The Eldest Brother is Handsome but Sick. - Chapter 15

“It’s been a long time. How is it that you all still look so, unpresentable?”

As the words fell, a heavy silence descended upon the hall, both inside and out.

“Pfft.” Wuxue, shrinking behind Yan Jin, tried to stifle her laughter by pinching her own arm, but a giggle escaped anyway.

Though the sound was light, it rang out clearly in the absolute stillness, reaching everyone’s ears. The bearded man’s face turned a violent shade of red. He kicked his chair over and stomped forward, pointing a trembling finger at Yan Jin’s nose as he barked: “You motherless, uneducated brat! How dare you speak to your elders with such insolence!”

Yan Jin narrowed his eyes and tilted his head back slightly. He didn’t take offense; instead, he simply turned to Wuxue. “Put it on Third Uncle’s tab: one chair.”

Wuxue nimbly pulled a brush and paper from her sleeve. “You got it!”

“What is the meaning of this?” the bearded man roared, his fury reaching a boiling point. “Even when your old man was alive, he had to show me a modicum of respect! Who do you think you are?” He gave the door a vicious kick, determined to put this disrespectful junior in his place.

To his surprise, Yan Jin wasn’t intimidated in the least. He simply added: “Put that on Third Uncle’s tab as well: one door wing.”

As if worried the man hadn’t had his fill of destruction, Yan Jin’s eyes curved into a soulful smile as he said with total sincerity: “Please, Third Uncle, do continue. Once Wuxue finishes the invoice, she’ll send it straight to your manor.”

“You! You—!” The veins in the man’s neck bulged, and his knuckles cracked as he balled his hands into fists. He lunged forward, aiming a punch straight at Yan Jin’s face.

“Third Brother, stop!” CRACK! “AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

A figure flashed out from behind Yan Jin. A second later, a pig-like squeal pierced the heavens. The bearded man was pinned to the floor, his arm twisted behind him by Wuxue. He writhed and buckled like a shrimp in a hot pan.

The man was a brute by nature, and his frantic howling was a genuine nuisance. Yan Jin knit his brows slightly; Wuxue took the hint and pressed a knee firmly against the man’s throat.

The screaming cut off instantly, replaced by a series of ragged, wet gasps. Soon, the man’s face turned from red to a bruised purple. The veins on his forehead looked ready to burst, and his pupils began to drift from oxygen deprivation. His mouth hung open uselessly, saliva dripping uncontrollably down his chin.

Seeing the man on the verge of suffocation, the lady from earlier rushed forward to shove Wuxue off, only to be restrained with a single hand. She looked back at her eldest brother in the seat of honor, but he remained indifferent, looking as though the scene had nothing to do with him.

She panicked, having clearly not expected things to spiral so far out of control. She pleaded with Yan Jin: “Let your Third Uncle go! If someone dies, you won’t be able to escape the law!”

Yan Jin looked at her, his expression flickering. His father had three siblings; the one whose features most closely resembled his own was this aunt, Yan Hua. He had met her a few times in his youth, and though they weren’t close, they had always been civil.

He then lifted his gaze to the man sitting in the high hall: Yan Qu, his Eldest Uncle. This man was a master of the “smiling knife,” a man who used others as weapons. If Yan Jin were to accidentally kill his Third Uncle today, Yan Qu could dispose of Yan Hua with ease. By then, the entire Yan inheritance would fall into his hands, and he’d only need to weep in public once or twice to maintain his “good” reputation.

A rat sitting in a high hall, Yan Jin sneered inwardly. He raised a hand, and Wuxue eased the pressure of her knee.

As air rushed back into his lungs, the bearded man arched his back in a fit of soul-shattering coughs.

Yan Jin remained smiling and pleasant. “Third Uncle, I didn’t quite catch what you said earlier. Who was it that you called ‘motherless and uneducated’?”

The man was still gasping for air and couldn’t answer. Beside him, Yan Hua interjected frantically, “Your Third Uncle just has a loose tongue! He didn’t mean it!”

“Wuxue.” Yan Jin looked down coldly at the heap on the floor. “Knock him out and have someone dump him outside. Let the ‘wolf-pup’ relatives at the gate see exactly what happens when they offend me.”

“Yan Jin, you—!” Yan Hua shrieked. “How can you humiliate your uncle like this!”

Wuxue ignored her completely, stepping out to summon men to haul the bearded man away.

“Uncle?” Yan Jin said. “My father was always kind to his siblings. In recent years, when he had no heart for business, you all siphoned a great deal of wealth from him. Now, he hasn’t even been gone a month, yet you’re already this restless. You want to seize everything without tarnishing your names, so you look at me isolated and helpless and try to use your status as elders to break me.”

“What? You’ve done all this, and you still expect me to call you ‘Uncle’?”

His words were ruthless, stripping away their final shreds of dignity.

Yan Hua’s face burned with shame. Just as she was about to speak, Eldest Uncle Yan suddenly roared: “Yan Jin, you brat! Such insolence!”

“Oh my, who is shouting so loudly? You’ve frightened me to death.” Yan Jin clutched his heart, acting as though he were on the verge of collapse. He swayed on his feet; given his naturally pale complexion, he truly looked as though he had been scared into an illness.

Yan Jin walked up to the seat of honor and stopped. He leaned down to meet Eldest Uncle Yan’s gaze and whispered with a light laugh: “Uncle, you’re in the wrong seat. This one belongs to me.”

Eldest Uncle Yan stared at him, his eyes like those of a predator sizing up prey. The two remained locked in a stalemate for a long moment. Just as the tension was about to snap.

The sound of rustling wings echoed as two messenger pigeons landed on the windowsill. Moments later, the side gates were thrown open, and two men one in white and one in black came racing through.

“Sister Wuxue!” the man in white shouted first. “I got it! I snatched it!”

He waved a silk sachet in the air. The man in black behind him lunged to grab it, but the man in white nimbly dodged every attempt.

The hall fell into a state of bewilderment. Wuxue stepped forward, kicked the black-clad man to the ground, and delivered the sachet to Yan Jin.

On the other side, Yan Hua opened the notes from the pigeons. As her eyes scanned the text, her face turned paper-white. She wiped the sweat from her brow and cried out, “Brother…!” She started to say more, but noticing Yan Jin was still there, she snapped her mouth shut.

Eldest Uncle Yan narrowed his eyes, glancing at the sachet in Yan Jin’s hand. After a moment of calculation, he followed Yan Hua into the side room.

The man in white sat firmly on top of the man in black. “Sister Wuxue, this guy was sent by the Third Master. I heard it with my own ears.”

“Tie him up and throw him in the woodshed. Find someone to guard him,” Wuxue ordered. “Then, go wait by the door of the side room. Listen in on whatever scheme they’re cooking up now.”

Seeing the efficiency, Yan Jin let out a light laugh. “You sent people to tail them?”

“The Master’s health was declining, and the other branches were getting restless. Months ago, they sent out several men to track you down. I had people follow them secretly to ensure your safety,” Wuxue explained. “But strangely, halfway through, they all suddenly retreated. I looked into it and found out they’d discovered something related to you, something that terrified them.”

“I figured such a thing shouldn’t be left in their hands, so I sent extra men to snatch it back. It’s in the sachet.”

Yan Jin opened the sachet and froze.

Inside were two items. One was a palm-sized medallion, made of reddish-gold, with the words “Marquis of Dingyuan” engraved on the front. The other was a simple, three-strand braided red string threaded with a single, translucent white jade bead.

He set the medallion aside and picked up the red string, staring at it in a daze.

“This string looks like it has some years on it,” Wuxue noted, leaning in.

“Mhm.” Yan Jin’s throat tightened. His fingertips traced the character carved into the jade bead. He let out a long, shaky breath. The anger he had suppressed for days quietly transformed into a wordless grievance. His eyes stung as he whispered: “Five years.”

“How do you know that?” Wuxue asked curiously.

Yan Jin smiled but didn’t answer. He carefully tied a knot in the red string and slid it onto his wrist.

Because this was his.

Five years ago, back at the Su family clinic, he had fallen gravely ill. When every famous doctor failed to find a cure, Su Huai had grown desperate, so desperate he began to believe in the folk superstition that a red string could protect one’s life.

To show his sincerity, Su Huai had spent days learning how to braid from a neighbor. He had even ground down a piece of his own ancestral jade into this tiny bead, carving Yan Jin’s name into it.

The string had eventually snapped during a later crisis and was left behind at the Su clinic. He never expected to see it again.

“And this medallion?” Wuxue asked, keeping a low voice as she checked for the uncles’ return. “Is this from the Wen Family… the Marquis of Dingyuan?”

Yan Jin calmly placed the medallion back in the sachet. “Likely they were looking for my Master. When they couldn’t find her, they found the place where I had stayed and left this as a token.”

Hiss Wuxue sucked in a breath. “Young Master, you’ve hit the big time! That’s the Marquis of Dingyuan!”

“This actually helps me a great deal,” Yan Jin laughed. “The Marquis likely has hidden guards following this medallion; they should be arriving in Yangzhou soon. I can use them to make those people behave.”

Just then, another commotion erupted outside. It sounded like a group of people had forced their way into the Yan manor and were heading straight for the hall.

Likely the extended relatives at the gate had grown impatient and were charging in.

Yan Jin’s brow knit. He stood up and signaled Wuxue to call for reinforcements.

Suddenly, a thunderous shout echoed from the direction of the side room.

He stopped in his tracks, his eyes blinking in confusion. “Uncle?”

A voice roared from the hallway: “I’m sitting right here today! Let’s see who dares to give my nephew any attitude! The Yan family might be a pack of heartless wolves, but my Zhou family is not!”

“Bring that old fossil Yan Qu out here to face me!”