Free Web NovelChapter 921: Chapter 344: [Heartbroken Fairy Tale] The Sea Is the Inverted Sky (Part 4)
He stood with his back to the light, his deep-set features hidden in the shadows, revealing not a trace of emotion.
His voice was even lower.
Lun Jun asked in confusion, "What do you want?"
Lu Huai’an slowly rubbed the car keys with his thumb, his dark eyes slightly narrowed, "Buy a cake and send it to the Riverfront Apartment."
A cake...
Mr. Lu never eats sweets.
As Lu Huai’an’s senior assistant, Lun Jun never pried into his boss’s personal affairs. The reason he has stayed under Lu Huai’an for so many years, besides his exceptional work ability, is his tact and discretion.
Yet, after respectfully acknowledging the task, Lun Jun couldn’t help but suggest, "Mr. Lu, would you like to add some ice cream? It’s hot, and kids love it."
After arriving at the Riverfront Apartment, Qi Ming did not speak a single word to Lu Huai’an.
Even the way he looked at Lu Huai’an was filled with unfamiliarity and defensiveness, despite knowing this was his biological father.
Lu Huai’an paused, turned to look at his subordinate, and asked casually, "All kids like it?"
"I haven’t met a kid who doesn’t like it."
It’s been less than three months since Lu Huai’an found out he had a four-year-old son.
The time they spent together was even more scarce.
He knew nothing about Qi Ming’s preferences, not even the simplest food likes and dislikes.
Lu Huai’an’s childhood was filled with treachery and darkness, lacking the innocence and joy that normal children should have, with the only light being Lin Chu tirelessly following him.
But, he lost Lin Chu. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
The fingers holding the car keys unconsciously tightened, the darkness in his black eyes deepened, and his low voice remained unchanged, "Then buy one of every flavor."
Lun Jun nodded respectfully, "Alright."
————
By the time Lu Huai’an reached the Lin Family Villa, it was already dark.
With the lights on, the dim light illuminated the yard, and Qi Ming, who was playing alone, was the first to notice Lu Huai’an walking in. His previously enthusiastic eyes quickly dimmed.
He didn’t speak, just stood under the sycamore tree looking at the ’stranger.’
A big figure and a small one, gazing at each other from five or six steps away.
Lu Huai’an paused for a moment, briefly, before putting out the cigarette in his hand and striding forward.
"Want to climb up there?"
Initially, Qi Ming made no response.
After a while, he looked up at the tree branch far above his height, intertwined his fingers, and nodded as if it was a decision made after much struggle.
When Lu Huai’an bent down to pick up the little boy, a surge of complicated emotions he couldn’t fathom welled up in his chest.
This was his own flesh and blood, already four years old, and this was the first time he’d held him.
Lu Huai’an set Qi Ming on the tree branch to sit, called in the bodyguards stationed at the entrance, and then told Qi Ming, "This is high enough. Climbing further isn’t safe."
It was as if Qi Ming didn’t hear him, swinging his legs and looking up at the night sky.
Because his mother had told him watching the stars that way made them prettier.
Lu Huai’an seemed unperturbed, instructed two bodyguards to watch over Qi Ming closely on the branch, and then stepped into the villa.
All the lights were on, as if checked by those who had been inside before.
When Lu Huai’an reached the last step, he faintly heard a woman’s crying. It was low, but the villa was silent enough.
The quiet black eyes slightly changed, and he strode into the room from where the crying sound came.
He pushed open the ajar door, and this was what he saw:
A slender woman huddled on the floor, shoulders shaking, her quiet sobbing muffled by her biting her wrist, as if enduring some intense pain.
A second later, Lu Huai’an heard the sound of his heart cracking.
Low blood oozed out, leaving only pain in his internal organs.
Fixing her with his eyes, deep within them twisted a complex and dark silence.
A raspy voice caught in his throat, "Xiao Chu..."
Falling into an embrace scented with tobacco, Lin Chu barely reacted, just clung tightly to the man’s shirt.
"Lu Huai’an...I hate you...I don’t want your love, nor will I force you to marry me; just give my family back to me...will you?"
The choked voice was blurred.
Her eyes full of tears, seemingly pent up since that night five years ago, as if hiding an endless river.
Lu Huai’an’s gaze fell on the bite marks on her blood-drawn wrist, and then shifted to her tear-drenched face.
The heart twisted painfully, but his sharply contoured features remained unflappable, the deep darkness in his black eyes entirely concealed beneath a façade of calm.
His roughened thumb brushed the strands of hair stuck to her cheek, lifting her small face.
"I can’t return your family; I’ll give you my life instead."
The low raspy voice vanished between their joined lips.
His kiss wasn’t gentle, filled with devouring flames, and even the arm encircling her waist bore an unyielding force, as if wanting to bind her into his very being.
In the one month since Lin Chu returned to An City, this was the most intimate kiss they shared.
The more Lin Chu struggled, the fiercer the man’s kiss grew, and the taste of blood spread across their tongues.
Both hers and his.
Lin Chu’s slender form was held tightly in the man’s embrace, her hands gripping his shirt, fists clenched so firmly that her knuckles turned white.
She pulled off a button with such force that when it fell to the floor, it rang crisply.
How loud can a button sound when it falls to the floor?
Yet it startled the half-demonized Lu Huai’an; that relentless devouring halted, and his gently closed eyes slowly opened.
Then, he heard Lin Chu, as she escaped from the sudden kiss, say to him, "If you can’t return it, then go die. I can’t forgive you alive."
Lu Huai’an unexpectedly let out a low laugh, with bloodstains from a bite at the corner of his lips.
He tightened his arms, trapping her completely against him, then rested his forehead against hers.
His raspy voice was devoid of any inflection, "When I hated you, I thought the same way."
Lin Chucheng’s indifferent and dazed gaze settled on the button on the floor. Once, there was an ordinary button, so normal that she wore it for more than ten years around her neck.
The day she lost it was the day her heart died.
She smiled, "I’ve wanted to die long ago, didn’t you know?"
Living is hard, and if she hadn’t known she was pregnant, she probably would have followed her father and jumped off the tall building.
Lu Huai’an didn’t answer Lin Chu’s mocking question, his articulate fingers gripping her chin, refusing to let her look away.
He asked, enunciating each word, "That day, was it you?"
"What do you mean by was it me?"
"The one who started all of this."
Lin Chucheng looked at the man in front of her, her smile becoming more pronounced, and as she smiled, she started to cry.
"It was me, how was it not me? I’m a compulsive liar, even my heart is black, so it’s deserved for my family to be destroyed and my home lost."
Tears dripped down, striking her wrist and seeping into the wounds she’d inflicted with her own teeth.
"Living is full of guilt, dying is even more so, nothing is ever right."
It was her, all because of her.
If she hadn’t been so obstinate back then, none of the subsequent events would have happened.
Her father wouldn’t have died.
This scar had always been there, even if it gradually healed over time, the skin concealed beneath the scar had long since ulcerated.
"But Lu Huai’an, since you voluntarily came to me, you have to return my father’s life to me, otherwise I will never let you live in peace."
Have you ever loved someone to the point of self-losing?
Have you ever hated someone so much you wished for their death?
Lu Huai’an gave a low laugh, "Alright, then there won’t be peace."
Torment is painful, but better than living like the walking dead.
