"What answer?"
Boss Bai looked at the old man and voiced his confusion.
The old man's eyelids drooped.
A heavy sigh escaped him.
A dazed, dejected, and wistful look appeared on his face as he gazed at the jade in his hands.
"Grandpa..."
It was the first time Boss Bai had seen his grandfather look like this.
No.
He should say that ever since his grandfather had seen the two halves of the jade ball, he had been someone Boss Bai had never seen before.
"If you don't want to talk about it..."
He didn't want to see the old man so distressed.
The old man shook his head.
It wasn't that he didn't want to talk about it...
"...It's just something that happened a long time ago..."
Something that happened a long time ago?
Boss Bai listened in silence.
The old man pressed his lips together.
It had been so long since he'd told anyone about this...
"I had an older brother..."
"An older brother?"
Boss Bai couldn't help exclaiming in surprise.
"How come I never knew?"
"Not just you..."
The old man smiled. "Even your father didn't know."
Huh?
Boss Bai's mouth fell open.
Even his dad didn't know?
"Why?"
He blurted out the question.
Could it be...
All sorts of guesses flashed through his mind.
"Because, a long time ago..."
The old man spoke slowly. "Back then, I was only in high school..."
"He was hit by a car..."
"He lost a lot of blood."
"Grandpa."
Boss Bai took the old man's trembling hand.
"I'm fine."
The old man managed a somewhat strained smile.
"...They couldn't save him... He died."
"I still remember what the doctor looked like when he told us the news."
"I remember Mom's sobs."
"I remember