10.8 - There's no relationship between us
translator: xiin
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
Xue Ling first went into the bathroom, washed his face and rinsed out his mouth, changed his clothes, and tried to comb through his curls that were still stubbornly messy as always.
By the time he came out again, Wen Ruoyi had already taken the congee off the stove and the steamed buns out of the steamer. They were placed onto the plate one by one, and were white, fat, and very cute.
"Where did you get my key from?"
"Last time, when I went to get medicine for you, I prepared a spare just in case." Wen Ruoyi brought out the sauces he had prepared and sat down after everything was ready. "Although your house is very clean, it's obvious from the empty refrigerator and the basic kitchen utensils that you're not taking good care of yourself. The medicine you have at home is out of date and you haven't even changed it."
"That doesn't mean that you can just make a copy of my key and walk into my house as you like." As soon as Xue Ling finished speaking, a steamed bun was placed against his lips.
"Have a taste? I don't know what you like, so I made it the usual way."
Xue Ling wondered in his heart if he really cooked at home… but he didn't ask it out loud and merely gave Wen Ruoyi a glance before lowering his head to bite into the steamed bun. "Mm…"
The steamed bun was not very big, and could be finished in two or three bites. After he bit through the skin, the aroma of cooked meat burst out and entered his nose. The specially blended pork was wrapped inside the skin and gave off a distinctive fragrance after it was steamed. When a bit of the steamed bun soup entered his mouth through the bun, Xue Ling almost wanted to cry.
This taste was very familiar. In every world, as long as it was food that Su Xuanyan made, it would always carry his touch, and it was always the same. All of a sudden, he was able to eat his food again in this world - Xue Ling inexplicably choked up.
Ah, he really wanted to place his head into the man's embrace and rub against him…
He carried such thoughts, and looked at Wen Ruoyi with eyes that were flooded with moisture.
Wen Ruoyi was still uncertain about his temper, and suddenly saw him with tears in his eyes. He got up in a rush and came over to ask, "What's wrong? Is it so delicious that you want to cry?"
Xue Ling did not know whether to laugh or cry, so he skirted the reason and said, "I want to cry because it tastes bad!"
Wen Ruoyi saw him laughing again and felt a little more at ease. Just now, his heart had really gone into a panic. He really couldn't bear to see the person in front of him giving him such a look, and reached a hand to rub his head. "Just eat more if you like it. I made a lot, and if you can't finish it today, we can put it in the fridge."
Xue Ling knocked away his hand and was about to speak when the doorbell rang.
The access panel for the door to the apartment complex was set in the wall beside the dining table. Xue Ling glared at Wen Ruoyi, and then went to see who had come for a visit so early in the morning.
In fact, it was not that early, but it was habit for him to sleep in. For him, any time before noon was considered early morning.
The person on the other side of the access panel looked very familiar. His brow was very similar to Xue Ling's. Xue Ling raised his eyebrows - he had not expect that Mu Sichao would choose to come visit him today. It seemed as though he had already finished digesting all the information that he had learned yesterday…
"Elder brother." As he accepted the call via the intercom, Xue Ling smiled and greeted Mu Sichao even as he pressed the button to open the gate and let him in. "Hold on. Come up first, I'll open the door for you." The button he had pressed would open the gate to the apartment building. Mu Sichao was not like Wen Ruoyi at all and would not do things like pretending to be a resident in order to get into the apartment building.
Xue Ling lived on the third floor, and it was a simple matter to reach his apartment. Wen Ruoyi seemed to have heard Xue Ling when he greeted him as 'elder brother', but he still remained seated, unmoving like a mountain, looking for all the world like he lived here and was one of the masters of the house.
Xue Ling was too lazy to concern himself over him. He had no way to explain things properly to him now, so he turned and went to open the door for Mu Sichao instead.
Xue Ling's task in this world was nothing like any of his previous tasks. In the past, he reversed the protagonists' fate by making their original happy ending worse. In others, like in the merfolk world, he could change the world's plot simply by changing his own fate. But this world was even more relaxed than the merfolk world. As long as he did not interfere with the two protagonists' relationship and allowed them to stumble along, they would probably be able to stay together until their hair turned white.
Mu Sichao was a person who had his own opinions. He was a bit older than Su Wenjun, and was more clear about what he wanted. If he wanted something, he would strive for it. If Ning Simu had not made a mess out of things, he might have tried to strengthen his relationship with Su Wenjun, and the two of them would naturally have stayed together until the end. Su Wenjun was different. He was young and reckless, and it could even be said that the problems created between them by Ning Simu changed their relationship and forced Su Wenjun to grow up as fast as possible.
From being a rebellious, possessive, and especially jealous damned child, he became a steady adult who was willing to let Mu Sichao go and realize his dead brother's wishes.
Xue Ling could not comment whether this change was a good or bad one. In any case, following the normal development of this story, everyone would end up bruised all over. If he did not do these things, the development of their relationship would probably slow down a lot. As Mu Sichao's brother, Xue Ling felt that there was nothing wrong with him making some trouble to test out his brother's lover.
As for him and Wen Ruoyi?
He had originally just been playing with him. He didn't know if Wen Ruoyi could subconsciously tell that Xue Ling wouldn't do anything to him, which was why his actions were all particularly excessive yet somehow remained on the line where Xue Ling wouldn't become so angry that he would retaliate. It made him itch and grit his teeth, but he was unable to do anything to him, and at most could only scold him a bit and make him admit his mistakes.
He was already willing to kneel on the washing board. Apologizing was no big deal.
Mu Sichao bought a gift with him. He probably thought that he should bring something for the first time he came over to his house. He didn't buy any healthy food or the like, but instead brought snacks. Perhaps it was because Xue Ling appeared so small, and he felt that he could not go wrong if he tried to fatten him up.
Xue Ling was a little muddled as he accepted the pile of snacks. His face was full of surprise as he blinked, and topped with his head of curly hair, he appeared rather cute.
Mu Sichao stretched out his hand and rubbed his head. "You and mother are really alike, both of you have curly hair."
"Oh." Xue Ling put down the snacks in his hands and clutched at his head as he said, "Why did elder brother come over so early? Have you had breakfast yet? We're eating right now, would you like to join us?"
"We?" Mu Sichao looked around in surprise and found where the dining room was. He then saw Wen Ruoyi coming out, looking very casual as he began to coax his younger brother, "Baby, your congee is going to get cold. Go and eat it first."
Xue Ling picked up a bag of snacks and threw it his way. "Don't call me baby, I'm not a three-year-old!"
"… Ruoyi…" Mu Sichao felt as though he couldn't quite catch up. He paused for a few seconds before wondering out loud, "Why are you here?" He only remembered after he finished speaking that after digesting the information from yesterday, he seemed to have forgotten that… his good friend seemed to be in a relationship… with his younger brother?
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom "I came over to make him breakfast." In fact, he had not been to Xue Ling's apartment often in the past, but Wen Ruoyi acted as though he could not possibly be any more familiar with the place as if he were the second master of this place. "He likes to sleep in in the morning, and if nobody wakes him up, he'll sleep until noon. It's bad for his stomach to eat breakfast for lunch."
Xue Ling rolled his eyes. This was indeed his habit - in any world, as long as he was idle, he would use the time to sleep. Although it was not sleep in the normal sense of the word and he was in fact cultivating… But for the man to be able to guess his habits even without his memories…
Tsk. How should he describe this kind of dissatisfied yet happy mood?
System: "…" They were really showing off their love. It was so flashy and yet its host still insisted on breaking up. Who would believe them if they said they weren't passionate about each other?
"… Elder brother, ignore him. He secretly went and made another key. I was just about to call the police and report him for breaking into my house after finishing breakfast." Xue Ling pulled Mu Sichao forward, bypassing Wen Ruoyi and pushing him into a chair. "Elder brother, have some steamed buns."
Mu Sichao felt a little awkward, but the other two people didn't seem to be embarrassed at all. Their interactions were inexplicably harmonious, and Mu Sichao had a feeling that he had just been flashed with their intimacy. "Ruoyi, when did you get together with Simu?"
"It's been a while." Wen Ruoyi was staring at Xue Ling and waiting for him to drink the congee that was at just the right temperature. He casually answered Mu Sichao, "We started dating while you were busy being twisted up about your relationship with that little boy."
"Then why didn't you tell me…" Mu Sichao frowned. "If you had told me earlier… I would have been able to find Simu sooner…"
"You never told me you were looking for your younger brother. I also didn't know about the relationship between you and Simu." As he spoke, he stuffed another steamed bun into Xue Ling's mouth. "You and Twilight don't even look alike."
Xue Ling glanced at him contemptuously. He had clearly started dating him because they looked similar. As a result, he completely changed his tune and was now saying they didn't look alike at all.
Mu Sichao: "…" Was it an illusion? Why did he feel like his good friend was on guard against him?
"After my parents divorced, I followed our father while Simu followed our mother. We've been separated for over ten years, and have never met before, so I never brought it up with you. I've been looking for my mother all these years, but in fact I was also looking for Simu."
Wen Ruoyi wasn't interested in these things, and simply made a sound to acknowledge he had heard. He basically knew everything about Mu Sichao. What he was more interested in now was how Xue Ling had spent these years.
"Simu… I came today because I wanted to ask you about some things." Mu Sichao wrung his hands, and looked a little awkward. "You mentioned before that you had mother's personal effects…"
"Oh, I do." Xue Ling wolfed down the steam bun in his mouth, then wiped his hands and turned to the bedroom. "Mother left something for you before she died, and told me to give it to you when I find you. I brought it with me when I moved, so it's with me now."
Wen Ruoyi did not follow them, but began to conscientiously clean the table.
He could hardly be more virtuous.
Xue Ling brought out the things that belonged to Mu Sichao based on this body's memories and handed them over. These things had originally been left for Mu Sichao by their mother, but in the original plot, Ning Simu did not really like this elder brother that was vying for his lover's attention, so he had never brought this up. The relationship between the two brothers had not been close to start with, but it became more and more distant as Ning Simu tossed about.
Mu Sichao brought everything to the living room before going through them. He looked at them one by one.
Contained within the box were all the letters him and their mother had sent back and forth. There were also letters that their mother had written to him from time to time, but they were no longer able to reach him, so she would mail out one copy, and then keep another one as a backup. She had kept them along with their previous letters so that one day it could all be delivered to Mu Sichao.
Even up until the end of her life, she was still writing letters to Mu Sichao. Mu Sichao only opened and read one letter, and was already left in a sad trance.
Xue Ling quickly stopped him from continuing to read the letters. "Elder brother can bring these back with you. You can read them slowly later on. When I was small, I often watched mother write these letters to you, and she always wrote them with a smile. I think she wouldn't want you to be sad when you read them, so be happy."
Mu Sichao froze for a moment, then nodded his head and said solemnly, "Okay."
"Simu…" He was silent for a moment, clenching the letter in his hand. He finally looked up and asked Xue Ling, "Would you like to move in with your elder brother?"
Xue Ling very naturally shook his head. His answer was firm. "I've already grown up, and I want to live independently. I understand elder brother's meaning - we only have one another left in the world, but it's not necessary for us to live together in order to be close… I really like elder brother, and if elder brother is worried about me, you can also come to find me as often as you'd like~"
"You can also go online and listen to my singing~ Your mood will become better when you hear me sing~"
Mu Sichao saw how he was smiling, and knew that Ning Simu really didn't need to live with him. He sighed rather helplessly and said, "That's true. In that case, I'll find you more often in the future. Simu sings online? What kind of songs?"
Wen Ruoyi looked up lazily and said, "How long have you not been on Weibo? You'll be able to find him if you look at my recent Weibo posts."
Mu Sichao: "…" He had been right earlier. His friend was really being hostile towards him… Was it necessary… That was his blood related brother - what kind of things could happen between them? For him to be jealous to this extent… The person in front of him really was nothing like the Wen Ruoyi that he knew.
"Ah… Elder brother, there is an animation festival in the city this month. Our channel plans to have an offline meeting. Would you like to go with me?"
"Hold on. You're having an offline meeting? How come I don't know about this?" Wen Ruoyi's voice was a little cold as he interjected, forcing Mu Sichao to hold back whatever words he was about to say.
Xue Ling blinked, and looked at him innocently. "There's no relationship between us. I have no obligation to tell you anything about what I'm planning to do."
"You and Twilight don't even look alike." - Wen Ruoyi
this quote cracks us up.
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