Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 33: Use My Entire Life to Love Only You

Warning: Mentions of Violence

Their contractors had ordered over and over again, highlighting that without his orders, they could not play around with human lives.
And right now, only half of the full payment was in their hands so those two meal tickets inside cannot have any issues.
Choosing to go down this criminal path meant that they were dependent on the credibility of their name; if this job was ruined within their hands, they won’t have a living anymore.

There was not a lot of dry grass around in the warehouse and in even more terrible news, the place was quite humid.
After bundling up the miniscule amount of kindling they could find together, the fire did not burn for very long.
So when they heard the furious yelling outside and the chains on the metal door clanking, Huo Ming Chen felt a sigh of relief.
If those thugs did not come, they would have had to think of something else.

The key was on the bald man’s body.
He rushed over and clumsily opened the lock.
Who could have thought that once the door was unlocked and open, before he could even see clearly, his stomach would suffer a heavy blow? Taking advantage of him bending down, Huo Ming Chen lifted his knee and used his wrist as a weapon to strike ruthlessly onto the bald leader’s spine.
His chain of actions was like flowing water: fast, accurate and ruthless enough that they would not have time to react.

Seeing the bald man falling over, the remaining three became shocked, with their mouths open wide and then they were angry, picking up metal pipes from the ground and rushing over to attack.
Huo Ming Chen surged forward and dragged two of them.
Lu Qi remembered his orders and went straight for Da-Han, the more simple minded idiot.
He reached out to grab a beer bottle and broke it, using all his force and taking the chance to strike the sharpened piece into the other’s stomach.

Da-Han was in so much pain that his eyes were reddened with the colour of blood.
He grabbed a hold of Lu Qi’s neck and with a deathly strangled voice, yelled out, 

“AH AH AH! I will fucking kill you!”

On Huo Ming Chen’s side, his situation was not looking good either.
His two bare fists were up against four hands.
When he was fighting with one crook, the other viciously slammed down a metal pipe onto his leg.
And a faint sound of bone snapping could be heard amidst all the sounds echoing in the warehouse.
Huo Ming Chen immediately lost his balance and dropped onto his knees, but he still managed to drag down the two men with all his might.

Lu Qi was used to using dirty tricks and in the palm of one hand, he hid a piece of glass shard from the broken bottle before.
He swiped across Da Han’s eyes, and in no time at all, blood was spurting out, and Da Han’s eyes were a field of blood red.
The other immediately let go from the pain and started to roll back and forth on the ground, like a shrivelled shrimp, holding onto his eyes.

Lu Qi just endured a beating, and all he could taste in his throat was the sweet metallic taste of blood.
His entire body felt like it was swirling and turning, making him very dizzy.
He was going to help Huo Ming Chen but only heard the other angrily yell out,

“Run! What the fuck are you doing! If you don’t go, we will die!”

Huo Ming Chen’s leg was in so much pain, and he was almost out of energy to keep holding onto the other two men.
If this kept going, those two crooks that went into town would be coming back soon.
Lu Qi’s eyes could only see a darkness of red, and he gave himself a ruthless slap, clumsily hitting things as he ran straight out.

The sky outside was raining, and a cold wind was blowing through the trees.
It was so dark you could not see your own fingers, and the road was muddy with some hardened areas.
In the midst of his running, he didn’t know how many times he tripped, how many times the tree branches scraped at him.
He only knew to run, to run as fast as he could, crawling back up from where he tripped, running to the big roads.
Wind was howling in his eyes, and a feeling of being ripped open came from inside his chest.
Each breath he took was like having a knife heartlessly carving into his throat, going down into his heart with all the blood dripping down.

Faster! Faster and faster!

Lu Qi forcefully wiped at his face, wiping away whatever was on him whether it was blood or sweat.
He no longer had any feeling in his entire body, even pain was disappearing, only knowing to run forward in a state of numbness.
The more he ran outside, the more the road became wider and from far away he could see faintly some kind of light.

What is that? A streetlight on a public road?

His already tired and leaden body suddenly gained a surge of adrenaline, and he ran straight towards that light, as if he grabbed a life saving buoy.
This place was quiet, too isolated from society.
Usually there would not be a car passing by and at night, even fewer still.
Lu Qi ran with difficulty onto the public road, and with the pouring rain obscuring his vision, he was like a brain dead fly running everywhere and in all sorts of directions, trying to find a pedestrian or a car.
His heart felt as if someone threw it into a hot wok burning with oil, burning with heat and pain.

Luckily, not long after, there was finally a black car driving by, moving in the rainstorm, but the driver ignored Lu Qi’s movements to stop the car and even pressed on the gas pedal to drive past him, brushing past his clothes. 

Lu Qi gritted his teeth and could only be forced to grab a rock as big as his hand from the road, and chase after that car, throwing the rock at the trunk.
Hearing the “dong”, and the trunk was non mistakenly dented.
The car immediately stopped in response to the sound.

“Fuck all your ancestors! Which bastard dared to ruin my car! I will skin you alive!”

A chubby man flew out of his car, not caring about opening an umbrella, and hostilely ran up to the man who did the crime.
But Lu Qi acted faster, grabbing a hold of his shirt, 

“Your cellphone? Where’s your cellphone? Call the police now.
There’s criminals here, someone’s been kidnapped.
Go call the police now! Call them! No matter how much money you need, I will pay you back ten fold, a hundred times!”

He didn’t know that both his eyes were blood red or how his expression was as terrifying as a devil ghost in the dark of the night.
Because their heights were too different, the other man was so scared his knees weakened, and with a loud racket, dialed for the police with his phone.
When he received their response, Lu Qi felt relieved and safer, and then took two steps back before turning around to run back.
The chubby man seeing this became more courageous and hurriedly grabbed ahold of him, 

“You you you! Where are you going! You haven’t paid me for the damages yet!”

“You fucking let go of me!”

Lu Qi’s throat was hoarse and with one hand struggling out of the man’s steely hold, the other forcefully ripping off the watch that could still be worth some amount of money to throw it at him.
It was at this time that the two of them heard a “bang” ring in their ears.
It felt like it came from quite a fair distance away, but you could tell that it came from one of the nearby houses.

The watch that was just taken off dropped onto the ground, making a light sound as it hit the ground.

Lu Qi’s legs weakened, and he suddenly fell to his knees.
That posture made him look so terrified as if he was afraid of losing something.
He struggled to think but was not successful, and in the end it was that chubby man who pulled him up from the ground,

“Hey! Why are you not speaking? Did you become mute?!”

Lu Qi did not pay attention to him and took in a deep breath, and focused his energy on standing up, on being steady.
Then he roughly pushed the man aside and clumsily ran back the way he came.
His mind was blank, an empty field of white, and ringing noises were swirling around his ear.
His every breath caused pain in his chest, his lungs, and with the sweet metallic taste in his throat, it was almost to the point where he wanted to die right there and then.

For the first time in his life, Lu Qi was scared.
He was scared that those criminals had guns, he was scared……

Scared of what?

He couldn’t say it clearly even to himself.

The familiar buildings were finally coming in sight.
He ran too quickly and tripped over the edge of the door frame and in that moment, he lost his energy, and he basically rolled and then had to crawl into the warehouse.

The entrance to the warehouse was in a messy state, the exact look of a horrendous battle being fought.
The floor had within its grasp three of the crooks, and Huo Ming Chen was being strangled on the floor by the remaining crook.
His entire body was spotted with mud and blood, looking like he was almost out of air, almost out of life to even struggle.
Lu Qi didn’t even think, and he ran to grab the metal pipe lying on the ground to hit the person and threw him off of Huo Ming Chen.

“Huo Ming Chen……”

Lu Qi’s eyes felt like they were being stung with some pain, and his heart was in turmoil, feeling defeated, helpless, useless.
He kneeled by Huo Ming Chen, holding his head in his arms, speaking quickly and quietly, 

“I called the police.
I have already called the police.
They will be here soon.
The doctor will be here soon.
Hold on, hold on……”

Huo Ming Chen choked up twice, and seeing that it was Lu Qi, felt helpless and angry,

 “You fucking piece…..
I told you to run…… Why are you back……”

Lu Qi wiped the blood off of Huo Ming Chen’s face with his sleeves, hands colder than ice,

 “It’s all good now, the police will be here soon, and the doctor, the gun wound won’t take your life……”

Lu Qi didn’t know what the state of disarray he was in, his face a splattering of mud and blood, his white shirt already dirtied to grey, his pants ripped open in a few places, even more pitiful and sad than a beggar.
Where was the dignity of the most handsome man of ‘C’ University?

Huo Ming Chen was stunned and felt like he wanted to laugh in disbelief, but his heart also ached for this side of Lu Qi.
He grabbed Lu Qi in return, and only then found out that Lu Qi’s hands were shaking uncontrollably and couldn’t help but tighten his grasp.
He asked something else out loud however, 

“Lu Qi, when you were confined inside, don’t forget what you promised me…..”

Lu Qi’s mind was blank, who could remember what he promised before, and only said, 

“As long as you’re alive, whatever you say.”

Whether it was in his previous life or in this life, Lu Qi has never made such an open promise.
What if that person wanted all his fortune after, wouldn’t that be worse than digging out his heart or his liver? But he knew, he knew Huo Ming Chen would not do that.

Huo Ming Chen kept holding onto his lower chest area, and hearing this, his mouth twitched upwards, but his face was still a deathly pale white,

“Real or fake?”

Lu Qi shook his head,

“I said before, I won’t lie to you.”

Even at death’s door, this man would not say passionate words like I love you or you love me.
As if he was missing something in his brain when he was born, his blood seemed to naturally run cold.
Or maybe it should be said that he was too clever, too analytical, never being swayed by feelings, more cold blooded in clarity to the point of terror.

But that’s no issue, Huo Ming Chen has ways to heal him.

See, Huo Ming Chen has never been like other people and asked Lu Qi if he likes him, that kind of useless question.

He only asked one question,

“Then are you willing to give me all your money for me to manage?”

It was too fast to be proven wrong, catching people off their guard.

Hearing this, one could see Lu Qi immediately stiffen his body and dazedly look at Huo Ming Chen, but he only saw the latter’s eyes sparkling with delight from succeeding in getting the upper hand.
He looked downwards at Huo Ming Chen’s chest, and although there were blood splatters, there was no wound.
And the one thug who had been on top of him was now lying on the floor, almost at his last breath.

“……”

After a very long silence, Lu Qi seemed to realize something and suddenly burst out laughing.
He used his hand to hold Huo Ming Chen up, as his shoulders kept moving from his laughter and he couldn’t even hold his head up.

What was he laughing at? Perhaps he was laughing at how idiotic he was or perhaps he was laughing at how he’s fallen.

The wind was blowing, the sky was raining, and all of a sudden he nodded his head as if to accept his fate,

“……I am willing.”

He said,

“Take it all.”

Huo Ming Chen has spent two whole lifetimes, two whole lives, and he has finally warmed the blood in this man, warmed his heart.

His eyes felt like it was growing hot, and tolerating his pain, he sat up.
Huo Ming Chen held out his hands to hold Lu Qi, as if they were at home, and gritted his teeth, scolding him in a low tone beside his ear, 

“Idiot! Who wants your money.”

Huo Ming Chen has read this phrase before.

To use your entire life, your entire being to love someone fully……

There were many meanings that one could interpret from this phrase, but he only likes this one:

If he met someone he loved one day, then he will use the greatest generosity he had to give, to give the best things he could ever own, all to him.

Not far away, there were the faint sounds of police and ambulance sirens.
When Huo Ming Cheng and the policemen hurriedly rushed over, he could see his little brother with another man, hugging each other tightly and desperately.
The two of them were the same kind of raggedness, but you could see that there was a subtle difference between the two.

This scene was extremely weird, but if you were to look closer, you could not say where it was weird.
Huo Ming Cheng’s heart felt leadened with weight all of a sudden and his footsteps unintentionally faltered.
He suddenly had a feeling that perhaps, some time later something that he would not be able to accept would be happening.

TL Tidbit:

(during editing, after suffering a cliffhanger for a few days)
Plum: … Lu Qi is so vicious
TL: ??? Did you see their relationship developing??!!!? Lu Qi just basically confessed!!!! Look at their love blossoming! Look at the end!!!
Plum: … much violence, such blood
TL: ??? Self defense? To get out of this sitation?
Plum: he had a piece of glass in his hand and literally blinded a dude
TL: ??? What about HMC??? Literally took on 3 people?
Plum: my god, HMC got his leg broke, if that’s anything
TL: …
Plum: geeze these guys need a nice vacation after this.
TL: …
Plum: What an ominous ending.
TL: …
Plum: better not step wrong 
TL: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

The two types of people when reading a story…

>> Added a warning up top for violence.
Apologies about that, as I had it in the drafts, but somehow I missed it.
I’m terribly sorry about that mistake!