Chapter 101: Eighteen Years Old

It really hurts, especially when the wound touches the medicine powder or water. The medicine seeps into the flesh through the broken skin, like being rubbed with chili water.

Not to mention how unfaithful Zhou Mushi’s father is now, but for Zhou Mushi, his father had been a good dad for over twenty years, loving and cherishing him like a precious baby.

Zhou Mushi has always had delicate skin and flesh, not used to suffering like this.

Even though he tried to endure it, he couldn’t help but scream in pain in the end.

Jin Yang didn’t feel sorry for him at this point and didn’t ease up at all because of his screams.

Only after applying all the medicine and making Zhou Mushi cry, did he sit next to him, and soften up.

“Knowing that it hurts is good, you know that it hurts, so you won’t fight with others next time.” He stared at Zhou Mushi and said this.

Zhou Mushi felt a bit wronged. He had just been soothed, and now he was being treated so roughly again.

Feeling uncomfortable in his heart, but Zhou Mushi tried to act tough and said, “Who knows?”

Jin Yang’s face immediately changed, and he gripped Zhou Mushi’s wrist so tightly that it hurt. This was a person who was usually very gentle, but his expression was now somewhat frightening.

“No fighting allowed!”

His reaction was a bit too much, which startled Zhou Mushi. “W-why?” he asked, cowering in the corner of the couch, looking particularly pitiful.

Jin Yang realized he had gone a bit too far and closed his eyes before saying to Zhou Mushi, “When I saw Vice President Sun, I knew you were there for me. You have nothing to do with him, and it’s only me who had some unpleasantness with him lately in the project. He’s a loose-tongued person, and I’m afraid he said something that made you angry. Mushi, I know you did it for me, but I’m really scared. I’m afraid you’ll get into a fight, and I’m even more afraid that you’ll get into a fight for me.”

His expression was almost pleading, which was not like Jin Yang.

Zhou Mushi crawled over and took Jin Yang’s hand, asking, “Can you tell me about it?”

Jin Yang tightly held Zhou Mushi’s hand in his fingers, and the two leaned together, huddled under the same blanket.

“It was my brother who, for the sake of Chen Sheng, ruined these years,” he said.

Zhou Mushi stiffened.

“In fact, it’s hard to determine whether it was for Chen Sheng. Ranran is my brother’s daughter, but she wasn’t born through normal means. Ranran’s mother was a woman who had been supporting our orphanage for a long time, but because her husband had oligospermia and a very low survival rate, she couldn’t have a child. She loved her husband very much and didn’t dare to tell him after getting her medical test results. But there was no way; their family really wanted a child. So, she went through IVF, but she didn’t dare to ask anyone randomly. My brother and I looked somewhat similar to her husband.”

Zhou Mushi held Jin Yang’s hand tightly, knowing what had happened without needing to say much more.

“Ranran is the result, right?”

Jin Yang nodded and said, “But she didn’t realize that her husband had also undergone a medical examination elsewhere and found out about his condition. He forgave his wife’s effort but couldn’t accept a child who wasn’t related to him. So, Ranran was sent back, and soon after, their whole family went abroad.”

“Although Ranran was an accident, she was still his daughter. Such a young child couldn’t just be abandoned. You know my brother and I grew up in an orphanage, and we know what it feels like to have no family. My brother had no choice but to drop out of school and work to support the child. He had good grades, and even if he couldn’t get into a top university, at least he could go to a regular one. Back then, undergraduate students were also quite popular. If it weren’t for Ranran’s accident, things would have been different.”

“Did your brother meet Chen Sheng while he was working?” Zhou Mushi asked.

Jin Yang nodded, “Yes, my brother was working in a milk tea shop. Chen Sheng, the young master, was looking for something fresh and attractive, so he approached my brother. People who grew up in an orphanage are actually easy to fool. You don’t need a lot of money, just say a few nice words and make him think you like him, will take care of him, and he’ll be led by the nose.”

“For Chen Sheng, it was just a game, but for my brother, it was a real feeling. People in this world change their tastes when they get bored with the same old thing.”

“I remember that the weather was very nice that day. Before leaving, my brother watered the flowers and walked with a spring in his step, humming a song and wearing a smile on his face that I had never seen before.

But when he came back, he was a different person. He looked like he had been hit hard. Later, I realized that it was because Chen Sheng had broken up with him. In this world, besides me, only Chen Sheng could hurt him.”

“What happened later?” asked Zhou Mushi.

“My brother continued to work at the milk tea shop. He wasn’t as happy as before and didn’t seem to be as carefree as he was before he met Chen Sheng. He could handle tough times but he wasn’t as resilient as before. He was young, and he would slowly recover from the emotional damage. However, he did not wait for that day.

Chen Sheng was too flamboyant and he had always been savage. regardless of whether it was man or woman. It was said that he had offended the girlfriend of some gangster, and the gangster naturally could not swallow this insult. They arranged to confront Chen Sheng at the milk tea shop where my brother worked…”

Zhou Mushi’s brow furrowed and even his nose felt sour.

“My brother called Chen Sheng, but his phone was off. The two gangsters were going to confront Chen Sheng, so my brother had no choice but to stop them in the alley.”

Jin Yang paused for a moment, his Adam’s apple rolling twice as he forced himself to continue despite the uncomfortable feeling. “It was originally just a fistfight, but the gangsters pulled out knives. In the midst of the dispute, my brother snatched the knife away. The result of that battle was… one dead and two injured. One of the two gangsters died, the other was injured, and although my brother was also stabbed, he survived. However, he was sent to prison when he turned eighteen that year.”

Zhou Mushi was not a naive fool. How could he not understand that there was no permanent fairness in this world?

Regardless of who started the fight, one side had the support of local black forces and the other was a poor kid with no parents or money to hire a lawyer. The verdict would not favor him.

Knowing this, Zhou Mushi finally understood what kind of feelings Jin Yang had when he found out that Zhou Mushi had been sent to jail for fighting.