Chapter 97: Humble Brother Su

Chapter 97: Brother Su's Humiliation

Su Lichen collapsed onto the sofa and stared blankly at the ceiling.

His mind was full of the photos from Xu Jianqing's social media feed. He knew he should wish Xu Moxing well and stay away from him and not bother him.

Logically, he knew this was what he should do, but emotionally, he couldn't.

On the last day of Qingming Festival, Su Lichen spent the whole day in a daze.

Throughout that day, he kept looking at the pictures he had saved from Xu Jianqing's feed, and kept opening the chat windows with both Xu Jianqing and Xu Moxing.

He kept composing a message, but never sent it, right up until bedtime.

The next day at work, Zhou Ping, as usual, seized every opportunity to make snide remarks about Su Lichen.

"Boss Su isn't taking leave this year? Didn't you take quite a long time last year?"

During Qingming last year, Su Lichen took leave to care for Xu Moxing, who had been in a car accident, hospitalized, and lost his memory.

Zhou Ping deliberately brought up this sore spot. Su Lichen didn't put up with it and directly retaliated with a deadpan expression.

"I took leave last year because I had personal matters, and you're still holding a grudge about it this year? If you put half as much thought into your work, your performance would probably be in the top five among the sales reps, right? After all, you've been here for quite a while. Some colleagues who joined two years after you have already surpassed you purely on their own ability. Don't you feel you're letting Boss Zhou down with his careful cultivation?"

He was being sarcastic, criticizing Zhou Ping for holding grudges, implying his poor performance, and mocking his lack of ability—even with a relative boss feeding him resources, he still couldn't match others.

Usually, Su Lichen would also fight back, but not to this extent—completely disrespecting him and landing a fatal blow.

People like Zhou Ping, as long as you stand up to him and shout back, he won't dare go too far.

After all, Zhou Chengzhi had recently been warning him not to be too arrogant, as many colleagues were getting fed up with him and had been complaining about him openly and secretly.

People aren't slaves, after all. Zhou Ping got his job through connections, so he could indeed be cocky. As long as it wasn't too overboard, most people would just tolerate it. But if he went too far, people would also reach their limit.

With more complaints, Zhou Chengzhi couldn't afford to be too partial. Besides, Zhou Ping was really like a lost cause—no matter how many resources were fed, he just wouldn't improve.

"I was just making a joke, why take it so seriously?"

Zhou Ping muttered under his breath, his previously arrogant and provocative demeanor gone.

Su Lichen couldn't be bothered to keep arguing with him and worked through the day in a gloomy mood.

After learning Xu Moxing might be in a new relationship, Su Lichen hesitated for two days. It was only after getting off work and returning home that he finally decided to send a message to Xu Jianqing.

"You hung out with your brother a couple of days ago? Who's that guy next to him?"

After sending the message, he put his phone on the coffee table and just waited for her to reply.

Twenty minutes passed, and still no message from Xu Jianqing.

Knowing that Xu Jianqing was very busy, he had to eat his dinner first, which was getting cold.

While eating, he suddenly received Xu Jianqing's reply.

"What's wrong? What are you trying to do?"

"I want to win your brother back. I'm not asking for your help, but I'm humbly asking you to tell me the truth."

Xu Jianqing was silent for a moment. "But my brother hasn't mentioned you at all lately. If you want to know, I'll have to ask him if he agrees to let me tell you."

Xu Jianqing couldn't go behind her own brother's back and tip off her ex-brother-in-law, could she?

It's not appropriate either logically or emotionally. Xu Jianqing was on her brother's side. Even though she thought Brother Su was a decent person, that was from her own perspective. She didn't know what problems they had or what exactly happened. She couldn't just meddle in other people's relationships.

If she meddled and hit something her brother couldn't accept, he'd chew her out.

Su Lichen gripped his chopsticks tightly. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "Go ahead and ask him. That's fine. It's better if you ask. He doesn't want to see my messages."

Seeing Su Lichen's reply, Xu Jianqing felt a bit of sympathy for him.

She didn't know what had happened, but she felt some sympathy for how humble Su Lichen was being now—that was all.

Xu Jianqing thought that her brother and Brother Su had really been in a relationship for a long time—five or six years—and even after breaking up, they still couldn't let go.

Even though her brother didn't talk about it, the sweetness during his amnesia was not fake. And the fact that he lost so much weight after the breakup showed that it must have been very painful for him.

To be honest, Xu Jianqing had also been in relationships, but she found them boring—they just got in the way of her work.

At one point, the guy couldn't help flirting with other girls behind her back, and then had the nerve to kneel in front of her, saying he liked her and didn't want to break up, but blamed her for being too busy to accompany him, so he got lonely and couldn't help it.

What a piece of trash!

Cheating while in a relationship and then blaming it on Xu Jianqing? If it's not working out, just break up. After breaking up, do whatever you want. But being in a relationship with her while flirting with someone else—what a scumbag!

Xu Jianqing immediately kicked him twice and walked away without looking back.

To be honest, normal men who don't cheat and are loyal in relationships do exist in this world. Her brother and Brother Su were actually examples.

But because, for thousands of years, society has had completely different moral standards for men's and women's sexual behavior, the social cost for men who cheat is extremely low.

A woman who cheats still faces more severe social condemnation than a man who cheats.

Meanwhile, male infidelity is often downplayed as "the mistake all men make" or "a momentary lapse."

This huge difference in social punishment directly affects the cost of cheating.

So from the perspective of social structure and power dynamics, the proportion of women who are normal is indeed higher than that of men.

This also means that people like Xu Jianqing, who refuse to compromise and care about a partner's values, have a hard time finding a normal relationship.

She knew normal men existed, but the probability of her meeting one was very low because there were too many abnormal ones.

It wasn't just a probability problem; it was also a matter of luck.

Moreover, Xu Jianqing didn't have time to constantly be in a relationship—it just got in the way of her making money. Sometimes she thought that her brother and Brother Su meeting each other in college was quite lucky.

Too bad even with such luck, they couldn't make it to the end.

Relationships are just way too hard. She still didn't want to figure it out.

Xu Jianqing shook her head and sent a message to her brother: "Bro, Brother Su saw my post and wants to ask me, who's Xiao Ma to you? Should I reply to him?"

Xu Jianqing sent a screenshot to her brother.

Xu Moxing happened to be on his phone and stopped short upon seeing Xu Jianqing's message.

What was Su Lichen doing? Counting from before the amnesia, they had been broken up for almost two years. Right before his car accident, Su Lichen didn't try to win him back. So why was he pretending to be all devoted now?

"Just say Xiao Ma is someone I'm seeing. We're almost a thing, but not yet."

Anyway, we're not dating, so it won't harm Xiaoma's reputation.

"Um, bro, are you going to lie to Brother Su like this?"

"Of course, there's no future for us anymore. Making him give up completely is the only way he might start a new relationship. He's just torturing himself and me this way. Better to endure the short pain than the long pain."

"Alright."

Xu Jianqing, as her brother told her to, told Su Lichen, "My brother said it's a romantic interest, almost dating, but not really."

"Okay, I got it. Thank you."

This matter had pushed him to a dead end, and Su Lichen had already come up with another excuse for himself.