Brendan Cao sent them to a villa area. This community should be old, but it was very well maintained and the occupancy rate was 100% because of its excellent location and extremely expensive housing prices.
Ethan Luo carried the bicycle down: "Uncle Cao, thank you, please drive carefully."
"Okay, take care of yourself too."
Connor Wen shook hands with Brendan Cao, staring at him without blinking, and said in a subtle way, "Bye, Lawyer Cao."
Brendan Cao smiled, waved goodbye and left.
Ethan Luo stood beside the two of them, narrowed his eyes slightly, and smiled playfully: "Brother Connor Wen, come in."
Connor Wen walked into the community with him: "Hey, Lawyer Cao is a nice guy. How old is he?"
"Thirty-two, I think. He's a very good man, with a successful career and a successful family. He's a very smart man."
Connor Wen was a little disappointed: "Oh, he's married."
"Yes what's the matter?"
"It's okay." Connor Wen changed the subject: "Have you and my sister always lived here?"
"I've always lived here."
"what does it mean."
"I grew up here, but my mother doesn't come back often."
"Where is she then?"
"Just focus on business. There are other things I don't know about." Ethan Luo said casually.
The two of them parked in front of a three-and-a-half-story villa. Half of the fourth floor was a attic and the other half was a rooftop garden. Ethan Luo parked the car in the yard.
Connor Wen asked: "Aren't you going to lock it?"
"This community is very safe. There are surveillance cameras everywhere. It's okay." Ethan Luo opened the door and smiled at Connor Wen, "Welcome to my home."
Connor Wen walked in. The room was very clean and decorated in a simple and elegant style. There was a pure white grand piano in the middle of the living room. The house looked a little cold. He couldn't help but ask, "Did you live in such a big house alone when you were a child? Who took care of you?"
"When you are young, you have a nanny. When you grow up, you don't need anyone to take care of you anymore."
Connor Wen frowned. As someone who was brought up by his parents, he couldn't imagine what it felt like to have parents not around. Ethan Luo was originally from a single-parent family, and his mother often didn't come back. How lonely would that be? He was not someone who could hold back his words, so he blurted out, "What about your dad?"
After asking, Connor Wen regretted it, because he saw Ethan Luo's back stiffen for a moment, and he only heard Ethan Luo say calmly: "It's rare."
Connor Wen didn't dare to ask any more questions. He looked around and his eyes fell on a wall of photos. On the wall were photos of Natalie Luo and Ethan Luo from different periods of their lives, including childhood, adolescence, and youth. He hadn't seen photos of Yaya when she was young for many years. That face was truly stunning, and Ethan Luo inherited it perfectly. The mother and son looked very similar. When he looked at Ethan Luo, it was as if he saw the youthful Natalie Luo. The sister he once admired, loved, and was most proud of could only exist in his memory now.
On the display case under the photo wall, there was a row of trophies and certificates. Connor Wen walked over and took a look. He recognized the ones written in Chinese, many of which were first prizes in the Mathematical Olympiad, first prizes in the International Physics Competition, and even trophies for archery, skiing, piano and other competitions. He didn't recognize the ones in English and a bunch of messy words. He picked up one and turned to ask Ethan Luo: "Wow, you are so awesome, dear, what are these."
Ethan Luo was boiling water: "What you are holding in your hand is the trophy for the junior champion of the International Muay Thai Competition. These are all won by me in various competitions. What do you want to drink?"
"How many competitions have you participated in?"
"Well, quite a lot, math, physics, chemistry, debate, invention, language. I'm good at archery, shooting, skiing, and Thai boxing. I'm OK at piano and cello. Equestrianism, tennis, and fencing are amateurs. I'm energetic and can't sit still, so I like to learn more. Brother Connor Wen, what would you like to drink? How about tea?"
Connor Wen's chin couldn't stand the gravity. He was almost blinded by Ethan Luo's aura of being a top student. He stuttered and said, "No, I want a Coke."
"Sorry, there is no Coke at home. I will make you some juice."
"Okay." Connor Wen put the trophy back with trembling hands and straightened it. Then he put his hands together and bowed to the trophies and certificates on the table, hoping that he could get some of the glory of being a top student.
When Ethan Luo turned around, he just happened to see Connor Wen's action, and a smile flashed in his eyes.
Connor Wen sat on the sofa, and Ethan Luo placed a glass of green juice in front of him: "Cucumber and kiwi."
Connor Wen took it and took a sip. The taste was not bad, but it was not delicious either. He frowned and said, "Add some sugar or honey."
Ethan Luo stared at his face: "These two things are used to treat edema, and the effect will be better if you don't add them."
Connor Wen touched his face nervously: "Are my face and eyelids still swollen? I'm going to get fine lines. My face is usually smaller than this, and my eyes are bigger than now, really."
"I know."
"you know?"
"I've seen your picture."
"Ah? My sister showed it to you?"
"Um."
The two of them fell into an awkward silence. Even though they had never met before, it was hard to find a topic to talk about. Connor Wen thought for a moment and said, "Why is your IQ so high? What did you eat to grow up?"
Ethan Luo smiled and said, "It's natural."
"You are only fifteen years old and you still have to go to school. How do you have time to learn so many things?"
"You think that's too difficult. I only participated in junior competitions, and most people just played for fun."
Connor Wen thought, even if it was just for fun, it would be great if an ordinary person could understand one or two things from it. He remembered that although Yaya was very smart, her IQ was not so high that she could crush others, yet she could give birth to such a genius son.
Ethan Luo said: "Brother Connor Wen, are you hungry? Let's have dinner here tonight."
"Okay, will you do it? I can't do it."
Ethan Luo smiled and said, "I'll do it." He picked up a pen and wrote down a string of numbers, "Wifi password, you play, I'll go cook."
"good."
After Ethan Luo left, Connor Wen collapsed on the large leather sofa in a very ungraceful manner and closed his eyes.
Everything that happened today was unreal. He still felt like he was dreaming. Did he really become the guardian of a strange genius boy? He had no idea what the word "guardian" meant. He didn't know what he could do for Ethan Luo. Ethan Luo was obviously smarter and more capable than him. Moreover, he hadn't told his mother about such a big thing and had signed the contract rashly. Now he didn't dare to tell her.
But how could he refuse, when Yaya begged him in the letter, when Ethan Luo said that Yaya wanted to give him a relative...
Connor Wen sighed. He had spent a day that seemed peaceful but was actually very crazy.
The sofa was very comfortable. His whole body felt like it was sinking into it, but it also had good support. Connor Wen fell asleep in a daze.
Not long after he fell asleep, he heard someone calling him in his ear.
He opened his eyes and met a pair of large, bright eyes. Ethan Luo's face was so close that he could clearly see the hairs on Ethan Luo's face.
This skin is so tender that you can squeeze out water, Connor Wen thought with envy. He yawned, "Am I asleep?"
"Well, if you're sleepy, you can sleep here after dinner."
"No, my mother will scold me if I don't go home at night."
Ethan Luo smiled and said, "You are already an adult, and she still cares about you."
"Oh, it's really fierce." Connor Wen took a breath, "It smells so good, what did you do?"
"Omurice."
Connor Wen smiled: "You like to eat omelette rice too."
"You like to eat it."
Connor Wen was stunned: "My sister told you?"
Ethan Luo nodded: "Mom said that you like the omelette rice she made the most."
Connor Wen's expression dimmed. He couldn't describe the feeling in his heart. He felt sad but also touched.
Ethan Luo gently raised his chin and said softly: "I said, don't be sad for mom, you should be happy for her."
Ethan Luo's voice was full of an indescribable allure. Connor Wen was momentarily absent-minded. He shook his head: "I don't understand your thoughts. When a person dies, they are gone. You can never touch, hear, or see them again. How can I not be sad? How can I be happy for her?"
"Why not be happy for her, thinking that she is free and will no longer have to suffer?"
"What about you?" Connor Wen's voice trembled a little, "You lost your mother, aren't you sad?"
Ethan Luo smiled faintly, did not answer, and just said: "Come and eat."
Connor Wen felt a little uncomfortable. It was the first time he had seen someone with the same thoughts as Ethan Luo. Could it be that people with high IQs have different brain circuits from normal people?
Sitting at the dining table, looking at the tender yellow omelette rice lying on the white bone china plate, Connor Wen felt a little sour in his nose. He took a bite and it tasted exactly the same as he remembered.
Ethan Luo asked: "Is it delicious?"
"It's delicious." Connor Wen looked at him, "Does my sister often mention me to you?"
"Yes, I often mention it and show you your photos to me." Ethan Luo paused, "I also took me to your school to see you, but you don't know it."
"Why?" Connor Wen couldn't understand. "For so many years, I knew she had a child, but how old it was, whether it was a boy or a girl, I didn't know at all, and she never told me. Why didn't she bring you to see me before?"
"She doesn't want to cause trouble for you and Ms. Feng." Ethan Luo said evasively.
Connor Wen knew that it was probably related to Ethan Luo's biological father, so he swallowed his doubts back into his stomach.
Ethan Luo's spoon hit the bone china plate, and the crisp sound echoed between the silence of the two people, seeming particularly lonely.
Ethan Luo whispered: "So, even though you don't know my existence, I always treat you as a relative."
Connor Wen looked at the boy with his head lowered, his eyelashes trembling, and a young and innocent look on his face. He felt pity for him. He reached out and rubbed his hair: "We are relatives. Brother Connor Wen will protect you from now on."
After dinner, Ethan Luo said, "Brother Connor Wen, do you want to visit the house?"
"Okay." Connor Wen wiped his mouth with a tissue and carefully applied lip balm.
"Walk."
The first floor is mainly a living room, kitchen, nanny's room and storage room. The second floor has three rooms. Ethan Luo pushed open the door closest to the stairs: "This is my mother's room. The next door has been opened up. It is her dressing room. Opposite is the fitness room."
Connor Wen held onto the door frame, his steps heavy.
Ethan Luo whispered in his ear: "Let's go in and take a look."
Connor Wen sighed in his heart and walked in.
In contrast to the simple and elegant decoration of the whole villa, Natalie Luo's room is decorated luxuriously. The pure solid wood Italian furniture and the thick mink blanket on the bed show the owner's taste and wealth. All the furnishings in the room are very neat, as if no one has moved them for a long time, but the wooden floor has just been waxed and is spotless. This contradictory conflict makes the whole room even colder.
There was a photo of Natalie Luo hanging on the head of the bed. In the photo, she was dressed in jewels, with sharp eyes and a beautiful look. Connor Wen had never seen Natalie Luo like this before. The Natalie Luo in his memory would not have such a cold and sharp expression.
Connor Wen walked to the dressing table. The huge dressing table was like a display cabinet for cosmetics. Connor Wen had always dreamed of getting everything on it, but for the first time in his life, his mind was not on these treasures.
Ethan Luo said: "Take whatever you like. It's a waste if it expires."
Connor Wen's hand slid across those beautifully shaped perfume bottles, and finally landed on an antique comb. He picked up the comb and put it to his nose, smelling a rich wood fragrance. He said, "Jade sandalwood?"
Ethan Luo nodded.
Connor Wen shook his head: "What has my sister been doing these years? A comb costs tens of thousands of yuan, and Brendan Cao calls her 'Boss Luo'..." He turned his head and looked directly into Ethan Luo's eyes, "Tell me the truth, has she done anything illegal?"
Ethan Luo said: "I don't know. I know almost nothing about her."
"You are so smart, but you really don't know anything? You know she is in pain and despair, you know she has been deceived, you said all these yourself, but you don't know why she is in pain, despair and deceived?" Connor Wen's voice was sharp and trembling. He was not the kind of person who could keep secrets. Although he was repeatedly warned not to delve into the cause of Natalie Luo's death, a living person was gone for no reason. How could he pretend nothing had happened?
Ethan Luo frowned, with a hint of grievance in his eyes, and whispered: "I really don't know."
Connor Wen looked at Ethan Luo's panic and thought he had frightened him, so he softened his attitude. He touched Ethan Luo's face and said, "I'm not targeting you. You don't know... forget it."
Ethan Luo nodded, looking a little pitiful.
Connor Wen said: "Leave this comb to me as a souvenir."
"good."
Connor Wen walked into Natalie Luo's cloakroom and was shocked again. The whole huge room was a showroom for Natalie Luo's clothes, shoes, bags, and jewelry, and this was just a home she seldom came back to. Connor Wen sighed, "Even if my sister didn't leave you anything, you would have enough to live on for a lifetime if you sold these things."
"I won't sell it, but I can give it to you if you like it."
Connor Wen felt unbearably disappointed. He saw many things that he could only envy at other times, but he didn't see what he really wanted to see - the trace of his sister in his memory. The sister who brought him up since he was a child, who saved her breakfast money to buy him ice cream, and who carried him two kilometers home while he slept on her back to save two dollars for bus fare, seemed to be a different person from the queen in this luxurious castle.
He shook his head, trying to get out of the repressed emotion, and asked casually: "How do you know I like it?"
Ethan Luo leaned against the door frame, smiling: "I've read your blog, it's quite interesting."
Connor Wen thought of his Weibo and felt embarrassed for about a second, because his Weibo content mainly fell into three categories: makeup tutorials, selfies of various coquettish poses, and pictures of muscular men. But he soon got over it. He was what he was, and he didn't care whether others disliked him or were gay. What others thought was none of his business. He said proudly: "I became famous very quickly, in just over a year. Do you know why?"
Ethan Luo smiled and asked, "Why?"
"Of course it's because I'm beautiful." Connor Wen poked his cheek in the mirror.
Ethan Luo said seriously: "That makes sense."
Connor Wen smiled at him and said, "Let's go to your room and take a look."
Ethan Luo's room was on the third floor. Connor Wen was stunned again when he pushed open the door. Ethan Luo had opened up the entire third floor, so the room was very large. Every corner and every wall in the room was fully utilized, and countless things were placed there, but at the same time it could be kept tidy and clean.
Connor Wen had never seen a room so difficult to categorize, because there was everything here. A huge amount of books, three computers, game consoles, cameras, various models, crafts, collectibles, musical instruments, sports equipment, Gundam models and ancient European copper coins could be seen in one display case, ski equipment and sheepskin lamps were placed in a corner. In short, these things ranged from Chinese to Western, from ancient to modern, from primitive to high-tech, from the second dimension to the third dimension, like a condensed department store. The sense of disharmony created by the collision of these things of different styles turned into a strange harmony.
Connor Wen sighed: "You have too many things in your room."
Ethan Luo smiled and said, "Like I said, I have a wide range of interests, and the attic on the fourth floor is also full of my things."
"It's really extensive." Connor Wen sat at the desk, fiddling with a very beautiful pen.
Ethan Luo leaned down, with his chest almost touching Connor Wen's neck, grabbed his hand and opened the pen cap.
Connor Wen suddenly felt a little awkward. Ethan Luo was too close to him, so close that he could smell the warmth of Ethan Luo. The soft stubble of hair gently tickled his cheek, as if it tickled his heart. His breathing was a little heavy: "What are you doing?"
Ethan Luo whispered: "I suddenly want to write your name."
Connor Wen's body froze. What was going on with this damn ambiguous atmosphere? He felt that he was really suffocating. It was no wonder that B!tch Nico always laughed at him for being a hungry little virgin. Even if he was gay, he couldn't have any fantasies about a fifteen-year-old kid, let alone his sister's child.
Ethan Luo grabbed his hand and wrote the three words "Connor Wen" on the paper. His strokes were vigorous, like an axe, and the style was natural and majestic, not at all like the work of a young boy.
Connor Wen pulled his hand back and praised: "Your handwriting is really beautiful."
"Thanks."
Connor Wen was inexplicably nervous. He stood up and tried to divert his attention. His eyes fell on the bookshelf in front of him: "Hey, you finally have something that interests me." He picked up an exquisitely carved perfume bottle on the bookshelf. The hollow golden patterns and inlaid gems were quite nomadic. He put his nose to the tip of his nose and smelled it. It was well sealed and the fragrance was very light. "Hmm, it smells good."
"This is not perfume." Ethan Luo said.
"what is that?"
"It is a kind of medicine, or poison, that has been passed down among the Gypsy people for thousands of years."
"ah?"
Ethan Luo smiled and said, "The concentration of this formula is very low. I mixed it myself. If the concentration is high, you will feel very 'S3xual' when you open it and smell it. Taking it directly can be fatal."
Connor Wen put the bottle back in its place: "You kid, are you studying these weird things all day long? Is there no one to supervise you?"
Ethan Luo blinked his eyes, his eyes were surprisingly gentle: "You can control me."
Connor Wen was inexplicably afraid to look Ethan Luo in the eye. He rolled his eyes and said, "I can't take care of it. Worrying too much will cause wrinkles. I want to go back."
Ethan Luo grabbed his arm: "Brother Connor Wen, stay with me for a while."
"It's dark now. If we go any later there won't be any cars."
"Then you can stay here tonight."
"No, my mother will scold me."
Ethan Luo lowered his head and whispered, "It's been a long time since anyone except me has come here. It feels so good to have someone at home talking to me. I really don't want you to leave."
Connor Wen felt his scalp tingling, and he couldn't even say he wanted to leave. Ethan Luo must be very lonely living alone in such a big house...
Connor Wen struggled for a long time before saying, "Then... I'll call my mother."
Ethan Luo smiled immediately, and it was not an exaggeration to describe that smile as a blooming flower. It immediately made Connor Wen feel that being scolded was no big deal.
In the end, he did not dare to call. He made up an excuse and sent a text message to his mother, then turned off his phone. In fact, he could not deceive his mother at all. He would be scolded if he went back, so he might as well have a quiet night.
Ethan Luo seemed very happy: "Brother Connor Wen, where do you want to sleep tonight? Because there have never been outsiders to my house, there is no guest room. The nanny's room has not been cleaned for a long time and cannot be lived in. Do you want to live in my mother's room?"
Connor Wen immediately shook his head. Although he missed Natalie Luo very much, he was not very courageous and was still a little superstitious.
"Then you can sleep with me. My bed is big and we can chat at night."
Connor Wen looked at Ethan Luo's frankness and struggled in his heart. If he refused, wouldn't he seem guilty? So he said readily, "Okay."
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