Sister and brother reunited

Ding Ding had grown up poor.

When he first left home, he was young and did less work than the others, so naturally he earned no more than they did.

People said a growing boy could eat his father out of house and home, but back then, Ding Ding had no father to feed him. His workplace provided lunch, but he had to figure out dinner himself.

Even the cheapest boxed meal cost ten yuan, and one wasn't enough to fill him up, so Ding Ding started thinking about cooking for himself.

It took Ding Ding four or five years to go from making unidentifiable mush to stir-frying dishes so delicious he could have swallowed his tongue.

Later, as things went better and better for him, Ding Ding rarely cooked anymore.

After all, when a takeout order could solve the problem, spending time making arrangements himself wasn't worth it.

Now that he was working around a stove again, Ding Ding realized he actually liked cooking.

That wasn't quite right, though, because on the days Bai Congming didn't come home for lunch, Ding Ding just gnawed on a dry steamed bun and called it a meal.

Maybe he just liked cooking for Bai Congming, Ding Ding thought.

Money actually went a long way when you lived an ordinary life. When he still had over two thousand yuan left, a visitor came to Bai Congming's home.

"Look at the life you're living... Like a little immortal."

The visitor stepped into the courtyard and saw Ding Ding reclining in a chair, dozing, his palm-leaf fan fluttering, a brilliant red begonia resting on his shoulder.

The bitter fragrance of Chinese medicine mingled with the faint floral scent, becoming something new.

Refreshing and invigorating, it seeped into the heart.

Ding Ding opened his eyes, and his fanning hand stopped. When he resumed, it somehow felt as though he was putting on a brave front.

"Fourth Sister," Ding Ding said, pretending nothing was wrong. "What took you so long?"

"Busy." Ding Shu walked over and kicked the chair beneath him.

Ding Ding looked up at her. "What?"

"Get up and let me sit. I'm exhausted!"

"..." Ding Ding pointed at his leg in its cast. "I'm a patient."

Ding Shu said nothing, but her eyes clearly said, So what?

Ding Ding sighed, got up, and went inside to bring out another stool, one without a back.

"Why'd you buy a place somewhere like this? Still, having a courtyard is nice. But a single-story house must be hot in this weather..."

Ding Shu surveyed the little courtyard. "Have you retired? You're even growing flowers now? How about I bring you a couple of birds?"

"..."

It had been so many years since he last heard her speak. The familiar feeling left Ding Ding a little dazed, and something crossed his mind, making his nose sting.

"I sold my place." Ding Ding rubbed his nose. "This is my boyfriend's home."

"Your boyfriend!?" Ding Shu frowned and looked him over several times, clicking her tongue repeatedly. "That poor young man."

"..."

He was her own little brother, after all, and it wasn't as though Ding Shu didn't feel for him. After finishing her work, she had specifically cleared two days to come see him.

She refused to say so, though, and just kept complaining that Ding Ding lived too far away and had made her walk forever.

Hongfang Street was narrow, and cars couldn't get in, but the walk was only eight hundred meters at most. How far could that be?

Ding Ding ignored her complaints. "Did you bring my things?"

"Here." Ding Shu took a bag out of her handbag. Inside were Ding Ding's identification documents. "I threw out those rags of yours. I don't know how you've been living, getting your clothes that wrinkled!"

"..."

The clothes in Bai Congming's wardrobe, in all their different colors and patterns, were reserved for different occasions. He wore black or white short-sleeved shirts to work at the flower nursery, and only wore brighter colors at home or when going out.

Under Ding Ding's vigorous daily encouragement, Bai Congming had started wearing those brightly colored clothes to work, while Ding Ding had quite naturally claimed the plain ones for himself.

In other words, Ding Ding had been wearing Bai Congming's clothes all this time.

"Why'd you throw them out?" Ding Ding was unhappy. "I still wear those!"

"I bought you new ones. I'll bring them next time."

That made Ding Ding happy, but he didn't thank her either. He wrinkled his nose and said that was more like it.

The siblings seemed to have always gotten along this way. They didn't stay in touch much, and rarely had anything nice to say even when they did. Whenever they got together, it was like wiping your ass with a barber's razor-dangerous, but they knew exactly how far they could go.

But whenever something happened to either one of them, the other would be the first to step forward and help.

Ding Ding had been like that a few years ago, and Ding Shu was the same now.

"I don't have much cash on hand. There's two hundred thousand you can use for now."

"No," Ding Ding refused outright. "Just twenty thousand!"

Ding Shu ignored him. She took an old phone from her bag and tossed it over, each thing she said cutting deeper than the last.

"You even have to borrow someone else's phone. You've really outdone yourself, ending up like this. I'd be embarrassed to tell anyone..."

"..."

Although the phone was old, it showed little wear. The one in Ding Shu's hand, on the other hand, didn't even have a case and looked brand-new.

Seeing Ding Ding staring at her phone, Ding Shu awkwardly tucked it behind her.

"What? You want a new one too? Do you deserve a new one? What are you looking at!?"

"..."

Ding Ding rolled his eyes at her. "Nothing good ever comes out of that mouth of yours."

"Let's hear something good come out of yours, then," Ding Shu snapped. "Let's see what a fine dog you are."

The lid of the medicine pot on the little stove began to rattle. Ding Ding got up and added a bowl of cold water, and Ding Shu had something else to say.

"Look at you. Who treats people like this? I've been here all this time, and you haven't even offered me a drink..."

Ding Ding clicked his tongue and said she was a pain, but still went inside to fetch a bowl and poured her some flower tea.

"You don't even have a cup?"

"...Are you drinking it or not!"

Ding Shu chuckled and pulled two stacks of cash out of her bag, speaking with feigned nonchalance.

"Is this medicine for you? Have you got some serious illness?"

"Cancer."

Ding Ding did it on purpose. The next second, a palm landed on his forehead with a loud smack.

"...It's nothing." Ding Ding rubbed his head. "It's to build up my health, I think."

"You think?"

"..."

Auntie Zhou's note had only said the medicine was for Ding Ding. No one had actually told him what he was taking it for.

Ding Shu was utterly speechless. "And you're still drinking it?"

"My boyfriend paid for it!"

"..."

Ding Shu scolded him again and asked when the medicine would be ready. She wanted to take him to get a replacement SIM card and stop by a clinic to have him checked.

After all, you couldn't just take medicine indiscriminately.

"I'm not going." Ding Ding shrugged. "I've still got to cook for my boyfriend."

"...Look at you. Pathetic!" Ding Shu rolled her eyes at him. "Where is he?"

"At work. He should be back soon."

"..."

When Bai Congming returned, Ding Ding was stir-frying in the kitchen, and Ding Shu was sitting outside.

Bai Congming froze at the sight of a stranger. After repeatedly making sure he hadn't come to the wrong place, he cautiously approached and greeted her.

"Hello."

Having been pushed by Ding Ding into talking to other people, Bai Congming was no longer quite so uneasy when he met strangers. "This is, my home."

Ding Shu froze too. She'd known Ding Ding was up to no good when he wouldn't let her sit in the courtyard and wait for him.

She hadn't expected him to be up to something this rotten!

Such a fresh-faced, well-behaved young boy, and he'd been rooted up by that old boar Ding Ding!

"I know this is your home," Ding Shu said very seriously. "If you're being forced into this, just blink!"

"..."