Chapter 13 The Abandoned Puppy

Chapter 13: The Forsaken Puppy

Once he started looking, he found he couldn't look away.

Shen Qingci slept peacefully, his eyelashes casting a small shadow under his eyes, his lips slightly parted, his breathing gentle and slow.

His hand lay outside the blanket, his fingers long and slender, his knuckles distinct.

Ten years.

This face hadn't changed at all.

Time seemed to have stood still for him. He was still twenty-seven, still the Shen Qingci in Lu Lin's memory—forever calm, forever strong, forever... out of reach.

Lu Lin watched, his eyes beginning to sting.

He couldn't lose control like he did earlier, he couldn't scare this person again.

Shen Qingci hated emotional people most of all, and hated scenes where people lost control.

He needed to be calm, to restrain himself, to...

"Had enough?"

A cold voice suddenly cut in.

Lu Lin stiffened all over, hurriedly averted his gaze, and turned to look out the window.

Shen Qingci opened his eyes, looking at him with no expression.

"President Lu," he began, his tone distant, "your documents are upside down."

Lu Lin looked down and realized the papers in his hand were indeed upside down.

His face flushed, and he fumbled to turn them right side up.

Shen Qingci said nothing more, closing his eyes again.

But this time, Lu Lin could sense that Shen Qingci wasn't asleep at all.

For the remainder of the flight, the two did not exchange another word.

Shen Qingci rested, worked, occasionally glanced at the clouds outside the window.

Lu Lin handled documents, drank coffee, occasionally stole a glance at Shen Qingci.

The plane landed at Helsinki Airport at 3 PM local time.

Autumn in Northern Europe was cold, the wind carrying the dampness of the sea.

Shen Qingci put on his overcoat, took his cane, and got off the plane. Lu Lin followed behind him.

The pick-up car was already waiting on the tarmac.

Shen Qingci told the driver the hotel address in fluent English.

The driver helped him put his luggage in the trunk, then opened the car door for him.

Throughout the entire process, Shen Qingci didn't spare Lu Lin a single glance.

As if this person didn't exist.

Lu Lin stood a short distance away, watching Shen Qingci get into the car, watching the door close, watching the car slowly drive away from the airport.

The wind lifted his black overcoat, the biting cold wind frigid.

He stood motionless, watching the car disappear around the bend of the airport road.

The car drove smoothly out of the airport, merging into Helsinki's afternoon traffic.

Shen Qingci leaned back in the seat, looking out the window at the passing scenery.

Low European-style buildings glowed with a warm yellow light under the autumn sun.

He should have been focusing on appreciating the scenery of this unfamiliar city, planning his upcoming work.

Yet his gaze involuntarily fell on the rearview mirror.

In the mirror, that black figure was still standing in place, motionless.

The wind lifted the hem of his coat and his hair. Against the vast backdrop of the airport, he looked exceptionally lonely, as if abandoned by the whole world.

Shen Qingci's finger tapped lightly on his cane.

Once.

Then again.

The car turned a corner, and the figure in the mirror completely vanished.

Shen Qingci suddenly spoke, "Sorry, please turn back for a moment."

His British English was fluent and standard.

The driver, hearing this, was momentarily stunned and asked, "Sir, what did you say?"

"Go back," Shen Qingci repeated, his tone calm but leaving no room for argument. "My younger brother hasn't gotten in the car yet."

"Alright, sir."

The car made a U-turn at the next intersection, driving back along the route they had come.

Shen Qingci looked at the scenery receding outside the window, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.

What was he doing?

Lu Lin was twenty-six, the chairman of the Lu Group, worth hundreds of billions. Even if he didn't get in this car, he could summon a hundred cars for transportation.

He absolutely didn't need Shen Qingci to turn back and pick him up.

But seeing Lu Lin standing in the wind, motionless, like he had been abandoned by the whole world...

Shen Qingci closed his eyes.

He couldn't shake the feeling that if he didn't go back, that kid would completely break down the next second.

Shen Qingci spotted Lu Lin from afar. He was standing with his head bowed, like... a puppy waiting for its owner to come home.

The car stopped in front of Lu Lin. Shen Qingci rolled down the window, looking at the person outside.

Lu Lin's eyes lit up the moment he saw him, a change from despair to hope so fast it was painful to see.

"Get in."

Shen Qingci's tone was icy, his expression impatient, as if chiding a dawdling child.

Lu Lin yanked the car door open and slipped inside.

His movements were so hurried they were almost clumsy, petrified that if he delayed even a second, Shen Qingci would change his mind.

The car instantly fell silent once the door closed.

Lu Lin sat beside Shen Qingci, with a full seat's space between them.

He turned his head slightly, sneaking glances at Shen Qingci's profile. His lips moved, his voice very soft—

"Brother."

Those two words carried endless grievance and a decade's worth of pent-up longing.

Shen Qingci ignored him.

His gaze remained fixed ahead, his right hand holding the cane, his left resting on his knee.

His face was a blank mask; he didn't even glance at Lu Lin, as if the seat beside him were empty.

The light in Lu Lin's eyes faded, but he didn't dare speak again.

The car returned to the highway.

The driver glanced at the two in the back seat through the rearview mirror and said with a smile in heavily accented Finnish English, "Wow, your brother is very handsome."

He paused, then added, "Though you two don't look much alike. You are more beautiful. I'm sorry to use 'beautiful' to describe a man, but you really are beautiful."

The words were blunt, even somewhat offensive.

Shen Qingci turned his head to look at Lu Lin beside him.

Lu Lin met Shen Qingci's gaze.

Those beautiful eyes were now scrutinizing him, from his hair to his brows and eyes, to his nose and lips, as if seeing him for the first time.

Not just dissimilar.

The two were simply worlds apart.

Shen Qingci's face was more finely carved, his features softer, possessing a kind of cool, elegant beauty reminiscent of an Eastern ink painting.

Lu Lin's features were more chiseled, his brow bones higher, his nose bridge straighter, a fiercely aggressive kind of handsomeness.

One was like a silent, deep pool; the other like a burning flame.

Shen Qingci held his gaze for a few seconds, then turned back and said to the driver in English:

"Thank you."

Polite, distant, ending the topic.

Lu Lin's heart, however, skipped a beat at that glance.

Brother looked at him.

Even if it was only for a few seconds, even if there was no warmth in that gaze... Brother looked at him.

The corner of Lu Lin's mouth twitched upward, but he quickly suppressed it.

The car drove for another twenty minutes before stopping in front of a white building.

"Sir, your hotel is here," the driver said.

Shen Qingci nodded and got out of the car with his cane.

Lu Lin followed silently behind him, like a little tail.

Shen Qingci handed over his ID. The receptionist took it and glanced at it.

"Mr. Shen Qing, welcome." The receptionist smiled and handed over a key card. "Your room is on the eighth floor, 8201. Would you like help with your luggage?"

"No, thank you."

Shen Qingci took the key card and turned towards the elevator.

Lu Lin hesitated for a moment, then also approached the front desk. "A room for me, please. Next to his."

The receptionist looked startled. She looked at Lu Lin, then at Shen Qingci who had already reached the elevator, looking somewhat troubled. "Sir, the rooms next to and opposite 8201 are already booked. The only room left on the eighth floor is 8207, at the end of the corridor. Is that okay?"

Lu Lin frowned but nodded. "Okay."

He quickly completed the formalities, took his key card, and hurried towards the elevator.

The elevator doors closed just as he got there.