Chapter 4 Brothers (1)

  Chen Yicheng sat facing Xiao Lie, he had a lot of questions to ask, but Chen Yicheng found himself feeling suppressed in front of Xiao Lie, unable to say anything. It seemed like they hadn't seen each other for two years and eight months, and this time they met under such circumstances.

  Xiao Lie quietly looked at Xu Jiadai on the bed, not saying a word, his facial expression still as cold as before. It had to be said that Xu Jiadai was indeed a great beauty, even though her head was now wrapped in a white gauze, but her delicate features and fair skin showed that her looks could captivate a large number of men. Xiao Lie carefully noticed that on Xu Jiadai's wrist was tied an exquisite necklace, the pendant was a bullet with a three-edged military dagger engraved on it.

  "Those people were killed by me because they deserved to die." Xiao Lie said word by word.

  When Chen Yicheng saw Xiao Lie appear, he had a bad premonition. Now that he heard these words from his mouth, he found himself wanting to say something, but after moving his throat, he couldn't say anything else.

  "They should be dead, but you have to know the consequences, you can report it." Chen Yicheng said.

  "Report the case? My respected police officer, Xi Jia Dai did report the case, but what's the result? The victim is still sleeping in the hospital. Don't tell me you also believe she jumped from the 18th floor to commit suicide. And what about the killer? He's still at large every day. You don't want me to believe in the country and the law? This isn't a military base, although I've been outside, it doesn't mean I know nothing. The police do have evidence. This is the material of Yu Hai colluding with your bureau chief, time, place, people on the scene, funds are all clear."

  Xiao Lie finished speaking and threw a thick stack of documents at Chen Yicheng, with an air of naturalness that was just like before. Chen Yicheng, who was used to being in charge as a special police officer, looked like a student who had made a mistake in front of Xiao Lie. He couldn't refute what Xiao Lie said, and he knew exactly what kind of people the Yu Hai father and son were. If it weren't for Yu Hai, Yu Xiao Tie would have died countless times already. But the problem was that Yu Hai wasn't dead yet.

  Looking at the stack of documents, Chen Yicheng couldn't help but smile wryly. How could he say that he was Xiao Lie's former superior? Every time this guy got into trouble, he had to go and bail him out. Now it was the same again. Chen Yicheng was very clear that even if Xiao Lie had stirred up a huge mess in Shenzhen, it wouldn't be the police who would handle it. With his countless merits and the backing of his brothers and some high-ranking military officials, Yu Hai's wealth would be useless. If someone were to come and arrest him now, Chen Yicheng estimated that he would have to stand in front of Xiao Lie and shield him.

  "This damn T5." Chen Yicheng cursed in his heart. When he saw the information in his hand, he knew that this time Shenzhen's public security system was going to experience a major earthquake.

  "You must be very curious who she is to me?" Xiao Lie said quietly, his icy and firm tone never wavering.

  "She is my sister-in-law, my sister, my brother's family member. My only family member now."

  When Chen Yicheng heard the word "family" from that only relative, his heart skipped a beat. He immediately thought of Xiao Lie's affair with Xu Jiadai by her bedside. He had already been very clear about it since T5. When he heard the two words "family" come out of his mouth, Chen Yicheng felt suffocated and his chest hurt with a sharp pain.

  Xiao Lie's father's surname is Li, but he himself has the surname Xiao. When some people ask him about this, he will reply: "My mother's surname is Xiao, I follow my mother's surname."

  In his childhood, Xiao Lie should be called Li Lie instead.

  Since Li Lie's memory, he has discovered a bad phenomenon, that is, his father was extremely cruel, and his mother and four-year-old brother had scars on their bodies, old wounds were not healed, and new wounds were added.

  At the age of seven, his father died in an accident. His father's death did not bring sadness to the family members, but rather a sense of relief, and so did the neighbors.

  But life is like that, there's no starting point, so it can't be said to have an end either.

  When my father was alive, although he was very cruel, he had the ability to work. But when he died, for this agricultural family, we had to face another problem - there was no strong labor force in the house anymore. However, all these were much better than before, at least no one would be bullied again.

  Many years later, Li Lie still remembered that every time his father beat his mother Xiao Lanfang, Xiao Lanfang would cry while holding the older Li Yang and younger Li Lie. One time when she was holding him, she cried and said: "Li Lie, never hit a woman in the future, it's very painful."

  It was indeed a painful feeling, and Li Lie often felt the taste of being beaten with a stick. It wasn't just pain, but also injury. Although a child may not understand things, they can remember some things very deeply. Being hit by a stick many times would make them numb, and when they become numb, they would forget many things. But the first time always leaves a deep impression. It was noon, and five-year-old Li Lie had just finished school and taken out a language test paper with a score of 60 points. His father immediately picked up a stick and started beating him, while his ten-year-old brother Li Yang and Xiao Lanfang stood by and didn't dare to persuade him. At that time, although Li Yang was only ten years old, he knew that if he had persuaded his father, Li Lie would have been beaten even more severely.

  Finally, his father got tired and threw out a sentence: "Turtle son, if I see you come back with a score of 60 points again next time, I'll throw you into the irrigation ditch to drown, damn it!"

  Matching his father's fierce expression, Li Lie believed he would definitely be thrown into the ditch behind the house. Although young Li Lie didn't know what life and death were, he knew that death was a terrible and frightening thing. It was also at that time that Li Lie realized something: if he didn't study hard, he would suffer.

  Many years later, Li Lie had said a sentence to his subordinates: "What kind of cause is deeply planted in the heart of a child will eventually produce what kind of result."

  When Father Li went to rest, Xiao Lie, who was lying on the board, couldn't get up and could only crawl there, with tears streaming down his face and making "wuuu" sounds. He tried hard not to cry out loud, but he couldn't control his tears. His buttocks were already bleeding from being beaten, and it hurt terribly. Xiao Lanfang saw her little son like this and felt heartbroken but was powerless to stop it. So she put Li Lie's hand in her own rough hands and slowly stroked them, hoping to alleviate his pain. Little Li Lie could only crawl there, unable to do anything else. Because a few days ago, he had seen his brother being beaten and ran into his mother's arms, but Father Li, who was already tired from beating, pulled him out of Xiao Lanfang's arms again and beat him once more. When Xiao Lanfang tried to pull Father Li away, she was kicked away by him instead. The 1.6-meter-tall Xiao Lanfang was like a small chicken being kicked flying into the center of the courtyard in front of the robust Father Li.

  If someone wanted to intervene at that time, Li's father would definitely fight with him. At that time, there was no one in the village who could beat Li's father, nor had such a person been born or appeared.

  Xiao Lanfang comforted Li Lie while Li Yang, who had run out, came back with an ice pop in his hand.

  In 1990, in some small mountain villages in Sichuan, ice cream was not something that could be eaten at will. A one-jiao ice cream stick was a luxury that rural children couldn't afford. At that time, many families were still struggling to make ends meet, and ice cream was considered a relatively luxurious item.

  Li Yang swallowed his saliva and handed the popsicle to Xiao Lie's hand, and Li Lie, who was still whimpering just now, suddenly stopped crying. The cold popsicle had a reddish-orange color, and the ice water flowed down the thin wooden stick into Li Lie's hand.

  "Hurry up and eat, otherwise it will melt away." Xiao Lanfang said anxiously.

  Li Yang looked at the popsicle in his brother's hand, his eyes fixed straight ahead. He didn't understand why he got beaten up but didn't get treated like this. However, when he saw the bloodstain on his brother's pants, he felt a sense of balance in his heart and also added a hint of hatred towards Li Father.

  Just now ran very quickly, now Li Yang can feel the clothes on his body are all stuck to his back, but at least Li Lie who is sucking on an ice pop isn't crying anymore, his eyes reveal pain and happiness. Young Li Lie still hasn't learned how to share, although he's very young, he's afraid that if he doesn't eat quickly, his older brother Li Yang will snatch away his ice pop.

  A popsicle was sucked dry in less than a minute, and then he licked the sweet ice water off his hands, completely disregarding how dirty his hands had become.

  After finishing the popsicle, Xiao Lie discovered that although the sweetness had passed, his butt was still very painful. From then on, he had a special fondness for popsicles for a long time.

  If it is said that tempering can always make people grow up, then Li Lie's brother Li Yang is absolutely an example of early success among his peers.

  Li's father, apart from liking to beat people, also liked drinking. Most of the time after he finished drinking, he would make Li Yang take his younger brother out to cut pig grass, and at this time, Xiao Lanfang no matter what she was doing, had to put down her work and go to the room.

  "Dad, you're bullying mom again." Six-year-old Li Lie saw the door shut, he didn't know what would happen inside, but every time his mom came out, her spirit seemed to be not very good. There were several times when she walked with a tremble, but the two brothers couldn't do anything about it.

  "Hurry up and cut the pig grass." Li Yang said to his younger brother: "If you can't fill it, there will be no dinner tonight."

  After hearing his brother's words, Li Lie picked up the sickle and followed behind his brother to start cutting grass. There was a type of grass called Huangzhicao that had very long leaves but were also very sharp, often leaving cuts on the brothers' hands, which hurt a lot, but they didn't stop, and after a long time, little Li Lie got used to it.

  "Li Yang, your dad is drunk again?" said the neighbor's second uncle with a smile as he walked past the two brothers.

  "Yes, he's hitting his mom again." Li Lie stood up and said angrily.

  "Ah, haha, you're hitting your mom again." The neighbor said with deep meaning and then led the cow away.

  By nightfall, the two brothers would whisper to each other in their nest, this was the most relaxed time for the two brothers, because they didn't have to face Father Li.

  "Li Lie, I read a comic book yesterday, it said that arsenic can kill people." Li Yang said: "If Dad eats it, he will definitely die."

  "Ah, really?" Li Lie asked excitedly.

  The two brothers' greatest enemy was their own father, and it has to be said that life is always full of irony.

  "Yes, pesticides have a strong smell, rat poison can't kill people, but arsenic can." Li Yang said with the tone of an expert in poisoning.

  "Where is the arsenic?" Li Lie asked.

  "I don't know either," said Li Yang.

  "You don't know either? What can we do then?" Li Lie said with a tone of disappointment.

  "When I grow up, I will go to Tangmen to learn martial arts. Among all the martial arts schools, Sichuan's Tangmen is the most notorious for its poisonous skills. It just so happens that it's in Sichuan, and when the time comes, I can still come back to see you and mom." Li Yang said.

  "Then I'll go to Shaolin Temple." Li Lie said.

  Li Yang likes to read comic books, and he has borrowed books from every household in the village that has them. As a result, when it comes to matters of the martial arts world, Li Lie is absolutely an authority in his heart. Ever since he got a score of 60 on a test and was scolded, Li Lie has been diligent in his studies. At this time, everyone in the family discovered that Li Lie was actually a bookworm, and it was easy for him to get a score of 90 or above in language and math. As a result, Xiao Lie spent most of his childhood doing practice exercises. And sometimes when Li Yang didn't study hard, no one would say anything, so he could use some time to read other books.