Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 22: Elegance, Not Filth

The two of them were short of breath, and their hearts were still pounding in excitement. During their exchange, somehow their hearts began to beat in sync. Huo Ming Chen weakly dropped his hand, and discovered that his watch had become loose because of their previous activity. He re-latched it and wrapped his arms around Lu Qi’s lean waist, eyes buoyant and pleased,

“What, haven’t seen me in so many days, and you’ve been thinking about me?”

The office had heat circulating from the air conditioning system, so even in the cold temperatures of winter, their bodies were covered in sweat. Lu Qi brushed his sweaty bangs aside, and didn’t respond. He only held Huo Ming Chen’s face closer to press kisses over and over, soft and short in between the other’s sharp eyes, gentling those steely eyes.

“Lu Qi.”

Huo Ming Chen called out his name softly, for no reason and for no cause, as if only to say it, and his heart felt like it became warmer, as if the more he says it, the more happiness and love he will have.

The office, after all, was very inconvenient, so the two of them took a brief rest before simply tidying themselves up to go back home. Thankfully Lu Qi was not a crazy guy; even if he became crazed with sex on the mind, he won’t do anything like tearing off clothes or ripping off buttons as they were still intact. Except for some wrinkles, everything else was fine.

When Huo Ming Chen walked out, he still felt his legs weaken, and some place down there was not very comfortable. His lips twitched, and he turned to face Lu Qi,

“I’m going to be useless if you keep doing it like this.”

It was hard to tell if his tone was resentful or delighted, so Lu Qi took it upon himself to decide that it was the latter. He used the small moment before the elevator doors opened to touch Huo Ming Chen at the waist and then pretended that nothing happened, facing the mirror in the elevator and started to fix his tie.

“Alright, I’ll let you rest for the next couple of days.”

Is what he said, but his underlying meaning was for him to store up energy and passion.

Hearing this, Huo Ming Chen snorted coldly and did not say anything else, only occasionally glancing at him discreetly.

The elevator door was about to close, but then with a “ding”, it opened. An older man that looked exactly like his age walked in with an assistant. Seeing Huo Ming Chen, that old man laughed out in delight,

“Isn’t this Ming Chen, why, did you have free time to come over today?”

This was obviously Huo Yuan Guang.

“Uncle.”

Enemies must meet in narrow hallways. Huo Ming Chen called out not quite enthusiastically and disinterestedly said,

“It was on the way, so I came with my classmate to take a look at the company.”

Lu Qi was originally facing away from the elevator doors. Hearing this, he lifted his eyes and from the mirror, recognized the familiar waxy yellow face of Huo Yuan Guang and paused for a second. He then turned around and politely nodded to Huo Yuan Guang,

“Hello.”

Huo Yuan Guang was born with a very approachable face. Even when he was finally able to enter the company, he was a gentleman that complimented and helped everyone. He saw Lu Qi and gave him a random compliment, his eyes flashing with something underneath,

“Ha ha ha, what a handsome fellow. Looks like you are good friends with Huo Ming Chen. My nephew here does not play around with just anyone.”

Hearing that backhanded compliment, Lu Qi did not respond. Couldn’t say he was cold nor could you say he was approachable, and with his mouth plastered on a very superficial smile, he replied,

“You’re too kind.”

The two groups were going to different floors, so when Huo Yuan Guang finally left, Huo Ming Chen could not help but roll his eyes,

“Why even bother talking to that old man.”

Lu Qi looked down at his phone to text a message to Lu Yuan. Not even lifting his head to respond,

“If you have the ability, you can ignore him. If you didn’t talk to him, then naturally I wouldn’t have talked to him either.”

In a battle of wits, ten Huo Ming Chens would not be an opponent to one Lu Qi. He glared, and it wasn’t clear from his face if he was happy or not,

“Ah fuck me! You think you are the best now huh!”

While wearing a suit, Lu Qi looked very elegant and refined. Disguised as a gentleman.

“Be more refined. Stop swearing day in and day out.”

Hearing this, Huo Ming Chen looked at him for a moment, and gave a long “chi” sound, saying quite like a ruffian,

“What, can’t I say fuck? Didn’t I just get fucked by…… Mhmm!”

The next second Lu Qi had covered his mouth and dragged him out of the elevator. Because they were walking quite fast, the receptionists did not see anything out of the ordinary. Once they were seated in the car, Lu Qi finally let go of Huo Ming Chen and scolded him,

“Can’t close your mouth.”

Huo Ming Chen put his ankle on his knee and leaned back on the seat and sighed,

“Saying all these things like a goody two shoes, just like my brother.”

Lu Qi started the car, with his wits set to the max,

“But I haven’t heard you call me good big brother yet.”

Huo Ming Chen sat up in interest when he heard that and scooted closer to Lu Qi,

“What, do you want me to say it? It’s not not negotiable.”

“Nevermind.”

Lu Qi was scared of him now, thinking that he really can’t rile up this shameless hooligan.

Huo Ming Cheng had told everyone that he was heading out of the country for business. In reality he had ordered the services of a private detective to investigate the entire 15 years of Huo Yuan Guang’s life.

It turned out that Huo Yuan Guang had lost his right to inherit the company and was banished outside the country because he had used company funds to buy drugs. This was discovered by another rival company, and they almost exposed it to the media. The Huo family had paid quite a few favors and money to hide the news. But the stocks had fallen quite hard, and it took quite a few years to recover.

Originally their great grandfather had decided to cut him off from the family and secretly sent Huo Yuan Guang straight to the police. He made Huo Yuan Guang enter a drug rehabilitation center and once he was out, he was banished to America. This banishment became a period of 15 years.

According to the report from the private detective, Huo Yuan Guang had been very quiet during the years he had been out of the country. He was reliant on but still lived pretty well with the money their grandfather sent over monthly. Just doing some gardening and going on walks, very normal activities.

But it was so normal that it made people suspicious……

If Huo Yuan Guang was someone at peace like it said on the report, why would he be back now and trying to find all sorts of ways to get into the company? Why would he use their grandfather’s pity to allow his connections to meet with shareholders of the company in secret?

For Huo Ming Cheng, the ability to sit on this throne of power was not just dependent on being blood related to the family. For the right to inherit, that’s never enough. He pondered and pondered and then suddenly opened his eyes and said to his secretary,

“Huang Yi… I believe they have already started construction. Bring a copy of their accounts to me. I’m going to verify it.”

The secretary followed his orders as told and returned with the accounting statements. Huo Ming Cheng carefully looked over the paperwork, verifying it line by line but did not find any problems. He could only push down his suspicions for now.

Lu Yuan was new to the company and was specified by name by the Huo’s family second son to take care of her. So Secretary Lee did not give her too many jobs, mostly little things like photocopying paperwork or brewing coffee, and so forth.

Of course Lu Yuan did not forget Lu Qi’s request. She kept her eye on Huo Yuan Guang, but the other’s position was too high in power, and she did not have a good excuse to be near him. Almost the entire work day passed by before she saw his face, and it was the kind of meeting where they passed by each other in the hallways while in a hurry.

Lu Yuan took off her glasses, and spaced out in her seat. Her attractive face in the shine of the bright white office lights gave her an aura of coldness, which somehow made her more entrancing. Tonight, every department had to work overtime, and at this specific time of night, the supervisor had gone out for dinner. A male colleague who could not withhold his interest anymore came over to flirt,

“Ah, the new hot girl. What’s your name? Let’s get to know each other.”

Lu Yuan lifted her eyes, and seeing that it was a colleague in the same floor, smiled politely and nodded her head,

“Hi, I’m Lu Yuan. Yuan as in fate.”

Seeing that she did not have the intention to shake hands, the other male colleague did not mind and said with a smile,

“I’m Guo Kang. Worked here for about 6 years now. If you have anything you don’t understand, you can come ask me.”

Hearing this, Lu Yuan turned to look at him,

“Really?”

And then scooted closer to him in her chair, and lowered her voice, in a tone that meant she didn’t feel mean to trouble him,

“Actually, um, my memory’s not that great. Today’s my first day, and when I first came here, I heard them say this president Huo and that president Huo, and I’m getting dizzy from this confusion.”

Guo Kang took it in stride, and showed off like he was one of the founding members,

“Oh, and here I thought it was something else. Well, just remember this. Our company’s chairman is president Huo. His uncle, hmm, is the vice chairman.”

He placed heavy emphasis on the word “vice”, and added,

“Oh right, there’s another little president Huo which is the chairman’s younger brother. But him, he’s still in university. Doesn’t always come to the company.”

Lu Yuan looked to be deep in thought and was about to say something else when she saw Guo Kang run away like a mouse hiding from a cat, and quickly scooted back to her desk. She cautiously looked behind her and found that Secretary Lee was standing behind her, for who knows how long.

“There is still 1 hour and 32 minutes before the end of the workday. This is not the time for you to be chatting.”

The man was dressed in an all black suit, and there were no wrinkles or flyaways from his hair to his shoes. He was so serious looking that it made his somewhat attractive face turn into a stern rule abiding man. As the highest ranking secretary of Huo Ming Cheng, his words were definitely loaded with weight.

“I apologize.”

Lu Yuan quickly admitted to her fault, and ducked her head, pretending to organize some files. It wasn’t until she heard those leather shoes clacking away that she finally let out a sigh of relief.