"Shen Shuangjian."
Shen Sixian suddenly felt a little weary, and a little helpless.
He did not release Shen Shuangjian's hand. Instead, he spoke while holding it, his voice carrying a helpless compromise that still sought to win him over.
"Come home with me. Stop making trouble, okay?"
Shen Sixian really was getting tired.
He did not know how many more times something like this would happen, how many more misunderstandings would make a fool of him.
Just how many more ill-intentioned people surrounded him, harboring unspeakable ideas, lingering around Shen Shuangjian like wandering ghosts from the underworld?
They taught Shen Shuangjian to lie and forced him to drink. What would they do next?
Make Shen Shuangjian escape his greenhouse into this world that was cold everywhere, elope with him, and join him in opposing his own elder brother?
Inappropriately, Shen Sixian suddenly thought of those fairy tales he had once considered childish and foolish.
An innocent, ignorant princess lived in a tower covered in thorns. She was well protected and wanted for neither food nor clothing. Her only worry each day was which pretty dress to wear and which sparkling jewel to put on.
Yet one day, many princes suddenly appeared outside the tower to rescue the princess. He wanted to take her toward freedom, toward the world beyond the thorns.
He passed through the thorns and reached her window, taking the princess who yearned for freedom away with a shallow kiss.
In the story, he was a warrior who cut through thorns and pressed courageously forward. He rescued the princess, taking her from one castle to another.
In the past, Shen Sixian probably would have accepted the story's intended interpretation, reading it however it was written.
But now, thinking of those happy, perfect stories, Shen Sixian only found them dark and absurd.
The one who took the princess away was not a hero, but a demon.
Looking into Shen Shuangjian's clear, tea-brown eyes, Shen Sixian saw faint incomprehension and confusion in them.
He seemed to understand nothing. Beneath the protective coloring of coldness and distance, his true nature was soft and uncomprehending, fragile, in need of protection.
At that moment, Shen Sixian suddenly remembered his mother's gentle, thoughtful answer when she had told him those fairy tales as a child, and he had pressed her to tell him whether the prince loved the princess most.
He remembered. He remembered his mother saying no.
She had said:
"The one who loves the princess most is never the prince, but the king."
And so Shen Sixian suddenly recognized his own helplessness. Every approach he had thought of on his way here had failed.
He knew that if he resorted to force, all Shen Shuangjian would give him was a silent refusal, and they would once again part on bad terms.
After a long sigh in his heart, Shen Sixian abruptly changed the subject and looked coldly at Xie Jinghui nearby.
"Mr. Xie."
Holding Shen Shuangjian's hand loosely, he suddenly said something with an unclear meaning.
"Thank you for taking care of Shuangjian last night. The successful development of that plot on the outskirts of the capital owes much to the repeated cooperation between our two families. Once I have some free time later, I'll bring Shuangjian to visit the Xie Family."
At this, Xie Jinghui did not smoothly gloss over it. He raised his eyes to meet Shen Sixian's gaze.
"It would be a great honor to have Shuangjian visit."
He raised an eyebrow, turning the ring on his finger, and suddenly chuckled.
"I'll have the bed swept in welcome."
The atmosphere, perfectly harmonious on the surface yet somehow thick with gunpowder, was also captured in full by the camera and broadcast to the livestream.
The livestream's viewer count had already surpassed ten million, with tens of thousands of comments scrolling past every second.
[Oi, bro, why are you here again!]
[If our bro's here, then some little sky-is-falling incident must have happened. Don't tell me Shen Shuangjian and Xie Jinghui did it?]
[Impossible. Our bro already checked (smirk)]
[I thought I was the only one who noticed. That little move our bro made to check in such a hurry cracked me up.]
["Thank you for taking care of Shuangjian last night." So does our bro know something we don't? Scared him into driving over in the middle of the night.]
[No idea. Can't understand what Shen Sixian and Xie Jinghui are saying either. Don't understand, seumnida.]
[Have the bed swept in welcome? Why are you tidying up your bed business just because Shen Shuangjian's coming?]
[Look at those idiots in the dining room who can't get a word in. Just like us, unable to fit in but insisting on trying.]
[It's only been a few days, and our bro's here again.]
[Our bro's busy enough to die. He was living perfectly happily with his precious little brother, then his wife went on a show, and now he doesn't need to do anything all day except watch the livestream.]
[Not only does he have to stop a bear from carrying off his whole grown brother, he also has to quash rumors and fight the haters. When his brother drinks, he has to keep a close eye on him too, in case he gets drunk and... if you know, you know.]
[Does anyone get that "stop making trouble"? A man in power helplessly lowering his head. He clearly has countless means at his disposal, yet caring leaves him utterly helpless.]
[If I had a little brother like Shen Shuangjian, I'd panic too. I'd want to shut the whole world away from him, terrified someone would trick him.]
[How scary. Six bears, you know (doge)]
[It is pretty scary. Why else would he come every other day to try to get his wife back home?]
[If three million got his whole grown brother carried off, Shen Sixian would wake up in the middle of the night and slap himself.]
[Shen Sixian: Who are you insulting?]
[Putting myself in Shen Sixian's shoes, it already feels like the sky's falling. A beautiful little brother, an arrogant scoundrel, a covetous homewrecker, and my own miserable self.]
[Scoundrel Xie Jinghui: Who are you calling names?]
[Homewrecker Yu Sheng: Am I coveting him? I'm snatching him outright!]
[The three things Shen Sixian must protect in this life: his pretty little brother, his brother's innocence, and his own heart that's about to worry itself to pieces.]
[Don't care, doesn't matter. All I know is that if he takes my wife away, I won't have a wife to watch. Dame!]
[No, don't take my wife away (slowly sinks to knees)]
[Down with the evil Shen Sixian!]
[Support our lord Xie Jinghui! You have to protect our wife!]
[You're asking the scoundrel eyeing our wife like prey to protect him? What an unheard-of marvel.]
[No idea. I opened the door and found my wife had done it with someone else. My wife's crimson mandarin-duck dudou was still hanging from that scoundrel's belt.]
[How dare you! Do you take your emperor for dead!]
[His Majesty has passed away!]
[Dog emperor, times have changed (pulls out gun)]
Far from smoothing the crease between Shen Sixian's brows, Xie Jinghui's words only made him frown harder.
Stabbing a knife into cotton was so sickening that Shen Sixian felt a little nauseated.
Yet just then, Shen Shuangjian began trying to pull his hand free again. His movements were light and slow, but utterly without hesitation.
"Elder brother, why did you come?"
Shen Shuangjian genuinely did not know why, so he asked in a mild tone.
But in Shen Sixian's eyes, his belatedly "rebellious" little brother was telling him he was unwelcome, half in disdain and half in dismissal.
Shen Sixian's expression instantly darkened. Pressing his thin lips together, he yanked back the hand that had slipped out of his palm until only the fingertips remained.
"What, can't I come?"