HR Chapter 21

The next day, the underlings said that He Bo had sent someone to invite Lu Qinyuan the night before, but they had turned him away. Early in the morning, He Bo sent someone to invite Min Chu over for a meal. Min Chu dressed up and left with them, but didn’t return until noon.

The underlings gathered together playing cards, joking and laughing: “Lazy is being kept by He Bo again. He just escaped yesterday, and now he’s jumping right back in. Sigh, love!”

“You don’t know anything. Lazy is willing. Didn’t you see him smiling like a flower? Who knows who’s going to get the better of whom this time!”

“I’m just worried that He Bo won’t let go. Where else are you going to find talent like Lazy? If it were me, I’d learn from Emperor Wu of Han and build a golden house to keep him in, hahaha!”

“Come on, you need to get it straight. Lazy isn’t Empress Chen, and He Bo isn’t Emperor Wu of Han.”

“Alright, alright, where did that come from? What Empress Chen and Emperor Wu of Han? Didn’t you see the True Dragon Son’s face is black? Looking for trouble!”

The group looked over and saw that Lu Qinyuan’s face was so dark it was almost dripping water. They hurriedly tried to explain, but the more they explained, the more Lu Qinyuan felt the green hat was firmly planted on his head, getting higher and higher, making it hard for him to breathe. Seeing Lu Qinyuan’s expression getting worse, the group quickly shut up, praying that Min Chu would come back soon. Your little man is jealous!

It wasn’t until evening that Min Chu returned under the starry sky. As soon as he entered the door, the underlings surrounded him, escorted him to the second floor, gave him a supportive encouragement, and confidently opened a betting pool downstairs on how many minutes it would take their boss to deal with his man.

Min Chu was completely baffled by this. He laughed and cursed, pushed open the door, and saw Lu Qinyuan sitting by the bed. The room was dark, but Lu Qinyuan’s dark eyes were particularly bright, like the eyes of a wild beast staring at its prey. As soon as he saw Min Chu, Lu Qinyuan, as agile as a little leopard, pounced on him and pinned him against the wall, tearing at his clothes.

Min Chu used his skill to break free from Lu Qinyuan’s grasp and took two steps back: “What are you doing?”

“Do you have something going on with that He Bo!” The thoughtless question betrayed his true feelings. He both believed and doubted, wavering back and forth. Min Chu had too many secrets for him to control. Lu Qinyuan was uneasy, mostly because he felt inadequate.

Lu Qinyuan’s eyes were bloodshot, and he glared at Min Chu hatefully. Min Chu straightened his clothes, rolled up his sleeves, nodded, and smiled: “Kid, you don’t trust me.”

Min Chu patted Lu Qinyuan’s shoulder, his tone full of undisguised disappointment: “Indeed, there’s nothing trustworthy about the words of someone who killed your mother. But,” Min Chu raised his fist: “If you don’t trust me, you should trust my fists.”

A fist landed on Lu Qinyuan’s eye, and then the punches rained down. Lu Qinyuan instinctively wanted to fight back, but Min Chu scolded: “Try fighting back! You little brat, you get cocky if I don’t discipline you for a day! Don’t even talk about if I have something going on with someone, even if I did, what could you do? You even learned to overthink things. It looks like you need a beating! I’m going to crack open your skull today and see what’s inside! You never learn good things, always thinking about crooked ways, looking for death! You still want to fight back? Try it, I’ll beat you to death!”

As the words fell, a flurry of punches followed. At first, Lu Qinyuan tried to dodge and protect his head, but Min Chu caught him every time. Seeing that he couldn’t dodge, he stopped dodging and protecting himself, stretching his head out under Min Chu’s fists, crying and howling: “You might as well beat me to death! It’s better to die at your hands! Death is clean, saving me from being distracted by you all day long. You blame me for overthinking, but don’t you think about why I’m like this? You treat me like a child, not telling me anything. There are rumors about you everywhere, just like they’re real. The brothers are all joking. If you were me, wouldn’t you overthink things! Come on, beat me to death, beating me to death will make me rely on you even more!”

Towards the end, he was just being a brat, hugging Min Chu’s waist and sobbing, feeling extremely wronged. Min Chu couldn’t help but laugh after hearing his accusations: “If you’re like this, you’re still a child. I should consider whether to separate from you. Maybe you’ll grow faster without my protection.”

Hearing Min Chu mention separating again, Lu Qinyuan blurted out without thinking: “You’re my enemy, and we haven’t finished settling our accounts!” He just wanted to keep Min Chu, no matter the reason, as long as Min Chu didn’t leave.

But Min Chu was angered by his words and said sharply: “That’s right, I killed your mother. You’ve had countless opportunities to kill me all this time, but you chose not to. Now you’re bringing up old scores, do you want me to pay for your mother’s life? Fine, if you want it, I’ll give it to you. Let go of me, and I’ll give you my life right now.”

Having been together for so long, this was the first time Lu Qinyuan had seen Min Chu lose his temper. He hugged Min Chu’s waist and didn’t let go, weakly defending: “It’s not like that, Min Chu, I don’t mean that, I just…”

What Lu Qinyuan really cared about wasn’t who killed his mother, but Min Chu concealing his relationship with Blood Bat. Then, what else was Min Chu hiding from him? Once this question expanded, it became an infinite vicious cycle. Real and fake things were woven together in his mind, and he couldn’t tell who was right and wrong.

Lu Qinyuan knew that Min Chu was the murderer who killed his mother, but he didn’t blame Min Chu. Min Chu knew that Lu Qinyuan was Lu Jianwei’s son, but he didn’t care.

But after all, there was a close relative’s life between them, like a thorn deeply embedded in Min Chu’s heart. He didn’t care that Lu Qinyuan was Lu Jianwei’s son, but he cared that Lu Qinyuan’s mother died at his hands.

After giving Lu Qinyuan a beating, Min Chu’s anger subsided, and Lu Qinyuan also calmed down. Min Chu took out medicine to treat the injuries on Lu Qinyuan’s face. Min Chu didn’t hold back, and his eyes, cheeks, and the corners of his mouth were all injured. One cheek was swollen high. Lu Qinyuan lowered his eyes and didn’t look at Min Chu. Even when Min Chu deliberately used more force, he gritted his teeth and didn’t cry out in pain, as stubborn as a donkey.

Min Chu felt both distressed and helpless. He couldn’t help but mutter as he got up after applying the medicine: “Still says he’s not a child.”

Lu Qinyuan was enraged when he heard this. He faced away from Min Chu all night, and when he went downstairs with a pig’s head face the next morning, the brothers were stunned and couldn’t close their mouths for a long time. Min Chu waved his fist, warning them: “I’ll settle the score with you guys later.” How dare they stir up trouble between him and the little brat!

Lu Qinyuan didn’t say a word along the way. Min Chu chewed the candy in his mouth loudly, cracked one open, and stuffed it into Lu Qinyuan’s mouth. Seeing that he was about to spit it out, he warned coldly: “You dare.”

Lu Qinyuan frowned and bit the candy as if it were Min Chu, looking fierce. Min Chu reached out and ruffled his hair, pulled him into his arms, and hugged him. Lu Qinyuan thought about defending the position of the superior and hugged Min Chu back, even kissing Min Chu on the mouth. Min Chu let him do whatever he wanted, compliantly responding. Lu Qinyuan raised his tail even higher.

Lu Qinyuan regretted his childish behavior that day immensely. If he had known that it was the countdown to their time together, he would never have been angry with Min Chu and would have coaxed Min Chu with sweet words.

When they arrived at their place, Lu Qinyuan and Min Chu got out of the car one after the other. Lu Qinyuan was telling him about Lazy getting married that he had heard at the bar, and was just talking about Lazy and the girl opening a room, and the girl showering in the bathroom, when Min Chu interrupted him: “That girl you’re talking about is you, right? That time you dressed up as a woman. I remember that’s the hotel we opened the room at.”

Lu Qinyuan was stunned. He had always felt that something was wrong. He had been jealous for so long and was actually jealous of himself? His face immediately turned red. He left Min Chu and strode forward, but after a few steps, he suddenly heard a “bang” behind him, followed by exclamations of surprise.

Lu Qinyuan instinctively turned around quickly, his face blank.

A flower bloomed on Min Chu’s chest, and fresh blood quickly gushed out, soaking through his white shirt. His face had an unwithdrawn smile. The gunshot came too suddenly, and his brain had not yet received the information that he had been shot.

Min Chu took two steps back, his face with an apologetic and helpless smile.

Lu Qinyuan didn’t know how he ran over, grabbed Min Chu’s falling body, stared at Min Chu without blinking, and asked in disbelief, his throat dry: “Min Chu?”

Min Chu patted his hand, smiling to comfort him: “It’s okay, don’t worry.”

The underlings reacted quickly, shouting “Lazy!” and roaring: “Someone assassinated Lazy! Chase them! To the hospital!”

Pushing Lu Qinyuan away with one hand, he picked up Min Chu and ran, turning his head to roar at the stunned Lu Qinyuan: “Follow!”

Sitting on the hospital bench, looking at the words “Operating” [During surgery], Lu Qinyuan suddenly calmed down. He analyzed the matter bit by bit, peeling away the layers, and suddenly realized that he had been used as a gun, and the first shot was aimed at his lover.

And he, stupidly, had been led by the nose and taken advantage of.

As soon as the light went off, Lu Qinyuan was the first to rush into the ward. The small ward was suddenly filled with people. Min Chu raised his hand and waved, and the group of subordinates withdrew, leaving only Lu Qinyuan alone.

Min Chu’s lips were pale, and he smiled weakly: “Your eyes are swollen. Don’t cry.”

Lu Qinyuan’s tears fell again at those words. He wiped his eyes and choked out, “Min Chu, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. How do you feel?”

Min Chu pursed his lips and said, “Kid, you hate reading, right?”

“You know that, why are you asking?” Lu Qinyuan held Min Chu’s hand to his face, tears falling down. Min Chu sighed softly: “You’re making me hurt so much, I’ll punish you to read in the future.”

“I’ll read, I’ll read every day from now on,” Lu Qinyuan looked at Min Chu pleadingly: “You stay with me, watch over me, or I’ll slack off.”

Min Chu smiled but didn’t speak. Lu Qinyuan tightened his grip on Min Chu’s hand, and his tears flowed even more fiercely. Min Chu said helplessly: “Sigh, kids are just a hassle. I don’t have the strength to coax you right now.”

“Who’s a kid, who needs you to coax me!” Lu Qinyuan was devastated. Min Chu didn’t say anything else, quietly watching Lu Qinyuan cry, wanting to look at him again and again, as if he could never get enough, reluctant to close his eyes.

For the first time, he wanted time to pass more slowly, slower, looking at the child crying so sadly in front of him, his lover, his heart ached, he didn’t want to leave, and he was reluctant to leave. How much he wanted to live, wanted to say, Kid, I won’t die, I’ll be with you, don’t cry.

But that shot was too accurate, right in the heart, without the slightest deviation, making it difficult for him to have any hope.

Lu Qinyuan held Min Chu’s hand and stared blankly. Min Chu’s voice and smile flashed through his mind, one by one, one by one. Min Chu’s appearance when he praised him, his appearance when he taught him, were clearly engraved in his heart. He wore a white shirt, sometimes with glasses, looking gentle and refined, and you would think he was a school teacher when he walked down the street.