Chapter 93: Brother, I think you have it a bit hard

After Jin Shaoyu finished cleaning the kitchen, he saw a piece of corn silk on one side of Ling Wu's cheek. He pursed his lips and smiled, straightened his body, and leaned in close to him, almost able to feel Ling Wu's breathing hitch. Immediately, he used his fingertips to pluck away the corn silk: "You have something on your face."

Ling Wu nodded: "Thank you."

Jin Shaoyu said: "Use a cloth to wipe it off; things outside aren't clean."

He turned and left the kitchen, and within a few seconds, he returned with a white cloth soaked in water. He wiped Ling Wu's entire face, curled his lip, and complained: "What a hassle, wipe it yourself!"

Ling Wu returned the cloth to him: "I can handle it here; if you don't like staying in the kitchen, go out first."

"Mm."

After the corn and pork rib soup was stewed, Ling Wu ladled out two bowls and brought them to the dining table. He untied his apron and sat down opposite Jin Shaoyu.

Ling Wu rested his chin on his hand: "Hurry and taste it."

Seeing Jin Shaoyu take a sip, he asked: "Is it good?"

"It should taste the same as what Mom used to make."

"It's good." Jin Shaoyu looked up at him: "Why aren't you drinking any? Have you grown up to the point where even your taste buds have changed?"

Ling Wu picked up his chopsticks: "My taste hasn't changed."

Neither of them spoke again until they finished the corn and pork rib soup. Jin Shaoyu picked up his glass of orange juice and clinked it against Ling Wu's in the air: "After you left the Empire back then, did you ever think about coming back to take me with you?"

"Tell me the truth."

Ling Wu nodded: "I did."

He brought the glass filled with orange juice to his lips: "Shao Yu, turnabout is fair play; let me ask you a question too. Do you want me to drink this orange juice?"

When Ling Wu's eyes looked over, they were like a sea on a moonlit night; the faint light in the depths of his pupils was like an undercurrent beneath the sea surface, capable of overturning and surging at any moment!

Jin Shaoyu paused for a moment: "Of course, I poured it myself. Are you unwilling to drink it?"

"I am willing."

Although Ling Wu said this, he placed the glass back on the table, crossed his long legs, leaned his straight back against the chair, and stared at him silently across the dining table. That gaze, indifferent to the bone, had a feeling of pure shock, like a royal noble of the old century, revealing a cold and haughty air in every gesture at the negotiation table, young and sharp: "Have all your thoughts been used on dealing with your brother?"

He then tossed out the packet of sleeping powder he had retrieved from Jin Shaoyu's pocket.

Ling Wu asked: "What is packed inside this?"

Jin Shaoyu licked his lips, which felt dry from nervousness: "Sleeping powder. It's the same kind you used on me back then. Didn't expect that, did you?"

"Heh." Ling Wu let out a laugh, but the coldness on his face did not soften: "Shao Yu, you probably don't know that I minored in psychology in the Federation. From the moment I got in the car, every one of your micro-expressions was written full of guilt and calculation... Your movements were evasive, and when you looked directly into my eyes, I actually saw fear in them."

"At the time, I was wondering, what are you trying to do?"

"And what are you trying to test me for again?"

Jin Shaoyu did not speak.

But Ling Wu remained sharp, leaning his body slightly forward as he said: "Did you discover something? Or has someone said something to you?"

Jin Shaoyu finally could not endure such a direct gaze. He turned his head away, but heard Ling Wu say to himself: "What did Jin Liangjin say to you?"

Jin Liangjin!

"How could you know?! You sent people to monitor me!" Jin Shaoyu slammed the table and stood up: "What he said, what does that have to do with you?"

"It's been like this since I was little—everything is hidden from me, nothing is told to me. Jin Liangjin is cold-blooded and heartless, but Ling Wu, how are you any better than him right now?!"

"I hate your attitudes so much!"

Ling Wu's chest heaved violently twice, and he actually lost his temper. He smashed the glass of orange juice and roared, almost screaming: "I am not the same as him!"

Jin Shaoyu was stunned.

In his memory, there had never been a time when Ling Wu had looked so dark-faced.

Jin Shaoyu walked quickly to his front and gripped his wrist tightly: "What kind of madness are you having?"

"Only what you think is right counts as right, and anything I want to know is forbidden! What do you take me for?!"

Ling Wu was hoarse and desperate, his eye sockets moist: "Then what do you think is right? You tell me what is right! Is it right for me to let you become the neither-human-nor-ghost thing I am now?"

"What do you mean by 'neither-human-nor-ghost'?" Jin Shaoyu demanded: "Explain yourself clearly!"

Ling Wu squatted down and covered his head, his expression extremely painful: "I can't explain it clearly! I won't be able to explain it clearly for the rest of my life!"

A few ugly, low growls actually escaped his throat.

It was like the precursor to some kind of episode.

Jin Shaoyu hurriedly bent down to support him: "Ling Wu, what's wrong with you? I... I won't ask anymore, what's wrong?"

But his hand was flung away, and Ling Wu punched Jin Shaoyu hard in the face, causing blood to seep from the corner of his mouth instantly.

Ling Wu's gaze at this moment was so angry; the emotions suppressed for decades seemed to have been ignited and erupted instantly after being misunderstood. He said: "You never learn."

"Pah." Jin Shaoyu spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes fierce and incredulous: "Ling Wu, you hit me?"

"You've never hit me from the time I was small until now."

"What right do you have to hit me this time!"

The two of them instantly grappled together. Ling Wu took the initiative and landed a few punches on him: "By the right that I am your brother! A brother disciplining his younger brother is only natural!"

Jin Shaoyu did not dare to fight back at all. He discovered that Ling Wu was overly stubborn at this moment, as if he had fallen into some kind of madness, and those pupils were also gradually losing focus...

Ling Wu lost consciousness and collapsed.

Jin Shaoyu caught Ling Wu with one hand. His expression became subtle, and he raised his hand to brush Ling Wu's stray hair back from his eyebrows: "Ling Wu, you are still too soft-hearted. After all, since I am being so rebellious, you should have hit harder."

His sleeping powder had taken effect.

Calculating against others requires calculating for loopholes, but calculating against Ling Wu only requires calculating his own perfection.

Jin Shaoyu did not know how he had obtained that packet of sleeping powder, but it was likely at the moment the plate shattered in the kitchen. When he was in the living room, he had soaked the sleeping powder in water in advance, dampened the cloth, and when he wiped Ling Wu's face, he allowed the odorless gas of the sleeping powder to be inhaled.

But this took much longer to take effect than direct ingestion.

Jin Shaoyu gently carried him to the chair, touched the temperature of his forehead with the back of his hand, turned off the living room lights, and turned on his phone's flashlight. Using his hand to cover the lower half of his face, he looked at the portrait of Yin Huaiyu on the screen; the similarity between the two was nearly 100%. Tears fell from his eyes instantly: "Brother, I think you have it a bit hard."