The Byoukidere Is Her Sweetie
Chapter 409: 409: Just love Fang Bao, only love Fang Bao, the rotten peach blossoms are starting to bloom! (First update)

Chapter 409: 409: Just love Fang Bao, only love Fang Bao, the rotten peach blossoms are starting to bloom! (First update)

She would give him anything he asked for.

He remained unmoved, his eyes always veiled with a layer of frost. “Don’t involve me in your affairs. You pursue your revenge, I’ll settle my own scores. You have nothing to do with me.”

How cleanly he cut ties.

“Why do you harbor so much hostility towards me?” Jiang Fuxi never understood why he always kept her at arm’s length—was it because of that cat named Luo Si?

Jiang Zhi replied, “I don’t have any hostility towards you; it’s just that we’re not close.”

His gaze was as indifferent and detached as if he were looking at a stranger, devoid of warmth.

“Not close? But I’ve always felt like you and I are the same.” Jiang Fuxi approached him, the night breeze gentle, her eyes conveying sorrow. “Jiang Zhi, I won’t harm you. The person who truly cares for you the most in this world has to be me.”

Zhou Xufang shivered with disgust. Was she seducing her fiancé? How infuriating!

She pressed her ear close to the phone, straining to hear Jiang Zhi’s response.

“Whether or not you want to take Xu Jiuru’s life has nothing to do with me, and don’t come asking me. You can commit a crime, just be prepared to end up in jail, and,” Jiang Zhi stepped back, putting some distance between them, “stop looking at me with those disgusting eyes.”

With that, he walked away.

“Wait.” Jiang Fuxi called out to him.

Jiang Zhi turned around, his eyes fierce against the backlight.

She didn’t seem angry; her tone still gentle: “Do you want my shares?”

That was her purpose, wanting to give him her shares.

Jiang Zhi watched her warily. “What’s the condition?”

There’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world; even if there were, he’d refuse it—fearing it might be poisoned.

Yet she shook her head. “There are no conditions. If you want them, I’ll give them to you.” Her eyes clung to him like an intricate net. “I told you, I am the best person to you.”

Jiang Zhi: “…”

He had nothing to say. This must be a freak, he thought.

“Keep them for yourself,” he said, “I don’t take things from others for free.”

After speaking, he headed for home.

A stranger?

Heh, she was a stranger.

When Jiang Fuxi was twelve, she learned about Jiang Zhi’s background. It was also that year Ah Gui told her Xu Jiuru was responsible for her parents’ death.

She heard it with her own ears, outside Xu Jiuru’s door.

“Old Madam, the young master might not make it.”

At the time, Jiang Zhi’s attending physician was Dr. Qin’s father.

“I don’t care by what means,” Xu Jiuru commanded, “you must keep him alive at all costs.”

It was winter then, snowflakes swirling around. Winters in Imperial City were cold, and Jiang Zhi was seriously ill, unlikely to survive the grim cold of winter as per the doctors.

Yet Xu Jiuru’s tone was not anxious but furious.

Jiang Chuan tried to counsel, “This cursed offshoot of the Lu Family is ill-fated, perhaps it’d be best to just let him—”

“No!” Xu Jiuru rebuked angrily, so loudly that Jiang Fuxi could hear everything clearly from outside. She said, “I’ve raised him for twelve years; he ought to do something for the Jiang Family.”

The cursed offshoot of the Lu Family…

It was later that Jiang Fuxi understood what Xu Jiuru intended for Jiang Zhi to do. She wanted to use the hands of the Lu Family to stab at the heart of the Lu Family itself.

It was also that day that Ah Gui summoned her to the backyard to reveal that her father died in a car accident with Jiang Zhi’s mother. It was no accident, but a premeditated act by Xu Jiuru, killing two birds with one stone—eliminating Jiang Zhi’s mother, who brought the Jiang Family into disrepute, and her own father, Ning Zhehua, who aspired beyond his reach for swan meat.

After listening, she sat in silence until the sky darkened and the snow ceased. Then, she went to Jiang Zhi’s room, the warmest room in the house because the Old Madam “cherished” him, lining his room with warm jade.

Jiang Zhi was sleeping, lifeless as if dead.

She approached the bed, “Brother Zhi.”

He didn’t wake up.

She smoothed her skirt, sat down, and called softly, “Brother Zhi.”

“Brother Zhi.”

Jiang Zhi opened his eyes, weakly looking at her, those beautiful peach blossom eyes void of spirit.

Back then, he was particularly thin, his skin pale like a delicate doll, void of any sign of life.

“You’re just like me.” She sneered to herself, “We’re all the same.”

He stretched a hand from under the covers; his fingers were slender and pale but emaciated. “Cough cough cough… you…”

His cough was severe; his pale face flushed a shade of crimson, a beautiful youth in distress.

She couldn’t make out what he was saying. “What?”

“You… cough cough cough…” The youth’s shoulders shook as he coughed.

She leaned in to listen. “What are you saying?”

Speaking was laborious for him, his beautiful eyes glaring: “Don’t… cough… don’t…” He wrapped his hand in a handkerchief and pushed her, “Don’t sit on my bed!”

She paused for a moment, smiled, and then stood up from his bed.

The young man was weak, yet extraordinarily stubborn, struggling to dust the sheets where she had sat with a look of distaste on his face.

He was a clean freak, never allowing anyone to sit on his bed.

Not even Xu Jiuru was permitted to do so.

That year, when Jiang Zhi was sixteen, he went to the Luo Family frequently. Once, on returning from the Luo Family, he pleaded with Xu Jiuru, wanting to bring Luo San, the adopted child of the Luo Family, back to the Jiang Family to raise.

Naturally, Xu Jiuru didn’t agree and argued with him for a long time, “Even if I agree, the Luo Family wouldn’t agree.”

He was very stubborn, “If they don’t agree, I’ll just take him by force.”

“It’s easy to say, but his household registration is with the Luo Family. Without their approval, how can you take him?”

“Take him by force.”

Xu Jiuru scolded, “Nonsense!”

Moonlight filtered through the branches of the silver pine tree in the courtyard, casting mottled shadows, and the upright young man suddenly knelt down.

He had reached the age of sixteen and had never knelt to anyone, not even to his ancestors. Yet now, for an outsider, he bent his knees, “If you don’t let me make a fuss, I will still make a fuss. If you don’t help me take Luo San by force, I’ll just keep kneeling.”

“Then keep kneeling.”

Xu Jiuru left in a huff, her sleeves brushing the air.

She and Mrs. Gui were standing by at that time.

“Sister Xi, you should go and persuade him too.”

She shook her head, looking at the person under the distant tree, “Why would he listen to me?” She turned and asked Mrs. Gui, “Is Brother Zhi’s soup ready?”

“It’s being kept warm in the kitchen.”

She glanced once more at the slender silhouette of the young man kneeling in the moonlight, “I’ll go and get it.”

It was very cold, he had a weak constitution, and kneeling for long might make him ill.

She went to the kitchen, asked the servants to pour the medicine into the bowl, and just as she was carrying it, the heat caused her to slip, and the bowl shattered, spilling the soup everywhere.

Mrs. Gui anxiously asked, “Did it scald you?”

Her hand was reddened, but she wiped it carelessly with a handkerchief, “It’s nothing.” She looked at the floor and instructed Mrs. Gui, “The soup spilled; please make it again.”

Mrs. Gui nodded.

She left the kitchen, looked back, and added, “Put an extra weight of Poria in it.”

One extra weight wouldn’t affect most people much, but for Jiang Zhi, even half a weight could be fatal. Mrs. Gui, full of concern, cautioned, “Brother Zhi’s health might not be able to take—”

Jiang Fuxi, who was only sixteen at the time, was clever and resourceful. She said, “Do as I say.”

Mrs. Gui didn’t ask further, “Yes.”

Jiang Zhi knelt for two hours.

In the latter half of the night, Mrs. Gui came to inform her, “Sister Xi, the young master, he’s vomiting blood.”

She threw on a coat and immediately went to Jiang Zhi’s room, hearing from afar the Old Madam’s frantic voice, “Dr. Qin, how is Brother Zhi doing?”

“Kneeling too long, the cold has entered his body, affecting his liver and lungs.”

Jiang Zhi’s liver and lungs had always been problematic, and a minor illness that affected ordinary people could turn into a severe and life-threatening condition in his case.

Xu Jiuru was standing at the bedside, “Jiang Chuan, go and prepare the medicine.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Chuan nodded to Jiang Fuxi at the doorway before going out to prepare the medicine.

She entered the room, “Grandma.”

“Why haven’t you gone to bed yet?”

She approached the bedside, “I’m worried about Brother Zhi, so I came to see how he was.” She looked at the pale young man on the bed, his brow lightly furrowed, “Is he doing okay?”

Xu Jiuru shook her head, “His health was never good to begin with, and now he’s caught a cold. I don’t know how long he will have to rest in bed.”

Anxiety and deep concern were etched all over her face.

Such a convincing act.

“Grandma,” Jiang Fuxi stepped forward, “have you had someone check Luo San’s birth chart from the Luo Family?”

Xu Jiuru believed in feng shui, in fate, and in the influence of the eight characters and earthly branches and heavenly stems. As soon as Jiang Zhi mentioned bringing Luo San back to raise, he fell ill.

The next day, bad news arrived. There had been a fire in the Luo Family’s flower pavilion, claiming two lives, one of which was Luo San’s.

Xu Jiuru said the child had an unfortunate fate and thin luck.

Jiang Zhi also fell seriously ill because of this, barely clinging to life. The Jiang Family said that Luo San had not only a meager fortune but also a fatal influence over others’ lives.

Jiang Fuxi had thought many times, if she hadn’t added that extra weight of Poria that night, Jiang Zhi wouldn’t have fallen ill; what would have happened then? Would he have brought Luo San back to the Jiang Family overnight? Would they have grown up together? Could they have loved each other?

She had imagined many scenarios, but she had never anticipated that eight years later, they would meet again.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang!

The driver of the main car slammed on the brakes, the vehicle skidding awkwardly for a few meters before coming to a halt, “I’m sorry, Miss San, it seems like we’ve had a blowout.”