Chapter 27: Courtship Behavior

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

The sound of propellers were too loud, hurting their ears. Uncle Yuen asked from
the cockpit, "Are we going to the temporary shelter now?"

Lu Shang came back from his thoughts, he said, "To the city."

Uncle Yuen was a bit startled, "Directly flying back to the city? Wouldn't that
draw too much attention?"

Lu Shang glanced at Uncle Yuen; the latter knowingly stopped asking, and he turned
to negotiate with the pilot.

The two nurses at Lu Shang's side were muttering something to each other, Lu Shang
turned to ask, "What's wrong?"

"We can't get the needle in." The older nurse replied, "His muscles are too tense,
and we can't get him to relax. Can we use sedatives?"

Lu Shang stared at Li Sui, his eyes filled with complicated and deep emotions.
After a bit, he stood up walking over to the stretcher, he held Li Sui's hand for a
bit and called his name.

Li Sui's eyes were still tightly shut, but hearing Lu Shang's voice, his body made
slight movements in response. Obviously, even though he was asleep, he could still
react to Lu Shang's voice. Lu Shang felt a hint of strength from Li Sui's hand, it
seemed like he wanted to hold Lu Shang's hand back. Yet, Li Sui's fingers were
swelling too much, so he was unable to grab anything.

"Good boy." Lu Shang tightened his grip, then bent down to kiss Li Sui's eye, then
comforted him with a soft voice, "Rest, we are almost home."

The one lying on the stretcher seemed to have understood, his muscles began
relaxing, even his breathing steadied.

The helicopter flew steadily in the sky; after the nurses finished injecting the
medicines, one of them couldn't help but giggle, "Lu Lao Ban, your words are even
stronger than sedatives."

Lu Shang's gaze was fixed on Li Sui's face, and he didn't say a word.

Leung ZiRui was called without getting the chance to have dinner, after finishing
his examination of Li Sui, he picked up Li Sui's hand and fiddled around. After
further observations, he made a startled expression, "Wow. This kid really took a
lot of damage this time."

Seeing that Lu Shang was staring at him, he immediately added, "He'll be fine. He's
a healthy person unlike you. All of the wounds are superficial ones, give him some
good food, some medicines and he will be back in two days."

After pushing himself to the limit in the past days, he must be extremely exhausted
right now. The nurses applied medicine and bandaged the wounds, but even with the
movements, Li Sui didn't wake up at all. Lu Shang of course let him sleep; he left
the room with Leung ZiRui, closing the door on the way.

"Did you find Dr. Leon yet?"

The second Lu Shang mentioned that, Leung ZiRui's face collapsed, "I almost got
him, but I was one step too late. I heard that he's doing some pharmaceutics
research, he went to the mountains and totally fell off the grid. If that path
didn't work, I'm going to consider a heart transplant, prepare yourself."

Lu Shang had an uncertain expression. Leung ZiRui suddenly remembered something

else, he said while laughing, "Oh yeah, I noticed something in the patient
information assess records in RuiGe Hospital. Do you know?"

"Noticed what?"

"Your kid tried accessing your patient file, of course I stopped him though." Leung
ZiRui laughed, "Don't you think you should impose a ban on him? If this keeps up,
sooner or later, he will know why you took him in."

Lu Shang lowered his eyes, "I never planned on hiding it from him."

"Okay, whatever. It's your decision," Leung ZiRui clicked his tongue a little.

Li Sui slept for a whole day and night, replenishing all the lost sleep, finally he
woke up from hunger. The moment he woke up, the lovely aroma of food filled his
nostrils. Aunt Lu was tidying up the bowls; seeing that Li Sui was awake, she
smiled, "Finally. I thought you were going to miss dinner, too."

After a good rest, his organs felt a lot lighter. His four limbs were still a bit
sore, but because of the intense training, he was already used to the soreness in
his muscles.

"Where's Lu Shang?"

"He went to the company for some matters, he will come back soon. Are you hungry,
do you want something to eat?"

After tasting bugs and grass and now seeing a whole table of delicacies, Li Sui
could almost begin wailing on the table. Aunt Lu prepared all of Li Sui's
favourites, Li Sui couldn't care less about his bandaged fingers, he immediately
picked up a spoon and began stuffing his face.

Aunt Lu found this funny but also worrying, she kept reminding Li Sui to take it
slowly, concerned that he'd choke. The kid always had the biggest appetite, there
were never any food left on the table with him around. In the past days, he only
had glucose water, those were severely insufficient. Aunt Lu originally wanted to
warn him not to eat too much, afraid that his digestion might not be able to keep
up. Yet, seeing Li Sui eat like he wanted to swallow the container, she decided to
let him be. At least he could eat now, having a good appetite meant his recovery
was going well.

When Lu Shang came in, Li Sui had already finished dinner, he was now slurping down
the soup Aunt Lu brewed.

"Oh. You're awake."

For some reason, Li Sui suddenly felt anxious seeing Lu Shang, he randomly picked a
topic, "How… how are big and small SiMa doing?"

"They are fine, director Yue took them back home."

"That's good…" Li Sui was relieved. Their eyes met, and Li Sui made a slightly
wronged expression, "I almost couldn't see you again…"
Lu Shang touched his hand in comfort, not really knowing what to reply.

"Oh, right. This. I will return it to you." Li Sui said as he took the military
badge off.

Lu Shang didn't take it, he said, "You keep it. I promised you."

"But this is very important to you. I can't just take it."

"You are important to me too."

Li Sui froze, he hadn't reacted to what Lu Shang just said yet, "I arranged an
intern position in Tong Yan for you. Rest for a few days and then go try it out."

"Intern?"

Lu Shang nodded, "Try. It would give you a better idea what the workplace is like."

Li Sui had his suspicions, but he'd do whatever Lu Shang asked, so he agreed
without much fuss. The two of them discussed a bit about when Li Sui should start,
then Lu Shang picked up a phone call and had to leave again. Li Sui wasn't sleepy,
he rolled around on the bed, feeling like he had forgotten to ask something very
important.

Lu Shang got out of the building, he opened the car door, but didn't step foot in
the car. Instead, he leaned on the car door, holding his chest. Lu Shang was used
to the feeling of pain in his chest, but somehow the pain felt different this time.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Uncle Yuen asked immediately.

Lu Shang looked at the scenery afar, and the emotions quickly dissipated from his
eyes, "Let's go."

Li Sui was young, so his recovery was fast. Li Sui was discharged the next
afternoon, finally returning home. Aunt Lu prepared a whole table of food, making
Li Sui's stomach swell.

Lu Shang seemed to be very busy in recent days, he didn't even come back home for
dinner. Li Sui tried getting some information; apparently, Lu Shang stayed at the
campsite for days during the time when Li Sui went missing. Due to that, there was
a backlog of work, no wonder he didn't see Uncle Yuen at all after he returned.

"You don't know, but when the second Lu Shang heard you were in trouble, he
immediately drove over." Aunt Lu said while washing the dishes, "I've never seen
him care so much for someone else."

Li Sui pursed his lips together; unable to stop smiling, he asked, "How has he been
in the past month?"

Aunt Lu thought for a while, then signed, "Well… Even if he were feeling unwell, he
wouldn't tell me about it."

Li Sui slumped his shoulders a bit, but in his heart, he also knew that was the
case.

At night, he went to shower as usual; it was only after he took his clothes off
that he remembered his hands couldn't touch water yet. Although the swelling was
gone and scabs had formed, new skin had yet to grow completely; it would be a pain
if water came in contact with the wounds. Just as he was picking up a towel to wrap
his hand, the door to the shower room opened. Lu Shang raised his head, both froze.

"Sorry." Lu Shang reacted shortly after, closing the door and turning back.

Li Sui smelled a hint of alcohol in the air, he immediately put his pajama pants
on. Rushing out, "You drank wine?"

Lu Shang was light on his feet, he used the wall as support as he turned his head
back. His face was a little red, the top two buttons on his shirt open. It seemed
like he didn't only have wine, he had quite a lot of it, to the point that he was
now drunk.

"You… This…" Li Sui was worried and angry; he was so reckless.

"Uncle Yuen weren't with you?" Li Sui basically dragged Lu Shang to the bed, "Why
would he let you drink alcohol?"

Lu Shang didn't answer, his arm clung onto Li Sui's shoulder, pulling Li Sui down
to the bed. His breath was mixed with alcohol as he said, "Be with me."

Drunk Lu Shang was like a child, it was as if he had returned to his kindergarten
days. While he didn't cry or fuss, he just wouldn't let go of Li Sui no matter
what. Li Sui didn't have another choice, he didn't even had time to put his
underwear back on, neither could he take a shower. Lu Shang wasn't strong, but he
was relentless; Li Sui suspected if he didn't do as Lu Shang asked, Lu Shang would
just cling to him for the whole night.

Li Sui went to call Leung ZiRui with Lu Shang still clinging to him. On the other
side of the phone, Leung ZiRui exploded the second he heard Lu Shang had alcohol.
Leung ZiRui cursed for a while, then carefully gave Li Sui reminders on what to do.

After hanging the phone up, Li Sui planned on getting Lu Shang a cup of warm water.
Turning his head to look at Lu Shang, he found the latter sound asleep already, but
his hands remained clasped together, still clinging onto Li Sui. Li Sui had never
seen Lu Shang so out of it before, his usual calmness and elegance were gone. As if
Lu Shang was insecure, he hung onto Li Sui tightly with his eyebrows frowning.

"Lu Shang…" Li Sui felt his heart softened, he led Lu Shang back to the bed,
hugging him tightly, "What's wrong?"

Naturally, no-one answered him. Looking at Lu Shang's white face, a phrase popped
up in his mind: Drowning sorrow with alcohol.

However, if Lu Shang wanted money, he got loads; if he wanted respect, he had it.
Except for his health condition, his life was technically perfect. What kind of
sorrow would he need nulling? Li Sui just couldn't grasp the reason.

Li Sui didn't have any dreams that night. When he woke up the next morning, Lu
Shang had already gotten up before him, washing up in the shower room. Li Sui
didn't have time to put on clothes last night, so he was only wearing a pair of
thin pants. After a night of sleep, it was all wrinkled up as well, so he might as
well just take it off too.

After his little fieldtrip, his skin was tanned a bit by the sun; along with the
terrifying scars on him, he looked more manly than before. Li Sui observed himself
in front of the mirror, then his gaze went to the closed shower room, some weird
thoughts growing in his mind.
Normally, a man would react to females with a beautiful bodyline. Since Lu Shang
was a homosexual, then to him, a grown man's body must be luring. Li Sui took in a
few breaths of air; he pinched his own abdomen. The lines there were quite evident
already, but it was still miles away from the muscly guys on television. Li Sui's
shoulders slumped; he was feeling a little morose.

During breakfast, Li Sui was the first to speak, "Dr. Leung was very angry last
night."

Lu Shang said, "Ignore him."

"I'm angry too."

Lu Shang put his chopsticks down, "Why are you angry?"

"Coronary disease patients should not drink alcohol, it's very dangerous."

"Where did you read that from?"

"From books." Li Sui only realized that he had just let the cats out of the bag,
after the words slipped out. He immediately diverted the other's attention, "This
is common sense. Next time you must go to a banquet or something, bring me along. I
can drink a lot."

Lu Shang laughed lightly, not sure what he meant.

In the afternoon, a car drove into the yard of the house. It was brand-new, and
bright red in color. Li Sui recognized it as a car showing off wealth immediately;
no matter how Li Sui looked at the car, it didn't look like Lu Shang's style.

"Lu Shang, did you get a new car?" Li Sui asked Lu Shang.

Lu Shang hadn't even replied yet when the driver got out of the car. It was SiMa
JingRong; he threw the car keys to Li Sui right after he got out.

"What?" Li Sui was confused, "I don't know how to drive."

"It's from my father." SiMa JingRong said.

"Are you still sick?"

"No," SiMa JingRong waved his hand in denial, "All the paperwork is in the car, the
license plate will be mailed to you in a few days. Get it on the car yourself."
After saying that, he walked away like nothing happened.

"Wait, wait." Li Sui ran over, "Why is your father giving me a car? I can't, it's
too expensive."

SiMa JingRong was going to reply, but Lu Shang cut into him, he said to Li Sui,
"Take it. You deserve it."

"Ah?" Li Sui didn't expect Lu Shang to say that, he was truthfully very shocked.

SiMa JingRong squinted his eyes at them, and with a teasing smile on his face, he
left.

"You are going to work soon, it'd be perfect, you can drive yourself to work." Lu
Shang scanned Li Sui's startled face, feeling very satisfied as he said, "You
should go get a driving license when you are free."
Only a person and a car were left in the yard, Li Sui was still shocked, this was
too out of the ordinary.

Li Sui would begin working in two days, so he took these few days to do some
preparations. Lu Shang saw that Li Sui was still reading books at night, so he
pulled him over to sleep.

"Are you worried?" Lu Shang asked.

Li Sui shook his head, "I'm just afraid that I'd be a nuisance to you."

"You won't be a nuisance to me, but some people might be a nuisance to you." Lu
Shang took out a pen and a piece of paper, he wrote down a few names and some
lines. "When you run into trouble, don't panic. These people are the ones you could
ask for help; if you have any problems, you could go find them."

Li Sui nodded, seeing that on the paper were some familiar names. For example, Xe
WeiLan from the legal department, Mr. Gu from the executive department, and
accountant Zhu from the finance department.

"The following people are the ones you need to be careful of, you have to be extra
cautious of whatever goes pass their hands." Lu Shang drew another red line on the
paper.

Li Sui etched the names into his heart. Quickly, Lu Shang changed the topic,
"However, the workplace is different from any other place. Everyone's stance could
change at any time, no matter what, don't trust people completely with all your
heart. Or else that trust will come around to hurt you."

"I can trust no one?"

"You must be wary of people."

Li Sui laughed after some thought, "I can give my heart to you at least, right?"

Lu Shang's expression stiffened after hearing "give my heart to you", he only said,
"Let's sleep."

It was a weekend the next day. Lu Shang brought Li Sui to Zuo Chao's bamboo dojo;
they went there driving the red BMW Li Sui had just gotten.

"Why did director Yue give me a car?"

"He's showing his gratitude."

"Because I saved SiMa JingRong? That's what I promised him from the start."

"Not only that."

"Hm?"

"Director Yue said," Lu Shang turned the steering wheel and continued, "that ever
since big and small SiMa returned, their relationship is a lot better than it used
to be. You solved a headache of a problem which he couldn't solve for a decade, so
giving you a car was nothing."

Li Sui bit his own tongue, he really couldn't grasp rich people.
The bamboo dojo was true to its name; the whole mountain was packed with bamboo—it
felt like a hermit's residence. In the middle, there was Zuo Chao's dojo. A small
water mill was outside the dojo, making crisp sounds of water and bamboo hitting
each other.

This place was good for hiding from the scorching summer. Lu Shang would sometimes
stay a few nights here to rest, but today, he was here for business. They parked
the car; walking towards the front door, they saw a few blue peacocks roaming
around in the yard.

"Peacocks?" Li Sui gasped.

Zuo Chao was cutting some bamboo in the yard. Seeing that they had arrived, he
raised his head with a bright smile, "A friend gave them to me last month, pretty,
right?"

"Pretty!" Seeing peacocks for the first time, Li Sui couldn't but circle around
them curiously, "Can they flaunt their feathers?"

Zuo Chao laughed, "They would when they have someone to court."

Lu Shang went into the dojo for his business talk, Li Sui saw that Zuo Chao wasn't
following him, finding that odd, he asked, "Brother Zuo isn't going in?"

"They'd talk about their business stuff, has nothing to do with me." Zuo Chao
continued cutting the bamboos, "What do you want for lunch, bamboo rice (i)
perhaps?"

T/N: (i) A kind of Chinese cuisine, just rice cooked in a piece of bamboo.

"I have never had any, is it tasty?"

"Of course it is tasty. How about a hotpot to go along with it? Which peacock do
you want? I will cook it for you."

Apparently, the peacocks here are raised like chickens.

Li Sui walked over to help him with cutting the bamboo, he asked, "How's Wang Wei?
I haven't seen him for so long."

Hearing the name, Zuo Chao had an awkward expression on his face. He knew in his
heart that Lu Shang didn't tell Li Sui what happened to Wang Wei after the camp.
Zuo Chao was a simple person, after all; he knew martial arts, but that was it, he
wasn't used to hiding his emotions. Zuo Chao replied after hesitating, "Should… be
fine, I haven't seen him for a while too…"

Luckily, Li Sui didn't pay much attention. After they finished cutting the bamboos,
while resting, Li Sui asked Zuo Chao to teach him how to make his muscles look more
appealing.

"Aren't they pretty good now? Your BMI should be good too, I think you can probably
fight three on one." Zuo Chao replied.

Li Sui looked evasive as he said, "It's not for fighting. I just want to know… how
to make… my physique more manly."

Zuo Chao still didn't get it, he asked, "Why do you need to look more manly?"

A male peacock happened to walk towards them, spreading its feathers wide.
Li Sui, "…"

Zuo Chao, "…"

Of course it's for courtship as well.

Chapter 28: Beginning Work

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Translations

The water in the pond outside pattered, the bamboo wheel was spinning.

"Liu XinTian is too quiet recently. Ever since Tong Xin was investigated by the
police, he hasn't made any moves."

Lu Shang glanced through the curtains at the bamboo watermill below, he let the
curtains down, "What about Li Yan?"

"We haven't received any word on him yet, but we have placed people near the places
he might go to; once he surfaces, we will immediately take him into custody."

"Don't let him get away."

"Understood."

After the meeting ended, Lu Shang and Meng XinYou stayed behind to talk.

"You went way overboard this time, flying military helicopters to the city
directly. I was scolded by my grandpa because of that, you know." Meng XinYou
continued, "I didn't even dare tell him it was you, so I had to take the blame for
you."

Lu Shang poured her a cup of tea, smiling, "Yeah, it's my fault."

Meng XinYou took the cup, which was handed to her, then with a regretful
expression, she said, "This will be the last time I help you, Lu Shang. I'm getting
married soon."

"Is that so? Congratulations."

Meng XinYou giggled, "Can't you at least give me some kind of reaction? I don't
know, maybe show some sadness?"

"My little sister is getting married. It's a cause for celebration." Lu Shang's
phone rang after replying; he picked up the call.

The room was quiet, so Meng XinYou could hear everything on the other side of the
phone.

After she heard Lu Shang scrupulously going through the details with the person on
the other side of the phone, she couldn't help but ask after Lu Shang hung up,
"Aren't you used to doing stuff under the table already? Why are you going through
the trouble to registering him for a job interview?"

"I don't want him to think that everything is easy." Lu Shang smiled lightly as he
replied.

Being a leader for such a long time, seeing Tong Yan's development and all the
people that came and passed, Lu Shang understood better than anyone how a talented
individual was nurtured. At the same time, he knew what would break a person.

"The internship isn't just so that he could get a certificate out of it, I want him
to get some field experience."

Meng XinYou stared at Lu Shang, feeling a little jealous, "If only you cared about
me half as much as you cared for Li Sui, then I definitely wouldn't get married."

Lu Shang pursed his lips together slightly, but he just said, "If you are getting
married, then I wish you the best. You can let Aunt Lu stay at my place, I won't
ill-treat her."

Meng XinYou's expression stiffened, then quickly returned to normal, "When did you
notice?"

"The first year she began working in the Lu family."

Meng XinYou said feeling a little depressed, "You ignored it for so long? Aren't
you even a bit wary since I'm observing you through her?"

Lu Shang didn't reply. Though Lu Shang had announced his relationship with Li Sui
was that of a benefactor, if Aunt Lu wasn't there, he and Li Sui would definitely
sleep in separate rooms. Only later on, it sort of became a habit for Lu Shang, so
it continued.

"But she wasn't sent to you by me," Meng XinYou continued. "It was my father who
did it. He is always wary of people; he is also used to being in control. So, when
it came to my generation, a lot of things are out of our hands. I can only promise
you that I won't stand against you, but as for the rest, I'm afraid I can't help
you."

Lu Shang replied, "I understand." Emotions played no part in business, that held
even more truth in politics. Moreover, clearing all the obstacles for one's child
was understandable.

Lu Shang had had this serious disease looming over him since he was a child; he had
also considered that if one day he really died, what would happen to Tong Yan.
Uncle Yuen might be able to keep some of his estate properties, but without the Lu
family's name, all the relations his family had built would be gone. No matter how
much money there was, with those relations, the riches would just become a target.

Thinking about it, being resourceful was still the most reliable. No matter where
one went, even if they threw everything away, they'd still have means to survive
quite merrily. Once a person reached a higher level in society, there would be new
restraints, but if someone wanted to harm another, they'd still have to consider if
they were on par. That was why Lu Shang was in such a hurry to arrange all these
for Li Sui, he wanted to nurture Li Sui into a truly independent person,
independent from Lu Shang himself, and independent from Tong Yan.

Meng XinYou found that she was unfamiliar with the Lu Shang now. Everything that
had happened, Lu Shang's actions, they were all out of Meng XinYou's predictions.
It was as if Lu Shang had already made a decision, but as for what that decision
was, even Meng XinYou couldn't tell.

"Your actions in recent days are so abnormal, even I don't understand anymore."
Worry surfaced on Meng XinYou's face; she asked, "Don't tell me that… you have
given up on the heart transplant?"

Screeching of peacocks came from outside; the sound was not pleasant at all. Their
conversation was interrupted as Lu Shang lifted up the bamboo curtain. Lu Shang saw
Li Sui and Zuo Chao arguing around a peacock, so he raised his voice from the upper
floor and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Lu Shang." Li Sui raised his head quickly, "Brother Zuo wants to kill the peacock
for hotpot."

Lu Shang glanced at the beautiful blue feathers on the ground, and he said, "It's a
shame to kill it, just let it go."

"Do you hear? He said to let it go." Li Sui took the knife in Zuo Chao's hand. The
two of them fought for a bit, both with swift, eye-pleasing moves.

"I'm going back now," Meng XinYou lifted the bamboo curtains at the door. She
looked at Lu Shang one more time, then turned around and left.

During lunch, the peacock was lucky to have survived, as they had a pot of bamboo
shoots and chicken stew instead. After the meal, they Lu Shang and Li Sui had no
more plans, with nothing to do, Lu Shang brought Li Sui to get two tailor-made
suits.

To be honest, there was really no need to wear something so formal for an intern
position. However, once Lu Shang saw Li Sui put the suit on, Lu Shang decided that
he won't let Li Sui change out of them so soon. Lu Shang's instincts weren't wrong,
no matter how Lu Shang looked at Li Sui now, he was sure that Li Sui belonged in
the workplace.

Li Sui was used to wearing casual clothes; suits were a lot more uptight than his
usual clothes, so he couldn't stop fiddling with his tie. Li Sui asked, "Do I look
weird in a suit?"

After the field trip, Li Sui's skin was tanned a bit, he also built more muscle.
The childishness in his angular face had faded, making his aura collected yet
fierce.

"It suits you," Lu Shang smiled and left a short comment.

Though Lu Shang and Li Sui were working in the same company now, to avoid any
rumours, Lu Shang didn't go in with Li Sui. Uncle Yuen drove them to a street
nearby where Li Sui got off, then he walked to work on his own.

Li Sui noticed that he wasn't the only intern, when he went to get the work pass,
there were seven to eight other graduates starting as interns like him. All of them
were under a female manager called Zhao's management.

"Your job today is to understand the company's working, grasp the company's rules
and system. You will also have to remember the names and faces of all the managers
of different departments. When I ask you to deliver documents to the managers for
signing, I don't want any of you to be unable to remember who they are.
Understand?"

Everyone nodded, then manager Zhao spoke again, "Also, read through the documents I
gave you, each of you will have to hand in a report to me after reading the
documents. Next week, the company is going to have a cultural week, you will have
to team up to make a video, which will be played in the cultural week."

None of them replied when they heard that they have to make a video except one. Li
Sui glanced at his work pass; his name was Li Bai.
Though Li Sui had been to Tong Yan numerous times before, he mostly went straight
up to the top floors housing the directors' offices; the people here had never seen
him before, which prevented a lot of unwanted trouble. After walking up and down
the floors, Li Sui finally managed to familiarise with all the departments. Five
o'clock had just passed, everyone in the office was already gone. Li Sui tidied up
his documents and things; he wanted to wait for Lu Shang, but after some thought,
he gave up on the idea, as he didn't want anyone thinking that he colluded to get
the position. Li Sui left through the back door.

The train station was just a five minutes' walk away from Tong Yan. Not long after
Li Sui turned at a corner, he saw a black private car parked at the road. The car
window rolled down, showing half of a familiar face.

Li Sui didn't expect Lu Shang to wait for him here, his heart skipped a few beats.
Promptly, he got in the car.

"You are getting off work so early today?"

Lu Shang smiled lightly, "Even if I leave early, they can't do anything about it.
So, how is it?"

"It's fine," Li Sui replied. "It's also more challenging than I thought."

After some thought, he asked, "The manager overseeing us, do you know her?"

Lu Shang knew what Li Sui was trying to ask, "Don't worry, she doesn't know you."

That really make Li Sui feel more relieved. He wasn't worried that the manager
would do anything to him if she knew. However, as a newbie in the workplace, Li Sui
wanted a fair challenge, the last thing he wanted was to get praises or promotions
due to his relationship with Lu Shang. Lu Shang could clearly understand Li Sui's
thoughts of testing his own strength.

Li Sui began getting more and more busy, even busier than Lu Shang. During the day,
Li Sui had to go to Tong Yan for work. After work, he had to rush to driving
lessons. Then at night, he had to study for the exam Lu Shang had signed him up
for. Usually, after going through the whole day, Li Sui would be so tired that he
couldn't even speak. Every time it came to that, Li Sui would begin to wonder how
Lu Shang endured through all of these for so long.

Li Sui was still stuck in front of his computer even though it was way past his
usual bedtime. It pained Lu Shang to see him wrecking his body like that, so he
knocked on the door to the study, "Are you still not going to bed?"

Li Sui turned his head around, and with a sorry expression, he replied, "I am
making a video, but I'm not familiar with this software. I tried a few times but
still couldn't get it to work properly."

Lu Shang walked over to have a look at Li Sui's computer. He was making a

promotional video for the company's cultural week. In past years, they'd hire
someone specially to make the video, but it seemed that this time, it was given to
the interns as their first challenge.

Lu Shang thought for a bit, then said after yawning a little, "Well then, I'm going
to bed now."

Li Sui stared at Lu Shang leaving in a trance; it seemed like Lu Shang was not
planning to help him. Li Sui was quick in learning new things, but the technology
was still a huge barrier. At the age when others were playing with computers, he
was still homeless on the streets. Though Li Sui had worked hard, he had ten years
less of experiences on computers—just his typing speed alone was a lot slower than
everyone else's.

It was late at night and autumn was approaching, so the weather was turning colder
bit by bit. There were sometimes gusts of strong wind, blowing leaves around. Li
Sui went to pour himself a glass of warm water, then he opened some online forums
to read on other's experience with the software.

Lu Shang read through half of a book on the bed, but there was still no sign of Li
Sui. Lu Shang picked up a coat to keep himself warm, then opened the door to the
study again. Li Sui's head was leaning on the back of the chair, he was asleep. The
monitor showed that the video had just completed processing and was currently
loading.

Lu Shang waited for it to load and had a peek at the product; the graphics might
not be exquisite, but the video was still well-made, the effort could be seen
clearly, it was at a good enough level to be played on the big screen. For a newbie
to be able to make this was quite extraordinary; it showed how much heart Li Sui
had in his work.

After two weeks of consecutive intensive work, Li Sui was exhausted, and the
eyebags under his eyes were evident. Lu Shang didn't like seeing Li Sui suffer, but
he didn't interrupt him, either. Lu Shang left his coat behind, placing it on Li
Sui, then he quietly left the study.

The cultural week had soon arrived after that, and an exhibition was set up in the
company. Usually, Lu Shang wouldn't attend something like that, but this time, he
broke his usual habits and walked around the exhibition. Lu Shang's appearance in
the audience shocked the event host; he was very scared that he'd get his lines
wrong.

After the end of the video, a long round of applause was given by the audience. Lu
Shang stared at the name at the end of the video and frowned.

During dinner, Li Sui didn't say a word while eating. Lu Shang knew that he was
thinking about something, so he tried asking Li Sui about it.

"I'm fine," Li Sui replied.

"Are you thinking about the video?"

Li Sui said, "You know already?"

Lu Shang nodded and said, "Yeah, I heard it from someone else."

Li Sui straightened out his face and said, "Li Bai is the group leader. After I
made the video, I gave it to Li Bai. He would organise the materials and give them
to manager Zhao. I didn't think he would just put his name in the video like that."

"Well, he wasn't entirely wrong for doing that. Don't let that get you down." Lu
Shang said blandly, "This is what you have to learn, too. There are times when
simple effort is not enough. When you have to work hard, then you should work hard.
When you have to sell yourself, you should do everything you can to do that. And
when you have to please people to get what you want, you have to do so as well."

Li Sui nodded his head lightly.

Lu Shang's teaching was heard by Leung ZiRui who was there to deliver additional
medicines. After Li Sui went for a shower, he asked Lu Shang, "Who'd teach their
kid stuff like that? Aren't you afraid that he'd grow up to be an evil demon lord?"

Lu Shang tidied his pills into his medicine box as he said, "I'm more afraid that
he'd become a frail white flower. I don't want him to only stomp his feet in regret
after being tricked by someone."

"How protective, where is your conscience?" Leung ZiRui pounded his own chest after
hearing Lu Shang's teaching principles.

Lu Shang only laughed.

If this incident happened to someone else, of course he wouldn't have said that.
However, with Li Sui, it was different. Lu Shang dared teaching him with such
gloomy topics because Lu Shang knew that the kid's moral compass had matured. Even
if Lu Shang didn't say what was right and what was wrong, Li Sui would never do
anything unjust.

In the blink of an eye, it was payday. Li Sui got money from the financial
department; he could feel his hands tingling as this was the first time he got
money for his work.

It was Friday, so as usual, Li Sui went to the roadside to wait for Uncle Yuen's
car. Not long after waiting there, he got a phone call from Lu Shang.

"Have you gotten off of work yet?"

"Hm!"

"You sound pretty happy today."

"Let's go out for dinner. I will pay for it."

Lu Shang was looking at the script for the meeting that night, after hearing Li
Sui's reply, he glanced at the date on his wristwatch. Lu Shang smiled, "Did you
get your salary today?"

"Yes. What do you want for dinner?"

"Hmn…" Lu Shang felt like teasing him, "How about the western restaurant on top of
Tong Yan?"

Li Sui choked a bit, he asked carefully, "… can we go to a cheaper restaurant?"

Lu Shang couldn't stop himself from laughing this time. Uncle Yuen just happened to
enter, hurrying Lu Shang to the meeting. Lu Shang lowered his head from Uncle Yuen,
then he said, "I still have a meeting, Uncle Yuen can drive you home. We can talk
about dinner later."

"Okay. Uncle Yuen doesn't have to drive me home, though; I will practice driving on
the way back."

After Li Sui hung up, he felt a layer of honey coating his heart. Li Sui thought,
he must work hard to get money, or else he wouldn't even be able to provide for the
person he liked—Lu Lao Ban was very expensive, after all.

After Li Sui finished practising driving, Lu Shang was still stuck in the meeting.
After some consideration, he decided to go to the supermarket to buy some
ingredients for a western-style dinner. Li Sui had been to the restaurant on top of
Tong Yan with Lu Shang before; it was extremely expensive, but the food tasted
really good. They'd eaten there a few times before, so Li Sui still remembered the
food served there.

Around ten at night, Lu Shang finally returned home in a hurry. He said, "You must
be starving now."

Li Sui shook his head, "I made dinner."

Lu Shang took off his blazer as he saw the plates on the dining table; the beef
steaks on the plates looked really good.

"This is……"

Li Sui scratched the back of his head, "I tried making them through my memories. I
tasted them already, should be okay. Want to have some?"

Lu Shang smiled lightly, he sat down after washing his hands, cutting out a small
piece of steak. Lu Shang immediately knew which restaurant Li Sui was trying to
imitate, the quality of the meat was on par, but the taste was almost the same.

"It tastes lovely."

"You like it?" Li Sui immediately smiled, "Try the prawns next."

"Hm." Lu Shang looked at Li Sui, he couldn't help feeling bliss in his heart. He
had a sudden thought, if one day he went bankrupt and had to wander the streets,
homeless, he was sure that he wouldn't starve as long as Li Sui was there.

"Here. Cream of mushroom soup." Li Sui placed a bowl of soup on the table for Lu
Shang.

Some of the black pepper sauce was on the corner of Lu Shang's mouth. Li Sui stared
at it, wanting to wipe it away with his hands. Luckily, he stopped before he acted
on the thought; instead, he picked up a piece of tissue and handed it to Lu Shang.

Both of them were hungry after a long day, for the first time, Lu Shang actually
finished the whole steak, while the rest went into Li Sui's stomach. When it was
time to wash the dishes, Lu Shang wanted to help, but Li Sui drove him out the
kitchen. After all, who knew what Lu Shang would think if he saw the failed steaks
in the rubbish bin.

At night, before going to bed, Li Sui gave his wallet to Lu Shang.

"This is?" Lu Shang looked confused.

"For you. From now on, all the money I earn will be yours."

It had always been Lu Shang providing for the kid; he had never dreamed of the day
when his child would give him money. Lu Shang had a slight smile on his face, he
didn't reject the money, "I will help you do some investments with it, then."

The internship lasted three months; as Li Sui didn't have official education, he
couldn't keep up with others at the beginning, so his performance was always the
last amongst all the interns. After Li Sui got used to everything, his ability
began to show. When the internship was nearing its end, he was already one of the
top performers. At the very end, there was a selection section. A total of three
projects sent invitations to Li Sui, offering him a permanent position, making him
the most wanted intern among the batch.
The interns were actually below the company's working requirements; Tong Yan took
them in only because the government was calling for higher undergraduates'
employment. Tong Yan decided to invite interns, nurturing them and trying to find
new talents.

Though Li Sui might be lacking in education, when it came to life experiences, Li

Sui was a lot more knowledgeable. Workplace was different from the school; at work,
their integrated strengths were tested—not just knowledge from books, but both
their EQ and IQ would be put to the test. Li Sui was good at observing people, and
he would react according to his observations; just this ability was a lot better
than the undergraduates who'd just left their shells. Moreover, Li Sui was good-
looking to begin with, he was humble and hard-working, so a few of the seniors took
quite a liking to him.

When Uncle Yuen gave Lu Shang the internship report, Lu Shang was quite shocked to
see the score. Lu Shang was never worried that Li Sui would fall behind others, but
he never thought he would be so good at it. This kid was like a hunter in the
woods, if given enough time, his talents would eventually show.

No-one was born with knowledge; if a person didn't give his heart in anything, they
would fail even a simple task. For people who were quick in learning, as long as
they worked hard, they could learn numerous things from just one simple job. People
like that could grow at an extremely fast pace.

"His results are pretty good. Do you want to save a position for him to work in?"
Uncle Yuen asked.

"No," Lu Shang shook his head.

Uncle Yuen wasn't expecting that, Lu Shang just said, "That's above him."

It meant that this wasn't the right time. Uncle Yuen understood the second Lu Shang
rejected—Lu Shang never planned on letting Li Sui work from the bottom.

"Ask him to run errands for you for a while, and after the end of the year,
register for a place in an overseas university for him. It's time for him to have a
look at the world now." Lu Shang smiled, looking at the internship report.

The internship was approaching its end; Li Sui only had a road test left for his
driving license. Li Sui was busy every day, and running back and forth, he didn't
have much time to care about others. When he finally got a breather, he noticed
that Li Bai hadn't been around. Li Sui happened to bring the topic up with his
colleagues at the lounge area. The others looked shocked, as if it was a huge
incident.

"He was fired."

"Fired? When did that happen?"

"It's been half a month already, I think. I heard it's because of his conduct."

Li Sui had a lot on his mind, he went silent after hearing that.

T/N: lol Lu Shang fired Wang Wei and Li Bai because of Li Sui. More importantly,
the two names! Wang Wei and Li Bai are both super famous Chinese poets, to be
honest, no one would call themselves those names. I wonder if the author hated them
too much for having to recite their poems or something.
After Autumn ended, Li Sui got his driving licence. The red race car was too eye-
catching, so Li Sui traded the car with Lu Shang, receiving a normal black car.

"Trading a 2 million Yuan car for a 200 thousand Yuan one. Don't you find that a
loss?"

Li Sui glanced at Lu Shang sitting in the co-driver seat; for some reason, he
remembered the phrase, a lovely car with a beauty in it, what more did he want? Li
Sui squealed in his heart, definitely not a loss.

When winter came, Lu Shang's health obviously deteriorated; he was never seen
without his medicine nearby. The fireplace began burning early in the day, making
the whole room warm and almost hot. To Li Sui the temperature was too high, so he
only wore shorts and short-sleeved clothes at home.

At night, when neither of them were busy, Lu Shang would sometimes talk about work
with Li Sui. Lu Shang's health was bad, so he shouldn't overwork himself. Li Sui
would help him type up documents as Lu Shang read out what he needed done; this was
also typing practice for Li Sui. After typing an important line, Li Sui waited for
Lu Shang to tell him the next line, but nothing came. Li Sui turned to his side to
see Lu Shang sleeping in his wheelchair.

His heart wasn't pumping blood efficiently enough, so Lu Shang got tired really
easily; it also made his skin look pale. Lu Shang was sleeping next to him, so
unguarded, his chest moving slightly as he breathed, his robe was disheveled, lying
loosely on his skin, even the knot on his waist was loose.

The scene was simply too alluring, Li Sui stopped breathing for a second. Unable to
stop his urges, he moved closer to Lu Shang, then leaned down to Lu Shang's neck,
taking in his scent. Illicit memories broke out from their cages; Li Sui tried
holding himself back, but his sane mind was too weak under the growing lust. Li Sui
soon gave in to his desires, moving to kiss Lu Shang's earlobes.

The cold scent was like a poison penetrating straight into his mind; it spread
through his brain in mere seconds. Li Sui knew he was nulling thirst with additive
poison, but he couldn't shake this off. Li Sui took a little bite on the tender
skin—what wouldn't he give to just swallow it whole? The person whom he fantasized
about day and night was right in front of him, and that made Li Sui feel an immense
eagerness. Letting the earlobe go, Li Sui moved to Lu Shang's neck, leaving
breathes of hotness as he moved down to Lu Shang's naked collar bones, landing a
kiss there softly.

Li Sui's hand went for the band on Lu Shang's waist, he was planning on tying the
knot back, but as his fingers entangled with the piece of cloth, it just became
looser and looser. Following through the gap of the robe, Li Sui's hand reached Lu
Shang's thin waist, caressing it lightly.

All the while, Li Sui could hear the pumping blood in his ear; he felt like his
brain had drowned, but in the depths of his consciousness, there was an immense
satisfaction that made him go crazy. Li Sui used every bit of his might, but he was
only able to stop his hand from moving further down.

The person under him seemed to have felt something, his eyelashes trembled a bit.
Li Sui pulled his hand out from the robe, returning to the band on Lu Shang's
waist. Li Sui didn't back away, he stayed at the same position, observing Lu Shang,
looking at his slowly opened eyes.

Li Sui was too close to Lu Shang, he could feel the movements in Lu Shang's vocal
cords.
"What's wrong…?"

Li Sui kept staring at him, looking unfazed, he said, "The knot is loose." After
saying that, Li Sui tied it for him with one hand, tying a little bow.

Lu Shang seemed to be very tired, he didn't mind and just fell asleep again.

Li Sui stared at him for a long while, relaxing his tensed fingers. He went to pick
Lu Shang up from the wheelchair, bringing him to bed and carefully pulling up the
blanket on Lu Shang.

After finishing all the above actions, the beast that was roaring in his heart
finally began to quiet down. Li Sui stood beside the bed, he sighed as he pinched
his forehead.

T/N: We are almost there, Li Sui's restraints are almost at their limit.

Chapter 29: Losing Control

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Translations

After the internship, Li Sui began focusing completely on preparing for his exams.
Li Sui was a quick learner, plus he had learned a lot from the intern period. Being
able to combine field experiences and knowledge allowed Li Sui to improve
exponentially.

Lu Shang was also serious in training him; he would specifically ask Uncle Yuen to
give certain simple tasks to Li Sui, training his skills in the field. The tasks
were all simple ones, they ranged from checking for typos to replying work emails.
During the process, Li Sui would find that all the tasks only seemed easy, but in
truth, had many tiny details that required attention. After he had finished writing
the reply, the contents of the received email would still be in Li Sui's mind.
After repeated exposure, he'd find that he could begin using similar tones in his
writing.

In the morning, the sky was dark, and it looked like it was going to snow soon.

"Have you finished correcting the cooperation agreement document I gave you last
night?"

"Yes, I've changed it. I stamped it with your name and sent it to assistant Yang
already."

Lu Shang said a light "Hm," then he continued, "I have to set a meeting to discuss
next year's budget."

Li Sui followed him out of the room, "Uncle Yuen mentioned that already, so I've
made a template according to last year's budget. You can see if there are any
problems when you have time."

Lu Shang laughed, "You're becoming more thorough in your job."

Li Sui didn't reply; his thoughts had already gone off the rails seeing Lu Shang's
smile.

"It's eight already, don't you have tutorial classes?" Lu Shang stood at the door
looking back at Li Sui.

Li Sui replied, "I'm having an exam today."

Lu Shang remembered, "Do you need me to bring you there?"

"No thanks. I will drive myself to the venue." Li Sui picked up the car keys,
placing them into his pocket. Before Li Sui left, he reminded Lu Shang in a worried
tone, "It's cold outside, and it might also rain today, so please don't go out."

Inside the house, Lu Shang replied vaguely. Li Sui wasn't sure if he actually
listened.

Before Li Sui got to the examination venue, snow began drifting down. Snowflakes
fluttered as the wind picked up. Most of the examination attendees were graduates
from local universities; amongst the people with a similar age to Li Sui, none had
their own car. Li Sui instantly stole the limelight. Along with his naturally good
looks, everyone thought he was one of those rich second-generation kids.

Li Sui had three exams today, two in the morning and one in the afternoon. As they
were packed together, Li Sui didn't go home for lunch, he just bought a boxed lunch
near the examination venue.

Li Sui had been studying and preparing very hard, so he wasn't too worried about
the results. During the lunch break, he just sat on the side listening to some
English recordings. Opposite of him, there were a few other examinees; they seemed
to lack confidence, as they were still holding onto the textbooks. Seeing Li Sui
passing by, the two females hid behind the books they were holding and began
mumbling to each other.

T/N: On a side note, I think if Lu Shang were to record the English listening
audios himself, Li Sui would be very motivated.

Li Sui didn't look at them, he was staring at his mobile phone as one of the girls
walked over. With a blushing face, she asked, "Hello handsome, may I have your
number?"

Li Sui had never been approached by girls before, so in the heat of the moment he
just stared at her. Li Sui's gaze then went to the girl behind her, after grasping
their intents, he gave a polite smile, "I'm sorry, but I have someone I like
already."

The girl froze a bit, then she just waved her hand and returned to her group.

Sounds of disappointment came from the group, Li Sui put his headphones back on,
looking at the snow outside. Li Sui suddenly had a thought, and picking up his
phone, he began writing a text to Lu Shang.

"Lu Lao Ban, someone asked me for my contact info, do you think I should?"

No reply came from the other end—Lu Shang was probably having a nap or something.
Li Sui turned his phone off, then he calmed himself for the upcoming test.

Though Li Sui was confident in his preparation and results, he still felt relieved
after all the exams were over. Li Sui wasn't the only one, the atmosphere around
him was obviously lighter than it was prior to the exams. When the doors were
opened, all the examinees rushed out ecstatically.

Li Sui didn't have to catch the bus, so he just stayed at the seat, waiting for the
crowd to disperse. After the crowds were gone, Li Sui walked towards the parking
lot leisurely.
It was still snowing outside; the chilly air filled his lungs the second Li Sui
left the building. As he walked down the stairs, he saw a person standing by a
leafless tree. The person was wearing a long black coat, he had a wool scarf
loosely hung on his neck. Seeing Li Sui walking down the stairs, he immediately
smiled.

Li Sui basically ran over to him, "Why are you here? I thought I said not to go out
today?"

Lu Shang smiled, "I had nothing to do, so I came to pick you up."

Li Sui sensed the coldness from Lu Shang's hands, and that made Li Sui worried
sick. He immediately led Lu Shang to the car, "How long have you been waiting? Did
Uncle Yuen drive you here? It's cold outside, you know…"

"I'm fine. I have just arrived." Lu Shang continued, "You're here, so I sent Uncle
Yuen back."

Li Sui opened the car door, only feeling reassured after Lu Shang had got on
safely. After Lu Shang got on, he turned the air-conditioning to warm mode.

"How did the exam go?"

"It's fine. Most of the questions were quite simple." Li Sui kept rubbing his hand
against Lu Shang's, hoping to give him some more warmth, "Next time don't go out
when it's snowing. Your health isn't good, what if something happened to you?"

Lu Shang only smiled, "I heard someone asked for your contact info. Was it a male
or female?"

Li Sui didn't know if he should laugh or cry, he said, "Don't tease me."

After a bit, he added with a softer voice, "I don't differentiate between their
genders. In my book there are just two types of people—you and all the others."

Lu Shang stared at Li Sui trying to ascertain what Li Sui was insinuating, then he
started laughing as if he couldn't hold it back, even his shoulders trembled.

"What are you laughing at?"

Lu Shang looked really happy, his mouth formed a smile as he said, "I never said
you can't make friends. Getting new friends is a good thing."

Li Sui had to back down with how much Lu Shang was laughing, so he forcibly changed
the topic, "From today onwards, I have no more lessons, so I can go help you out."

"There's no rush." Lu Shang stopped laughing, after coughing a few times, he said,
"Let's head back."

There were a lot of students, so many walked on the car roads with umbrellas. With
so many people on the roads, their car was driving at a snail pace. Li Sui didn't
press the horn; he just drove slowly through the crowd.

Looking at the gleeful faces of the students outside, as if Lu Shang remembered

something from the past, he said, "When I was studying in America, I always saw
others' parents picking their kids up from the exams. I've always hoped that my
family could come too back then, but that was never once fulfilled."

Li Sui seldom heard Lu Shang talk about the past, so he turned his head around to
ask, "Were you living by yourself back then?"

"There were servants and doctors too."

Li Sui thought, Lu Shang had to be still very young back then. Having to leave home
alone at such a young age, with only servants to talk to, that must be how Lu Shang
became so desolate.

As they were talking, Lu Shang's phone rang, it was from Xiao Zhao.

"Director Lu, the document you wanted—can I deliver it to you tonight instead?"

"Why?"

Xiao Zhao sounded awkward and evasive, "I… I promised my girlfriend I'd go out on a
date with her on the holiday."

Lu Shang looked at the time and date on his phone, that was when he realized that
today was Christmas Eve.

"It's fine. You can deliver it tonight."

"Thank you. Director Lu!"

Days passed by so fast; Lu Shang was never sensitive towards holidays, and neither
was Li Sui. No wonder there were so many people on the streets today—a lot of shops
were having sales.

"What's wrong?" Li Sui asked after seeing Lu Shang in deep thoughts.

Lu Shang put his phone back, then he smiled and said, "Let's go, I'm bringing you
somewhere."

That 'somewhere' was a restaurant atop a skyscraper, a revolving restaurant to be

specific.

Li Sui didn't expect Lu Shang to bring him somewhere so grand; instead, he would
expect Lu Shang to bring him to a quiet, little restaurant.

"This restaurant has been here for over ten years." Lu Shang added in lamb meat
into the rock hotpot, "Try it, it tastes quite good."

The hotpot had hot and sour soup in it, the soup was bubbling and giving out steam
as it was heated. After the lamb meat had been cooked for a while, it was dipped
into a mix of sesame sauce and soy sauce while still steaming hot. The sensation of
all the lovely flavors mixed together was simply amazing.

Li Sui never had such tender lamb meat before, it was as if the meat melted in his
mouth the second it touched his tongue. The sourness and spiciness were balanced
well, bringing both flavors out perfectly. Even without chewing, the rich flavor of
the meat and soup would seep out. The spiciness was especially strong; swallowing
the meat and broth together was quite exciting.

"This is so much different from Aunt Lu's cooking." Li Sui continued, "They are
really tasty."

When Aunt Lu prepared their meals, her number one concern was the food's impact on
health, taste was a secondary concern, so her food was mostly bland and had less
seasoning. Li Sui was never fed up with Aunt Lu's cooking, but it did sometimes
lack excitement.

The two of them added more and more meat as they ate; in no time, all the lamb meat
was gone. Li Sui also realized that Lu Shang actually liked spicy food, only due to
his own health condition, he had been limiting himself in the consumption of them.

Only lamb meat wasn't enough, so they also ordered some tofu and mushrooms. Half-
way through the meal, Lu Shang put his chopsticks down and began being inseparable
from his glass of milk. Li Sui lifted his head from his food, and through the white
steam, he noticed that the corners of Lu Shang's eyes were a little red from all
the spicy food. Li Sui found that funny and at the same time endearing.

Compared to the cold and quiet Lu Shang sitting in the office, Li Sui preferred the
Lu Shang now. Lively, ordinary, having normal senses and interests.

"Director Yue called me today. You might have to attend a banquet at Mu Sheng this
month." Lu Shang said nonchalantly like it was nothing big.

Li Sui asked, "Mu Sheng? Isn't that the SiMa family's company?"

"I used the money you gave me for investments." Lu Shang smiled, "Xiao Zhao will
get the documents to you tonight."

Li Sui was confused, obviously Lu Shang had to be joking. With that little bit of
money he gave Lu Shang, stocks aside, he couldn't even buy a table in Mu Sheng. Li
Sui suddenly remembered the camp he went with SiMa JingRong half-year ago, and he
suspected that the stocks must have been bought then. However, Lu Shang had never
once mentioned it to Li Sui, so Li Sui had no idea that he was already Mu Sheng's
stockholder. Lu Shang's actions were a little resemblant of how ancient people
would use money to get a government official position for their sons; Lu Shang
basically gave him half a company.

"Do you trust me that much? Aren't you afraid that I'd run away?" Li Sui asked.

Lu Shang laughed softly, "You won't."

Li Sui felt something click in his heart. He still had things to ask, but Lu
Shang's short reply batted all that away.

"Mu Sheng is a good company. You should manage it well, be more wary of others and
your own choices. Running a business is like playing with dominos, one wrong move
and everything follows and falls apart. Don't only focus on the profit at hand," Lu
Shang said. "Especially when you are facing choices that you could only make once,
be rational and don't let your emotions cloud your judgement."

Li Sui however thought of something else from Lu Shang's reminders, "Is that so?"

For some reason, Lu Shang went silent for a while as well, before he finally gave a
light "hm" in reply.

After two rounds of snow, the day of the banquet came. There was no doubt that Mu
Sheng was the SiMa family's company, the scale of the banquet was on a whole new
level, to sum it up in one word, the banquet was "extravagant".

Li Sui wore a full dinner suit; he made an entrance together with Lu Shang.
Technically, they had different roles—one was a stockholder, while the other was a
business partner, so normally they wouldn't be arranged to sit together. Someone
must have paid attention to their relationship and arranged this intentionally.
Lu Shang had a cold recently, so he wasn't in good spirits. After Lu Shang was
seated, he didn't budge at all. Whenever anyone made a toast to Lu Shang, Li Sui
would drink the wine in Lu Shang's stead.

SiMa JingRong was the same as before—he still had the expression of a playboy who
had no respect for anyone. Even with the suit, SiMa JingRong didn't look the least
bit serious, though having a tidy attire showed his improvements. His younger
brother had already become the family's new backbone, following Yue PengFei around
to greet everyone. Even so, there was no more dissatisfaction on SiMa JingRong's
face. Instead, SiMa JingRong looked quite gleeful, he enjoyed not having to do
anything, as if he were a big landlord.

The banquet began with a few speeches, the directors' speeches came first, then it
was the shareholder's turn. Li Sui sat in his seat, seeing the huge cameras and
recorders directed at the stage, he couldn't help but swallow a gulp of saliva
anxiously.

His script was prepared beforehand, so Li Sui just had to walk onto the stage and
recite it. However, looking at so many people and speaking on stage was still quite
overwhelming, and it made Li Sui a little nervous. When the host invited him to the
stage, Li Sui felt his heart tighten; he instinctively looked at Lu Shang.

A smile surfaced on Lu Shang's pale face, "What are you looking at me for? You're
Mu Sheng's shareholder, not me."

Li Sui's shoulders relaxed, he stood up and walked towards the stage.

Li Sui was tall and his legs were long, when he walked up the stage, he gave off an
aura of assuredness. Looking at Li Sui's figure from behind, Lu Shang started
sighing how time passed by so fast. It had been years since they first met, and
looking at Li Sui now, Lu Shang couldn't pick out any glimpses of Li Sui's past
self. When Lu Shang first brought Li Sui home, no one would even think that he
would turn out like this.

Not only was Li Sui a new face, he was also young, so many proposed toasts to Li
Sui. Moreover, Li Sui drank a lot earlier in Lu Shang's stead already, so even Li
Sui felt a little light on his feet. This was the first time Li Sui had to attend a
banquet in the capacity of a shareholder, but Lu Shang didn't limit him in doing
anything. Lu Shang just sat at the sides, looking at Li Sui trying his best to stay
awake as he talked to the other guests.

"Lu Lao Ban, are you not going to stop him? If he continues, he will definitely get
drunk." SiMa JingRong sat down next to Lu Shang with a plate of peeled peanuts,
eating as he asked Lu Shang.

"There will be many more banquets for him to attend in the future, he must get
drunk once to understand the need to reject alcohol," Lu Shang said without any
rush.

SiMa JingRong was shocked by Lu Shang's direct and brutal education method, but
after some thought, he found it true.

"Though our family's company is my little brother's, all the money is given to me.
So, if you guys are in need of money someday, you can always depend on me." SiMa
JingRong said with a dependable-like expression.

Lu Shang laughed on the inside; he raised his cup and touched SiMa JingRong's glass
lightly. In his heart, he also thought that this kid was born to be lucky, he was
born to have a free and leisure life. Others didn't even know where to begin
getting jealous.

The banquet continued throughout the night. When it was finally over, Li Sui was
basically unconscious, he flopped down on the table near the door. Lu Shang had no
other choice but to go over and wake him up. Li Sui was just great, instead of
flopping down dead, he woke up and clung to Lu Shang's waist. Li Sui was also
muttering something, but Lu Shang couldn't make out what the incoherent sounds
were.

Uncle Yuen's car couldn't drive straight in, so it was parked outside in the
garden. Lu Shang tried pulling Li Sui up but failed, so he then squatted down,
ruffling Li Sui's head, "How about I carry you, is that okay?"

Li Sui reacted to the sentence and let go of Lu Shang's waist, instead flopping
down on Lu Shang's back.

The snow had not yet melted; the two of their weights went against the layer of
snow on the ground, making squishy sounds. Li Sui wasn't light, to be honest;
having to carry Li Sui's weight on his back was a little difficult for Lu Shang.
Even so, Lu Shang just bit his teeth and went through with it, ignoring the
discomfort in his chest.

When they got back home, Aunt Lu rushed out, she asked, "How much did he drink to
get like this? Do I need to call for the doctor?"

"He's fine, I checked. Just make him some honey water." Lu Shang placed Li Sui on
the bed, then rubbed his own sore wrists a little.

"Okay, coming right up."

Lu Shang wasn't experienced in taking care of a drunk person. However, being a

chronic patient himself, he did learn a lot about healthcare, so giving basic care
wasn't a challenge. Li Sui was quite peaceful even when drunk, that was proven when
Lu Shang brought him to the bamboo dojo for the first time. Though Li Sui's mind
was clouded, if asked to do something, he'd really do it. Lu Shang wiped Li Sui's
face clean, then fed him the honey water. Lu Shang asked him to lie back on the
bed, and Li Sui really did take his dirty clothes off and quietly lay down.

Lu Shang finished his own shower, after taking his medicines, he laid down on the
bed beside Li Sui. Just after Lu Shang laid down, Li Sui turned on his sides and
got up, staring at Lu Shang with vacant eyes.

"What are you doing?" Lu Shang found it a little amusing.

Li Sui didn't reply, he leaned down to Lu Shang's neck, sniffing like a hound would
with its prey. Li Sui buried himself at Lu Shang's neck, breathing out hot
breathes, ready to make a move. Lu Shang put his hand on Li Sui's forehead, pushing
him back a little, Lu Shang squinted his eyes to check if Li Sui was conscious.

The lights in the bedroom were all turned off, so Lu Shang could barely even see Li
Sui's black eyes; he failed to see them brimming with lust.

The one who was pushed back seemed to be unsatisfied; he suddenly grabbed Lu
Shang's wrist, pushing it onto the bed, and he began licking Lu Shang's neck. Hot
breaths and the smell of alcohol surrounded them. Lu Shang panted slightly, but
still didn't push Li Sui away forcefully. After licking for a while, Li Sui's
movements slowed down, his eager kisses were replaced by paced, intermittent ones
with an intent to tease.
The atmosphere in the room changed drastically, the air was filled with desire,
brewing and inflating. Catalyzed by the warmth in the room, their brains became a
chaotic mess.

Li Sui threw himself completely into sucking and licking Lu Shang's skin, his
tongue lithely slid across Lu Shang, moving up along the neck towards his pursed,
delicate lips. Lu Shang frowned slightly; he tried pushing Li Sui back, but the
drunk Li Sui was stronger than Lu Shang thought he'd be. Lu Shang couldn't push him
back, so he could only submissively let Li Sui kiss him, rampaging in his mouth.
Though the kiss lacked technique, it was gentle and serious.

It was quiet in the house, leaving only the sounds of rustling fabrics and the two
of them panting. The duration of the kiss was extremely long, as if Li Sui had been
holding it back for centuries and was now making up for lost time. Li Sui went
after his lips as if his life depended on it.

Their tongues and lips stirred, giving lewd wet sounds. At the beginning, Lu Shang
did try to push Li Sui away, but as it progressed, he found his strength slipping
away, his hands could just loosely hold onto Li Sui's shoulders. Feeling that Lu
Shang had given in, Li Sui went further ahead, prying open Lu Shang's teeth. The
two were swapping saliva above, and below, their bodies were rubbing against each
other; they felt like they might just catch on fire like this. Noticing that Lu
Shang's breaths were becoming too irregular, Li Sui let the kiss go and instead, he
turned to kissing the nape of Lu Shang's neck.

Lu Shang continued panting. He shifted his body; trying to avoid Li Sui, he turned
on his sides and curled up. Li Sui, however, wasn't giving up—he stubbornly
extended his hand to hug Lu Shang by the waist. As he reached over, his hands
accidentally came into contact with something else, there was an obvious second of
hesitation.

It was too dark in the room, so neither of them could see each other's expression
clearly, but it was as if time had stopped for two whole seconds. Lu Shang
trembled, then began struggling to get away from Li Sui, trying to get off the bed.

"Don't move." Li Sui grabbed him back, suddenly talking with a slightly hoarse
voice.

It was so quiet in the room that if a needle were to drop on the floor, they would
still hear it loud and clear. They were panting a lot, as if both of them were
holding something back. Li Sui froze for a bit, then his right hand explored into
Lu Shang's clothes, quickly reaching the important parts, "I'll help you."

Li Sui's hot breaths ran across Lu Shang's ear, making his body stiff. Lu Shang
tried to break free again but was still held by Li Sui. With no other choice, he
shut his eyes tight, throwing half of his face into the pillow as he frowned.

Li Sui leaned down to kiss Lu Shang's eye, his hand reaching the tip of Lu Shang's
erection. He slowly caressed it, beginning to move his hands rhythmically.

Lust in the room was as thick as black ink stained on a piece of white paper; it
was mixed with alcohol as it spread across the cozy room quickly. Everything
quieted down, only a few muffled moans were audible.

The craziness was covered up by the darkness, and it ended as quickly as it began.

The two of them sweated a lot, it was as if both of them were just fished out of
the sea. Li Sui's breathes were heavy, he let go of the thing that had just spilled
but didn't let Lu Shang go. As if Li Sui had lost it, he pulled down Lu Shang's
clothes to bite his shoulder. His actions were aggressive, he was getting more and
more out of hand.

"…… Li Sui." Lu Shang finally said something, his voice was trembling, but it had
an indisputable warning tone.

Li Sui stopped, as if he had just woken up from a dream. The haze over his eyes
receded like the tide, his eyes turned somber. Li Sui let go of Lu Shang; his
Adam's apple bobbed, and with a hoarse voice, he said, "I…… I'm going to sleep in
the living room."

The bedroom door closed with a light sound. Lu Shang opened his eyes in the
darkness, they were unfocused for a long time.

Wind picked up outside the house. The two of them were separated by a thin wall and
neither of them got any sleep that night.

Chapter 30: The Truth

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Having serious hangovers and insomnia took a toll on Li Sui. The next morning, he
felt as if his head was going to explode. Lu Shang wasn't feeling any better than
Li Sui; his face was as white as paper.

After Aunt Lu served breakfast, she noticed that the two of them were especially
quiet today—they didn't have a shred of communication. When their fingers touched
as they reached for seconds, they backed away from each other at lightning speed.

Aunt Lu could sense the awkwardness in the air, but she had no idea what had
occurred, so she just thought it was a tiny lovers' squabble. Couples often ran
into obstacles, this was nothing special in Aunt Lu's eyes. Plus, the two were
always close, so Aunt Lu wasn't worry about them. After finishing her duties, she
knowingly left the room promptly, hoping the two would clear things up soon.

The outside temperature lowered day by day; the previous layer of snow had yet to
melt completely, but a new round of snow already began falling down from the sky.

Li Sui wasn't at his best, so he made a lot of mistakes during work. When he
finally finished all his work and returned home, it was already late at night. No-
one was home, only the fireplace was still burning, making crackling sounds. Dinner
was on the dining table, the plates still steaming hot, but it seemed like no one
had touched them.

It was so late already, but Lu Shang was still not home. Li Sui had no idea where
Lu Shang was, nor did he know what Lu Shang was doing. Li Sui was seldom apart from
Lu Shang, so this made him feel extremely uncomfortable—as if he had just lost a
keepsake which he'd always kept by his side. Li Sui wanted to call Lu Shang, so he
pulled out his phone from his pocket. Then, he thought about how Lu Shang might
feel if he actually called. He fidgeted with the phone for a while, feeling
depressed, and eventually he decided to call Uncle Yuen instead.

"He went to HaiNan Island for work." Uncle Yuen was a little shocked, he asked,
"Did he not bring you along?"

Not only did Lu Shang not bring Li Sui along, Lu Shang didn't even tell Li Sui he
was going to the island. Lu Shang was obviously avoiding him.

"…… I see."
After hanging the phone up, Li Sui stood in the empty house, his heart was just as
empty as the house was.

It was already late at night, but the lights were still lit at the Golden Sands
Shore project conference room. In the room were a few project leaders, all of them
were calm on the surface, but in truth, they were all extremely worried.

None of them thought that such a tiny construction accident would bring Lu Shang
here. Not only that, Lu Shang called all the project accountants and managers for
questioning, in the middle of the night nonetheless.

Even if you looked at all the construction projects in the mainland, none would be
completely clean, especially when it came to this kind of huge projects with so
many parties involved. Tong Yan was no exception, the most important thing was to
balance profit with the quality. As long as the final results were okay, every side
would benefit, so everyone would be happy. Usually the higher ups won't be too
harsh either, they'd tend to let these little things slide.

T/N: I just know that a part of Lu Shang came since he's in a bad mood and he's
here to blow off some steam.
Great example of not letting personal emotions interfere with your work, Lu Shang.

It wasn't like Lu Shang didn't understand that, but he still decided to review
everything out of the blue. Lu Shang made a huge move, his demeanor seemed
unforgiving, and that made everyone scared. Everyone in charge knew that Lu Shang
was cracking down on them. Putting aside the worst-case scenario of Lu Shang
catching every culprit out for now, even considering the best, Lu Shang would find
one to two to punish as a warning.

In this freezing winter night, the people in charge were in the huge conference
room, sweating in fear that the unfortunate punishment would be on their heads.

Liu XingMing felt like continuing wasn't going to do any good, so he smiled as he
said, "Director Lu, the task of checking the books won't be finished anytime soon.
You just got off the plane, and you must be really tired, too. How about we finish
the checking tomorrow and rest for now?"

"What?" Lu Shang turned to him, staring at him coldly, then he said, "The injured
workers are still in critical condition now, but we still have no idea what caused
it. Rest? Maybe we should just go home for a feast and a massage first, then we can
check what had happened, is that what you're suggesting?"

After Lu Shang said that, even Liu XingMing didn't dare to smile anymore.

"Xiao Ye, go order dinner." Lu Shang said.

"Yes."

Lu Shang continued, "Call your family and tell them that until this problem is
investigated completely, no-one is going home."

For a long time, Lu Shang managed the company in an extremely humanitarian way. He
seldom got mad, and he also seldom held anyone responsible directly. Though he
seemed distant and hard to approach, he treated all his employees kindly. After
getting used to that for a long time, everyone had the misconception that he was a
person of zero fury and was easy to talk to. It was only today that they remembered
this man was able to stabilize and manage Tong Yan all on his own—and that was ten
years ago when he was still very young. A person with that kind of leadership
skills was definitely not someone easy-going. Most of the time, people thought Lu
Shang was easy-going only because he didn't have the leisure to deal with every
little problem. If Lu Shang were to put his mind to it though, no one would stand a
chance against him.

When the investigation reached the materials' purchasing records, the picture
became clear. It was already late at night, everyone in the conference room turned
from initial nervousness to giving up and preparing for the worst. Finally,
everyone only had tiredness and sleepiness left. At long last, the accountant made
a final conclusion, and that was when everyone woke up. Lu Shang picked up the
report, flipping through the pages, then he scoffed, throwing the stack of paper on
the desk towards Liu XingMing.

"Using such petty tricks."

Liu XingMing picked up the report; after seeing the contents, his face turned pale.
"I will immediately contact the material suppliers," he said.

"There's no need to contact them anymore, cancel our contract with them and ask
them to get the hell out."

After finishing the order, Lu Shang scanned everyone in the room, "I don't know who
took the money. The price doesn't matter, but the materials must be replaced. After
the construction is done, each and every one of you will have to sign for its
completion. If anything happens, everyone here will be responsible—no one can run
away from that. I'm making an amusement park here, not a killing machine. If I
can't ensure the safety of the users, why build an amusement park? I should have
just built a graveyard."

Lu Shang's words were sharp, and everyone seated in the room was drenched in cold
sweat. The conference room was terrifyingly quiet; at that exact moment, Lu Shang's
phone vibrated, cutting into his speech.

Lu Shang frowned; he picked up the phone and looked at the caller's ID. For a split
second, he froze.

"Director Lu. So, what suppliers are we changing to?" someone in the room asked.

Lu Shang secretly turned his phone off, then he said, "Send out a notice, we are
opening a public bid."

Li Sui waited for the whole night, yet he didn't get a reply to his call. Li Sui
had a hard-to-describe feeling—he was anxious, and at the same time, he was
worried. It was as if he was a child who had done something wrong, wanting to
apologize but just couldn't through to the other.

Li Sui didn't want to stop contacting Lu Shang, but he wouldn't dare contact him
relentlessly, afraid that Lu Shang would find him annoying. For the next couple of
days, Li Sui chose the time slots when Lu Shang was off work to message him, most
of the contents were just reporting daily stuff or nuisances with work as a
pretext. Unfortunately, the messages he sent were like rocks thrown into the ocean,
they sank and never returned.

It was as if Lu Shang was intentionally ignoring him—no matter what Li Sui tried,
he didn't succeed. Li Sui couldn't but feel glum.

On a certain day, SiMa JingRong called Li Sui; he was inviting Li Sui over for
dinner at the SiMa family for the New Years. Having dinner or not didn't matter to
Li Sui, but he was finally able to find someone whom he could talk to, and that
mattered a lot to him. Li Sui changed the subject, coating the facts a little. He
told SiMa JingRong what had occurred through the phone, hoping for some advice.

After hearing what Li Sui had to say, SiMa JingRong laughed, "Isn't it normal that
he's angry? I mean, think about it. If he didn't get angry at all, and didn't care
about it one bit as if nothing had happened, would you be happy with that?"

What SiMa JingRong said enlightened him, and Li Sui immediately stood up.

"If he's hiding from you, that means he cares about you. If he really just sees you
as a kid he had just picked up, would he let you do that to him? With his
resources, you would have been long thrown into a lake as fish bait if he wanted
to."

Li Sui's breathing sped up, he said in a hurry, "Do, do you mean…"

"Go apologize, little bro!" SiMa JingRong said.

Li Sui deflated, he said, "He hasn't replied to a single message I sent him."

"Then go in person, give him flowers, presents, money… Give him whatever he likes,
make him happy, cheer him up. There aren't problems that money can't solve in this
world…"

Li Sui found what he said reasonable at the beginning, but the more SiMa JingRong
talked, the crazier it seemed. Knowing that SiMa JingRong had no intention of
stopping, Li Sui cut him off and turned around to find Aunt Lu.

"Things he likes?" Aunt Lu was cutting mushrooms in the kitchen as she was shocked
by Li Sui's sudden question.

Li Sui nodded his head, asking with a little shyness, "You've taken care of him for
so many years, have you noticed if he was particularly interested in anything?"

"Well…" Aunt Lu went into a deep thought, then she said, "Ah! Yes, I remember that
he used to like fishing. When his health was a bit better a few years back, he
often went to QingMing lake to fish."

This was the first time Li Sui ever heard of that before, so he was a little
shocked. Lu Shang seldom talked about his past, and he seldom showed interest in
anything. Lu Shang always gave off a distant atmosphere, Li Sui never knew Lu Shang
had a hobby.

Li Sui smiled, and he said, "Thank you, Aunt Lu."

Opening a bid wasn't an easy task; the construction was in progress, so time was
everything, the bidding couldn't be pushed back, not even a day. Normally, people
would just give up, but for some reason, Lu Shang was especially stubborn on the
subject, torturing them for two entire weeks. Finally… he tortured himself to
sickness.

Affected by the seasonal winds, temperature fluctuated a lot on the island. Lu

Shang's immune system was weak to begin with, plus he had been going back and forth
from the construction site and the company for weeks. He didn't get enough rest, so
he caught a heavy cold; his heart naturally began protesting as well.

HaiNan Island was different from Lu Shang's home; the hospital here had never
treated such a complicated patient before, so they didn't dare make a diagnosis
right away. The hospital just prescribed him some anti-inflammatory medicines and
some painkillers.
Lu Shang had taken so much medicine before even when he was still a kid. Taking
medicine was like eating rice to him, normal medicine basically had no effect on
him, so every night, he would still suffer from a fever, but when he had woken up
every morning, his fever would have subsided. Overworking in the day and having
poor rest at night, Lu Shang was so tired and exhausted that he got even skinnier
than before. His face was pale to begin with, but now it just turned even whiter.

The New Year's was approaching. Most of the workers on the site were hired from
another city, so each day they were counting when they could finally go home. In
the entire year, this period was when the workers would slack off the most. Lu
Shang knew in his heart that this matter should be dealt with quickly, so even with
his health at stake, he forced himself to work. Lu Shang personally directed
personnel from different departments, finalizing a supplier who could immediately
provide them with the required raw materials. Although the price was higher than
their expectation, the materials were high quality ones, and they would make it
here just on time.

After slapping people in the face, giving them some candies would patch things up—
Lu Shang understood that tactic clearly. Before the holidays, Lu Shang especially
asked Liu XingMing to hand out New Year's supplies to all the employees. For the
construction workers, Lu Shang arranged to give them red packets (i) directly. A
lot of the construction site workers are from other cities, so they had to rush
back home for New Year's. Even if Lu Shang gave them New Year's supplies, they
wouldn't be able to bring them home; giving them money directly would be a lot more
convenient.

T/N: (i) Chinese people give red packets to family and friends on New Year's;
inside the red packets there are money, so basically the workers are given money in
a red envelope.

Except for Lu Shang, not many people would have put that much thought into these
matters. After Lu Shang finished all his work, he was utterly exhausted, and his
heart began protesting as well. He didn't even have the strength to attend the
year's end party, he just half-fainted away on the hotel sofa. Uncle Yuen was
worried, so he went to the hotel to check up on him.

"Are we heading back tomorrow?"

Lu Shang lay on the sofa, pinching his own forehead, he replied, "Hm."

Uncle Yuen swallowed saliva and said while gauging Lu Shang's reaction, "The kid
said he was coming here, but I stopped him."

Lu Shang didn't show any expression on his face, he just gave a light "umm"
distantly.

Before Uncle Yuen left, Lu Shang said, "Tomorrow, ask Liu XingMing to come here, I
need to talk with him."

The weather was poor; it was dry and cold, and when the wind blew on people's
faces, it felt like blades slashing past their skin. Li Sui walked through the
streets amongst the flying leaves, and he couldn't help but think it was a good
thing that Lu Shang was at HaiNan Island. With this weather, if Lu Shang were here,
he would be very cold, and his limbs would be like ice again.

Li Sui was really happy today. For the past two weeks, he visited numerous fishing
supplies stores. Finally, he found a high-quality fishing pole, the pole was made
of carbon steel composite, strengthened by boron nanofibers. The handle was covered
in a layer of jade clear in color. Warm when held, it wouldn't be hot during the
summer or cold during the winter. The most important thing was, the shop owner told
Li Sui that he could help carve words on the side of the handle. After some
thought, Li Sui asked the owner to carve the initials "LS" on the handle.

That stood for both Lu Shang and him.

The fishing supply shop was quite remote, so it would be a long trip back home. Li
Sui carefully loaded the fishing pole into the car's trunk. When he closed the
trunk door, he sensed something odd.

Someone was following him.

His enemies were at fault, while Li Sui was justified by self-defense. Li Sui
turned the car lights off, then reached for the glass hammer in the car.

This part of town didn't have streetlights, the second Li Sui turned the car lights
off, everything was plunged into darkness. Right after Li Sui picked up the hammer,
he heard someone's unfriendly laughter from the forest.

"How sensitive. I didn't think you'd notice so soon."

Li Sui was shocked; he immediately turned around to see a person walking out from
the trees. The person was wearing a hat and layers of clothing. Li Sui couldn't see
his face. However, there was no need to see it; that voice, Li Sui was extremely
familiar with it.

"It's you," Li Sui instinctively stiffened hearing the voice.

Li Yan snapped his fingers as he walked out from the shadows, that was when Li Sui
saw a motorcycle a little further from Li Yan. Two against one and the two didn't
seem difficult to take on.

"Don't be scared," Li Yan said. "I'm not here for trouble."

Li Sui stared at Li Yan in silence. Lu Shang taught him to refrain from speaking
before knowing the enemy's true intentions so that he wouldn't accidentally expose
his own weaknesses.

T/N: I almost typed "Lu Shang taught him not to follow strangers" …

"You've grown so much, but the more you've grown, the more boring you've become."
Li Yan sighed, "You don't have to be so tense, I can't do much to you now. Let's
just say you've followed the right person—for now, anyways."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"Nothing special. I had nothing else to do and just happened to run into you here.
So, as your former boss, I just want to talk about your reflections on jumping
ships." Li Yan continued after a short pause, "Do you know why I said, 'for now'?"

Seeing that Li Sui wasn't speaking, Li Yan laughed and said, "That's because he
isn't a good guy either. You'll know sooner or later."

Li Sui glared at him, then turned around to leave.

"Aren't you curious as to why Lu Shang took you in back then?" Li Yan said from
behind Li Sui.
Chapter 31: The Questioning
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Li Sui's foot froze for a bit, "Knowing or not won't change anything."

Li Yan laughed as if he just heard a funny joke, "How foolish. Don't tell me you
are seriously in love with him, that would be the funniest thing I've heard in my
life."

Li Sui turned around, his voice deeper, "I love him, so what? What does that have
to do with you?"

"It has nothing to do with me—I'm just nice enough to warn you in case you find
that your heart has been gouged out and you don't even know whom you should be
haunting."

Li Sui's eyes turned grim, "What nonsense are you spouting?"

"I'm talking about why Lu Shang took you in." Li Yan said each word slowly and
clearly, "It's because you're the heart donor he prepared for himself."

Li Sui's fingers trembled unconsciously. Li Yan obviously was very satisfied with
Li Sui's expression, as he continued, "For such a long time, had you not sensed any
of it? Don't you find Lu Shang very forthcoming with his relationship with you? Why
would a loner like Lu Shang have you by his side?"

Li Sui glared at Li Yan. Li Yan sighed, and he said, "You don't understand. To
people like us, a lover isn't a threat, but his heart disease, that is a big
threat. That is the only reason why Lu Shang would let you stay by his side."

"Do you know how many people in Tong Yan want to take over his job? If they knew
you are the key to Lu Shang's survival, you would have been dead within a month.
Your relationship with him is just a cover, a cover to ensure your heart is safe.
You think that he has your best interest in mind? Don't be an idiot."

Li Sui rubbed his fists together, staring straight into Li Yan, he said, "Unless he
admits it himself, I won't believe you. Stop your meddling."

"Admit it himself?" Li Yan laughed, "Admit what? Admit that he's going to take your
heart out, admit that he's a human-eating demon?"

Li Sui's pupils constricted.

"Xiao Li, idiot child. He has inborn heart defects, he needs a healthy heart. You,
you are the most suitable donor for him."

Seeing that Li Sui went silent, Li Yan took out a folder of documents, "You don't
believe me? This is a document brought straight out from RuiGe hospital. Look at
what's written on it."

Li Sui didn't take the paper, he just looked at Li Yan quietly with a cold face,
"Are you done?"

Li Yan froze, he retracted his smile.

Li Sui turned the screen of his phone on, showing it towards Li Yan, "I called the
police around ten minutes ago. Now, I think you have about five minutes of escape
time."
Li Yan never thought Li Sui would have the courage to trick him; the veins on his
head popped up in anger. He said with a grim face, "You will regret this."

The person at the motorcycle seemed to have noticed some movements, and they
flashed the motorcycle headlights as a warning. Li Yan cursed then ran towards the
motorcycle and got on after throwing the document on the ground.

The roaring of the engine became distant, darkness returned to the street. Li Sui
had to stand in the cold wind for a long time, before he could finally muster
enough courage to pick up the documents.

The documents were a compatibility report, it was one of RuiGe hospital's top-
secret documents. It was a compatibility report of Lu Shang and Li Sui, Li Sui
himself had no memory of when that was done already. On that piece of white paper,
there were clear black words. The two of them had the same blood type, and their
individual HLA matched each other's (i); Li Sui's heart was the perfect match for
Lu Shang. All the data pointed towards one thing—Li Sui was truly the very rare and
perfect heart donor for Lu Shang.

T/N: Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA), antigens are things on human cells that allow
other cells to detect if that cell was foreign or not.

Li Sui remembered that when Lu Shang first took him, Lu Shang gave him a contract
to sign. At the time, Li Sui couldn't read the contents. Later, Li Sui refused to
have a look at it. Now that Li Sui thought back, he could surmise that the contract
was most likely about this.

To Li Sui's dismay, he couldn't run away from it forever. He still had to face the
truth in due time, this was fate and he couldn't flee from that.

The wind picked up; a few pieces of leaves twirled in the wind, passing beneath the
car, and the car window was covered in drops of rain. Li Sui's fingers tightened on
the paper, and his breathing was erratic. As though in immense pain, he frowned as
he shut his eyes tight.

In the room, there were the sounds of intense coughing. Liu XinMing poured a cup of
hot tea, giving it to Lu Shang. He asked worriedly, "Director Lu, are you okay?"

Lu Shang shook his head, swallowing his discomfort, "I just have a cold, it's not
serious. I didn't invite anyone else today, just you and me, let's have a talk."

Liu XingMing straightened his back; he knew what Lu Shang wanted to talk about. As
one of the main managers in this project, he had to be held responsible for the
incident. It was impossible that Liu XingMing didn't know about the material swap,
Lu Shang wouldn't believe that even if Liu XingMing were to lie.

"I saw you getting this position on your own two feet. Back when my father was
still alive, he praised you a lot. All these years, I haven't put much effort in
this project. That may have cost you a lot of chances, it was my fault."

Liu XingMing quickly cut in, "No, please don't say that. I'm the one who refused to
work at the main headquarters, I…"

Lu Shang gave a short laugh, "I always thought that even if others would change, at
the very least, you wouldn't. It seems like I've underestimated the allure of
money."

Liu XingMing knew he was in the wrong, so he gave up playing innocent, he said with
a tiny voice, "I have a family to support. My mother has severe cerebral palsy, I
have to pay 8000 yuan every month for her treatments alone. The kids are still
young, they have to go to school, and my wife is weak, so she can't work. Director
Lu, I swear, if it weren't for all that, I would rather beg for food on the streets
than corrupt with them. You know I am not the kind of person that would do anything
for money, I was really in a bind, that's why… I can't get myself a bad name and
make my wife and kids suffer…"

"But the things you did, they were enough to send you to jail. Do you know that?"

Liu XingMing's face turned pale, "Yes. This whole incident is my fault, I admit
that. I will accept punishment for it, anything, no matter if it's my resignation
or fines. Please, just don't spread what I did around. Please, as a favor for
working here for so many years. My mother is still in the hospital, I really just…"

Lu Shang stared at the cup of tea in his hand, but he didn't reply. The longer Lu
Shang held this position in the company, the more he understood why his father said
that he was fed up with the job. His father had experienced too many changes of
heart, heard too much gossip and too many problems. He always knew that the human
heart wasn't trustworthy, but even so, he wanted to hope, hope that there were pure
people who won't change. However, his hopes were always brutally shattered, leaving
only weariness behind.

Lu Shang thought that not everyone was like Li Sui. Li Sui always had his best
interest in mind, Li Sui would always carry out what he asked. A person who didn't
ask for anything in return, a person whom Lu Shang could trust wholeheartedly. Lu
Shang was quite certain that even if he searched the entire globe, he wouldn't find
another person like that.

"I will ask Uncle Yuen to give you the transfer papers. This project, you shouldn't
manage it anymore." Lu Shang put the cup down, but he didn't look at Liu XingMing.

Liu XingMing looked at Lu Shang. His mouth opened, as if he still had something to
say. However, he also knew that this was already the result of Lu Shang
compromising, so he gave up. Liu XingMing replied in a glum voice, "I understand."

After he left, Uncle Yuen opened the door and walked inside. The two of them looked
each other in the eyes, both had complicated expressions. After a period of
silence, Lu Shang finally spoke, "Get me the new phone from brand A. I'm going back
home this afternoon."

On the plane, Lu Shang had nothing to do, so he opened the packaging to the new
phone. He did the basic configuration processes, then did some basic settings.
After he had finished doing all that, Lu Shang remembered, Li Sui wasn't the kid
who knew nothing anymore. Smart phone was no longer a foreign thing to Li Sui, so
what he was doing just now seemed extra unnecessary.

After Lu Shang got off the plane, the car which was supposed to bring him home
hadn't arrived yet, so Lu Shang waited a bit in the airport. Suddenly, he got a
call from Leung ZiRui, who sounded like he was in a rush.

"A few days ago, there was a burglary case, something is missing."

Lu Shang thought it was an expensive machine or something, "If it's gone, then let
it go. Just buy another one."

"No, all the machines are here. Only the report on Li Sui's compatibility with you
is gone."

Lu Shang froze, his eyes dimmed, "Do you know who is responsible yet?"
"Still investigating. The culprit is used to stealing, he evaded all the
surveillance cameras, he didn't leave any fingerprints behind either. It might be
hard to find the culprit, especially in such a short time." Leung ZiRui seemed to
be very annoyed, "I already noticed that a lot of strangers were roaming around in
RuiGe hospital before, and I've increased the security, but even with that,
something like this happened…"

Before Leung ZiRui finished what he had to say, another incoming call from Zuo Chao
reached Lu Shang. Lu Shang frowned and picked up.

"I found Li Yan, can you guess where he is? No wonder we couldn't find him, he was
under Liu XinTian's wings all this time, that's why."

Lu Shang had a very bad feeling. He asked, "How did you find him?"

Zuo Chao sounded chipper, "It was by accident actually. Remember how you asked me
to send people to follow Li Sui 24/7? That day, the person following Li Sui came to
report that someone went to see Li Sui; the two of them talked for a bit, they even
began arguing. It was unfortunate that he was too far from them, so he couldn't
hear what they were talking about. I saw the footage and immediately knew it was Li
Yan, I'd never forget that guy's face. So, I asked my men to track the surveillance
cameras along the road, finally leading back to one of Liu XinTian's old
factories."

"So where is he now?"

"He's still there, we didn't spook him. We are waiting for you to come back." Zuo
Chao said, "That place is Liu XinTian's territory, so we can't exactly charge in
directly."

"Just keep an eye on him for now, wait for my orders."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Shang was going to stand up. He felt dizzy, his body
trembled. Somehow, he couldn't stand up straight. Uncle Yuen walked up to held Lu
Shang's arm, that was when he sensed Lu Shang's skin burning up. Uncle Yuen asked
in shock, "How did you get such a high fever?"

Lu Shang's face was paper-white, his thoughts were far away from here. Lu Shang
lifted his head to look at the crowded waiting area, and in his eyes, there was a
rare hint of confusion.

Could there be so many coincidences? A burglary happened in RuiGe, of all things,

the report happened to be stolen and then Li Sui got a visitor. With these three
things happening together, linking them and organizing them, Lu Shang already knew
most of what happened.

"He knows…" Lu Shang lowered his head again, his long fingers rubbing the phone he
just unpackaged a while ago. A wry smile surfaced on his face.

"What did you say?" Uncle Yuen asked.

"Uncle Yuen," Lu Shang snapped back, and he said, "Do something for me."

Caught in the holiday traffic jams, they were stuck on the highway for a long time.
When they finally got back to the city, it was already very late at night. Uncle
Yuen was worried; he wanted Lu Shang to go to the hospital first. Not sure if it
was due to the fever or because Lu Shang was going through a lot, Lu Shang seemed
to be very out of it, he only replied, "Go home first" after a long period of time.
The city was different from HaiNan, the outdoor temperature was just intolerably
cold. The second they got out of the car, the bone-chilling wind and air hit on
them, even breathing took courage in this weather. Lu Shang walked onto the terrace
to see Li Sui sitting on the steps to the house, scraping a piece of bamboo. Li Sui
was wearing only one shirt in this freezing weather.

Lu Shang froze for a bit, then he walked over slowly, "What are you doing?"

Li Sui raised his head; they stared at each other for a while, then Li Sui gave Lu
Shang a light smile, "I am making a fishing rod stand."

Lu Shang's gaze was glued to Li Sui's face; he was trying to find any hints of
awkwardness from Li Sui's expression, "Why are you making a fishing rod stand?"

"To give it to you as a present." Li Sui continued scraping the piece of bamboo,
then he stopped and put the knife down. It seemed like he had been thinking over
which words to use, "It was my fault last time, I was drunk, and I wasn't thinking
straight. I apologize, so please don't be angry anymore. Is that okay?"

"I wasn't angry." Lu Shang was shivering in the cold wind, he opened the door,
"Let's go inside, it's cold out here."

Li Sui froze, then he followed Lu Shang into the house. The living room was so much
warmer than being outside, and in the air, there was the lovely smell of food. Aunt
Lu knew Lu Shang was coming back today, so she prepared a whole table of
delicacies.

Lu Shang didn't have an appetite, and when he smelled the odor of food, he couldn't
help feeling nauseous. Suffering from a high fever for the past few days, his
appetite had basically fallen to the pits of hell, and he probably needed to get a
nutrient injection soon.

Li Sui handed Lu Shang an opened box, "I bought a fishing rod, I think it suits
you. When you have free time, we can go try it out together?"

Lu Shang was still staring at Li Sui's face, he only looked at the contents of the
box after a while. The merchandise was a high quality one; Lu Shang knew with one
simple look that Li Sui put in a lot of effort in choosing the gift. "Put it
there."

Li Sui didn't lower his arm, he was looking at Lu Shang with begging eyes. Lu Shang
averted his eyes, but he still ended up taking the gift. After receiving the box,
Lu Shang put it on the side.

Dinner was gloomy; Lu Shang only had a small bowl of white congee, he didn't even
touch his pair of chopsticks.

"You don't have an appetite? You look thinner than before." Li Sui asked.

Lu Shang was tired, and he didn't have the strength to explain, so he just said, "I
ate on the way back."

At the end of their dinner, Lu Shang looked at Li Sui a few more times, and after
hesitating over and over again, Lu Shang finally decided to speak, "I've prepared a
student visa for you, one of the best schools in California. Uncle Yuen will give
you some money, it should be enough until you could support yourself financially."

Li Sui's movements stopped, as if he suddenly didn't understand Chinese anymore, he

processed the sentence for a long time. When he spoke, his voice was trembling,
"You… are you sending me away? Are you… still not forgiving me?"

"It's not about that." Lu Shang thought for a bit, he had something to say, but
found that difficult, so he just gave up and let it be.

"Is it because I know about the compatibility report?" Li Sui finally asked, he
looked at Lu Shang with heavy eyes.

"I've never planned on hiding it from you." Lu Shang frowned, he couldn't look at
Li Sui anymore, "Li Yan could find you, he could also find others to catch you. If
you stay here, you will become their hostage against me."

The Li family was in ruins, so Li Yan hated Lu Shang to his core. Li Yan wanted
nothing more than for Lu Shang to drop dead from his heart disease as soon as
possible. Naturally, he wouldn't want Lu Shang to get a heart transplant. Li JinYao
was still in jail, so Li Yan was afraid to make huge moves. However, when Li Yan
found that trying to wreck Lu Shang and Li Sui's relationship was useless, he would
definitely go after Li Sui. The most important thing now was to send Li Sui away to
a safe place.

"If that's the case, why don't you immediately arrange for the surgery now? You
need a healthy heart, right?" Li Sui's eyes were filled with emotions as he stared
at Lu Shang, "All you need is a simple lethal injection. Lu Shang, you know
already, I'm willing to do anything."

For some reason, Lu Shang was extremely sickened by what Li Sui had just said, "A
heart transplant isn't the only treatment there is for me, I don't need you
anymore, so you can go."

"If what you say is true, that you don't need me anymore, why would I become a
hostage against you? Why do you need to waste resources to send me abroad?" Li Sui
refuted.

Lu Shang didn't know what to say, though he had worked in business for over ten
years, and he was well-versed in debates. He wasn't scared of people injuring him,
nor was he scared of his health condition, but for some reason, he was scared that
this person here would get hurt. Why was that? An answer was bouncing up and down
in his mind, but he just didn't dare admit it.

"Li Sui, please be good. You… don't make me worry." Having rushed back from the
island, Lu Shang was already exhausted. Now that Lu Shang was sitting at the dining
table, he only felt dizzy; it was also difficult for him to breathe. Lu Shang
didn't want Li Sui to notice, so he placed his arms on the table, using his hands
to support his own body.

"Lu Shang." Li Sui lifted his head, the corners of his eyes were slightly red, "Do
you love me?"

The Heart of a Smith Chapter 32

Chapter 32: The Breakout

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Li Sui's deep black eyes were now filled with sadness. This was the first time Lu
Shang clearly felt that the person sitting across from him was a man—Li Sui wasn't
the little boy who could be easily deceived anymore.

"Not even a little?" Li Sui asked, trying his best to hold his tears. Li Sui was
pleading with his eyes, he said with a trembling voice, "From beginning to end, did
you treat me nicely only because of that compatibility report?"

Lu Shang answered Li Sui with silence. Li Sui's questions were like broken pieces
of glass, piercing straight into his heart, it was suffocating. Lu Shang couldn't
give a reply, he also didn't know what to answer.

"I see." Li Sui nodded his head while laughing at himself.

Lu Shang seemed to be really tired, he only stared at Li Sui, he opened his mouth a
bit but ended up not saying a thing.

"Over the past year, I've been searching, searching for a way to heal you. I
considered many options, asked many people, read many books. The only thing I've
never thought of was that the cure for you was in me all along." Li Sui smiled, "Lu
Shang, I am actually really happy. At least… at least you could be saved."

From the second Li Sui saw Lu Shang entering the front gate, he had given up, he
was going to give in to fate. There was a part of Li Sui which even he himself
didn't want to admit—that even if he knew Lu Shang was going to gouge his heart
out, he'd willingly let him.

"Stop talking." Lu Shang cut him off, his voice was repressive, "I won't be having
a heart transplant, so just stop talking."

"Why?" Li Sui stared at Lu Shang with sharp, interrogating eyes.

His gaze was piercing, Lu Shang didn't want to look at him, he averted his eyes. Lu
Shang was heating up, his ears were ringing, and his chest hurt, he really didn't
have the strength to talk.

"Why?" Li Sui repeated the question, his eyes were still as sharp and relentless,
as if he had to see through Lu Shang or else.

Lu Shang was in so much pain that his back was covered in sweat, he couldn't take
it anymore. He did his best to stand up, heading upstairs.

When Lu Shang walked past Li Sui, Li Sui grabbed hold of his arm, Li Sui asked,
"Are you going to run away?"

The two of them stared into each other's eyes, then Lu Shang said in a small voice,
"I have nothing to tell you. You're barely 20 years old, what do you know."

Li Sui looked at Lu Shang, and his expression changed slightly, "Do you really
think that I know nothing?"

Li Sui closed in on Lu Shang, his eyes drooped a little as he said, "When something
happened to me in the training camp, why did you put so much effort in finding me?
You even used your connections to get the military involved. On the surface, you
seemed indifferent to my problems at work in Tong Yan, but then you helped me sweep
all the obstacles away, why? When I kissed you while I was drunk, why didn't you
refuse? Why did you react to me?"

Li Sui's eyes darkened, he slowly pulled Lu Shang into his embrace. He said right
beside Lu Shang's ear, "Lu Shang, do you know how sad I was when I saw you lying on
the surgery table? Do you know how much I want to kick away all the people who
annoy you when I see how much you're suffering? Do you know how much willpower I
have to use just to stop myself from assaulting you every night? I don't just love
you, I also want to…"
Li Sui didn't finish his sentence, but just the unfinished version was enough of a
shock to Lu Shang. Lu Shang never knew that this kid had already reached this stage
when it came to their relationship.

"Please don't kick me away." Li Sui landed a light kiss on the nape of Lu Shang's
neck, his voice was filled with aggrievement, "I love you. Please don't rob me of
the right to stay by your side."

Lu Shang subconsciously pulled his neck away a bit. Li Sui was hugging Lu Shang
really tightly, as if Li Sui was afraid that Lu Shang would get away. Li Sui was
holding him so tightly that Lu Shang felt his arm went numb, he couldn't help but
wiggled his body for a bit, "Can you let go with your hand first…"

"I'm not letting go." Li Sui forcefully pulled Lu Shang's head back, raining kisses
from Lu Shang's chin down. Li Sui's hand delved into Lu Shang's coat, unbuttoning
the buttons on his shirt one by one, "I know that you sent Uncle Yuen and Aunt Lu
away so that you could talk with me alone."

Lu Shang only felt numbness in his brain, his fever made him slow and his head was
spinning, at that moment he couldn't really grasp what Li Sui was saying.

"What are you doing?" Lu Shang frowned, "You… umm."

Li Sui bit Lu Shang's lips, that stuffed all the words Lu Shang was going to say
back down his throat. It was definitely not a gentle kiss, both of their lips had a
bit of blood when Li Sui moved away. Li Sui intentionally breathed out hot air into
Lu Shang's ear, "Lu Shang, I can't hold it back anymore. I want to take you for
myself."

"You…" Lu Shang trembled uncontrollably, his breathing became unstable as well, his
limbs were weak. Lu Shang only felt his body burning up, he only saw the world
spinning as he opened his eyes.

Li Sui was enchanted, he sucked hard on Lu Shang's neck, a red mark immediately
formed on the other's pale skin. The feeling of pain from the bite was evident, Lu
Shang wailed a little. The hickey was like a mark; seeing his own masterpiece, Li
Sui got more excited, he lifted Lu Shang up horizontally, bringing him to the sofa.

The coat and Lu Shang's belt fell to the ground, Li Sui pulled open Lu Shang's
shirt and prisoned his hands, suppressing the tiny struggling Lu Shang was making
was just so easy. Li Sui kissed him again down from the neck, kissing his collar
bones, his chest, his navel… As if all his shackles were gone, Li Sui ran rampant
on the tender skin which he had been dreaming about for an entire year, leaving
behind scores of marks that belonged to no one else but him.

The lights on the ceiling were blinding, Lu Shang's lips fluttered open and close
meekly. Lu Shang began seeing double, the suffocating feeling from the lack of air
was like ink, spreading in his brain quickly, his consciousness turned blurry.

Li Sui licked and bit, exhaling burning hot breaths onto Lu Shang's white skin. His
hands greedily slid down along the other's flesh, caressing every spot gently until
it reached Lu Shang's behind. Li Sui hesitated for a second, his expression
darkened, then he forcibly pushed his index finger inside.

The sudden pain was like an arrow flying straight towards Lu Shang's brain. Lu
Shang's breath stopped at the pain, the last bit of consciousness left him and flew
into the air.

"Lu Shang…" Li Sui got what he wanted, he mumbled softly beside Lu Shang's ear, in
his voice was impatience, "Your insides are so hot."

The one being assaulted didn't reply. Li Sui froze, finally realizing that the
slight struggling from the person beneath him was gone. Immediately Li Sui moved to
Lu Shang's face, "Lu Shang?"

Lu Shang was lying on the sofa quietly, his pale bloodless face was limply tilting
to the side, his breathing wasn't stable, and his body was slightly trembling. Li
Sui's brain began ringing in alarm, could it be that painful? As Li Sui thought
that, he immediately pulled his finger out, lifting up Lu Shang's head not knowing
what to do.

"I'm sorry. I… did I hurt you?"

Lu Shang's skin was burning, Li Sui didn't realize that before, as he was too
engrossed. Now that Li Sui placed the back of his hand on Lu Shang's skin, Li Sui
realized not only was his skin burning up, his shoulders were also shivering as if
his chest was in pain.

Li Sui looked at the person beneath him, his clothes were all messed up. Li Sui's
expression changed drastically as it suddenly dawned on him, the color on Li Sui's
face was gone, as he said with a trembling voice, "Lu Shang… you have a fever?"

The continuous pressing force on Lu Shang's hands was finally lifted. Lu Shang
frowned as he wore a painful expression. He subconsciously curled himself up, and
with how collected Lu Shang usually was, this action made him look as if he was
scared.

"Don't be scared, it's fine." Li Sui was nervous, he immediately hugged Lu Shang
tightly, "I… sorry, sorry…"

However, the person in Li Sui's embrace still had his lips tightened, Lu Shang
didn't open his eyes either, his complexion was nothing like that of a healthy
person.

Li Sui was almost going to cry, as he didn't get any replies even after calling out
to Lu Shang repeatedly. Li Sui clumsily put Lu Shang's clothes back on, then lifted
him up from the sofa, bringing him down to the car garage, "Let's go to the
hospital. I'm sorry. I didn't really want to hurt you, I only want to force the
truth out of you. I'm so sorry… I didn't know you were sick…"

Li Sui brought Lu Shang straight to the hospital, Leung ZiRui happened to be on

duty because of the burglary case earlier in the day. Leung ZiRui saw Li Sui
bringing Lu Shang in, the corners of Li Sui's eyes were all red, and he was also
mumbling something the entire time. Leung ZiRui froze in worry, he thought
something big had happened.

Leung ZiRui brought Lu Shang into the emergency room, he was only reassured after
doing a preliminary examination. Leung ZiRui found it odd, Lu Shang's health
condition was poor in recent days, so having a fever or two wasn't such a big deal,
he was wondering why the kid was overreacting so much.

That doubt only lasted for a while, as he understood everything when the nurses
came to hook Lu Shang up to the medical instruments. Leung ZiRui opened Lu Shang's
shirt to find the terrifying hickeys on his neck and chest, Leung ZiRui was so
shocked that he almost fell to the ground.

He didn't say a thing and directly rushed out to give Li Sui a punch. Leung ZiRui
was so angry that the words were lodged in his throat, after a long time of
silence, he said, "Don't you know he has coronary diseases?"

Li Sui didn't dodge the punch, he took it head on. After Li Sui steadied himself,
he apologized with his head slumping, his eyes had self-hatred written all over
them.

Seeing Li Sui's expression, Leung ZiRui felt his headache intensified, he pointed
at him, "Good job, brat, you… you dare use brute force on him."

Li Sui's hands were balled into fists, his fingertips were whitened from the
strength. Li Sui didn't give a reply, he was biting on his own lips, his head
lowered. The sadness on his face angered Leung ZiRui but at the same time shocked
him.

With how things escalated, Li Sui was out of options. If only he was less
intelligent and trusted Lu Shang's nonsense, obediently going abroad to study as Lu
Shang asked. Either that, or he should've never fallen in love with him. Of course,
Li Sui would be devastated, having to suffer from unrequited love. Worse still,
even when he was actually loved, it was still somehow unattainable.

After the injection, Lu Shang's condition stabilized. Lu Shang's fever finally went
down when morning came, but Leung ZiRui quickly found a small problem with Lu
Shang's heart, so after discussing with Uncle Yuen, Leung ZiRui decided to do a
small operation.

The nurses and the assistant surgeon were busily preparing for the operation
instruments. After checking the anaesthetic, Leung ZiRui glanced at Li Sui who was
sitting in the corner of the room, "Are you going to stay here?"

Li Sui looked at the unconscious Lu Shang on the operation table, "Can I?"

"You can." Leung ZiRui wore a pair of gloves, then froze for a bit, "But I suggest
that you refrain from looking."

Seeing that Li Sui was staring at him, Leung ZiRui explained, "The image of an
ongoing operation is intense, people who haven't gone through professional training
won't be able to handle it. I don't want to see you vomiting in here."

Li Sui slightly trembled, then he asked, "Am I affecting you?"

"You are not affecting me." Leung ZiRui continued working on the things in his
hands, "You are affecting my assistant."

Li Sui's gaze moved to the female surgeon standing beside Leung ZiRui, with a
surgical mask covering her face, she turned her head to the side shyly. Li Sui
stood up and walked to Lu Shang's side, he held Lu Shang's hand for a while, "I
will wait for you outside."

The hand had zero warmth, and it did not reacted to Li Sui. Li Sui held Lu Shang's
hand tighter, only feeling pain in his heart.

It was only a small operation, so it didn't take long, Lu Shang was pushed out of
the room before noon. Compared to last time, Li Sui was more accustomed to the
protocols of the hospital. Li Sui wore the sterilized gown and waited patiently in
the care unit Lu Shang was in. When he saw Lu Shang's eyes moving meekly, he called
the doctors to remove the tubes.

Lu Shang was too weak, he was still unconscious when he was transferred to the
normal hospital rooms. Li Sui used a straw to feed Lu Shang some water.
Lu Shang's eyes opened a little while Li Sui was doing that. Quickly, his eyelids
fell down again—but Lu Shang was half-conscious the entire time.

At night, Leung ZiRui went to Lu Shang's room to check up on him, he saw that Li
Sui was still sitting beside the bed wide awake with empty eyes, that made his
heart soften, "You should go get some food, he should be awake soon."

Li Sui's gaze was stuck on Lu Shang, hearing what Leung ZiRui said, Li Sui gently
placed Lu Shang's hand back under the blanket, the action was filled with affection
and reluctance to leave.

Lu Shang woke up after about two hours, only Leung ZiRui was beside him.

"Stop searching, he's not here." Leung ZiRui saw that Lu Shang was looking around
the room, so he stopped him.

Lu Shang raised his hand to pull the respiration mask off his face. It took him
some time to get used to it, then he turned his head to look at Leung ZiRui. The
later had a weird look on his face, and there was anger in is voice, "Didn't I warn
you before about the dangers of raising a tiger?"

"You like him, right?" His tone was pretty sure.

Lu Shang turned his head away.

"Don't try to lie. I know very well how serious your disease is, I know that you
aren't so weak that you couldn't even handle a brat. You might be able to fool the
kid, but you can't fool me. If you didn't have any feelings towards him, you
definitely wouldn't let him do that to you."

Shockingly, Lu Shang didn't deny.

"Do you know that you are basically playing with your life here?" Leung ZiRui wore
a pained expression.

Lu Shang lowered his eyelids. He was prepared to endure through Leung ZiRui's
anger. Unexpectedly, Leung ZiRui just gave a long sigh, he sounded pleased, "Lu
Shang, I never thought there'd be a day when you'd be in love."

"Before, I used to say that you lacked personality and your life was too plain.
When I tried to put myself in your shoes, though, I imagine that I couldn't do any
better than you. Endless checkups, endless number of surgeries. Every night when
you close your eyes, you aren't even sure if you could wake up the other day. Just
thinking about that kind of a grey, colorless life makes me feel gloomy."

Lu Shang stared at him, there was shock in his eyes.

"This is pretty good, really. You got to try out all sorts of emotions and
experiences, makes being alive and all the suffering worth it."

Lu Shang couldn't help but ask, "You don't object?"

"Why would I object? I'm your friend, but I'm also a doctor, saving people is my
job." Leung ZiRui continued after a short pause, "I was actually pretty torn myself
as well, I was always trying to find a way to save you but also not hurt him. I
have to admit, there was one thing that I lied to you about. I asked you to wait,
but it wasn't so that you could wait for a new type of rejection suppressant (i),
it's so that I could find another way. I don't want you to lose hope in living, but
I didn't want to take his life, either."

T/N: (i) In chapter 2, Leung ZiRui talked about a new type of cyclosporine he was
developing. That thing was a kind of immunity suppressant, usually administered
after organ transplant to reduce the chance of rejection of the foreign cells.

The two of them rarely got time to talk and clear things up, Lu Shang fell into
silence for a while; his gaze moved to the window on his side, "… at the beginning
I really only wanted his heart, but I didn't want to feel too guilty about it, so I
selfishly wanted him to be willing himself. When it actually comes to it now, I'm
somehow really reluctant."

Leung ZiRui said hopelessly, "Talk about pathetic, you didn't get his heart,
instead your own heart caved in; Lu Lao Ban, that doesn't seem like a bargain."

Lu Shang wiggled his stiff legs a little, then asked, "Where is he now?"

Leung ZiRui scratched the back of his head, and he said in embarrassment, "Well,
about that. I was a little too angry just now, so I gave him a hard punch. I guess
he's still depressed about it. Yeah, my bad. Help me apologize and smooth things
over with him, would you?"

Chapter 33: A Decision

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
The sky was as dark as ink, and the air pressure was low. It was almost New Year's;
the people who got off work were already back home, so the streets were quiet. It
snowed a few days ago, and there were the remnants of snowmen built by kids
in the corners of the streets.

Li Sui took his luggage out from the car, and he froze reminiscing while standing
on the street. At around this time the year before last, it was just as cold as it
was now, and Lu Shang drove him all over town just to find an open store for a
mobile phone. The two of them were still very close back then; two years had passed
now and their relationship turned to this. Li Sui wrecked it with his own two
hands.

Uncle Yuen got out of the car, handing Li Sui his passport and flight ticket, "Are
you just going to go like this? Are you not going to tell him first?"

Li Sui had a pained smile on his face, "I don't think he'd want to see me again.
He's sick now, and I don't want to make him angry."

Uncle Yuen didn't know how to comfort him or what kind of advice to give, so he
only said, "I've arranged people to pick you up at the airport overseas; you can
call me if you have any problems when you get there."

"Thank you, uncle Yuen," Li Sui said.

As if Uncle Yuen had figured out what Li Sui wanted to say, he said, "If you want
to know how he's doing, you can call me as well, just don't call too much."

Li Sui gave Uncle Yuen a grateful look, after nodding his head, Li Sui picked up
his things and got on the escalator.

As the escalator ascended, the familiar streets slowly disappeared from his vision.
Li Sui turned his head back to look at the city, and a strong sense of reluctance
rose in his heart; he just had this feeling that if he really took this step, he
would never see Lu Shang again.
Lu Shang woke up in the middle of the night. He was still alone in the room; the
room had dim lights, and he could vaguely see that it was snowing outside.

He was used to having a little puppy following around him everywhere, so he just
couldn't adjust to lying in the hospital room alone. He wondered where Li Sui was;
according to his usual habits, he shouldn't be too far away. Lu Shang had been
awake for such a long time already, but there were still no signs of him—that was
truly quite rare.

His chest was still fixed to the bed, so there was a limit to his mobility; Lu
Shang extended his arm, trying his best to reach his phone on the table. Uncle Yuen
happened to knock and enter as Lu Shang was doing that.

"Why is it you?" Lu Shang said subconsciously before he reacted and said, "What's
the matter?"

"I've sent him off." Uncle Yuen said directly.

Lu Shang was slightly shocked, he only replied after a long while, "I see… I guess
that's good, too." Lu Shang lay back down, his eyes darkened.

Lu Shang did arrange for that, getting Li Sui away from all this. But now, hearing
from Uncle Yuen that Li Sui was gone, Lu Shang felt as if a huge gaping hole was in
his recently operated heart, it was as if everything suddenly became empty.

Lu Shang always thought that after people come of age, it became harder to have
strong feelings for someone, be it liking or hate. Sometimes, people would show
affection towards each other for a second, and completely got rid of it in the
next, as if all emotions were mere illusions. However, it was just because you had
yet to meet the right person. One day, when you actually found the right one, all
the calmness and open-mindedness you thought you had could all be turned upside-
down in an instant.

The snowfall continued for the entire day, there weren't any signs of it stopping
soon. Lu Shang had severe postoperative responses, his consciousness was hazy for a
long time. Leung ZiRui felt like this had to stop, so he forcibly woke Lu Shang up,
trying to chat with him so that Lu Shang would feel better. Not only didn't Lu
Shang get better, he threw up on Leung ZiRui.

The next afternoon, Uncle Yuen rushed into the hospital room Lu Shang was in. Uncle
Yuen saw that Lu Shang was resting, so he didn't know if he should wake him up.
Just as Uncle Yuen was hesitating, Lu Shang suddenly opened his eyes as if he had
sensed something, "What's wrong?"

"The person who was picking up Li Sui from the airport contacted me, they didn't
pick him up. I've checked the flight passengers' records… he didn't even board the
plane."

Lu Shang pondered for a bit, then asked, "Did you try calling him?"

T/N: lol postoperative response my ass, he's all better the second he heard Li Sui
didn't go abroad.

"His cell was turned off, and he wasn't in the house, either. Should I send people
to search for him?"

Lu Shang dropped his eyes as he thought, Li Sui most likely didn't want to leave
but was afraid of getting kicked away, so he decided to hide somewhere. The kid was
smart, so he probably wouldn't go out of the Lu family's turf, right?
"Ask Zuo to launch a search, and tell him to call me if he finds Li Sui."

Uncle Yuen immediately did as he was told. Unexpectedly, after Uncle Yuen got
through to Zuo Chao and explained what happened, Zuo Chao was obviously startled
and asked, "Xiao Li Zi? He was here about ten minutes ago."

After Lu Shang heard, he frowned and asked for the phone, he said, "What did he ask
of you?"

"Aren't you the one who arranged it? He came to ask for Li Yan's address; he wanted
to ask him some questions." After finishing, Zuo Chao began to realize something
was up as well, so he asked, "Wait, you didn't ask him to do it?"

Lu Shang sighed, then directly hung the phone up.

"Why would he go find Li Yan?" Uncle Yuen asked in confusion.

What other reason would there be except to "trouble" Li Yan? Lu Shang felt
complicated; he thought that though the kid was still young, the amount of courage
he had was definitely not small. Li Sui probably wanted to deal with the liability,
Li Yan for him. Lu Shang would never ask him to kill a person though, that was not
something Lu Shang would want to see. Moreover, that place was in Liu XinTian's
turf; no matter how strong Li Sui was, he was still no match for people with knives
or even guns.

As Lu Shang was thinking, he called Zuo Chao again, "Does Liu XinTian know yet?"

"I don't think so, he doesn't really care for Li Yan either, he just provided him
with a place to live in and a few bodyguards, he didn't care about the rest. Xiao
Li Zi didn't drive his car, so I'm guessing that he hired a taxi. If I go after him
now, I should be able to catch up. The only problem is that if I just bring my men
over there, we will definitely get into a fight with Liu XinTian's men."

Lu Shang held his own forehead; his body had not fully recovered, so he'd feel
dizzy whenever he used his brain too much. He only felt better after picking up the
oxygen inhaler and taking a few breaths. Uncle Yuen placed a pillow behind Lu
Shang, letting him rest more comfortably on it; Lu Shang contemplated for a while
before he picked up his mobile phone again. Lu Shang scrolled through the contacts
list in search of a person's name, he was trying to find the number of a person
whom he never thought he would call. After hesitating for a bit, he decided to dial
the number.

"Director Liu, how about we make a deal?" Lu Shang didn't talk much, he cut
straight to the point, "The port trading area, you always wanted it, didn't you?"

Hearing that, Uncle Yuen was shocked.

As Lu Shang expected, the person on the other end was tempted.

"What do you want in return?" Liu XinTian asked.

"Li Yan."

It was still snowing outside, and everything was blurry outside the window. After
hanging the phone up, Lu Shang stared at the screen and asked, "Today is New Year's
Eve?"

"Yes."
Lu Shang removed the needle in his wrist, then pushed the blanket away, he was
going to get out of bed. Before Uncle Yuen could stop him, Leung ZiRui who came
over at an unknown time spoke up; he was leaning on the door frame, both of his
hands inside the lab coat pockets. "What are you doing?"

"I'm worried." Lu Shang said.

"It's the middle of the night now, it's still snowing outside. Are you crazy?"

"Li Sui won't listen to Zuo Chao, so I must be there."

Leung ZiRui was so angry that he almost choked to death, "You're my patient, can't
you just listen to your doctor's advice for once?"

Lu Shang looked at Leung ZiRui with pleading eyes, "Rui, let me go, I can't live
without him."

Lu Shang seldom showed weakness towards anyone; Leung ZiRui knew that Lu Shang was
poking at his soft spots, but at the same time he felt pleased that Lu Shang was
telling him the truth. After cursing and scolding for a bit, Leung ZiRui said,
"Only this one time, and you better stick your ass to bed when you come back!"

They drove very fast on the way, they were terrified of Li Sui doing anything
before they got there. When Lu Shang got to the factory, Zuo Chao and his men had
already surrounded the place.

"Where is he?"

"They are both inside."

Pushing the door open, they were met with messy boxes, there was used amenities on
the floor, the odor coming out from inside stank. Near the door, there were a few
people kneeling on the ground, and their hands were tied up. Under the dim lights,
Lu Shang could vaguely make out the bruises on their faces; those were probably Li
Sui's handywork, as Zuo Chao's people seldom leave bruises at visible places.

Li Sui was obviously nervous, seeing that the one who entered was Lu Shang, he
didn't even know where to put his hands anymore. Lu Shang only glanced at Li Sui,
he made sure that he was fine and quickly moved his eyes to Li Yan who was sitting
on the ground.

"Such a huge commotion and I thought someone great came." Li Yan obviously didn't
get any special treatment from Li Sui. One of his eyes was swelling to the point
that he couldn't even open it; even his legs were hurt, so much so that he couldn't
stand up anymore. No one would ever think that this proud rich kid who had enjoyed
riches for most of his life would be in such a humiliating state.

"Stop retaliating and go turn yourself in, you'd get a lighter sentence if you do."
Lu Shang said.

"Turn myself in?" Li Yan laughed, "Lu Shang, don't forget that I still have a huge
gift in store. If my people send the documents to Liu XinTian, what do you think
he'd do?"

Lu Shang's expression was cold, "I'm afraid you lost that chance."

Li Yan stared at Lu Shang in silence; Lu Shang continued, "This is Liu XinTian's

turf, how do you think I got in?"
Veins popped up on Li Yan's head, he said with a freezing voice, "… he betrayed
me."

"You guys are the same after all, are you really that surprised?" Lu Shang
continued, "If I were you, the second I found Liu XinTian, I'd give him that
information instead of keeping it as a last resort."

Just one wrong move and the whole match was set. Li Yan's face was grim, his face
lost all color. At the end of the day, Li Yan was just an inexperienced brat with
an attitude. He was miles away from experienced snakes like Liu XinTian; without
his father, the only thing Li Yan had left was his bad personality. He might have
put a lot of thought into things, but his thoughts always remained superficial; he
wanted to get the wolf but didn't want to go all in, so he lost everything.

Liu XinTian, unlike Li Yan, was experienced. He only cared about profit, he'd only
hurt people if it could benefit him. Li Yan's actions were like erratic swings in
Liu XinTian's eyes. Li Yan seeking protection from Liu XinTian was truly a problem
for Lu Shang, but finding profit, Liu XinTian sold Li Yan out without batting an
eye, just as Lu Shang had expected.

"You deal with this." Lu Shang didn't want to talk with him anymore; he turned to
give Zuo Chao orders, "Wait for his wounds to heal first, then send him to the
police station, don't get yourself into trouble for it." After giving his orders,
Lu Shang gave Li Sui a look and walked outside the factory.

It was late at night plus it was snowing, so no-one was on the streets. As they
walked on the granite ground, they could hear intermittent laughter from the
surrounding houses.

Lu Shang wasn't walking quickly, his body had yet to recover; after coming out and
breathing in the cold air, he was shivering all over, his breaths were unstable as
well. Li Sui followed behind him, keeping himself at around two arms' length from
Lu Shang. Guilt was written all over Li Sui's face, but as he was scared that Lu
Shang would hate him more, Li Sui didn't dare apologize.

The two of them just walked, and neither of them took the initiative to speak.

When did it begin? Even Lu Shang himself didn't remember; he knew he was a
pessimist at heart, and because of his health condition, he always thought the
world was filled with dullness. After meeting Li Sui, he slowly felt that living
was pretty fun, he even wanted to live a few more days.

Lu Shang sometimes thought that Leung ZiRui must have jinxed him or something,
since everything he said came true. Leung ZiRui warned him about the dangers of
raising a tiger. Lu Shang didn't raise him into a tiger, instead he turned into a
loyal dog, who even after being sent away came running back. Great doctor Leung
also warned Lu Shang not to cave in; well, he didn't cave in—he jumped head-first
into it, he was also extremely willing to jump in, not even wanting to climb back
out.

Lu Shang had lived for 26 years, he always thought his fate would be the same as
his father, protecting his own fortune, leading a bland life, then passed away all
alone on a quiet night. And now, Lu Shang looked at their long shadows under the
streetlights, and he couldn't but feel curious; if he'd tried leading a different
life, would his destiny be slightly different as well?

The two of them walked to the side of the car; Lu Shang stopped, then he turned
back to look at Li Sui and said, "I'm asking you—do you want us to be together?"
Li Sui froze, then answered, "Yes."

"I have heart defects, I might die any second, aren't you scared?"

Li Sui stared at Lu Shang, and his eyes were unwavering, "I am not scared."

"I might not be able to go on trips, have sex, enjoy fine cuisines… with you like a
normal person."

"I don't mind."

"I might not even be able to stay with you for long, I might be dead in like a few
years, and you will have to live in that shadow I leave behind for the rest of your
life…"

"I want to."

Lu Shang closed his eyes for a bit, then said, "Come over here."

Li Sui walked two steps forward, then Lu Shang said, "You asked if I love you? I
will give you my answer now."

Li Sui's body shook; before he realized it, his shoulders dropped, his lips were in
contact with something soft and warm. Li Sui's eyes widened, less than a centimeter
away from him was the person he was dreaming about day and night, Li Sui even
forgot to wink his eyes as he was in shock.

The soft tongue was like honey flowing out of a honeycomb, flowing through Li Sui's
mouth instantly. Li Sui's shock turned to disbelief, then he began feeling
overjoyed. At last, he felt like he had melted into a puddle of slightly bitter
honey water as their tongues intertwined.

It was still snowing; the snow fluttered elegantly onto the vast land as New Year
Flares exploded in the sky. The two of them kissed without a care in the world, as
if there were no one but them.

After the kiss ended, Lu Shang let him go while panting a bit, he tilted his head
and said, "The crazy biting you did before is not kissing—this is. Got it?"

It was as if Li Sui had forgotten how to breathe, the words were all stuck in his
throat, his lips trembled as he felt so happy that all the cells inside of him were
ready to run away. After a bit, Li Sui nodded his head gleefully, walking forward
to hug Lu Shang, pushing him gently onto the side of the car. Li Sui put a hand on
the back of Lu Shang's head, then gladly tried out what he had just learned,
continuing the kiss that had just ended.

Chapter 34: Hospital Discharge

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Even after returning to the hospital, Li Sui still felt very unreal, as if he were
dreaming.

Lu Shang was finally at ease, so he fell asleep on the way back, faintly leaning on
Li Sui's shoulder on the way; he had zero strength left. Li Sui could sense Lu
Shang was still burning up, and that made him worry. It was snowing so much, and he
still ran all the way out here; even a healthy person wouldn't be able to take it,
much less a patient who just had an operation. When they got back, Li Sui helped Lu
Shang change back to the hospital gown. After taking off Lu Shang's clothes, he saw
the hickeys he made were still there, he bit too hard on some places, some bruises
had hints of purple on the edges. Looking at the bruises, Li Sui felt terribly
depressed.

Lu Shang seemed to be sleeping very well; he didn't even move a little. Li Sui
pulled the blanket up, then walked out of the room to find Leung ZiRui.

The whole building was mostly empty, no one was in the management office, there
were only a few doctors on duty in the emergency room. It was only then that Li Sui
remembered—it was New Year's Eve, so most people were already home celebrating with
their families.

Li Sui didn't feel right calling other doctors, so after thinking for a while, he
decided to call Leung ZiRui anyways. Firecrackers were burning on the other end of
the phone, so it was extremely noisy. After listening to Li Sui's description,
Leung ZiRui sighed, "It's fine, just let him sleep. In the past two days of your
absence, he thought you were gone, and he was really depressed, so he couldn't
recover well. Now that you're back, he's at ease and dares to sleep."

Li Sui's gaze moved to the person lying on the bed, and his hands clenched
subconsciously.

"Li Sui, it's rare for him to fall for someone, he's basically risking his life for
this. So, treasure your time together and live happily, don't fight…"

Leung ZiRui said something else as well, but Li Sui wasn't listening anymore—only
Lu Shang was in his mind. Li Sui sat on the side of the bed, and he held Lu Shang's
hand tightly, his heart clenching.

Li Sui thought he understood the things Lu Shang did for him clearly, but now that
he looked back, Li Sui noticed that this person here did a lot more than he
thought. On the surface, Lu Shang never said anything, but behind his back, Lu
Shang had prepared almost everything for him. More importantly, Lu Shang always put
Li Sui's safety first.

Perhaps Lu Shang was feeling hot; his lips twitched a little, his mouth sometimes
opened up, and the skin around his neck was slightly red. The protrusion at his
throat was moving up and down slightly, as his collar bones, evident due to his
skinniness, moved along with his breathing.

Li Sui pulled down the blanket a little, then picked up the wet towel on the
bedside table to wipe away Lu Shang's sweat. Lu Shang was in a deep sleep, but even
so, he still seemed to have a shred of consciousness remaining. When Li Sui was
wiping the sweat from Lu Shang's head, he held onto Li Sui's wrist, not really
willing to let go. The feeling of being needed made Li Sui feel warm; since Lu
Shang wasn't letting go of his wrist anyway, he decided to turn the lights off,
removing his own jacket, then snuggling into bed with Lu Shang just like all the
nights before. Li Sui fell asleep as he hugged Lu Shang while only wearing a simple
shirt.

Having Li Sui here had at least one benefit, which was that the patient, Lu Shang,
would be more willing to listen to his doctor's orders. Lu Shang thought of bitter
medicine as monsters and calamities, he was naturally avoiding even medicines that
were not going to make him throw up. If he could avoid taking medicine, he'd avoid
as much as possible. Li Sui finally understood why Leung ZiRui was always so angry
with Lu Shang—even Li Sui needed to use lies and sweet talks to get Lu Shang to
take his medicine.

"Is it really not bitter?" Lu Shang picked up the medicine while frowning.
Li Sui said with a straight and serious face, "It's really not bitter, it's sweet."

As if Lu Shang had just taken out all the courage he had, he put the medicine into
his mouth. The second it came into contact with his tongue, though, Lu Shang knew
he was tricked. He was just about to spit the medicine out when Li Sui moved over
to cover his mouth. Li Sui kissed him, forcing him to swallow the medicine; when Li
Sui let backed away, he laughed, "It's not bitter, right?"

Lu Shang was amused, he didn't even care about the bitterness in his gullet
anymore, "Hmn. It's sweet."

After the Chinese Valentine's, Lu Shang was finally discharged from the hospital
and returned to their house. Li Sui found time to buy some New Year's supplies,
asking Aunt Lu to prepare a whole table full of delicacies, hoping Lu Shang would
get better and stronger. Though at the end, most of the food went into Li Sui's
stomach.

Maybe it was because they cleared all their problems up, but after getting
discharged, Lu Shang was in much better spirits than before, and color returned to
his face. Whenever he had free time, he'd go look at the fishing pole Li Sui gave
him, and he didn't even want to put it back for bed.

"Do you want to go fishing?" Li Sui walked out of the shower room to see the
anticipation on Lu Shang's face, he just couldn't help but ask.

"Hmn, but it's not the right season now." Lu Shang put the fishing pole back into
the box, then waved his hand at Li Sui, "Come and have a chat with me."

Li Sui climbed onto the bed, placing his hands on Lu Shang's waist loosely, pulling
Lu Shang to his chest. The two of them looked at each other; Li Sui knew that Lu
Shang was about to set some dating rules, but the second he began thinking about
how Lu Shang was his lover, he just couldn't help feeling giddy inside.

"Promise me two things," Lu Shang looked straight into Li Sui's eyes. "Number one,
no matter what happens in the future, don't even think about a heart transplant. If
one day, I woke up and found that your heart is inside me, the first thing I will
do is to rip it out with a knife, do you understand?"

Li Sui had a complicated expression, but even with the mixed feelings, he nodded
his head, "I understand, but you have to take good care of yourself too, don't stay
up late and no drinking. If you encounter any problems, tell me, we can deal with
them together."

What Li Sui said sounded pretty reasonable, Lu Shang nuzzled up to him and rested
for a bit, then continued, "The second thing, you still have to study. I've already
applied for a place for you; it will last for two years. Choose a time to go there
for registration."

Li Sui froze the second he heard they would be separated again, and he immediately
showed reluctance on his face. Lu Shang laughed a little at the sight, then he
continued, "But you can come back once a month—if you don't find that troublesome,
that is."

"Not troublesome, definitely not troublesome." Li Sui asked again, "Can I come back
twice a month?"

"The two-way trip will take at least two days. If you do that, when will you get
any rest?" Lu Shang had a pretty smile on his face, his eyelids were half-closed,
his Adam's apple was sliding slightly, giving off a slothful aura. The color of the
lights in the room was warm, making Lu Shang especially alluring as the lights
shone onto the side of his face.

Li Sui's heart twitched, he couldn't stop himself from kissing him.

Lu Shang saw the slight changes in Li Sui's eyes, he had a light smile as he asked,
"Do you want to do it?"

Li Sui froze, his ears turned red, and with a tiny voice, he asked, "Is that okay?"

Lu Shang climbed up from the bed; his hand reached for the drawer, and taking out a
pack of condoms and lubricant, he said, "Well, since we're together, this kind of
stuff is unavoidable."

Li Sui felt extremely guilty, he moved forward to hug Lu Shang, "I'm sorry… about
the last time."

Lu Shang patted Li Sui's back, "Don't overthink it. Uncle Yuen hadn't gone far yet,
so if I was really against it, I could've just screamed and he'd have come back
in."

"You…" The corners of Li Sui's eyes turned red.

Lu Shang held Li Sui's hand as he said simply, "Li Sui, I seldom say the word
'love' out loud, and the time I have left might be scarce, but I'm going to place
all the emotions I'm capable of in your hands."

Hints of sourness and bitterness rushed into Li Sui's heart. Li Sui had been trying
to hold his tears in for all this time, but still he failed. He was prepared to
hide his feelings for Lu Shang for his entire life, but one day, he realized that
he was inside of Lu Shang's heart as well. His long-empty heart was suddenly
stuffed full by the confession, it was stuffed so full that Li Sui didn't know what
to say. He only managed to hug Lu Shang tightly and called out his name, "Lu
Shang…"

Lu Shang let him hug his fill, then laughed a bit, "Okay, how long are you going to
keep me waiting?"

Li Sui finally snapped out of the hugging; he wiped his face clean, then moved back
a little to take in the sight of Lu Shang clearly. After getting Lu Shang's
permission, he moved in to land soft kisses onto Lu Shang's eyes, nose, mouth… One
of Li Sui's hands snuck into Lu Shang's clothes; just as Li Sui expected, Lu Shang
was already hard.

It was as if a warm blanket was covering Li Sui's heart; his breaths turned heavy
as he followed his instincts and lingered on Lu Shang's skin.

Since Lu Shang had been using painkillers and anesthetics for years, his sensory
receptors were actually not all that sensitive. Perhaps due to the atmosphere, the
interactions at his nerve terminals had been magnified, and just gentle little
kisses were able to lit sparks of fire in Lu Shang.

Li Sui didn't know anything about skill, he was just gently caressing Lu Shang's
skin. Yet, that alone made Lu Shang's breathing chaotic; his body trembled, he was
so sensitive that he could almost sense the lines on Li Sui's fingertips.

The more retained Lu Shang's expression was, the more fueled Li Sui got. Li Sui
could almost feel something destructive growing in him, he even felt the urge to
just go wild. Li Sui raised his hand to undo Lu Shang's clothes, trailing kisses
down towards Lu Shang's abdomen, followed by licking and sucking around the
abdominal area.

"Don't…" Lu Shang had a hunch what Li Sui was about to do, so he reached his hand
down in an attempt to stop him.

"Let me try," Li Sui said seriously as he moved Lu Shang's hand away.

Intentionally, Li Sui raised his head, staring at the blushing Lu Shang, as he put
Lu Shang's member into his mouth.

"Hmm!" Lu Shang was frowning hard; his mouth was opened slightly, letting out soft
moans that he failed to hold in as his body trembled uncontrollably. Obviously,
this was too big of a stimulus to Lu Shang, both physically and mentally.

Li Sui was used to seeing Lu Shang's serious and calm expression; the expression Lu
Shang had now, being tormented by lust, almost made Li Sui lose his mind. Li Sui
really wanted to fuck him as hard as he could, to rip Lu Shang's cold mask clean
off, to see Lu Shang sink deep into desire and ask for more from him, to see Lu
Shang's face colored in redness and his clothes all messy, asking for his
forgiveness.

Cheered on by the moans, Li Sui licked and sucked with more force. Li Sui really
didn't have much skill, but he did sincerely want Lu Shang to feel good, giving all
he had into every movement, and making Lu Shang lose it time and time again. As if
Lu Shang was thrown into the clouds, he felt everything blurring as Li Sui bobbed
his head.

The temperature in the room continued to ascend as watery sounds mixed with thick
moans scattered around the room.

Lu Shang quickly reached his limits under the ever-growing pleasure; he felt his
senses giving out when the numbing excitement filled him to the brim, something he
had never experienced before reached his brain, his nerves went haywire for several
seconds. When Lu Shang's scattered soul finally returned to his own body, he
realized that he was completely out of breath, feeling a lack of strength all over.

Li Sui pulled out a piece of paper towel from the bedside drawer. After cleaning up
his mouth, he turned around and nuzzled his head up to Lu Shang's face. With a tone
that sounded like he was asking for praise, he asked, "Did it feel good?"

This was the first time Lu Shang had sex with someone; he only leaned against the
pillow and gasped, staring at Li Sui and didn't manage to say a word. Li Sui's eyes
met with Lu Shang's gaze, he leaned down to hold Lu Shang in his arms.

Lu Shang buried his face in Li Sui's neck; he had a slight smile on his face, and
his expression seemed a bit overwhelmed. Li Sui smiled as he thought that he was
most likely the only one who had seen this expression on Lu Lao Ban's face.

"Are you still fine?" Li Sui touched him on the chest, trying to feel his heart.

"Hmn." Lu Shang said. After resting for a while, he moved his legs a little and
said, "Go ahead."

Li Sui kissed him on the forehead, "Tell me anytime if you feel uncomfortable."

Reaching for the lubricant on the side, Li Sui pushed the nervousness in his heart
back. He picked a bit of the lubricant up with his fingertips, then quickly reached
to Lu Shang's behind, gently pressing the edge of the opening first. Lu Shang's
body was really soft and his inside was no exception. Especially since Lu Shang had
just released once, his body was completely unguarded, so entering was quite easy.
Li Sui slowly slid his finger in as he observed Lu Shang's reaction.

"Does it hurt?" Li Sui asked; he was still scarred by his last attempt, hesitant in
his heart for fear of hurting Lu Shang again.

Lu Shang closed his eyes and shook his head, his expression looked like he was
actually enjoying it.

Li Sui could also sense that Lu Shang's insides were soft and warm this time,
nothing like the stiffness and feverishness he felt when he forcibly entered last
time. Perhaps Lu Shang was relaxed now; Li Sui could feel Lu Shang's insides
tightening around his finger, getting accustomed to the foreign object, and that
made pushing in much easier. Li Sui slowly added up to three fingers, making Lu
Shang relax with his words and carefully massaging and expanding his insides at the
same time.

Li Sui's member was long swollen, he was holding back really hard and that made him
sweat all over. Even so, his hands weren't showing any impatience at all, he
continued scissoring his fingers, opening Lu Shang's insides, pressing rhythmically
on the soft wall.

Lu Shang was tormented so much by Li Sui's fingers that his breathing was a
complete mess, his Adam's apple bobbed a few times, then he impatiently gave Li Sui
a look that read "OK".

At last, Li Sui stopped the movements on his fingers. He tore out a condom and put
it on, bending over to kiss the other; their hot breaths intertwined, and the
desire in the room reached its peak.

"Lu Shang…", Li Sui muttered into his ear. One of his hands held Lu Shang's weak
waist, while the other grabbed ahold of Lu Shang's finger. Semi-forcibly moving Lu
Shang's hand to hold Li Sui's hard member, aiming it at Lu Shang's entrance and
slowly pushing it in. "Can you feel that? You are… Hmm… mine alone…"

"Ah……" Having to feel the process of being filled in such a detailed way was too
much for Lu Shang, in that instant he actually had the impulse to flee. With his
own hand, Lu Shang sent the bulging hot object into his body little by little,
feeling the hot mass being integrated into himself, merging into one. He opened his
mouth without making any sounds as he felt goose bumps forming all over him at the
sudden intrusion. At the same time, a painful and indescribable sensation of
penetration spread through his brain, as if his intestinal wall were melting,
enveloping the slowly invading foreign object tightly, trying to make it his own.

The entry was slow, but it didn't have any intention of stopping, it thrusted
straight to the end at the first go.

"Fuh…"

Nothing went wrong, so both of them were relieved. Li Sui saw the expression Lu
Shang had as he tried to cooperate with him despite the discomfort, it made him
feel indescribably touched, he pulled Lu Shang into his embrace as he kissed him.

That action moved their lower bodies along, causing the heat and softness to rub
against each other, as if they were electrified. This was a first for both of them,
their sensitivities were at their highest, and that sudden stimulation elicited
soft moans from them.
Li Sui moved his head that was covered in sweat to see Lu Shang lying on the bed
beneath him, his neck arching up slightly as Li Sui moved, his eyes were foggy and
his hole was stretched open to the limit, enveloping Li Sui's member tightly. This
scene was at least a hundred times more exciting than the images Li Sui had
pictured in his dreams.

Even so, he hadn't had his fill just yet. He held Lu Shang's legs up at the
underside of his thighs and moved a few times, Lu Shang was defeated by the small
thrusts. He tried to retreat backwards by moving his waist a little, but his waist
was without strength, so he could basically do nothing but open his legs wide and
let Li Sui do whatever he wanted. After several rounds of withdrawing and ramming,
Lu Shang was completely overwhelmed by the pleasure, and his eyes were gradually
covered by a layer of watery mist.

The room was hot, it was filled with their desires. Li Sui moved gently, leaning
down for kisses from time to time, the bed squeaked under their weights, and the
shameful sounds of wetness and moans filled the room.

Li Sui still had his shirt on, and at that moment, it was a huge hindrance to him,
so he took all of it off.

Lu Shang lay on the bed with his head up a little, staring at him attentively; he
found the body in front of him so dazzling that he couldn't even move his eyes
away.

Li Sui was no longer a teenager; his chest had grown stronger when Lu Shang wasn't
looking, and his build was obviously much stronger than Lu Shang's own. His
abdominal muscles formed evident lines. In Lu Shang's eyes, Li Sui was just as
beautiful as the male models on advertisement posters.

Lu Shang panted heavily as he reached his hand out to touch it. Li Sui understood
his intentions and caught his hand, putting it directly on his sturdy muscles, he
even deliberately flexed a little.

While giving a few gentle pushes at his lower body, Li Sui pressed Lu Shang's hand
beside the pillow. He then leaned over and intentionally let his hot breaths ghost
into Lu Shang's ear, "Do they look good? You like those a lot, right?"

Li Sui was afraid of hurting Lu Shang, so his movements were always gentle, as if
he were trying to tickle someone. Lu Shang was teased by the slow thrusts so much
that he was in a daze and he nodded without much thought.

Getting Lu Shang's affirmation was just so exhilarating to Li Sui; he quickly

sealed Lu Shang's lips up, as if he could never get enough of kissing.

Sensing that Lu Shang's breath was becoming more and more ragged, Li Sui decided to
just pull him up by the waist, gently holding the whole of Lu Shang up with his
hands, making Lu Shang sit on his lap. Lu Shang didn't have enough physical
strength, his weak waist couldn't handle all of Li Sui's persistence. Afraid that
he would just fall over, Lu Shang clung onto Li Sui's shoulders tightly, as if he
would turn into a puddle of water if he were to be apart from Li Sui. Li Sui's
desire expanded instantly. He hugged Lu Shang and made a powerful thrust, ramming a
lot deeper than he did before, and both of them squinted their eyes under the
sensation.

Their position made Li Sui's member bury deeper into Lu Shang; after embracing each
other for a while, both of them were sweaty but satisfied at the same time. Lu
Shang began to feel dizzy from the repeated thrusting, tears were hanging off the
corners of his eyes and his toes were unconsciously curling up.
Looking at the person who was being thoroughly done by him, Li Sui found himself
feeling strongly satisfied, both body and mind. This was the first time Li Sui saw
Lu Shang in such a state—his eyes were filled with affection and tenderness while
clouded by lust. Li Sui rhythmically thrusted into him, the feeling of accumulating
pleasure was unfamiliar to him, and that drove him crazy. Right before they reached
the climax, Li Sui couldn't restrain himself anymore, he gritted his teeth and
rammed into Lu Shang fiercely a few times, releasing amidst Lu Shang's low
whimpers.

Li Sui was covered in sweat, and Lu Shang was not any better than Li Sui was, even
his bangs were wet. Li Sui kissed him on the forehead, he noticed that Lu Shang was
still breathing quite smoothly, only that he was too tired. Lu Shang couldn't even
open his eyes anymore and his lips were fluttering open and close to take in air.

Li Sui gently pulled himself out of Lu Shang, then placed the man back onto the
bed. Li Sui checked Lu Shang's entrance to see that it was not injured, he was only
relieved after ensuring that. Lu Shang got out of bed and got a wet towel to clean
Lu Shang's body, then he got a new bedsheet for replacement.

It was dark outside the house, but Li Sui wasn't sleepy; he leaned his head down to
kiss his place of belonging. Happily nuzzling his head up the nape of Lu Shang's
neck, he was feeling so blissful that his eyes were puffy. Li Sui used to wonder
why he was different from others, why couldn't he sit in a classroom to study, why
couldn't he have a complete and loving family, why couldn't he lead a normal life
like everyone else. On this day, he finally got an answer—perhaps the heavens were
trying to prepare him for this moment. The past was like a cloud of smoke, the
times when he was angry, happy, sad… none of that mattered anymore. His heart was
like an ancient well filled with water, where after many years of complete silence,
the moonlight finally came by, allowing the water to sparkle.

Lu Shang took some time off from work, they spent the time as if it was their
honeymoon. They both stayed at home, did some cooking and reading, they spent the
days enjoying a real sense of domestic life.

They seldom had such peaceful and leisurely times. Li Sui didn't want to leave at
all; only now did he understand why the ancient emperors would rather indulge
themselves in sex then going to the palace for work. If Li Sui didn't have to take
Lu Shang's health into consideration, he would also love to just stick to Lu Shang
day and night.

Despite all that, Li Sui knew in his heart that no matter how lovely these
peaceful, loving days were, it was too early for that, or at least it was not the
right time to indulge himself in it. Lu Shang's disease was a ticking time-bomb, he
had no idea when Lu Shang's disease would relapse. If he didn't get stronger soon
and didn't find a perfect solution, no matter how great things were now, it would
all come to naught in the future—and that was something Li Sui would never want to
see. Every time he thought about that, he'd feel the weight of the huge
responsibilities that were on his shoulders.

It was a new beginning after the New Year, Tong Yan and Mu Sheng were functioning
as usual, and the project in HaiNan Island was also progressing steadily, there
wasn't much that required Lu Shang's attention. Lu Shang found time to meet up with
some friends, and he brought Li Sui with him to dinner. Neither of them said
anything, but the others could see the clues.

Xe WeiLan pulled Lu Shang aside after the dinner and asked, "Are you guys together
now?"
Lu Shang looked at Li Sui's back and smiled, "Hmn."

Xe WeiLan gasped at the sudden confession, but he was not surprised at all, he
laughed and asked Lu Shang to invite them over for a meal. Lu Shang promised to do
so, and just as he expected, no one would object to him dating someone—for better
or for worse.

When they returned home in the evening, Li Sui gave Lu Shang the fishing pole rack,
which was made completely by hand—a gesture filled with sincerity. Lu Shang looked
at the letters carved on it and smiled softly, "Is this you or me?"

Li Sui kissed him and said, "It's us."

The older you get, the less you'd react to the world around you. When you're a kid,
a tiny joke could roll you off the bed, but when you had grown up, it's hard to
even move your lips a little. After you grow up, many might find people who are
easily touched too emotional.

In fact, that wasn't always the case. Some people could still retain those original
feelings towards the world, reacting to things with pure love or hate, even after
experiencing the pains, joys and sorrows of life, and going through the ups and
downs life had to offer. No matter how much waves time would bring, they could
still retain his own clarity.

The world never had a set track, children might not always be naive, and adults
might not be all sensible and correct. Some people used time to polish their
hearts, while others used their hearts to polish time. Drifting with the crowd is
easy but having a determined heart like that of a child is difficult.

Lu Shang sat in his vine chair and watched Li Sui concentrate on packing his
luggage in the living room. He thought that perhaps because of this, the person in
front of him was especially precious, because he had a genuine, pure and bright
heart (i).

T/N: (i) This is actually referring to the title "The Heart of a Smith" which is a
term in Chinese that means people who have a genuine heart.

Chapter 35: Two Years

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Two years later, at the International Airport.

Li Sui strode out of the airport, his eyes locked onto a black limousine by the
roadside, he smiled lightly and walked over leisurely.

"Lu Shang." As soon as Li Sui pulled the car door open and saw the man whom he
thought of day and night, he just couldn't wait to pull him into an embrace.

"Are you hungry?" Lu Shang smiled as he felt up Li Sui's shoulders, "It seems like
you've grown more muscles."

"I'm not hungry, I just had food on the plane." Li Sui let go of him, tilting his
head to the front seat and said hello to the person there, "Uncle Yuen."

Uncle Yuen nodded in return and asked, "Are we going home now?"

"Let's go home," Li Sui said while holding Lu Shang's hand, staring at him
attentively, as if he had to get the missed shares of not being able to see Lu
Shang for the past few months back at once.
Lu Shang was still as gentle and elegant as ever. Even a simple windbreaker jacket
looked classy when Lu Shang was the one wearing it. His usual furrowed eyebrows
seemed to have loosened up a lot. A pair of thin-rimmed glasses sat on Lu Shang's
tall nose, giving him a more bookish look.

"Why are you wearing glasses?" Li Sui laughed.

"A friend gave it to me for protection against UV rays." Lu Shang pushed the
glasses on his nose, "Does it look good on me?"

Li Sui couldn't move his eyes away, "It suits you very well." It wasn't the glasses
that looked good, but the person wearing them. Every time Li Sui looked at him, he
felt a little more drawn to it. If Uncle Yuen weren't in the front, he would have
jumped to kiss Lu Shang already.

The air-conditioner in the car was running at its maximum, Li Sui was blown by the
hot wind and got really sweaty, so he just took his coat off, "Why did you come in
person? Next time I'll take a taxi, it's going to turn cold again, so don't go
out."

Lu Shang laughed at him, "There is still a next time?"

Only then did Li Sui remember that all his classes at the school were over, and he
had all received his degree certificate. He should have been back earlier three
months ago, but he just happened to get a rare internship opportunity, so he stayed
there for a while longer, and even made a deal with the company on an Export
Trading Project.

"I forgot about that…" Li Sui laughed.

When Uncle Yuen saw them talking and laughing on the rear-view mirror, he couldn't
help thinking about the thing that happened when Lu Shang was going out, he still
had doubts about that.

In the afternoon, Lu Shang planned on driving to pick Li Sui up from the airport.
As soon as the car drove out of the yard, the sound of a sudden brake came from
outside the door. Uncle Yuen rushed out to see that the car engine was already off,
and Lu Shang seemed to be a little frightened—his hands were clenched tightly on
the steering wheel, and his eyes had no focus.

"What happened?", Uncle Yuen immediately asked, as the vehicle had clearly veered
off course, almost hitting on a tree.

Lu Shang steadied his breathing, when he raised his head up again, the clarity and
focus in his eyes were back, "I forgot my glasses."

Uncle Yuen brought Lu Shang's glasses out from the house for him, he saw that Lu
Shang still seemed out of it. The condition he was in didn't favor driving, so
Uncle Yuen proposed to drive him to the airport instead. Originally, he thought Lu
Shang would refuse, but to his surprise, Lu Shang actually agreed and sat in the
backseat.

Li Sui answered a phone call in the car, he spoke fluent English and seemed to be
bargaining with the person on the other end of the call. Li Sui's businessman
traits were clearly shown from his temperament. When he finished the call, Lu Shang
asked, "A border project?"

"Yes, it's a US-Sino cooperation project," Li Sui said; when it came to

professional matters, his tone sounded a lot more serious. "Establishing a tight
network of commercial transport points at different ports, then using point-to-
point intermodulation to greatly improve transport speed, saving time and
resources."

Lu Shang was listening with quite a lot of interest, "Not bad, tell me more when we
get home."

Uncle Yuen saw them off up to the door, then turned around to leave, saying that he
needed to refuel the car. Li Sui led Lu Shang out of the car, and as soon as they
stepped foot inside the house, Li Sui pressed Lu Shang against the door for an
intimate kiss.

After being apart for more than three months, both of them were excited to see each
other, simply exchanging saliva was nowhere near enough, they almost started doing
it at the doorway. Li Sui forced the brakes quickly, instead of continuing at the
doorway, he carried Lu Shang upstairs and the two of them had lots of fun in the
bedroom, coming out only when the sky had turned dark.

Li Sui might have tormented Lu Shang a little too much; he watched as Lu Shang fell
into a deep sleep in his arms, unable to stop the rising sense of guilt. Li Sui had
always shown restraint in their sexual affairs. Only when Lu Shang was in great
health would he try to bring his desires to life, but this time they were separated
for too long. He couldn't stop himself from coming onto him a little too strongly.
By the end, Lu Shang's physical strength was obviously failing to keep up with him.
Not only did Lu Shang said nothing about that, he even teased Li Sui with his
words, making Li Sui more fired up. After releasing their desires, Lu Shang lay in
Li Sui's arms and fell asleep, naked. Li Sui bowed his head to kiss Lu Shang on the
forehead, then massaged Lu Shang's waist while staring at the way Lu Shang was
sleeping.

Over the past two years, the two of them were apart more than they were together.
Although they did that for studies and career respectively, Li Sui still found that
regrettable. Now that he could finally be with him, he really hoped that time would
pass slower.

At nine in the evening, Li Sui knew that if Lu Shang kept on sleeping, he would
miss dinner, so he woke him up gently. Aunt Lu had already warmed up their meal,
she was now sorting out the dirty clothes from Li Sui's luggage for cleaning.

After going abroad for his studies, Li Sui had missed Aunt Lu's home cooked meals a
lot. He had three huge bowls of rice, followed by drinking two bowls of soup, and
he was so satisfied that it almost brought him to tears.

Lu Shang watched as Li Sui stuffed his face with food, he was amused and worried at
the same time, "Did you not eat anything over there?"

Li Sui shook his head and said, "You weren't there, so the food did not taste as
good."

"There's pear water too, do you want me to get you some?" Lu Shang asked.

Li Sui's eyes glowed the second he heard Lu Shang's words, he looked like a huge
Shepherd dog who found a bone to chew on. Lu Shang gave a light smile and picked up
an empty bowl to get the soup from the kitchen.

Just when Li Sui finished the food in his bowl, Li Sui heard the sound of a
porcelain bowl breaking, the sound came from the kitchen. Li Sui immediately got up
and went to the kitchen, "What's wrong?"
On the kitchen floor, there was a pile of porcelain shards. Lu Shang stood behind
the pile, looking rather innocent, and he said, "It was too hot, I didn't hold it
steady enough."

"Did you get hurt?" Li Sui immediately checked Lu Shang's hand and saw redness
around his fingertips, he pulled Lu Shang's hand to the tap, washing it under cold
water. Aunt Lu heard the noise and came in as well, she saw the broken bowl on the
ground and turned to get the broom.

Luckily, the pear water wasn't too hot as it was cooked a lot earlier, so Lu
Shang's hand wasn't seriously scalded. Li Sui saw Lu Shang blinking his eyes a few
times, his eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head, he seemed to be really tired. Li
Sui's heart sank, "Did you stay up late last night again?"

"No," Lu Shang said, then he looked up at Li Sui solemnly, "I went to bed at ten
o'clock."

"Really?", Li Sui obviously did not believe him. He turned around to ask, "Aunt Lu,
when did he sleep last night?"

Aunt Lu laughed, "I think Lu Lao Ban went to bed at three last night."

Lu Shang, "…"

Over the past two years, Li Sui had been very strict with him. Lu Shang must not
skip meals, and should have three meals a day on time, he should go to bed at or
before 11pm, guaranteeing eight hours of sleep every day. When Li Sui was home, Lu
Shang usually kept his promise, but when Li Sui wasn't home, he could only remind
Lu Shang through the phone or ask Aunt Lu to help persuade him. Lu Shang was
generally obedient, and he hadn't been seriously ill in the past two years.
However, when Lu Shang must choose between work and rest, he would not hesitate to
choose the former. Li Sui wasn't happy with that, but he couldn't do anything about
it, either.

Lu Shang stopped talking. Li Sui looked at Lu Shang's slightly pale face and he
felt his heart softening instantly. This way, it was as if Aunt Lu and him had
joined forces to bully Lu Shang. Li Sui walked forward and held onto his hand, with
a soft voice, he said, "Okay, you are tired too, right? Shall we go upstairs to
sleep?"

Lu Shang nodded and allowed Li Sui to lead him upstairs.

The next morning, Lu Shang and Li Sui arrived at the company together; it was truly
a refreshing sight, having two handsome guys coming in for work together. They
attracted a lot of discussion, but Lu Shang didn't give them the chance to guess.
He announced at the morning meeting straight away that Li Sui would be appointed as
the Assistant General Manager. Then, he quickly finished the admission procedure on
the same day.

At noon, Li Sui packed up his things and went to find Lu Shang at the office next-
door. Lu Shang was still busy writing something, Li Sui knew that he would not stop
any time soon. So, he went downstairs to buy takeout and brought it up for Lu
Shang.

"Have something to eat first, you can continue writing later." Li Sui transferred
the food to a bowl, then asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I am writing a to-do-list for the hand-over of the Golden Sands Shores Project,"
Lu Shang said. Leaning back on his swivel chair, he looked at Li Sui with a rather
amused look, his eyes were smiling as he said, "Are you afraid?"

Li Sui raised his eyebrows.

"You must have heard the rumors, anyone connected to this project would be met with
a horrible death." Lu continued, "I'm going to hand this project over to you now.
Are you scared?"

"A horrible death?" Li Sui repeated, then asked, "Weren't you overseeing the
project before too?"

Lu Shang nodded. Li Sui smiled and handed the bowl of food to Lu Shang, "If I could
die a horrible death together with you, that'd be great."

Li Sui agreed to the task pretty quickly, only realizing after he had agreed, Lu
Shang was going to make him leave home again. At night, Li Sui finished packing his
bags, he sat on the side of the bed as he gave a long sigh.

"There is still room for debate now," Lu Shang said while leaning on the bed
headboard, he was reading a book. He Li Sui's sulky expression a little amusing.

Li Sui stared back at him for a while, taking his book away, then pulling his
glasses off and jumping the man, "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Doing what on purpose?" Lu Shang laughed.

"Sending me away on purpose." Li Sui kissed him on the neck.

Lu Shang stopped smiling, "Hmn… Yes."

Li Sui moved back a little and looked straight into him from above, Lu Shang
laughed and said, "I'm afraid I'd die of sexual exhaustion if you don't go away
(i)."

T/N: (i) What Lu Shang said in raws was actually a common four characters idiom
that means die of exhaustion, 精盡人亡. The joke is that 精 means spirits or
strength originally in the idiom, but it also happens to mean sperm, making the
idiom sounds like die from using all the sperms up. (精 means spirits or strength,
盡 means use up, 人 means the person, 亡 means to die.)

Flames lit up in Li Sui's eyes, he leaned down to kiss him, "Let's try that."

After two consecutive nights of excessive indulgence in sex, Lu Shang was obviously
tired, so much so that he had to take his bath with Li Sui's help. Before going to
bed, Li Sui thought, he had been running around for the past two years. Now that he
was finally home, he had to leave again, as if they were swallow and goose (ii). He
felt a little sorry and could not help falling asleep for half a day.

T/N: (ii) Another idiom: 社燕秋鴻, it's used to describe people who are separated
right after they meet each other, the words are basically referring to the swallow
and the goose. Swallows and geese are migratory birds, but they migrate to an
opposite direction.

"Lu Shang, whatever you ask of me, I will accomplish it whether it's climbing up a
mountain of spears or jumping into a sea of fire." Moving to Lu Shang's ear, Li Sui
continued, "But please, don't hide anything from me."
Li Sui wasn't even sure if Lu Shang heard that or not, as he just vaguely mumbled,
"Hmm."

The next day at noon, Lu Shang was going to take Li Sui to the airport, but Li Sui
objected, "Go take a nap. Wait for me to go fishing with you when I return."

Since Li Sui mentioned fishing, Lu Shang remembered, "There is a special kind of

fishing bait sold in the fishing village near the golden sand coast. It's very
useful in fishing for turtles. Can you buy some back for me?"

"Why do you need to fish for turtles?" Li Sui put his shoes on, then pointed to
himself, "Didn't you caught one already?"

Lu Shang smiled a little, "It mutated during growth, I can't control it anymore."

Sometimes Lu Shang wondered himself too, Li Sui was such a timid and careful little
turtle when he picked him up, how did he grow into the huge Shepherd dog he was
now. Li Sui was also very sensitive and smart, he could sense the slightest
movements in the grasses. If Lu Shang wanted to do stuff behind his back, he really
had to put a lot of effort into it.

Li Sui lifted his luggage up to the door, looking back at the people inside, he
felt melancholic. Lu Shang pushed the strong feeling of reluctance back,
deliberately moving his face away to not look at Li Sui. Even if Lu Shang tried
delaying it, Li Sui still had to go, Lu Shang was afraid that he'd give in if he
looked at Li Sui.

Even with his changed shoes, Li Sui walked back in suddenly like a gust of wind,
placing his hand on the back of Lu Shang's head and giving him a deep French kiss.
Then just like the wind, he left the house, getting in the car and drove away.

The room was in complete silence. Lu Shang's shoulders seemed to have relaxed a bit
as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

As soon as Li Sui got off the plane, he received a phone call from abroad.

"I'm sorry, sir. We have compared the data of all registered donors in our database
to your registered information in our donation center. We regret to inform you that
there are no matching heart donors for you at the moment. We will expand the scope
of our search. If we find any donors who meet the requirements, we will inform you
immediately."

Li Sui's eyes darkened, "Thank you."

"It's our pleasure to help."

A beeping sound came from the phone. Li Sui looked down at all the people coming
and going in the airport, his shoulders slouched lifelessly.

Chapter 36: Island Purchasing

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Two years ago, when Li Sui first went to America, he learned about the charity
organization through his school, the organization specialized in matching patients
in need of an organ transplant with suitable donors. Although Li Sui knew that Lu
Shang had already been searching for years and that most likely included from
foreign countries, he still decided to hand in a request form. Even if it had but a
one in a millionth chance, Li Sui didn't want to let it go.
Unfortunately, it had been three years already, and the miracle Li Sui was hoping
for had yet to make an appearance.

Li Sui pulled his luggage out, he saw the company car parked outside right after he
stepped foot out of the airport. Li Sui opened the car door to find a familiar face
at the driver's seat.

"I arrived just last week." Xiao Zhao's attitude didn't change at all even with Li
Sui's new status in the company, he was still treating Li Sui like he was his
friend, Li Sui was quite glad about that. Xiao Zhao said, "Lu Lao Ban was going to
come here himself, but things got really busy at his end, so he said he was going
to send someone over, and I was worrying who'd that be."

"I might have to rely on you for the upcoming weeks."

Xiao Zhao waved his hand, "Don't sweat it."

After two years, the island had new changes. Li Sui didn't go straight to the
hotel, instead, he went to the construction site first. He walked once around the
site, inspecting it, everything was familiar as he had been here before with Lu
Shang. The Golden Sands Coast's neighboring regions were developing as well, it was
slowly developing into a tourist shopping district. The empty beach they visited
before were now packed with tourists, anyone could make out that this plot of land
was getting more and more valuable. Li Sui couldn't even imagine how bustling this
place would get when the construction of the theme park was over.

All of these had a lot to do with Lu Shang's plans, he dealt with the related
policies, then placed profit as bait. With both policies and profits working side
by side, even the fishermen there followed in on the action, turning their village
into something like a cultural village for the tourists to visit, Li Sui could see
a few seafood wet markets there from afar.

The news of Li Sui arriving for an inspection reached every worker's ear in no
time, most of them had seen Li Sui before, but Li Sui was just a normal teenager
following behind Lu Shang back then. Now that two years had passed, Li Sui suddenly
became their boss. Though Lu Shang didn't clearly announce their relationship, the
fact that Lu Shang and Li Sui were living together, sleeping together, and
basically doing everything together did reach most of their ears. Even without
confirmation, rumors did spread amongst the workers like wildfire, so almost every
worker knew about them.

At the beginning, everyone thought nothing of Li Sui. The workers thought that Li
Sui would at most just stroll around the site, just to show that he did something
to the other board members and managers. As such, none of the workers cared much
about the inspection at first, but soon, all of them realized, Li Sui wasn't just
here for a stroll, he was taking over the project completely.

From the finance team to the construction team, Li Sui didn't let anyone related to
the project go, he did everything on the to-do-list Lu Shang gave him, finishing
the takeover efficiently. Lu Shang had made a great start for Li Sui, the incident
two years ago was still affecting the construction. Most of the workers were afraid
of slacking off because of that reordering, there were also less corruption, so it
was easier for Li Sui to takeover the project.

Obviously, Lu Shang had set a sturdy foundation for Li Sui, as for how the project
will turn out, that depended solely on Li Sui.

Once Li Sui began working, he found himself so engrossed in it that he forgot the
time. At night, Li Sui finally snapped out of working, he then noticed a missed
call on his mobile phone, it was from Lu Shang, so he immediately dialed back.

The call was picked up after just two beeps. Lu Shang sounded like he was sleeping,
in his voice was slothfulness from someone who hadn't woken up fully yet, "Are you
still busy working?"

"I just got off work." Li Sui turned his computer off, packing his things and
getting ready to leave the company, "Were you sleeping?"

"Hmn. I got nothing else to do." Lu Shang must had made a turn on the other end of
the phone, Li Sui could hear the fabrics rustling through the speaker. He felt
itchiness in his heart as he heard the sound, he could almost feel the warmth
coming out from under the blanket when Lu Shang turned, as if he could just pull Lu
Shang into his embrace right now.

"Lu Shang." Li Sui walked out of the building. On the roads were cars passing by at
high speed, and on the streets were pedestrians, some were chatting happily. Li Sui
stopped walking as he looked up at the sky, giving a soft laugh, "I'm beginning to
miss you."

The person on the other end of the call laughed a little as well, a lovely voice
reached Li Sui's ear, "How are you missing me, can you be more specific?"

"I want to…… pull you into my arms, hugging you by the waist." Li Sui whispered
close to his phone, "Kissing your eyes, nose, and mouth……"

"And then?"

"Then, delving my hands into your clothes." Li Sui continued with a smile,
"Caressing your skin from your shoulders to your chest, inch by inch, then to your
abdomen……"

Lu Shang's low laughter came from the other end of the phone, "Hmn."

"Then, holding it…… stroking it back and forth…… gently……"

The voice on the other end of the phone changed, his laughter wasn't steady either,
Li Sui could hear soft moans mixed in it.

"Press on the tip, then let go again." Li Sui said with a slightly hoarse voice. Li
Sui lifted his head to see a café, he went in without any hesitation.

"Did that feel good?"

"Hmn……" Lu Shang was panting a lot now, "Can… go a little faster."

"Then with two hands…" Li Sui pushed open the Café door and went straight to the
restroom, "Relax your body…… Don't stop……"

The moans became a little more distant from the phone, Lu Shang must had put the
phone down. Li Sui closed the bathroom door, he glanced at his lower body, feeling
his disordered breaths.

"Lu Shang, give me your hand." Li Sui said, "Shall we go together?"

"… Here you go." Lu Shang said with difficulty.

Li Sui closed his eyes, trying to paint the image of Lu Shang in his mind as his
hands began moving as well.
Some Jazz music was playing through the speaker above, today just happened to be in
the middle of the month, so the moonlight outside the window was bright and round,
there were no clouds. The moonlight sprinkled onto the floor without any
hindrances, as if a layer of frost was covering the floor.

Li Sui was gasping as well. It turned silent on the other end of the phone after a
light whimper. Li Sui asked, "Lu Shang, have you fallen asleep?"

There was only regular breathing at that end, the sound was really faint.

Li Sui kissed the speaker on his phone and said softly, "Good night."

Li Sui hung up the phone, then looked below at his still hard bulge, he sighed a
little.

After washing his hands, he walked out of the toilet, passing the bar. A waiter
glanced at him, most likely thinking Li Sui was just here to use the toilet.
Feeling a little bad for that, Li Sui walked over and bought a cup of American
coffee. Li Sui packed the coffee away and headed back for OT.

Li Sui was pretty sure he couldn't hold on for an entire month, so he must hurry,
quickly finishing all his work here and head back as soon as possible.

Benefitted from his experiences of helping Lu Shang with his work documents before,
Li Sui got on track with his work very quickly. Li Sui knew Lu Shang's working
habits very well, when people bring him documents Lu Shang wrote, it only took him
a few glances and he'd understand them fully. That saved Li Sui a lot of trouble
and time.

It was only after beginning work, did Li Sui understood the importance of going to
school for education. A lot of problems could be hidden in the little details, it
was only because he had learned about these already that he could discern the
problems and avoid getting deceived. No wonder Lu Shang was so adamant about making
him attend school, it was only after people learn could their eyes broaden. When a
person had a broader view, he'd see things more clearly and see ahead more
accurately. Apart from that, it was more convincing to manage his employees when Li
Sui had a higher education qualification.

After two weeks, Li Sui was already accustomed to the environment on the island.
Today, he went to inspect the construction site with other managers. On the way, Li
Sui chatted with a designer of the park.

"The scenery here at the Golden Sands Shore is really good, but I'm thinking, how
great would it be, if we could get that TaoYuan Island (i) too. I mean just the
notion of going out to sea for a treasure hunt would attract so many tourists."

T/N: (i) TaoYuan Island (桃源島). Literally, it means an island with peach blossoms
everywhere. In tales, it refers to somewhat of a hidden paradise, kind of the
western equivalent of utopia or Atlantis. TaoYuan usually refers to a more modest
kind of paradise though, it was described in the literature as a place hidden
amongst peach trees with friendly farmers who lead a simple life.

On a side note, remember poor Wong Wai? The poet, Wong Wai wrote a pretty famous
poem about TaoYuan as well.

"TaoYuan Island?" Li Sui asked.

"Oh, I'm talking about the deserted island 30 km away from here, the island's
contract and management rights are up for sale. Some rich people bought it before,
planning to build an experiment laboratory there, but before they finished
everything, the company went bankrupt. After that the island went to a few other
people's hands but didn't stay. So in short, it's still up for grabs right now."

Li Sui went silent, he remembered hearing Liu XingMing talk about the island with
Lu Shang a few years back. Li Sui remembered that they were going to inspect the
island, but at the end they didn't go due to the storm. Now that the designer
mentioned it, Li Sui found himself a little curious about the island, "Can we go
there and have a look?"

"Sure. There will be ships going there tomorrow morning, I can go with you."

The next day, Li Sui arrived on the island with a few examiners from the company.
The island wasn't big, but the environment was really good. In the middle of the
island, there was a manmade river, and the riverbanks had rows of tropical trees
planted. Beside those were the basic structures of two buildings, they were most
likely the remains of the laboratory and a villa.

They looked around the island on their own for a bit before the land broker ran
towards them, "Sorry, sorry, I was late. There was another client here to see the
island earlier today, I am really sorry for the delay."

"So, this place is a really heated item?" Li Sui said.

The broker wiped the sweat off his head, "I wish. There are a lot of visitors, but
the people who can actually afford it……" The broker made a zero with his fingers,
"This many."

"Is it very expensive?" Li Sui asked.

The broker giggled a little, then he told Li Sui a price, Li Sui's expression
shifted a little, "Wow, this price is a little ludicrous, don't you think?"

"No, no, no. This price isn't just for the island, it includes the surrounding
marine resources, the contract period is also very long, so it's actually worth it.
However, normal people really can't afford it, while those who could afford it
didn't want to face the risks."

Li Sui found it a shame, this place was really beautiful. The temperature on the
island was nice too, there was no winter here, that would be perfect for Lu Shang
who was bad with winter, Lu Shang also liked fishing. If Li Sui could buy the
island, he'd build a villa here, maybe plant some flowers too. Then every day, Lu
Shang and him could just take naps and go fishing together, when they had nothing
to do, they could also go stroll beside the river and go out to look at the sea,
how lovely would that be?

As Li Sui was dreaming about that, the broker got a phone call. The broker jumped
up ecstatically after hearing something from the phone, he screamed, "What? He's
going to buy it!?"

Everyone was confused, the broker ended the call, then held Li Sui's hand, "You are
my lucky charm, sir! This island has been wasting here for more than two years
already. Today, it's finally sold."

Li Sui asked, "Who is buying the island?"

The broker said, "It's the Big Lao Ban who came on the island earlier. Come, come,
I will bring you to him."
Under the influence of curiosity, Li Sui followed the broker to the villa. The door
opened, and Li Sui saw the "Big Lao Ban" the broker spoke of. The two stared at
each other, then they basically said at the same time, "You again?"

SiMa JingRong's brain froze a bit, then smiled, putting his hand on Li Sui's
shoulder. Introducing Li Sui to the broker, he said, "This is my bro, we've gone
through life and death together!"

"What are you doing here?" Li Sui asked.

"To buy an island of course. My dad gave me some money, I didn't know where to
spend it, but I just want to buy something. So, I was here to do some snorkeling
and I saw that there's an island on sale here, so I thought, why not buy it?"

Seriously though, why were some people born with a silver spoon in their mouth? Li
Sui sighed, then asked, "You are just spending money like this? Does your father
know?"

"He doesn't care about me, he only care about my little brother."

Li Sui noticed, SiMa JingRong didn't call SiMa Yan by his name anymore, he called
him as his "little brother".

"So, what are you going to use the island for?" Li Sui asked.

SiMa JingRong rubbed his hands together in thought, he said, "I don't know, haven't
thought about it yet. Maybe renting it to someone?"

SiMa JingRong saw Li Sui's complicated face, he asked, "What? Do you have any
suggestions?"

"Yes." Li Sui said, "I suggest you renting it to me."

After hearing that, SiMa JingRong slapped Li Sui's shoulders and said, "Great
idea!"

"I will pay for it, you will do all the work. If you get a profit, we can share
them, awesome!" The more SiMa JingRong thought about it, the better he felt about
this whole idea, "I don't have to worry about anything, and you don't have to worry
about money, this is two birds with one stone!"

Li Sui was just joking at first, he never thought SiMa JingRong would get so
serious about it, he didn't really know what to reply at that moment. SiMa JingRong
stood beside Li Sui, then basically made a decision for him, not letting him off
the hook. SiMa JingRong called the broker over, "So, it's decided. Mr. broker,
let's sign the contract, it'd be easier for me to pay."

SiMa JingRong's excitedness still hadn't gone down after they got off the island,
he kept rambling on. The price was truly high, but to the SiMa family it wasn't
really all that much, but Li Sui just couldn't shake off the feeling that SiMa
JingRong bought the island because of his words. He felt a little guilty about
that, so he said seriously, "I will rent it from you for now, paying you the rent
annually. After two years, when the constructions are done, you can evaluate the
price of the island again and I will buy it from you."

"Don't be a stranger." SiMa JingRong said being confused, "You are Mu Sheng's
shareholder too, just your annual dividend last year should be more than this
little bit of money."
If it wasn't for what SiMa JingRong said, he would have completely forgotten about
the shares he had in Mu Sheng. Lu Shang bought those shares in Li Sui's name two
years ago, Lu Shang never told Li Sui about the dividend, but if that was what Lu
Shang decided, then Li Sui won't question it.

"Well, then thank you." Li Sui said.

Since the two of them happened to run into each other, they went for hot pot
together at the afternoon. SiMa JingRong ordered lamb meat, when the pot and the
meat were brought in, Li Sui froze, he remembered that Lu Shang liked eating this a
lot too.

"I've had too much seafood these days, I'm so fed up with them." SiMa JingRong
reached for the sauce plate, then said, "What are you spacing out for, how could
you space out even when there's food?"

Li Sui snapped back, he stared at the sauce plate SiMa JingRong was holding and
asked, "How do you eat that? It's all chili peppers."

"What do you mean 'how'. Food is only tasty with chili peppers, I'm not eating
anything without chili peppers." SiMa JingRong poured the lamb meat into the
hotpot, then laughed, "Say, wasn't our first fight about sauces too?"

Talking about the past, Li Sui sighed a little, "Back then, I thought Lu Shang
didn't like spicy food, but now I know that he just can't eat them."

"Oh?" Speaking of Lu Shang, SiMa JingRong remembered, "What happened to you guys
after that? Did you do as I said?"

A smile surfaced on Li Sui's face, he nodded, "I gave him a fishing rod, he likes
it a lot, couldn't even get him to let go of it."

"Hehe, see, I'm right." SiMa JingRong hit his own chest, boasting himself, "How
about that. Your bro is great, right?"

Li Sui only smiled, only he knew that Lu Shang didn't forgive him for a fishing
rod, Lu Shang had never been angry at him in the first place.

While the two were eating, Li Sui got a call, it was from Uncle Yuen. Seeing the
caller's ID, Li Sui immediately had a very bad feeling.

"Uncle Yuen?" Li Sui walked to a quieter area, then asked, "Did something happen to
Lu Shang?"

"No, not him." Uncle Yuen continued, "It's Zuo Chao."

"Brother Zuo?"

"Yes, today, Zuo Chao brought some men over to the port trading area to get a fixed
car back. They happened to meet Liu XinTian's people and they got into a fight.
That side called the police, Zuo Chao was too angry and he refused to go peacefully
into police custody. So, the police had to forcefully bring him in, he's in holding
right now." Uncle Yuen continued after a short pause, "Mr. Lu should be taking a
nap right now, I've just called him but he didn't pick up. You are familiar with
Zuo Chao as well, so I wanted to ask for your opinion first."

"What did lawyer Xe said?" Li Sui asked.

"He went to negotiate immediately, but as they say, 'even a strong dragon can't
deal with a snake that's in its own turf'. This might be really hard to deal with,
Liu XinTian is waiting for a chance like this for a long time already, there's no
way he's going to let this go easily." Uncle Yuen said.

"Wait, isn't the port trading area one of the Lu family's turf?"

Uncle Yuen froze for a bit, then said, "Emm, yes… It was our turf before, but Mr.
Lu gave it to Liu XinTian."

Li Sui could hear the changes in Uncle Yuen's tone, what happened two years ago
came to mind, it was the day when Li Sui went to find Li Yan. Li Sui remembered Lu
Shang saying something about that, his heart shook, "It is… because of what I did."

Li Sui didn't use a questioning tone, and Uncle Yuen didn't deny it either, he just
said, "Zuo Chao was used to being the boss there, he naturally didn't like the idea
of it suddenly becoming someone else's turf. The most important thing now is that
he has a history of offenses, though he never did anything too serious, he did hurt
a lot of people in his underground boxing days. If he goes under trial, then he
will probably have to stay in jail for a long time."

This problem was truly hard to deal with, Liu XinTian wouldn't just lash out on Zuo
Chao for no reason at all. This was obviously planned, as everyone knew that Zuo
Chao was working for Lu Shang, Liu XinTian did this hoping to cut off Lu Shang's
claws. Liu XinTian was a powerhouse, not someone Li Sui could easily take on.
Moreover, just like Lu Shang, Liu XinTian was Tong Yan's shareholder, his family
history was quite similar to the Lu family's, so a lot of their acquaintances
overlapped. In short, this whole incident was a tug-of-war between the two
families' strength.

Li Sui contemplated for a while, then said, "I will handle the loose ends here,
then I'll immediately fly back. I'll be back at around nine tonight."

"Do I need to tell Mr. Lu about this first?"

Li Sui thought for a bit, he probably couldn't keep this under the rugs anyways.
Moreover, with the human resources Li Sui had now, he just couldn't win against Liu
XinTian, at least not yet. At the end of the day, he needed the Lu family's name if
he wanted to deal with this.

"Tell him, but also tell him not to worry and that I'm dealing with it." Li Sui
said.

Chapter 37: Zuo Chao

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

After Li Sui hung the phone up, he immediately began booking a flight home. SiMa
JingRong saw the change in Li Sui's mood, so he went over to see what he was doing,
"What happened? You're going back now?"

"Hmn. It's an urgent matter." Li Sui said as he checked on his phone, he wasn't in
luck, the usual flights were either full or cancelled.

"You don't have to book a flight. If you take my family jet, you can get home right
now." After saying that, SiMa JingRong called for the waiter to pay the tab.

"Are your matters over here done already?" Li Sui asked.

"What matters? I'm only here to have fun." SiMa JingRong hurried him, "You're in a
hurry, right? That matters more."

Fortunately, most of the things Li Sui needed to do here were done—all that's left
were small matters which didn't really require Li Sui's supervision. Li Sui asked a
few trustworthy workers in the hotel to pack up his things for him while he rushed
to the fishing village to get the turtle bait Lu Shang asked for.

When Li Sui returned to the house, the sky was still bright, and he was home
earlier by at least three hours. No-one was in the house; Lu Shang must have gone
out. Li Sui returned without much notice, so Aunt Lu wasn't notified, and naturally
she wouldn't be here so early. Li Sui pulled his luggage up, then phoned the people
in the bamboo dojo to get a better grasp of the situation. After he had a basic
understanding of everything, he knew that this wasn't a problem that could be dealt
with anytime soon, so he went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Right after Li Sui finished preparing the bean sprouts, the door moved, and Lu
Shang walked inside. Li Sui had a big smile on his face as he turned around to look
at Lu Shang, but before he said anything, Lu Shang spoke, "Aunt Lu. Make some sweet
soup, Li Sui is coming back tonight."

Li Sui stared at Lu Shang changing his shoes, he asked in confusion, "Lu Shang?"

The person at the doorway was obviously fazed by the other's voice, and he raised
his head to look at Li Sui, then smiled and said, "You're back."

Li Sui was about to say something, but then he saw a purple bruise on Lu Shang's
head, and his expression changed immediately, "What's wrong with your head? Did you
get hit by something?"

"It's fine. I just bumped into something."

Li Sui walked over, holding Lu Shang's face up for a careful inspection of the
bruise, then he said with worry, "If you got hit a little further down, then it
might have hurt your eye. Does it hurt? Did you apply medicine on it yet?"

"No, it's just a small wound." Lu Shang didn't put much thought into it; he picked
up his glasses from the drawer, then asked, "You're so early today, have you
finished everything already?"

"More or less. Today, I came back with JingRong." Li Sui went for the first-aid kit
in search for cotton swabs and medicine, "Uncle Yuen told me about the problem with
brother Zuo, so I came back to help you."

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about." Lu Shang took his blazer off,
he sat down on the sofa and said, "I have already sent people to look after him at
the holding center. However, getting him out on bail might not be easy, that would
definitely take a while."

"Did he fight them?" Li Sui squatted down in front of Lu Shang, then picked up some
of the medicine using a cotton swab, carefully applying it onto Lu Shang's
forehead, "Hold still."

Lu Shang closed his eyes and let Li Sui apply the medicine on him, "No, he didn't,
but one of his men did. That person even had weapons, the police found it on him.
Zuo Chao was their leader, so he would be held accountable either way."

"So, it could be said that he did fight, there's no getting out of that."

"Yes. What we have to be clear about is that he really did something wrong. We
don't have to think of ways to cover that up, what we need to focus on right now is
how to get him…"

Lu Shang opened his eyes to see Li Sui staring at him with heavy eyes, so he asked,
"What's wrong?"

Li Sui said, "Give me a hug."

Lu Shang laughed, he opened his arms, and the second he did that, Li Sui jumped
him, hugging Lu Shang tightly. Li Sui's chin was rubbing on Lu Shang's neck, his
eyes smiling happily, "I've missed you a lot."

"How are you getting more childish the older you get?" Lu Shang smiled as he patted
the back of Li Sui's head.

"Don't care." Li Sui tightened the hug then said, "This minute is mine, even big
brother Zuo has to stand aside."

Somewhere in the holding center, Zuo Chao sneezed in the dark, cursing, "Damn, this
place is cold!"

After some time, the sound of a lock turning came from the door, then the door
opened. Someone obviously walked in, then froze, then that person closed the door
and went back out.

That was when the two finally let go of the hug, they stared at each other in a
second of confusion, then both laughed.

"Ask Aunt Lu to come in, it's cold out there." Lu Shang hurried Li Sui.

Neither of them ate much for dinner. During the meal, Li Sui reported what he did
in HaiNan briefly, and what he got was a simple compliment from Lu Shang, "Quite
good, you're no doubt my student."

"So this time, let me deal with this." Li Sui said.

Lu Shang thought for a while, then said, "You can't do it alone. Tomorrow, I'll ask
Xe WeiLan to tell you the details about the situation, you should discuss with him.
There's actually one more problem—Zuo Chao has a car factory which buys stolen cars
off and revitalizes them, then sells them again. Now that Zuo Chao is in the
holding center, the illegal parts of this factory will become a problem, so we need
to deal with that as well."

Li Sui nodded his head seriously.

At night, both of them had a lot on their minds. Lu Shang and Li Sui took a simple
bath together. Li Sui noticed that Lu Shang was tired during their bath, so he
massaged the spot on Lu Shang where he read was beneficial to the heart. After
that, they fell asleep on the bed embracing each other.

The next morning, Li Sui went out very early. When he was studying abroad, he did
study a little about law; though it might be different from the mainland, this
knowledge was still applicable in some cases. After discussing with Xe WeiLan, they
decided to start with the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

As for the holding center, they didn't even think about going there. Since the head
of the holding center was one of Liu XinTian's uncles, so they knew that going
would be useless. Luckily, a warden there was indebted to the Lu family, so he
guaranteed that Zuo Chao won't be mistreated there.
Xe WeiLan basically broke his legs running around in the past days, he asked
everyone he knew for favors. Perhaps because both Liu XinTian and Lu Shang were
involved, most people didn't want to be a part of this, because no matter which
side they'd offend, it would be bad for them. Among the people Xe WeiLan found,
they either hid from him by taking the day off or pretended to be useless. In
short, they all had the same stance, remained neutral and did things by the law.

Doing things by the law sounded good and all, but in fact, that was against in Zuo
Chao. After all, he really did illegal deeds, so how serious would his sentence
become? They did not have a say in that.

"A decision has arrived about the congressional hearing, it will be held next week
at the earliest. This week, we need to go meet with everyone who will be a part of
the congressional hearing committee," Xe WeiLan said; he hadn't slept for days, so
his eyes were swelling.

Li Sui sighed; it had been three weeks already, but there was zero progression on
the case. "If this incident happened in the Lu family's turf, then he'd definitely
be out already."

"Yeah, it's basically just fighting on the streets. The one who got injured just
has a little scratch, he's still staying in the hospital just to put the heat on
Zuo Chao. I've never seen someone so thick-faced." Xe WeiLan shook his head, then
asked, "Oh, what did you do with the car factory?"

"I shut it down for renovation."

"What!?"

Li Sui turned his head back, then asked, "What?"

"You shut his factory down?" Xe WeiLan asked in disbelief.

Li Sui frowned, "The factory was illegal to begin with; if it keeps on running,
then it'd become bashing material for the prosecutors. Moreover, I've visited the
factory, and the employees there aren't good people, either. Brother Zuo just got
arrested and they were already thinking about ways to profit from his absence.
Besides, their leader is gone, what if they go out and pick a fight again, then it
would be even harder for us to get Zuo Chao out."

Xe WeiLan slowly realized that Li Sui and Lu Shang seemed to do things in similar
ways, but in fact they were very different from each other. Lu Shang was gentler,
he'd give people warnings first, then use force afterwards. Li Sui was still young,
so he didn't hide his sharpness, he valued the results more than the process, also,
he didn't mind pissing people off.

"Okay then, if you say so." Xe WeiLan said as he didn't feel right questioning him.

It went smoothly at the congressional hearing, reaching the conclusion that the
defense posed no threat to society and could be released. Li Sui was really happy,
and the second he got home, he reported it to Lu Shang, "A decision has been
reached at the congressional hearing (i); the Ministry of Public Security (ii) will
have to release him in ten days. We can prepare to get brother Zuo back."

T/N:
(i) The Supreme People's Procuratorate is in charge of the congressional hearing.
(ii) The Ministry of Public Security controls the holding centre.
After hearing what Li Sui said, Lu Shang didn't look as calm as usual, instead he
looked worried. The People's Procuratorate was in charge of supervising the
Ministry of Public Security, and they had bypassed the Ministry of Public Security
to force it into submission; that was basically slapping the Ministry of Public
Security in the face. They were against Liu XinTian, and Lu Shang doubted it would
be this easy.

Being forceful might show quick results, but there was also another idiom—when one
is too forceful, breaking is inevitable.

Then again, this was nothing more than Lu Shang's speculations, so he raised his
head and smiled, "That's good."

Reality proved Lu Shang's speculations correct.

Ten days had passed since then; Li Sui even arranged a car to get Zuo Chao.
Suddenly, he got a call from Xe WeiLan, he sounded furious, "What the hell is
happening here? Public security just said they are relinquishing their control on
the case, so now they are throwing back the case to the People's Procuratorate.
They couldn't have said it earlier, they had to inform us about this on the last
day."

"So what should we do now?" Li Sui's voice deepened.

"Now, we prepare the supporting documents again, and we apply for bail, then wait
for the sentence…" Xe WeiLan sighed, "This means that all of the work we've done
before had just gone down the gutter. I have no idea when we can get him out with
how things are now."

Li Sui felt his heart freeze.

Li Sui wanted to visit Zuo Chao, but except for lawyers, no one was allowed to
visit him at the moment. Li Sui had heard from Xe WeiLan about Zuo Chao's living
conditions in the holding center. The weather was so cold recently, yet they could
only use cold water to take a shower—and to shower was compulsory; the food there
was also plain and bland. Just the sound of it was horrifying enough; moreover, Zuo
Chao had been the boss for a long time already, this treatment was definitely not
something he was used to.

Besides, this whole incident had a lot to do with Li Sui. If it weren't for Li
Sui's rash actions, Lu Shang would have never given the port trading area to Liu
XinTian, and Zuo Chao would never fall into Liu XinTian's trap.

Although Zuo Chao was a mobster, he had a strong sense of justice and he was very
loyal. Zuo Chao had served the Lu family for years, and he was also very nice to Li
Sui. When Li Sui's thoughts trailed to this point, he felt even more anxious.

After consecutive days of running around, searching for connections and favors, Li
Sui was tired, but he didn't even have the time to have dinner at home. When Li Sui
got out of the car, he saw the round moon hanging in the sky, and that was when he
realized it had been two months since Zuo Chao was arrested. If Lu Shang were the
one dealing with this, the three of them might already be having tea together right
now.

"Are you moon-gazing?" A lovely voice reached Li Sui's ears.

Li Sui turned his head around to see Lu Shang standing at the door, smiling at him.

"Why are you standing at the door, aren't you cold?" Li Sui walked over and gently
touched Lu Shang's arm; as he thought, Lu Shang's skin was freezing.

"Just curious about what you're staring at." Lu Shang said as he massaged the
corners of Li Sui's eyes a little, "You have huge eye bags."

Li Sui pulled Lu Shang into his arms, placing his head near Lu Shang's, "Lu Shang,
I feel so useless, I can't even protect one of your people."

"This was destined to happen, it's not your fault, don't punish yourself for the
mistakes of others." Lu Shang added in a caring voice, "Moreover, he was a little
too reckless in recent days. Being arrested is a warning to him, and that's not a
bad thing—better than him growing more reckless and making a worse mistake in the
future."

Lu Shang's words were very on point; Li Sui's mood which had been covered in black
smog for a month was suddenly cleared—much like the sky with the bright, round moon
hanging on it. Li Sui laughed, "Why are you so good with words?"

"I'm not good with words." Lu Shang pulled Li Sui's hand to his own mouth, landing
a soft kiss on the back of Li Sui's hand, "I just know what you're thinking."

Li Sui stared straight into Lu Shang's eyes, then said, "Then guess what I'm
thinking right now."

Lu Shang couldn't hold his laughter back, "Indescribable."

There were new developments on the next Monday, Xe WeiLan brought news with him in
the morning. Zuo Chao caught acute pneumonia in the holding center, so Xe WeiLan
applied for medical parole for him. Due to the seriousness of the disease, the
holding center was afraid of being held responsible if anything happened to him, so
they quickly allowed it. Zuo Chao was promptly transferred to a hospital in the
city for treatment.

"Is it serious?" Li Sui asked.

Xe WeiLan made a secretive look, then whispered, "Whether it's serious or not isn't
important, what's important is the hospital says that it's serious."

Li Sui immediately got what he was trying to insinuate, "Oh, someone…"

"Shhhh—" Xe WeiLan then said, "This is a great chance, as long as we got him out,
everything will be easier to deal with."

After Zuo Chao was admitted to the hospital, the tides were turned. The hospital
refused to let Zuo Chao go on the basis that the illness was severe and contagious.
People from the holding center went to the hospital everyday to get him back, but
the hospital refused again and again. Neither side was compromising, and the
situation escalated. Finally, the higher-ups were fed up with all the conflicts and
stepped in—No one was to be allowed to interfere anymore, and everything was to be
done according to normal procedures.

After around ten days, Zuo Chao was finally released. Li Sui brought some people
with him to pick Zuo Chao up; despite his mood swings in the past two months, Li
Sui was somehow feeling very calm when he went to pick Zuo Chao up.

"Let's go back to the bamboo dojo, your wife must be worried sick," Xe WeiLan said
after he finished the paperwork for Zuo Chao's release.

In just two months, Zuo Chao had lost at least 20 kg in Li Sui's eyes, even his
face looked skinnier. Luckily, Zuo Chao seemed to be in high spirits, he waved his
hand and said, "Nah. She will only cry, I don't want to deal with that yet. Bring
me to the car factory, I will meet with my brothers there first."

The second Zuo Chao mentioned that, both Li Sui and Xe WeiLan fell into silence.

Li Sui immediately felt like he had done something wrong, "… I've shut the factory
down."

Hearing that, Zuo Chao turned his head to stare at Li Sui, his gaze made Li Sui
feel guilty. Zuo Chao just mumbled "Hmn" and then stopped talking.

Li Sui brought Zuo Chao to the bamboo dojo, he felt nervous and he wanted to
explain why he did that to Zuo Chao, so he waited outside for a while. However,
seeing him finally reunited with his wife, Li Sui didn't feel right interrupting
them, so he returned home melancholically.

Li Sui finally solved the problem at hand after months, but he wasn't feeling any
better than before. Over the past days, Li Sui had phoned Zuo Chao numerous times,
but Zuo Chao didn't pick up.

At the beginning, Li Sui thought Zuo Chao was just busy, so he didn't pick up the
phone, after all he just got out. However, he accidentally overheard a phone call
Xe WeiLan had and he realized, Zuo Chao wasn't not picking up because he was busy,
Zuo Chao was specifically not picking up Li Sui's calls. Knowing that Zuo Chao was
intentionally avoiding him made Li Sui feel more depressed.

Li Sui really didn't handle the problem well, but he still did it hoping that Zuo
Chao could be released. Admittedly, it was quite heartbreaking—seeing the factory
employees all gone and the front gate trashed by opposing gangsters, especially
since the factory was still fine when Zuo Chao was arrested. To put it bluntly, Li
Sui wasn't sensitive enough. He thought everything was simple like his relationship
with Lu Shang, he thought that it would be fine as long as his actions were for a
just reason. Li Sui thought he was good at dealing with relationships, but when it
came to those close to him, he seemed to tumble a lot.

After getting the cold shoulder from Zuo Chao for days, Li Sui finally felt as
though he was going to collapse. At night, when he returned home, he saw the
fireplace giving out warm orange glow, it was a huge contrast from the cold air
outside where Li Sui was standing. The warm and cozy atmosphere inside made Li Sui
feel even more glum.

"You're back? I caught a turtle this afternoon, will you go shop for a tank with me
this weekend? I want to keep it in the house." Lu Shang stood beside the small pond
in the living room, playing with a turtle inside. He didn't get any reply from Li
Sui, so he turned around to look at him, only to see him all gloomy and exhausted.
Lu Shang's expression shifted a little, and he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just a little tired." Li Sui walked up to Lu Shang and hugged him; he
didn't say a thing after that, just quietly placed his head on Lu Shang's shoulder,
even Li Sui's ears seemed to be drooping down.

Lu Shang knew that Li Sui was depressed about something, so he relaxed his
shoulders and reached his hands out, hugging Li Sui back. Lu Shang patted his back
a little with the intention to comfort him, then he smiled as he said, "Did
something bad happen?"

Li Sui didn't answer, he just hugged Lu Shang, hoping to just stay like this for as
long as possible. After staying like that for a while, Li Sui just sighed, and
closing his eyes, he said, "Lu Shang, why are human relationships so difficult…"

Lu Shang did not ask him further on what had happened, nor did he refute. He let Li
Sui hug him as much as he wanted, then rubbed Li Sui's head gently, "Are you fed up
with it?"

Li Sui was much taller than Lu Shang, so Lu Shang had to raise his arms to reach Li
Sui's head, but Li Sui was really cooperative, and he willingly nestled his head on
Lu Shang's palms.

Lu Shang's hands were tickled by Li Sui's hair, he laughed as he said, "Close your
eyes, I will give you some energy."

Li Sui obediently moved back a little and closed his eyes.

Lu Shang turned the lights off, leaving the living room with only lights from the
fireplace, their shadows were cast onto the living room walls. Lu Shang gently
moved closer to Li Sui, arching his neck slightly to kiss him. Lu Shang slid his
tongue inside Li Sui's mouth, tenderly attaching to Li Sui's own.

Li Sui was moved by the kiss, his eyelashes batted a bit, then he returned Lu
Shang's kiss with the same softness.

The wood crackled, echoing in the house; it sounded peaceful. The two of them were
enjoying the kiss so much that they were basically inseparable, their breaths
mingled with each other's, neither of them wanted to cut the kiss off, especially
with how nice the atmosphere was. Lu Shang's legs were a little sore after standing
for too long, so he clung onto Li Sui's shoulders. Feeling the other's weight, Li
Sui circled his arms around Lu Shang's waist, leading him to the sofa. After a
light "thud", Li Sui stared down at the person beneath him, his eyes like two deep
wells.

Lu Shang looked up at Li Sui, also showing off his lovely, slim neck with the
action; it was unclear if it was intentional or not. Then, he smiled as he raised
his hand up, sliding a finger down Li Sui's abdomen, almost as if he was hinting at
something. That immediately got Li Sui fired up, he decided to just forget about
all his problems and focus on what was in front of him.

In the corner of the living room, the little turtle seemed to be startled, and it
shyly hid back into its shell.

T/N: Apparently, they have a small pond in the house… I want to be rich too.

Chapter 38: His Eyes

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

On a holiday at the end of the month, Li Sui planned on going fishing with Lu
Shang, but he got a last-minute notification—a conference about the future
development of the economy was going to be held in the city, and they specifically
invited Tong Yan to participate. So, without any other choice, Li Sui changed back
to his formal attire and drove himself to the conference.

Lu Shang mentioned transferring Xiao Zhao to be Li Sui's personal driver twice, but
Li Sui refused on both occasions. Letting someone else drive the car felt weird to
Li Sui. Plus, he wasn't such an important person that he had to have a personal
driver. Staying modest was a good thing; Li Sui didn't want the extra attention.

After that, Lu Shang didn't bring the subject up again.

Lu Shang woke up earlier than usual today, so he lay on the bed, looking at Li Sui
putting his necktie on in front of the mirror. Lu Shang couldn't but smile; even
his eyes were smiling.

"What are you laughing at?" Li Sui asked as he looked at Lu Shang through the
mirror.

Last night, they 'exercised' a bit too much, so naturally Lu Shang would stay in
bed longer the next morning. Lu Shang had one of his arms under his head as he
waved at Li Sui with the other hand, "Come over here, give me a kiss."

Li Sui smiled too, his eyes curving along with his smile. Over the past years, Li
Sui was changing almost every day—all except his eyes; those eyes were still as
deep and clear as when they first met.

Li Sui leaned down and nibbled at Lu Shang's lips gently for a while, then let go
just before he got too engrossed in it. The tips of their noses touched as Li Sui
said, "Okay, I'm going out now. Get some rest at home."

"Hmn," Lu Shang nodded; he watched through the window as Li Sui walked out of the
house in huge strides, then got in his car to drive. His movements were rather
captivating in Lu Shang's eyes.

Being young was nice, he thought. Lu Shang sat up straight, then rubbed his waist a
little. Then he thought of something and laughed slightly.

Lu Shang liked the kid's pureness, but what made him really fall in love with Li
Sui was still his charisma as a full-grown man.

After eating breakfast, Lu Shang searched through his wardrobe for a long time.
Ever since Li Sui took over his work in Tong Yan, Lu Shang became more and more
free and it had already been a while before he needed to pull an all-nighter.
Actually, Lu Shang hadn't even been to the company once for the past week. Before,
Aunt Lu would always put his clothes in the front after ironing them, but before Lu
Shang knew it, that place was long occupied by Li Sui's clothes.

Lu Shang searched for quite a while before he finally found his own shirt from all
the shirts that looked basically the same. After Lu Shang finished changing, Uncle
Yuen had already driven the car out front, waiting for him.

Lu Shang closed the car door and said, "Go to the bamboo dojo."

It rained for a bit last night, so there were fresh bamboo shoots all over the
mountain. The air was cold, so much so that Lu Shang breaths turned white. Lu Shang
got out of the car in front of the bamboo dojo, then walked past it to a tearoom
behind the dojo, stepping on dried bamboo leaves that were covering the ground on
the way.

In front of the tearoom, a skinny woman was starting a fire. She saw Lu Shang
walking over, so she wiped the dirt on her hands away and smiled, "Lu Lao Ban, what
brings you here?"

Lu Shang smiled back at her, then asked, "Is Zuo here?"

"He's here, he's here. I'll go call him out for you."

"No, there's no need. I'll just go in to have a talk with him."

"Then I will go make some tea for you two."

Lu Shang nodded his head slightly, "Thank you."

Lu Shang changed his shoes at the doorway, then lifted the wooden curtain to enter.
Zuo Chao seemed to have heard them outside, so he had already tidied himself up,
crossing his legs and sitting behind the table.

Lu Shang had yet to walk in completely, but Zuo Chao already lifted his hand up,
cutting him off, "Don't try to persuade me."

"Who said I'm here to persuade you?" Lu Shang sat down beside the table and
continued, "I'm here to congratulate you on becoming a dad."

Zuo Chao froze up, "What did you say?"

"Wasn't your wife feeling unwell a few days back?" Lu Shang continued after a short
pause, "ZiRui examined her yesterday; she has been pregnant for a month already."

Zuo Chao's face turned from red to white, then red again. After a long while, he
hit the table with his hands as if he had only just heard what Lu Shang said
moments ago, "Are you for real!?"

Just then, a person walked into the tearoom, Zuo Chao raised his head and ran over.
He held his wife's hands and was so excited that he couldn't even formulate a full
sentence, "Dear, I… I a father?!"

The woman's face immediately turned red, her expression that of a teenage girl
going on her first date. She dodged Zuo Chao, then placed the tray of teapot and
teacups on the table and quickly left the room.

Zuo Chao was so happy that he didn't even know what to do, he just walked around
inside the room. He wanted to go out to find his wife, but he also worried if it
would seem like he was too immature.

"Sit down first." Lu Shang laughed at the sight. "She's a little weak, so tomorrow
you should bring her to the hospital to let Leung ZiRui do a more in-depth
examination. You should fix the things that need fixing and get rid of the things
that you should get rid of."

"Yes, yes…" Zuo Chao kept on nodding his head; he was still so excited that he
didn't even know where to place his hands, so he reached for the cigarette on his
ear by habit. Then he remembered Lu Shang just said to fix the things he should
fix, so he took the cigarette off his ear and threw it in the bin, "I'm quitting!
I'm going to stop smoking. Yes, starting today, no cigarettes!"

Lu Shang picked up the teapot off the tray, then he poured himself a cup of tea,
"You are going to be a father soon, so think before you do anything, and set a good
example for your child."

Zuo Chao rubbed his hand on his legs, then said, "Yes, you're right… I was always
too rash. I swear, this will be the end of that."

"Also, you need to come up with a legal occupation. When your child grows up and
ask what you do for a living, you have to be able to answer that," Lu Shang said.

Though Zuo Chao wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, he still understood what Lu
Shang was hinting at; he sighed as he scratched his head, then he said honestly, "I
don't actually hate Xiao Li Zi, it's just that this… is just too hurtful. I mean,
the factory wasn't very large, but it was still a factory I built, and he just shut
it down like that. I didn't see a single one of my brothers and employees after I
got released, and that's… that's just too much."

"He's just a kid, so don't be too harsh on him." Lu Shang poured him a cup of tea
as well, "Moreover, he did it for your sake."

Though Lu Shang didn't say it out loud, he actually agreed with how Li Sui handled
the problem. Doing illegal things might seem easier to some, but when the winds
change, the consequences might be huge, and this incident proved as much. Societies
would naturally get more advanced, and almost everything would turn from disorderly
to orderly, this was a general trend. People who profited from legal holes would
eventually get into trouble.

This was an era that valued law and order after all, everything that didn't conform
to the law would eventually be wiped out and replaced. If anyone or group wanted to
gain prosperity, following the legal procedure would be the only route.

Though Li Sui's actions might seem too heartless, it wasn't wrong. It was only too
direct, so with Zuo Chao's personality, it was but normal that he found it a little
offensive.

"He's already over 20 years old, you're still calling him a kid…" Zuo Chao laughed.

Lu Shang didn't find what he said odd, "In my book, he will always be a kid."

Zuo Chao stared at him for a while and asked cautiously, "So, that's it? You've
decided on him? You're not going to think about getting someone to have a child
with you?"

"Me?" Lu Shang laughed a bit, then he shook his head; he sounded like he was
laughing at himself as he said, "If the child were to be born like me, then they'd
just be suffering their whole life."

Zuo Chao froze a bit and tried to persuade him, "That's not right. I mean, old man
Lu had you. I guess it takes becoming a father to finally understand what
responsibility is. Look, this morning I was still mad at Xiao Li Zi shutting my
factory down, but now I'm already over it. Now that I think about it, he really
wasn't wrong, perhaps the gods have something big for me to do."

Lu Shang was amused, "You've been a father how many minutes? Yet you are already
lecturing me." After a short pause, he added, "It's enough that I have him."

Zuo Chao saw that Lu Shang was resolute on the subject, so he stopped, and he only
sighed, "When you first brought him to me, I never thought this would happen, you
know…"

"If you're over it, then the next time he calls, don't ignore him." Lu Shang put
the teacup down, "It breaks my heart seeing him like that."

Zuo Chao felt a bit guilty, he waved his hand and said, "Well, sorry, it's my bad,
okay? I will invite him over for a drink tonight."

The two of them chatted for a while; Lu Shang knew that Zuo Chao's mind had flown
over to his wife already, so he didn't prolong the conversation. Lu Shang stood up
and was going to leave.

"I dug up some bamboo shoots earlier, do you want some?" Zuo Chao asked as he
followed Lu Shang out.
"Maybe next time." Lu Shang saw the blue peacocks outside and pointed at them, "Are
those tasty?"

Zuo Chao immediately nodded, "With some carrots and spices they're perfect for
making soup; their meat is full of flavor, too."

Lu Shang took a deep breath and said, "Save one for me, and kill it next time I
come here with Li Sui." After a bit, he turned back and emphasized, "Don't let Li
Sui see you do it."

"Okay."

Zuo Chao saw Lu Shang off to the front yard, "The car factory is gone, so I have
less manpower now. I won't loosen up on the guards at important locations, but you
guys need to be careful as well."

"Hmn. After two months, when your wife's health condition is more stabilized, you
should open a car repair factory; I will ask Uncle Yuen to help you deal with the
registrations." After a short pause Lu Shang said, "As for…"

He suddenly stopped. His body shook, and he took in two gasps of air. He leaned
down and supported himself with one hand on the floor, while his other hand pressed
on the bridge of his nose, his eyebrows furrowing.

Zuo Chao was terrified by that, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Lu Shang raised his hand up to stop him, he closed his eyes and shook his head.
When the whiteness on his face subsided, he finally stood up, holding onto a bamboo
growing on the side for support.

Zuo Chao was worried that Lu Shang would faint, so he said, "Are you really okay?
Don't try to put on a tough face."

After Lu Shang calmed his breathing down, he said meekly, "… Ask Uncle Yuen to
drive the car in here, I can't walk over."

When Uncle Yuen got out of the car and saw Lu Shang's paper-white face, he was just
as shocked as Zuo Chao was. The two of them barely managed to get Lu Shang in the
car.

"Be careful."

Before Lu Shang left, Zuo Chao asked with worry, "Does Xiao Li Zi know?"

Lu Shang leaned on the seat, his lips were turning purple and his eyes lacked
focus. Lu Shang said in a soft but stern voice, "Don't tell him. If anyone is going
to tell him, it has to be me."

Zuo Chao had something else he wanted to say, but he hesitated; this was still Lu
Shang's personal matters after all. During the brief hesitation, Lu Shang already
rolled the window up and asked Uncle Yuen to drive away.

"Should I call Dr. Leung?" Uncle Yuen asked from the front seat.

Lu Shang looked at the view outside the car, and he was in an extremely depressed
mood; he seldom showed such a helpless expression in front of anyone. After a bit,
as if giving up, he muttered softly, "Hmn."

That night, Li Sui was invited to have dinner at Zuo Chao's. When Li Sui phoned Lu
Shang that he wasn't going to be home for dinner, he seemed ecstatic, as if the
clouds which were plaguing his mind were suddenly gone—he was obviously very happy.

"Don't drink too much." Lu Shang was infected by his enthusiasm and he laughed a
bit as well.

After he hung up, the house returned to its former silence. Lu Shang sat on the
sofa, feeling cold all over; he didn't dare move around, so he just wrapped himself
tighter in the blanket.

Who knew how much time had passed, but around the time when Lu Shang almost fell
asleep, he heard the sound of a car engine stopping at the front yard. Soon, the
door opened, and Leung ZiRui walked inside in a hurry, "What's wrong?"

Lu Shang shrugged a little and said, "Nothing, I'm just inviting you for dinner."

"Quit the nonsense. I've known you for years, and you always avoid me as much as
you can. When have you ever invited me for dinner?" Leung ZiRui was probably
hungry, though, so he picked up an apple from the basket on the dining table and
stuffed it in his mouth, "So tell me, where are you feeling unwell?"

Lu Shang seemed hesitant, but it also appeared that he didn't know what to say.

"My eyes," Lu Shang chewed on his words a bit and continued, "seemed to have some
problems…"

Leung ZiRui froze, his expression changed, "What do you mean?"

"I can't see where you are now, everything around me is blurry." Lu Shang raised
his hand and pointed around the air, "I could just deduce which direction you are
at from your voice."

Leung ZiRui's expression turned serious; he took out a torch from his pocket, then
waved it around Lu Shang's eyes, "Can you see it?"

Lu Shang nodded, "There's light."

Leung ZiRui opened Lu Shang's eyelids and had carefully examined his eyes, he
turned the torch off, after taking in a deep breath, he asked, "When did this first
begin?"

"Two years ago, right after Li Sui went abroad, I felt my vision deteriorating—but
it was fine if I wore glasses, so I didn't put much thought into it. Around six
months ago, when I was driving, I started seeing double." Lu Shang tried to
remember everything, trying to describe it as best as he could, "That happened a
few times after that as well, but mostly at night and it usually continued for 5 to
20 seconds. This is the first time it has continued for so long and during the
day."

After finishing, Lu Shang waited for a long time but still didn't get any reply
from Leung ZiRui. That was a bit unsettling, as he was still not used to his loss
of vision, so he asked, "Are you listening?"

"I'm here." Leung ZiRui put his hand on Lu Shang's shoulders to calm Lu Shang down,
"I'm thinking about your past conditions… This shouldn't happen."

"Is it because of my heart again?" Lu Shang asked.

Leung ZiRui sighed, "Yes, most likely. Your eyes are fine, the only possible reason
is that your heart isn't pumping blood to your eyes efficiently enough."

"Is there any treatment?"

Leung ZiRui's expression turned grim, he didn't answer Lu Shang's question, "Lu
Shang, two years ago when you decided that you are giving up on a heart transplant,
I have already told you this. There will be many complications during the final
stages of your disease. Even if I heal your eyes now, you could lose your hearing
the next day. This is the consequence of giving up, you do understand that, right?"

"Is that so?" Lu Shang closed his eyes but laughed, "That sounds horrible."

Leung ZiRui took another deep breath; he sounded depressed, "The process of heart
failure would be very painful."

The two of them fell into silence, in the corner of the room, the wood crackled. Lu
Shang rubbed his eyes and said, "I chose this path myself and I'm willing to carry
the consequences. Now, just find a way for me to get my vision back for now. Li Sui
will be home soon."

"I can prescribe you some medicine, but these will not solve the root of the
problem; they can only ease your symptoms but cannot cure them. The problem is
still your heart." Leung ZiRui then added, "Also, don't always think of hiding your
problems. You can't hide this from him."

Lu Shang's gaze seemed lost; he raised his head, and his eyes drooped as he said,
"Rui, to be honest, I'm really disappointed in myself. I thought I could stay by
his side healthily for much longer than this."

"Stop that," Leung ZiRui cut him off. The one thing he was scared of the most was
Lu Shang showing weakness. As Lu Shang's personal doctor, Leung ZiRui witnessed Lu
Shang stumbling his way to reach this point in his life. In this world, besides Lu
Shang himself, there was probably no-one who understood how hard it was for Lu
Shang to be alive and sitting here right now more clearly than Leung ZiRui.

Lu Shang had huge mental strength; what kind of a situation must he be in for him
to ask for Leung ZiRui's help…

"I'm not giving up, so you can't give up, either." Leung ZiRui tightened his grip
on Lu Shang's shoulder a bit, "There will be a way, I'm sure of it. I predicted
that you would die in a year if you don't get a heart transplant before, but you
are still here, living and kicking."

"Hmn. You also predicted that I won't live to see my twentieth birthday," Lu Shang
laughed.

"Yeah. So what could a bit of lost vision do," Leung ZiRui tried comforting Lu
Shang, but then he added, "There's one thing you should remember, though. Don't
hide it from Li Sui; as your family, he has the right to know and he will have to
know eventually."

"I'm only afraid that he would…"

Leung ZiRui cut him off again as he warned, "Listen. This isn't a small problem,
and anything could happen; you need someone to take care of you."

"… Don't tell him yet," Lu Shang sighed and said with extreme difficulty, "I… will
find a time to tell him."
Chapter 39: Relapse
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

When Li Sui got home, no one was in the living room. Only the bedside lamp was
still turned on in their bedroom, Lu Shang had already fallen asleep.

Li Sui walked inside quietly, he sat on the side of the bed. When Lu Shang slept,
he always tended to curl himself up, whichever made Li Sui want to hug him from
behind. The lights inside the room were dim, half of the sleeping person's face was
buried in the pillow, his bangs were randomly laid on his forehead, his lips were
slightly pursed together, and they were a bit white. Li Sui had already seen Lu
Shang's sleeping face for a million times, yet he still managed to get enchanted by
it every time. After immersing himself at the moment for a bit, Li Sui couldn't
help but reach his hand out to brush Lu Shang's scattered bangs away, then leaned
into land a soft kiss on Lu Shang's forehead. After that, Li Sui carefully pulled
the blanket up before he went to the bathroom to wash himself up.

Sometimes Li Sui found it odd, he always heard people say that love was something
that fades. The longer two people were together, the blander their relationship
would become. However, even over years of staying by Lu Shang's side, he only found
himself becoming more affectionate as he learned more about him. Lu Shang's every
move, the way he spoke, the angle of his smile, and everything about him enchanted
Li Sui. Li Sui wouldn't be fed up nor bored, even if he were to sit here all-day
watching Lu Shang.

Li Sui kept the showering noise to the bare minimum, but when he finished, Lu Shang
was still awake, Lu Shang was squinting his eyes and looking at Li Sui.

"Did I wake you up?" Li Sui sounded apologetic, he climbed onto the bed and hugged
Lu Shang from behind.

A wave of hot air spread towards Lu Shang, he leaned on Li Sui's arm and took a
little sniff, "There's less alcoholic smell on you than I thought there'd be."

"I only had a little, brother Zuo said he was going to drink less alcohol." Li Sui
kissed Lu Shang's ear, then said, "I bought a tank for your turtle, it's
downstairs."

Lu Shang just gave a soft "hand," Lu Shang's voice was a little stuffy, Li Sui
noticed and raised his head a little, asking, "Do you have a cold?"

"No, I'm just sleepy." Lu Shang turned around to face Li Sui.

Li Sui saw that Lu Shang's eyelids were drooping, his eyelashes seemed to be
batting slightly as well. That got Li Sui cautious, he said with certainty,
"There's something on your mind."

Lu Shang was a bit shocked, then he clasped onto Li Sui's hand, he said in a soft
voice, "Li Sui. We can't have kids, do you find that unfortunate."

Li Sui didn't expect he'd say this, so he froze.

"If you want a child, you can go find a surrogate." Lu Shang added, "I don't mind."

Lu Shang was speaking with sincerity, but Li Sui didn't like what he was hearing.
Li Sui knew that Lu Shang must be thinking about this all of a sudden because of
Zuo Chao, though Lu Shang never seemed to be scared of dying, in truth, he did
think about it a lot. Lu Shang was most likely scared that when he died one day, Li
Sui will be all alone. If they had a child though, at least Li Sui would still have
a family left, that could at least be a comfort.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Li Sui felt soreness in his nose, the second
he imagined Lu Shang thinking about things like this made his heartache. Li Sui
extended his arms to pull Lu Shang into a tight embrace, "You know how much I love
you, no one can replace that, not even my offspring. I don't want to share the love
I have for you with anyone, no matter if it's now or in the future, my love is all
yours."

Lu Shang seemed to want to say something else. Li Sui tightened his arms and cut
him off, he said, "Okay, don't mention this again from now on. If you like
children, let's be Zuo Chao's kid's godfathers. You can be the godfather, and I
will be 'god dad.' What do you say about that?"

"I think the child will have a financial crisis when we get old," Lu Shang said
with a smile.

Li Sui relaxed his arm and stroked Lu Shang's head, "There is me, I will take care
of you."

The two of them cuddled each other for a while, chatting a bit about company
things. Neither of them was sleepy; Lu Shang slept too much during the day, and Li
Sui was too excited from all the talking, his stomach growled so he got up to make
them both a late-night snack.

"It's late. Red meat is hard to digest, so I'll fry you a fish steak," Li Sui said
as he rummaged through the refrigerator.

"Hmm," Lu Shang answered while sitting on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket. He was
looking at Li Sui, almost like a little bird waiting to be fed.

"Why didn't you touch dinner? Were you feeling sick?" Li Sui was only wearing a
thin shirt and an apron, his sharp shoulder blades were showing.

"I forgot."

Li Sui took a bit of time to glance back at Lu Shang, he found Lu Shang staring at
him. Li Sui smiled as he said, "Why are you looking at me?"

"You're good to look at," said Lu Shang with a faint smile. After a short pause, he
added, "I want to look at you some more."

Li Sui had an odd feeling, Lu Shang rarely use this tone to speak, but maybe people
got more emotional late at night, so he didn't put much thought into it. Seeing Lu
Shang wrapped himself tighter in the blanket, Li Sui asked, "Are you cold? I'll get
you a coat."

Lu Shang shook his head, but Li Sui was still worried. After turning the stove off,
he quickly went upstairs to get a thick, goose feather coat. Li Sui covered him up
with the jacket, leaving only his head to be shown.

"Wait. I'll feed you soon." Li Sui combed Lu Shang's hair tidy with his hand and
laughed.

The fish steak was delivered here only this evening, so it was very fresh. The
bones were shaved clean, and the fishy smell was removed with Brandy, it was
seasoned with a bit of lemon juice and pepper. The fragrance sipped out almost
immediately after the met was put on the frying pan. Li Sui didn't add much
seasoning, the amount of oil and salt added were not hefty either. The meat was
tender and easy to digest,
perfect for a late-night snake.

Li Sui propped his head up with his hand, his elbow on the table. He was sitting on
the opposite side of Lu Shang, watching him eating the food slowly and elegantly,
and he felt content in his heart. In his mind, enjoying life was nothing grand. The
simple act of cooking a meal with all his heart and feeding his lover was more than
enough.

"Have you eaten enough?" Li Sui waited for Lu Shang to finish eating, then smiled
as he pulled out a piece of paper towel for Lu Shang to clean his mouth.

Lu Shang nodded and looked at the glass tank on the coffee table.

"It's for the little turtle, do you want to move it now?"

Lu Shang shook his head, "Tomorrow." After replying, he went for Li Sui's hand and
said, "I'm sleepy now, accompany me to bed?"

"You've just eaten, so you should do some exercise." Though Li Sui lectured him
about that, he still let Lu Shang lead him to the bedroom passively.

Lu Shang seemed to have thought of something and turned around with a faint smile,
"Then let's 'exercise.'"

At the end of the day, they didn't "exercise." Though Lu Shang suggested it, Li Sui
knew that his complexion was not good, his lips were white, and his legs were
swelling a bit as well. So after washing up, Li Sui massaged Lu Shang's acupoints,
and they hugged each other to sleep afterward.

Soon after, their leisure days came to an end, as the most troublesome annual thing
arrived——Shareholder Dividend Meetings. Li Sui was so busy that his feet rarely got
the chance to rest; running around back and forth from the construction site, the
company, and home. Lu Shang wasn't any better off, his schedule from 8:00 in the
morning to 12:00 in the evening was packed with listening to work reports from
various branches or meetings on financial affairs. Neither could spare even a
second for a little breather.

When Li Sui got home in the evening, Lu Shang was still looking at the financial
statements in the living room. Li Sui saw that Lu Shang's eyes were almost glued to
the paper, he walked forward to straightened Lu Shang's back, "How many do you have
left? Leave it for tomorrow."

"Almost. I need to remember a few numbers for the meeting tomorrow." Lu Shang read
the report as he marked something in a notebook.

"I'll heat the bathwater for you." Li Sui didn't want to disturb him, so he fed the
little turtle two pieces of meat himself. Before he went up to the stairs, he
leaned on the railings and stared at the sight of an entirely focused Lu Shang, he
did not take his eyes away for a long time.

The more Li Sui looked, the more he felt a sense of oddness. Li Sui frowned and
began to have an idea of what was odd exactly—— Was the period Lu Shang wear
glasses getting longer and longer?

Once he noticed, Li Sui could no longer let it out of his mind. After several more
days of observation, he finally discovered the patterns. During the day, if the
weather was good, Lu Shang would not wear glasses, if it was snowing or raining, he
would sometimes wear the glasses. At night, however, Lu Shang would wear the
glasses through the whole night until they go to bed together.

In the evening, while Lu Shang was taking a bath, Li Sui took Lu Shang's glasses
out and tried them on. It was an ordinary pair of glasses with correctional
properties, but Li Sui didn't suffer from long sight or short sight, he only felt
dizzy wearing it and could not tell what exactly the glasses were for.

Did Lu Shang's vision deteriorate? But getting short sight was but a small matter,
why would he hide that from him? Unless…

Over the past years, he had been diligently learning all kinds of medical-related
knowledge. He knew that people's eyeballs would already be stabilized in adulthood,
and the possibility of developing short sight would be reduced. So, either the
sudden deterioration had to do with overusing his eyes, or with the internal
changes of his body. For example, virus infection, cancer, high blood pressure…
Anyone of those ideas was enough to make Li Sui's heart jump.

The next day, when they were having breakfast, Lu Shang felt Li Sui glancing back
and forth at him, he could not help but wonder, so he asked, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Li Sui said, then turning his eyes away, "Is the shareholders meeting
today?"

"Yes," said Lu Shang while nodding, "There will be a prize-giving ceremony at the
commerce building today. Can you go there?"

Li Sui did not want to be separated from Lu Shang, especially during such an
important event, but if he didn't go, then Uncle Yuen would have to attend. Uncle
Yuen had worked as an assistant in Tong Yan for many years, and he knew the other
shareholders well, so he was much more of a help than Li Sui would be at the
meeting.

As such, Li Sui nodded and agreed to it.

As soon as one entered the Tong Yan building, the tense atmosphere shrouding the
company was more than evident. Most of the veteran workers were prepared, they knew
better than to piss the higher-ups on this day, so everyone was exceptionally
diligent in their duties.

"Xiao Tang, go check if the technician had fixed the air-conditioner yet?" Someone
asked outside the office.

"I called him. The technician said some parts were broken, and he was going to buy
the parts, so at best it would be fixed in the afternoon."

"It could break down any day, why does it have to be today?"

Xiao Tang was a young new female employee in the finance department, she was
usually interested in gossip and other useless facts. Unfortunately for her, she
was assigned by the finance department manager to attend the meeting along with
several veterans in her department. It was a difficult job, as soon as she walked
into the ice-cold conference room, she felt her face breaking down.

Mainly the Shareholders Dividend Meeting was just a battle between shareholders and
the ones in charge of the company. The annual profit of the company was just so
much, the people in charge wanted to keep the money for company operations and to
expand the size of the company. As for the shareholders, they invested cash in the
company, so every year, they depended on how the meeting went to get money into
their pockets. Both sides had legitimate reasons to argue, but the amount of money
available was limited. For each of their own interests, an argument was
unavoidable.

In previous years, Lu Shang had strictly followed the usual distribution plan of
the company, but this year was different. Tong Yan was in the middle of
transitioning, the company needed to branch out into more industries and establish
the image of a conglomerate, all of which cost money. Lu Shang had to increase
company reserves and that as expected, led to the dissatisfaction of many
shareholders.

"I am not even going to start on the 10% that are listed as company reserves every
year, now you want to raise it to 40% after deducting the tax. Are you kidding me,
director Lu?" The first to object was a fat man called Fang Miao.

"10% is the established amount that should be listed as company reserves, that is
in the company rules, which has nothing to do with my wishes," said Lu Shang. After
a short pause, he continued, "The funds will not be wasted. The usages are all
listed clearly here, on white paper with black words. The accountants are here as
well, if you don't understand them, we can explore them one by one."

"Then I really do have something to explore." Fang Miao pulled out a stack of paper
and flung it across the meeting table to Lu Shang. That was obviously very
impolite, Uncle Yuen frowned and wanted to say something, but was stopped by Lu
Shang.

"Here, last year, only 50 million Yuan was planned for purchasing materials in the
first phase construction of the Golden Sands Shore project, how did you spend 80
million Yuan instead? I'd like to ask, where have you used this excess 30 million
Yuan on?"

There was no air-conditioning in the conference room. After half an hour of sitting
still in the freezing room, Lu Shang's hands and feet were cold, and his heart rate
began to spike. Lu Shang changed his sitting posture a bit while secretly pressing
on his chest a little.

"There are special explanations for the additional 30 million yuan used, all of
which have been approved by the board of directors. Xiao Tang, get the documents
for him," Lu Shang said.

Xiao Tang hurriedly went to look for the file, only to have Fang Miao interrupt
her, "Don't use the board of directors to trick me, the directors are all your
people anyways. Let me ask you again, how did you reach this value?"

Lu Shang glanced at him, then putting up with the aching in his chest, he reached
for the papers on the table. Lu Shang only just flipped the documents open, and
suddenly he felt severe dizziness, everything in front of him was fuzzy. It was as
if he had been pushed into the water, and everything was covered up by a gray veil
in an instant.

This was the worst timing for a relapse. Lu Shang's hand, which was holding the
document shock, cold sweat dripped down.

Li Sui had just finished his business in the commerce building when his mobile
phone rang.

In the day when Li Sui left home in a hurry, he packed in a bottle of Lu Shang's
DanShen tablets into his own bag. When Li Sui was pulling out his phone now, the
bottle rolled out, the lid was loose, and the tablets sprinkled all over the
ground.
Li Sui looked down at the medicine on the ground, he felt his heart shook, this
were not DanShen tablets as labeled on the bottle.

Fearing that he misunderstood, Li Sui picked up the bottle and did a detailed
observation. The medicine labeled was one of Lu Shang's usual prescriptions, Li Sui
was sure of it. However, they were not the tablets Li Sui was familiar with. The
color, shape, and smell were all different. Obviously, the contents of the bottle
were deliberately replaced, but when did Lu Shang replace it? Why didn't Li Sui
know?

A gust of cold wind blew past him, making the flag above him flutter. Li Sui stood
in the wind, he had an epiphany, his brain finally connected the series of events
that had been happening, wearing glasses, the broken bowl in the kitchen, bruises
on his forehead, and mistaking him as Aunt Lu…. All of these seemed to be pointing
at a single conclusion——

The mobile phone rang hurriedly, and after a finally exhausted howl, it stopped. Li
Sui returned from his thoughts, but instead of returning the call, he called Leung
ZiRui worryingly, as if he wanted more proof to be convinced, he felt his heart
jumping, as if it could reach his throat, "Doctor Leung, please tell me, Lu Shang's
eyes……are they having problems?"

Leung ZiRui froze for a moment, he did not answer directly, but asked, "What do you
mean?"

Li Sui directly voiced out all his guesses in a hurry, "Is it caused by his heart?
Is his short-sightedness severe? Why did he have to switch medicines?"

After Leung ZiRui heard what Li Sui had to say, he sighed painfully. Knowing that
he could no longer hide it for Lu Shang, he spits everything out, "He doesn't have
short-sight, he's almost going blind."

Chapter 40: The Save

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

"Deteriorating vision, eye pain, temporary blindness, if it goes on further, the

end result will be a total loss of vision." Leung ZiRui's words were like a hammer
that was flung straight onto Li Sui's head.

For a moment, Li Sui froze, he suddenly remembered, when he asked Lu Shang why he
was staring at him that night.

Lu Shang smiled as he said, "You're good to look at, so I want to see some more."

At that time, Li Sui thought he sounded abnormal, that was because Lu Shang was
afraid that he would never see him again.

Li Sui felt sourness ran up his throat slowly, he stood in place for a long time.
Looking at the tablets scattered on the ground, he crouched down to pick up the
pills in a daze, putting them back into the bottle. When he finally returned all
the pills into the container, his hand gave out, and the capsules were sprinkled
all over the ground yet again.

Li Sui gave up and asked with his eyes stuck to the ground, "Is… is there no
solution?"

"For now, I can only try my best to ease the symptoms, but to get rid of it, the
only way is to fix the heart." Leung ZiRui said truthfully.
"I…" Li Sui's grasp on his phone tightened, and he could no longer speak.

Leung ZiRui heard the sound of Li Sui's depressed breaths through the phone that
somehow made sweat came out on his palms. Leung ZiRui finally understood why Lu
Shang didn't dare tell Li Sui his condition. The brat cared for Lu Shang a lot, if
he knew of the truth, even Leung ZiRui couldn't imagine what he would do.

Lu Shang couldn't deal with it himself, so he threw the troubles to me, Leung ZiRui
thought bitterly.

"Li Sui is a chronic disease patient. In the future, many other complications might
develop, not just his vision. I believe you had already prepared yourself mentally
when you decided to be with him." Leung ZiRui said.

"I understand," Li Sui replied, ignoring the pain in his throat, he continued, "But
why didn't he tell me, I had no idea that something like this was happening……"

Love counseling was not one of Dr. Leung's many strengths. So, he was left with no
other choice but to grieve about his unfortunate acquaintance with Lu Shang. At
last, he decided on using the commonest of solutions; Leung ZiRui hangs the phone
up. After sighing, Leung ZiRui thought, deal with the simple problem you sewed
yourself, Lu Shang.

Li Sui leaned against the car door and finally managed to stabilize his own
emotions. He had not yet been able to come up with a way to get Lu Shang to tell
the truth when his phone rang again, the caller's ID was an unfamiliar one.

"Is this Assistant Li? I'm Xiao Tang from the finance department." The voice of a
young woman came from the other end, she sounded like she was in a hurry.

"I am." As soon as he knew it had to do with the company, Li Sui regained his
sharpness.

"Lu Shang and the shareholders are fighting. I think he might not be able to handle
it. Could you come over?" Xiao Tang said.

Once Li Sui heard what she said, his voice turned cold, "What's happening, can you
give me more details?" As Li Sui spoke, he got in his car and stepped on the gas
pedal, heading back to Tong Yan as soon as possible.

"Mr. Fang and Mr. Liu are using director Lu's expenditure on a project last year to
question him, trying to make him deduct the number of company profits that will be
listed as company reserves. His complexion today seemed poor, Uncle Yuen gave him
lots of signals, but he didn't respond to any of them. I can't take it anymore, so
I snuck out to call you. Lu Shang treated us, employees, pretty well, so could you
come to help him."

Although he and Lu Shang had never shown off their relationship in the company
before, they did not deliberately try to conceal it either. Anyone who cares even a
little about gossip would have known about their relationship. Xiao Tang must be in
a real bind to have resorted to calling him out of the blue like this.

"I'll come right away." Li Sui's voice sounded horribly cold.

"Xiao Tang, come back quickly. Manager Tan is asking for you." Someone cried
outside the washroom.

Xiao Tang put her phone back, then howled miserably, after washing her hands, he
went out.

The conference room was quiet. The air conditioner was broken, so the room was
cold. Manager Tan, who was in charge of regulating the meeting, had his head
covered in sweat, however. After waiting for a long time, Liu XinTian still didn't
get a reply from Lu Shang, so he impatiently broke off the silence, "Director Lu,
what do you mean by your silence? Are we shareholders unworthy of an explanation in
your eyes now?"

Lu Shang closed his eyes in an attempt to reign in his headache, his back was
almost completely soaked in cold sweat, his body was cold, and his fingers were
shaking.

Seeing that Lu Shang looked pale, Uncle Yuen poured him a cup of hot tea. However,
Lu Shang didn't take the cup, his gaze stayed on the table, "The final profits of
the project were still above expectation. How can you get profits if you don't put
in the cost?"

"We didn't say anything about not putting in the cost, but the cost is too high. As
far as I know, there is a similar project in another company, their cost is only 90
million yuan."

After listening to him, Lu Shang pursed his pale lips, holding back his unstable
breathing as best he could, he said with a steady voice, "Quality depends on the
cost, if director Liu wants to build a tofu building, then I have nothing to say."

"Oh, that's a lot you are accusing, so you are saying that they constructed a tofu
building. Do you dare say that in front of them?"

Lu Shang lifted his eyelids to glance at them, he clenched his hands under the
table. Right now, in his field of view, there was only fogginess, he could not see
clearly. He only managed to not show his illness by silently placing his elbows on
the armrest.

Fang Miao noticed that Lu Shang hadn't said a word, so he took advantage of that,
adding more chaos, "Director Lu, we aren't trying to make it difficult for you.
Look, all the expenses last year could obviously be reduced. Last time, you took
10%, and now suddenly you want 40%. That is way too much. We have a family to feed
as well. Let's meet each other halfway and make it 20%. We can't accept any more
than this."

"20%?" Lu Shang scoffed a bit, his heart rate spiked, and he couldn't help covering
his mouth to cough.

Fang Miao said hurriedly, "Oh my if you disagree, we can discuss it. You are still
young, don't wreck your health. If you feel that you can't handle this job, there
are a few far more capable candidates for your job. You can let them share the
burden with you, how about that?"

"Mr. Fang, you have overstepped. Personnel matters are for the board of directors
to handle." Uncle Yuen could not stop himself from reminding him.

"Assistant Yuen, this is the shareholders meeting. As an assistant, just do your

job in keeping records." Liu XinTian waded in.

A layer of sweat formed on Lu Shang's head, there was no color on his face. When Lu
Shang heard Liu XinTian's voice, he raised his eyebrows, following the direction of
the sound, he turned his head and asked, "What exactly do you want?"
"15%," Liu XinTian said. "Besides, I propose re-electing the board of directors."

As soon as that came out, everyone there froze, even Fang Miao was shocked. To re-
elect the board of directors basically means Liu XinTian wanted to strip Lu Shang
of his control of the company. Or in other words, he wanted to bring Lu Shang down.

This time, there were no cheers of support in the conference room. Everyone except
Liu XinTian understood, despite the conflicts between Lu Shang and the
shareholders, there was no doubt that Lu Shang was a good leader, the annual
profits attested to that. It was not likely that any other person could do as good
a job as Lu Shang.

These people were not idiots, they wanted money and fame, but to kick Lu Shang, who
was basically a money-dropping tree in their eyes away, that called for careful
considerations.

The meeting fell into a stalemate, manager Tan's face was red. He could not afford
to offend either side, so he anxiously scratched his ears.

Lu Shang's headache grew harsher, he leaned back on the back of the chair. His face
was white, his chest undulating meekly, no one knew that he was clenching his hands
so hard that his fingernails were almost piercing into his skin.

"Is director Liu trying to stage a coup?" Just as the two sides were having a
standoff, the door to the conference room suddenly opened. In strode a tall young
man, Xiao Tang was the first to notice him, her eyes sparkled with relieve.

For a second, all the shareholders were stunned, they all glanced at the person at
the door. Li Sui didn't hesitate at all, he walked to the end of the conference
room in no time. Finally stopping when he reached where Lu Shang was. He turned Lu
Shang's chair around a bit, then place one hand on Lu Shang's shoulder naturally.
Li Sui's other hand slammed on the table, his face hung an inexplicable smile, it
was definitely not a warm smile though, "Say, isn't this a bit much, bullying him
like this when there's so many of you?"

Lu Shang heard the familiar voice through the intense ringing in his ears and was
about to turn his head. The gentle force on his shoulder increased a bit, in the
fogginess, that simple action was a comfort to Lu Shang, his tense shoulders
finally relaxed.

The chair was turned away from the conference room table, so the shareholders could
only see half of Lu Shang's face. Li Sui was standing beside him, the positioning
seemed calculated, giving off a sense of protection.

"This is the shareholders meeting. What makes you think a mere assistant such as
yourself have the rights to stand there and speak?" Liu XinTian wasn't giving in.

"I'm sorry that you don't know, I'm not here as an assistant today, but as Mu
Sheng's shareholder." Li Sui stared at Liu XinTian sharply, as if his eyes had
knives in it.

"Mu Sheng? Does he mean SiMa family's Mu Sheng?" Small chatters came from the rest
of the shareholders.

As soon as Li Sui said that, the atmosphere was different. Even Liu XinTian
couldn't completely hide his shock. When did Lu Shang buy shares in Mu Sheng?
Moreover, he bought them with Li Sui's name? Liu XinTian had also considered about
the juicy meat that was Mu Sheng, but Yue PengFei was very picky about his
partners. Merely having money wasn't enough, Liu XinTian tried twice and gave up
since he got ultimately rejected on both tries. He never expected Lu Shang to
succeed.

Liu XinTian couldn't stop himself from reappraising the young man in front of him,
what qualities on him could have swayed Yue PengFei?

"If I am not mistaken, Tong Yan and Mu Sheng will have three cooperating projects
next year. As allies, it isn't too much for me to listen in on this company's
future investment plans, is it?" Li Sui turned his head around, scanning the
conference room.

Fang Miao was the first to get impatient, he said, "It isn't absurd, but Tong Yan's
shareholders' meeting still has little relevance with Mu Sheng……"

"Mr. Fang, I remember that your shares in Tong Yan are less than 8%," Li Sui cut
him off directly, on his face was disgust and abandonment, "No matter how much get
listed as company reserves, it doesn't really affect how much money you will be
getting. Director Lu owns five times more shares than you, and he isn't
complaining. What makes you think you have the right to complain?"

"You…" Fang Miao was so angry that he stood up and pointed his index finger at him.

Li Sui shrugged his shoulders indifferently, not looking anyone at the eye. Li Sui
was tall when faced with Fang Miao, the advantage of his height was fully
displayed. Moreover, one was handsome and tall, while the other was round and fat,
his opponent's momentum immediately weakened.

"Let's discuss basing on facts." Seeing that tension was escalating, a person said
to change the topic, "According to last year's financial report, the operating cost
seemed too high. At least forty percent of the cost seemed unnecessary. Take the
construction project next to ours as an example, I think the cost could be reduced
by seventy percent."

"Seventy percent?" Li Sui said, then he asked, "That building's load-bearing wall
collapsed halfway through construction. Many exposed related pictures and proof on
the internet, which directly led to a sharp fall in the sales price of the
building. Some buyers hung banners asking for a refund. Have you followed up on all
these developments?"

The room was filled with nothing but silence after Li Sui replied. Director Tan saw
that the scene will get more chaotic if the quarrel continued, so he jumped out to
smooth things out, "Everyone, let's calm down. It's time for lunch anyway, shall we
go for a meal first? Plus, the air conditioner broke today, so it's frigid here.
Why don't we find another day, when the air conditioner is functional to sit down
and discuss calmly?"

Liu XinTian did not speak. The accountants in the conference room were waiting for
this chance long ago, so they were the first to slip out through the back door. The
rest of the older shareholders could not take the cold temperature. Seeing that the
quarreling will most likely continue for a while before any real progress could
happen, they didn't feel the need to stay either. They got up and went to the
restaurant one after another under the advice of director Tan.

Soon, only Liu XinTian remained in the room, Li Sui stared at him coldly without
flinching back in the slightest. As if he was saying that he would support Lu Shang
to the end.

The dog Lu Shang raised was finally beginning to bare its fangs at outsiders. Liu
XinTian stared at him and smiled with a hint of curiosity, "Interesting." After
that, he marched out the room along with the rest with disciplined steps.

Uncle Yuan glanced at Li Sui, the two of them exchanged some signals with their
eyes. Then, Uncle Yuen tidied up the papers on the table and left, closing the door
along the way.

Only two people remained in the huge conference room. The ringing in Lu Shang's
ears finally subsided. He heard movements and turned slowly towards Li Sui
according to the sound. Though Lu Shang couldn't see, at that moment, he felt a
burning gaze on him, one that made him feel somewhat guilty.

Li Sui was staring at him, he was distressed, angry, regretful, worried…… Numerous
emotions swirling in his eyes like a tornado, there was no more restraints, all of
it poured out instantly.

Lu Shang froze, his fingers trembled unconsciously as he realized how bad this is.

……His child is irate now.

Li Sui didn't say a word, he just stared at Lu Shang. Even the always tactful Lu
Shang couldn't help but feel nervous. Not only did he lied to Li Sui, but he also
hid it for such a long time, so in truth, he did feel very guilty for his actions.

Lu Shang waited for a moment, but still, he did not hear anything from Li Sui, he
was getting very anxious now. Lu Shang stood up from the chair by leaning on the
armrests meekly. Just when he was about to take a step forward, a hand was suddenly
placed on his waist.

Li Sui held onto him tightly fearing that Lu Shang might fall, he raised his foot
and kicked the nearby chairs away roughly. Li Sui's voice was a little hoarse,
perhaps due to the intense emotions he was feeling right now, "……Can you stand it?"

Lu Shang nodded. Lu Shang's complexion was poor today, to begin with. Right now,
his face was even paler due to nervousness. Lu Shang placed his hand on Li Sui's
that was on his waist, he said with unease, "Li Sui, I……"

"I don't want to talk to you right now." Li Sui cut him off with an unsteady voice,
then began to lead Lu Shang out of the room.

Lu Shang felt a sense of helplessness and severe anxiety, he let Li Sui lead him
along slowly. Li Sui's steps were languid, he was obviously still taking care of Lu
Shang. Even though Li Sui said he didn't want to talk to Lu Shang, he never failed
to give subtle reminders whenever they came across obstacles or stairs. However,
the reminders were brief, Lu Shang knew that it was because Li Sui was angry and
didn't want to speak.

Li Sui drove Lu Shang all the way back to their house. No outsiders were there, so
when they got out of the car, Li Sui didn't give Lu Shang a chance to refuse, he
directly picked Lu Shang up bridal style and brought him straight into the house.

"Which medicine did Dr. Leung prescribe for you?"

Lu Shang heard the sound of Li Sui rummaging through the drawer. He knew that Li
Sui was furious, so he most likely won't listen to what Lu Shang wanted to say. Lu
Shang only whispered the two names of medicine.

Li Sui prepared the exact prescribed amount of medicine for Lu Shang, and the water
was warm. After Lu Shang took medicine, Li Sui sensed the back of Lu Shang's neck
was cold. After further observation, Li Sui noticed that Lu Shang's clothes were
soaked with sweat. Li Sui's movements stopped, his breath stalled a bit. Only after
resisting against something in his heart did Li Sui went to the bathroom to prepare
warm water. Li Sui helped him take a bath then changed him out of his work clothes.

During the whole time, Li Sui's movements had been very light. He was also very
considerate of Lu Shang's lack of vision. Li Sui did everything he had to, but he
completely ignored Lu Shang. Lu Shang took the initiative to speak twice, but Li
Sui acted as if he didn't hear him at all.

Aunt Lu saw that something was wrong between them, she seemed to have thought about
asking but was stopped by Li Sui. Li Sui only asked her to prepare a bowl of bland
porridge for Lu Shang.

During the whole time, Lu Shang was somewhat depressed. He could not see a thing
now, so he was at the mercy of others. If even what he said were ignored, he was no
different from being isolated from the world.

Li Sui fed Lu Shang the porridge spoon by spoon, then put him onto the bed, and
ordered, "Sleep, rest."

How could Lu Shang possibly fall asleep? Just when he was going to say something,
Li Sui closed the door and left the room. In the darkness, Lu Shang closed his eyes
and sighed with conflicted emotions.

Lu Shang leaned on the bed headboard for a while, at last, he couldn't keep the
tiredness that was sweeping towards him at bay, especially after what went down in
the morning. Lu Shang eventually fell asleep. In the fogginess of his mind, he felt
someone entering the room quietly, the person sat by his bed and watched him for a
long time. He also felt a gentle hand massaging his eyes, that person didn't leave
even late at night.

Chapter 41: To Guard

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Under the influence of drugs, Lu Shang slept straight through the night, only
waking up the next morning. When he woke up and opened his eyes, he saw morning
rays slipping in through the window. At last, his view was no longer limited to
complete darkness; he was a little relieved by that. Habitually, he reached for the
side of the bed, and no one was there.

Li Sui was absent, there was no temperature in the blanket. It seemed like he
didn't come to bed at all for the whole night.

Lu Shang sat up and found that the furniture beside his bed was gone. For a moment,
he thought that his house got a visit from burglars. After some thought, though, he
found that unlikely. If it was the handiwork of burglars, they would pry open his
safe, but not steal his furniture. So he concluded that his furniture was most
likely moved.

Lu Shang changed clothes and went downstairs, he was stunned as soon as he entered
the living room.

Overnight, all the tables, chairs, cabinets, walls, and all things slightly sharp
were carefully wrapped up in foam paper. While fragile objects, like the turtle
tank and glass-made decorations were taken away or placed in high, unreachable
places.

If someone entered their house at this time, not knowing anything beforehand, that
person would probably think that there were toddlers in the house. Lu Shang stood
still, he looked around and felt a slight tremor in his heart. Li Sui stayed up all
night yesterday, and this was most likely what he was busy with.

Breakfast was already on the dining table, the food was packed into heat-insulating
boxes. Inside was Lu Shang's favorites: pancakes, boiled eggs, and shrimp porridge.
Aunt Lu usually won't be so detailed in preparation as to peel the eggshells for
him, so today's breakfast must have been prepared by Li Sui. Lu Shang stood in the
living room, his fingers touching the corner of the foam wrapped table. In that
instant, his emotions boiled up, he couldn't even put into words what he was
feeling. Sometimes Lu Shang wondered, whether he was the one treating Li Sui like a
child or if it was Li Sui who was treating him like a child.

There was a loud noise at the door, Li Sui returned from his morning jog with a
towel placed around his neck. When Li Sui saw Lu Shang, he obviously faltered
slightly. Li Sui stared straight into Lu Shang's eyes as if he was trying to
confirm something.

Lu Shang looked at him with a faint smile, "Morning."

Li Sui's face twitched slightly, perhaps because he stayed up late, his eyes looked
red and swollen. Lu Shang continued smiling as Li Sui walked right past him, taking
medicine out from the drawer. Li Sui placed the medication in front of Lu Shang in
silence and went upstairs to take a shower.

The meaning was obvious; Li Sui wanted him to take medicine, but didn't say a word
from beginning to end. Lu Shang looked at Li Sui's back, his smile faded, and he
felt his head ached. Initially, Lu Shang thought Li Sui's anger would, at most,
last through the night. But to persist overnight? Lu Shang didn't even consider the
possibility of that, he never thought he would miscalculate. Li Sui was furious
this time.

Their relationship had always been smooth, but now that one side was deliberately
ignoring the other, Lu Shang found it a little overwhelming. He probably used up
all his talents on his work, because when it came to coaxing his child, he was
nothing but clumsy.

After enduring Li Sui's cold shoulder for the whole day, it was finally Lu Shang's
bedtime. Lu Shang was disappointed when he didn't see Li Sui come into bed with
him. Li Sui was deliberately avoiding him by not sleeping with him.

Lu Shang didn't know what to do, so he decided to get out of bed and look for him.
However, his body had not fully recovered yet, whenever night came, he could not
see clearly. He spent a long time searching for his spectacles which should be on
the bedside cabinet. Instead of getting his glasses, he knocked them off the
cabinet by accident, now he was indeed blind. Lu Shang stood by the bed and dared
not make any bold movements. He feared crushing his spectacles, so he could only
crouch down and wave his palms on the ground feebly.

Before Lu Shang's palm even made contact with the carpet though, his hand was held
by someone else's. The person tucked at Lu Shang's hand, bringing his body close to
him and hugged him tightly in his arms.

"What are you doing……" The one holding him seemed emotional, his chest trembled
violently. As if the person was stimulated by the sight of Lu Shang trying to pick
up his spectacles. "What are you doing……" The person asked again.

Lu Shang was being hugged so tightly that his arms were in pain. He froze in
confusion until he felt the heat and wetness on his shoulder. Then he realized, Li
Sui was crying.
As if a giant whale was tossing and turning, creating huge waves and causing
painful tremors in Lu Shang's heart. Lu Shang raised his hand and touched Li Sui's
head, he opened his mouth and felt that any words were useless. He did not forget,
his little turtle never cried. Even when he was viciously beaten by Li Yan, even
when he was at death's door in the protected woodlands, he never shed a single drop
of tear.

"I'm sorry." Lu Shang closed his eyes, patting Li Sui's head as he apologized
sincerely.

Li Sui only tightened his arms, as if he could no longer hold it back after
enduring through the whole day. Tears tumbled down from Li Sui's eye sockets non-
stop as he rubbed his head against Lu Shang's shoulder.

Lu Shang's heart ached hearing Li Sui sob in grieve. He stretched out his hand and
patted Li Sui on the back. He tried comforting him, "I'm sorry, I have done you
wrong. I was wrong. I promise I'll let you know immediately if anything happens in
the future. Don't be angry with me anymore, please?"

"……I'm not angry with you," Li Sui said while almost choking. He swallowed down the
painfulness stuck in his throat, then grabbing Lu Shang's hand and placing it on
his chest, he said, "I'm heartbroken."

Li Sui's heart under his hand was beating strongly, the sound transmitted to Lu
Shang through the skin. Lu Shang felt sourness in his nose, he tried to move Li Sui
off his shoulder to touch his face. Li Sui firmly lodged himself on Lu Shang's
shoulder and said: "Don't look."

Lu Shang slowed down, he understood Li Sui's wishes of keeping his dignity, so he

relaxed and let Li Sui hug him as much as he wanted.

Late at night, the wind blew outside, making the evergreen trees in the front yard
shake. Li Sui's sobbing voice which had been burying in Lu Shang's shoulder for
quite a while gradually stabilized. Li Sui retreated a little as he remembered that
Lu Shang could not stand long. Hence, he carefully placed Lu Shang back on the bed.
Then Li Sui took off his clothes and turned the lights off, embracing Lu Shang from
behind.

After being anxious for the entire day, Lu Shang was actually very tired, but he
did not want to fall asleep just yet. Lu Shang clasped his own hand onto Li Sui's,
he continued to hold it, refusing to let go.

Li Sui bent over and kissed Lu Shang's eye, he laid back down, then whispered
beside Lu Shang's ear, "Lu Shang, I hope you could understand. No matter if you are
sick, blind, or even unable to walk. I love all of you, I don't just love you when
you are healthy. I will accompany you for the rest of your life, through aging,
sickness, and death. Please don't block me from your problems, will you?"

In the darkness, Lu Shang's breathing stopped for a second, he turned over and
hugged him, "Silly…"

Ancient people used to say that all gains and losses were long determined by
heavens, while sorrow and joy were always a part of life, one must understand
heavens and life and be gracious of what's in front of you. Lu Shang thought that
maybe the Gods were right. They took away his healthy heart but blessed him with
such a good lover. Perhaps this is what fate was. He never believed in it before,
but now he was thankful to the heavens for his life and how lucky he was.
The short two-day break ended soon, Lu Shang's health was still unstable. Li Sui
was not confident in letting Lu Shang go to the company, fearing something like
before would happen again. Li Sui decided to move all his work back home instead.

The shareholders' meeting came to an end, no conclusion was reached last time. Li
Sui refused to let Lu Shang attend the meeting alone again. He personally worked
out a series of meeting procedures and invited the supervisory committee to oversee
the meeting.

Perhaps it was because everyone knew that Lu Shang invested in Mu Sheng. When the
meeting was held again, the shareholders' stance changed. Several old shareholders
who had been unwilling to sign before sensed the potential profits, so they mostly
caved in. Signing one after another on the proposal.

Liu XinTian did not show his dissatisfaction on the surface, but the popped up blue
veins on his forehead betrayed him. Knowing that the shares he owned could not
change the result of the vote, he too signed the papers in agreement. Just like
that, the shareholders' meeting ended with listing 40% of profits as company
reserves.

After most of his work was done, Li Sui pushed all his agenda away, concentrating
entirely on taking care of Lu Shang at home. Maybe due to Lu Shang's good mood and
adequate rest, ever since the last time, Lu Shang's eyes did not turn temporarily
blind. Only occasionally, Lu Shang would fail to see clearly at night, but wearing
glasses eased the symptoms. However, when the light outdoors was weak, it was still
difficult for Lu Shang to see.

Li Sui hardly interfered with what Lu Shang did, but his watchful eyes never left
Lu Shang. Whenever Lu Shang encountered uneven grounds or obstacles, Li Sui would
never fail to give him warnings. Sometimes, Li Sui would silently follow behind him
when necessary.

After the New Year, the weather became warmer and warmer. Li Sui was relieved,
winter was a trial for Lu Shang, the cold weather always hindered the blood flow to
his limbs. When it got warmer, however, the situation would be much better.

On the eve of the Qing Ming festival, Li Sui took Lu Shang to the hospital for a
check-up. After going through the report, Dr. Leung did not jump up in anger like
he usually would; instead he showed a little satisfaction.

"Not bad. If this keeps up. The dosage of medicine next year could be reduced." He
flipped through the report again as he touched his chin, "This is amazing. I
thought he wouldn't even be alive this year. It seems that the connection between
dopamine and the heart is bigger than I imagined."

"Dopamine?"

Leung ZiRui laughed mysteriously and explained, "The human brain secretes a magical
substance when people engage in sexual thoughts, its secretion will increase. In
the medical field, it is considered to facilitate myocardial contractions, dilation
of blood vessels, and is a cardiac tonic."

Li Sui listened in amazement, "So, you are saying that by engaging in… with him…
Well, I mean, are you saying me being with him is a good thing for Lu Shang's
health?"

"Of course," Leung ZiRui joked, "The body won't lie. From the results, I'm guessing
that his brain had secreted a lot of dopamine for you in recent years."
Li Sui was for some reason embarrassed, he continued listening to Leung ZiRui
mutter, "Such a waste, this is a fascinating case study. If only my teacher was
there."

"Your teacher is studying this?"

Leung ZiRui gave a soft "Hmn" as a reply. He didn't even raise his head and
continued on, "His name is Leon, he's a Swiss. He's one of the world's top
cardiologists. All of the heart operations he took up were complicated cases.
Unfortunately, he has a bad habit, he likes smoking marijuana, even when he was at
school. Eventually, when he got reported, the school dismissed him. After that, he
ran all over the world, and no one knew what he was doing during that time. I had
found and asked him to help analyze Lu Shang's case once, but he refused and went
to the mountains for some research. I had not seen him after that for a long time."

After listening to Leung ZiRui, Li Sui found it regrettable, that such a person
existed but could not help Lu Shang's case, "Is he difficult to find?"

"He's a complete addict with a strange temper, do you think he sounds difficult to
find?" Leung ZiRui sorted out the report and pulled out Lu Shang's medical records
from the desk drawer beside him, "Tell me about his usual diet and rest hours."

Li Sui was all too familiar with these questions, so without even trying to think
back, he answered Leung ZiRui's questions one by one.

Leung ZiRui lowered his head and recorded everything in Lu Shang's medical record,
"And the frequency of bedroom affairs."

"Once a week."

Leung ZiRui looked up and said, "False reports will hinder my diagnosis and
treatment."

Li Sui said after a bit, "……Four times a week."

Leung ZiRui snapped the binder shut loudly, "I remember telling you twice a week at
most."
Lu Shang just happened to open the door in and walked in as Leung ZiRui was
scolding Li Sui. Lu Shang interrupted, "When did you start meddling in even this
sort of thing?"

"It's for your own good," Leung ZiRui barked. "If you insist on being reckless,
then be prepared to just die in bed one day, don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Oh?" Lu Shang's eyes lit up, "Dying in bed? That sounds good. It's much cooler
than dying in a hospital bed."

After that, Lu Shang took Li Sui's hand and smiled tilting his head, "Let's go back
and try, shall we?"

"You……" Leung ZiRui knew he couldn't do anything about Lu Shang, so he turned his
head to Li Sui and vent his anger on him instead. "He's a reckless fool, but you
should know better, don't you think?"

Li Sui's expression was complicated. Looking at Lu Shang, who was pretending to be

an asshole. Li Sui thought in agony, of course, he wanted to restrain himself, but
he couldn't really help it.

In the evening, the two of them took a bath together in the bathtub. Li Sui gave Lu
Shang's hair a gentle and careful rub with shampoo.

Lu Shang noticed that Li Sui had something on his mind and asked, "What's wrong?"

Li Sui spread the shampoo evenly on his hair and said slowly, "I was thinking, Dr.
Leung was right."

Lu Shang disagreed, "You don't have to care about what he said. My father still
died at the hands of his father."

Li Sui froze, Lu Shang probably realized that his remark was demeaning as well, so
he added, "Well, I mean as a heart patient, my father was able to live past 50
years old. That was already a lot longer than expectations, I probably won't be
that lucky though."

When Li Sui heard that the motion of his hands slowed down as he said earnestly,
"Do you remember after you finalized the Golden Sands Shore project proposal, you
said you would reward me? You still owe me a request, right?"

Lu Shang looked at him and signaled him to continue with his eyes.

"Now, I ask you to promise me. Promise me that you will live healthily. I'm not
going to say let's reach a hundred years old together, but at least hold out until
neither of us can walk. Then we can leave this world together."

Lu Shang smiled softly, "It's too boring and long if neither of us can walk. I will
try to live until we can't have sex, okay?"

Li Sui was amused, he washed the bubbles off his hands and put body wash on Lu
Shang. The two of them were in very close proximity to each other, so it was easy
for them to feel the slight changes in their bodies. As they bathed, Li Sui
couldn't stop himself from lifting Lu Shang's chin, leaning in and gave his lips a
few light pecks. After their lips parted, they stared into each other's eyes, both
seemed a lit up by the kissing.

Lu Shang separated his legs and sat on Li Sui's lap, embracing each other as they
shared numerous kisses, it took them a while to part. Li Sui reached his hand out
for the lubricant, sliding his fingers in and expanding Lu Shang's behind. The
atmosphere was pleasant, and Li Sui just couldn't help himself. After entering
smoothly, Li Sui bent his legs up slightly and pushed a few times upwards.

The two men got into the mood quickly. Being caressed in front and on the back at
the same time, Lu Shang seemed to be enjoying it so much that his toes were curling
up. Li Sui increased the strength of his hand on Lu Shang's hard erection, making
him cum. After that, Lu Shang leaned onto Li Sui's chest and breathed lightly in
exhaustion.

Li Sui kissed him one more time, then pulled his manhood out and dealt with the
bulging mass by himself. Li Sui washed both of them clean with the shower nozzle,
then got to the bed to blow their hair, neither of them could get their hands off
of each other on the way to the bed.

On the day of Lu Shang's birthday, they flew to HaiNan island together. Li Sui just
couldn't wait to show him what he had built. Ever since Lu Shang got temporarily
blind at the beginning of the year, there was a sense of urgency in Li Sui's heart.
He must hurry up, the same for his growth rate and the completion of this gift.

"You planted all of these?" The two of them had just landed on the island, and even
Lu Shang couldn't hide the surprised look on his face. Lu Shang was staring at the
neat and orderly rows of tropical trees along the riverbank.

"Hmn." Li Sui nodded, "But not all of them have grown out yet. This row here should
grow into flowers. The gardener said that the flowers will be white, the petals
will turn almost transparent after the rain. When the flowers bloom, I can go get a
carpenter to make a canoe. Then, we can look at the flowers while boating, we can
also do some fishing on the canoe."

Lu Shang's gaze shifted from the trees, looking up at the buildings by the river.
Li Sui followed Lu Shang's eyes and explained, "This island used to house an
experimental laboratory. After consulting with several experts, I've decided to
rebuild it into a sanatorium, it will also be equipped with sophisticated medical
equipment. Most of the facilities and equipment were already there, remnants of the
laboratory, so it will not cost a lot of money. Also……"

Li Sui glanced at Lu Shang and seemed to be a bit embarrassed, "If you like, we can
live here when we retire."

Hearing that Lu Shang just stared at Li Sui in silence, as if he was looking for
something on Li Sui's face. Li Sui was feeling anxious and asked, "What is it, if
you don't like it, I can change it."

"Who says I don't like it?" Lu Shang smiled, and it was obvious that he was
delighted, his mouth formed a beautiful curve. Lu Shang pulled Li Sui's hand
forward, leading him closer to the sea, "Accompany for a walk at the shore."

In the far distance, the sky was so blue that it was as if it had been washed, the
seabirds soar through the air, and the waves rushed ashore rhythmically, making
loud but pleasant sounds. A hot wind blew on their hair, bringing the smell of
seawater to their noses. Li Sui let the person clasping hands with him lead him
forward. As soon as he looked up to the sky, the sun's red light shone through the
clouds, landing on the sands beneath his feet, the fine sand shimmered as it
reflected the light. At that moment, he unconsciously firmed his grasp on Lu
Shang's hand, as if what he was holding in his hand was the whole world.

Chapter 43: The Insecurities

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Times of calm past by quickly, summer soon turned into autumn, and it was getting
dark earlier in the day. Li Sui came home from work, the moment he walked through
the door, he saw Lu Shang sitting in a wheelchair, reaching out for the book on the
floor. Li Sui quickly walked over and crouched down to pick it up for him.

"You're so early today." Lu Shang heard the sounds and touched Li Sui's hand.

Li Sui immediately held his hand back, he perceived that Lu Shang was a little
cold, so he pulled his blanket up and said softly, "Aunt Lu is going back home, so
I am afraid you might be bored at home alone."

Lu Shang replied, "Hmn," then added, "Don't postpone your work."

Li Sui couldn't care less, he got up and walked towards the wheelchair. Li Sui put
his hands on Lu Shang's temples, pressing them gently, he asked: "Are you feeling
better today?"

Lu Shang was comfortable with Li Sui massaging him, even his eyes squinted as he
answered, "Hmn, much better."
Last month was windy, Lu Shang went to a river to fish. It rained a little, and
when he comes back, he caught a cold, and he had a high fever for a few nights. Li
Sui was naturally angry and anxious, he was afraid that Lu Shang won't take his
medicine on time, so he especially took work off. Li Sui stayed at home to take
care of him for a few days, only returning to work after Lu Shang's fever had gone
down.

The past years were too smooth and peaceful, Lu Shang would sometimes forget that
he was a chronically ill patient. It was as if this fever suddenly startled and
woke all his diseases up, his immune system was obviously more fragile after the
cold. Lu Shang wasn't in good spirits, and the weight he just managed to put on
were gone again in no time.

Uncle Yuen mentioned several times to hire a few caretakers to Li Sui, in case if
anything happened to Lu Shang at home, someone would know immediately. Who knew
that Lu Shang would be disgusted by the idea, he just said, "I have not reached
that state yet."

With that, Li Sui clammed up, and he never mentioned it again.

People always said that people with long-term illnesses tend to have odd tempers,
on this point, though, Lu Shang was different. He was only extremely stubborn on
this particular matter. Li Sui couldn't change his mind on this, but it also didn't
feel right to force it against his will, he was too afraid that it would make him
angry, so all he could do was to pay more attention.

When Dr. Leung came to check up on Lu Shang, his expression didn't look good, but
he did not say much either. He only told Lu Shang to reduce the number of
movements, he advised controlling salt intake strictly. Li Sui couldn't help but
worry, although, in recent years, there weren't any significant problems with Lu
Shang's heart, he was always concerned. Li Sui knew that no matter how carefully he
took care of Lu Shang, whenever Lu Shang got sick, it would be much more serious
than when ordinary people got sick. The main problem was his weak heart function,
care alone wouldn't cure it.

Li Sui massaged Lu Shang's head for a bit more, then pushed him to the side of the
fireplace, "What you want to eat tonight, I'll make it for you."

Lu Shang was about to open his mouth when Li Sui added, "Only light and blend food,
though."

So Lu Shang did not speak anymore, looking like he had completely lost interest in
dinner. Li Sui thought about how Lu Shang only had plain porridge for almost the
entire month, and he felt terrible, so he softened up, "I will make you a roasted
fish."

Lu Shang never objected to what Li Sui decided to make. Li Sui cleaned the fish,
then with slices of ginger, the pickled the fish. After soaking the fish in sauce
and spices, he put it into the oven. While Li Sui was busy with all that, Lu Shang
turned to ask him, "What is Liu XinTian doing recently?"

"He's been busy lately. He was working with a couple of old shareholders, I guess
he can't wait anymore." Li Sui's hands skillfully moved then abruptly stopped, "Oh
yeah, he also visited Miss Meng's residence a few days ago."

Lu Shang froze slightly in surprise, "XinYou?"

Meng XinYou got married some years back, her husband was a young and talented
politician, his surname was Xu. Of course, Liu XinTian wasn't there to find Meng
XinYou, but Mr. Xu, who was notorious for being sly. The Meng family had nearly 20%
of Tong Yan shares, although those were premarital properties, with Meng XinYou's
rational personality, even Lu Shang was not sure which side she will be stand on.

This was indeed difficult, if Meng XinYou changed to support her husband, then they
would lose a reliable ally. It could be said that Liu XinTian had caught onto their
weakness this time.

"Stop thinking about it, eat something first." Li Sui moved Lu Shang's wheelchair
to the dining table.

The roasted fish did not have hot sauce or salt in it, but the taste was delicious,
the sauce had soaked well into the tender meat. Lu Shang could not see clearly, so
Li Sui was afraid he would be choked by fishbones, he separated the fish into small
pieces and fed him with a pair of chopsticks.

"Is it delicious?" Li Sui especially liked seeing Lu Shang eat the food he made, he
always felt bliss when Lu Shang eats them.

Lu Shang nodded, though his thoughts were apparently not focused on the food. Lu
Shang asked, "How's your border project going?"

Speaking of that, a bit of regret flashed past Li Sui's heart, "Small SiMa
discussed it with me and decided to give up on foreign trade, we're only taking in-
country trade."

Lu Shang was slightly surprised, "Why, once the project is done, you can
immediately get a firmer stance in Tong Yan."

Li Sui pulled out a piece of paper to wipe Lu Shang's mouth, "Everything else was
going fine, but we can't bypass the customs, this needs the government's approval.
Liu XinTian is stopping that from happening, so it is complicated."

Lu Shang went silent after listening.

"It doesn't matter, we have other projects, it's fine even if we don't have this
one, " Li Sui said with a smile. He then changed the subject, "The Golden Sands
Shore has finished construction and is almost ready for business. I am afraid at
the end of this month, I'll have to travel there, do you want to go with me?"

Lu Shang turned his head over from the silence, with a slight smile, he said,
"Yes."

In the evening, when Lu Shang had already fallen asleep, Li Sui walked to the
balcony and dialed an unknown phone number.

In recent years, he expanded the search, even more, leaving contact information to
almost all the places that helped people find a match for heart donors. Li Sui
would ask once every few months, waiting for a miracle with his most pious of
hearts. Sadly, his wish was never granted.

After dialing, Li Sui communicated with the person on the other end for a while,
still only to get a depressing reply.

"I see, thank you." Li Sui hung the phone up and sighed with his head down.

A door apart, the person in the bed was already deep in sleep, his pale cheek sank
deep into the pillow. Li Sui looked through the glass balcony door, his eyes fell
onto Lu Shang, softening his expression a little. At the same time, he could not
help but feel a burst of sourness in his nasal cavity.

Li Sui always thought that no matter how bad a person's luck was, as long as that
person kept repeating the same task, a hundred times, a thousand times…… Then
eventually, that person should succeed at least once, but no. The heavens seemed to
have used up all his luck just for him to meet the man in front of him.

Sometimes he couldn't help but think, if he could reverse time, he would rather not
be with Lu Shang. Even if it was at the expense of his own life, he would want Lu
Shang to have a healthy body. At least not like now, having to endure sickness all
day, every day.

People who had never been ill would never know how difficult it was sick. There
were a lot of things that Lu Shang would never say, nor reveal. However, Li Sui
understood in his heart that Lu Shang had fears too, fear of pain, fear of
bitterness, and fear of one day falling asleep and never wake up again. Whenever
night falls, Lu Shang wouldn't be able to see clearly with his eyes. At times like
that, he tended to just sit quietly in his wheelchair. Sometimes when Li Sui look
at him like that, he just couldn't help but wonder, what was he thinking?

People often said that reasonable people would have good rewards. Li Sui found that
to be sadly false, Lu Shang was the kindest person he had ever met after all.

Due to his body condition, Lu Shang wouldn't go to the company anymore, all company
matters were dealt with by Li Sui. Only occasionally when there were important
decisions to make, would Li Sui take the work home, the two of them would discuss
it together.

This day, after working-hours ended, Li Sui still hadn't left the building. Li Sui
was in the archives with Uncle Yuen, trying to find some old documents. Three years
ago, when Li Sui took over handling Tong Yan, Lu Shang sent Uncle Yuen to Li Sui's
side, leaving only Xiao Zhao to help him drive.

The two of them were sorting through the documents when Uncle Yuen's mobile phone
suddenly rang.

The archives room was tranquil, and the two of them were not far apart, so it was
easy to hear the voice from the other end of the phone. Li Sui heard a slightly
familiar voice, so after Uncle Yuen hung up, Li Sui cast him a questioning look.

A touch of awkwardness appeared on Uncle Yuen's face, he said apologetically,

"Sorry, but I have to leave."

Li Sui nodded, "If you have something to do, then go, I can find it myself."

When Uncle Yuen put down the well-organized documents and was about to leave, Li
Sui suddenly remembered something, he called out and asked, "Was that Xiao Tang who
called just now?"

"Hmm, yes…" Uncle Yuen answered hesitantly.

Xiao Tang was the young lady who called Li Sui for help during that shareholders'
meeting a few years ago. She had quite an impression in Li Sui's mind, seeing that
Uncle Yuen looked odd, Li Sui couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

Uncle Yuen's awkward expression intensified, after hesitating for a moment, he said
truthfully, "… It's Mr. Lu."

Li Sui's hand holding the document shook unconsciously.

"In the afternoon, Mr. Lu brought three people with him to meet with some
government officials. All of them are drunk now, they didn't even let the driver
off the hook. Only Xiao Tang had a little bit of consciousness left, so she just
called me to pick them up."

If even the driver was drunk, then how drunk would the others be?

Li Sui's face darkened terribly, he immediately got up and walked past Uncle Yuen,
leaving only two words behind, "I'm going."

On the way, Li Sui tried his best to control his emotions. He shouldn't get angry,
he shouldn't lose his temper, he shouldn't use violence. Even though Lu Shang went
out without saying a word to him, even though as a heart patient, Lu Shang hid from
him had alcohol, he even got drunk, even though…… Li Sui closed his eyes and took a
deep breath, but he still couldn't hold it back. Li Sui hit his fist hard on the
steering wheel, so angry that he gritted his teeth to the point that they might
break.

Gritting his teeth and being angry all the way, Li Sui even thought of words to
question Lu Shang. The second he opened the door to the private room though, he saw
the person curling up on the sofa, and all the previous emotions were gone, only
leaving worry.

"Lu Shang?" Li Sui walked over and gently patted him, Lu Shang was unresponsive.

The room was heavily soaked in the smell of wine, most of the guests were gone,
only a few were still in the room lying on their sides. Li Sui shook Xiao Tang a
bit, she was still awake but was also so drunk that she couldn't walk straight, her
eyes were confused, but she finally found her balance after some work.

"Can you walk? Where do you live?"

Xiao Tang hit the back of her head with her hand, luckily she was still quite
conscious, she waved her hand and said, "No, I'll be fine. Just help me get a few
rooms upstairs to put the rest in. You should get Lu Shang home quickly though, he
drank too much……"

Li Sui turned to look at Lu Shang, seeing his furrowed eyebrows and his hand that
was tightly pressing on his chest. Li Sui's heart jumped up to his throat, "How
much did he drink?"

"At least four glasses of white wine."

Li Sui's eyes fell onto the glasses on the table, his fists clenched.

Fortunately, the guest rooms were just upstairs. Li Sui got three single-person
bedrooms, and sent the drunk people there one by one, he even called room service
to take care of them. As soon as that was done, Li Sui quickly brought Li Sui out
of the hotel.

Lu Shang could hold his liquor, but because of health reasons, he almost never
drank alcohol. In Tong Yan no one dared make Lu Shang drink alcohol, so being drunk
to the extent of having zero consciousness was a first.

Leaving the hotel, Li Sui placed Lu Shang in the back seat of the car. He climbed
over to carefully open Lu Shang's eyelids for examination. Li Sui was still not
assured, he intended to take him to the hospital. Just as Li Sui reached for the
handle of the door, he was suddenly pulled.
Li Sui turned his head back to see a pair of foggy eyes looking at him. As Lu Shang
was drunk, his eyes were covered with a layer of watery mist. The parking lot was
dimly lit, the wind was pouring in from the exits. It was so quiet that there
seemed to be distinct echoes around them.

"Don't go." Lu Shang moved his lips, and his voice was hoarse.

Two simple words dredged all the emotions swelling in Li Sui's heart up. Li Sui's
throat was sore, he tried swallowing, leaning down, he looked at Lu Shang, "Do you
think I won't be angry at you, no matter what you do?"

Lu Shang stared at Li Sui, Lu Shang's face gradually revealed a nervous expression.

Lu Shang rubbed his face on the back of Li Sui's hand, trying to flatter him,
"Please don't be angry…"

Li Sui only felt pain in his eyes, he pulled his hand away, not meeting Lu Shang's
gaze.

Not being able to feel Li Sui's hand, Lu Shang appeared to be a little depressed.
Lu Shang's teary eyes chased after him, "Your border project, I helped you make it
happen. Aren't you glad about that?"

"Who asked you to?" Li Sui's eyes were bloodshot, tears were welling in his eyes.

"You want to," Lu Shang reached out to him, but he really had no strength left, so
his hand fell back down, helpless, "…… I know you want to."

Li Sui closed his eyes, then opened them again to see Lu Shang looking at him with
pleading eyes. Finally, Li Sui gave up, he leaned over to put his arms around Lu
Shang, "I just want you to be healthy and well, how do you not understand that……"

Li Sui had to admit, Lu Shang had gambled correctly yet again. He really couldn't
get angry with him. This person's every move, every smile, had firmly touched Li
Sui's heart, even if he knew that Lu Shang was intentional, he couldn't be angry
with him.

Half was punishment, and a half was worry, Li Sui brought Lu Shang to the hospital
despite his objections. Being drunk like this, naturally, Li Sui would not be able
to avoid being scolded by Dr. Leung. Li Sui knew that he hadn't fulfilled his
duties as a good guardian, so he listened to Dr. Leung's scolding silently.

The results of the examination were not satisfactory, alcohol did a lot of damage
to his heart. Lu Shang had a severe cold just a while ago, his body had not
recovered yet, this action was no different than added hail to a snowstorm. Li
Sui's heart sank after listening to Leung ZiRui. After Li Sui fed Lu Shang the
prescribed medicine, Lu Shang couldn't resist the drowsiness caused by medication
and wine. Lu Shang fell asleep, curling up near the head of the bed, as soon as Li
Sui finished pouring another glass of water.

Li Sui covered him with a blanket, he stared at the man for a moment, then turned
to Leung ZiRui's office.

"Dr. Leung." Li Sui knocked on the door.

Leung ZiRui was writing a report in front of the computer, he turned his head to
look at him.

"Please tell me honestly, is Lu Shang hiding something from me again?"

Leung ZiRui was surprised, "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling." Li Sui sighed wearily.

Leung ZiRui said, "From the results of the examination, no. That I can assure you,
but……"

Li Sui looked up, Leung ZiRui was frowning as he continued, "He is very aware of
his own physical condition, most of the time, even more than me, his doctor. When
is it that he doesn't need treatment, and when he needs it, he has a clear idea in
his head. That is why when I prescribe him medicine if he doesn't eat it, I won't
force him to. When he needs treatment, though, even if I say nothing, he will still
come to me."

"In other words, if even he starts to focus on his illness, then you really should
be extra mindful." Leung ZiRui then asked, "What? Did you notice something
abnormal?"

Li Sui shook his head, "No, I'm just feeling very uneasy."

"Don't overthink things." Leung ZiRui comforted him.

Li Sui nodded and did not speak further.

The border project was indeed a good way to help Li Sui get a firmer stand in the
company. Once it was done, it was basically equivalent to being backed by the
government. It would become a strong defense for Li Sui, even if in the future Liu
XinTian managed to get all of Tong Yan's shareholders on his side, Li Sui would
still have enough capital to compete with him.

But at present, Liu XinTian had not gone that far yet. This project wasn't the only
solution, Li Sui honestly felt a little scared having Lu Shang in a rush to pave
the way for him.

Chapter 44: Sleepless Nights

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

The rain continued till early in the morning, Lu Shang woke up slowly. Lu Shang
found himself being held in someone's arms, his back stuck closely to a warm chest,
strong heartbeats transmitted into his body, it was reassuring.

Li Yu sensed that Lu Shang was awake, his arms loosened slightly, and he moved back
a little.

With the warmth moving away, Lu Shang frowned. Lu Shang reflectively reached out
his hand to pull Li Sui back. This subconscious movement startled both men a
little.

The sky was barely bright, and the room was still dark. The two of them stared into
each other's eyes in silence for a long time. Li Sui didn't know how much Lu Shang
remembered about last night, but he submissively snuggled back under the blanket,
hugging Lu Shang from behind, he said with a comforting voice, "Sleep, I won't go
anywhere."

Hangover plus the effect of drugs mixed together made Lu Shang's headache
unbearable. Lu Shang leaned his head on Li Sui's arm, he gasped slightly in pain.
Li Sui's heart ached, what he wouldn't give to share the pain for Lu Shang. Li Sui
leaned down to kiss Lu Shang's head while carefully giving him a massage for
relief.

At dawn, Lu Shang finally fell asleep again, his face was pale white. Lu Shang
rarely showed insecurity, Li Sui definitely would not leave him at such a time. He
called Uncle Yuen on some company matters, then directly turned the phone off, he
then stayed in the ward peacefully with him.

The corridor outside the ward sounded busy all day, but fortunately, no one
bothered them. Lu Shang slept until noon, then he gradually woke up. His eyes
opened, and closed, he repeated the actions several times, then turn to look at the
head above him.

Li Sui found that a little fun, he had never seen Lu Shang waking up from being
drunk before, he was like a small animal, being alerted of everything, Li Sui
couldn't see the slightest hint of Lu Shang's usual calmness.

"Are you awake? Does your head still hurt?" Li Sui asked while pressing on Lu
Shang's temples.

Lu Shang glanced around the room, "Why am I here?"

"You've drunk too much, and your heart's not beating smoothly," Li Sui reminded
him, "Have you forgotten?"

Lu Shang gave a vague "Hmm," then said, "Thirsty."

Li Sui got out of the bed to pour him some water, he took the time to sneak a
glimpse of Lu Shang. Seeing that Lu Shang was rubbing the bridge of his nose, Li
Sui couldn't help but ask, "Is it very bad?"

"It's fine."

The room still had a trace of the undispersed smell of wine left, Li Sui waited for
Lu Shang to finish drinking the water, then called the doctor for a checkup. Lu
Shang was cooperative when the doctor asked him to extend his arms, he did, when
the doctor asked him to undress, he also did. It was as if Lu Shang was anxiously
avoiding trouble.

Li Sui found that both funny and worrying, but seeing Lu Shang feign amnesia so
seriously, Li Sui felt like cooperating as well. Lu Shang was obviously afraid of
being preached to again, Li Sui thought, since he couldn't get angry with him
anyways, it would be better to just let this thing slide.

After finishing the discharging procedures, Li Sui drove the car out. Li Sui waited
for Lu Shang to get seated, then buckled Lu Shang's seat belt as he said, "Dr.
Leung said that next time you get into a situation like this, he will throw a gas
canister at me. So, whenever you need to go to a business meeting, remember to
bring me along, okay?"

Lu Shang said, "It's all right, he can't beat you."

Li Sui brought Lu Shang's hand into his own palm while the other hand controlled
the steering wheel, "But if he beats me because of you, I won't fight back. Then
your boyfriend would get beaten harshly."

Lu Shang was amused, "Like he dares."

Li Sui saw that Lu Shang finally smiled and that calmed him down a little.
Soon, the day of the opening of the Golden Sands Shore theme park had arrived. Li
Sui packed their luggage and flew to the island with Lu Shang. The hardware
facilities there had finished construction about six months ago, but for safety
reasons, they conducted a six-month operation trial, it was only opened for
business after they had tested for the safety coefficients of the facilities.

On an opening day, the atmosphere was unusually explosive. The advertisement from a
web novel and the park's advanced and unique equipment were the two main selling
points. It attracted horror topic lovers from many different places to the island,
the surrounding hotel were all fully booked on the day. The manager responsible for
the reception was all sweaty, he had to order a bunch of tents all of a sudden for
renting so that the visitors could stay overnight on the beach.

In the evening, the project workers held a celebratory banquet at the hotel, and
representatives from all departments involved were asked to attend to receive
commendations. Li Sui was the one doing the prize-giving, he changed into a suit
earlier in the day, his eyes were not as round as when he was younger, because of
his height, Li Sui had to lower his eyes to look at people, that made him appear
calm.

Time had sunk into the youth well, his aura was polished by time, his sharpness and
strength was emphasized by the black suit.

Lu Shang did not attend the banquet, he came purely as a family member. Lu Shang
only took up a seat on the second floor, he leaned on the chair quietly, watching
Li Sui from above as he presented the awards to the employees. A smile was hung on
Lu Shang's face, pride overflowed in his expression.

Li Sui was completely accustomed to such occasions, self-confidence and personal

charm showed perfectly in his temperament. During the gap of his speech, he even
found the time to wink at Lu Shang.

The corner of Lu Shang's mouth picked up, propping his head up at the chin, Lu
Shang accepted it gladly.

After Li Sui's speech, he and the host together invited the project partners on
stage to take a photo in turn. Lu Shang reached for the teacup on the table, his
body slowed down, suddenly feeling something in his heart, it was as if the blood
in his veins were flowing backward.

"Lu Lao Ban, are you alright?" The waiter saw Lu Shang leaning forward all of a
sudden, so he asked.

Lu Shang frowned and glanced downstairs, seeing that Li Sui had his back against
him, he was talking to the other guests and did not notice. Lu Shang waved the
waiter and said, "Help me down."

The waiter panicked, he reached for the walkie-talkie on his waist, Lu Shang
promptly said with difficulty, "Don't call people."

Li Sui finished taking pictures with a few partners, then he habitually looked up
to the location where Lu Shang was sitting on the second floor only to find that it
was empty, his heart sank. Someone happened to come for a toast, he touched his
glass with the other then quickly drank it all down. Li Sui politely bowed and
said, "Sorry, but I'm going out for a bit."

He walked to the backstage and grabbed a passing waiter, "Where's director Lu?"
"Umm, he said it was a bit noisy, so he went back to the room to rest."

Li Sui was worried, he handed the waiter the empty glass he was holding and said,
"I'll go have a look at him."

Li Sui walked into the room, the room was a sharp contrast to the noisiness
outside, he found it odd, as he was not used to the sudden quietness.

Lu Shang was lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, next to him was a glass of
water. Sensing someone was nearby, Lu Shang gently opened his eyes, revealing a
light smile, "It's over already?"

"No, not yet. Are you not feeling well?" Li Sui sat down beside him.

"It's too noisy, and it makes my head hurt, that's all," Lu Shang said.

Li Sui noticed that his complexion was not quite right, he placed his hand on Lu
Shang's forehead. Though Lu Shang didn't have a fever, his breaths were not stable,
"What's the matter, did you take today's medicine."

Lu Shang held Li Sui's hand and pulled him closer, leaning his whole head up
against Li Sui, and pretended to be depressed, "Low battery."

Li Sui's heart was tickled, he pushed Lu Shang's hand back, held his chin up, and
kissed him. Li Sui smiled as he asked, "Is it better now?"

"Hmn," Lu Shang laughed, "Much better."

A group of people was waiting outside, so Li Sui couldn't leave for too long. After
staying with each other for a while, Li Sui returned to the awarding ceremony. Only
that this time, without a certain person looking at him, his mind was obviously no
longer at the ceremony. Having finished several important events, he didn't even
attend the banquet afterward.

The hall outside was crisscrossed with lights, it was extremely lively. Despite
that, Li Sui took off his blazer and put on an apron, he borrowed the hotel's
kitchen and made a pot of porridge and some easy to digest noodles. When he brought
the food back to their room though, he found Lu Shang was already asleep.

Li Sui gently called out to him, but Lu Shang did not wake up, and he did not
forcefully wake him up of course. After taking a bath, he hugged Lu Shang as he
fell asleep.

At midnight, the sound of someone vomiting came from the bathroom. The movements
awakened Li Sui, he got up to have a look. In the bathroom, Lu Shang was up against
the edge of the water basin, his chest was throbbing. Li Sui immediately went to
pat him on the back, he also poured him a cup of water to rinse his mouth.

"What's going on? Are you not used to the climate here?" Li Sui had a serious look
on his face as he said.

After Lu Shang finished vomiting, he took a sigh of relief. Lu Shang fell back onto
Li Sui's chest, he gently embraced Lu Shang, letting him lean entirely on his body.
Li Sui let him rest at that position for a while, comforting him by patting his
back, then he brought him back to bed.

After he got Lu Shang to fall asleep, Li Sui found that he was unable to sleep
anymore. It was as if a drop of dark ink was added to a pond of clear water, the
ink of anxiety gradually spread in his heart.
There wasn't much more time, Li Sui caressed Lu Shang's eyebrows gently.

TaoYuan Island had basically finished construction, Li Sui would love to bring Lu
Shang there for a stroll after the things here were finished, but he noticed that
Lu Shang's physical condition was not well. As such, Li Sui did not mention it at
all. Instead, after the theme park's opening ceremony had ended, the two of them
flew back home almost immediately.

Once they landed, Li Sui immediately contacted Leung ZiRui, wanting the doctor to
do a full-body examination on Lu Shang. However, his calls could not get through,
so he turned to ask the employees of the hospital, only to be told that Leung ZiRui
went out of the country, and they didn't know when he will be back.

"Did he say anything before he left?" Li Sui asked.

"No, Dr. Leung left in a hurry and didn't give any details, but according to his
usual habits, he won't be gone for too long. Maybe you can wait for a few days and
call us again?"

"Okay…"

Li Sui hung the phone up, he turned to look at the sleeping Lu Shang leaning on his
shoulder. Li Sui reached his hand out to poke his face and sighed.

Leung ZiRui was a reliable person; usually he won't do something like leaving out
of the blue without any warning, so presumably, he must have encountered an
extremely urgent matter. Although Li Sui was anxious, there was nothing he could do
except waiting patiently. Lu Shang's illness was complex, so Li Sui could not just
let someone else treat Lu Shang.

Soon, Li Sui didn't even have the time to worry about that, the border trading
project Lu Shang helped him set up was beginning. The news of Tong Yan and Mu Sheng
co-founding a new mode of trade reached everyone in no time. The move crushed most
of the inefficient logistics companies, coupled with the fact that they had the
government's support, their competitiveness could easily be seen. As soon as the
news got out, even Liu XinTian couldn't sit still.

“What magic did Lu Shang use? I can't believe he actually accomplished it. Didn't
Secretary Yang say he wouldn't approve it?"

T/N: I don't know why, but my brain keeps thinking sexual appeal (shut up idiot's
brain).

“I heard that Sun Mao pulled some connections, I wonder what benefits Lu Shang gave
him," Fang Miao was annoyed, "What should we do now? Do you think we should put
some obstacles in their project?"

Liu Xingtian shook his head, “Not now if we do that, it is equivalent to picking a
fight with the government. It doesn't benefit us."

“Then…”

“Tonight, I'll go visit the Meng family again," said Liu XinTian, “I'm sure I can
get that 20 percent of shares on my side.”

It was getting colder, the road would occasionally get frozen at night. It was the
beginning of a new logistic model, the higher-ups were all young people, so
everyone was full of energy. The entire project team was driven, and the work
atmosphere was good. They were supported by the government, so there was no one in
their way, so the project went smoothly.

After Li Sui finished his work, he noticed that it was already late at night. He
hurriedly packed his things and was ready to leave, but when he opened the office
door, he found that SiMa Yan was even more hard-working than he was. SiMa Yan
brought a sleeping bag with him when he got tired, he would just lay down in it, he
didn't even return home.

Hearing the sound of the door, SiMa Yan woke up. He poked his head out from the
sleeping bag, “It's already this late, you're still going back?"

Li Sui smiled gently as he closed the door, his face was overflowing with softness
as he explained, “There's someone home."

SiMa Yan remembered and nodded, “I will look after things, you go back.”

Li Sui thanked him and went downstairs to his car.

When Li Sui got back home, Lu Shang was naturally asleep already. Li Sui was so
busy these days, he didn't have any time to accompany Lu Shang, so he could only
treasure the little time he had before falling asleep himself, Li Sui hugged Lu
Shang from behind before he fell asleep as well.

Lu Shang was in a deep sleep, he was frowning slightly. Li Sui hugged him for a
while, then found that something was not quite right. Lu Shang's breaths were too
heavy as if it was very difficult for him to breathe. He hurriedly turned Lu Shang
over to face him and saw his reddened face, his lips were also pursed together, he
was clearly oxygen-deprived.

Li Sui was alarmed, he got out of bed to set the oxygen machine up, then unbuttoned
the collar of Lu Shang's clothes, placing the oxygen pipe at his nose. Even after
finishing all of that, he was still not assured. Li Sui got a stool and sat by the
bed to massage his wrist.

Around dawn, Lu Shang's breath gradually smoothened, his eyebrows were finally
relaxed. Li Sui was so tired that even his eyes were dry, but he didn't feel
sleepy, it was as if his heart was hung up high by a string.

Li Sui just watched over him quietly until the sky lighted up outside the house. Lu
Shang felt someone watching him in his sleep, so he gradually opened his eyes. Lu
Shang stretched out his hand from under the blanket to gently hold Li Sui's hand,
he said, "…come into sleep."

Li Sui placed his hand on Lu Shang's face, his voice was hoarse because of a lack
of sleep, "I'm not sleepy."

Lu Shang didn't buy it, he pulled Li Sui towards the bed. Li Sui obediently climbed
into the bed. The two of them laid in bed face to face, Lu Shang reached out his
hand to touch the black pouches under Li Sui's eyes, sadness flowed out of Lu
Shang's eyes, "You have eyebags…"

“I'm fine,” Li Sui brought Lu Shang's hand back into the blanket. “What is going
on? Do you remember having difficulty breathing last night?"

Lu Shang recalled for a moment, “I only remember having a nightmare, I was chased
by monsters, I was running and was very tired.”

“When Dr. Leung comes back, should we stay in the hospital?” Li Sui was worried,
his tone was almost begging when he asked. He then said, “I'll accompany you.”

Lu Shang did not answer immediately, but he looked at the eyebags under Li Sui's
eyes and the mustache stubs on his chin. After a long time, he nodded.

Although Lu Shang agreed, Li Sui felt that he was still hesitant. Li Sui didn't
know why, but these days, he always found himself recalling what Leung ZiRui said:
Lu Shang knew best of his own condition. When he thought about Lu Shang's
resistance to going to the hospital, Li Sui always felt anxious. It felt somewhat
similar to a cancer patient resisting to face the examination results.

In order to prevent not noticing the signs of sickness and delaying treatment, Li
Sui moved all his work back home. For the things that he could not move back home,
he would save them up, then deal with them together in one go. However, that put a
lot of burden on his business partner, SiMa Yan, Li Yong felt sorry for it. SiMa
Yan did not complain though; instead, he patted Li Sui on the shoulder to show his
support. On the grounds of insufficient manpower, SiMa Yan did kidnap his useless
brother, SiMa JingRong to the company for several days, making him do some manual
labor.

Lu Shang had no responsibilities now, so he was completely free. His days gone by
with him collecting jades or shiny rocks, appreciating antique paintings and
calligraphy scrolls or raising turtles and fishing. His lifestyle was basically the
same as that of an elderly retiree.

The two of them were like on the opposite sides of a scale, their awake time almost
never mesh. Li Sui was busy every day, running back and forth from the company and
home, he also had to consider about Lu Shang's well-being. Fortunately, he was
young, so his energy could still keep up. Recently, a small problem happened at the
harbor, so Li Sui had to add that to the places he needed to run back and forth to.
Every day, Li Sui returned home exhausted, and he didn't even want to talk, he
could fall asleep the second he lay down.

Lu Shang sometimes slept during the day since he had nothing to do, so at night, he
would not be able to fall asleep. He watched as Li Sui rushed in and out of the
room, bargaining with someone through the phone. Lu Shang was too bored, and he
couldn't help but poke Li Sui on the face, trying to tease him. Li Sui gave him a
profound look, then turned around and walked away while holding the phone, directly
ignoring it.

Lu Shang was ignored for the first time, he did not know how to react. Lu Shang
just laid back in the bed with his book, he idly flipped the pages. The effects of
the medicine were stepping in, he gradually fell asleep, using the opened book as a
pillow.

Lu Shang slept through half of the night and was awakened by the sound of rain
outside. He could not see anything, even with his eyes opened. There were no
lights, and everything was black, so he dared not move. Lu Shang slept a bit too
much during the daytime, so without the help of drugs, it was hard for him to fall
asleep again now that he was awake. There was a light breathing sound near his ear,
it was stable and regular. Lu Shang couldn't bear waking Li Sui up, so he quietly
leaned on the bed headboard and listened to the rain.

As Lu Shang was immersed in his thoughts, suddenly hot breaths were coming from the
back of his neck in the darkness, it was as if a wolf was sniffing behind him, it
gave him goosebumps.

The slowly approaching person was deliberately not making any sound. Lu Shang
stiffened, but he soon relaxed, allowing the familiar hands to pull his pajamas off
from his shoulders, touching his chest and kissing the thinnest part of the skin on
the nape of his neck.

With the lack of vision and sounds, the only sense he had was touch, which was put
to the maximum. Lu Shang laid on his back in bed, his legs were lifted up, and his
breathing was disordered with the thrusting.

It was apparent that the person on him was determined to punish him, he was neither
making a sound nor touching him. Only the violent thrusting persisted, the person
was like a hungry wolf that had been waiting for a long time.

Lu Shang wasn't adapting to the movements, Li Sui had always been gentle and slow
with him, he was not used to this side of Li Sui. Perhaps it was because of his
blindness, he suddenly felt uncertain and reached his hand out to touch Li Sui's
face.

The hand that he reached out was not held back. Lu Shang's body got stiff again,
and he moved his waist back, trying to escape.

Li Sui was silent the whole time, but his eyes never left Lu Shang's blurred eyes.
He noticed that Lu Shang showed reluctance on his face, he froze and cursed himself
in his heart; he might had gone overboard.

Quickly, he grabbed Lu Shang's hand and bent over to hold the man in his arms. His
movements turned gentle. Li Sui kissed Lu Shang on the cheek and said softly,
“Don't be afraid, it's me.”

Lu Shang was panting hard, but after hearing Li Sui's voice, he brought his head up
and exchanged a kiss with Li Sui eagerly.

At the end of the kiss, Li Sui gasped and patted Lu Shang's sweaty back, “Can you
sleep now?”

The man in his arms did not respond, Li Sui withdrew a little, “Lu Shang?”

He turned Lu Shang's head and saw that he had fallen asleep already.

Outside the house, the rain was falling gently. This kind of weather was best
suited for sleeping at home while hugging the person you love. However, Li Sui was
the least bit sleepy. He traced Lu Shang's outline with his fingers, time after
time, he was reluctant to let go.

They were very close, so closed that Li Sui could feel each other's heartbeats. Li
Sui listened, he couldn't help putting his hand on his own heart. He closed his
eyes, carefully feeling its rhythm. This thing was something that everyone had, but
not everyone could appreciate its value. Li Sui wanted Lu Shang to live, it wasn't
just talking, he was willing to exchange his life for that.

As long as Lu Shang agreed to the operation…… Li Sui knew the surgery would be a
great success because his heart's love for the man in front of him even surpassed
that towards its original owner.