Chapter 10 Quarrels

Cheng Li crossed her arms and stood in the doorway, questioning with barbs in her words: ”Brother, why are you coming back now? What time is it? Obviously I told you to come back earlier.”

“My Missy, it’s only 9:15, right, I don’t get out of class until 8:55.” Cheng Ming said with his hands spread out.

“Does it take twenty minutes to bike home?”

“The roads are darker at night, there aren’t many streetlights on a road, and I ride slower for safety.”

“Liar, you’re in the same class as Lin Jingyi aren’t you, you must have lost track of time playing with her, I can smell her scent from you.”

Cheng Ming looked down and sniffed his clothes and said, “Where else can I smell other than sweaty odor.”

“If I say there is, there is.” Cheng Li said stubbornly.

Cheng Ming said knowingly, “Isn’t mom home at night?”

“Seems to be out the door to Dad.”

“It couldn’t be that you’re staying home alone and scared, so you’re angry that I came back late, right?” Cheng Ming joked.

“Not at all, I’m not a child.”

“Then why did you tell me to go home early?” Cheng Ming asked with a crooked head.

“Well, this …… is that ……”

The overbearing sister suddenly became coy and wriggled as she put her hands behind her back and lifted her right paw, her toes drawing circles on the floor:

“I’ve got a bit too much homework, obviously I’ve only been on vacation for two and a half days, and there’s such a huge pile of homework, I wouldn’t be able to finish it tonight even if I didn’t sleep.”

Cheng Li opened his arms and phrased it in an exaggerated way.

“Do you have to check your homework tomorrow, or do you have to turn it in?”

“Language arts homework is to be checked and math homework is to be turned in.”

“You’re a patient, so you should be able to get your teacher to accommodate you, right?”

“I don’t want special treatment, even if I don’t have to turn in my homework tomorrow, I still have to turn it in the day after.”

“I’m surprised no classmates told you about their after-school assignments?”

“No.”

“It seems like you have very few friends, brother I’m a little worried if you’re being bullied at school.” Cheng Ming said as he rubbed Cheng Li’s soft hair.

My sister is one of the quieter, non-problematic girls at school, which means she’s a very normal, common good girl. But at home, she’s a bit more lively and bossy.

To his own family, especially to Cheng Ming, his brother, he dared to come to anything, which in a sense was also a reflection of their good relationship, right?

“You might as well come help me with my homework if you have the energy to worry about me.”

Cheng Li grabbed Cheng Ming’s slightly larger hand and stroked his cheek.

“Then I’ll take a shower and come back to help you with your homework.”

“Help me finish my homework before you take a shower.”

“I’m stinky and I can’t help you with your homework until I’ve had a shower.”

Cheng Ming had already planned to lock his bedroom door tonight and never go out again.

Cheng Li stretched out five fingers and said, “Then …… I’ll give you five minutes to take a shower, I’ll go to your room first and wait for you.”

Five minutes is enough for a quick rinse.

Even though Cheng Ming deliberately controlled the time, as the cold water rushed over his body and stimulated his skin, the momentary relief still made him crave for a little more time.

Cheng Li sat on the edge of the bed, shook his calves, pinched his watch and said, “Brother, it took you seven minutes to shower.”

“Two minutes is negligible, who takes a shower with a clock, you have to shower for half an hour every time. And you have to boil a big bucket of hot water.”

Cheng Ming’s bathroom has no water heater, so he can only use the most primitive way of boiling hot water, and in winter, he goes to the public bathroom to take a bath.

Although water heaters are already available on the market, Nanming City belongs to the central and western cities that are lagging behind in development, and the popularity of water heaters and air conditioners is not that high. Cheng Ming remembers that the finishing houses sold by his dad were sold with water heaters and air conditioners as the selling point.

Cheng Li said perkily, “I’m a girl, I can’t help it if my body is weak, and I caught a cold just a few days ago by trying to save myself the trouble of taking a cold shower.”

Cheng Ming held a towel in one hand and wiped his hair, while the other hand flipped through the workbook and exercise book on the desk:

“These are your homework, right? Is it okay if I do your homework for you? Will it affect your grades?”

“Not at all, I already knew some of these questions, writing them again is a complete waste of time and ink.”

“Really? Then how come you didn’t get a perfect score on your midterm?”

“Brother you still have the face to talk about me, you did worse than me okay? Almost flunked English.”

This has not even begun to work together, but they have begun to hurt each other, as well as their siblings’ daily routine.

“Enough about grades, which homework do you do and which do I do? I can’t do it all, can I?”

“I’ll write the math homework to be handed in myself, I’ll trouble you with the language homework, try to imitate my handwriting as much as possible, please.” Cheng Li said as he folded his hands.

Cheng Ming also had the experience of helping his sister write handwritten reports in the middle of the night and waking up in the morning to do her handmade works, and she often cried in a hurry alone and then came to Cheng Ming for help.

The desk is right next to the bed, which serves as both a sleeping area and a chair, so when you’re tired of doing it, you can just lay down and go to sleep.

Look at the pinyin and write, mimeograph ancient poems, then grammar questions, reading questions ……

“Brother, your handwriting is so ugly, it doesn’t look like a middle schooler at all, can’t you write properly?”

“Don’t pick and choose, help with your homework would be nice.”

Having said that, Cheng Ming still writes carefully with one stroke and does not cope with it.

After so many years of memorizing ancient poems in elementary school, Cheng Ming was actually still able to mime them.

But there’s nothing you can do about the grammar questions, you just have to make them up.

“Haaah ……”

Cheng Li let out a big yawn, his body swaying from side to side, his little head nodding like a chicken pecking at rice, squinting his eyes, the ballpoint pen in his hand leaving a curve of unknown significance on the sketch paper.

After all, they were elementary school students, and it was inevitable that they would get tired as it approached ten o’clock.

“Rhi, just go straight to sleep if you’re sleepy.”

“But the homework isn’t all done yet.”

“It’s just as well to get up early in the morning to write, it’s not like you haven’t done your homework in the middle of the morning.”

“Then I’ll take a nap, like a siesta, and wake me up in half an hour.”

Cheng Li laid down on her side and fell headfirst into Cheng Ming’s arms, sliding to her inner thighs.

Cheng Ming was sitting cross-legged on the bed with an uncomfortable pillow.

Cheng Li patted Cheng Ming’s thigh and said, “Brother, sit down.”

“Yes ……”

Willingly Cheng Ming adjusted his sitting position and flattened his legs, Cheng Li faced Cheng Ming’s stomach, just enough to block the light from the bulb with his body.

“Uh-huh. ……”

Cheng Li let out a slurred sleepy sound and curled up like a cat, Cheng Ming pulled the quilt over her chest.

There was movement from the living room to open the door.

Cheng Ming knew that Mom and Dad were back.

What was coming was coming, a parental fight that he knew would happen but couldn’t be bothered to stop.

Parental quarrels are not uncommon, Cheng Ming’s dad Cheng Hongyuan and mom Lai Ying are both strong people.

As far as I can remember, the two men about whether to take the initiative to go to sea in business this matter has been arguing, Dad is intended to go to break into the world, Mom does not agree.

In the end, Dad wins, and Mom applies for a job at the bank to facilitate a loan for Dad’s company.

And Dad’s company’s liquidity and transfers are made in Mom’s bank branch, Mom’s performance also miso growth, can be said to be a win-win situation.

The last two quarrels should be Dad wants to take a loan of three million to get the land open, Mom did not agree and a few days ago when my sister had a fever and cold, Dad let Mom resigned, said the family is not lack of bank work that few dollars.

Naturally, Mom refused to give up the job, retorting, “You’re so rich you don’t put a water heater in the house.”

We’re moving to a new home next month, there’s no need to toss the old house, and it turns out that this new home didn’t materialize until Cheng Ming was reborn.

The noise outside the house was only small at first, and the mom suddenly raised her volume and drank, “Cheng Hongyuan, don’t think I don’t know why you ignore your family every day and keep a mistress outside, right?”

For the matter of whether Dad cheated on his wife or not.

Even the reborn Cheng Ming did not have a clear answer.

All he knew was that a year after Mom and Dad divorced, a divorced single mother, Lian Ying, had taken her daughter, Xu Juan, to live in the old mansion with their father and son.

Living under the same roof, eating together, but not as close as family or as cold as regular tenants.

Two years later, the mother and daughter moved away, and Cheng Ming didn’t know where they had gone, whether they were alive or dead.

It’s just that Ming and Juan had a cuddle time.

“Keep your voice down, don’t put the kids to bed.” Dad shushed.

“Now you know you have a child, I was the one who took Ri to the hospital when she got sick, where were you? Rolling in bed with this woman, right?”

“How did you get this picture? Who gave it to you?”

“Don’t ask me how I got this picture, I’ll just ask you if you’re having an affair with her.”

“This is our company accountant.”

“Oh, the accountant, did she used to be a salesgirl and became an accountant after she slept with you? And then she slept with you a few times and became your finance manager?”

“Don’t be irrational, the manager of the finance department is Old Ye, and he recruited this person.”

“You’re saying I’m being unreasonable? It’s my fault that my daughter is sick then it’s my fault that you’re keeping a woman outside?”

Mom asked a series of rhetorical questions, and in a state of rage had lost her mind and started throwing things.

There was a crackle of breaking glass.

Cheng Ming had no intention of waking his sister up, he even wanted her to sleep until dawn, it was best if she didn’t know what happened tonight, but the commotion outside was just too loud, and his sister didn’t sleep well.

Cheng Li opened his eyes, his small hand nervously clutched the corner of Cheng Ming’s coat, biting his lips and asked, “Brother, are mom and dad fighting?”

“Well, it seems like it.” Cheng Ming said as he hugged Cheng Li, whose petite body was slightly trembling, tightly.

“Is it because I’m sick?”

“No la, don’t think too much.” Cheng Ming said as he touched Cheng Li’s head.

It was only then that Cheng Ming noticed a crucial point, his sister didn’t think that mom and dad divorced because she was sick, did she?

“Brother, will Mom and Dad fight?”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be, and it’s not the first time they’ve had a fight.”

Though this time it started throwing things with much higher intensity than before.

In his previous life, Cheng Ming was afraid of his parents fighting and went out to persuade them to fight, as a result, he was lectured by his parents and used as a punching bag for the two of them, Cheng Ming went directly to the Internet cafe all night in a fit of pique, leaving his sister alone at home, and the idea of leaving the house was unprecedentedly strong.

You can imagine how helpless the sister was that night.

Then my sister got sick again, and there was a steady stream of bad news from home, and Dad kept getting back-stabbed by company employees and ended up with huge debts.

Before Cheng Ming’s midterm exams, the two thunderously divorced, in order to keep their debts from implicating their mom and sister.

Anyway, Cheng Ming knows that Mom and Dad won’t fight, Dad even if he drinks, he won’t use the strength of alcohol to hit a woman, it’s completely Mom alone who throws things, and it’s Dad who is unilaterally hit if he wants to fight.

Cheng Ming plugged Cheng Li’s ears, trying to make her listen less to what her parents were fighting about.

Parents fighting is without a doubt the scariest movie a child will ever see in the world.

The hideous face of the parent remains in the child’s mind for a long time, and this fear can be deeply rooted in the heart and become a rift that cannot be healed.

Before falling asleep again, Cheng Li muttered, “Brother, I’ll never get sick again.”

“Silly girl.”

Cheng Ming shook his head and smiled bitterly, ruffled his sister’s hair, and said firmly, “Don’t worry, brother I’ll guard this home.”