Chapter Thirteen: Little Brother's Blackmail

  The wonder of the winter holiday can't be described in words. Ever since the series of phone calls from the school flower on New Year's Eve, everyone likes to tease Cheng A about it. The elders also don't show respect for their age and occasionally say "When will the frog bring his wife back for us old folks to see?!"

  He said no more calling "frog", still called, if really frog, then why not bring back a toad, he thought sadly.

  Children are busy visiting relatives, busy spending the lucky money given by adults... Adults are busy playing mahjong, busy chatting (a Sichuan colloquialism for talking nonsense), busy gathering at this house and that house for the New Year's reunion.

  In short, everyone is busy. Don't ask what our classmate A is busy with, he's also very busy, busy copying homework, busy copying homework day and night... The new semester is about to start, and his winter break homework hasn't been touched yet. If he wasn't afraid of being scolded by the teacher, he really wouldn't want to do it... Yesterday, he made an excuse to go to a classmate's house to catch up on feelings, but actually went to "borrow" their winter break homework. Otherwise, with his intelligence and the grades he got from copying in science subjects, if he had to tackle such a huge workload covering language, math, foreign languages, physics, and chemistry, it would be better for him to confess to the school beauty in front of the whole class.

  Just as Cheng A was indulging in the thrill of copying without thinking, he didn't notice that all this had already fallen into the eyes of "someone with ulterior motives"...

  "Brother, mom says dinner is ready."

  "Oh, I'll be right down," replied Cheng A, who was in a state of distraction, casually responding to his little brother. But the next moment he hastily covered up his classmate's winter vacation homework... How did his little brother's voice come from behind him?

  "Hahaha... I saw it, I saw it, I'm going to tell Mom and Dad that you cheated..." Before the little brother could finish speaking, he quickly covered his mouth.

  "Uh-uh-uh..." The little brother struggled ceaselessly.

  "Don't mention it, I'll agree to any condition you set, just nod if you agree" The little brother nodded obediently.

  One minute...

  He and his little brother stared at each other...

  "What terms do you want?" He finally couldn't hold back anymore.

  "Uh... a tank, an AK47, one thousand bullets and a Desert Eagle... uh, that's all I can think of for now, I'll tell you the rest when I remember." The younger brother thought for a long time before reporting a whole list of "military equipment"... anyone who didn't know would have thought they were doing arms trading.

  "...Looking at his younger brother's expression, which seemed to be saying that he wasn't finished yet, he collapsed on the spot... Do you think I'm Boeing or Lockheed Martin? Specializing in producing fighter jets and manufacturing artillery..."

  "Bro! I know you're in a difficult situation, but there's no way around it! My deskmate's sister bought him a remote control airplane, and you have no idea how he shows it off at school every day, with a bunch of girls following him around all the time. It's making me so jealous..." Little brother's face was filled with jealousy and resentment.

  "...Emotions are ready to blackmail your brother to hook up with little girls!" Cheng A's face was playful.

  "Brother is in a difficult situation, so I'll go ask mom for help, but this is copying homework..."

  "Day! ...Too much, a little less..." Even a little brother will threaten people, post-90s, post-90s...

  "I'm also preparing for figure skating..." Little brother looked unimpressed.

  "I know you haven't touched your red envelope money yet..." Little brother with a sly expression

  "...", his emotions were well-prepared.

  Thirty seconds later...

  "Brother, have you thought it through? I'm going downstairs to eat now, and who knows, I might accidentally mention this at the dinner table..." Little brother looked anxious.

  "No way! I was planning to use the lucky money to buy a pair of basketball shoes."

  "...then I'll go ask mom!" The little brother said, and with a gesture of defeat, patted his butt and walked away, preparing to find the next place.

  "Little brother, we've been brothers for almost 10 years! You can't betray your own brother like this!" He grabbed the little brother, ready to play the family card.

  "Brother! I didn't want to either! Who made that stupid desk mate of mine bully me too much?!" Little brother's face was full of sadness and helplessness.

  "......" is too much! More realistic than if I acted it myself...

  "Brother, actually I have a way to alleviate your financial pressure." Little brother with a clever look on his face.

  "What's the solution?"

  "Come and lean in closer!"

  "...", you really think you're Zhuge Liang

  "You can actually pay in installments, it's popular nowadays, just like my uncle's family who bought a house two days ago and they're paying in installments."

  "Looking at my little brother, I really want to beat him up. What kind of stupid idea is this? Is there such a thing as making things difficult for one's own brother?"

  "How is it?" Little brother's face was full of expectation

  "Not so good!" I didn't let him have his way

  "That's final!" The little brother's face became even more sinister.

  "At most one pair of roller skates, don't even think about anything else!" A said firmly.

  "Second child! I called your brother for dinner, did you hear me? You've been upstairs for so long, what are you doing?" The voice of the old mother came from downstairs.

  "I'm going down..." Little brother turned around and ran downstairs

  Looking at his turning back with an ill-intentioned expression, Cheng A felt a headache coming on.

  "Where's your brother?!" Sweat, Dad's voice

  "He's coming down." He hastily replied

  "Don't stay upstairs doing homework all day, come down and take a walk occasionally, don't get myopia." His mother served him a bowl of rice with a concerned face.

  "Ah!" Moved... This is the warmth of home! Not like that little brother's 250... knocking on elder brother's door.

  "It's been so long since school started and you're only doing your homework now, who's to blame? It's none other than yourself for being lazy!" Dad said.

  He glared at his little brother, who was sneaking a smile.

  "Dad, actually I've been working very hard, you didn't see it just now..."

  "Little brother, this is mom's braised pork, hurry up and try some! You love eating it usually." As soon as he heard little brother was about to speak, he quickly stuffed the braised pork into his mouth.

  "That's right! Two brothers should be like that. What two brothers don't have conflicts from time to time?" Mom said with a relieved face.

  "Hmm...hmm...hmm..." The younger brother was chewing on braised pork while preparing to speak.

  "This is mom's specialty dish, little brother eat more." Seeing his little brother eating braised pork and about to speak, he quickly continued to feed him green vegetables.

  "I don't eat vegetables..." Little brother looked embarrassed

  "...can't just eat meat and must also eat vegetables, otherwise it will lead to malnutrition!" he explained.

  The little brother glared at him and was about to blow up

  "Haha! Never mind, let's just eat meat, eat meat..." He said with a forced smile.

  "Hmm...Dad, Mom, I want to say..."

  "What did you want to say? Let's talk after dinner!" He quickly changed the subject.

  "Let him speak if he wants to." Dad said

  "...I was completely furious, looking at my little brother's smug face, he really wanted to put the bowl on his head"

  "Mom, didn't you and dad say that if brother did well on this exam, you would buy him those Adidas sneakers he's been wanting?"

  "......" Sweat! Didn't expect little brother to say that, made him break a cold sweat. Looking at the pleased little brother, it turns out he isn't very hateful after all.

  "Alright! I've already talked to your dad about it, we'll go buy it for him tomorrow. How about you, what do you want?" Mom said succinctly.

  "I? I don't want it anymore, brother said he would use his red envelope money to help me buy roller skates and toy guns..." Little brother had a sly smile on his face.

  "...", it turned out that the younger brother had used the trick of secretly repairing the plank road to cross the river, and he thought he had a change of heart. Now he can't even buy it, and his heart began to bleed...

  "Is that so?" His mother looked at him uncertainly.

  "Uh... yes!" Under his younger brother's threatening gaze, he was forced to lower his proud head.

  "Look, his father, the children are sensible now, and we don't have to worry about their contradictions every day." The old mother was relieved, the old father looked at them with a puzzled face, and continued to taste his "Lao Bai Gan".

  In the end, this matter was resolved at the cost of a pair of roller skates, a toy gun and a toy tank paid by our classmate A. Looking at the remaining not much Chinese New Year money, and then looking at his little brother happily skating on the roller skates, he wanted to cry but had no tears.