DREB CHAPTER 59

The difference between being raised free-range and being raised in captivity was obvious. Once Li Yan was finally allowed to leave, he didn’t dare to wander far from home as the first few times he couldn’t remember the way back.

After receiving directions from a few “kind strangers,” he eventually memorized the route home and never took the phone Lu Lianning had given him again.

By now, four years had passed since they first met. It was during this time that Li Yan encountered Lao Yue begging on the streets of the university town.

Their first meeting didn’t go smoothly: they fought over an empty plastic bottle.

Li Yan gripped the bottle tightly, refusing to let go, but Lao Yue wasn’t about to back down. Taking advantage of his seniority, Lao Yue said, “You’re young and strong. Why don’t you get a job? Instead, you’re out here fighting me for empty bottles. No wonder I’ve been finding fewer bottles lately—you must’ve taken them all, huh?”

Li Yan frowned and argued, “I found this one first.”

“Ever heard of respecting your elders?” Lao Yue blew his nose and glared.

“That doesn’t mean you can just steal it!”

And so began the battle of the plastic bottle. In the end, neither of them won. A few passersby saw Li Yan squabbling with an old beggar and scolded him, leaving him red-faced with embarrassment. Li Yan finally loosened his grip and let Lao Yue have the bottle.

After that encounter, Lao Yue shifted his focus to collecting bottles instead of begging.

Eventually, the two of them ended up squatting by the roadside together with their heads down. Lao Yue glanced at this young competitor and noticed that Li Yan also had a broken bowl in front of him.

What the hell!?

Was he really trying to steal his livelihood?

“Hey! You’re young and capable. Why don’t you do something useful instead of messing with me?” Lao Yue panted angrily.

Li Yan squatted there without saying anything. He shifted his weight to his other leg, trying to shake off the numbness in his foot.

Lao Yue poked him with his cane.

Ow, that hurt.

Li Yan turned his head, frowning. “What are you doing!?”

“What are you doing!?” Lao Yue shouted even louder.

Li Yan fell silent. He wanted to say “Selling my ass,” but then he remembered that Lu Lianning hadn’t touched him in a long time.

Seeing Li Yan just sitting there, as if nothing could elicit a reaction from him, Lao Yue angrily knocked over the bowl with his cane. Only after knocking it over did he recognize it, and he began cursing again, “Wait, that’s my bowl!”

Li Yan looked like he’d had enough. “I pulled it out of the trash. You threw it away!”

At that time, he never imagined that he and Lao Yue would eventually team up to pull scams together.

Lu Lianning was injured that year. Just a month before he was set to officially take over as the new head of the Lu family—after Lu Anling stepped down and transferred power to him—he was involved in a car accident.

It seemed serious, as Li Yan hadn’t seen him for half a month.

When Lu Lianning finally reappeared, it was after returning from a board meeting, and he seemed to have had too much to drink.

During those weeks, Li Yan’s days had been relatively easy. With Lu Lianning out of the picture, he spent his time bickering with Lao Yue, earning just enough money to treat himself to beef noodles. In the evenings, he’d return home to water the plants and feed the cat.

One afternoon, as the butler worked in the yard, he spotted Li Yan approaching from a distance.

Li Yan was bundled up in clothes that seemed too warm for the weather.

Just as they were about to pass each other, Li Yan stopped abruptly.

The butler was trimming the branches in the yard with gloves on, his hands covered in bits of twigs. He paused and looked at Li Yan, his expression asking, “Is there something you need?”

Li Yan stared at him, then slowly pulled something round from the pocket of his thick coat.

It was a roasted sweet potato, wrapped in a plastic bag.

The skin was charred black and cracked open, revealing soft yellow flesh inside. He handed it to the butler.

The butler appeared somewhat incredulous and asked, “This is for me?”

Li Yan nodded.

The butler accepted it, and Li Yan turned and headed inside the house.

Lu Lianning returned that night at around 1 AM, reeking of alcohol. He had been gone for half a month, either busy or recovering from his injury.

But Li Yan neither knew nor cared.

As soon as Lu Lianning entered the house, he went straight to the bedroom. Seeing Li Yan fast asleep, he reached over and shook him awake.

“Did you give the butler a roasted sweet potato today?”

Was this such a big deal? Li Yan cursed the butler silently. How could he mention it? Li Yan made up his mind that he would never give the butler anything again.

Li Yan was good at bullying the weak and avoiding the strong, so he mentally grumbled about the butler while keeping his eyes tightly shut, pretending to be dead. He steadied his breathing, determined not to wake up, even as Lu Lianning shook his head back and forth.

Suddenly, Lu Lianning’s voice took on an odd tone. “Do you know what day it is today?”

Li Yan continued sleeping.

Several minutes passed. Lu Lianning stood still by the bed.

Eventually, Li Yan cautiously cracked one eye open. Lu Lianning was no longer in the room. A moment ago, he had been shaking him awake, but now he had slipped out quietly, as if afraid to wake him.

Lu Lianning had gone to the study with more alcohol. He drank a lot, and something seemed off about him, though it was hard to say exactly what.

His face flushed hot, and feeling uncomfortable, he pressed his cheek against the cool surface of the desk. That was when he started hallucinating, slipping into a dream.

When Li Yan entered the study, he saw the state Lu Lianning was in—his hair disheveled, the air thick with the stench of alcohol.

Li Yan draped his clothes over himself and walked toward him slowly. Though Lu Lianning didn’t seem fully conscious, the moment he saw Li Yan, his body tensed sharply in an abrupt movement. That’s when Li Yan noticed something clenched in his hand.

It was clear that Lu Lianning didn’t want him to see what it was. He moved his hand from the desk, hiding it beneath the table.

He could have slipped it into the drawer, but whatever treasure it was, he clearly didn’t want to let go.

Li Yan approached cautiously, and then he heard Lu Lianning call, so faint it was almost inaudible, “Chen Miao…”

Li Yan froze. He stared at Lu Lianning, and their eyes locked.

Unexpectedly, Li Yan broke into a smile—a wide grin that revealed his big white teeth, a dazzlingly bright expression he hadn’t shown in a long time.

He said, “Lu-ge, happy birthday.”

Now it was Lu Lianning’s turn to freeze. He stared at Li Yan, not daring to reach out. He feared that if he moved, the dream would shatter.

His eyes reddened as he looked at those bright eyes, still lingering with a smile. The words seemed to come out between clenched teeth, “Happy birthday? It’s already fucking over…”

For a split second, Li Yan thought Lu Lianning might cry, but despite the redness in his eyes, no tears fell.

Lu Lianning couldn’t bear it any longer and pulled Li Yan into his arms, hugging him tightly. As he embraced him, he whispered softly into Li Yan’s ear, repeating the name “Chen Miao” over and over, as if talking in his sleep.

“It’s been a bit hard for me,” he said, then immediately regretted it, feeling he didn’t seem strong enough in front of Chen Miao. Quickly, he added, almost as if to explain, “But I’ve handled everything…”

Li Yan was hugged tightly by Lu Lianning, his chin resting on his shoulder, listening to the drunken rambling.

He comforted him, “Yes, you’ve always been strong.”

Lu Lianning whispered in his ear again, “My wound still hurts…”

It was as if he were questioning why, despite being injured for so long, no one had cared for him. In the past, Chen Miao would always put him first in everything. He would pick the bones out of his fish, peel his shrimp, and if Lu Lianning mentioned his hands were cold, Chen Miao would warm them against his stomach…

But now, when he said his wound hurt, no one paid attention.

He lay in the hospital, barely surviving, without a single word of concern.

Li Yan let Lu Lianning hold him in silence without resisting. Only when the whispered words in his ear faded away did he gently push Lu Lianning back into the chair.

It was then that Li Yan noticed what Lu Lianning had been clutching in his hand all along.

It was a cheap plastic little prince with chipped-out paint.

Perhaps Lu Lianning truly hated Li Yan, but it was clear he missed Chen Miao deeply.

The next morning, when Li Yan woke up and looked out the window, he saw Lu Lianning dressed in a silver-gray suit, heading out again with an impenetrable, cold expression. He looked like nothing could ever break or defeat him.

The same Lu Lianning who had just taken over the Lu family after last night’s board meeting, gotten drunk celebrating his 26th birthday, and, with red-rimmed eyes, called out to Chen Miao—it all felt like a surreal dream.

Li Yan didn’t know what life had been like for Lu Lianning since his return to the Lu family or whether it had been harder than his days in the film industry.

But Lu Lianning would never share such things with him. He carried himself with an air of detachment and superiority as if nothing ever mattered.

But he had told Chen Miao.

With Chen Miao, he had admitted that he was having a hard time.

Years later, Qi Zhen asked Li Yan if he hated Lu Lianning.

Li Yan said no. But Qi Zhen thought he was lying.

In truth, he wasn’t.

Because it must have been difficult for Lu Lianning to comprehend how someone who once catered to his every need—revolving their entire world around him, even bringing tea to his lips—could, in the very next moment, hold a knife to his throat.

Lu Lianning always believed that the hug and birthday wish from that night was nothing more than an alcohol-induced dream.

That night had hit him hard, driving him to drink excessively.

He still remembered what had happened three months earlier. When he returned home, Li Yan had been in the garden, but as soon as Lu Lianning entered, Li Yan seemed scared, as if he couldn’t bear to be in the same space. He fled into the house and onto the bed, his hands still muddy from gardening.

That day, Lu Lianning stayed calm and didn’t get angry. Instead, he pulled Li Yan out of bed and carefully wiped his fingers clean with a damp cloth, bit by bit.

He knew that Li Yan’s current state was his fault. Every time he lost his temper, Li Yan would be terrified of him for a long time.

Lu Lianning thought that the once clever and considerate Li Yan had been slowly killed by him. Now, their roles had reversed. It was his turn to take care of Li Yan.

Li Yan no longer knew how to care for others. He couldn’t even find his way home without help. What more could anyone expect from him?

But that wasn’t entirely true.

With the money Li Yan earned from collecting plastic bottles and begging on the streets, he had saved enough to buy a roasted sweet potato.

But he hadn’t given it to Lu Lianning.

When Lu Lianning did those things to Li Yan, he had only been in his early twenties—too young and too arrogant. If he couldn’t land a lead role in a film, he’d throw a tantrum, let alone when it came to Li Yan.

His first love, Ye He, had already left him with a bad start. Ye He was an Omega who abandoned him because he couldn’t offer better opportunities.

But Li Yan was different.

Ye He’s ambition was written all over his face, something Lu Lianning could see clearly. But Li Yan, with his honest and dull face, dressed in worn-out clothes, offered Lu Lianning kindness that no one had ever given him in the past twenty years. With Li Yan, Lu Lianning had let his guard down completely.

How could he accept that it had all been a lie? That Li Yan had only approached him for money? That his kindness was just a tool to save someone else? In Li Yan’s life, Lu Lianning was nothing more than a stepping stone in some tragic drama? Li Yan’s every action had been driven by a devotion to fulfill the dying wish of his deceased wife.

In the beginning, Lu Lianning hadn’t intended to destroy Li Yan. All he thought was: If you like me so much, fine. I’ll lower myself and give you a chance to date me.

But Li Yan didn’t want that.

The childish, temperamental Lu Lianning, who craved Li Yan’s attention every second of the day, had been the best version of him as a lover.

And that version of Lu Lianning had been strangled to death by both Li Yan and himself a long time ago.