Chapter 716: Big Brother and the Prince
“Is that so?”
Xu Jiahua, you might not know this, but even though we're only eight, I've considered you a friend for five years. I just hope you'd treat me as a friend for just one day.
“Of course it is! From now on, we'll be best friends forever! Come on! Cheers!” He held his glass bottle up in front of me. “Long live friendship!”
“Yeah! Long live friendship!”
I mimicked the adults and gently clinked bottles with him, then stole a glance at him.
Everyone says Coke tastes good... but this stuff is black and murky. Could it really taste good? In my memory, only herbal medicine was this color.
Xu Jiahua was much braver than me. He picked up his bottle and took a big gulp of the black liquid. The next second, his eyes went wide, and he covered his mouth with his hand.
Seeing his expression, I was a bit confused. “Wh-what's wrong? Xu Jiahua... does it taste good?”
But he just kept covering his mouth, his eyebrows dancing as he gestured with his eyes for me to take a sip.
I knew Xu Jiahua wouldn't play tricks on me, so I picked up my Coke and took a sip just like he did.
As that fragrant black water hit my mouth, the next second, my eyes went wide too!
Heavens!!
This Coke was bouncing around in my mouth, fizzing and popping, like it was alive! It was pricking my lips!
I was so startled I almost spat it out, but I quickly reached up and covered my mouth too. Coke was expensive.
We stood there, mouths covered, eyes wide, staring blankly at each other. Only when the Coke in our mouths stopped fizzing did we swallow it in disbelief.
“Burp~~~”
A moment later, we both let out loud burps at the same time. We looked at each other and then burst into giggles.
“Wow!” Xu Jiahua laughed. “So this is Coke! It's so fun!”
“It tastes so good!” I laughed too.
“Let me try some more!”
“But... but Xu Jiahua,” I interrupted him. “If you treat me to Coke, you won't have enough to eat.”
“So what?!” Xu Jiahua laughed carelessly. “Before I became your deskmate, I never ate dinner anyway! And this Coke isn't me treating you—it's you treating me!”
After our brief moment of joy, we fell silent again, sitting on the bridge pier and drinking our Coke.
Although Coke was delicious, the bottle was tiny, and we were practically drinking it drop by drop.
The sky was getting dark, and the moon had crawled out.
But the sky today was really funny. It wasn't fully dark or fully light, and the moon was right opposite the sun.
It looked like the moon had company today too.
“Xu Jiahua... do you know what a ‘hero’ is?” I asked.
“A hero? Like Yue Fei?” He sucked on his bottle, his words muffled.
“Not the kind of hero like Yue Fei...” I shook my head. “The kind... a ‘hero’ born in a city. Everyone in that city admires him, hopes he'll lead them forward. But the ‘hero’ doesn't know what he's supposed to do. Have you heard of something like that?”
“That's so weird?” Xu Jiahua thought for a moment. “I don't really get this ‘hero’ you're talking about, but when you think about it, it's basically like a ‘big brother’.”
“Big brother...?” I hesitated. I really wanted to reject the idea, but to put it bluntly, that's what it seemed to be.
I was the ‘big brother,’ with a group of ‘little brothers’ following me.
“If I were the big brother... oh, no.” Xu Jiahua chuckled. “I mean, if I were the hero, first I'd make sure all my little brothers had enough to eat! Even if I starved to death, that'd be fine!”
“Enough to eat...?” I suddenly realized Xu Jiahua made a lot of sense. All my family members spent every ten-day period in hunger.
Although the ‘Incense Bearer’ in the family could produce some food, there were just too many of us. No one ever got enough to eat.
Next time I went back, I definitely had to make sure everyone was full.
“And then?” I asked again.
“And then there's ‘unity’!” Xu Jiahua laughed. “Have you ever bought any pirated DVDs? A lot of movies are like that!”
“I haven't seen them, but you can tell me about it,” I said.
“Anyway, the point is, he has to take care of his... um... ‘subjects,’ I guess that's what you call them?” Xu Jiahua scratched his head. “I think that's how it's written in fairy tales...”
“Subjects?”
“Yeah!” Xu Jiahua took another small sip of Coke and nodded. “Doesn't this hero sound like a ‘prince’ from a fairy tale?”
“But I don't know any ‘princes’ either...” I said.
“What's there to know?!” Xu Jiahua stood up. “Princes are easy to recognize! They all wear crowns, carry swords, and have capes on their backs. In a lot of stories, the prince is the hero, and the hero is the prince!”
As he gestured, he raised his Coke bottle high into the air. “It must be like this! They hold up their swords and shout, ‘I've come to protect everyone! I'm the hero!’”
Watching the bottle in his hand reflect the dazzling light of the setting sun, I felt like I finally understood what a ‘hero’ meant.
“Huh...?” I was stunned. “Is that so?”
“It has to be!”
That day, Xu Jiahua and I talked for a long time. It felt like the first time I truly understood what the word ‘friend’ meant. He taught me so many things.
Too bad time couldn't stop. As the night grew deeper, we had to part ways. This farewell would mean another ten days apart.
I looked up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was destined to disappear.
Even if it met the moon, it would still vanish in the end.
Now, the sky held only the moon, as lonely as I was.
The sun had somewhere to go. It wouldn't stay forever in the pitch-black night.
The long darkness ahead could only be walked by the moon alone.
I had finally arrived at my own ‘prison.’
I'd heard adults say that going to work was like being in prison—you serve your time, then get two days off.
So I had already grown up all along.
I sat in my room while Sister Siwei read beside me.
I felt like Sister Siwei might be the most knowledgeable person I'd ever met. In her spare time, she was either reading a book or a newspaper. A lot of the characters I knew now, she had taught me.
She told me she was just an ordinary college student. Did college students really know that much?
Watching her serious expression, I couldn't help but ask, “Sister, with all the books you've read, is there any book that says where to find a ‘crown’ and a ‘sword’?”
“A crown and a sword...?” Sister Siwei was startled. “That sounds like a little prince. What are you looking for those for?”
“I... I...” I was a bit embarrassed to say it, but I wanted to become that prince.
Sister Siwei seemed to guess what I was thinking. She asked, “Little hero brother, have you heard the story of ‘The Happy Prince’?”
“The Happy Prince?”