An eldest brother is like a father-round it up, and I'm your dad

With this farce unfolding, no one was going to end the night well.

"Stop fighting, stop fighting! Please stop fighting!" Lin Ranran sounded incredibly anxious.

Ye Xunzhi felt that if the distance between her and them hadn't been almost as vast as the Mariana Trench, those words would have been much more convincing.

Jiang Qi really did charge in headfirst. He rushed over to pull the two apart, only for a miraculous kick from who knew which of them to land on his face and send him flying.

"Brother Qi!"

Lin Ranran screamed and threw herself toward him. Seeing this, none of the other production staff dared approach rashly.

Lin Ranran immediately turned her gaze toward Ye Xunzhi, anger in her eyes and resentment in her voice:

"Big sister, is this the scene you wanted to see?"

"Yes, this glorious age is everything I wished for. I'm very satisfied."

Most people would have felt guilty or afraid and wanted to escape after causing such a huge incident with just a few words.

But Ye Xunzhi was different. She genuinely loved stirring things up.

The accusations and mudslinging Lin Ranran had prepared caught in her throat. Tears filled her eyes, and her voice sounded aggrieved, but whether it was an illusion or not, every word seemed to come through gritted teeth:

"Big sister, this happened because of you, after all. Shouldn't you take responsibility?"

She sniffled and looked at Ye Xunzhi, pitiful yet putting on a brave face, her fists clenched:

"You've already sent my cousin away, and now you're going to send Brother Jiang away too."

At these words, the livestream viewers instantly remembered Bai Zhao, who had genuinely made her way into prison.

They immediately felt sympathy for Lin Ranran, whose time filming this show had been full of twists and turns. Her fans even aimed their fire at Ye Xunzhi.

[Exactly, what's this supposed to mean? Is Ye Xunzhi targeting our Ranran? It's already hard enough to find someone willing to accept her, and Ye Xunzhi has to ruin even that.]

[I suspect she's doing it on purpose. Couldn't she expose it after filming ended? Ranran is just a fourteen-year-old kid. Can't she even have some happy memories of filming a show?]

[Poor Ranran, sending hugs. She's such a cute, kind girl, yet she has to be targeted by a bad kid.]

[Enough. You Natural Gas fans (Lin Ranran's fandom name) need to stop being so ridiculous. Are you blind to who started causing trouble first? Jiang Mingzhi was clearly the one acting like a life coach. Who do you think he was lecturing?]

[But Ranran wasn't wrong. Ye Xunzhi started this in the first place. Shouldn't she be responsible for resolving it?]

[I'm dying. Will you look at what you've written? Your breathing contributes to global warming too. Why don't you take responsibility for solving that?]

"Go ahead and do it yourself, then." Ye Xunzhi actually laughed at that. "What's the point of just flapping your lips? If you really have nothing to do, go find yourself a prison to sit in. Stop trying to drag other people down."

Lin Ranran's cheeks flushed with anger. She covered her face and turned to run off in distress, intending to wait for someone to come comfort her afterward.

But she had forgotten she was still holding someone. Jiang Qi's head hit the ground with a thunk. He cried out in pain, frightening Lin Ranran into hurriedly turning back.

"Brother Qi!" She took Jiang Qi's hand, and the two gazed at each other.

Jiang Qi managed a weak smile. "It's all right, Ranran. I know this isn't your fault. This is all..."

He was just about to reprimand Ye Xunzhi and embarrass her, but when he turned his head, she was nowhere to be seen!

Outside the courtyard house, Ye Xunzhi got into the car. She couldn't be bothered to watch this prime-time soap opera.

As expected, art comes from life. They're even holding hands and gazing deeply into each other's eyes. Anyone who didn't know better would think they'd be putting up a memorial stone the next second.

Ye Lan sat down in the back seat and wholeheartedly agreed.

Exactly. When they couldn't keep up the act, they resorted to cringe. His toes were about to start a construction project.

The guests had originally planned to stay at the courtyard house that night and leave the next morning, but judging by this incident, the commotion probably wouldn't end until the early hours.

So everyone who could leave did, and the production team had enough self-awareness not to ask anyone to stay.

Ye Lan's manager was driving, with more than a little of a mother hen in him. "Honestly, you lot, at this hour of the night, blah, blah, blah, blah..."

Listening made Ye Xunzhi see stars. She placed both hands over her stomach, tipped her head back, and fell asleep.

Let it be. Let the world rise and fall; I'll stay asleep and unmoving.

"We're here. Huh, how did this little one fall asleep? Hurry and shake her awake. Do you need me to take you upstairs?" The manager drove into the underground garage beneath their apartment building and turned around, ready to wake her.

Ye Lan blocked him, wearing a resigned expression. "Forget it. Let her sleep. I'll carry her up."

Watching Ye Lan walk away with her in his arms, the manager tightened his grip on the steering wheel and clenched his other hand into a fist. A hot tear rolled from his eye, and his lips trembled:

"The young master has finally grown up..."

He pulled a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes:

"He even knows to think of his little sister now..."

The next day, Ye Lan slept until the sun was high before waking. Perhaps out of consideration for how tiring looking after a child was, his manager had made an exception the previous night and given him a day off.

"This daylight is so annoying. Why does it get bright without asking my permission?"

Sunlight streamed through the curtains and fell right across Ye Lan's eyes. He irritably rolled over, struggled to open his eyes, and looked at the clock opposite him.

Two in the afternoon... I can still sleep.

He peacefully closed his eyes, then sprang upright two minutes later.

Two o'clock! Had his little sister starved to death?!

With no time to tidy himself up, Ye Lan rushed into Ye Xunzhi's room, his clothes disheveled. The bed was empty.

He rushed over to the beanbag sofa in the living room. It was shaped like a large seashell. Ye Lan lifted the shell open, revealing Ye Xunzhi curled up inside under a blanket, sleeping very peacefully.

The light from outside was a little harsh. Ye Xunzhi struggled to lift her eyelids. "Did you need something?"

"..."

Ye Lan closed it again, expressionless. "Go back to sleep."

Ye Xunzhi: Zzz...

From the looks of it, she wouldn't wake up anytime soon. Ye Lan abandoned the idea of ordering takeout and was just about to go back to sleep when a knock came at the door.

Puzzled and wary, he walked to the door. "Who is it?"

A cool, refined voice came from the other side. "It's me."

"Number three?" Ye Lan found the voice strangely familiar. He opened the door.

Ye Qi'an wore a khaki trench coat washed so often it had faded pale. His features were striking, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses rested on his nose, and his amber eyes gleamed like honey.

"Did you need something?" Ye Lan had just woken up, and his voice was still hoarse. "If you do, don't come to me. If you don't, don't come to me either. You can come to me if you're having bad luck, so I can see that even you have days like that."

Ye Qi'an met this with the calm of someone long accustomed to it. He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.

"It seems your bargain-bin little sister has made you very unhappy these past few days."

"What?" At those words, Ye Lan immediately found everything about his third brother's face irritating:

"Has it occurred to you that you're the one annoying me?"

A question mark slowly appeared above Ye Qi'an's head. "Don't you hate bratty kids more than anything?"

Ye Lan had once made a guest appearance on a kindergarten variety show. After a single day, his nerves had nearly snapped.

When he got home, he told the old man that he never intended to have children. He, Ye Lan, was allergic to children. After that, never mind going near them-even hearing the word gave him a headache.

Ye Lan said, "Yes, I hate bratty kids, but I don't hate my little sister."

The double standard was plain as day.

Ye Qi'an's cool voice gradually grew solemn. "Who are you? Log into your main account and talk."

Ye Lan rolled his eyes. "I'm your dad."

That sounded right. Ye Qi'an sounded glum. "In terms of blood relations, you can only be my brother."

"An eldest brother is like a father. Round it up, and I'm your dad. Got a problem with that?"

Ye Qi'an had never won this argument since childhood, so he chose to give up. "Second brother, are you really sure you haven't lost your mind? You've never once called your younger brothers your darlings, even as a kid."

"Do you deserve it?" Ye Lan blurted out.