Chapter 22: Guarantee

　　It wasn't the first time Pascal Lee had climbed over the wall to get online.

But repeat offenders often say it's their first time.

The first time he was caught, Cherry Adams, who had come from home, looked very unhappy. Holding a coat hanger, she stormed into the teacher's office with murderous intent.

　　Pascal Lee, who was being reprimanded, looked at her and his life was in danger. He was so scared that his shoulders were shaking and his legs were weak, and he held on to the table for support. Then he saw Jasper Lee, who was like a saving grace, following closely behind.

Fortunately, Pascal Lee breathed a sigh of relief.

With his brother there, he wouldn't get beaten up too badly.

　　Perhaps it was because Cherry Adams' first move was so obvious that not only Jasper Lee but also the teachers stopped her.

For a moment, the office was full of noise and excitement, like two dumplings in a boiling pot.

Cherry Adams' eyes were bloodshot and fierce: "Let no one stop me! I'm definitely going to beat him up today!"

　　In the chaos, Pascal Lee crouched down, held his head, and scurried away, but he also knew to hide behind Jasper Lee and the teacher.

But Cherry Adams was determined to beat the child today.

An iron hanger and half of Jasper Lee's story of tears.

Everyone in the office moved around it.

　　"If anyone tries to stop me, I'll hit you too!"

Cherry Adams was so angry that she didn't know right from wrong. She just went for it, "I am disciplining my own child, so none of you have a say! You! Jasper Lee! You too, get out of my way! Get out of my way!"

Anyway, after a good beating, she hit the teacher a few times and Jasper Lee a few times, but Pascal Lee was well protected.

　　Cherry Adams was exhausted and sat down on a chair to catch her breath. Still not satisfied, she threw the hanger at Pascal Lee with all her might.

No one could stop her this time.

Pascal Lee was completely shattered.

A sharp piece of rust sliced across Pascal Lee's eyebrow, brushing his eyelashes and grazing his pupil by half an inch.

　　Pascal Lee screamed in pain and covered his right eye. Blood poured from between his fingers.

There was a momentary flash of red, and then chaos ensued.

Cherry Adams also panicked, not expecting the hanger to be thrown so accurately.

Suppressing her anger and guilt, she took a few steps forward to check on Pascal Lee, but he pushed her away.

"You... all you know how to do is hit me!"

　　He bit his lower lip and sobbed, hot tears rolling from his eyes. "You never say a kind word to me, you just yell at me and hit me! I hate you!"

Cherry Adams stood still.

"I don't want you to care about me, just go away!" Pascal Lee buried his face in Jasper Lee's chest. "Go away!"

　　The surrounding area fell into a frozen state.

"Fuck!" Cherry Adams also hung her face.

"Do you think I want to deal with you? !"

After saying that, Cherry Adams left. Jasper Lee did not know what to do. He couldn't convince this person or stop that person.

　　Pascal Lee was still covering his eyes, whimpering like a little wolf cub, not allowing anyone but his brother to come near him.

Jasper Lee leaned over to check his injury. Fortunately, the wound was not deep, so he persuaded him to go to the infirmary to stop the bleeding and get it treated.

To be fair, Pascal Lee actually regretted saying those words. But what kind of sister does that? She did not show him her face in public.

　　At that moment, Pascal Lee closed his eyes and let the iodine be applied to his aching forehead. Jasper Lee scolded, "Pascal, you did the wrong thing today..."

Before the words were finished, Pascal Lee began to sob again.

For a moment, Jasper Lee didn't know what to say.

　　"Brother, I know, it's all my fault," Pascal Lee hiccuped, "I just, I just don't know, I don't know what to do, and, why does sister, always scold me, never say anything nice to me, she never, never praise me..."

Isn't Cherry Adams just like that?

　　"But the fact that you did it is wrong in itself," Jasper Lee stared into his brother's wet eyes, "Why did you climb over the wall in the middle of the night to go to the Internet cafe? Are you ashamed? Your sister works so hard every day to earn money to send us to school, and this is how you repay her?

Pascal stammered, "Everyone makes mistakes..."

"People may make mistakes," Jasper Lee said, "but this isn't the first time you've made a mistake, is it?"

　　Pascal Lee buried his head deeply: "I don't want to study anymore... I'm just not cut out for it."

"There you go again," Jasper Lee said sternly. "Do you think this will cover up your mistake?"

"I'll just go back and apologize to my sister..."

Jasper Lee was already very angry: "Pascal Lee!"

　　"I am not you!" Pascal Lee was also worried. I just can't study well, I just can't! I can't get questions right that others can get right in just a few minutes! I... I feel like I'm more talented at playing games than studying!"

"Stop it! Jasper Lee was furious.

Pascal Lee unconsciously tugged at the corner of his shirt.

"I don't know how you became like this!" Jasper Lee pinched his eyebrows and turned away.

　　"Think about what you've done when you get home!"

When they got home, Cherry Adams was in the living room. Not knowing if she had calmed down, Pascal Lee didn't dare say anything.

It wasn't until Cherry Adams got up from the sofa and walked toward him.

Pascal Lee's face showed a little hope: "Sister..."

But Cherry Adams just walked past him like he was a cloud, not even looking at him, not even raising an eyebrow.

　　She said to Jasper Lee, "I'm not coming home tonight, so you'll have to buy your own breakfast tomorrow."

The door closed and Jasper Lee was left where he was.

Tears streamed down his face again.

"My sister...is she really mad...does she not want me anymore...ohhh..."

Jasper Lee suppressed his anger and said that it couldn't be, that he shouldn't think about anything and just go write his apology first.

　　Pascal Lee wrote his reflection in the living room, looking at the door from time to time, hoping that his sister would come back tonight.

But she never did.

In the end, Pascal Lee fell into depression again, lying on his sister's big bed like a puppy sniffing its owner's scent. He cried non-stop for the first half of the night, and the second half he was so sleepy and dazed that he just fell asleep.

So much so that he didn't know Cherry Adams had returned.

　　Jasper Lee knew his sister wouldn't be out all night.

The keys to her Skoda were still on the coffee table.

Jasper Lee sat on the couch and waited. After a while, as if something had occurred to him, he picked up the keys and went out.

Under the old apartment building, by the sewer, Cherry Adams rode lazily in the evening breeze and borrowed a cigarette to soothe her grief.

"Why are you out here?"

Cherry Adams quickly removed the cigarette.

　　"Pascal wrote a letter of apology for you to read when you get back."

"Your idea, wasn't it?" Cherry Adams laughed. Is that the best apology he could come up with?"

Jasper Lee thought for a moment, avoided the important points, and said, "After you left, Pascal knew he had done wrong.

Cherry Adams was silent. Jasper Lee continued, "He wouldn't stop crying, saying that you had left him.

　　"I shouldn't have asked him to do that!" Cherry Adams said angrily, "He's useless."

Jasper Lee knew her sister well enough to know that she was stubborn but soft-hearted, so he just stood by quietly and waited for her to calm down.

Cherry Adams finished smoking, let out a breath, and shook out the last cigarette from the pack, but this time she inhaled the wrong way.

"...Ahem! Ahem!"

　　White mist rose from her nostrils.

Jasper Lee went up to support Cherry Adams, but she avoided him, waving her hands repeatedly. "It's okay, it's okay."

The thick, cloudy smoke spread around the dry corners of her lips.

　　Jasper Lee persuaded her, "Smoking is bad for your health."

"It's on the pack, you don't have to tell me," she fumbled in her purse and handed him a red bill between two fingers, "Go buy me a lighter and two packs of Blue House. Use the rest to buy some food."

Jasper Lee took it and asked her if she had anything to eat.

"I have no appetite. Just mind your own business."

　　When Jasper Lee returned from the store, Cherry Adams had not finished smoking. He bought two loaves of bread. "That's not nutritious," Cherry Adams looked at him, "is that what you usually eat at school?"

"No, I usually eat at the school cafeteria."

"Then you haven't gained much weight," Cherry Adams pinched his side, "the school cafeteria isn't that good either."

"It's run by the government, the food is pretty average."

Jasper Lee asked again, "Are you going home?"

　　"Your brother probably isn't asleep yet."

Cherry Adams didn't answer. Jasper Lee understood.

She wanted to wait until Pascal Lee fell asleep before going back.

"After the way they fought during the day, they're going to sleep in the same room at night. It won't be comfortable for either of them."

Such was the difficulty of fighting with family members.

Cherry Adams let out a puff of smoke and stubbed out her cigarette. "Let's go, I'll take you to something nourishing."

　　Cherry Adams took him to a Wenzhou restaurant in the neighborhood and ordered seafood and egg noodle soup. Jasper Lee asked her why she didn't eat, but Cherry Adams waved her hand again.

She was impatient.

The table was narrow. The white light flickered.

Jasper Lee tilted his head to get a better look at his sister.

　　In the cold light, Cherry Adams' cheeks were slightly concave. She was not thin, but she was not plump either. She gave the impression of being mean, and that was how one would think of her when meeting her for the first time.

A broad forehead, a narrow jaw, and deep, valley-shaped eye sockets.

Double eyelids, narrow eyes with willowy ends that went deep.

She was fierce.

The bridge of her nose was high and straight.

　　Her lips are a thin line.

She is cold.

Cherry Adams is very pretty, someone who would get a lot of attention if she walked down the street, and Jasper Lee cannot deny that.

When he was younger, he didn't understand this, and he just thought she was mean. He knew very little about the charisma she was supposed to have.

　　But as he matured physically and mentally, Jasper Lee began to understand why Cherry Adams got along so well with so many people and why she had so many friends. People from all over the world were willing to help her. In addition to her righteous and honest character, her appearance and demeanor were also attractive.

"What are you looking at?" Cherry Adams tilted her chin at him through the hot mist of noodles, "Eat!"

　　Jasper Lee lowered his head and ate. At that moment, the owner, having finished her work, wiped her hands and came over to greet them.

"Sister Zhang," Cherry Adams said, "you used to be neighbors, and we used to see each other often, but you moved away after you remarried.

Come and eat with your brother," Sister Zhang said, smiling. Oh, why don't I see the little one?"

"Oh, forget it!"

Cherry Adams said, pouring out the beans. Sister Zhang laughed, "Is that all? You're no better than my daughter!"

　　"What's wrong?" Cherry Adams knew that her husband from her second marriage also had a child, a girl.

"She's only two years older than Pascal," the boss sat down next to Jasper Lee, "and she's already had three boyfriends."

Cherry Adams loved to gossip, "Three boyfriends?"

"Two boys and a girl. This girl is the third."

　　Cherry Adams was surprised, and Zhang Jie continued, "You see how I worry every day. I didn't give birth to this child, and I can't control it well. The man in the family also thinks it's unreasonable for me to do nothing as a mother. I avoid her in the house all the time!"

Cherry Adams wanted to laugh.

But the matter of Pascal Lee made her unable to laugh.

Zhang Jie asked again, "Your older child is more trouble-free, right?"

　　"That's right!" Cherry Adams patted Jasper Lee who was eating noodles, "I'm counting on him from now on!

"Jasper looks like he's going to go far. He's good at his studies, and he's so handsome, he's the type that young girls like."

"Oh, really?"

Cherry Adams raised her eyebrows.

Jasper Lee was slightly embarrassed and politely bit off the end of the noodle before answering, "Someone asked me that, but I didn't say yes.

　　Cherry Adams pondered the orientation issues of today's teenagers: "Male or female? Or neither?"

Jasper Lee said it was both.

Cherry Adams' movement to light a cigarette stopped, his eyes shining, and he asked him why he hadn't told him about these things before.

　　Jasper Lee then proceeded to share his experiences while watching Cherry Adams' expression. He told her about the time a girl proposed to him and the time a man tried to grope him in the bathroom. Cherry Adams was so engrossed in his stories that she didn't notice when he quietly snatched the cigarette from her fingertips.

　　"So what happened?" Cherry Adams was impatient.

"Did you let that little boy touch you?"

"I told him I wasn't playing that game."

Cherry Adams laughed with her head tilted back.

After laughing, she warned him, "No romance, just study hard. We'll talk about college.

Jasper Lee said he wouldn't.

The Boss Lady said all men are liars, and when they meet someone they like, who knows.

　　Jasper Lee swore, "I promise."

Cherry Adams tapped Jasper Lee on the nose.

"He's just a kid," she teased.