Free Web NovelChapter 200: SEASON ONE FINALE: HE WAS YOUR LITTLE BROTHER
His gaze drifted slowly across the room.
"You speak proudly of bloodlines and family names, yet some of you cannot even offer warmth to your own relatives. You measure success by titles and possessions, but I have always believed that a person’s greatest wealth is the way they treat those who have less power than they do."
A quiet stillness settled over the hall.
"No matter how much money we gather, none of us carries it beyond the grave."
"No matter how important we believe ourselves to be, one day our names will be carved into stone just the same."
He smiled faintly.
"The earth has no interest in whether the person it receives was rich or poor."
"What remains behind is something else entirely."
"The memories we leave in other people’s hearts."
"The kindness we showed."
"The wrongs we chose to correct."
"The family we chose to protect."
His eyes lingered briefly on ShangYan before moving to Guiying.
"I hope that when my time comes, none of my children or grandchildren will remember me only for what I owned."
"I hope they remember that I tried, however imperfectly, to leave behind something better than money."
Then, with surprising ease, the heaviness left his face altogether.
"Enough of an old man’s lecture."
A few reluctant smiles appeared around the room.
"I am rather fond of living, so I fully intend to remain here for another ten years if Heaven permits it."
A ripple of subdued laughter spread through the guests.
"And before then, I would very much like to meet a few more great-grandchildren. I expect all of you to put in the necessary effort."
Even a few tense expressions softened.
He clasped his hands behind his back.
"Thank you all for making the journey to be here today. Whether you came from nearby or from the other side of the world, your presence has brought me great happiness."
His gaze finally settled on ShangYan.
Then Jiaming.
Then Bowen.
And lastly Guiying, with unmistakable affection.
"When we’re finished here, the four of you are to come to my office."
He paused, the corners of his eyes creasing with a gentle smile.
"There is still a little time left for this old man to spend with his family."
The study was quiet in a way the rest of the house no longer was.
Even with the doors shut, the muffled sound of voices from the hall still found its way through the walls, but in here it seemed distant enough to belong to another place entirely. Xue Mingzhan sat behind his desk with a cup of tea that had long gone cold while Jiaming and Bowen stood before him, uncertain whether they should sit or continue standing.
He looked at them for a moment before giving a small nod towards the chairs.
"Sit down. You both look as though you’re waiting to be sentenced."
Neither of them smiled, but they obeyed.
For a little while, Mingzhan didn’t say anything at all. He simply studied them with the quiet familiarity of a man who had watched them grow from children into adults, and eventually a faint smile touched his face.
"Your grandmother used to complain that this house was too noisy whenever the two of you were little. Every afternoon one of you would come running through the corridors, and Butler Hou spent half his life chasing after you because you’d climbed somewhere you weren’t supposed to be."
He looked at Jiaming.
"You once climbed onto the roof because you wanted to prove you were brave enough to do it."
Bowen couldn’t help glancing sideways at his brother.
"And you stood at the bottom crying because you couldn’t climb up after him."
For the first time, the corners of Bowen’s mouth twitched despite himself.
"I used to think those days would never end. Children quarrel, make up five minutes later and go back to causing trouble together. It’s a simple way of living."
The smile slowly faded, although the warmth in his eyes remained.
"Then you grow older, and before anyone notices, those little quarrels become habits, and those habits slowly become part of a person’s character."
Neither grandson interrupted him.
Mingzhan folded his hands together and leaned back in his chair.
"Do you remember when Guiying first came to live with us? I doubt you do. Children rarely remember things adults think are important."
He looked down for a brief moment, as though seeing a memory rather than the room before him.
"He was quiet to the point of worrying me. Butler Hou couldn’t persuade him to eat with everyone else, and every time someone spoke to him he looked as though he expected to be scolded for answering."
His voice remained calm, but there was unmistakable sadness beneath it.
"I wasn’t particularly concerned, because I thought the two of you would solve that problem for me without anyone needing to ask. I thought he’d spend a week hiding behind furniture before his older brothers dragged him outside to play, stole food from his plate and argued with him over things that wouldn’t matter an hour later."
A soft breath escaped him.
"I thought the three of you would make enough noise together that your grandmother would complain all over again."
The room fell into a silence that neither Jiaming nor Bowen seemed willing to disturb.
"Instead, I watched him sit by himself at family gatherings while the two people who should have stood closest to him walked past as though he wasn’t there."
He wasn’t accusing them. If anything, that made it worse.
"He was your little brother."
Mingzhan let those words settle naturally before continuing.
"I have never expected perfection from either of you, and I certainly never expected you to agree with every decision the adults around you made. What I hoped for was much simpler than that. I hoped that if the rest of the world looked down on him, he would at least be able to come home and find kindness from his own family."
His gaze moved quietly between them.
"The world can be cruel enough without brothers adding to that cruelty."
Bowen lowered his eyes to his hands. Jiaming remained motionless, staring at the floor with such concentration that it was impossible to tell whether he was avoiding his grandfather’s eyes or struggling with his own thoughts.
After a while, Mingzhan continued in the same measured voice.
"When I prepared my will, I didn’t spend my time thinking about who loved me most or who made me happiest. I thought about each of your lives after I was gone, and I asked myself what I could leave behind that might help you become better than you are today."
A faint smile returned to his face.
"The money will make your lives easier. The properties will give you security. The trusts will make sure neither of you ever has to worry about your future."
He paused before adding quietly,
"But none of those things will teach you compassion. They won’t make you kinder, more patient or more generous. Those are choices that every person has to make for themselves."
He looked at them with the unmistakable affection of a grandfather who had no desire to shame them despite everything that had happened.
"I am not saying these things because I have given up on either of you. If I believed there was no hope, I wouldn’t waste either your time or mine by having this conversation."
Another silence settled comfortably between them.
"I believe you both have good hearts. I also believe you’ve spent too much of your lives listening to people who taught you to value status over character and pride over kindness. That can still change if you decide you want it to."
He smiled again, this time with the quiet humour of an old man rather than the authority of a patriarch.
"I’m not expecting miracles overnight. At my age I’ve lived long enough to know people don’t wake up as completely different versions of themselves."
Bowen gave a small, embarrassed smile.
Jiaming still hadn’t spoken.
Mingzhan looked at both of them for another moment before his expression softened completely.
"One day I’ll no longer be here, and none of you will care very much about who inherited which property or who received more money than someone else. Families don’t remember each other that way for very long."
He glanced towards the window before looking back at them.
"What you’ll remember are the things you did to each other when you still had the chance to choose differently."
The words lingered in the room.
"I still believe you’ll become good men."
"I hope that one day Guiying will have two older brothers he can rely on instead of two older brothers he has to fear."
Neither Jiaming nor Bowen trusted themselves to answer immediately.
When they finally stood, both of them bowed deeply without being asked.
Mingzhan watched them quietly before waving a hand towards the door.
"Go on now. You’re making me sound wiser than I actually am, and your grandmother would laugh herself to tears if she heard any of this."
That finally drew the smallest smile from both young men.
As they turned to leave, Mingzhan called after them one last time.
"And Jiaming..."
Jiaming stopped and looked back.
"When you see Guiying outside, don’t force yourself to say anything if the words aren’t ready yet. Just remember that there is still plenty of life ahead of you, and there are very few mistakes that cannot be made smaller by choosing to do better tomorrow than you did yesterday."
Neither brother replied.
They simply bowed once more before quietly leaving the study, carrying with them an expression that neither of them had worn when they first entered.
