Chapter 32: Crying After Breaking Character ā “You Will Be Shy”
The youth naturally saw the bloody scene too. His eyes were full of terror, forced back step by step by the boy. “You, don’t come over.”
The window behind him was open. The boy didn’t warn him; instead, impatiently raising his hand high and bringing it down heavily.
The youth was so frightened that he fell out of the window. The sound of the wine bottle shattering on the windowsill rang out simultaneously with the heavy thud of something hitting the ground outside.
This was the second floor; the fall wouldn’t kill anyone. The boy didn’t poke his head out to check the situationāperhaps he simply didn’t care.
The man on the bed, whose wailing had gradually quieted, saw the boy’s hand gripping the glass shards flowing with blood out of the corner of his eye. Seeing him walking towards himself, he cursed angrily.
“Bastard! Do you want to go to jail and pay with your life?”
The boy was unmoved.
“You unfilial son! I am your dad! If you kill me, your mom won’t forgive you.”
The boy grabbed his collar. His emotionless eyes suddenly became ruthless. A light touch of the glass piece sliced a cut on the man’s neck.
The blood of both mingled together, dyeing the bed sheets, which had just gone through a “chaotic battle,” red.
“I am doing this for her own good. As long as you die… she will forgive me sooner or later.” The boy applied more force with his hand.
The door was slammed open with a Dongā.
The boy looked up at the person at the door and froze. The woman’s eyes were bloodshot. Before he could explain anything, he was pushed away by the woman with deadly force.
His frail body was shoved against the windowsill behind him. The glass shards remaining on the windowsill instantly pierced into his lower back. The blue and white school uniform jacket, already stained with blood, became even more shocking to the eye.
The boy was in so much pain he almost fainted, holding onto the windowsill to keep from falling.
Seeing the man’s injuries on the bed, the woman directly slapped the boy heavily on the face. A clear handprint instantly swelled up on half his face.
“Xiao Xun, he is your dad!”
And this boy was exactly Lu Xunye.
The hatred flashing through the woman’s eyes nailed Lu Xunye to the spot.
His head turned from the hit. He silently wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, only forgetting there was blood on his hand too. The more he wiped, the more there was, just like a broken mirrorāno matter how you mend it, it’s futile.
After a long while, he laughed self-deprecatingly. Like a young beast with no support, he roared, “How many lives do you have! Will you only be satisfied when he beats you to death!”
Only then did the woman notice he was covered in blood. She panicked immediately, tears sliding from her eyes, her voice trembling with guilt. “It’s Mom’s fault. Mom shouldn’t have hit you.”
Lu Xunye lowered his eyes to look at the marks on her arm from years of beating by the man, asking again the question he had asked countless times, only to be brushed off every time. “Divorce?”
Like always, the woman’s first reaction was evasion, followed by appeasement. “Xiao Xun, he is your dad. You can’t be without a dad. You are about to take the college entrance exam; I don’t want you to have a broken home.”
“Your dad… your dad is just sick, that’s why he has a bad temper. He didn’t mean to hit us. Forgive him, okay?”
Didn’t know he was sick? Heh, actually she knew long ago, just didn’t want to prick the bubble, just didn’t want to divorce.
Sacrificing herself and her child to maintain a marriage that had long been rotten to the core… really meaningless.
Lu Xunye looked at her coldly. His fingers loosened, and the glass he had gripped tightly as a weapon to save his life fell to his feet. “I injured him. Whether to call the police… is up to you.”
After finishing, he looked silently at the woman and left.
Just after he left home, the woman maintained the posture of looking towards the door, defenseless, when she was roughly grabbed by the hair from behind by the man, who slammed her head against the wall.
“This is the good son you raised! Dared to cripple me. He cares about you the most, so I’ll beat you to death!”
And on that day, the man really accidentally beat the woman to death. The police had been called as early as when the male mistress fell out of the window half-naked.
The male mistress broke his leg and was detained. The man was executed by shooting for intentional homicide due to the egregious nature of the crime. And Lu Xunye became an orphan.
Some said he was a jinx, a lone star of misfortune. Some said he was an ingrate wolf, not shedding a single tear when his parents died.
Later, because of his good grades, Lu Xunye was pitied by his then-homeroom teacher who helped him take the college entrance exam. Coupled with daily part-time jobs and scholarships, his life was passable.
He was very repulsed by close contact with the same sex and the opposite sex.
Sometimes watching young couples kissing and exchanging saliva on the playground, he would run to the side and vomit until his face was pale, making people suspect he had stomach cancer.
The first year of university, he was reticent. The second year, he seemed to become a completely different personāor perhaps, this version of him was the real one.
He began to neither bluntly reject nor accept those who shouted they genuinely liked him.
And this kind of sincerity born of looks naturally couldn’t last a few days before wearing off, just as Lu Xunye expected.
Those people always hinted at getting a room with him intentionally or unintentionally within a few days of knowing him. They wouldn’t give up even after being rejected by Lu Xunye a few times.
But upon hearing that Lu Xunye had a murderer father, they would shun him from afar.
Those who cursed him were the light ones. The heavy ones… directly made him transmigrate into a book.
Clearly, that world of his was rotten to the core, yet he still wanted to go back. As if he were actually the one controlled by the plot, deeply branded into his soul.
Lu Xunye felt he was also quite cheap.
āāāā
The system rejoiced: ćHost, you finally woke up!ć
Lu Xunye woke up to find himself on the bed in the guest room.
Ever since Shen Yunqian hit his head last time, the doctor suggested having someone watch him to prevent any post-traumatic brain sequelae.
Plus, Shen Yunqian treated him as a boyfriend and relied on him heavily, so he stayed in the guest room next to Shen Yunqian’s master bedroom.
Lu Xunye sat up and turned on the bedside lamp, the back of his neck stinging like fire.
He rubbed it to alleviate the pain, blinking. “Why am I a bit dizzy?”
The system was scared: ćIt’d be strange if you weren’t! The connection between us was almost cut off.ć
It was the same at the hospital last time. Lu Xunye: “I never dreamt before. Why am I always dreaming recently? Is it related to you?”
The system didn’t confirm or deny, and even thoughtfully gave him a vacation: ćYou must be tired. Why don’t you rest for a few days? I’ll report it and delay the mission for you for a few days?ć
Lu Xunye felt its kindness was abnormal. He hadn’t forgotten the incident where the system secretly conspired with someone last time. “Forget it, no need.”
Outside the window, wind and snow howled, and thunder rumbled. A noise of something shattering next door made Lu Xunye rush over.
The door wasn’t locked, so it opened extremely smoothly. Lu Xunye turned on the main room light by the door and saw Shen Yunqian half-lying on the edge of the bed, looking over with sleepy eyes.
Under the bed were fragments of a transparent glass cup and a puddle of water, instantly overlapping with the green wine bottle glass and bloodstains in his memory.
“I didn’t mean to disturb your sleep.”
Shen Yunqian’s guilty voice pulled Lu Xunye back from his daze. “…It’s okay.”
Lu Xunye walked over to pour him another glass of water and cleaned up the mess without a word.
The process felt like he was on the verge of collapse and urgently needed to find something to do to consume his energy.
After a long while, he walked over and touched Shen Yunqian’s head. The bump had mostly gone down. He asked as if performing a routine duty, “How do you feel?”
Shen Yunqian: “A bit itchy.”
Probably the wound was scabbing.
Lu Xunye nodded. “Then you sleep. Call me if you need anything.”
Saying this, he was about to leave, but his arm was grabbed, and he was pulled onto the person on the bed.
“Sorry.” He apologized in a daze, then was embraced by a pair of warm and powerful arms.
Before he could break free, the person in his arms pressed his head against his chest, unhappy. “I’m scared.”
Lu Xunye pondered what he was scared of. Just then, thunder boomed outside, lightning tore through the sky, white light flashing briefly on the curtains.
Lu Xunye thought: Does losing memory make one’s guts smaller too?
The thunder died down. Shen Yunqian loosened his strength slightly. “Are you scared too?”
Lu Xunye was confused by his question, forgetting to get up.
Shen Yunqian released his arms and moved to stroke his face. “You’re crying.”
Crying… how is that possible?
Lu Xunye denied subconsciously: “I didn’t.”
But his vision becoming increasingly blurry proved that what the other said was indeed true.
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll hold you.” Shen Yunqian hugged him again.
Lu Xunye had long stopped expecting hugs from others since he was seven. Every time after being beaten, his mother would hug him like this too.
Hugging him had a purpose, and the purpose was to make him not hold it against the culprit who beat him.
Like the dream just nowāperhaps calling it a memory was more appropriate. From age seven, he gradually understood that badness in the bones couldn’t be changed. So every time after the mother and son were beaten to vent anger, they would snuggle together for warmth.
Lu Xunye had advised and had run away. But every time he huddled outside the door listening to his mother screaming and begging for mercy, he would always go back.
Every time, he would ask: “Divorce? Let’s go together.”
Until the calendar was crossed out page by page with a red ballpoint pen, he would still ask: “Divorce?”
Finally, he didn’t need to ask anymore, because that person died. They all died.
Lu Xunye knew why the man who sold his daughter to pay debts last time wanted to kill them all.
He had found someone to beat that man up, then hired someone to fight the lawsuit for their divorce, but all this was based on the victim agreeing to divorce.
But at this moment, Lu Xunye didn’t know what fit he was throwing, actually coveting the embrace of this mission target a little.
His hand lifted uncontrollably.
“Can you promise me one thing?”
Lu Xunye woke up abruptly, his hand freezing an inch behind the youth’s back. He despised himself in his heart.
Sure enough, after the thought arose, there was an inexplicable sense of relaxation.
Anyway, he was the one with ulterior motives first. This doesn’t count as suffering a loss.
Lu Xunye: “Say it.”
“Can you not avoid me tomorrow?” Shen Yunqian looked up, staring at him unblinkingly.
ćLove Points +50,000. Current Love Points: 160,000.ć
Having the illusion of being sucked in by those beautiful eyes, Lu Xunye’s heart beat wildly out of control, even more confused.
The intense heartbeat almost drowned out his voice. He asked in disbelief first, “Nothing else?”
This question was obviously invalid. Lu Xunye thought of how he had nothing, and his mood dropped again. “Why… would you think I would avoid you?”
“Because you were seen crying by me,” Shen Yunqian chuckled lightly. “You will be shy.”
Lu Xunye’s ears turned explosive red, his heart beating even faster.
“Alright,” Shen Yunqian stopped while he was ahead, patting his back comfortingly. “Stop holding it in. Cry if you want to. It’s nothing for a man to cry.”
Only then did Lu Xunye hear that his voice had been suppressing a sob all along. He wrapped his arms around the youth’s thin back and covered his face. So embarrassing.
Then, flying into a rage out of humiliation, he buried his head in the youth’s neck and rubbed “fiercely” as if venting.
Hmph wuwuwu, he broke character too!
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