012
“Is the seatbelt the priority right now? Is the seatbelt the priority right now!” He Xingluo went completely crazy in his heart. “But what can he do? What can he do?”
Teacher Kevin was extremely professional: “I’ll help you fasten the seatbelt!”
He Xingluo: “…”
There was yet another deeply involved participant in this damned love story. Weren’t four people in a relationship a bit too crowded?
He Xingluo shook his head vigorously, not entirely sure if CEO romance novels were all this unhinged.
Lu Zhanbei frowned: “Are you getting in the car or not?”
He Xingluo maintained a calm surface: “Alright.”
Inwardly, he was already numb.
However, his soul as a working stiff was still alive, and he subconsciously added: “After you, Young Master.”
Lu Zhanbei: “.”
Sometimes he really was too extra.
He Xingluo followed behind Lu Zhanbei into the car, his expression somewhat dazed. The four people currently in the car felt as though they had been forcibly locked into this vehicle by the plot.
Whether they were the protagonist or inconsequential NPCs.
If this wasn’t all beings being equal before fate, what was?
He Xingluo slowly leaned back into the seat.
From his line of sight, he happened to see Lu Zhanbei pick up the tablet he had been looking at earlier and turn off the power. Then, he dimmed the lights inside the car.
He Xingluo asked him: “Young Master, would you like to sleep for a bit?”
The corners of Lu Zhanbei’s mouth seemed to hold a slight smile: “It looks like you want to sleep more?”
Well, that was certainly true.
He Xingluo had lain down the exact second he touched the seat. He whispered: “I’m just testing it out for you to see if it’s comfortable.”
Lu Zhanbei made a noncommittal sound.
Perhaps because this sudden rain had already fulfilled the plot’s requirements, the sound of the rain outside the car window gradually quieted down. Listening to the fading rain, He Xingluo grew drowsy.
At that moment, only a single beam of light remained in the cabin, casting an extremely pale yellow glow. As the vehicle swayed slightly, mottled patches of light and shadow flickered across He Xingluo’s face.
He Xingluo dodged them and closed his eyes for a moment.
Even then, He Xingluo hadn’t forgotten his persona and insisted on talking to Lu Zhanbei: “Young Master, did you make a special trip to go horseback riding with President Xu today because you’re planning a marriage alliance with the Xu family?”
Lu Zhanbei nodded, “Mm.”
He Xingluo asked: “Is this marriage alliance that important to the family?”
Hearing the word “family,” Lu Zhanbei couldn’t help giving him an extra look. His tone softened slightly: “Second Uncle seems to value it a lot.”
He Xingluo processed the implications of that sentence, meaning Lu Zhanbei didn’t care about it at all?
Oh.
So any contract romance he stirred up in the future wouldn’t be for the family or his cousin; he was simply after Wen Tian as a person!
So that’s the kind of Young Master Lu he was!
From his omniscient perspective, He Xingluo learned a few more trivial details.
Still, that was very much like Lu Zhanbei.
He himself seemed like the type of person with restrained emotions who would never act on impulse, which could be seen from the birthday banquet that had just ended, as he maintained a completely stable emotional state while handling social situations.
Yet who would have guessed he would gallop wildly on horseback and enjoy deliberately speeding up to scare people?
Seeing the other person nodding off from sleepiness, Lu Zhanbei simply turned off the final beam of light, plunging the cabin into an even deeper quiet. Yet Lu Zhanbei’s gaze didn’t leave him, making He Xingluo think Lu Zhanbei was reprimanding him for dozing off during work hours.
He Xingluo scrambled for an excuse: “Young Master, do you know when people are most likely to feel sleepy?”
Lu Zhanbei kept a straight face, waiting for him to spin a tall tale.
“Of course it’s when you feel extremely safe!” He Xingluo said, sounding as if he were either entirely sincere or completely checked out: “You exude such upright energy, Young Master. The moment I see you, I feel completely safe and naturally want to sleep.”
“Not to mention how incredibly comfortable the back seat is; it’s really hard for my personal willpower to resist.”
Lu Zhanbei: “So you’re saying it’s the car’s fault.”
He Xingluo cautiously: “It’s hard to say it isn’t.”
Lu Zhanbei looked at him and smiled, looking both tolerant and helpless: “Go to sleep. It’s still a while before we reach the hospital in the city.”
“Understood, Young Master.” Before closing his eyes, He Xingluo emphasized: “I am sleeping with your explicit imperial decree, you are not allowed to dock my pay!”
Lu Zhanbei: “.”
Was a trivial matter like this really worth him running a sting operation?
Having received Lu Zhanbei’s tacit permission, He Xingluo began to sleep soundly. When he woke up again, the rain outside had stopped, and the city streets possessed that rare, fresh atmosphere found only after a heavy downpour.
He Xingluo checked the time; he had slept for nearly half an hour.
He Xingluo turned back to ask him: “Have we arrived at the hospital?”
Lu Zhanbei gave a hum of agreement.
Then why are you still here?
He Xingluo once again realized something was wrong: “Then Wen, I mean, what about that person from earlier? He went all by himself, and you didn’t accompany him?”
Lu Zhanbei was baffled: “I should have accompanied him?”
Well, actually, yes, you should have.
He Xingluo poked his head forward to look and discovered that Teacher Kevin was gone too, so presumably he had gone with Wen Tian to the hospital. At least Wen Tian wasn’t going alone, as human moral baselines really degraded without you even noticing.
Feeling a bit guilty, He Xingluo rubbed the tip of his nose and came up with a plausible excuse for his uncharacteristic behavior: “Well, you should finish what you start, right?”
Lu Zhanbei: “Who was the one who wanted to help in the first place?”
He Xingluo paused, then spoke up: “You’re right, Young Master. Should I go check on him after all?”
As he spoke, He Xingluo reached for the car door, only to discover the next second that the door was way too high-tech for him to open. Summoning his inner researcher, He Xingluo tried opening it again.
Watching his efforts, Lu Zhanbei didn’t offer a hand. He Xingluo asked for help: “Young Master, this door is blocking my path to doing good deeds and helping others!”
Lu Zhanbei remained unmoved: “Maybe your sincerity isn’t enough.”
He Xingluo: “.”
Young Master Lu’s sense of humor was truly hard to grasp.
He Xingluo extended an invitation: “Would you like to come with me, Young Master? I’ll split the karmic merit of doing a good deed fifty-fifty with you.”
Lu Zhanbei smiled: “Is this what they call outsourcing karmic merit?”
He Xingluo: “…”
If you say it is, then I guess it is.
Lu Zhanbei finally showed some benevolence and opened the door. The post-rain street felt somewhat damp underfoot. Falling back into character maintenance, He Xingluo said: “Watch your step, Young Master, the road is slippery after the rain. If you happen to fall, it must mean the earth loves you deeply!”
Lu Zhanbei frowned: “Don’t talk so exaggeratedly.”
He Xingluo kept right on going: “Young Master, like I said before, you need to have confidence!”
Lu Zhanbei: “.”
He Xingluo scanned the hospital landmarks and pointed the way: “Young Master, are they in the emergency room?”
Lu Zhanbei: “At this hour, are there regular outpatient clinics?”
Ordinary people definitely wouldn’t have them, but wealthy people were a different story, what if a miracle happened in their lives? He Xingluo asked curiously: “If your younger brother Lu Zhitao got sick, could he see an outpatient doctor at night? Does he need to register for a queue?”
Lu Zhanbei let out a mocking laugh: “Dr. Zhao is hardly useless.”
He Xingluo had a sudden flash of insight.
In the end, family doctors carried the weight of the world on their shoulders.
The nighttime emergency room remained brilliantly lit. The bustling, noisy scene possessed a lively vibe that felt entirely out of place with the night. In that respect, it was just like his experiences in his past life.
The two quickly found Teacher Kevin. According to Kevin, Wen Tian was still half-asleep and hadn’t fully regained consciousness. The doctor ordered an IV drip, which would likely take about fifty minutes.
He Xingluo glanced into the infusion room, and Wen Tian looked exceptionally lonely and isolated. Right before he could speak, Lu Zhanbei said: “Let’s go. I’ll have the driver take him back.”
He Xingluo: “What about us?”
Lu Zhanbei: “We’ll take a different car. Let’s switch to one that doesn’t tempt you to sleep.”
He Xingluo: “.”
So the Young Master had been waiting right here.
“Young Master.” He Xingluo picked up a blanket from nearby: “I’ll just put this blanket over him and come right back.”
Lu Zhanbei gave tacit consent.
Carrying the blanket, He Xingluo entered the infusion hall and approached Wen Tian’s seat. Wen Tian was naturally fair-skinned, but right now he looked even paler, his brow furrowed even in sleep as if troubled by some difficult matter.
He Xingluo gently draped the blanket over him.
As he stood up, a slender hand grabbed the hem of his jacket.
He Xingluo looked back at Wen Tian.
In the gaze Wen Tian directed at him, there seemed to be a silent plea. He Xingluo felt half-numb all over. What was going on here, why was nobody around him normal?
When Wen Tian acted weak while sick, shouldn’t the target of that affection be Lu Zhanbei?
Yet Wen Tian really was the type of person who easily made one’s heart soften.
If he…
He Xingluo glanced back at Lu Zhanbei and read pure disapproval in the young master’s eyes. Left with no choice, He Xingluo squatted down to comfort him: “Don’t be afraid, we’ll be able to go home soon.”
Running a feverish fog, Wen Tian had probably just woken up for a brief second before drifting right back to sleep.
When He Xingluo tried to leave again, he discovered that Wen Tian was still clutching the hem of his jacket even in his sleep. Meanwhile, Young Master Lu was watching him through the glass outside the infusion hall.
What kind of inexplicable love triangle was this?
In a rush, He Xingluo unbuttoned his outer jacket as well and draped it over Wen Tian. He’d leave his clothes behind, but he still had to go back with Lu Zhanbei.
Sometimes the plot developed in the most unexpected ways. He Xingluo had originally thought he was just an atmosphere-setting NPC, yet on his very first day on the job, he ended up having the young master drive for him.
He Xingluo fastened his passenger seatbelt again, feeling that he was still being a bit too relaxed, so he tried to redeem himself: “Should I drive instead?”
Lu Zhanbei: “And crash us both back to the hospital?”
“I guess I’ll trouble the Young Master then.” He Xingluo gripped his seatbelt tightly, as he really was nervous about driving a multi-million-dollar sports car. “Young Master, where did this car even appear from?”
Lu Zhanbei: “Temporarily requisitioned.”
He Xingluo: “?”
Lu Zhanbei explained: “Lu Zhitao happens to be at the club in the building right in front.”
He Xingluo: “And then he’s going to find out in the middle of the night that his car mysteriously vanished?”
Without an ounce of empathy, Lu Zhanbei steered the car into traffic. He Xingluo began diligently searching for a topic of conversation again: “Young Master, why did you accompany me to the hospital to see Wen Tian just now?”
Could it really have been for that half share of karmic merit?
It definitely must have been for love, though putting it that way was a bit of a stretch, so He Xingluo wanted to dig into the protagonist’s true psychological state.
“Because of you…” Lu Zhanbei glanced at him sideways, “that habit of yours of picking people up off the street makes you look extremely easy to scam.”
Huh?
For a moment, He Xingluo couldn’t process this. How did they suddenly pivot from a romance channel to a legal awareness program? He Xingluo tried to steer them back on topic: “Wen Tian doesn’t look like a bad person.”
“Oh?”
Lu Zhanbei raised an eyebrow, “Then where’s your jacket?”
“…”
Young Master, if you’re going to put it that way, you really managed to circle right back around.
Lu Zhanbei lectured him: “Just realizing it now? From now on, you are not allowed to casually pick people up off the street. Do you know how to handle it if you run into a scammer? People who randomly collapse into your arms for no reason are mostly up to no good.”
“Did you understand that?”
Understood.
Yet somehow still a bit confused.
He Xingluo’s brain spun like a top before he finally managed to speak: “Young Master, are you warning me that Wen Tian might be setting me up with a honey trap?”
Lu Zhanbei’s slender fingers gripped the steering wheel as he executed a smooth, elegant turn. He praised: “You’re not entirely stupid.”
Huh?
How is one supposed to describe this plot? The pure and kind Wen Tian was suspected of being a criminal by Lu Zhanbei, who according to the original plot should have been head-over-heels in love the moment he laid eyes on him?
The little system spun in circles, fluttering back and forth before his eyes, anxiously crying out: “What do we do, what do we do? The plot is different from the original again!”
Dizzy from the noise, He Xingluo found a roundabout way to comfort it: “System, actually this plot isn’t that outrageous.”
The little system paused: “Really?”
He Xingluo rattled them off like a checklist: “Look, ‘Lu Zhanbei lets the sick Wen Tian get in the car’, ‘Lu Zhanbei discovers Wen Tian has a fever’, ‘Wen Tian falls asleep in Lu Zhanbei’s car’, ‘Lu Zhanbei takes Wen Tian to see a doctor’, you tell me, which of those didn’t come true?”
The system: “…”
Well, you sure know how to tally things up.