Chapter 27: The Secret of a Brother
Chapter 27
The wind was warm and gentle.
Little Jiang Mianmian gaped in astonishment, drooling all over.
Elder brother Jiang Feng's face was originally honest and loyal.
Looking at him straight on, he still seemed honest and loyal.
After being injured, his body also had a feeling of weakness, making him seem even more honest.
But you couldn't look at the left side of his face.
On his left eye was something magical - there was actually a flower.
It was like a tattoo.
And a three-dimensional embossed tattoo at that.
The hideous wound had actually turned into a three-dimensional flower.
From this left angle, it had a sense of beauty like Guanyin subduing a demon.
It was a little frightening.
...
But father was amazing to know how to treat the wound this way. It seemed like an ancient version of a high-frequency electric knife, using ultra high temperatures to separate and solidify bodily tissues, stopping bleeding and preventing cross infection.
Mother Jiang let go of elder brother. Elder brother spit out the cork and foolishly smiled.
"Father, Mother, I feel I've recovered. I'm extremely spirited now."
Little Jiang Mianmian saw father put down his spear and sit back in the bamboo chair.
Jiang Changtian's back was drenched in sweat.
But his face revealed a relaxed smile.
"Yes, you've recovered. You'll continue to recover. Sleep first now."
Jiang Feng didn't want to sleep. He was reluctant to sleep, afraid to sleep.
But he eventually fell asleep.
Because father Jiang Changtian had set up a reclining chair next to him, and fell asleep together.
He would wake with a start occasionally, and as long as he saw father next to him, heard father's breathing, he would fall back asleep until he was in deep slumber.
Little Jiang Mianmian was carried by mother to the yard and laid on her stomach to sun her bottom.
Mother folded her arms and legs, exposing her bottom, and placed her under a tree to sun.
It wasn't direct sunlight, but dappled light filtering through the tree leaves.
But...
This position was really embarrassing.
She was mooning the whole village!
Even though people didn't have telescopes now, or Google Maps, still...
At first Little Jiang Mianmian wanted to resist, but later realized lying in the sun felt too comfortable. She fell asleep.
She had actually fallen asleep just like that.
When she opened her eyes again, she remembered she had been mooning.
Luckily her bottom was covered now, but she was still sleeping on her stomach.
It seemed sleeping on her stomach was also very cozy.
Then she saw elder sister walking back and forth in front of her in new embroidered shoes.
Elder sister was so smug...
Turning her head she saw elder brother lying next to her on a bamboo recliner.
It was noon. Father had rested for an hour and gone to work.
After father left, Jiang Feng woke up.
He was suddenly very afraid of the dark.
Afraid of being alone.
Lying under the tree, basking in the sunlight, watching his little sister, only then could he feel at ease.
At this moment as he lay on the bamboo recliner looking out at the village, he would turn to check on his sleeping little sister from time to time.
Seeing that little sister was awake, she turned her head and gave him a foolish grin.
Jiang Feng also smiled.
Little sister really loved to laugh.
Her laughter melted his heart.
The bones ached.
Little Jiang Yu walked around him in circles with a silly look on her face, showing off her new embroidered shoes.
Round and round she went.
Dizzying him.
Jiang Feng said, "Weren't you going to show off to Little Cui? Why haven't you left yet."
Little Jiang Yu carefully walked in small steps and said, "Mother said to take care of you and little sister, and not run around. I can just wear them at home."
Little Jiang Mianmian had sunned enough. Supporting herself on her little arms, she slowly shifted her center of gravity and pushed with effort, lifted her hips, and plop...
She failed to roll over. f𝗿𝚎eweb𝗻o𝐯𝐞l.𝚌om
Beside her rang out elder sister's laughter.
"Hahahahaha, little sister you look just like that little turtle, she actually can't roll over."
Little Jiang Mianmian: ...
Let's see you roll over after just over a month, show me.
Then she was manually rolled over by elder sister.
Little Jiang Mianmian was so angry she peed...
Dare to laugh at me, I dare to make you smell my pee, poop, and farts.
After getting a new diaper, little Jiang Mianmian lying in the small wooden basin saw elder brother still watching her, a smile at the corner of his mouth.
She babbled a greeting, "Yiya yaya", then went back to playing on her own.
She had no choice, turning to look at elder brother was tiring.
Others drank from the magic spring water and got rich and powerful, embarking on great ventures and turning their lives around. She drank from the magic spring water, and just wanted to work hard to roll over...and even failed at that.
Little Jiang Mianmian was not discouraged. Human nature is to find someone weaker to bully, which makes you feel a little happier.
She looked at the little ants in her family's yard, and dragged another leaf over the hole they had dug. The holes had a staggered, uneven height, like little chairs. The ants sat there leisurely, the leaf like a sunshade. Give it a straw and a drink, and little Jiang Mianmian suspected it would sit with one leg crossed over the other drinking away.
She wondered how ants cross their legs. Do they cross two legs together, or four legs together?
After watching for a while, little Jiang Mianmian decisively pushed the leaf off the side of the wooden basin.
The sunlight immediately shone directly on the little ant's head.
Little Jiang Mianmian actually saw the little ant give her a helpless glare, then jump down itself.
After a while, a leaf slowly moved up from the edge of the basin again.
Oh no!
Little Jiang Mianmian suddenly felt she liked it a little.
It tried so hard.
Just as little Jiang Mianmian was watching intently, a large hand suddenly reached over.
The little ant and leaf fell into that big hand.
Little Jiang Mianmian was given a fright.
Looking up, it was elder brother. He must have noticed what she was doing since he woke up and kept watching her.
Little Jiang Mianmian worried elder brother would crush her little ant. That was an ant that had drank magic spring water. She hurriedly protested.
"Yiyaya, yiyaya." (Give it back to me)
She waved her arms and yelled loudly.
Since waking up, Jiang Feng had kept his eyes fixed on little sister, as if it had become a habit.
He stared unblinking, watching her move, trying hard to roll over, even playing with a little ant. Every move she made warmed his heart.
No one understood that feeling.
It wasn't like a dream. It wasn't, because the pain was too great, the bones all hurting finely and incessantly.
He also discovered he had become much stronger, because when he used his arms to get up from bed, he broke off a piece of his bed frame.
He remembered mother saying the bed she made for him was from very hard, precious old wood. But the piece of wood he broke off, he lightly squeezed it in his hand, and it turned into powder.
Leaning on the recliner, he slowly released the wooden dust from his hand bit by bit.
He thought this must be related to what he had experienced. He must have really died. His whole family would die. He was too unwilling to accept it, so he came back.
He would keep this secret. He absolutely wouldn't tell anyone.
That kind of experience, just thinking about it made his face stream with bitter tears.
He looked at the green leaf in his hand, the little ant on the leaf, snarling and waving its claws.
Seeing little sister stretch out her hand eagerly, he could understand her cries. Really, after watching little sister his whole life, he had only hoped she could say a sentence in response.
Now she was responding sentence by sentence.
He gently placed the leaf and ant back where they were, then reached out and stroked little sister's head.
Warm, soft, not hard, not brittle. He cracked a smile.
Little Jiang Mianmian saw the ant come back and breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she felt elder brother stroking her head. She didn't know why, but it gave her the chills, feeling like elder brother was stroking not her head, but her skull...
...