Sometimes, he was so fed up with Lu Shiying acting like a father, constantly interfering in everything he did and telling him what he could and couldn’t do.
But the moment he heard those two words, send you away, something suddenly clenched painfully in his chest.
He didn’t want to leave his brother.
It was strange. Being restricted and controlled made him feel suffocated and yet he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving.
Bang!
“Jiang Ci!”
A tremendous impact slammed into them without warning, violently jolting the entire car forward.
Lu Shiying reacted instinctively. He forced Jiang Ci down beneath the level of the seat, then threw his own body between him and the car window, shielding him from the shattered glass. His broad, sturdy back covered Jiang Ci completely, leaving no part of the boy exposed.
Jiang Ci curled up in Lu Shiying’s arms, clutching his head protectively. Before he could even catch his breath, two more violent impacts struck the car in quick succession, sending the entire vehicle rocking and shaking violently.
The two bodyguards who had been stationed at the school came rushing over, ramming straight into the rear of the other vehicle and knocking it sideways.
But then eight or nine people suddenly leaped out of the large van, one after another. Every single one of them was carrying an iron rod and they immediately surrounded the two bodyguards, swinging their weapons and beating them without restraint.
Jiang Ci opened his eyes, his arms trembling uncontrollably.
For all these years, everything had been peaceful. There had always been bodyguard vehicles following him wherever he went and he had assumed that skipping class for a little while couldn’t possibly lead to any real trouble.
Only today did he finally understand.
The Lu family truly was a dangerous place. There were always people plotting in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity. The moment they had relaxed their vigilance and reduced the number of bodyguards this month, someone had already seized the chance to target them.
Far too many people wanted Lu Shiying dead.
“Brother…”
Jiang Ci raised his head.
Lu Shiying covered his injured arm with one hand, then forcefully pushed open the passenger side door and lifted Jiang Ci out of the vehicle. Blood was running down his arm and shards of broken glass were embedded in his shoulder yet the first thing he did was lower his head and carefully examine his younger brother, checking whether he had been injured anywhere.
Lu Shiying had a broad, sturdy build, standing a full size larger than Jiang Ci. He had shielded the boy so completely that Jiang Ci had barely sustained any injuries, aside from a few shallow cuts on his skin.
Lu Shiying immediately reached into the car and retrieved clotting medication and bandages. He quickly applied the medicine and wrapped Jiang Ci’s injuries, providing him with basic first aid before taking out his phone and calling the private doctor.
“Brother… y… you’re bleeding…”
Jiang Ci’s eyes reddened instantly, tears gathering in them.
All those reckless, restless emotions of adolescence seemed to settle in that single moment, replaced by an overwhelming turmoil that churned deep inside his chest.
It was true that he shouldn’t skip class.
It was true that he couldn’t leave the bodyguards behind.
And it was also true that he needed to listen to his brother.
Jiang Ci reached out and held Lu Shiying’s hand. He watched helplessly as his brother raised his injured arm, clenched his teeth and forcibly pulled the shard of glass embedded in his flesh out with his bare hand.
Blood trickled between his fingers and dripped onto the ground. Lu Shiying didn’t even furrow his brows. Instead, he lowered his head once more to inspect Jiang Ci’s arm, confirming that the clotting powder had successfully stopped the bleeding before finally lifting his gaze toward the group of attackers.
“Brother, let me help you- ”
Jiang Ci had just reached for the gauze when he saw that Lu Shiying had already risen to his feet.
The two bodyguards were no pushovers either. They had somehow managed to hold their own against ten attackers for this long, fighting two against ten without backing down.
But this was the first time Jiang Ci had ever seen Lu Shiying fight.
His brother surged forward, kicking the man at the very front and sending him flying backward. He followed with a powerful side kick that swept across another attacker’s waist, knocking down the person attempting to ambush him from the side. Then, he bent down, picked up an iron rod from the ground and swung it fiercely backward.
Two men hit the ground at the same time.
Lu Shiying was a fifth degree black belt in taekwondo. If he hadn’t been held back by the age requirements, he could have continued testing for higher levels.
His movements were even more swift and precise than those of the two bodyguards. The remaining attackers began scrambling toward the van in an attempt to escape but Lu Shiying intercepted them, stopping them one by one with a single punch each.
His final punch sent a burly man flying all the way to the base of the wall. The man spat blood and struggled desperately but he couldn’t even manage to crawl back up.
The bodyguards gradually stepped aside. They could see exactly what had happened: Lu Shiying had completely lost his temper because his younger brother had been attacked. At that moment, he was grabbing the assailants and beating them mercilessly, one after another.
“Young Master, Young Master, please stop! Someone’s going to die!”
The commotion in the vicinity quickly attracted the attention of the school security guards and passersby, who began calling the police.
Meanwhile, the black van suddenly swerved sharply and sped away, attempting to escape.
The bodyguards immediately slammed their feet down on the accelerator and chased after it. The roar of the engines echoed through the street as both vehicles disappeared around the corner.
Jiang Ci had never witnessed anything like this in his life. He stood there completely dumbfounded, his mind struggling to process what he had just seen.
Was this really a society governed by the rule of law?
Just how many people actually wanted Lu Shiying dead?
If he died, how many people in the enormous Lu family would pounce on the opportunity like starving wolves, fighting to seize whatever they could?
“Young Master, are you all right?”
One of the other bodyguards came running back, his face pale with worry.
“I’m sorry. We’ve been following the young master the entire time. Who could have known he had another route for skipping class…?”
Lu Shiying had initially intended to fire them both but after giving it some thought, he reconsidered. Those two had held the attackers back just now, buying them precious time and preventing even more people from surrounding and attacking them. Their fighting skills were quite impressive.
Besides, Jiang Ci had always hoped that he would become someone with warmth and human feeling, someone who knew when to be flexible instead of enforcing every rule without exception.
He would consider their actions enough to make up for their mistake.
“Let this be the last time.”
…….
When Lu Shiying returned to Jiang Ci’s side, Doctor Nie’s car arrived as well.
After examining Jiang Ci’s wounds, Doctor Nie said, “It’s nothing serious. Just some scrapes. They might swell for a few days but you, ”
He pointed toward the tiny shards of glass embedded in Lu Shiying’s shoulder.
“Young Master Lu, are you seriously not in pain? You went straight into a fight with glass still stuck in your body. Are you trying to get yourself killed? What if a blood vessel ruptures? You could end up in the ICU!”
Lu Shiying turned his head and glanced at his shoulder. His voice remained low and calm.
“I’ve got thick skin and tough bones. It’s nothing.”
Jiang Ci stared at him in a daze, his head lowered like a child who had done something terribly wrong.
So this was what a pampered young master was really like.
His brother wasn’t afraid of pain and he wasn’t afraid of getting into a fight either. Even after witnessing a scene like that, Lu Shiying had remained unbelievably composed.
Lu Shiying’s car had been completely wrecked, so everyone got into Doctor Nie’s vehicle and headed toward the hospital. Halfway there, they happened to run into Assistant Ji, who had rushed over after receiving the news.
Assistant Ji was still completely bewildered. The meeting had been halfway through when the CEO had suddenly disappeared without a trace.
The inside of the car fell silent for several seconds.
Lu Shiying stared at Jiang Ci’s face, a wave of lingering fear washing over him.
If the one who had been injured was his younger brother, then he would have been the one needing intensive care.
If that argument hadn’t happened, if he hadn’t let his guard down, perhaps he could have noticed the vehicle approaching from behind a little sooner.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
Two voices collided at exactly the same moment.
Jiang Ci raised his head, startled. He stared blankly for two seconds before biting his lip.
“Brother, why are you apologizing to me?”
Lu Shiying gently reached out and stroked his head.
“I was too harsh with my words earlier. I shouldn’t have said that I’d send you away when you turned eighteen. If you want to stay by my side, if you want to remain in the Lu family, you’ll always be my younger brother. Even though we aren’t related by blood, you’ve already become an important member of my family in my heart.”
The moment Jiang Ci heard those words, he suddenly lunged forward and buried his head in Lu Shiying’s chest, beginning to cry quietly.
“Brother…”
His tears quickly soaked through Lu Shiying’s shirt. When Lu Shiying lowered his head and saw the bloodstains on the fabric, Jiang Ci suddenly burst into loud, broken sobs, crying so hard that he could barely catch his breath.
Lu Shiying thought he must be in pain somewhere. He hurriedly wrapped his arms around him and began patting his back.
“What happened? Where does it hurt? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”
Jiang Ci clutched tightly at his brother’s clothes, all the stubbornness and awkwardness he usually carried disappearing completely.
He felt that he had changed.
The older he grew, the more he began to understand certain things.
He had once wanted nothing more than to escape his brother’s restrictions and control but only now, after what had happened, did he suddenly realize the truth.
He liked staying by Lu Shiying’s side.
He would rather be disciplined by him, rather than be scolded by him.
If something ever happened to Lu Shiying, Jiang Ci didn’t think he would want to go on living either.
“Ge, does it hurt?” Jiang Ci lifted his head, his eyes rimmed red. He leaned closer and began unbuttoning Lu Shiying’s white shirt.
There were scratches of varying sizes scattered across his shoulders, a deep gash running along his arm and bloodstains covering his back, making it impossible to tell exactly where he had been injured.
This was the first time Jiang Ci had ever seen Lu Shiying hurt. Unable to hold back any longer, his tears began falling in large, helpless drops.
“It doesn’t hurt. I’m covered in muscle. What’s a little injury like this?” Lu Shiying raised his hand and gently wiped away the tears gathering at the corners of Jiang Ci’s eyes with the pad of his finger.
Dr. Nie was driving but the more he watched the two of them, the more something felt off. He kept stealing glances at them through the rearview mirror.
The relationship between these two… wasn’t it a little too close?
……
First Hospital.
It took less than ten minutes for news of Lu Shiying’s injuries to be photographed and uploaded online. Before long, the incident had taken over the major news headlines and trending searches, dominating the internet in a rapidly spreading wave of attention.
No wonder those people had acted so fearlessly. The assassination attempt had only been a pretense. Their real objective was to manufacture a vicious public relations scandal and unleash a wave of malicious public opinion.
Ji Ancheng finished dealing with the situation on the way and returned to the entrance of the hospital examination room. “President Lu, the news is already being handled but there’s only so much we can do when people keep spreading it. The stock price could potentially lose between ten and thirty percent within a few hours. The market is taking advantage of the panic to amplify the decline and we’re working to stabilize the situation and control the trading. We’ll be increasing the number of security vehicles accompanying you to six in the coming days. Please be extremely careful about your safety.”
“Have you found out who did it?” Lu Shiying asked.
Ji Ancheng handed him several documents to look over. The competitors involved in the company’s recent bidding projects could be set aside for the time being. The biggest suspects were the six board members Lu Shiying had removed from their positions last month.
He had stripped those men of their shares, then joined forces with the other shareholders to secure enough votes to drive out the old schemers who had spent years opposing him.
Lu Shiying’s voice turned cold as he gave his instructions. “Investigate these people. Once you find the mastermind, contact me directly. It’s also possible that the two sides have joined forces to bring me down.”
“Yes, sir.”
Afterward, Lu Shiying entered the examination room, where he went through a series of procedures one after another: X rays, blood tests and all the other routine examinations. By the time he finished, he was lying facedown on the hospital bed. The wounds across his back had already been treated and the bleeding stopped, while his injured arm had been carefully wrapped in bandages.
Jiang Ci had followed him around the entire time like a little shadow, constantly peeking over at everything that was happening. His head kept bobbing from one side to the other and his eyes never seemed to rest for even a moment.
“All right, make sure you don’t get the wounds wet over the next couple of days. I’ll bring the examination results over tomorrow.” Dr. Nie put away his medical instruments and gave him a few final instructions.
Jiang Ci immediately hurried over and dropped onto the edge of the hospital bed. His eyes locked onto his brother’s injured arm, staring intently at the bandages. Just moments ago, he had watched with his own eyes as the shard of glass was forcibly pulled out of the wound, blood surging out and covering the doctor’s hands.
“Ge, did it hurt a lot?” Jiang Ci asked in a small voice, a faint tremor running through his words.
Lu Shiying lowered his head and looked at the worry filling his younger brother’s eyes. He reached out and took Jiang Ci’s small hand in his own. Jiang Ci was slight in stature and Lu Shiying’s broad palm was just large enough to completely enclose his hand.
“How could it possibly not hurt?” Jiang Ci threw his arms around Lu Shiying’s injured arm, his eyes instantly turning red. “You shouldn’t have gone and fought them in the first place. What are we going to do now…? It must have hurt terribly.”
Lu Shiying raised his hand and gently rubbed the top of his head, his voice low and soft. “As long as you weren’t hurt, it would be worth dying for.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
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← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Even He, an outsider, couldn’t stand itChapter 2 · DaddyChapter 3 · Thank you for the gift!Chapter 4 · Do You want to sleep with your brother?Chapter 5 · Smart BabyChapter 6 · Life in a Wealthy FamilyChapter 7 · Genius BrotherChapter 8 · Brother’s giftChapter 9 · Xiao Ci was injured.Chapter 10 · ThoughtfulChapter 11 · Treat as treasureChapter 12 · Only recognized oneChapter 13 · Lu family coupleChapter 14 · A closed heartChapter 15 · Understanding my brotherChapter 16 · Reluctant to hitChapter 17 · UneasyChapter 18 · PossessiveChapter 19 · Teenage RebelChapter 20 Part 1 · The car accidentChapter 20 Part 2 · The car accidentChapter 20 Part 3 · The car accidentChapter 21 · My heart is racingChapter 22 · Physiological Knowledge