Chapter 144#
Just one person’s tears could actually make him hurt this much.#
“It was just an accidental cut… is there a need to cry so hard?”
The man’s whisper sounded in his ear. Jian Yunchen’s sobbing paused, and he slowly raised his head, looking into the man’s playful eyes.
A tear hanging at the corner of his eye fell inappropriately, only to be gently brushed away by Qin Mu’s knuckle. He teased with a smile, “And you still say you’re not a crybaby?”
His slender fingers were covered in a thin layer of moisture, clearly exposed under the light like “evidence” Qin Mu had deliberately left behind to prove his point.
Coming to his senses, Jian Yunchen looked at his wrist with an expression of disbelief. He sniffed, his voice thick with a nasal tone when he spoke: “Your wrist is like that, and you’re still lying.”
Qin Mu rubbed his fingertips together, lifted his wrist, and slowly unwrapped the gauze surrounding it.
Jian Yunchen held his breath and waited quietly.
As the wrist was fully exposed, there was only an extremely shallow scratch covered with a layer of red antiseptic. It wasn’t even deep enough to leave a scar. Qin Mu rested his chin on his hand, watching Jian Yunchen hold his wrist to examine it closely, the corners of his lips curling up involuntarily. “I wanted to eat an apple, but the knife slipped and left a nick. Was it really worth crying that much?”
Jian Yunchen pursed his lips tightly, his face flushing instantly. He held Qin Mu’s wound and looked at it from side to side; it was indeed small—putting a bandage on it was practically an exaggeration.
He dropped Qin Mu’s hand and shot him a fierce glare, though with his eyes still shimmering with a layer of mist, it lacked any real intimidation. “Why didn’t you say so just now?”
Qin Mu laughed. “You started crying the moment you walked in; you didn’t give me a chance to speak.”
Jian Yunchen opened his mouth dryly and then chose to close it again. Remembering the words he had just said, his face burned with embarrassment. He let out a huff and moved to get off Qin Mu.
Qin Mu hooked his lips into a smile and grabbed his wrist, pulling him back down. He leaned against Jian Yunchen’s shoulder, his arms firmly encircling him. It looked as though Qin Mu was leaning into Jian Yunchen’s embrace, but it was Jian Yunchen who was being firmly held.
He struggled a few times but couldn’t break free, so he gave up. Jian Yunchen gently hugged Qin Mu back, his voice filled with heartache again. “You scared me to death. I thought…” He paused, choosing to skip the topic. “Maybe it’s because I just got back from the police station and my nerves are too frayed. I’m sorry…”
Qin Mu’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed tight by a hand for a moment. He tightened his grip, his voice turning a bit hoarse. “Did things go smoothly?”
Jian Yunchen leaned against him and let out a soft breath, shedding his full-body exhaustion.
“It was alright. Jian Dan is temporarily under the protection of an agency; his custody will be decided after the case is sentenced.”
“Liu Yi…” He paused, his voice lowering. “Liu Yi was indeed accidentally beaten to death by Jian Jinbao. He was drunk, saw Liu Yi dressed neatly and cleanly with an unfamiliar scent on her, and… someone saw her on her way there and said some nonsense to Jian Jinbao. Jian Jinbao felt he had lost face, so he took his anger out on her when he got home.”
“Liu Yi was used to being beaten and had long since stopped resisting. Jian Jinbao’s rage found no vent, so he turned it toward the child. To protect the child… Liu Yi was kicked several times. Her spleen and stomach ruptured. No ambulance was called. When Jian Jinbao woke up the next morning, the body was already cold. Only the child in her arms was safe and sound—relying on Liu Yi’s residual body heat, he didn’t even catch a cold.”
Qin Mu lowered his eyes and listened quietly, his heart churning with various emotions because of this woman who was almost a stranger to him.
Perhaps he didn’t know her, but the essence of human love is the same.
It was so sincere and burning that even just hearing the story of her life would make one sigh with grief.
Jian Yunchen curled into Qin Mu’s arms, instinctively seeking a stable and reliable harbor.
He paused for a moment and continued, “I went to see Jian Jinbao… Liu Yi hadn’t told anyone that she came to see us. When Jian Jinbao saw me, he cried and knelt before me, saying those disgusting things, saying he hoped I could help him.”
Jian Yunchen’s tone suddenly turned cold, a hard-edged anger suppressed beneath his icy voice. “For a man like Jian Jinbao, even death would be too good for him!”
Qin Mu gently stroked his back, soothing the slight tremors caused by his emotional agitation. He asked, “Did Qin Zheng show up?”
“Heh.” Jian Yunchen let out a cold laugh.
“After me, the one who went in was Qin Zheng. Who knows what shady business they’re up to now.”
Qin Mu smiled dismissively. Jian Jinbao’s demand to see Qin Zheng was nothing more than an attempt to use the leverage he held to threaten Qin Zheng into bailing him out. Once such a thing happens, it happens again; if Qin Zheng gets annoyed by the threats, it’s not impossible for him to be driven to desperation.
He leaned close to Jian Yunchen’s ear and whispered something. After he finished, Jian Yunchen’s eyes lit up. He sat up and stared at him with sparkling eyes. “Then you must deal with him properly; you can’t let him off so easily.”
Being looked at like that made Qin Mu’s heart burn, a swelling ache nearly overflowing. He rubbed Jian Yunchen’s cheek, his voice husky. “Of course I won’t let him off that easily. For all these years…”
At this point, Qin Mu suddenly stopped.
Jian Yunchen blinked in confusion, holding Qin Mu’s wrist and tilting his face to press against it affectionately.
“Why did you stop? What about all these years?”
Qin Mu’s fingertips trembled slightly as he finished his sentence.
“For all these years, you’ve suffered so much at his hands; we have to get it all back.”
Jian Yunchen froze, seemingly not expecting Qin Mu’s answer to be this.
He looked down in a panic; the feeling of being cared for and noticed was so foreign that it began to make him feel afraid.
He straightened his back, his voice growing weak, unsure of who he was talking to.
“Actually… it wasn’t that bad. If he bullied me, I’d find a way to pay him back. I didn’t lose out on much…”
Jian Yunchen pursed his lips. He had once gone through a period of complaining about the unfairness of fate, suffering and feeling lost. But it was useless. No matter how many tears fell, they only invited a greater desire for abuse from the perpetrator. Thus, those complaints, pains, and moments of confusion were buried deep in his heart. When he felt malice, repaying it twofold was much more practical than those flimsy tears.
Until one day, someone felt heartache for his past and his history.
Only then did he realize that those complaints, pains, and confusion also had another name.
It was called being wronged.
A sense of grievance overwhelmed him, causing the tears that hadn’t fallen all those years to drop easily.
Qin Mu felt as if a sharp blade had been driven into his heart.
He pulled Jian Yunchen close, letting those cold tears soak into his clothes.
It hurts, he thought.
It turned out that just one person’s tears…
Could actually make him hurt this much.