Chapter 837 - 840: Fairness
Chapter 837: Chapter 840: Fairness
Gu Ben Can felt that being an official wasn’t as freeing as being a merchant. Besides, with his older brother pursuing a career in politics, wouldn’t his brother protect him?
Jin Qianqian noticed his gaze constantly drifting toward Gu Benluo. She poked his forehead and scolded him with a smile, "What your brother has is his own. In the future, he’ll have his own family and his own responsibilities. Do you think he can protect you for the rest of your life?
"Look at your uncles. Aren’t they all living their own lives? Has your father gotten involved in their affairs?"
Gu Ben Can was speechless. He realized the relationships between their relatives’ families were indeed rather plain. He began to doubt himself. His relationship with his older brother was quite good; surely it wouldn’t come to that in the future.
"If you lean on a mountain, it will crumble; if you lean on a person, they will run. It’s time you changed this overly optimistic temperament of yours." Jin Qianqian wanted to use this opportunity to teach the boy a good lesson.
"Mother, our family is different," Gu Ben Can said, his voice noticeably lacking its previous confidence. "My brother would never just ignore me, right, Benluo?"
Gu Benluo looked at him with a cool expression. "I definitely won’t ignore you. If you make a mistake, I’ll definitely punish you on behalf of our parents."
"That’s it?" Gu Ben Can’s mouth fell open slightly. "I’m your own flesh and blood."
Gu Benluo controlled his expression and said coldly, "Even blood brothers must keep their accounts clear. As your older brother, you should consider yourself lucky that I’m willing to discipline you."
Gu Ben Can was rendered speechless again. He thought, "So that’s it? And I’m supposed to feel like I got a great deal..."
Jin Qianqian watched the two brothers spar verbally and exchanged a glance with Gu Wenheng before continuing. "Cancan, you should know that if you separate from your brother in the future, the bulk of the family’s assets will go to him. The inheritance your father and I leave for you will be limited. Do you really not plan to learn a skill to make a living?"
Gu Ben Can felt like he had been struck by consecutive critical hits.
Gu Wenheng chimed in, "Since Benluo will pursue a career in politics, your mother and I will naturally favor him a bit more. If you want to go out and make your own way in the world, we can give you your rightful share now. As for the future, it will be up to your own luck and hard work."
This child had been spoiled growing up. He loved playing clever little tricks but never focused on the right path. Even if they let him take over Jin Qianqian’s businesses and personnel in the future, he wouldn’t have what it took to go up against those seasoned veterans. Seeing his utterly devastated expression, it was obvious that he had never even considered any of what they just said.
Gu Ben Can was utterly silent. He realized he was now the one being tossed aside.
"Have you figured it out?" Jin Qianqian asked.
Gu Ben Can hesitated. "Mother, don’t you just want me to test to become a scholar? I’ll take the exam, alright?
"However, I don’t want to be an official in the future, so there’s no need for me to become an Advanced Scholar. I’m really not cut out for that.
"Please, you and Father stop scaring me. I’ll definitely find my own way in the future. If all else fails, I can go to Benluo’s estate and be a steward for him."
"Look at how little ambition you have," Jin Qianqian said, pulling out a few sheets of paper. "From now on, make time to read more books. Once the mourning period is over, go take the exam to become a scholar.
"As for this, your father prepared it for you. Memorize it and then burn it. When the time is right, you can go figure things out on your own."
Gu Ben Can took one look and immediately snapped his head up to stare at his parents in surprise. Then, he turned to look at Gu Benluo with concern. "This isn’t appropriate."
Jin Qianqian took the papers back from his hands and placed them in front of Gu Benluo. "Do you think it’s appropriate to give these to your younger brother?"
Gu Benluo glanced down, his expression unchanging, and quickly met Jin Qianqian’s gaze. "Mother, you shouldn’t have shown me these.
"You know my ambitions don’t lie there. It’s perfectly fine to give these to Ben Can."
Jin Qianqian sighed and said, "Your father and I always wanted to be perfectly fair. We wanted to split everything we have equally between you brothers, but no matter how we calculate it, there’s always some bias."
Hearing her tone, both brothers felt a pang of discomfort. Gu Benluo said, "Mother, don’t say such things."
Gu Ben Can’s eyes grew red. "Mother, I don’t want anything."
"Listen to what your mother has to say," Gu Wenheng interjected, unbothered by their sentimentality. In modern times, many people made wills early on. Since that process didn’t exist here, it was better to clarify everything in advance. This would prevent the brothers from damaging their relationship over trivial matters if something unexpected happened. Besides, making things clear early on would prevent conflicts over petty interests from arising between them as time passed.
"You both know that I’ve reeled in many of my businesses," Jin Qianqian continued. "In the future, Benluo will receive eighty percent of the family’s public assets, so Cancan will definitely be at a significant disadvantage.
"Your father wrote down these secret recipes as a fallback for Cancan. If managed well, they can certainly help him build a solid fortune.
"Your father and I still hope that you brothers will look out for each other and support one another moving forward."
"Mother, it’s too early to talk about this," Gu Benluo said. "Even if you gave everything to Cancan, I wouldn’t have any objections."
"Get lost," Gu Wenheng said, also feeling a bit uncomfortable. Why did their conversation suddenly sound like a final farewell? "Wait until you have a wife and children before you say things like that to me.
"We only called you here today to make these two matters clear.
"Cancan, go back and think it over carefully. Later, I’ll find a few people to stay by your side. If you want to live a good life, you have to build a solid foundation first."
However, the people assigned to Cancan would have to be chosen carefully. The boy wasn’t stupid, but his personality was a bit too flighty. They needed to find reliable people who could handle things steadily.
After sending their two eyesore sons away, Gu Wenheng pulled Jin Qianqian into his arms. "In the future, when we need to discuss things, let’s just discuss them properly. You still need to pay attention to your tone. Look how much you scared the kids."
Jin Qianqian shot him a glare. "You actually believe that? Weren’t you the one who reminded me earlier that we needed to give the brothers a clear understanding of the situation? I was just taking the opportunity to lay it all out.
"Shouldn’t we reduce the farm work for Cancan? Since you have some free time right now, you should give him some extra tutoring, lest he embarrass you when the time comes."
"Wife, let’s not set our expectations too high for Cancan," Gu Wenheng said. "We should be happy if he barely scrapes by and earns the status of a scholar."
"Heh, heh," Jin Qianqian sneered. "You misunderstand. I’m afraid he won’t even be able to scrape by. From the time we got back until now, how many times have you seen him touch a book?
"If he were like his brother, I would worry a lot less."
Gu Wenheng fell silent.
Upon leaving the study, Gu Benluo didn’t return directly to his room. Instead, he grabbed Gu Ben Can and dragged him out of the courtyard.
"Benluo, we’ve been exhausted all day. Aren’t you going to rest?"
Gu Benluo ignored him. Under the cover of the night, he hauled him all the way to the riverbank.
"Benluo, whatever it is, you could have just said it outside the courtyard. Did we really have to come this far? The wind is making it a bit cold," Gu Ben Can muttered, hugging his arms in complaint.
Despite his grumbling, he didn’t dare resist at all. Although his brother was usually very good to him, he would never hold back if he truly wanted to teach him a lesson. Gu Ben Can would rather be disciplined by their parents than face his brother’s wrath. Recalling past experiences, he quietly took two steps back.