Pet Reptiles

"Cuddle? Cuddle? What are you cuddling him for?"

Old Buddha was just as practiced at rapping people with her chopsticks as she'd been back when she ran a classroom.

"He's twenty already, and you're still cuddling him! Have some sense of propriety!"

Unable to take the scolding and the raps, Yu Xuan got to her feet and hid behind Jiang Qian, clutching her younger brother's clothes and looking pitiful. "Grandma, how can you be so old-fashioned? I was just joking around with my brother..."

She was about to start mewling.

Yeah, keep pretending...

As Jiang Qian let his sister hide behind him and play innocent, he remembered a similar scene from a few years ago.

Young Jiang Qian had already made it safely past the threat of being forced to drop out of school. He straddled the top of a wall.

He looked down coldly at several mean boys picking on Xiao Jun, a neighbor and one of his playmates.

But Jiang Qian had no intention of stepping in to help. If anything, he was enjoying the show.

It made no sense.

Before his brain injury, even if he hadn't had the courage to shout out and intervene when he saw injustice, he would have felt indignation and contempt toward bullies who preyed on the weak. But at the time, he couldn't even bring himself to feel sorry for Xiao Jun.

He thought Xiao Jun didn't deserve any sympathy. He never dared to look up when he walked, and blushed whenever anyone glanced at him. His whole body sent out the unmistakable signal: "I'm easy to bully."

He'd brought it on himself.

"Hey, isn't that Xiao Jun? Who's picking on him? Why aren't you calling for help?"

At some point, Yu Xuan had climbed up and leaned over the wall beside him, curious.

Her slender, snow-white arms rested lightly on the wall, and her long, thick eyelashes fluttered.

She was wearing the little dress her aunt had sent from overseas, the same one worn in Frozen. It showed off her shoulders, and her hair was styled in a fluffy braid that fell over one shoulder. She looked like a lovely girl who'd just stepped out of a fairy tale.

Even Jiang Qian had to admit that some people had the makings of a sensation from childhood, destined to be adored as the nation's sweetheart.

Yu Xuan had clearly possessed an extraordinary eye for beauty and a natural flair for it since she was little. Give her the chance, and she'd stand out.

"What's it got to do with me?" Jiang Qian looked away, his tone laced with contempt.

That contempt was directed at Yu Xuan. He resented how, despite not being related to this family by blood at all, she'd still managed to rise up and become the family's darling. Even their aunt, who lived overseas, was always thinking of her.

"Don't you two play together?"

"Yu Xuan, there's nobody else here. We can both stop pretending to be good kids, right?" Jiang Qian laid it out plainly. "If there's nothing in it for you and it doesn't mean anything, would you do it?"

He thought he'd ended the conversation.

But Yu Xuan unexpectedly corrected him with unusual seriousness. "I would."

Jiang Qian looked at Yu Xuan.

She was smiling. "And it does mean something."

Jiang Qian frowned slightly. "What does it mean? If I rush out now, will those guys just beat me up next time too?"

He noticed that same look of pity in Yu Xuan's eyes again, the one that made him uncomfortable.

"You have so many ways to bully me, but you can't do anything when your playmate gets bullied?"

Bully you? Sis, why don't you take a good look at yourself... Jiang Qian kept quiet and ignored her.

After a long silence,

Yu Xuan let out a disappointed sigh.

Then she grabbed the top of the wall with her fair, flawless hands and hauled herself up. As Jiang Qian watched in undisguised surprise, she swung her legs over and nimbly leapt down on the other side.

Next, she did something that seemed utterly at odds with her usual "cunning" self. She planted her hands on her hips and shouted at the group of mean boys, "Let my little brother go!"

The move even annoyed Jiang Qian a little. He'd always thought he'd lost out to a clever woman when it came to status in the family.

And yet...

Yu Xuan stood boldly between the boys and Xiao Jun, and started fighting them. She drove several boys back all by herself, leaving Jiang Qian genuinely stunned.

Finally, Yu Xuan picked up half a brick and hurled it in the direction the boys were fleeing, declaring herself the winner of the fight.

Jiang Qian jumped down from the wall and walked over to Yu Xuan, who was filthy but triumphant.

By then, Xiao Jun had escaped in the confusion.

Jiang Qian mocked her without mercy. "Get ready to be chewed out. You just ruined an outfit that cost thousands."

"The guy you rescued ran off without even thanking you. Tell me, what was the point of doing all that?"

Yu Xuan wiped the grime off her face and smiled unconcernedly. "He was just scared."

Jiang Qian had to admit that when Yu Xuan smiled at him, covered in dirt with bruises on her face and arms, he'd thought for a moment that she wasn't so annoying after all.

"Scared? You probably scared him witless with your ferocity."

"Not a chance! Your big sis is a fairy."

Yu Xuan folded her arms, looking pleased with herself.

"Those brats are just paper tigers, all bark and no bite. They only pick on the weak. They can't even beat a girl... My sweet little brother, why are you looking at me like that?"

She saw admiration in her younger brother's eyes, along with a hint of surprise—and schadenfreude?

Then Jiang Qian pointed behind her. "Those paper tigers are back, and they've brought weapons."

"Huh?"

This time, every one of the mean boys had something in hand. Some carried wooden sticks; others had picked up steel pipes or bricks. They were back in force to save face.

This time, Yu Xuan didn't hesitate to hide behind Jiang Qian...

None of that mattered.

What mattered was that when the neighborhood patrol officers arrived and gave the brats a thorough dressing-down, they gave Jiang Qian's brave act of protecting a girl their firm, enthusiastic approval.

When Yu Xuan got home, she dramatically retold Jiang Qian's feat to the family.

She'd been born beautiful and popular with the boys, which was why the mean boys had picked on her. Then her brave younger brother had protected her.

At first, Jiang Yang didn't believe a word of it!

But Yu Xuan eventually convinced him.

As for the new dress she'd dirtied, that was all the mean boys' fault. What did that have to do with her?

Jiang Qian could hardly explain that he hadn't done a thing. He'd merely waited for the neighborhood patrol officers to arrive during the few seconds Yu Xuan was hiding behind him.

He still remembered the approval and admiration in the officer's eyes, as if he'd seen some kind of hope for the future in the younger generation.

Beside the dining table, Yu Xuan dodged Old Buddha's chopsticks and huddled behind Jiang Qian.

"Grandma, don't be mad. I'll smack her for you in a minute!" Jiang Qian tried to mediate too.

"I'll smack both of them for you!" their aunt chimed in, delighted to join the fun.

Old Buddha shot her a sidelong glance.

"Everyone, pick up your bowls and eat!"

"Yes..."

The family of four sat in a neat row and obediently finished lunch under Old Buddha's imposing presence, without any further trouble.

After the meal, Jiang Qian was about to return to his room and check his phone when Yu Xuan quietly called him over as he passed her room.

"Hey, handsome, come here. I've got something to show you~" Yu Xuan beckoned mysteriously.

"No. I'm taking a nap." Jiang Qian refused.

"Come on~ You can nap in my room."

Jiang Qian calmly turned his face toward her.

"Grand...?!"

He was about to report her, but she silenced him by force.

Jiang Qian didn't put up much of a struggle as Yu Xuan dragged him into her room.

He thought she was about to bring up the children again, but that really wasn't it!

In front of Yu Xuan's enormous vanity table stood a new row of delicate little glass tanks.

They were all filled with living creatures.

"Come save my new pets!"

Yu Xuan locked the door, took Jiang Qian by the wrist, and hurried him over to the new pet "display area."

Jiang Qian glanced over them: juvenile Bird-eating Spiders, juvenile Red-headed Centipedes... and a half-dead adult Broad-Axe Mantis.