Chapter 33 - A Decision (1/2)

Chapter 33: A Decision

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

The sky was as dark as ink, and the air pressure was low. It was almost New Year’s; the people who got off work were already back home, so the streets were quiet. It snowed a few days ago, and there were the remnants of snowmen built by kids

in the corners of the streets.

Li Sui took his luggage out from the car, and he froze reminiscing while standing on the street. At around this time the year before last, it was just as cold as it was now, and Lu Shang drove him all over town just to find an open store for a mobile phone. The two of them were still very close back then; two years had passed now and their relationship turned to this. Li Sui wrecked it with his own two hands.

Uncle Yuen got out of the car, handing Li Sui his passport and flight ticket, “Are you just going to go like this? Are you not going to tell him first?”

Li Sui had a pained smile on his face, “I don’t think he’d want to see me again. He’s sick now, and I don’t want to make him angry.”

Uncle Yuen didn’t know how to comfort him or what kind of advice to give, so he only said, “I’ve arranged people to pick you up at the airport overseas; you can call me if you have any problems when you get there.”

“Thank you, uncle Yuen,” Li Sui said.

As if Uncle Yuen had figured out what Li Sui wanted to say, he said, “If you want to know how he’s doing, you can call me as well, just don’t call too much.”

Li Sui gave Uncle Yuen a grateful look, after nodding his head, Li Sui picked up his things and got on the escalator.

As the escalator ascended, the familiar streets slowly disappeared from his vision. Li Sui turned his head back to look at the city, and a strong sense of reluctance rose in his heart; he just had this feeling that if he really took this step, he would never see Lu Shang again.

Lu Shang woke up in the middle of the night. He was still alone in the room; the room had dim lights, and he could vaguely see that it was snowing outside.

He was used to having a little puppy following around him everywhere, so he just couldn’t adjust to lying in the hospital room alone. He wondered where Li Sui was; according to his usual habits, he shouldn’t be too far away. Lu Shang had been awake for such a long time already, but there were still no signs of him—that was truly quite rare.

His chest was still fixed to the bed, so there was a limit to his mobility; Lu Shang extended his arm, trying his best to reach his phone on the table. Uncle Yuen happened to knock and enter as Lu Shang was doing that.

“Why is it you?” Lu Shang said subconsciously before he reacted and said, “What’s the matter?”

“I’ve sent him off.” Uncle Yuen said directly.

Lu Shang was slightly shocked, he only replied after a long while, “I see… I guess that’s good, too.” Lu Shang lay back down, his eyes darkened.

Lu Shang did arrange for that, getting Li Sui away from all this. But now, hearing from Uncle Yuen that Li Sui was gone, Lu Shang felt as if a huge gaping hole was in his recently operated heart, it was as if everything suddenly became empty.

Lu Shang always thought that after people come of age, it became harder to have strong feelings for someone, be it liking or hate. Sometimes, people would show affection towards each other for a second, and completely got rid of it in the next, as if all emotions were mere illusions. However, it was just because you had yet to meet the right person. One day, when you actually found the right one, all the calmness and open-mindedness you thought you had could all be turned upside-down in an instant.

The snowfall continued for the entire day, there weren’t any signs of it stopping soon. Lu Shang had severe postoperative responses, his consciousness was hazy for a long time. Leung ZiRui felt like this had to stop, so he forcibly woke Lu Shang up, trying to chat with him so that Lu Shang would feel better. Not only didn’t Lu Shang get better, he threw up on Leung ZiRui.

The next afternoon, Uncle Yuen rushed into the hospital room Lu Shang was in. Uncle Yuen saw that Lu Shang was resting, so he didn’t know if he should wake him up. Just as Uncle Yuen was hesitating, Lu Shang suddenly opened his eyes as if he had sensed something, “What’s wrong?”

“The person who was picking up Li Sui from the airport contacted me, they didn’t pick him up. I’ve checked the flight passengers’ records… he didn’t even board the plane.”

Lu Shang pondered for a bit, then asked, “Did you try calling him?”

T/N: lol postoperative response my ass, he’s all better the second he heard Li Sui didn’t go abroad.

“His cell was turned off, and he wasn’t in the house, either. Should I send people to search for him?”

Lu Shang dropped his eyes as he thought, Li Sui most likely didn’t want to leave but was afraid of getting kicked away, so he decided to hide somewhere. The kid was smart, so he probably wouldn’t go out of the Lu family’s turf, right?

“Ask Zuo to launch a search, and tell him to call me if he finds Li Sui.”

Uncle Yuen immediately did as he was told. Unexpectedly, after Uncle Yuen got through to Zuo Chao and explained what happened, Zuo Chao was obviously startled and asked, “Xiao Li Zi? He was here about ten minutes ago.”

After Lu Shang heard, he frowned and asked for the phone, he said, “What did he ask of you?”

“Aren’t you the one who arranged it? He came to ask for Li Yan’s address; he wanted to ask him some questions.” After finishing, Zuo Chao began to realize something was up as well, so he asked, “Wait, you didn’t ask him to do it?”

Lu Shang sighed, then directly hung the phone up.

“Why would he go find Li Yan?” Uncle Yuen asked in confusion.

What other reason would there be except to “trouble” Li Yan? Lu Shang felt complicated; he thought that though the kid was still young, the amount of courage he had was definitely not small. Li Sui probably wanted to deal with the liability, Li Yan for him. Lu Shang would never ask him to kill a person though, that was not something Lu Shang would want to see. Moreover, that place was in Liu XinTian’s turf; no matter how strong Li Sui was, he was still no match for people with knives or even guns.

As Lu Shang was thinking, he called Zuo Chao again, “Does Liu XinTian know yet?”

“I don’t think so, he doesn’t really care for Li Yan either, he just provided him with a place to live in and a few bodyguards, he didn’t care about the rest. Xiao Li Zi didn’t drive his car, so I’m guessing that he hired a taxi. If I go after him now, I should be able to catch up. The only problem is that if I just bring my men over there, we will definitely get into a fight with Liu XinTian’s men.”

Lu Shang held his own forehead; his body had not fully recovered, so he’d feel dizzy whenever he used his brain too much. He only felt better after picking up the oxygen inhaler and taking a few breaths. Uncle Yuen placed a pillow behind Lu Shang, letting him rest more comfortably on it; Lu Shang contemplated for a while before he picked up his mobile phone again. Lu Shang scrolled through the contacts list in search of a person’s name, he was trying to find the number of a person whom he never thought he would call. After hesitating for a bit, he decided to dial the number.

“Director Liu, how about we make a deal?” Lu Shang didn’t talk much, he cut straight to the point, “The port trading area, you always wanted it, didn’t you?”

Hearing that, Uncle Yuen was shocked.

As Lu Shang expected, the person on the other end was tempted.

“What do you want in return?” Liu XinTian asked.

“Li Yan.”

It was still snowing outside, and everything was blurry outside the window. After hanging the phone up, Lu Shang stared at the screen and asked, “Today is New Year’s Eve?”

“Yes.”