Chapter 98

Chapter 98

Qin Bao didn’t live in City A. From Qin Song’s place to Qin Bao’s, it was a two-and-a-half-hour drive.

Before getting on the highway, Qin Song tried calling Qin Bao four times. Qin Bao didn’t answer any of them.

Qin Song’s anger shot up by the second.

He had no idea what had happened to their parents that Qin Bao would be in such a panic, insisting he come over immediately.

Qin Song thought about it. Their mother had never had any major health problems, though their father’s health wasn’t great. But he insisted on taking them for checkups twice a year, and nothing serious had ever come up.

Their parents had only been staying at Qin Bao’s for less than a month. How could something have happened? Just how had Qin Bao been taking care of them?

And that good-for-nothing Qin Bao-what was so impossible to say over the phone that he had to wait two and a half hours to tell him in person?

Qin Song got on the highway and drove at over 120 kilometers an hour.

During those two and a half hours, Qin Song thought back on a lot of family matters.

When Qin Bao had first graduated, he had naturally joined Qin Song’s company after their parents persuaded him to.

But he didn’t know how to do anything, and he didn’t bother learning, either. He came late and left early every day, throwing his weight around the office.

Everyone kept a respectful distance from him. No one ever dared say anything to his face. After all, the boss was his own older brother.

In the end, Qin Song was forced into a corner. He couldn’t let one rotten apple like Qin Bao ruin the whole company’s atmosphere and chill the hearts of the veteran employees. So he moved Qin Bao out of the company and put him in charge of a restaurant he owned.

Qin Bao was perfectly happy to go. He said he’d do anything at the restaurant, even waiting tables, as long as it didn’t require using his brain. He said he didn’t know how to do anything at the company, and sitting in the office always made him feel like everyone looked down on him. It was too humiliating.

Qin Song sneered and told him, “Face isn’t something other people give you. It’s something you earn yourself.”

Qin Bao said, “I only graduated not that long ago. They’re all old hands. How am I supposed to earn it myself?”

Qin Song said, “If you want face, it comes down to two things-how you conduct yourself and how you do your work. Think hard about those two. Have you done either of them well? The fact that people haven’t fallen out with you out of respect for me is already good enough. What more do you want?”

Qin Bao said, “But I’m your own brother. If I have to care about all that in my own brother’s company, then what’s the difference between that and working for some outsider?”

Qin Song said, “No one truly cares who your brother is or who your father is. If you want to make a place for yourself in society, you need to ask yourself who you are.”

After Qin Bao had been at the restaurant for half a year, the number of customers kept dropping.

A friend of Qin Song kindly reminded him, “Maybe you shouldn’t let your brother hang around the front desk anymore. Every time I go there, I see him with that cold face, and when customers ask him something, he barely answers. People come to a restaurant for the food and the service. Find someone warmer, someone with a sweeter tongue, and business definitely won’t be bad.”

So Qin Song went to Qin Bao again. “Are you unable to keep going at the restaurant, too?”

Qin Bao said, “Yes. I have a new ambition now.”

Qin Song said, “Then tell me. What do you want to do?”

Qin Bao said, “I want to storm back into the company and make something of myself.”

Qin Song laughed. “You’ve finally figured it out?”

Qin Bao said, “Yeah. When I first graduated, I was immature and didn’t know how to cherish the opportunity. Over the past six months, I’ve thought it through. I can’t keep mooching off you and our parents forever, right?”

Qin Song thought he had finally come to his senses, so he gave him a heartfelt lecture. “Then you need to do things properly-not just work blindly, but actually do things. You have to dig deep in your own field, put in enough time, and be diligent! Don’t try to do everything the moment you start. Stabilize your foundation first, then build on that foundation and expand into your interests in other areas…”

Qin Bao listened very seriously.

A month later, Qin Bao returned to Qin Song’s company and was put in charge of materials.

He worked at the company for a year. At the year-end reconciliation, Qin Song discovered that Qin Bao had used his position to pocket 320,000 yuan.

That Spring Festival, firecrackers were going off joyfully all over the neighborhood, while He Qian cried at home from sheer anger.

Qin Song knew that He Qian wasn’t upset over the amount of money. She was hurt because she felt her husband had been set up and taken for a fool by his own brother.

Their parents also knew just how outrageous what Qin Bao had done was, and they didn’t dare speak up for him anymore.

Qin Song gave Qin Bao a brutal scolding.

He told Qin Bao, “So this is the great thing you wanted to accomplish after storming back into the company? If you had any real ability, you would’ve pocketed 3.2 million. Then I might actually respect you as a man. From now on, don’t even think about staying with me again, and don’t even think about mooching off our parents. Take that 320,000 and get back to the old house in the countryside!”

From then on, Qin Song and Qin Bao became completely estranged.

Qin Song’s hometown was in the countryside, where the family still had a house. Qin Bao slunk back and moved in.

Qin Song never bothered with him again. He knew their parents secretly gave Qin Bao living expenses every month, but he turned a blind eye.

A few years later, Qin Bao got married. His wife’s nickname was Mimi, and when Qin Song found out, he nearly laughed himself breathless.

Mimi had a fiery temper and was incredibly high-maintenance, but somehow, she and Qin Bao got along extremely well. The two got engaged after only three months of dating.

As the saying went, fish swim with fish, shrimp crawl with shrimp, and a bastard always finds another bastard in the family-Qin Song thought they were a perfect match.