Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
The Lu family’s recognition banquet was on April tenth.
The banquet was held at the old residence; the number of guests wasn’t large, but all the notable people from both the port city and the northern city came, truly a gathering of elites, silk and shadows.
The climax of the night was naturally that one “God-grandfather” that Guan Jiayi called out to Lu Xingqiu.
The girl’s voice was crisp and sweet, and when she said this, Guan Jiayi couldn’t help glancing at Lu Huaiyan behind Lu Xingqiu, but quickly looked away.
After the recognition ceremony ended, Guo Song came over holding a champagne flute to clink glasses with Lu Huaiyan, teasing: “Now you’re the same as me and Ah Li, we all have younger sisters.”
Lu Huaiyan said lightly: “I already had a younger sister long ago.”
Tonight he wore a standard three-piece suit, the dark gray handmade suit setting off the chilling cold aura on him completely.
Guo Song lifted a brow, just about to ask who, when a gentle voice suddenly came from behind.
“Little Chairman Lu.”
Looking back, it was that illegitimate son of the Fu family.
Now he couldn’t be treated as an illegitimate son anymore. After Old Master Fu fell gravely ill, Fu Yun’s status in the Fu family rose rapidly. He was just waiting for the old man to breathe his last so he could smoothly take over the entire Fu Corporation.
Of course, the Fu family had quite a few old tough bones, and the reason Fu Yun could smoothly sit as Vice Chairman of the Fu Corporation was because of Old Master Fu’s protection. Once the old man passed, it was uncertain whether he could keep the position his father left him.
Guo Song regarded Fu Yun with the mentality of watching a good show.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t even have the mood to watch a show, responding mildly: “Chairman Fu.”
He had never had much acquaintance with Fu Yun to begin with, and the Lu family’s ties with the Fu family were also thin.
Back when the Fu Corporation shifted into the new energy field, they even tried to snatch several deals from the Lu family, angering Lu Xingqiu enough that he directly called Fu Jingyao and scolded him for being shameless.
But that was a grudge of the older generation and had nothing to do with their generation.
Among the younger generation, their relations were still the faint, polite acquaintance between gentlemen.
After a few words of small talk among the three of them, Guan Shaochong and Guan Shaoting came over together looking for Lu Huaiyan.
Lu Huaiyan said an “excuse me,” then walked away with the Guan brothers, conveniently calling Guo Song along as well.
Fu Yun watched them leave, the smile at the corner of his lips remaining gentle and mild.
In fact, even in this kind of gathering, there were still ranks and distances, close and distant circles. So what if Fu Yun was the Fu family’s heir? He still couldn’t enter the circle of Lu Huaiyan and Guan Shaochong.
It had a little to do with his status as an illegitimate son.
But more importantly, it was because the abilities he showed did not match the status he held as the Fu family’s heir.
The Fu family had made a mess of several big projects this year, including the cooperation with the Cen family in Australia. There were plenty of overt and covert power struggles in the family, and who knew how long he would be able to sit in the seat the old master gave him.
Among all the guests present, only Zhu Mingli could see the coldness underneath Fu Yun’s gentle exterior.
His emotions had been unstable these past few days. A few days ago, Old Master Fu had been sent into the ICU for emergency treatment and nearly didn’t make it back. With so many people in the Fu family eager to divide power and seize profit, of course they couldn’t hold back from making moves, the entire Fu Corporation was now surging with undercurrents.
Unlike people such as Lu Huaiyan and Guo Song, who had been raised as heirs since childhood, Fu Yun didn’t even have a maternal family that could support him. Now, only the Zhu family still shared interests with him.
And then there was that Weibo post Lu Huaiyan made the day before yesterday…
They all knew exactly who the “ancestor” mentioned in that Weibo referred to.
That night, Fu Yun had called her over with one phone call, and tormented her for half the night.
Thinking of the perfume he made her wear that time, Zhu Mingli lowered her eyes and took a sip of alcohol.
“Lili?” Cai Xiao beside her saw that she hadn’t answered and nudged her with an elbow, asking, “Why aren’t you talking? What have you been busy with lately? Every time I ask you out, you don’t come.”
Cai Xiao had been close with Zhu Mingli since childhood, and seeing her absent-minded the whole night, she added: “Are you nervous? Want me to go to the hotel early with you the day after tomorrow?”
Zhu Mingli said there was no need, “It’s just an engagement banquet, what’s there to be nervous about?”
She diverted the topic: “That night, remember to help me block a few drinks.”
“Of course, but I’m sure Fu Yun will protect you too.” Cai Xiao said with a smile, “You’re his future wife, would he just watch you get drunk by others?”
Zhu Mingli stared at the alcohol in her glass and let out a barely audible “mm.”
The banquet ended at dawn.
Zhu Mingli left in Fu Yun’s car, and as they passed the Lu family’s lotus pond, they happened to catch a glimpse of Lu Huaiyan’s figure.
The man was leaning against the wooden railing of the pavilion, talking on the phone, his usually cold brows carrying a trace of a smile.
Fu Yun silently withdrew his gaze, the hand wrapped around Zhu Mingli’s waist tightening slightly. He pressed his lips to her ear, smiling as he asked her: “Who do you think he’s talking to?”
Zhu Mingli half leaned in Fu Yun’s arms, red lips slightly parted: “Didn’t Jiang Se not come?”
The smile on Fu Yun’s face was blown rather cold by the wind.
Once they got in the car, he raised the divider to the back seat and said to Zhu Mingli: “Come to my place tonight.”
Zhu Mingli held her clutch in her hand, “I still want to go back and check on Yinlin.”
“Check what? He’s grown, is he still not weaned?” Fu Yun said lightly, “He can’t go to C University anymore. What he did in Australia was exposed. I’m considering sending him to another city.”
Zhu Mingli pressed her lips together: “If he can’t go to C University, aren’t there other schools? There are so many good schools in Beicheng. If nothing else works, I’ll have my father donate a library.”
Fu Yun chuckled gently: “Do you think your father would listen to you?”
Zhu Mingli’s expression stiffened.
“If your father valued you, how would he have let your stepmother and second brother ride over you two siblings’ heads for so many years?” Fu Yun narrowed his eyes, brushing Zhu Mingli’s cheek with the back of his hand, “If it weren’t for me mediating, these past few days, because of your brother, your father didn’t even want to deal with you.”
He leaned closer to her: “Do you hate it?”
His fingertips were very cold, but his breath was very warm.
Zhu Mingli’s heart skipped: “Hate what?”
“Hate your father for favoring boys over girls, for being cold and unfeeling, for letting you and your brother get a stepmother and immediately get a stepfather too.” Fu Yun’s fingers scraped lightly across her fair cheek, “Lili, do you want to take Zhu Corporation into your own hands? Since your little brother can’t be propped up, then you do it yourself.”
Zhu Mingli turned her head to look at him.
The man’s handsome features were half hidden in the shifting light and shadow, his gentle eyes carrying temptation, like a snake coiled on a gnarled branch.
Everyone said he was a gentle, jade-like gentleman.
Only she knew the snake-and-scorpion heart underneath that skin.
And she just happened to like that side of him.
Back then at Bode, wasn’t it this side of him that attracted her?
That evening, she had personally watched him cover the head of the boy who once humiliated him and beat him half to death.
The place was a blind spot for surveillance, next to the fire escape, rarely visited, and that night the school had a performance, everyone had gone to the auditorium.
When the young man threw each punch, his face carried a very gentle smile, as if he were enjoying it.
Zhu Mingli knew the one he was beating, one of Fu Jun’s lackeys, the son of some nouveau riche.
Because Fu Yun earned first place in the grade, and to curry favor with Fu Jun, he purposely caused trouble for Fu Yun, leading people to corner him in the boys’ restroom and humiliate him, calling him a b*tch’s son.
At that time, Fu Yun was in his third year of high school and had already been at Bode for two years. He was someone with almost no presence. That first place was the only time he had ever shone at Bode.
After that, his grades dropped again.
First place in the grade was still Fu Jun’s.
Actually, when Fu Yun had just come to Bode, Zhu Mingli, like everyone else, didn’t think much of him.
Why would an illegitimate child deserve even a glance from her?
But that evening, she hid beside the fire escape window and watched the whole thing with great interest.
She became a little intrigued by Fu Yun.
That lackey was beaten half to death and had to take a leave from school to recuperate.
The school thoroughly investigated the matter but could never find out who did it.
No one suspected Fu Yun, not only because of his gentle and harmless façade, but also because several people proved he had been in the auditorium watching a performance that whole night.
Those people were all ones who had once been bullied by that lackey: ordinary family backgrounds, poor grades, marginal figures whom teachers and parents didn’t care about, who didn’t even dare make a sound when they were bullied.
Later, Fu Yun told her that these “weak ones” were the easiest to use and the easiest to deceive.
“People whose spirits have been crushed, it’s easy to create faith for people like that. I go vent my anger for fun, yet they take me as their savior and are even willing to give me their lives.”
Zhu Mingli thought Fu Yun never knew she had been watching.
Until the school started thoroughly investigating the matter, he suddenly appeared before her, unhurried and composed, asking, “It’s been so long. Why haven’t you reported me?”
The tall, slender boy stood outside the practice room window, his expression fearless.
There was only Zhu Mingli in the practice room. She looked at him for a couple of seconds, placed both hands on the windowsill, curved her lips, and replied, “Why would I report you?”
Fu Yun looked at her deeply, smiled warmly, and said, “Then… thanks.”
Zhu Mingli asked him, “Do you know who I am?” Her voice couldn’t hide its arrogance.
“Of course I know.” Fu Yun stepped forward, lowered his gaze at her, “Zhu family’s eldest young lady, Zhu Mingli, who wouldn’t know?”
The man’s face gradually overlapped with the boy from back then who called her “Zhu family’s eldest young lady.”
Zhu Mingli stared fixedly at Fu Yun and said, “My current company and clubhouse were left to me by my mom. My dad never lets me touch the core business of the Zhu Group. How am I supposed to bypass Yinlin and Zhu Yinao to take over the Zhu Group?”
“Don’t you still have me?” Fu Yun said with complete assurance, “Once we get married, you’ll be the mistress of the Fu family. Our Lili is so capable, why shouldn’t you be the Chairman of the Zhu Group?”
Zhu Mingli was stunned: “Married?”
Fu Yun: “Mm, married.”
The man’s brows and eyes were full of surging ambition: “Father won’t last a few more months. We’ll get the marriage certificate before then. After I take over the Fu family, I’ll help you seize back the Zhu Group.”
His ambition had always been the part of him Zhu Mingli liked the most.
She had watched with her own eyes as he climbed step by step from an unwelcome illegitimate child to what he was today. A man this ruthless and full of ambition truly fascinated her.
The car slowly drove into the underground garage of an apartment building.
This apartment of Fu Yun’s wasn’t his most expensive property, but it was his first home in Beicheng, the first reward Fu Jingyao ever gave him, making it quite significant.
After entering the apartment, Fu Yun took a can of beer from the fridge, gulped several mouthfuls, then used voice control to turn on the living room speakers.
Intense and high-pitched rock music suddenly exploded in the quiet house.
It was that song “Believer.”
The night Jiang Se went to “Huaqing Pool” to find Zhu Mingli, this was the song she played.
Back then Jiang Se had even asked her: “Whose believer are you? And who is your God?”
But the one who originally liked this song had always been Fu Yun, she only liked it because he liked it.
Many of her preferences had been shaped by Fu Yun.
Even things she disliked, he always had a way to make her like them.
“You made me a believer.”
“Believer.”
The singer’s fervent voice kept pounding in her ears. Listening to the song, Zhu Mingli’s gaze swept over the beer labeled “Jiatu” in Fu Yun’s hand, and her thoughts drifted back to that abandoned factory, to the beer Jiang Se handed her, to that sentence, “Do what you’re good at.”
After a brief silence, she looked at Fu Yun and asked him earnestly, “Fu Yun, do you really want to marry me?”
Fu Yun carried the beer and walked slowly toward her, lifted her chin, and said gently, “Of course. Haven’t I always told you, we’re a match made in heaven.”
Hearing this, Zhu Mingli silently lifted his hand and took a sip of the bitter beer, and said, “Ah Yun, there’s something I’ve never told you. Jiang Se came to me. She knows it was me who drugged her, and she also knows Butler Yu is your man.”
Fu Yun’s expression darkened for a moment, then, as if thinking of something, the curve of his lips widened.
He slowly glanced at Zhu Mingli: “When did she come to you? What else did she say? Take your clothes off, say it in the bathroom.” He had always been very cautious.
Zhu Mingli looked at his back, put down her wristlet, slowly took off her evening gown and cover-up, and went naked into the bathroom with him.
–
Jiang Se received Lu Huaiyan’s call just as she came out of the bathroom.
The man asked her on the phone: “It’s past midnight, can I still come over?”
Jiang Se didn’t hesitate much and made a sound of “mm.”
Lu Huaiyan smelled of smoke; he showered at the old residence before going over to Xinhe Residence.
A wall lamp was lit in the entryway, casting a half-arc of warm orange light on the floor, clearly left for him.
Jiang Se hadn’t slept yet; the moment Lu Huaiyan entered the bedroom, her eyes went to him.
The man walked over and kissed her forehead: “Can’t sleep, or were you waiting for me?”
Jiang Se didn’t speak.
Lu Huaiyan tugged her earlobe: “Afraid I’ll have a god little sister and forget about you, my real little sister? Don’t worry, in this life I’ll only ever have you as my little sister.”
Jiang Se was too lazy to bother with him. She lifted the blanket and prepared to sleep.
Lu Huaiyan hadn’t changed into sleepwear yet. He glanced at the back of her head, then went into the cloakroom to change. When he came out, he directly turned off the light and pulled her from the blanket into his arms.
“Not joking with you.” Lu Huaiyan said, “Grandfather recognizing a god-granddaughter is his business, has nothing to do with me.”
He had always been like that, the people he cared about and the people he didn’t were forever clearly divided.
Jiang Se wasn’t very invested in tonight’s recognition banquet; after all, it was the Lu family’s and Guan family’s business, and had little to do with her.
She turned in Lu Huaiyan’s arms, resting on his shoulder hollow, and asked him: “When are you sending Auntie Han to South Guanyin Mountain?”
“The fifteenth,” Lu Huaiyan said, “really not going with us?”
Jiang Se paused a moment, said: “Not going, I have something that day, tell Auntie Han for me.”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t push her: “Okay, I’ll be back on the seventeenth.”
A quiet moment.
Jiang Se suddenly spoke: “Hold me tighter.”
These few days they had been sleeping with necks entwined; when they woke in the morning, their arms and legs were always tangled together.
Lu Huaiyan laughed in the dark: “You waited for me all night just to be held?”
He held her very tightly, and Jiang Se curled up within his breath, letting out a soft “mm.”
She waited for him to come back indeed because she wanted to sleep in his arms.
