Chapter 1: Older Siblings

Cheng Ming has had a bad and unpleasant past, and in the end, the prodigal son turned back, barely got into an undergraduate college, relying on student loans to go to college, receiving scholarships and doing all kinds of part-time jobs to barely make ends meet.

I went to bed thinking about money, woke up scared by the lack of money, lived each day in a hectic manner, gave up my eligibility for graduate school, got a modest job, and had little problem supporting myself and my friend’s sister for the time being.

Anyway, I’ve been renting for a living all my life, not to mention having big dreams of buying a house, getting married and having children.

The same asshole of a pops, sending him some money every month is always a good way to starve, so maybe it’s better if he doesn’t get this money, he’s taking it to the casino and giving it to someone else anyway, right?

But this is a kind of Cheng Ming a kind of atonement, but also self-deceiving psychological comfort, as long as to send some money back to be able to sleep peacefully and not have nightmares.

Taking the initiative to work overtime, no one asked for hard work is to take the initiative to grab to do, get the leadership appreciation, will also be scolded by coworkers brainless licking dog. But it does not matter, earn money is good, slowly promotion and salary increase.

Looking at the ever-increasing deposits, Cheng Ming, who was afraid of being poor, had an unprecedented sense of solidity.

In the back also do the legend and other various old games of the private service and handicraft plug-in script, even if the sudden loss of work also leave a back way.

Every once in a while, I hear about whoever died suddenly and wonder if I’ll be next, and if so it should be pretty good.

In one’s life, one is either busy living or busy dying, and if one dies, she – her friend’s sister, Zhao Ren – lives a life as boring as Cheng Ming’s, studying hard and getting scholarships.

After graduation to become a machine that runs for money, and her brother Zheng Lei is almost due to be released from prison, right, her own sister is still taken care of by herself.

Unfortunately, Cheng Ming did not wait for sudden death, but for his wedding date.

The old family’s dilapidated yard and the barren fields outside the yard because of the construction of the railroad and got a considerable demolition subsidy fee, at least to pay off the debt owed by the asshole old man, and divorced mother back together, just a nominal back together, no remarriage, the year’s events like a chasm across the hearts of the two people, and to stay together again is just to manipulate the Cheng Ming’s marriage.

It’s like I’m almost thirty. I was reminded of this by my parents.

Because Cheng Ming divided his time into time for work and time for sleep.

Forced to take a leave of absence, because of the effort to work, never used the annual leave, accumulated a lot, is paid, seems to be quite good, even the leadership let him take a break, probably afraid of sudden death will bring scandal to the company, the hearts of the people to the evil, no matter what can be thought of in a bad way.

Returning to the city full of painful memories, returning to the home that can’t be called home, and meeting his sister, Cheng Li, who is the last person he wants to see.

She had long since stopped being the follower who liked to follow her ass, or the timid drag who would hide behind her mother; she had grown up and become a big girl.

The playful and cute face still has a few hints of familiar contours, overlapping with the childish face in the memory, the blood rushes up to the brain, the heartbeat wants to stop, never forgetting the asshole in the night of the thunderstorm in that dilapidated old mansion.

The father casually found a bad excuse to go downstairs to find someone to play chess, and fled, perhaps staying in the house makes him feel suffocated, once the head of the family, but now is a loser in front of his children.

Mother and sister went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, Cheng Ming also intended to help, but was kicked out by his sister, “When a woman is at home, how can a man enter the kitchen?”

Cheng Ming just sat on the sofa in a daze, holding a cigarette and a lighter, not daring to smoke it for fear of defiling her and this house.

Preparing to open the meal, Cheng Ming was shouted to call his father for dinner, it felt familiar, it seemed to return to the cozy routine of fifteen years ago when the home had changed drastically, Cheng Ming pushed open the door, his father didn’t go downstairs, he was sitting at the door of the house smoking a stifling cigarette, and it seemed that his white hair had grown quite a bit more.

“Dinner is ready.” Cheng Ming said expressionlessly.

The father got up after patting the dust off his butt, it was a rather boring dinner, the parents only moved the food in front of them, never putting their hands in each other’s ‘territory’.

Cheng Ming remembered that his mother’s cooking skills should not be this bad?

Has the cooking skill regressed? Or is it because she’s in a bad mood and doesn’t know which dishes her sister cooks, and she still only knows how to cook thin rice and make instant noodles?

“Tomorrow to go on a blind date, you clean yourself up a little bit, the other side is who, I first confidential, lest you first ventilation and so on. Anyway, it’s an acquaintance and a good girl, after so many years, you should also consider thinking about your own things, maybe because your father and I divorced back then, Xiaoli is also single for so many years, you are the one who is the older brother, first set an example.”

Cheng Ming nodded his head woodenly, and in his heart, he was thinking about whether or not he should just bolt tomorrow.

Cheng Ming looked in Cheng Li’s direction, she was blinking frantically, still with the same innocent little eyes, she was the one who had eaten the most and was in the best mood tonight.

Cheng Ming intends to go wash the dishes, but his father steals the show… has he finally bowed down?

Father had no intention of staying and sleeping, it was hard to imagine what would happen if they slept in the same house after many years, he took the initiative to say goodbye and leave, Cheng Ming couldn’t figure out where he could sleep without the old mansion and shoved all the cash he had on him as well as the cigarettes into his hands.

“Brother, do you want to take a shower first, or do you want to check your room first.”

“Go to your room first.”

Cheng Ming didn’t plan to stay in this place for long, and didn’t even bring a change of clothes, traveling light.

The very plain three-room suite, which years ago would have been exquisite, now seems to be full of black spots and water marks on the white plaster.

Can’t seem to find an adjective other than old.

“You all lived here all these years?” Cheng Ming asked in surprise.

Cheng Li shook his head and said, “It’s not, my mom and I both live in the company dormitory, we both work in the same bank, it’s just that I have to be nagged every day for not having a boyfriend. But every time I move out of my brother as a shield it’s fine, brother you just found out about my job today, right?”

Cheng Ming used silence to represent the answer.

“Ah ah, really don’t care about my sister’s brother ah, I do know my brother’s employment route oh, from internship as a small programmer to a team leader to a system analyst, and then turn into a project manager and product manager.”

Cheng Li stretched out her slender fingers and said as if she were counting, “It’s called Technical Director now, isn’t it?”

“No matter how much the status changes it’s still just a wage earner who can be fired at any time.”

Talking to himself, Cheng Ming pushed open his bedroom door, as if he had returned to fifteen years ago in an instant.

The yellowed comics, novels, and textbooks were all neatly arranged on the shelves, and there was still the same big-ass computer protruding from the desk, as if nothing had changed and the passage of this room had been halted.

“Can this still be turned on?” Cheng Ming asked, pointing at the computer.

“Just try it.”

Cheng Ming pressed the case’s on button, resounding the whirring of the fan, a bright flash of light, but failed to light the lamp successfully.

Cheng Ming patted the display’s big ass and asked, “Why did you keep it all? It should have been thrown away a long time ago, right? These …… garbage.”

“Because I’ve been waiting for you to come back, and as soon as my brother sees his room still looking like this he thinks of me and the days he spent with me, only to have my brother end up coming back to see me because he’s getting married to another woman.”

Cheng Li backhandedly closed the door and unlocked it, hanging her head down with a gloomy expression, one end of her lightweight halter nightgown slipped down her arm, revealing her snow-white rounded shoulders.

“I’m not getting married.”

Cheng Ming sat on the edge of the bed, his palms pressed against the fluffy and warm quilt in the sun.

“That’s not up to brother.”

Cheng Li came closer and straddled Cheng Ming, casually peeling off his tie and ripping open the neckline.

“Nah …… brother, let’s get on with what we didn’t finish ……”

“Come on, there’s no need to make it up to me that way, you don’t owe me anything, I’m alive and well now.”

“Is living like the walking dead considered good? Brother, isn’t your position on the words ‘living well’ a little off? Are you going to push me away again? Run away like that time?”

Cheng Ming’s hand froze in mid-air, and in the end, he was unable to ruthlessly push his sister away.

Cheng Li grabbed Cheng Ming’s big hand to cover her chest and murmured, “Who did brother give his first time to? That woman’s daughter? Or the girl you’ve been sponsoring? Do you know who the blind date was? It’s Sister Jingyi Oh, an old acquaintance, brother’s childhood friend, it’s not wrong to call her that, right?”

“So that’s her ……”

A soft touch came from the rough palm of his hand.

Cheng Ming is like paralyzing himself generally in the brain searching for memories of this childhood friend who has not been seen for many years, and his birthday difference of one day, living in the same company compound, his father are employees of the city construction company, and his mother is an old classmate.

Only later Cheng Ming’s father, Cheng Hongyuan, came out to work alone with an engineering team, relying on previous contacts to take a few large orders, the bigger the work, and then set up the Hongyuan Construction Engineering Company Limited, with good prospects.

Unfortunately, after that drastic change, there was nothing left but a load of debt.

And Lin Jingyi’s father is to stay in the city building bureau as a small leader, steadily rising, and finally was implicated in a huge corruption case of the URA, the city building bureau is responsible for the river embankment, the national highway and other projects are not up to standard, the building materials used in the misrepresentation of the material to eat kickbacks, and so on, and even alarmed the people of the provincial building bureau.

“That’s it? No questions about how she’s doing? Don’t want to know how she’s been doing all these years?”

I expect to know that she is not doing well, just her family accident, Cheng Ming happened to be lost, focusing on preparing for the college entrance examination.

One was in the city’s first high school, the other in the city’s third high school, south of the city and north of the city facing each other, and everything about her came from her sister’s mouth.

“It doesn’t matter, this isn’t going to work out anyway, it’s just going to end with a cup of tea together like you would with a client.”

“I actually think she’s a good fit for my brother, and for us.”

“Really?”

“Well, you guys can have a baby and I’ll quit my job and take care of it for you, that’s a good idea, right? Anyway, my brother is in the habit of raising other people’s sisters, so it’s about time he raised his real sister with all that spare money, right? Working is so tiring, I just want to be a home-squatting scrapper.”

“If I get married, won’t you be rushed too?”

“No way, mom loves me so much, she definitely can’t let me go when I say I’m going to marry in the south of the world and never come back for the rest of my life. Anyway, I don’t believe in love anymore in my life, I only believe in family love, hehehe.”

“In this life, can’t you have another life? Hurry up and go back to bed.”

“I’m asleep, shh, don’t wake mom, she’s a light sleeper. If she finds us like this we’re dead.”

“You know it too, come on get up off me, I’m going to take a shower first, it stinks.”

“Leave me, leave home again, and find a hotel to stay in? And by the way, help a student who lacks pocket money again? I’m the worm in my brother’s stomach, I know what he’s thinking.”

“Ri, you’ve changed, the old you wouldn’t say such things.”

“It’s you who’s changed brother, but it’s okay, I’ll correct you brother.”

Compared to Cheng Ming, who had tossed and turned all night, Cheng Li had a rare good night’s sleep and a good dream.