Poppy
It's snowing. A large bunch of poppies, blood red, is held tightly in Yu Sheng's arms. A few snowflakes fall on the petals, and he absentmindedly counts the delicate hexagonal ice crystals.
The car's air conditioning was on full blast, making it warm and cozy. The pitiful snowflakes were fleeting, leaving only a few glistening water droplets on the delicate petals. A pleasant fragrance filled the air, and soft music played.
However, the lingering voice kept echoing in Yu Sheng's mind.
"You've finally become someone like me."
"You've finally become someone like me."
"You've finally become someone like me."
Like a nightmare, these were Yu Zhengcheng's last words to him.
"Ah Sheng? Ah Sheng?"
"Huh?" Yu Sheng snapped out of her daze and realized she was sitting in Lu Chenyang's car. The car was already parked in the underground parking lot of the Shuno Hotel.
He had no recollection of when he left Yu Zhengcheng's place. He couldn't even remember when a bouquet of flowers had appeared in his arms, but it must have been prepared by Lu Chenyang.
Winter is not the season for poppies to survive, and flower shops would never stock such flowers that are so similar to opium poppies. I don't know where Lu Chenyang ordered them from.
He buried his face deep in the bouquet, as if trying to hide himself in Lu Chenyang's embrace. He took a deep, greedy breath.
The poppy itself has no fragrance, only the most ordinary scent of grass and trees.
He looked up, and a faint, cool fragrance of lilies wafted into his nostrils. He had been so preoccupied with Yu Zhengcheng's last words that he had overlooked this familiar scent. He buried his face in the flowers again, sniffing carefully; the flowers indeed didn't smell.
"What are you doing?" Lu Chenyang found it amusing to see him rubbing against the flowers like a confused big cat, so he reached out and pinched the back of his neck, lifting him up.
“It smells.” Yu Sheng wrinkled her nose and continued to search for the source of the smell in the carriage.
"What does it smell like? Oh, I wore your perfume today, is this it?" Lu Chenyang leaned closer, pressing his collar against Lu Chenyang's nose so he could smell it.
Yu Sheng impatiently pushed him away, "Go away, stop causing trouble."
Lu Chenyang, like a big dog being disliked by its owner, shrank back into the driver's seat with a pitiful expression, quietly watching his owner sniff around with his "dog nose".
“Roja Dove Lily!” Yu Sheng’s eyes lit up, her tone certain. “Cool-toned lily, my sister’s perfume. She got in your car?”
Damn! What a keen sense of smell!
“Ah,” Lu Chenyang had spent a lot of time with Yu Sheng and had long since learned to lie without batting an eye, “She came out of the inner courtyard and found that her car had broken down, so she called a driver to pick her up. I saw that it was cold outside, so I let her wait in the car for a while.”
Yu Sheng had blind trust in Lu Chenyang. His Officer Lu never lied to him, and Yu Sheng didn't doubt this flimsy excuse at all.
"What did my sister say to you?" Yu Sheng pressed, her nervousness tinged with obvious anticipation, much like a student waiting for the teacher to relay their parents' evaluation after a parent-teacher conference.
“Ah,” Lu Chenyang scratched his nose, his gaze drifting to the car window, avoiding Yu Sheng’s gaze, his confidence slightly lacking, “We didn’t say anything, just… chatted casually. Then… I accidentally turned on the speakerphone on my phone… and then your sister accidentally heard… your conversation with Yu Zhengcheng… and then… that was it.”
"My sister heard that?!" Yu Sheng almost jumped into the driver's seat, grabbing Lu Chenyang's shoulders with both hands, her voice rising with excitement.
"Yes, I heard you," Lu Chenyang readily admitted.
This time he wasn't lying. Yu Huaihan did hear it, but she heard much more than that.
About four hours ago.
Yu Huaihan was driven out of the inner garden in an Audi. Lu Chenyang decisively turned off his one-way call function, opened the door, and got out of the car.
"Mr. Yu, hello. Do you have time to talk?" He stood by the car door, his tone humble and polite, but his actions left no room for refusal. "About Asheng."
Inside the warm car, Yu Huaihan's gaze swept over Lu Chenyang from head to toe for two seconds, her eyes filled with scrutiny. "Turn the air conditioning down two degrees, open the rear window two centimeters, and turn off the music," she commanded, her voice cold.
Lu Chenyang silently complied with all the instructions.
Yu Huaihan found a comfortable position, closed her eyes, and said aloofly, "What do you want to talk about? I'm in a hurry." She also wanted to see what the person who had caused all the gossip outside, the one who had made her brainless brother break his leg for love, had to say to her.
"Please listen to a recording, Mr. Yu," Lu Chenyang said, taking out a pre-prepared voice recorder. "Please remain quiet until the recording ends."
He wasn't asking, he was informing her. His purpose was clear: he wanted to tear down this cold barrier and force her to confront her brother's bloody past.
Yu Huaiyin frowned slightly, dissatisfied with this controlled way of talking, but a hidden curiosity overcame her displeasure. She acquiesced.
The voice recorder starts up, first with the faint sound of paper turning.
"—Because...because of my sister." Yu Sheng's voice came through clearly.
Yu Huaihan's eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly.
"...I was created as a 'tool' by Yu Zhengcheng to fight with his uncles for the family fortune. My birth... took my mother away. My sister was only ten years old at the time. She lost her mother, and Yu Zhengcheng was cold to her because she was a girl... She was essentially an orphan. And I, being a boy, was the one who took away her mother and also took away the inheritance that belonged solely to her... That's why she didn't like me."
Yu Huaihan suddenly opened her eyes, her voice filled with anger at the invasion of her privacy, "This means nothing to me, Guan—"
"Please listen to the end, Mr. Yu." Lu Chenyang interrupted her without any politeness, not allowing her to escape.
"...I started thinking, if only I were a girl. Would I not have taken things from my sister, and would she have hated me so much?"
The snow outside the car was falling even harder. Cold wind blew in through the crack in the open rear window, carrying with it Yu Sheng's choked and intermittent narration from the recording, piercing Yu Huaihan's eardrums.
More than thirty hours of suffocation... a rabbit being chewed up alive... a silent world... endless electric shocks... every word was like a knife, piercing Yu Huaihan's nerves.
A sharp pain began to throb in her head, her temples throbbing. She squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers clenching tightly in her coat pocket. A suffocating feeling of being forcibly dragged into an abyss surged within her.
She wanted to scream, to get off the bus immediately and escape this disgusting accusation! But her feet seemed to be rooted to the spot, a strange pull from the depths of her blood pinning her to her seat.
She had to hear it. She owed them the truth.
Lu Chenyang's gaze was fixed on Yu Huaihan, calmly and objectively assessing her reaction. Beneath Yu Huaihan's tightly closed eyelids, her eyes darted around anxiously, and even her exquisite makeup couldn't conceal her pale complexion and faded lips.
But Lu Chenyang offered no comfort. Occasionally, he would press the call button on his phone to speak a few words in hushed tones with Yu Sheng, who was still in the park, to soothe his emotions, before quickly turning off the radio.
The car lock had been quietly lowered when he got in. She wouldn't be able to leave until Yu Huaihan finished listening to the recording.
He thought cruelly and sinfully that Yu Sheng was enduring a purgatory that she, as her older sister, had not experienced but must know! She had to bear this belated realization!
The recording continued. Yu Sheng's voice, which had started with a sob, had become broken and incoherent.
"...In order to completely control me, he forbade anyone in the family to speak to me...not even to look me in the eye...the nanny, the driver, the gardener...all treated me like I wasn't there...Fortunately, my sister lived at school from junior high and almost never came home...she wasn't involved...maybe...she's his biological daughter, so even a tiger wouldn't eat its own cub?"
"...I will stay far away from him. I'm afraid of him. I will also stay far away from Dongyao Bank. It belongs to my sister. No one can take it from me, not even myself!"
The recording ended. Only the howling wind and snow poured in through the rear window of the carriage; a few snowflakes were blown in, landing on the expensive leather seats and melting quickly.
Fine beads of cold sweat appeared on Yu Huaihan's forehead, his body trembled slightly, and cracks appeared in his carefully maintained cold and hard exterior.
Lu Chenyang closed the car window at the right moment, turned up the air conditioning temperature, and handed over a tissue. "President Yu, are you alright?"
A sharp glint of triumph flashed quickly in Lu Chenyang's eyes. It wasn't pure malice, but more like the satisfaction of "seeking justice" for his lover.
"My loss of composure excites you? Are you satisfied?" Yu Huaihan didn't take the tissue, forcing herself to maintain her last bit of pride.
She would never cry like a fragile woman, but the horrific ordeal her younger brother had suffered pierced the barrier she had built up over time, and a chill seeped into her very bones. She felt a mixture of emotions and fear she had never experienced before, a sense of guilt and helplessness.
“Satisfied.” Lu Chenyang calmly withdrew his hand and turned off the recorder. “This recording was originally intended for Dr. Bai of the CIA to analyze Asheng’s recovery. I didn’t expect it to come in handy with President Yu as well.” He deliberately pointed out the “legitimate” use of the recording, both as an explanation and as a form of pressure: Look, these are your brother’s real scars. He has been ill all along.
"Purpose." Yu Huaihan dug his fingertips deep into his palm, using the pain to stay awake. "What is your purpose?"
"Purpose?" Lu Chenyang pondered the word. He turned his head, his gaze piercing as he looked directly into Yu Huaihan's eyes, which were trying to maintain their composure. "You are Yu Sheng's only blood relative in this world, and he cares about you very much. So..." He paused, observing her reaction.
"So you want me to apologize to him? Make amends? Play the role of a good older sister?" Yu Huaihan's words were sarcastic, but her heart was stirred by the words "I care about you very much".
“No need for an apology.” Lu Chenyang said firmly, knowing Yu Sheng’s feelings. “Asheng has never resented you. Deep down, he has always felt that he has wronged his sister and taken away everything that should have belonged to you.”
“However,” Lu Chenyang’s tone shifted, his gaze becoming sharp and certain, “I know that President Yu is willing to be close to Asheng. You don’t dislike him as much as Asheng thinks, right?” He used a question, but his eyes were unequivocal.
"What gives you the right—" Yu Huaihan was interrupted by Lu Chenyang again.
"Eight years ago, when Ah Sheng insisted on applying to the Performance Department of B University, who secretly pulled strings to suppress Yu Zhengcheng's obstruction? Four years ago, when Shuye's initial funding chain broke, who injected crucial funds through anonymous channels? This July, with Ah Sheng's connections, how could she have obtained that targeted drug spot at Yaoguang Hospital in such a short time? The illegitimate child who chased the car on the elevated highway at the end of the month was no ordinary person, yet he was convicted in just one week. In September, Yu Zhengcheng was 'coincidentally' delayed in returning to China due to a tax audit in the United States..."
Lu Chenyang recounted each and every case as if they were his own treasures, his gaze fixed on Yu Huaihan's increasingly grim expression. "These are just the tip of the iceberg that I've uncovered in such a short time. Perhaps there's more, Mr. Yu?"
He pressed on relentlessly, as if he knew everything. "You've done so much for Asheng behind the scenes... why don't you dare let him know? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that Yu Zhengcheng will discover that you and your siblings aren't completely incompatible? Or... are you unable to let go of the high walls you've built, unsure how to face this belated kinship?"
Yu Huaihan was completely exposed, and unusually, she didn't immediately become angry. The huge shock left her in a brief state of bewilderment. Was it fear of Yu Zhengcheng's control? Was it lingering resentment from her childhood—her mother's early death and her brother "taking away" everything—that hadn't dissipated? Or was it that the hard armor she had built with indifference and alienation over the past twenty years had long since become an integral part of her, impossible to detach?
Before she could sort out her thoughts, Lu Chenyang suddenly gestured for her to be quiet, then disconnected his headphones via Bluetooth and turned on the speakerphone on his phone.
Yu Huaihan watched as Lu Chenyang, who had been deep and calculating just a moment ago, instantly changed his demeanor. His eyes were filled with affection, and a gentle smile appeared on his lips as he spoke to the contact named "Asheng" in an intimate and slightly coquettish tone, "I suddenly want to drink Shuye's mushroom soup. Let's go together today, brother?"
Immediately afterwards, two crisp taps came from the phone; it was Yu Sheng's response.
Immediately, Yu Sheng's familiar voice filled the carriage. It was no longer the choked and timid voice from the recording, but a voice filled with malice, madness, and hysteria like a beast breaking free of its chains.
"...I hold a significant share of Dongyao's stock. If you dare force my sister into this marriage, I will immediately sell it all. Tell me, how will the market react then? How much will the stock price drop? Should I...hold a press conference while I'm at it? After all, the fact that Dongyao Group's second son is being forced to sell his shares to survive will surely be of great interest to many media outlets."
"—Oh, right. I have some records here… about how you 'taught' me. Not conclusive evidence? No problem. As long as I stand in front of the media and identify you, things will definitely blow up. Then, Dongyao's stock price…"
"...So, Yu Zhengcheng, I don't mind being disgraced. I'll drag you down with me to hell. If you dare to pull any tricks behind my sister's back to force her to submit, I will absolutely fight you to the death!"
Yu Huaihan froze completely. Her delicate nails dug deep into the leather seat, leaving obvious marks.
Her heart felt like it was being gripped by an invisible hand, aching and painful, making it hard to breathe.
Her younger brother, who had been treated like air, abused, used as a tool, and humiliated since childhood... For the first time in his life, he fought back recklessly, and for the first time risked everything to roar and threaten his father, who was like a demon, all to protect his older sister, who had never given him a kind look and might even be seen as his accomplice!
The hard shell that had been there for so long finally shattered irrevocably under Yu Sheng's relentless protection. A scalding tear slid down her pale cheek without warning and landed on her expensive coat.
She finally remembered the faint yet firm murmur that had escaped her grasp as she slammed the door shut as she left the study—'Sister, if you don't want to, then don't get married.'
"Alright." Lu Chenyang had achieved his goal. He deftly unlocked the car door. "President Yu, you should go now. Ah Sheng will be out soon."
Having said that, he ignored the emotionally turbulent Yu Huaihan, got out of the car, opened the trunk, and carefully took out a bouquet of blood-red poppies, meticulously smoothing the crushed petals. This bouquet was his final act of tenderness, a tribute to his victorious warrior.
In just a few minutes, Yu Huaihan had quickly composed herself, with only her slightly red eyes revealing her earlier embarrassment.
Lu Chenyang had to admire Yu Huaiyin's ability to control her emotions. No wonder she managed the entire domestic market of Dongyao Bank all by herself. She was truly a person with both strong abilities and a strong mind.
"These flowers are hard to find; not many shops sell them." Yu Huaihan's voice was hoarse. She leaned against the car door, lit a thin cigarette, took a deep drag, and the smoke dissipated along with the falling snowflakes.
“Hmm,” Lu Chenyang carefully placed the bouquet in the passenger seat, afraid that it would get cold and not be fresh when Yu Sheng saw it. “It was ordered half a month in advance. Asheng likes it.”
Yu Huaihan leaned against the car door, gazing at the swirling snowflakes, and remained silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice had lost its usual calmness, but gained an indescribable warmth: "I heard he's been raising funds recently for a project on an Australian island. Could you check his computer when you have some free time and send me the information?" She paused, then quickly added, "Don't let him know."
Lu Chenyang saw through it but didn't say anything, a knowing smile playing on his lips: "Okay."
Yu Huaihan stubbed out her cigarette, pulled her coat tighter, tossed her long hair aside, and walked towards her car. After a few steps, she suddenly stopped, without turning around, her voice carrying through the wind and snow, "Oh, right, Lu Chenyang."
“Your…” she seemed to choose her words carefully, “…can you invite me to your wedding.”
Lu Chenyang stood there stunned for several seconds before a huge surprise exploded in his chest.
He gazed at Yu Huaihan's straight back, a radiant smile spreading across his face. He waved vigorously, his voice loud and sincere, "Understood, sis!"
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