Chapter 50

Chapter 50

It had been two years since Lu Tingchao last saw Paulina.

In Hong Kong.

Lu Tingchao even wondered if he was seeing things, until the person from the car opposite got out of the passenger side and walked a short distance.

She bent down and knocked on Fei Xiuqi’s car window.

Lu Doudou’s clear, childish voice responded to the sound of the knocking: "Chao Chao, look, it’s Sister Paulina!"

Lu Tingchao cautiously turned his gaze toward the outside of the window and stared blankly for what felt like ages.

Inside the car, it seemed to go quiet for a beat.

Or perhaps that silence actually lasted a very long time.

Finally.

Fei Xiuqi unlocked the car door.

Lu Tingchao heard a distinctive alto voice say to Fei Xiuqi, "Get out!"

It was Paulina’s voice.

The midday sun had already passed, and Hong Kong’s gentle sunlight slanted softly onto Paulina’s soft, golden, shoulder-length wavy hair, giving her a strikingly exotic allure.

She and Fei Xiuqi had different British mothers but had both followed their mothers into medicine.

Perhaps it was the sunlight making everything feel languid.

Lu Tingchao suddenly remembered the last time they said goodbye, when Paulina looked at him with such concern: "Chao Chao, are you going back to North City?"

Paulina’s fingers, which had held surgical scalpels, tenderly touched Lu Tingchao’s face that had grown thinner: "Is he treating you well?"

"Ah…"

Lu Tingchao’s eyes seemed somewhat dazed as he closed the tab he had just finished browsing about Zhuang Ji and Jiang Rong’s rumors. "I don’t know, but I think I don’t like him anymore."

Paulina seemed puzzled: "Then why go back?"

"Because I still need to spend his money."

Lu Tingchao said it with utter shamelessness.

He paused, then almost whispered: "And my home should be with him, right?... I don’t have any other home left."

The young man on the hospital bed was almost entirely wrapped in oversized hospital clothes, looking sickly and gaunt.

His already sharp jawline lowered slightly, and his beautiful eyes drooped downward.

He seemed to have given a very ordinary and simple answer.

But Paulina’s eyes reddened in an instant.

A tear rolled down from the corner of her eye.

Paulina wiped her eye and gave Lu Tingchao one last kiss on the cheek before parting: "I understand, Chao Chao."

Paulina also kissed Lu Tingchao’s slightly cool forehead: "You will be happy."

At that time, Lu Tingchao was still exceptionally young and naive.

The look in his eyes was as innocent as a lost lamb. He reached out and touched the trace of her lipstick Paulina left behind, seemingly curious: "Then where are you going, Sister Paulina?"

"I’m going to be an international doctor."

Paulina reached out to smooth Lu Tingchao’s hair and smiled softly. "Perhaps a wartime doctor, Chao Chao. I will follow in my mother’s footsteps and go wherever in the world needs me."

Lu Tingchao murmured an "Oh," sounding somewhat pathetic: "Then will I never see you again?"

Paulina seemed stunned.

Then, she laughed.

"No."

Paulina gently tapped Lu Tingchao’s nose, as if humoring a child. "If Chao Chao ever needs me in the future, I will come back."

—If Chao Chao ever needs me in the future, I will come back.

Time stretched slowly and painfully, infinitely elongated in the long river of moments.

Lu Tingchao’s red-rimmed eyes and the steady stream of tears seemed to affect Paulina standing outside; her expression also saddened.

The car door clicked unlocked.

It was Fei Xiuqi who was the first to get out.

To Hong Kong’s media, Paulina was a relatively new face—she had never appeared at any of the Fei family’s banquets or corporate shareholder meetings.

Similarly, Fei Xiuqi was always the hottest news topic in the eyes of the media.

There was even a rumor in Hong Kong that shooting a year’s worth of social news was less promising than capturing one piece of Fei family gossip.

The Fei family’s news was hidden, unreleased wealthy family secrets, a layer of mist veiled in public conjecture—

But with Paulina’s return, that elusive fog seemed to finally see a glimmer of light.

Long-term work in the entertainment industry may not have brought Lu Tingchao many substantial gains.

But it did teach him how to detect paparazzi.

Almost the second Fei Xiuqi stepped out of the car, Lu Tingchao noticed the reflection of a telephoto lens flash on the pristine paintjob of Fei Xiuqi’s sports car.

But Fei Xiuqi seemed utterly oblivious.

Or perhaps he noticed and simply couldn’t be bothered.

Fei Xiuqi was Fei Yuncheng’s only child aside from Paulina, destined one day to become the next star to watch in Hong Kong’s glittering landscape.

Lu Tingchao, however, was different.

He was a hothouse flower—fragile, sensitive, easily damaged, and most skilled at sensing and exploiting any turmoil, whether favorable or unfavorable to him.

But it was already too late for Lu Tingchao to do anything.

The reunion between Fei Xiuqi and Paulina, long-separated siblings, was so utterly casual—in such a relatively quiet little garden, completely lacking the warmth expected of a sibling reunion.

"Smack—"

A crisp, merciless, resounding slap stunned Lu Tingchao inside the car.

At the same time, the gleaming car paint refracted light several times—clearly, someone from a distance had captured this shocking scene.

"A Qi."

Paulina looked like a traveler who had just returned, dusty and tired from travel. She was no longer wearing the white lab coat Lu Tingchao had most often seen her in, but instead a yellow outdoor jacket, with standard-issue mid-calf boots perfectly securing her ankles.

She stood amidst the lush green backdrop of the park, yet she radiated a vitality stronger than all the flourishing vegetation around her.

Paulina said, "A Qi, I taught you from a young age to understand reason, observe propriety, act resolutely, and think prudently."

Her voice carried unmistakable anger and disappointment: "Is this what you've learned?"

Perhaps Paulina’s slap truly carried enough force.

Fei Xiuqi’s entire handsome face was turned to the side, a thin trail of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth where a nail had scratched him, leaving a sloppy stain on his collar.

Fei Xiuqi raised the back of his hand to wipe the blood from his lips, curling them into a blood-tinged smile: "Sis, when did you get back?"

Paulina replied coldly, "Today."

"Then I should have picked you up," Fei Xiuqi said. "Otherwise, it would seem like I’ve betrayed Devin’s teachings to us."

"Teachings? What teachings has he given you?" Paulina was clearly furious. "A Qi, did his teachings tell you to disregard all free will and forcibly keep Lu Tingchao in Hong Kong?!"

The air seemed to freeze for a second.

From childhood to adulthood, the two had likely never faced off so directly.

Lu Tingchao’s animal-like instinct often granted him a strong survival instinct in such moments.

So he carefully tugged at Lu Doudou’s seatbelt and said in a tiny voice, "Doudou, buddy, don’t get out of the car, okay?"

As he grew day by day, Lu Doudou’s eyes had actually begun to resemble Zhuang Ji’s more.

Now, those slightly upturned eyes looked curiously at Lu Tingchao: "Is Chao Chao getting out then?"

Lu Tingchao let out an "ah" and shook his head: "I don’t know either."

Lu Doudou unbuckled his child seat and climbed over to Lu Tingchao’s side, chattering logically: "Actually, I hope they argue louder. Best if Sister Paulina wins."

Lu Tingchao: "...Ah?"

Lu Doudou sat on Lu Tingchao’s lap and sighed a little helplessly: "Chao Chao, only if they argue can we make a run for it."

Lu Tingchao’s eyes widened.

Lu Doudou reached out, wrapping his still-chubby, lotus-root-like arms around Lu Tingchao: "Chao Chao, don’t be unhappy. Doudou can think of a way."

Lu Tingchao was unambitious, unintelligent, unstudious, and not quick to learn by analogy.

But Lu Doudou was the only person in this world closest to him.

Lu Tingchao even remembered to this day what Grandpa Lu told him before he passed: his body had a redundant function, and in the days to come, he would have to protect himself.

Back then, the still very young Lu Tingchao picked at his fingers, visibly confused: "Grandpa, why didn’t you tell me before?"

Grandpa Lu finally told him: "Because before, Grandpa was here to protect you."

—And from then on, there was no one.

It wasn’t until Lu Tingchao saw the frequent headlines and hot searches about Zhuang Ji and Jiang Rong that he understood this truth.

From then on, he had no grandfather, no parents, and could no longer trust Zhuang Ji.

He had to protect himself.

So Chao Chao needs to spend loads of money, but he can’t truly care for anyone else.

Lu Tingchao heard Fei Xiuqi outside the car window, likely furious, his tone tense and constricted: "Then what else? What should I do, sis? I love him."

Fei Xiuqi said: "But this is Devin’s Hong Kong."

Fei Xiuqi continued: "I can’t take him away, and I can’t stand Father having him all to himself."

Paulina took a deep breath, her sharp voice piercing through the car window: "So you do something like this?!"

Paulina: "Fei Xiuqi! Even the poorest regions in the world have begun enacting monogamy laws. If you had the most basic respect for human rights, you should—"

Fei Xiuqi said softly: "Sis, Lu Tingchao isn’t suited for any of these laws."

Paulina: "What?!"

Fei Xiuqi laughed: "Don’t you think? Sis, Lu Tingchao is a hothouse flower. He can’t bear any wind or rain, can’t bear the slightest displacement."

Fei Xiuqi: "He’s delicate, willful, greedy, selfish—"

Fei Xiuqi: "Only his owner can enjoy him without restraint."

Paulina was almost mad with rage. She sharply raised her hand: "You—"

"No, no, no!"

Lu Tingchao once again caught sight of the camera flash. He was truly afraid that Paulina would immediately end up in the news repeatedly upon her return. In a panic, he hurriedly pushed the car door open and rushed out, "Paulina, there are paparazzi taking pictures!"

Fei Xiuqi suddenly reached out, wrapping an arm around Lu Tingchao’s waist and pulling him into his embrace.

Then, right in front of Paulina, he used his slender, strong fingers to gently lift Lu Tingchao’s chin and leaned in to kiss him—

It was a kiss that took everyone by surprise, filled with intense possessiveness.

Lu Tingchao didn’t even have time to struggle before Fei Xiuqi firmly held him in his arms. His slender arms flailed weakly before Fei Xiuqi caught them both.

"Then let them capture something explosive, Chao Chao."

Fei Xiuqi’s sharp canine teeth scraped Lu Tingchao’s lower lip, leaving a damp, bleeding mark.

It stung so much that Lu Tingchao shuddered, instinctively resisting and pushing Fei Xiuqi away.

"Smack—"

Paulina’s heavy slap finally landed hard on Fei Xiuqi’s cheek, leaving a distinct five-fingered imprint.

At the same time.

Paulina reached out and pulled Lu Tingchao back to her side, away from Fei Xiuqi.

"A Qi, the Fei family is a massive, cannibalistic fortress that consumes without shedding blood, corroding everyone inside like a gu-raising pit—from Father to the servants."

Paulina closed her distinctive green eyes, a trait from her mixed heritage, her expression pained. "I didn't want to end up like that someday, so I left. After leaving, I’ve always worried about you…"

Paulina: "I was worried about you, but then I remembered you grew up abroad, raised with values of equality and freedom, respecting human rights. Since high school, you’ve constantly participated in all kinds of charitable activities…"

Fei Xiuqi’s eyes remained fixed on Lu Tingchao, hungry and possessive, like a predator.

It was the most inescapable desire in human nature.

Paulina reached out, wiped away all traces left on Lu Tingchao’s lips, then pulled the hood of his jacket back over his head.

"But I forgot—you have the Fei family's filthy blood running through you."

Paulina’s expression was nearly grief-stricken. "A Qi, you’re starting to become more and more like our father."