Mr. Axton was an elegant and refined man, but he had a particularly crass friend named Billy. Thus, his understanding of relationships and romance were discussed in conversations like, “Are you doing it today?” “Yes!” “You want to do her, don’t you?”
Although Ian of course knew how to be tactful, he felt that being vulgar sounded better, perhaps because of Billy’s “education.”
This side of Ian really scared Daren silly. He looked at his older brother, and his entire face and neck area turned a deep shade of red. However, he didn’t dare to admonish his brother for being too crass. In the end, after quite a while, all he said was, “Oh.”
After Ian forcefully transmitted his incorrect understanding of love and relationships to his younger brother, Ian even thought that he had finally enlightened him. He felt somewhat gratified and a little proud. And when he returned home to Amber that night, he immediately told her, “Daren has seen the truth.”
Amber was shocked. “Really?” She had assumed that for someone as introverted and stubborn as Daren, it would be very difficult to change his way of thinking. Thus, she asked, full of genuine interest, “You convinced him? How did you do it?”
“Yes.” Ian seemed to be trying to act modestly. “He’s still young, so he doesn’t know what love really is.”
… The words “doesn’t know what love really is” didn’t seem like they should be coming from Ian’s mouth, and it made Amber feel discombobulated.
Amber didn’t fully trust Ian’s appraisal, but she nonetheless smiled and said, “Actually, I think that you’re right. He’s too introverted, so if you have the time, you should find some more opportunities for him to temper himself on.”
Amber’s choice of words was already very neutral: Daren wasn’t just introverted; at this point, he was most likely already starting to develop a social impediment. If his environment didn’t quickly change for the better, his future life and emotional development would be greatly impaired.
In Amber’s opinion, the best course of action for Daren would be to immediately undergo therapy. However, because of Ian’s instinctive dislike for doctors and hospitals, she didn’t explicitly say this. Perhaps she’d have a chance to mention it to some other members of the Axton family in the future.
But Ian actually understood her insinuation, and he asked back, “Are you sure that it’ll be effective?”
“Didn’t you say that he’s still young? If so, then his personality is still forming. Also, in my opinion, it’s always better to do something than nothing.
Ian thought her words over for a little and then nodded. The next day, he called Daren over again, this time throwing him into a job as a basic salesperson for Axton Corporation.
Since Ian knew that his younger brother was still in school, he didn’t assign him much work, and even gave him some choices. “You can work wherever you want-hotels, pharmaceuticals, supermarkets, or something else.
I don’t care where, but the main point is that you have to go out and help the team with sales on the weekends. Treat it like an internship or something.”
Daren’s mouth made a wide round “O” and it seemed like he was about to burst out into tears. “Brother ….”
But his brother remained hard-hearted, merely glancing at him coldly. “Yes?”
And Daren had nothing else he could say.
When he returned to school, he felt completely disheartened; he was studying applied mathematics, and even if he wasn’t a nouveau riche, he had the credentials to become a future engineer. What was his brother thinking, forcing him to enter sales?
He didn’t even have any real life friends to complain to, so he tapped around on his phone, aimlessly trying to find someone to talk to. And, almost as he thought that he wouldn’t, he finally did. Yes, it was actually “”Sweetheart’s’ Brother, Ruby.”
Daren didn’t dare directly call Ruby, so he instead texted him “Brother, I’m about to die ….”
When Ruby received this message, he was busy and didn’t see it. However, when he did, he was so shocked that his heart skipped a beat.
Poor Ruby was surrounded with people who rarely ever exaggerated; when they said that they were about to die, they meant it. For example, his grandmother, on the day that she had killed herself, had called her grandchildren on the phone and merely said, “Grandma’s going to leave now. Take good care of yourselves in the future.”
And then she really did leave, forever.
Due to this incident, Amber’s family never talked about death frivolously, not even as a joke. When Ruby suddenly read this message, his horror was only exacerbated by the fact that it had been sent by someone who was suffering from mental trauma and wasn’t in a good mental state to begin with.
So when Ruby read the words, “about to die,” he automatically assumed that Daren was being serious.
In that moment, he disregarded everything else at hand, quickly turned his phone on, and called Daren. Crap! His phone was off! Ruby’s scalp went numb, and he became so scared that he started sweating buckets.
He threw down everything he was working on, ran outside, and called Amber as he did so. “Sis! Something big’s happening! Something really big! Daren sent me a text about an hour ago, saying that he was about to die! Contact his family, and tell them to contact the university!”
Daren normally lived in the university dorms whenever classes were in session.
Amber also jumped up in shock, and subconsciously muttered, “It can’t be, can it? His brother even said yesterday that he was getting better.”
“Better, my ass!” When Ruby became flustered, his hooligan-like personality surfaced. “That stubborn mule! Even after I spent all my efforts to brainwash him, it seems that all of it just went in one ear and out the other. Quickly, contact his family! I’m running to the university now!”
Ruby then hung up, and Amber quickly contacted Ian. Between her brother and Ian, she trusted Ruby’s judgment more, while Ian might be better in all other areas, in terms of emotions and feelings, Ruby was lightyears ahead of Ian.
While she had naturally discounted what Ian had said yesterday, she didn’t expect that he would be this far off the mark!
Amber and Ruby were so anxious that they felt like organs were about to burst into flames. However, when Mr. Axton heard this, all he said was, “There’s no need to be in such a fuss.”
Amber barely restrained her impatience as she politely asked, “Then, can you contact a professor at the university? Or perhaps one of his close classmates?”
“….”