Wenhao walked through the front door at almost seven o'clock with a smile on his face that no one in the Liang family had seen in a very long time.
He was humming something under his breath and his eyes were bright and he didn't even notice the servants looking at him like they had seen a ghost.
Dinner was ready and the table was set and Mr Liang was already sitting at the head of the table when Wenhao walked into the dining room.
Mr Liang looked up and his eyebrows went up because Wenhao never smiled like that. "You look happy."
Wenhao sat down and put his elbows on the table which he knew he wasn't supposed to do but he did it anyway. "I am happy."
"Did something good happen at school?"
"Maybe."
Mr Liang leaned forward a little. "Tell me. Did you win something? Did a teacher praise you?"
Wenhao laughed. "No father. Nothing like that. I made a friend."
Mr Liang's face changed completely. His eyes got soft and his mouth turned into a real smile and he looked like someone who had been carrying something heavy for a long time and finally put it down. "A friend... You made a friend?"
"Yes. His name is Shen Wei. I call him Weiwei because I'm too lazy to say both names."
Mr Liang laughed out loud which made the servants in the corner look at each other in shock because Mr Liang never laughed at dinner. "Tell me about this Weiwei. What is he like. Is he kind? Is he smart? Does he treat you well?"
Wenhao grabbed a piece of bread and bit into it. "He is small and weird and he lives in a tiny apartment alone and he cooks terrible eggs."
Mr Liang blinked. "That sounds..... Interesting."
"It is interesting. He is interesting. He bought me ice cream with his last coins even though he is poor and he didn't even hesitate. He just ran to the shop and came back with it."
Mr Liang nodded slowly and his eyes were thoughtful. "That is a good sign. A person who gives even when they have nothing. That is rare."
"I know," Wenhao said. "That's why I'm keeping him."
Mr Liang smiled again and reached out to pat Wenhao's hand. "I am happy for you my son. I was worried about you. You always seemed so lonely."
Wenhao pulled his hand back because he didn't like too much touching but he was still smiling. "I wasn't lonely. I just didn't like anyone."
"And now you like this Weiwei?"
"Yeah I like this Weiwei," Wenhao agreed. "He is mine now."
Mr Liang shook his head but he was still smiling. "You cannot just decide that someone is yours Wenhao. People are not toys."
"Watch me," Wenhao said and he took another bite of bread.
The dining room was warm and the food was being brought out and everything felt almost normal for the first time in years.
Then footsteps came down the stairs.
Wenhao didn't look up at first. He was too busy thinking about Shen Wei's small apartment and Shen Wei's terrible eggs and the way Shen Wei sat on the floor like a lost puppy.
But Mr Liang's face changed and Wenhao noticed that.
He turned his head toward the doorway.
Xinyi walked in first. She was holding someone's hand. A girl.... A girl Wenhao had never seen before in his entire life.
The girl had long hair and a sweet face and she was wearing one of Xinyi's dresses because it was too big on her but she looked pretty anyway.
Wenhao put down his bread. "Who is that."
Xinyi opened her mouth to answer but Mr Liang spoke first. "Wenhao. This is Liang Ruifen. She is your sister."
Wenhao stared at his father. Then he stared at the girl. Then he stared at Xinyi. Then he stared at his father again. "My what?"
"Your sister," Mr Liang said again and his voice was steady but his eyes were nervous. "She is my daughter. She will be living with us from now on."
Ruifen stepped forward a little and gave a small shy smile. "Hello. It's nice to meet you. Wenhao right? Xinyi told me about you."
Wenhao did not say hello back. He did not smile. He just looked at her like she was a stranger who had walked into his bedroom without permission.
Xinyi stepped in front of Ruifen a little. "Wenhao.... Be nice."
"Be nice?" Wenhao repeated like the words were in a foreign language. " You want me to be nice."
"Yes."
Wenhao stood up from the table so fast his chair almost fell backward. "No one told me.... No one told me there was another sister. No one said anything."
Mr Liang stood up too. "Wenhao. Calm down. I was going to tell you. I was waiting for the right time."
"The right time?" Wenhao laughed and it was not a happy laugh. "When is the right time to say hey Wenhao guess what you have a secret sister that no one told you about. Is there a calendar for that? Should I check my phone?"
Xinyi put her hand on her hip. "Wenhao you are being dramatic. Sit down and eat your dinner."
"No," Wenhao said and his voice got louder. "No I will not sit down and eat my dinner like a good boy while everyone hides things from me. First mother died and no one told me the truth about how sick she was. Then Wang Jie and Shuren got sent away and no one told me why. And now this. A whole sister. A whole human sister and I'm supposed to just smile and pass the rice?"
Ruifen's face went pale and she stepped back behind Xinyi. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause trouble. Maybe I should go back upstairs."
"No," Xinyi said firmly and she grabbed Ruifen's hand. "You stay right here. You did nothing wrong."
Wenhao looked at Ruifen and for one second his angry face softened because she looked so small and scared and lost. But then he remembered that his father had kept another secret and the anger came back twice as hot.
"How old is she," Wenhao asked.
Mr Liang hesitated. "Nineteen. Same as you. A few months older."
Wenhao's eyes went wide. "She is older than me. That means you had her before I was born. That means when mother was pregnant with me you already had another daughter somewhere else."
Mr Liang's face went gray. "Wenhao."
"No," Wenhao said and he pushed his plate away. "No I am not doing this. I am not sitting at a table with another secret. I am not pretending everything is fine. I am not being the innocent obedient son tonight."
He walked away from the table and toward the door.
Xinyi called after him. "Wenhao where are you going."
"To Weiwei's apartment," Wenhao said without turning around. "Because at least there no one lies to me."
He walked out of the dining room and his footsteps echoed down the hallway and then the front door opened and then it slammed shut.
The dining room was very quiet.
Ruifen looked at the floor. "He hates me."
Xinyi pulled her close. "He doesn't hate you. He hates being kept in the dark. There's a difference."
Mr Liang sat back down in his chair and put his face in his hands. "I keep making mistakes. Every time I try to fix one thing I break two more."
Xinyi looked at her father with cold eyes. "Maybe stop keeping secrets then... Just a thought."
She took Ruifen upstairs and left Mr Liang alone at the big table with all the food getting cold and no one left to eat it.
Shen Wei was sitting on the floor with his homework spread out on the low table and a pot of instant noodles steaming next to his elbow and he was trying to solve a math problem while eating at the same time which meant he was doing both things badly.
He just put a big pile of noodles in his mouth when the doorbell rang and he almost choked because no one ever rang his doorbell ever.
He frowned and looked at the door and the clock on the wall said almost eight thirty who comes to someone's apartment at eight thirty at night. He thought
He grabbed the broom from the corner because he has heard many weird things about this area. he held it like a baseball bat while he tiptoed to the door and looked through the tiny hole.
Wenhao was standing outside with his arms crossed and his eyebrows pulled together and his mouth turned down in a deep frown like someone had personally offended him in the worst way possible.
Shen Wei's heart jumped into his throat and he threw the broom behind the door so fast it hit the wall with a loud bang and he fumbled with the lock for five whole seconds before he finally got the door open.
"Wenhao what are you doing here it's late and why do you look so—"
Wenhao pushed past him before he could finish the sentence and walked into the small apartment like he owned the place and he looked around at the messy table and the unfolded laundry on the chair and the instant noodles steaming on the pot.
Then he walked straight to the pot and picked up the chopsticks that Shen Wei had been using and started eating the noodles right out of the pot without asking and without even taking off his shoes.
Shen Wei stood by the door with his mouth open. "That's my dinner."
Wenhao shoved a huge bite of noodles into his mouth and glared at him while chewing. "I'm hungry."
"You could have eaten at home."
Wenhao took another bite and his frown got deeper and his eyes got darker and he looked like a storm cloud that was about to explode. "I don't want to talk about home."
Shen Wei closed the door slowly and walked over to the small kitchen area and got another pair of chopsticks because clearly he was not getting his first pair back anytime soon.
Wenhao ate another bite and then another and the noodles were disappearing very fast because when Wenhao was hungry he eat like a wolf and when he is annoyed he eat even faster and right now he was both.
Shen Wei sat down on the floor near the table and watched Wenhao eat his dinner and he didn't know what to say so he just sat there quietly and waited.
Wenhao finished the noodles and put the pot down on the table with a loud clunk and then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at Shen Wei with angry eyes. "I got a sister."
Shen Wei blinked. "What."
"A sister. A new sister. A secret sister that no one told me about. She's nineteen. She's older than me. My father had her before I was born and he never said anything and everyone knew except me and I walked into dinner like an idiot talking about you and being happy and they were all sitting there hiding this big secret."
Shen Wei put his chopsticks down. "That's.. .That's really big."
"Yes it's really big," Wenhao said and his voice got louder. "It's huge. It's enormous. It's the biggest secret yet and I'm so tired Weiwei I'm so so tired of secrets."
He sat down on the floor across from Shen Wei and put his head in his hands and his shoulders went up and down like he was breathing very hard.
Shen Wei didn't know what to do so he did the only thing he could think of. He reached over and pushed the small cup of water toward Wenhao. "Drink this."
Wenhao looked up at the water and then at Shen Wei and then he grabbed the cup and drank everything in one go and put the cup down harder than necessary. "I hate him."
"Your father."
"Yes my father. I hate him for lying and I hate him for keeping secrets and I hate him for making me look like a fool in front of everyone."
Shen Wei nodded slowly. "That makes sense."
"And I hate her too."
Shen Wei tilted his head. "The sister."
"Yes....No...mmm... I don't know. She looked so small and scared and she said sorry and I wanted to be angry at her but she didn't do anything wrong. She just existed. How can I be angry at someone for just existing."
Shen Wei thought about this for a moment. "You can't. But you can be angry at the situation."
Wenhao looked at Shen Wei like he was seeing him for the first time. "That's actually smart. Why are you smart?"
"I do homework sometimes. It helps."
Wenhao almost smiled but then he remembered he was supposed to be angry and the almost smile went away. "I left dinner. I just walked out. Xinyi was yelling at me and father was looking at me with his sad eyes and I just left."
"But why did you came here?"
"I don't know it's just....it was the first place that came up to my mind...."
Shen Wei felt something warm in his chest but he didn't know what to call it so he ignored it. "You can stay as long as you want. But I only have one bed."
Wenhao looked at the small bed in the corner and then back at Shen Wei. "I'm not sleeping on the floor."
"Don't worry the floor is where I sleep. The bed is for guests."
Wenhao raised one eyebrow. "You sleep on the floor in your own house?"
"Yeah because my mum always says treat guests better.."
Wenhao stared at him for a long time and then he did something strange. He laughed. It was a small laugh and it didn't last long but it was real. "You are the weirdest person I have ever met Weiwei."
Shen Wei shrugged. "You are the weirdest person I have ever met too. So we are even."
Wenhao leaned back against the wall and pulled his knees up to his chest and looked around the small room with its yellow walls and its broken window and its single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. "I wish I lived here."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do. No maids. No servants. No father. No secret sisters. Just me and my terrible eggs and my weird friend who sleeps on the floor."
Shen Wei picked up his homework and tried to focus on the math problem again but his brain was too full of Wenhao sitting on his floor looking sad and angry and beautiful all at the same time. "You can come here whenever you want. I already said that."
Wenhao watched Shen Wei try to do math and he watched Shen Wei's nose scrunch up when he got stuck and he watched Shen Wei bite his pencil when he was thinking and something in his chest felt less heavy than it did an hour ago.
"Weiwei."
"Yes."
"I'm still hungry."
Shen Wei sighed and put down his pencil and stood up and walked to the small fridge and took out two eggs and a tomato. "I only have eggs and tomato. No more noodles because someone ate them all."
Wenhao smiled a real smile this time. "Make me eggs and tomato then. And don't burn them this time."
Shen Wei turned on the hot plate and cracked the eggs into the pan and he didn't say anything but he was smiling too.
And in the small yellow room with the broken window and the single light bulb two boys ate terrible eggs together and the world outside felt very far away.