Chapter 398: How on Earth Can a Person Like Him Be Changed?

In the inner hall,

Facing Jia Jing's cold words, Jia Mu felt her heart sink straight to the bottom of a valley; after a moment of silence, she still could not give up and whispered a plea:

"Jing brother, don't be angry! Jia Baoyu has no ill intent; children play recklessly without depth. Yesterday it was also a moment of haste that he smashed the precious jade again!"

"Now he has been kneeling in the ancestral hall for an entire night; surely he has deeply realized his mistake. For the sake of my old face, then... please spare him this time!"

Jia Jing lifted his eyes to look at Jia Mu, his expression darkening, and sneered:

"What am I angry about?... I just find it laughable!"

"Is this a matter of smashing jade? Is this a child's play?"

Those two short sentences instantly sent a chill through the inner hall, and Jia Mu felt her heart skip a beat.

At that moment, Jia Jing's voice grew even colder, and he said in a frosty tone:

"The last time, a smashing‑jade stunt, feigning madness and stupidity, made Lin sister cough up blood, causing the whole household to be in turmoil."

"Such decadent habits—Second Master, as a father, looked at him earnestly, intending to admonish him."

"But you and Lady Wang blocked it, making Second Master so angry he coughed up blood and fainted! The entire mansion was unsettled because of this one incident."

"When I returned to the mansion, I wanted to severely punish him, but that foolish woman Lady Wang said she would report me to the court!"

"In the end, if it weren't for the old lady's pleading, I would have beaten him with dozens of military sticks so he'd truly know my power!"

"At that time I said, Uncle Lin is a high‑ranking minister whom the Emperor himself keeps in mind, shedding blood in Jiangnan for the court, selling his life."

"He must not repeat this with Lin sister, the lone girl; otherwise I will not be lenient!"

"How long has it been? Not even a year, yet the old incident repeats? Truly no memory at all?"

"I heard this time he again smashed jade at Lin sister, just because she refused to make a purse for him?"

"I heard that to find that piece of jade, the whole mansion went into battle, almost overturning Rong Qing Tang!"

"I heard this time Second Master wants to punish him, yet you and Lady Wang stand in the way?"

"This is utterly unreasonable, absurd to the extreme! Now the old lady still has the nerve to come to me and plead for him again?"

Jia Mu moved her lips, about to speak a few words in Jia Baoyu's defense, when Jia Jing's questioning and rebuke crashed down on her like a heavy blow:

"Is he not a scion of Rong Guo Mansion? Not a descendant of the Second Lord of Rong Ning? Not a member of the Jia Clan? Now does the entire mansion and clan have not a single person who can discipline him?"

"Just one person, a lifeless thing, you all have almost lifted him up to the heavens! A proper man, what has your pampering turned him into?"

"At the slightest provocation he gets angry and acts out, feigning madness and stupidity, foolishly stubborn and dull, unable to aid the world or bring peace, unable to honor his parents and ancestors, and cannot study to understand reason or care for his younger siblings."

"A person so heartless, unprincipled, reckless, and utterly irresponsible—how can he possibly be changed?"

Jia Baoyu's flaw does not lie in smashing jade wilfully or in his recklessness, but in his complete lack of responsibility.

On the surface he appears a lover of rouge and girls, but beneath the soft shell of a wealthy idle, his actions reveal cowardice, selfishness, and a refusal to take responsibility.

His "badness" is not in committing evil deeds, but in feeling affection without the courage to bear responsibility; he knows it is unjust yet never resists.

In the original work, the deaths of Jin Chuan, Qingwen, Daiyu and others are sacrifices to his "gentle evil."

Even the deaths of Yuan Chun and Yingchun, the tragic fates of Tan Chun, Xichun, Xiang Yun and others, and the ultimate downfall of Jia Mansion, this most favored legitimate son of Rong Guo Mansion bears undeniable responsibility!

Just as in the original, Jin Chuan threw herself into the well; the cause was Jia Baoyu teasing Jin Chuan while Lady Wang was napping at noon, saying, "I'll go fetch you to the lady's room."

Jin Chuan replied, "The golden hairpin fell into the well; what's yours is yours," and the half‑asleep Lady Wang heard it and immediately slapped her.

And what did Baoyu do? Indeed, he "took off like a flash."

After Jin Chuan's death, he turned to Lady Wang and blamed it all on "Jin Chuan's own carelessness"…

As if nothing concerned him.

When a person dies, his tears may be genuine, but his tears are worthless.

He only cries after the fact, never intervenes beforehand.

When Qingwen was driven out by Lady Wang, she fell gravely ill, on the brink of death.

Later Baoyu secretly went to visit, wept at her bedside, and spoke many heartfelt words.

And then? Indeed, he likewise slunk away in disgrace.

He never pleaded with Lady Wang, never appealed to Jia Mu, nor sought medicine for Qingwen; he took no genuine action to help.

On her deathbed, Qingwen bit off her two scallion‑shaped nails, removed her worn close‑fitting coat, handed them to him, and said, "Just take them back."

At that moment she seemed to understand everything: Jia Baoyu would only come to weep for her, never to save her.

After Qingwen's death, Baoyu wrote a eulogy titled "Lotus Daughter's Lament," ornate in diction and deeply moving.

But that eulogy, rather than being for Qingwen, was more a piece for himself, to alleviate his own guilt and to prove "I am not a heartless person."

What Qingwen wanted was not a lament, but someone to stand up for her the moment Lady Wang drove her out, even to speak a single word of justice on her behalf.

Daiyu, needless to say, burned her drafts and died of a broken heart while Baoyu was on his way to get married.

And this is Jia Baoyu: a man who cloaks cowardice in deep affection, evades responsibility with tears, and masks incompetence with the word "infatuated."

Perhaps he cannot even be called a man; the term feels somewhat insulting!

It can be said that the few girls who died before the Jia Mansion was seized were essentially all directly or indirectly linked to Jia Baoyu and Lady Wang.

According to Jia Jing's original intention, he did not wish to bother with such a person, nor had the time to meddle in trivial matters!

His previous approach was to let them fend for themselves—whether they studied or were ambitious, it was up to them, as long as they didn't cause trouble!

Who would have thought that such an attitude now appears somewhat lenient!

Jia Baoyu tried several times to thrust him into the line of fire, yet Jia Mu and Lady Wang kept doting on and shielding him, ignoring the bans against him, insisting on fostering this perverse trend of "pampered, spoiled children" in the Jia family!

Seeing this, Jia Jing could only teach them proper conduct, giving them a reminder.

And as soon as Jia Jing finished speaking, the hall fell into complete silence!