When Ling Xian entered the room again, talking to someone on the phone, he sat upright again.
Ling Xian walked past him and sat down on a large, overbearing chair behind the office table. Especially now, Tian Zhu could tell that Ling Xian was imitating their father, although he did lack a lot of the old man’s cultivated bearing.
Ling Xian pulled the phone away from his ear and stared over at Tian Zhu, who was sitting neatly with his hands folded on his lap. Compared to Ling Xian, who was wearing a suit, the hoodie-wearing Tian Zhu appeared sloppy.
“That little guy from the dream”, he began, for the first time officially broaching the topic. Tian Zhu forced himself to stay relaxed. “Do you know him?”
“I don’t.”
Tian Zhu’s voice was quiet and a bit raspy. He could have told the truth, but why would he hurt himself like that?
Ling Xian held his gaze for a moment, apparently trying to figure out if his little brother was lying. Then he made a “tch” and returned his attention to the phone. “So? Are you taking the deal?”
The other side responded while Ling Xian fell quiet.
“Good. I want that guy. It shouldn’t be that hard finding someone with rings in his wrists, right? You’d better hurry up.”
Listening in, Tian Zhu pursed his lips.
Sure, Aspen’s shackles were incredibly obvious and easily recognizable, but it was too bad that he was a dead person in the eyes of the public. A death-row convict who should have long gotten his sentence. It would be impossible to find him and, on the contrary, some people might get very unhappy at someone investigating him.
Ling Xian exchanged some more words with the person on the other end of the phone, then hung up. Irritated, he hit the table. “Why didn’t you stop him from killing me?!”
“I was too late. He was quicker than me.” Tian Zhu lied without batting an eye. It wasn’t completely wrong anyway.
“What happened afterwards?”
“Afterwards-” Tian Zhu paused, considering his words. Should he say he was killed, too? But piling up more lies might come to bite him in the back at some point. He decided to mix truth with lies again, just to be safe. “He left. I just wandered around until the dream was over.”
Ling Xian’s eyebrows furrowed. Just as he opened his mouth, the door to the office opened without warning.
Shu Yun stepped inside.
She was wearing a tight, well-fitting dress and heels of considerable height. She was brushing a hand through her pitch-black hair, dark eyes running once through the room. When Ling Xian saw her, his eyes lit up.
He didn’t scold her for the disturbance, of course. She was, after all, the girl he was interested in.
Shu Yun was without her twin for once. Instead she appeared to be accompanied by an assistant or bodyguard, who now closed the door behind her. She nodded at the two in the room in greeting before taking place on one of the large, comfy armchairs without asking.
Ling Xian quickly stood up and walked over to her, delight audible in his voice. “What a surprise! You came to visit?”
Shu Yun twirled a lock of her hair around her finger. Her serene face made her quite elegant, especially when matched with her calm voice, but Tian Zhu knew that she was just as rotten as the rest of their friend group inside.
“My father and I ate lunch out together. He suggested greeting you since we were nearby.”
The sentence did hold a lot of information – this wasn’t planned and not necessarily Shu Yun’s desire at all, but her father was very interested in keeping good relations with Ling Xian.
“Is that so.” Ling Xian didn’t mind. His smile only grew broader. At the same moment, he remembered that the disturbance called his little brother was still inside the office. He glanced over, ready to send him out-
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.
“Tbe kfgf jirb lc atf ijra vgfjw?”
Pa kjr bcf bo atf ofk alwfr Vte Tec jvvgfrrfv Kljc Ite vlgfmais. Vtf cbgwjiis vlvc’a mjgf obg ajixlcu ab atbrf rtf vlvc’a vffw kbgats.
Kljc Ite cbvvfv rlifcais. Lf tjv j yjv offilcu ktfc tf rjk atf lcafgfra lc tfg fsfr ugbk.
She had heard the last bit of his and Ling Xian’s conversation.
“What was it like? What happened? Did you explore?” She leaned forward a bit. Her full attention was on Tian Zhu, shocking both men in the office.
Tian Zhu regretted not having said that he died immediately. Shu Yun’s interest in the dreams had been made clear during one of their last meetings. Anyone else could have her attention, but not him.
“Nothing really happened. It was just a school.”
His attempt at evading the question didn’t work. Shu Yun wasn’t someone who was easy to push away, not when she wanted something.
It was too bad that what she wanted was the dreams.
“Didn’t you have something to do?” Ling Xian’s dark voice held an unhidden threat. “I remember you having to go home right now.”
Under normal circumstances and with any other topic, Shu Yun would have accepted this rather direct end of the conversation and moved on. In their friend group, everyone was careful to avoid each other’s displeasure as much as possible – that was how they got along.
But Shu Yun was a stubborn woman and in a position where she could ignore Ling Xian. He wanted something from her, not the other way around.
“Well, if you’re busy then let’s meet up tomorrow. You can tell me about everything”, she declared with no room for discussion. She wouldn’t call Ling Xian out on sending his brother away, but she wouldn’t tolerate being kept away from her topic of interest.
On his lap, Tian Zhu’s fingers twitched.
If he rejected, he’d offend Shu Yun, which would mean having her and her brother on his back.
If he accepted, his own brother would get even angrier.
Considering their usually limited interactions, Tian Zhu decided that he preferred the first option.
He openly looked at his older brother for a solid three seconds before turning his gaze to Shu Yun. “…I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to go out due to my bad grades.”
More unnecessary words that just weren’t what they appeared to be. All three of them knew the messages behind their words, and yet they made the effort of keeping up a paper-thin veil to hide them. Aspen would hate this conversation.
Shu Yun’s eyebrows raised a tiny bit. “…Bad grades?”
“Right. I didn’t have the time to tutor him recently, that’s why his grades dropped even further. It’s quite a sad sight.” Ling Xian crossed his arms, nodding with satisfaction.
“Oooh…”
Shu Yun dragged the sound.
Neither Ling Xian nor Tian Zhu liked the tone of it. It was the kind of tone you’d take when you heard an obvious lie but didn’t want to point it out.
But Ling Xian’s friends had never known that Tian Zhu wasn’t the idiot that his family made him out to be. Ling Xian was very insistent on not acknowledging it and not letting anyone know, so he had played his perfect part in keeping up the appearance.
There was no reason for her to consider that the part about having bad grades was a lie.
In the end, Shu Yun wasn’t the most talkative person. She cocked her head to the side thoughtfully but didn’t speak up again.
Next to Tian Zhu, Ling Xian softly exhaled in relief at the topic finally dropping.
Shu Yun stood up, checking her phone for the time. “I should leave.”
“I’ll accompany you out.”
“No need.”
“It’s fine, I have to send off Tian Zhu anyway.” Ling Xian waved his hand in a dismissive motion. That was Tian Zhu’s cue to get up.
His legs were slightly wobbly, but thanks to the caffeine pill he felt better than he had for the past few days. He was a bit unsteady, but the world wasn’t swaying quite as much anymore, and his thoughts were a bit clearer.
With Shu Yun’s presence reigning in his older brother, he also didn’t have to take the stairs again. Instead they took the elevator, with Tian Zhu cramming himself into a corner and lowering his presence as much as possible.
Head hung low, he followed after his older brother like an ugly shadow, ignoring the stares and whispers of employees passing them by.
He knew what they were saying even without listening.
With his useless brother around, Ling Xian shined brighter. Even mediocre results would appear outstanding compared to a second son who couldn’t even manage in school.
Walking next to Shu Yun, Ling Xian was one-sidedly talking about his recent accomplishments. Like a peacock, he kept on showing off to an uninterested party.
It was bad.
Ling Xian was irritable because of Aspen, and Shu Yun’s distance would only further increase his displeasure. Especially when Shu Yun glanced back at Tian Zhu a couple of times, Ling Xian’s jaw tightened even more.
That always meant something bad was coming.
But even knowing that, Tian Zhu obediently and wordlessly followed, not making an effort to raise his guard.
They stopped outside next to the street. Automatic vehicles were driving around, keeping a steady pace and driving perfectly on the lines.
Tian Zhu dazedly watched the street. The soundscape of people talking and the flashing colors of cars were mixing into a bigger blur that was easy to get lost in. It was calming, although the cold wind outside made Tian Zhu shiver.
“Then I’ll see you soon”, Shu Yun responded to something Ling Xian had said. She brushed her hair behind her ear, dark eyes moving over to Tian Zhu. “You too.”
“Goodbye”, Tian Zhu said monotonously, forcing his attention back to the situation at hand.
A car stopped at the roadside. Someone left it to open the door for Shu Yun, movements practiced and flowing perfectly. Shu Yun entered the car, gave a nod into Ling Xian’s direction, and drove off.
Tian Zhu didn’t move.
He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do – Ling Xian had taken him along so he would suffer, and the only reason why he could have left earlier was that Ling Xian did not want him to interact with Shu Yun.
Now that she was gone, there was hardly any reason for Tian Zhu to leave. Unless Ling Xian spoke up, he didn’t dare to make any movements.
The man’s eyes lowered. He pursed his lips for a movement, then loosened them again and turned on his heel. “Come along. You might as well study in my office instead.”
Alright, so it wasn’t over yet.
They entered the building again. Ling Xian swerved to the right, again moving towards the stairs – unsurprisingly, to be honest. As long as the caffeine pill was still working, it’d be manageable.
“Don’t meet up with Shu Yun”, Ling Xian said in a calm tone as they made their way up.
“Yes.”
Standing on the top of the staircase, Ling Xian paused and looked back.
Two steps down, Tian Zhu likewise stopped walking. His tired, pale green eyes rose up to meet Ling Xian’s. All he could read inside them was bitterness, annoyance and malice. There was nothing new about those feelings.
Ling Xian just always hated his little brother.
The little brother who was better. The little brother who needed to be pushed down by his parents, because everyone in the family knew that if Tian Zhu genuinely competed against him, Ling Xian would lose.
And that knowledge was the seed of Ling Xian’s hate.
Not even his own parents believed that he could win against Tian Zhu, no matter how hard he tried.
Their wariness, their behavior, it all was an acknowledgement of a single fact – Tian Zhu was much more capable than any of them.
So he had to be carefully kept under control, to ensure he could never fight back.
But at the same time, Ling Xian had realized it years ago.
No safety measure gave him security. No matter what they did or how docile Tian Zhu was, he always felt like there was a knife at his back. That, at any moment, Tian Zhu might retaliate and break Ling Xian’s comfortable world.
Following behind, going along with Ling Xian’s wishes, not trying to fight back.
Tian Zhu had done all of it just now, and he was still catching Shu Yun’s attention.
Was a damaged, unrefined diamond always going to be worth more than a polished but common gem? Was there no way to change this?
Ling Xian’s teeth clenched together. He could stare Tian Zhu down for as long as he wanted and all he’d get back was this dull, resigned gaze.
And yet…
And yet…
“Don’t talk to her”, Ling Xian repeated in a low tone. He took one step down, watching his little brother flinch.
Before Tian Zhu could retreat, there was a hand on his chest.
Then the world spun around him.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! No~ ( ಥ ⌂ ಥ )
Thank you for the chapter 🌸
Ling Xian you disgusting thing!! When are we dealing with the thing called Ling Xian?😄😡
Love the story by the way and thank you for the update , can’t wait for more☺😍
What the actual f dude
Thank you for the chapter!! <3
You are an incredible writer. This has got to be in my top 3 overall novels I’ve read here!
@Author, please tell me when this pests will be dealt because I’m itching to get a knife already.
I’m making my readers and the characters suffer for a looong, loooong time.
NOOOOOOOO! (ノ´ロ`)ノ( ༎ຶ⌑༎ຶ ) Please take that back, I’m really gonna cry now. ಥ _ ಥ
Oh my— WHAT