Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 34: Putting All the Cards on the Table

They say the eldest brother is like a father figure and given the circumstances where their father was always too busy with the company and never had enough time for anything else, this rings quite true for Huo Ming Chen.

It did not help that Mrs. Huo had also passed away early in his life. So Huo Ming Chen could say definitively that he was one handedly raised by Huo Ming Cheng. But even so, Huo Ming Cheng has never been able to fully understand Huo Ming Chen’s flippant hot and cold personality that has appeared since this little brother of his was young.

The ceiling of the hospital’s private ward was as white as snow, and the lights above were swaying a little too much that it stung his eyes. Huo Ming Chen could feel his whole body aching with the multiple scrapes and wounds of different levels on him. His calf had a light fracture, and with the cast, he was unable to get out of the bed and move or walk.

Huo Ming Chen sat up, asking about Lu Qi’s situation, who was situated in the ward next to him. Only after hearing from the doctor that Lu Qi did not sustain any serious wounds did he lay back down.

Huo Ming Cheng took all of this in with his eyes, and after he escorted out the policeman who came to take Huo Ming Chen’s testimony, he could not help but turn to take a long look at this worrisome little brother of his. He dragged a chair over to sit near Huo Ming Chen and folded his hands together in a posture that implicitly stated that he was the one in control.

Huo Ming Cheng pushed up his glasses and asked,

 “Who was that man that was kidnapped with you, a friend?”

What needs to come will always come. After all, one can never hide a fire that was burning with paper. Huo Ming Chen was afraid of his brother having a heart attack from hearing the truth, but after mulling it over a bit, he tried to say it as gently as possible in hopes for his brother’s acceptance, 

“……Yes. A friend. But you have to add a word in front.”

Hearing this, Huo Ming Cheng’s heart began to race. He furrowed his eyebrows and uneasily switched his sitting posture, 

“What word?”

Huo Ming Chen: “Boy.”

Adding a “boy” in front of friend, then isn’t that……

The pupils behind Huo Ming Cheng’s glasses dilated, and when he came back to his senses, his body had already stood up, and the chair was thrown back from the force at which he stood up.

“How could you dare! —-!”

His eyes were widened from shock, and the first reaction he wanted to do was to slap Huo Ming Chen. His hand was already high in the air, ready to strike, and he was angry to the point where his fingertips were shaking. But as he looked towards the bed where his little brother laid, body full of wounds, that hand could not come down.

“Pang.” 

The hand slammed down heavily onto the bedside table. The vase on top shook from the force. Huo Ming Cheng gritted his teeth, and anyone in the room could see his veins popping out from his forehead. His usually pristine hairstyle was now all flustered and out of place. He no longer had the face of someone who could rule at the top of the business world, 

“Who let you touch this dubious habit?!”

It would have been alright if he was going out with a woman, but he is rolling around with a man. If this gets out, everyone is going to laugh until their teeth falls out. Where would the face of the Huo family be?!!

“No one converted me. I was born a homosexual.”

Huo Ming Chen looked at him with an earnest expression. What he said next, however, rocked waves into Huo Ming Cheng’s heart like a tsunami crashing over, 

“I have always liked men, and I only like him now. You can’t change me and you can’t fix me.”

Huo Ming Cheng’s face became really pale and his chest heaved for a long time. He couldn’t utter out a single word. Seeing him like this, Huo Ming Chen would have kneeled and bowed right now, if only he was able to move. He could only close his eyes in guilt as he said,  

“Brother, sorry……”

Every person that is born is never born as an isolated individual; they have their own responsibility that they must uphold, and they have their loved ones that they have to care for. It was not destined for a person to do whatever they wanted without a care in the world, without a care for those around you.

You can never have the whole cake for yourself. If you get something, you must lose something. You lose something, then you will gain something.

All Huo Ming Chen could do right now was minimize the impact on his family and the possible impact to his family from the opinions of other people because of his relationship. But even if he tried to mitigate the negative impact, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be any. He was more willing to have Huo Ming Cheng beat him up, if it would at least make his brother feel a bit better in his heart.

Through his life, he has been through his own share of bad news and setbacks, and so the only thing that Huo Ming Cheng could do right now was to use every ounce of strength in him that he has gained from that experience to forcefully calm himself down. 

With a pale white face and taut expression, he lifted the chair back up from the ground, and his eyes stared persistently at Huo Ming Chen before slowly sitting back down on the chair. He said only one sentence, 

“Break up with him immediately.”

And then added, gritting his teeth, with great emphasis,

“Immediately!”

However, Huo Ming Chen was a stubborn person; once he has made his decision, he’ll either keep quiet about it or voice it out loud and be guaranteed to do it. He forced himself to sit up proper and straight as he said, 

“Brother, I’m sorry to you. I’m sorry to dad, I’m sorry to the Huo family. I have made a lot of grievous mistakes, so much so that you can’t count them all……”

He did not hide from Huo Ming Cheng’s eyes and stared at his brother with open and sincere eyes, as if maturing in that moment, even if this was not the kind of growth that Huo Ming Cheng wanted to see,

“I have not, to the best of my ability, fulfilled my responsibility as a son, and not as a little brother. I have enjoyed the fruits given to me from the efforts of the Huo family, and have not done anything in return. But brother, liking someone is not wrong……”

“Like?” 

Huo Ming Cheng seemed to laugh, mockingly and condescendingly, 

“How old are you? Do you even know what it means to like someone? Do you know what it means to be with someone for the rest of your life? Do you even know what it means when you make that decision?”

What he is saying, the young Huo Ming Chen would never have understood, but ever since meeting and knowing Lu Qi, he understands.

A lifetime is very long, but if he thinks about spending it with Lu Qi, it’s too short.

For Lu Qi, he could learn to curb his temperament, his impulsiveness. Begin to learn how to love someone. And know slowly what it means, what it feels like to love someone. This kind of love is different from the love for your family. There are many reasons, but if you were to say it out loud the exact differences, you can’t really explain it clearly.

Huo Ming Chen did not want to fight with his older brother and only repeated his intentions once again,

“I will not break up with him.”

At this time, Huo Ming Cheng has completely calmed down. His instinctive shrewd business personality and sensitivity made him start to look for a weak point to break through.

“The kind of personality you have, I know better than anyone. Can that person tolerate staying by your side? How do you know that he is with you for you and not because of your money?” 

He did not recognize Lu Qi’s face, which meant he has never seen him before in his social networks or circles. It was almost certain that his family background was not one of high standing.

Being provoked at the implication of Lu Qi enduring his personality, Huo Ming Chen silently turned to look at Huo Ming Cheng.

“Is it because even you believe that my temper is so bad that I’m destined to be liked by no one?”

Huo Ming Cheng did not speak up.

Huo Ming Chen continued to talk to himself, 

“If he was after my money, then I’d be pretty happy. Happy that I finally have something in me that can make him stay.”

These words sounded too self deprecating to Huo Ming Cheng’s ear, but he held on to his patience to continue listening.

“His family background is not good, and he loves money. But ever since he has been with me, he has not asked for a single penny. I have nothing to give him–  What can I even give him……”

The corners of Huo Ming Chen’s mouth seemed to tug up, as if he wanted to smile, but he couldn’t smile at all,

“When he was in his first year of university, he had worked several part time jobs everyday. Studying and earning money at the same time. In his second year, he followed someone else to create a startup company, continuing to work and study at the same time…… Brother, did you know, that kind of life is something that I have never thought about before or could have even considered……”

Since birth, Huo Ming Chen has lived a carefree life, being born into a life of gold and jade. Everyday his only problem was to think about where to go to play, where to go and find happiness. He lived in a daze in his adolescence, never really experiencing what it meant to live in society, as a human suffering under the system and way of life out there.

“Maybe he has times where he’s troubled, but he has never said a word to me. He is more serious than anyone I know, has always worked through his own hard effort to improve the lives of his family…… Of course, what I’m saying now is not to prove something to you,”

Huo Ming Chen lifted his head to look at Huo Ming Cheng. 

“I like him. No matter what reason he has for being with me, I’d like him if he’s good, I’d like him if he’s bad.”

Because I like him, not what kind of him.

“I see that you are so caught up in your own feelings that your heart has become cold and insensitive to your own family!”

With a bang, Huo Ming Cheng stood up and didn’t want to dwell on this topic with him anymore. He went straight towards the door. As if Huo Ming Chen could see straight through him, he said, 

“You don’t have to try to find a weak point from him.  There’s no point in using your authority to try to pressure him. The only possible thing you can do is to kill him. And the moment he dies, I’ll follow him right after.”

And then honestly said with no embellishments,

“Without him I cannot live. If he was to break up with me for no reason or cause, I will drag him to death with me!”

“Pa!”

This time around, Huo Ming Cheng could not hold in his urge to turn around and slap him. Huo Ming Chen did not hide nor did he avoid it. He withstood the hit with a straightened back, and his face immediately reddened, with a clear imprint of a palm on his face. He pursed his lips looking at Huo Ming Cheng, silently and stubbornly.

“Did our father and mother let you come into this world to let you die this way?! If we had known earlier, I should have strangled you to death the moment you were born!” 

Huo Ming Chen kept his silence for he believed in every word he said. But he could only say it like this, because otherwise, the consequences would have fallen onto the lone Lu Qi, the one who had no family background or power.

The sounds of the two brothers fighting could be faintly heard, as not even the sound absorbing doors could block their noise, which naturally meant that it was not blocked off to Lu Yuan who was standing outside. Too bad she couldn’t hear the exact details, Lu Yuan thought as she sighed, lamenting that wealthy families were too melodramatic. She shook her head and went into the room next door.

Lu Qi had a small fever and was just getting IV treatment. He was lying on the bed, face white and pale, a little dazed in his expression. Seeing Lu Yuan come in, he tried to wake himself up, asking,

“How is he?”

“Don’t worry, doing pretty well. Just fighting with his brother, so you can definitely tell that his pair of lungs are working just fine.”

Lu Yuan ripped open the box of takeout food that she bought from downstairs. Her long hair was loosely and casually tied up, with an expression on her face that held some residual feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. She pursed her lips, and only after the takeout boxes were all opened, she suddenly said, 

“You shouldn’t be so close to that Huo Er-Shao. This time you were dragged into a kidnapping, who knows what the next time will bring? When I got the phone call from the police, it almost scared me to death.”

Hearing this, Lu Qi, who was picking up a pair of chopsticks, paused. His focus switched from the fighting between Huo Ming Chen and his brother to what Lu Yuan was talking about,

 “The kidnapping was not related to him. And some things that will happen cannot be stopped. It could only be said it was fated to happen in our lives.”

“If your fate was to be beaten up in this life, why didn’t it beat you until you become dumb!”

Lu Yuan was so angry that she could not eat any of the food. She wanted to rub her face to try to lessen the headache but then remembered that she had makeup on, and so her hand was raised halfway up to her face before being put down again,

 “Good thing that the police did not call mom. Otherwise I will watch how you can get out of this.”

Lu Qi said,

“Don’t worry, her tolerance is stronger than yours.”

“No matter how strong she is, she’s getting old. You certainly can achieve something in life. You don’t have the money of a millionaire, but you have a millionaire’s life. Every year the country only has a few kidnapping cases and you can even stumble into one.”

Lu Qi was holding his bowl of congee but had no appetite to eat it and did not bother acknowledging her nonsense babbling. He looked like he suddenly remembered something and asked, 

“What was Huo Ming Chen fighting with his brother about?”

“Not sure. It seemed pretty big and nasty. I couldn’t hear them clearly from outside, but this whole thing has been blown out of the water. Last night, there were a whole bunch of police officers that came huffing into the company and took away a whole bunch of people, which included our vice chairman. It’s all just reporters camping outside the company now.”

Lu Yuan said as she vented,

“I already knew from the face of the vice chairman that he could not be a good man. And that Chen Lian Dong beside him, I heard from colleagues that not only did they hire people to kill someone, they were also siphoning company funds to discreetly buy stocks. Which caused that Huang Yi Yin Xiang collapse as they then didn’t have enough funds and could only use cheap materials. Really representing that phrase of knowing the face and the person, but you don’t know their heart in reality.”

Originally Huo Ming Cheng had planned to catch them all in the board member’s meeting tomorrow. But then this kidnapping happened, which turned all of their plans into a mess and forcing a lot of them to have to be enacted earlier. But that didn’t make a difference in the end as the conclusion would have been the same. The bad guys were destined to never have a good ending.

Hearing Lu Yuan’s summary of events, Lu Qi could then guess what their neighbours were fighting about. He lightly placed down his bowl of congee and straightened his body,

“Ah-Yuan,”

“Hmm?”

“If Brother…  found a sister-in-law for you, is that good?”

Hearing this, Lu Yuan smiled widely and tilted her head in surprise, looking at him with consideration,

“Wow, there’s actually a woman who could reel you in. My future sister-in-law is pretty amazing. Who is it?”