Most of the quilts used by children in the village were hand-me-downs from their parents. It was also rare for them to have their own separate rooms; most just had a bed placed in a back room used for storing miscellaneous items.

Jiang Shi was different.

He had his own independent room that belonged entirely to him. Everything in the room was his. It had the largest window in the house, which, when opened, revealed the path of the sun as it crawled by.

Cheng Ye couldn’t see the sun crawl by, nor could he see the moonlight slip away. He could only hear the water dripping from the eaves onto the windowsill, making a “drip, drip, drip” sound.

And all this was told to him by Jiang Shi, who was lying next to him.

The room had no night light. On the bedside table was a small glowing ball. When plugged in, the small ball would rotate and emit a faint light. Inside the ball floated fine glitter, which was projected onto the ceiling, like a condensed sea of stars.

Jiang Shi stretched out his hand, his feet restlessly moving under the covers, as if trying to reach the starry sky on the ceiling.

“My dad bought this for me on my birthday last year. We even went to the city…” He turned over, his eyes shining brightly as he stared at Cheng Ye. “Have you ever been to the city? So many, so many people, so much food, and so many cars. My mom said the people in those cars are all human traffickers. If I didn’t stick close to them, I would be snatched away by traffickers. The way people drive in the city is so scary…”

He asked Cheng Ye again, “Have you ever been to the city?”

Cheng Ye said, “No.”

The next second, the little kid next to him started humming smugly. “I have. So much, so much food, so many, so many people…”

So Cheng Ye started laughing too, his gaze falling on his long, curly eyelashes.

How could someone’s eyelashes be so long? Longer than anyone he had ever seen, and prettier than anyone he had ever seen.

After Jiang Shi finished showing off, he reached under the covers and grabbed his foot. “I feel like my tooth is leaking air. It’s so weird…”

He couldn’t help but stick his tongue out to lick the empty space.

Cheng Ye stopped him. “Don’t lick it. If you do, your teeth won’t grow in straight.”

Jiang Shi was startled. He pulled his tongue back, but couldn’t resist licking it again. “Really? How could licking it make them not grow in straight?”

“It’s true,” Cheng Ye said. “Do you remember Liu Sheng’s crooked buck teeth? It’s because he licked them when he was losing his teeth, that’s why they grew in like that.”

“He’s ugly, so it doesn’t matter if his teeth are ugly. You’re good-looking, your teeth can’t grow in ugly.”

Jiang Shi thought, what Cheng Ye said was right.

He retracted his tongue, thought for a moment, and kicked Cheng Ye under the covers. “It’s all your fault. If it weren’t for you, it clearly could have waited two more days before falling out.”

Cheng Ye occupied one-third of Jiang Shi’s bed. He endured the kick. “I’m sorry.”

“What’s the use of being sorry? My tooth is gone. You have to take responsibility.”

Cheng Ye asked him, “Then how do you want me to be responsible?”

Jiang Shi faltered, then pulled the quilt and rolled over. “You have to acknowledge me as your boss. You have to call me King Jiang Shi, like Gao Xinhe does. Next time we fight, you have to be the first one to charge in.”

Cheng Ye turned his head to look at him. “Okay, King Jiang Shi.”

Jiang Shi felt a strange sense of shame. “Well… fine then. I’ll reluctantly forgive you.”

His body temperature wasn’t high, but Cheng Ye next to him was like a small furnace. As he slept, Jiang Shi couldn’t help but lean closer. He shamelessly reached out and felt around, his feet霸道地 resting on the other’s body. After feeling for a while, he said in surprise, “Wow… Cheng Ye, I felt your skin…”

A blush crept up the back of Cheng Ye’s ears. He reached out and pulled at his clothes. “My clothes are a bit short…”

“How can they be short?” Jiang Shi asked, puzzled. “Aren’t all clothes long? My mom loves to buy me long clothes, saying I grow fast and can wear them for a few more years. It makes it so I can’t even stick my hands out.”

Cheng Ye was silent for a moment. The next second, a small, fleshy hand reached over. “You don’t like short clothes?”

Jiang Shi had unconsciously kicked the entire quilt over to his side, letting the wind in. Cheng Ye reached out and spread the quilt back over him.

“It’s not that I don’t like them,” he said. “Long is good, short is good too. As long as I have clothes to wear, it’s fine.”

Before Jiang Shi could say anything else, Jiang Xue’s voice suddenly sounded from outside the door. “Jiang Shi, it’s already ten o’clock at night. Time to sleep.”

Jiang Shi closed his mouth, leaned closer to Cheng Ye, and drifted off to sleep.

Cheng Ye, on the other hand, turned over and lay on his side. The galaxy spun in his eyes, his breath falling on his neck. He quietly reached out and grabbed a corner of the jacket that was sticking out.

When Jiang Shi woke up the next day, Cheng Ye was already gone.

Children don’t have trouble getting out of bed. Compared to the bed, the outside world was more attractive. Jiang Shi scrambled up, his hair a bird’s nest, and ran to the kitchen to watch Jiang Xue make pancakes in a large iron pan.

“Mom, where’s Cheng Ye?”

Jiang Xue flipped a pancake. “He left early. You think everyone is like you, sleeping like a little pig every day, can’t even be woken up.”

The little pig wrinkled his nose in dissatisfaction.

He Shuba came back from outside, carrying grass to feed the cows. Jiang Xue saw him and called him over to wash his face. After waiting for a long time, his dad still hadn’t finished feeding the cows, but his pancake-making mom was done.

Seeing this, Jiang Shi subconsciously backed away. “I don’t want you to wash it.”

“…”

Jiang Xue didn’t care. She squatted down, pulled Jiang Shi over, and gave him a vigorous scrub, rubbing his face until it was red.

He rubbed his face, suspecting a layer of skin had been rubbed off. Wearing slightly large woolen slippers, he followed behind Jiang Xue. “Can I go out to play?”

Jiang Xue asked him, “Where are you going so early in the morning?”

Jiang Shi said, “I’m going to find Cheng Ye.”

Jiang Xue looked down at him strangely. “When did you and Cheng Ye get so close?”

“Yesterday…” Jiang Shi said, “I’m going to give him my clothes.”

Jiang Xue was stunned. “Why are you giving him your clothes?”

Jiang Shi sat down on a chair, his bottom sticking out. The pancake was still a bit hot. He touched it, then quickly pulled his hand back and blew on it.

“When I was sleeping with Cheng Ye last night, I felt that his clothes and pants were all short. His skin was showing when he wore them. He told me he likes to wear short clothes, but I’m so smart, I could tell at a glance that he doesn’t like them at all, just like I don’t like to wear long clothes.”

“So I plan to trade clothes with him. I’ll give him my long clothes, and he’ll give me his short clothes. That way, we’ll both be happy.”

After he finished speaking, for some reason, Jiang Xue was silent.

Jiang Shi carefully tore off a piece of the pancake. “Is that not okay?”

“It’s okay,” Jiang Xue said. “I’ll find two long outfits for you. You can give them to him. Just don’t take his clothes.”

Jiang Shi was immediately unhappy. “Why?”

“Don’t ask so many whys. You have so many clothes, why are you still thinking about his? Besides, at your age, you change every day. They’re long now, but in a little while, they’ll be short when you wear them.”

She instructed Jiang Shi again, “Take a pancake with you when you go.”

Jiang Shi, very unhappy, took the clothes and the pancake and went to Cheng Ye’s house.

Before he even reached the entrance, Jiang Shi could hear faint sounds of scolding coming from inside.

He threw the clothes and the pancake on a rack at the entrance, climbed onto a chair placed by the door, and peeked inside.

The latticed window cut the light and shadow into squares. A child, even smaller than him, was kneeling silently in the light and shadow. A tall middle-aged man held a rope in his hand and was whipping him with it.

“Well, you’ve grown up, your wings are stiff now. You even dare to not come home at night. Other people’s houses are so nice, why did you even come back? Why don’t you just live at their house?”

Cheng Ye was just silent. His shoulders were so thin that even snow couldn’t accumulate on them, yet he endured one lash after another.

From beginning to end, not a single word.

Jiang Shi jumped off the chair, turned around, and picked up the clothes and the pancake again. He backed up a few steps and stood in the yard before starting to shout, “Cheng Ye! Cheng Ye! Are you home?”

The commotion inside the house suddenly stopped. Two minutes later, a woman hurriedly opened the door.

Jiang Shi grinned, revealing a smile. “Auntie Gao, is Cheng Ye home? I’m here to find him.”

Seeing him, Gao Lan was stunned for a moment. “You’re Jiang Xue’s kid, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Jiang Shi said. “Cheng Ye slept at my house yesterday. I’m here to play with him.”

Cheng Jianbin also hurried out. He was used to bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Jiang Xue’s fierce personality was well-known in the village, and He Shuba was educated. No one in the village wanted to offend the couple.

He squeezed out a smile. “Here to find Cheng Ye, huh? He went to the toilet, he’ll be back in a bit.”

“Oh…” Jiang Shi hugged the clothes in his arms and said, “Uncle Cheng, did my dad come to your house yesterday to tell you that Cheng Ye was going to sleep with me?”

Cheng Jianbin was stunned for a moment and subconsciously looked at Gao Lan beside him.

Gao Lan was also stunned for a moment, then subconsciously turned her head. There stood a little boy of about five or six years old.

The boy met her gaze and blinked innocently. “Mom, yesterday when you were cooking, Jiang Shi’s big brother’s dad came over. He told me, and then I told you. Have you forgotten?”

The smile on Gao Lan’s face was a bit stiff. Meeting Jiang Shi’s gaze, she forced a smile. “Ah, yes… he did say that…”

“That’s good then.” Jiang Shi smiled with an air of innocence. “I was afraid you had forgotten and would think Cheng Ye didn’t come home last night and beat him.”

Cheng Jianbin’s face also became a bit stiff.

Jiang Shi continued, “Last time I went out to play and didn’t come home, my mom beat me. She told me that as long as the parents are notified and they agree, you’re not supposed to be hit. Since you agreed yesterday, you definitely won’t hit Cheng Ye, right?”

The expressions of the couple at the door were not very good. Looking at Jiang Shi’s innocent face, they thought they might have been overthinking it.

Cheng Jianbin coughed. “Of course, even if he didn’t tell us, we wouldn’t just hit people randomly.”

“That’s good…” Jiang Shi revealed a smile. “You are truly the most enlightened parents I have ever seen.”

Cheng Ye, having changed his clothes, came out of the house at this moment.

His face showed no expression. He stood up straight, his untended hair long enough to cover his eyes, revealing a sharp chin. He was thin and gloomy.

Jiang Shi seemed oblivious. “Auntie Gao, Uncle Cheng, can I go play with Cheng Ye?”

Cheng Jianbin hurriedly agreed. “Go ahead, go ahead…” He stared at Cheng Ye. “You have to take good care of Jiang Shi when you’re out. Don’t walk around with a long face all day. Be sensible, you know?”

Cheng Ye didn’t speak.

Jiang Shi took a bite of the pancake in his arms. “I’m older than Cheng Ye. I should be the one taking care of him.”

Cheng Jianbin pushed Cheng Ye. “Then why aren’t you calling him big brother?”

He had heard that He Shuba was retaking the college entrance exams. If he passed, wouldn’t he become an official in the future?

Since Jiang Shi was willing to play with Cheng Ye, they naturally had to make sure the Jiang family’s only child was well taken care of.

Cheng Ye stumbled from the push and looked up at Jiang Shi.

His eyes were dark and deep, showing little emotion, as still as a pool of dead water, not like an eight-year-old’s.

Everyone was afraid of Cheng Ye.

Only Jiang Shi, meeting such a pair of eyes, playfully made a funny face.

And so, the coldness in the dark eyes faded, and warmth slowly surfaced. Cheng Ye paused, then spoke.

“Big Brother Jiang Shi.”