Chapter 27 - Courtship Behavior (1/2)
Chapter 27: Courtship Behavior
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
The sound of propellers were too loud, hurting their ears. Uncle Yuen asked from the cockpit, “Are we going to the temporary shelter now?”
Lu Shang came back from his thoughts, he said, “To the city.”
Uncle Yuen was a bit startled, “Directly flying back to the city? Wouldn’t that draw too much attention?”
Lu Shang glanced at Uncle Yuen; the latter knowingly stopped asking, and he turned to negotiate with the pilot.
The two nurses at Lu Shang’s side were muttering something to each other, Lu Shang turned to ask, “What’s wrong?”
“We can’t get the needle in.” The older nurse replied, “His muscles are too tense, and we can’t get him to relax. Can we use sedatives?”
Lu Shang stared at Li Sui, his eyes filled with complicated and deep emotions. After a bit, he stood up walking over to the stretcher, he held Li Sui’s hand for a bit and called his name.
Li Sui’s eyes were still tightly shut, but hearing Lu Shang’s voice, his body made slight movements in response. Obviously, even though he was asleep, he could still react to Lu Shang’s voice. Lu Shang felt a hint of strength from Li Sui’s hand, it seemed like he wanted to hold Lu Shang’s hand back. Yet, Li Sui’s fingers were swelling too much, so he was unable to grab anything.
“Good boy.” Lu Shang tightened his grip, then bent down to kiss Li Sui’s eye, then comforted him with a soft voice, “Rest, we are almost home.”
The one lying on the stretcher seemed to have understood, his muscles began relaxing, even his breathing steadied.
The helicopter flew steadily in the sky; after the nurses finished injecting the medicines, one of them couldn’t help but giggle, “Lu Lao Ban, your words are even stronger than sedatives.”
Lu Shang’s gaze was fixed on Li Sui’s face, and he didn’t say a word.
Leung ZiRui was called without getting the chance to have dinner, after finishing his examination of Li Sui, he picked up Li Sui’s hand and fiddled around. After further observations, he made a startled expression, “Wow. This kid really took a lot of damage this time.”
Seeing that Lu Shang was staring at him, he immediately added, “He’ll be fine. He’s a healthy person unlike you. All of the wounds are superficial ones, give him some good food, some medicines and he will be back in two days.”
After pushing himself to the limit in the past days, he must be extremely exhausted right now. The nurses applied medicine and bandaged the wounds, but even with the movements, Li Sui didn’t wake up at all. Lu Shang of course let him sleep; he left the room with Leung ZiRui, closing the door on the way.
“Did you find Dr. Leon yet?”
The second Lu Shang mentioned that, Leung ZiRui’s face collapsed, “I almost got him, but I was one step too late. I heard that he’s doing some pharmaceutics research, he went to the mountains and totally fell off the grid. If that path didn’t work, I’m going to consider a heart transplant, prepare yourself.”
Lu Shang had an uncertain expression. Leung ZiRui suddenly remembered something else, he said while laughing, “Oh yeah, I noticed something in the patient information assess records in RuiGe Hospital. Do you know?”
“Noticed what?”
“Your kid tried accessing your patient file, of course I stopped him though.” Leung ZiRui laughed, “Don’t you think you should impose a ban on him? If this keeps up, sooner or later, he will know why you took him in.”
Lu Shang lowered his eyes, “I never planned on hiding it from him.”
“Okay, whatever. It’s your decision,” Leung ZiRui clicked his tongue a little.
Li Sui slept for a whole day and night, replenishing all the lost sleep, finally he woke up from hunger. The moment he woke up, the lovely aroma of food filled his nostrils. Aunt Lu was tidying up the bowls; seeing that Li Sui was awake, she smiled, “Finally. I thought you were going to miss dinner, too.”
After a good rest, his organs felt a lot lighter. His four limbs were still a bit sore, but because of the intense training, he was already used to the soreness in his muscles.
“Where’s Lu Shang?”
“He went to the company for some matters, he will come back soon. Are you hungry, do you want something to eat?”
After tasting bugs and grass and now seeing a whole table of delicacies, Li Sui could almost begin wailing on the table. Aunt Lu prepared all of Li Sui’s favourites, Li Sui couldn’t care less about his bandaged fingers, he immediately picked up a spoon and began stuffing his face.
Aunt Lu found this funny but also worrying, she kept reminding Li Sui to take it slowly, concerned that he’d choke. The kid always had the biggest appetite, there were never any food left on the table with him around. In the past days, he only had glucose water, those were severely insufficient. Aunt Lu originally wanted to warn him not to eat too much, afraid that his digestion might not be able to keep up. Yet, seeing Li Sui eat like he wanted to swallow the container, she decided to let him be. At least he could eat now, having a good appetite meant his recovery was going well.
When Lu Shang came in, Li Sui had already finished dinner, he was now slurping down the soup Aunt Lu brewed.
“Oh. You’re awake.”
For some reason, Li Sui suddenly felt anxious seeing Lu Shang, he randomly picked a topic, “How… how are big and small SiMa doing?”
“They are fine, director Yue took them back home.”
“That’s good…” Li Sui was relieved. Their eyes met, and Li Sui made a slightly wronged expression, “I almost couldn’t see you again…”
Lu Shang touched his hand in comfort, not really knowing what to reply.
“Oh, right. This. I will return it to you.” Li Sui said as he took the military badge off.
Lu Shang didn’t take it, he said, “You keep it. I promised you.”
“But this is very important to you. I can’t just take it.”
“You are important to me too.”
Li Sui froze, he hadn’t reacted to what Lu Shang just said yet, “I arranged an intern position in Tong Yan for you. Rest for a few days and then go try it out.”
“Intern?”
Lu Shang nodded, “Try. It would give you a better idea what the workplace is like.”
Li Sui had his suspicions, but he’d do whatever Lu Shang asked, so he agreed without much fuss. The two of them discussed a bit about when Li Sui should start, then Lu Shang picked up a phone call and had to leave again. Li Sui wasn’t sleepy, he rolled around on the bed, feeling like he had forgotten to ask something very important.
Lu Shang got out of the building, he opened the car door, but didn’t step foot in the car. Instead, he leaned on the car door, holding his chest. Lu Shang was used to the feeling of pain in his chest, but somehow the pain felt different this time.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?” Uncle Yuen asked immediately.
Lu Shang looked at the scenery afar, and the emotions quickly dissipated from his eyes, “Let’s go.”
Li Sui was young, so his recovery was fast. Li Sui was discharged the next afternoon, finally returning home. Aunt Lu prepared a whole table of food, making Li Sui’s stomach swell.
Lu Shang seemed to be very busy in recent days, he didn’t even come back home for dinner. Li Sui tried getting some information; apparently, Lu Shang stayed at the campsite for days during the time when Li Sui went missing. Due to that, there was a backlog of work, no wonder he didn’t see Uncle Yuen at all after he returned.
“You don’t know, but when the second Lu Shang heard you were in trouble, he immediately drove over.” Aunt Lu said while washing the dishes, “I’ve never seen him care so much for someone else.”
Li Sui pursed his lips together; unable to stop smiling, he asked, “How has he been in the past month?”
Aunt Lu thought for a while, then signed, “Well… Even if he were feeling unwell, he wouldn’t tell me about it.”
Li Sui slumped his shoulders a bit, but in his heart, he also knew that was the case.
At night, he went to shower as usual; it was only after he took his clothes off that he remembered his hands couldn’t touch water yet. Although the swelling was gone and scabs had formed, new skin had yet to grow completely; it would be a pain if water came in contact with the wounds. Just as he was picking up a towel to wrap his hand, the door to the shower room opened. Lu Shang raised his head, both froze.
“Sorry.” Lu Shang reacted shortly after, closing the door and turning back.
Li Sui smelled a hint of alcohol in the air, he immediately put his pajama pants on. Rushing out, “You drank wine?”
Lu Shang was light on his feet, he used the wall as support as he turned his head back. His face was a little red, the top two buttons on his shirt open. It seemed like he didn’t only have wine, he had quite a lot of it, to the point that he was now drunk.
“You… This…” Li Sui was worried and angry; he was so reckless.
“Uncle Yuen weren’t with you?” Li Sui basically dragged Lu Shang to the bed, “Why would he let you drink alcohol?”
Lu Shang didn’t answer, his arm clung onto Li Sui’s shoulder, pulling Li Sui down to the bed. His breath was mixed with alcohol as he said, “Be with me.”
Drunk Lu Shang was like a child, it was as if he had returned to his kindergarten days. While he didn’t cry or fuss, he just wouldn’t let go of Li Sui no matter what. Li Sui didn’t have another choice, he didn’t even had time to put his underwear back on, neither could he take a shower. Lu Shang wasn’t strong, but he was relentless; Li Sui suspected if he didn’t do as Lu Shang asked, Lu Shang would just cling to him for the whole night.
Li Sui went to call Leung ZiRui with Lu Shang still clinging to him. On the other side of the phone, Leung ZiRui exploded the second he heard Lu Shang had alcohol. Leung ZiRui cursed for a while, then carefully gave Li Sui reminders on what to do.
After hanging the phone up, Li Sui planned on getting Lu Shang a cup of warm water. Turning his head to look at Lu Shang, he found the latter sound asleep already, but his hands remained clasped together, still clinging onto Li Sui. Li Sui had never seen Lu Shang so out of it before, his usual calmness and elegance were gone. As if Lu Shang was insecure, he hung onto Li Sui tightly with his eyebrows frowning.
“Lu Shang…” Li Sui felt his heart softened, he led Lu Shang back to the bed, hugging him tightly, “What’s wrong?”
Naturally, no-one answered him. Looking at Lu Shang’s white face, a phrase popped up in his mind: Drowning sorrow with alcohol.
However, if Lu Shang wanted money, he got loads; if he wanted respect, he had it. Except for his health condition, his life was technically perfect. What kind of sorrow would he need nulling? Li Sui just couldn’t grasp the reason.