Don’t Be a Kept Man

number one in his heart anymore.

Lu Yuan did not believe it but remained silent.

Lu Qi continued to speak, 

“I also thought that this kind of thing was quite out of the ordinary and unbelievable.
Not even talking about you, I, myself can’t believe it…… But there are some times where it is fated in your life.
Going in circles at different points in time, whatever you owe someone, it’s destined to be returned.
This is, in some essence, the rule that humans live by.”

Last life, Huo Ming Chen lost.
This life, he’s the one who lost.
Pretty fair.

There was no need to lie to her.
Lu Yuan’s shoulders shook for a moment but in the end she was still unable to accept it.
She stared at the floor, and a pale beam of moonlight shone on the tip of her high heels, showing a glimmer of colour in the dark.
After a long pause, she muttered out in defeat, 

“I don’t hope for you guys to be together.
This road is too difficult to go down……”

Won’t be recognized by the world, won’t be understood by family.

One corner of Lu Qi’s mouth tugged up.
His youthful face was reminiscent of the gentlest jade.
At this moment, all his thoughts have left, leaving only weighted words in their absence, 

“The world has many difficult roads.
If there is one day that you find someone that can accompany you and walk down this road with you, then you don’t think it’s difficult anymore.
You’re still young right now, so you don’t understand.
But you will one day.”

Lu Yuan lifted her head to look at him, showing a rare bit of childishness, 

“It’s not that I don’t understand.
It’s just that I haven’t met that person who could make me like them yet.”

After she said that, she stood up and threw the jacket back at Lu Qi, 

“From the time you were born, your brain has always been filled with nothing but schemes.
It’s always you making others suffer and never someone else making you eat a loss.
Your heart is set on a path, and I know I can’t change it.
I don’t want to be involved at all right now…… I’m going to tell the truth as it is to mom, and I will definitely and absolutely not help you.
Take care of yourself as you’re going to be on your own for this.”

Lu Yuan took a deep look at him and desperately hoped to see him say something about regretting it, but unfortunately she was only met with silence.
She could only pursed her lips and turn around, leaving with her bag in hand.

The same kind of thing happening to different people will have a different kind of choice being made, because everyone’s status and environment is different.
In the case of Huo Ming Cheng, he was unable to leave so cleanly and cut his brother out of his life like Lu Yuan did.

“My leg’s broken.
Leave the hospital? Leave what hospital? Are you thinking that I’m not dying fast enough?”

Huo Ming Chen sat on his hospital bed, full of anger as he scanned over the bodyguards in front of him with a fake smile.
Staring at them until their backs grew cold.

“Er-Shao, these are the orders from the chairman, he said…… he said your injuries won’t kill you and the doctors said it was not serious.
If you were unluckily crippled, the Huo family could still take care for you for the rest of your life.”

The guards resisted his ice cold stare and swallowed down their saliva, thinking at least they did their job in doing what they were told.

The company was now one big mess, and there were a lot of things waiting for Huo Ming Cheng to smooth over.
He was way too busy, so busy that he had headaches everyday and didn’t even have the time to care about his own blood related brother coming out of the closet.
Huo Ming Chen also did not want to bother him at this time, to create even more trouble, but he did not want to obediently follow his brother’s orders and be confined at home.

Huo Ming Chen thought about it and conducted a plan inside his heart.
He became weirdly accommodating and did not fight back.
He was very silent, not muttering another complaint and even obediently sat in the car during the ride back to the Huo family home, much to the disbelief of the two bodyguards.

“Turn left in the upcoming intersection, to Tourmaline Bay.”

Huo Ming Chen sat in the back seat and ordered them with such coldness that it made the bodyguards up front shiver to the point where their organs were shivering as well, 

“That road is not the right way…..
What will you do there?”

Huo Ming Chen’s eyes turned to scan the bodyguards from head to toe, and he narrowed his eyes before sharply asking, 

“What’s the point of asking so many questions? My brother only let you pick me up from the hospital.
Don’t bother with things that don’t concern you.
What are you going to do about the fact that my house is near the ocean?”

The moment the bodyguards heard his words, they knew that he was causing trouble and subconsciously wanted to press down on the brakes.
As if Huo Ming Chen could hear their thoughts, he gravely said, “You dare try to stop me?”

Can’t disobey the big one, can’t disobey the small one.
The hearts of the bodyguards were in pain and could only listen to him and drive the car to Tourmaline Bay.
Huo Ming Chen didn’t let them help him and got out of the car by himself using a pair of crutches.
The exact picture of a sick patient, but somehow also very mean and arrogant, just like a useless second generation wealthy son.

The bodyguards sat in the car, not daring to follow him.
Once they saw him leaving, they quickly pulled out their phones, wanting to send a message to Huo Ming Cheng.
But at this exact moment, there was a knock on the window and they looked up to see Huo Ming Chen by their window.

Bodyguards: “!!!”

Huo Ming Chen: “Give back my cellphone.
I know you have it.”

One of the bodyguards hesitated and then rolled down the window a little bit, using that tiny opening to pass him the cellphone.

Huo Ming Chen bent down, eyes flashing in warning and using his finger to poke at them through the window, 

“You two better keep your mouths shut tight.
Don’t say what you don’t need to say.”

Although Huo Ming Cheng would be able to investigate and find this place sooner or later, it was two different things for Huo Ming Cheng to investigate himself versus someone making a report behind his back.
Huo Ming Chen hated being betrayed by someone the most and it was only after seeing the bodyguards nod their heads in acknowledgement that he snorted coldly and then walked into the condo complex with his crutches. 

The first thing he did when he received his phone back was to call Lu Qi.
Thankfully there were still two bars left, and Huo Ming Chen left the crutches leaning by a tree and sat noisily by the flower courtyard, waiting patiently for the call to be picked up.

It was currently the dead of night with not a single soul around, but a vibrating sound that was close by transmitted to his ear quite clearly.
Huo Ming Chen reflexively turned around to look and found that someone was standing by a nearby streetlamp, someone who was clearly Lu Qi.

“Fuck me! When did you get out of the hospital!”

Surprise and happiness immediately filled his entire body, as if fireworks were exploding in the night.
Huo Ming Chen wanted to stand up, but he seemed to have forgotten his leg had a cast.
He couldn’t find his crutches and struggled to stand up for a long time.

Lu Qi quickly walked to him and knelt on his knees.
His fur coat had a high collar that was covering his face, but it couldn’t hide the laughter in his warm and gentle eyes, 

“Prince Huo’s bones were broken, but he’s still so stubborn.
I only have such small wounds, so how could I dare stay in the hospital?”

Huo Ming Chen was laughing like a child, too happy to know what to say.
He forcefully controlled the urge to twitch the corners of his mouth up and cleared his throat, 

“We are not the same.
My cardio and strength is quite good.
It doesn’t matter if I don’t stay at the hospital.
But you are a useless fighting idiot, you should know to obediently stay at the hospital.”

Lu Qi said, “It’s the same as staying at home.”

“Home”, this word suddenly melted Huo Ming Chen’s already softened heart, drowning him in the waves washing over him.
He bit his lip, looking at Lu Qi, but the other was looking at him so patiently and indulgently that the two of them just started smiling at each other.

“Hey, bring my crutches over here,”

Huo Ming Chen was the first to open his mouth and then added 3 words, “…… Let’s go home.”

“Alright.”

Hearing this Lu Qi stood up and passed the crutches over to him.
Huo Ming Chen was about to stand up with them when his body felt weightless in the air.
He widened his eyes in shock, almost dropping his crutches.

Lu Qi held him stably in his embrace, the same way he did that rainy night where the streetlights highlighted him in such cold, freezing tones but he somehow seemed so gentle, so warm.
He lowered his head and kissed Huo Ming Chen on the forehead, saying in a low voice,

“Home, we’ll go home.”