You're Strong But Now You're Mine-Chapter 169 - 168: She Is Free

Jing Shou and Leyu walked through Jing Garden, as the servants along the path bowed with eyes full of awe and unease.

They knew there was a new owner in Jing Garden, and since this new master had a bad reputation, naturally they felt anxious about their own futures.

Leyu intended to clean up his image, so when a maid bowed to him, he replied politely with a smile, "Good afternoon," only for the maid to faint from fright on the spot.

The other servants looked at Leyu, trembling, as if waiting for him to reveal his ferocious nature and execute her right there.

What else could Leyu do? He could only huff coldly, put on a disdainful ’that’s all?’ look, stride past rudely, and then he heard several sighs of relief behind him.

Leyu: o(￣ヘ￣o＃)

"I’ll take you to the master’s study," Jing Shou said, "If you need, I can give you a detailed overview of the Jing Family’s estate distribution. Originally, you should’ve learned all this through practice with the old master."

"Sure," Leyu replied easily, "But for now, my main focus will still be with the Youth Daily, so I’m afraid the Jing Family’s affairs will still need you, Uncle Shou—"

"Please, young master, choose another trusted aide," Jing Shou said, "I plan to leave Xuanzhu."

"Why?"

"Each new emperor brings new ministers, and since the old master is gone, my position of power and prestige—leftover from him—shouldn’t remain mine any longer. Don’t worry, I won’t leave immediately. You can start assigning people to gradually take over my duties, and only after your people are fully in control of the Jing Family will I step away."

Leftover... Leyu shook his head, "I could still trust you, you know."

Jing Shou, a stern, gaunt middle-aged man, gave a faint smile at that moment, didn’t argue, only said, "When the young master doesn’t need me, just say the word. I’ll bow out quietly."

Leyu asked with some curiosity, "Don’t you have any ambitions? I heard you’re past thirty and still unmarried, handle a fortune daily but keep your hands clean. I always figured you for someone with big ambitions, hoping to do something with the Jing Family’s power."

By rights, given their relationship, this wasn’t the sort of thing Leyu should say, but now that he was Patriarch, he said whatever he wanted, no need to worry about others’ feelings, that was just how he was—willful.

Jing Shou shook his head slightly, "No. I was just a tool bought by the old master and madam. Now that he’s been killed by the madam, I don’t want to find another master, so I plan to find somewhere to end my days."

"A tool?" Leyu said, "But people aren’t just tools. Don’t you have anything you like, stuff you want to do, dreams you want to achieve?"

Jing Shou turned and gave Leyu a look, "No."

For some reason, Leyu saw the shadows of two other people in Jing Shou’s eyes.

Qian Yuliu.

Xia Lingguo.

"Born without knowing why, dying without knowing why, living without pain, needing no joy to survive."

Leyu, ever the cold-blooded one, instantly realized Jing Shou was just like him—another emotionless man with the ’cold-blooded constitution’!

"I used to think the ’cold-blooded constitution’ was the hallmark of a true overlord, but is it really just the nature of a loyal dog!?"

"Think about it: Qian Yuliu was Qian Yuya’s loyal-dog big bro, Xia Lingguo was Qian Yuliu’s simp stalker, and Jing Shou is pure tool for Jing Qingfu... Unreal, they’re classic loyal-dog types!"

With that, Leyu didn’t try persuading further. In this world, maybe he was the only normal person who could understand these cold-blooded types.

"Because cold-blooded people can’t feel pain, they don’t bother chasing pleasure. Without some kind of ’anchor,’ they don’t even have the will to stay alive."

"These people, from a young age, always need to find an anchor: a sister, a classmate, a parent... It’s not that they can’t feel pleasure—it’s that they only feel pleasure. Their threshold for enjoyment is so high that ordinary cravings and base pleasures quickly bore them, and only a near-sacred mission can drive them onward."

"For Jing Shou, he already had no reason to live. He didn’t even have the desire to live. Staying to guide me in the Jing Family was only to carry out Jing Qingfu’s last instructions."

"As for the whole ’finishing out my days’ thing, I even suspect he just wants to pick a nice day to jump into the sea—no joke, in Qian Yuliu’s memory, he’s always thinking about different ways to kill himself."

"To the cold-blooded, death is their ultimate pleasure."

"Because they’ve never died before."

If it had been the real Jing Zhengwei, he’d have been thrilled to hear Jing Shou being so ’on the level’, squeezing him for all he was worth and then tossing him aside.

After all, he’d have to plant his own people in every corner of the Jing Family, how could Jing Shou be allowed to keep such a spot?

But Leyu was different.

He didn’t have anyone of his own.

He’d arrived and executed the butler Shen Hong and Bai Yulan, and two months later, still hadn’t found any trusted aides; he’d spent all his time at the paper.

He literally had no one to use!

Of course, as things normally went, once Leyu got a grip on the Jing Family, he’d eventually promote a batch of promising young people as his trusted inner circle.

But that would require the Jing Family to have a future, right...

Thinking of this, Leyu said, "All right, then you’ll have to put up with things for a bit and keep running the Jing Family for now, Uncle Shou. Don’t worry, I won’t make you stay too long."

Jing Shou gave a slight nod.

He thought Leyu would soon bring in his own people to take over the Jing Family.

He had no idea Leyu meant the Jing Family wouldn’t last much longer at all.

"Here’s the Patriarchs’ study through the generations, the ’Fujing Villa.’" Jing Shou led Leyu to a serene courtyard filled with birdsong and flowers, suddenly remembering something. "Young master, now that you’re Patriarch, shouldn’t you move back into Jing Garden?"

Leyu thought about it and figured there was no problem, "Yeah, sure."

The environment in Jing Garden was definitely better than Jing Mansion. Leyu had no reason to turn down such creature comforts—and he still remembered how the relatives in the garden mistreated the servants, and how the servants now feared him.

Their fear was due partly to Jing Zhengwei being a monster, but even more so because they were the lowest of the low, abused by everyone in Jing Garden.

He couldn’t change Xuanzhu County, but changing a garden, or even the whole Jing Family, was something well within his grasp.

"He’d always hated the fat relatives in the Jing Family, but that was only back when he had no way to deal with them. Now that he was Patriarch, he could pick on anyone he wanted, screw over whoever annoyed him, and that was just a way to spice up life with some side-quests."

"So, what should we do with Jing Mansion?" Jing Shou stepped into the study, saying, "Generally there are three choices for these side properties: one, leave it idle for later; two, give it to a subordinate as a reward; three, sell it for cash."

"Give it away," Leyu pulled out the chair in the study and sat down, "No use keeping it here, don’t really need the cash from selling it either."

"All right, may I ask who you’d like to reward with it?"

Leyu leaned back against the redwood armchair, which creaked softly.

It was like a cog sliding into place on a machine, as a huge apparatus began to whir to life again.

"The editor-in-chief of Youth Daily, Qing Lan," Leyu said, "Tell her she’s free now—she can call that place her home from now on."