Chapter 182 Once I Was 13 Years Old Part 3

Tianwei stood up suddenly, and the chair he sat on toppled backwards with a loud clatter. "So?! I don't care! Mom is dead whether you believe me or not!" Tianwei screamed, his eyes bloodshot with grief. He grabbed Jingwei's collar and hauled him closer, his reddened eyes glaring straight at him.

"Why didn't you pick up your phone, stupid brother?! Why didn't you come and see Mother one last time before she passed?"

"Mother died… all alone…Where were you?!" Tianwei continued, gripping Jingwei's collar as though he longed to wrap his fingers around Jingwei's throat.

Jingwei could feel his brother's fingernails barely brushing past the soft skin, as though they longed to dig themselves in to make him hurt. He grabbed Tianwei's hands to pull him off, even more upset at his words, but Tianwei had a death grip on him.

Well, two could play at that game.

"All alone? Then you weren't here either!" Jingwei screamed through his tears, gripping his brother's tie, nearly strangling him. He was a lot shorter than Tianwei since he hadn't hit his growth spurt yet, and this was a lot easier than grabbing his collar. He didn't need to tiptoe that much.

"Don't you dare pin this on me just because you're older! You're just like me too! Absent! Stop acting like you're better than me!"

"You're such a piece of shit! I wish you weren't such a useless brother!" Tianwei's eyes bulged out, as though he longed to beat the shit out of Jingwei. Jingwei bared his teeth through his tears. If his brother wanted a fight, he would give it to him.

Anything would be better than dealing with the news that his mother died all alone by herself, with none of her family by her side after she had given her life to doing the best for them.

They were really scum! Jingwei could see the regret in Tianwei's eyes. If he looked hard enough, he could see a similar pain reflected in his own eyes, through the reflection of Tianwei's glasses.

Tianwei needed to hit someone to forget, and Jingwei didn't mind getting hit or trading blows. The pain would be retribution.

Tianwei flung him on the floor and slammed his fist into Jingwei's left cheek. Jingwei groaned and retaliated by kneeing him in the chest and headbutting his chin. They fell to the floor like two feral dogs, growling and snapping at each other.

"Enough! Both of you - stop this at once!" Lady Yu cried out, distraught at how badly the Young Masters were behaving. She tried to pull them apart, only to be struck by Tianwei's fist and Jingwei's kick.

Lady Yu bowled over, gasping in pain. That was definitely going to leave bruises!

At least both boys stopped, horrified that their blows had landed on an innocent person.

"Lady Yu!" They both yelled at the same time, hurrying to her side to check on her.

"Are you alright?" Jingwei asked frantically.

Lady Yu stood up on her own, determinedly ignoring their efforts. Fresh tears started to flow down her face.

"Boys… please… your mother's body hadn't even cooled, and you are here behaving like hooligans right in front of her deathbed, instead of the capable young men she wanted you to be! Do you not feel ashamed of yourselves?!"

Her words were as good as a cold bucket of water being dunked over their heads, and both brothers stood silently, ashamed of their actions. Mother was dead, and Jingwei was sure they were the most unfilial sons to walk this earth. He trembled as more tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Has Father been informed?" Tianwei asked woodenly in contrast, as though he finished using up all his tears and was only a dried up husk of a man, barely held together by duty.

Lady Yu paused, before answering hesitantly. "Your father is in a meeting with the shareholders. He'll come after."

Tianwei breathed in deeply and ran a hand over his face, trying to hold himself together. Beside him, Jingwei had a lot less restraint.

"What the fuck?" Jingwei exploded in shock. "How could he still be at work?!"

"Because that's the kind of man he is. Ambitious, driven, callous and cold," Tianwei said, anger and grief simmering in his eyes. His mother should have married a better man.

" …I hate him," Jingwei whispered to himself, shaking with rage. In that very moment, he vowed that he would rather die than to grow up to become someone like his father, who neglected his children, neglected his dying wife, all for the sake of his business.

"I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM! WHY DIDN'T HE DIE INSTEAD?!"

? Outside the room, Wu Shang Jing paused as he listened to Jingwei's expression of rage and grief. Part of him felt happy that Jingwei was finally becoming more like him - someone who also wanted his father dead.

Jingwei was already his closest friend, but now, he could be his best ally too.

He walked into the room and enveloped Jingwei into a tight, comforting hug, the kind that he saw in dramas, because he didn't have any real life experience.

His father was still more likely to smack him than hug him, and his stepmom was somehow too afraid to touch him. Only Zi Long touched him, and the hugs he gave all these years could be counted on one hand.

Thankfully, Jingwei didn't run away screaming, or shove him away. Instead, he burst into bigger, more unrestrained sobs.

'Pat him.' Zi Long mouthed from behind, and Shang Jing awkwardly patted Jingwei's back, frowning in disgust as he heard Jingwei sneeze. Now his uniform would be covered in snot.

"Don't cry," he said softly. "Do you want me to hack into your dad's email and send him penis enlargement spam mail? Or we can make up a scheme to hack his credit cards to give him a taste of his own medicine? "

Jingwei choked out a half-sob, half-laugh, but he nodded, and Shang Jing smirked internally, even as he continued to hold him in a comforting way.

It was time to introduce Jingwei to the world of malicious hackers.