Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 17: Annihilate All Enemies Instead of Letting Them Go1

Lu Qi’s house was situated in a small town.
He switched trains, moved onto different roads, and after a million turns, he could finally see the familiar scenery from his memories.
The roads were filled with human activity, with many motorcycles and bicycles, and the occasional car that would cause a traffic jam.

Lu Qi packed quite lightly, and was only tugging along one piece of luggage.
His aura was very different from his environment, but he did grow up here.
A place that he considered a weight that held him back, that he desperately attempted to break away from.
But it’s impossible to break away from a place that is tied to you by blood.

The design of the building wasn’t great, and the stairways were dim and narrow.
The walls were filled with advertisement posters, and the steps themselves were very narrow to step on.
There were also corners that had excrement, likely from an animal like a cat or dog.

Lu Qi’s 3 steps were like a normal 2 steps.
He tugged his luggage quickly up the stairs and just bumped into Lu Yuan who was heading out,

“Ah, why are you back so quickly? Didn’t we agree that I’ll pick you up at the intersection?”

Lu Qi avoided Lu Yuan’s attempts to grab his suitcase and pushed her shoulder aside as he went in,

“It’s not like I don’t remember the way back.”

The interior design of the Lu family home was very different from the grey dusty hallway outside.
The inside had wood flooring, the wallpaper held a faint elegance, the windows clear and clean, and no matter what season, the fake flowers always bloomed in their vases.
There was even a Pearl River piano which took up most of the living room.

The two siblings almost scared the busy person inside the kitchen when they entered the house.
The chopping sounds stopped, and a beautiful elderly woman poked her head out of the kitchen to take a look.
Her full black hair was tied into a ponytail with a rubber band, and the shape of her eyebrows gave her a gentle warm aura, as if she was as feminine as a pearl, making it hard to guess her age.

“Oh, Ah-Qi has returned!”

Mama Lu smiled,

“Come in quickly.
Help me cook, I’m dying from all the work.”

Internally, Lu Qi really wanted to refuse, but he still took off his cotton padded jacket and placed it on the back of a chair.
His body was lean and was not inferior to a celebrity’s physique.

“I can’t cook.
It’s not like you don’t know that.”

Mama Lu chopped with force, face melancholic, voice chatting nonstop.

 

“You go thousands of miles away to the capital, and learn nothing after attending university.”

“I’m going to C University, not to the New Oriental education school2.”

When he said that, both women in the house laughed.
Lu Yuan pushed him out of the kitchen, saying with disdain,

“Ok ok, you’ve come back a long way.
Go have a good nap.
I knew we couldn’t count on you.
It’s always up to me when it’s a critical moment.”

The Lu family home wasn’t considered big.
Two rooms, one living room, one bathroom and one kitchen.
When they were small, Lu Qi and Lu Yuan would sleep on a bunk bed in the same room.
When they grew older, they separated with Lu Yuan sleeping with Mama Lu, and Lu Qi had his own room.

No matter how long it has been since he had returned home, his room was never covered in dust.
You could see the care and dedication used to sweep his room everyday.
In the middle of the room, there was a bed.
Opposite of that was a desk with a simple bookshelf, full of study materials and books from elementary to high school, plus one thick notebook.

Lu Qi was very smart, and was more clever than the average human.
However he was like most students and thought studying was absolutely boring.
The reason why he worked so hard into C University was born from his desire to escape destiny.

He did not want to be like the other people in this neighborhood, going to an average university, finding an average job, then marrying, having kids, taking on debt to buy a house and continuing to settle, letting the future generations repeat the same old routine.

Because many years later, when you look back at your life, you would find that every story seemed to have the same ending.

Lu Qi did not want this life.

His choices weren’t right or wrong.
In his past life, he used his own methods to escape out of here, and jumped into a different path, but everything comes back full circle, as he’s returned back here.

Now for this time, what kind of choices shall he make, and what kind of methods will he use to escape out of here again?

It was already winter, and there was a small hail storm yesterday night.
The cold frigid air was potent, and the windows were layered in white.
Lu Qi extended his finger out and touched the frosty glass, drawing a line to make a graph.

A line graph that has its declines, but is heading up.

“Lu Qi Qi! Your phone is ringing!”

Lu Yuan’s mischievous voice broke Lu Qi out of his thoughts.
Hearing that, he subconsciously patted his pockets, and then remembered that his cell phone was in his jacket.
His face became stern as he walked towards the chair,

“Call me brother.”

Lu Yuan was washing vegetables in the kitchen, and she was singing and dancing as she said,

“I’m going to call you by your nickname, Lu Qi Qi, Lu Qi Qi~”

She got more excited as she said that.

Lu Qi took a look at the caller id, and found it was Huo Ming Chen.
He walked into his room and closed the door, effectively cutting off Lu Yuan, that annoying brat’s noise.

Lu Qi answered his phone,

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

Huo Ming Chen seemed to have calculated the timing perfectly,

“You should have gotten off the train right? Are you home yet?”

Lu Qi laid on his bed, with one hand on the back of his head.
His eyes stared at the poster of a not well known celebrity that was pasted on the ceiling.
That poster was taped up by a young Lu Yuan.

“Just arrived.”

He did not even return the greeting, which made Huo Ming Chen a bit unsatisfied,

“You’re not going to even ask how I’m doing?”

Lu Qi closed his eyes, and just tilted his head to listen closely.
He heard sounds of wine glasses clinking together, and people talking.
There seemed to be a waiter that just brought a dish to the table, sweetly describing the restaurant’s signature dish.

“Mhmm……”

He paused before saying,

“Quyuan Garden, Peony Room, with your family for dinner.”

“Fuck!”

Huo Ming Chen was startled.
He even suspected that Lu Qi did not even go back, and has been stalking him the entire time,

“How did you know I was at Quyuan Garden?!”

He even clearly knew which private room he was in.

Lu Qi scratched his nose and found that he went a bit over the line when showing off, and hurried to find an excuse,

“I heard the waiter just introduced the signature dish, “One Nest Silk” which is Quyuan Garden’s most famous dish and it’s Chinese New Year’s.
If you aren’t eating with your family, who could you be with?”

“Wow, you are quite smart.”

However Huo Ming Chen was not that easy to fool,

“Then how do you know I was in the Peony room?”

Lu Qi kept a straight face, and lied as if he was just eating a meal,

“I’ve seen the room card in your wallet before.”

“Huh.”

Huo Ming Chen furrowed his eyebrows, but his heart felt a sense of satisfaction at how Lu Qi remembered every little detail about him.
He took a video of the table with the dishes,

“Their food is not bad.
I’ll bring you here next time to try.”

Lu Qi casually watched the video, and he paused it when he saw the camera catch someone by the table.
He zoomed in and found that it was Huo Yuan Guang.
Right next to him was his assistant secretary in his past life.

So that old thing has entered into the company now.

Lu Qi was deep in thought, feeling that he, as the little butterfly flapping its wings, being reborn seemed to have changed quite a few things.

 

Notes:
*1 extremely vague interpretation of 宜将剩勇追穷寇，不可沽名学霸王.This specific line is from a poem which can be interpreted as to use all your courage/bravery and remaining power to chase and annihilate all escaping or fleeting enemies and to not be like Xiang Yu the Conqueror who for a moment of fame let his enemies go, and because of that, had met his demise.

*2 New Oriental Education School: a cram/study school that focuses on teaching how to pass exams/subjects/getting into other schools outside the country.
It is for all ages from youth to adults in the workforce.

Once again, we will see you on Monday with Chapter 18! Thank you for reading, commenting and liking  Almost half way there to the end of volume 1(…and almost ’til the time we say goodbye to Lu Qi and Huo Ming Chen ✧。ヾ(｡>﹏<｡)ﾉﾞ✧。), but the climax and more plot heavy scenes are coming up! Excitement is abound! Have a safe weekend