CH 4

Luo Wenjun kept hissing viciously and unhurriedly in “Luo Wencheng’s” ear, like a cold, slithery venomous snake: “Do you like the way I arranged your death? You owe it to me. Obviously, I’m his real brother, you’re just a misplaced bastard, but you are the only one in his eyes…”

He laughed softly again, “I really can’t wait to see you turn into a pile of rotten meat. Do you think he’ll still like you then? I’m afraid he’ll be too sick to eat just thinking about you, right?”

Luo Wenjun laughed louder and louder, and suddenly tore out the oxygen tube of the man on the bed and squeezed his neck with both hands. This was his habitual pastime. Every now and then Luo Wenjun would come and torment Luo Wencheng for a while when he was in a good mood. And when he was in a bad mood, he would come even more often; watching Luo Wencheng suffer made Luo Wenjun feel that the misery he had gone through as a child, the injustice and hatred filling his heart were soothed.

He felt happy when the man on the hospital bed was in pain.

As he watched this scene, Luo Wencheng’s eyes were filled with anger. He wanted to rush up and stop it but he couldn’t move. He could only watch himself struggling helplessly on the bed, his face turning purple.

The moment he was almost dead, Luo Wenjun suddenly let go again and took two steps back, sneering and watching in admiration as the man on the bed panted violently. Then he gently inserted the oxygen tube again, slowly and methodically disinfected his hands and smiled, “Have a good rest, I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

“Ah!!!” Luo Wencheng clutched his head, blood freezing in his veins.

He thought he could face the past calmly, but seeing this scene again, he couldn’t control himself. He found he could move, roared and rushed up to punch and kick Luo Wenjun, only to pass through his body and finally watch him leave the ward.

Two nurses came in silently, tidying up the bed that had been messed up by Luo Wencheng’s struggles, wiping away the saliva from his mouth and rubbing his face to make his muscles relax and the hideous grimace of pain disappear.

Luo Wencheng could only watch this happen, watch himself suffer day after day, shedding tears and drooling in agony, later even unable to  express his pain in a grimace because his facial muscles were paralysed.

He would become incontinent and his body would stink, the stench mixed with the smell of rotting flesh. Luo Wenhao’s secretary would come a few times and honestly report the truth about his purulent sores. There seemed to be a long silence on the other end of the line, followed by orders to use the best medicine; but Luo Wenhao himself had never come.

Luo Wenjun came less and less often, but with each visit his smile grew brighter.

Finally the last day arrived and a group of people in white coats stood in front of the bed and regretfully announced the death of the patient.

Luo Wencheng floated in the air and also saw the scene after his death.

Advertisements

Someone wiped his body. Someone covered him with a white cloth. Many people in black suits stood solemnly on either side of the bed, and then a tall, handsome man came in, dressed particularly formally, walking steadily and casting a sombre, sad gaze at his corpse.

Luo Wenjun, also dressed in black, followed Luo Wenhao and flung himself at the bedside, crying and calling him “Second Brother this” and “Second Brother that”.

Then he turned and threw his arms around Luo Wenhao, weeping, “Big Brother, Second Brother is gone! Second Brother is gone!”

Luo Wencheng watched all this blankly, floating across the room to look into Luo Wenhao’s eyes. There were many complex emotions in those eyes, and then Luo Wenhao slowly lowered his eyelids, as if in pain, as if exhausted and as if relieved because he had finally gotten rid of the burden once and for all.

When he was asked if he wanted to take one last look at the deceased, he sighed and said slowly: “Ah Cheng would not want me to see him as he is now. Let him stay in my memory the best he can be. No matter what, he was a member of the Luo family and that will not change. Prepare for the funeral. Ah Cheng has suffered too much during his lifetime. I want him to depart beautifully.”

Luo Wencheng’s heart felt as if a hole had been pierced in it and something was leaking out of it.

He had struggled all his life, and in the end, he only got this passage in return.

Stay in his memory the best he could be, depart beautifully…

Luo Wenhao, your so-called love and care, in the end, was it just this?

Then he heard a voice, and that cold voice said to him, “Do you want to start over?”

Luo Wencheng wasn’t even surprised, he thought numbly: start over? Could there be such a good thing?

“I’m just taking away the love and hope you don’t want. Although you’ve given up on it yourself, the love and hope that lasted so long despite the trials and tribulations is of very high quality and I am very satisfied with it. For it, I can make your life start over again,” the voice said coldly.

……

Luo Wencheng opened his eyes suddenly.

The sound of his breathing, ragged and depressed, was the only sound in the quiet, dark hotel room.

He dreamed of the time before he died.

In fact, it was actually only a few hours ago.

A few hours ago, he died in a hospital bed in the Luo family’s private hospital. A few hours later, he was reborn in the shell of his body that was ten years younger and much healthier.

Luo Wencheng fell back on the bed limply, drenched in sweat, desolation growing in his heart like weeds in the abandoned land. He didn’t move for a long time.

It took him quite a while to emerge from this state. He was reborn but he didn’t feel much joy in his heart.

Because he knew that he wouldn’t live long.

The cold voice told him that if he wanted to live, he had to continue to make deals with it. In a year’s time he must give up another portion of pure love and hope, or the magic that had brought him back to life would disappear and he would die completely.

Love and hope?

Luo Wencheng touched his chest and smiled to himself. Could he possibly still have such things?

No matter how you looked at it, he only had one year left to live.

Advertisements

But even if he only had one year, he was going to live it like a man. This time he was going to trample Luo Wenjun underfoot, he was going to make sure that Luo Kaifang could no longer insult and belittle him and that Luo Wenhao could no longer take him for granted and treat him as he pleased.

Luo Wencheng gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, his gaze turning vicious.

Wasn’t it because he had no father, no mother and no status that he was treated like trash, as if they could do whatever they wanted to him?

This time he wanted to be more than all of them combined. He wanted to get what they all were trying so hard to get but couldn’t. He wanted them to be scared and tremble when they saw him.

He wanted… to stand above them and coldly watch them struggle, suffer and sink!

Luo Wencheng laughed silently and raised his hand to press it to his chest, confirming that only hatred and disgust for the Luo family remained inside his heart.

He was suddenly more grateful to that voice, for if it hadn’t taken away his love and hope and cut off all his attachments of those thirty years of life, at this moment he would probably still be carrying the pain of being betrayed and abandoned by his loved ones.

It was ridiculous to think that in his previous life he still had feelings and expectations for his family even though he was in hell for more than ten years.

It took a while for Luo Wencheng to calm down and think quietly in the darkness.

As the number one business powerhouse in Haining City, the Luo family had a status that no one could shake, and it would not be easy to trample it underfoot. However, fortunately, the Luo family had made a mistake of its own at this time.

In addition to being a real estate magnate, the Luo family also operated a jade business. Every year, they imported a large amount of raw materials from small countries in the south. This time, because of the fog at sea and the inexperienced helmsman, the Luo family’s cargo ships deviated from their fixed route and broke into someone else’s territory.

This someone else was not an ordinary person; it was the Lu family of the capital.

The Luo family had the leading position in Haining, but in front of the Lu family, they were really nothing.

The Lu family’s maritime business was very large, even involving weapons transactions, with government connections behind the scenes. The Luo family’s ships entering their territory was not a big deal, but not a small one either. The Luo family begged and pleaded before sending the gift of reparation, but the Lu family still didn’t reveal its intention.

However, the Luo family’s competitors took the opportunity to attack secretly. It was at this juncture that the Luo family finally learned that Lu Jiuye (Ninth Master Lu), the head of the Lu family, was coming to Haining for vacation.

It was no secret that Lu Jiuye liked fresh and beautiful boys. The Luo family wanted to find a few beautiful boys to send over. Unexpectedly, Luo Wenjun, “sharing the worries of his father and brother”, packed himself up without saying a word and delivered himself to the door.

What was even more unexpected was that Lu Jiuye really took a liking to Luo Wenjun. With a wave of his hand, not only did he release the two ships of the Luo family that had been detained, but also injected capital into the Luo family’s business, allowing them to survive the crisis unharmed and rise to the next level.

The Luo family had since hugged the Lu family’s thigh, and Luo Wenjun had become the Luo family’s greatest hero.

During his eighteen years of being stranded, Luo Wenjun had hooked up with some of the guys that could crow like a cock and steal like a dog (criminals, in other words), but in the end, he was still just a wildcat with sharp claws and a bit of poison. It was only when he caught Lu Jiyue, his backer, that he really showed his fangs.

“Luo Shao” (Young Master Luo) became a golden signboard, and no one dared to disrespect him. Secretly, Luo Wenjun developed his own network of contacts, started a company and made friends with some big people. His ability to easily cut off Luo Wencheng’s life at every turn for the next ten years was based precisely on this.

“Lu Jiuye, ah…”

Luo Wencheng’s eyes lit up. He suddenly got out of bed and went to the bathroom.