Divorced - Chapter 21

()x13-16 minutes 30.05.2022

“You’ve finished your questions, and I’ve answered them too. Is there anything else you want to talk about?” Lu Yang’s tone of voice this time was rather serious.

Chen Yuchuan was still playing with his fingers, and after a while, he answered, “No.”

“No?” Lu Yang asked again.

Chen Yuchuan rubbed his face, discovering that his heartbeat, which had just stabilized, wasn’t very relaxed. It appeared to be stable at first, but in fact, it was still suspended.

But he still murmured “no” again, his voice quite small.

It rained for two days, and so they stayed on the mountain for two days. That was the only conversation they had other than work. Even if they talked about other things, they only talked about Chubby.

Lu Yang had already called Xiao Lei early on and asked him to grab the spare key and take Chubby in for two days. Therefore, Chen Yuchuan would sometimes have video calls with Xiao Lei so that he could watch Chubby.

The investigation report on the collapse came out, and as they had previously speculated, the collapse of the auditorium was due to the use of poor material.

Lu Yang’s investigation also revealed that the two people who ran away had several contacts with the Lu family’s nemesis, the Zhengsheng Group.

During the fight in the alley on the day that Chen Yuchuan and Lu Yang first met, the gangster who had shouted to break his leg was Sun Hui, the son of the Zhengsheng Group’s owner.

At that time, the two companies were competing for a piece of land. Sun Hui was a brainless second-generation and was always pulling some despicable moves. After he had provoked Lu Yang enough, Lu Yang put together enough evidence to send him to jail for five years.

However, this time, the two people who had run away refused to rat him out, only saying that they did it of their own accord because they wanted money. Therefore, there was no evidence that they had been bribed and by whom.

“Fuck, that stupid Sun Hui, sooner or later, we’ll get him,” Chen Yuchuan cursed angrily.

When Lu Yang glanced over, Chen Yuchuan rubbed the top of his head and no longer cussed. He said, “If I don’t take the initiative to settle this matter, then are we just going to suffer this loss?”

“I’ll deal with it later,” was the only thing Lu Yang said.

By the time Man Yunxin and Lu Xianfeng came back from their island vacation, Lu Yang and Chen Yuchuan had already taken care of the incident at the resort. Although they had recuperated a small part of their losses, the rest could not be recovered.

Li Yang released the inspection reports of all the resort projects and said that, aside from the collapsed project, there were no problems with the other buildings. Although the news wasn’t widely spread, it still resulted in a lot of damage to their reputation. This could only be repaired a little bit at a time.

He issued an announcement that once the resort opens, reservations for the first month are free, and then they will be half-price for a whole year after that.

On Friday night, Lu Yang and Chen Yuchuan took Chubby and went to their parent’s house for dinner. Lu Xianfeng took this opportunity to call the two of them to his study for a chat, and finally said, “Recently, I feel that you both don’t seem right. Did something happen?”

Just as Chen Yuchuan was about to speak, Lu Yang opened his mouth and said, “Dad, it’s nothing. It’s my negligence. Next time, we won’t have this kind of problem again. I’ll keep a better eye on it.”

“That’s good then. Let’s go out and eat.”

The atmosphere at the dining table was much more relaxed. Man Yunxin regaled them with many interesting things from her vacation. She had even bought them a pair of expensive couple watches.

When Chen Yuchuan saw Lu Yang put his watch directly on his wrist, he also put his own on. The metal wrist chain was cold against his skin.

After the meal, Man Yunxin received a call from Hua Song, who had heard that they had returned from vacation and said that he would come to see her.

Once he got there, Hua Song began discussing music with Man Yunxin. He talked about his concert next month and asked Man Yunxin and Lu Xianfeng, “Teacher, Uncle Lu, do you have time next month?”

Man Yunxin said yes, but Lu Xianfeng refused on the grounds that he was going on a business trip.

Hua Song looked at Chen Yuchuan and Lu Yang and asked, “Brother Chuan, Brother Yang, do you have time?”

Chen Yuchuan recalled going to a concert by himself not so long ago, and so he refused directly, “There are too many things at the company recently, and so next month I will be busy.”

Lu Yang didn’t say anything, acquiescing to Chen Yuchuan’s statement.

Hua Song just smiled and nodded in agreement, not saying anything else.

After they all had some after-dinner wine, Lu Xianfeng took Chubby to play in his study. Chen Yuchuan took advantage of Lu Yang going upstairs and slipped through the back door, wanting to smoke a cigarette to slow down his drinking.

He felt a little despondent. It wasn’t because of the two elders; he was happy to have dinner with them.

What made him dazed was that Lu Yang had looked at him at the dinner table and treated him with some of the same intimate, habitual actions as before.

As he was mulling it over and smoking a cigarette halfway through, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. Thinking that it was Lu Yang, he hurriedly tried to put out the cigarette, only to discover that it was Hua Song.

Immediately, his action of wanting to put out the cigarette was replaced by continuing to smoke.

“Brother Chuan, why are you smoking here by yourself?” Hua Song asked. “Are you in a bad mood?”

Chen Yuchuan didn’t want to talk to other people. He held the cigarette between his fingers and said, “I’m tired of drinking so I came out for some air. Since Lu Yang wouldn’t let me smoke, I’m secretly smoking.”

Hua Song said “Oh” in an extended tone and then added, “I thought it was because, even though you were both divorced, you still needed to pretend to be affectionate in front of your elders, which puts you in a bad mood.”

Chen Yuchuan inhaled, and then exhaled. “How did you know?”

“I accidentally heard it from a friend,” Hua Song replied.

Chen Yuchuan didn’t ask which friend it was. Hua Song continued, “Brother Chuan, in addition to the concert next month, I have a small private concert next week. Do you have time to attend?”

Chen Yuchuan’s drowsy state was immediately blown away by the wind in the yard, and his mind quickly cleared. Previously, when Hua Song had asked him to a private concert, he had wondered why, since they didn’t have that much interaction with one another.

But now, as Hua Song was looking at him with naked eyes, he couldn’t help but feel disgust. Even though Hua Song already knew that he and Lu Yang were divorced, he was still once married to Lu Yang, after all, and Hua Song was Man Yunxin’s student.

Chen Yuchuan took another puff of the cigarette and walked half a step towards Hua Song. He spit out the cigarette smoke at him, leaned a little bit closer to his ears, and said in a cold voice, “Little brother, don’t hit on me. Even though we’re separated, Lu Yang will still beat you up…”

Hua Song opened his mouth to speak, but Chen Yuchuan had no intentions of staying any longer. He threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it with the sole of his shoe, and then turned to head back.

Man Yunxin was still playing the piano in the living room. Chen Yuchuan went over and hugged her shoulders and said, “Mom, it’s getting late, you go upstairs to rest early.”

“Both of you drank a lot tonight. I’ve already asked someone to cook sobering soup, and I’ll have them serve it to you later.”

“Okay, I’ll go take a look at Brother Yang first.” Chen Yuchuan’s tensed heart loosened and he turned around. He trotted up to the second floor, turned right, and caught sight of Hua Song downstairs talking to Man Yunxin, probably saying goodbye.

Chen Yuchuan didn’t think about Hua Song anymore. If it was in the past, the incident in the back garden would be a particularly insignificant episode for him.

But he felt uneasy now. He knew this uneasiness stemmed from the fact that he no longer felt a sense of belonging.

In all the years he’d been married to Lu Yang, there weren’t many people who had jumped out and wanted to intervene halfway. When he told Hua Song that Lu Yang would beat him, he was just bluffing. He had no clue what Lu Yang would do.

In the past, as soon as someone confessed to Chen Yuchuan, he would run to Lu Yang to show off. He would say, “Lu Yang, do you see? Don’t let my age blind you. There are still a lot of young people who want to chase after me. You have to keep an eye on me, maintain a little sense of crisis, and always be nice to me.”

And every time this happened, Lu Yang would toss him on the bed so vigorously that his back would be sore for several days.

Such episodes were like glue, bringing their relationship a little bit closer.

Of course, there were a lot of people who had confessed to Lu Yang. There was a long queue of people who wanted him. After all, Lu Yang was tall, handsome, and rich, so many people naturally wanted to pounce on him.

But Chen Yuchuan never paid attention to it. He didn’t think it was necessary. If Lu Yang really wanted to do something, Chen Yuchuan wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Therefore, he opted to just trust Lu Yang.

As he was thinking about it, he entered the room he shared with Lu Yang, only to find that the room was still dark. The light was still off and the curtains were drawn so tightly that not even the moonlight could find a way inside.

He pressed on the light switch but the light did not come on. He called out, “Brother Yang? Are you here?”

He waited for a few seconds, but didn’t hear an answer. Touching the wall to guide himself, he entered the room to check whether Lu Yang was in bed.

But as he walked past the bathroom door, he heard the rustle of clothes coming from inside.

He acted on habit, eagerly trying to find a sense of belonging. When he smelled Lu Yang’s familiar scent in the bathroom, he was suddenly flooded with relief.

“Brother Yang, are you taking a shower?” Chen Yuchuan asked.

Lu Yang let out a small “mmn” but didn’t speak, though his breathing was heavy due to excessive drinking.

“The electricity’s out.” Chen Yuchuan stood at the door. “I’ll go downstairs and check if the circuit breaker has tripped, since there’s still electricity downstairs.”

Just as he was about to leave, something pulled on his arm, causing him to stagger two steps into a warm chest.

His back was pressed against Lu Yang’s chest, and he could feel the bathrobe that hung loose and half-opened on Lu Yang’s body.

Lu Yang’s body wasn’t completely wiped clean of water and Chen Yuchuan’s shirt soon became wet. Even the water dripping from Lu Yang’s hair fell onto his face, wetting it.

Unsteadily, Chen Yuchuan asked in a low voice, “Why did you pull me?”

“Where are you going?” Lu Yang was still holding onto Chen Yuchuan. Pushing him against the sink, Lu Yang wrapped him from behind, with one hand on his waist and the other on the counter, encircling him.

Chen Yuchuan could feel how domineering Lu Yang’s body was, not leaving any gap for him to escape at all.

The smell of alcohol on Lu Yang’s body mixed with the scent of shower gel rushed to Chen Yuchuan’s nose, rendering his legs a little weak.

“Brother Yang…” He spoke in a soft voice, and when he tried to turn around, Lu Yang tightened his hold on him, preventing him from moving.

Lu Yang brushed his lips against Chen Yuchuan’s ear and said in a low voice, “Chen Yuchuan, so capable. After just a few days, he’s already starting to flirt with others…”

“Lu Yang, what the hell are you saying?” Chen Yuchuan cried, turning his head. “Fucking let me go.”

He knew that he wouldn’t fall when Lu Yang held him like this, yet he still raised his hands to grip the counter, temper flaring.

“Who? Who did you talk to? Just a moment ago, you were with Hua Song in the back garden. You forgot so soon?” Lu Yang tightened his grip on Chen Yuchuan’s arm. “Didn’t you blow a smoke at him?”

Chen Yuchuan groaned in pain. Knowing Lu Yang’s strength, his arm would definitely be bruised tomorrow.

He tried to move his arm, but the more he moved, the harder Lu Yang held him.

He had forgotten that the back garden faced their bedroom, and so his every move could be seen clearly from upstairs.

Chen Yuchuan’s chest heaved violently and his voice became unstable. With a short laugh, he said, “What’s wrong? Did you see me getting close to others and now you’re jealous?”

Lu Yang covered his mouth with his hand, as if holding his entire body within his grasp. But when Lu Yang spoke again, his voice sounded ragged and broken.

“Chen Yuchuan, in the past six months, you couldn’t get hard when you see me naked. Is it possible that you can get hard now with someone new and fresh?”

—————–

Xida: Just gotta say, when Lu Yang and Chen Yuchuan made prior agreements to work out their differences with violence, that’s one thing, because that’s consent and that works for them. To each their own. But in this instance, Chen Yuchuan doesn’t seem too keen on Lu Yang hurting him. I get that he’s drunk and feeling hurt, but it’s still not acceptable.