Snake Venom: The Secret (4)

"That idiot of his has also started playing that sadomasochistic game?" I raised an eyebrow in slight surprise as I listened to the servant's report, a feeling of disgust rising in my heart.

People tend to frown when they're upset, and I was no exception—I rubbed my temples in frustration, thought for a moment, and then said, "Let him go to the meeting. You know how to tell him."

"Yes," the person in front of him replied and respectfully withdrew.

[Doesn't it seem strange, like you missed a lot of the plot? Hehe, I did it on purpose. I listened for so long, who knows if you were daydreaming? I was just testing you.]

Okay, okay, I know you're done. I'll tell you the story properly from now on.

Didn't you think I looked pretty impressive in that little clip? So, did you guess who I was?

Hey, you've heard of my nickname before.

Yes, I am that "Ivy League" member.

Of course I know my nickname. There are very few things that happen in this house that I don't know, if not everything.

Yes, I was the one who pushed that idiot out. Although I didn't expect my grandniece to be so capable, I wouldn't call myself a failure...

Of course I knew that the idiot who stepped forward might die, and most likely he would. But I didn't force him; I just asked him if he wanted more money.

Who wouldn't want more money? I was just making a suggestion; how he chooses is his own business. Besides... besides, someone like him doesn't deserve to die.

[Alright, what's with that look? I know I don't look quite like it now, things are different now. I'm just an old man being "well taken care of" now, and all I can do is play with wood every day... Oh, alright, don't worry about the details, let's continue the story—]

My brother and Miss Jiang got married without any problems. It was such a lively day. The whole mansion was filled with joy. I couldn't even count how many tables were set up for the banquet.

So many people came to congratulate them! The gifts piled up like a small mountain. I heard many people praising them as a "perfect match."

A match made in heaven

It sounds ironic.

If Heaven truly had so much leisure to meticulously plan every trivial matter in this mortal world, it would have long since lost its pretentious and aloof divine deity.

Why do you suddenly look so serious?

Don't worry, I wasn't thinking about that at the time. I was just completely overturned by what I saw – money was being spent like water, all sorts of gold and silver jewelry I could never have imagined were being piled up like they were free, the table was full of all kinds of delicacies I'd never seen before, yet hardly anyone was touching them… The cold winters I remembered could actually be described as warm as spring. A riot of colors, flowers in full bloom, and a cacophony of voices filled the air, people laughing and joking, drinking glass after glass of wine – I felt like the only odd one out, like the dumbest, most useless member of a herd, the first to be discarded when things went wrong.

But my memory isn't like that. Winter should be... it should be children crying incessantly from the cold, frail old people who couldn't make it through the quiet of the night, the rice jars gradually emptying and the porridge becoming thinner and thinner, rough, dry hands desperately wrapped in thin clothes, and the unconscious sighs from people's mouths... The crops in the fields of farmers who depend on the weather for their livelihood are decreasing year by year, and the number of migrants wandering at the village entrance is increasing day by day... I remember all of this clearly, but why is it that even though there are so many people here, it seems like only I remember them?

Am I remembering it wrong?

I was really scared. I wanted to hide behind my older brother. He had read so many more books than me, he must know why.

But my brother stood in the crowd, head held high, looking radiant and proud. He seemed so proud and happy.

I should be happy.

But when I looked at him at that moment, I really felt like my brother had abandoned me.

So, brother... you really don't want me anymore.

But why did he abandon me?

I only have one brother, how could he abandon me?

I can't let him leave me.

I can't let him leave me!

So I stopped remembering those "mistakes". I learned from others to raise a glass, laugh, and talk loudly. From then on, I no longer had memories of the cold winter when I was hungry and cold, but only of luxurious banquets.

You look a little unhappy?

I wasn't too happy at the time either.

But...isn't it a wonderful thing to stand out from the crowd and be successful in all endeavors?

After marrying Miss Jiang, my brother's life became more and more comfortable—although he was a son-in-law living with his wife's family, they happened to share the same surname, so it was still acceptable on the surface; because of my brother's previous act of standing up for her, Miss Jiang already had a good impression of him, and their relationship became even more harmonious after the marriage; Master Jiang was also quite satisfied with my brother. He had always been worried about not having an heir, but now that he had my brother, he was almost even closer to him than to his own daughter...

The only downside is my awkward position; I'm stuck in the middle, neither here nor there. Many people don't dare to dislike my brother, but they secretly dislike me. Out of politeness, no one is foolish enough to directly attack me, but there's always cold tea in my room, servants who are "hard-of-hearing" or momentarily negligent, windows that are "forgot" to be closed at night… The malice from others lurks in the air around me; though not fatal, it hurts every second. My pain, my anger, all become one of the few spice in their otherwise monotonous lives.

I'm not very popular here, but that doesn't matter, as long as my brother is doing well.

I still often clung to him. My brother studied diligently, and I stayed beside him, whittling wood. It seemed no different from before.

The only difference is that the books in my brother's hands have changed from the sage's words of "classical Chinese" to the large and small ledgers filled with all kinds of numbers.

It's just in a different place, nothing different from before...

That must be it.

However, my brother seemed more anxious than when he was studying. But my brother is a stalwart scholar; nothing can stump him.

"Can you please stop whittling that piece of wood? It's so noisy!"

I was momentarily confused, wondering if I had misheard.

But the ferocious expression on my brother's face told me—no, my brother had just yelled at me.

I felt like I'd made a huge mistake. I hurriedly put down the piece of wood that I'd only just begun to take shape, and as I was about to put the knife away, I accidentally cut my hand. It hurt terribly. But looking at the scattered debris around me, I didn't dare say anything and quietly hid my hand behind my back.

"Yes, I'm sorry, I'll put it away right away. Brother, please continue reading, don't, don't rush..."

My intention was to comfort him, but I think I said the wrong thing, which made my brother furious with me. "All you ever do is rush me! You've already seen it, why don't you just say so? Why do you have to make me look at this stupid ledger and ask what's wrong with it!" My brother picked up a cup and smashed it to the side. After a crisp cracking sound, the cup shattered into pieces at my feet.

I stared at my brother, still in shock, as he continued to yell, "The price is 18 catties of rice for 1 silver dollar. This month, we've sold 105,328 catties, making a net profit of nearly 4,500 silver dollars. How am I supposed to know there's a problem?!"

Seeing that he was about to continue smashing, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration and quickly asked, "Which district's rice shop is it?"

"What?" My brother stopped and looked at me suspiciously.

I mustered my courage and spoke, "If it were just the fourth and first districts of the left, this might be fine. The fourth district has fewer people, and the first district has many rice shops, so the Jiang family isn't the only dominant one." I swallowed hard, paused, and saw my brother's expression signaling me to continue, "Each person eats about thirty to forty catties of rice a month. But if it's the other districts... that's far too little. Besides, there were rumors last month about a locust plague in the north, which caused a wave of panic buying. It's impossible that this is all there is!"

As I spoke, I became more and more agitated, and my voice involuntarily rose a little. I suddenly noticed my brother's expression and realized that I had just lost my composure. I immediately became a little unsure of myself. "And... even the cost price is wrong, the supplier..." Seeing my brother take several steps toward me, I felt a sense of panic and quickly shut my mouth, afraid that I would say something wrong and displease my brother.

My brother raised his hand towards me, and I closed my eyes tightly, but the slap I expected didn't fall. My brother only gently touched my face, revealing a frightening smile, "Come on, don't be afraid, it was all my fault just now. Tell me slowly, what happened to the supplier?"

“The supplier is an old partner. The price they promised the Jiang family has always been half or less of the market price,” I said slowly, carefully observing the man’s expression. “Besides, the previous locust plague was just a rumor, so how could the cost price be so high this time?”

My brother remained silent for a long time after hearing what I said. I was feeling uneasy when I suddenly saw him show a look of manic joy—exactly the same as when he told me he had a gift for me. He reached out to hold my hand, but when he looked down, he saw a lot of scarlet liquid—my blood had dripped onto the ground. My brother immediately hugged me with heartache, "Are you alright? It's all my fault for scaring you. Come, let me take you to apply some medicine."

He touched my face affectionately again, "Please forgive me this time, okay? You are my dearest person. I promise I will never do it again, okay?"

I felt like I was in a dream, but the still-throbbing wound on my hand and the wreckage on the ground clearly told me that this was not a dream.

In a daze, I heard him say again, "From now on, everything will be ours... I will never scold you again, I can't live without you."

I don't remember much after that. Life in the village had been so bad, and my health wasn't very good to begin with. At that moment, I just felt dizzy, and saw tiny black dots in front of my eyes. Then everything went black, and I think my brother picked me up. After that, I knew nothing more.

You asked me how badly my hand was injured?

I didn't expect you to be such a nice person. Don't worry, it's just a minor injury; it'll heal in a while.

Why are you looking at my wood carving?

[You didn't... realize what this was all along?! This is the tail, this is the head, and this thin thing is the forked tongue... Isn't it obviously a snake?]

[This is so lifelike... well... never mind, I admit I've regressed a bit, but that's because I haven't carved in years, not because of any hand injury.]

Okay, okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Anyway, since that day, my brother has never been fierce to me again. He's become the same as before, still the best brother in the world to me.

However, my life seems to have taken a different turn. First, all the servants in my room were replaced with a new, more capable and attentive one. Then, my elder brother started having me look at the account books with him more and more frequently, and sometimes he would find an excuse to take me along when he went out with Master Jiang. But he wouldn't let me talk out of turn; I was just to listen carefully, and if I had anything to say, I had to tell him first.

I listened to my elder brother the most and did everything he said. Master Jiang was also increasingly satisfied with my elder brother and always smiled when he saw him.

Satisfaction gradually led to rumors that Master Jiang wanted to give 5% of the shares he left to his daughter to his brother, an "outsider," and not only that, he also wanted to add another 3% for himself.

Eight percent of the shares may not seem like much now, since Mr. Jiang himself holds more than half of the shares and is the absolute controlling shareholder.

But if we wait until Master Jiang abdicates... the shares he holds, apart from the one left to his daughter, were going to be divided anyway. After the division, the remaining shareholders will have roughly the same amount. At that time, if anyone wants to take control, they only need to win over the elder brother.

To be honest, who hasn't dreamt of turning such a large family into their own personal fiefdom? If it weren't for the fact that Master Jiang only had one daughter, it probably wouldn't have been so easy.

Who would be willing to give up this opportunity?

So later, after Mr. Jiang passed away, Miss Jiang had no interest in family affairs. Apart from the few shops left by her mother, she handed over all the rest to my brother to manage.

However, to everyone's surprise, Mr. Jiang did give my brother eight percent of the shares, but the remaining shares were not distributed to the shareholders as agreed, but were all left to Miss Jiang alone.

Now all of these things are in my brother's hands, which infuriates the others. But they had personally agreed in the meeting to let my brother have the shares, and now that their dream was about to come true, no one remembered that the promise to divide the shares equally was just a verbal one.

They couldn't swallow this insult and started making trouble one after another, causing a lot of annoyance every day.

So I told my brother to give 2% of his shares to the shareholder with the fewest shares. “Brother, you have 51% of the shares, and the other three have 25%, 15%, and 9% of the shares respectively. Although the three of them are now united against a common enemy, the two with the fewest shares don’t even have 25% combined. They have been forced to accept this for a long time. But if you give them this 2%, everything will be different.”

My brother took my advice and praised me highly. I liked that look in his eyes. I didn't care what others thought of me—a lazy, good-for-nothing burden? Whatever, I just wanted my brother to be happy.

After their fruitless questioning, and unwilling to give up, they could only leave in defeat. If they had been more united, getting rid of my brother would have been much easier. But if they had been united, there would be no place for my brother and me here at all.

Miss Jiang's life is not bad. Apart from the grief of losing her father, it is not much different from her previous life. She was ignorant and naive under her father's protection before, and now she is living in a daze under her husband's control. It is a safe but empty, puppet-like life.

Of course, Master Jiang left people to protect his beloved daughter, but people are all driven by profit. No matter how great the favor of helping someone years ago was, it was far less tempting than the current "merit of following the dragon."

I wonder if Master Jiang would regret it if he knew in the afterlife. He spent so much effort cultivating others in the hope of gaining some protection and blessings, only to uproot his own child's seedling at the very beginning?

[But only Master Jiang himself knows the truth, don't you think?]

[I've been listening to you for so long, and you haven't said much. The story is almost over. Don't you have any questions?]

For example, would Mr. Jiang really know that Miss Jiang couldn't keep her, yet still insist on leaving her such a large inheritance, making his daughter the target of public criticism?

This cunning son-in-law at least had some conscience this time, leaving Miss Jiang with a life of luxury. What if it had been an even more heartless person?

[What are you waiting for? Do I need to tell you what happens next?]

Good heavens, after listening to my story for so long, you still don't understand?

It's all about human effort.

What? You didn't intend to ask that?

So what do you want to do?

...

Why do you care why I call her Miss Jiang and not Sister-in-law?

"It's none of your business if I don't tell you!"

[later……]

Don't interrupt me!

Later, my brother had two children, a boy and a girl, a brother and sister. By then, "Jiang" was the "Jiang" of both my brother and me. Back then, the family in our hometown was kind, and because we shared the same surname, they never specifically mentioned my brother's marriage into the family. Now, those who know won't bring it up anymore, and those who don't naturally will never know again.

Oh, right, I forgot to tell you something: the Jiang Family Ancestral Hall accidentally caught fire. Fortunately, nothing serious happened, and no one was injured; it just needs some repairs.

The newly renovated ancestral hall is much bigger than before, and the family genealogy has also been reorganized. I personally oversaw this from beginning to end, which took a lot of effort and exhausted me.

But it's my duty to share the burden with my brother.

Sadly, my elder brother passed away later, along with his youngest son. It was such an ordinary day, yet... it was so unexpected.

Of course, I also want to believe it was an accident, but my brother told me just two days ago that he took his son to meet some very important business partners. If things go well, things will be smoother from here on out.

As a result, my elder brother died.

He died on his way to meet his business partner.

This matter was kept so tightly under wraps, with only a few people knowing about it. Sure enough, a few days later, my niece had no choice but to suppress her grief and reluctantly assume the position of head of the family.

I hate myself so much, I hate how incompetent I am. Such a huge thing happened right under my nose, and I knew nothing about it. How long did she intend to do this? And I didn't even notice.

My niece is indeed capable; I can't do anything to her for the time being.

It's a pity she chose this path.

She's a woman, thank goodness she's a woman; if she were a man, things would be much more complicated. But she's a woman, and what woman doesn't get married and have children?

She was under pressure from within the clan, and there was nothing she could do. Her foundation was built through her own hard work, after all, my brother hadn't given her much.

She was just too young, relying on someone else's ladder to climb to the top. But that high place was already precarious, and it was easy for her to accidentally fall.

If you don't have a safety net to protect yourself, then you'd better be careful not to get smashed to pieces.

Unexpectedly, although she was forced to agree to the marriage, she did not want the help of the marriage alliance and only chose a servant who had been with her since childhood. It is hard to say whether she was smart or stupid.

What a pity! If she had chosen a son from a prominent family, I would have prepared a very generous gift for her.

There's a saying that's very true—childbirth for a woman is like walking through the gates of hell. So it's not surprising that some don't make it back. I've been poisoning her for years, and I think the accumulated effects have almost completely drained her. I was actually quite sorry that she survived her first childbirth.

But nobody has that much good luck.

I succeeded the second time, of course, but that wasn't enough.

How could she be the only one involved in her brother's affair back then?

In this Jiang family mansion, no one is innocent.

Although there are many people, it's not actually that difficult. After all, open and covert struggles happen here every day. I just need to fan the flames, and everyone will naturally bring about their own destruction.

It's a pity that things are progressing slower than I expected. My niece really made the right choice; the guy she picked is quite capable. Her daughter is also quite good; she's only so young, but she can already challenge me. She's truly a force to be reckoned with; given time, she'll definitely achieve great things.

But I'm still waiting to see the Jiang family perish.

I'm too old to see that day.

But it doesn't matter. As I said, everyone in this mansion is courting their own destruction—regardless of right or wrong, good or evil, without exception.

Year after year, fewer and fewer people are around me. The older ones either suddenly fall ill and refuse to leave, or they bet everything and end up destroying themselves. As for the younger ones, those who pursue other careers or give up their current lives are doing quite well, while those who remain stubbornly unrepentant...

[Do you think those who stubbornly refused to see the truth will still be around in the end?]

To be honest, I actually quite admire my niece. If she hadn't tried to harm my brother, I would have been willing to help her.

It's funny, really. My niece is such a ruthless person, yet she has such a kind-hearted daughter—her daughter did nothing but strip them of their inheritance rights and then let those people leave the capital.

This is nothing short of self-destruction...

There are plenty of people who will help me complete the final step.

Those malicious, stray dogs, those petty, greedy devils—there will always be someone who will gladly use their resentment to add the final fuel to my fire.

Hey,

My snake carving is finished. Doesn't it look like one now?

How about I give it to you? Consider it a thank you for listening to this old man's ramblings for so long.

I'm not a good person, but I didn't originally intend to be too bad either. But now that things have come to this, there's no turning back.

I don't want to look back. Now I only hate that I wasn't more ruthless back then, otherwise I could have saved my brother.

I can't be a good person, but I don't want to be a bad person either. Isn't that a contradiction?

But it's normal for people to have some worries.

What do you say, how about I become a snake?

The venom doesn't need to be too strong; just make it look like a harmless little grass snake, then quietly take a bite...

Sounds great, doesn't it?

I'll wait and see; the Jiang family is courting their own destruction.

So... I left a clue,

I'm looking forward to it, looking forward to it...

The day he was detonated

It will definitely be beautiful.

Oh dear, I was so engrossed in my story that I forgot you were here. Now you heard everything; it's all my fault for being careless.

But it seems too late now.

Please don't blame me.

But you've learned quite a few secrets today.

Those who knew these things are almost all gone now.

You'd better...keep it safe.