Facing Qin Yueshi’s earnest persuasion, Jing Zhengwu opened his mouth, as if he was about to agree.
But in the end, he just showed a bitter smile and sighed: "You’re all the sa, you don’t understand my father, you don’t understand ’Blackthorn’ at all..."
Qin Yueshi froze, then dejectedly said: "Have you still decided to leave?"
"Yes, and if I don’t leave now, it’ll be too late." Jing Zhengwu pushed Qin Yueshi away, tucked the hair hanging beside her face behind her ear, and said: "When I heard the news this morning that my brother obtained a permanent seat, I was bound to leave. Leaving now is already late. If you keep entangling with , it’ll only get killed."
Qin Yueshi shook her head: "With your personality, if you heard the news in the morning, you should have left in the morning. Why haven’t you left yet when it’s already noon?"
"Moving supplies takes ti..."
"Don’t lie to , you’ve been with these days. I was wondering why you specially arranged for a ship in the port and brought in a large stock of supplies to store in the warehouse. You’ve been ready to leave at any ti."
"So," Qin Yueshi pressed her palms on Jing Zhengwu’s cheeks, forcing him to look into her eyes: "You’ve been waiting for , haven’t you? You’re hesitating, right? You’re thinking about taking with you, but you also know that this departure might be forever. You don’t want to leave without even seeing one last ti, which is why you’ve been delaying until I ca over, right?"
"Stop pretending to be so cunning, deep-hearted conspirator. We are just a pair of impulsive and emotional young lovers in our twenties. I want to go with you because I like you, and you waited until now because you like !"
Jing Zhengwu pushed her hands away, shaking his head: "I didn’t want to tear things apart before because I was eventually going to marry you, so I hadn’t said anything... but you, you’re really a very narcissistic person."
"Do you see my departure as a trip? Don’t be fooled by how ticulously I talk about my plans. This ti, I’m actually fleeing. I’m going to Scandinavia to start anew, and I might end up dying in a foreign land."
"Given a choice, who would willingly leave their ho? Who would want to start over? To tell you the truth, I’m not optimistic about myself. If I manage to establish myself in Scandinavia, it’d be a blessing from heaven. If I end up muddling through life over there, it would just be ordinary fate."
"You, the pampered third miss of the Qin Family, willing to go with , doesn’t really matter to ." Jing Zhengwu glanced over Qin Yueshi: "Back then, I agreed to the marriage engagent not only to ally with the Qin Family but also because I was attracted to you. If it’s with you, I’m sure you’d give a few chubby sons. Just don’t regret it by then—"
"Regret?"
Not distressed in the slightest when Jing Zhengwu said all that earlier, Qin Yueshi’s eyebrows suddenly raised at the word ’regret’, and she folded her arms while staring directly at him:
"Jing Zhengwu, don’t underestimate the woman you like."
Jing Zhengwu’s breath hitched, the prepared words stuck in his throat, and he couldn’t speak watching Qin Yueshi’s expression.
In the end, he sighed deeply: "You really are a very narcissistic girl."
"But coincidentally, that’s what I like about you."
With no other choice, Jing Zhengwu sat down on the ground; Qin Yueshi happily sat beside him, disregarding how dirty the ground was, and asked: "Not leaving?"
Jing Zhengwu: "If it were just , I’d definitely leave, but now with you, this shaless rich woman clinging to , we can calculate if the two of us have the capital to stay."
"Go ahead, scold ," Qin Yueshi wasn’t bothered in the slightest: "Let’s see by tonight who ends up begging for rcy."
Jing Zhengwu twitched at the corner of his mouth, directly ignoring those words, and asked: "How much of your assets can you mobilize?"
"My jewelry, plus the few shops I manage, roughly this amount."
"Can I use it all?"
"I can persuade, and if necessary, even give you all the property deeds first."
The Patriarch of the Qin Family would want to hit soone after hearing this.
Jing Zhengwu considered it for a while but still shook his head: "Not enough."
"What about your mother?"
"She doesn’t actually have much personal assets. Apart from what my father gave her, half of her assets belong to the Tai Family, they just have her na on them. She can’t decide on those assets independently."
Qin Yueshi was puzzled: "Why do you need so much money? Your own treasury, your mother, plus , isn’t that a lot? What exactly do you want to do?"
"Because I need the Silver Blood Association’s protection." Jing Zhengwu said solemnly: "If I just wanted to be a nobody, I wouldn’t need you; my mother’s Tai Family alone could protect . But if I’m considering making a coback, I have to connect with people outside."
Qin Yueshi thought of a plan to nurture a hobody husband: "Then you just need to stay at ho all the ti..."
"In na and power, it cannot be outsourced." Jing Zhengwu shook his head: "If I don’t appear for a long ti, Jing Family mbers will side with my brother and third brother. By then, everything will collapse, and talk of resurgence would be futile. I have to prove that even without the Jing Family, I can have a good life, maybe even better. Only then will the Jing Family mbers waver, giving a chance to reclaim the Jing Family."
"The best-case scenario is that after leaving the Jing Family, I can join the Silver Blood Association on my own!"
"As long as I secure a permanent seat in the Silver Blood Association, even if it’s the lowest ranks like eighty-eight or eighty-seven, I’ll have their protection! No matter how crazy my brother gets, he won’t be able to openly attack !"
"Like you ntioned, Yueshi, my brother’s interests differ from the Jing Family’s. Given enough ti, he will inevitably be isolated and condemned by all. At that ti, if I’m thriving in the Silver Blood Association, the Jing Family mbers will clearly support and uphold my return to the Jing Family!"
"This is a dignified royal path, the most promising way to reclaim the Jing Family!"
Jing Zhengwu pressed his temples, sighing: "But to join the Silver Blood Association, even to squeeze out the eighty-eighth ranked guild, requires a large fortune..."
Seeing Jing Zhengwu’s troubled appearance, Qin Yueshi beca anxious as well, lowering her head in thought: "Maybe I can persuade my father and elder brother... Brother, that’s right, brother!"
Jing Zhengwu saw Qin Yueshi suddenly unlock her pendant with great excitent and asked curiously: "What’s wrong?"
"My brother gave this to a week ago." Qin Yueshi raised the pendant in her hand: "He said that recently, with Xuanzhu County’s situation in chaos, the Qin Family’s liquid assets were divided into two parts and hidden outside the county. One part of the treasure map is inside this pendant!"
"Although I don’t know how much money is there, it should be enough for you to squeeze into the Silver Blood Association!"
The Qin Family Patriarch wanted to kill himself upon hearing this.
"Now that I think about it, perhaps my brother thought of your predicant, which is why he deliberately gave the map." Qin Yueshi handed the pendant to Zhengwu Jing: "Take it."
Zhengwu Jing didn’t put up pretenses to refuse, and as he took the pendant, he sighed: "I thought my brother had given up on ..."
Qin Yueshi lifted her chin proudly and said, "How could that be? After all, I’m his cutest sister, and you are the man of his cutest sister. Rember to thank !"
"Yes, yes, yes, Miss Qin, for your imnse kindness, I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life..."
Zhengwu Jing carefully examined the pendant, discovering its exterior to be just an ordinary copper ornant with a small ruby embedded as decoration. The pendant was rather thick, as if sothing was hidden inside.
After thinking for a mont, he used Spiritual Power to direct light into the crevices of the pendant, probing until he quickly found the chanism, then exerted force—
Pop.
A grayish-pink mist spurted out, engulfing Zhengwu Jing and Qin Yueshi’s faces. The pair were montarily stunned, then simultaneously changed their expressions and covered their noses.
But it was already too late.
A powerful feeling of fatigue and dizziness attacked Zhengwu Jing’s pituitary gland, and he collapsed to the ground, his body losing all strength.
He saw Qin Yueshi lying weakly on the ground as well, though she was now sobbing rivers, her face full of sorrow, her eyes brimming with guilt and regret, staring at Zhengwu Jing through tear-filled eyes.
Zhengwu Jing forcefully summoned a bit of strength, uttering a few syllables: "It’s... alright."
"Don’t hate... your brother either..."
"It’s... fate."
Qin Yueshi was crying uncontrollably, shaking her head repeatedly, and struggled fiercely to move her arm towards Zhengwu Jing, reaching out to him.
Zhengwu Jing gave a bitter smile, also trying to move his arm. But his arm, once so nimble and obedient, now felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, unable to budge an inch.
At this mont, he instead felt a sense of peace, able to calmly accept the fate awaiting him.
What worried him now was not himself, but rather the woman before him, the one responsible for his hesitation, for being ensnared, and for completely losing his final chance.
He had always mocked Zhengwu Jing, the foolish brother chard by a woman, not expecting himself to beco the fool he once despised.
Perhaps, this was the Jing Family tradition—father, , third brother... Thinking of this, Zhengwu Jing suddenly ca to a slight realization.
Thinking carefully, all of his brother’s changes occurred after he t Qing Lan.
Perhaps...
What a pity...
I understood too late...
Finally, Zhengwu Jing’s fingers touched Qin Yueshi’s fingers.
Their emotions seed to be transmitted through their warmth and gazes. Under Zhengwu Jing’s calm gaze, Qin Yueshi gradually cald down, though she continued to move her body, finally grasping Zhengwu Jing’s hand.
At that mont, a loud noise echoed as the warehouse door was forcibly opened from outside.
With the sound of several heavy footsteps, an elderly voice rang out above them: "Hey? What’s this... poisoned, are you? Hmm, I sll almonds in the air... So the master had other plans."
"Hey, you go outside and find a woman, send Miss Qin back. Our Jing Family’s etiquette must be complete, don’t embarrass us."
Qin Yueshi looked over and saw that an elderly swordsman had entered with several Jing Family guards.
At this mont, Zhengwu Jing regained a bit of strength and desperately asked, "My... subordinates..."
"Your subordinates are loyal." The elderly swordsman calmly replied, "Go, help up the second young master."
Qin Yueshi used all her strength to hold Zhengwu Jing’s hand, but her strength was too weak, and when the two guards lifted Zhengwu Jing, their tightly held hands parted.
At the instant their fingertips separated, Qin Yueshi suddenly recalled a sentence she read in the Youth Daily:
"Everyone has the ability to foresee. After speaking a sentence to soone, sharing a gaze, holding a hand, or embracing, you will clearly realize, in the rest of your life, this is the final mory they leave you."
When an aunt ca in to help Qin Yueshi up, she suddenly coughed several tis, using all her strength, sorrowfully asked: "Why?"
As the elderly swordsman was about to leave with Zhengwu Jing, he turned his head, glanced at Qin Yueshi, and after thinking for a mont said: "What did the master say... hmm, Zhengwu Jing embezzled family goods and rchant ships, attempting to transfer assets. We are ordered to capture him and bring him back for punishnt."
"This is on the orders of Patriarch Jing Qingfu."
Qin Yueshi was stunned.
The words Zhengwu Jing just spoke echoed in her mind—
You don’t understand Blackthorn at all.
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