Chapter 59 Jelly
Zhang Yiyang didn't like his brother Cui Mingzhi from the beginning.
He didn't know when his dislike began.
He doesn't like him.
He still remembered the scene of his mother's remarriage, wearing a white gauze dress, heavily smeared with makeup as if she was wearing a mask, and her blood-red mouth pulled out a bright smile. He didn't like his mother like this. In the past, his mother didn't need to wear such heavy makeup, and she could smile more beautifully to his father.
At that wedding, he wore a small suit and sat at a secluded table in the hall, eating ice cream with a spoon. Occasionally, guests would walk by him and whisper, "Look, there's this burden."
"Her eyes are really big, and she's pretty cute."
"Both parties have burdens, so they are a good match."
After he finished his ice cream and went through the wedding banquet in a daze, he and his mother moved into Uncle Cui's house.
Uncle Cui was very polite to him, even more caring than his biological father, but he was still not his biological father.
When he first moved there, he was unfamiliar with the neighbors and seldom greeted people. He was soon blocked and bullied by the surrounding children.
As soon as he walked out the door, he was stopped by three children and asked to let them play with the car in his hand. He didn't say a few words to them before he was dragged to the edge of a pool by three boys, two of whom pulled his arms and one pushed him down for fun.
He was really frightened at the time and immediately started crying and begging for mercy, but the three boys became more and more violent, and they were determined to push him into the pool.
"What are you doing?"
He heard a boy's voice. Two boys were standing there. He recognized one of them. He was Choi Ming-chi, Uncle Choi's son and his legal brother. The other boy was holding a football, with dark eyes and slightly curly hair, staring at the scene with interest.
"Just kidding with him."
"Let go! Bullying the weak is nothing." Cui Mingzhi stepped forward and scolded the three boys coldly. The three boys actually let him go obediently.
He spoke loudly to the three boys, who said with a grin that they were helping him deal with the burden. But when they saw that Cui Mingzhi looked unhappy, they all shut up.
Zhang Yiyang thought that he must have looked very ugly at that time. He was always good at crying, but he was really scared at that time, and his face was covered with snot and tears. Cui Mingzhi did not show any mockery, but just glanced at him, took out two tissues and handed them to him, and then walked away with his friends.
He heard his friend ask Choi Ming-chi: "Is this the one from your house..."
Cui Mingzhi whispered something, but Zhang Yiyang didn't hear it clearly.
He believed that his "brother" must be saying things like "burden" and "stepmother's child".
He soon noticed that his brother had a very important status among the children around him. His brother was generous, smart and playful. There was no child in the neighborhood who didn't like him. He was a natural king of children.
Whenever his brother played in the open space, he would attract a group of children. Everyone would come to his brother and show him their new toys. His brother always smiled and took care of the mood of all the children, rarely ignoring anyone on purpose.
Because of Zhang Yiyang's special relationship with Cui Mingzhi, he was naturally ostracized by the neighborhood kids. He soon realized that the three kids bullied him at first just to please Cui Mingzhi.
When he realized this, he couldn't help but hate Choi Myung-Jeong when he recalled his embarrassing cry.
Yes, not only did he dislike him, he hated him.
The reasons to hate him increased every day.
Uncle Cui is a very good stepfather. He is very kind to his mother and gentle to him. After moving in, he not only has no worries about food and clothing, but also his stepfather will do his best to satisfy him whenever he wants something.
His elder brother Choi Ming-chi has a hobby, which is collecting owl clocks. His decorative cabinet is filled with various small clocks with owl decorations from all over the world. Uncle Choi often travels abroad for work, and Choi Ming-chi always asks him to help pay attention to whether there are clocks with owl decorations in the local area. Over time, Choi Ming-chi has collected a whole decorative cabinet.
When Uncle Cui came back from his business trip, he took out a box from his suitcase. Inside was a very delicate little clock with a wooden owl carved on it. When the clock was wound up, the owl would cover its eyes and make some cute expressions. Zhang Yiyang picked it up and deliberately showed an expression of love, expressing his love for the clock.
Uncle Cui said, "Do you like it very much?"
He nodded vigorously.
"Then I'll give it to you."
"Thank you!" Zhang Yiyang held it and shouted again, "Thank you, Dad!"
Uncle Cui smiled and looked at his mother with satisfaction. His mother looked at him in surprise, then looked back at Uncle Cui, her eyes full of emotion and pride. Zhang Yiyang didn't pay attention to the couple, but secretly looked at Cui Mingzhi.
Choi Ming-chi, who was standing aside, said nothing, not even a protest. He just raised his eyebrows and went back to his room.
This was the first time he openly stole Choi Mingzhi's things.
It feels great.
After the first time, there will be the second and third time. Uncle Cui is trying his best to make his mother and him truly accept him. He almost ignores all of Zhang Yiyang's behaviors, or just treats them as normal requests of a child. Whenever he takes away a toy that should belong to Cui Mingzhi, he always looks at Cui Mingzhi secretly. His brother never shows any anger, but just accepts the fact calmly.
This made Zhang Yiyang even angrier. He told himself that since he, as his brother, had too much from the beginning, he wouldn't care about these things. So he gave himself a new reason to hate Cui Mingzhi.
Until one day, when he wanted to take away a toy train again, Cui Mingzhi refused in a rare move. "No."
"But it's really fun..." Zhang Yiyang expressed his desire.
Cui Mingzhi shook his head firmly.
Zhang Yiyang turned his head and looked at Uncle Cui. This was a tactic he often used. He didn't need to make a direct request. He just had to look at Uncle Cui with eager eyes.
"Xiao Ming, just give it to him."
Cui Mingzhi was silent for a few seconds and then said to his father: "This is what my mother bought for me before."
Uncle Cui's face froze.
The room fell into silence.
Zhang Yiyang felt a certain crisis. He thought about it and immediately said, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have asked for my brother's things." As he spoke, his eyes became red.
His mother heard the noise and walked into the room. When she saw Zhang Yiyang like this, she asked what happened.
Zhang Yiyang shook his head and said that he was not good, his tears kept flowing down his cheeks. He was very good at crying in the past. He knew how to cry in the most pitiful way. Biting his lips, staring at the other person silently, letting the tears fill his eyes and then flow slowly, this effect is the best. There should be no crying, which often has the opposite effect. He knows that he is very cute, especially his eyes, which are big and round, as watery as his mother's. Whenever his biological father beat him, before he touched his face, he would cry silently, only in this way could his father's fist be lighter.
This was the experience he gained from being beaten for no apparent reason countless times.
In the past, he had always thought that father was equivalent to beatings with fists and feet, equivalent to the smell of drunkenness. One time, his father came home drunk, and his mother only said a few words, and his father kicked his mother down. He rushed to his father and wanted to beg his father to stop beating. His father slapped him aside, and his face hit the wall. Stars appeared in his eyes, and then the dull pain in his head tormented him for several months like venom corroding his nerves. Father, father, the word was like a poisonous snake, spitting at him in the dark. He thought that father was like this. It was cold and violent, painful and fearful.
But Uncle Choi never did that. He would tell him stories gently and help him with his homework patiently. Why didn't he have such a father from the beginning? This father belonged to Choi Ming-ji. No matter how good he was to him, he was still Choi Ming-ji's biological father.
Why was Choi Myung-ji born to have a father like Uncle Choi?
He hates Choi Mingzhi.
Finally he succeeded in getting the little train.
At that moment, he saw for the first time the emotional cracks in his usually nonchalant brother, and at that moment, Zhang Yiyang keenly captured it. He felt a dark and uncontrollable joy, like a damp fungus spreading in his heart.
It feels great.
He knew that the things he would steal in the future would not be limited to toys.
Cui Mingzhi had many friends. Zhang Yiyang began to quietly infiltrate Cui Mingzhi's circle of friends, which was not difficult. His friends were all children of the same age as him. As long as you can generously take out toys and readily share handheld game consoles and game cards, you can easily gain the friendship of children.
Unknowingly, he successfully pried away some of the children around Cui Mingzhi. His mother was also very concerned about his friendships. She told Zhang Yiyang that he must get along well with Yan Zhen, a friend Cui Mingzhi often brought home.
Zhang Yiyang knew Yan Zhen. When he was first bullied by the neighborhood kids, the boy who watched him crying and begging for mercy together with Cui Mingzhi was Yan Zhen.
He was interested, but Yan Zhen was indeed different from the neighborhood kids. He could not get close to him just by sharing toys and games. He could only talk to this young master Yan when Cui Mingzhi brought Yan Zhen home to play. Zhang Yiyang always suspected that Cui Mingzhi had said something to Yan Zhen. Every time he talked to Yan Zhen, the other party was very polite but kept a distance. He put in a lot of effort, but he still couldn't get close to him.
It doesn't matter, Zhang Yiyang has plenty of time. During the time when Uncle Cui loved his mother sincerely, he was able to get a lot of things, and he would take away everything that should have belonged to Cui Mingzhi bit by bit.
Because he hated him.
He never knew what it felt like to shiver under the bed to avoid his drunken father, he never knew what it felt like to be whipped on the back by his father's belt and feel the dull pain for weeks, he never knew what it felt like to live with relatives and be looked down upon. A child like him who has lived in a sweet honeypot since childhood, when he puts on a magnanimous face that says "I don't care about you", every pore really exudes the stench of pretense.
Once hatred arises, it grows larger.
Now, Zhang Yiyang, his mother and Uncle Cui are going to travel abroad. His mother said that Cui Mingzhi will take the midterm exam soon, and now is the critical time to prepare for the midterm exam next year, so he can't delay his classes for a week or two. Uncle Cui also thinks it makes sense. So naturally, Cui Mingzhi was not included in this family trip.
He remembered Cui Mingzhi's expression when he learned that he was excluded from the trip. It was a look of resistance to everything in front of him. Then he turned around and locked himself in the room, and did not show the slightest sign of collapse in front of Zhang Yiyang.
Zhang Yiyang felt a little regretful, but seeing Cui Mingzhi locked in the room was enough to make him happy.
When he goes abroad, he will take a lot of photos and send them to his brother, he thought with glee.
The door was pushed open, and Mom and Uncle Cui walked in. Mom took out a paper box, opened it with a smile, and inside lay three silkworm babies.
"I asked someone for this." Mom said, "I think your biology teacher should be satisfied now."
In fact, the biology teacher did not force them to raise silkworms. But Zhang Yiyang wanted to raise them for fun, so he naturally used the teacher as an excuse when telling his mother.
He stretched out his hand to play with the silkworm for a while, but lost interest after a while. He pushed the paper box aside, and then he saw a strange sight.
A lump of jelly is walking unsteadily.
Zhang Yiyang rubbed his eyes.
A lump of jelly crawled onto the dining table.
"What is that??" he screamed.
Mom and Uncle Cui turned around when they heard the voice. "Yangyang, what's wrong with you?"
"Jelly! Jelly!" Zhang Yiyang was speechless.
The lump of jelly lay quietly in a plate on the counter, just as if it had always been there.
"Jelly?" Mom asked in confusion, "Did your family buy this? Yangyang, is this what you want to eat?"
Zhang Yiyang shook his head and rubbed his eyes again. He felt as if he had just seen an illusion.
Mom picked up a fork and poked the jelly: "Lao Cui, did you buy this?"
"I don't know, maybe Xiao Ming bought it."
"Then I'll cut a piece for Xiao Ming first. Yangyang, you can bring it to your brother later." Mom picked up the knife and cut the jelly.
