“Li Shu…”
The man murmured this name, and like a switch, the valve of memories suddenly opened.
He couldn’t remember how many years ago it was. Back then, he was still young, like a cub, he was living under the protection of a man named “Li Shu”.
He stared out the window in silence. How long has it been? He saw that person lose breath in his arms, watched helplessly as that person was taken away, but he couldn’t do anything. He was like a hermit crab that had lost its protective shell, revealing a soft interior. From then on, there was no strong yet gentle man to shelter him under his wings.
How did he get through that period? He didn’t know. Thinking about that time, his memory was blank, everything and everyone were intertwined in a mottled manner. The glass was shattered, and no matter how much he wanted to repair it, there was no way.
What made him persevere until now? He was like a walking corpse, Li Shu was not just an elder to him; he was the person who pulled him out of the quagmire, the presence that gave him light. It was originally just admiration, but this feeling gradually changed unknowingly and was mixed in with many other emotions. Li Shu was someone he could not afford to lose even if he lost everything.
Yet, he still lost him.
“Uncle?” Lu Yuanqing spoke softly, “Do you know him?”
“No,” the man originally wanted to deny it, but a sudden impulse stopped the words he was about to say, and what came out was a different statement, “I just have a faint impression. Tell me about him.”
Now, Lu Yuanqing’s doubts were even greater. Not for anything else, but simply because since his uncle returned to the family, Lu Yuanqing had never seen him show much interest in anything. Regardless of gender, he always seemed disinterested. At first, some people wanted to use marriage to tie themselves to this big ship with a shallow foundation, but all ended in failure. Later, his uncle gained a firm foothold, and then even more people wanted to curry favor with him. All sorts of good things were sent his way, some of which were truly priceless treasures, but in his uncle’s eyes, they were no different from ordinary objects.
Rare treasures, famous objects, beauties, none of them could pique this man’s interest.
The first time Lu Yuanqing saw this uncle, he was still a teenager. At that time, he only felt that this big brother was extraordinarily handsome and was not an ordinary person. He exuded an aura that made people dare not approach, an existence not to be trifled with. In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed. He had grown into an adult, and his uncle had transformed from a boy who had just been found into a cold faced king of hell that no one dared to provoke. His aura had been restrained a lot compared to the beginning, and he didn’t look so scary anymore.
But Lu Yuanqing knew that it wasn’t time that had dulled the man’s sharpness, but rather that the man had learned to control himself. He had tamed the beast within him, but he had only tamed it. If a person with no eyes dared to provoke the beast, they would surely face terrible consequences.
Lu Yuanqing had always had a bit of fear towards this uncle. Seeing his uncle interested in Li Shu, he didn’t dare to hide anything and narrated everything about this person in detail.
After finishing, he added his own opinion, “Uncle, you don’t know, but during this time, he was acting like he was possessed. It’s not just him, many guys haven’t been acting normal recently…”
The man raised his hand to interrupt him, “Are you saying that he likes a woman named Ruan Muyan?”
“Yes, speaking of this, I have to complain. Ever since meeting Ruan Muyan, Li Shu’s personality changed. Ruan Muyan is also amazing. She can hang out with so many men at the same time without them getting angry at her. This time when I met Li Shu, he had just had a fight. Oh, and the person he fought with was another suitor of Ruan Muyan.”
The man’s dark eyes revealed no emotion. He pressed his temple and said, “Arrange a meeting with him. I want to see him.”
“Okay,” Lu Yuanqing, who never disobeyed the man’s orders, agreed subconsciously. After processing the statement in his mind, he exclaimed in surprise, “Wait, Uncle, did I hear you correctly? You want to meet him?”
“Yes.”
For some reason, Lu Yuanqing sensed a hint of excitement in the man’s tone. Just as he was puzzled, the man added, “Arrange a meeting in your name. Do not mention my existence.”
Lu Yuanqing couldn’t understand his uncle’s thoughts and didn’t try to figure them out. “I understand, Uncle.”
He couldn’t resist his uncle. As for Li Shu, judging by his uncle’s demeanor, he didn’t seem to be someone his uncle had a grudge with. It was just a one-sided meeting, so nothing should happen… right?
This was the first time Lu Yuanqing had seen his uncle display such obvious emotional fluctuations towards someone. He didn’t know what had happened in his uncle’s past—the matter was so deeply concealed that even the entire family avoided discussing it. Even though he was his uncle’s most favored nephew, there were some things he wasn’t meant to know.
Just as dragons have reverse scales, so do people. Lu Yuanqing looked at the tall man standing by the window and suppressed these thoughts. The past he didn’t want to mention was definitely the man’s reverse scale, touching it would bring immediate death.
He could live so freely in the family largely because of this man. He wasn’t a smart person, but he understood that there were things he shouldn’t touch. Isn’t that man a bloody example of someone who took advantage of his favor and brought about his own death?
Lu Yuanqing stayed in the room for a while longer, making sure the man had no further instructions before he left.
He hoped Li Shu could help his uncle break free from that past.
*
They had agreed to dine together, and it was scheduled for five days later. One reason was that the private restaurant was bustling, with only a few tables available each day. Another reason was that Li Shu’s injuries were severe, and he needed this time to recuperate.
Upon careful consideration, this was Li Shu’s first experience as a university student. This world was very similar to his original world. The level of technological development was about the same. In his original world, apart from cultivation, he had nothing else. After being taken to other worlds by 1314, he had been striving to fulfill the missions and the wishes of the original owners. Now that 1314 was gone and the memories of the original owner had not yet surfaced, he could temporarily consider himself an ordinary university student and enjoy campus life.
Although Li Shu didn’t have the original owner’s memories, he could understand the knowledge the original owner had learned. It was like an instinct of this body. When it came to those complicated mathematical formulas, as long as the original owner had been exposed to them before, Li Shu could quickly understand them.
The four people in the dormitory were in the same class. Li Shu was injured, and his roommates took good care of him. Li Shu, who had just raised a cub for a while, felt a little funny when he was suddenly raised as a cub.
The three roommates were all kind-hearted, and took care of Li Shu sincerely. He wouldn’t brush off their kindness.
Their dormitory was a bit far from the teaching building. During this time, everyone acted together to take care of Li Shu. Since they were all in the same class, and their schedules were similar, it wasn’t troublesome.
As they walked, the four young men discussed an extracurricular problem set by the professor during class. Suddenly, one of them fell silent.
“Ren Yuan, what’s wrong? Why did you suddenly stop talking?” Zheng Jiarong asked in confusion.
“Look ahead, isn’t that…” Ren Yuan pointed ahead, his voice uncertain.
“What’s wrong up there? Why are you beating around the bush?” Zheng Jiarong complained and looked ahead. “Why is she here?”
“Who knows?” Zheng Jiarong shrugged.
The person standing not far ahead was none other than Ruan Muyan.
The girl stood gracefully under a camphor tree, wearing a light pink dress. Her long black hair cascaded down behind her, straight and glossy. She had bangs and a palm sized face. Her face was as smooth as a peeled egg. She didn’t have the best appearance, but her round almond eyes added a touch of liveliness, and her long eyelashes fluttered like a fluttering butterfly.
Upon seeing who was ahead, the three young men reacted as if facing a formidable enemy, all turning their heads simultaneously to look at Li Shu, their eyes filled with undisguised concern and worry.
Li Shu was amused by their looks. He slapped one of them on the head and said jokingly, “What are you doing? Are you worried that I’ll run away with someone?”
The three nodded in unison. Indeed, they were worried Li Shu might run away with someone. After all, after he finally figured things out and broke free from the quagmire, they really didn’t want him to get caught up in it again.
This time Li Shu had figured things out, but who knew if he’d be able to smoothly get out next time?
Indeed, to these people, Ruan Muyan’s presence was like a quagmire. They kept a vigilant eye on her, wondering why she was here when this path led to the male dormitory, it was completely opposite to the direction of the female dormitory. Generally speaking, girls would not walk here. Since that was the case, why would Ruan Muyan be here?
“Don’t worry, I’m perfectly rational now. Let’s go back to the dorm.”
Seeing Li Shu say this, the other three didn’t have much else to say. They couldn’t just force Li Shu to take another route now. Besides, now that they’d been seen, turning around would make them look like they were fleeing.
“Right, let’s go.”
Just like strangers passing by, the four walked past Ruan Muyan.
Looking at the back of the figure that showed no trace of nostalgia, Ruan Muyan bit her lip and jogged a few steps to catch up. “Wait.”
Li Shu kept walking. He didn’t understand why the original owner pursued Ruan Muyan like that. Just by listening to the descriptions of several roommates, he felt that this situation was not normal. It was him standing here now, not the original owner. No matter what the original owner’s intentions were, he wouldn’t chase after a girl he didn’t like.
“Li Shu, wait—” Seeing that the man had no intention of stopping, Ruan Muyan’s voice had a hint of complaint.
This time, Li Shu stopped.
Ruan Muyan called out his name directly. It would be unreasonable if he continued to ignore her.
Li Shu turned around and asked, “This classmate, is there something you need?”
His voice was cold, and he asked the question without any emotion, making his tone even colder.
Ruan Muyan stood in front of him, panting and breathing slowly. Her cheeks were flushed from the short jog, and her eyes glistened with a layer of moisture. “I’ve come to apologize. What Yao Yan did last time was wrong. I’ve already talked to him. Li Shu, please don’t be angry, okay?”
During this time, Li Shu hadn’t come to find her. Ruan Muyan couldn’t describe her feelings. She didn’t know where things went wrong. She thought that as long as she waited, Li Shu would come back to her as he used to. But she had waited for a long time, and Li Shu never came.
