Shen Yue lay in bed until the evening, and her stomach was rumbling from hunger, but still no one had brought her any food.
Only then did Shen Yue remember that this was no longer her old home, but the home where Shen Yichen had laid down ten strict rules,
chief among them being the rule that she was not allowed to eat meals in bed.
How vexing.
If only she had known earlier, she should have exchanged the condition of tending to Fourth Brother's wounds for being allowed to eat in bed. After all, tomorrow was the weekend and big brother wouldn't be home to stop her from sleeping as long as she wanted.
Shen Yue belatedly realized she may have suffered a major loss.
She was quite annoyed.
Since that was the case, she could only obediently go to the dining room to eat.
When Shen Yue arrived in the dining room, Shen Jize was already sitting there, with a single serving of rather plain food in front of him, including a bowl of rice.
Shen Yue sat down, and without even asking what she wanted to eat, the chef directly brought out the dishes that had already been prepared.
A bowl of soup, and a few other simple home-cooked side dishes. They looked plain and unpretentious.
Shen Yue tasted them doubtfully, and found that while they were plain, they were very tasty.
With one glance, Shen Yue knew that this must have been arranged by big brother before he left. So she didn't say anything.
As long as it tasted good, that was all that mattered.
But as Shen Yue was eating, she suddenly felt something was off.
She and Fourth Brother both seemed to have the habit of trying to avoid making sounds with their utensils or smacking their lips when eating, and the only sound at their table right now was the light noise of chewing.
Even the chewing sounds were very soft.
Most of the time, what permeated the entire dining room was silence.
Shen Yue couldn't help but think that normally when eating with big brother, he would always chat with her about absurd topics, but today that was suddenly gone. She vaguely felt like something was missing, despite the lightness she felt.
Oh well, hurry up and finish eating then go back to her room.
Just as Shen Yue was about to drink the last spoonful of soup and make her getaway, Shen Jize, who had been silent across from her this whole time, suddenly spoke. "Thank you...for earlier..."
Shen Yue paused in the middle of getting up from her chair. Some inexplicable intuition told her that Fourth Brother had probably imagined something major, so after thinking about it, she decided to lay all her cards on the table. "You don't need to thank me, big brother told me to do it."
So don't thank me, and don't talk to me. Let's just be like we were before! Bye bye!
Shen Yue got up from her chair, intending to go back to her room. She didn't see Shen Jize's expression darken after hearing her words, and the glimmer of warmth that had just started to emerge also disappeared.
And so, when Shen Yue had taken two steps towards her cozy nest, the familiar whimpering sound came from behind her.
Shen Yue stopped in her tracks upon hearing the whining.
After eating her fill, sleeping well, and playing to her heart's content, Shen Yue's curiosity unusually popped up. She wanted to know why this Fourth Brother was always crying.
Shen Yue thought of Teacher Niu's catchphrase: The things Teacher Niu wants to know, I will never compromise myself! Rather than compromise myself, I'd torment others instead.
So she followed his example and decided not to compromise herself. "Fourth Brother, why are you crying?"
Was it because of his coagulation dysfunction? She hadn't heard that coagulation dysfunction causes constant crying.
Recently Shen Yue had learned a line from Qin Xiaoyu: You're so cute, punching you should make you cry for a long time, right?
But her Fourth Brother was not cute. He wasn't hit, yet could still cry by himself for a very long time.
When Shen Jize heard Shen Yue ask him, his crying paused for a moment. He seemed to want to speak but couldn't due to his sobs.
And once faced with such an awkward situation, Shen Jize cried even harder than before.
Shen Yue silently watched Shen Jize. For the first time recently, aside from eating and sleeping, and having stuffed big brother's heart into her own, she extraordinarily felt some new emotions. To confirm what these emotions were, Shen Yue didn't go back to her room either. She just stood there, deciding to feel out the emotions in her heart while observing how long her Fourth Brother could cry.
Anyway, he had whimpered under her balcony for at least fifteen minutes this morning.
Shen Yue took out her phone and started timing.
She suddenly recalled what big sister had said about the purpose of tears. Big sister told her she should cry beautifully, because tears are a weapon.
Especially when an independent person cries in front of others, it often carries a clear signal, which is a type of social need.
So was Fourth Brother crying in front of her also due to some social need?
At the fifth minute of Shen Yue timing with her phone, she discovered not only did Fourth Brother show no signs of stopping crying, he was actually crying harder and harder.
Crying like this will cause dehydration, right? Then he won't be able to produce tears anymore.
In order not to affect her observations with external factors, Shen Yue went and poured Fourth Brother a cup of warm water, then walked over and handed it to him.
"Fourth Brother, drink some water."
Only after drinking water could he continue to cry unrestrainedly and powerfully. She wanted to see just what kind of weapon these tears were.
Shen Jize looked at the water being handed to him, and stopped crying, though he still sobbed a little.
After drinking the water, his tears also ceased.
Shen Yue waited a while, and seeing that Shen Jize was no longer crying, she finally paused the timer on her phone.
Glancing at the time, it was seven minutes, a bit shorter than this morning.
Shen Jize held the water cup and looked at Shen Yue, not understanding why Shen Yue didn't care about him, yet was willing to stay by his side for so long.
"Was this also big brother's request?" Shen Jize suddenly asked.
His voice was hoarse from the crying, and the corners of his eyes were red from being soaked with tears.
Normal people's eyes would become swollen after long periods of crying, but not only were Shen Jize's eyes not swollen, they looked especially beautiful.
That's right, beautiful.
This was Shen Yue's most direct feeling at the moment.
Especially when Shen Jize said these words with eyes still wet, he looked even more pitiful.
So this is what big sister meant by crying beautifully.
Shen Yue took out her phone and snapped a photo, capturing the instant big sister's famous saying became reality.
When Shen Jize heard the camera shutter sound from Shen Yue's phone, the slight hope that had just emerged in his heart also vanished again. Shen Yue was probably reporting the situation to big brother just now, like Second Brother and Third Brother always did.
Shen Jize was perfectly clear that with his personality, if someone other than big brother cared about him, it must be on big brother's urging, or they had some other motive.
No one would like him on their own.
Including Mom and Dad.
Shen Jize felt like crying again. He hated how he was always like this, yet couldn't control it.
"What did big brother request?"
Just as Shen Jize's tears were about to fall again, Shen Yue's clear voice drove his tears back once more.
Shen Jize uncertainly asked, "Just now...you...staying here (with me) wasn't big brother's request?"
Shen Yue continued asking, "Why would big brother request that?"
Shen Jize understood then that Shen Yue's actions just now had no intervention from big brother.
His heart suddenly beat very quickly. "Then why...didn't you leave earlier?" When she had told him to go cry somewhere else this morning.
Shen Yue answered matter-of-factly, "Because you cry beautifully."
Big sister's wise saying one: I don't have any particular hobbies, what's wrong with looking at beautiful things a bit longer?
