Bite Your Fingertips

83rd -【His Chu Yu】

Translator: Xena Editor: meowmiao

Trigger Warning: If you didn’t see anything in the last chapter, it’s probably here…

Special thanks to an anonymous wonderful reader, Kalse, Alexani, and Luthien for the support!

The car stopped.

In the back seat of the closed carriage, Lu Shi left from the side of Chu Yu’s neck, lowered his black eyes, and tidied up Chu Yu’s messy collar.

The two got out of the car.

Yangyi Hospital was a high-end medical institution chain under the Lu family with extremely strong privacy. In order to block the news that Lu Zhaohe had been hospitalized, the small building where Lu Zhaohe’s ward was located had been directly sealed off.

Arriving at the door of the ward, Chu Yu stopped and asked Lu Shi, “I’ll wait for you outside?”

Lu Shi’s eyes fell on the closed door of the ward. In his pitch-black eyes, it seemed as if a dark flame had been ignited in a frozen thousand mile river.

He retracted his gaze and looked down at Chu Yu’s lips, which seemed moist with water. Suddenly and without warning, he reached out and embraced the person in his arms.

With great strength and a seamless fit.

Chu Yu let him hug.

With his chin resting on Lu Shi’s shoulder, he looked at the bodyguards in black on both sides of the corridor with their heads down then the snow-white walls of the hospital, and finally reached out and patted Lu Shi’s back. “It’s almost over.”

Just hold on, it’s almost over.

One black-clothed bodyguard standing in front of the ward bowed his head to greet Lu Shi, stretched out his hand and opened the door of the ward.

Lu Shi stepped on the light-colored carpet. He walked in as the door of the ward closed behind him.

Inside the ward, heavy curtains were drawn tightly, rendering any ray of light outside the window unable to come through. The lighting was so dim that the decorations in the corners were shrouded by layers of shadows.

Lu Shi’s gaze was fixed. He walked to the bedside, but didn’t sit down in the bedside chair.

He was staring carefully at Lu Zhaohe.

In the past, Lu Zhaohe was a person he admired. Never straying in the face of interests and disasters, as if he could live for a long time and could always support the Lu family.

Now, Lu Zhaohe lay on a hospital bed, his body partially paralyzed because of a stroke, and the corners of his eyes and lips were drooping down, full of wrinkles. He aged by dozens of years overnight, and had one foot in the grave.

Hearing the sound, Lu Zhaohe slowly opened his eyes. He had difficulty seeing in one eye and his vision was cloudy. One has to look closely to get a glimpse of the overwhelming grandeur of his during his peak.

Lu Shi stood by the bed, letting his black shadow fall onto the bed.

His words were clear. “I’m back.”

Lu Zhaohe stared at Lu Shi’s face, his pupils shrunk, gradually becoming fearful. His lips opened, he wanted to say something, but he only managed to utter difficult ‘hua’ sounds, vague and unintelligible.

Lu Shi looked straight into Lu Zhaohe’s eyes. “Thank you for helping me deal with Fang Weishan, it saved me a lot of trouble.”

The corners of his lips curled into a sneer. “Of course, thank you and Lu Shaochu for solving Fang Weiyun for me too. The death penalty is also considered life for a life, don’t you think so?”

The final sound of the last word rose like a sharp iron hook carrying crosswinds as it plunged into Lu Zhaohe’s flesh and blood.

Apparently, he had understood all the key points at that instant. Lu Zhaohe’s one eye abruptly widened and his lips trembled violently. He may have wanted to raise his arm, but he just couldn’t do this simple action.

His stiff arm hung down on the hospital bed akin to dead tree roots, ugly and twisted.

Lu Shi’s line of sight turned to his elbow, and he said flatly, “Look, you can’t raise your arms, you can’t move your body, you can’t write, and you can’t speak. Say, what can you do?”

This reality was the most unacceptable thing to Lu Zhaohe.

He admits that he has been reigning through wind and rain for decades but didn’t expect to be eventually trapped in a hospital bed, unable to take care of himself, and vulnerable for others to trample on.

Here, anyone could take advantage of him as they pleased.

More so, he wouldn’t have expected that Lu Shi would be in the dark, calculating and manipulating everything.

Fang Weiyun, Fang Weishan, Lu Shaochu, himself; none of them could escape.

His breathing became rapid, his chest rose and fell abnormally. He stared at Lu Shi, seemingly wanting to tear him apart and devour his marrow.

Lu Shi saw Lu Zhaohe’s expression clearly.

He thought that standing in front of Lu Zhaohe’s bed, watching him linger on the edge of death would delight and excite him. However, at this time, there was an unusual sense of peace in his heart.

He was even wondering if Chu Yu, who was waiting for him outside, would be bored without his company.

Habitually putting his hands in his pockets, Lu Shi sized up Lu Zhaohe, his voice low. “I’ve read your medical records. Your language center has been suppressed, and you can no longer speak. Even if you survive, your remaining lifetime can only be spent like this, lying on a hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to move, and living like a corpse.”

Lu Shi’s tone didn’t fluctuate, as if Lu Zhaohe was no longer of importance.

“As for Lu Shaochu, the crime he committed will make him fade away from this world. No one will know where he’s imprisoned, whether he’s dead or alive. It won’t be long before he’ll be forgotten.”

“Just like Jiang Yueshun back then.”

Saying this name, Lu Shi’s fingers unconsciously clasped inside the palm of his hand and his nails dug into the flesh, causing some dull pain.

“Just because she gave birth to me, she was sealed in cement, sank to the bottom of a river, bound with chains, and tied to the bottom of the pier, staying there day after day.”

Lu Shi’s turned soft. “Fang Weiyun said that Jiang Yueman wasn’t even dead when she was sealed in cement. She had been sealed in that cement alive.”

The lights were dim in the ward.

The shadow behind Lu Shi resembled a monster with sharp claws.

Lu Zhaohe’s eyes widened, filled with fear. His lips opened and closed, but he still couldn’t pronounce a complete word.

At that moment, Lu Shi’s expression was as calm as a tranquil lake while he restrained countless conflicting emotions.

He remembered that when he was a child, Fang Weiyun cursed him as a bastard with filthy blood flowing in his body.

He remembered the pain when cutting his wrist with a blade and slicing through his flesh.

He remembered that he had naively used various methods to please Fang Weiyun without knowing that his biological mother was trapped at the bottom of a river, gradually forgotten.

He remembered how eighteen years ago, in a small remote clinic, a woman was pregnant and wanted to abort the fetus in her belly to end her ignorant mistakes and start a new life.

But when she finally lay on the operating bed, she ran out with her stomach in her arms, crying out to not hurt her child.

He wondered if she regretted giving birth to him while she was conscious in the cement.

His birth was a mistake, and it was time to end that mistake.

Closing his eyes, he suppressed the blood that swelled up in his eyes, and when he reopened them, only thorns and ice ridges remained in Lu Shi’s eyes.

He stooped down, stared at Lu Zhaohe’s cloudy eyes, and stated with a hoarse voice, “Are you trying to say that I’m crazy?”

A few seconds later, a cold smile appeared on the corner of Lu Shi’s lips, and he provided the answer himself. “Yes, I’m crazy. The moment I knew the truth, I was already crazy.”

Chu Yu was sitting in the resting area outside the ward. A nurse brought a glass of water and put it on the small white table in front of him. He said his thanks, but merely let the glass stand without taking a sip.

After looking up at the closed door of the ward, Chu Yu lowered his head again and took out his mobile phone.

There were 99+ notifications in the class group chat, and the topic had changed from the rising prices of the soy milk at the breakfast shop in front of the school to the huge winds blowing outside.

It wasn’t known how it developed but as they chatted, the huge wind turned into an evil wind and began to turn in the direction of ghost stories.

Chu Yu’s eyelids trembled and he hurriedly exited. He felt that it wasn’t enough insurance so he also closed the app in the background.

Swiping his phone screen, Chu Yu’s fingertip finally landed on the photo album icon and tapped in.

He didn’t have many photos and he was afraid that he would be finished going through all of them immediately, so his speed was very slow.

Slowly going up, his fingertips paused, and Chu Yu tapped on a photo.

The photo was taken at the shooting gallery on Qingchuan Road. In the photo, Lu Shi stood in front of the black preparation table, filling the magazine with bullets. The noise-cancelling headphones were placed around his neck. His head was lowered, the curvature of his nape very beautiful. The silver frame of the safety goggles covered the end of his eyes while his side profile was delicate and cold.

Chu Yu couldn’t help zooming in with two fingers.

When they first met in the narrow alley of Qingchuan Road, Lu Shi’s tone provocatively urged people to fight with him. Afterwards, without being yet a full-fledged adult, he participated in underground racing, played with shooting guns, and wrestled—there was an extremely unbearable repressed emotions and hostility that needed relief.

Looking back now, at that time, Lu Shi was like a trapped beast full of scars, locked in a narrow, cramped cage surrounded by thorns.

He struggled hopelessly even though the spikes caused him countless bloody wounds.

Fortunately, it was almost over.

Fang Weiyun was dead, Lu Shaochu was imprisoned, and worries regarding Fang Weishan have been resolved.

Chu Yu gazed at the door of the ward—Lu Zhaohe was paralyzed due to a stroke, and he shouldn’t be able to pose any threat.

Suddenly, he remembered what Wei Guanglei and Zhu Zhifei had said before. Lu Shi was a little tired of the world that even if he died the next second, it would be no big deal. But, there was one thing that was barely holding onto his life.

Thinking of this, a taut string in his head snapped with a ‘pa’, and Chu Yu’s heart trembled.

Fear akin to a hurricane instantly swept his thoughts——

What if- what if the matter that was barely hanging onto his life, has been completed?

It wasn’t until he bit the tip of his tongue that the tingling sensation made Chu Yu pull back to his senses, barely suppressing this terrifying thought.

But he was like water hit by stone; once the ripples swept the surface, it would be difficult to restore calm.

He began to fidget.

In his mind, scenes appeared frame by frame.

Lu Shi’s wrist, filled with old and new scars, the way he fought with his life, his simple to the extreme life as an ascetic, and his complete fearlessness of death when driving a race car…

He wanted to die countless times.

For Lu Shi, perhaps, being alive was a mistake, a burden and pressure?

At that time, there was movement. Chu Yu hastily raised his head and saw the door of the ward open.

Lu Shi came out.

Chu Yu got up quickly and went up to meet him.

“Lu Shi!”

He had so many things to say but couldn’t utter anything. He could only resort to tightly hugging Lu Shi’s waist, not letting go for even half an inch.

Lu Shi hugged him back, the cold gloominess in his eyes dissipating when it touched Chu Yu’s body temperature.

Gently patting Chu Yu’s back, Lu Shi’s voice carried tenderness. “So clingy?”

Chu Yu didn’t speak and just hugged Lu Shi tighter.

Lu Shi kissed Chu Yu’s soft hair.

He remembered the resentful Lu Zhaohe in the ward, glaring at him with grimacing eyes, seemingly wanting to use all his strength to curse him the worst of deaths.

He could almost imagine that if Lu Zhaohe could speak, he would definitely scold him for his sinister actions and cruel methods, for not caring about family affections and disregarding humane morals.

However, it was not Lu Zhaohe’s turn to point fingers.

How ruthless were his own hands, how dirty his heart was, how rotten his life, the lives he bore on his back, and how even now, his body was immersed in swampy mud—he himself was very clear about all of these.

Unclean.

He had never thought about washing it clean.

All except, a spotless corner he was guarding in his dirty heart.

There, he places his Chu Yu.

The author has something to say: Here’s a spotless heart~