Junior Brother Pays Respect to You: Chapter 57 - Helpless Against the Human Heart
Chapter 57: Helpless Against the Human Heart
It was already noon outside, and Qin Zheng lay limply in bed, not wanting to get up.
He had spent the entire day yesterday with his mother. Although he hadn’t needed to move around much, just the mental effort to keep her happy had been exhausting.
To enjoy a bit more peace and quiet, Qin Zheng chose to sleep in.
under the pretense of "rest and recovery."
So even though he was bored, he still wanted to lie down.
His body was well-rested, but his mind wasn’t.
Suddenly, Qin Zheng shot upright in bed.
There was something he was quite concerned about—he had to ask Qin Su.
He jumped out of bed and rushed to Qin Su’s room, knocking on the door.
“Come in.”
With permission, Qin Zheng quickly pushed open the door and ran inside.
Perfect timing—Qin Su was just sitting down with a cup of tea.
Qin Zheng plopped down at the table with a smile, eyes fixed on Qin Su.
Qin Su gave him a sidelong glance and said, “Just say what you came to say.”
Since his junior was being so direct, Qin Zheng got straight to the point. “It’s about my mother.”
“You know my cultivation level is low, so I can’t see through much.”
“So I wanted to ask you about my mother’s current condition.”
“You’re highly skilled—surely you can tell someone’s health at a glance, right?”
“Please tell me, I’m really worried about her.”
His mother had fallen gravely ill from heartbreak. Based on the original timeline, she didn’t have much longer to live.
But over the past few days, perhaps because of his return, her complexion had improved—she didn’t look sick at all.
Could it be that her condition was truly getting better?
Qin Su took a sip of tea and said calmly, “When I first saw your mother, even though she had makeup on, she still looked unwell—clearly suffering from longing.”
“But you’re just the medicine she needed. Since your return, the knots in her heart have begun to untangle, and her health is rapidly improving.”
“So even if you leave tomorrow, knowing that you’re alive and well will help her recover gradually. She’ll live a long life.”
Qin Zheng was stunned.
So his guess had been right all along.
Would his mother living longer mean that the course of history was changing?
Seeing the change in his expression, Qin Su asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
Wasn’t this the outcome Qin Zheng had wanted?
Qin Zheng shook his head, using the excuse of not wanting to disturb Qin Su any further to excuse himself and leave the room.
He returned to his own room and sat dazedly on the bed.
What had started as a guess now had confirmation—and he didn’t quite know how to feel about it.
He couldn’t help but ask himself: Was it worth it?
He had never really done anything good in his life. And even when he did, it was usually for his own gain.
But this time, he hadn’t calculated the cost. He just wanted her to be okay.
Qin Zheng rolled around the bed a few times in frustration. Maybe he wasn’t used to doing good deeds—now that he had, the price felt unbearable.
Does being a good person always have to be this hard?
Suddenly, Qin Zheng sat up, his face filled with determination, and muttered, “Forget it. Let it be!”
A person has to do at least one thing in life they won’t regret.
Given how much he’d already sacrificed, he silently pleaded to the heavens: Please, just let me have some peace today. Don’t send anyone knocking on my door.
He still wanted to sit and console himself in solitude.
After all, the price he paid felt way too high.
All that effort crossing over time… and now he might be stuck here forever.
Qin Zheng muttered to himself, “If I really get trapped here, will Qin Su use the Spirit of Time to help me?”
But even with all his filial piety, fate wasn’t going to let him off easily.
Knock knock—
“Young master, are you there?”
Qin Zheng turned and glared at the silhouette on the door. “Just say what it is.”
“It’s like this— Young Heir has invited you to meet at Zui Xian Pavilion in Nanchuan.”
“The carriage is already waiting at the front gate.”
Qin Zheng sat up suspiciously. “Did he say what for?”
“The Young Heir said he wishes to apologize to you for what happened before.”
Apologize? Qin Zheng recalled his past encounters with Lin Sui and couldn’t see him as someone who ever admitted he was wrong.
Maybe their parents had said something to him?
If that were the case, not going might give Lin Sui more ammunition.
“Sigh…” Qin Zheng got up, walked over, and opened the door.
Might as well go. After all, he was leaving tomorrow.
“Hold on,” he said, suddenly detouring from following the servant and heading to Qin Su’s door instead. He called out, “Junior Brother, I’m off to see my brother. I’ll come find you afterward.”
Qin Su didn’t respond — he was most likely cultivating.
Even though one can't speak while cultivating, they can still hear others talk.
After explaining himself, Qin Zheng left the courtyard with the servant.
The servant led Qin Zheng to the front gate of the prince’s residence, where a lavish horse-drawn carriage stood waiting.
Seeing him arrive, the man by the carriage made a welcoming gesture.
Qin Zheng got into the carriage, which began to sway gently as it headed toward the tavern.
The rhythmic sound of horse hooves echoed in his ears.
After about fifteen minutes, the carriage came to a stop, and the surroundings grew noticeably livelier.
“Young Master, we’ve arrived!”
The servant outside the carriage called out.
Qin Zheng lifted the curtain and peeked outside. The carriage had stopped in front of a three-story tavern.
As expected of Nanchuan, the taverns here were even more extravagant than the finest one in Xuanpu Town.
A servant from the tavern quickly came out to greet them upon seeing the carriage.
Qin Zheng got off and, following the prince's servant’s instructions, was guided by a waiter straight to a VIP room on the third floor.
Despite just being one floor above, the third floor was exceptionally quiet — as if it were a world apart.
Only Lin Sui was present inside the room.
Seeing Qin Zheng enter, Lin Sui immediately put on a warm smile, a drastic change from his usual demeanor. “Brother, please sit.”
Qin Zheng looked at him suspiciously before taking a seat.
Once he was settled, Lin Sui clapped his hands.
Right on cue, the doors opened, and one dish after another was served.
Qin Zheng hadn’t eaten much today, and the aroma of the food made his stomach growl.
He stared intently at Lin Sui.
Qin Zheng knew he was definitely up to something.
Sure enough, after the dishes were all laid out, Lin Sui finally spoke slowly, “This morning, after a talk from Father and Mother, I realized I’ve been harboring resentment toward you these past few days and feel deeply ashamed.”
“So today, I’ve arranged this small feast — just the two of us brothers. I hope you won’t hold a grudge against me.”
Qin Zheng gave a polite smile and waved his hand, “It’s fine, no problem.”
Once he had Qin Zheng’s forgiveness, Lin Sui gestured at the food and said, “You must be hungry, Brother. Please, help yourself.”
With permission, Qin Zheng eagerly picked up his chopsticks and began eating.
He’d never dined at such a high-end tavern in his life.
Watching Qin Zheng eat, Lin Sui casually probed, “Are you really leaving tomorrow, Brother?”
“Why not stay a few more days?”
“Father and Mother seem very reluctant to see you go.”
Qin Zheng shook his chopsticks and said, “I have business to attend to. I’ll come back when I have time. Next time, I’ll stay for maybe half a year or even a full year.”
Lin Sui’s expression subtly changed upon hearing that, and he joked, “At this rate, with how much Father and Mother adore you, they might just hand over the title of heir to you.”
Qin Zheng glanced at him, recognizing the test behind the words, and simply smiled without replying.
After a brief silence, Lin Sui picked up a cup of wine that had already been poured and said, “A toast to you, Brother.”
Qin Zheng noticed a cup beside his hand, so he lifted it and clinked glasses with him.
Raising his cup, Lin Sui smiled sincerely, “Let this cup of wine wash away any wrongs I've done in the past.”
Qin Zheng raised his glass in return and said, “I hope you won’t overthink things.”
“I have no interest in your title — don’t let it become a burden that troubles Father and Mother.”
With that, he tilted his head back and downed the wine in one go.
It burned as it went down — stronger than he expected — and he quickly grabbed a few bites of food to ease the burn.
So far, this outing seemed to be going okay.
At this rate, after getting expelled from his sect in the future, he might actually be able to fall back on Lin Sui.
But after only a few bites, Qin Zheng’s stomach suddenly began to ache.
He looked up at the food on the table: Could such a fancy tavern really serve unclean food?
But that thought was soon dismissed.
The pain grew rapidly worse.
Qin Zheng set down his chopsticks, clutching his stomach in agony. The food he had just eaten came back up — everything.
At this point, even someone as slow-witted as Qin Zheng knew he had been poisoned.
He looked up at Lin Sui.
The man’s previously polite expression had vanished, replaced by a sinister and venomous look.
“You…”
Poisoned!
Qin Zheng glared at Lin Sui. The rest of what he wanted to say was stuck in his chest — the pain made it impossible to speak clearly.
If he had even a shred of spiritual power or strength, he would’ve killed the man before him on the spot.
Lin Sui approached him with an expressionless face, lifted the cup Qin Zheng had just drunk from, sniffed it, and asked in a mocking tone: “Brother, what’s wrong?”
“A little bit of He Ding Hong (lethal poison) and you're like this?”
“Aren’t you a cultivator? How can you be so vulnerable to a tiny dose of our mundane world’s poison?”
As he spoke, Lin Sui’s face twisted into something grotesque.
Qin Zheng’s stomach writhed in pain, his vision blurred, and something dripped from the corner of his mouth.
He struggled to lift a hand to wipe it away, then looked at his hand — it was smeared with a dark red-black stain.
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