Jiang Xun was lying on his side, his face buried in the pillow, and the hose of the infusion tube trembled slightly with his wrist.
Jiang Huaixiao continued, speaking in a very low voice, "I asked someone to check that orphanage. It doesn't have the qualifications to run an orphanage at all. The director has been in office for twelve years and has embezzled relief funds, deducted food expenses, and falsely claimed subsidies. There are huge holes in the accounts."
"Now that he has been taken away, the two charges of corruption and abuse are enough to put him in jail."
Jiang Xun made no sound. Jiang Huaixiao stared at the back of the furry head and remained silent for a long time before speaking again.
"Before you came back, I only knew that you grew up in an orphanage. I thought that a place like that couldn't be any worse, no matter how bad it was. At least you had food to eat, a bed to sleep on, and a teacher to take care of you."
"It was last month that I actually got the investigation report." Jiang Huaixiao's voice suddenly deepened, "Secretary Chen put the materials on my desk, and I flipped through them all night."
He didn't say how many cigarettes he smoked that night, nor did he say that when he read a few pages, he cracked the whiskey glass on the table.
"When you were six years old, you had a high fever in the winter, and the dean put you in an isolation room. With myrrh and no hot water, your fever reached 40 degrees Celsius, so you crawled to the pool to drink tap water."
"When you were eight years old, you were pushed down the stairs and your left arm was fractured. The dean said you were causing trouble by fighting and punished you by depriving you of food for three days."
"When you were twelve years old, a family wanted to adopt you. The procedures were halfway through, but the dean told them that there was something wrong with your conduct. Later I found out that the family's conditions were very good, and the dean was afraid that there would be less places for you to receive subsidies."
"In seventeen years, how many times have you been beaten, how many times have you been imprisoned, how many times have you had fevers and carried it on your own - the materials are clearly listed one by one."
"And these are only the parts that can be found."
Jiang Huaixiao's Adam's apple rolled hard, and his voice was hoarse when he spoke again.
"I'm sorry."
"Brother didn't know this at the time."
Jiang Xun closed his eyes, his eyelashes were wetly attached to his eyelids, and the medicine in the infusion tube was still dripping down.
"I didn't talk to you much after you came back." Jiang Huaixiao pushed the strand of hair away from Jiang Xun's forehead and rested her fingertips on his temple for a moment, "It's not that I don't like you, it's just that I really don't know how to speak."
"I was only seven years old when my mother passed away, and Yanchu was even younger. My father didn't come home all year round, and besides the servants, we were the only ones at home. No one taught me how to get close to others, and no one taught me how to be an older brother. I was used to handling everything by myself, and everything I said would rot in my stomach."
"On the first day you came back, you fought with Jiang Yu and kicked him so hard. I thought at the time, this kid could poke a hole in the sky without me protecting him."
As he spoke, the corners of his mouth raised slightly, and it was fleeting.
"Later, in the living room, you scolded Yanchu for having a mental problem, and called Liu Wanying a thousand-year-old vixen. The scolding made the whole Jiang family go crazy. I thought again, this guy's tongue is sharper than the company's legal affairs, and I don't need to worry about it."
"I've never cared about you."
Jiang Huaixiao put Jiang Xun's hand in his palm and rubbed the bruise on the back of his hand with his thumb.
"I thought you were fierce, ruthless and tough enough that you didn't need anyone to stand up for you."
"But now I know--"
He slowly raised his eyes, which were covered with red bloodshot eyes.
"Brother was wrong."
"You can tell me whatever you want. If you don't want to stay at Jiang family, don't stay. If you don't want to see Jiang family, just leave. I have a villa in the east of the city, in a good location, close to your school. If you are willing, I will transfer it to your name tomorrow, with only your name on it."
"If you don't want me to come in, I won't come in. If you want to live alone, live alone. If you don't like Capital City, you can go somewhere else - any city at home or abroad, as long as you tell me, I can make arrangements."
He tightened his fingers for a moment and then immediately released them, fearing that they would hurt him.
"If you want to go to school, go to school. If you don't want to go to school, I will support you all your life. If you want to fight, I will find the best boxing coach for you. If you want to get angry, I will have everyone who bullied you in the past be found out."
"You can have whatever you want and do whatever you want."
Jiang Huaixiao paused, his Adam's apple rolled up and down several times, and finally took a deep breath.
"As long as you stop torturing your body and stop hurting yourself, okay?"
Jiang Xun still didn't speak, and buried his face another half-inch into the pillow, leaving only the tips of his ears and a small section of the back of his neck exposed.
The back of the neck was dazzlingly white, the outline of the spine was clearly convex, and the skin was so thin that the blue blood vessels underneath could be seen.
Jiang Huaixiao Looking at that small section of bone, he suddenly remembered that on the day of his mother's funeral, the rain poured down from the eaves at the entrance of the funeral parlor, making his trouser legs soaked through.
He was seven years old that year and his younger brother was just one month old.
Seventeen years, more than seventy cities, every hope was dashed.
When he was finally found, his younger brother was already so thin that he was lying in front of him.
And he seems to have lost the qualification to be an older brother long ago.
From the moment I let go of my hand when I was seven years old, this thorn has been pierced into my bones and has not been pulled out for seventeen years.
Jiang Huaixiao retracted his thoughts and looked down at the cold and thin fingers in his palm.
After the nutritional injection, my complexion improved a little, but I still curled up into a small ball, with the quilt covering my chin, and only half of my face was exposed.
Too thin.
He remembered the first day Jiang Xun returned to Jiang family, kicked out Jiang Yu's two front teeth, poured laxatives into the red wine, and stood in the middle of the living room and called Liu Wanying a thousand-year-old vixen.
He is domineering and fearless, and his bright eyes are always burning with fire.
At that time, he felt that this kid was so fierce and ruthless that he didn't need anyone to protect him. Only now did he know what was hidden under those thorns.
Only those who are too soft-hearted will stab themselves with all the knives.
Jiang Huaixiao I have seen too many people in the shopping mall. Those who have suffered losses want revenge, and those who have been wronged want to get things back. It is only natural.
But Jiang Xun pierced all the thorns at himself.
Jiang Huaixiao I really want him to go back to the way he was before.
That Jiang Xun who stood in the living room and cursed people like crazy, that Jiang Xun who always had bright eyes, stared at the sky and the air, and didn't have a bone in his body.
Instead of the current Jiang Xun who curled up in bed and went without eating or drinking for three days until he became dehydrated.