Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 13: Sports Day

Sometimes, life is like a dream. A few days ago, the two of them were still intimate. Today, they are walking down their own paths.

In ‘C’ University, the finance building and the accounting building were situated next to each other, as the university can only be so big. You could walk in and out of the university, and 1 out of 10 times, you’ll run into the person you didn’t really want to meet.

Fang Qi and the gang always did things together and all of them were handsome and wealthy young men. No matter who it was from the group, they were all famous people of ‘C’ University. And no doubt Huo Ming Chen was the top of the top. He seemed to have returned to his days of his youth, doing everything and anything without a care in the world, unrestrained. He enticed people to come closer but also made people scared of approaching him.

Lu Qi had classes in the afternoon, and he always had the habit of going ten minutes earlier to find a seat. They say that if you are avoiding someone, you will definitely see them. A couple of meters away, he could see the group that called Huo Ming Chen their leader. 

After that one night passed, Lu Qi had let it all go. There are always gold mountains out there somewhere. He kept an air of normality and did not hide. But he also did not greet them and just calmly passed by. 

“Ah, isn’t that……”

Fang Qi did not know they broke up, and when he saw Lu Qi, he wanted to greet him. Huo Ming Chen gave him a quick kick and said as he looked away,

“Don’t greet those you don’t know.”

“Ack, did you eat something weird?”

Fang Qi thought to himself that whenever they met on the streets like this, Huo Ming Chen always went up to say hi, no matter how hard he tried to stop him. But now it’s weird between the both of them as they seemed to have changed personalities.

Cheng Tian Yao sensed that something was going on and looked back at Lu Qi’s silhouette, thinking about something. He thought he guessed the problem, and patted Huo Ming Chen’s shoulder in consolation,

“Hey, alright, how old are you to still be throwing tantrums? Whatever problem you two are having, just say it. There isn’t anything that can’t be resolved between brothers.”

Huo Ming Chen snorted, eyes ice cold, 

“Hmph, who wants to be brothers with him.”

Do people have sex with their brothers?

Fang Qi was the only one that knew the two of them were in a relationship, and he really wanted to ask about the situation. However, there were too many eyes around them, so he waited until lunch before dragging Huo Ming Chen away.

“Ya, what is up with the two of you? What are you guys doing?”

Fang Qi normally looks stupid, but for important situations like these, he can see things pretty clearly. He was afraid that these two were making an issue out of nothing,

 

“You two were fine when you first got together. What’s with the distance between you two? There are some things that you won’t be able to notice, but as onlookers we can see it very clearly and Lu Qi has been pretty good to you. If you are fighting, then talk about it and clear up air. If you can’t solve it, then endure it. Don’t give up now. The problem will pass soon.”

Huo Ming Chen thought to himself he’s already growing a green pasture over his head1, what else would he have to endure? Was he such a simpering bastard that he’d just let Lu Qi walk all over him?

“There are some things you just don’t understand.”

He extinguished his cigarette on the table with force, only letting go when it was mushed up and in pieces. He thought about over and over and then couldn’t hold it back anymore,

“He cheated……”

“What? Who cheated? You or Lu Qi?”

All thoughts went out of Fang Qi’s brain when he heard this. Huo Ming Chen gave him the stink eye,

“If it wasn’t him, would it have been me?!”

“No way –“

Fang Qi was flabbergasted and he sucked in a breath of cold air,

“He doesn’t look like that kind of person.”

There are many butterflies in ‘C’ University that surround Lu Qi, this flower growing up on a high cliff, no one could reach him up until now. And the biggest reason was that this person was like an impenetrable rock, can’t seduce him nor will he answer. 

Huo Ming Chen closed his eyes forcefully, and his growing headache was making his face pale,

 

“Do you believe him or do you believe me? That woman was literally hanging on to him as they went into a hotel.”

He was not that bored to put a green hat on his head2.

Fang Qi was silent for a very long time as he didn’t really know what to say. After a while, he said quietly,

“……Is that woman still alive?”

He was not kidding. If the person being cheated on is Huo Ming Chen, that question must be asked.

Huo Ming Chen’s face became colder and colder as he heard that. He slowly leaned back, and his face was emotionless. 

“…… I haven’t investigated it yet.”

Fang Qi saw the expression on his face and knew that there would not be a good ending to this. Huo Ming Chen hasn’t returned to reality yet, still too stunned about the situation. Once he does and starts looking for payback, Lu Qi wouldn’t be in too much trouble, but that woman, oh that poor woman. 

“Right right right. It’s perfect that you haven’t checked yet. I’ll help you investigate, see who is this woman who ate a pill of courage to become a homewrecker!”

Filled with justice, he took over the situation, scared that Huo Ming Chen would turn this into something bigger, something much bigger that could not be stopped.

Lu Qi was oblivious to everything, and in a blink of an eye, half the school term was already over. Then midterms were fast approaching, and he put all his effort into obtaining scholarships and rewards.

Friday was Sports Day, and the teams were split between the majors. Lu Qi was too lazy to join any of the competitions, as it would take time away from his studies. Instead he voluntarily signed up to join the event team that sets up the fields.

It has been freezing cold lately, and today was a rare warm sunny day. After he moved a small portion of the chairs, he lazily sat down, soaking up the sun’s warmth. Suddenly, he was covered by shadows.

He opened his eyes and took in the situation, his sharp and quiet stare was like a still, frozen pond. Fang Qi felt his back growing cold, being stared at so intensely by Lu Qi. He unconsciously took a half step backwards, and then remembered why he came. He boosted up his confidence and stepped half a step forward again.

Lu Qi sighed and patted his head, returning back to looking like a harmless human being,

“Why are you here?”

Fang Qi moved a chair to sit near him.

“You are intelligent, so you should already know why I’m here. There are some things that have been greatly misunderstood, and there just needs a simple explanation to dissolve it.”

Lu Qi propped his ankle on his knee, and with a careless attitude said, 

“Uh huh, there’s no point in persuading me. No one needs another person to keep living.”

Fang Qi was silent for a while and then suddenly said, 

“…… you don’t need him to keep living, but if he doesn’t have you, can he still keep living?”

This, Lu Qi has really never considered. The field was starting to fill up with people, bringing a constant noise to his ears, causing the coziness that he surrounded himself in to dissipate. He closed his eyes lightly, his fingers tapping on his knee, one beat at a time,

“I just saw him this morning, seems to be doing quite well.”

Fang Qi looked at him, wanting to say something but then stopped. He was so silent that Lu Qi couldn’t help but open his eyes again to look at Fang Qi. In the end Fang Qi could only say,

“……Forget it. Maybe it is better that you two separated. But please, consider this as me begging you, please don’t irritate him for a while.”

He originally had a stomach full of words about Huo Ming Chen to tell Lu Qi, but then seemed to come to terms with something and left with those words.

Lu Qi also thought that splitting up was a good thing. He let him go now, wasn’t that good?

Previously, every evening study period, he would trade with another student inspector to go to finance, but since the day they argued, Lu Qi has asked for his absence from inspection. Which meant he naturally did not know that Huo Ming Chen had not been going to the evening self study period for a long time. Skipping his classes has also become a regular activity.

From this kind of standpoint, Huo Ming Chen’s good and bad points were the result of Lu Qi’s actions and their relationship.

At 1pm, Sports Day officially began the opening ceremony. It was the hottest time of the day, and every major had a cheerleading team consisting of only girls. Young women in short skirts and crop tops made the whole field go wild, capturing almost, if not all, male gazes.

The basketball competition was on fire, with girls cheering for their crushes until their voices were hoarse,

“Language major Wang Jian Chao!! Fighting AHHHHH!!!”

“Chemistry major Jiang Yi!!! He’s my boyfriend!!!”

“Accounting major Lu Qi fighting ahh! If you win, I’ll be your girlfriend!!”

Lu Qi was wearing a work lanyard, standing just outside of the court. He never even went inside to join the competition, only silently looking left and right, wanting to know if there was someone with the same name in the competition.

It seemed like someone was specifically paying attention to him, as laughter began to erupt from the group of girls cheering. A more courageous senior girl shouted,

“Freshman Lu, that was you! Don’t be embarrassed. Even if you aren’t participating, we’re still cheering for you!”

“……”

Lu Qi smiled back but did not reply. This kind of thing seemed to happen often, and to avoid disgruntled voices, he decided to leave.

Fang Qi took this all in with his eyes, and carefully looked at the person beside him. But Huo Ming Chen acted very normal which he felt was very abnormal. He looked further down and oh, ah, the veins of his hand were popping out and that bottle of water was threatening to explode from the force being applied to it.

For some issues, Fang Qi would definitely side with Huo Ming Chen on, and to make him forget about reconciliation, he could not help but bad mouth Lu Qi, 

“Don’t be like this for that womanizer. There are lots of two legged men out there. Spending money to punish yourself isn’t really your style, that guy’s out for money and he’s even in a lot of debt……”

Huo Ming Chen did not seem to want to hear him babble, and with a lot of thoughts crowding his head, lied on the table pretending to go to sleep.

Those who were competing started getting injured or feeling ill, and Lu Qi and other volunteers helped them to the infirmary. However about 8 out of 10 people were faking it, and Lu Qi started feeling out of breath from running so much. Sweating by the buckets, he slowly walked down the stairs to catch his breath as going back and forth has been torture on his body. 

Physical Education Department’s Luo Yan saw him coming down, and vented,

“This group of lords, each one of them saying that they have heat stroke, all to escape the marathon run. The class leader wanted me to replace them and it’s a miracle I’m not dead from exhaustion yet.”

He just finished venting, and he saw Lu Qi suddenly take one step into the open air, on the stairs where there were still five or six steps remaining.

And then Lu Qi began to roll down the stairs.

“Shit! Lu Qi! –!”

Watching the sky and the ground swirl around him before his vision went black, he heard the system who has not shown up for a long time, say once again,

[ Ding! Minor electrical shock initiating! ]

[ From the system’s scans, there are unknown deposits being made! My dear host, please find and return all fortune not earned by your hard work on time. As this was not your wish, a special extension of 3 days has been granted. If you exceed the 3 days, and you do not return the money you haven’t earned, a strong electric shock punishment will be initiated at once, and life points will be deducted. ]

[ Reject becoming a kept man, starting from you! The galaxy’s most self reliant system is happy to be at your service ]

What is this……

Who the fuck is becoming a kept man……

Lu Qi’s whole body shivered, angered into consciousness. He opened his eyes, and it took a few seconds for him to orient himself, finding that he was lying on a sick bed in the infirmary.

“Awake?”

Beside him rang a playful voice. Lu Qi propped himself up, and found that it was that bastard Fang Qi. He was silent for a few seconds and then looked around, scowling, 

“Why are you here?”

“Stop looking, he didn’t come.”

Fang Qi threw away the melon seed husks in his hands into the garbage can,

“You rolled yourself from the top of the stairs to the infirmary. As we once knew each other, I came to see you out of the goodness of my heart. But as you are awake now, I’ll take my leave.”

He turned around to head out of the infirmary.

Right outside the infirmary, sat a person by the stairway. His light colored t-shirt was soaked in sweat, and he was out of breath, as if he just did some extremely strenuous exercise. Fang Qi looked back at the infirmary, and sighed. He used his toe to kick the person’s back.

“He’s awake. No issues. The doctor said it could have been a heat stroke.”

As soon as he heard that, Huo Ming Chen stood up and, using the railings, took them one step at a time, heading down the stairs. He pushed his sweat covered bangs back and said through heavy breathing,

“Keep your mouth shut.”

Fang Qi laughed,

“Ai ya, Prince Huo, your personality has changed. You spent so much effort to carry him to the infirmary, and you didn’t even leave your name after your good work.”

And he couldn’t stop himself,

“Fuck, what kind of broken building is this, no elevators installed at all.”

Due to convenience, the sporting events were held close to the school infirmary. Adding to the loud shouting by Luo Yan, quite a few people saw Lu Qi trip down the stairs. Before Fang Qi could even react, Huo Ming Chen who was right beside him, stood up and ran straight over.

Huo Ming Chen ignored the topic,

“My leg hurts, I’m going back to rest.”

However thin Lu Qi was, he was still a man. At least a hundred kilograms. For Huo Ming Chen to carry him all the way to the infirmary without a break, without professional training, anyone would have been weak after that.

“Right next to us is the infirmary, and there’s beds. You can just go to rest there.”

Fang Qi followed him all the way down, thinking that these two were such a matched set,

“You helped him, paid his debts, and sent him to the infirmary. You obviously can’t forget about him. Listen to me, just suck it up and it’ll be fine.”

The “cheating” case was investigated by Fang Qi, and at that time had been frustrated by Lu Qi’s flippant attitude. So he did not tell Huo Ming Chen the truth, that the “other woman” was actually Lu Qi’s sister and only said that he owed a lot of money to some people.

He didn’t think that even though Huo Ming Chen was angry, he still asked for the loan shark’s information and helped that bastard out and paid his debts. 

Huo Ming Chen looked away, face cold, 

“The one who made a mistake was him, not me, why should I be the one to bow my head.”

His footsteps started going faster, leaving Fang Qi behind him.

“Ah! That was actually a misunderstanding!”

Fang Qi yelled out in response to Huo Ming Chen’s misunderstanding. He hit himself on the head and ran to catch up to Huo Ming Chen.

The author has something to say:
Fang Qi: The Best One of Them All.
Huo Ming Chen: The Outstanding Ex
Lu Qi: The One Who Deserved to be Electrically Shocked Because He Was Too Slow to Return Money

 

Notes:
*1 growing a green pasture over his head is a saying that means your partner has cheated on the person and had sex/relationships with other people – usually the greener or the larger the pasture it is referenced, the more people/more times your partner has cheated on you. So with this, Huo Ming Chen is referencing that Lu Qi cheated. You can also say “被绿了”, meaning “I’ve been green” or like in footnote 2, “wearing a green hat” which means you’ve been/are being cheated on.

 

There’s a lot of bad connotations with green which is based on multiple factors of history and other myths and legends such as turtles (don’t hide like a coward, like a turtle) or in some dynasties, those related to prostitutes (in the same family, blood related or married to) were supposed to wear a green scarf.

*2   As like footnote 1, growing a green pasture over his head is like wearing a green hat. It’s also been associated that if you wear a green hat, you should be ashamed/embarrassed (as you’re going to be or already have been cheated on). This kind of saying has been around quite a long time (albeit in the beginning, it meant a different thing) but no one really knows where it originated from. You can search up “绿帽子” to see some of the commonly used stickers for chats which are mostly self mocking or tease(or to curse) someone.