Yu Qing returned to the army, and was locked up for seven days, but he didn’t care because he broke off Shen Jue’s marriage, and got a promise from the other.
This time Shen Jue had promised to wait for him.
At the end of the seven days of confinement, he couldn’t wait to write a letter to Shen Jue, he hadn’t read much, and couldn’t write sweet nothings, he could only describe the little things that he had trained for in the army in a dry manner, just like that, he was able to write several large sheets of paper, at the end of the letter, he left a sentence.
“Thinking of you, master.”
……
It was fifteen days later when the letter arrived on Shen Jue’s desk. He took a letter opener and opened the envelope, hurriedly skimming through the contents of the letter, and when he realized that it was pretty much nonsense, Shen Jue’s expression was a little empty.
At this point Ye Ye thoughtfully brought in refreshments and a newspaper.
The newspaper was headlined about Shen Jue.
Now the entire aristocratic circle knew that Shen Jue and Qiao Jiangyuan had turned against each other, and were even starting to go head to head.
Most of the Shen family’s investments were in industry and agriculture, especially in the industrial sector, while the Qiao family was more in the department store business, but now the Qiao family was announcing that they were going to enter the industrial and agricultural sectors.
The newspapers were so interested in the feud between the two old lovers that they published the latest developments of the two of them almost like a serialized story every day. The articles were so detailed that it was as if the writers were lying underneath the beds of both Shen Jue and Qiao Jiangyuan.
In fact, Shen Jue had no intention of fighting with Qiao Jiangyuan, because there was no point, but what did surprise him was the news that appeared in the newspaper half a month later –
The Qiao family announced that they were going to build a machine called the Perpetual Motion Machine.
It was rumored that the machine would produce day and night, without consuming any energy, and would completely replace manual labor, creating a new era of unmanned industry.
Shen Jue was surprised that this perpetual motion machine project report appeared on his desk a long time ago, because of Shen Jue’s investment in industry, many people would want to pull investment from him, and the perpetual motion machine project was one of them.
But he didn’t have the enthusiasm to do so, because he knew that there was no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.
Although the perpetual motion machine project was extremely beautifully done, and almost everyone would be mesmerized by it at first glance, Shen Jue had a few more lifetimes of memories after all.
A few lifetimes ago there was a nobleman in the imperial capital who had taken a fancy to this project, invested in it, and ended up going bankrupt with no return on his money, while the project person who had proposed the project had long since rolled up the money and fled.
So when he saw the project, he tossed it aside, but when Ye Ye asked if he wanted to get rid of the document, Shen Jue kept it.
It ended up being seen by Qiao Jiangyuan and taken in.
In the months leading up to the engagement, Qiao Jiangyuan frequented Shen Jue’s study.
……
When the news came out that the Qiao family was going to make a perpetual motion machine, it was almost a sensation in the city, and everyone was very curious about the project.
Even the butler was a bit worried when he found out, and came to ask Shen Jue if their industrial production would be affected.
Shen Jue only smiled and told the butler not to worry.
Meanwhile, the Qiao family had held a special press conference because they were going to make a perpetual motion machine, and Shen Jue had received an invitation.
He was surprised that the Qiao family would send him an invitation, and out of curiosity, he went to attend.
It was only when he got there that he realized that the conference was actually a share purchase meeting in disguise. The Qiao family seemed to value the project and were prepared to invest heavily, but they didn’t have that much liquidity, so they held a share purchase meeting to raise funds. The company’s capitalization was very high.
At the conference, Qiao Jiangyuan, as the main speaker, spoke eloquently, his eyes not going towards Shen Jue’s side at all, and when he finished speaking, the nobles at the conference were almost all moved, and most of them went to register their shares.
Qiao Jiangyuan looked at the intense scene and revealed a small smile, which quickly disappeared, his eyes flickered and he noticed Shen Jue still sitting in his original position. He slowly paced over to him, his expression carrying a hint of arrogance, “If you want to get in on the action, I can give you a little discount, after all, I learned about this project from you first.”
Shen Jue looked up at Qiao Jiangyuan for a moment, and said faintly, “No need.” He got up and prepared to leave, and before he could take two steps, he heard Qiao Jiangyuan’s somewhat exasperated voice behind him.
“I hope you can remain this arrogant forever, Shen Jue, I’ll take away everything you have and make you desperate.”
His tone was abhorrent.
Shen Jue didn’t even stop, and directly walked away.
……
Every month the manor received a letter from Yu Qing, each one full of empty words, all ending with the same words-
“Miss you, master.”
Shen Jue read through several sheets of nonsense before putting pen to paper and writing back.
His replies were in marked contrast to Yu Qing’s letters, which were usually only one sheet, or even one sheet of letterhead that wasn’t enough to write on, and would only have two or three sentences on it.
These two or three sentences answered Yu Qing’s questions.
He always liked to ask him what he’d been eating, what he’d been doing, what friends he’d made. Shen Jue finished his three sentence reply, looked at the short letter, hesitated, and added another sentence at the end.
“Good luck.”
……
With each letter returned, Shen Jue pondered the best time to kill Yu Qing. Right now, it seemed like Yu Qing had fallen in love with him, but it wasn’t enough of a safe bet; he needed to do one last step of testing.
……
This perpetual motion machine project of Qiao’s family was a sensation for a year and ended in failure, the Qiao family as the largest shareholder went straight into bankruptcy while the nobles who invested in it came to their doorsteps to collect their debts.
Qiao Jiangyuan hid in the old mansion and almost didn’t dare to go out, the manor where he lived before had been surrounded by people, and now he could only hide with father Qiao in the place where he lived in his early childhood. Father Qiao had been sick and lethargic for a while now, because of the bankruptcy.
Qiao Jiangyuan didn’t think he would go bankrupt, that project was obviously so good, but it failed, it simply couldn’t be made into a perpetual motion machine, the money he smashed into it went down the drain, and the person in charge of the project ran away, he couldn’t even find him.
Compared to the sick father Qiao, Qiao Jiangyuan was not much better, he stayed in his room every day drinking and was a mess all day long. The servants, seeing that the Qiao family was bankrupt and afraid that they wouldn’t be able to pay their salaries, had almost all run away, and now there was only one old butler following them around.
That old butler was so busy serving father Qiao and trying to persuade Qiao Jiangyuan to drink less that he’d lost a lot of weight, and when he saw Shen Jue at the door, he was almost overjoyed.
He was almost of the same mindset as Shen Jue’s housekeeper, he felt that the two children had grown up together and were engaged to be married, and although they had gotten into a stalemate later on, they were at least childhood friends.
How could there be any overnight enmity between them?
So the old housekeeper cheerfully welcomed Shen Jue in, and told him all about Qiao Jiangyuan’s recent situation.
When Qiao Jiangyuan realized that Shen Jue was coming, his first reaction was to not see him, but after a while, he got up from the ground and said in a grim tone, “Tell him to wait a while.”
He went to take a cold shower and changed his clothes before going down to see Shen Jue. He hadn’t seen him for a long time, in this year, he had been almost wholly entrenched in the perpetual motion machine project, he wanted so much to see the scene where he would crush him after this machine was produced, but he never expected to be waiting for his bankruptcy.
He walked all the way over here, staring at Shen Jue intensely. Even though he had purposely showered and dressed up, he still developed a sense of frustration at the sight of Shen Jue.
The other man was still the same, cold, excellent, impossible to take your eyes off of, and he was just a loser.
“What are you doing here?” Qiao Jiangyuan said with a cold face, “Come to see me down?”
Shen Jue sniffed and pushed the papers on the table forward, calmly saying, “I came to talk to you about cooperation.”
“Cooperation? I’m broke, what cooperation with you?” Qiao Jiangyuan sneered.
“Take a look before you say anything.” Shen Jue said.
Qiao Jiangyuan was silent for a moment before sitting down on the sofa opposite of Shen Jue as he pulled the document above him.
By the time he finished reading the contents above, his demeanor had changed drastically. He lifted his head and looked at Shen Jue with some disbelief, “You’re going to gift me all the properties you listed above?”
Shen Jue nodded his head.
“Why?” Qiao Jiangyuan immediately asked.
When Shen Jue heard this, an extremely gentle smile appeared at the corner of his lips, “Because I want to be with someone, but he doesn’t think he’s good enough for me, so I thought if my property became less, then he wouldn’t feel inferior.” He paused, “Of course I also wonder if he would still like me if I was no longer the same.”
In Qiao Jiangyuan’s eyes, most of the time Shen Jue was cold, and even when he smiled, it mostly didn’t reach the bottom of his eyes. But this time, for the first time, he saw all the ice floes under Shen Jue’s eyes dissolve into a pool of spring water.
Qiao Jiangyuan didn’t know what to say at that moment, he felt ridiculous, he thought he was fighting with Shen Jue, but the other didn’t take him seriously at all, but also came over to gift him with property.
What was even more ridiculous was that he had to accept it, or he would live forever like a rat in a cellar. He could, but his father couldn’t.
Qiao Jiangyuan had signed that document with red eyes, he felt ashamed, and he didn’t even want to ask Shen Jue who the man he mentioned was, because it would only be the half-blood.
How wonderful, they were finally going to be together, and it was time for him, the scandalous character, to bow out after taking a large sum of money.
As Shen Jue got up to leave, Qiao Jiangyuan stood behind him, his expression somber, and said coldly, “Did you put that project there on purpose in the first place?”
Shen Jue’s footsteps paused for a moment, and after half a second, he replied softly with a single word.
“Yes.”
Qiao Jiangyuan’s chest filled with anger that instant, and he blurted out, “Why? Shen Jue, where have I wronged you that you want to treat me like this?”
After the words came out, the other man was silent for a long time.
Seeing this, Qiao Jiangyuan became furious, “Speak, Shen Jue!”
Shen Jue finally reacted, he looked back at Qiao Jiangyuan with serious eyes.
The young man he’d grown up with, whether it was in previous lives, or in this life, they’d come to the end of their lives with swords drawn like this, and there was always a loser.
It was just that in the previous lives, that loser was him, and he was the one who looked at Qiao Jiangyuan with such hatred.
“Qiao Jiangyuan, you deserve all of this, don’t you?” Shen Jue said softly.
Just like he had in previous lives.
……
Qiao Jiangyuan had never seen Shen Jue in the Imperial Capital since that day, and he had given Qiao Jiangyuan all of his properties.
Qiao Jiangyuan took the properties Shen Jue gave him and paid off his debts, and returned to his business, while father Qiao got better and was able to go out and see his friends.
Everything seemed to be back on track, but only Qiao Jiangyuan himself knew how unhappy he was.
But he no longer had the strength to retaliate against Shen Jue, what he had now was a handout from him, and he was nothing more than a poor man.
Qiao Jiangyuan sealed off the manor where Shen Jue lived, and except for a necessary cleaning servant, he didn’t let anyone enter the manor. He also didn’t bother to inquire about his whereabouts, as he felt sure that he was already with Yu Qing.
Until Yu Qing came to his door.
TN:
yayyyy. I promised to pick this up again I think June or July, then my laptop crashed on me, I got a new one on the 15th and I’m back at it.
The heartache this novel gave me has calmed lol, this time, we’ll finish this 😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
OMG THABK YOU FOR PICKING THIS UP !!!!!