Jiang Yuxu's lips curled slightly, then quickly flattened.
He felt that with her around, plus an obedient and sensible younger brother, life like this was actually pretty good.
—
Back home, the unique smell of restaurant cooking lingered.
All three needed to shower.
Compared to Jiang Yuxu, the other two went to bed a bit later. He took his new clothes and opened the bathroom door.
His old bedroom didn't even have a lock, but now even the bathroom had one.
He locked it gently, rejecting Ji Yanyi's offer to come in and teach him how to bathe.
What was so hard about it?
Besides, unless absolutely necessary, he really didn't want to be that close to anyone.
The sound of running water seemed to drive Ji Yanyi away. The bathroom filled with steam. The mirror above the sink showed his slightly sturdier arms.
With good nutrition, would he grow taller in the future?
Taller than Yanyi?
His heels, which had been lifted, returned to the ground. Annoyance flickered first in his eyes.
The phone rang at the entrance. It was closest to him. He dried his hair with one hand and picked up the receiver, which was about as tall as he was.
'This is Jiang Yuxu.'
There was a pause on the other end. 'Kid, don't imitate the adults in your house.'
In his view, a childish voice speaking mature words was like a child wearing adult clothes.
'...Did the previous family here move out?'
The silence stretched on for a long time, but the person didn't hang up. He could hear breathing.
Then came the beeping of a disconnected call.
Jiang Yuxu put the receiver back.
Intuition told him that the caller was either his biological father or someone closely related to him.
If he wanted to contact or communicate, he should do it in person.
What was the point of handling it over the phone?
Jiang Yuxu felt there was another crucial reason: he didn't want to disrupt the current situation.
He watched the light change from green to red. He remembered that was the signal for a hang-up.
He swallowed.
After the impulse came guilt.
Sitting on the bed with wet hair, he opened the bedtime storybook she had given him. If he pretended not to know the characters and asked her to read it to him, would that work?
He wouldn't even allow it himself, because that would make him look stupid.
His thoughts wandered. He tossed and turned in bed. In the end, he concluded that he didn't sleep well, and woke up unusually late.
The moment he opened his eyes, Bo Xin was sitting by the bedside, her forehead gradually moving close to his.
'...What are you doing?'
Bo Xin's voice was muffled, but thinking about what she was about to say, she felt like laughing.
'Mimicking you.'
Back in the car, when she had an upset stomach, Jiang Yuxu had used this method to check her temperature.
But in reality, both of them were just going through the motions.
Bo Xin only knew that if Yuxu didn't wake up soon, she would have to call a doctor. He had been sleeping restlessly, with a faint flush on his face.
'Did you not dry your hair properly last night when you went to sleep?'
Jiang Yuxu thought about what to say. 'I never dried it before. Nothing happened then.'
'Talking back?'
'...Sorry.'
Jiang Yuxu pulled the blanket up a little higher, bringing a strange sense of security. 'Did I miss the regular tutoring class today?'
Bo Xin planned to give Jiang Yuxu some anti-inflammatory medicine first, since he just seemed to have caught a chill.
'You don't have to go this week either.'
Jiang Yuxu didn't think much of it, just asked simply, 'Why?'
Bo Xin had him check the time. 'Because school starts for you soon.'
This week was just wrapping things up, helping check winter homework. And Jiang Yuxu didn't have any winter homework. He probably wouldn't like the kind of tutoring that treated kids like kindergarteners anyway.
Jiang Yuxu lay back down, following her movement. His eyes were dazed, his breathing heavy. He didn't feel great.
How long had it been since he felt this terrible?
Before, nothing had ever happened.
Jiang Yuxu glanced at Bo Xin and figured out a reason. He gave in, moving closer and leaning on her with a dependent gesture.
He slept again. When he woke up, a sick person's meal was set before him.
He felt much better.
He sat up and ate a little. The tufts of hair sticking up from his ears kept falling down no matter how he pressed them, revealing slightly red earlobes.
Bo Xin closed Jiang Yuxu's bedtime storybook. 'What were you thinking about after your shower?'
There was only a crease on the first page, as if he had lingered there for a long time.
'Nothing much.'
Bo Xin thought carefully. 'If I heard correctly, I think I heard the phone ring before I went to shower.'
Jiang Yuxu took a small sip of plain congee.
'...It only rang for a few seconds before it stopped.'
Bo Xin was silent for a while, as if weighing the truth of his words, or wondering who would call her late at night. From her angle, she could only see the top of the child's head. The single cowlick made him look very obedient.
'Are you really... not hiding anything from me?'