Yue Zhishi was very much looking forward to the winter break, but as a third-year junior high student about to face high school entrance exams, his vacation was pitifully short, only seventeen days in total. He had just spent three days at home catching up on sleep, and nearly a fifth of his vacation was already gone. The few days of the New Year also flew by, and in the blink of an eye, only half of the winter break was left.

This feeling was just like keeping up with a serialized manga; you open the latest chapter full of anticipation, only for it to end abruptly before you've had enough.

Vacation was never long enough.

Song Yu returned to school a week before him, and Yue Zhishi began his lonely mode of catching up on homework. The night before school started, he took his unfinished winter homework to Song Yu's room. Song Yu was taking a shower. He paced around with his notebook, waiting for him. The newly laid carpet on the floor was comfortable and soft to step on, and even sitting on it, the floor didn't feel cold.

He saw Song Yu's not-yet-packed school bag also placed on the floor. He glanced at it unintentionally and saw a few bags of cat food inside.

'Why is Brother bringing cat food to school? For a friend?'

Yue Zhishi couldn't be bothered to think too much about it. While he was away, he took a raspberry-flavored lollipop from his pajama pocket and tossed it into his school bag.

After school started, everyone began to feel the reality that the high school entrance exams were fast approaching, and the atmosphere for studying became much more intense than before. After just one week of classes, they had a mock exam. When the results came out, Yue Zhishi did quite well. He was first in his class in English, and in the upper ranks for all other subjects. Although he wasn't one of the top students, his performance was always very stable. Getting into the experimental class of Peiya High School's Senior High Division was not a problem. Plus, Lin Rong and Song Jin didn't have strict requirements for their academic performance, so both brothers had a good mindset and weren't very nervous.

Yue Zhishi was a child who strongly believed in a balance between work and rest. He would always stay for evening self-study to finish his homework. The time he spent waiting for his brother was his most efficient and focused period because as long as he completed all his tasks, he could ride his bike home with Song Yu, and they could even have a late-night snack together afterward. It was incredibly fulfilling.

"You play quite a bit every day, yet you still do so well on exams. I'm so envious." Jiang Yufan, who was on cleaning duty near the flower beds, held a large broom taller than himself. Instead of sweeping properly, he swung it in front of Yue Zhishi. "Your brother must have given you special tutoring at home during the winter break."

Yue Zhishi caught the broom like a hero in a TV drama, then honestly confessed, "No, he didn't have time to tutor me."

"What was he so busy with during the break?"

"Sleeping." Yue Zhishi put down the broom and tried hard to reach a discarded instant noodle packet, which the wind blew away again just as he was about to sweep it up. "He sleeps more than ten hours a day. When he's awake, he's in his room watching movies or documentaries, like Bird's-Eye View of Earth or The Great History of Geology."

"How do you know?"

"I watch with him after I finish my homework." But most of the time, he would get distracted and fall asleep on Song Yu's bed.

A girl from the cleaning duty group chimed in, "It's so nice to have an older brother at home. I want an older brother too."

Yue Zhishi completely agreed and wanted to share the wonderful feeling of having a brother with her, but another girl beat him to it. "What's so good about it? My brother is so annoying, he bullies me every day. When I was little, I wished every day that someone would take my brother away."

After speaking, she placed the small iron dustpan on the ground, her expression a mix of mystery and a hint of happiness. "But I'll be free from this misery soon."

Jiang Yufan was curious. "What do you mean?"

"My mom agreed to let me go abroad for high school. My aunt happens to be in Australia." After saying that, she shared her experiences from the winter break, choosing a high school and preparing for the IELTS exam. Yue Zhishi focused his attention on sweeping the instant noodle packet into the dustpan and looked for the next target.

"You're leaving in high school?"

"It's quite normal. Many students in the Senior High Division don't take the college entrance exam," the girl said.

'That's right.' Yue Zhishi stopped, leaning on the large broom. He nodded to himself. Hearing the girl talk nervously about the IELTS exam, he thought of Song Yu. It seemed he had also taken this exam. But this thought was just a faint shadow in his mind; he didn't take it seriously.

Coincidentally, when he got home that evening, Yue Zhishi, after his shower, went downstairs to get his phone which he had left on the sofa. He happened to hear Uncle Song chatting with Song Yu. It was a very casual conversation about things that happened at school. As Yue Zhishi walked towards the stairs, he heard Uncle Song say, "Actually, whether you study in the country or go abroad, there are pros and cons. In any case, Dad supports you and trusts that you have your own ideas."

"Mm."

Hearing this, Yue Zhishi's steps faltered, his mind a little confused.

"Yue Zhishi." Song Yu suddenly called his name. Yue Zhishi was dazed and looked back at him.

Song Yu stared at him, waited for a moment, then said, "Go to bed early. Come to school with me tomorrow."

He thought his brother had discovered the lollipop in his bag.

"Oh, I know." Yue Zhishi went upstairs and returned to his room.

He thought again about what his female classmate had said that morning.

'Song Yu will probably study abroad too.'

Although he had agreed readily, Yue Zhishi's sleepiness had completely vanished. He got up, opened his laptop, and typed a series of questions into the search bar, such as "how to apply to high school abroad." But every link he clicked was mostly filled with ads for study-abroad agencies, and the process was confusing to read. The only useful piece of information he got was that studying abroad was very expensive, much more than he had imagined.

So he spent a long time counting the pocket money he had saved over the years.

The next day, Yue Zhishi was dead tired. He forced himself to get out of bed and was lethargic the whole way to school. He knew he would be sleepy, so he very consciously stood up to recite classical Chinese texts, standing for the entire morning self-study session.

He discovered that if you had never noticed something before, it didn't matter, but once you did, it would constantly appear before your eyes with terrifying frequency.

For example, the advertisements for study-abroad agencies posted in front of the cafeteria, the list of students for exchange programs on the bulletin board, or even a teacher casually mentioning a certain senior who was already studying at an Ivy League school.

During the afternoon Chinese class, the teacher was going over past high school entrance exam questions. Yue Zhishi's Chinese scores had never been particularly good, especially in reading comprehension. He always felt that his own interpretations weren't wrong, just that his way of thinking was different from the person who wrote the answer key.

'The author probably doesn't even know their own work could be interpreted this way.'

"Next, let's look at the literary classics section. This exam paper chose Dream of the Red Chamber. Let's take a look, the first question," the Chinese teacher pushed up his glasses. "The characters in literary works are often multi-faceted and three-dimensional. Lin Daiyu in Dream of the Red Chamber is undoubtedly a very classic female literary figure. Please, based on specific plot points, briefly summarize her character traits and their causes."

Character traits. Yue Zhishi rested his chin on the desk. His first reaction was "talented," because she was so good at writing poetry, but he doubted if that counted as a personality trait.

Fortunately, the teacher didn't call on him, but on another boy. The boy stood up, and the first word he said was "melancholy and sentimental."

"Mm, then tell me why she has a melancholy and sentimental personality."

The boy said casually, "Because she was living under someone else's roof." It was probably because this was how the question was always framed, always connecting Lin Daiyu with living under someone else's roof. It had almost become their subconscious reaction, requiring little thought.

"Combine that with specific plot points. Tell me how this situation of living under someone else's roof influenced her character," the teacher continued to guide him.

The boy thought for a moment. "Well, her parents died when she was young, and then she went to live in someone else's house."

Yue Zhishi, who was listening attentively, suddenly had a strange feeling. He sat up a little unnaturally, fiddling with the pen on his desk.

"And then, in someone else's house, she definitely couldn't be like she was in her own home. She didn't dare to say this or use that, and the money she used was someone else's." The class was amused by his plain and direct explanation, but Yue Zhishi didn't find it funny.

The teacher seemed to agree, quoting the original text, "Mm, 'cautious at every step, mindful at all times, unwilling to easily say another word or take another step, for fear of being ridiculed.'"

"Right, that's what it means," the boy said again. "Besides, no matter how nice others were to her, she wasn't their biological child. So she would be more sensitive and overthink things."

Yue Zhishi blinked, staring at his exam paper. He used correction tape to cover the four characters he had written for "brilliantly talented" and filled in "melancholy and sentimental." But after staring at it for two seconds, he tried to cover it again, this time with a bit of impatience. Not only did he fail to cover it, but the corner of the correction tape also scratched through the previously covered part, revealing the hidden words "brilliantly talented."

"Living under someone else's roof, that's very well said."

That was the teacher's evaluation.

......

Yue Zhishi had been acting very well-behaved recently.

As soon as the monthly break started, he would run to help Lin Rong after finishing his homework. Lin Rong was afraid he would get tired and wouldn't let him do anything, but Yue Zhishi almost defied her, wiping tables and washing dishes, doing everything. Even the restaurant staff found it strange.

The restaurant phone rang, and Yue Zhishi was the first to run over, taking the place of the receptionist who had gone to the restroom. "Hello, this is Yanghe Qizhe..."

"...What?" After hearing what the other person said, Yue Zhishi looked shocked. He put down the phone and ran to the break room. "Auntie Rong, is your phone off?"

Lin Rong, who was selecting a new menu layout, checked her phone. "Ah, it really is. It's off."

"Grandpa is in the hospital," Yue Zhishi said anxiously.

The grandpa Yue Zhishi was talking about was Song Yu's grandfather. He had two sons, and Song Jin was the younger one.

In the early years, the Song family's financial situation was not very good. Song Jin had also grown up in hardship. Later, he started his own business from scratch and achieved financial freedom. Song Jin had always wanted to support his father, but was refused by his own older brother.

The eldest uncle of the Song family, considering himself the eldest son, believed that their family should be the one to take care of their father. Song Jin could only compromise but paid a high amount of support every month, hoping to make his father's life more comfortable. Unexpectedly, something still happened. Grandpa Song was changing a lightbulb at home by himself when he accidentally fell and broke his right arm. The eldest son of the Song family couldn't find a hospital bed, so he had to turn to his younger brother.

Lin Rong immediately called a friend and arranged for a VIP room. Song Jin also flew back to the country right away. As it was the monthly break, Song Yu and Yue Zhishi also rushed to the hospital.

Yue Zhishi had a deep affection for his grandfather. When he was still in elementary school, his grandfather had lived with them for a while. He taught him how to play with a spinning top in the park and took him to play on the community fitness equipment in the evening. Sometimes during winter and summer breaks, his grandfather would also come to their house for a while and make him delicious crayfish.

So when he and Song Yu went, he used his now especially precious pocket money to buy a very large and beautiful fruit basket. Song Yu criticized him for carrying such a heavy school bag to the hospital and said that only a fool would buy a fruit basket at the hospital entrance, but Yue Zhishi felt that as long as it was eaten, it wasn't a loss, and the big fruit basket was very impressive.

Song Yu couldn't be bothered to argue, but he took the heavy, impressive basket from him.

The entrance to the VIP room was very quiet. Before the two of them went in, they thought they would see a weak old man unconscious in bed. Unexpectedly, grandpa was energetically watching a TV series about the Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. As soon as he saw his two grandsons, he almost got out of bed.

"Be careful, don't move around," Song Yu said, putting down the fruit basket. "Yue Zhishi bought this for you."

"Oh my, such a big fruit basket, this is so impressive. It's a pity I don't have any fellow patients to show off to. A single room is so boring."

'Yue Zhishi is the real grandson, isn't he?' Song Yu shook his head inwardly. He walked up and gave his grandfather a lecture on post-orthopedic surgery precautions.

"Xiao Yu, why are you still like this? Even more lifeless than an old man like me." Grandpa winked at Yue Zhishi. "Lele, did you bring me the thing I wanted?"

Yue Zhishi hummed in agreement, put his school bag on the sofa, and unzipped it. Only then did Song Yu realize why the bag was so heavy. It was filled with a complete set of Dragon Ball.

Song Yu sighed. "...Grandpa, you need to rest more."

"I know." Grandpa put on his reading glasses and opened a volume. "Such a comfortable bed, and I have manga to read. There's no better rest than this."

After Yue Zhishi finished explaining the order and story summary to his grandfather, he unwrapped the plastic from the fruit basket and took out an apple, preparing to wash it for him. But his grandfather said the water pipe in the room was turned off for repairs today. He had to go out to wash it.

"Turn right, walk to the end of the corridor, then turn left."

"Got it."

Yue Zhishi picked the biggest apple and walked towards the restroom according to his grandfather's directions. Unexpectedly, he ran into his eldest uncle's wife and her new daughter-in-law in the rest area, seemingly buying coffee. Yue Zhishi stopped in his tracks.

He was thinking about how he should address them.

'The wife of my great-aunt's son is...'

'Let's try again. The son of my father's elder brother is my older cousin. My older cousin's wife is my cousin-in-law. Correct.'

Having figured out the correct answer, Yue Zhishi felt a great sense of pride and was preparing a greeting for his new cousin-in-law, but unexpectedly, the two people not far away started talking about him first.

"Mom, of the two who just came over, which one is my cousin-in-law?"

"You can't even recognize your own family?"

This voice, with its clear tone of reprimand, made Yue Zhishi freeze and stop in his tracks.

It felt as if his face was being pricked by many tiny needles at once.

"Oh, that's what I thought." An awkward smile appeared on the new daughter-in-law's face. "The one with brown hair looks like he's mixed-race. You can tell he's not from our family. Is he the child that our younger uncle brought home?"

"That's him." The great-aunt held her coffee, sat down on a chair, and sighed deeply. "If you count, he's been living there for ten years, hasn't he?"

'It's been almost twelve years.' Yue Zhishi subconsciously retreated around the corner, refuting her in his mind.

She took a sip of coffee and continued, "The food, the housing, the things he uses, the school he goes to, all exactly the same as his own son. And they're always going abroad for vacations. That child is so hard to raise. He was in and out of the hospital so many times when he was little, chauffeured everywhere. They only relaxed a bit when he got older."

As she spoke, she seemed to remember something. "Just like his biological father. I heard from your dad that back then, that Le Yi used to eat and live at the Song family's house. I didn't expect the son he produced would also be a parasite."

The new daughter-in-law sat down as well. "Younger uncle is really strange, ignoring his own nephew but doting on an outsider's child so much."

"Don't even mention it. Your husband, my son, barely received any favors from them. When he was a little short of the score to get into Peiya, we asked him for help. It was such a simple matter, but he just wouldn't agree."

"That's a bit too stingy. I just saw that kid through the window holding a huge fruit basket, and then he gave it to his cousin. It seems like he's not very restrained with his spending at home, and he's more spoiled than the biological son. You think younger uncle is so willing to raise someone else's child, could it be... that this kid's relationship with him isn't so simple..."

Yue Zhishi's hands clenched into fists in anger, and he was about to rush forward to set things straight. His father was not just 'someone else'; his name was Le Yi, and Uncle Song was not the kind of person they were describing.

But before he could step out, his wrist was grabbed by someone.

Yue Zhishi turned his head and saw Song Yu, whose face was incredibly dark.

Song Yu pulled him behind him, but he himself walked out.

"What kind of relationship do you think it is?"

The cousin-in-law, holding a paper cup of coffee, stood up with an awkward expression, momentarily at a loss for words.

Song Yu looked directly into her eyes, his expression terrifyingly cold.

"Cousin-in-law, have you got a clear look now? Do you know who I am?"

"Um, Xiao Yu, right? I was just trying to show some concern..."

Song Yu cut her off directly.

"Our family's business is no concern of outsiders."