In the world of martial arts, I can invest in countless realms.

Chapter 62 Hypocrisy and Pretense

"Wipe, wipe..."

Just then, a faint sound came from beside me—the sound of shoes stepping on the snow.

The two turned around at the same time, and their expressions changed when they saw who it was.

The boy quickly regained his composure and whispered, "Big Brother!"

"Hey, please don't call me 'Big Brother.' My surname is Chen, and yours is Jiang. I'm not worthy to be your 'Big Brother,' Young Master Jiang!"

"Oh ho, a leg of lamb! Young Master Jiang of Jiang Shaoju, your father punished you by making you kneel here, and you dared to steal some? You didn't eat the leg of lamb from your father's whole lamb feast, did you?"

Upon seeing the lamb leg in Jiang Shaoju's hand, the newcomer wore a cold smile, a smile whose temperature seemed even colder than the falling snow.

He stretched out his foot and kicked the lamb leg out of the other person's hand. The movement was fluid and seamless, clearly not the first time he had done it.

"Young Master, this is what the Master no longer wants."

"So you, a servant, can just dispose of what you don't want anymore? Can you use what you don't want to feed this bastard?"

"Come on!" Chen Ye waved to the servant beside him, his tone indifferent, as if he had experienced this many times before, so familiar that it had almost become an instinct.

"Drag this old thief away and give him a good beating!"

"Young Master, but... but Master has already deducted half a year's wages from my pay to make this meat."

"Don't you know why your wages are being deducted?" Chen Ye looked down at the old servant kneeling on the ground, his tone cold and devoid of any emotion.

"Dad said he'd make a whole roasted lamb feast to entertain our distinguished guests, but is this really a whole roasted lamb? And those two dishes...did you use lard?"

"If you use lard and it absorbs other flavors, then it's no longer a whole lamb. Isn't it right to punish you like this?!"

"But, but that's what the master wrote in the recipe, and it only used a little bit of lard to enhance the flavor."

"A little bit isn't lard?" Chen Ye chuckled, looking at him like he was a fool, and said calmly, "I'm fining you six months' wages as punishment, and you think all this leftover meat is yours?"

"Not only do you eat it yourself, but you also feed it to this little bastard! You have such audacity!"

"Drag him away and beat him severely, beat him to death!"

"Wait!" Just as the old servant was about to be dragged away, Jiang Shaoju suddenly spoke up.

"Big brother, what do you want?"

"Second brother, what can I say? I just feel that our two manors outside the city are particularly suitable for me. What do you think, second brother?"

He was met with a long silence. After a while, Jiang Shaoju finally spoke, "Okay, I understand!"

"Oh dear, my good brother, you've suffered!" The moment Chen Ye heard Jiang Shaoju agree, his expression changed, and his smile became much more sincere than his previous forced one.

"Why are you still wearing only a thin shirt? Come on, quickly, put a cotton coat on my brother so he doesn't get cold."

"Second brother, given the bond between us brothers, what's wrong with you eating a leg of lamb? Let alone a leg, a whole lamb would be no problem for me."

"Chen An, go and bring all the meat my father left over. Give my dear brother a good nourishing meal. If he starves, I'll hold you responsible!"

"Second brother, don't worry, I'll go and beg Father right away. We absolutely can't let you continue to suffer like this. As long as the documents are signed, I guarantee you can go back to your room."

After receiving the agreement, Chen Ye hummed a song and left happily, his steps even more cheerful than when he arrived.

After watching the other person leave, the old man's face fell, and he looked like he was about to cry but had no tears.

"Young master, you've suffered so much. If it weren't for this old servant, how could you have..."

"Alright, Uncle An, this is none of your business. You should go back now; it's freezing cold, don't catch a cold!"

"Well then, young master, I'll head back now. Please take good care of yourself!"

The old man left, turning back every few steps. Jiang Shaoju watched him walk away, his expression growing increasingly serious.

He looked up at the swirling snowflakes and felt a pang of sadness. The wind howled, making him shiver again.

Fortunately, based on past experience, he only needed to kneel for a little longer before his good brother would come with their father's orders, allowing him to go back to his room to rest.

Although there was no charcoal in the room and it was drafty, at least there was a tattered quilt, so he wouldn't freeze to death.

"Your situation doesn't seem too good!"

After a long time, his older brother still hadn't returned, and Jiang Shaoju seemed to have frozen stiff.

At this moment, Shen Che's voice finally appeared. If he hadn't appeared soon, even the four-star talents would have turned into ice blocks.

He had just scanned the mansion from side to side. The servants and young men were huddled together for warmth, and he overheard quite a bit of gossip.

From this, Shen Che could roughly understand the situation of this four-star talent.

Jiang Shaoju, the eldest son of the Jiang family, is the son of Jiang Laoye, who started from scratch and rose from a peasant in a mountain village to become a wealthy merchant.

Unfortunately, he had few children, and only had one daughter in his old age, whom he doted on. He not only taught her business by hand, but also found a scholar to teach her to read and write.

Originally, Master Jiang had found her a good marriage partner, a young manager in their household who was reliable and good-looking.

Master Jiang tested him for a long time before finally deciding on this person.

The other family is not well-off; they have several sons, but they are willing to marry into the Jiang family.

But to her utter surprise, her only daughter fell in love with the poor scholar who taught her.

His usually obedient and rational daughter seemed to have gone mad; if he disagreed, she would elope with the poor scholar. Master Jiang couldn't persuade her otherwise and had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

Not two years later, Mr. Jiang passed away, and Miss Jiang gave birth to the eldest son of the Jiang family, Jiang Shaoju.

Jiang Shaoju's life was originally very good, but when he was seven or eight years old, his mother also passed away.

In the Jiang family, only his father, Chen Muxin, and he remained, relying on each other for survival.

At first, Mr. Chen presented himself as a devoted lover, always showing unwavering devotion to his wife.

But I don't know when it started, the number of old people in the mansion began to decrease, and the number of new faces began to increase.

Master Jiang, the nanny left behind by Miss Jiang, her personal maid, the servant left for her son, and so on, all left one by one.

When Jiang was eleven or twelve years old, his father, Chen Muxin, brought home a beautiful woman and a boy.

His father told him that the boy was the older brother, two years older than him.

At the time, he was still a little confused, not knowing when he had a friend who was two years older than him.

The only thing that was clear was that his life changed from then on. His new older brother and the woman his father brought back obviously disliked him and were targeting him openly and secretly.

Various framing and slander followed one after another.

Although his father always protected him, he still had to punish him in the face of these slanders.

Later on, even though his father showed great care for him both at home and outside, his life got worse and worse, and he suffered more and more.

The father seemed to care nothing about the affairs of the inner quarters, leaving everything to the women he had brought back to manage, and his life became increasingly miserable.

One day, he finally mustered the courage to complain to his father with the evidence he had painstakingly collected, only to be met with a severe beating. He was told that his father was narrow-minded, intolerant, and deserved to be punished.

Later, he was forced to move to a drafty little house. There were no servants or maids, and sometimes there was no food at all.

Now he understands that everything is because his surname is Jiang, not Chen.