A Favor Done, A Husband Won-Chapter 403 - 397: Shi Mianmian’s Eyes and Brows and His Own Back Then...

The black Bentley drove into the Jing Family’s old mansion.

Mr. Li stood by the window of the old man’s bedroom. Seeing Jing Jihan’s car return, he turned around and quietly said by the armchair, "Mr. Jing is back."

"Hmm?" The old man was lying on the chair, with a thin blanket over his legs and an old photo album on top of it. Half asleep, he squinted at Mr. Li, "Who’s back?"

Mr. Li laughed and said, "Mr. Jing."

The old man heard clearly this time, closed his eyes, and said nothing more.

Mr. Li didn’t forcefully wake him up either.

For over eighty years old, the old man was considered healthy and vigorous among his peers, except that his legs had become increasingly inconvenient in the past two years.

But recently, upon hearing that the old lady had returned from Singapore, the old man, who had been tough-hearted for decades, became sentimental, sometimes daydreaming, sometimes sighing. It was unclear if he missed his grandson or his wife after all.

Back then, due to his stubborn old temper and old-fashioned male chauvinism, he angered the old lady into retirement in Singapore. From divorce in their sixties until now, the two have not met for over a decade, nearly twenty years. They both lived well but acted as if the other had already passed away without any contact.

In recent years, the old man’s temper has softened considerably. Unlike before, when he wanted to arrange marriages for Mr. Jing and the second young master, acknowledging he couldn’t force his grandsons, the old man stopped insisting on marriage.

Especially two years ago with Shi Su’s matter, though the old man didn’t feel he was being particularly harsh, he was merely preserving the family’s integrity.

But now the house felt increasingly empty.

This vast Jing family estate, from having one son in the capital and another going to the United Kingdom, with even the old lady moving abroad without contact, has come to a point where, if it weren’t for Mr. Jing and Jing Luozhou still being in Jiang City, they really would be isolated. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Now he was numb to whoever came back or didn’t, spending his days listening to music and basking in the sun, unconcerned.

However, since hearing that the old lady returned from Singapore, supposedly because of her ancestral grave’s relocation, it was unlikely she’d go through the trouble at her age for nothing, yet she did not rush back to Singapore this time.

Upon learning this, the old man deliberately coldly said that the old woman surprisingly hadn’t died yet? Appearing indifferent.

In reality, he couldn’t help asking the household help to dig out decades-old photo albums, sometimes looking at those old photos, sitting alone in the chair, turning the radio’s opera music to particularly melancholic tunes.

As Jing Jihan entered, he heard the old man’s room playing those sorrowful tunes, and Mr. Li hurried to turn off his treasured radio.

"Mr. Jing." Mr. Li greeted respectfully with a smile, "The second young master didn’t come back with you?"

"No." Jing Jihan glanced indifferently at the old man, clearly awake but too lazy to open his eyes, and didn’t walk over. Instead, he noticed the old photo album on his lap.

"The second young master has been returning less over the past two years, probably gotten used to wandering outside." Mr. Li said, "Mr. Jing, are you staying at home tonight? Shall I ask Xiaohui to prepare dinner?"

"No need. I heard the old man has been a bit muddled lately, so I came to check. There’s a meeting at the company in the afternoon, and I’ll be back by three."

"You’re the one who’s muddled!" The old man suddenly opened his eyes, angrily scolding and clicked his tongue, "By that tone, it’s that kid Jing Luozhou who fed you nonsense again? Where am I muddled? I’ve lived this long without a stroke and have an excellent memory, remembering clearly how you fell into the backyard grass pit at two years old!"

Then, the old man glanced at the person standing at the door, "It’s not even a holiday, rare for you to come back especially. Are you afraid I’ll die lonely at home with no one looking? If you’re so stubborn with me, then don’t come back!"

"Old man..." Mr. Li’s mouth twitched, then immediately tried to soothe the old man’s stubborn temper, "Please say less..."

The old man’s energetic temperament, acting aggressively as if he could lift his cane and jump over to beat someone, indeed was managing his health well, with no major issues.

Just then, while the old man was speaking, he moved his leg, and the album on the blanket suddenly fell to the floor.

The only photo of Jing Jihan as a child was on top, his handsome and cute childhood features rendered especially vivid in the bedroom light.

Mr. Li quickly moved to pick up the album, but it was near Jing Jihan’s feet, and he bent over to pick it up.

Seeing it was his childhood photo, Mr. Li came over to take a look too and laughed, "Mr. Jing, even when you were young, you had principles. No one could force you to do what you didn’t want. You even refused to have your photo taken. From childhood to now, there aren’t many photos of you—what few there are, are probably stored at Nanshan Villa. Xiaohui found this album the other day. I didn’t expect to see a photo of you here; it should be from when you were around four or five years old, still innocent, with a fair and round little face, very adorable."

"Adorable my foot, let me see why I haven’t seen any childhood photos of him?" The old man scornfully glanced at the album.

Mr. Li glanced at the old man, "That’s because you always only look at the first few pages of the photos with the old lady and never flip to the back..."

The old man immediately put on a stern face, "I fall asleep before I can turn a few pages, looking at what photo, just two old things almost in their graves, what’s there to see?"

Jing Jihan nonchalantly looked at his photo from then.

He never looked at these things. If he had impressions of his childhood photos, he wouldn’t have noticed until now how much Shi Mianmian’s eyebrows and eyes resembled his own then.

Mr. Li, not knowing what Jing Jihan was thinking, had already taken the album back and handed it to the old man.

The old man squinted his eyes and examined it carefully, then suddenly picked up the reading glasses from the small table beside the armchair and looked intently, then lifted his eyes to look at Jing Jihan, back and forth a few times, and snorted, "Still better looking as a child, grown up now with that stern face all the time."

Mr. Li joked from the side, "Even when Mr. Jing was young, he hardly smiled, wearing that stern face all the time, and the second young master especially liked to play tricks in front of him, always getting thrown in front of you by Mr. Jing, who was incredibly annoyed by his brother."