Pet Crawlers

"Hug! Hug! What's with all the hugging?"

Old Buddha wielded her chopsticks with a proficiency for rapping knuckles that had lost none of the authority from her days in charge of the classroom.

"He's twenty already, and you're still hugging him, still hugging! Have you no sense of propriety? What kind of behavior is this?"

Unable to withstand the barrage of knocks and scolding, Yu Xuan rose and hid behind Jiang Qian, clutching her brother's clothes with a pitiful expression. "Grandma, why are you so feudal? I was just joking with my brother..."

She was on the verge of whimpering.

Heh, keep up the act...

Jiang Qian let his sister cower behind him, feigning innocence, as he recalled a scene from several years ago that felt all too familiar.

Having long since successfully navigated his own crisis of dropping out of school, the young Jiang Qian sat astride the wall.

He watched with cold eyes as a few bad boys bullied the neighbor's kid, Xiao Jun.

Yet, Jiang Qian had no intention of stepping in to help; instead, he watched with keen interest.

This was highly irrational.

Before his brain injury, even if he lacked the courage to stand up against injustice, he would have felt indignant and disgusted by such bullying. But back then, he couldn't even muster sympathy for Xiao Jun.

He felt Xiao Jun wasn't worth pitying: the boy never dared to lift his head while walking, blushed if anyone so much as glanced at him, and radiated a biological signal that screamed, "I am easy to bully."

He deserved to be targeted.

"Hey, isn't that Xiao Jun? Who's bullying him? Why aren't you calling someone?"

Without him noticing, Yu Xuan had curiously climbed up to the wall as well.

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

She had changed into the little dress Aunt had sent from abroad, a Frozen-themed piece that left her fair shoulders slightly exposed. Even her hair was styled into a fluffy braid draped over one shoulder. She looked like a charming creature who had just stepped out of a fairy tale.

Even Jiang Qian had to admit that some people were destined for stardom and to be hailed as national goddesses; the foundation was there from childhood.

Yu Xuan clearly possessed an aesthetic sense and spiritual quality far beyond the ordinary from a young age. As long as she was given the chance, she would rise above the rest.

"What does that have to do with me?" Jiang Qian looked away, his tone laced with disdain.

This "disdain" was directed at Yu Xuan, resenting that despite having no blood relation to this family, she had still flown to the top to become the young mistress. Even Aunt, who lived far away abroad, constantly doted on her.

"Aren't you two playmates?"

"Yu Xuan, there's no one else here, let's both stop pretending to be good kids." Jiang Qian laid it out plainly. "Things that have no benefit and no meaning—if it were you, would you do them?"

He thought he had ended the conversation.

Unexpectedly, Yu Xuan corrected him with rare seriousness: "I would."

Jiang Qian looked at her.

The corners of Yu Xuan's mouth were turned upward: "And it's not meaningless."

Jiang Qian frowned slightly: "What's the meaning? Rush out now, only for those guys to beat me up along with him next time?"

He noticed that look of pity, which always made him uncomfortable, appearing in her eyes again.

"You have so many ways to bully me, yet you're helpless when your playmate is being bullied?"

I bully you? Sister, check your conscience, will you... Jiang Qian kept his mouth shut, letting her words go in one ear and out the other.

After a long silence.

Yu Xuan sighed, looking somewhat disappointed.

Then, she gripped the wall with her fair, flawless hands, gave a forceful push, and to Jiang Qian's unconcealed surprise, she swung her beautiful legs up and nimbly jumped down to the other side of the wall.

Next, she performed an act that seemed completely at odds with her usual "shrewdness"—she put her hands on her hips and scolded the group of bad boys: "Let that boy go!"

The behavior even made Jiang Qian a bit annoyed; he had always believed he was losing the family status battle to a clever woman.

However...

Watching Yu Xuan stand righteously between the bad boys and Xiao Jun, engaging them in a scuffle, and forcing several boys back single-handedly, Jiang Qian was genuinely stunned.

In the end, Yu Xuan picked up half a brick and smashed it onto the path where the boys were fleeing, declaring her victory in the battle.

Jiang Qian jumped down from the wall and walked toward the dirty but triumphant Yu Xuan.

By then, Xiao Jun had already taken advantage of the chaos to escape.

Jiang Qian mocked her mercilessly: "Wait to get scolded. You just ruined a new dress worth thousands."

"The guy you saved didn't even say thank you before running off. Tell me, what's the point of doing all this?"

Yu Xuan wiped the dirt from her face and smiled indifferently: "He was just too scared."

Jiang Qian admitted that when Yu Xuan smiled at him, covered in grime with bruises on her face and arms, there was a moment where he felt this woman wasn't so annoying after all.

"Scared? Probably scared stupid by your ferocity."

"As if! I'm a fairy."

Yu Xuan hugged her shoulders, looking quite pleased with herself:

"Those little brats are just paper tigers, only good at picking on the weak. They couldn't even beat a girl... Good, good brother, why are you looking at me like that?"

She saw amazement in her brother's eyes, along with a hint of surprise, and... schadenfreude?

Then he saw Jiang Qian point behind her: "Those paper tigers are back, and they've brought weapons."

"Huh?"

The bad boys from before had returned, this time armed with wooden sticks, steel pipes, and bricks they had picked up along the way, making a grand show of coming back for revenge.

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

None of that mattered.

What mattered was that when the local patrol officer arrived and gave the bad boys a stern lesson, he expressed firm and positive affirmation of Jiang Qian's brave act of protecting a girl.

When Yu Xuan returned home, she described Jiang Qian's heroic deed to the family with great exaggeration.

She claimed that because of her natural beauty and popularity, she had been targeted by bad boys, only to be protected by her brave brother.

Jiang Yang didn't believe it at first!

But eventually, he was convinced by Yu Xuan.

As for the ruined new dress, that was all the bad boys' fault—what did it have to do with her?

It made it impossible for Jiang Qian to explain: in reality, he hadn't done anything; he had simply waited for the patrol officer to arrive during the few seconds Yu Xuan was hiding behind him.

To this day, he still remembered the recognition and admiration in that officer's eyes, as if he saw some kind of hope for the future in the younger generation.

At the dining table, Yu Xuan dodged Old Buddha's chopsticks, shrinking behind Jiang Qian.

"Grandma, don't be angry. I'll help you scold her later!" Jiang Qian mediated.

"I'll help you scold both of them!" Aunt chimed in, enjoying the show.

Old Buddha shot them a sharp look.

"Pick up your bowls and eat!"

"Yes..."

The family of four sat in perfect order, eating their lunch obediently under Old Buddha's pressure, without any further trouble.

After the meal, just as Jiang Qian was about to return to his room to check his phone, he was quietly called over while passing Yu Xuan's room.

"Handsome, come here, let me show you something~" Yu Xuan beckoned with an air of mystery.

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

"Come on~ You can sleep in here."

Jiang Qian turned his face away calmly.

"Grandm—?!"

Before he could report her, he was silenced by force.

Jiang Qian didn't struggle much and was dragged into the room by Yu Xuan.

He thought she was finally going to talk about the kids, but that wasn't it at all!

Before him, on Yu Xuan's massive vanity, stood a row of small, exquisite glass tanks.

Inside the tanks were living creatures.

"Hurry, come save my new pets!"

Yu Xuan locked the door, grabbed Jiang Qian's wrist, and led him toward the new pet "exhibition area" with eyes full of anxiety.

Jiang Qian glanced over: a bird-eating spider nymph, a red-headed centipede nymph... and a half-dead adult Broad-Axe Mantis.