Chapter 24: The Ultimate Filter; I Knew He Was a Pitiful Little Thing…
Feng Chengyu lay sprawled on the bar counter, watching the bartender carve an ice ball with fluid, practiced movements.
After waiting for ages without getting a response, his heart felt even more desolate—colder than the ice in front of him.
He sniffled and complained discontentedly, “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“…” Lu Xunye held his phone, his index finger rubbing incessantly against the phone case, looking as if he were about to bore a hole right through it.
To think he had actually worried yesterday that this young master was some cannon fodder destined for a tragic end. It turned out the only tragedy here was himself.
“I know you got what you wanted, so can you stop beating around the bush about how intense your bedroom activities were?”
His eyes unconsciously darted toward the bedsheets before quickly retracting his gaze. “I am not interested in the slightest.”
“What bedroom activities? Are you sick?!” Feng Chengyu was furious. “You patted your butt and left yesterday, leaving that bullshit goddess of yours for me to deal with!”
“I got so drunk that my family’s butler had to come pick me up. It’s a miracle I haven’t cut ties with you already! You know perfectly well that dog of a man doesn’t like me, so is there any need to slander me with ‘got what you wanted’?!”
“I just wanted to ask you for some advice. I don’t know what happens when you get hemorrhoids…”
“Wait, wait.” Lu Xunye seized control of the conversation from Feng’s rambling. “You said who picked you up?! Did you sleep at your house last night?”
“If I didn’t sleep at my house, was I supposed to sleep at yours?!”
Feng Chengyu’s temper flared, and his voice rose a few decibels. In the noisy environment, his voice wasn’t loud enough to attract everyone’s attention, but it did cause the people nearby to look at him with strange expressions.
Realizing he hadn’t lowered his voice when mentioning “hemorrhoids” earlier, he instantly flushed red with shame, unable to lift his head. In his flustered state, he knocked over the drink by his hand.
This made him panic even more. Hurriedly dropping a “Put it on my tab,” he turned and ran.
On the other end of the line:
Lu Xunye walked out of the guest room and saw a bowl of steaming porridge on the coffee table… takeout.
Shen Yunqian was nowhere to be seen in the apartment. As Lu Xunye headed out, he noticed a sticky note on the door. He peeled it off casually. The handwriting was neat and elegant: I have something to do and went out. Take the trash out when you finish eating.
Lu Xunye listened to the clanging and crashing sounds coming from his phone, raised an eyebrow, and confirmed the call was still active. “Where are you?”
“Lanwine.”
Along with Feng Chengyu’s reply, a teasing male voice rang out in the background: “Why is Young Master Feng drinking all alone? How boring. Do you need me to find someone to serve you properly?”
The mocking, malicious provocation coming through the phone made Lu Xunye’s expression freeze.
Meanwhile, at the bar:
Feng Chengyu looked at the greasy, wretched fatty whose collar was wide open, hugging people left and right, and sneered disdainfully.
“Didn’t your dad just beat you until you couldn’t get out of bed? Not to be rude, but did you install a detector on your dick? It perks up at anyone.”
“This Young Master will show some mercy and send you a sow later to let you have a good time, just to save you from ruining others.”
The accumulated anger seemed to find an outlet, and Feng Chengyu showed no mercy.
“Your brother cultivates his character and has refined tastes. You are far worse than him. Could it be that you are the illegitimate son?”
A strange, furious male voice almost exploded out of the phone screen. “Fine! Today we’ll see who the illegitimate son is!”
Accompanied by the loud crash of shattering glass, the call cut off abruptly.
“Hello!” Lu Xunye tightened his grip on the phone.
He suddenly realized something was wrong.
Where was the System?!
Pushing open the door to his own home, he faintly heard voices. Lu Xunye opened his mouth to shout, but the System’s voice reached his ears first.
“I know, he won’t find out. He already had a tendency to be moved before, and he will this time too. It won’t take long to reach…”
The second half of the sentence was too blurry for Lu Xunye to hear clearly. He narrowed his long eyes. Reach what?
“Remember, when necessary, you can obliterate him directly.”
“…Okay.”
“Be cautious and careful. Rein in your temper. Do not put my conversation with you on speaker.”
The System, with its palm-sized, short and round body, lay on the sofa with its legs crossed, speaking nonchalantly to the air. “No one is here, don’t worry…”
It stopped abruptly mid-sentence and cut the speaker function: 【Someone is here!】
Lu Xunye pulled back his thoughts and slammed the door—which hadn’t been fully closed—shut, creating the illusion that he had just returned. He turned his head and stared at the flying System.
He frowned impatiently: “…If you’re sick, go die.”
The System breathed a sigh of relief, cut the connection, and put on a smiley face: “Host, you’re back?”
Lu Xunye retorted, “Is this not my home? You didn’t even care when your Host passed out yesterday. Is this how you act as a system? I’m going to report you.”
System: 【…】
Twenty minutes later.
Lanwine.
Lu Xunye stepped into the bar alone, dodging men and women coming to hit on him, and seemingly inadvertently glanced at the shadow that had been following him.
Amidst the flashing lights and noisy neon, he quickly blended into the crowd and mentally commanded the System: 【We’re in range now. Check where Feng Chengyu is for me.】
【Last known location: Box V888.】
Arriving on the second floor, there was no cover. From the entrance, Lu Xunye easily spotted several tall, burly men standing awkwardly in the crowd below, wearing duckbill caps pulled low to reduce their presence as people danced to the music.
The moment one of them looked up, Lu Xunye quickly turned his head and rushed into the corridor, looking for the room number.
V888. The black sign with white text and gold trim was nailed to the door. Lu Xunye prepared himself for the door to be locked, ready to kick it open.
But the moment he put his hand on the handle, the door opened.
“!” Lu Xunye’s eyes went wide. Because he had used too much force in anticipation, he threw his whole body forward and stumbled into the private box.
On the floor lay a “pile” of bruised and swollen people, lying in disarray. At first glance, it looked like a crime scene.
Only then did he see the three people clearly on the ground.
One was a fatty wearing a gaudy shirt, his zipper half-down revealing the edge of floral underwear. His shoes were gone, leaving him barefoot, and his mouth was stuffed with something that looked suspiciously like socks. He was the most miserably beaten of the three.
Suddenly, several gazes locked onto him like shadows.
Lu Xunye felt prickles on his back. He managed to steady his feet and slowly looked up, seeing four strong men in the box pausing their action of adjusting their sleeves to look his way.
Lu Xunye: “…”
After frantically calling the System to no avail, he no longer had any hope for that idiot.
The fatty on the ground squinted his swollen eyes into a slit. Seeing Lu Xunye, he wailed “Mmph mmph mmph” from his throat.
“Where is that little brat?”
A curse rang out from the corridor outside, accompanied by the sound of rapid footsteps. Lu Xunye snapped to attention and backhandedly locked the door.
“I saw him run this way! He must be hiding in one of the boxes. Don’t worry, Boss, he can’t run.”
“If we can’t find him, I’ll skin you alive! You two guard the stairs and elevator. You four come with me to check room by room. I don’t believe it—damn it, he can’t turn invisible!”
Separated by the heavy door panel, the voices outside sounded muffled, as if covered by cotton, but the footsteps and knocking struck Lu Xunye’s heart clearly through the barrier.
The strong man closest to him in the room finally finished adjusting his sleeves, stepped over the “corpses” on the floor, and walked straight toward him.
Lu Xunye swallowed hard, staring closely at the strong man’s movements, his hand hidden behind his back never letting go of the doorknob.
The next second, the strong man disappeared from his line of sight and fell to his knees in front of him with a thud.
Lu Xunye: “…”
Everyone: “…”
The strong man himself: “…”
Lu Xunye couldn’t control the twitching of his mouth.
The air was dead silent. The others stared dumbfounded at this scene.
The strong man calmly climbed up from the ground, turned back to kick the person on the floor who had tripped him, then looked back at Lu Xunye.
“!” Suddenly locking eyes, Lu Xunye retreated a foot, ready to run at any moment.
“Is Young Master Lu looking for our Young Master?”
The sudden question made Lu Xunye freeze on the spot. “…Young Master?”
Only then did he notice the inner booth of the wine table. Hanging on the back of a seat was a black and gold shimmering soft tweed jacket, and on the table sat a glass with only dregs left.
This kind of western-style, showy yet soft type of clothing… Lu Xunye processed this for a moment. “Feng Chengyu?”
“Yes, Young Master Lu. My Young Master and his friend left first. Do you need him for something?”
Lu Xunye was just about to say no when the door panel behind him was suddenly banged loudly.
The people outside, after knocking repeatedly without response, grew increasingly irritable, shouting with rough voices.
“Guests inside, listen up! We are hunting a fugitive. We mean no harm. Please cooperate, otherwise don’t blame us for taking necessary measures.”
Lu Xunye lowered his eyelids, his emotions hard to read.
The strong man understood the current situation clearly and spoke up in a timely manner: “Does Young Master Lu need help?”
Lu Xunye’s tone was low: “Do you know how many of them there are?”
“Who cares how many? We aren’t useless. Just beat them out.” The strong man on the left patted his chest, vowing solemnly.
Lu Xunye looked at him. “Do you know if they have people hiding in the dark? If so, how many? Are they carrying weapons? If we break things, how much do we have to pay in compensation?”
Lu Xunye swallowed the second half of the sentence for the sake of his scant remaining dignity.
Oh, he forgot.
They wouldn’t have to pay for broken things anyway; it would go on the public account, naturally coming out of Feng Chengyu’s pocket.
To every question he asked, these four people shook their heads without exception.
“F*ck, break the door!” The man with a face full of transverse flesh outside completely lost patience.
The vibration from the violent impact on the door physically hit Lu Xunye’s back.
The atmosphere in the box was heavy and oppressive. No one spoke again. The few who had threatened to fight their way out also fell silent, raising their arms into defensive postures.
Bang—
The door was smashed open. A group of fiendish-looking men poured into the room, filling the empty space. When they saw the scene inside, they were all stunned.
They saw a muscular man grabbing the collar of the flowery-shirted fatty, while three people beside them clapped and cheered. The fatty was bruised and swollen, clearly in the middle of a beating.
Because of their intrusion, the men were dissatisfied. “Looking for death?”
“Have you seen…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the strong man holding the fatty shouted sternly: “Get out!”
After being chased out, the underling rubbed his head. “Why aren’t we searching anymore, Boss?”
He was ruthlessly slapped as soon as he spoke. “No one thinks you’re mute if you don’t speak.”
Another person echoed, “Are you stupid? Didn’t you see there was no one inside? That room has nowhere to hide anyone. Besides, he didn’t discover us at all. If we alert the enemy and let him get away, how do we explain this to the employer?”
“Shut up, all of you!”
The one called Boss interrupted them.
“Keep searching. Leave one person on the second floor, the others go to the third floor and first floor. Also, have Old Three watch the bar entrance. I don’t believe he can grow wings and fly away.”
Inside the box, one person pulled open the curtain, poking his head out from the open window, calm as usual. “Whoa, pretty high.”
The cold wind was biting, scraping the face like steel knives. The streetlamps downstairs were already lit. “Big Brother, who did Young Master Lu offend? Will he be okay?”
Next door, inside Box V999.
The lights were warm yellow, and the heated air made people sleepy.
“Who do you think offended that group of people just now? Quite the imposing manner. I’m actually a bit interested in meeting this person.”
Joking, Su Zhuo handed a wine glass to the person sitting in the innermost part of the booth, half of whose face was hidden in darkness. “I’m talking about you. What exactly do you want to do? If it’s for revenge, there’s really no need for this.”
Received with a cold face, he didn’t get angry. “Alright, alright, I didn’t tell them who you are. Just treat it as coming out to relax?”
“Them” referred to the few young men laughing and playing games around the wine table.
Su Zhuo sat down, pushing the wine glass forward. “Here, the taste isn’t bad. Didn’t you like it before? Try it?”
The sofa cushion beside him sank, but the cold-faced youth stood up.
Thump—
The window was broken open. Cold wind poured in, and a person jumped in from outside.
The young people playing drinking games stood up in fright, staring warily at the person behind the curtain. Su Zhuo frowned and also stood up from the booth.
Lu Xunye threw back the curtain cloth covering his head. He looked at the people inside, who were staring at each other. Before they could react, he apologized directly.
“Sorry, I’ll pay for everything. I’ll leave after staying just a moment.”
One person, who had just swallowed a big spoonful of salt after losing a game, looked at Lu Xunye as if seeing a relative. “Did you lose at Truth or Dare too?”
“Ah…” Lu Xunye admitted without blushing or skipping a beat, his tone sighing. “Yeah, my luck is terrible.”
While dealing with the curiosity of the others, he saw a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, an unexpected person appeared there. “…You.”
Shen Yunqian avoided the burning gaze directed at his profile, his eyes dodging.
His gaze fell on the wine glass in front of him, his voice shaking noticeably due to urgency or guilt. “Sorry, I really can’t drink.”
“Huh?” Su Zhuo, who had just wanted to tease Shen Yunqian, was full of question marks.
Who was that poker-faced person just now? Why did he suddenly change to look like he was being bullied by me?!
The next instant, his hand felt empty. The half-full glass was drained in one gulp by Lu Xunye, who had appeared out of nowhere.
Lu Xunye turned the glass upside down, not a drop left. “I’ll drink for him.”
Su Zhuo: “?”
In Shen Yunqian’s clear, slightly blue eyes, misted with moisture, Lu Xunye’s face was reflected. The crystal light overhead illuminated his eyes, making them soft and bright. A gentle aura radiated from him.
Lu Xunye noticed the redness at the corners of his eyes and instantly felt pity. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
No one knew the ecstasy in his heart: Look, I knew the essence of a whump novel Protagonist Shou is still a pitiful little thing!
His gaze was too sincere. Shen Yunqian lowered his eyes in shame. “…Mn.”
【Love Points +7,000. Current Love Points: 20,000.】
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