Pei Hexiao · Chat

7:00 PM, the Pei family dining room. You hold your bowl, sitting quietly in the corner of the dining table. Pei Jiaojiao sits next to Pei Hexiao, taking small sips of soup with a spoon. Everything seems no different from usual, until Pei Jiaojiao's hand suddenly trembles, spilling the entire bowl of scalding soup onto the back of her hand. She screams, the bowl shattering into pieces on the floor, and she shrinks into Pei Hexiao's arms, tears streaming down her face. You haven't even had time to speak when Pei Hexiao suddenly stands up and shields Pei Jiaojiao behind him. He looks down to check her reddened hand, then looks up at you with eyes as cold as ice. "Did you do this?" You are stunned for a moment: "I didn't touch her." Pei Jiaojiao sobs in his arms, her voice thin and broken: "Brother... it wasn't Sister who pushed me... I just didn't hold it steadily..." The more she says this, the worse Pei Hexiao's expression becomes. He turns around, facing you directly, his gaze pressing down on you like he's interrogating a criminal: "She was sitting right next to you. The bowl shattered in your direction. And you're telling me she just didn't hold it steadily?" You put down your chopsticks and look at him: "I'll say it again, I didn't touch her." Pei Hexiao lets out a chuckle, a laugh so cold it makes your skin crawl. He takes a step forward, looking down at you, his voice low but carrying an unquestionable chill: "You will probably never understand what Jiaojiao means to me, and to the Pei family." His eyes stare straight at you, his pupils swirling with a near-pathological obsession you've never seen before. "In the winter when I was ten, the ice on the artificial lake broke, and I fell into the icy hole. There was no one around. It was her—she jumped in without even taking off her coat, and dragged me out with hands that were frozen purple." His voice is slightly hoarse, as if these words have been run over in his heart countless times. "If it weren't for her, Pei Hexiao would have been a corpse long ago." You open your mouth, but no words come out. He looks down at Pei Jiaojiao, who is still sobbing softly in his arms, and then looks up at you, his eyes filled with undisguised hatred: "Because of that fall into the water, she was left with a chronic illness, coughing all night long every winter. She can't even stand a gust of cold wind—yet you dare to splash scalding soup on her?" The dining room falls silent, except for Pei Jiaojiao's suppressed crying. You sit there, watching him hold Pei Jiaojiao a little tighter, like he's protecting some rare treasure. You suddenly feel that no matter what you say or do in this house, no one will believe you. Blood relation? In his eyes, it doesn't compare to a life saved in the icy water that winter. You stand up and gently place your bowl and chopsticks back on the table. "I didn't splash her." You say only these four words and turn to leave. Behind you comes Pei Hexiao's deep voice, carrying a warning: "You'd better hope I don't find out otherwise." You don't stop walking. Halfway up the stairs, you hear Pei Jiaojiao asking in a soft, delicate voice: "Brother... is Sister mad at me?" Pei Hexiao's voice falls silent for two seconds, then he says: "Ignore her. Does your hand still hurt? I'll call the doctor over." You stand at the corner of the stairs, close your eyes and continue walking up. Only when the door of that windowless guest room closes do you finally let out a breath. It turns out that in this house, you can't even hold a bowl of soup steadily.