Chapter 33

In the summer, when the air becomes humid, it means rain is coming. Small flying insects come out from everywhere and circle around the lampshades on the roadside.

"Are they quarreling?" Xia Lanzheng stared at the moth under the light, "But I don't know why Cheng Lan is angry."

Lu Yanqing sat beside him, pressing the tip of the grass with his palm. He didn't actually believe Xia Lanzheng's story. When the two of them came back from the corridor that day, everyone in the room could tell something was amiss.

The atmosphere was awkward and hot, like the evening breeze on a summer night.

"He's trying to be friendly with you." Lu Yanqing said it all.

"Really?" Xia Lanzheng heard a ball fly by his feet. He stood up and threw it hard over the fence. "When did it happen?"

Lu Yanqing stared at the parabola above him, his words falling onto the grass along with the ball. He couldn't bring himself to mention that he was the "L" in the livestream; it wasn't the time to confess.

frank?

During these few seconds, Lu Yanqing actually felt a little absurd because of his choice of words.

Xia Lanzheng dusted off her hands, raised her chin, and greeted the owner of the ball.

The shadow cast by the woman fell on Lu Yanqing, its blurred edge brushing against his shoulder like a feather. Lu Yanqing raised his head and looked up, seeing Xia Lanzheng's long hair blowing in the wind.

He rarely saw men with long hair, and the man in front of him was one of them.

His hair felt softer than the grass in his hand, like early spring grass seedlings, without any edges or corners, and it seemed that anyone could easily approach it.

Chu Linchuan, Cheng Lan——

Lu Yanqing clenched his fists. It was undeniable that his attitude towards Xia Lanzheng had changed.

"Bag!"

Fortunately, Xia Lanzheng didn't care about the conversation just now.

He lowered his head and was stunned for a second by Lu Yanqing's inexplicable gaze. "I'll go check on Bao Bao. He's eating nonsense."

Before Lu Yanqing could come to his senses, he saw Xia Lanzheng running away in a hurry.

The fluffy white lamb was holding some unknown grass in its mouth. Xia Lanzheng bent down to grab it, and the Border Collie came running from the other side, grunting and playing with Xia Lanzheng's trouser leg.

The three furry creatures were chasing each other, and Lu Yanqing suddenly laughed.

He sat with his legs stretched out, his eyes following Xia Lanzheng.

His intuition told him that Xia Lanzheng had her own secrets. Lu Yanqing was not one to pry into other people's affairs. To put it bluntly, other people's affairs were none of his business.

But Xia Lanzheng felt different. Sometimes he would be in a daze, and the look in his eyes was hard to see, as if he was thinking about something very far away.

The phone in his bag vibrated. Lu Yanqing took it out and took a look at it, and the corners of his mouth suddenly turned down.

Several unread messages popped up in Lu Yanmin's chat box, and he spotted the name "Xia Lanzheng" among them.

"Bao Bao! Vomit!"

Not far away, Xia Lanzheng was still struggling with the lamb.

"Don't eat it! You're a bad sheep!"

"Draco, stop biting my pant leg!"

Lu Yanqing laughed at himself and forced himself to open the chat window.

[Lu Yanmin: There's a conclusion to Xia Lanzheng's matter.]

[Lu Yanmin: Are you busy?]

Lu Yanmin: Anyway, I was quite surprised by this result.

Lu Yanqing replied with two words: "Report."

Lu Yanmin sent a voice message: "What report?"

"Test report," Lu Yanqing leaned in close to the microphone and said, "Didn't they say there were results?"

Lu Yanmin sent a speechless emoticon, and in Lu Yanqing's silence, a voice call came.

"Let me read it to you," Lu Yanmin cleared his throat. "Perform routine DNA extraction on the client's sample."

"Well," Lu Yanqing waited for a few seconds, "and then?"

Lu Yanmin: "Because the hair samples provided by the test subjects do not have hair follicle structures, it is impossible to extract genomic DNA for testing."

Lu Yanqing paused holding the phone, and the words in his ears became a rumbling sound.

Mr. Lu, who was always decisive, was confused for the first time: "What do you mean?"

Lu Yanmin mocked him mercilessly: "Mr. Lu, where did you get that hair? This identification failed. We can't determine the relationship between Xia Lanzheng and you as biological brothers."

Lu Yanqing opened his mouth but didn't respond. As Xia Lanzheng's figure approached, he subconsciously turned his head to look. The blurry shadow in his eyes slowly returned to his youthful self.

Lu Yanqing let out a deep breath.

"Did you hear that?" Lu Yanmin didn't get a response for a long while, so he reminded her, "The sample you gave me last time didn't work. Can you think of a way to try again?"

After exhaling the foul air trapped in his chest, Lu Yanqing still didn't feel relaxed. He replied, "I understand," and mechanically hung up the phone.

Xia Lanzheng returned to him with the Border Collie and the lamb. There was quite a bit of mud on her shoes. He frowned in dissatisfaction: "Bao Bao hasn't been obedient since we went out. My brother didn't mention anything when he was walking him."

Lu Yanqing stood up: "Your brother?"

Xia Lanzheng handed over the Border Collie's leash. "I'm talking about Chu Linchuan. He seems to help me walk the sheep often. Haven't you met him?"

Lu Yanqing didn't know about this.

In fact, he usually took another route to walk his dog, and only occasionally saw the Chu family's aunt walking this way with her handbag.

When he heard Xia Lanzheng say that she was going out in the live broadcast room, he couldn't help but want to see her, so he came over to try his luck.

His change in attitude towards Xia Lanzheng caught herself off guard.

Because this is most likely his younger brother.

Lu Yanqing thought that he was out of guilt. It was normal for him to care about his brother.

"No," Lu Yanqing concealed the expression in his eyes, "What's wrong with your face?"

Xia Lanzheng lowered her head and wiped her face after a long while, finally finding a blade of grass from her hair. He almost laughed out of anger and nodded at the lamb's head.

"I'm going home," Xia Lanzheng asked, "Where are you and Draco?"

Lu Yanqing acted very strange, nodded and said okay, then walked him all the way to his doorstep.

Xia Lanzheng stood outside the door and looked back. Lu Yanqing didn't look at him, but he didn't leave either. He took out a square box, and Xia Lanzheng recognized it as a cigarette case.

Lu Yanqing bit down on a cigarette, and the lighter flew a spark. The tiny orange light flickered, and Lu Yanqing saw the dog at his feet and put out the lighter again.

Xia Lanzheng didn't see clearly whether he smoked the cigarette or not. The door in front of them opened. Yang Yuxiao first touched his head, then bent down to touch her bag.

When he entered the house, he didn't hear the familiar sound of the TV series. However, except for Chu Linchuan who was working overtime, everyone else was in the living room.

"Come, come, come," Chu Linyu stood in front of the huge TV and greeted Xia Lanzheng with a smile, "Zhengzheng, come and see what I think of this place I chose."

A PPT was projected on the screen. Xia Lanzheng asked, "What is this?"

"Let's go on vacation," Yang Yuxiao pulled him to sit on the sofa. "We go there every summer. This year it's Chu Linyu's turn to choose the location. Did Zhengzheng forget?"

Chu Lang looked at her and said, "I forgot to ask in advance. Does Zheng Zheng have any work recently? Can you spare some time?"

Yang Yuxiao tugged at Chu Lang's sleeve and said, "What's the point of caring about your work? People are always picking on you. When Chu Linchuan comes back, I'll..."

Chu Linyu interrupted her with a cough, not allowing her to continue.

There were some things they were reluctant to talk about. After all, Xia Lanzheng had never asked her family for help, and they didn't want to hurt the child's self-esteem.

Xia Lanzheng stared at the screen without blinking. "Are we going to the beach? It's bound to be fun."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. Yang Yuxiao changed the subject: "It's settled then. I'll have some clothes delivered tomorrow. Is there anything Zhengzheng wants?"

Xia Lanzheng shook her head and said no, his closet was full of clothes that had never been worn, and he had everything he needed.

But he suddenly remembered something: "Isn't my brother going?"

Chu Linyu said: "I'll go, I'll use the holiday I've set aside specifically for this."

"No," Xia Lanzheng said, "Isn't Chu Linchuan going?"

Realizing that the "brother" was referring to Chu Linchuan, Chu Lang and Chu Linyu looked at him at the same time.

Yang Yuxiao didn't react. She was still a little angry with Chu Linchuan. My brother is signed with Xingpai, why is he always bullied?

She said, "He has never been there before, and this year he should be..."

Before he could finish his words, there was a noise at the door.

"I'll go. I want to take a vacation this year too."

Everyone turned around and saw Chu Linchuan loosening his tie and changing his shoes at the door. He handed his coat to his aunt and then mercilessly mocked Chu Linyu's PPT.

"What the hell? The company's interns can do better than this."

Chu Linyu knew he was joking, but he didn't get angry: "Okay, I'll wait for your plan next year, Mr. Chu."

Chu Linchuan glanced at Xia Lanzheng, who was sitting in the middle of the sofa, and quickly looked away. He read Chu Linyu's plan in its entirety and nodded, saying he understood.

"I'm tired. You guys chat, I'm going upstairs." Chu Linchuan's brows were full of fatigue. When he reached the stairs, he nodded his chin at Xia Lanzheng, "Xia Lanzheng, come to my room."

Xia Lanzheng stood up subconsciously when her name was called. Yang Yuxiao stopped her and said to Chu Linchuan, "Talk to your brother nicely and don't be mean to him."

Chu Linchuan took off his glasses and smiled: "Ms. Yang, why are you so nervous? I won't eat him."

Xia Lanzheng also smiled at him: "Got it, right away!"

He was not afraid of Chu Linchuan at all, and even felt a little close to him. Chu Linchuan was the only one who knew his secret.

He didn't ask any questions, and Xia Lanzheng felt very safe being with him.

The first time Xia Lanzheng entered Chu Linchuan's room, it was much warmer than she had imagined. The greenery that spread from the doorway to the window frame distracted him from thinking about Su Cheng.

However, these are different from those in Su Cheng's studio. The plants raised by Chu Linchuan grow in an orderly manner and all stay quietly in the pots.

"There must be some small flying insects in your room." Xia Lanzheng muttered.

Chu Linchuan took off his shirt and walked to the closet in front of Xia Lanzheng. His muscles were strong, especially his back muscles.

"What are you mumbling about?" Chu Linchuan took out a pure black T-shirt, "Take out the documents in my bag and have a look yourself."

Xia Lanzheng couldn't help but glance at him twice more. Chu Linchuan ruthlessly interrupted his gaze and put on his clothes.

"What documents?" Xia Lanzheng flipped through the bag he brought back. "Is it a new job? But I want to go on vacation. I haven't been out with my family yet..."

Chu Linchuan went into the bathroom to wash his hands, and the sound of water drowned out Xia Lanzheng's voice.

When the water was turned off, there was no more noise outside. Xia Lanzheng stood at her desk, staring at the documents in her hands in disbelief.

"No one's stopping you from having fun," Chu Linchuan said with a smile, "Did you see clearly?"

Xia Lanzheng swallowed, her eyes lighting up. "See clearly, you're working overtime today just for this?"

Chu Linchuan was pleased by his tone and said "hmm" in a reserved manner.

Xia Lanzheng looked at the signature on the paper. Ning Xiyuan's name was deeply engraved on the white paper, followed by a heavy dot.

Obviously angry.

Chu Linchuan acted so quickly? Only a few hours later, Xing Pai terminated his contract with Ning Xiyuan.

Xia Lanzheng was staring at the document written in black and white, and didn't notice that Chu Linchuan had already sat down next to him.

Chu Linchuan called out his name: "It was you who sent the anonymous document, wasn't it?"

Xia Lanzheng was startled. Chu Linchuan saw his reaction and it was completely expected. Xia Lanzheng had locked herself in her room all day, being incredibly quiet. It was obvious what he was planning.

Once it was ready, the tail started wagging again. It was so powerful during the live broadcast that Chu Linchuan could hear the noise even in the next room.

"What document?" Xia Lanzheng feigned ignorance, "I don't know."

Chu Linchuan laughed but didn't expose her.

He put the mineral water bottle on Xia Lanzheng's hand. The water had just been taken out of the refrigerator. Xia Lanzheng was feeling guilty and didn't react at all.

"I received two in total. Where's the other one?" Chu Linchuan stopped teasing him. "Do you know who did it?"