Chapter 49

Bai Ying and Yun Ze had arranged to visit the orphanage where they stayed as children.

The next morning, the air was humid, and the breeze that blew in their faces felt fresh and pleasant. Because it had rained the day before, the temperature was a bit low. While Bai Ying pondered which outfit would look good to wear out, Liu Qingzhang thought only about how the little snake should dress to avoid getting cold.

In his eyes, anyway, the little snake looked good no matter what.

In the end, Bai Ying layered a bean-green jacket over his thin clothes. He hadn’t gotten around to cutting his slightly long hair yet, so he used the hair tie Duan Yunjin had given him when he returned to the company to report on his work earlier and tied it into a small ponytail. Bai Ying ran out of the residential complex and found the car already parked by the roadside. He gently knocked on the window, and the young man reflected in it looked gentle and cute.

The window rolled down, revealing Yun Ze in the driver’s seat. In the previous few times Bai Ying had seen him, Yun Ze had always worn a stiff suit, giving him a cold and serious first impression. Now, dressed in casual clothes, Yun Ze finally gave Bai Ying the feeling that they were actually the same age.

“Let’s go, get out and eat breakfast,” Bai Ying called, urging him to get out of the car. “There’s a little wonton place nearby that’s especially delicious.”

It was still early. Bai Ying had woken up, washed up, gotten dressed, and come straight to find Yun Ze, so his stomach was empty. Yun Ze hadn’t eaten breakfast either. Excited about seeing little Ying the next day, he hadn’t fallen asleep until late the night before. In his dreams, he kept playing hide-and-seek with little Ying from their childhood but could never find him. He startled awake from the dream when it was just barely dawn, grabbed his car keys, and drove to the complex where Bai Ying lived. His heart had felt empty the whole time until he saw Bai Ying, which finally filled it.

Bai Ying grabbed Yun Ze’s hand and pulled him to eat the little wontons he’d been craving.

The breakfast shop was right outside the complex, and every diner raved about the wontons there. But soupy foods were best eaten in the shop. Bai Ying was so busy with work that he might not get to eat them even once a month.

Fortunately, he was on vacation now, with several days to spare. Bai Ying ordered a bowl of little wontons each for himself and Yun Ze. That definitely wouldn’t fill up two grown men, so he added two steamers of xiaolongbao.

Amid the rising steam, Bai Ying ate very contentedly.

Bai Ying ate quietly, without making much noise, but anyone watching could tell he was enjoying it thoroughly. After being abducted as a child and frequently going hungry, Yun Ze had become extremely protective of his food—whoever dared touch his bowl got hit. Yet he was willing to give the one piece of egg cake each child got to Bai Ying, just to see him smile in satisfaction.

But the little snake never hogged food for himself.

When little Xun gave him egg cake, he’d split little Xun’s share in half and his own in half too, so in the end, they each had one piece. When little Xun tried to let him have the candy, he’d sneak his own candy into little Xun’s mouth when he wasn’t looking… And now, Bai Ying had finished the seaweed in his bowl early. When Yun Ze tried to pick his own out to give him, Bai Ying shot him a glare.

“Little Xun is so dumb,” Bai Ying said.

Yun Ze thought to himself, Where am I dumb? It’s clearly this guy in front of me who’s always so silly.

Then he saw Bai Ying give the lady boss an extra dollar to buy a big handful of seaweed.

Okay, maybe he was a little dumb, Yun Ze admitted to himself. But he couldn’t help it—facing Bai Ying always made him want to give him everything he had.

After finishing breakfast, Bai Ying dragged Yun Ze to a nearby small supermarket. Their destination was a bit far and really remote; they probably wouldn’t find a place for lunch. Yun Ze carried a not-too-large shopping basket stuffed with bread and snacks that Bai Ying had picked out. Bai Ying grabbed two bottles of juice from the freezer and turned to ask Yun Ze, “Little Xun, have you gone back to see it?”

“I went once a few years ago,” Yun Ze said. “The grass had grown really tall. Not sure what it’s like now.”

“Maybe it’s grown up to our knees,” Bai Ying said as he placed the two bottles of juice on the checkout counter with the basket. “If we were still kids, I’d hide in the grass, and you wouldn’t be able to find me!”

“But if little Ying really hid too well and no one could find him, he’d get anxious and cry, right?” Yun Ze laughed.

“I wouldn’t!” Bai Ying refused to admit it.

But Yun Ze clearly remembered one time when the kids were playing hide-and-seek. Bai Ying spotted a bamboo basket that the teachers usually kept odds and ends in, in the corner. He had the bright idea to flip it upside down, crawl inside, and hug his knees while sitting there all morning. He wouldn’t speak back then, so the other kids couldn’t find him, and he stubbornly stayed silent without coming out. As the sun rose higher and higher, the teachers rang the bell calling the kids to lunch, but still no one had found him. Bai Ying ended up crying anxiously inside the basket.

That day, Yun Ze hadn’t played with them; he had too many visible and hidden injuries, so the orphanage teachers took him to the hospital for a checkup. When he returned at noon and overheard the teachers and kids talking about playing hide-and-seek but not finding Bai Ying, Yun Ze quietly ran to the garden. In no time, he moved the upside-down bamboo basket and found the “girl” sitting inside, who had cried until her face was a mess like a tabby cat. The moment she saw him, she reached out her arms for a hug.

He held him for a good long while before finally coaxing him down.

At this moment, Yun Ze didn’t expose Bai Ying; he just smiled without saying anything. Sure enough, not long after, the honest little snake admitted it himself: “Okay, maybe it happened like that before, but not anymore…”

He rested his head on Yun Ze’s shoulder, like he was acting spoiled.

The cashier handed Yun Ze a big bag of food and drinks. Yun Ze scanned the code to pay. There were no other customers, just the two of them at the counter. The cashier smiled and chatted with them: “You two have such a good relationship. Is this one your boyfriend or little brother?”

Bai Ying thought, Can’t I be the older brother? Little Xun and I are the same age!

Yun Ze laughed. “She’s my little sister.”

Bai Ying glared at him from behind and poked his lower back hard.

The cashier took it as them fooling around and laughed even more happily.

Back in the car, Bai Ying emphasized to Yun Ze, “We’re the same age!”

Yun Ze held back a laugh. “Got it, little Ying sister.”

The car started moving, and Bai Ying huffed as he buckled his seatbelt.

“Seriously, back then I always thought of you as my little sister. It was just a coincidence—the teachers always called you ‘little Ying, little Ying.’ Even after Mom and Dad took me away, I didn’t realize you were actually a boy,” Yun Ze said as he drove, reminiscing. “I still remember one time someone yanked your braid. You didn’t say anything, but your eyes turned red from the pain, so I rushed over and beat that person up. Afterward, Dean Mama called me in to scold me, saying I shouldn’t hit people and to call a teacher when there’s a problem. But in the end, she praised me because I was right to protect little Ying. I thought then that as a big brother, you definitely have to protect your little sister.”

“Ahem.” Bai Ying coughed lightly, a bit embarrassed. “So, were you disappointed when you saw me? The little sister from your memories suddenly turned into a man…”

“No, whether sister or brother, what I care about is you,” Yun Ze said.

Brother or sister, what Yun Ze wanted now was to become even more intimate partners with Bai Ying.

But even if that wish couldn’t come true, Yun Ze would forever protect and cherish him as an older brother.

“However…” Yun Ze suddenly changed the subject. “After I could make some sounds, I mentioned you to Mom and Dad and asked them to look for you. They thought they were about to gain a daughter. They were disappointed for a while when they couldn’t find you. A while ago, when I told them I’d found you and that you weren’t actually a girl, they were shocked.”

Bai Ying joked with him, “Did I shatter a lot of people’s beautiful illusions?”

“You’re great no matter what,” Yun Ze said. “They really want to meet you… Little Ying, how about having dinner at my place tonight?”

“Huh?” Bai Ying froze, his hands in front of him clenching nervously. “W-Wouldn’t that be too abrupt?”

“No, it wouldn’t.” They hit a red light ahead, so Yun Ze stopped the car and reassuringly patted Bai Ying’s head. “They’ll definitely like you.”

“Okay then…” Bai Ying agreed, then started worrying about something else. When visiting a friend’s house, shouldn’t you bring gifts for their elders?

He wasn’t sure if there’d be time to prepare on the way back; the old orphanage site was really too remote.

Shen City seemed to have traffic jams twenty-four hours a day, but as they drove out of the main urban area, the roads cleared up, and the cars grew sparser the further they went. Due to some policy reasons, the residents in the area where the orphanage was had collectively relocated toward the main city district, leaving that whole stretch abandoned. After getting off the highway, Yun Ze followed the navigation onto a small road. On either side, they could see emptied residential buildings—some had been demolished for factories, others sat untouched, silently standing on the land.

The Sunny Welfare Institute where they had stayed as children was one of them.

Yun Ze parked in front of two rusty iron gates. There was no parking lot nearby, so he just pulled over to the roadside; this area had no traffic cops anyway. He grabbed the bag of food from the back seat and handed a juice from it to Bai Ying. They’d been driving for two hours, so Bai Ying was probably thirsty.

After taking a sip, Bai Ying hugged the juice and looked toward the iron gates crawling with unidentified vines, murmuring, “So the front gate was this short.”

In his memories, the gates had been very tall—craning his neck until it hurt to see the whole thing. But as an adult, he realized the gates were actually quite short and flimsy. The lock had long rusted out, and with a gentle push, they swung open.

Bai Ying followed Yun Ze inside. The ground was overgrown with weeds, just as Bai Ying had guessed—up to their knees, with some blades even sprouting stubbornly from the concrete.

The orphanage was laid out in a “回” shape: the front had the hall, dining room, classrooms, and other public activity areas; the back had the kids’ and teachers’ living quarters and some offices; in the middle was a small garden with a sand pit, two swings, and a very basic slide—that was all the play equipment for the children.

“In my memories, the orphanage always felt huge,” Bai Ying said after easily walking from one end of the corridor to the other. “It’s actually so small.”

Yun Ze said, “It must have seemed huge to kids.”

Most of the room doors were open; anything valuable in the orphanage had been moved out during the relocation. But a few rooms had been locked for some reason, like the dorm where Bai Ying and Yun Ze had slept as children. They wanted to go in and look, and while Bai Ying hesitated about breaking the lock, Yun Ze, who also didn’t want to damage the door, simply climbed through the window of the neighboring dorm.

“Little Xun!” Bai Ying exclaimed in surprise.

“Don’t worry,” Yun Ze said. “There’s a ledge outside.”

Most of the orphanage windows had external ledges, so Yun Ze easily stepped across into the locked room and opened the door for Bai Ying from inside. As Bai Ying wiped the dust off his hands with wet wipes, he complained, “That’s too dangerous. What if you fell?”

Yun Ze showed no sign of remorse. “It’s fine, this is only the second floor.”

Bai Ying glared at him.

Yun Ze immediately backpedaled. “My bad, I won’t do it again next time.”

Inside the room, the children’s small beds were still in their fixed positions.

The orphanage dorms were actually pretty big—about the size of a normal family’s living room—but they housed a lot of kids at once. Ten small beds were arranged in two rows facing each other. Bai Ying slept in bed number two, Yun Ze in number nine; they were at opposite ends of the longest diagonal.

The teachers hadn’t arranged it that way on purpose; Yun Ze had arrived relatively late. As a “veteran” who’d been there since infancy, Bai Ying had an early bed number. Latecomers like Yun Ze got the end spots.

The orphanage mixed boys and girls who hadn’t started elementary school yet. Bai Ying had all girls around him, and Yun Ze was too shy to ask to switch with one, so he silently took the spot farthest from Bai Ying, clutching his quilt, his eyes reluctant to leave the person sleeping by the door.

Such a small child looked so lonely, like he’d been abandoned by his little sister.

“I used to sneak over to sleep with you all the time,” Bai Ying said upon hearing Yun Ze bring up the old days. “The teachers scolded me for it several times!”

Actually, Yun Ze often snuck over to sleep with him after lights out too.

Sometimes it was because Bai Ying had heard ghost stories during the day, and Yun Ze, afraid he’d be scared at night, came to keep little Ying sister company. Sometimes it was thundering and windy at night, and Bai Ying knew Yun Ze was afraid of thunder, so he’d hug his pillow and burrow into Yun Ze’s covers. Most times, there was no special reason; the two kids just wanted to be together.

The orphanage actually didn’t allow children to sleep together, fearing they would chat too late at night and not get enough sleep. But Bai Ying and Yun Ze had been two little mutes back then, and they never disturbed each other in the evenings. After the teachers mentioned it a few times, they let them be.

“It’s still pretty clean here.” Bai Ying looked around and said to Yun Ze, “Let’s tidy up a bit and have lunch right here.”

There was a small table and two stools in the room, just enough for them to sit.

The orphanage had long since stopped supplying water, but fortunately, they had bought plenty of wet wipes. Bai Ying was about to clean up with Yun Ze when a phone call came in.

Bai Ying paused for a moment, pulled out his phone, and after seeing the caller’s name, he hesitated for a long time before finally hanging up.

“What’s wrong?” Yun Ze sensed that something was off.

Bai Ying looked at Yun Ze, his expression full of hesitation.

Yun Ze’s face gradually grew serious. “Did you run into some trouble? Tell me, and I’ll take care of it.”

“It’s not…” Bai Ying struggled for a long while before letting out a soft sigh and telling Yun Ze, “The day before yesterday, a good friend of mine confessed to me.”

The call he hadn’t dared to answer was from Lu Changjun.