Older Brother is Just Older Brother - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

In the end, Jiuli exchanged contact information with Chuuya Nakahara and left behind the gift he had bought for him before leaving.

Holding the phone Verlaine had just given him, Jiuli said, “Chuuya-niisan, this is a gift for you; remember to open it. Message me anytime you’re bored, and also, and also…”

While Jiuli was still talking, Verlaine was deep in thought.

Was the gift really from Jiuli to Chuuya? If so, why was he the one who paid for it?

It wasn’t until Chuuya Nakahara’s voice rang out again that Verlaine was pulled back from his musings.

Chuuya was saying, “Ha? Move back and live with you guys once I’m better? Why would I do that? It’s not like I don’t have my own house…”

Verlaine looked up, staring at Chuuya Nakahara.

Chuuya looked at Jiuli, whose eyes had instantly widened, and then at Verlaine, who was staring at him with a frown, and realized he had said something wrong.

He shut his mouth, only speaking again after a long pause: “Tsk, I didn’t mean it like that…”

Seeing Jiuli still looking shocked, Chuuya added, “Fine, take this! The money in here is enough for you to buy a small villa in Yokohama!”

And so, Jiuli arrived with a gift bought with Verlaine’s money and left clutching Chuuya Nakahara’s black card.

As they left, Jiuli couldn’t help but sigh with emotion: “Such good brothers, and two of them at that! I’ve finally started living the life I longed for!”

That’s right Jiuli wasn’t pretending anymore; he was laying his cards on the table. He had actually been longing for this wealthy life all along!

His previous stinginess was only due to the pressures of life. But in the future! Jiuli would never order group-buy discounted meals again! He wouldn’t buy second-hand phones on Zhuan Zhuan! And he certainly wouldn’t repeatedly click on links he wanted to buy on Pinduoduo and then exit, just to make Pinduoduo anxious enough to send him coupons only to get his account banned because he did it too many times!

That’s right! What Jiuli meant was if his life were a novel, starting from today, the author would never have to worry about being sanctioned for too many hidden advertisements!

“Hahahaha!” Just thinking about it, Jiuli couldn’t stop himself from letting out an “old money” laugh!

Hearing Jiuli say such things and being forced to listen to his hearty, carefree laugh, Verlaine: …

Whether it was the discounted meals, Zhuan Zhuan, or Pinduoduo, Verlaine had never heard of them, but that didn’t stop him from understanding the sentiment Jiuli wanted to express.

To be honest, Verlaine couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of bitter life Jiuli had lived before.

But speaking of which.

Verlaine led Jiuli into a restaurant belonging to the Port Mafia and ordered a few dishes after asking for Jiuli’s opinion.

Then, Verlaine asked casually, “Do you still remember your past?”

Was this why Jiuli was so easily coaxed into being happy?

Both he and Chuuya Nakahara had struggled with whether they counted as human, but Jiuli remembered his past clearly, so he wouldn’t feel sad because he couldn’t gain a sense of belonging in the human world?

Jiuli’s gaze instantly became strange.

To tell the truth, Jiuli did remember, but what he remembered was the content of his previous life.

However, he had seen his “story” in this world; it was similar to his experiences in his previous life, with the only difference being that the “Jiuli” of this world was even more of a loner.

This setting was very convenient for Jiuli to adapt to his new identity, as it wouldn’t make anyone realize that he was a soul from another world but Jiuli wasn’t happy at all. He just felt this world was even more disgusting.

You see, although Jiuli’s parents had died long ago in an accident and his grandfather had passed away from illness before he was born, Jiuli did have relatives who cared about him.

After his grandmother died, community staff often came to help Jiuli’s family, and a kind aunt from the community even drove him to the train station when he went to university.

It wasn’t at all like the “Jiuli” of this world, who left for an overseas trip without consulting anyone, and everyone told him that the Chinese authorities wouldn’t bother with him at all.

But this was fine too. Now Jiuli was without ties, making him invincible from a certain perspective. If this world did something bad again, he would just go down with it…

“Jiuli? Jiuli?”

Jiuli suddenly snapped out of his memories: “Hmm?”

Meeting Verlaine’s gaze, remembering what Verlaine had asked, and realizing that if Verlaine continued to be this good to him, he might not truly be able to remain without ties, Jiuli opened his mouth, then closed it.

Seeing the dishes Verlaine had just ordered arrived, Jiuli picked up his chopsticks directly: “My past? Forget it, forget it. I won’t talk about it.”

Verlaine wanted to ask more, but Jiuli quickly stuffed a spoon into his hand: “Eat the soup rice, eat the soup rice.”

Verlaine, who was having his mouth shut with soup rice for the first time in his artificial life: ???

…

Regardless, Verlaine was still quite satisfied with Jiuli’s reaction.

He had to admit, part of his willingness to help this newborn fellow kind was because he felt Jiuli looked truly pitiful and he couldn’t just leave him be.

But another part he hadn’t been willing to admit before was that he also needed the companionship of this newborn fellow kind.

This world was terrible, and as non-humans, they were lonely stars that would never be understood or accepted by anyone. But if they could live together with their own kind, everything would be different.

Thinking this, Verlaine gladly accepted Jiuli’s plan to pay the bill himself.

This time, Jiuli used Chuuya Nakahara’s card again.

The staff member was very practiced. He took the black card from Jiuli’s hand, swiped it, and handed it back respectfully: “240,000 yen. This is your receipt, please keep it safe.”

Jiuli had indeed become rich, and the money had come to him without any cost.

But Jiuli was used to being frugal. Hearing this figure, his heart couldn’t help but ache.

“So expensive!” Jiuli tucked the card back into his pocket with a pained expression. “It wasn’t even exceptionally delicious. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come.”

The restaurant staff: …

The card the person had just produced clearly belonged to a wealthy individual, and neither the person’s clothes nor the clothes of the man beside him were cheap. What on earth was he talking about!

Verlaine didn’t comment on Jiuli’s spending habits. He only reminded Jiuli after they left: “Chuuya’s card has a lot of money in it.”

A lot, a lot of money. In the future, Chuuya Nakahara would only have more and more, and Chuuya might even give Jiuli more cards. Besides, he would give Jiuli money too. Since Jiuli was staying at the Port Mafia, many expenses were free, so there was no need for Jiuli to save the money on this card.

“I know.” Jiuli muttered while tugging at the corner of Verlaine’s expensive-looking coat, “But I think this money could have other uses, at least…”

It shouldn’t be spent on a single meal!

Verlaine didn’t care about this; as long as Jiuli wasn’t completely refusing to spend, he wouldn’t interfere if Jiuli only wanted to spend money on things he liked.

So he changed the subject: “Going back?”

Jiuli, who was tired and sleepy: “Going back!”

He hadn’t taken his afternoon nap today!

…

On the other side, Mori Ougai also learned of Jiuli’s itinerary for the day.

He looked at Jiuli on the screen who was wearing casual clothes because wearing a suit made him feel uncomfortable all over and then at the tall man beside him.

Fine, at least Verlaine had changed his style slightly, and they were taking paths where there were almost no people.

The only thing that annoyed Mori Ougai was that Jiuli’s material desires were too low.

With Jiuli like this, forget about working hard; Mori seriously suspected that Jiuli might actually be able to live off Chuuya Nakahara’s card for the rest of his life!

Mori didn’t want that.

Jiuli must have desires. He must want to acquire more money and higher status for the Port Mafia to have a chance to utilize him.

“Perhaps it’s because Jiuli hasn’t encountered anything he’s interested in yet.”

Mori muttered to himself, then ordered his subordinates to send various interesting and expensive items to Jiuli’s side to see what type he liked.

As long as he knew what Jiuli liked, he could specifically drain Jiuli’s wallet and then make Jiuli work to earn money!

Yes, that should solve the problem!

…

At this time, in the basement.

Jiuli, clutching his longing for the bed, rushed into the bedroom in one breath.

Such a huge and soft bed! Wonderful! He was going to change clothes now wait.

Jiuli turned around, and he and Brother Verlaine stood face to face.

Then, Jiuli asked a soul-searching question: “Verlaine-niisan, did you just say that you could also try taking an afternoon nap?”

Verlaine said calmly, “Yes.”

He was going to live with Jiuli for a long time, so he would work hard to adapt to Jiuli’s habits and an afternoon nap was a very important part of that.

Jiuli: …

Jiuli went crazy: “Then where are you going to sleep?!”

Isn’t there only one bed here?

Verlaine seemed to have only just remembered this.

It was evident that Verlaine was also used to living alone.

“I can sleep on the sofa for now.” Verlaine quickly reached a conclusion. “Before evening, I’ll have the Port Mafia send another bed.”

Jiuli felt like these words were fine, but also felt like something was wrong everywhere.

Jiuli suspected his conscience had come online, telling him that it wasn’t right to sleep in someone else’s bed and make them sleep on the sofa.

Thinking this, he paced around the room twice. After his eyes caught something, he dashed over to the sofa, grabbed a pillow, and tossed it onto the bed.

Then, Jiuli forcibly pushed Verlaine toward the large bed which could easily sleep four people, let alone two.

“Alright, we are brothers. Brothers can sleep together now, sleep!”

As he said this, Jiuli changed his clothes at maximum speed, dove into the quilt, and left only a pair of expectant eyes looking at Verlaine.

Verlaine hesitated.

Verlaine was indeed a person who emphasized enjoyment, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t endure hardship. He had experienced many terrible environments while on missions in the past; by comparison, sleeping on the sofa twice really wasn’t much.

Moreover, Verlaine felt that based on what Jiuli had shown before, it was easy to see that the bed Jiuli used to sleep on was worse than his sofa.

Under these circumstances, faced with Jiuli’s hesitation and invitation, Verlaine couldn’t help but feel that Jiuli was just too clingy.

Verlaine liked clingy fellow kinds, but that was in his imagination. Now that a clingy fellow kind had appeared in reality, Verlaine was still a bit unaccustomed to it.

So he performed a sequence in his mind where his attitude toward Jiuli became gradually more indulgent.

From “You are my brother, but don’t rely on me too much,” to “You are my brother, don’t rely on me too much,” and finally to “You are my brother, you must rely on me too much.”

The logic in Verlaine’s head was now smooth.

He changed into loungewear and lay down next to Jiuli.

His ears caught Jiuli muttering something in Chinese again, but this time Jiuli’s voice was too low, and Verlaine really couldn’t translate the content.

But that wasn’t important.

Verlaine: “Good afternoon.”

Verlaine closed his eyes just like that. On the contrary, Jiuli who had just been muttering, “Blonde hair and blue eyes, tall, and a good figure. If I looked like this, forget being a non-human, I’d walk with my head held high even if I were an alien” didn’t close his eyes.

He couldn’t help but look at his brother’s long eyelashes for a while longer.

Jiuli’s own eyelashes were also long, but they were the very common pure black. His brother’s novel light-golden eyelashes were enough for Jiuli to study for a long time.

Jiuli watched and watched, until his brother’s eyelids twitched as if he were about to wake up; only then did Jiuli close his eyes in a bit of a panic.

Jiuli knew his acting was poor this time, but it didn’t matter because his brother didn’t get angry at him for not sleeping.

His brother just patted his arm.

The corners of Jiuli’s mouth curled up uncontrollably.

Then, Jiuli who, after his grandmother left, would only say “Love you, see you when I wake up” whispered:

“Brother, see you when I wake up.”