Chapter 20: Brothers

Haoran drove the long way, because his brother had asked to see the river.

Mingxuan sat in the passenger seat with a blanket over his knees and a cane between his feet.

He had been on his feet for ten minutes at a time since the morning.

Every time he rose, Haoran's hands had hovered, and Mingxuan had swatted them off.

"You're hovering," he said now.

"I'm driving."

"You're driving like an undertaker."

Haoran almost smiled.

The bridge came up ahead, and the water below it was the flat grey of a Saturday afternoon.

"I wasn't sure you'd speak to me," Haoran said.

"Why?"

"Because I knew for three years, and I sat there."

He kept his eyes on the road.

"I sat in your chair at every family dinner, and I never once took you out of that house."

"I know what you did," said Mingxuan.

He looked out at the river.

"Anqi told me. All of it, last night."

"Then you know she isn't your wife."

"No. But she wasn't alone."

His voice was a thread, but it was steady.

"You kept her company. I used to dream about that chair, with someone in it afraid of my mother."

"I was afraid of her."

"Of Mother?"

"Of what she'd do to you if I moved."

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