Life after returning home seemed the same as before, yet also seemed to have changed in some ways.

What was the same was that Li Yunhui still had various verbal conflicts with the butler every day. What was different was that, because Li Zhenghen had “cut off his living expenses,” the preparation of the family’s three meals now excluded him.

The excuse sounded nice: “After all, everything in this house belongs to Mr. Li. Without Mr. Li’s approval, I can’t take it upon myself to decide on the allocation of these resources.”

Li Yunhui sneered.

So what if they cut off his food? It wasn’t like he was living in some remote mountain forest. There were plenty of food delivery businesses in the Imperial Capital willing to feed him!

So he raised his brow high and retorted forcefully, “Don’t trouble yourself!”

And so the matter was settled.

Li Shuyun was unaware of this.

As soon as he got home, he went to learn the basics of the tea ceremony with a tea master.

It wasn’t until dinnertime in the evening that Li Shuyun finished his lesson and came out. He came to the second-floor dining room, sat down at the table, and looked around, only to find that there was only one chair at the entire table—the one he was sitting on!

Li Shuyun seemed to understand something.

But… how could this be?

He asked the butler in disbelief, “Uncle Zhao, where’s my brother? Why isn’t he coming to eat?”

The butler stood beside him and placed a helping of vegetables in his bowl with chopsticks. The butler always liked to stand by his side like this during meals, giving him some vegetables when he ate too much meat, and some meat when he ate too many vegetables.

The butler said gently, “Little Young Master, the Eldest Young Master has had a major falling out with Mr. Li recently. It’s best if you don’t get involved or ask too many questions, so as not to anger Mr. Li.”

Li Shuyun opened his mouth as if to say something, but hesitated. He seemed to want to ask, no matter how bad the falling out was, could they really not prepare dinner for him? But faced with the butler’s gentle yet firm gaze, he slowly blinked twice and ultimately swallowed his words.

He replied in a low voice, “Oh, I see.”

He silently lowered his head and ate quietly, saying no more, though his expression looked heavy with thought.

Suddenly, the butler’s phone beeped.

The butler took out his phone, glanced at it, and said to Li Shuyun, “Little Young Master, you eat first. I’m going outside to take a call.”

Li Shuyun looked up in surprise and replied obediently, “Okay, Uncle Zhao.”

The butler gave a slight nod to the Little Young Master. He knew the Little Young Master had an obedient nature and was very reassuring as long as Li Yunhui wasn’t around, so he wasn’t worried about anything going wrong and strode out of the dining room.

Li Shuyun ate a few more bites of rice at the table.

After waiting for about half a minute, once he could no longer hear the butler’s footsteps, he carefully raised his eyes, stood up from his seat on tiptoe, and cautiously peeked his head out of the dining room.

He saw the butler hurrying down to the first floor and going outside the main door to answer the call.

Li Shuyun’s expression immediately became relaxed and joyful.

He immediately started rummaging through the dining room, taking out a few paper cups and a pair of disposable chopsticks from a cabinet.

He filled two paper cups with rice, one with meat and vegetables, and stuffed two large chicken legs into a third. Then, holding two cups in each hand, he quickly headed up to the third floor with a nervous expression and light steps.

He arrived at Li Yunhui’s bedroom door and knocked lightly and quickly.

He whispered in a breathy voice, “Brother, open the door quickly, it’s me!”

At that moment, Li Yunhui was sitting cross-legged on his bed with headphones on, choosing what to order for delivery. He was simmering with anger about being cut off from meals and was mentally plotting how to retaliate.

Therefore, it took a while for him to even notice the knocking. The sound was so soft that he took off his headphones in confusion and listened for a moment before confirming that someone was indeed knocking on the door.

Li Yunhui went to open the door in confusion. “Wha—”

“Shh—!”

The young man outside the door immediately became nervous, quickly shushing him to keep quiet. He then thrust his hands forward, pressing something into Li Yunhui’s hands.

Li Yunhui looked down in confusion. It was… two cups of rice, a cup of dishes, and a cup with two large chicken legs??

Li Yunhui was stunned and looked up blankly.

A relieved smile appeared on Li Shuyun’s face, as if he had completed a major task. His eyes curved as he whispered, “Brother, eat quickly, don’t let Uncle Zhao find out! Is this enough? If not, I’ll go get you two more cups.”

It took Li Yunhui a moment to process. “…It’s enough. But where did this food come from? He wouldn’t have prepared food for two people. This wasn’t taken from your own bowl, was it??”

Li Shuyun’s expression tensed instantly. He quickly pushed him back into the room. “Uncle Zhao is coming back soon, I have to go down and eat! Brother, eat quickly, don’t let it get cold, and don’t go hungry!”

After speaking, he didn’t wait for Li Yunhui to reply at all. He directly closed the door and disappeared in a quick trot.

Li Yunhui: “…”

Li Yunhui glanced at the unyielding door, then down at the cups of food in his hands, and suddenly burst out laughing.

He placed the food and chopsticks on his desk. The food delivery page he had been browsing was still lit up on the bed.

He thought with amusement, in this day and age, how could anyone actually starve?

He opened the chopsticks and ate a few bites of the meat and vegetables, but his mind was on Li Shuyun’s thievingly nervous expression and his pure, sincere concern when he had opened the door.

Li Shuyun’s eyes were practically windows to his emotions; whatever was on his mind was written plainly in them. Just like the nervousness he showed when Li Yunhui had called him out on the source of the rice. It was really…

As Li Yunhui thought about it, he couldn’t help but laugh again.

He had clearly come home to “lead Li Shuyun astray,” so how did he end up being cared for with food from his bowl instead?

With those two laughs, the bellyful of anger he had been holding in vanished without a trace.

He bit into a chicken leg with amusement and continued browsing the delivery app.

But this time, he was no longer looking at main courses.

He still remembered that at Old Master Cheng’s birthday party a while back, his brother seemed to really like strawberry cake. So he found a cake shop, picked out a single-serving strawberry shortcake, and placed the order.

…

The impact of having his living expenses cut off was not only reflected in his three meals.

One day, the butler came back from shopping with a load of things. Considering that the house had never stocked snacks according to Li Shuyun’s taste, he had bought enough to fill two large cabinets this time. One cabinet for room temperature items, and one for frozen.

The variety was complete, and the flavors were guaranteed.

And the other young master of the house?

What a joke. They wouldn’t even provide him with three meals a day, so how could they provide him with snacks?

Li Yunhui didn’t really care about having snacks or not. He wasn’t one for munching, and even before his allowance was cut, he had no particular fondness for snacks. He was only annoyed by the differential treatment that resulted from his allowance being cut.

But Li Shuyun cared a lot.

So, in the following days, every time Li Shuyun opened the cabinet to look for snacks, he would secretly stuff a few bags into his pockets. Then he would nonchalantly go sit in his brother’s room for a while, and when he came out, his bulging pockets would be flat again!

The number of snacks in Li Yunhui’s bedroom reached an all-time high after Li Shuyun’s arrival.

Li Yunhui’s reaction to this: …

^ ^ Ah, what could he do? It was just that his brother was so kind-hearted and worried so much, always afraid he would be wronged and go hungry.

Li Yunhui’s mood was buoyant. For a time, for the better part of a month, he couldn’t bring himself to disturb his brother’s classes. If he disrupted his brother’s classes, he would definitely start a verbal war with the butler right in front of his brother, and there was a chance his brother would get scolded by the butler as a result.

But if he didn’t disrupt his brother’s classes? So many days had passed, and he couldn’t even find a reason or an opportunity to take his brother out! The butler watched the boy like a hawk every day, guarding against him as if he were a tiger. It was truly difficult to find an opening.

However, in these past few days, Li Yunhui had actually found a new activity that was more interesting than (mentally) disrupting Li Shuyun’s lessons.

Li Shuyun’s piano practice room was on the first floor. A transparent glass wall separated the piano room from the first-floor living room. There were curtains that could block the view between the two areas, but Li Shuyun rarely closed them when he practiced.

Sometimes when Li Yunhui went down to the first floor and happened to catch Li Shuyun during his practice time, he could see him playing the piano through the transparent glass.

It had to be said, Li Shuyun truly had the gentle looks and build suitable for artistic pursuits. Especially when the morning sun streamed in through the piano room window, filling the entire space, falling on the classic and elegant piano, on the fair and soft side of his hand on the keys, and then among the soft, clean strands of the young man’s hair. The scene was utterly perfect.

To what degree was it perfect?

As Li Yunhui watched, he couldn’t resist taking out his phone and snapping several photos.

Just taking the photos wasn’t enough; he also had to show them off to his good buddies, adding a cool and reserved caption: [Look, my bro.]

Then he would bask in the resulting awe and admiration with satisfaction.

These days were truly different from the past.

So much so that as Li Yunhui lived them, he used the excuse of “not being able to find a good opportunity that won’t get my brother scolded” to quietly postpone his grand plan day after day.

However, one morning, before Li Yunhui was fully awake, he heard a chattering of voices outside his room.

Awakened by the noise, Li Yunhui was filled with morning grumpiness. He irritably threw off his covers and pulled open the door.

The sound was coming from the second floor.

Bleary-eyed, Li Yunhui stomped heavily down the stairs, intending to quickly question the source of the noise and then go back to his room to sleep in.

However, he had only taken a few steps down the stairs when he heard the voices from the second floor clearly.

It was the family doctor’s voice.

This family doctor had also once been a direct subordinate of Li Zhenghen and was particularly skilled at treating all kinds of external injuries. But for any other ailments, he had to call the part-time family doctor who wasn’t permanently stationed at the house.

“…It’s nothing serious, just a low-grade fever. It’s likely due to a combination of stress from classes these past two days and catching a chill last night. As long as he rests well today, takes some medicine, and gets plenty of sleep, he should be fine.”

…A fever? Who?

A third of Li Yunhui’s sleepiness dissipated.

Then, he heard the butler’s voice, full of confusion. “What’s so stressful about the classes? One in the morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening, with enough rest time in between. I think the bigger problem is him kicking off his blanket every night!”

The butler pondered for a moment, then continued, “Little Young Master, since you have a fever, let’s skip the equestrian lesson this afternoon. We’ll move the morning chess lesson to the afternoon. For now, just rest well.”

Li Yunhui, listening from the doorway, couldn’t hold back his anger any longer.

He pushed the door open forcefully, strode in front of his brother’s bed, and glared at the butler, furious. “He still has lessons today?? A fever is a fever, whether it’s high or low. What’s so important about these stupid classes that he has to attend them while he’s sick?!”