"Ah... I'm so bored! I wonder how their training is going..."
Ji Siyue mumbled to herself, but there was no response.
"Ugh! Boring! I really want to have a drink..."
...
In the living room of the base.
There were all kinds of snacks, wine and dishes on the coffee table. The floor was littered with all sorts of wine bottles, including foreign liquor, beer, and even Chinese baijiu.
Xingxing was hugging a bottle of beer and was dead drunk. Nangong Qi and Bai Yu had their arms around each other's shoulders, smashing wine bottles and shouting and scolding, venting all their grievances and unwillingness of these days.
Only Qin Chengyao and Zhu Zhiyao were half - drunk and didn't lose their composure.
After a while, Qin Chengyao nudged Zhu Zhiyao with his toe. "Are you still sober?"
Zhu Zhiyao looked at him with bleary eyes. After hesitating for a long time, he nodded. "I'm okay. What about you?"
"I have the best alcohol tolerance!"
"Of course I know. When I first met you, you smoked and drank heavily. I've seen how you drank to your heart's content."
Qin Chengyao thought of the past and smiled helplessly. "Yeah, I was really stupid before. So this question is unnecessary!"
Zhu Zhiyao asked, "So, did you drink heavily because of Ji Siyue too?"
"... Yeah. She suddenly disappeared. It took me a long time to find something to hold on to."
Zhu Zhiyao fell silent.
He never asked much. He only knew that Qin Chengyao smoked because of Ji Siyue, but didn't know that he drank like that for the same reason.
Bai Yu, usually a gentle and refined guy, finally let himself go under the numbness of alcohol. "A bunch of idiots! My skills are so awesome! But they said I was cheating! Fuck!"
"They're just blind! They can't do it themselves and don't allow others to! Brother, don't be angry. Come and drink!" Nangong Qi, also dead drunk, comforted Bai Yu. The two of them shouted like fools.
Qin Chengyao stood up helplessly, patted his clothes, picked up two cans of beer and pointed outside. "Do you want to go outside and have a couple of drinks?"
Zhu Zhiyao stood up without hesitation, walked outside, opened the door by himself, and leaned on the balcony waiting for Qin Chengyao.
After a can of beer, the two still couldn't find a good opportunity to speak.
Finally, having no other choice, Qin Chengyao even laughed.
"Come on, we've been brothers for years. Don't beat around the bush. You like Siyue, don't you?"
Qin Chengyao was straightforward, and Zhu Zhiyao admitted it directly. "Yes."
"Okay, let's have a fight!"
Zhu Zhiyao looked at Qin Chengyao. He had taken off his shirt and was standing bare - chested with a fierce look in his eyes.
Seeing that he didn't seem to be joking, Zhu Zhiyao shook his head secretly, thinking that he was really unlucky that two of his brothers wanted to fight with him.
"Okay! Let's have a fight! No holding back. Do it as you like."
"Don't hit my face. We still have a competition in a couple of days!" Qin Chengyao reminded, and then directly swung his fist.
Zhu Zhiyao used to be a delinquent boy with rich fighting experience, while Qin Chengyao didn't fight much and was even a good - behaved student. Despite such a huge difference, they were almost evenly matched in the fight.
It wasn't because either of them was holding back, but because they had different beliefs in their hearts.
Qin Chengyao loved Ji Siyue and was willing to give up anything. Even if he got punched in the stomach, he would punch Zhu Zhiyao back. And Zhu Zhiyao knew he had done something wrong. He couldn't unleash all his strength, as if he was chained, and barely managed to be on par with Qin Chengyao.
As they fought, they rolled onto the ground and wrestled. Their clothes were torn, their hair was in a mess, but they both subconsciously avoided hitting each other's faces. Even in their angriest moments, they remembered those words.
Half an hour later.
"Phew!"
Qin Chengyao let go of Zhu Zhiyao and lay on the ground beside him. Zhu Zhiyao also lay down. The two were gasping for breath and looking at the sky.
Both of them were black and blue all over, which showed that neither of them had shown mercy.
"You're really a jerk for falling in love with your brother's girl." Qin Chengyao said.
"Yeah, I know. It's my fault." Zhu Zhiyao replied.
"When did it start?"
"Um... probably when we first started playing the dungeon together. She's very smart. I was attracted to her."
"It's been that long." Qin Chengyao murmured to himself.
Qin Chengyao added, "You can like Siyue."
This time, it was Zhu Zhiyao's turn to be shocked.
He raised his head and looked at Qin Chengyao in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"It means you can like her, but you have to wait until I break up with her before you pursue her. Otherwise, you'll really be a jerk."
"Haha!" The light in Zhu Zhiyao's eyes dimmed instantly.
Lying on the ground as if resigning himself to fate, he said, "How could you and Ji Siyue break up! You like her so much. There's no way you'll break up with her. I actually had the plan to keep my feelings hidden in my heart. But things happened suddenly, and I accidentally let it out."
"There's a possibility of breaking up."
Zhu Zhiyao: " ... Eh?"
Qin Chengyao sat up, looked at Zhu Zhiyao and said, "I won't break up with her. But if she comes to me and says she wants to break up, I'll agree, because that's what she wants."
Zhu Zhiyao's pupils flickered violently in his eye sockets. In the end, he didn't even dare to look directly.
"Then... you... you like her so much. I've seen it. Are you really willing to break up with her?"
"I'm not willing to end things with her like this, but I'm willing to let her be free." Maybe alcohol was really a culprit. Qin Chengyao's eyes even got wet.
This was the first time he showed this side in front of his brothers.
"I've never doubted her love for me. But if even she says the word 'break - up', then she must be in great pain. I'm willing to give her another chance. I know what kind of person you are. I trust you."
That night, everyone was dead drunk. None of them was in a good state.
Alcohol was a culprit, but perhaps it was also a hero.
The emotions that had been suppressed for too long were finally vented out. When they woke up again, maybe their bodies would feel heavy, but maybe their hearts would feel much lighter.
The next day, Bai Yu was the first to wake up.
He covered each of his brothers, who were drunk like mud, with a blanket. After looking around, he found Qin Chengyao and Zhu Zhiyao on the balcony outside, bare - chested, covered in bruises and sleeping in each other's arms.
It was too cold at night, and these two idiots didn't go back.
Bai Yu rubbed his head, looked at the two of them, shook his head and said, "Tsk tsk tsk. It seems there was really some bromance last night."
After laughing for a while, he went back into the room to get a blanket, covered the two of them, and just let them sleep outside.
It was not until afternoon that the two of them woke up from their drunken stupor.