Chapter 2 – Photos

The wind at night was colder than usual.

Luo Jun took Jian Huaiyi away to treat his injuries, and the well-trained bodyguards also quickly withdrew in silence. The fireworks were over, leaving no trace in the dark, silent sky.

Luo Zhi rested for a while before sitting up straight slowly.

He wasn’t able to maintain his upright position for too long, so he reached out with his hand to support the ground once more, and leaned his shoulders back to rest against the car behind him.

Luo Zhi took out the mobile phone from his pocket, tapped the screen, and restarted the game.

This time, he didn’t play very well. Even with his three lives, he only managed to run a few hundred meters before the villain crashed into the subway. 

In his final attempt, he somersaulted over the roof of the car, but then slammed into a billboard hanging overhead. The words GAME OVER promptly appeared on the screen, with colorful paints scattered all over the ground.

Luo Zhi didn’t care too much about the ending of the game.

His eyes remained on the screen as he exited the game interface. He patiently waited as the screen loaded, watching the throbber spin in circles.

As the cool night breeze swept by, his hair was tousled by the wind, revealing a pale face soaked with cold sweat.

Luo Zhi closed his eyes as he sat still against the car body. Cold sweat dripped down the side of his face, stinging the swollen, bright red wound that was at the corner of his lips.

After a few minutes, Luo Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He raised his hand and rubbed his left ear, but he still heard a cicada-like noise in his head.

…

This phenomenon was not caused by Luo Jun’s slap.

It happened in the past, when Luo Zhi accidentally got injured when he was a child. Since he was not treated in time, he almost lost his hearing in the ear which was seriously damaged.

Even after recovering, the hearing in his left ear was still less than half of what ordinary people can hear. Occasionally, when his tinnitus acts up, he wouldn’t be able to hear anything over the ringing sound in his head.

Luo Zhi put his hand down on the ground for support when he was suddenly struck by a wave of severe dizziness caused by tinnitus. It was only after the dizziness passed, that he got up from the ground.

This was not a pleasant feeling to have. Once the dizziness occurs, it happens so severely that it feels like everything is shaking and spinning around him.

Luo Zhi curled his fingers so that he could use his knuckles to press hard against his temples to relieve some tension.

The shirt that was hidden underneath his windbreaker was wet, making it even easier for the cool night breeze to pass through his clothes and chill him down to his bones.

Luo Zhi’s whole body also seemed to be dripping with cold sweat. He had to lower his head to hold it steady. An image of his current appearance popped into his head, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

With the way he looks now, that big brother of his would be very pleased.

Like the fallen leaves that were completely abandoned by the trunk and thrown down to the ground.

Like the fallen leaves that rolled in the mud after being tossed by wind and rain.

Like the drenched leaves on the edge of a crowded sidewalk, destined to be given no thought as people step over them.

A mess of fallen leaves that were waiting to be swept away.

…

These kinds of thoughts occasionally pop up when the dizziness appears, but after the symptoms pass and he recovers, Luo Zhi always feels that it is a bit exaggerated.

It’s not possible for him to reach that point.

He felt that he shouldn’t be that bad at least.

Even if this leaf is thrown away, it can be picked up to make bookmarks or stickers. Even if you clip it to a page of an open notebook, it still has its use, it’s still wanted.

Even if only one person is willing to pick it up, it won’t be mixed into a pile of garbage no one wants and thrown into the incinerator to be burned.

Luo Zhi took off his soiled windbreaker and threw it onto the back seat where it landed in a clump. With his wet shirt now exposed to the cool air, it made him shiver and cough twice.

Luo Zhi lit another cigarette and looked up with the cigarette in his mouth. As the smoke that he exhaled slowly dispersed in the air, he opened his eyes and gazed at the sky full of cold twinkling stars.

Luo Zhi sighed in admiration, he will cherish this special birthday present for a while.

It wasn’t until his whole body was almost frozen that he returned to the car. After getting inside, he turned on the heater so he could warm up. He then adjusted the car seat to go back so that he could lay down on the flat seat.

Luo Zhi reached out his arms to pull a thin blanket over his body.

He laid quietly for a few minutes, then closed his eyes and breathed lightly.

…

The next time he woke up, it was already noon the next day.

Luo Zhi was haunted by dizziness in the middle of the night, and finally broke free from the long and chaotic dream. When he opened his eyes, it was almost as if he had passed away.

He spent a long time trying to recall what happened last night, but he still didn’t remember whether he was so sleepy last night that he fell asleep or accidentally passed out.

Oh well, there was not much of a difference anyways.

Luo Zhi didn’t get up immediately, preferring to maintain his reclining posture.

Stretching out his hand, he fumbled in the small storage box next to the driver’s seat a few times and took out a piece of chocolate he found. He squeezed the wrapper open and put the chocolate in his mouth.

The mellow and slightly bitter chocolate melted on the tip of his tongue.

Luo Yan closed his eyes, waiting for the little sweetness to dissipate completely in his mouth.

After confirming that his blood sugar level was almost up, Luo Zhi turned to adjust the seat and raised the back of the chair little by little.

He and Jian Huaiyi had fought in the car last night, or rather he beat Jian Huaiyi unilaterally.

He reached down to the side of the car seat to adjust it back into an upright position. However, it seemed like he pulled the lever too hard, and it “clicked” to the last frame, pushing him to sit up abruptly.

Luo Zhi’s face went pale from the abrupt movement, and he hastily closed his eyes.

A second before he closed his eyes, the vision in front of him swirled at a high speed without warning.

Luo Zhi lost his balance and fell against the steering wheel. He only had time to bend his arms to cover half of his face before he completely lost the strength to move. The sharp tinnitus penetrated the brain, and it was almost as if an electric drill had been stabbed into his temple.

After a full five minutes, Luo Zhi finally eased this unpredictable disaster, and groped around the car door with his hand to find the button that lowered the car window.

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The fresh air from the window poured into the car, which rejuvenated him. He felt as if his mind and body were also refreshed.

Luo Zhi sighed comfortably, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead on his sleeve.

…

He didn’t know if it was his own imagination, but he felt as if the tinnitus and dizziness were happening more and more frequently recently.

Luo Zhi drove out last night, originally wanting to check his body because of this. However Jian Huaiyi stopped him when he went out, saying that he had something to say to him.

Until the farce ended, he didn’t have time to go to the hospital again.

He’ll have to go there next time he has the time to go.

Luo Zhi readjusted the seat, touched the phone, and swiped at the bright screen.

After a whole night and half a day, there were no missed calls on his phone, only a text message.

The real-name registered game official wished him a happy birthday, and enthusiastically persuaded him to recharge an 888 gift package to get a mysterious gift.

Luo Zhi hadn’t received any gifts for several years. He studied the text message for a while, and he was even heartbroken for a second.

He hesitated for a while on the payment page, but then sighed, and chose to give up and quit.

Now is not the time to indiscriminately spend money.

Luo Zhi owns a film production company that has already been listed on the stock market. Recently, it has been targeted by several companies, which caused the stock price to decline a bit. Maybe it will be necessary for him to invest some funds to buy resources at some point.

Although eight hundred and eighty-eight yuan is a drop in the bucket, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat, and it cannot fall into this kind of poor consumption trap.

Luo Zhi nestled his head against his arm and deleted the text message before he swiped again at the phone screen.

The dinner birthday party that the Luo family hosted did not seem to have gone well.

Jian Huaiyi’s injuries were all in the most conspicuous places on his face, and even a talented makeup artist wasn’t able to hide it. When he turned his head, he was seen, and rumors naturally followed.

Gossip, unfortunately, has been engraved in most of the human race’s genes. It only took Luo Zhi ten minutes to find out what the whole farce was from his circle of friends.

The head of the Luo family was so angry that he severely reprimanded the eldest young master of the Luo family and young master Jian.

The Luo family claimed to the public that Jian Huaiyi had an accident on the road. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, and the specific situation was still under investigation.

Jian Huaiyi delivered a speech at the banquet with injuries, and officially took over part of the Luo family’s business.

Jian Huaiyi didn’t want any shares in the company.

The three children of the Luo family were so devastated that they decided to conceal what happened to Mrs. Luo. They told her that Jian Huaiyi stepped into a ditch and fell while walking at night, so that she wouldn’t make a huge scene.

…

Luo Zhi nestled in the seat as his fingertips rested against the screen that showed the chat he had with his friends. He paused for two seconds before swiping up.

Of course, the “three children of the Luo family” did not include him. Luo Zhi knew this for a long time, but he was not disappointed by this incident.

He had to get used to a lot of things.

Even if it was uncomfortable at first, even if it was so unbearable that it felt like a red-hot iron was being drilled into your body, after getting used to it, it would be nothing more than that.

There are many cracks hidden under this calm façade of his, but there may be a day when the slow-flowing karma lava devours that very façade and exposes what lies beneath. And when that last straw will completely fall… no one knows for sure.

At least for now, Luo Zhi still feels numb.

Although he didn’t feel any guilt over what transpired, he still felt that it was best not to return to the Luo family’s house during this time to avoid conflict.

The matter was too big, and the Luo family’s face has always been the most important thing to them. The incident that happened last night undoubtedly caused them to lose some face.

Due to that incident, even the Luo family’s most outstanding eldest son and the adopted son whom Father Luo admired, couldn’t escape the severe scolding he put them through. If Luo Zhi appeared in front of him, maybe he would have broken his leg by a traditional family method.

Luo Zhi clicked into Luo Cheng’s Moments and found the family photo she shared online. He tapped the photo and zoomed in to see it.

There were five people in the photo.

Luo Chengxiu was the current head of the Luo family in this generation. In Luo Zhi’s impression, this man who could only bow his head to and call his father was very stern. His father could throw him into the confinement room at any time, kneeling to reflect upon what he’s done.

Mother Luo’s surname was Jian and her full name was Jian Rou. Jian Huaiyi took her surname as his own when he changed his name.

In the photo, Mrs. Luo hugged Jian Huaiyi tightly. She had her arms around him in a protective posture that screamed paranoia – like she had to guard her treasure to prevent it from being lost or taken away.

In addition to Luo Jun, there was another girl next to Jian Huaiyi who looked well-behaved. That girl was their sister, Luo Cheng.

Luo Cheng is twenty years old this year and is a sophomore in the next city. This time, she especially took leave to come back to celebrate Jian Huaiyi’s birthday, and secretly designed a fireworks show as a birthday surprise for her brother.

Although there was some unpleasant turmoil last night, the family still stayed close and affectionate.

Even Luo Chengxiu, who has always been serious, looked at his children with an unnoticeable gentleness in his expression.

Luo Zhi saved the photo.

He was about to put down his phone when a call suddenly popped up on the screen.

Seeing the number that appeared, Luo Zhi couldn’t help but be startled.

…it was Luo Cheng’s phone number.

Luo Zhi held the phone in his hand but did not answer it immediately.

He lowered his eyes and looked thoughtfully at the number. His long, pale fingers hovered in front of the screen, wavering ever so slightly without him even realizing it.

Perhaps it was the family photo that gave him some unrealistic fantasies… but during a certain flash, Luo Zhi actually wondered if there might be a birthday thing on the phone.

Luo Zhi quickly extinguished this idea rationally.

He answered the phone: “Xiao Cheng? What’s wrong—”

“Luo Zhi.” The girl on the other side of the phone said indifferently. “Second brother and I are at the film production company.”

She seemed to be shy about saying more, but just kept it concise: “Come here, Dad wants to see you.”

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