Chapter 290 - To Save His Brother (1)
Chapter 290 – To Save His Brother (1)
Jiang Weiyuan stared at her. He seemed to be in a stupor as he thought of the past. A sense of nostalgia washed upon him and a dim smile ever so slightly moved the corner of his lips.
Jiang Weiyuan slowly sat on the couch opposite the bed. Lihua silently stood beside him.
He smiled. "Sit."
She did and slowly asked, "If it's too painful then-"
He shook his head. "It's not like that. I am just thinking about the past when bro wasn't so withdrawn. You wouldn't believe it but he used to smile and talk a lot."
Lihua was taken aback. As far as she saw, Jiang Weizhe didn't talk much with the rest of the family members.
"But that was before Old Master dragged him to start his Mafia King's training. You should know that our father was an extremely authoritarian man, almost like a dictator."
She widened her eyes. "Really? But you and Dad are so different. Wei and Jiang Li too."
"That was such an era where patriarchy was really rampant. Even my father, who founded Jiang Industries and our great-grandfather who first stepped into the Mafia world, were extremely cruel men. Power and control was everything to them. But it wasn't for us…"
*Flashback*
A four-year-old Jiang Weiyuan came happily hopping to his brother's side. "Bro! Look, I made a castle! I want to show you!"
Jiang Weizhe, six at that time, gently smiled at his younger brother. "Is that so?"
"En!" He eagerly dragged him to their room and showed him his castle that he worked hard to build. "This will be our home! This will be your room and my room will be here, next to yours! Little Xiurang will be with me!" He claimed.
"Haha, so you want to keep our sister to yourself huh?"
"Yes hehe…"
"Weizhe!"
Old Master came barging into their room with a displeased and furious expression on his face that contorted his brows together. "Weizhe! Why are you here? Is this the time to be fooling around!?"
He straightened up. "Old Master."
The Old Master looked at the castle in disdain and without batting an eyelid, he threw it away, crashing it on the floor.
Tears pooled in Weiyuan's eyes and he burst into loud sobs. "Waaaaaaa. My castle."
*Slap*
Weiyuan was startled. The slap that was supposed to land on his cheek hit on Weizhe's face as he came in between them. A glaring red mark formed on his cheek and little Weiyuan cried even more. "Bro…"
Weizhe signaled him with his palm and shook his head.
The Old Master was enraged. "Utterly preposterous! You are a four-year-old boy already! Stop shedding tears like girls. You make me feel embarrassed!"
Weiyuan bit his lower lip on his reprimand. Tears plopped on his hands and trembled.
Weizhe calmly said, "Please don't be angry at Weiyuan, Old Master. I insisted that he make a castle for me."
"What childishness! You should be focusing on your training, not on these useless things! You haven't even completely mastered the gun and here you are building castles!"
He harshly grabbed his arm and pulled him away. "Come with me! I won't let you do today until you become proficient in handling guns!"
"Bro…" Weiyuan tried to stop them but he was cruelly pushed aside. Alone in his room, he cried for a long time. He picked the broken pieces of his castled and trembled hard. The sight of Weizhe taking the slap for him shook him. But he couldn't do anything.
As days turned into months and months into years, Weiyuan began to notice how Weizhe was growing more and more distant. He didn't smile anymore. He didn't talk unless asked anything and even when he replied, his voice was flat and plain, devoid of any emotions.
The warm and gentle big brother that Weiyuan always knew was slowly turning into a cold robot that felt nothing. Sometimes, he would even see some red marks on his skin that said how Old Master must have gotten angry and hit him to punish him.
One day, he went to him and hopefully asked, "Bro, let's play. We-we haven't played together for so long. Xiurang also misses you."
Little Xiurang chirped and tugged her big brother's hand. "Play! Play!" She giggled.
Weizhe lowered his gaze and his eyelashes slightly trembled. He then blankly lifted his gaze and stared at Weiyuan. "I don't have the time."
He shook off Xiurang's hand and walked away. "Weiyuan, don't look for me anymore. I have to… become the Mafia King. I cannot waste my time in all this."
Xiurang burst into tears seeing her brother walk away. Weiyuan clenched his fists and he had an urge to cry too. His voice felt like a stranger to him. His big brother was gone.
On that same night, Weiyuan saw more injuries on Weizhe and that was when his patience completely snapped.
Day and night, Weizhe gave his all to fulfill his responsibilities as the eldest son of the Jiang family. But no matter how much he did, Old Master was never satisfied.
"I have decided! I will become the Mafia King! I won't let big brother suffer like this. I will become the Mafia King so that I will get my big brother back," he declared to himself as he sniffled and wiped his tears.
So he went to convey this to the Old Madam too.
"What? Mafia King and you?"
Weiyuan nodded hard. His gaze was resolute and serious. "I will! I don't want big brother to be the Mafia King!"
"Why?"
Weiyuan never said the real reason to anybody because he knew that it won't affect anybody. Instead, that would make his goal even more difficult to achieve. For Old Master, that would be the weakest and the most pathetic reason it could get.
"Because I am better than him! I want to be at the top. I want to prove that I can become the leader and I am just as capable! Big brother is not suitable for this position."