Chapter 16

For high school students burdened with heavy study loads, a three-day holiday was as eagerly anticipated as a beautiful dream.

But for school beauty Qiao Shiyu, she was looking forward to more than just the holiday. There was also the birthday party that only came once a year.

"Hey, what birthday present did you prepare for Qiao Shiyu?"

On Sunday morning, Yue Bin and Zhang Yang arrived at Lu Chi's house carrying plush toys nearly half a person tall, intending to pick up the siblings and head to Qiao Shiyu's birthday banquet at a horse ranch on the outskirts of Yanjing.

At the time, Lu Chi was blow-drying Lu Miaomiao's hair, while Lu Miaomiao's eyes remained glued to the two oversized plush toys.

Hearing Yue Bin's question, Lu Miaomiao raised her little paw before Lu Chi could answer. "I made Big Sister a red bean bracelet. I just don't know whether she'll like it."

As she spoke, Lu Miaomiao sprang up from her chair and pattered back to her room, returning with a red bean bracelet. The red beans were plump and glossy. Though not perfectly round, they had been made as uniform in size as possible. A tassel hung from the end, making it look even more simple, delicate, and exquisite. Lu Miaomiao glanced over her bracelet before looking at the two plush toys again. "Because Big Brother's present is just too pretty." She felt that the birthday girl definitely would not like her red bean bracelet.

Yet Yue Bin did not notice Lu Miaomiao's envy and insecurity. His gaze was fixed firmly on the bracelet, and he praised it with complete sincerity. "...What a pretty bracelet. Did you make this yourself?"

"Yeah!" Lu Miaomiao nodded and said bluntly, "Big Brother and I don't have any money, so we couldn't afford to buy a gift. We had to make one ourselves."

"That's so cool. How did you make it?" As Yue Bin spoke, he took the red bean bracelet from Lu Miaomiao. He and Zhang Yang examined it together—no matter how they looked at it, it seemed to be made from the kind of red beans people ate.

"It was made from red beans!" Lu Miaomiao scratched her head, looking adorably blank. "Big Brother wanted red bean porridge last night. When he was washing the beans, I grabbed a handful too."

Yue Bin: "..."

Zhang Yang: "..."

The two stared at Lu Miaomiao in amazement and praised her in unison. "That's incredible! You can even make such a pretty bracelet out of edible red beans?"

Zhang Yang unconsciously wrapped the bracelet around his wrist a few times. "Too bad it's red. If it were black, I could wear it too."

Yue Bin and Lu Chi immediately gave Zhang Yang looks full of speechless disbelief.

Lu Miaomiao tilted her head and thought very seriously for a while before saying, "Bracelets made from black beans wouldn't look nice. But I know how to knot black cord. If you like, I can make you a bracelet. You can take off the knot afterward."

Zhang Yang became even more delighted. "Really? You know how to make bracelets too?"

Lu Miaomiao nodded and smiled. "It's not hard. All the girls in Lu Family Village know how. My mom makes the prettiest ones. She can embroider flowers on clothes too! Sometimes when my clothes got torn, Mom embroidered a little flower over the damaged spot. If Dad's, Big Brother's, or Second Brother's clothes got damaged, she embroidered little tigers over the holes. She's amazing."

When she was little and didn't know any better, she had even deliberately damaged the buttons on new clothes just so Mother Lu would embroider a little flower on them. Naturally, her little scheme had been discovered, and Mother Lu had pinned her in bed and given her a thorough spanking. Still, there was no need to share that childhood memory with the two big brothers.

Although Lu Miaomiao had no idol image to maintain, such obviously embarrassing deeds were better buried deep in her memories, left for time to dry out and turn to stone dust.

Zhang Yang had no idea what Lu Miaomiao was thinking. All his attention had been drawn to the knot she mentioned. In all his life, he had never seen what one looked like!

"Miao Miao, what exactly does this knot look like? Is it prettier than a bracelet? Can you show me?"

Lu Miaomiao continued scratching her head blankly and asked, "Have you seen Chinese Knots? It's roughly like that. There are all kinds."

Hearing that, Zhang Yang and Yue Bin immediately imagined what it would look like to wear a Chinese Knot on their wrists—far from cool.

Lu Miaomiao thought so too, which was why she had directly suggested making bracelets for the big brothers.

Yet the two big brothers, whose combined ages exceeded thirty, found ordinary bracelets insufficiently cool as well. So these two men, both nearly six feet tall, crouched pitifully in front of Lu Miaomiao and asked with expectant faces, "Do bracelets have any special patterns?"

Lu Miaomiao was a little troubled, because she only knew the most basic weaving methods.

Little Miao Miao, unable to meet the challenge, puffed out her cheeks and stared at the two shameless big brothers squatting before her and acting cute. After thinking for a long time, a light bulb finally went off over her head—

"You can have my big brother make you bracelets!"

"Your big brother, Lu Chi, can actually make bracelets?" Yue Bin and Zhang Yang cried out in unison. Their eyes widened in disbelief as they looked from Miao Miao to Lu Chi and back again. This was even harder to believe than Lu Chi memorizing notes for nine subjects in a dozen-plus hours or rising to first place in the grade within half a month.

But Lu Miaomiao could not understand the shock of the two big brothers. She gave an enthusiastic "Mm!" and patted her chest proudly. "Of course my brother can make bracelets! He doesn't just make bracelets—he can make patterns too. Endless-Swastika Pattern, Key-Fret Pattern, my brother knows them all."

Two pairs of eyes snapped toward Lu Chi. Still crouching on the floor, Yue Bin and Zhang Yang looked at him pleadingly. "Big Brother, could you make us bracelets? Black ones, with cool patterns. Is that okay?"

Lu Chi, who was putting away the hair dryer, looked expressionlessly at the two men who had abandoned all dignity for a bracelet. He felt nothing at all.

Under Yue Bin and Zhang Yang's almost relentless pleading, along with Miao Miao's constant encouragement from the side, Lu Chi ultimately agreed to make the bracelets.