These two people.
Really.
Jiang Jianqing felt his eyes inexplicably moistening.
As he got older, there were fewer and fewer sincere people around him; only one or two friends who could still talk remained, each busy with their own careers and with little time for emotional exchanges.
At home, his wife and he had a contract marriage and thus lacked deep feelings. If it hadn't been to avoid an arranged marriage, he wouldn't have been so eager to get married. Most evenings he spent alone, with no one to listen to his feelings of loneliness and suffering.
He always thought that the five or six-year age difference between him and his brother meant a certain generation gap. His brother usually didn't chat with him, only bringing gifts back from his travels. He had never expected his brother to care so much about their relationship.
A middle-aged man's tears come so easily.
Just a little bit of care can make them overflow.
He wasn't superfluous after all.