Chapter 26 Sleepless Night Luo Shu is my girlfriend, who are you?
The carriage was airtight and filled with smoke. Fang Qingzhuo coughed violently after each cigarette. Before he knew it, he had finished half a pack of cigarettes. He picked up his brick-like phone and turned it on again. A lot of messages popped up, from his grandmother, Fang Jueshan's secretary, Guan Siqi, Gu Yang... Before he could open them one by one to check, Zhong Zixu came to his door.
"Help me, Brother Zhuo! I'm being held captive by a bunch of thugs in the club. Come and save me..."
Despite the noise coming from the receiver, Fang Qingzhuo suppressed the itching in his throat and said, "If you get into trouble, ask your cousin to handle it."
The rejection was too quick, and the other party couldn't help but pause: "No, you can't look for him."
"If you don't help me, no one will help me... Ah, don't hit me, don't hit me in the face, fuck, do you know who my brother is?"
After a grandiose performance, Zhong Zixu hung up the call first, tapped away on his phone for a while, sent it, tilted his head back to take a sip from the bottle, raised his eyebrows in satisfaction, and returned to the deafening box.
Across the wall, the clinking of glasses and the clatter of wine and food were thronging the room. Luo Shu, wedged in amongst them, stood alone, not rolling the dice or drinking, looking like a stranger who had stumbled onto the wrong set. She looked around at the chaotic scene, seeing several couples embracing and kissing each other, and a bunch of idiots playing the Water Splashing Festival, drinking like water. There was no sign of Fang Qingzhuo, the man Zhong Zixu had promised her. She figured he must have tricked her. She grabbed her things and hurried away without looking back. As she opened the door, she nearly tripped over Zhong Zixu, who had collapsed to the ground.
Zhong Zixu was still holding the remaining half bottle of Remy Martin, still not satisfied. He narrowed his eyes and greeted her, "I'm in a good mood today. I'll pay for everything."
"Didn't you say Fang Qingzhuo was here? Where are the others?"
Zhong Zixu was unconscious, and kept repeating excitedly: "Let's drink to our heart's content."
Seeing this, Luo Shu was too lazy to communicate with the drunkard. She was hesitating whether to step over him or step on him when Tao Jun and the sisters came back from the bathroom outside. Seeing the scene outside the door, they glanced at Zhong Zixu with disgust and finally fixed their eyes on Luo Shu's face.
"You come and go as you please. Don't you think too little of us?"
"Whether you can leave this door today depends on me not being here." Luo Shu suddenly felt helpless. She glanced at Zhong Zixu, who was leaning against the doorframe and telling everyone he had a girlfriend, and retorted, "Also, instead of worrying about whether I take you seriously, shouldn't you pay attention to your boyfriend lying on the ground?"
As soon as she finished her words, Zhong Zixu, who had been humming, froze for a few seconds, then shuddered and climbed up, holding onto the wall. "No, Brother Zhuo will be here soon."
He managed to steady himself, and with a bright smile on his face, as if to coax an aunt, he invited Luo Shu back.
He had promised someone that he would give Fang Qingzhuo a big surprise.
Back at the booth, Zhong Zixu was dragged by the boys to drink again. Tao Jun was angry and wanted to make trouble. He gave a wink and someone immediately replaced the heavy metal music with less loud background music.
It was like some kind of signal being released, and waves of evil spirits rushed to seek a sense of existence.
"Are you Luo Shu who hangs out on the forum every day?"
The person who was speaking was a girl with big wavy hair sitting at the other end. She was wearing a slim dress with a slit up to her thighs. She was clearly looking for trouble. A normal person would only ask if you were Luo Shu and not the Luo Shu who appeared on the forum every day.
"There are so many posts on the forum discussing you, I feel like you're pretty average."
Tao Jun shook the ice in his glass and called out the girl's name: "Don't blame me for not reminding you, this girl has a special relationship with our senior Fang."
It would be more accurate to say that it is adding fuel to the fire rather than rescuing the siege.
When the man heard this, he glanced at Luo Shu with a hint of jealousy in his eyes: "Fang Qingzhuo, that can really be called a dog relying on the power of others."
This statement attracted the attention of another princess-like girl. She fluttered her thick false eyelashes, which were full of ignorance, and held Luo Shu's arm familiarly. "Really? Then can you share how you hooked up with Fang Qingzhuo? We are very curious."
Feeling the dozens of inquiring, malicious glances around her, Luo Shu pulled her arm back, a mental struggle raging deep within her. On the one hand, these people were indeed going too far, but on the other, they were Fang Qingzhuo's fellow students. She didn't want to make things too awkward, so she finally managed to squeeze out the words, "We have no relationship."
The loli made a self-deprecating sound and said, "How stingy! I won't steal a man from you."
Then he made room and urged the male students who were watching eagerly to come forward and drink from the cup: "Don't be shy, I don't know who said they admired our school's beauty, but now the goddess is here, let's toast."
Someone started it, so of course there would be some booing. A group of people quickly formed a circle around him, clapping and shouting, "Drink from the same cup, drink from the same cup!"
Luo Shu's face looked extremely bad, turning red and white.
At this moment, she was just like the animals in the zoo that could only be visited and played with for a fixed price.
In a place where no one could see, the heavy brass wired glass armored door connecting to the outside world was pushed open from the outside to the inside, temporarily reducing most of the noise.
The door opened, and a tall man could be vaguely seen gradually revealing his tall figure. He held the door handle and strode from the darkness to the light. In the interlaced light and shadow, he looked like a messenger of hell who was taking lives.
The group of people who were causing trouble didn't take it seriously and tacitly thought it was the waiter serving the wine. It was not until they saw the man's face clearly that their arrogance died down.
Fang Qingzhuo, with his unkempt black hair and an expression that didn't seem to care about the atmosphere of debauchery, walked straight through the wall of people and into the center of the vortex, making room for everyone wherever he went.
He pursed his lips and looked at Luo Shu in embarrassment: "Why are you here?"
Luo Shu: "I..."
"Brother Zhuo, you're finally here." Zhong Zixu, whether intentionally or unintentionally, seemed to be both sober and not sober, holding up a glass of foreign wine that was about to overflow. "You are the matchmaker between me and Tao Jun. Without you, I wouldn't be able to get such an outstanding girlfriend. This glass of wine is for my beloved brother Zhuo."
"I didn't fucking ask you." Fang Qingzhuo suddenly turned around and yelled, emotions surging in his eyes, "We'll settle your business later."
He looked around at the crowd watching the excitement and said, "And you, all of you, get out of here."
As soon as he finished his howl, the temperature in the private room immediately dropped several degrees. The men and women present were mostly close friends from Zhong Zixu and Tao Jun's class. Fang Qingzhuo was well-known, and a single graduate school spot had caused a bloody uproar at school. It was easy to gossip behind his back, but confronting him head-on was easy, and unless they wanted to leave Shenzhen, they panicked, fearing the consequences and staying away from him.
Zhong Zixu stared at Fang Qingzhuo the entire time. More precisely, he was looking through him at Tao Jun behind him. Feeling unwilling to give up, he gulped down the spicy alcohol and, without saying anything, dragged Tao Jun out.
Colorful flashing lights swept across the only two people left.
Fang Qingzhuo took a step forward, closing the distance between them. His voice was hoarse from the smoke: "Are you familiar with them? Why did you insist on coming to this place when there are so many delicious foods, drinks, and fun things to do outside?"
In the shadows, his angular features looked particularly sharp.
He came at her aggressively. Luo Shu looked at him helplessly, unable to utter a word for a long time.
Fang Qingzhuo was not satisfied with her silence: "Didn't you hear what I asked you?"
He picked up an unopened bottle of wine on the coffee table and without blinking, he passed it over her and smashed it against the wall behind her. Tens of thousands of bottles of whiskey turned into foam in the blink of an eye.
"Speak up, why are you pretending to be dumb?"
Luo Shu shuddered and shrank her neck. "You didn't reply to my messages, and I couldn't find you. I was very anxious. Then I ran into Zhong Zixu, and he promised me that you would show up tonight, so I came here."
"Do you have a fetish? Licking me isn't enough. You wag your tail and beg for mercy whenever someone waves at you."
The words echoed in Luo Shu's ears for a moment, and she was stunned. It turned out that her image in his mind was so terrible.
She watched in a trance as the clear Fang Qingzhuo gradually became blurred, with heat filling her eyes. She bit her lips hard not to show it, but the more she tried to hide it, the more clumsy she became.
Impulse overcame reason. After Fang Qingzhuo finished roaring, he inhaled and exhaled out of habit. His chest rose and fell irregularly because of his words and actions, as if a pair of hands were strangling his throat to punish him.
He really didn't like this feeling. He was the one who was being unreasonable, the one who was disloyal, and the one who was so stupid that he was helpless.
"Very good, if you don't say anything, it means you agree."
It would have been fine if he hadn't said anything, but once he did, tears, big as beans, welled up in his eyes, one after another, and Fang Qingzhuo froze. This was the first time Luo Shu had cried in front of him. She hadn't cried when she was bitten by a snake, hit by a ball, or bullied by the student union, but now she had. It didn't seem like she was being pitiful at all; she was genuinely sad, sobbing. Although he had thought about making her cry more than once, it was not pleasant to actually do so. A wave of unknown emotion slowly fermented from the depths of his heart, taking over his entire being. He vaguely determined it was heartache, accompanied by a dense pain.
"Fang Qingzhuo, you must have misunderstood me. I didn't say anything nonsense tonight, nor did I reveal a single word about us." Tears streamed down her face. Luo Shu wiped away the endless tears and sobbed, "I had to come today because it's our one-month anniversary, so I could give you a gift in advance."
She picked up the exquisite gift bag on the coffee table and presented it carefully, her hands shaking like a sieve, and she didn't dare to give it.
She is scared.
Fang Qingzhuo lowered his eyes and looked at this inappropriate gift, then closed his eyes. His current situation did not allow him to regret. His every move was like a stopped train, unable to move forward or backward.
"Get out. I don't want to see you now."
“…”
Inside the clubhouse, the vast room was filled with the faint, lingering sound of music. Fang Qingzhuo stood motionless, facing the direction Luo Shu had left not long ago. Suddenly, with a focused gaze, he tilted his chin up, searching for something. Finally, he fixed his gaze on the camera in the corner of the ceiling, his gaze sharp, as if to ask, "Are you satisfied?" He had put so much effort into this elaborate, luring-you-into-a-trap scenario.
Guan Siqi couldn't help but feel terrified when he saw the pair of eyes on the other side of the surveillance screen. He looked away guiltily: "It's over, it's over. This guy has discovered us."
Gu Yang leisurely tossed the cigarette between his teeth into the water glass in front of him. "This guy has been suspicious since Zhong Zixu's clumsy tricks, and he guessed it was our job since the first step he took into this club."
Guan Siqi couldn't be as calm as him: "Have you ever thought about the consequences?"
"What consequences?" Gu Yang's eyes darkened, "He's clearly in the wrong."
"Has he ever tried to reason with him? With his vengeful nature, who knows what he'd do."
"Did he ever consider the consequences of his double-dealing?" Gu Yang suddenly slammed his laptop down. With a flick of his arm, the water cup with the half-smoked cigarette was torn to pieces. "He promised me to teach him a lesson, then went around in circles and told me we were together, then promised to give me an explanation. Then, after a while, he went on a date with his own agenda behind our backs. Where did he put me?"
"Has he ever treated me as a brother?"
Guan Siqi was caught off guard by the sudden outburst. He stared at him intently, as if he was looking at a stranger he met for the first time. Gu Yang was particularly unfamiliar with him. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was pointed, revealing an indescribable chill.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Didn't he already make his choice? What else do you want from him?"
He glanced over and said, "Don't forget, no one can act better than him."
-
After a long time, Fang Qingzhuo walked out of the box with heavy steps, which was filled with wine and tears. Tao Jun was waiting for him at the exit of the corridor. He immediately asked about his well-being and brought him mineral water. He also touched up his makeup and perfume, and kept touching his hair, unable to hide his joy.
These little thoughts that were about to come out naturally did not escape Fang Qingzhuo's eyes.
At school, Fang Qingzhuo encountered many girls who took the initiative to show their affection. Some of them were very passionate, some boldly pursued love downstairs of the dormitory, some rushed to pay the bill to save face, some wasted time and acted in a self-touching and cheap way by giving water and warmth, and some created various unexpected encounters to pretend to be a match made in heaven.
But his junior schoolmate is much smarter than them. At least she knows to start with the people around him.
Fang Qingzhuo didn't even glance at the bottle of water. He just opened his mouth and said, "You just bullied her."
It's not a question, it's an affirmative sentence.
"Bullying...who?" Tao Jun raised his hand in the air and forced a smile.
"Who else do you think it could be?" Fang Qingzhuo curled his lips slightly.
Tao Jun's awkward smile froze at the corners of his mouth. He was clearly smiling when he said this, but it gave people a chill for no reason: "We were just chatting with her. Besides, we are your direct junior schoolmates. What bad intentions could there be? We just admire her and want to hear her unknown deeds..."
Fang Qingzhuo sneered, feeling it was ridiculous: "Just chatting?"
The smile in his eyes disappeared immediately.
"Luo Shu is my girlfriend, who do you think you are?"
His throat was choked and Tao Jun forgot what sarcastic remark he was about to make next.
"...You said she was your girlfriend?"
"Didn't you just keep asking me what our relationship is? What's wrong? Are you disappointed and can't accept it?" he sneered.
"Impossible." Tao Jun shook his head. "You bullied her after all. I saw her crying."
When his pain point was touched, Fang Qingzhuo did not get angry but laughed instead, laughing at his own face of being a wise man after the event. The laughter overflowed from every inch of his facial features. It was a laugh without any praise or criticism. When he was tired of laughing and had laughed enough, his handsome appearance returned to being calm.
"So what if she cried?" His tone grew colder with every second he examined her. "How I treat her is between her and me. It's called romance, and what you did is bullying."
The last bit of expectation and joy in Tao Jun's eyes were completely shattered by this sentence, but Fang Qingzhuo's ruthlessness towards her went far beyond that.
"From now on, in school and even in this city, keep a low profile. If I see you or if you think of what happened tonight, you're dead."
Not only will the bones be crushed but the ashes will also be scattered.
Ten minutes after Fang Qingzhuo left, Zhong Zixu counted the time and went to look for Tao Jun.
While she was happily accompanying Fang Qingzhuo inside, he was waiting for her alone outside the lobby, waiting for her to change her mind.
"Are you here to laugh at me?" Tao Jun knew it was him just by the sound of footsteps on the carpet.
Zhong Zixu stopped in his tracks and said, "You don't have to chase me away. I'll leave as soon as I'm done."
The corridor was momentarily silent, only echoing. He let out a dry laugh. "From the beginning, I knew you didn't like me. You only approached me for Fang Qingzhuo. Seeing your unwavering determination to not give up until you hit the wall, every night before going to bed I think about how great it would be if you liked me. I even had the outrageous idea of helping you pursue him."
"That day while we were watching a movie, you suddenly agreed to be with me. You don't know, I stayed up all night. What was I doing that night? I was fulfilling a wish, thanking God for his kindness to me. But happiness was fleeting and only lasted for half a day. After that day, you kept asking me when to have dinner with Fang Qingzhuo. You didn't even want to pretend for a moment. I brainwashed myself, maybe I just wanted to thank him for his blessing."
"Until I passed out drunk at the door of the box, reality slapped me hard in the face. I was so naive. Even Luo Shu, a stranger who only met me once, knew that she was worried about me. But what about you?"
During the whole process, Tao Jun didn't react much, with his back to him, like an emotionless puppet.
He took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Tao, I can't protect you anymore."
"Tonight, I teamed up with my cousin to trick Luo Shu into coming here to plot against Fang Qingzhuo. I admit that I had some selfish motives. Even if he didn't punish me, I wouldn't have gotten away with it. You're on your own. I hope you get what you want in the future."
Hearing this, Tao Jun turned around slowly with a complicated expression. Under the crystal chandelier, she saw a tear hanging on Zhong Zixu's cheek, swaying under the light, and then dripping vertically to the ground.
-
Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night in Shenzhen.
By the swimming pool of a private residence, the dim lights made everything very quiet. The man on the chair took off his calm black suit jacket during the day, and it seemed that he had also taken off the hypocritical skin of self-discipline and ritual.
With his shirt sleeve rolled up, Fang Jueshan raised the wine glass and looked at the swaying liquid in the glass. He raised his head and drank it all in one gulp. His voice was also tainted with the mellowness of red wine. "Do you know what the stupidest thing you did today was?"
Lin Su knelt at his feet with her pregnant belly.
"Speak." He urged sharply.
"You come here without permission." A cold wind blew past, and Lin Su, who was wearing thin clothes, couldn't help but shiver.
"More than that." Fang Jueshan added, playing with his empty wine glass, "Let's just say this is the worst mistake you've ever made. Guess again."
Through the darkness of night, Lin Su stubbornly raised her pale face and stared at him. At his age, which man had escaped the ravages of time? But he was the only one who showed mercy to him. After being polished away by all the worldly desires, he showed a steady and self-control given by experience. It was absolutely a blasphemy to him to stick to the numerical age comparison. The temperament of being lonely at the top that he inadvertently revealed was not the value that Fang Qingzhuo of his age could present. To be honest, Fang Qingzhuo's eyebrows and eyes were exactly like his, and so was his virtue.
"Isn't it just that Fang Qingzhuo is not your biological child?" She sneered fearlessly.
The next second, the man who was originally high and mighty suddenly leaned over and grabbed her chin, his emotions unclear, as if it depended on his mood. If he was in a bad mood, he could kill her with just a flick of his tongue, as easy as crushing an ant.
"Half right." After a moment, he generously loosened the restraints as if rewarding her, and patted the side of her face, where the red mark was clearly visible, twice. "If you hadn't solemnly promised the old lady that she was pregnant with the eldest grandson of the Fang family, given her years of vegetarianism and Buddhist practice, she might not have broken her vows and taken such a ruthless action."
"How do you think I should punish you?"
"I'm not wrong." Lin Su retorted dissatisfiedly, struggling to get up. Her legs were trembling from kneeling for so long. "As a mother, I want my unborn child to recognize his ancestors. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Tell me, what did I do wrong? Why do you treat me like this?"
"What did I do wrong?" Fang Jueshan crossed his legs as he pondered, his fingertips tapping the wall of the cup intermittently. "Embezzlement of public funds is one, and taking advantage of the situation right under my nose is the other."
During this time, he slowly refilled his empty glass, "Third, you overestimate your own abilities and try to climb to a position you shouldn't be in."
"The most unforgivable thing is to take over the magpie's nest and call it returning to one's roots."
He stood up, shaking his wine glass, and a poisonous look flashed at her as he finished speaking. Lin Suru was struck by lightning, and a feeling of shame and anger at having her lie exposed quickly burned her whole body.
After drinking a cup, Fang Jueshan had returned to his usual indifference. "Let's get back to the point. How about sending you to a correctional institution for embezzlement? You won't be able to endure much hardship during your pregnancy anyway. Or..."
He mercilessly threw the crystal glass in his hand into the middle of the pool with lightning speed. "I'll give you one night to go down and find the glass. Remember, I want it intact. Not a single piece can be missing."
Not to mention the current November weather, just the broken glass that sank to the bottom of the water is like looking for a needle in a haystack for a pregnant woman with limited mobility to pick it up while soaking in the water.
Lin Su's eyes suddenly turned red with fear, and for the first time she felt a real fear of Jueshan. Her past indulgence and the illusion of not caring about anything were only limited to his good mood.
He dug his knees into the ground and prostrated himself in front of the shiny leather shoes: "Boss Fang, I know I was wrong, and I'm willing to accept the punishment, but I really can't go into the water, let alone go in, or my life will be over."
She hugged his thighs and said, "I beg you, for the sake of me having followed you for half a year, please forgive me this time."
Fang Jueshan mercilessly kicked it away, as if clearing an obstacle. He then raised his left arm and announced the verdict: "There are still six hours until sunrise. If you can't piece it together tomorrow morning, we'll meet at the police station."
After saying that, he walked away past Lin Su, who had fallen to the ground and was crying silently.
The moonlight flowed silently from the withered clouds, sprinkling on a pool of clear water and the woman who brought it upon herself.
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