Chapter 48: Bad News, This Is a Real First Kiss “Don’t go… okay?”
The moment Si Jinyan’s hand touched him, an intense pain flared in his abdomen, and his body slammed into the wall behind him with a loud bang.
“President Si.” Lu Xunye retracted his leg, looking down at Si Jinyan, who was scrambling up in a wretched state. He sneered, “Just because your little beauty won’t keep you company, you can’t come and steal mine.”
He adjusted the person in his arms, and feeling the arms around his neck tighten, his mood improved considerably. “My beauty is timid, so I won’t stay to chat.”
As Lu Xunye stepped over Si Jinyan’s legs, his ankle was grabbed, forcing him to stop in his tracks.
Si Jinyan swayed as he stood up, his alcohol-clouded eyes staring straight at the person whose head was covered in Lu Xunye’s arms.
Suppressing his rage, he forced out the question, “It’s him, isn’t it? You lied to me. He’s not dead at all.”
Without waiting for a reply, he muttered to himself, becoming more convinced of his own judgment. “He definitely isn’t dead. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you let me lift the clothes… It must be him, it must be…”
Lu Xunye rolled his eyes at him. “Right, he’s coming to claim your life any second now.”
Si Jinyan was completely immersed in his own world, not hearing a word he said. He raised his voice and shouted.
“Shen Yunqian! Do you hate me that much? You were the one who wronged me first, so why does it feel like I forced you!”
“If your parents hadn’t schemed against us, my mother wouldn’t have died! If not for Shen Yunji, that beast in human skin, that pervert, I wouldn’t have been locked in that sunless dark room and tortured by him!”
“You saw it that day too, didn’t you? The Shen family’s dark room. How did you feel?”
“Weren’t you curious why I locked you in the basement?” Si Jinyan’s expression was ferocious, his eyes scarlet and looking utterly deranged. “Because I wanted you to personally experience the despair I felt back then!”
“The rumors about me imprisoning and abusing you were released by me on purpose.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s a pity Shen Yunji never showed his face from beginning to end.”
“Do you know what the people I sent reported back?”
He paused, then gritted his teeth. “He changed his name and is living a very comfortable life. He doesn’t care about the life or death of you, his younger brother, at all. Otherwise, why would he run away again?”
Lu Xunye was dumbfounded, his worldview collapsing.
What, what, what?!
The Protagonist Shou‘s brother isn’t just a pedophile!
He’s also a sadist?!
“Shen Yunqian, how could you die?”
Si Jinyan couldn’t explain why, despite seeing Shen Yunqian fall into the sea with his own eyes, hearing the confirmation of his death now made him so terrified, so panicked.
Was it hatred or something else? He had no time to think. That was why he had sent boats to salvage the sea the very night of the banquet incident and returned to Haishi to investigate the events of eight years ago.
He had hated someone with unwavering conviction for eight years, yet now someone was telling him he hated the wrong person.
Even though a voice in his heart told Si Jinyan it was true, he instinctively tried to escape reality, seeking an outlet for his emotions.
A layer of gloom covered his face. Teetering on the edge of a breakdown, he roared and reached out, trying to pry into the identity of the person under the clothes. “Before I find Shen Yunji, you cannot die. I don’t believe it!”
“But what does that have to do with Shen Yunqian?” Lu Xunye turned sideways, hugging the person tightly and retreating repeatedly, not wanting to tangle further with a drunkard.
“If your mother’s death had to do with Shen Yunqian’s parents, his parents are already dead. If his brother wronged you, go take revenge on his brother. What does it have to do with Shen Yunqian?”
Si Jinyan wanted to say ‘You don’t understand,’ but the words died on his lips.
Should he say… it was Shen Yunqian who abandoned him?
Or that as the son of his enemy, he couldn’t escape the connection?
In his memory, Shen Yunqian had pushed him away to save himself, causing him to hit a reef in the surging waves. But perhaps… that wasn’t the truth.
For the first time, Si Jinyan’s long-held conviction wavered, replaced by confusion.
Regarding his experiences before the age of seventeen, he suddenly felt… he couldn’t remember clearly.
Everything in the past seemed shrouded in fog; the only thing clear was his hatred for the Shen family.
Meanwhile, Lu Xunye put Shen Yunqian down, unlocked his own door, and lowered his voice. “Don’t speak. Go inside first.”
As the door was pulled open, Si Jinyan snapped back from his chaotic thoughts. He strode forward, grabbing the door handle and locking it again.
Before either of them could react, he ripped the clothes away.
The garment flashed before their eyes, flew out of his hand, and fell from the air.
Lu Xunye blocked Shen Yunqian, shoving Si Jinyan violently and shouting sternly, “Get lost!”
Si Jinyan was pushed back, his back slamming directly into the opposite door. The wooden panel shuddered violently behind him.
The sight of Lu Xunye blocking his view so completely was like a thorn stabbing deep into his eyes. Blood rushed to his head; anger, like a stampeding beast, took over his brain.
His hand found the wine bottle left at the door earlier, and a bloodthirsty glint flashed in his eyes.
There was a whoosh of air being sliced. Lu Xunye’s ears twitched, and he lowered his eyes to look at Shen Yunqian.
His hand, hovering over the door lock, curled inward as if guided by a ghost.
In the spark of a second, Lu Xunye slammed both hands against the door panel, imprisoning Shen Yunqian within the space of his arms.
The crisp sound of a shattering wine bottle echoed in the empty corridor. The motion-sensor light above flickered on and off.
Splattered drops of blood melted into Shen Yunqian’s disbelieving eyes, dyeing the whites of his eyes red. His vision turned crimson as blood gushed down from Lu Xunye’s forehead.
Lu Xunye lifted his hand, wanting to touch his face, his voice weak and helpless. “Don’t go… okay?”
His pupils slowly dilated. Before his hand could drop, Shen Yunqian grabbed it first and placed it against his own face. “Okay.”
The next moment, the sensor light went out completely, and Lu Xunye lost consciousness.
Three Days Later
Sunlight spilled onto the face of the young man in the hospital bed. The pungent smell of disinfectant felt foreign to him. Struggling to wake up as if drowning, he stared blankly at the snow-white ceiling.
Lu Xunye clutched his throbbing head, looking down to see someone slumped by the bedside.
The person didn’t seem peaceful even in sleep; his brows were slightly furrowed, and faint dark circles hung beneath his eyes.
The person’s hand was loosely holding his other hand. He frowned, carefully extracting it while watching to see if the young man showed any signs of waking.
By the time he completely withdrew his hand, his palm was soaked with sweat.
The phone on the bedside table vibrated briefly, and the screen lit up. Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to catch two trending notifications.
#Lu Group Heir’s Romance Exposed
#Lu Group Invests 600 Million in Qinghudao Construction
He normally wouldn’t care about such gossip news, but he noticed the time on the lock screen. Before he could look closer, the screen went black.
He picked up the phone. His finger pressed somewhere, and the fingerprint unlock worked instantly.
The wallpaper was a side profile of a young man holding a cat, looking out at the sunset. The orange light outlined the contours of his face, making it look like an oil painting.
The only flaw was a pink square clumsily photoshopped onto the wall next to him.
There was a chibi character on the square. How to put it… the photoshop was too fake.
When Lu Xunye opened the camera, he accidentally touched the messaging app next to it. A small red dot indicated an unread message.
Curiosity piqued, he clicked on it. A text message from a strange number, sent three nights ago, appeared on the screen.
[Young Master, we have already had someone cut the power circuits and spread the news of Young Master Shen’s drowning. We received word that there was a construction error at the Dongcheng plot. Si Jinyan will not disturb you again for a short time.]
With an indescribable expression, Lu Xunye typed two letters: [TD] (Translator’s Note: TD stands for ‘Tui Ding’, the standard reply to unsubscribe from spam messages in China), and randomly blocked the number.
Once he successfully opened the camera selfie mode, he looked at himself in the lens, touching the gauze on his head thoughtfully.
After exiting the app, he saw the desktop wallpaper again. His gaze shifted down to the person by the bed. He lowered his head and reached out a finger to brush away the bangs that were getting in the other person’s way.
Looking at him, then back at the wallpaper, several blurry fragments flashed through his mind. His head hurt even more. He hammered his own head lightly to calm down.
Lu Xunye looked up at the nearly empty medicine bag. He pulled the needle out directly, tore off a corner of the white tape on the back of his hand, flicked away the beads of blood oozing from the puncture, and stuck the tape back on.
The swelling on the back of his hand slowly subsided. He lifted the quilt and quietly walked out of the ward.
The hospital corridor was filled with unfamiliar faces. There were many people coming and going, including doctors and nurses, so his hospital gown didn’t stand out among them.
“Mr. Lu, please wait a moment.”
A male voice called out from behind. Unsure if it was addressing him, Lu Xunye turned to look at the doctor walking toward him and pointed at himself blankly.
He was then led into an office by the doctor. Lu Xunye noticed the sign outside when he entered: Genetics Department.
After sitting down, the doctor straightforwardly handed him a piece of paper. “I couldn’t get through to your phone yesterday. It’s good that I ran into you today.”
The doctor comforted him, “Don’t be sad.”
Lu Xunye was puzzled. Just then, there was a knock at the door. The question rolling on the tip of his tongue was swallowed back.
The doctor tidied his desk. “Come in.”
…
Sitting on the row of chairs outside the department, Lu Xunye clutched the paper, finally seeing clearly that it was a genetic test report.
One sample was labeled “Lu Xunye,” which was him.
The other was labeled “Lu Xunye’s Father.”
His gaze swept to the end of the paper. The final result excluded the sample provider as Lu Xunye’s biological father.
Lu Xunye suddenly felt relieved.
He crumpled the paper into a ball. Just as he was about to throw it into the trash can beside his hand, a strange voice sounded in his mind.
[Detected Host awakening. System Xiao Ai is starting up.]
[Love Points +500, Love Points +1000, Love Points +++…]
The mechanical voice stuttered for a long time. [Current Love Points: 800,000. Current Life Value: 29 days, 5 hours, 49 seconds.]
Lu Xunye’s eyes widened, and he instantly stood up, looking around.
After the emotionless electronic voice came a spirited crying sound: [Host, wu wu wu wu wu, why have you gone stupid? Wu wu wu wu T_T]
The wailing and howling filled his entire skull, making his head throb. He said impatiently, “Shut up.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was startled by his own rashness, as if this scenario had happened countless times.
The air fell silent. The people around him were looking at him as if he were mentally ill.
Gradually, their gazes overlapped with certain gazes from his memories. Red veins crept into Lu Xunye’s eyes. Clenching his fists, he fled the place.
On the rooftop…
“A transmigrator?”
[16 years old?!]
Two shocked voices sounded simultaneously.
Lu Xunye belatedly pulled up his sleeves and unbuttoned his shirt. The cold wind hit his skin, which bore no scars whatsoever.
He stared blankly at his smooth arms. There were no scars where bone had once been exposed by broken wine bottles, nor were there cigarette burns.
His trembling hands went to touch his thigh, which had been nearly pierced through last night. Again, nothing.
He had wondered why it didn’t hurt at all when he walked. He had thought he was in heaven—after all, no one would have sent him to a hospital.
So… that report wasn’t for him and that man.
The System told him a bit more.
“Capture the heart of the Protagonist Shou?” Lu Xunye was full of confusion. “Return to the original world?”
He asked, “Is the original world my world?”
System Xiao Ai fell silent for a moment, then said with high morale, “En!”
Lu Xunye gripped the high ledge, looking down at the busy street filled with traffic below, and asked a question: “Did I take her with me in the end?”
While waiting for the reply, he unconsciously held his breath.
The System naturally knew who he was asking about and answered truthfully: [No. She was beaten to death a year later. However, the perpetrator was brought to justice. You also cut off his genitals.]
“Is that so,” Lu Xunye murmured low. “He must have cheated.”
The System felt a vague sense of unease. After a long while, it heard the person say: “I’m not going back.”
The System shattered into pieces.
Hearing movement behind him, Lu Xunye turned his head, only to be forcefully embraced, his shoulders trapped.
He froze for a moment, then came back to his senses and started to struggle.
“Lu Xunye.”
A voice devoid of emotion sounded in his ear.
He stopped struggling, and the person released him.
As the restraint on his body loosened, a face appeared before Lu Xunye’s eyes. The rims of the eyes were red. That single blue eye was particularly beautiful. His first thought was ‘This heterochromia is really cool.’
His second thought was, ‘So this is what he looks like with his eyes open. So beautiful… and… so close.’
The redness on Lu Xunye’s ears spread to his neck.
His gaze met the complex emotions in the depths of the young man’s eyes, giving him the illusion that an unsuppressable madness was about to burst out of its cage.
Lu Xunye thought: I seem to have… made him angry.
He opened his mouth to ask, but his voice was blocked by a sudden kiss.
Author’s Note: Great joy! They kissed! [Sunglasses]
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