After becoming a widow, I became the apple of a rough man's eye.

The night wind carried moisture, mixed with the smell of disinfectant and earthy odor, seeping straight into your bones.

The camp quieted down, with only the muffled hum of the generator in the distance, occasionally punctuated by a few suppressed coughs.

Li Dongye sat on a half-broken wall, his legs dangling in the air.

His previous injuries had been treated. Gu Qiangying forbade him to smoke, but he somehow managed to get half a pack of cigarettes, the red dots flashing in the darkness.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

Li Dongye glanced back, then pressed the cigarette butt against the broken wall, extinguishing the embers.

"Big brother."

Qin Lie sat down next to him. The broken wall wasn't wide to begin with, and the two big men squeezed together looked a bit cramped. Qin Lie took out two glass bottles from his pocket and smashed them on the cement table with a "clang".

Two bottles of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor), and not even a snack to go with them.

"Have some." Qin Lie twisted open a bottle and handed it over.

Li Dongye took it, smelled the bottle, and frowned at the strong smell of alcohol, but then smiled.

"Where did you get this?"

"I found the one that Xiao Lao Er hid." Qin Lie opened a bottle for himself and took a big gulp.

The spicy liquid burned down his throat, like swallowing a knife. Qin Lie remained expressionless, exhaling a puff of white mist tinged with the smell of alcohol.

Li Dongye looked at Qin Lie's profile.

After a few days apart, my brother's stubble had grown quite a bit, and there were dark circles under his eyes, but he was like a stone in this mountain, impossible to wear down no matter how hard you tried.

He followed Qin Lie's example and tilted his head back to take a swig.

"Cough cough cough—"

He choked on the food, the slurp going too fast. Li Dongye bent over, coughing violently, tears streaming down his face.

"You're pathetic." Qin Lie snorted. "You weren't like this the first time I stole wine back then."

Li Dongye wiped his face, caught his breath, and gripped the wine bottle tightly in his hand, his knuckles turning white.

"How can that be the same? Back then, it was to bolster my courage." Li Dongye laughed hoarsely. "Back then, I drank half a jin of baijiu (Chinese liquor) to peep at Widow Wang taking a bath at the east end of the village. As a result, before I could even climb over the wall, I was chased for three miles by her big yellow dog."

Qin Lie glanced at him. "His pants were chewed up by the dog, and he ran back naked."

"Brother, this isn't fun. You shouldn't expose someone's weaknesses."

Li Dongye took another swig of wine, this time much more smoothly. The alcohol numbed his nerves, and the pain from his wounds seemed to have receded a bit. "Besides, I didn't see anything, just a wooden barrel."

"It's good enough to see a wooden tub." Qin Lie shook the wine bottle. "Unlike the second brother, when Widow Wang asked him to pull the curtain open for her to take a bath, he thought she was being pretentious and had the dog carry the curtain. When he came back, he kept grumbling about how troublesome women are."

Li Dongye was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, you know what, do you remember the first time you went hunting?"

Li Dongye laughed so hard he almost fell off the broken wall, but Qin Lie pulled him back.

"In the middle of the night, they mistook the village chief's lamb for a wild rabbit and shot it. They carried it back and showed it off to us, saying that the rabbit was really fat and would definitely taste good."

A rare hint of embarrassment flashed across Qin Lie's face, which he concealed by drinking.

"It was my first time hunting after being discharged from the army, and it was so dark I couldn't see anything."

"It was so dark you couldn't even hear the sheep bleating," Li Dongye persisted. "The next day, the village chief came knocking, wielding a carrying pole, ready to beat you. In the end, you had to pawn the tiger skin you'd been saving for so long and pay double the amount in compensation before the matter was settled."

The two of them talked back and forth, reminiscing about all sorts of old, trivial matters.

Life was tough back then, but there were only a few brothers and a few dilapidated thatched houses in Qingshan Village.

There are no skyscrapers in J City, no backstabbing, and certainly no wolves in sheep's clothing.

The bottle gradually emptied.

Li Dongye's laughter grew softer and softer until only rapid breathing remained.

He rarely showed such vulnerability, and shamelessly leaned on Qin Lie's shoulder, his body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

Alcohol brought out all the fear and grievances suppressed in my heart, like a flood that had burst its banks and could not be contained no matter what I did.

"Big brother..."

That cry was choked with sobs.

Qin Lie stopped what he was doing.

"They're my own parents..." Li Dongye buried his face in Qin Lie's dirty coat, tears streaming down his face. "I thought, I thought..."

Qin Lie tightened his grip on the wine bottle, refraining from asking too many questions. A man shouldn't be defeated by something like this. Li Dongye's vulnerability was entirely voluntary; he would overcome this hurdle sooner or later.

"I thought even if they weren't familiar with me, they would at least treat me a little better, whether it was out of gratitude or longing, whatever it was..." Li Dongye's voice trailed off, "But it seems like they don't care whether I live or die at all. I've been running around for days to see them, and I don't regret it."

"But I feel so incredibly embarrassed. I shouldn't have let them know I wanted to see them."

"I didn't plan to stay there permanently... I was thinking of taking Qingqing out for a few days, and when you guys go back to Qingshan Village, I'll go back too, and bring you some interesting things so we can all have some fun. No matter where I am, I'm a man with parents now."

Li Dongye suddenly raised his head, his usually smiling and unserious peach blossom eyes now completely red, filled with shattered light.

"But brother, I don't understand."

"Even if I didn't grow up around them, I was still born of them, right? Is blood ties really worthless? Why the hell won't they even let me have a little face?"

"Qingqing almost lost her life... I'm so scared, brother. I don't know how to explain this to you, I don't know how to face them, I don't know if Qingqing hates me for suffering like this..."

Li Dongye couldn't continue.

The moment he closes his eyes, he sees a raging inferno and Lin Qingqing lying lifeless in his arms.

There was also Mu Hongying's disgusted look and her parents' troubled expressions.

and also……

And then there was the shot he fired himself. Mu Wenbin's indifferent and cold face asked him if he felt relieved.

You motherfucker, you lunatic, you psychopath!

The despair and helplessness felt were a thousand times more painful than being burned alive.

In J City, he pretended to be nonchalant, ruthless, and decisive, and even dared to make harsh remarks to Mu Wenbin.

But once she got here, to her older brother's side, that carefully constructed facade finally crumbled.

Qin Lie put down the wine bottle, opened his arms and put his arm around Li Dongye's shoulder. He patted Li Dongye's shoulder with his rough hand, so hard that it hurt.

"If you want to cry, then cry it out." Qin Lie's voice was deep. "No one will laugh at you."

Li Dongye grabbed Qin Lie's clothes and finally burst into tears.

The cries, carried on the wind, sounded especially desolate amidst the ruins.

After an unknown amount of time, the crying gradually turned into sobs.

Qin Lie maintained that posture the whole time, like a mountain, shielding him from all the wind and rain.

"Fourth brother," Qin Lie said after he calmed down, "act like a man, what's past is past."

Li Dongye sniffed and wiped his face haphazardly.

"Our family may not be rich, but we won't let you suffer either." Qin Lie looked at the dark mountains in the distance. "Wherever we brothers are, that's your home."

Li Dongye burst into laughter through his tears, though the smile was even more unsightly than a cry.

"Do you even need to tell me?" Li Dongye said in a hoarse voice. "Besides, Qingqing is here, and I didn't plan to go anywhere else."

Qin Lie glanced at Li Dongye slowly, released his arm from Li Dongye's shoulder, picked up the remaining half bottle of wine, and handed it to him.

"Drink it, then go to sleep."