48 Beloved Brother (2)

"Let's cut to the chase now, shall we? How may I help you, little brother?"

Huang Qian stuffed both of his hands into his jacket's pockets. "I told you, it's just a little visit. Can't a brother miss his sister?"

Towards his question, I could only look at him expressionlessly. This would work if it was indeed Li Fei standing in front of him, but too bad, I held neither such affection nor pity to this little brother. After all, we didn't actually know each other.

"I have to tell you brother."

"What?"

I scoffed. "You are a terrible actor."

My comment had instantly ripped any patience or friendliness that was left of him previously. The young man's eyebrows scrunched up and his eyes grew distant.

As his lips parted, a cold voice came through, "Must we do it this way?"

I still kept my cool by remaining emotionless. I shrugged at his question. "I don't know, Brother. You tell me."

He sighed exasperatedly. "It doesn't have to be this formal and stiff between the two of us."

I smiled but it didn't reach to my ears. It was a bland dull expression. His comment had almost driven me into laughing out loud though. However, in the end, I merely snorted. "If that's what you expect, you wouldn't have come to me in this fashion."

He raised his eyebrows looking lost. I admired his effort, but if he had wanted to fool me, he should have stepped up his game. He was really a hopeless actor.

"I don't understand what you mean, sister."

And now, his performance had truly become disappointing. I shook my head. "It's cute at first, Brother. But, when you act naive so blatantly like this, it only makes you look stupid, not cute."

I had to say though, my little brother was a man of many expression. He changed so fast from staring at me all grimly and unpleasantly to looking surprised before turning paler than a white sheet. Finally, his expression became guarded as though he was ready to leap in front of me if I had the slightest thought of escaping.

These changes kind of surprised me a little bit. Though, I couldn't help but cleared my throat feeling awkward.

I spoke then, "Wow, you've surprised me in under one minute."

"How so?" His voice was straight out hostile now. It somewhat made me chuckled.

"I take it back. With the right training, you might make it big in the acting industry."

After that, I saw his hands balled into a fist and I could only guess how tight he had clenched them from the vein popping out on the surface. It was quite contrast against his pale skin.

"You should stop with your jeering, Sister, while I can still hold it in." He smiled but I could detect the strong warning behind it.

I raised an eyebrow. "I believe I've just praised you for being a good actor or do you prefer being called terrible?"

I clicked my tongue before shaking my head and continued saying, "I never know you have such a heavy taste, brother."

Right at this moment, Huang Qian growled through his gritted teeth. "I'm not a masochist!!"

I tilted my head sideways while putting my index finger on my chin. "How curious, no one is saying you are. So, why are you raising your voice?"

I could see Huang Qian's face brimming with anger now. It looked like a volcano about to erupt. 'How interesting,' I thought.

Smiling, I told him, "Father would be so disappointed at your current performance, Little Brother."

With my comment, Huang Qian became like a balloon that had been pricked by a needle. The anger burning within him was quickly deflated and the young man turned calm again, although very unwillingly.

"Really sis, why do you have to be so disagreeable even after all these time?"

To that complain, I remained apathetic, not even the slightest bit guilty of my actions. I knew what went on in his head. But, this silly farce I put him in didn't even measure to what he had done to Li Fei.

His real sister might not be able to see through him and even if she had, I doubted she would have done anything about it. But, I was not her and he shouldn't expected me to go soft on him.

"Well, when your sibling has backstabbed you, it doesn't really say much about their blood relationship now, does it?"

His face sank almost instantly, yet there was not a trace of guilt shown in his eyes. But, there it was, the look on his face as if it was all justified. His expression was saying, 'It's because you're our older sister.'

However, in front of me, that reasoning was even below idiotic. It was no where near the threshold of average logic to be considered a valid reasoning. It was in no way adequate. Hence, this was all it took for me to see what a mindless and degraded human being this Huang Qian was.

If even a blood relationship could be sacrificed by him, I could only imagine what a mere stranger amount to in his eyes.

By now, my heart had gone cold and unbeknownst to myself, my eyes had turned chilly as well, gazing at Huang Qian as if he was beneath me.

I smiled derisively at him. "Our father taught you well, Brother."

Huang Qian clenched his fist even tighter that blood began to slide down between his fingers and drip onto the cold ground. He was glaring at me indignantly. That was quite fast of him to return to his angry state.

My little brother might be good at underhanded tricks and slithering behind the scene like a cunning snake. But, to go face to face like this without any plans, he was nothing but a five years old kid who only knew how to sulk when they didn't get what they want.

'Well, I guess by now I have become the parasite in his heart,' I thought. I wanted this little brother of mine to realize from this conversation that two could play this game of pretense. But, he shouldn't expect me to play by the rules, neither should he believe that he had the slightest bit of chance to intimidate me.

"Now, shall we continue with the pretense or should we get down to the point?" I asked in an unhurried manner.

"It's always business, huh?" He scoffed.

I raised an eyebrow. "Hasn't it always been that way in our family? Business whenever we talk."

He looked on mockingly. His expression of discontentment was clearly plastered on his face. I had realized from this, that my sibling had been thoroughly disgusted by our father's way as well.

Deep down, I laughed at the irony of it. 'He finds it repulsive and yet here he is, standing in front of me, acting under our father's order like a good son.'

I chuckled and asked, "Well?"

I tightened my grip on my car key as I snuck a glance at a certain spot behind the pillars not too far away from us. We had dragged this long enough and truth to be told, I was nearing my limit. My whole body was starting to tense up.

I knew from the beginning when I had first turned around and faced Huang Qian, I had been clear of my situation then. It didn't take long for me to understand that I was completely trapped like a mouse in the cage.

Thus, I decided to thread carefully while at the same time trying to come up with an escape plan. However, no matter how careful I was, I knew I couldn't drag this out for long either. The longer we talked, the more they would lose their patience.

"All right then if that's what you want," Huang Qian's voice broke off the silence. When he finally opened his mouth, I was more or less aware what would come next. There was a moment of pause before the verdict was passed down.

"I'm here to take you home."

Thump!

My eyes dimmed. There it was, just as I had expected.

I smiled while deep down my heart was drumming wildly against my chest. I knew clearly what would happen to me if I followed him home, but I also knew at this point, the time had run out and there was no escaping for me.

I exhaled a heavy sigh as I tried to calm myself down. No matter how indifferent I had been though, I could not help but be consumed with rage right now.

I smiled jeeringly at him. "Never thought you'll stoop so low and become his servant."

"What did you say?!" Huang Qian finally lost control and shouted. But, that just made me smiled even more widely.

After pocketing my car key in my jeans, I strode closer to him. While brushing his shoulder, I said to him, "Thank you for delivering your master's order."

"Huang Li Fe-"

I interjected him right there as I leaned to his ear and whispered, "Do tell those rats by the way to hide properly next time because this cat can see them from miles away."

My sentence had completely stumped the young man, but there was not the end of it.

I continued to whisper, "And Xiao Qian, make sure to discipline yourself more. We don't want a successor who's such an open book now, do we?"

I smiled, savoring his expression as it turned paler by the seconds. "But, if you like being an underling, feel free to continue as you are."

Before Huang Qian's hand could touch me when he tried to push me away, I had already moved passed him towards his car.

After a couple of steps, I stopped and turned around. By now, my expression had turned back to its expressionless state as if nothing had happened. Raising an eyebrow, I asked my lovely little brother, "Well? Are you gonna keep standing there or are you gonna drive us home?"

I caught him gritting his teeth as he glared at me menacingly. It didn't bother me even the slightest. Instead, I kindly advised him, "Careful, Xiao Qian. Make sure you don't grind your teeth too hard. We don't want you breaking your teeth now, do we?"

After that, I turned around and walked towards the car, leaving the irritated young man behind.