018 Orange, Little Orange, Idiot Brother-in-law
The first night of August in Rongcheng was very unpleasant.
Hot was the only word for it.
And not a dry heat, but a muggy heat.
In the room, the light from the monitor attracted wave after wave of mosquitoes, adding fuel to the fire. It was very annoying. The electric mosquito repellent Qin Ren had turned on was completely useless.
At times like these, he had to envy Luo Yao again. Not only was she not afraid of the heat, she didn’t attract bugs either.
Luo Yao, on the other hand, thought it was only natural. A Spirit Beast, the spirit of all beasts. How dare mere mosquitoes touch her?
“Qin—Ren—”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Luo Yao, who had finished watching Journey to the West, was bored out of her mind. She lazily called out Qin Ren’s name for fun while rolling around on the bed, hugging her knees. After rolling for a while, she clung to the edge of the bed, leaned out, and pulled at Qin Ren, who was at the computer desk.
“Qin Ren, let’s go to sleep.”
“One more round.”
Qin Ren was in a voice chat with his old friends, playing Call of Duty. To avoid not hearing the little girl at home if she needed him, he had turned the headphone volume to the maximum and hung them around his neck. A stream of roars mixed with static continuously blared from the two earcups.
“Who wants to watch B?”
“Me.”
“Alright, then Fei and I will go watch A.”
“Eat my RPG—!”
“Damn it, Qin Ren, friendly fire!”
…
The battlefield was raging. Luo Yao grabbed the back of Qin Ren’s shirt in dissatisfaction and pulled it down.
“Qin Ren, stop playing and come to sleep!”
Qin Ren glanced at the time. It was only 3 a.m. Tomorrow was Saturday, no overtime. The nightlife had just begun. What was the rush?
“You go to sleep first.”
“I can’t sleep without you.”
“That’s perfect. Come here.”
This reminded Qin Ren. He had a flash of inspiration and pulled Luo Yao over, tucking her into his arms. It was cool, and the mosquitoes didn’t come near. The effect was outstanding.
“Go to sleep.”
“Oh.”
The little girl began to sleep, and Qin Ren stopped talking.
“Brothers, I’m muting my mic.”
“Huh, why?”
“Do you even have to ask? It’s definitely his new girlfriend.”
“Not necessarily, could be a boyfriend.”
…
The group fought fiercely until 5 a.m. before logging off. Qin Ren’s fingers were numb. He felt that you really couldn’t play games too much these days. Besides the mental exhaustion, it was also easy to have physical problems, especially for office workers like them who typed on keyboards all day. It was easy to get tendonitis from overuse of the fingers.
“Hah—mmm—”
Qin Ren yawned and carried Luo Yao to bed. His movements weren’t very careful, making the sleeping little girl a bit uncomfortable. Her hands, wrapped around Qin Ren’s neck, flailed a few times, and she hummed anxiously.
“Qin Ren…”
“I’m here, I’m here.”
“Mmm…”
Qin Ren responded softly, and only then did Luo Yao relax with satisfaction. She turned her face towards the direction of his scent, nuzzled against him, and then fell into a deep sleep.
——————————
Qin Ren was still a little too awake to sleep. He draped the thin blanket over her stomach and opened his phone, scrolling aimlessly.
The night was always the time that made people the most sentimental. As Qin Ren scrolled, he came to WeChat. His fingertip hesitated for a moment, then tapped on the ID named [Orange].
In the gray chat box, besides the usual greetings and sharing of daily life, the most frequent message the other party sent was [I believe you].
…
Yes, as childhood friends who had known each other since elementary school, his ex-girlfriend always believed in him. Always.
On that night two years ago, Qin Ren was really performing an exorcism. The voluptuous woman on the bed was really a transformed Carrion Slime, definitely not a prostitute he had hired.
But what was the use?
His ex-girlfriend believed him, but his ex-father-in-law didn’t!
That day, he broke them up. The next day, he sent his daughter to study abroad in Greenland.
This father-in-law, who was so swift and decisive in protecting his child, hadn’t completely denied him a second chance. He had hinted that time could wash everything away, and that Qin Ren should first reflect for a few years and strive to reform himself.
For this reason, the second most frequent message from his ex-girlfriend in WeChat was [I’ll wait for you].
And this wait had lasted for two years.
“Sigh, one more year until she comes back. I’ll just wait, I’ll wait…”
Of course, he couldn’t just wait idly.
He had to keep track of the developments on his ex-father-in-law’s side.
Since sending a barrel of grain liquor over for the New Year as usual, Qin Ren hadn’t seen his father-in-law’s grumpy, cold face in over five months.
He didn’t know if his attitude towards him had softened any further after half a year…
Thinking of this, Qin Ren scrolled through his phone, stared at the ID [Little Orange] below [Orange] for a while, and tapped on it. Several unread messages immediately jumped into view.
[Little Orange: Hello hello~ Are you at work?]
[Little Orange: By the way, I’m about to graduate. We’re in the same field, any company recommendations?]
[Little Orange: 52”]
[Little Orange: Brother-in-law, you’re ignoring me again. Don’t even think about getting any news about Dad from me in the future.]
…
A familiar tone, a familiar threat.
From the day this girl started calling him brother-in-law, similar harassing messages had come in several times a day, almost without fail.
Qin Ren was long used to it. After ignoring the other messages, he curiously tapped on the 52-second voice message, switched to earpiece mode, and put it to his ear. A soft, whispering voice sounded.
“Brother-in-law… I’ve been learning some ASMR recently… Want me to let you listen…~”
Intuition told Qin Ren this was not a good idea, so he skillfully turned off the voice message.
“They’re twins, how can their personalities be so different…”
This was a question that had puzzled Qin Ren to this day.
It had been a long time since his ex-sister-in-law had started pulling pranks like this.
The most memorable one was in high school. Little Orange, who was in the same class, had forged his handwriting to write a love letter to Big Orange, deliberately dropped it where the teacher would find it, and then, as she had wished, watched Qin Ren be publicly executed by the head teacher.
Qin Ren still remembered the teacher reading the love letter at the podium, while below, the girl with crescent-shaped eyes, who loved to wear twin ponytails and looked just as sweet and lovely as her sister, was clutching her stomach and laughing, tears streaming down her face.
But as luck would have it, Qin Ren also used this as an opportunity to confess his feelings to his ex-girlfriend for the first time, which led to their confession and relationship in college.
…
[Cheng Siyu, I can reply to you, but can you be more reliable with the information about Uncle Cheng? Every time I go, I get the cold shoulder. You’re giving me false intelligence. You’re deliberately messing with me, aren’t you?]
…
At 5:30 in the morning, after sending this message to [Little Orange], Qin Ren pulled the blanket that Luo Yao had kicked off back over her, then fell asleep.
Just as he was about to fall into a deep sleep, he heard a ding-dong.
In a sleepy daze, Qin Ren opened WeChat to see a reply from [Little Orange].
“Tsk, this night owl is still up at past five. Isn’t she afraid of sudden death…”
Qin Ren complained with double standards, then buried one eye in the pillow and peeked with the other.
[Little Orange: Perfect timing, brother-in-law. I have major intel. Old place?]
Qin Ren didn’t want to type anymore. He held down the voice message button and replied.
“Received. 3 p.m. tomorrow, old place.”
He thought for a moment. After all, he was the brother-in-law, so he should nag a little more.
“Also, don’t stay up late. You need to sleep well.”
After speaking, he placed the phone screen-down on the bedsheet, and Qin Ren fell asleep in a second.
——————————
Meanwhile, in a bedroom in a certain residential community.
On the second level of a rather old-fashioned handmade bunk bed, a girl in a star-patterned nightdress was wrapped in her blanket, a pair of white earphones in her ears, repeatedly playing a voice message on her phone’s WeChat.
“…don’t stay up late. You need to sleep well…”
…
After about five times, she stopped, took off the earphones with a lingering feeling, and placed them by her pillow.
Although her long, soft eyelashes were gently closed, the sweet smile on her lips did not fade.
“…You sleep well too, idiot brother-in-law…”
After a faint murmur, her lustrous, delicate lips gently exhaled an even breath, tinged with a long-lost and exceptionally sweet fragrance…
