Excessive ferocity due to caution

Chapter 686 Wife

Zhao Yi received Qin Zheng at the Tianwang Hotel.

He served Qin and Zheng the finest tea, which eased the tension among the Jie Sect assassins surrounding them.

They knew this was not an enemy.

The two ate and chatted.

"You seem to be in a bad state."

Zhao Yi picked up some food and put it on his plate, saying casually.

Qin Zheng was stunned for a moment, then smiled wryly:

"Given my current state, it's unlikely I can escape Brother Zhao's keen observation, right?"

He actually tried to hide his true feelings.

It would be difficult for the average person to tell that he was unwell.

But with Zhao Yi's current strength, Qin Bai's illness is completely visible under the Evil Eye.

"What happened?"

Zhao Yi asked.

Qin Zheng held his chopsticks for a long time without moving them before finally speaking:

"Brother Zhao, you can understand it as... a congenital genetic disease."

Zhao Yi raised his eyebrows:

"Does the Qin family all have them?"

Qin Zheng shook his head.

"Only the head of the Qin family has it."

After he said that, Zhao Yi stopped picking up food with his chopsticks, a slight look of surprise on his face.

Immediately, Zhao Yi put down his chopsticks and waved his hand.

The assassins immediately left the area.

Zhao Yi stared intently at Qin Zheng with a strange look, as if he were looking at a monster.

"You're now the head of the Qin family?"

Warm light shone on Qin Zheng's calm face, sculpting delicate shadows.

"It was five years ago."

His tone revealed a deep sense of despair and helplessness.

There is also a form of self-deprecation.

While the young masters of the other three major families were still vying for the position of the next family patriarch, he had already become the head of the family.

But Qin Zheng felt no sense of pride whatsoever.

"Fate pushed me to a height that wasn't right for me, and gave me responsibilities I couldn't possibly bear. I tried to force myself to do better, to be more outstanding, deceiving myself that as long as I worked hard enough, I could change my fate and defy destiny..."

"But the heavy rain a few days ago woke me up."

"I suddenly realized that my efforts and struggles were completely futile in the face of the predetermined script that fate had arranged for me."

Zhao Yi took a sip of wine and clicked his tongue, saying:

"It doesn't seem appropriate for you to discuss these things with an outsider like me."

Qin Zheng, however, appeared very calm and composed.

"There's no one left in the family."

"What is trustworthy is unusable, and what is usable is untrustworthy."

"What other choice do I have?"

Zhao Yi leaned back in his dining chair, meeting Qin Zheng's gaze at him.

"Is that why you helped me secure a spot in the Infernal Affairs arena?"

Qin Zheng sighed:

"Yes."

"The Qin family needs an outsider."

"Only an outsider can break the Qin family's current predicament."

"Everyone knows this, but no one dares to admit it or is willing to do it. This will tear away the last fig leaf of the Qin family."

"No one can bring themselves to do this; no one dares to do something that would betray the ancestors of the Qin family."

Zhao Yi smiled and said:

"It sounds like you're going to pass the position of head of the Qin family to me."

Qin Zheng said earnestly:

"Would you want it?"

Zhao Yi:

"Won't."

Qin Zheng was stunned:

Why?

Zhao Yi:

"Not interested."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

Qin Zheng could only manage a wry smile.

Am I doing something stupid and absurd?

Zhao Yi swirled the wine in his glass and said slowly:

"Do not advise someone to do good if they have not experienced it themselves."

"I don't know what kind of difficulties you are facing, so I am not qualified to judge your actions."

"But in my opinion, you are a very bold person."

"In this respect, we are quite similar."

Qin Zheng sighed deeply, slumped back in his seat, and said with a weary smile:

"I have a story to tell, would you like to hear it?"

Zhao Yi raised his glass slightly and smiled, saying:

"I have some wine, would you like some?"

Qin Zheng took Zhao Yi's wine cup, drank it all in one gulp, the spiciness spreading over his throat, and the knife swallowed into his stomach.

"Actually, I should have come to see you two days ago, but I was delayed by some personal matters."

Zhao raised an eyebrow and said:

"What personal matter?"

Qin Zheng said:

"marry."

Upon hearing this, Zhao nodded:

"It's an important matter, so it's understandable that it's delayed a bit."

Qin Zheng tried his best to narrate calmly, as if he were a character in a play, trying his best to be an observer.

"The girl is dying."

"Before I die, I want to be a bride."

"Want to have a drink with me?"

"Watch me personally lift her...red veil."

His hand holding the wine glass was trembling violently.

His deliberately calm tone could not conceal the sorrow in his eyes.

Those few words seemed to have exhausted all his courage. Qin Zheng lowered his head, covered his forehead with one hand, grabbed his hair, and began to tremble.

That night, she held me as we slept.

"My body is as cold as ice."

"I so want to go with her... but I can't."

"Because my life belongs to her."

"My life... belongs to her."

Qin Zheng would pause for a long time after saying a few words.

Zhao Yi poured himself a glass of wine.

"I can tell."

"You are now surrounded by death energy, and you should have been a dead ghost. It was only a faint wisp of life that protected your lifeline and kept you alive."

Qin Zheng closed his eyes and breathed heavily.

"Our marriage was originally an arranged marriage between families."

"Four years ago, in order to suppress the calamity that befell me, she sacrificed thirty years of her lifespan for me."

"My illness flared up again recently, and those calamities could no longer be suppressed; they came even more fiercely, and she sensed it..."

At this point, Qin Zheng felt dizzy and covered his head, trying to calm the overwhelming grief surging in his heart.

His breathing was trembling.

In a daze, I heard that faint voice from that night again.

Those were the last words his wife, Jiang Shuran, said to him before she fell asleep:

"elder brother……"

Go do what you want to do.

PS: Third update.

I'm so sleepy, guys, I'm going to bed now!