Chapter 23: A Brother’s Affection

“Mm, do you remember the steward taking a photo of you with his phone after you gave him permission?”

“After he took it, he sent it to Mom, Dad, and us right away.”

When Shen Jingchen said “us,” he naturally meant the three young masters of the Shen family.

“Also, don’t be so formal from now on.”

A gentle smile spread across Shen Jingchen’s face. “Like Anyue, just call me brother.”

“Brother Shen, Second Brother Shen… whatever you prefer, as long as you’re happy.”

“We’re a family, don’t feel like an outsider.” Shen Jingchen stood behind his sisters, one hand on each head, comforting Cheng Yiyi in that intimate way.

His intention was clear: you are also my sister. I won’t hold any prejudice just because we’re meeting for the first time, and I won’t treat you differently from Shen Anyue.

So please accept me as your brother.

I’ll take good care of you.

“I’m free all afternoon today, so I can walk around with you two.” As the student council president, Shen Jingchen was always busy.

With greater power comes greater responsibility.

But accordingly, he also gained plenty of valuable experience from social practice.

Plus, as a son of the Shen family, he already possessed strong social and managerial abilities.

So besides school matters, Shen Jingchen often had to study business knowledge under his eldest brother, Shen Yanci.

But for the sake of his sister, he pushed all those complicated things aside and forced out a whole day for himself.

“Let’s go…” He released his hands and led the way. “I’ve already arranged everything. You don’t need to queue. Just follow me.”

“Security, security!”

A middle-aged man who had been queuing for a long time pointed at Shen Jingchen and the two girls and called out, “Those two are crossing the line!”

Following the direction he pointed, Shen Jingchen elegantly lifted the red ribbon that cordoned off the area, then offered a gentle smile to the people around.

After Cheng Yiyi and Shen Anyue bent slightly to pass through, he followed right after and politely restored the ribbon.

In the eyes of these parents, that wasn’t a red ribbon being lifted.

It was a bottom line.

The inviolable dignity of Hua Qing.

The security guard turned and confirmed, “You see that?”

Then he turned his gaze back to the man. “So what? What do you want to do about it?”

“It’s not a big deal…” The man scratched his head. “Look, my wife and I have been queuing for so long, and then there’s my child…”

Following his gaze, a boy of about ten or so came into view.

The little rascal kept hopping around, clearly not a good kid.

“Don’t worry. If you let us in, we won’t say a word about this.”

The man thought he had grasped something big, and a fawning, slightly threatening smile appeared on his face.

“Get lost. Who do you think you are?” The security guard couldn’t stand these clueless fools. “Go back and wait in line properly.”

“Are you trying to scare me?”

“I now suspect you intend to cause trouble on campus. Believe me, I can cancel your appointment this instant!”

Was that old man deaf?

Didn’t he know that was Shen Jingchen?

The concept god of perfect scores.

If not for the college entrance exam placing a limit, he would have cleared it outright.

And that particular year’s exam was notoriously difficult, yet Shen Jingchen still beat the national second-place finisher by more than twenty points.

The gap wasn’t his ceiling; it was the limit of the total score.

That missing point belonged to the exam’s own strange rule: no perfect scores allowed.

Most importantly, because of Shen Jingchen, Hua Qing University had always held the top spot in its intellectual rivalry with Jing University.

No matter how hard the top students at Jing University tried, they couldn’t break that ultimate rule.

Put simply, even handing them the answers to copy wouldn’t do more than tie with him.

And even then, they’d probably still be slower than Shen Jingchen in finishing the paper.

Forget the security guard.

Even the president would have to bow twice before Shen Jingchen.

“What was life like for you before, Yiyi?” After entering the campus, Shen Jingchen didn’t rush to introduce every tree and bush but first asked about Cheng Yiyi’s past.

“Pretty good.”

Cheng Yiyi was telling the truth. All her life, she had never felt dissatisfied with her circumstances.

Sometimes she went through hardships and exhaustion.

But her parents were gentle, and her heart had always been filled with love.

To Cheng Yiyi, physical hardship wasn’t a big deal. It was her mindset that kept her going.

“Our family was poor before, but Mom and Dad always treated me well.”

“And your grandparents?”

The fact that Shen Jingchen could ask this question showed he already knew a certain amount about Cheng Yiyi’s past.

Cheng Yiyi naturally wouldn’t hide anything. After all, he was her real brother. Could he hurt her?

“They were always against my schooling…” Cheng Yiyi recounted her past methodically, peeling back layers.

Shen Anyue seemed to sense the melancholy in her and took her hand, leaning close.

Shen Jingchen watched his sister’s action, and a sense of ease settled in his heart. The sisters were getting along well. That was exactly what he wanted.

Shen Jingchen had known for a long time that Shen Anyue wasn’t his biological sister. Back then, he’d wondered what he would do if he ever found his real sister.

Shen Jingchen suffered from a low tolerance for stupidity, and he’d been worried, even afraid.

He was afraid his real sister would have poor grades, and he was even more afraid he would feel disgust toward her.

As a brother, and as the legitimate heir of a great family, he understood that he must never despise his own kin.

But that had been part of Shen Jingchen’s character since childhood, something he couldn’t change himself.

Just like some people love lilies; if you force them to watch something else, wouldn’t they feel uncomfortable?

Fortunately, Cheng Yiyi had excellent grades.

She might even be comparable to Shen Anyue, and she was also very pretty, which meant she could be a beautiful sight to behold as a sister.

‘Ah, another dream sister.’

‘Your Chen Ge has to pamper her too.’

Cheng Yiyi didn’t know what her second brother was thinking and continued talking about her grandparents’ generation.

“You’ve suffered all these years.” Shen Jingchen’s tone with outsiders was as cold as ice, as if he wanted to keep everyone at arm’s length.

But when he spoke to Cheng Yiyi, his tone changed completely.

There was no difference in his voice, but it was full of tenderness and concern.

“In terms of dedication to children alone, Mom and Dad can’t compare to your adoptive parents.”

“How could that be?” Cheng Yiyi knew her parents’ capabilities. No matter what, they couldn’t hold a candle to the two heads of the Shen family.

“My parents couldn’t have raised someone like you, second brother. They already had their hands full just raising me…”

“I meant dedication, as in percentage.” Anyone else, and Shen Jingchen would have sneered at them for not understanding human speech.

But this was his sister. How could it be the same?

So he patiently explained, “Our parents aren’t as great as you imagine. Since we were little, they rarely educated us themselves. They had others do most of the work.”

“They just had to pay the salaries.”

“In the Shen family, the easiest thing to give is money.”

Shen Jingchen spoke unhurriedly, and Cheng Yiyi felt she had learned a lot.

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