Chapter 348 — Who Exactly Is Your Brother?

"Ugh, and here I thought you had some ulterior motive for making me have dinner with him!" Wei Zhao was rather speechless. "If I'd known, I'd never have agreed!"

"Well, it's just as well you did — tomorrow you go and take him down a peg or two. I've never been able to stand the sight of him!" Shen Yushu brandished a little fist. "He's nothing special himself, yet he struts about as if he were something, thinking the title of one of Songshan's Four Young Masters actually counts for anything — isn't he just the tallest of a pack of dwarves?"

"Xiaoshu, your brother is the foremost of Songshan's Four Young Masters!" Gu Mengyao corrected her, giving her a speechless look.

"My brother? I don't think he's even a match for Brother Shield. He can't even handle a girl like Qiu Lingshan, while one word from Brother Shield and that Song girl does exactly as she's told..." At the mention of Qiu Lingshan, Shen Yushu perked up at once.

"...Xiaoshu, I'm beginning to think Chen Yutian isn't your real brother — Wei Zhao is." Gu Mengyao frowned. Surely her dearest friend hadn't truly fallen for Wei Zhao? Every other word out of her mouth these days was Wei Zhao; he had touched her, looked at her, kissed her, held her, and she showed not the slightest distaste. Goodness — Xiaoshu hadn't gone to the bad, had she?

"Hehe... of course he's my real brother. I do admire him, but he's simply too soft where women are concerned. If he were a little firmer, that Song girl would have bowed her head long ago." Shen Yushu, quite unbothered, said this with a giggle.

"Xiaoshu, you're a girl yourself. Don't tell me that one day you want to be a wife kept under her husband's thumb? Or do you have a taste for suffering?" Gu Mengyao thought to herself: You're a girl, yet you speak up for the men — where is the sense in that?

"Oh, Sister Yaoyao, I just want Brother Shield to cut that An Jianwen down to size tomorrow!" Shen Yushu said. "Oh — I misspoke. Brother Jianwen..."

"..." Wei Zhao paid the two girls no further mind; he yawned and turned to go back to his room to sleep.

"Brother Shield, I'm on your side! I'll be waiting for good news tomorrow night!" Shen Yushu called after him.

"Xiaoshu, you know what An Jianwen's family is like. You're only making trouble for Wei Zhao!" Gu Mengyao's brow knitted in exasperation. "He is not Zhong Yongliang — he's not someone Wei Zhao can simply deal with as he pleases. Dragging Wei Zhao into this — what if something goes wrong?"

Cold and distant as she was toward Wei Zhao on the surface, and at times even a little disgusted by him, Gu Mengyao was not a person who lost sight of reason. What was more, now that she no longer minded Wei Zhao living in this house, she would naturally not go out of her way to make trouble for him.

Though Daddy had kept it from her and said nothing of what Wei Zhao had done these past two days, she still knew a little of the crisis at his company. Wei Zhao had quietly, without a word, settled the whole business — how could she bring him yet more trouble?

"Hehe, Sister Yaoyao, is your heart aching for him?" Shen Yushu's dark brows and eyes curved into crescent moons as she looked at Gu Mengyao with a smile.

"Aching for him? What would I be aching for?" Gu Mengyao gave a little sniff. "He is our follower. If he offends An Jianwen and An Jianwen comes looking for payback, naturally we'd have to protect him. So sending him off to stir up trouble is the same as bringing trouble down on us!"

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about. Next time Brother Jianwen comes around, I'll handle him!" Shen Yushu took it all upon herself — when it came to dealing with An Jianwen, she did have her ways.

"All right, let's get to sleep." Gu Mengyao yawned as well. It was already past ten, and An Jianwen had dawdled for over an hour; she had long since been dead with sleepiness.

"It won't come to that. I said two days, so two days it is. Today's only Thursday — there are still a few days left, aren't there... By the way, is it Saturday or Sunday?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Sunday. But not in this city — we'll have to set out early on Saturday. My grand-uncle's family lives in Donghai, the provincial capital," Kang Xiaobo said.

"Fine, then we'll leave Saturday afternoon." Wei Zhao nodded. "Oh, right — how are things on Xiaofen's end?"

"She can be discharged now, actually. It was only malnutrition — her body was simply too weak. I'm planning to go this afternoon and see to the discharge formalities!" Kang Xiaobo said. "On Saturday my parents are coming with me as well, and I still don't know how to tell them about Xiaofen, or whether they'll be able to accept her..."

"None of that strikes me as important. What matters is what's in your heart." Wei Zhao waved a hand. "Xiaobo, do you truly like Xiaofen?"

"The truth?" Kang Xiaobo hesitated a moment.

"Of course the truth. If not the truth, why would I bother asking?" Wei Zhao shot him an exasperated glare.

"The truth is, at the very beginning, after I saw her photograph, I was merely stirred. Seeing a pretty girl and feeling drawn to her, wanting to pursue her — that's only natural..." Kang Xiaobo scratched at his scalp, a little embarrassed. "Just as I once liked Tang Yun, liked Gu Mengyao, liked Shen Yushu... But I know those were nothing but fantasies. Not one of them could ever like me. If it weren't for you, Boss, I doubt Tang Yun would even know who I am!

As for my feelings for Xiaofen, at first there was quite a lot of pity in them, because that girl is simply too pitiful, too heartbreaking... And so I couldn't help wanting to give her a little more care, a little more tenderness. Only, as time went on, going to the hospital every day to sit with her, to talk with her, to eat with her, I gradually grew used to that feeling. If a day passed without seeing her, I would miss her. I think I can say for certain now: I have fallen for her!"

"Liking, or loving?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Is there a difference?" Kang Xiaobo shook his head, somewhat blankly.

"Perhaps there is..." Wei Zhao sighed. He, too, had once liked a girl — liked her a great deal. That girl was Xiao Ning.

People said that for love one could give up everything, could brave scalding water and roaring fire. So sometimes Wei Zhao thought that what he had felt for Xiao Ning could hardly count as love... And yet, if it was not love, why did she come back to his mind again and again?

Was it the rules of his trade that had bound him, the professional code he was duty-bound to uphold — or was it simply that he lacked the courage to take that step?

Perhaps both... Or perhaps it was that he could never have given Xiao Ning the life she wanted... At least, not back then.

But now? Wei Zhao shook his head. He knew well enough that running away was no way to solve a problem, but having chosen to run all these years, he was all the less able to take that step now.

"Boss, the way I see it, love and liking don't matter much either way. The crux of it is: how am I supposed to tell my parents?" Kang Xiaobo grew troubled. "They wouldn't have approved of me having a girlfriend at all right now... and with Xiaofen's situation the way it is, what am I supposed to do?"

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