To Treat Each Other Like Brothers - Chapter 19

The Lin Zhuyi standing in front of him felt like a stranger.

There was a strange scent of red wine, strange words, and a strange attitude.

“Only I won’t do.”

“Yeah.”

“Only you won’t do.”

Xie Shiyao did not want to continue this conversation that was making him so irritable. He slapped Lin Zhuyi’s hand away and said, “I will pretend I never heard what you just said.”

Lin Zhuyi asked, “Are you not afraid of regretting it?”

Xie Shiyao turned back with a smile and replied, “I never regret anything.”

Lin Zhuyi tapped his hearing aid with his finger. “What about this? You do not regret this either?”

The composure that Xie Shiyao had fought so hard to regain vanished from his face once more. “You remember everything that happened in the past?”

Lin Zhuyi seemed to laugh out of pure anger. He reached out, straightened the crooked silk scarf around Xie Shiyao’s neck, and carefully covered the scar there. “I remember everything about you. At least, up until today, you are still the only one I remember.”

“But you do not seem to care about me at all. Brother, you care about me even less than I imagined, and you know exactly how to make me angry.”

Xie Shiyao took a deep breath. What difference did it make whether he had amnesia or not? Calming his emotions, he patted Lin Zhuyi’s shoulder and said, “Drink less in a little while.”

He quickly opened the door and stepped out of the restroom.

“Brother Xie, are you okay? Why is your face so pale?” Ye Ming was startled by Xie Shiyao’s awful complexion.

Xie Shiyao indicated that he was fine.

Not long after, Lin Zhuyi also came out of the restroom.

Xiao Ye rested her chin in her hands and remarked, “You brothers have such a good relationship. If I were the one throwing up in the restroom, my family would not care less about me. Yet you even went to take care of your older brother.”

Lin Zhuyi smiled and replied, “Of course, his health is poor, so he always makes people worry.”

Xie Shiyao ate a piece of fruit to calm his nerves.

Gu Jinsheng remarked, “Since you know your brother’s health is bad, why did you let him drink so much just now?”

Smiling like a hidden tiger, Lin Zhuyi filled Gu Jinsheng’s glass to the brim as well. “Yes, I forgot to toast you. Thank you so much for introducing Xiao Ye to me.”

As he spoke, he looked over at Xie Shiyao with an underlying meaning.

Although his alcohol tolerance was only average, Gu Jinsheng loved to drink. He downed the full glass without blinking an eye and said groggily, “Do not mention it. If you ever want to make a debut in the entertainment industry in the future, just look for me. This brother of yours has the resources, haha.”

Lin Zhuyi downed another glass. Resting his chin on one hand, he tapped the rim of his glass with his other hand and asked Gu Jinsheng, “Has my brother ever told you our past stories?”

Hearing this, Gu Jinsheng’s eyes lit up instantly, sensing gossip. “Tell me.”

“Sure,” Lin Zhuyi said provocatively. “In my brother’s eyes, I am the child of his father’s mistress. So, he does not really like me.”

“Mutual destruction, yeah, those two words pretty much sum up our past relationship. He wished for nothing more than my death, and I did not want things to go well for him either.”

Gu Jinsheng and Xiao Ye looked shocked.

“Later on, we took things too far. The family could not stand it anymore and separated us. My brother went to New York, and I waited for him for four years.”

“During those four years, he never contacted me once. Never. Oh, actually, it was not just me; he barely contacted anyone in the family either. I guess my brother must really hate me.”

At this point, Lin Zhuyi’s emphasis on his words grew heavier. “However, I really did not expect it. Today, my brother could actually worry this much about my life.”

“It really gave me quite a shock.”

“Brother, for a coming of age ceremony with so much sincerity, I really must have another drink with you.”

Xie Shiyao’s grip on his wine glass tightened. Considering there were outsiders present, he suppressed his anger, stayed composed, and said, “Are you done speaking? If you are done, then let us drink.”

Lin Zhuyi did not seem satisfied with Xie Shiyao’s reaction. “Does brother have nothing else to say about our past?”

Xie Shiyao fell silent for a moment. Then, in a joking tone, he held out his hands to the remaining two people and said, “An ill fated match.”

He acted so casually that Gu Jinsheng and Xiao Ye truly thought he was joking and laughed along.

Amidst the laughter, Xie Shiyao gazed at Lin Zhuyi with a complex look and drained his glass in one gulp.

Then, he pulled out his phone and sent a message to Gu Jinsheng saying, “Time to go.”

Gu Jinsheng replied instantly, “Why do I feel like there is something going on between you two? Did you sleep with your younger brother? If that is the case, you are a bit too much of a scumbag, bro.”

Xie Shiyao sent back a middle finger emoji, captioned with the words, “Are you blind or deaf? The two of us staying here will only get in the way. Let us go.”

He put his phone down and looked up, only to find Lin Zhuyi watching him.

Lin Zhuyi was watching him coldly.

At that moment, an inexplicable bitterness welled up in his heart. It could have been the alcohol kicking in, or it could have been the sense of relief from thinking that he was finally letting him go.

He stood up, gave an apologetic smile, walked over, and gave Lin Zhuyi a pure, brotherly embrace.

“Happy Birthday, Lin Zhuyi.”

Xie Shiyao could not remember what excuse he used to flee from the private room. He only remembered that when he pushed the door open, his hand was shaking slightly.

Fortunately, Gu Jinsheng came out and supported him in time.

Xie Shiyao’s eyes were slightly bloodshot from throwing up earlier. He looked around and noticed that the adjacent private room was empty, so he pulled Gu Jinsheng inside and sat down.

A waiter walked over, looking a bit conflicted. “Boss, you did not reserve this room.”

Xie Shiyao was incredibly annoyed. “This entire hotel belongs to me. Right now, not only am I not leaving, but I am also bringing you business. Are you not satisfied? Then call your manager over.”

Gu Jinsheng could tell that Xie Shiyao was genuinely furious, so he quickly winked at the waiter.

Before long, the manager came in with some alcohol, drank several glasses with them with a smile, apologized profusely, and even had the waiter from earlier bring a lot of dishes to the private room before finally leaving.

Whether it was because the soundproofing was poor or due to something else, Xie Shiyao felt like he could constantly hear the voices of Lin Zhuyi and that girl chatting next door.

It was Gu Jinsheng’s first time seeing Xie Shiyao like this. Drunk, he said, “If people did not know better, looking at you now, they would think you just went through a breakup. Do you need me to call Xiao Guai or Xiao Bai over for you?”

Xie Shiyao was in no mood for anything else.

He just looked at Gu Jinsheng lonely, lowering his eyelashes. “You should leave. I want to be alone for a while.”

Gu Jinsheng frowned. “Are you sure? I feel like the moment I leave, you are going to collapse here and will not be able to make it home.”

Xie Shiyao murmured, “I do not have a home.”

Gu Jinsheng urged him a few more times, but knowing he could not win against Xie Shiyao, and since his new flame had just contacted him, Gu Jinsheng happily left, content with having had a good meal.

Only Xie Shiyao was left in the private room.

Since no one else was around, he finally did not have to maintain his so-called dignity.

Xie Shiyao lay down on the sofa. Listening to the conversation next door, he did not even bother using a glass; he drank silently, pressing his mouth directly against the wine bottle.

The ceiling before his eyes began to spin.

Xie Shiyao raised his hand, struggling to focus his vision on the sparkling cufflink.

He thought about how he was wearing the cufflink Lin Zhuyi gave him, enduring the reluctance, and personally handing him over to someone else.

He told himself he should not be feeling bad.

He questioned if he should hate him, and if he should be happy that he had sent him away.

He wondered what this unsettling, even terrifying emotion inside him was.

Laughter drifted over from next door from time to time. Listening to that laughter, Xie Shiyao thought to himself that he and Lin Zhuyi had never laughed like that together.

When those bound to be soft lips formed such a smile, what would they look like, and what kind of sound would they make?

Thinking of this, Xie Shiyao sighed. Alcohol was a terrible thing because it made people weak and sentimental. He decided he should not drink it ever again.

He called his driver and told him to get the birthday gift he had bought for Lin Zhuyi from the trunk of the car.

The dark blue bag was soon handed to Xie Shiyao.

He wondered if he should still give it to him, and if there was even a point anymore. He questioned whether someone would be happy receiving a gift from an enemy.

He thought that maybe he should just throw it away.

However, he was really a bit reluctant.

Lying on the sofa, Xie Shiyao extended one hand to cover his face. Beneath the gaps of his fingers, his face formed a bitter smile.

The alcohol surged, making his head hot. He suddenly felt a strong urge to go next door, drag Lin Zhuyi away, and make Lin Zhuyi take him back to the old family mansion.

But he held back. He resisted with his last shred of sanity, knowing he could not do something so ridiculous.

However, during the final struggle of his consciousness, he heard a knock on the door.

The knocking carried a hint of impatience.

Xie Shiyao’s heart skipped a beat as he asked, “Who is it?”

From outside the door came the voice that Xie Shiyao wanted to hear the most right now, yet feared the most.

“Brother. Open the door.”

It was Lin Zhuyi.

Xie Shiyao sat up instantly, even thinking he had misheard.

Lin Zhuyi stopped knocking and simply said coldly, “I heard you did not leave. If you do not open the door, I am coming in.”

He thought to himself, do not open the door, and do not come in.

Xie Shiyao’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He watched helplessly as the doorknob was pressed down from the outside.

He thought, do not come in.

The door was pushed open a crack.

He repeated, do not come in.

Behind the door, the silhouette of Lin Zhuyi’s figure emerged under the light.

Seeing the wine bottle in Xie Shiyao’s hand, Lin Zhuyi’s face darkened. “You have wine but did not drink it with me, running next door to drink instead. Quite impressive of you.”

He stepped closer, his gaze falling upon the Harry Winston packaging bag on the floor.

“What is this? My birthday gift?”

Without waiting for Xie Shiyao’s answer, Lin Zhuyi had already pulled the small square box out of the bag. The pair of beautiful diamond studs instantly lit up his face.

A slightly twisted smile appeared on Lin Zhuyi’s face. He picked up the earrings and placed them into Xie Shiyao’s hand.

“Put them on for me.”

Xie Shiyao’s hands were hot, and his brain was burning.

He did not know what he was thinking either; he just leaned in, roughly pulled out the transparent plastic stud from Lin Zhuyi’s earlobe, and poked the diamond stud into the tiny piercing.

The fragrance belonging to Lin Zhuyi enveloped his body instantly.

Lin Zhuyi tilted his head slightly, pressing his somewhat warm nose against Xie Shiyao’s.

“Tell me, what should I do with you?” Lin Zhuyi said softly.

Those pitch-black pupils locked onto Xie Shiyao’s gaze.

He thought, do not get close to me.

Xie Shiyao’s breathing quickened, and he could not help but open his mouth slightly. The sweet yet bitter scent of red wine, accompanied by the heat from his breath, exhaled from his moist lips.

He thought, do not get this close to me, and do not say these kinds of things.

Yet Lin Zhuyi continued to stare straight at him with those eyes and said, “You smell so good.”

He wondered why Lin Zhuyi was still teasing him, and why he still dared to disturb his emotions.

At that exact moment, the string inside Xie Shiyao’s mind snapped completely.

The earring in his hand dropped to the floor, rolling a few times before finally coming to a stop between their red-soled leather shoes.

Xie Shiyao reached out, forcefully cupping the back of Lin Zhuyi’s head. He leaned half his body over and kissed the abyss that seemed tailored exclusively for him.