The Anomaly

The first class of 7th grade began at 8:20. Xie Zhi Lan finished washing his hands and returned, intending to take Xie Qi Zhi to register, when he saw him through the window, hugging his schoolbag, staring blankly at his baseball cap.

The wet spot had dried, leaving only dirt and stains. Xie Qi Zhi was very fond of cleanliness, and there were no signs of him falling, so he didn't know what had happened to make it like this.

Xie Zhi Lan reached out and pressed his head, bending down to ask, "Do you really want to wear your cap?"

Xie Qi Zhi "Mhm"-ed.

"Then I'll wash it clean for you, but you'll have to wait a bit. After school, come here and wait for me, we'll go eat, and then I'll give you your cap, okay?"

Xie Qi Zhi nodded.

The classroom was very quiet. Everyone had their heads down, some flipping through books, some taking tests. Only Ying Huai next to him, after finishing his classical Chinese, lay face down. He probably hated that the two brothers were talking too much. His face was buried in his arms; from Xie Qi Zhi's angle, only his dark nape and slightly long hair ends were visible.

Xie Zhi Lan bent down, took out a mask from his desk drawer, brushed aside the soft lock of hair at Xie Qi Zhi's temple, put the mask on him, and then whispered, "Don't take off your mask in crowded places, and stay away from smokers. If any classmate in your class has a cold or fever, tell me when you get home, and I'll ask for leave for you."

Xie Qi Zhi looked up with wide, round eyes, and also whispered back, "Brother, I understand."

He looked at Xie Zhi Lan's face, leaned closer, and kissed his cheek through the mask.

Xie Zhi Lan chuckled, thought for a moment, then said, "Qi Qi isn't a child anymore. You can't just kiss people casually like that in the future."

Xie Qi Zhi nodded: "Mhm."

Outside, the rain began to patter again.

Xie Zhi Lan picked up Xie Qi Zhi's schoolbag and, without ceremony, patted the sleeping person next to him hard: "Don't sleep anymore. If the block supervisor comes on patrol, you cover for me, you know what to say, right?"

Xie Qi Zhi held his brother's hand, standing at the door, and saw Ying Huai crawl up, his cheek still marked with a red imprint, looking at Xie Zhi Lan with a very displeased expression.

He really did have a bad temper when waking up.

Xie Zhi Lan asked, "Did you hear that?"

Ying Huai rested his chin on his hand, yawning, his eyelids half-closed, saying, "Say Xie Zhi Lan led me to skip class. You're as good as dead."

Xie Zhi Lan laughed, kicking his chair leg: "You wouldn't dare."

They didn't continue to waste time on the "dare or not" question. Xie Zhi Lan opened the umbrella for Xie Qi Zhi, then squatted down, supported his small calf, and picked him up.

Xie Qi Zhi hugged his brother's neck, saw Ying Huai turn to glance at them, and quickly pulled down his mask, mouthing silently to Ying Huai.

"Big, bad, guy."

Ying Huai was too lazy to pay attention to him, turning away indifferently.

Xie Qi Zhi's 7th grade (Class 12) was on the third floor. As soon as they entered the academic building, Xie Zhi Lan took off his uniform jacket and hung it on the railing in the corner of the stairs, ran his hand through his hair a few times, then took out a pair of non-prescription glasses from his pocket and put them on.

He was tall and straight, wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans. The glasses concealed his youthful, beautiful eyes, and the corners of his lips were drawn straight. When he met Xie Qi Zhi's assessing gaze, he suddenly had the appearance of a mature man.

Xie Zhi Lan asked, "What are you looking at me for? Am I handsome?"

Xie Qi Zhi nodded. After seriously looking for a few seconds, he nodded again.

Xie Zhi Lan chuckled, took his hand, and walked upstairs with him: "Let me be your parent just this once today, okay?"

Xie Qi Zhi didn't answer immediately. He glanced at the people carrying schoolbags going upstairs; they were about his age, but everyone was taller than him. There was a boy wearing glasses who, when he turned to glance at him and his brother, had a somewhat strange and indescribable look in his eyes.

He lowered his head, hesitantly shaking Xie Zhi Lan's hand: "They all don't need parents to accompany them."

Xie Zhi Lan bent down, looking at the vexed swirl of hair on his head, and asked, "Do you know what this means?"

"What does it mean?"

"It means your brother cares about Qi Qi more than all other parents," Xie Zhi Lan gently pinched Xie Qi Zhi's soft palm, telling him, "You're the younger brother I like the most."

"You're also the brother I like the most," Xie Qi Zhi affirmed.

When they arrived at the classroom, almost everyone was present. Xie Qi Zhi's appearance at the front door, as expected, attracted the gaze of the entire class.

He froze in place, feeling a little hesitant.

Xie Zhi Lan gently pushed his shoulder from behind, saying, "Don't be afraid, go in. I'll talk to your homeroom teacher for a bit."

The homeroom teacher of 7th grade (Class 12) was a young man with a refined appearance, estimated to be under 30, probably not long out of college. At this moment, he was standing in the corridor, smiling at them.

Xie Qi Zhi turned around and said very seriously, "You can't tell him."

Xie Zhi Lan promised, "Okay, I won't tell."

There weren't many empty seats left. Xie Qi Zhi casually found a spot and sat down, opened his schoolbag, and unexpectedly took out a small photo frame from it.

Perhaps the housekeeper had put it in. The photo was taken on his birthday last year, when he was still in the hospital. His brother had skipped school to visit him, secretly bringing a small piece of cake and vanilla ice cream past the nurses.

He placed the photo frame neatly on the desk. The person next to him turned and asked, "Is that your brother?"

Xie Qi Zhi glanced at him. His deskmate was a dark-skinned boy with a small scar below his left eye. When he glanced at others, he looked very unfriendly.

Xie Qi Zhi didn't want to talk much with him, only "Mhm"-ed.

"Is that the brother outside? You two don't look alike at all." The boy asked curiously, "Are you his biological child?"

Xie Qi Zhi suddenly choked, his forehead resting on the desk, coughing non-stop. He coughed until his face was red and his eyes blurred with tears.

"Qi Qi!"

Xie Qi Zhi looked up, following the call, meeting his brother's worried gaze. He tried to swallow the nausea rising in his throat, picked up his water cup, opened the lid, took a sip, then smiled at Xie Zhi Lan outside, shaking his head to indicate he was fine.

Xie Zhi Lan frowned, said a few more words to the homeroom teacher. Xie Qi Zhi turned back, silently pressed the photo frame down, and put it deep into his desk drawer.

"Are you sick?" The boy looked at him and said again, "Before you came, the teacher said there was someone quite special in our class, and told us to take more care of him. Is that you?"

Xie Qi Zhi said, "I don't know."

"It must be you," the boy said, "You're sick, that's why you look so strange, just like the mutated white-haired monster in comics. Is your illness contagious? If you keep coughing, I'll have to stay away from you."

Xie Qi Zhi glanced at Xie Zhi Lan outside the window once more. Even when he gestured through the glass that he had to leave, Xie Qi Zhi didn't open his mouth to say another word.

Looks strange, mutated, picked up, sick, contagious...

These words were not new to him, but each time he heard them, he didn't know what to say. Perhaps he was mixed-race, perhaps he was pure white, or perhaps it was truly due to gene mutation that he ended up like this.

Not long after he was born, he was diagnosed with a genetic disease, then abandoned by his biological parents in Yi Zhou. Xie Qi Zhi didn't know who they were, what their names were, or where they came from, so he couldn't use their identity to defend himself.

He should have long been accustomed to such circumstances; as long as he appeared in a crowd, he would be the only anomaly everyone noticed.