CH 22

From beginning to end, it was too coincidental, and he was too affected. If it weren’t for the fact that Luo Wencheng almost died, Lu Chong would have to wonder if this person deliberately approached him.

But as long as he thought of this child who was only in his early twenties and almost lost his life, Lu Chong couldn’t raise a trace of doubt in his heart but was overwhelmed with pity.

Lu Chong sat down casually by the flower bed, with the noble aura that almost made people think he was sitting on an expensive leather sofa, and pointed to his side: “Sit down. Are you feeling better?”

Luo Wencheng sat down a little stiffly: “The doctor said I can be discharged from the hospital. Well, Mr. Lu also came the night I was admitted to the hospital. I was not clear-headed at that time and I don’t remember what I said. If you are offended, please forgive me, Mr. Lu.”

From time to time, the image of himself holding this man for comfort, saying things like “I’m your lost little brother” flashed in his mind, and then he fidgeted, ashamed and embarrassed.

The young man’s white and tender face was flushed, full of anxiety, and Lu Chong couldn’t help teasing him: “How did you offend me?”

Luo Wencheng was so embarrassed that he stretched out his index finger and scratched his face, not being able to answer.

Lu Chong sighed in his heart. Compared to the depression and desolation of lying on the hospital bed, it was better to be like this. Such a vivid, lively look made people happy when they saw it.

He didn’t continue the topic but glanced at the drawing board in Luo Wencheng’s hand: “What did you draw?”

“Just some simple scenes.” Luo Wencheng handed the drawing board a little hesitantly, “It’s not very good.”

Lu Chong flipped through the drawings. They were just the scenes from the hospital. There were flowers, grass, trees, buildings and cars. Lu Chong didn’t understand art, but he still had a basic appreciation of it. The strokes of these sketches were still a bit tender, but there was a kind of aura between the lines. The drawings were obviously static but seemed to reveal unique tension and charm.

The only drawing of a person was the boy playing with a ball. The one of the family of three was given away, leaving the one with just the little boy. There were few strokes and the boy’s features were not very clear, but his smiling look made people feel happy, very happy, very happy, as if the light of the whole world was focused on this little guy. But after looking at it for a long time, Lu Chong felt that there was an extreme sadness emerging from his heart, making it difficult to breathe.

Lu Chong remained silent for a long time, and only after a while did he turn his head to look at Luo Wencheng: “What did you think about when you drew this?”

Luo Wencheng looked at the drawing and said, “This child has a serious congenital heart disease. This time he is hospitalised for surgery, but the risk is very high. He can’t run, jump, or laugh since he was little. This is the first time he has played ball. I thought he had a good time and he was happy, but after thinking about it, I knew it was because his parents were worried about the failure of the surgery and couldn’t bear not to let him have an experience of playing in his life. Thinking about it, I feel sad again.”

When Luo Wencheng talked about his work, he slowly settled down. With the clarity and sense of timelessness that Lu Chong saw in him from a distance just now, he said: “I wanted to draw his happy appearance, but it seems too many of my own emotions were integrated. This drawing looks cheerful, but because it is too deliberate, it has a bit of the opposite feeling. It is not very auspicious, so I abandoned it and drew another one.”

He was silent for a moment, then looked at Lu Chong, a little embarrassed: “When I draw, I like to substitute for the object of painting. Mr. Lu, do I look too sentimental like this?”

Distressed and uncertain…

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Lu Chong could barely resist touching his head again as he said, “You draw very well.” The few strokes were so infectious that even such a layman as Lu Chong could recognise how rare the spirituality of this young man was.

He frowned; why had this never been mentioned in Luo Wencheng’s information?

The second young master of the Luo family back then seemed to be synonymous with being second-rate, a straw bag, an ignoramus. But it was understandable when you thought about it. Luo Kaifang was determined to raise him as a waste. He was surrounded by a bunch of scoundrel “friends”. No matter how good the seedling was, it would never grow well in such circumstances, and the written report Lu Chong got was nothing more than Luo Wencheng in the eyes of outsiders. Who would be willing to spend time to understand his true nature?

Lu Chong looked at Luo Wencheng deeply again, and the plan in his heart was finally determined.

Luo Wencheng smiled shyly when he heard the compliment. He said, “Mr. Lu, I feel better. It’s a waste to be hospitalised. Can I be discharged from the hospital today?”

“Someone should have discharged you by this time. Do you have anything to pack? Go up and pack if you have anything and let’s go.”

“Huh?” Luo Wencheng looked confused. It was already done?

But that wasn’t the point, the point was, “Go? Where to?”

“Just follow me and you’ll see.” Lu Chong stood up and looked at Luo Wencheng with a slight smile. He was already handsome enough, and looking down at him like this, he appeared even more handsome and gentle, with deep and moving eyes.

Luo Wencheng was taken aback for a moment, turning his head away and blushing a little. When this man wore a cold expression, he was frighteningly cold, but when he smiled, he really was a little too good-looking.

“I’ll, I’ll go and pack,” he said as he went upstairs. He didn’t have much stuff, except for the clothes Liu Weizhi bought for him in the past few days and a backpack that Liu Weizhi had brought him from the hotel where he was staying.

Back in the ward, the nurse was cleaning the room, and when she saw him, she smiled: “The young man is back?”

Luo Wencheng nodded politely: “I’m going to be discharged from the hospital. Auntie worked hard these past few days.”

“You’re being discharged? That’s a good thing. Do you need to pack your things? Do you need my help?” When she got the answer that he didn’t need any help, the nurse went out.

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As soon as the door closed, Luo Wencheng’s smile gradually disappeared. He walked to the side of the bed and looked down from the window of the sixth floor. He could see the flower bed where he and Lu Chong had been sitting just now. His face was expressionless, his eyes indifferent, but two little people were fighting in his mind. One was raising a flag and shouting, cheering excitedly: “Success, success! The target seems to have a good impression of you. The first step is a complete and utter success!”

The other sneered with his arms crossed: “Luo Wencheng, look at you, pretending to be dumb, pretending to be a good boy. You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to please that man, are you happy now? Do you want to go to bed with him next? Aren’t you cheap? What’s the difference between you and Luo Wenjun? Have you been reborn to cling to a man?”

Luo Wencheng stood for a long time until the corners of his mouth slightly curved in an unkind smile: “So what?

“So what about being cheap? What about being hypocritical? What about shameful? Can I live well without it? Nope.

“I don’t have a lifetime, I only have one year to live.”

No, it was less than a year, there were only eleven months left.

The Luo family was like a behemoth to him, but in front of Lu Chong, it could be destroyed with one hand. If Lu Chong could give him the power to control the life and death of the Luo family, if Lu Chong could make the Luo family unable to touch him no matter how they hated him, if Lu Chong could make them grovel in front of him, if Lu Chong could let him vent the anger he was holding back for more than ten years of his previous life, so what if he curried favour with him? So what if he sold his body?

He was not ashamed of it, nor would he regret it. Life in this world was nothing more than exchanges for benefits.

The only thing that amazed him was that Lu Chong was surprisingly approachable. He seemed to be a gentle person. As a lover and a golden master, he shouldn’t be too unbearable.

Luo Wencheng just wondered if he had been the same with Luo Wenjun and with his other lovers.

He took out the leather wallet wrapped in a handkerchief from his backpack, the one Lu Chong had given him on the flyover that night. He looked at it twice and threw it in the trash can, as if throwing away that once fleeting, absurdly extravagant hope.