The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book)- 1

 

| TBBOTOF | 1

As the old saying goes, the weather in summer changes as quickly as a child's face.

Even though it was only half past six after dinner, the sky was clear when he was cleaning up the yard. But as he put the dishes back in the kitchen and came out again, the wind started blowing.

Tang Xu clicked his tongue, muttering to himself, "What strange weather."

Brushing off the dust from his clothes, he took down the summer quilt hanging on the clothesline in the yard and turned back towards the house.

The door creaked with a hint of long-term neglect.

Tang Xu glanced up at the hinges above the door, thinking that if the weather was good tomorrow, he would go to the hardware store in the county to buy a new one to replace it. He was tired of the constant creaking every time he opened or closed it, which made his teeth ache.

After graduating from college, Tang Xu had worked diligently in a foreign trade company for three years. Just a few days after being promoted, he received a call from the countryside. His mother had been diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer and was hospitalized.

Without any hesitation, Tang Xu resigned from his job to return home and take care of his mother. In the last six months of her life, he fulfilled his filial duty.

That year, Tang Xu was twenty-six years old and became an orphan.

After his mother's death, he decided to stay in the village. Although it seemed puzzling why he would choose to stay after finally making it out, Tang Xu knew clearly that he was never an ambitious person.

Staying in the big city and adapting to the fast-paced life was solely to earn more money to provide a better life for his mother. Now that his mother had passed away, Tang Xu instantly lost his drive.

As a result, he had been living alone in the village for three years.

A single man at the age of twenty-nine was considered quite old in the countryside. Watching his familiar friends of the same age already having two or three children, Tang Xu was bombarded with pressure from people around him to get married. He was constantly being set up for blind dates.

Tang Xu declined many times, but the villagers were too persistent. In desperation, he had to reveal his sexual orientation.

He liked men.

This revelation was like dropping a bomb in a hot oil pan, causing an instant uproar in the village.

Aunts, uncles, and relatives came to persuade him to change his ways, as if his preference for men was a grave sin. For a while, Tang Xu couldn't even go out to pick vegetables in the fields without being lectured.

There was even a period when children would avoid him, claiming he was sick.

Tang Xu didn't care. What others said wouldn't affect his life.

He made short videos and live-streamed his daily activities online, amassing millions of followers. He earned some money every month, leading a busy yet mundane life.

Turning on his live-streaming equipment, Tang Xu entered his daily work mode, interacting with his fans in the live broadcast room.

As he was chatting about the video he posted last night, there was a loud bang, and Tang Xu shuddered.

Not only was he startled, but even the online friends who were interacting with him were also shocked.

"What was that sound?"

"Did the ground just crack?"

"I'm wearing headphones, and I heard such a loud noise!"

"It must be thunder, it's really loud."

"I can hear the sound of rain."

Tang Xu got up to look out the window. The heavy rain was like someone pouring water onto the ground from a bucket. The sound of raindrops hitting the ground was deafening. With the howling wind, he frowned and looked into the distance, towards the direction of the river closest to the village.

After closing the window, he returned to his chair and saw the comments popping up on the tablet screen. Some said, "It's raining, yeah, it's raining quite heavily. There was just thunder, haha. Yeah, it startled me too. Did it startle you guys? No worries, my house won't be struck by lightning. Yeah, right..."

The thunder and rain outside were too loud. His fans urged him to end the livestream and shut down the computer. Tang Xu smiled and said, "I'm not using a computer, I'm using a tablet."

The rain outside was too loud, accompanied by the rumbling thunder, disturbing one's peace of mind. After chatting for a short while, Tang Xu greeted his viewers and ended the livestream.

The roof tiles were being pounded by the raindrops, and Tang Xu looked up. He glanced at the roofs of several other houses nearby, relieved to see no leaks.

Just as he was about to take a shower and go to bed, there came a knocking sound from afar. Tang Xu frowned, opened the door, and shouted, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Axu! Open the door!"

Tang Xu was visibly surprised, grabbed a raincoat, put it on, and stepped into the yard wearing slippers. The water in the yard was already ankle-deep.

It hadn't been long, but the water had risen significantly.

He hurried to the courtyard gate, unlatched it, and pushed the heavy iron gate open.

"Aunt Wu?" Tang Xu saw the middle-aged woman standing outside, feeling startled. He quickly stepped aside to let her in. "On such a rainy day, Auntie, how did you come over?"

The person Tang Xu referred to as Aunt Wu was a neighbor from the adjacent yard. The elderly couple there took care of their two grandchildren, aged six and three. Their son and daughter-in-law worked in the city and came back once a month to check on the elderly and the children.

Although Aunt Wu often gossiped about others, when Tang Xu's mother was ill and hospitalized, she had also come to help with cooking. After learning about Tang Xu's sexual orientation, she had also advised him a few times. Their families interacted frequently, so Tang Xu sensed that something was wrong when she suddenly knocked on the door on such a rainy day.

Sure enough, Aunt Wu reached out and grabbed Tang Xu's arm, trembling all over. She anxiously said, "Axu, please help me! Da Bao and Er Bao are missing!"

"What?!" Tang Xu was startled, pulling her towards the courtyard gate. "How could they be missing? Weren't they playing outside the yard this afternoon?"

Aunt Wu cried as she spoke, "After dinner, they said they were going out to play, but they haven't come back yet. Axu, please help me find them. Your uncle and the others have already gone out to search."

Tang Xu nodded, "Alright, you wait here. I'll go get my phone." He turned and ran back into the house, quickly changing into a pair of sneakers. "Auntie, you go home. Where did my uncle and the others go?"

"They went up the mountain." Aunt Wu wiped the mixture of tears and rainwater from her face and pointed to the high mountain behind her. "That mountain over there."

Tang Xu frowned, looking at the silhouette of the mountain through the heavy rain. It was barely visible.

Although Aunt Wu's eldest grandson was still young, he was mischievous from a young age, climbing trees, fishing, and catching shrimp and fish in the water. However, he was clever enough to come back home before dark after dinner. It was unlikely for him to take his younger brother to the mountains. The most probable place they would go was the riverside.

With this thought, Tang Xu's heart skipped a beat.

It was normal for them to go to the riverbank to catch fish or pick snails, but today's heavy rain could cause the river water to suddenly rise, trapping the children.

The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became. He pointed in the direction of the riverbank to Aunt Wu. "Auntie, I'll go check the riverside. You hurry and call my uncle back. The children must not be in the mountains." Without saying much more, he put on his raincoat and ran towards the river.

The heavy rain poured down, and in the countryside, there was only a streetlight every hundred meters or so, flickering intermittently. In the rain curtain, it was even more difficult to see the surrounding environment.

Tang Xu wiped the rainwater off his face and shouted as he walked, "Da Bao!! Er Bao!!"

"Da Bao!!!"

"..."

Faintly, it seemed like he could hear the children crying, along with the roaring sound of the river water crashing against the riverbank.

Tang Xu shone his phone's flashlight ahead. It was pitch black, with only the traces of raindrops falling and the weeds and short trees on either side of the road visible.

"Da Bao!! Er Bao!!!" Tang Xu shouted as he walked. His intuition told him that the children should be nearby.

"Help~~!!!"

"Waaaah~~~ Wuuu~~~~"

Tang Xu furrowed his brow and listened carefully, running towards the direction of the crying. "Da Bao, Er Bao! Don't be afraid! Uncle's here!"

In the center of the river, there was a relatively small island. When the water level was low, one could cross over it in a small wooden boat. However, due to concerns about swift currents and potential problems, the island was tied to both banks with thick hemp ropes.

However, due to the sudden rise in water level, not only were the thick hemp ropes nowhere to be seen, but the small wooden boat had also disappeared without a trace. Only the two children were left on the small island in the center of the river, crying loudly. When they saw Tang Xu, they became even more excited, shouting and jumping.

Er Bao slipped and accidentally fell into the turbulent river.

Without hesitation, Tang Xu threw away his phone and shouted, "Da Bao, go back!" then jumped into the water.

The icy cold river water mixed with silt flooded his mouth, but Tang Xu couldn't care less. He quickly submerged himself in the water, struggling to determine the direction and paddling towards Er Bao.

Although Er Bao slipped into the river, luckily, he was caught by the hemp rope and wasn't swept away by the water. However, because he was short and small, the water barely reached his head.

Tang Xu swam to Er Bao, grabbed the hemp rope, and lifted the child up, bringing him back to the small island.

"Move back, don't come down," Tang Xu said, his calves throbbing with pain. The muddy ground by the bank was slippery, and he couldn't climb up.

Da Bao hugged his brother, crying and nodding.

Before long, they heard the commotion from the bank. It was the others who had come to search for the children.

The water was too fast for the wooden boat to be of any use, and the two children, soaked in rain for so long, had exhausted their strength, their lips turning purple.

Tang Xu took a deep breath and said to the two children, "Come down, climb onto my back."

On the other side, the people pulled hard on the hemp rope, and Tang Xu paddled, enduring the throbbing pain in his legs. He watched as Da Bao was handed over to safety, but suddenly, the hemp rope snapped.

Instinctively, Tang Xu grabbed Er Bao, who was clinging to his shoulder, and threw him towards the people on the bank. In the recoil, Er Bao made it to the shore, but Tang Xu was swept away by the river.

"Axu!!"

With a thud, Tang Xu flipped over, and his head hit something, knocking him unconscious.

"Tang Xu!"

"Quick, save him!"

"He's been swept away!"

"The floodgate has opened!!"

“Tang Xu!!!!”

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