LCFM Chapter 35

After Jiang Xinghuai finished that sentence, Jiang Liangyuan was obviously stunned. The atmosphere instantly became deathly quiet.

But soon, Jiang Liangyuan snapped back to his senses. He looked at the two people whose hands were clasped together. His teeth were clenched so tightly he could almost bite through blood.

“Jiang Xinghuai!” Jiang Liangyuan glared furiously, veins bulging on his forehead. “If you’ve got the guts, say that again! What exactly is your relationship!”

“I said it already. Do you dare to hear it?” Jiang Xinghuai calmly retorted.

He bet that Jiang Liangyuan didn’t dare.

Someone as prideful as Jiang Liangyuan would never let him say those words out loud in front of everyone.

“Are you sure you want me to say it?” Jiang Xinghuai asked again.

Jiang Liangyuan’s eyes blazed with fury. He looked as if he wanted to slap Jiang Xinghuai to death. He held himself back again and again. In the end, he could only force out through clenched teeth, dripping with sarcasm, “At his age, maybe he really could be your father. His character’s a complete mess.”

That was the moment Jiang Xinghuai exploded. Jiang Liangyuan could insult him, but what right did he have to insult Fu Yan?

Even before Fu Yan could react, Jiang Xinghuai suddenly charged out from behind him, followed by a rapid-fire retort: “Who has a messed-up character! You’re the one with a messed-up character! Not only that, your brain’s messed up, too!”

“Shut up!” Jiang Liangyuan was furious to the point of madness and reached out, trying to grab him.

Jiang Xinghuai dodged backward. Fu Yan’s arm immediately came around his waist, pulling him behind and shielding him.

“Jiang Xinghuai! Get over here!” Jiang Liangyuan pointed at the two of them, his finger trembling, clearly on the verge of losing all control.

Fu Yan frowned tightly. “Mr. Jiang, I suggest you calm down.”

“And what the hell are you supposed to be, telling me to calm down?” Jiang Liangyuan said through gritted teeth, anger boiling over. “Get out of my way!”

“Whether I count as something or not has nothing to do with you.” Fu Yan stood his ground, blocking Jiang Liangyuan’s path, his calm gaze fixed steadily on him. “If you’re willing to sit down, perhaps we can have a proper talk.”

“Fine, talk. I’ll talk with you.” Jiang Liangyuan nodded, slowly stepping closer, but his voice dropped into a threatening growl: “I don’t care what intentions you have being with my son, but listen to me. If I accuse you of using improper means to seduce a minor, do you think anyone would doubt it?”

“I’m eighteen.” Jiang Xinghuai suddenly spoke up.

Jiang Liangyuan’s eyes widened, his eyebrows bristling upright. “You—”

Just then, the bald man standing nearby, who had been studying Fu Yan for a while, suddenly jolted as if struck by realization. His gaze fixed on Fu Yan’s cold, composed side profile—that detached, intimidating face—and he finally came to his senses. He raised his hand hurriedly to stop Jiang Liangyuan. “Wait—wait—Mr. Jiang! Mr. Jiang, wait a second!”

“Wang Qinhai!” Jiang Liangyuan turned back and glared at him furiously.

But the bald man ignored him, his eyes widening further in disbelief as he stammered, “You’re Fu… Fu Yan—Fu Yan from Fu Lin Pharmaceuticals?”

Fu Yan shifted his gaze toward him.

Wang Qinhai stared back, growing more and more alarmed the longer he looked.

“Wang Qinhai, what the hell are you talking about?” Jiang Liangyuan’s face flushed red with anger.

“Mr. Fu, I’m Wang Qinhai, Vice President of the Xu Group.” The bald man, Wang Qinhai, didn’t spare Jiang Liangyuan another glance. He quickly stepped forward, pulled a business card from his suit pocket, and offered it respectfully with both hands, a polite, eager smile on his face. “Last month, I attended the Hangzhou Medical AI Symposium with President Xu. We met there, do you remember?”

“Xu Huiwen.” Fu Yan recalled the name.

Wang Qinhai gave an awkward laugh and rubbed his bald head, embarrassed. In their Xu Group, not just anyone had the guts to call their president by his full name.

But this man, even setting aside how his status had skyrocketed after the virus outbreak thanks to his expertise, even before the outbreak, he was already a name everyone in the field knew.

“Mr. Fu, I really didn’t expect to run into you here,” Wang Qinhai said, smoothly pocketing the business card that Fu Yan hadn’t taken, his polite smile unwavering. “Our president has been wanting to meet you again for a long time. We even sent people to look for you. How about we arrange a time to—”

Before he could finish, Jiang Liangyuan could no longer hold himself back. He shoved Wang Qinhai aside and reached out, trying to drag Jiang Xinghuai out from behind Fu Yan.

But how could Wang Qinhai possibly let Jiang Liangyuan charge at him? Fu Yan’s involvement could raise their project’s success rate by ninety percent. If that happened, they would become the undisputed leaders of the base. They had to secure him.

And Jiang Liangyuan? He was just a middling partner: not insignificant, but nowhere near as valuable.

Wang Qinhai shot a look at his subordinates. Two of them quickly moved to block Jiang Liangyuan’s way. Wang Qinhai stepped forward to reason with him: “Mr. Jiang, please calm down. You may not be familiar with Mr. Fu. He’s—”

“I don’t give a damn who he is!” Jiang Liangyuan shook off the people holding him back, completely losing his temper. “All I know is he’s a disgusting, damn homosexual! He’s trying to seduce my son!”

The word homosexual, no matter when or where, was enough to crash through a crowd like a wave, leaving the air suffocatingly still.

The noisy surroundings instantly fell silent. Every gaze turned toward them.

Fu Yan shielded Jiang Xinghuai behind him, the displeasure in his eyes deepening.

Jiang Xinghuai was trembling all over from rage. He knew Jiang Liangyuan couldn’t accept it. He’d heard him say similar things before. But never once had it stung this sharply.

Why did Jiang Liangyuan have to treat him like this?

Was Jiang Liangyuan really his father?

Did he do something wrong?

No.

He didn’t do anything wrong.

A sudden ringing filled his ears. Jiang Liangyuan opened his mouth and said a few more words to him, but he couldn’t hear them clearly. Jiang Liangyuan raised his hand, Fu Yan reached out to stop him, said something too, but he couldn’t make that out either.

The next second, Jiang Liangyuan turned his head and walked away.

Jiang Xinghuai shook his head, trying to shake off the buzzing in his ears. But instead, a damp sensation slid down from his chin, tracing a path downward—

Something dripped onto his wrist.

Jiang Xinghuai looked down in confusion. Dark red blood dripped one drop after another, continuously falling.

Was he having a nosebleed?

Before he could even process what was happening, he instinctively tilted his head back.

But Fu Yan was faster. He caught the back of his head and forced him to lower it.

“Don’t tilt your head back. It’ll go down your airway,” Fu Yan said, frowning as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it under his nose.

The cloth quickly turned red.

Fu Yan’s palm supported the back of Jiang Xinghuai’s head. Seeing the unfocused look in Jiang Xinghuai’s eyes, Fu Yan grew a little worried. “Jiang Xinghuai… Jiang Xinghuai… look at me… look at me…”

Jiang Xinghuai finally came back to his senses. He glanced at the spot where Jiang Liangyuan’s figure had disappeared in the distance, then quickly looked away. Taking a breath, he tightened his grip on Fu Yan’s hand and said, “Let’s go…”

Fu Yan nodded, slipped an arm around his shoulder, and practically half-carried him out.

Turning right after exiting the cafeteria, there was a narrow path. Beneath the trees ran a long cement water trough.

A flock of sparrows was resting on top. Startled by the approaching footsteps, they fluttered up and flew away.

“Lift your head.” Fu Yan took off his suit jacket, soaked a small patch of it with water, and pressed it to the bridge of Jiang Xinghuai’s nose. Then he cupped some water in his hand and lightly patted it onto Jiang Xinghuai’s forehead.

The water here in the military district came from a mountain well. It is especially cold.

“Cold—” Jiang Xinghuai shrank his neck, trying to dodge, but the large hand at his waist held him firmly in place.

“Be good, don’t move.” Fu Yan’s tone softened rarely.

Jiang Xinghuai glanced at him once, then stayed still.

After a long while, Jiang Xinghuai finally felt the bleeding had stopped. He removed the handkerchief blocking his nostrils and sniffed. Sure enough, no new blood was flowing out.

“Fu Yan,” Jiang Xinghuai tilted his head up to show him, “it’s fine now. It’s not bleeding anymore.”

Fu Yan bent down to check his nose. Indeed, the bleeding had stopped. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Does your nose hurt? Are you dizzy?”

As Fu Yan asked, he used the dampened suit jacket to wipe Jiang Xinghuai’s face. When he was done, he wiped his hands clean, too.

“No.” Jiang Xinghuai’s face stung from how roughly Fu Yan wiped it, but he didn’t pull away.

“How did you suddenly get a nosebleed? How about going for a checkup?” Fu Yan touched the tip of Jiang Xinghuai’s nose.

“I’m not going.” Jiang Xinghuai lowered his eyes. “I’m hungry.”

“Then eat.” Fu Yan somehow produced a metal lunch box.

He opened the lid.

Inside were the cafeteria’s notoriously awful vegetables of the day.

Jiang Xinghuai: “……”

Fu Yan pulled him to sit on a long stone bench nearby and handed him a pair of chopsticks.

Jiang Xinghuai didn’t want to take them, nor did he want to eat. His gaze drifted. By accident, he caught sight of a cut across Fu Yan’s palm.

“What happened to your hand?” Jiang Xinghuai frowned and grabbed it.

“Just a scratch,” Fu Yan said.

“When did you—” Jiang Xinghuai stopped halfway through his sentence. He suddenly remembered the wristwatch on his father’s raised hand.

It was hard for him to lift his head. His voice squeezed out from his throat. “Did my dad just hit you?”

Fu Yan chuckled softly, withdrew his hand, and patted Jiang Xinghuai’s head. “No.”

Jiang Xinghuai fell silent.

He suddenly began to blame himself for his earlier cowardice. It was his own problem. So why had he hidden behind Fu Yan?

Fu Yan could tell right away what he was thinking. That sensitive side of Jiang Xinghuai’s personality made something twist uncomfortably in his chest.

Seeing the boy’s head droop lower and lower, Fu Yan reached out and cupped his cold cheeks. Only when their eyes met did Fu Yan speak earnestly, “It’s only right that I stand in front of you, you know? You—”

“No.” Jiang Xinghuai cut him off, his voice firm. “It’s not right.”

Fu Yan froze.

Jiang Xinghuai looked straight into his eyes. After a long moment, he slowly began to speak. “My… my parents are busy with work. I barely saw them growing up. But I always thought they loved me. Because I believed they were supposed to love me. No matter what I did, they wouldn’t leave me.”

It was the first time Jiang Xinghuai had ever brought up his family on his own.

“So when they got divorced, I couldn’t accept it. Because now they both have their own families. I’m not their only child anymore. Loving me isn’t something they have to do.”

“When I caused trouble or made mistakes, I used to think it was fine because they were my parents, and their love was something I could take for granted. But after I realized they didn’t love me anymore, I understood that I was just… extra. A burden. So when they divorced, neither of them wanted me.”

Fu Yan’s brows furrowed. He understood what Jiang Xinghuai meant now. His heart ached for him.

“Usually, you have your own things to do, and I can’t help you with anything. When you and Zheng Yi talk about things I don’t understand, I just feel… so useless.” Jiang Xinghuai’s words came out haltingly but with determination. “So the reason I want to go with Kang Cheng is just… just because I don’t want to be anyone’s burden.”

Fu Yan felt like his heart had been poked full of holes. He held back the urge to pull the boy into his arms and said softly, “You’re still young. You have time to grow up.”

“I don’t like it when you call me young. Have you always seen me as a kid?” Jiang Xinghuai frowned. “When you said you liked me, was that just because I’m young and easy to coax?”

Fu Yan was both exasperated and amused by that logic. He had never thought Jiang Xinghuai was being unreasonable before. The boy might have a bit of a temper, but he had never twisted facts with his eyes wide open.

“What are you laughing at?” Jiang Xinghuai glared at him.

“You can go with Kang Cheng,” Fu Yan said, patting his head, “but you have to be careful.”

Jiang Xinghuai froze, then realized what he’d just heard. His eyes widened. “You… you agreed?”

Fu Yan looked at him and suddenly reached out, brushing his palm gently over the boy’s cheek, feeling the warmth and softness beneath his hand.

The young man’s face was tender and unripe, like a fledgling who had just spread his soft wings, buffeted by the wind, flying shakily out of the nest.

A slightly stronger gust could easily break those wings. And yet, in his eyes burned a stubborn, unyielding light, as if he saw nothing in this world that could make him back down.

This wasn’t a little sparrow that would hide in his arms. Fu Yan had known that for a long time. It was he who wanted to protect Jiang Xinghuai, afraid the boy might suffer even the smallest wound.

But in truth, Jiang Xinghuai was far braver than he was.

Fu Yan sighed, then smiled again, his voice soft. “You’re not anyone’s burden. Have you forgotten? You’ve saved me twice.”

Jiang Xinghuai was stunned.

“You’re my little hero,” Fu Yan added.

Jiang Xinghuai was sent floating by those words, his body suddenly light, as if he’d lost all weight. It took him a moment to come back to his senses. He cleared his throat and straightened his back. The little flicker of pride on his face was impossible to miss. Looking down at Fu Yan from above, he said, “Of course. Who do you think I am? Go ahead, worship me.”

“If you could obediently eat some vegetables, I’d admire you even more,” Fu Yan said as he brought a whole plate of greens right up to Jiang Xinghuai’s mouth.

Jiang Xinghuai: “……”

---

Check my Carrd for lists of my projects and for the Discord invite link.