Xavier shook his head, "Of course not."
He was silent for a while and then said with a bitter smile, "Although Jimmy hated me, he was still considerate, and I know that. Once when I passed by my aunt's bedroom, I heard her say to Jimmy, 'Just humour your brother. He feels sad in his heart so he did those things. You have your father and me, but he has nothing."1
"It's one thing to know what they were thinking, but it is another to hear it personally. When I heard those words, I stood there for a long time, and then I decided not to do those ridiculous things, and I wanted to be on good terms with Jimmy again. But..."
"He raised a dog, and he liked it very much. But the dog suddenly died for some unknown reason. At that time, I was in a hurry to send it to the hospital to see if I could save it, but Jimmy came back..."
"And then?" Elizabeth couldn't help but ask.
Xavier smiled, "Of course he thought that it was me who killed the dog. He fought with me. Of course, my uncle beat him again. That day, he screamed at me with a bloody nose and a swollen face, saying, 'Get out of my house, Xavier. I don't welcome such rubbish like you."
Elizabeth opened her mouth, only to find that she couldn't say a word because the feelings in her heart were too complicated. "That day, while Jimmy was not paying attention, I carried the dead dog and left there. At that time, I felt that although I was still alive, I was just like the dead dog. I wanted to get everything that belongs to him, but finally, I was still alone. I kept walking like that, and I didn't know where I should go, nor did I know what I should do."
"I don't know how long I had been walking, and I didn't know where I went. I was very tired and hungry, so I found a place to sit down. Later, I met a little girl..."
As he spoke, he smiled. His smile was gentle and good-looking, "She was a very pretty little girl. She asked me why I was crying all the time. I didn't say anything, and she asked me again if it was because my dog died that I felt sad. I still kept crying. She accompanied me all the time. She was at the age of four or five, but she comforted me just like an adult. She didn't say anything, just touched my head with her chubby hand and sat with me."
"Later, she buried the dog with me and also gave me candy. She said that I was sad because I felt bitter in my heart, and I wouldn't feel bitter after eating the candy."
"She was just a little girl, but she talked a lot to me. She wanted me to go home. She told me that my family would be worried and asked me not to be sad. She said that I would feel better soon or later..."
He coughed a few more times. His voice was light and somewhat hoarse because he was ill. With the sound of the rain, it sounded particularly pleasant and cold. "Are you still sick?" Seeing that he coughed from time to time, Elizabeth said, "You don't look very good."
Xavier shook his head with a smile, "I'm fine."
Elizabeth nodded lightly. After a long while, she asked softly again, "What happened later? Did you become reconciled? Or... Still the same as before?"
"Later, we made up."
Elizabeth nodded and said, "That's good. You guys have always been brothers."
Hearing this, Xavier seemed to think of something, and his eyes, which had been smiling, suddenly darkened.
He was silent for a long time before he opened his mouth, but his words were a little cold. He asked Elizabeth, "If... the one you value very much suddenly did something bad to you one day, what would you do?"
Elizabeth looked at Xavier suspiciously, and she didn't quite understand why he asked this question. She felt that he seemed to be talking about the misunderstanding between James and him, but he had said that they became reconciled...
"Who are you talking about?" She suppressed the anxiety in her heart, "Did James... do something bad to you?"
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: I Only Want You