As Xu Xingzhe was waiting for the ticket inspection at the Nangang high-speed train station, he caught sight of a handsome guy in a suit.
At that time, Xu Xingzhe was leaning on Lu Zhaoshen and using his phone. When he looked up, he spotted a distinctive and eye-catching figure in the crowd. He was impeccably dressed in a suit, tall with long legs, his hair slicked back without a hair out of place, and exuded an elitist aura. Xu Xingzhe’s eyes stopped on the man for two seconds. Just when he was about to speak, he was caught by Lu Zhaoshen.
A displeased voice came from above his head, “No one’s there anymore but you are still staring.”
It took Xu Xingzhe a moment to register the sulking in Lu Zhaoshen’s words. He pinched Lu Zhaoshen’s thigh and deliberately asked, “Guess what I’m looking at?”
“What’s it got to do with me?”
“Just guess.”
Lu Zhaoshen pushed Xu Xingzhe’s face away and pursed his lips.
Lu Zhaoshen’s tolerance for such things was truly low, so much so that Xu Xingzhe couldn’t help but wonder if Lu Zhaoshen was that madly in love with him to be so easily jealous.
Xu Xingzhe leaned back against Lu Zhaoshen again, hugging his arm and smiling, “I was thinking, that man’s suit looks great. When I earn enough money, I want to buy a suit like that for Lu Zhaoshen. Lu Zhaoshen is taller and more handsome than him. Wearing a suit like that would definitely be irresistible.”
The muscles on Lu Zhaoshen’s shoulder visibly relaxed. He leaned slightly toward Xu Xingzhe, allowing him to lean against him more comfortably. Xu Xingzhe tilted his head up to plant a kiss on Lu Zhaoshen’s cheek, but it was too far away, so he didn’t bother to get closer. He rubbed his forehead against Lu Zhaoshen’s chin and gave up.
This action made Lu Zhaoshen dissatisfied. He lowered his head to look at Xu Xingzhe, but Xu Xingzhe acted dumb and innocently opened his eyes wide. They were at a stalemate for a while before Lu Zhaoshen gave in first. He turned his body to face Xu Xingzhe and kissed Xu Xingzhe’s forehead, taking advantage of a family of three who were carrying their luggage to check their tickets in front of them.
Xu Xingzhe got his way and smiled as he leaned into Lu Zhaoshen’s arms. “When I make money in the future, I’ll buy gifts for my parents first, then for you and Uncle Lu.”
“Will your salary be enough?”
“Of course, your gift is me. I’ll clean and wrap myself up to deliver myself to your bed, how about that?”
Lu Zhaoshen was amused by this, “No need.”
“You’ll get it even if you don’t want it!” Xu Xingzhe clung to him for a while, then suddenly turned serious and said dejectedly, “I don’t even know how to face my parents this time. I hid it from them when I filled out the application. They were furious when they found out that I got into Nangang University. My dad almost beat me, but my mom stopped him. My dad didn’t speak to me all summer, and he hardly spoke to me after the semester started.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Why didn’t they agree?”
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“I want… I just want to graduate quickly to earn money. Then propose a marriage to the Lu family, marry Lu Zhaoshen, and reach the pinnacle of life.”
Lu Zhaoshen’s lips curled up, “You’ll marry me?”
Xu Xingzhe was firm, “I’ll marry you because I’m older than you.”
Five months older still made him the elder brother, Xu Xingzhe thought.
Lu Zhaoshen’s gaze shifted downward, lingering below Xu Xingzhe’s abdomen as if to say: Where are you bigger?
Xu Xingzhe’s self-esteem was humiliated, and he retorted with his hands on his hips, “I’m bigger than you everywhere!”
Lu Zhaoshen pulled Xu Xingzhe into his embrace, ignoring the looks of the onlookers. He just followed his heart’s impulse. He rubbed Xu Xingzhe’s earlobes and the soft hair on the back of his head. His movements were so gentle that Xu Xingzhe didn’t dare to move and snuggled up to Lu Zhaoshen’s chest like a little rabbit with its ears perked up. Lu Zhaoshen thought that Xu Xingzhe was adorable in every way, even his scent was good.
He wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
“Xingxing.”
For the first time outside the bedroom, Lu Zhaoshen called Xu Xingzhe by his nickname. Xu Xingzhe lifted his head from his arms, his eyes wide with anticipation as he looked at him.
“The road ahead might be a bit tough. Are you afraid?”
Xu Xingzhe shook his head. He felt that Lu Zhaoshen’s expression was so serious that it was frightening. He stretched out his finger to lift the corner of Lu Zhaoshen’s mouth and said playfully, “I’m not afraid.”
On the third day after Xu Xingzhe returned home, his father, Xu Chengshan, finally returned from his business trip to the capital. As soon as he saw Xu Xingzhe, he broke the bad news.
“Your Uncle Lu has resigned from his job with me. He quit and hopes our families will keep their distance.”
Xu Xingzhe was bewildered, then he heard Xu Chengshan say, “Xu Xingzhe, come into the study, let’s talk.”
*
Xu Chengshan didn’t consider himself a rigid and conservative parent. He had always adopted a lenient attitude toward Xu Xingzhe’s upbringing. Xu Xingzhe had caused a lot of trouble growing up, but as long as he recognized his mistakes and sincerely corrected them each time, Xu Chengshan would not be too hard on him.
But when it came to his sexual orientation, Xu Chengshan couldn’t simply turn a blind eye.
The night after filling out the university application, Xu Xingzhe went to his parent’s bedroom with his head bowed and confessed that he hadn’t applied to Xicheng University but to Nangang University, which was hundreds of kilometers away. He also explained that because of his grades, he could only apply to a less popular major at Nangang University, mathematics, which was his weakest subject.
Xu Xingzhe realized the gravity of the situation only after he confessed. Knowing that he had made his future a joke without considering the importance, he couldn’t help but cry and beg his parents for forgiveness. Xu Chengshan exploded in anger and threw the teacup beside him at Xu Xingzhe. The direction was slightly off, and the cup only hit Xu Xingzhe’s shoulder before falling to the ground. The glass shattered into pieces, making a terrifying sound, and the tea and tea leaves scattered everywhere. Xu Xingzhe’s face turned pale. Qin Jiazhen was so scared that she rushed to Xu Xingzhe’s side. She swept the shards of glass to the corner of the room and worriedly protected Xu Xingzhe, “Is Nangang University worse than Xicheng University? Why are you reacting so violently?”
Qin Jiazhen didn’t know about that thing. Xu Chengshan had kept it a secret from her.
Xu Chengshan thought it was just a little rebellion caused by Xu Xingzhe’s puberty, a pursuit of novelty or a desire to be different. He believed that as he grew older, he would gradually return to normal. It wasn’t a big deal to like the wrong person at an ignorant age. Xu Chengshan didn’t want Qin Jiazhen to be troubled by it as well. He had thought that by keeping the two children apart, Xu Xingzhe would have a change of heart within a month.
But things didn’t go as expected.
Xu Chengshan called Lu Guoyuan to ask which university Lu Zhaoshen had applied to. Lu Guoyuan couldn’t hide his excitement over the phone, “Zhaoshen applied to Nangang University to study finance. This kid has his own plans. I wanted him to study medicine, but he refused to listen to me. But finance isn’t bad either…”
After hanging up, Xu Chengshan realized he had underestimated the seriousness of the situation.
He asked Xu Xingzhe to change his university application, but Xu Xingzhe nervously replied, “The deadline has passed.”
Xu Chengshan’s hand was about to slap him when his secretary called to inform him of a problem with the project urgently. A worker had fallen from a crane, and his life was in danger and he was being rushed to the hospital.
“I’ll come back to deal with you after I take care of this,” Xu Chengshan told Xu Xingzhe.
Xu Xingzhe was so scared that he started to cry. He had expected Xu Chengshan to be angry, but he hadn’t expected him to be this furious. Qin Jiazhen carefully brushed Xu Xingzhe’s clothes as she was afraid that there might be glass shards on them. She was both heartbroken and angry. She kept asking Xu Xingzhe what had happened, but Xu Xingzhe said he didn’t know, he really didn’t know.
The company’s affairs turned out to be more complicated than expected. The worker who fell off the crane couldn’t be rescued, and his family demanded a hefty compensation payment, so the problem reached the city government. No matter how they negotiated, they couldn’t come to an agreement. Xu Chengshan didn’t have time to discipline Xu Xingzhe until school started in September.
After Xu Xingzhe had packed his bags to go to Nangang University, Xu Chengshan called him and told him to behave himself.
His tone was as cold as before. Xu Xingzhe was so frightened that he froze. Qin Jiazhen thought Xu Xingzhe had caused trouble again and walked up to ask him what happened.
Xu Xingzhe shook his head. As soon as he stepped into the study, he heard Xu Chengshan say, “Are you still with Lu Zhaoshen?”
A thunderclap rang in Xu Xingzhe’s ears.
“It’s because I didn’t discipline you enough, and your mother spoiled you too much, letting you do such absurd things without restraint. How, how could you be—”
Xu Chengshan looked at Xu Xingzhe, his face was no longer filled with rage, he just looked haggard and aged. He couldn’t even say that word. After half a minute of dead silence, he spoke again and pleaded earnestly, “Xingxing, can you turn back? It’s not too late to turn back.”
For the first time, Xu Xingzhe noticed that Xu Chengshan had white hairs and that the wrinkles around his eyes had become deeper. In Xu Xingzhe’s memory, Xu Chengshan was still in his prime, full of vigor and vitality. When did his father become so old?
When Xu Xingzhe said, “I can’t turn back,” Qin Jiazhen happened to open the door. Xu Xingzhe saw the tears in his mother’s eyes and her trembling hands. It almost made him unable to breathe.
“Lu Zhaoshen and I have been together for over two years. We will always be together in the future.”
…
Lu Zhaoshen was also having a hard time. Unlike Xu Chengshan, Lu Guoyuan was an unrefined man who didn’t understand the concept of layoffs or buffer periods. If words didn’t work, he resorted to his fists.
Lu Zhaoshen had never been beaten growing up, but now, Lu Guoyuan whipped him with a clothesline pole more than a dozen times. His back started to throb painfully, and he could only bend his body stiffly, almost unable to straighten up. Nevertheless, Lu Guoyuan asked him, “Did that kid from the Xu family woo you?”
He still replied, “No, I wooed him.”
He could have refused at the beginning. If he had been firmer, Xu Xingzhe would have given up. But Lu Zhaoshen didn’t. He liked the way Xu Xingzhe looked at him with adoration. The thought of Xu Xingzhe looking at someone else with the same look in the future drove Lu Zhaoshen crazy.
His father couldn’t understand him. Lu Guoyuan only kept saying, “Why does it have to be Xu Xingzhe? Don’t you know what kind of family he comes from? Can this abnormality be cured? If your mother was still alive and saw you like this, how sad she would be!”
t/n: the dads in this novel 🤬
The dads in this novel are UTTER TRASH. I thought Dad Lu would react differently but he reacted worse than Dad Xu. It’s understandable given their family’s statuses but gdi use your words to communicate, not physical.
Me too! I though his dad would be the better one. 😭 please Mama Qin, help these boys.
(╥╥)(╥╥) when will they get peace and happiness
Yeah, they are the worst! ><
Thank You for the new chapter (ฅ’ω’ฅ)♥
not both of them having daddy issues😭