My father went quiet for a moment.

"You're sure about this? Anything you need help with, anything giving you trouble?"

He'd probably guessed something big had happened, for me to be this set on it.

"Yeah."

I nodded. "Dad, I heard you know someone who breeds Tibetan mastiffs. Get me two of them today. The meanest ones you can find."

So Elmer Gilbert wanted to play dirty?

Fine. I'd play right back, and beat him at his own game.

I ended the call.

Then I went out and bought a few small wireless cameras, tucked them into hidden spots, and linked them straight to my phone.

Right on cue, a message came from my mother: 【Elmer's coming home today. Go buy two bottles of whiskey.】

Last time around, at that same dinner, my mother and Antonia kept saying the two of us hadn't seen each other in ages, pushing drink after drink on me.

I got dead drunk. When I woke up, tens of thousands of chickens were poisoned and dead.

Looking back now, they'd already worked it all out beforehand. The whole thing was a setup.

This time, I came home with empty hands.

The table was covered with dishes.

That kind of spread was for Elmer alone.

When I came home, it was plain bread and pickles for me.

"Where's the whiskey?"

My mother saw my hands were empty, and her whole face went cold.

"What's this? Can't even spring for two bottles of liquor? What kind of older cousin are you?"

"Go buy it now. And pick up a folding phone for Elmer while you're at it."

I'd heard lines like this too many times to count.

I used to let it slide, telling myself she was my mother. This time I shot back, "Why don't I just hand Elmer the whole chicken farm and be done with it?"

"Really?"

She didn't seem to catch the edge in it. If anything, her eyes lit up.

That made me laugh, a bitter one. "Would I dare not to? You're already planning to wreck it."

"Last time it was a weasel let loose in the coop. What's next, arson? Poison?"

She froze. A flicker of guilt crossed her eyes, then her voice climbed straight into anger.

"Is that any way to talk to me? Can't you learn something from Elmer? He's so much more decent."

"If you think I set a fire, then call the police, have them cart me off!"

"From now on, pretend you never had a mother. And I never had a son like you!"

"As long as Elmer still claims me, that's enough!"

Every time she was in the wrong, she buried it under a tantrum.

"Fine. You've favored Elmer over me since we were kids anyway."

My eyes stung. "The money went missing from your nightstand, and you beat me for it. Turned out Elmer stole it."

"You didn't say one harsh word to him. You slipped him another hundred and told him to go buy himself something nice."

"My pencils, I sharpened down to nubs the size of my finger, and you told me to be thrifty, to make do."

"But every week you gave Elmer ten brand-new ones, and told him if he couldn't use them all, just throw them out."

"You put him through college and made me drop out to work. Now that I've finally built something of my own, you want to destroy it. Just because you're afraid Elmer might feel outdone."

"Is that fair to me?"

The truth was, I hadn't planned to say any of it. But watching her sing Elmer's praises again.

In the end I couldn't hold it in, and the questions came pouring out, all my defenses down.

Maybe it was the first time she'd seen me like this.

My mother stood there dumbstruck, all her fire draining out of her, and fell silent.

"Aunt Effie."

"How could you go and wreck my cousin's chicken farm, and all for my sake!"

And right then, Elmer's voice came from the doorway.

I turned toward the voice.

Elmer was standing in the doorway, eyes rimmed red, looking like he might burst into tears any second.

If I hadn't lived through it once already, if I didn't know he was the one who poisoned everything.

I might actually have fallen for the act.

"Peter."

Elmer rushed over to me and went on, "I never realized you resented me this much."

"I came back to help you run the chicken farm, but now I can see it's better if I just leave."

"Don't worry. I won't compete with you for attention anymore."

One neat move, retreat as advance.

It broke my mother's heart on the spot. She said quickly, "It's true, I'm the one who had that weasel thrown in. It had nothing to do with Elmer. There's no reason to take it out on him."

"I'm apologizing to you. That's enough, isn't it?"

Listen to that tone.

As if I were the one in the wrong.

"Let it go already."

Right then Antonia showed up too, frowning at me. "You're his son. You're not really going to hand your own mother over to the police, are you?"

"Besides, there's nothing wrong with what Auntie did."

"People are always going to compare you and Elmer. You can't just stand by and let them gossip about him, can you?"

"If you ask me, sign over half your shares to Elmer, and no one will have anything left to say."

"Best of both worlds!"

Smoothing things over on the surface, taking Elmer's side underneath.

I couldn't help it. "Why should half of a business I built with my own sweat go to Elmer? What has he ever done for it?"

"Just because he's the one you've always carried a torch for?"

In my last life, this was the exact deal my mother and Antonia put to me together. I agreed to give up thirty percent of the shares and make Elmer the manager of the farm.

I told myself the two of us could pull together, and wherever she went, my mother would be able to hold her head high.

And what came of it? Every last chicken on my farm poisoned dead.

So laying your heart bare buys you no peace. It sure doesn't buy you gratitude.

Antonia's eyes went wide now, clearly not expecting me to know this secret.

Beside her, Elmer opened his mouth again.

"You're right. A useless man like me has no business helping my cousin."

"If I hadn't come back, the two of you wouldn't be fighting. It's all my fault…"

This time the tears came pouring down.

"Don't cry, don't cry, it's not your fault, not one bit. It's this ungrateful son of mine who doesn't know any better."

My mother held Elmer and comforted him, then turned and shouted at me, furious. "You know Elmer can't find work, you know how much pressure he's under. Couldn't you consider his feelings even a little?"

"And who's going to consider mine?"

I clenched my fists and threw it back at her.

The room fell quiet for a moment, then her voice pitched up again. "You're two years older than Elmer. How can you even bring yourself to say something like that?"

"Get out!"

"I don't have a son like you!"

She said it through gritted teeth, looking at me the way you'd look at an enemy.

"Peter."

Antonia grabbed at my arm quickly. "Elmer finally made the trip out here. Don't make this any uglier than it has to be."

"Just bow your head and apologize to your mom, and the whole thing blows over."

"It's Valentine's Day. There's a lantern festival tonight. We can all go walk around together."

I shook her hand off and said coldly, "I'm not interested. The three of you go."

And with that.

I turned and walked out.

"Peter!"

Elmer made a show of trying to come after me, but my mother caught him and held him back.

"Forget it."

"Once he's done throwing his fit, he'll come back on his own. Leave him. Let's eat."

Hearing that, I shook my head with a bitter smile.

Come back?

Not a chance.

I'd had enough.

I was never walking the same road as last life again.

And I knew this much too, Elmer wouldn't rest until he'd put me in the ground.

I got back to the chicken farm, and my father called to say the two Tibetan mastiffs would arrive any minute.

I'd barely hung up when I saw my mother in the village group chat, firing off one accusation after another against me.

【Elmer's a college graduate, top of his class, and he came home wanting to help Peter run the chicken farm.】

【But that ungrateful wretch Peter wouldn't take the kindness. He cursed him out and turned the whole house upside down.】

Antonia jumped right in behind her.

【Elmer could bring in more advanced management, more scientific breeding methods.】

【But Peter just wouldn't listen. Nothing anyone said got through, and then he stormed off in a temper.】

Once they'd said all that, the villagers came piling on.

【So this is what Peter's really like behind everyone's back? And here I thought he was such a good kid.】

【Money changes a man for the worse. Guarding himself against his own family, no different from an ungrateful mongrel.】

【Peter, listen to some advice from your uncle. One's your own mother, one's your cousin. They're the closest people you've got. They'd never do you harm.】

【It's all for your own good. Kicking up a fuss like this, you're being an unfilial son.】

I read the scolding roll in, line after line.

I didn't answer.

Instead it was Elmer who jumped out and played the good guy: "Everybody, go easy on him. It's really my fault. I'll go over and apologize to my cousin in a bit."

That set the villagers off praising him.

Saying he really was the top student, kind, sensible, and polite.

A hundred times the better man than me.

And once my mother and Antonia had finished turning black into white, they didn't say another word.

I let out a cold laugh.

After tonight, everyone would know just how phony this so-called top student really was, and just how rotten he was inside.

That evening.

Elmer showed up with a roast chicken and a bottle of whiskey, forcing a smile at me. "Cousin, don't be angry anymore. Aunt Effie knows she went too far with what she said."

"So she had me buy whiskey especially, to make it up to you."

Watching him play the weasel wishing the chickens a happy new year.

I laughed to myself, cold all the way through.

"We're family. No grudge worth carrying overnight."

Elmer plopped down, cracked open the whiskey and poured me a glass. "Cousin, here's to you."

"From now on you can rest completely easy. Aunt Effie won't play favorites anymore, and I'll never lay a finger on the chicken farm."

Words like that.

Only a fool would believe them.

But I didn't call him out. I went along with it, drank the liquor, and said, "We're good brothers. No need for all that. Honestly, I got a little worked up today too."

Isn't this just a contest of who acts better?

Fine. I'd see it through to the end.

Two glasses in, a wave of drowsiness hit me, and then I lost consciousness.

The next morning, I was jolted awake by a commotion. I lifted my head and saw my mother and Antonia at my door with the police and a crowd of villagers.

"You ungrateful wretch, you animal. Elmer brought good food and good liquor to apologize to you, and you set your dogs on him?"

My mother lunged at me and slapped me twice, sobbing.

Antonia followed: "I really misjudged you. I never imagined you had such a vicious heart, that you wouldn't spare even your own cousin."

"Do you have any idea how badly Elmer was hurt?"

The fury in her eyes was genuine, pouring straight out of her.

Just showed how much she cared about Elmer.

The villagers were looking at me with disgust and contempt too, all of them cursing me for a phony piece of work.

"Come with us, please."

An officer stepped forward and said it to me, stern.

But I only smiled.

"Officer."

"I can produce evidence that proves this has nothing to do with me."