"Bro, you're up?"
"Mm."
Hu Fan gave a casual response, walked over to the water dispenser to pour a cup, took a few sips, and carried the cup over to the sofa to sit down. He glanced at Liu Xing, who was playing a game nearby, and asked, "Did you have breakfast?"
"Of course I did. Mom made it before she left this morning and left it in the kitchen."
Liu Xing turned his head to look at his brother. "Bro, you woke up quite late, huh? Go eat your breakfast, it's all in the kitchen." With that, he paid his brother no mind and went right back to mashing the game controller.
Hu Fan gave the guy a speechless look. *The holiday finally starts, yet he refuses to sleep in,* he thought. *Getting up this early every day is something else.*
He set his water cup on the coffee table and stood up to walk toward the kitchen. To be fair, after sleeping for so long, he was actually getting a bit hungry; he had stayed up very late last night working on a newly acquired piece of software.
There was an egg, plus two egg pancakes—probably freshly made by their mom this morning—and the soy milk maker still had half a pot of soy milk left. Hu Fan took a look and felt this breakfast suited him to a T.
He poured the soy milk into a cup, brought all the breakfast over to the table, and sat down to eat it bite by bite, feeling leisurely and satisfied.
After finishing the last sip of soy milk, he let out a satisfied burp, slumped back in his chair, and began his post-meal rest.
*No, the chair is still too hard,* Hu Fan thought, and was forced to shuffle over to the sofa to slump down. He spent a little while in a food coma, feeling rather bored, so he fished his phone out of his pants pocket and got ready to log into a game.
Just as he reached a critical moment in the game, a call came through. Hu Fan was fit to be tied; he hung up and kept playing. "What the hell, they're calling again!" Hearing the sound of game over, he couldn't help letting out a foul curse.
"Wang Hao, what the hell is your problem, calling me three times?" Hu Fan snapped the moment he answered the phone, burning with rage.
"Oh come on, aren't we on break? Let's go out and hang out, you guys," Wang Hao said, completely unbothered by how angry the person on the other end was. He knew his buddy's personality well; when Hu Fan was truly angry, he was actually dead silent and wouldn't even acknowledge you at all.
Ever heard that saying? It's always exceptionally quiet right before a storm—this current temper was nothing.
Hu Fan fished an apple out of the fruit bowl, took a bite, and replied unhurriedly, "Where to?"
"Play basketball. Right at the nearby court. How about it? It's just classmates from the neighborhood."
"Fine, I'll be there in a bit." With that, Hu Fan hung up.
When Liu Xing heard that his brother was going out to play basketball, he slyly sidled up to him. "Bro, take me with you! I'll pick up the balls for you." As he spoke, he fawned over him, using his small fists to massage his brother's legs.
Staying cooped up at home all day—even if he was playing video games the whole time—Liu Xing still felt going out was much more fun, especially since he could watch his older brother and the others play basketball. Watching a real game live was way better than watching matches on TV.
When the brothers arrived at the basketball court, everyone else had already gathered. Some of them looked like they'd been playing here since early morning; their clothes were drenched in sweat, and the outlines of abdominal muscles were faintly visible on a few.
"You're here," Wang Hao said, waving at the Hu brothers as they approached. A guy walked over who was about the same height as Hu Fan, with a bronze complexion that made him look like an athletic student with well-developed limbs, though in reality, he was also a straight-A student.
He walked right up, looked at Liu Xing, reached out to ruffle his hair, and raised an eyebrow teasingly. "Little Star, why aren't you calling me big brother?"
Liu Xing could only let out a stifled, resentful "Big brother." Even though he utterly, thoroughly, and completely hated the nickname "Little Star," there was nothing he could do—he couldn't beat Wang Hao.
His brother and Wang Hao had known each other since kindergarten and had gone to school together ever since. He, the younger brother, had been teased by Wang Hao since he was small, but given the guy's overwhelmingly high combat stats, he had no choice but to concede defeat.
Those lessons were all paid for back when he was a kid, refused to believe the hype, and kept courting death by challenging him. Every single time had been a bloody lesson.
Hu Fan chuckled at his little brother's aggrieved expression. He looked at Wang Hao and said, "All right, stop teasing him. Let's get started."
"Basically, we're splitting the guys from our group into teams for a tournament format. Everyone just plays for fun."
He turned back to Hu Fan and complained, "It's been several days since the holiday started, and I've just been slumping at home without moving. I'm getting so bored, so I set up this basketball game for today."
As they spoke, the two of them kept their strides steady as they walked toward the center of the basketball court.
Liu Xing swept his gaze around the entire basketball court and noticed that quite a few people were sitting in the shade nearby, getting ready to watch his older brother and the others play basketball. Most of them were pretty young ladies, too.
He flashed a mischievous grin, then scurried over to a shaded, uncrowded spot to sit down. In his hands, he clutched several bottles of sports drinks he had just bought from the small supermarket and a sports towel he'd brought from home.
He really looked the picture of a good younger brother—if you ignored the fact that this was the result of Hu Fan's brute-force suppression.
The two teams were locked in an intense, neck-and-neck match. Both squads had powerhouse players like Hu Fan and Wang Hao, and neither team had any weak links dragging them down, so the score went back and forth.
The final ball was intercepted by Wang Hao, but unfortunately, he was trapped by two players from the opposing team and couldn't move much. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hu Fan ahead, holding out a hand for the ball. Understanding the signal instantly, he threw a feint and tossed the basketball.
Hu Fan caught the ball with pinpoint accuracy, took a few long strides forward, and dunked it in one fluid motion.
"Oh, we won!" Wang Hao and Hu Fan exchanged a high-five in excited celebration, and the onlookers on the sidelines cheered as well, especially the pretty young ladies—after all, these two basketball players were genuinely handsome.
Liu Xing jumped up excitedly the moment his brother scored the dunk, shouting out and dancing around wildly. "Bro, you're awesome! Ahhhhh!"
After a brief celebration among themselves on the court, the group planned to go out to eat together.
Hu Fan beckoned to his younger brother, and Liu Xing came scampering over on eager feet. Learning that they were going out to eat, he happily followed his older brother and the others outside.
In the middle of the day, it wasn't a great time for skewers, so at someone's suggestion, the group decided to go for hot pot.
They were a bunch of teenage boys growing like weeds, and their appetites were truly no joke. Before long, the entire table was covered in various sliced meats, shrimp paste, and meatballs, with only a smattering of fruits and vegetables in sight. Carnivores, the lot of them.
After the meal, everyone dispersed to return to their respective homes.
Wang Hao and Hu Fan lived relatively close to each other, so the two of them walked back together, trailed by Liu Xing, who had eaten so much he looked like he needed to lean against a wall to walk. Clutching his belly, he dragged himself slowly along behind them.
"Oh right, your parents are divorced, and they've even found you a new dad. Are you guys moving away?"
"Yeah, looks like it'll be soon. But the new place isn't far from here." Hu Fan glanced at Wang Hao's furrowed brow and added, "Besides, aren't we both going to Chunfeng High School? We'll still be at the same school."
Hearing Hu Fan say this, Wang Hao felt reassured. He didn't want his buddy of all these years to just up and leave for somewhere else. His furrowed brows relaxed, and the corners of his mouth turned up. "Then we brothers are still sticking together."
"Mm."
Hu Fan gave a perfunctory response. He also cherished this lifelong bro of his—something he had never had in his past life.