DCISBS chapter 74

It was already past 9 PM by the time Lu Nanyang propped himself up to reach for the light switch.

He could hardly believe they had actually gone at it nonstop since before nightfall—so much that it left him with a faint, surreal sense of disorientation.

The bedsheet was an utter disaster—far beyond what a simple wash could fix. Lu Nanyang stared at the once-new sheet with a twinge of regret, already thinking about where he could buy a new one tomorrow.

Xie Quan was lazily sprawled on one side of the bed, his long legs casually overlapping. He twisted the last used condom into a knot and tossed it into the trash.

There was nothing deliberate or seductive in his movements, not even a hint of showiness—yet Lu Nanyang couldn’t take his eyes off him.

People didn’t usually use the word “beautiful” to describe a grown man’s body, but at that moment, Lu Nanyang couldn’t think of any other word.

Xie Quan’s body wasn’t perfect. Years of living alone and overmedicating had left him with a pale, almost sickly complexion. In the areas usually hidden by clothes, old scars from various kinds of abuse were still visible. Some were faded, others were still pink with new skin just forming.

And yet—even with all that—Lu Nanyang felt that with his limited vocabulary, “beautiful” was the only word that fit.

In their moments of intimacy, he had kissed nearly every one of those scars. Each time his lips brushed against the newly healed skin, Xie Quan would tremble violently—like a soft-bodied creature being slowly stripped of its shell.

And with every touch, that shell opened a little wider.

“You’ve been staring that long and still not had enough?” Xie Quan raised an eyebrow, having noticed Lu Nanyang’s gaze.

“Nope. How could I ever get enough?” Lu Nanyang murmured.

Xie Quan chuckled and pulled him in for a kiss, hand pressing against the back of Lu Nanyang’s neck.

The air was thick with desire, the heat simmering in the small room. Xie Quan’s fingers danced along Lu Nanyang’s spine like a pianist’s touch, setting off another wave of arousal.

And then—suddenly—someone’s stomach let out a long, drawn-out growl, completely shattering the sensual mood.

Xie Quan couldn’t hold back his laughter. Lu Nanyang gave an awkward look and let go of him.

“We haven’t eaten all evening. Can’t I be hungry too?” Lu Nanyang muttered.

“Permission granted,” Xie Quan said, still laughing as he sat up. “I’m too beat to cook—let’s order takeout.”

He yanked off the unsalvageable bedsheet, balled it up, and strolled into the bathroom stark naked.

It wasn’t until the sound of the shower turned on that Lu Nanyang realized, “Hey! I still need to use the bathroom!”

Xie Quan’s voice floated through the door, “Wait your turn.”

…Damn.

Lu Nanyang smiled and lay back down on the bed.

Just as he went to collect the food delivery, Xie Quan happened to come out of the bathroom—wearing only a loosely fitted robe with a low neckline, his damp hair still dripping water.

Maybe the water had been too hot, because a pink flush had spread across his chest, and the corners of his eyes carried a hint of red.

Lu Nanyang sat at the dining table, opening the food containers one by one. “Sweet and sour pork, Mapo tofu, garlic eggplant, yellow croaker…”

Xie Quan chuckled. “Are you ordering takeout or opening a restaurant? That’s a lot.”

“If we can’t finish it, we’ll have leftovers,” Lu Nanyang said, pulling out a chair for him before sitting across from him. “Sometimes life needs a bit of indulgence.”

Xie Quan laughed as he sat down. “Now that sounds like something a young master of the Lu family would say.”

Lu Nanyang paused for a moment while picking up his chopsticks, then gave a faint smile like nothing was wrong. “But I might not be one for much longer.”

“……”

The sweet, lighthearted atmosphere was instantly shattered by that sentence. Xie Quan silently picked up his chopsticks and brought a piece of meat to his mouth.

This time, the flavor that entered his mouth was a perfectly balanced sweet and sour taste, rich with the aroma of meat.

“…It’s delicious,” Xie Quan said.

Lu Nanyang suddenly looked up. “You can taste it normally?”

But Xie Quan didn’t want him to shift the conversation back to himself so easily.

He set his chopsticks down on the table and looked up calmly. “Lu Nanyang, let’s talk.”

“…” Lu Nanyang looked away and said softly, “Can’t we talk tomorrow instead?”

“If we wait until tomorrow, are you just going to say ‘let’s talk the day after’ again?” Xie Quan said bluntly. “Look at me—we’re talking now.”

Lu Nanyang stayed silent for a long time before he gave a slight nod.

Xie Quan let out a breath and looked at him. “Do you really think that just because you leave the Lu family, all of Lu Hongzhen and his wife’s love will naturally go to Lu Zhanlei?”

Lu Nanyang pressed his lips together but didn’t speak.

“Have you ever considered that if your theory were true, Lu Zhanlei wouldn’t have come looking for trouble today, and he certainly wouldn’t have attempted suicide in front of the whole city?”

“That’s a different matter…” Lu Nanyang frowned.

“No—it’s the same,” Xie Quan interrupted. “For a long time, I never understood why you were so unwilling to go back to the Lu family. I thought maybe you were kicked out, or that after they found their biological son, they treated you coldly, using you as a stepping stone for Lu Zhanlei. But I was wrong. I only just realized—the truth is probably the exact opposite of what I assumed.”

Xie Quan leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on the table to get closer to Lu Nanyang.

“The Lu couple not only didn’t abandon you, but in their eyes… you’re better, more capable than Lu Zhanlei. Maybe even more than that—Lu Hongzhen probably thinks you’re the one who should inherit the family business,” he continued. “Am I right?”

Lu Nanyang instinctively tried to deny it. “No, Lu Hongzhen said it himself—he cares about us both, he said we’re like the palm and back of his hand—”

“Words like that are only good for comforting children,” Xie Quan cut him off. “You still don’t see the reality, do you?”

“…” Lu Nanyang said nothing. He lowered his head and ran his fingers harshly through his hair.

Xie Quan didn’t continue pressuring him. Instead, he picked up his chopsticks again and lowered his gaze to eat, giving Lu Nanyang a moment to process things on his own.

For a while, the only sounds were the clinking of bowls and chopsticks. After several minutes, Lu Nanyang finally spoke.

“But this is really unfair to Lu Zhanlei… He’s the biological son of the Lu family. I’m just an orphan they picked up,” Lu Nanyang said softly. “I really am grateful that my adoptive parents treated me so well and loved me so much. But if that love has to be built on someone else’s pain… I just can’t do it.”

“…” Xie Quan didn’t respond and quietly picked up a piece of tofu.

“Zhanlei isn’t a bad person at heart. He’s just really afraid of being abandoned,” Lu Nanyang continued. “After he was kidnapped, he went through a lot. In the end, even that family didn’t want him anymore. He went to the police station on his own, took the little money he had, and traveled by train all the way to Yuncheng. When Lu Hongzhen found him, he was really happy—he cried for a long time in front of everyone. It’s not his fault he resents me. I took the love that was supposed to be his. He has every right to hate me.”

“And that makes it your fault?” Xie Quan shot back.

“…”

“I don’t blame you for feeling guilty,” Xie Quan looked him straight in the eyes and said clearly, “You’re a kind person. You can’t even stand to see a stray cat go hungry, let alone watch someone suffer. But the problem is, not everything in this world is so simple. If leaving the Lu family could really resolve the conflict between Lu Zhanlei and the rest of the family, I wouldn’t stop you. But would it work? If it could, then in all these years you haven’t gone home, they would’ve already become a happy, harmonious family. Would Zhanlei still need to resort to using suicide threats just to make you change your surname?”

Lu Nanyang pressed his lips together tightly and said nothing.

“Let me tell you something,” Xie Quan lowered his eyes and picked the scallion leaves out of the dish with his chopsticks. “Back when I first met you last semester, I threw out a cat.”

Lu Nanyang looked at him in surprise—partly because of what he said, and partly because of the sudden shift in topic.

“There used to be a cat in my office, named Marshmallow. It was a white long-haired Persian cat,” Xie Quan said. “It belonged to a senior who shared the office with me. He was about to graduate but impulsively adopted a cat and moved all the supplies—food, litter box, bed—into the office. Then he went off for an internship and casually dumped the cat on me, saying ‘It’s yours now,’ and just walked off.”

“…” Lu Nanyang frowned.

“If it had been you, you probably would’ve kept the cat,” Xie Quan said. “Because you can’t stand to see a life abandoned. You can’t bear watching someone suffer, even if the responsibility has nothing to do with you, even if it’s being forced onto you. You’d still take it on anyway. But I wouldn’t. I knew clearly that taking care of that cat wasn’t my responsibility. I wasn’t the one who abandoned it. And if I kept it, it would only cause unnecessary trouble for the patients who came to my office for treatment. I didn’t want to—and I don’t have the ability—to take care of everyone.”

Lu Nanyang closed his eyes, his chest tightening, as if a ball of cotton had been stuffed inside.

Xie Quan’s words were like a sharp scalpel, slicing open his chest with precision. Through that soft cotton, the dull ache spread slowly to every part of his body.

He opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. At that moment, the sudden ringing of a phone on the table startled him.

“…”

He picked up the phone a bit helplessly. The caller ID displayed the name Wen Fei.

“Hello? What is it?”

Wen Fei’s voice was pitched noticeably higher than usual. “Lu Nanyang, what are you doing?! How are you still so calm right now?!”

Lu Nanyang was stunned. “What happened?”

“Check Weibo! The video of Lu Zhanlei getting slapped is on the trending page!”