Chapter 340: Chapter 340: All Equally Cowardly
“What are you doing here, making a special trip for?” Bo Jingshen’s brows furrowed slightly, “Don’t tell it’s just because I had a big drink with Jiang Li? Jiang Su really has too much free ti on his hands if such a trivial matter can summon you.”
Jing Su raised his eyes to look at him, silent, holding the teapot in one hand while he filled both cups to the brim.
Then he spoke, “Do I look like soone who has nothing better to do?”
“So why are you here?” Bo Jingshen took a sip from his cup and glanced at him, “Aren’t you busy? If I’m not mistaken, isn’t Xiao Caizi about to get married?”
Jing Su’s expression visibly darkened, a slight twist in his brows, “Don’t change the subject.”
Although Bo Jingshen had been isolated from the world in detention for a good while, that didn’t an he was completely ignorant about many things.
Especially when it ca to the affairs of Jing Su.
Even though Bo Jingshen had never explicitly said so, he had always considered Jing Su and Jing Ruo as his own siblings, with Jing Qiao being a later addition.
During the initial period he was incarcerated, Jing Ruo would always visit. She ca every month, each visit without fail, and she would always end up crying.
Bo Jingshen grew tired of her tears and would try to divert her attention with different topics. Jing Ruo, being soone whose attention was easily shifted, would divulge everything she knew without reservation.
So even though he led an isolated existence, Bo Jingshen was quite aware of many things that happened on the outside.
For instance, he knew very well about the affairs involving Jing Su.
The initial marriage arrangent between Bo Jingshen and Xiao Caizi was rely ntioned in passing, and with Bo Jingshen’s resistance later on, that arrangent naturally fell through and ca to nothing.
Bo Jingshen learned from Jing Ruo that Xiao Caizi actually had feelings for Jing Su.
Xiao Caizi had always accepted, as the daughter of the Xiao Family, that one day her marriage might be utilized for the family’s benefit.
But when she first learned that Jing Su was to be her partner in a marital alliance, she was happy for a very long ti.
However, Jing Su didn’t buy into it at all, not only rejecting the arrangent made by both families, but he also went so far as to sever his ties with Jing Ce altogether.
In summary, Bo Jingshen found out that, in his absence, Xiao Caizi sohow got mixed up with his older brother.
How to put it? Anyway, at that ti Jing Ruo racked her brains and finally settled on a description for their relationship, although not a particularly delicate one, but quite fitting—it should be… “friends with benefits,” I suppose.
Bo Jingshen didn’t find it strange, after all, consensual acts between adults.
Without involving any interest-based connections, they had a very friendly exchange.
Although Bo Jingshen himself could not accept such a relationship, it didn’t an he disrespected others’ choices.
But what he never expected was that Jing Su seed to have gotten himself involved too.
Jing Ruo ntioned this to him when she ca to visit, saying it seed that Cai Zi was so sincere, so genuinely in love with Jing Su and wanted to date Jing Su.
But Jing Su probably ssed it up, didn’t have a clue how to act, and in short, he blew it.
Using Jing Ruo’s own words, “Anyway, I think big brother is just being stubborn, stiff-necked like a duck, unwilling to admit that he’s taken a liking to Sister Caizi. All of Sister Caizi’s heartfelt feelings have been wasted by Jing Su, that bastard. We’ll just wait and see, he’ll regret it, still being a stubborn duck now.”
“Speaking of which, why are you and big brother cut from the sa cloth? Always shattering a girl’s devoted heart into pieces and then feeling regret afterwards. I have nothing to say to that except ‘despicable.'”
Facing Jing Ruo’s direct and furious scolding, Bo Jingshen actually laughed, unable to utter a word. Helplessly, although his sister was young, her scolding was too accurate and sharp.
Later on, Cai Zi got engaged to soone else, another notable line in Beijing circles, from a prominent family, not lacking in connections, handso, and young.
Jing Ruo ca to visit and nagged at Bo Jingshen again.
At that ti, Bo Jingshen felt that more than coming to visit him, Jing Ruo was coming over to vent to him. Was he being treated like a trash can?
It felt like he was a temporary psychologist.
“Can Jing Su be any more of a coward? Cai Zi’s engagent party, the engagent party! He went there, with flowers and even a ring in his pocket. That must have been to steal the bride, right? But no, he got scared once he arrived. Didn’t say a word he planned to, not a single word about confessing or stealing the bride. What crap did he say when he handed the flowers to Sister Cai Zi? ‘Wishing you happiness? May you both live long and happy?’ Puh!” Jing Ruo was beyond furious.
Bo Jingshen thought that Jing Ruo wasn’t having an easy ti either, being the sister of him and Jing Su. What was supposed to be a pretty and demure lady, had been turned into this fiesty character.
Through Jing Ruo, Bo Jingshen learned that Jing Su actually went to Cai Zi’s engagent party, and in all honestly, he was prepared to do quite a bit, clearly with the intention of eloping with her.
But sohow, he changed his mind.
Later, when Jing Su ca to visit him, he even asked Jing Su about it.
After hearing the question, Jing Su just smiled and said he didn’t know why.
“But at that mont, I felt like I wasn’t all that much better. If she were with , perhaps she wouldn’t be any happier?” Bo Jingshen vividly rembered Jing Su’s smile at the ti.
Eyes downcast, filled with sorrow.
Bo Jingshen also rembered Jing Su saying, looking up at him with a smile that was so profoundly sad it tugged at the heartstrings, and the words he spoke were even more painful.
He said, “Don’t think that I’m much better than you, seeming decisive, like when I cut ties with Jing Ce, severing our father-son relationship, looking fearless and heroic. But in reality, I’m scared too. I’m not even talking about fearing Jing Ce going after the ones I fall for, look at him now, it’s not like he can go after anyone. What’s more, Cai Zi was once a person he chose himself, he should be satisfied with her.”
“What I fear is becoming a person like him. I’m terrified of becoming the very person I loathe the most, just the thought of it makes nauseous.” Jing Su smiled helplessly, “I keep thinking about this, and after all, we share half of his genes, right? What if? Just thinking about it, I feel like I shouldn’t hold Cai Zi back. Honestly, she’s quite wonderful.”
At that ti, Bo Jingshen felt especially heartbroken, he hadn’t expected soone like his brother to harbor such fears.
He had thought that, with regards to Jing Ce, only he himself had ever felt fear.
Jing Su smiled with such sorrow, his shrugging off looking utterly powerless, “Anyway, I chickened out then. Don’t say, back when you were splashed with sulfuric acid, when I visited you, and you asked to take you away, not to tell Su Lu. I really couldn’t understand then why you were so cowardly. It’s just that I couldn’t empathize because it hadn’t happened to , but now I understand.”
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