"who?"
He Lin handed him some water.
Ji Lingfeng didn't reach out to take it at first. After a while, he slowly reached out and took the cup from He Lin: "Who are you talking about?"
He Lin was stunned for a moment, then looked up at him: "You mean..."
Ji Lingfeng saw that he had guessed it, and he lowered his eyelashes slightly. His whole body was shrouded in darkness, and he seemed to be extremely tired and could be drowned in the night at any time.
"how do you feel?"
"… "
He Lin hesitated and did not dare to answer this fatal question immediately. He lowered his head to think for a while, then raised his head to look at Ji Lingfeng, who looked sick, and said softly, "Patriarch, have you discussed this with your wife?"
Ji Lingfeng opened his eyes and looked at him.
Even in the dark, He Lin could feel how sharp the gazes falling on him were.
He gritted his teeth and still insisted: "I think it's best for you to discuss this matter with your wife. Otherwise, your wife will be sad if she knows."
"She'll understand."
Ji Lingfeng and Xie Yun have been married for decades and have raised a son together. It would be a lie to say that there is no love between them at all. However, this relationship is more of a relationship of mutual respect and even Ji Lingfeng himself cannot tell how much love there is in it.
"You've seen it during the days I was away from the Ji family. Ji Nan is not suitable for the position of clan leader. First of all, he can't control the people below him."
"Chief." Ji Lin looked up frequently, but was unable to refute his words.
Ji Lingfeng was extremely tired and propped up his head. His sharp eyes fell on him and stared at him straight. "If Ji Nan is capable of holding on to this position, I, as a father, am willing to give him a chance. But I don't have the time. If something happens to me, how long can he hold on to this position by himself? Besides... this position didn't belong to me in the first place."
The last sentence is the main point he wants to make.
"This position does not belong to me. I just sat on that person's behalf for decades. Now it's time to give it back to her descendants."
"Chief..." He Lin felt sorry for him and raised his hand to comfort him on the shoulder, but due to the hierarchy, he was unable to do so.
Ji Lingfeng sighed heavily in the darkness. His face looked extremely bad, but his spirit was relaxed. He even had the mood to smile at He Lin who was about to cry.
"Don't be sad, I got what I wanted."
He took out an old photo that He Lin had seen before from the drawer. The girl in the photo, who looked 50% like Qiao Nian, seemed to be frozen in time and had never aged.
Ji Lingfeng gently brushed his fingertips across the bright eyes of the person in the photo and whispered, "I have often regretted these years. If I had been more careful back then, would that tragedy not have happened... would she be alive today?"
It is a taboo that Ji Qing cannot be mentioned in the Ji family.
But few people know that Ji Lingfeng doesn't allow people to mention Ji Qing, not because of the rumors back then, but because... Ji Qing itself is a taboo in his heart.
I don't want anyone to touch or offend me.
Because whenever someone mentioned Ji Qing, Ji Lingfeng would not be able to sleep all night, regretting that he had not done well enough back then and failed to protect his sister, who was also the person he cherished in his heart.
"Lu Zhigang called me and said that the medicine from the Pharmacy Association will be delivered soon. You should go to the dock to pick it up in person. Don't let anyone see you."
Ji Lingfeng's fragility is always just a moment, fleeting.
When he put the photo back into the drawer, he returned to his usual tough image of being the one who does what he says.
(End of this chapter)