Chapter 153: Prison

Familiar, somewhat childish baby fat.

Familiar light black natural curls that looked messy at a glance.

Familiar thin and frail shoulders with no masculinity at all.

But everything other than that was unfamiliar.

The unfamiliar smile on the familiar face, wearing an unfamiliar expression of freedom and unbridledness, the unfamiliar abundant and positive emotions radiating from the whole body…

Just then, hurried and oppressive footsteps walked quickly from the house. The familiar woman had a trace of restrained anger on her face.

“Wen Siheng! …This is your brother. Don’t do this kind of thing in front of him.”

Wen Shaozhuo looked dazedly at the young man in front of him, feeling as if he had detached from reality.

Wen Siheng. The other person’s name. Is his… brother?

Biological brother, twin brother.

…When did he have a brother?

Wen Yifeng also came in from outside at this time.

His original anger stagnated when he saw Wen Siheng, and his tone became slightly more polite: “…Shaozhuo, meet your brother. This is Siheng. We don’t know which nurse took him away back then. He has grown up in an orphanage all these years.”

“Now that Siheng has finally returned home, as the elder in the family, take care of Siheng more usually. Understood?”

Wen Shaozhuo’s breathing, which had slightly smoothed due to surprise, became stuffy and suffocating again when he heard the man’s voice.

Wen Shaozhuo’s voice was as thin as a mosquito, responding: “…Yes, Dad.”

Wen Qingcai was very dissatisfied with her son’s performance, but the substitute actor had just entered the house, and she couldn’t scold her son too much in front of the substitute actor right away.

She said nicely: “How about this, Siheng, you live in…”

Before she finished, Wen Siheng’s energetic voice interrupted her directly: “Mom! I want to live with Shaozhuo!”

Wen Qingcai frowned immediately: “Live together? This isn’t an orphanage; where are the rooms for you to live together?”

Wen Siheng was instantly disappointed: “Eh? Is home not even comparable to an orphanage? Sleeping together, how interesting that would be! …Fine, fine, then I’ll reluctantly live next door to Shaozhuo!”

Wen Shaozhuo lowered his head stiffly. The noisy voices in his ears sounded so unfamiliar and unreal to him.

…They would definitely prefer a positive and outgoing child like the other person, right? …Did they want to replace him long ago, so they went to the orphanage? …Also, they must have long stopped wanting to raise someone like him, right? …

In just four seconds, Wen Shaozhuo’s thoughts drifted uncontrollably to what would happen if he were kicked out of the house.

He wouldn’t be able to afford food or housing, would die in the cold wind on the street, would be dragged into alleys by bad guys to have hands and feet chopped off and organs dug out to sell, and might even be sold to small mountain villages…

“Shaozhuo? …Shaozhuo!”

The calling pulled Wen Shaozhuo back to reality. Wen Shaozhuo’s shoulders trembled slightly; he subconsciously thought it was Dad or Mom calling him.

But when he raised his head, what he saw was the twin brother who shared the same appearance as him.

Dad and Mom had left the living room at some point.

Only his twin brother remained standing in front of him.

The twin brother’s eyes held curiosity and inquiry, as well as an unfamiliar and soft emotion. This emotion was white, blurry, slightly bright but not blinding.

Wen Siheng squatted down curiously, looking up into his eyes: “Do you not like me calling your name?”

Wen Shaozhuo was startled by this sudden approach. He subconsciously shrank his head, taking a big step back in fright: “You… what are you doing…”

The twin brother’s gaze followed him, blinking slowly twice, then asked again: “If you don’t like it, what should I call you? A’Shao? How about that? Does anyone call you that?”

Wen Shaozhuo: “…”

Wen Shaozhuo rarely communicated with outsiders. Once an outsider spoke to him, he would become as nervous as he was now, hair almost standing on end.

He opened his mouth, using all his strength to keep his voice from trembling too embarrassingly, and whispered: “No.”

Wen Siheng’s eyes curved up: “Then this is my exclusive address? That’s great!”

Wen Siheng straightened up, eyes filled with bright smiles.

Wen Siheng’s height was almost the same as his. In Wen Shaozhuo’s cognition all along, a height of less than 1.7 meters would be very embarrassing and unlikable in the eyes of classmates. But when he truly saw Wen Siheng, he suddenly realized that this height, at least when on Wen Siheng, wasn’t so unacceptable.

The twin brother’s hair was tied into a small bun at the back of his head. At this moment, the small bun swayed casually, and the other person hopped lightly beside him.

Wen Siheng: “Just now Dad said we’d decide who is older and younger by rock-paper-scissors. But I think you definitely have to be my younger brother. What do you think? Call me older brother to hear?”

Wen Siheng: “By the way, my room is right next to yours. I don’t know what it looks like yet. Do you want to go see it with me? What do you like to do usually? Do you want to come to my room to play tonight?”

Chatter, chatter. Chatter, chatter. Wen Shaozhuo rarely encountered such an enthusiastic and outgoing person and didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

So he almost ran back to his room, and amidst the other’s surprised and short “Wait—”, slammed the door shut backhand.

Wen Siheng called him confusedly outside the door: “A’Shao, A’Shao? Don’t close the door—”

Wen Shaozhuo panicked and turned the deadbolt on the door lock, his suspended mood slightly… wait?

Wen Shaozhuo twisted the deadbolt back, out, back, out, back and forth many times blankly and flusteredly, but the deadbolt never popped out.

…The door lock is broken?

It was them… they must have broken it on purpose!

…They always disliked his habit of locking himself in the room. A few days ago, they discovered him locking the door in the room. They must, must…

Huge panic and uneasiness wrapped around Wen Shaozhuo’s heart. He immediately turned around and threw himself onto the desk.

His desk was originally filled with paintbrushes and pigments, but at this time, these things were gone without a trace. The easel originally standing by the wall was nowhere to be found.

He stumbled to the bedside again, feeling under the bed.

Originally, a collection of past paintings was hidden under his bed board, but now feeling it, he only felt emptiness.

Gone, gone, all gone…!

Wen Shaozhuo sat dazedly on the floor.

He reached under the bedding almost despairingly, but this touch was empty again—his blade was also gone.

Everything was gone.

Gone, gone! This was basically not his room!

Wen Shaozhuo felt like he had lost all clothes on his body, exposed uneasily to the world.

He grabbed his left hand tightly in a breakdown, trying to pick, press, and squeeze, trying to create pain to distract himself from such huge panic.

However, just at this time, banging sounds came from outside the door, next door. Immediately after, hurried and forceful footsteps came up from downstairs.

The slightly annoyed man’s voice sounded next door: “What are you doing? So loud?”

The twin brother’s voice was careless and full of vitality: “Moving the table! Dad, look, this table is so in the way here… I want to play with A’Shao tonight. If there’s more space…”

The man was somewhat astonished: “Play together?”

His voice followed with anger: “…Play what play, Shaozhuo still has classes tonight! …By the way, if you didn’t say it, I would have forgotten. You also have to attend together!”

The twin brother was extremely surprised: “Class? What class? What school opens at night?”

The man’s voice was already somewhat impatient: “Private tutor! Tonight Shaozhuo has an etiquette class; you attend together too. Starting today, walking outside, you represent the face of our Wen family. At least you can’t…”

Wen Shaozhuo sat on the floor, hearing the conversation clearly.

Etiquette class was one of the classes he hated most. Not only was the content boring, but the etiquette teacher also constantly manipulated his hands and feet, forcing him to practice movements over and over again, forcing him to speak constantly…

But what if he didn’t want to attend? They would always force him to attend. If he wasn’t willing, they would talk about him, scold him, accuse him.

…Was his twin brother going to fall into the same situation as him?

The twin brother was extremely shocked: “Etiquette class?! Wait, did I just go back to feudal society? What’s the use of learning this stuff? With this time, might as well let me and A’Shao go out to play basketball!”

The man was somewhat provoked: “Play basketball? We brought you home, not for you to take him to play basketball! If you like playing basketball so much, just go back to your… your orphanage to live! Don’t forget whose house this is, figure out your position!”

Just listening to the man’s angry voice, Wen Shaozhuo felt like a saw was constantly sawing beside his ears. His hands trembled uncontrollably slightly, covering his ears tightly and painfully, yet unable to completely block out this voice.

But precisely because of this, Wen Shaozhuo heard that voice, which carried a sense of unfamiliarity but should theoretically be identical to his own, let out a “Hah”, tone extremely surprised.

Twin brother: “Strange, is going out to play basketball illegal nowadays or what? Things I could do in the orphanage, how come I can’t do them after leaving the orphanage and returning home?”

Wen Shaozhuo’s tears, which had just filled his eyes due to various painful thoughts, suddenly stagnated in his eye sockets at this moment.

The twin brother’s voice was righteous and confident, words clear, just the tone slightly exaggerated: “Let alone an orphanage, in this era, you can even play basketball in prison! What, Dad, our family can’t be worse than an orphanage and a prison, right?”