Re-engraving the Spring - Chapter 24
Ji Feining couldn’t find a bit of emotion on Lu Ming’s face, and he wondered if he needed to continue.
Until Lu Ming was sitting up and asked: “Was it Chi Qiu…himself who replaced Ji Yanchen?”
He was full of doubts; this was not mentioned in his initial investigation information.
The investigation materials only stated that Chi Qiu was mistakenly taken away in Ji Yanchen’s stead. There were two kidnappers, one man and one woman.
On the way, the male kidnapper collided with a large truck because of drunk driving. Both kidnappers were killed in the accident. Only poor Chi Qiu was beaten and unconscious on their way to escape.
In the end, Chi Qiu was alive and survived.
Ji Feining finally found a faint trace of surprise on Lu Ming’s face, and he rejoiced in his heart that it seemed he had come to the right place.
As expected, Chi Qiu really hadn’t told Lu Ming the details of this past.
He said in a slow voice: “Back then, the Ji family was fighting over the family assets. My youngest uncle, in order to prove himself in front of my grandfather, was eager to facilitate a business deal and did something unseemly, causing a child from an ordinary family to lose his life innocently.”
And Ji Feining’s youngest uncle, in order to avoid responsibility, made a private stunt and shifted the blame to Ji Feining’s father.
“My father is a cold-blooded and unpredictable businessman, so he naturally would not wipe his ass for my youngest uncle. The matter went to my grandfather, who, in a fit of anger, put my youngest uncle in confinement. But no matter what, my youngest uncle is also my grandfather’s child. He selfishly protected my youngest uncle, so he asked my father to come forward and solve the matter.”
Because the death of the child was an accident, Ji Feining’s father did not personally intervene, and he instead asked his secretary to ‘negotiate’, hoping to settle the case with money.
But he didn’t know that this arrogance that only wanted to use money to settle, completely activated the hatred in the other party’s heart, making it grow more and more. Not a single member of the Ji family said ‘sorry’ to the family.
“From that day on, the couple drank heavily every day and their lives became a mess. With their children gone, the money was just a basket of paper to them, and they transferred their hatred to my father, who was the last to step in.” Ji Feining spoke of this with a vague pain in his temple.
Lu Ming shook his hand, he could roughly guess what happened afterwards.
After that, a year later, Ji Feining’s father inherited the family business.
“My youngest uncle was not happy that my grandfather had given the company to my father. In order to get back at my father, he deliberately had Yanchen’s whereabouts revealed to the couple.”
To put it bluntly, it wasn’t a kidnapping case at all, and the kidnappers weren’t really kidnappers.
The couple probably had it in mind from the beginning that they were going to take Ji Yanchen with them to die, the so-called an eye for an eye.
Unfortunately, it was the innocent Chi Qiu who was taken away.
……
The van crashed hard into the big truck, causing it to overturn badly and roll down the slope. By the time the ambulance rushed over, the best time to save Chi Qiu’s life had been missed.
Chi Qiu lost his only remaining eye and fell into endless darkness from then on.
For a long time, Ji Yanchen didn’t dare to see Chi Qiu. He always cowered in the corner of the room and cried. As an older brother, Ji Feining went to visit Chi Qiu again and again to apologize.
But their father, on the other hand, rejoiced at home: “Luckily it wasn’t Yanchen.”
Ji Feining looked at him incredulously.
His father, instead, said indifferently: “The Chi family’s business has gone downhill recently, so you and Yanchen will have less contact with them in the future. It’s almost time for you to prepare for your study abroad.”
This made Ji Feining feel incredibly ashamed.
Ji Feining clearly remembered that in the hospital room, Chi Lanyan came forward and gave him a slap: “You dare to involve my son in the rotten affairs of your Ji family? Take your broken things and get out of here. Don’t ever appear in front of Ji Qiu again!”
Ji Feining lowered his head. The slap marks on his face were hot and painful..
Chi Qiu, who was lying on the bed, spoke with a hoarse voice to defend him: “Mom, don’t blame Ning ge and Yanchen. It was me who pretended to be Yanchen and was taken away.”
“…”
“Yanchen is a younger brother and a friend of mine. I wanted to help him like this.”
Chi Lanyan couldn’t say a word anymore. Her face was full of tears as she gritted her teeth and turned away. She covered her mouth and cried silently. Lin Yuming beside her was so helpless for the first time, he went up to comfort his wife and was slapped away by Chi Lanyan’s hand in indignation.
Surrounded by darkness, Chi Qiu could not get their response and moved his heavy body uneasily, stabbing pain climbed over his body.
It was Ji Feining who approached and took his hand: “Chi Qiu.”
Feeling the warmth of his body, Chi Qiu smiled with an effort, “Ning ge, is Yanchen still crying?”
“Yes.”
“Is he frightened? Why doesn’t he come to see me?”
Ji Feining clenched his fist, half-kneeled down and answered as calmly as possible, “He’s afraid you’ll be angry with him.”
“Ah? Then tell him to stop crying, I’m not angry.” Chi Qiu was kind and gentle. His hands were clearly trembling, yet he spoke words of comfort to them.
Ji Feining’s eyes were red and glistening to the point of being unbearable.
“Chi Qiu, I’m sorry.” Ji Feining gritted his posterior teeth. Watching such a small child lose his sight, he said with difficulty: “I’m sorry…”
If they had said ‘sorry’ to the victim’s family in the first place, would the ending have been different?
…
Now, Ji Feining told Lu Ming all this, it was nothing more than to say something for Ji Yanchen, so that Lu Ming would not be angry with Ji Yanchen’s attitude, so that he wouldn’t misunderstand Chi Qiu.
For Ji Yanchen, Chi Qiu was a life-saver and the friend he cared about the most.
In a more layman way, he explained to Lu Ming: “You can think of Yanchen as Chi Qiu’s… the kind of a grumpy brother and best friend of the ‘wife-family’.”1
Ji Feining’s statement was really weird, so weird that Lu Ming took the teacup’s hand for a meal.
“Mr. Lu, I…am not quite sure between you and Chi Qiu who is marrying into whose family. Please forgive me if my words are offensive.”
“It’s okay.” Lu Ming said very little. He picked up the teapot and added some tea to Ji Feining’s cup.
At the end, he spoke out, “Thank you for telling me this.”
And in the backyard, Chi Qiu was rarely active.
He was as happy as a teenager with his childhood friend. He grabbed Ji Yanchen’s wrist and deliberately pointed towards the front: “Did you see it?”
Ji Yanchen was confused, he looked for a while, but did not see anything. What else was there in the flowers and greenery in front of him, besides a sweet-scented osmanthus tree that was not in the season?
He leaned back in his seat and looked at Chi Qiu with a smug face and asked in wonder, “What exactly do you want me to see?”
“Osmanthus tree, ah.” In front of Ji Yanchen, Chi Qiu completely changed his appearance. He childishly muttered, “Can’t you see such a big tree?”
“…”
Chi Qiu took a sip of tea, and appreciatively said: “What a sweet-scented osmanthus tree.”
Ji Yanchen had no idea what he was talking about and thoughtfully stroked his chin, “What’s the meaning? Is this tree very expensive? I do remember that you have always liked sweet-scented osmanthus, but this tree has not even bloomed yet…”
Chi Qiu’s gaze ‘fell’ on the osmanthus tree, and a pleasant tone from his mouth popped out word by word: “This is specially planted by Lu Ming for me.”
Ji Yanchen made a vomit sound and vomited the dog food directly.
“Chi Qiu, that son Lu Ming is always cold to you, how can you still be so happy?” Ji Yanchen even suspected that Chi Qiu had something in the hands of Lu Ming.
“You misunderstood him.” Chi Qiu drooped his brows, and his mood gradually dropped.
Ji Yanchen was most afraid of Chi Qiu being said, so he quickly changed his words: “Then you explain to me? Don’t be upset. I, I just want him to be more interested in you. I swear, I didn’t mean to target him!”
He raised his four fingers and immediately became a paper tiger surnamed Ji in front of Chi Qiu.
However, regarding Lu Ming’s situation, Chi Qiu could not explain to Ji Yanchen. Even with Chi Lanyan earlier, he was forced to open his mouth as a last resort.
After the incident, Chi Qiu had repeatedly contacted Chi Lanyan unilaterally, asking her again and again to pretend to be unaware of it.
Fortunately, Chi Lanyan had always been a tight-lipped person. Although she was angry, she didn’t make things difficult for Chi Qiu after all. However, she did admonish Chi Qiu: “If it is caused by something that happened before, then Lu Ming will probably not be able to heal this symptom without facing the past.”
Chi Qiu knew that, it was just that he couldn’t bear to uncover Lu Ming’s scars.
And Lu Ming was also unwilling to reveal his inner abyss to anyone, including the person next to his pillow.
T/N: There’ll be no updates on the next Sunday (Jan 30th) but CNY is a public holiday at my place so you can expect an update on any day between Tuesday and Thursday next week (might be releasing chapter on all the three days tho. Let’s see)
娘家人. It basically means a wife’s family/in-laws or a woman ‘s immediate family members before she married, but later it also used to refer to people who were close to each other before she married.
