Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 19: Anxiously and Restlessly

Lu Qi thought in his heart that Lu Yuan really did understand him. Tonight he was destined to not be able to sleep. There was no air conditioner for warmth, and the cold was slowly seeping into the room.

He did not feel the cold as he closed his eyes and rested on his pillow, trying to remember every little detail since he had been reborn. He didn’t find any concrete evidence and could only think about his suspicions inside his heart.

Nine o’clock at night, Huo Ming Chen returned to his family home. The housekeeper saw that he looked a little drunk and brought a bowl of hangover soup upstairs to his room. When she entered his room, she could hear the phone on the desk vibrating nonstop and glanced at it a few times,

“Oh Ming Chen, it looks like someone’s trying to give you a call.”

Huo Ming Chen laid on the sofa, and his Adam’s apple moved. He used the back of his hand to cover his eyes as if he was drunk to the point of unconsciousness. But maybe it was just her imagination, the housekeeper thought she saw his mouth twitching, making him that much creepier for some reason.

“Mhmm, it’s nothing. I’ll pick it up after a while.”

The phone has been ringing for so long, why would he need to wait a while before picking it up? The housekeeper has been tending him since he was a baby, and could not help seeing him as her own nephew. She persuaded in a kind voice,

“Don’t fool around, and pick it up quickly. If they don’t call again after a while, what are you going to do? Letting someone wait like this is not good.”

Huo Ming Chen nodded his head, but she couldn’t tell if those words were taken seriously or not.

After she left, the phone was no longer ringing. The room was so silent one could hear the pitter patter of the rain outside, and the wind blowing the branches. After a few days, it would probably snow.

Huo Ming Chen sat up and tilted his head to listen, his eyes lowered, and his fingers tapping in the air. He did not look like he was anxious or in a rush and instead a bit pleased.

Fifteen minutes later, the phone started to ring again.

Lu Qi had a lot more patience than he imagined.

Huo Ming Chen pouted and extended his arm to finally pick up his phone and answer the call. The first sound was Lu Qi’s deep and stable breathing. After a few seconds, Lu Qi finally said,

“Why didn’t you pick up the phone?”

“Not allowing my phone to be on silent huh? What, thinking of me?”

Lu Qi did not respond.

Huo Ming Chen lit up a cigarette and then placed it on the ashtray. White smoke began to fill the room slowly, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Bringing a perverse sense of nostalgia, he touched his chin and contemplating, said,

“Letting you feel for yourself that roller coaster feeling I have always felt before. Who let you to never pick up my phone calls.”

That was the truth. Whenever Lu Qi called Huo Ming Chen, every call would be accepted; Whenever Huo Ming Chen called Lu Qi, having 3 out of 10 phone calls accepted would be a very good battle record.

Lu Qi hearing this not-really-an-explanation explanation almost bit off his tongue. He emotionlessly licked the inside of his mouth and half joking, half seriously said,

“Can I understand this as a revenge tactic?”

Huo Ming Chen extended his hand and used his thumb and forefinger to measure out a small distance of space in the air. He squinted his eyes,

“It can’t really be considered revenge. It’s just a tiny tiny lesson.”

Lu Qi was a bit sensitive to these words right now, and he suddenly realized that he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tomorrow night either. He unconsciously flipped himself around, but because the bed frame was a bit old, it made a loud creaking sound. The noise was loud enough to transmit to Huo Ming Chen, and he asked naturally and cordially,

“Who are you rolling around that loudly in the bed sheets with?”

His eyebrows were furrowed, and his tone was not generous.

Lu Qi raised his hand and a lean finger drew a “S” shape in the air. He intentionally lowered his voice and slipped into an ambiguously flirting tone,

“36D, guess who.”

“Fuck! –“

Huo Ming Chen did not believe Lu Qi had the courage to sleep with someone else,

“You’re rolling around with air. Don’t get a cold.”

Lu Qi smiled fakely, voice in an enchanting tone,

“But I want to roll around with you instead, what should I do?”

Huo Ming Chen silently closed his eyes, almost unable to hold it in,

“If you dare, then you come over. I’ll lie flat for you to roll around with.”

“Then you should roll around with the air instead.”

Huo Ming Chen realized then that he had been tricked.

Lu Qi was trying to stifle his laughter and said just before Huo Ming Chen blew up in anger,

“Alright, alright, no more teasing. After the new year I’ll try to come back earlier.”

Unlike the flirting tone before, his voice suddenly became warm and gentle, making Huo Ming Chen release his tension. Huo Ming Chen walked towards the window, and he gazed into the faraway dark night, as if this could make him see the same sky as Lu Qi,

“I heard…… It will snow in the capital tomorrow.”

Lu Qi instantaneously understood the meaning,

“Ok, tomorrow you and me. We’ll watch it together.”

Huo Ming Chen reached out towards the window and poked at it. His finger began to draw pictures on the window fogged up with condensation,

“What if it doesn’t snow over there?”

He couldn’t see Lu Qi’s expression over the phone, but his voice was quite pitiful,

“Then I beg of Prince Huo, you will graciously lend your presence to video call me, so I can see the first snowfall of the capital.”

The first snowfall, whether it is in a novel or on television, people will always give it the special meaning of romance, as a sign of something beautiful, something good in the relationship.

But……

Lu Qi looked at the weather for his area and felt like there wouldn’t be a big chance for snow tomorrow.

It is not complete without sleeping in on a holiday. The Lu family did not have a lot of relatives over here and for the rest, they don’t normally interact with each other. So the brother and sister pair could sleep until the sun was already high up in the sky. Because Lu Qi didn’t sleep that well yesterday, he woke up later than Lu Yuan.

“Lu Qi, time for breakfast.”

 

Lu Yuan had tied her hair up into a ponytail, and was dressed with a light white lamb fur jacket which made her look more youthful and pretty. She knocked on the door, and lazily leaned against the door frame,

“Li Si Ao has come back too. He’s even coming over to greet1 us for the new year.”

Lu Qi opened the door, eyes still not quite open,

“It’s not even the first day of the new year, what are they greeting us for? What did they say?”

Li Si Ao was the neighbor of the Lu family. He had always liked Lu Yuan since they were small and was always following behind her like a little duckling. They only lost contact when Lu Yuan went out to work a few years ago.

“Nothing, just gave us a bunch of gifts. Milk, bird’s nest, and the like. I didn’t take it though.”

“Huh, that’s rare of you, when did you become this generous?”

Lu Qi went to brush his teeth and clean his face in the washroom. He could hear Lu Yuan’s chattering quite clearly through the closed door,

“I don’t even like him, why would I want his expensive stuff?”

Lu Qi paused after hearing this, thinking that that is quite true.

Breakfast has been pushed into lunch, boiled congee, golden egg pancakes, and a few other small dishes. Lu Qi’s taste buds have not awoken yet, so he couldn’t really taste and ate quite numbly.

A senior alumni of C university had opened his own workshop, and the results weren’t bad. Pretty much every year he would come back to the university to hire new emerging graduates, and obviously the focus is on those who have the highest grades. Feng Jie, the student council president and a third year student,  was about to graduate. He had the mind to forge his own path instead of using his family background and had very early on reached out to Lu Qi and a few other students to work in his company.

A young ambitious man will always need to fall down and experience setbacks in order to grow up, but Feng Jie was an exception. In his previous life, his first step into society with his company had pretty good results. Firstly, it’s because he himself had the skills to back it up. Secondly, most of those in C university went to work for him, and thirdly, because of his family background with the Feng family, he’s had it all covered from timing, personnel and authority.

Lu Qi sat in front of the computer for the entire day. Lu Yuan could not understand what he was doing, and only dared to disturb him for dinner.

“Brother~”

She made sure she walked lightly towards him, as if it was during the time of the college entrance exams, and everyone in the family was afraid to disturb him, not even wanting their breaths to move a single thing out of place,

“Mom wants me to call you out for dinner.”

“Ok, I’ll be right out.”

Lu Qi snapped back to reality and saved his programming code. He stretched his body a bit and then discovered that it was already night time. He subconsciously turned to look at his cell phone, but found no messages or phone calls, and his face had a tiny fraction of a scowl, so tiny that you would have to be close to his face to see.

 

The author has something to say:
#Discuss Lu Qi’s anxiety, scaring himself for the entire day#
Author: A foundless worry2, clever people really can’t undergo being scared.

 

Notes:
*1   New year greetings: Chinese New Year has multiple festivities and takes over multiple days, and there may be quite a few differences depending on where you go. But most simply, down to the bare bones, each day has different custom or things you do. For example, one day you greet/give blessings to your family, one day you greet your relatives, one day you eat certain foods, one day you don’t wash your hair, one day you clean the entire house to welcome the new year, etc. 

*2   A foundless worry, “杞人憂天” means as a metaphor to not worry about crossing a bridge until you are there to cross it/don’t cross a bridge before you come to it. Saying that the person is uselessly worrying when they are not there or at that point to have those worries.