Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Addiction

Huo Ming Chen was deep in thought, contemplating by himself, looking quite like an idiot. He didn’t even know when the movie ended nor when everyone started to leave, leaving only a handful of people waiting for the post movie extras.

Lu Qi felt his back grow cold for some reason and snapped his fingers by Huo Ming Chen’s ear. More and more he’s been finding that he can’t see clearly into Huo Ming Chen’s thoughts anymore,

“What are you thinking of, that has you this deep in thought?”

Huo Ming Chen had an outspoken personality, unable to hide his words, and he looked over at Lu Qi, “I am thinking… if you die with me together, what would that be like?”

Somehow there is this feeling of negotiation surrounding them.

Lu Qi was stunned and then shook his head, thinking that Huo Ming Chen was already this mentally ill at this time — thinking day in and day out not about how to live but only about how to die.

“Not really anything.”

Lu Qi had an air of no negotiation after saying that. But then he felt that there was no need to act so distant as he should have known that Huo Ming Chen was mentally ill. Why become so serious with him,

“But the real estate in a cemetery is so expensive now. If you are buying a grave and are also willing to buy me one beside you, I have no objections. We can be together after death, but no thanks to dying together.”

In his past life, he had not lived past thirty. This was not called dying early anymore, but instead a premature death. He has to live at least past a hundred years to make it worthwhile in this life.

When the movie ended, it was already dark outside. Streetlights started to light up, and the streets were filled with people. Car after car passed in front of them, and their surroundings gave them a very simple but fulfilling feeling.

Huo Ming Chen could not hold Lu Qi’s hand and could only act like close friends, resting his arm on his shoulders. He stepped onto the neon lights and shadows reflecting on the ground,

“It’s already this late at night. Time is passing by so quickly.”

Lu Qi said, “Because it has already passed, you think it went by quickly. But when you are in class, you keep thinking a day is like a year.”

Huo Ming Chen unhappily poked him with his shoulder, “Hey, I know you are studious, but don’t be mean to a bad student like me.”

Besides average grades, Huo Ming Chen has all the attitude of a bad student: feeling sleepy during class, feeling headaches when it’s time for exams, and skipping class was a normal activity. Only when it was Lu Qi inspecting his classroom would he act like a normal studious student, sitting in his classes.

Looking at the time, it was indeed quite late. Huo Ming Chen moodily tugged on his hair,

“Let’s go, I’ll send you back.”

If he went back any later, Huo Ming Cheng’s going to start incessantly rushing him to go back home.

It was only at this time that he felt regret, wondering why time can’t stop right now.

The two of them sat in the car, and in a rare gesture, Huo Ming Chen drove very safely. Lu Qi recalled the last time when he drove this slow, he was mocked by Huo Ming Chen that an old grandpa could walk faster than his driving.

Lu Qi patted his pockets, suddenly having the urge to smoke. But since he didn’t really have a smoking addiction, his pockets wouldn’t normally have cigarettes. That didn’t stop him however as he simply just reached forward and took a box of cigarettes out of Huo Ming Chen’s pockets. His action was done with such familiarity it was as if he’s done this a million times before.

“Hey……”

Huo Ming Chen gave him a look,

“Didn’t you say that you have no smoking addiction? Why are you suddenly smoking.”

Lu Qi told him to smoke less, and Huo Ming Chen was almost done quitting. Now that he’s quitting, Lu Qi’s taken up smoking. What is he doing?

Lu Qi exhaled a ring of smoke. He had inhaled too hard, and the ember in the cigarette had become half dimmed. After a while,

“…… Perhaps I have always had an addiction, but I just never discovered it myself.”

If it was someone else, Huo Ming Chen would have yelled dumbass, but to Lu Qi, he thought about it and then blurted out,

“Wow.”

Huo Ming Chen then extinguished the stick in Lu Qi’s hands and rolled down the window to disperse the smell. He raised his eyebrows,

“And you said that you didn’t have an addiction before. You wanted me to quit, and now you allow yourself to smoke. Where in the world would there be such a good situation like this? If I can’t smoke, you are not allowed to smoke.”

As they were talking, the car had arrived underneath the condo complex. Lu Qi took a look out the window and moved his legs as if he was preparing to get out. It was at this time that Huo Ming Chen suddenly undid his seatbelt and lurched forward to hug him from behind.

The hand around his waist was grasping him very tightly. Lu Qi did not turn his head around and heard Huo Ming Chen say in a muffled voice,

“Lu Qi, why do I miss you so much?”

Lu Qi did not respond and instead lifted him up to sit him on his lap. His chin rested against Huo Ming Chen’s head as he patted him on the back slowly, as if to smooth the fur on a cat. After a few seconds of silence, he finally answered,

“I don’t know either.”

“You would be crazy if you did know,”

Huo Ming Chen seemed angry and used his teeth to bite his neck. Narrowing his eyes he said,

“You always know what is in my pockets. Why don’t you know what is in my heart?”

Hearing this, Lu Qi lifted his chin up and met his eyes. Just as Huo Ming Chen thought he was going to say something, a cool kiss was dropped on his lips and they only stopped after a few more lingering presses.

Lu Qi thought about it and then said,

“Your heart is thinking of me.”

Huo Ming Chen laughed mockingly,

“You are more shameless than me.”

Lu Qi nodded his head in agreement,

“Yes, so you do know that you are shameless…..”

He didn’t get to finish before he felt a pain on his waist. Huo Ming Chen was pursing his lips as he pinched Lu Qi and spitefully said,

“If I die any time soon, it is because you angered me to death!”

Lu Qi thought to himself that you clearly died by a car crash – what angered to death. Every day Huo Ming Chen would just blindly act however he wanted, good or bad, in order to get his way, but Lu Qi still lightly scolded him in spite of this habit,

“Don’t say bad things.”

Huo Ming Chen didn’t talk after that and just lay in his embrace, closing his eyes. The two of them hugged in silence, until Huo Ming Cheng’s call broke the peaceful scene. They reluctantly and slowly parted.

“Why are you back so late?”

Huo Ming Cheng had not gone to bed yet and was watching the news in the living room on the first floor. Because of this Huo Ming Chen was caught directly as he entered. Under the hawk eyes of his brother, he paused for a moment while untying his shoes and with an unchanging face said,

“Oh, there was a bit of traffic on the road.”

Hearing this, Huo Ming Cheng turned off the television. The glasses resting on top of his nose glinted with a white light, but it did not hinder him from seeing through the lie. He pointedly said,

“It’s a specially tense time right now, don’t fool around blindly.”

“Who’s fooling around blindly? Fang Qi and the gang called me out and I didn’t even go.”

Huo Ming Chen mumbled out and he looked up asking,

“That old thing hasn’t come back today?”

That old thing was directed at someone everyone knew. These past few days Huo Yuan Guang had excused himself by saying that he had a lot of things to do and could not return to the Huo family home.

In a rare act, Huo Ming Cheng did not correct his words, perhaps due to the incident of the attempted assassination, he has now killed off any familial love for this uncle.

“Mhmm, probably trying to pull some board members to his side right now. After all, the day after tomorrow is the board meeting.”

Huo Ming Cheng took off his glasses, and he couldn’t help but sigh. He tiredly rubbed the top of his nose bridge, saying,

“I don’t even know how to tell this to our father. He’s already so old, and his heart’s not in a good condition. He’s going to be hurt no matter who gets hurt. Today when he saw the headline news, he specifically called to ask me about it.”

Hearing this, Huo Ming Chen paused in his steps going up to his room and used the railing to look down. With the lights shining brightly down from the chandeliers, he suddenly thought that Huo Ming Cheng’s back was a bit bent, and his hand unconsciously tightened.

He comforted his older brother, “There are some things that you cannot avoid. If you keep hiding, that’s only lying to yourself. Dad has come so far after all the turbulent storms he’s experienced, I’m sure he will understand.”

Huo Ming Cheng shook his head in reply,

“You don’t understand. He and uncle are still brothers in arms. The kind of relationship where if you break off the bone, it will take the muscle with it.”

Huo Ming Chen couldn’t really understand this kind of thinking. His personality was very clear. Love is love. Hate is hate. If others treat him well, he will treat the other well. If they don’t treat him well, well, then don’t expect him to be generous. Huo Yuan Guang, that kind of person, even if you kill him, you still feel like there’s too much of him.

“Well it can’t be helped. Who let him start such a big mess instead of living peacefully? The company’s now turned into such stormy weather. No matter how sad it turns out, it was due to his own actions.”

As he said that, Huo Ming Chen shook his head. He said to Huo Ming Cheng,

“It’s already quite late. I’m going to my room to rest. You should go rest up too.”

The opening act for the board meeting was able to begin, and Huo Yuan Guang seemed to have victory grasped in his hands, finally once and for all removing all obstacles in his way. Only Chen Lian Dong felt uneasy as he remembered that evidence of his wrongdoing was in Huo Ming Chen’s hands. If anything happens, it would be hard for him to escape.

But when the pirate ship is so easy to get on, it is impossible to get off. Huo Yuan Guang, that old fox, would absolutely not protect him and Chen Lian Dong had thought hard about it. He realized that no one could help him, and that he was stuck between a hard rock and a hard place.

The dinner party was just dispersing and Huo Yuan Guang had just sent off a few board members. Counting the stocks recruited into his hand and adding on the problem of Huang Yi, Huo Ming Cheng should have a hard time escaping the fallout at the board meeting, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

He lit up a cigarette, energetic but also looking quite dazed, with his mouth continuing to mutter something.

“Father oh father. When you were so ruthless as to banish me out of the family…… Have I not returned now anyway…… I am so much stronger than him on so many aspects……”

“Look……What’s mine is all mine…… Brother is already so old, that youngster Huo Ming Cheng could not win over me…… In the end the Huo family rests back upon my hands……”

He repeated this over and over and a tear suddenly rolled down his wrinkled face. To this day Huo Yuan Guang still felt that his father was too heartless. He had been young and wasn’t mature enough to understand. Just a tiny mistake, and then he’s cut off from the family. From standing at the top of the world to nothing in a night.

Chen Lian Dong stood outside the room for a very long time and then finally gathered enough courage to push open the doors. He stared at the cigarette butts littered all around Huo Yuan Guang’s feet and forced a smile onto his face. He stepped up saying,

“Congratulations Chairman, the Huo business is yours from now on. All those people were trying to get on your good will.”

Huo Yuan Guang saw him and forced himself back to reality. He contemplated for a bit and said,

“They all just see the benefits. When I was kicked out of the Huo family, they were fighting with each other on who could act more cruel to me.”

Chen Lian Dong picked up a lighter on the table to light up a cigarette for him, in a voice filled with worry he said,

“The day after tomorrow is the board meeting. Huo Ming Cheng definitely can’t win over you, but I worry that once he steps down, he will try to find a way to push Huo Ming Chen up. After all Huo Ming Chen has stocks in his hands, and Grandfather Huo must support his own son’s……”

“Hmph!”

Huo Yuan Guang did not wait till he finished talking before stomping his cane hard onto the floor and a flash of indignation crossed his eyes. Obviously not taking it to heart,

“Huo Ming Chen is a child who just came out of the womb. Even if Huo Ming Cheng has the power to push him up, I will have a way to drag him back down!”

“But getting them all in one swoop is better right? Why are you giving them the time to branch off?”

Chen Lian Dong came closer and his eyes flashed maliciously. He tempted Huo Yuan Guang,

“After all, Zhang-Shu is already dead. If you kill one, that’s murder. If you kill two, that’s still just murder. Getting rid of all your obstacles, blaming it on Huo Ming Cheng, and then living comfortably for the rest of your life, doesn’t that sound even better?”

Chen Lian Dong wanted them to fight each other and be occupied by each other. First use Huo Yuan Guang to take care of Huo Ming Cheng and then use Huo Ming Chen to take care of Huo Yuan Guang. As long as these waters keep getting murkier, the better for himself. At that time, no one would have the attention to spare for him.

Even if he can’t run away in the end, as long as he can drag down Huo Ming Chen, it doesn’t matter if he is jailed. Right now Chen Lian Dong could not imagine Huo Ming Chen ruining him and living his life freely.

Didn’t Huo Ming Chen call him Huo Yuan Guang’s good loyal dog? Then he himself will let him see what it means to be called a “good dog”!

As if he had no idea of the plan in Chen Lian Dong’s heart, Huo Yuan Guang paused as he heard him, and asked, trying to stare through his soul,

“What good plan do you have? Say it out.”