Chapter 92
Cold air spread from the Seventh District to the entire territory. Except for the southern regions, other areas entered winter almost overnight.
A thin layer of ice formed on the road leading to the northern suburbs.
Road conditions were poor, and traffic moved slowly. Occasionally, cars skidded and scraped against each other, turning on their hazard lights and pulling over to the side.
Fifteen minutes remained before Bai Yue’s scheduled visiting time. As soon as the car stopped, he dragged his heavy coat and ran toward the prison gate.
“Sorry I’m late. This is my reservation information.”
After verifying his ID and reservation, Bai Yue passed through security anxiously.
Five minutes before the window closed, he hurried into the visiting room.
This was the first time Gu Lanzhu had accepted his visitation request.
He should be able to see the news in prison. The Gu family was finished, and the Chen family was finished. They were detained separately, interrogated over and over again about things from ten or twenty years ago.
Compared to those old foxes, he, the young master, was surprisingly the most comfortable one in the Gu family.
A sense of superiority floated in Bai Yue’s heart. At this stage, wasn’t he the only one who remained unswervingly loyal to him?
He was Gu Lanzhu’s last straw now!
The crimes of the older generation were being slowly sorted out, and sooner or later, they would trace back to the charges Gu Lanzhu had taken the fall for. When that happened, he wouldn’t be facing a life sentence anymore.
They were the youngest generation of the two families. They were still alive. He and Gu Lanzhu could still continue the bloodline.
“What do you want?” He didn’t expect Gu Lanzhu to speak so coldly as soon as he sat down. “Speak quickly if you have something to say.”
His eyes were sinister, making Bai Yue afraid for no reason. “…Don’t you have anything to ask me?”
Bai Yue muttered in a low voice.
But as soon as their eyes met, he lowered his head, trembling.
He thought of the compatibility report he had secretly obtained and straightened his back. He wanted to tell him that he was not inferior to Shu Ci in the slightest.
“Brother Ah Zhu, I’m sorry. I privately tested our compatibility.”
Gu Lanzhu lowered his brow, clenching his fist in displeasure.
He had actually fallen to the point where he was calculated against by others and unable to resist. He didn’t speak, waiting for Bai Yue’s follow-up.
Bai Yue took out the report and pressed it against the glass between them.
“I don’t understand. We clearly have 100% compatibility too. Why is your attitude toward me completely different from your attitude toward Shu Ci?”
Gu Lanzhu stood up abruptly, his chair crashing to the ground with a bang.
His gaze locked onto that report motionless.
Impossible. It shouldn’t be like this.
His fated 100%, the unique one he met in his life, could only be Shu Ci!
The suffering in prison Z01 was hard to endure. It was the auditory hallucinations from the silver-white lips on the wall that allowed him to exhaustedly hold on day after day.
That bewitching voice described the future he and Shu Ci would have. He heard that in such a future, Shu Ci would even destroy his glands for him, and he couldn’t stop crying.
The version of him in the Big Mouth’s story made Shu Ci suffer many grievances, making him heartbroken and regretful of his past forcefulness toward him.
Amidst the sadness, he also couldn’t sleep for a long time.
He grew increasingly jealous of Lu Wanqing. How he wished what the Big Mouth said was true—he also wanted to obtain Shu Ci’s love.
The Big Mouth said they were supposed to be the only perfect match in this world. Gu Lanzhu believed it firmly.
From the moment he stepped into the hotel and smelled Shu Ci’s scent, he thought so.
But now he was suddenly told that Bai Yue also had 100% compatibility with him?!
Gu Lanzhu pursed his lips, his face ashen.
“You dare bring fake things to show me?” He slammed his fist on the table. “Did you go to such great lengths just to enter the Gu family?”
Bai Yue had pulled many strings for this matter, even stuffing a lot of money into the testing center.
How could he look at him like that?!
Bai Yue said angrily, “I wouldn’t go so far as to deceive myself! The one refusing to admit reality is clearly you!”
He never thought there would be a day he dared to lose his temper in front of Gu Lanzhu, but as if a floodgate had opened, those deep-seated obsessions and resentments poured out all at once.
He used the sharpest words to stab at Gu Lanzhu’s scars.
“The testing agency can’t be wrong. It’s also 100%, yet your attitude toward me and him is completely different. You don’t care about compatibility supremacy at all; you just want Shu Ci.
“But has Shu Ci ever paid attention to you?
“He treats you like a scourge; that’s why he sent me evidence of your dirty deeds the first day we met. You still dream of getting him? Don’t flatter yourself!”
Looking at Gu Lanzhu’s distorted face, Bai Yue actually felt a burst of comfort and pleasure in his heart.
“Just live in your own world for the rest of your life! You will never get the person you want!”
“Shut up!” Gu Lanzhu flew into a rage out of humiliation, anger attacking his heart.
As soon as his voice fell, Bai Yue felt a pain in his throat. Gu Lanzhu stood opposite him, his expression behind the glass dark and unclear.
A sense of suffocation came from his neck, and his whole body fell straight backward.
The moment he hit the ground and closed his eyes, he seemed to see an abyss-like rift separating him from Gu Lanzhu.
The ground was vibrating.
Shu Ci opened his eyes abruptly, sitting up at once, and said in panic, “Earthquake?!”
“Next door is renovating. Just for the morning; it’ll be quick,” a lazy voice responded to him.
The next second, a pair of hands rested on his shoulders.
Lu Wanqing gently embraced him, pulling him back into his arms. Shu Ci crashed into someone’s bare chest and looked away.
“You plan to let Aunt Man live next door?” Shu Ci yawned.
Lu Wanqing turned his head, looked at Shu Ci’s sleepy face, grabbed his wrist, and gently bit his fingertips.
The tip of his teeth carried a hint of displeasure.
He has the nerve to say that.
After the chat that day, Lu Wanqing decided to let Yi Xingshui and the others organize the research report first, then he would relay it to the Marshal for a decision.
After all, it concerned major centers across the country and the intertwined interests of those families. It inevitably required bringing in Shen Lin for a thorough study.
While he was arranging things, Shu Ci exercised his instincts on the side, pulling Si Man into small talk.
“So it’s Aunt Man’s first time in the Seventh District? That’s perfect; you can look around more. Let me tell you, there are many old sites of General Lu Wei here, and there are even photos at the time-honored restaurants she frequented where you can check in!”
Shu Ci’s vlogs weren’t recorded in vain. In the blink of an eye, he became Si Man’s guide, planning a perfect travel route.
He even had Si Man pick a bottle of essential oil sent by the flower shop owner.
“This essential oil was my sister’s idea?” Si Man’s eyes were a little moist.
She had always had people look for traces of Lu Wei but had never personally set foot in the Seventh District. This trip gave her a great sense of satisfaction, a happiness she had never experienced in the first half of her life.
“Then I’ll pick a bottle.” She picked up the products Shu Ci had unboxed one by one, looking at the scents and effects, hesitating between two bottles.
“If you like them, take them all,” Shu Ci said.
“That won’t do. I’ll take this one.” Si Man’s eyes lit up, and she smiled faintly. “This bottle suits you… young people.”
She handed back the other bottle.
Shu Ci glanced at it; he couldn’t understand the foreign language on it.
“Where are you staying? Should I send the driver to pick you up?”
Si Man looked somewhat troubled. “We didn’t dare buy property in the Seventh District. Uncle wanted to buy a shop here before, but my sister found out and directly blocked his contact accounts in the Seventh District.”
“Then your original plan was…?”
“If you agreed, I would take you with me to see Uncle. If you didn’t agree to help us find my sister, I would leave by myself.”
Now, there was no need.
Her sister slept eternally in the vast land of the Seventh District. There were many, many people here who loved and respected her more than the Si family did.
“How about staying here for a few days?” Shu Ci looked at Si Man’s gloomy expression and couldn’t help speaking. “Walk through the places she walked, then go back.”
It was precisely this suggestion of his that pushed Lu Wanqing’s plan to go further with him a bit further away.
Since compatibility was a pseudo-concept, then… taking that step with Shu Ci was safe and natural.
Yi Xingshui also replied to him that according to Shu Changze’s research, the marking effect would not be affected by compatibility no matter what.
However, with Si Man, an elder, staying here for a few days, he couldn’t do those intimate things with Shu Ci.
Marking, in Lu Wanqing’s heart, was an extremely important life event.
He wanted to give himself, along with all his secrets, to Shu Ci completely, like a devout sacrifice.
He looked at the drowsy person beside him, lowered his head, and kissed the glands he frankly exposed to him.
“Don’t sleep anymore. Today is the body farewell ceremony.”
Lu Wanqing held him up, took off his own shirt that Shu Ci was now wearing as pajamas, and dressed him while Shu Ci was half-asleep.
Shu Ci himself was a wandering soul from another world; only that body was related by blood to Lu Wei. But he was different.
In his sleep on Juqing Road, he had missed the farewell with her. This was the only, and the last, chance to make up for it.
The two had breakfast and walked out of the villa side by side. Si Man was already waiting outside.
She still wore that black long dress, with a long coat characteristic of the Seventh District over it, her red hair dancing behind her head.
Lu Wanqing’s villa was built against the mountain. Looking down from here, one could overlook the panoramic view of the Seventh District’s city center.
The streets and alleys were a sea of black and white.
Everyone in the Seventh District had received notice three days ago that General Lu Wei’s remains had been recovered and a farewell ceremony would be held.
From that day on, the dusty memories related to Lu Wei that shrouded many people’s hearts were quietly opened.
Shops large and small changed to black and white decorations. Black roses were placed on restaurant tables, and all neon lights were replaced with glowing candlelight.
They walked along the street toward the city center square.
At the street intersections, under the crystal frost and snow, someone played the folk dirge of the Seventh District on an accordion, the sound melodious.
The crowd automatically made a path for Lu Wanqing and Shu Ci. They walked in side by side and stopped in front of the square box representing Lu Wei.
This was the first time the two had appeared formally together on live television. Lu Wanqing was solemn in his uniform, and Shu Ci was impeccable in a full black formal suit.
Shu Ci didn’t want the fact that he was Lu Wei’s child to become the focus of public opinion again. He stopped in the first row of the crowd, watching Lu Wanqing go on stage to give a speech.
In the cold wind, Lu Wanqing raised his hand to adjust Shu Ci’s collar.
Shu Ci felt a bit uncomfortable under his gaze, the tips of his ears turning slightly red. “Stop dawdling, go up quickly!”
Lu Wanqing chuckled lightly, pecked the corner of Shu Ci’s mouth, then vaulted onto the stage and walked to the microphone.
A flag covered the small square box.
“The Seventh District is the place General Lu Wei protected with her life, and also the place countless Golden Shields guard with their lives. Every life here deserves respect, and every inch of land is not allowed to be trampled.”
He was striving to practice these words.
“General Lu Wei left a short last word. She said: ‘No need to miss me; live your life well.'”
“Ceremonies and reputation were external things to her. She hoped that everyone she once protected could control their own destiny, no longer wandering and displaced, and spend the rest of their lives happily.”
He looked at the crowd in the square, at every pair of shining eyes, and finally his gaze landed on Shu Ci.
“Living freely with love in your heart is the greatest comfort to her.”
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