Neither of them had guessed that Chen Luzhou would come alone. Fu Yuqing’s hand, which was holding a cigarette, trembled involuntarily. He looked behind Chen Luzhou in disbelief, but there was no sign of Xu Zhi, not even a shadow. Half a mouthful of smoke choked in his throat, causing him to cough violently twice. “Where’s Xu Zhi?”
Chen Luzhou didn’t even glance at him, heading straight to the changing room to change his clothes. He took off his jacket and lifted his shirt, revealing lean, beautiful muscle lines. This kid actually had abs – each well-defined and hard, like a layer of shallow pebbles. Although Fu Yuqing’s surname was Fu, he never had abs like that when he was young.
Fu Yuqing couldn’t take his eyes off this powerful yet sleek physique, unconsciously glancing down at his own slightly slack flesh.
Fu Yuqing: “…”
“Xu Zhi went shopping with Cai Yingying,” Chen Luzhou said coldly, changing his clothes without turning his head.
Fu Yuqing coughed again, feeling as if he could already hear the sound of his own bones cracking.
Chen Luzhou finished changing his shoes. His upper body was already bare, with broad shoulders and a wide back. His fair skin, clean and smooth shoulder and back lines, complete and clear abdominal muscles, and even a few blue veins sexily protruding on his skin, disappearing into his waistband. He was taller than Fu Yuqing and a bit more muscular. Fu Yuqing was now at an age where fat was accumulating, his skin sagging. Facing such a young man who surpassed him in both appearance and physique, yet could still focus on seriously dating a girl without becoming a playboy, Fu Yuqing felt inferior in every way, even though he was the boy’s father.
Fu Yuqing remembered something Old Xu had said about Chen Luzhou. He said that Chen Luzhou, this boy, could be childish at times, but was also lively and cheerful. He had something that his peers lacked – “moderation”. He was playful with moderation, mischievous with moderation, never showing off. “I feel very at ease with him being with Xu Zhi,” Old Xu had said. “Xu Zhi often lacks discretion, but Chen Luzhou handles things just right. This ‘moderation’ is hard to achieve. Even at our age, we might not always handle social situations so perfectly.”
But Fu Yuqing had always felt that moderation was hard for others to grasp. Even a cornered rabbit will bite. He didn’t believe this little brat didn’t have moments when he wanted to run wild.
Fu Yuqing: “… How about we talk somewhere else?”
Chen Luzhou leaned his shoulder against the locker in the changing room and sneered, “Scared? I thought when you gave me the ticket, you were already prepared to end up in the hospital. Should I call an ambulance now to be ready?”
Fu Yuqing laughed dryly a couple of times.
Chen Luzhou ignored him, having finished changing, and walked out.
**
In the boxing gym, the punching bag swayed gently, like a slow-moving clock, showing that the person hitting it wasn’t using much force, still finding their rhythm.
This was the largest boxing gym in Qingyi City, a legitimate business establishment mainly for fitness and entertainment. But if anyone wanted to spar, the owner was very welcoming. There was an underground ring on the third basement level, where the scenes were much more brutal and bloody than up here. Especially in the early years, when there were fewer rules, life and death hung in the balance, and fighters were risking their lives for money.
Fu Yuqing was the owner of this underground fighting ring during those years. When the crackdown was at its tightest, this place was almost the largest money pit in all of Qingyi City. Some rich people, bored out of their minds, loved to watch others struggle at the bottom of society from their high perches, earning blood-soaked flesh money.
At this moment, on the square ring of the boxing gym, people were sparring. A crowd surrounded the ring, with cheers, screams, and jeers echoing endlessly in the gym, a raucous atmosphere that even the roof couldn’t contain.
The two on the stage looked serious, not like friends. Their punches towards each other were fierce and unhesitating. Suddenly, one executed a powerful shoulder throw, slamming his opponent hard onto the ground. There was a dull thud, like the sound of a tree branch snapping in the dry winter.
The fallen fighter, unwilling to admit defeat, gritted his teeth and rolled up swiftly. He had already hit the soft ropes on the side, quickly adjusting his breathing. Sweat beads as dense as raindrops rolled down his forehead.
The crowd below was still jeering, waves of heat rolling.
“Get him! Get up and get him!”
“Little One! If you’re a man, get up and fight him!”
The man in the ring attacked again, dodged, and executed another shoulder throw. In an instant, the two were tangled on the ground, locking each other’s hands and feet like two venomous snakes. Their eyes were blazing with ferocity, mobilizing all their strength to try to pin the other to the ground. Their sweat mixed together. This purest way for men to release testosterone indeed made the spectators’ eyelids twitch, calling it exciting. The fighters were exhilarated and satisfied.
At first, they might have intended to spar lightly, but as more people gathered to watch, both men’s competitive spirits seemed to be fully ignited. It completely turned into a fist-fighting, flesh-pounding real fight, disregarding even the basic boxing rules, groping messily below the belt. The coach, seeing the situation was getting out of hand, quickly rushed up to intervene, separating the two who were fighting in a confused mass of limbs. “Alright, alright, stop before the police show up. You two kids have no sense of moderation. It’s over, it’s over, the rest of you can stop watching too.”
The crowd dispersed, disappointed that the fight ended without a clear winner.
However, the punching bag next to Fu Yuqing began to swing with increasing amplitude as the clamor in the gym gradually subsided. The punches became more skilled, striking up and down with technique, dodging with skill. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time the person had been to a boxing gym.
The two kids who were just fighting were about the same age as Chen Luzhou. Fu Yuqing recalled that at their age, he was just like those two kids – hot-blooded and impulsive. At that age of bare-knuckle fighting, with just a bit of muscle and an empty head, they had just glimpsed a corner of the vast world and became arrogant, thinking they were the conquerors of this world, trying to change this fucking world. Often, they ended up becoming the very people they once looked down upon, becoming the most inconspicuous grain of sand in the vast sea.
But he didn’t see in Chen Luzhou any of those foolish and ignorant thoughts he once had, nor the impulse that boys in their early twenties have to try everything. That’s why he could settle down to date Xu Zhi, and even plan to get married.
Fu Yuqing never thought that at fifty years old, he would still need to be taught how to be a person by his son.
The punching bag was steadied. Chen Luzhou, bare-chested, his lean muscles rarely seen so taut, with clearer and brighter lines, shoulders lean yet sturdy, a clean pale skin that seemed to shed sweat quickly. He adjusted his breathing, panting with a low, deep breath. He lowered his head, coldly adjusting his boxing gloves, not even looking at Fu Yuqing. His voice was mostly devoid of any emotion, hard and flat: “If you have nothing to say, I’m leaving. I need to go pick up Xu Zhi.”
Hearing this, Fu Yuqing finally came back to his senses, his mind wandering from the two kids on the ring to himself. He realized that when people get old, they indeed tend to reminisce about the past.
Fu Yuqing’s deadpan face finally showed some movement, his cheeks twitching slightly, as if his nerves had just been reconnected and he had regained consciousness in the midst of confusion. He had many things he wanted to say, but didn’t know where to start. That feeling of helplessness was as if the past fifty-some years of life had been blank, his head completely devoid of any usable emotions or dialogues that could help him open up this situation.
When he was young, his temper wasn’t very good either. As he reached middle age, his temper began to categorize: if he wanted to be kind to someone, he would be kind; if he wanted to be harsh, he would be harsh. At first, he was harsh and sarcastic towards Chen Luzhou. Later, when he discovered this kid had some talent, his attitude changed from harsh and sarcastic to somewhat appreciative. But eventually, he realized that Chen Luzhou actually didn’t like him, and he wasn’t the type to fawn over someone who gave him the cold shoulder, so he reverted to treating him harshly.
Now, he had no idea how to categorize him. Son? How should a son be treated? How should he treat him to make up for the neglect of the past twenty years?
Anxiety almost overwhelmed him. He cursed countless times in his heart at the Fu Yuqing of the past.
Finally, he took two deep breaths, stood up from the coach’s chair nearby, paced aimlessly for a couple of steps. At last, with one hand on his waist, he pushed away the punching bag and faced those indifferent, cold eyes. His cheeks tightened, twitching, with nowhere to retreat. He gritted his teeth and thrust one side of his face forward, “Come on, hit this!”
“Do you have any strength?” Chen Luzhou watched coldly, as if observing a middle-aged man losing control of his emotions. “Some things can’t be resolved by giving you a few punches. The best way for us to get along is for you not to appear in front of me, and I’ll try not to appear in front of you.”
Fu Yuqing’s eyes were bloodshot. He lowered his voice, but it was still hoarse and desperate: “I looked for you!”
“So what!” Chen Luzhou suddenly roared. He tried to suppress the fire, but couldn’t. It burned away all his rationality in one go. He was breathing heavily, his gaze frighteningly cold, the veins on his forehead protruding. “Should I thank you? Huh?”
Eyes in the boxing gym subtly turned towards them.
Fu Yuqing was stunned, his limbs completely frozen. In his panic, he couldn’t find the words to respond, “It’s not…”
“Fu Yuqing, because of you, my mother was full of prejudice against me. If I so much as said a word to a girl, she thought I was full of ulterior motives.”
“Fu Yuqing, also because of you, I was scrutinized at the orphanage. You’ve probably never heard how people talked about me behind my back.”
Some parents who aren’t good at educating their children like to intimidate them from an early age. It’s the same logic as saying, “If you don’t behave, I’ll have the police uncle take you away” –
“Darling, if you don’t behave, Mom and Dad will send you to the orphanage, just like that older brother” –
“Why is that older brother in the orphanage? He’s so good-looking, why don’t his parents want him?” –
“Silly child, the kids in the orphanage are either physically disabled or sick. That older brother must have some bad problem too.”
Such prejudices were deeply etched into his bones. No matter where he went, he would hear such words. The criticism and prejudice against him only increased over those years.
Chen Luzhou closed his eyes briefly, his eyelashes trembling slightly. There seemed to be a glimmer in the corner of his eye, but it quickly disappeared. In those lowered thin eyelids, only a trace of remaining gentleness was left. He lowered his head and took off his boxing gloves, throwing them on the nearby coach’s chair. He turned his head to look elsewhere, his Adam’s apple moving dryly, and remained silent for a moment.
He said, “But, I forgive you.”
Fu Yuqing’s back shuddered, unable to move. His feet seemed nailed to the ground, standing stiffly. His mouth opened and closed, unable to speak, as if it was blocked by a handful of sand that kept pouring down his throat.
Chen Luzhou looked down at him, his eyes devoid of any excess emotion. “At the hospital, Uncle Xu told me that you’ve been good to Xu Zhi. Whenever she was bullied, you were always the first to rush to her defense. During their family’s most difficult years, you were the one who dealt with those debt collectors who came to their door.” He looked away, “Xu Zhi likes you a lot. I don’t want her to be caught in the middle between us. For her sake, I can forgive you but don’t think about trying to repair our relationship. The only connection between us is Xu Zhi. You’re just Xu Zhi’s uncle, nothing to do with me.”
**
The atmosphere at Xu Guangji’s place was lively, even more festive than New Year’s. They had prepared a table full of dishes, yet there still wasn’t enough room for everyone. Old Xu and Wei Lin each occupied two chairs, one for sitting and another for resting their legs. The group chatted and laughed, and time passed quickly.
“Why didn’t Brother Chen Luzhou come?” Wei Lin asked Xu Zhi while peeling shrimp.
Xu Zhi and Old Xu had both developed a taste for alcohol. They clinked glasses with smiles and took a sip. Xu Zhi turned her head and gave Wei Lin a dissatisfied glance, “Why are you always so concerned about my boyfriend?”
“Maybe your boyfriend is more charming than you,” Wei Lin said with a grin.
Director Wei brought out a few more dishes from the kitchen and gave Wei Lin a sideways glance, saying to Xu Zhi, “Don’t mind him.”
Cai Yingying, sitting nearby, also curiously asked, “Yeah, why didn’t Chen Luzhou come?”
Xu Zhi sighed and said, “He went to see Uncle Fu.”
“I never would have guessed,” Cai Yingying also sighed languidly, her eyebrows still raised in surprise, clearly not having recovered from the shock of this revelation.
“I couldn’t have guessed either. Otherwise, Chen Luzhou and I might have been childhood sweethearts,” Xu Zhi mused.
“Oh, please. If you two were childhood sweethearts, what would I be? The horse you rode on?” Cai Yingying quickly retorted, clearly not involved in the matter.
The table erupted in laughter.
Cai Yingying then added, “But I really couldn’t have imagined Uncle Fu was such a player when he was young.” She took a bite of crab leg and gossipy asked Old Cai and Old Xu, “Hey, Dads, did Uncle Fu have any girlfriends after that?”
Xu Guangji and Cai Binhong were clinking glasses when she asked this. They exchanged a glance.
“Kids shouldn’t meddle in adult affairs,” Cai Binhong shut her down.
Cai Yingying protested, “I’m almost twenty!”
Cai Binhong gave her a bland look, “Yes, you’re almost twenty, and you’re still in high school.”
Cai Yingying: “…”
Wei Lin: “Sister Yingying is twenty?”
Cai Yingying glared at him, “Can you stop calling everyone ‘sister’ and ‘brother’? I’m only a year older than you.”
Wei Lin looked at her innocently, “If I’m not supposed to call someone a year older ‘sister’, what should I call you? Little sister? That sounds awful. People might think I have some intentions towards you.”
Director Wei appeared behind Wei Lin as if by magic, carrying another dish. He gave Wei Lin a hard smack on the forehead, “Just eat your food. Why so talkative? You’ve managed to offend both sisters in just a few sentences.”
Xu Guangji and Director Cai laughed along, “It’s fine, they’re just kids. A bit of banter helps build relationships.”
The kids didn’t stop at all.
“Hey, Cai Yingying! Don’t eat all the crab, leave some for Chen Luzhou,” Xu Zhi suddenly said.
“Damn, Xu Zhi, now that you have a boyfriend, you don’t care about me anymore?” Cai Yingying retorted.
Xu Zhi pulled off a crab leg and gave it to her, “Here, have another one.”
“Just one leg?”
Wei Lin: “Be satisfied, Sister Yingying. She only gave me a crab shell earlier.”
“…”
Old Xu urged, “Director Wei, come out and eat first, don’t bother anymore.”
Director Wei turned back to the kitchen, responding, “Coming, coming, just one more dish. When is Chen Luzhou coming back? Xu Zhi said he likes crab roe tofu, should I keep it warm in the pot for him?”
Xu Guangji looked at Xu Zhi, “Come on, it’s not Chen Luzhou who likes it, it’s Xu Zhi herself who wants to eat it.”
Director Wei poked his head out curiously, “Oh? Then what does Chen Luzhou like to eat? Let’s buy some of his favorites tomorrow. They’re going back soon, and they probably won’t get to eat much good food at school.”
Old Xu: “Right, tell us what Chen Luzhou likes to eat. Don’t just talk about what you want to eat. Chen Luzhou is the type who won’t say it himself.”
Xu Zhi thought for a while, “I don’t know. He’s not picky about food, but he’s quite particular about the things he uses.”
He only wears clothes and pants of that brand, rarely seen with logos of other brands on his clothes. Even his underwear is only that expensive brand.
And condoms, he only buys that one brand.
…
At that moment, Chen Luzhou was standing outside the door.
The main door wasn’t closed, leaving a small gap that let out a faint light. In the pale moonlight, that light looked warm, as if it could ward off all the thorns in the night.
He reached out his hand, gently grasping at the light and shadow.
It’s light, isn’t it?
Xu Zhi is light, Old Xu is light, Director Wei is light, Cai Yingying is light, Director Cai is light, and even Wei Lin is light.
Such a family is so attractive, warm, and lovable.
Chen Luzhou was about to push open the door, that door full of spring sunshine, when he heard the conversation inside continuing.
Wei Lin: “Uncle Xu, don’t they say that fathers-in-law are usually very picky about their sons-in-law? I see you treat Brother Luzhou even better than you treat Sister Xu Zhi.”
Xu Guangji had drunk a bit too much and was more talkative than usual. He said with a smile, revealing everything, “Not really. The first time I met him, I didn’t like him. I thought this kid was too intense, coming to my clinic, and talking too much. Later—”
Huh?
Xu Zhi kicked him under the table.
The words came to an abrupt halt—
Director Wei hadn’t caught on yet, “Mm, all the kids who come to my clinic are like that…” He paused, “Com… com… coming to your clinic?”
Cai Yingying was dumbfounded: “…Com, com, coming to your clinic? Chen Luzhou, coming to your clinic?”
Only Wei Lin had a thoughtful expression.
So even a tall, handsome guy like that has such troubles? He had been wanting to go for a check-up himself.
Chen Luzhou: “…………………………”
He had already stepped halfway in, his foot in the door gap, trying bit by bit, without drawing attention, slowly, to move back out.
Help.
Damn, this is deadly.