Moans came out brokenly through Huo Ming Chen’s lips. He felt like his soul was flying away, and his fingers dragged down Lu Qi’s back, leaving claw marks to stake his claim. Remembering that the other just said that he was afraid of pain, he loosened his grip, making sure that his fingernails were hidden away and turned around to kiss him furiously.
Lu Qi lifted Huo Ming Chen’s legs above his shoulders, and his eyes were like fractured pieces of light in the dark, from nothing to merging back together, shining to the point that it became frightening. Sweat was dripping down from his forehead, following the path down his throat, over his alluring Adam’s apple and then disappearing in between their connected bodies.
Feng Jie’s business was just on the rise, and Lu Qi had his own plans, taking on a bigger workload to fulfill them. Having all nighters was a new common, and when he completed the tasks for the day, he would fall over and go to sleep immediately, unable to spend any more energy to move to his bed.
The phone by the bed suddenly started vibrating. Huo Ming Chen was scared of waking up Lu Qi, so he randomly tossed on some clothes and headed out the balcony to answer the call,
“What’s up?”
He reflexively closed the door and lit up a cigarette. The fledgling mist did not have time to become smoke before it was blown away by the wind, only having the ability to show its embers in the night.
Whoever was speaking through the phone made Huo Ming Chen furiously furrow his eyebrows, and his hand unconsciously gripped the railing harder. He tilted his head back and blew out a smoke ring. After a while, his baritone voice could not hide his ruthlessness,
“Useless. You only found out now after such a big thing has happened. You should be glad that my brother was not hurt. Otherwise even if you have a thousand lives, it would not be enough to save you!”
He mashed the cigarette in his hands onto the railing as hard as he could,
“Continue your surveillance on that fucking old bastard. Tell me right away when you have any news.”
Compared to Lu Qi’s previous life, Huo Yuan Guang was more impulsive; he was just one move away from a checkmate, and his hidden fox tail had already been discovered. Right now, no matter how Lu Yuan looked at him, she could tell that he was not a good person. It made her heart beat faster from anxiety, fearing that she would become involved in the hidden fight for the rights to the inheritance. But as always, things never go her way.
At lunch time, Manager Chen came with a “clack clack clack” in her high heels to Lu Yuan’s desk and suddenly knocked on it, speaking quietly,
“Lu Yuan, come with me to my office.”
I’m fucked, Lu Yuan thought as her heart went cold. It must have been exposed that it was her who spilled the coffee onto the chairman. Now the other was coming for payback. She wondered if the business meeting with Yue Ke was ruined. If it was, please please please times infinity, don’t put that failure on her.
Manager Chen was staring at her adamantly, and so Lu Yuan could not find a good time to call Lu Qi for help. Instead she could only forcefully smile, inching slowly behind Manager Chen towards the office, hoping that delaying their arrival even a little would do something for her.
But in the office, there was already another person sitting behind the desk, and after bringing Lu Yuan in, Manager Chen left back through the door she entered from. She even closed the door softly behind her. When Lu Yuan finally saw who it was behind that desk, she could not help but take a step back in shock,
“Chairman……???”
The other would not have wanted to talk to her for no reason. Lu Yuan thought about what she saw yesterday, and her heart started beating fast like a drum. She decided she would zip her mouth and pretended she was scared out of her mind to the point of visibly shivering.
Huo Ming Cheng seeing that, gentled his voice, but the stare behind his glasses made it feel like an interrogation nonetheless,
“Don’t be scared. I didn’t call you here to punish you. I just have a few things that I wanted to ask.”
Lu Yuan quickly shook her head, face pale and eyes red, as if she was a second away from crying,
“Chairman, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean it yesterday. I just wanted to have some coffee, and I ran too quickly without looking ahead of me. You could give me ten badges of courage, and I still wouldn’t dare to bump into you.”
Neither smiling nor angry, Huo Ming Cheng continued to ask her in a voice that felt very warm,
“Do you really like to drink coffee?”
Stunned, Lu Yuan nodded her head after a moment and was so quick on her feet that you can’t find a hole in her answer,
“I like to drink black coffee, the more concentrated the better. It helps keep me awake.”
“How many bags of coffee do you usually use?”
Lu Yuan stiffened her hands. Yesterday, she added the coffee into her cup randomly; who knew how many bags she put in? She could only vaguely guess at a number,
“Probably around two to three bags.”
“Oh?”
“……could also be four or five.”
Huo Ming Cheng raised his eyebrows and then suddenly stood up. He walked up to Lu Yuan holding a suit in his hands which was obviously the one from yesterday. The coffee stains had already dried, but maybe because the coffee itself was too concentrated, there were black and hardened areas still on the shirt from the stains.
“But when I’m looking at these stains on my clothes, the coffee concentrate could not have only been two or three bags. It’s as if you were afraid that a normal cup of coffee would not leave a stain at all.”
Huo Ming Cheng narrowed his eyes, recalling the events from yesterday night and trying to remember the details,
“Normally a person making coffee would immediately choose to use hot water. You should have been running back up from downstairs yesterday, and you used a thermos. From those facts, the coffee should not have cooled down that fast. Yet when it was splashed onto my body, the coffee was already lukewarm. I didn’t even feel a little bit burnt.”
Lu Yuan thought to herself, was it not because I was scared of ruining your face by making the water too hot, but her mouth was explaining very respectfully,
“Yesterday the floor downstairs did not have hot water, so I used warm water instead.”
Seeing that she was always shying away from the truth, Huo Ming Cheng smiled, not minding it at all and instead switched to another topic,
“Maybe you didn’t know, but yesterday Secretary Lee was in my car to go meet Yue Ke. Who would expect that during the ride to the meeting, there would be a car accident? I investigated it myself, and I found that the car was sabotaged……”
Lu Yuan, with perfect timing, presented a face of shock, unable to understand why the other was specifically telling her this. After all, she was only a lowly employee in the grand scheme of things. Huo Ming Cheng pushed up his glasses, something flashing in his eyes, hinting at a shrewdness only business people had.
“Even though I don’t know if you did it on purpose or not, you still saved my life. I’ve taken up enough of your time today, you can go back to work.”
“Thank you Chairman.”
Lu Yuan’s footsteps were light but held a bit of hesitation. Her job was introduced by Huo Ming Chen, and from that standpoint, she would naturally be standing on Huo Ming Chen’s side. And Huo Ming Cheng is his blood related brother, and the brothers’ relationship is known to be quite good. There was no reason for her to just stand by and watch the scenes play out. Afterall, it involved human lives. Who knew what nefarious and deathly schemes Huo Yuan Guang would come up with next time?
Just saying the truth here, doesn’t seem that much of a loss.
Lu Yuan walked to the door, and with her hand on the handle, she suddenly said very quietly,
“I walked down the stairs for coffee, and I happened to see Chen Lian Dong and your driver Zhang-Shu hiding by the corner of the stairway. Zhang-Shu was visibly very nervous and his face didn’t look good. Chen Lian Dong also passed Zhang-Shu an envelope. Whatever happened next I don’t know.”
And also added, “I asked already, the surveillance camera for that stairway was just coincidentally broken, and it was only fixed today. Chairman, if you want to see yesterday’s security tapes, it’s probably impossible. That’s all I know, and I hope that chairman you won’t make it difficult for me to stay here.”
She opened the door and left without even turning her head back, or she would have seen Huo Ming Cheng standing there deep in thought.
Lu Yuan secretly thought that this was such a big sticky mess and was a bit afraid that she was going to be dragged into it unwillingly by Huo Ming Cheng. Mind flying elsewhere, she accidentally bumped into someone and as she pressed her nose in pain, she took a step back. When she looked up, she discovered that it was Secretary Lee who she bumped into.
As always, dressed in a suit without wrinkles, with that never changing face that was so cold it could kill someone. She became so shocked out of her mind when she did not see any bandages on any part of his body, and she stuttered out,
“Secretary Lee?! You…… didn’t you get rushed to the hospital? Weren’t you still in operation? What…… Why are you out of the hospital already??”
Every time she sees him, she feels guilty and self conscious for absolutely no good reason. Especially right now when the other’s right shoulder had a spot on his black suit where her foundation left an imprint, that feeling was magnified.
Secretary Lee suspiciously tilted his head, looking a bit confused,
“I only received some light wounds. The one who was in a more serious condition was the driver. Who told you that I was in the operating room right now?”
Gossip, of course, should never be taken as the truth, as it will always be littered with embellishment. Lu Yuan felt embarrassed on the inside, but Secretary Lee could guess based on her visible expression a little of what she was feeling at the moment. He dusted off the suspicious white spot on his suit by his shoulder, and when he found he couldn’t wipe it away, he could only let it go.
“If you decide to continue to listen to them talk off their tongues, you might hear that I did not make it through the operation, and that my dead body is waiting to be cremated.”
“Ah?”
Lu Yuan was stunned for a second before realizing that the other was making a joke. But when she realized that, the other had already left. She couldn’t help but feel helpless and then shrug it off, feeling as if somehow she witnessed the sun rising from the west.
In the blink of an eye, he has already been back at the capital for more than half a year. When Lu Qi received a phone call from Mama Lu, he realized that his birthday had already arrived. In other words, he was one year older, which sounds both quite funny and weird.
“You live so far away from home, remember to take care of yourself, to take care of your sister. When you come back for the holidays, Mom will make up for missing your birthday, make you some of your favourite dishes, let you be together with your family.”
Notes:
So… if you got a message that said I posted Chp 25 before this chapter was up… I can only apologize that I was in a state of confusion from terrible sleeping schedules and accidentally pressed the wrong date. Yes… I’m very sorry to those who may have surprised and thought I accidentally published another chapter at the wrong time again… 。゚・(>﹏<)・゚。 Sorry for the trouble!!
It has been half a month since the car accident. Zhang-Shu, the driver, had obtained the most serious injuries, and he was still lying in the ICU, waiting for the most dangerous period to pass. His family situation was like that of the average commoner, and his son had a gambling problem, owing quite a lot of money to loan sharks, which meant that their family had no extra money to pay for him to stay at the hospital.
After Zhang-Shu got in the accident, his son and daughter-in-law ran away and hid as far as they could. It was only due to Huo Ming Cheng covering his hospital fees that he was able to receive care.
After Huo Yuan Guang discovered that fact, he first hinted quietly and then urged outright for Huo Ming Cheng to stop doing that.
“It’s just a driver. It’s enough to give some money. If he stays unconscious for the rest of his life, you are going to have to take care for him until the very end. The Huo family business has too many employees for that. If you care for one but not another, there are going to be some disgruntled voices.”
As of now, whenever Huo Ming Cheng sees his uncle, he could only feel a teeth shattering cold take over his body. Zhang-Shu is an important witness to Huo Yuan Guang’s assassination plan, so no matter what, Huo Ming Cheng will not let him die. His mouth slowly showed a faint smile as he said,
“Uncle, like you said, it is about human lives after all. Zhang-Shu has been with me for so long, and he is quite old. If I don’t care for him, who should I care for?”
Huo Yuan Guang sighed and then lowered his eyes, unwilling to speak anymore. His eyes looked murky, making what he was thinking inside indiscernible to others. After Huo Ming Cheng left, Chen Lian Dong quietly walked in and respectfully said,
“Vice Chairman.”
Huo Yuan Guang suddenly opened his eyes wide, and a brillance flashed in them,
“Ok, I’ll be there in a bit.”
After Huo Ming Cheng left, Lu Yuan went back to her seat, and all around her, it buzzed with activity like oil splashing into a hot pan. Some female colleagues said as if they just ate vinegar,1
“Ah-Yuan, you seem close to the chairman. What did he call you for? I normally don’t see him this approachable.”
“Yeah yeah, too bad you already have a boyfriend. Otherwise, you’re so pretty, and your body is attractive too. Perhaps you could have hooked a wealthy man! Quick quick quick, did the chairman just ask you to have dinner with him?”
Lu Yuan loudly knocked the documents in her hand against the table, emotionlessly saying,
“Don’t misunderstand. Zhang-Shu is healing in the hospital, and he just woke up today. Secretary Lee had something he needed to do right now, and the chairman wanted me to buy some gifts to go see Zhang-Shu.”
Hearing this, everyone tsked,
“Oh it was Zhang-Shu. I thought he passed away from the car accident. Can’t believe that he’s got quite the luck. After all that, he can still be fine and wake up.”
“A comatose patient can wake up, why can’t Zhang-Shu? He’s normally pretty nice, an honest man. He helped me move stuff before.”
It was lunch time right now, and so when gossiping like this, no one was afraid of getting caught. Hearing all the buzz, Huo Yuan Guang who was walking by with his cane unintentionally stopped,
“What did you all just say?”
He normally looked approachable with his smiling face, and so the female colleagues were not that afraid of him. Hearing this, someone quickly answered,
“It’s the chairman’s driver. Zhang-Shu. We heard that he just woke up today and his body is already halfway to healing. We were just saying that he has quite the luck. Indeed, large luck means a long life.”
At this time, the embellishment caused by gossiping can easily be shown here. After she finished talking, Huo Yuan Guang’s face changed slightly and discreetly exchanged glances with Chen Lian Dong.
Huo Ming Cheng had not walked far away and was standing in the darkness, hidden from view. Seeing all this play out in front of his eyes, he smiled a restrained and refined smile.
The snake is about to leave its hole……
Notes:
*1 Eating vinegar: It’s a common saying to mean that you or whoever is “eating” or “drinking” vinegar are/is jealous.