extra ko-fi chapter for Banananim (2/2) thank youuu 
Xu Ze tried to open his eyes, but he lacked both the strength and the desire to see the person in front of him, so he gave up. He didn’t feel much pain, just a burning sensation on his arm that made him instinctively flinch.
Xu Ze’s consciousness was blurry, and his only relief was that Lu Heyang and the others hadn’t come to watch him fight today. Otherwise, they would have run into Tang Feiyi, which would have caused trouble for Lu Heyang.
Moreover, Tang Feiyi had made him look so hideous.
Tang Feiyi extinguished the cigarette on Xu Ze’s arm and threw it on the ground. He lit another one. He took a drag and said nonchalantly, “I’ll say it again, it’s better if I don’t catch you colluding with others for profit. I told you the rules here on your first day. The last fighter who did this is already a cripple, do you want to be the second?”
“…” Xu Ze struggled to open his mouth and said, “I’m not fighting anymore.”
“What?” Tang Feiyi sneered.
“I’m not fighting anymore,” Xu Ze’s voice was hoarse as he repeated the words.
“What’s this? Do you think that joining forces with Gu Yunchi and his gang means you no longer need to obey?” Tang Feiyi took a step closer to Xu Ze and leaned down to grab his chin. “Xu Ze, when did you start daydreaming like this?”
“People should be self-aware and stay where they belong,” Tang Feiyi said and took a drag from his cigarette. The ember at the tip of the cigarette flared up, and he pointed it at Xu Ze as a reminder, “Like a rat in the gutter, you think you’re going to make it big before you even crawl out. That won’t do…”
Just as the cigarette butt was about to burn Xu Ze’s arm, the door swung open. Tang Feiyi abruptly turned his head, “Who—”
Before he could finish, someone kicked him in the shoulder. Tang Feiyi tumbled against the wall, cursing in pain. He tried to get up to fight back, but a sharp mechanical noise, reminiscent of a switch, brought an abrupt halt to his movements in the darkness.
Lu Heyang knelt down and touched Xu Ze’s face. He felt something wet and sticky on his fingers. He turned around to see Tang Feiyi standing motionless with a gun pressed against his temple.
“It’s you again.” Tang Feiyi stared at Lu Heyang. He couldn’t make out Lu Heyang’s face, but he had a hunch. Tang Feiyi chuckled, “The first time I saw you backstage, I thought you looked familiar, but I could never quite place it.”
He hissed, seemingly vexed, “Who the hell are you?”
Lu Heyang said, “Shut him up.”
This sentence was directed at the bodyguard. As soon as the words left his mouth, the bodyguard withdrew his gun and delivered a quick elbow strike to Tang Feiyi’s head to knock 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.
“Xu Ze,” Lu Heyang’s voice softened, “Where does it hurt the most?”
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The bodyguard holstered his gun and said, “I’ll do it.”
“No need. Is the car here?”
“It’s at the side entrance.”
Lu Heyang carried Xu Ze down the stairs to the alley outside the side entrance. The bodyguard opened the car door. Lu Heyang placed Xu Ze in the back seat and reclined it so that Xu Ze could lie halfway down.
He saw Xu Ze touch the seat cushion and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xu Ze attempted to sit up and look, “Did I dirty the car?”
“Don’t move.” Lu Heyang pressed his shoulder, “It’s not dirty.”
One of the bodyguards stayed behind as the driver, while the rest got into the car Lu Heyang had used when he arrived. The bodyguard who was driving adjusted the rearview mirror to the side before starting the car so as not to see the back seat. Lu Heyang took out a wet wipe and gently brushed Xu Ze’s chin, carefully wiping away the paint and blood to reveal the clean face beneath.
Xu Ze’s eyes were half open as he stared at Lu Heyang’s face. Lu Heyang had caught him in many predicaments, yet he hadn’t grown accustomed to the embarrassment. Nevertheless, with the likelihood of encountering each other less frequently, he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to study his face a little longer.
“Is your birthday coming up?” Xu Ze asked a completely irrelevant question. The corners of his mouth were swollen and his speech was slightly slurred.
Lu Heyang picked up his right hand, revealing the multiple cigarette burns entwined into four or five mutilated scars on his wrist. Lu Heyang stared at the spot expressionlessly for a moment, then raised his head and smiled at Xu Ze, “Mn, it’s next Friday. Will you give me a gift?”
Xu Ze didn’t answer. He had incidentally heard He Wei mention that Lu Heyang’s birthday was in a specific month, but he didn’t anticipate it being at the beginning of that month. Xu Ze started thinking about what he could afford, but he figured Lu Heyang shouldn’t lack anything.
“If you want to spend money on a gift for me, it won’t be next Friday,” Lu Heyang said.
“Huh?” Xu Ze looked at him with incomprehension.
“Are you going to buy one?”
As Xu Ze wanted to know when Lu Heyang’s actual birthday was, he shook his head and lied, “No, I won’t buy it.”
“Mn.” Lu Heyang smiled again and said, “My birthday is next Friday.”
Xu Ze was thrown for a loop by him and just stared at him. Lu Heyang poked his face and said, “Sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
Xu Ze nodded and wearily closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep without questioning where they were going or what they were going to do.
This was an ordinary night that couldn’t have been more mundane. Some of the students from the Preparatory School were safely studying and doing their homework, some were attending fancy banquets, some were indulging in the pleasures of the nightlife… while some were in a murky underground club participating in a brutal boxing match. Numerous lives unfolded concurrently, yet ultimately, it all came down to the difference between a life of luxury and one with nothing to rely on.
Lu Heyang had never been able to comprehend this difference so thoroughly and distinctly before.
Throughout the journey to the hospital, Xu Ze didn’t wake up. The doctor put him on a stretcher, and Zhuo Yan had already arranged for the examination. When Xu Ze was taken to the CT scanner, Lu Heyang stood in the hallway and called Lin Yumian.
“Dad.”
“It’s so late, what happened?”
“Did I disturb your rest?”
“No,” Lin Yumian laughed, “I just came out of the studio.”
“I wanted to ask, is Uncle Wen in the city?”
Lin Yumian didn’t ask any questions and answered after a second, “Whether he’s here or not, you can always contact him if you need him. I’ve told you before that Uncle Wen’s team is ready to help you and Qingmo without any conditions.”
“Good. I understand.” Lu Heyang paused, “Aren’t you going to ask me what I plan to do?”
“If I remember correctly, this is the first time you’ve considered involving Uncle Wen. But I still won’t ask. You’re not an impulsive person.”
“Mn, good night.”
After hanging up the phone, Lu Heyang sent a text message to the number in his contacts that he had never contacted before. Within half a minute, a call came back.
A calm middle-aged voice answered, “Young master.”
“Just call me Heyang,” Lu Heyang raised his hand and looked at his arm, it was smooth and clean, without any scars.
“Uncle Wen, I want to trouble you with something.”
“Go ahead.”
When Xu Ze woke up, it was just past midnight. Only the bedside wall lamp was lit in the entire hospital room.
“You only slept for a little over an hour.”
Xu Ze turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw Lu Heyang sitting by the bed.
“Do you want some water?” Lu Heyang asked him.
“No…” Xu Ze’s voice was hoarse, he shook his head.
“You kept frowning while you were sleeping. Did you have a nightmare?”
Xu Ze stared at him. The faint light enveloped half of Lu Heyang’s face, making him look especially gentle and calm. It also gave Xu Ze the illusion that Lu Heyang was someone who was willing to listen to his dreams.
“It wasn’t a nightmare,” Xu Ze said, “I dreamt about my parents.”
The two faces had become blurred, appearing occasionally in his dreams. For a short period of time after waking up, he would have an uncontrollable desire to confide in someone. However, he never mentioned it to anyone, whether it was Ye Yunhua or Chi Jiahan—Xu Ze had thought he could endure it like this forever.
Lu Heyang calmly watched Xu Ze. He could sense that Xu Ze was currently in a dissociated and fragile state. He could also feel that this usually silent alpha had something to say, possibly something he had never told anyone before.
Xu Ze buried his face in the blanket, staring at the IV drip, and whispered, “My dad used to be a police detective. When I was seven years old, he went on a mission and accidentally lost his footing and fell down a mountain.”
“Not long after Dad passed away, my mom got sick. She was unwilling to talk or go out.”
“My grandma came to take care of me. Grandma used to be a pastry chef and a lady often invited her to her house to make treats for her guests. After Mom got sick, Grandma would take me with her every time she went out.”
It was around that time that Xu Ze met Lu Heyang.
Translator’s note: The next chapter will start a childhood flashback (it’s just for a few chapters but baby Xu Ze and Lu Heyang are cute 🙈)
Poor Xu Ze 😭😭😭 can someone here teach me how to butcher scums and douchebags? ill butcher that Tang Feiyi personally 😡🤬 so he can go to hell rn
!!!!!! heyang my beloved im so grateful that he was there…to be honest i thought that when xu ze said that he won’t fight anymore…i thought he meant like. not at the ring yk…but in a way that he won’t fight against life or destiny or tang feiyi or anything at all, that he just given up on himself yk…so im really. really glad that lu heyang was there even tho usually i don’t really like those damsel in distress scenes!!! ahhh can’t wait to see small babies heyang and ze 🥺🙏
thank you so much for your work!!!!! 🧡💋
omgg so excited for the baby xu ze n heyang chapters !! thank u for the chapter
will we know why heyang forgot? 😭
Thank you for the chapters ❤️❤️❤️
they are childhood friends omggg 😭
If I already want to protect Xu Ze with my life, I can’t imagine how the feeling would grow after reading about baby Xu Ze 😭