Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 2: Military Training

People have always had the desire to live.
Even if your mouth says you don’t want to live, your body will always be honest and try to find ways to make you survive.

Lu Qi left the hotel empty handed, with his shadow looking very pitiful.
In the dark hours of the night, he contacted his landlord to end his rent.
He formulated a plan to wait until the second day of school and then live in the dormitories.
Then he’ll just find some part time jobs.
If he really can’t find anything, he can sell his kidney to return the fifty thousand dollars he borrowed.

Huo Ming Chen propped up his body, looking out the hotel window, and dialed a number.
The howling wind outside was blowing the smoke from his cigarette, its embers glowing and dimming in a cycle.

The sound from the heavily raining storm could not cover the laughter from his phone.

“HAHAHAHA, I can’t, no, I’m going to kill myself laughing.
He brought you to a hotel, opened a room and just left?!! Nothing happened? I am saying, Mr Huo, are you sure you didn’t find a straight guy? Or are you saying your charisma has dropped?”

Fanq Qi on his end was laughing and punching the wall, with tears streaming down his face.
This Huo Ming Chen has always been so handsome, with endless pursuers for his love from his youth to now.
He can’t believe this guy can taste defeat like this.

Compared to Fang Qi’s unstoppable laughter, Huo Ming Chen was very calm.
He doesn’t know if he is just trying to protect his dignity, and stomped out his cigarette.

“If he had dared do anything, you can bet I would have made him impotent.”

And then said,

“Have you never played this game? You are let go, and once your guard is down, you can be captured easily.
If you haven’t, you have at least seen it right?”

Fang Qi said,

“I am too lazy to argue with you.
Go sleep, just go sleep.
School starts tomorrow.”

There are way too many beautiful ladies at school waiting for him.
Who is going to be like Huo Ming Chen who is dumb enough to go after men?

As soon as school began, there was military training for half a month.
What was supposed to be a three month deadline to pay back his debt has turned into two and a half.
Lu Qi was frustrated for once, and he laughed in spite.
He asked the system,

“How many kidneys do you think I should sell to pay off forty thousand yuan in 2 months?”

[ My dear host, just don’t be a kept man and it’s all good.
]

The system was still very stiff in its reply.
Lu Qi looked like he was smiling but inside, it was a different story,

“If I can be kept, that is my business.
There are some people who want to be kept, and they can’t even be picked up.”

He pulled out his phone and looked at his bank account, finding that there is not much money left.
He patted his pants, and accepted his fate as he stood up.
He was going to sneak out at night after the training to find a part time job.
If he has to wash dishes, he will wash the dishes.

The training officer blew his whistle to gather everyone.
After he saw the group taking their time to stand in order, his face turned ominous,

“Who is your class leader?!”

Lu Qi felt like he swallowed a fly.
When he registered on the first day of school, he had familiarized himself with the teaching assistant.
So when it came to choosing the class leader, the teaching assistant had directly recommended him to the teacher in charge.

He took a step out of the group, feeling in his gut that the call for the class leader was not a good thing.

“Here!”

The training officer did not even take one look at him before yelling out,

“20 push ups now.
Everyone else stand at attention.
Whoever moves will do it with him.”

Those who can enter into the Capital University are either rich or have clout.
These princesses and princes are their own king or queen at home.
They don’t hold anyone in high esteem.
After enduring it for 10 minutes, they could not stand it anymore.
The training officer began to catch them moving their bodies.

The training officer wanted to teach them a lesson and purposefully made the number of push ups higher to scare them.
He yelled at a girl,

“Come out, a hundred push ups now!”

A waxy thin girl started to cry but held it in, and accepted her fate to start doing the push ups.
She managed three, and then she collapsed onto the floor.
Lu Qi had just finished his 20 push ups in the blistering heat.
His face was already filled with sweat, and he huffed, holding in position for another one.
Sweat dripped and stung his eyes,

“Reporting to the Officer! I will help her.”

He has always been very emotionless, and his voice was rarely loud.
But each of his words had weight, so the training officer could still hear him.
Without any emotion on the officer’s face, he glanced over,

“You are determined to help her?”

In military training, there is never an urgency of time.
Giving up on your teammates is the most serious offence.
If Lu Qi had actually ignored the girl, what waited for him would not just have been a hundred push ups.

“Yes.”

After Lu Qi answered the officer, he took a brief rest before continuing the push ups.
He came from the countryside, and there was no end of things to do when he was young.
His body will just barely be able to support him through the punishment.

The girl felt guilty and embarrassed.
It was because they did not stand properly, and in the end caused punishment for Lu Qi.
At that moment, her eyes turned red and stuffy.

Every year, military training has been chosen to be at the time where it was the hottest.
Everyone could see that Lu Qi was not as fast as when he first began.
His back was covered in sweat, and sweat droplets were sliding down his chin.
Below him were puddles of sweat.

People in the group started to get antsy, and in the ranks that formulated the troop, no one knows who first shouted,

“Reporting to the officer! I will help him!”

Right after that, one person stepped out of the ranks and started to do push ups.
Once there was one, then there were two, three, and voices rang non stop from the group.

“Reporting! I will also help!”

“Reporting for duty!”

“Reporting for duty!”

The officer began to see a group of people in position for push ups.
Lu Qi stopped for a moment, before gritting his teeth to finish the last thirty.
At the last moment, the system rang its voice again in his head,

[ DING! Congratulations for igniting the passion of teamwork! For lending a hand to the female student, you are granted one piece of star prize, rewarding you with five hundred yuan which has been sent to your bank account.
This is just the beginning! Please continue to work hard to get hidden quests! ]

As soon as Lu Qi heard that, he was shocked.
He thought that this system was just pulling his leg and was very useless, but it turns out he can still make money? During the break period, Lu Qi specifically separated from the crowd of people, and looked at his phone.
He confirmed that five hundred yuan was just deposited into his account.

He thought about it a bit before asking the system,

“Do I get rewards for doing good things?”

If it was like that, it should not take much time to clear up his fifty thousand yuan debt.

[ Ding! The quest system is random, so I cannot give you an answer.
]

Lu Qi took the answer to heart, and did not bother asking any other questions.
Well, since he has money, he can afford to spend a little.
He walked to the school store, hoping to buy some water.
The owner was just wiping the counters, and cheerfully called out to Lu Qi,

“Want to buy something? There is pop that has been frozen, and there are watermelons.”

Lu Qi answered without thinking,

“A bottle of orangeade, a bottle of water……”

 

Before he even finished, he realized what he had said and stopped for a moment.
He wanted to give the orangeade back, but heard the owner say,

“Five kaui and five mao*, but since it looks like you are new, just give me five kuai.”

Lu Qi hesitated before finally grabbing both bottles,

“……Then thank you.”

The training center next door was for those in finance, and from afar, Fang Qi could see Lu Qi.
He grabbed Huo Ming Chen’s arm,

“Ah ah ah, isn’t that Lu Qi?”

Having a good appearance and a great body is very important.
Lu Qi already had a long torso and a lean body, and with the training uniform that fitted to them very well, especially at the waist, he stood above the average crowd.

School hasn’t started for very long, and there were already girls trying to get his information.

Huo Ming Chen was just playing with his phone, and hearing Fang Qi, glanced over for a second.
Then he quickly said without moving his head,

“What, did you want me to grab his signature?”

Cheng Tian Yao did not hear what they had said before, and thought it was for the SNS of a hot lady, so he gestured desperately to Fang Qi,

“Quick quick quick, have him go get it!”

In their group, they are children of the rich or people with high status.
A few have even been on the cover of gossip magazines.
You take one look around, and they can all be daddy long legs.
Hook one of them, and you are set for the rest of your life.

Fang Qi went along with their antics,

“Yeah, yeah, I want his signature, go!”

He originally was just joking, but once he said that, Huo Ming Chen dropped his phone into his pocket and dusted off his clothes.
He went straight towards Lu Qi.
Fang Qi’s eyes almost fell out of their sockets.

“Fuck, you really did go.”

Lu Qi did not think that he would meet Huo Ming Chen here.
But once he turned around, that person was already standing nearby.
His eyes were full of life, carrying a youthful vitality.

“Hey……”

Huo Ming Chen placed both his hands in his pockets, and lazily called out, making it hard to understand what he wanted to do here.

A habit is a dangerous thing.
It can steep into your bones and you don’t even have a clue.
Like the orangeade in his hands, like the sudden footsteps.
Lu Qi did not move, watching Huo Ming Chen come closer and closer, one footstep at a time.
He heard Huo Ming Chen say,

“You left your jacket at my place from last time.”

Lu Qi snapped back to reality, and responded back,

“When you are free, I will go take it back.”

Huo Ming Chen shrugged his shoulders,

“I don’t know.
When I am, I’ll send you a message.”

He looked at Lu Qi, and turned silent for a second.
After a moment, he said,

“Thanks for picking me up that day.
If you have time, let’s get a meal.”

Issuing an invitation was never his style.
In his previous life, Lu Qi spent a couple years to pave through Huo Ming Chen’s hardened heart.
Perhaps from the moment he came back, it was determined that everything could be changed.

He distantly heard the whistle from the training officer, and he couldn’t dwell on his thoughts any longer.
He nodded slightly,

“Yeah, let’s meet up when we have time.”

After saying this he passed the orangeade to Huo Ming Chen.

“I have to gather with the troops now, so I’ll head out first.”

The orangeade bottle was still frosty to the touch.
Huo Ming Shen instinctively reached out, not knowing that this action meant a future of many years of heart racing romance.

He ducked his head, and with a weird expression on his face, felt bewildered at how Lu Qi knew he liked orangeades.

After a day of training ended, everyone felt exhausted.
Lu Qi went back to his dorm to shower and change from his uniform.
Looking like he was heading out, his dormmates asked jokingly,

“You couldn’t be dating a girl, could you? This late at night and you’re still running outside for a date.
Too bad for all those girls that were trying to get your information.
You have already been snatched by someone so quickly.”

Lu Qi did not say he wanted to go find part time jobs, and he did not plan to.
He tied his shoelaces, and didn’t even turn his head,

“No, I don’t have a girlfriend.
I have to do something for a bit.
If I come back late and they are checking on the dorm, cover for me.”

He grabbed a baseball hat before hastily heading out the door.
Lu Qi did not head down the stairs for very long before he received a text message from Huo Ming Chen.

>> I’m by your dorm.
Come get your jacket.

The relationship between the two was still considered a secret, under wraps from the public eye.
When they see each other on the streets, they pretend they do not know each other.
For Huo Ming Chen to be coming over to meet up and just to drop off a jacket, that is very strange.

He doesn’t even have to look very hard before he spots an expensive car that has stopped by the roadside.
It was very evident in its arrogance.
Lu Qi squinted his eyes, and automatically calculated how much yuan its parts were worth, and he sighed for what he could have.

Right now to Lu Qi, Huo Ming Chen is a mountain of gold that he can only see and cannot touch.
If it wasn’t for that system pulling his legs, If only that system did not hinder him……

He has always been greedy, for Huo Ming Chen……’s money.

Lu Qi pulled his hat down and knocked on the car window with his knuckle.
Huo Ming Chen could see from his point of view his sexy jaw line, and his eyes like the dark abyss, like the sky after a fire that has been burning for a long time, and in its silence bringing a gleam to its ashes.
Huo Ming Chen lowered the window, and from the passenger seat gives Lu Qi his jacket back.
His fingers tapping on the wheel in no particular rhythm.

“If you have time, let’s go eat.”

Fang Qi and the gang did not support Huo Ming Chen’s relationship with Lu Qi.
They believe that Lu Qi wants to leech money off Huo Ming Chen.
They think that Lu Qi has a twisted heart, but Huo Ming Chen did not think much of it.
It’s a transaction.
It’s best when you pay, and you get what you want, but when you tie emotions into this, you then have a problem on your hands.

He was not afraid of Lu Qi wanting money, he was afraid that Lu Qi wouldn’t want it.

The author has something to say:
Author: Lu Qi, you are despicable, you are eyeing his money…… and his body!
Lu Qi: ……. 

Notes:
*1 cents: I don’t really know a good translation for the structure of money, so I just substituted cents >.<” The original translation was “五塊五” which directly translates as 5 pieces (of money) 5 which was a bit weird if I left it like that (maybe “mao” would be better…?)
>changed the translation from five yuan and five cents to five kuai and five mao as per feedback

Also!! Thank you for all your support on Chapter 1! As stated in my reply for a comment, I’m going to try update this once per weekday (no updates on the weekend for a bit of a buffer for me, which means chapter 3 will be posted on Monday).
I’ve also revised the volume 1 protagonist’s name from Lu Liu Qi to Lu Qi as per feedback.
Please continue to let me know if there are other translation changes I should make or about mistakes I should fix (as I am but a fledgling in this forest m(” – -)m ).
Once again, thank you for reading my translation and I really hope you will continue to like this story by the amazing author!)