"But now that Zhu is gone, Baoyu is my only reason for living! How could you bring yourself to be so cruel? My poor Zhu..."
Dowager Jia, her face twisted in fury, glared at Jia Zheng and shouted, "You unfilial wretch! Are you trying to be the death of me? I shall pack my bags this very moment and return to our ancestral home in Jinling!"
Seeing his mother in such a state of agitation, Jia Zheng panicked. He dropped to his knees with a thud and pleaded urgently, "Mother, please, you must not do such a thing. If you do, how am I to hold my head up in this world? Baoyu is only two years younger than Yuge, yet look at Yuge—he has already excelled in the county, prefectural, and academy examinations, earning the rank of *xiucai*. But Baoyu? He knows only how to play all day; he has no ambition. How is he ever to shoulder the burden of our great Jia Clan in the future?"
Chapter 368