Chapter 46
Gu Fang poured himself a glass of water in the kitchen. After taking a few sips, his fingertips suddenly trembled, and he almost dropped the glass. He narrowed his eyes slightly, grasping his trembling hand, a hint of doubt in his eyes.
His eyes moved to the phone on the bar, and the message interface was still stuck on the messages he had sent.
-Brother, are you home yet?
-Let me know when you get home.
-You don't need to pack too much, just enough to wear for the next few days. I think Mr. Gu will be willing to give in soon.
-Brother? Brother Lu? Brother Si?
-Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
-Lu Si?
That faint feeling of unease suddenly took shape, creeping up Gu Fang's spine and sending him into a cold sweat. His pupils shrank, and he suddenly grabbed his phone and rushed to the entrance.
Le Jiayu was sorting through the food in the refrigerator, trying to figure out how long it would last. Seeing him run out in panic, she asked in surprise, "Where are you going to put it?"
Gu Fang quickly changed his shoes and without even turning his head, he simply said, "Looking for Lu Si!"
Lu Si's home was in an old residential area near Dongmen Market. Gu Fang had walked Lu Si downstairs before when they were walking on the street. Although he had never been up there, he knew it was on the fourth floor.
There was a police car parked downstairs. Gu Fang took a look at it without thinking much about it.
As he reached the third floor, he could faintly hear a commotion upstairs, the buzzing of people like flies. He turned the stairwell and saw a large group of neighbors gathered in front of Lu Si's house, blocking the doorway and chatting with each other.
"What a sin! I have a father like this. Even after getting divorced, he still dares to come to my house and ask for money!"
"I heard he owed a loan shark... That kind of thing could even cost someone their life. He must have been desperate, so he did something so heartless!"
"Can you still call him dad? He's a beast!"
"Can Lu Qi's eyes be healed? She's such a good girl... That beast is in serious trouble. Lu Si beat him to death. Even the police couldn't separate them..."
At this time, several policemen came out of the door, seemingly having just obtained a warrant. "Alright, alright, stop blocking us. We need to lock the house first."
The neighbors talked for a few more words and then gradually dispersed.
Gu Fang slowly held onto the stairs, feeling dizzy. The gossip floating down from above covered him like a suffocating net, gradually piecing together a complete but cruel truth.
Just as the police were about to lock the door, they saw an Alpha boy with a delicate and fair face walking up the stairs. He was so handsome that it seemed like he shouldn't be in this old residential building.
He walked straight towards them, his face filled with panic and confusion, like a child who had lost his home, and asked them for directions: "Excuse me... where are Lu Si and Lu Qi... now?"
After he uttered this simple sentence, his voice was slightly choked.
The police hesitated for a moment, "Who are you?"
"I'm Lu Si's friend," he said with difficulty, "Excuse me, where is he now?"
Seeing he didn't look like he was being phony, the police officer explained, "He's at our station to give a statement. The little girl was seriously injured. Neighbors called the police and 120, and she's been taken to a nearby hospital. Lu Jianye... has also been taken to the hospital, and one of our people is watching over her."
Gu Fang clenched his fingertips in panic, "He... Lu Si, what will happen?"
The police officer consoled him, saying, "He's still a month away from adulthood. Furthermore, the incident happened for a reason, so it should be considered self-defense. We will keep him at the police station to take a statement and provide him with education."
After the police left, Gu Fang stood there frozen for a long time.
The old residential area had a poor orientation and insufficient lighting. Once the voice-activated lights went out, the stairwell was plunged into darkness. Taking advantage of this gloom, Gu Fang slowly tilted his head, seemingly catching sight of something silently devouring Lu Si's life in the darkness.
This darkness had silently enveloped Lu Si for over seventeen years, and he had become accustomed to it. He had accepted it, bit by bit, as it consumed his life.
But Gu Fang couldn't accept that Lu Si's life, which hadn't even officially begun, was swallowed up by such a thing.
When he came to his senses, he had already dialed Mr. Gu's number.
Gu Fang felt weak, not only physically but also spiritually. At the same time, a surge of indignation in his blood supported his body and prevented him from collapsing.
"Hello?" Mr. Gu answered the phone with some surprise. "Fang Fang?"
"Dad, please..." Gu Fang's voice was extremely hoarse as he repeated what had just happened with difficulty but in an orderly manner.
"Don't worry, go home first. I'll have the driver pick you up." Mr. Gu noticed that he was not in a good state. "I'll let Special Assistant Fang handle the hospital matters. She will definitely get the best treatment. I'll have your uncle bring a lawyer to the police station. Don't worry, he will be watching over it personally. Lu Si will be out safe and sound tonight."
Gu Fang gritted his teeth, his jawline tensed, his features shrouded in gloom, revealing a bit of cruelty, "I want that scumbag to stay in jail for the rest of his life."
Gu Jianbo was silent for a moment, as if he didn't expect his own child to have such sharp and sudden emotions.
When he nodded, Gu Fang's rusty heart finally began to creak and turn, but it was still floating on the water, drifting aimlessly. He barely managed to steady his mind, "Dad...what do you need me to do?"
Gu Jianbo suddenly understood the implication of his words.
After a pause, he softened his tone, a rare change from his usual tone. "Fangfang, go home first. I just need you to stay home well for the time being. Go to the art gallery on time tomorrow, and then tell me your choice."
Gu Fang moved his lips in vain and said nothing more.
It was already nine o'clock in the evening when Lu Si followed the lawyer out of the police station.
He stood on the steps and pinched his aching finger bones. The crackling sound of the joints aroused deeper pain, but Lu Si seemed to be briefly awakened from the nightmare he had in the afternoon.
Lu Si turned his head and was about to say something to the lawyer when the lawyer suddenly took a few steps forward, nodded, and called out, "Mr. Gu."
Someone in front called him: "Xiao Si, come here quickly."
Lu Si narrowed his eyes slightly and frowned as he looked over. Xie Qinghe and another man were standing under the streetlight. The man was talking to a lawyer, someone he had seen before. He was Gu Fang's uncle.
Xie Qinghe checked him up and down to see if he had any injuries, and breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good, that's good..."
"Dad," Lu Si said, his voice dry and hoarse, "Where's Lu Qi?"
Xie Qinghe's breath stagnated, and the corners of his eyes suddenly turned red, but he took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm: "Let's go to the hospital to take care of her. She just finished the operation and is resting in the ward."
He didn't mention the surgery or Lu Qi's current condition. Lu Si sensed something suffocating in his ambiguous words. But as long as he didn't say anything, as long as those words didn't fall from his lips, Lu Qi seemed to still have hope of recovery. Lu Si fell silent, his eyes lowered, and didn't dare to ask any more questions.
After entering the hospital gate, the group walked towards the emergency building. Gu Jianlan sent a voice message on his phone: "Come meet us at the door, we can't find the place."
Xie Qinghe waited until Lu Qi finished the operation before going to pick up Lu Si. He only knew that Lu Qi had been transferred to the intensive care unit, but he didn't know the exact location.
At nine o'clock, there were still many people coming and going in the emergency room. When they arrived at the building entrance, a neatly dressed young man nodded at Gu Jianlan: "It's on the fifth floor, the elevator goes this way."
"This is Special Assistant Lin, my assistant." Gu Jianlan introduced them as he walked through the nurses and patients' families coming and going. "There's also Special Assistant Fang upstairs who's busy. She was sent by President Gu."
Lu Si and Xie Qinghe nodded to express their gratitude to Special Assistant Lin.
Arriving at the door of the intensive care unit, Lu Si saw a smartly dressed, mature woman talking to a doctor. Through the glass window, he saw Lu Qi lying on the bed with her eyes closed. She ignored the various instruments around her and seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
"She hasn't woken up yet after being given anesthesia." Xie Qinghe came over and also looked into the window, saying with an unclear expression, "Don't worry, she doesn't feel any discomfort now."
Lu Si closed his eyes and said dumbly: "I'm sorry, if I could come back earlier this afternoon——"
"Xiao Si." Xie Qinghe immediately interrupted him, turning his head, his face full of fatigue and sorrow. He shook his head firmly but impliedly, "This is none of your fault. Don't blame yourself. It's all that beast... Only when you come back safe and sound will Dad's heart be at ease."
At this time, Mr. Gu came over and said, "We are discussing a transfer with the doctor. Her head injury has only been temporarily stabilized. The medical conditions here are limited, so I plan to transfer her to the private hospital under our Gu Group. The medical conditions there are considered the best in the city, with famous neurosurgeons and ophthalmologists..."
Xie Qinghe paused for a moment, "Mr. Gu, we..."
Gu Jianlan seemed to understand what they were thinking and smiled nonchalantly, "Don't worry, we will reimburse all the expenses."
Lu Si was silent for a moment. "We will do our best to repay you. Thank you very much for your help."
"Don't be so polite. We will definitely help if we can."
Gu Jianlan still smiled faintly, noncommittal about the first half of the sentence. Under the incandescent light, those smiling eyes were secretly observing, transforming into silent, thin lines that densely covered Lu Si, and after a moment, they were withdrawn without a sound.
Mr. Gu never mentioned anything about him and Gu Fang from beginning to end, and Lu Si was not sure what he and Mr. Gu were thinking.
This feeling was truly unpleasant. If there were any other way, Lu Si would never want to owe Mr. Gu anything. This wasn't out of any sense of arrogance or pride, but simply because of Gu Fang, the person he least wanted to owe a favor to was Mr. Gu.
He was very grateful to Mr. Gu, but he was afraid that Mr. Gu would use this favor to ask him to do something he was unwilling to do, especially during this special period when Fangfang had just run away from home and rebelled against his parents.
Mr. Gu saved Lu Qi, and just for this one thing, he would do anything for Mr. Gu.
But what could Mr. Gu want from a young man? Apart from being related to Gu Fang, he had no other thoughts.
The problem was that Lu Si was still unwilling to trade such a heavy favor for Fang Fang. The two couldn't be equated. Both were important, but of two completely different kinds of importance.
His idea is shameless and shameful.
Self-blame, torment, and the obsession of not wanting to let go were intertwined together, turning into a dense net covering Lu Si's heart, reflecting a dream full of dark and mottled colors.
He woke from these strange dreams, fished out his broken phone from his pocket, and frowned silently. At twelve o'clock in the evening, Lu Si stood outside the intensive care unit, leaning his head against the cold wall and exhaling slowly and wearily.
Suddenly realizing something, Lu Si opened his eyes and looked through the window. Lu Qi was still sleeping peacefully. He walked to the nurse's station and asked the nurse on duty late at night, "Can I borrow your cell phone to make a call?"
The nurse on duty looked up with a puzzled look, hesitated for a moment, and handed the phone over: "Okay."
Lu Si leaned against the nurse's desk, holding the phone in both hands, and skillfully dialed the number. His fingertips paused slightly and he switched to text message editing.
-I'm fine, don't worry. My phone was broken, so I'm using the nurse's for now.
After sending the text message, his shoulders, which had been tense all night, finally relaxed.
He held onto his phone for a moment, but seeing no message from the other party, he figured she might have fallen asleep. Lu Si silently curled his lips, a subtle, almost imperceptible arc, yet he already felt a brief sense of satisfaction and peace of mind from the text message.
"Thank you." He deleted the text message record, turned around and handed over the phone.
The nurse took it with a puzzled look, "Aren't you going to do it anymore?"
"It's okay, no need." Lu Si shook his head, put one hand in his pocket and left.
Early in the morning, Gu Fang stepped out of the telecommunications business hall. In the distance, Xiao Yuanshan waved across the street: "God of Learning! This way!"
Since there were no classes on Sunday, Gu Fang had arranged to meet him nearby. When the light turned green, Xiao Yuanshan crossed the road and said, "Xie Ziyao and the others heard the news and have already gone to the hospital to visit. Aren't you going?"
Gu Fang was silent for a moment, then evaded the question, saying, "I have something else to do."
After a pause, she handed him the plain paper bag in her hand. "Lu Si's phone must have been broken, and the SIM card probably won't work. Here's a new phone and a new SIM card."
"...How do you know it's broken?" Xiao Yuanshan asked.
Because he hasn't contacted me yet.
Gu Fang paused, swallowed the words silently, and just chuckled and said, "I guessed it."
Xiao Yuanshan took the paper bag and asked again, "Last night, Chen Yi got the news and called you to let you know, but found out your phone was turned off - did you change your number?"
Gu Fang tilted his head and looked at him: "No, the phone card was deactivated before, and I just reactivated it this morning."
After Xiao Yuanshan left, Gu Fang checked his phone and saw it was exactly 9 o'clock. He stopped a car and headed to the Museum of Modern Art in the city center. They arrived at the appointed time of 10 o'clock.
There are large posters on the outer wall of the art gallery from a distance. It turns out that this week is the personal impressionist oil painting exhibition of painter Jiang Li.
Gu Fang looked at the name. The guess he had when he came here was now confirmed, but he didn't feel too surprised.
He bought a ticket to the exhibition, which showcased representative works from each of the artist's periods in chronological order. Jiang Li's paintings rarely went up for auction, usually coming on commission, a testament to his cherished, non-customized private paintings. Lately, Gu Fangcai had frequently come across news of Jiang Li's auctions.
When interpreting a painting, one cannot avoid the painter's personal life.
There is always a line of small words next to the paintings of each stage, introducing the painter's life experience at that stage.
But because Jiang Li is a very solitary person and attaches great importance to privacy, this line of small words always seems ambiguous, as if it was not said at all.
Jiang Li is an orphan of mixed Chinese and European descent. His biological parents' existence is confirmed only by a birth certificate with their names cut out, and nothing else. Raised in an orphanage in Northern Europe, he began painting at a young age, displaying a remarkable talent. At sixteen, he successfully entered the Accademia Nazionale di Belle Arti in Florence, where his debut work immediately catapulted him to fame.
The tones of his early paintings are extremely cold and his style is solitary and bizarre.
Jiang Li's paintings started to become richer in color after he turned eighteen, and later on, warm-toned works appeared for the first time.
The painting style of this period is still desolate, but a small flower of hope grows in the desolation. Although it is very small, it still makes the viewer feel a rare tenderness.
After turning 23, Jiang Li experienced a five-year creative hiatus. He suffered from a serious mental illness and spent a long period of time recuperating in a sanatorium.
After that, he started painting, and his style gradually became more abstract and nihilistic.
But his use of color became more and more sophisticated, far surpassing other painters of the same period and school.
Gu Fang walked to the last painting, "Lonely Window and Watcher," when someone suddenly followed him and asked, "How do you feel?"
Gu Fang looked at the painting and chose his words carefully: "It's very despairing, but the despair is too much, and there is a kind of exhilarating pleasure of letting things run their course."
The man chuckled softly. "I like that."
Gu Fang turned his head away, looking at the man with eyes devoid of any extra emotion.
The man was pale, with handsome, deep features, and bore only a passing resemblance to him. Only the identical blue eyes magnified the resemblance to a greater degree.
"..." Gu Fang didn't know what to say, so he nodded politely, "Hello."
"Hello." Jiang Li couldn't help but smile, "Fang Fang, nice to meet you."
His Chinese is very good, only the occasional words have a strange intonation.
With nothing else to do, the two of them started from the end of the exhibition and went back to the beginning. However, Jiang Li seemed to have little interest in discussing his own paintings. He kept asking about Gu Fang's current situation without making a sound.
Gu Fang always thought that he was a very difficult person to approach, but when chatting with him, his eyes were always curved and he showed an unconscious smile, and it was obvious that he was really happy.
It was already 12 o'clock when they finished visiting the art exhibition. Jiang Li asked him, "Do you want to go for lunch together? I've reserved a table at your favorite restaurant."
Gu Fang stared at his curved blue eyes for a long while, then nodded: "Okay."
Jiang Li seemed to sense his gaze observing her, feeling somewhat bewildered. She pursed her lips tightly and said, "Then you wait here for me. I'll go drive."
Gu Fang stayed where he was, stroking the corner of his lips thoughtfully.
It turns out that the subconscious action of pursing lips when nervous was inherited from Jiang Li?
That private restaurant was also in the city center, less than ten minutes' drive away. It was the one Wen Chuji often brought him to. Gu Fang really liked the food there, and he didn't know who Jiang Li had heard about it from.
Gu Fang didn't expect Jiang Li to be so talkative. It seemed that he wanted to know everything about him, no matter how small or boring.
Gu Fang appeared calm on the surface, but he felt a little overwhelmed on the inside. He really didn't know how to get along with Jiang Li. There was also a question that always lingered in his heart - if she cared so much, why didn't she come to see him earlier?
He had known since childhood that he had a blood relative in this world, but he had never seen him. He had waited and waited for seventeen years, and finally, he saw him suddenly.
In the middle of the meal, Gu Fang felt that he really needed to take a breath, so he left the private room under the pretext of going to the bathroom.
When Jiang Li came back, he pursed his lips again, looking a little strange.
Gu Fang raised his eyebrows and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Li hesitated as he pointed at Gu Fang's phone on the table. "Your phone was vibrating just now, so I took a look...it must be your friend calling."
Gu Fang didn't care. After all, Jiang Li only took a look and didn't do anything else. He touched the screen and the screensaver with Lu Si's profile appeared. Gu Fang suddenly looked up and glanced at Jiang Li.
It was Xiao Yuanshan calling. He must have wanted to say that the phone had been delivered.
But Jiang Li's reaction was more like seeing this painting.
Perhaps the painter was more sensitive to lines and colors. Jiang Li vaguely sensed the unusual relationship between him and the person in the painting. Trying to change the subject, he smiled and asked, "That painting... does Fangfang have a boyfriend?"
He asked very naturally, perhaps because of different ideas, and didn't think it was puppy love at all.
Gu Fang suddenly didn't want to hide it from him, so he nodded: "Yeah."
"He should be a very good boy, right?" Jiang Li squinted his eyes, "Is he an Omega?"
No, Jiang Li felt that the boy in the painting looked more like a Beta, but he also felt something was weird about it.
Gu Fang stared at his crooked eyes, suddenly wanting to know his reaction. After a pause, he said truthfully, "It's Alpha."
Jiang Li's smile froze for a moment, and he asked uncertainly, "But... aren't you also an Alpha?"
"Yes," Gu Fang nodded seriously, "We are all Alpha."
I don’t know how to describe that moment——
Gu Fang had never seen anyone's expression change so quickly.
The smile in Jiang Li's glass-like eyes shattered instantly. The smile collapsed, his expression became gloomy, his pupils twitched restlessly, and he muttered like a madman: "How can it be an Alpha, how can it be..."
Gu Fang's heart suddenly turned cold, as if something that had just ignited was instantly extinguished. He heard himself speak woodenly and asked, "Why not?"
Jiang Li's neck began to twist unnaturally, knocking over dishes on the table. He swept them away with one hand, his azure eyes becoming hollow and creepy as he repeated, "No, no, no...disgusting...perverted..."
Gu Fang stood up and moved away from him, frowning.
Jiang Li seemed to be ill.
He hurriedly rummaged through Jiang Li's bag and found a small white bottle. He had just shaken out a few pills when he looked up to see Jiang Li had unknowingly left her seat and was standing in front of him, staring at him with pleading, anxious eyes.
Like a drowning man clinging to the last straw.
"Fang Fang, come with me and live with me..."
"Don't stay with perverts, you will learn bad things. Gu Jianbo is a pervert, a pervert in an AA relationship... He hurt your father and he wants to hurt you..."
"Come with me, don't stay with him, I beg you..."
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