Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Lin Juan seriously considered the possibility of knocking the man out.

Then he realized it wasn't very feasible.

His hand was already caught by the man, whose dark, profound eyes were locked intently on him. Whether it was an illusion or not, Lin Juan sensed a flicker of violet light flash deep within the man’s gaze.

Considering the man’s weakened condition, Lin Juan didn't dare struggle too hard, only making a token effort to pull back. “Let go.”

Where did this grabbing habit come from?

He’d grab people even while unconscious, and now he was still grabbing after waking up.

“Who are you? What’s your purpose here?” Lu Yanzhou frowned as he scrutinized the young man sitting on his bed.

Beautiful.

That was his first impression.

The young man before him was exceptionally beautiful, with long hair falling loosely. In the interplay of light and shadow, he looked almost otherworldly.

The man’s gaze was too sharp, as if it could pierce through him. Lin Juan had never been this close to anyone before. Even though he had initiated the proximity, his guilt had long since made him feel he'd lost the upper hand.

Under that intensely oppressive stare, he blurted out: “I’m a caregiver!”

“A caregiver?” Lu Yanzhou quirked an eyebrow playfully. “Since when do caregivers just casually touch—”

“I was giving you a massage!” Lin Juan cut in quickly before he could finish. “Yes, a massage. You've been lying here so long—without it, your muscles would atrophy!”

After saying this, Lin Juan clenched his jaw. Why did he have to wake up now, of all times? Feeling cornered, he could only make up excuses on the spot.

He certainly couldn’t say, *I’m your unseen prospective groom, here for the wedding luck ceremony.*

Lin Juan had no intention of tying himself to this man for good. If the other had stayed unconscious, he might have been willing to provide some care, given the Lu family's generous payment. But now that the man was awake, a conscious fiancé was a whole different story from an unconscious one.

Lu Yanzhou knew the young man was lying. Since when did caregivers look this good? And why did he happen to tick every box on Lu Yanzhou’s checklist?

As a successful businessman, he didn't waste effort pressuring unimportant people. The fact that this young man could appear here was definitely his father's doing.

Questioning him probably wouldn't get him far—it wasn’t necessary.

Thinking this, he still asked, “What’s your name?”

“Lin Juan,” Lin Juan replied.

“Got it,” Lu Yanzhou nodded.

Lin Juan waited for a while, but the man didn’t say anything else. He asked, puzzled, “Aren’t you going to ask me anything?”

“If I asked, would you answer?”

Lin Juan let out an awkward laugh.

Lu Yanzhou had figured as much.

Not sure how long he'd been out, he needed to figure out the situation first.

“I’ll call Uncle Lu,” Lin Juan said, still leaning over him. Not wanting to stay in this awkward pose any longer, he got up to find the phone.

Uncle.

Lu Yanzhou quickly picked up on Lin Juan’s choice of address and made a mental note.

Judging by how at home Lin Juan seemed with the surroundings, it appeared he had been living here for some time.

How could his father have let some stranger into his room?

After making the call, seeing that Lu Yanzhou wanted to sit up, Lin Juan—since the Lu family was paying him—helped him up and even propped a cushion behind his back.

Under the soft lighting, the young man’s features softened, his eyes sparkling. Lu Yanzhou’s breath hitched.

He lowered his gaze, thinking, *This caregiver… seems to know his stuff.*

If he had no ulterior motives, keeping him around might not be bad.

Little did Lin Juan know that his spur-of-the-moment excuse had been taken seriously by the man. All he wanted now was for Old Mr. Lu to arrive quickly and end this awkwardness.

Old Mr. Lu came quickly.

After parting ways with Lin Juan, he had returned to his room. Though uncertain what had happened to Lu Mingxuan, given the circumstances, it likely resembled the events on the night of the wedding meant to transfer luck. Too restless to sleep, he called for the butler.

He hadn’t been speaking with the butler for long when the room's phone rang.

It was Lin Juan calling.

Old Mr. Lu’s heart jumped.

In all the time Lin Juan had been at Lu Manor, he had never called on his own. Could something have happened to Yanzhou?

Not daring to delay, Old Mr. Lu picked up the phone. Before he could even ask, Lin Juan’s voice came through, talking fast.

“Uncle Lu, Mr. Lu Yanzhou is awake.”

“What?” Old Mr. Lu’s hand gripping the receiver tightened abruptly. The shock was so overwhelming his mind went blank. “You’re saying…”

“Lu Yanzhou is awake. Would you like to come see?”

“Yes, I'm on my way.” Even after hanging up, Old Mr. Lu remained in a daze.

“Was I hearing things?” He trembled as he steadied himself against the table, too overwhelmed to speak coherently. “Did Juan just call and say Yanzhou is awake?”

“Yes,” the butler replied, no less emotional than Old Mr. Lu. In his youth, he had studied abroad with the Lu family’s support and returned to work by Old Mr. Lu’s side. He had practically watched the Lu brothers grow up, and what happened to Lu Yanzhou pained him deeply.

“I overheard a little from the side. Mr. Lin did indeed say the word ‘awake.’”

“Quick, let’s go see!” Old Mr. Lu didn’t want to waste a single second.

Arriving at the courtyard, Old Mr. Lu paused, uncharacteristically hesitant. “Did I really hear correctly earlier?”

If it was all just a hallucination born from his desperate hope for his youngest son to wake up, would barging in like this cause trouble for Lin Juan?

This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened—waking up suddenly in the middle of the night, rushing to Yanzhou’s room, only to find him not awake as in the dream.

He was still sleeping peacefully, his shallow breaths offering Old Mr. Lu his only comfort.

He didn’t hesitate for long. The door, now right before him, was forcefully pushed open from the inside.

Lin Juan waited inside the room for a long time and finally heard footsteps, but for some reason, the sound suddenly stopped. He and Lu Yanzhou, who was sitting on the bed, fell into an awkward silence. To break the tension, Lin Juan said, "I'll go check if your father is here."

Opening the door, he saw the two people standing outside and felt as if he had found lifesavers: "Uncle Lu, Butler Cheng, why didn’t you come in?"

He quickly walked over and supported Old Mr. Lu: "Lu Yanzhou has been awake for a while and is waiting for you inside."

Old Mr. Lu grabbed Lin Juan’s arm with trembling hands, his voice still filled with disbelief: "Yanzhou… he’s really awake?"

"I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this. Whether he’s truly awake or not, you’ll know as soon as you see him."

"Good, good." For the first time, Old Mr. Lu was so overwhelmed that he stumbled on the steps.

Lin Juan steadied him: "Don’t get too excited, be careful."

Entering the room, Old Mr. Lu immediately saw the man sitting on the bed.

With handsome features and a commanding presence, it was indeed his youngest son!

"Yanzhou!"

"Dad." Compared to Old Mr. Lu’s excitement, Lu Yanzhou remained much calmer.

From Old Mr. Lu’s emotional state, he could easily guess that he had been unconscious for quite some time.

"Awake is good, awake is good." Old Mr. Lu strode forward.

Lin Juan brought a wooden chair to the bedside: "Uncle, please sit down."

He didn’t want Old Mr. Lu to faint from excitement now that Lu Yanzhou had finally woken up.

It took Old Mr. Lu a while to calm down after seeing his youngest son awake with his own eyes.

After exchanging a few words with Lu Yanzhou, Lu Yanzhou learned about recent events—he had been unconscious longer than he expected.

No wonder his father was so emotional.

"Thanks to Xiao Juan being here." Old Mr. Lu glanced at Lin Juan with gratitude.

Then, turning back to Lu Yanzhou, he said: "From now on, you must get along well with Xiao Juan, understand?"

He was too excited to speak much, so most of the conversation consisted of Lu Yanzhou asking questions—how long he had been unconscious, how the company was doing, whether the newly launched product had any issues, how the project progress was going…

He asked many, many questions, but only did not ask about his own personal matters.

This led Old Mr. Lu to assume that, during the time he was awake, he had already discussed things with Lin Juan. Seeing that he didn’t ask and that he seemed to get along well with Lin Juan, Old Mr. Lu thought he had accepted the arranged marriage and didn’t bring it up again.

Young people’s matters should be handled by themselves; an old man like him shouldn’t interfere.

Lu Yanzhou had a hunch that Old Mr. Lu’s attitude toward Lin Juan was somewhat unusual, but he only regarded Lin Juan as a special caregiver and didn’t think too much of it.

Little did he know that Lin Juan was not a caregiver at all, but his lawfully wedded wife.

Since Old Mr. Lu didn’t mention it, Lin Juan naturally didn’t bring it up either.

Two hours earlier.

Deep in the undeveloped park.

The Tail Squad arrived to handle the cleanup. Compared to a half-dead anomaly that could still struggle and attack, the thoroughly dead Class C Anomaly "Magic Mushroom" was not much easier to deal with.

Fortunately, with proper protection and no need to worry about hidden dangers, the biggest threat they faced was the corpse of the "Magic Mushroom."

What needed to be dealt with was also the corpse of the "Magic Mushroom."

Disgusting mucus oozed from the corpse fragments. Standing at the scene felt like entering a massive slaughterhouse.

The stench was overpowering. If the dead fragments hadn’t been completely motionless no matter how they were handled, they might have even thought they were facing a brand-new anomaly.

"Dammit, how long is this going to take?"

"Be glad we didn’t have to deal with it while it was alive."

"We need to hurry. According to instrument readings, the pollution concentration around us is rising."

"Are all Class C anomalies and above this difficult to handle? Even dead, they’re this troublesome?"

No one could answer that question.

So far, they had encountered very few Class C anomalies and above. The few times they did, they nearly suffered total losses. This time, if not for Lin Juan, they would have faced heavy casualties again. Their experience in handling such situations was too limited.

"Look!"

A sudden exclamation interrupted the conversation.

They stopped what they were doing and turned toward the source of the sound.

"These anomaly fragments…"

"Are withering." The Tail Squad leader said solemnly.

Like blooming flowers wilting, the once vibrant fragments of the massive anomaly seemed to be drained of moisture by an invisible force, gradually shrinking and collapsing.

"Over here too!"

"And here!"

No one knew exactly what was happening. In just a few seconds, the remains of the Class C Anomaly "Magic Mushroom" were erased by an unknown presence, vanishing without a trace.

On the pollution detector, the pollution value dropped sharply.

The foul smell in the air disappeared, and a breeze blew in, bringing fresh air.

Everything was as if the wind had passed without a trace.

"What happened?"

The entire Tail Squad, facing such a situation for the first time, exchanged bewildered looks.

Lu Manor.

The medical team was on standby. Since Lu Yanzhou had woken up, Old Mr. Lu, for safety reasons, decided not to announce it publicly for the time being. Instead, he secretly had the medical team come to examine Lu Yanzhou.

Lu Yanzhou had been unconscious for so long that the Lu Manor was fully equipped with medical facilities, making simple examinations completely feasible.

After working for most of the night, the doctors concluded: Lu Yanzhou’s physical condition was very good.

Old Mr. Lu, who had been anxious all night, could finally relax.

With Lu Yanzhou awake, Lin Juan took the opportunity to suggest sleeping in separate rooms from Lu Yanzhou.

Sleeping in the same room with a man who's wide awake felt awkward no matter how you looked at it.

But Old Mr. Lu disagreed. As soon as Lin Juan mentioned it, he looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Xiao Juan, Lu Yanzhou just woke up, and there's no telling if he might slip back into a coma. That fake master who deceived me still hasn’t been caught. I wouldn't feel comfortable if you’re not staying with him."

Lin Juan thought it made sense and relented, "Alright then, we can talk about it after the person is caught."

Old Mr. Lu breathed a sigh of relief.

He firmly believed that Lu Yanzhou’s awakening was entirely thanks to Lin Juan, and he would never allow the two to sleep separately.

Young couples belong in the same bed!

After seeing Old Mr. Lu off, Lin Juan asked Lu Yanzhou, who had been quiet, "Why didn’t you say anything earlier?"

He felt that Lu Yanzhou probably wouldn’t want some random person in his room for no reason either.

"Say what?"

"To ask me to stay in another room. Don’t you think it’s strange for two grown men to share a room?"

"You’re my caregiver," Lu Yanzhou retorted. "As my caregiver, shouldn't you be staying with me?"

Author's Note: