Older Brother is Just Older Brother - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jiu Li slept very well.

Verlaine, who had been punched and kicked by Jiu Li, did not sleep at all.

Fortunately, after Verlaine pressed Jiu Li down a couple more times, Jiu Li stopped using the kind of force that could cause a miscarriage in Noble Consort Fucha, though he began to cling to Verlaine like a medicinal plaster.

It was the “auto-tracking” variety; one second Verlaine would peel him off, and the next second Jiu Li would automatically stick right back.

Verlaine: “…”

Verlaine’s thoughts regarding Jiu Li began to expand once more.

It expanded from “You are my younger brother, you should depend on me excessively” to “You are my younger brother, even if it is excessive, you must depend on me.”

Verlaine felt the logic in his mind was smooth once again.

He reached out and tidied the hair of Jiu Li—whose hair was even longer than his own and thus prone to getting messy—and closed his eyes again.

Of course, because Jiu Li was too close, the highly vigilant Verlaine did not actually fall asleep.

Thus, this time, Verlaine clearly felt Jiu Li waking up, and heard the subconscious cold gasp Jiu Li took upon awakening.

Verlaine kept his eyes closed.

Then, he felt Jiu Li secretly leaning closer, and heard Jiu Li’s clear murmur: “Setting aside the face for a moment…”

Verlaine: ?

When Jiu Li woke up, he found himself leaning against Verlaine, but Jiu Li felt this wasn’t important. After all, the other party seemed to be dead asleep, and as everyone knows, as long as the other person isn’t aware of what you’ve done, you can simply refuse to admit it.

So, Jiu Li stayed put with total righteousness and took the opportunity to observe the other for a while longer.

The more Jiu Li looked at this golden, non-human older brother, the more he liked him.

Liked him from afar, liked him up close, liked him from the left, and liked him from the right.

Good-looking, rich, good-looking, kind to his brother, and also good-looking—how could such a wonderful brother exist in this world?

Jiu Li couldn’t figure it out, so he tried to think about it while setting aside the other’s face.

Jiu Li: “…”

It’s no use, you really can’t set it aside!!!

Jiu Li was always someone who distinguished clearly between gratitude and grudges. If the world kissed Jiu Li with pain, Jiu Li would want to return that pain a hundredfold. The former Jiu Li was accustomed to doing exactly that.

But now, the world was using such a beautiful golden-haired brother to tempt Jiu Li. Jiu Li’s ability to resist such temptation wasn’t that strong; Jiu Li wanted to kiss back.

But that wouldn’t be good. No matter what, a brother is a brother, even if there’s no direct blood relation. Jiu Li didn’t plan on becoming lovers with his brother; that sounded way too taboo.

But then again, with a brother looking like this, it was really hard for Jiu Li not to like him…

While Jiu Li was agonizing like this, he secretly leaned closer, wanting to see more clearly.

Then, at that very moment—

Verlaine abruptly opened his eyes.

Jiu Li: !!!

Guilt made Jiu Li instinctively want to retreat, but Verlaine’s speed was always faster.

So, in the next second, Jiu Li felt a cool sensation press against his cheek.

—It was Verlaine’s cheek.

“A cheek kiss,” Verlaine blinked and sat up. “Good afternoon.”

Jiu Li: “…”

Jiu Li, who didn’t expect such a great thing as a cheek kiss to exist in this world: !!!

Jiu Li proactively pressed back once, twice, three times.

On the final one, Jiu Li buried his head in the crook of Verlaine’s neck, rubbed against him twice, took a deep breath of his scent, and loudly announced: “Brother-brother-brother—good afternoon! (●’◡’●)”

Unfortunately, Verlaine had matters to handle in the afternoon and couldn’t continue accompanying Jiu Li.

Jiu Li said goodbye to Verlaine, but before he even had time to feel sad, the next thing to arrive at the scene was—

Looking at the various glittering items before him, Jiu Li only felt dazzled, but he maintained his proper vigilance: “Mori Ougai sent these to me?”

What evil scheme is that old geezer cooking up now?

The Port Mafia member delivering the goods: “Yes.”

Jiu Li: “No other requirements?”

The Port Mafia member: “Yes.”

Jiu Li: “…”

He stared for a long time, feeling that the other party didn’t seem to be lying, but Jiu Li truly didn’t understand: “I don’t need these things. Why did Mori Ougai send them to me?”

The Port Mafia member: “The BOSS said these are gifts to celebrate you gaining your freedom. Even if you don’t need them, you may dispose of them as you wish. These are yours, and you have the freedom to handle them.”

Now that piqued Jiu Li’s interest!

If you told Jiu Li you were giving him luxury watches, Jiu Li—who stayed with his phone 24 hours a day—would think it unnecessary. But it’s a different story if luxury watches can turn into cold, hard cash!

The more he thought about it, the more his heart raced. Finally, Jiu Li stood up abruptly: “Wait, stop putting things here. Pack them all up! Bring them! We’re going out!”

Just like that, with the help of those subordinates, Jiu Li spent the entire afternoon liquidating everything Mori Ougai had sent.

After finishing, Jiu Li marveled: “The breeding speed of money is way too fast!”

Who would believe his net worth was zero just yesterday?!

…

In the Boss’s office, Mori Ougai was listening to the report regarding Jiu Li.

Mori Ougai after listening: “…………”

“Haha,” Mori Ougai gave a dry laugh. “Did my attempt to test Jiu Li-kun only result in adding more weight to his ability to live a life of leisure?!”

Jiu Li kept nothing and exchanged everything that could be traded for money?

Does someone who loves saving money and is so devoid of worldly desires really exist in this world??

The one reporting this part was Hirotsu Ryuro, since it was his direct subordinates who went to see Jiu Li.

Hearing this, Hirotsu Ryuro thought hard and managed to squeeze out: “Jiu Li-kun also converted 80% of the money into gold.”

Although gold could be exchanged back for cash, it wasn’t as convenient to use.

Mori Ougai: “…”

That’s not much more troublesome at all!!!

Mori Ougai took two deep breaths and asked again: “Only gold?”

There was one more thing, but Hirotsu Ryuro didn’t quite dare to say it.

Under the continuous gaze of the Boss, Hirotsu Ryuro finally spoke awkwardly: “Jiu Li-kun used a bit of money to keep one of my golden-haired subordinates behind, saying he wanted the person to play games with him for a while.”

Mori Ougai saw the photo of the golden-haired subordinate Hirotsu Ryuro handed over.

After a long silence, Mori Ougai gave a speechless laugh: “Are you saying that besides money and gold, Jiu Li also likes males with golden hair?”

If that were truly the case, what need was there for Jiu Li to keep that subordinate? Jiu Li could just go find Verlaine… wait.

It’s not necessarily true that Jiu Li didn’t go find Verlaine!

Mori Ougai quickly pulled up the supply requisition records of the giant entity known as the Port Mafia. Then, Mori Ougai discovered with shock—

“No new beds were added to the basement?”

Then how did Verlaine and Jiu Li sleep? It couldn’t be what he was thinking, could it???

Of course, he couldn’t ask Verlaine directly. But it didn’t matter; Mori Ougai could have the loyal Nakahara Chuuya ask Jiu Li.

Nakahara Chuuya didn’t understand why the BOSS suddenly made such a request, but he wouldn’t question the BOSS.

So soon, Mori Ougai received a reply from Nakahara Chuuya.

Chuuya’s mood when sending this message was clearly very complicated, because Mori Ougai saw that the timestamp on the screenshot of the message Jiu Li sent to Chuuya showed [5 minutes ago]. In other words, Chuuya spent five minutes just taking the screenshot and forwarding it—he probably went through quite a psychological struggle in between.

But that was normal. After all, in response to Chuuya’s question, Jiu Li’s reply was:

[Li sleeps at the south of the quilt, Brother sleeps at the north of the quilt. Day after day I miss Brother and see Brother, drinking from Brother’s cup of water :D.]

Mori Ougai: “…”

It really was like that!!!

Speaking of which, he wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt the punctuation mark after the little emoticon Jiu Li sent wasn’t a period, but rather water flowing from Jiu Li’s mouth…

Just what exactly does Jiu Li think of this brother Verlaine—!!!

…

Jiu Li treated Brother Verlaine as his most precious treasure.

The proof was—

When Brother Verlaine returned and saw Jiu Li playing games with a golden-haired human, he was unhappy and directly kicked the human out. Jiu Li didn’t say a word.

If it were before, the “playmate fee” given to that human alone would have been enough for Jiu Li to resist to the death until the play session was over!

It’s just that there was a price for Verlaine acting this way.

Since he couldn’t play with other humans, for the next few days, the bored Jiu Li clung to his brother constantly. His mouth never stopped saying “Brother-brother-brother-brother,” with an intensity that could give a normal person calloused ears.

Jiu Li also knew that being like this might not be good. Among humans, probably only a mother could endure his heavy love.

But Jiu Li hadn’t had a mother since he was young. It was hard to come by an existence like Verlaine who loved him and was young and strong; Jiu Li couldn’t help himself.

Fortunately, Verlaine wasn’t human either, so the two of them actually got along quite happily.

Occasionally, when Jiu Li wasn’t calling out “Brother,” he would comment: “Hajiki-Brother and Hajiki-Brother (Pets/Siblings) are such a perfect match!”

Verlaine, who again didn’t understand: “…”

Verlaine felt there were still too many things to learn regarding the Chinese language, but he could work hard at it.

And so, some time passed.

Everything was as usual for Verlaine and Jiu Li, but Nakahara Chuuya’s physical indicators finally returned to normal, and he was discharged from the medical department.

The first thing Chuuya did after coming out was handle the tasks that had accumulated during this period.

The second thing was to head to the basement to see Verlaine and Jiu Li—with the focus on Jiu Li.

After all, though Chuuya wouldn’t admit it, he was actually looking forward to having a “normal” sibling.

Chuuya felt that Jiu Li might be that normal sibling he had been waiting for.

However, as soon as Chuuya arrived at the basement, this was the scene he saw and heard—

Verlaine was at the desk reading seriously, occasionally writing or drawing with a fountain pen, sometimes walking around to check things, picking up a new book, adding tea to his cup, or taking a pear.

Jiu Li, like an auto-follow pet, followed Verlaine here, followed Verlaine there, followed him back, and followed him again.

The whole time, his mouth never stopped: “Brother-brother-brother-brother-brother-brother-brother…”

Nakahara Chuuya: “…”

Nakahara Chuuya: “…………”

So soul-crushing. Jiu Li was making noise non-stop.

After a while, Chuuya truly couldn’t take it anymore: “Has he been calling you like this the whole time?”

Doesn’t Verlaine find it annoying?

He must find it annoying, right?! After all, Chuuya had only been sitting there for half an hour, and he already felt that even if Verlaine were his mortal enemy, he should let it go given how miserable he was now!!!

Facing Chuuya’s question, Verlaine simply stopped chewing his pear and slowly looked up.

Then, in front of Chuuya, this blue-eyed blond man gave a negative answer without hesitation: “No.”

Nakahara Chuuya: ?

What do you mean?

Did he mean Jiu Li wasn’t usually like this, and was just more excited because Chuuya came today? Or was today some special day…

Verlaine added: “Half of them are calling for you.”

Nakahara Chuuya: .

No.

That actually seems even more terrifying!!!