Facing Yang Xuan's almost staring eyes, Tang Junhe lowered his eyelids, pinched his fingers repeatedly, and said after a while: "He followed me."

Yang Xuan didn't answer, just looked at him.

Tang Junhe bit his lower lip anxiously. Seeing that he didn't respond, he sniffed and said, "He tried to assault me, sexually assaulted, or obscene... I don't know, I escaped that time." Maybe it was because he had been suppressed for too long and never dared to tell others. Facing Yang Xuan, when he opened his mouth, he felt calm as if he had given up on himself.

"You can beat him up." Yang Xuan had no expression on his face.

"I was only 10 years old. I was very young at that time. He was my math teacher. I didn't know what he was going to do to me. I just felt a little scared." Tang Junhe looked like a prisoner under interrogation, with his head down , confessed his past, "I told my mother when I got home, and she took me to the principal the next day, and I realized it was a serious matter."

"The principal doesn't care?"

"Yeah." Tang Junhe said. He will never forget that scene. Tang Xiaonian pointed at Zhou Lin with the thin fruit knife, and then was roughly kicked out by the security guards. When she calmed down, the principal came to comfort her and said that she would investigate the matter clearly. . Tang Xiaonian refused to let go, so the principal threatened to call the police to deal with the matter.

"Scream," Tang Xiaonian looked sideways at the principal fearlessly, "Let's see if the police are going to arrest me or that perverted teacher."

The police really came. They took Tang Xiaonian away, found the fruit knife called the "murder weapon" from her, and detained her for "disturbing public order."

Naturally, he was not detained, so Tang Xiaonian had no choice but to call Yang Chengchuan, and then he was released. At that time, Yang Chengchuan was facing the pressure of being promoted from deputy director to director. He was supervised by his superiors and inspected by his father-in-law. Naturally, he didn't dare to get into trouble with mistresses. When he received Tang Xiaonian's phone call, he made a vow on the surface. After hanging up the phone, he hastily arranged for his subordinates to pick up Tang Xiaonian, and there was no follow-up.

Tang Junhe will never forget the scene where Tang Xiaonian was taken away by the police. He thought his mother Tang Xiaonian would never come back. He cried so hard that he grabbed the policeman's trousers and begged them to let his mother go. Yes, the answer to him was just a heavy kick, kicking him to the corner.

Ever since that time, Tang Junhe understood that tears are useless. He never cried again. He didn’t cry when he was followed by Zhou Lin after school. Didn't cry when violent. He has learned to use indifference against a world that is not very friendly to him.

…

"From the age of 10," Yang Xuan stood up, walked to the window and stopped, "that's six years of stalking."

"Well," Tang Junhe said, "When I was in elementary school, he didn't follow me often because I was in a school. Later, when I was in middle school, he started to follow me every Friday. Then I came here, He lost his job and started following me every day."

"Just stalking?"

"At first, I was just stalking, and then I came up to talk to me, trying to touch me, but if I drink," Tang Junhe paused, swallowed his throat and said, "I will try to do some more excessive things , you saw it, that time in the bar."

Yang Xuan looked out the window and said after a few minutes: "I couldn't fight when I was ten years old, but I can beat it later."

"I fought, and he doesn't fight back very much, but it's useless, he will continue to follow me."

"That's because the beating wasn't hard enough." When Yang Xuan said this, he didn't speak fast, but there was an imperceptible hostility in his tone.

"Maybe." Tang Junhe fell silent after saying these two words. He didn't want to say in front of Yang Xuan that he couldn't beat Zhou Lin, nor did he want to admit that Zhou Lin was far stronger than himself. He couldn't let Yang Xuan feel that he was showing weakness and begging him for help. An hour ago he was crying in front of Yang Xuan so helplessly and embarrassed, but now he is holding up ridiculous self-esteem.

"Did you call the police?" After a few minutes, Yang Xuan asked again.

"Reported," Tang Junhe said, "He did not cause substantial harm to me, and the police can't control him."

"Didn't you tell your mother?"

"I'm afraid he will hurt her, I," Tang Junhe still lowered his head, "I have no other relatives."

After saying this, both of them fell silent. The air conditioner in the room was turned on very low, and there was a deathly silence in the room, which made the non-stop chirping of cicadas outside the window extra noisy.

"I mean-"

"Nor did I tell—"

The two spoke at the same time and stopped at the same time.

"Ask." Tang Junhe said.

Yang Xuan didn't evade, and then asked after being interrupted just now: "Didn't you tell Yang Chengchuan?"

"No," Tang Junhe pinched his fingers and said, "There's no need to tell him." Seeing that Yang Xuan didn't speak, he hesitated to add, "I mean, he's your father..."

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Yang Xuan: "He is also your father."

"He's not," Tang Junhe lowered his head, and said exactly the same words as when he was a child, "I don't have a father, I only have a mother, and her name is Tang Xiaonian." The words were almost covered by the sound of the air conditioner cooling and the chirping of cicadas outside.

"Don't be naive," Yang Xuan sneered, "It's not up to you."

"Maybe." Tang Junhe's voice was still low, "But I don't want to rob you, believe it or not, I never thought of robbing you."

"So you would rather be a murderer?" Yang Xuan turned around and leaned against the window sill, looking at him. His brows were furrowed again, and his eyes were as fierce as when he was fighting.

"I didn't, he deserves to die," Tang Junhe retorted in a low voice, as if he was telling Yang Xuan, more like convincing himself, "He not only tried to violate me, but also tried to violate many people. People like him , if you don't die you'll be trouble... And, no one will know, I went there many times, no one passed by, I killed him, and then stabbed myself, no one knows who stabbed first He still left marks on me, you see," he turned the bruise on his left wrist to Yang Xuan, "others will only think that I am defending myself, and I am a minor, even if I have defended myself Of course, I will give you a light sentence..." He memorized the laws on self-defense by heart, and explained to Yang Xuan in a hurry.

"Even if you succeed," Yang Xuan stared at him with gloomy eyes, "you are still an undiscovered murderer."

Tang Junhe was silent, and it took a long time before he spoke, and said softly, as if discouraged: "Then what else can I do."

"Besides, you said that no one would find out," Yang Xuan still stared at him, "Didn't I find out? If I recorded the scene of you killing him with my mobile phone and handed it over to the police, you've made up this set Justifiable defense rhetoric is useless."

"You won't." Tang Junhe suddenly looked up at him.

Yang Xuan turned his face away, avoiding the scorching gaze, and said with a sneer, "I can't do anything that can make your mother go crazy."

"You won't." Tang Junhe repeated stubbornly.

Yang Xuan felt the irritability that had barely subsided suddenly surged up again. His half-brother, who almost became a petty murderer an hour ago, looked at him innocently and trustingly and said "you won't".

Does he know how ridiculous his appearance is? Do you know that they are different from when they were young? Do you know how much he hates their mother and son? Do you know how many times he had thought about destroying him and letting his mother experience insanity?

Seeing that Yang Xuan didn't speak, Tang Junhe bit his lip and asked again: "Do you regret it?"

"What do you regret?" Yang Xuan glanced at him.

"Sorry for stopping me."

"Why do you ask?"

"I think you might regret it," Tang Junhe rubbed and pinched the bruised wrist nervously, as if he didn't feel any pain at all, and he said after a pause, "But it's useless to regret, you still put me Stop it, people can't control their instinctive reactions in certain situations."

Yang Xuan listened to him say this sentence slowly as if reciting lines, but didn't respond, and after a while, he smiled inexplicably.

"Let's go." After Yang Xuan finished speaking, he bent down and picked up the knife on the table, folded it up and put it in his pocket, walked towards the door, pulled out the room card for the electricity outlet and held it in his hand.

He walked away simply, without any intention of discussing with Tang Junhe.

Tang Junhe picked up the school uniform on the bed, held it in his arms, and followed Yang Xuan who was walking in front. He thought that he would no longer need to wear this airtight autumn and winter school uniform in the future. He was not afraid of the heat or being out of group, but taking it off still made him feel relieved.

Maybe we can fight for something else, Tang Junhe thought, he can't wait for Yang Xuan to take the initiative to ease the relationship with him, Yang Xuan won't, maybe he should take the initiative, what are those ridiculous self-esteem? He has an intuition that if he doesn't fight for something now, Yang Xuan won't bother him anymore.

"Can you return that knife to me?" Tang Junhe asked after entering the elevator after making a draft in his heart.

Yang Xuan looked at him, and said after a while: "Why, do you plan to continue?"

"It's just for self-defense," Tang Junhe explained calmly, "He may come again."

Yang Xuan didn't move, just said lightly: "Tell Yang Chengchuan to ask him to find a driver to pick you up."

"As I said, those are all your things." Tang Junhe grabbed the school uniform in his arms, trying to find an excuse.

"Then what do you want to do?" Yang Xuan asked casually, turning the room card in his hand.

"Maybe we can go home together," Tang Junhe said, "He looks very afraid of you."

"I don't want to use my things..." Yang Xuan deliberately paused for a moment, then looked at him with interest, "But you are not afraid to trouble me?"

Tang Junhe felt that his thoughts had been seen through, but he tried his best not to be so timid, and tried to look back at him calmly: "That's different."

The freshly washed hair was not completely dry, and a few strands of forehead hair were lifted up, revealing his smooth forehead loomingly—there was a small faint scar on it. The size of a small fingernail, the light color shows that it has been aged for a long time.

It was the scar from when I was a child, and Yang Xuan recognized it. There were always traces of these reminders of how close they had been.

"It depends on my mood." The elevator descended to the first floor, the door opened, Yang Xuan took his eyes off the scar and walked out of the elevator.

Tang Junhe knew that he had succeeded, he followed Yang Xuan out and watched him check out the card at the front desk.

His lips moved slightly, and no one noticed that he silently called "brother" behind Yang Xuan's back and in his own heart.