12 A Silent Co-operation between Siblings

Chen Yu got back home before evening since she had more important work to do. When she arrived, only Chen Mo was present in the house.

"Welcome home, sister," Chen Mo smiled at her warmly.

He was always cooped up in his room working on the computer, because his major in the University was Computer Science.

He has one more year to finish his studies, but in the novel he left the University without completing his graduation during this time to earn money after Father Chen fell ill all of a sudden.

Without his graduation certificate, he wasn't able to find a good job. So, he started to work for an illegal organization, and got into a crossfire, losing his life at an early age.

Someone leaked the information of their basement, and Chen Yu also knew who that person was.

But looking at the person who opened the door and welcomed her with a warm and honest smile, Chen Yu's head was going to explode with a lot of thoughts.

The ruin of this family started from Chen Mo getting killed in the crossfire. So Chen Yu has to prevent him from colliding with that organization.

Chen Mo welcomed her, but she only responded to him by nodding her head lightly. Chen Mo knew her thoughts, so he didn't ask her anything.

"Wash yourself up and come back. Mom left some snacks for you. Eat then study, if you need anything, then come and ask me," he instructed her before going back to his work.

Chen Yu didn't respond to him and went back to her room. She came back shortly after, full, fresh and energetic again.

The snacks were cold, so she took them out of the refrigerator and put them in a pan to warm up. After dividing and serving snacks in two plates, she took one of them and went to Chen Mo.

Chen Yu knocked on the door as she asked, "Can I come in?"

"Of course , come in," Chen Mo replied from inside.

She placed the plate of snacks on his desk as she said, "This is for you. Remember to eat between work and relieve your fatigue. If you work all the time, nothing will come out of your head."

"Oh, thanks. But Mom made them for you. You should eat it," Chen Mo was a little flustered to take them from her.

"I'm giving it to you, so take it," Chen Yu didn't mind that much.

So Chen Mo had no reason to refuse it. After all, it was something that Chen Yu gave him personally for the first time. He was happily dancing like a monkey inside his mind, but didn't show the excitement out in front of Chen Yu. Later when others come back, he will show it to them and make them jealous.

Chen Yu hesitated a little before asking him, "Do you know where Chen Ying keeps his books?"

Chen Ying was In College, so his math books can help her take a little preparation for the exam.

However, Chen Mo was a little stunned hearing her words, but soon he returned to normal as he answered her, "It's on his desk over there." He pointed in the direction where Chen Ying's table was placed.

"I just signed up for this year's Science Olympiad Competition. So I need to learn some things from the upper grade books," Chen Yu avoided telling him that she only wanted to revise a little.

"I see. It's good to work hard. But, can you solve it by yourself?"

'Do you need any help?' he wanted to help her with the problems, so that he could take a step forward to get closer to her.

But Chen Yu vaguely answered him like, "If I need any help, I'll come to see you then."

Chen Mo felt a little dispirited, but he smiled at her and replied to her, hiding his disappointment, "Alright, ask me anytime you need."

Chen Mo bought Chen Ying's math book and handed it to Chen Yu.

Chen Yu nodded and took the book from his hand, then went back to her room again and started her work.

Chen Mo only stood at the door, looking at her disappearing back. He felt as if his heart was getting crushed by a machine. He knew this feeling very well. After Chen Yu's arrival, each time he encountered Chen Yu, he felt this heart wrenching pain of losing someone dear.

Today also he knew why his heart felt this way. But he didn't have any other way but to sigh. After all, when a person closes his heart, it takes a long time to open their heart again.

From the first till last, Chen Yu didn't call him 'Brother', not for once.

She also didn't address 'Chen Ying' as the Third Brother, instead, she called him by his name.

But he knew one thing for sure. Even if she closed her heart, she still cared about them. She still loved them like she used to. But she didn't dare to show it out loud, she took the silent path to care for them.

Chen Mo looked at the snacks on his desk, various complicated thoughts and emotions slowly clouded his mind.

***

Chen Yu was currently revising Chen Ying's math book. She looked inside and outside of the book, wondering about how he managed to keep the book this clean. It was clean and neat as a newly delivered book, like he bought it just yesterday.

Seeing the book this clean, Chen Yu got tempted to scribble on the book. This was one of her old habits, as she liked to leave a dot on every clean thing. So she tried to control her hands hard as she started to solve the problems.

After solving for one hour, she finally got up and went to prepare the meal for their dinner. Their mother was always late as she had to work overtime. So Wen Yue prepared the meal everyday. Now that Wen Yue was gone, naturally, it was Chen Yu's duty to do the work.

So Even if no one told her to do the work, she decided to do this on her own. As a skilled cook, Chen Yu didn't need much time to cook meals and do the chores, so she was done with all the work by 9 p.m. at night.

Chen Yu heard the noises coming out of the kitchen, so he also came out and helped her with the work. Although it doesn't matter whether he came or not, since he volunteered to work, Chen Yu didn't stop him.

The brother and sister worked together to prepare the dinner with Co-operation in silence.