The Byoukidere Is Her Sweetie
Chapter 425: 425: Jiang Zhi and Jiang Xiaolin are 'in love' (first update)

Chapter 425: 425: Jiang Zhi and Jiang Xiaolin are ‘in love’ (first update)

At 4:30 in the morning, Jiang Xiaolin encountered Jiang Zhi at the hospital. He stood at the staircase on the first floor, like a respected guardian deity.

Jiang Xiaolin was at the bottom of the steps, looked up at him, and asked, “Aren’t you going in?”

The light behind him half-illuminated, half-obscured his face: “Mmm.”

The staircase was just a dozen meters away from Xu Jiuru’s ward.

Jiang Xiaolin went up, stood beside him, pulled out a cigarette, glimpsed the no-smoking sign next to him, but didn’t light it, and just bit on it in his mouth.

Jiang Zhi asked him the same question, “Aren’t you going in either?”

He hummed in a tone that betrayed no sorrow, “Going in and not being able to cry, wouldn’t that be very awkward?” They stood so close to the ward that they could hear Jiang Wei’er crying inside.

He had no inclination to cry; better not to go in and dampen the spirits.

Jiang Zhi said to him, “You’re really heartless.”

The pot calling the kettle black.

Jiang Xiaolin threw back a cold laugh, “You’re not much better.”

Jiang Zhi didn’t deny it.

Both heartless, neither had the right to criticize the other.

Jiang Xiaolin was in a bad mood, everything displeased him, especially Jiang Zhi’s handsome face, making him want to punch it.

“When I was young and naïve, I hated you the most among the Jiang Family,” Jiang Xiaolin said with an unfriendly gaze, “The old lady wouldn’t spend twenty billion to ransom me, yet she spent eight billion to set up three laboratories for you.”

Jiang Zhi was also in a bad mood, finding him equally irksome.

“When you were ten, I gave you a piece of jade. You cried with gratitude in front of me, and then turned around and crushed it under your foot,” Jiang Zhi judged him, “Hypocrite, playing both sides.”

So, exposing each other’s faults, is it?

Jiang Xiaolin harbored a smoldering anger: “Every winter, you act like you’re at death’s door, yet you never die. Constantly causing a fuss, keeping everyone from sleeping.”

Jiang Zhi scoffed, fire blazing in his eyes, “You knew I was cold, yet you still sent me an ice sculpture.”

That happened when Jiang Zhi was twelve, on his winter birthday, bitterly cold, and this guy sent him an ice sculpture as a birthday gift. He wanted to smash that ice sculpture into this fool’s face.

Jiang Zhi remembered the shape of that ice sculpture to this day: it was a mountain, meant to symbolize longevity as enduring as the southern mountains.

Jiang Xiaolin did it on purpose, trying to freeze him to death.

“You know nothing, that thing was a piece of art, and it cost me several hundred thousand.”

Jiang Zhi responded coldly: “It melted into a puddle of water the next day.”

Jiang Xiaolin’s gaze was cool: “You have the nerve to say that, considering how many charcoal braziers you had in your room?”

Already irritable, Jiang Zhi snapped at this provocation: “Should I have let myself freeze to death then?” That winter when he was twelve, he was seriously ill and couldn’t tolerate the slightest cold.

Jiang Xiaolin self-righteously retorted, “Yet you weren’t going to die either.”

The laboratories worth eight billion had been built; he wasn’t going to die that easily. Every year he said he would die, but every year he didn’t.

Jiang Zhi licked his teeth: “Damn it.”

“…”

This guy, annoying from childhood.

Jiang Xiaolin tugged at his tie: “Get lost.”

Jiang Zhi turned and walked toward the ward.

Jiang Xiaolin broke his cigarette, threw it in the trash can, and followed him. It turned out, after cursing at each other, they felt less oppressed.

Jiang Weikai had gone to coordinate with the funeral home; only Jiang Wei’er and Xue Bingxue were in the ward, and two men entered, one at the foot of the bed and the other at the head, neither spoke a word.

“Lin and Jiang Zhi are here.”

The body was covered with a white cloth, only the head exposed, and Jiang Wei’er squatted on the ground and said just that.

Xu Jiuru had died a restless death, eyes not closed.

After arranging the aftermath, Jiang Weikai returned to the ward and asked Jiang Xiaolin, “Where is Jiang Chuan?”

“Didn’t see him.”

Jiang Chuan was not in the ward, nor outside. Jiang Wei’er had been at the hospital for several days, and tonight, he just went back to his place. Only Jiang Chuan had been in the hospital, and he was the first one to notice something wrong, even before the medical staff.

It was almost five in the morning, and the overnight nurse was dozing off.

The young nurse was suddenly startled, “What’s that noise?”

Her colleague also woke and listened carefully: “Sounds like someone crying.”

The sound was coming from the stairwell. The two nurses went together and found an old man sitting there, his hair white with age, looking very old.

“Old man, what’s wrong?”

The elder hunched over, sat on a step, and wept inconsolably.

Jiang Chuan originally did not bear the surname Jiang; his name was Duan, and he was the son of the Xu Family’s old butler.

The year Xu Jiuru got married, he had just turned twenty. He married at twenty-five, was widowed at twenty-seven, and joined the Jiang Family at twenty-eight, taking the name Jiang Chuan.

He had been by Xu Jiuru’s side for nearly fifty years.

No, seventy-one years.

The old Xu Family home was in the suburbs of North City. After the head of the Xu Family passed away, the children moved away. Many loquat trees were planted behind the house, and in May and June, the trees bore golden-orange fruit.

“Chuanzi, climb the tree and pick some loquats for me.”

The dark-skinned boy quickly scaled the tree, stood on a branch, and shook it vigorously while shouting to the girl below, “Miss, step back, don’t let the loquats hit you.”

That year, Xu Jiuru was only sixteen.

Jiang Fuli arrived at the hospital around five o’clock, and at the entrance, he ran into Jiang Fuxi and Mrs. Gui, who were just leaving the hospital.

The dawn of summer arrived a bit earlier, and the sky in the distance was already showing the first light.

Having just learned a few days ago that the old lady had been poisoned, and embroiled in the matter of shares, Jiang Fuli had harbored a lot of repressed anger, which he now saw fit to vent upon seeing Jiang Fuxi.

“Do you even have the face to come here?”