villa project in City C. Before Lao Xiong even looked up the catalogue of the feasibility report, Mr. Zhang had already praised it to the skies.

Wei Qian couldn't help but interrupt him and questioned, "I'm sorry, Brother Zhang, I have to interrupt. I heard that the entire area collapsed a few years ago. Do you think it's really worth investing there?"

"Good question." Mr. Zhang slapped the armrest of his chair. "I appreciate Mr. Wei's sharp words the most. But do you know what is irreplaceable for rich people now? It's health and environment! The scarce sea view and negative oxygen ions are our gimmicks. I also plan to use the nearby economic forests to develop some holiday entertainment projects. I will use a similar model to health tourism to build this project. I have calculated the annual return on investment, and it can be as high as 200%. Do you believe it?"

Lao Xiong lowered his head and remained silent. Wei Qian and Sanpang looked at each other and saw the same message from each other's expressions: the idiot forgot to take his medicine again in the morning.

Last time, they were attracted by Mr. Zhang's connections and cooperated with him once. Strictly speaking, that cooperation was very pleasant. Mr. Zhang's attention was still mainly focused on the commercial street, and he did not do too much to the style of the surrounding residential buildings.

But even so, the concept that "this person is unreliable" has already penetrated into Wei Qian and others' minds.

This man has a good family background and abundant capital, which he can squander at will, resulting in him developing bad habits of an idealist.

He has extremely low emotional intelligence and is extremely bad at reading people's faces, but that doesn't matter - the most fatal thing is that he is using the imagination he brings to writing novels and the romance he brings to drawing comics to do real business.

Since the former partners have come to him, Lao Xiong has to take people and follow Mr. Zhang on the trip just to give him face.

The next day, which happened to be the National Day holiday, they boarded a plane to City C without any concept of taking a holiday.

At the moment before the plane took off, Wei Qian's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He didn't take it to heart at the time, because people would never feel comfortable when experiencing ups and downs, weightlessness, or being overweight.

Once again, he ignored his own uncanny premonition.

Wei Zhiyuan was at school at the time, and Xiaobao was grimacing as he worked on his homework, which he couldn't understand no matter how hard he tried.

Ma Zi's mother came to visit his house and was winding a roll of wool with the help of Old Lady Song - she hoped to knit a pair of woolen gloves for everyone before winter came.

Ma Zi's mother's burned hands were not very nimble, she could not open her teeth and her movements were slow. When others knitted sweaters, they held several sticks in their hands and tossed them up and down, but she could only work hard at knitting one stitch at a time. Sometimes the thread would fall off, and sometimes a small hole would be made because of a missed stitch.

Xiao Bao spoke to them in a disjointed manner: "I want to take the art specialty exam in the college entrance examination. Sister Lulu said it should be possible, so the academic requirements will be lower."

Mrs. Song said bluntly, "You can pass if the score is lower? It has to be much lower at least."

"Don't keep throwing cold water on me!" Xiaobao said angrily. After a while, she added weakly, "It is indeed much lower... Hey, auntie, your lips are so dry and cracked. Can I pour you a glass of water?"

Old Mrs. Song quickly stopped her: "Don't get up, I'll go, you just need to study hard, you don't need to worry about the family affairs."

As she spoke, she hung the wool on the back of the chair, stood up slowly, and smiled at Ma Zi's mother.

Suddenly, Old Lady Song rubbed her temples and complained in a low voice: "It's too intense, and I feel a little dizzy."

Without even looking up, Xiao Bao said, "You may have low blood pressure. Just eat more and you'll be fine."

Old Lady Song: "I can definitely eat more than your cat food."

Xiao Bao's mouth drooped: "My dance teacher doesn't let me eat. She always complains that I'm fat. How can I..."

Her voice was cut short by a loud bang. Old Mrs. Song was somehow tripped by the leg of a chair. This old lady, who had always been nimble on her feet, fell heavily to the ground with a belly button.

She never got up again.

Wei Zhiyuan was alone in a classroom at the time. He had recently applied to the school to set up a small "Network Security and Program Research" club. He had just recruited a few people and it was not yet large enough. He wanted to use his previous work as an example and was in the process of debugging when he received a call from Xiaobao.

Before he even said "Hello", Xiaobao's crying voice suddenly came from the phone. Wei Zhiyuan listened carefully twice before he realized that the sentence mixed in her crying was "Why is brother's phone turned off?"

Wei Zhiyuan frowned: "He shouldn't have landed yet, what's wrong with you? Don't cry."

Song Xiaobao sobbed uncontrollably several times and spoke intermittently and with difficulty to explain the matter clearly.

Wei Zhiyuan had already packed up his things and stood up when he heard her speak: "Don't touch her. Have you called an ambulance? Not yet? Call now. Calm down. Why are you crying? There are several thousand yuan in cash in the cabinet under the living room. When the ambulance comes, don't forget to bring the money with you. Do you hear me? I'll be there soon..."

Old Mrs. Song was quickly sent to the hospital, and when Wei Zhiyuan arrived, she had already been pushed into the operating room.

Xiaobao raised his rabbit-like eyes and looked at Wei Zhiyuan blankly.

Wei Zhiyuan tried to dial Wei Qian's number. The phone turned on, but no one answered.

Wei Zhiyuan exhaled softly: "Tell me, what happened at that time?"

Song Xiaobao seemed to have found his backbone and explained the whole cause and effect.

Wei Zhiyuan listened in silence, and had a premonition that Old Lady Song’s illness was not a minor one, and this time she might not be able to escape unscathed.

He stood up and patted Xiaobao on the head: "Okay, I get it, it's okay, don't be afraid, you stay here, I'll go out and get some more money."

Xiaobao watched his back with tears in his eyes, feeling that he was becoming more and more like an older brother.

Wei Qian had already arrived in City C. After checking into a hotel, he headed straight to the project site. He left his cell phone in the hotel and missed several calls from Wei Zhiyuan.

Mr. Zhang and Lao Xiong were walking in front. Mr. Zhang was bragging about building a golf course here, a hot spring sanatorium there, and even introducing anti-cancer therapy from Japan or South Korea. He was talking nonsense.

They walked to a high place and looked down, and found that the large economic forest on the hillside was sparsely populated and there were almost no houses. Only a little further down could they see farmers working on the land.

Sanpang and Wei Qian fell two steps behind. Wei Qian whispered, "I think it's unnecessary."

Sanpang sighed, "Don't worry, at least treat it as a sanatorium, and you can buy some fresh fruits to take back. How come this Zhang brother's fantasy is more serious than the last time I saw him?"

Wei Qian smiled and was about to answer when the old bear in front of him suddenly tilted his head, and Wei Qian saw the expression on his face.

Wei Qian's expression suddenly froze. After years of cooperation through thick and thin, he could already tell what Lao Xiong was thinking by his expression. What was going on? Couldn't Lao Xiong hear that this project was unreliable?

Does he mean that this time he will lead everyone to jump into the fire pit?

However, Lao Xiong was able to keep his composure after all. Even though his demeanor and expression had betrayed him in front of his acquaintances, he still kept his composure that day and did not give a positive or negative answer. He only told Mr. Zhang that he needed to study it further.

When Wei Qian was anxiously trying to figure out what was wrong with Lao Xiong's brain, he saw the dozen or so missed calls on his cell phone spread out on the bed in the hotel.

Old Mrs. Song suffered a sudden cerebral infarction. After a long operation, she was pushed out and transferred directly to the intensive care unit. Her life or death is unknown.

The money Wei Zhiyuan had just taken came in handy.

Wei Qian booked a night flight that night and went back to the hospital. He only had time to hurriedly tell Sanpang: "Hold on to the old bear, don't let him be possessed by the devil."