Chapter 90

Shanghai, Mid-Levels Manor.

Lin Yiqiu was tending to his garden, which was filled with various types of orchids, creating a serene and distant atmosphere.

“Old Lin is very fond of orchids,” a young student standing beside him said softly.

“The orchid’s grace, its fragrance spreads,” Lin Yiqiu said, taking a few steps to water an orchid.

The student followed, and was surprised to recognize the orchid. His deliberately lowered voice couldn’t help but rise a few decibels. “Is this… Su Guan He Ding?”

The Su Guan He Ding had graceful leaves and white flowers, like a piece of natural jade. It was extremely rare, with a market price of over four million.

He had only seen this type of orchid in an orchid garden, where it was the garden’s prized treasure.

But Lin Yiqiu was watering it casually, as if it were just an ordinary orchid.

“You take such good care of it,” the student praised sincerely.

“Precious orchids need pruning,” Lin Yiqiu paused, picking up the flower shears.

***

Kolis, on the rooftop.

The trigger of the gun was about to be pulled.

But two thousand meters away, on a tall building, Huang Bo had taken the high ground, leisurely setting up a Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle.

—A gun known as the King of Heavy Snipers.

Anyone hit by it would either be dead or seriously injured.

He took off his glasses.

An incredibly clear image appeared before his eyes.

“Can he do it? He doesn’t look like he has good eyesight. This is an ultra-long-range snipe.”

Behind him, someone was whispering.

The trigger was pulled—

The bullet, traveling at nearly a thousand meters per second, rushed forward with the sound of the wind.

The moment it hit the target.

Flesh and blood exploded in the air.

Like a brilliant firework.

Then the next one—

The whispering stopped abruptly.

After a long time, another person answered in a low voice, “Do you know who he is?”

“Who is he?”

“Twenty years ago, when Mr. Xiao Lu was kidnapped by gangsters in Southeast Asia, even the police didn’t dare to intervene. He walked out with a gun in one hand and the seven-year-old Mr. Xiao Lu in the other.” The person’s voice couldn’t help but carry a hint of fear.

“It was him.”

Huang Bo seemed not to have heard their discussion. He put on his glasses and walked downstairs.

He still had to go to the market to buy some wild berries for a salad.

The moment the gunshot was heard, the art market suddenly erupted in chaos. Most people fled in panic, while a small number curiously craned their necks to watch the commotion. Traffic descended into chaos.

Lu Shenxing got into the car.

Ying Guanxiao sat in the car, still shaken as he closed the door. “It’s so dangerous abroad.”

As the car door closed, the noise from outside was shut out.

Lu Shenxing just lowered his eyes.

***

Ji Wei waited alone in the hotel room.

Just waiting.

An inexplicable panic welled up in his heart, making him not want to do anything, not even draw.

He had said he would be back soon.

He waited until almost one o’clock before Lu Shenxing returned.

The moment he heard the door open, he quickly got out of bed, walked over, and asked worriedly, “Did something happen?” He was back so late.

Lu Shenxing reached out, wrapped an arm around his narrow waist, and pulled him into an embrace. He gently rested his chin on his head and replied casually, “Nothing happened, just traffic.”

He finally breathed a sigh of relief and slowly hugged Lu Shenxing back.

Just then, there was a rhythmic knock on the room door.

The guide Alai’s voice came through. “Mr. Lu, are you there? Aleksei has brought a painting and would like to see you.”

Aleksei?

Ji Wei remembered the note the old man had given him. His son-in-law’s name was also Aleksei.

He looked at Lu Shenxing with confusion.

There was a moment of silence.

The man seemed to be considering whether to tell him. Finally, he said softly, “You’ll know when you see it.”

Lu Shenxing opened the door. Aleksei followed Alai into the room, holding a scroll of painting.

Alai tactfully excused himself.

Only three people were left in the room.

Aleksei unrolled the scroll on the square table in the hotel room.

It was a landscape painting.

But it felt very familiar to Ji Wei, as if he had seen it somewhere before. He suddenly remembered the painting in the Yiqiu Art Museum.

“Thank you for your help at the airport. Please forgive my earlier rudeness,” Aleksei said embarrassedly.

“This painting was left to me by my father, so I was unwilling to sell it. But I would like to give it to you as a gift, as a small token of my gratitude and apology.”

“Who is the owner of the painting?”

Lu Shenxing only asked one question.

“A Chinese man who couldn’t speak Russian,” Aleksei recalled.

“His hair was messy, and he looked like a madman, but his eyes were very bright. He stayed in his wooden cabin and didn’t go anywhere or talk to anyone. My father felt sorry for him and would occasionally bring him food. This painting was a gift from him to my father.”

That Chinese man might be Ye Lang.

Ji Wei thought silently to himself.

Would he be like that in the future…

At this thought, his light-colored pupils constricted.

—Uncontrollably.

He subconsciously wanted to flee the room, but Lu Shenxing quietly held his hand. As if enveloped in a gentle warmth, he suppressed his unease, let out a slow breath, and continued to listen in silence.

When Aleksei finished speaking, Lu Shenxing glanced at the young man and asked in his usual tone, “Can you take us there?”

“But he’s already dead.”

Aleksei added, “He starved to death.”

***

Lin Yiqiu received a phone call.

He put down the scissors he was using to prune the orchid leaves and stood there without saying anything.

“Teacher, did something happen?”

The student was a little uneasy.

“I was just—”

“Thinking of someone.”

Lin Yiqiu suddenly said, “He was the most talented student I have ever seen. I believed his name would be recorded in the annals of art history. I was only seven years older than him and treated him like a real brother, giving him the best of everything.”

“And then?”

The student couldn’t help but ask.

“One day he came to me and said his child was born, and he was preparing to take on some commercial illustration work to support his family. He couldn’t always rely on his wife to support him.”

Lin Yiqiu’s tone suddenly turned icy. “He was wasting his talent. Such an enviable talent.”

“And he didn’t care at all.”

The student felt a strange fear.

He tried hard to recall, but he couldn’t remember any of Old Lin’s students who were as exceptionally talented as he described.

Such a talented person shouldn’t be unknown.

Perhaps sensing his mood, Lin Yiqiu smiled and continued talking about the orchid. “An orchid that grows from a cliff is the most breathtaking.”

“Don’t you think?”

***

After agreeing with Aleksei to go to the cabin he mentioned tomorrow, they saw him off.

Ji Wei opened his sketchbook and sat at the table, drawing.

Only drawing could vent the unease in his heart.

He drew a lake with a small cabin by its shore.

It was clearly a serene scene, but the brushstrokes were extremely chaotic, as if hiding a man-eating beast. Yet, it possessed a maverick kind of beauty.

Lu Shenxing watched quietly.

He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing.

But it was obvious that the reason for Ye Lang’s madness was not so simple. If he were a complete madman, why would Aleksei’s father have approached him?

It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of investigating on his own without telling Ji Wei.

But that person wouldn’t give him the chance.

He lowered his eyes.

Just as Ji Wei was about to finish his drawing, Huang Bo returned from the market.

The hotel didn’t have a kitchen, so he couldn’t cook, but he had bought a lot of berries to make a fruit salad.

Perhaps it was a common desire among middle-aged and elderly people of his age for natural ingredients. He even made his own salad dressing, which had a rich, milky aroma mixed with the fresh scent of wild berries.

Huang Bo served a large bowl to both Ji Wei and Lu Shenxing.

But he secretly added a lot more cranberries to Ji Wei’s bowl.

“You have to eat more to get better.”

Huang Bo handed the fruit salad in a glass bowl to Ji Wei.

Although Ji Wei only let out a soft “mm,” he still smiled happily. “Weiwei is so obedient, unlike A-Xing, who has been a picky eater since he was a child.”

Ji Wei’s hand paused as he was about to make the final stroke.

Seeing his interest, Huang Bo continued, “When I first came to their house, A-Xing had to be chased by the maids to eat. It would take him half a day to eat a small half-bowl of rice, and he wasn’t in good health.”

Ji Wei couldn’t help but look at his idol.

Lu Shenxing’s face showed no emotion.

“Later, I told Mr. Lu that that’s not how you raise a child. After I let A-Xing go hungry for a day, he learned to eat obediently on his own.” Huang Bo said cheerfully, “But I also learned a lot of recipes.”

Ji Wei: …I didn’t expect Huang Bo’s child-rearing methods to be of the wild school.

He suddenly felt that the usually amiable Huang Bo had become unfathomably profound.

Huang Bo was about to say more when Lu Shenxing suddenly interrupted him. “Did you lose your glasses again?”

Huang Bo adjusted his nose bridge and realized something was missing. “Oh right, where are my glasses?”

He then turned and went out to look for his glasses.

Hmm… he hasn’t changed.

Still the same old Huang Bo who always forgets things.

Ji Wei thought silently.

The door was not closed. A hotel cleaning staff member knocked on the door. “Hello, may I come in to clean now?”

There were still traces of salad dressing on the table.

Lu Shenxing nodded slightly. “Come in.”

The room wasn’t messy. After changing the sheets and quilt, the cleaning staff briefly tidied up the room, wiped the salad dressing off the table, and was about to take out the trash bag from the trash can when a drawing fell into it.

The person who threw away the drawing was a very handsome young man.

The kind of handsome rarely seen in Kolis. Compared to the cold-faced man next to him, he could be said to have no aggressiveness at all, closer to the gentle temperament unique to Easterners.

“Should this be thrown away too?” the cleaning staff asked, looking at the drawing with some regret.

Kolis had a strong artistic atmosphere. Although she had never studied art, she could tell that this was a good drawing. It might even sell for a high price. To just throw it away?

Ji Wei didn’t speak, just nodded.

There was nothing wrong with this drawing. It could be said to be better than any of his previous sketch works, but it contained all his fears, making him unconsciously think of Ye Lang.

—His grandfather whom he had never met.

So he didn’t want to see it again.

It was originally a work of catharsis, so it wasn’t a pity to throw it away.

The cleaning staff looked at the young man’s calm and quiet appearance. He didn’t say a word. She couldn’t help but think, could he be mute? She felt it was even more of a pity.

Working in a hotel, one always met all kinds of guests. This young man was not the strangest.

She didn’t ask any more questions. After replacing the trash bag, she took the old one out, closed the room door, and then carefully picked up the drawing from the trash bag.

She nervously hoped that this discarded drawing could be exchanged for her son’s tuition for the new semester at the art market.

She didn’t know that the value of this drawing would far exceed her imagination.

The room door was closed again—

Ji Wei sat in his chair, thinking that his behavior must have seemed very strange.

But the man’s expression was as usual. He didn’t ask anything.

It was as if everything he did was a matter of course.

A silent gentleness.

Ji Wei lowered his head. For some reason, his eyes felt a little moist. From his angle, he could just see the two salads on the table.

His portion hadn’t been touched.

Lu Shenxing’s portion was already finished.

Although he also wanted to try Huang Bo’s salad—it must be delicious—his idol really liked to eat sweets.

Without any hesitation, Ji Wei pushed his portion of cranberry salad in front of Lu Shenxing.

Seeing that Lu Shenxing didn’t take it, he said cautiously, “You eat.”

The man’s gaze fell on the pile of cranberries, paused for a moment, and said nothing.

Ji Wei pushed the glass bowl a little further towards Lu Shenxing, gesturing for him to eat.

The back of the chair was suddenly pulled back.

Before he could react, his hand slid past the glass bowl and hung limply at his sides. Then, the man leaned over, pressed the back of his head to make him tilt his head up, and kissed him on the lips with incredible naturalness.

He was kissed until he couldn’t breathe. It seemed as if the air around him had been invaded and plundered by the man. All he could perceive was the overwhelming scent of grass and wood.

For a moment, the entire room was filled with the sound of their lips and tongues connecting.

Towards the end of the kiss, he was even lifted up by Lu Shenxing.

It wasn’t until the man’s kisses slowly moved to his neck, leaving a trail of fine, dense kisses, even leaving a clear love bite.

Only then did he break free from this long, deep kiss. After catching his breath, he couldn’t help but whisper, “Too deep.”

As if he would suffocate the next second.

The man paused, looked up at him, and asked, “Where is it deep?” with an ambiguous tone.

He belatedly felt the heat. He wanted to stand up but was held by Lu Shenxing and couldn’t move. He could only avoid Lu Shenxing’s gaze, take a deep breath, look at the fruit salad on the table, and lamely change the subject. “Aren’t you… going to eat?”

The man’s gaze lingered on his face, paused for a moment, and said, “I’ve already eaten,” in a calm tone.