Once the floodgates of memory are opened, they do not easily close again. Too much time had passed for Tao Fengche to recall the specific details of that dream, but he remembered that it was another dream where someone very close to him died before his eyes, and all he could see was an endless sea of blood. When he woke up from the dream, he was almost scared to tears.

Tao Zhixing had gone abroad to some raw material plantation with the then-director of the pharmaceutical research institute, Alpha. He was always a frequent flyer, rarely at home, so Tao Fengche was long accustomed to his father not being around. But at this moment, he was truly scared.

He hugged his blanket and blinked, suddenly remembering that he was not alone—Sui Yuesheng was sleeping in the room next to his.

Who knew where he got the courage, but Tao Fengche quickly grabbed his pillow, got out of bed, and ran to knock on Sui Yuesheng’s door.

He didn’t knock very hard, but in the silent hallway, the sound of knocking was quite clear. Tao Fengche shrank back a bit, but he didn’t have to wait long. In just a moment, the drowsy Sui Yuesheng yanked open the door, his face full of the irritation of being forcibly woken from a dream.

Tao Fengche keenly sensed a wave of danger approaching.

He knew well how bad his brother’s temper was upon waking, so he quickly squeezed out a few tears, held his pillow tightly with one arm, and cautiously reached out the other to tug on Sui Yuesheng’s pajamas. “Ge, I’m scared…”

His voice was as soft as a mosquito’s hum.

Sui Yuesheng cursed under his breath. Though his face was full of impatience, he stepped aside to let him in. “Come in first.”

Tao Fengche watched as Sui Yuesheng turned on the bedside lamp and raised his chin, indicating that he should explain himself. He quickly sat at the foot of the bed and tearfully described how terrifying the dream was, but the other remained silent throughout.

When he finally finished, Sui Yuesheng pulled out a tissue and roughly wiped the tears from his face, then rubbed his head hard. “Dreams are fake, stop crying, okay?”

Tao Fengche nodded, clutching his blanket, unwilling to leave.

Though the light was dim, he clearly saw Sui Yuesheng furrow his brows deeply, as if he had a headache. Tao Fengche anxiously waited for his response. After a moment, he finally spoke.

“Did your mom ever sing you a lullaby?”

If it were the current Tao Fengche, he would quickly understand that Sui Yuesheng was trying to find a lullaby audio for him. This was probably the best idea the young man could come up with. But at the age of eight, Tao Fengche didn’t understand. He just shook his head, feeling a bit aggrieved, and said, “I don’t have a mom.”

Sui Yuesheng seemed a bit surprised, and after a moment, he dryly responded, “I don’t have a mom either… I only have a grandmother.”

“I have a grandmother too!” Tao Fengche’s eyes widened, then he lowered his head after a moment, “But grandma passed away.”

Sui Yuesheng was silent for a long time before he softly said two words: “Mine too.”

Tao Fengche was stunned. His brother said he only had a grandmother, but she passed away, so doesn’t that mean he had no family left in the world? Just like the teacher described in class before, “a lonely duckweed floating in the world.”

Although his classmates at school had mocked him for not having a mother, at least he still had his father, but his brother had no one.

Sui Yuesheng’s voice was flat, but Tao Fengche felt that he must be a bit sad at that moment, just good at hiding it.

He was still young, and despite racking his brain, he couldn’t think of any comforting words. Finally, he had a sudden idea. “Ge, I can share my dad with you.”

Sui Yuesheng: “…”

He was stunned for a moment, looking somewhat speechless and a bit disdainful, then sighed and said, “Mr. Tao is an independent person, you should take care of your own dad, don’t just give him away…”

How could that be giving him away randomly?! Brother isn’t just anyone! But Tao Fengche obediently nodded anyway.

If his brother didn’t want dad, what could he give him? He thought for a long time and realized he had no other relatives, nothing else to offer.

“Ge, don’t be sad. I’ll give myself to you.”

This time, Sui Yuesheng’s silence lasted longer than all the previous times combined.

He finally reached out and tapped Tao Fengche on the forehead, then turned off the bedside lamp. “Sleep.”

He didn’t send Tao Fengche back to his room.

With a warm body lying beside him, listening to the other’s steady breathing, Tao Fengche relaxed a lot. He bravely put his hand on Sui Yuesheng’s arm and soon fell asleep.

Now that Tao Fengche thought about it, Sui Yuesheng’s expression upon hearing his shocking words was probably one of “shock.”

Though he felt he was incredibly foolish as a child, to the point where he didn’t really want to recall such an embarrassing history, if he put aside his prejudice, the scene was actually quite heartwarming.

Although he appeared irritable and angry, his brother was essentially a very gentle person.

There must be some reason for him to act so indifferent towards him during the day, right?

The more Tao Fengche thought about it, the more sense it made. He dug out every bit of evidence to support his new discovery, focusing so much that he forgot about the nightmare and quickly fell back asleep.

…

At eight o’clock the next morning, Tao Fengche was woken up by his biological clock on time.

With the speculations from last night in mind, his mood had brightened considerably. He even had the leisure to log into the social media app that he hadn’t touched for several days while eating breakfast. He automatically skipped over the various concerned messages from Yan Yi and the other omegas, and clicked on Wang Yuan’s chat window.

Wang Yuan: [Tao Ge Tao Ge Tao Ge, are you coming back to school?]

Wang Yuan: [I heard about what happened at your house, my condolences, Tao Ge. But… you’re not planning to drop out and inherit the family business, are you? Please don’t!]

Wang Yuan: [School is much more boring without you. Cai Hong is being snarky in class every day, and I’m really fed up.]

Below that, there were various meaningless emojis and interjections.

Inherit the family business? The family business had already been inherited by someone else.

The former would-be heir, now stripped of power, sneered and typed a reply.

Tao Fengche: [Of course I’m coming back.]

Tao Fengche: [It should be within the next couple of days.]

Both businesses had been taken over by Sui Yuesheng, leaving Tao Fengche with nothing to do. The two things he had instructed Xu Song to investigate had no leads. The lost ring had been found, but it had appeared directly in Sui Yuesheng’s hands, and no one knew how he had gotten it. As for the truth about his father’s death…

Tao Fengche sighed.

The servants didn’t understand why Tao Fengche’s mood could change as quickly as a child’s. He had seemed quite happy just a moment ago, and now he was sighing again. However, overall, his mood was much better than the previous night.

Many of them breathed a sigh of relief. When the master’s temper was bad, life was hard for the servants too. Now that Tao Zhixing was dead and Sui Yuesheng had not yet moved into the Tao residence, Tao Fengche’s mood was their weather vane.

So when Xu Song hurried into the dining room, a maid discreetly nodded at him, indicating that Tao Fengche’s mood was relatively good at the moment.

Xu Song approached slowly and placed the documents in his hand in front of Tao Fengche. “Young Master, we’ve found out the cause of Mr. Tao’s car accident.”

Speak of the devil.

Tao Fengche put his phone aside and skimmed through the documents.

“So, according to the police, the conclusion they reached is that the old man had bad luck and collided with a drunk driver, who happened to be driving an overloaded truck?” Tao Fengche raised his eyebrows in surprise, his voice giving no hint of emotion.

“Yes,” Xu Song nodded. “That’s what the fax they sent over says.”

“Ha,” Tao Fengche laughed, tossing the documents onto the table, where they picked up some grease.

The surrounding servants held their breath in fear as he spoke with a hint of sarcasm, “Do you believe that?”