Don’t Be a Kept Man

e was a pile of empty wine bottles beside him, and Huo Ming Chen frowned, and chugged down the glass of wine in his hand.
The burn hit the back of his throat, and it stung all the way down.
He swallowed and took a moment to recover, before saying coldly,

“Is it that embarrassing for you to use my money?”

Lu Qi did not reply, and did not know how to reply.
It was not an issue of embarrassment, as that doesn’t exist for him at all.
After all, if he was that embarrassed, he wouldn’t be anymore after spending all of Huo Ming Chen’s money in his past life.

Silence fell between the both of them, and in the end Huo Ming Chen was the first to break it.
He changed the topic,

“That day, that woman was your sister.
Why didn’t you tell me earlier……”

Up until now, he has never bowed his head before anyone else.
Apologizing was an impossible feat.
If it was someone else, they probably wouldn’t understand this, but Lu Qi knew.
Huo Ming Chen acting like this, fundamentally meant that he was backing down.

It was very lucky that in this moment, he could understand what was beneath Huo Ming Chen’s stubbornness.

Lu Qi was not that petty, and continued the path started by Huo Ming Chen, to let go of the issue,

“Her work keeps her quite busy, and she had the rare chance to visit me here at the capital.
I was just sending her back to the hotel where her boss was talking business, as it was along the way back home.”

Huo Ming Chen said,

“She’s already working? Isn’t she younger?”

Lu Qi did not want to talk about his family anymore, and just briefly said,

“She didn’t continue after high school.
She entered the workforce to support my education fees.”

Huo Ming Chen grew up in a bubble of honey.
Perhaps he has experienced sadness, or regret, but he has absolutely never experienced the pain of being human, the pain and responsibility of living as a human.
Lu Qi’s life was far too removed from his own.
If circumstances had not brought them together, Huo Ming Chen probably would not have felt this innate sense of inequality between them.

A debt of fifty thousand yuan.
To Huo Ming Chen, it was nothing more than a statement.
To Lu Qi, it meant working for a long time to save up to that amount.

Perhaps, when humans are looking up towards the infinite expanse of space, they should never forget the dust they are standing on.

 

Huo Ming Chen lit up a cigarette, and as his eyes watered from the hazy smoke, he softly said,

“Don’t fail your sister.
Study hard.
When you graduate, I can get you a spot in my brother’s company.
Then you can be registered in this district3, and send your family here to take care of them.”

He seemed to have understood how Lu Qi thought.
He didn’t straight out give him money, and instead chose another way to gift him,

“If your sister wants to come to the capital to work, let me know.
I’ll organize something.”

Lu Qi paused at that, and said,

“Thank you.”

A sincere and heartfelt gratitude.

To be honest, money aside, what Huo Ming Chen just said was what Lu Qi desired for in this life.

This round of negotiation seemed to be more successful than expected, and cleared out the remaining issues.
Huo Ming Chen extinguished his cigarette, and hesitated before reaching out to grab Lu Qi’s hand.
He asked in seriousness,

“Do you hate me, for beating you up last time?”

Lu Qi looked down at the burning hot sensation on his hand, and thought about the question.
Something flashed across his eyes and then he chuckled, shaking his head,

“I don’t hate you.”

This chuckle went straight to Huo Ming Chen’s heart, and he felt a warmth beginning to emit inside him.
He stood up and crowded into the same sofa chair as Lu Qi.
The spaciousness of the chair began to feel claustrophobic, and Lu Qi could only move Huo Ming Chen’s body to sit on top of his legs for some breathing room.
It could be considered a good sign.

Huo Ming Chen ducked his head, and started massaging the places where he hit Lu Qi last time.

“You knew that my temper was bad.
Don’t purposely make me angry next time.”

Lu Qi looked down,

“Why would I, for no good reason, make you angry on purpose? You have terrible anger management issues.”

Huo Ming Chen was a little miffed, but as the atmosphere between the two of them was too good, he didn’t want to destroy it.
He nodded his head in earnest,

“Ok, I will fix it to the best of my ability.”

It didn’t sound like something he would say.

Lu Qi wanted to say something else, but Huo Ming Chen suddenly wrapped his arms around his neck and brought their heads closer.
As their breaths mingled,

“I saw you with someone else, and the fire inside my heart could not be contained.”

Huo Ming Chen firmly held his face, reflecting himself in those silent and contemplating eyes,

“Lu Qi, we’re going to be good in the future.
We won’t fight, hmm?”

The last sound was a little nasally, as if he was pleading to him.

Lu Qi never gave much thought to this, as he probably didn’t think they would last very long.
Huo Ming Chen has money, has power, it all depended on what he wanted after all.

When he doesn’t want to speak, let’s just kiss instead.

Lu Qi slipped his hand into Huo Ming Chen’s hair, pushing his head down for a kiss on the forehead.
If you really calculate it, the two of them were not in a cold war for very long, but for some reason, it felt like they had been separated for many years.

He migrated from Huo Ming Chen’s lips down to his throat and then back up to kiss him on the lips, leaving a wet trail in between.
At the same time, he took off his jacket slowly, and leisurely, swallowed Huo Ming Chen up.

Huo Ming Chen ached for something more.
He tightly held onto Lu Qi, and trails of saliva linked between their breaths as they kissed.
Each kiss felt like it was to make up for the time they were separated.

“Tonight, do it how you want to, to be happy, don’t worry about me.”

The words sound great, but if he really didn’t care about his partner, Huo Ming Chen would not be able to get out of bed tomorrow.

Lu Qi ignored him, and focused on leaving his mark on Huo Ming Chen, until he felt some gauze on Huo Ming Chen’s arm when he slid his fingers down.
His mind came back to focus and Lu Qi pushed back to create some distance,

“Why are you hurt?”

“Fuck, why are you even asking?”

Huo Ming Chen tugged on Lu Qi’s earlobes,

“Who did you think was so kind hearted to carry you to the infirmary? Almost knocked me out.”

His hand had caught on a jagged edge of the wall when he climbed the stairs.
It was not too serious, and it was only because the doctors saw his injury when he brought Lu Qi to the infirmary and forced him to bandage it up.

Lu Qi said,

“I feel I’m pretty well liked in general, if you didn’t, someone else would have.”

“Too late, it was me who first came to your rescue.”

Huo Ming Chen has never been the silent one when he helps a person.
Whatever he did, he will pretty much announce it loud and clear that he’s helped.
He’s just missing some bells and whistles.

“I heard that guy from the physical education department yell so loudly, I thought you rolled down from the top of the stairs.
But it was only a couple steps.
Pretty outstanding.
That you could misstep on that tiny bit of road.”

Lu Qi with a blank face, quietly swore under his breath,

“And if it wasn’t because of you.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

Lu Qi held Huo Ming Chen’s hands, and suddenly lowered his head.
He gave a kiss to the injured part covered by bandages.

“Today, my heart will ache for you.”

Just this once.

Even if you had to say that Lu Qi was stone hearted, it’s not really so.
At key times like this, he still has a minuscule amount of sensitive human emotions.
You just can’t tell how long it will last.

Huo Ming Chen did not know why, but all of a sudden he hugged Lu Qi with force.
Lu Qi didn’t know what was going on, as he couldn’t even turn his neck.
Just as he thought Huo Ming Chen would say something, Huo Ming Chen only hugged him for a while and then let go in silence.

The author has something to say:
Just to be clear, last time little Lu only called the loan shark to meet up to return the money (underline that important part), but he has not returned it yet.

Just like how I, the author said to update what I promise you but did not do so (rubs head)

But it’s all good now, little Lu finally cleared his debt before the new year, he should have a good upcoming year now (rubs head)

 

 

Notes:
*1  Just another quick reminder: brothers here mean to be close friends like blood related brothers.
In this scene with Wang Jian Guo, brothers mean the group he’s hanging out with as well as Huo Ming Chen and his group that Lu Qi mingles with.

 

*2  Biao-Ge: the “ge” means 哥 which translates to brother, which in this case is a honorary title (to show respect, or that to show you trust them to make decisions, or are more knowledgeable than you) The “Biao” in front is the actual name (or one part of the name) of the gangster boss.

*3  Districts: a very vague explanation but identification card lies with the district you live in and most workplaces require you to live in the city that workplace is based in, which means your identity card shows you live in that place.
There’s also other restrictions like you can’t be registered in such and such school, and other legal stuff.