Chapter 170 The Blade Falls

Chapter 170 The Blade Falls

Eldest Master Lu nodded, picked up his briefcase, and strode away with brisk steps, as if he'd just scored a huge deal.

Lu Tianjue stood still, watching Lu Lin help Old Master Lu out of the hospital room. The old man was trembling with rage but could only let Lu Lin half-support, half-drag him out.

He looked at the two backs, then glanced at Eldest Master Lu, who had already vanished at the end of the corridor.

He didn’t think Lu Lin would be so kind as to hand something good over to the Lu family for nothing.

After all, if he were that kind-hearted, why would he have spent ten years setting up this scheme, forcibly tightening a silk thread around the necks of the Lu family bit by bit? That thread tightened a little more each day, and when the time came, heads would fall.

But the Lu family didn’t know that.

They thought they were getting benefits, profits, not realizing that those things were nothing more than knives—held in someone else’s hands, ready to stab them at any moment.

Lu Tianjue looked away, suddenly remembering something from many years ago.

Back then, he wasn’t yet a member of the Lu family—just a bastard son abandoned outside, looked down upon, trampled into the mud.

Until that man stood before him leaning on a cane, looking down with indifferent eyes.

“The Lu family is stupid,” he said. “But you can choose whether to take the name Lu.”

Lu Tianjue lowered his eyes.

That man was right.

The Lu family really is stupid.

-

Old Master Lu was taken out of the hospital. As he got into the car, his hand gripped the doorframe, trying to resist, but a large hand pressed firmly but gently on the back of his neck, shoving him into the back seat.

He stumbled, almost losing his cane, barely steadying himself as the car door slammed shut with a bang.

Lu Lin got in from the other side and sat down beside him.

He didn’t look at Old Master Lu. Instead, he pulled out the old man’s phone and casually tossed it to the person sitting in the passenger seat.

Old Master Lu froze for a moment, then exploded.

“Lu Lin!”

His voice was sharp with fury, his whole body shaking:

“Do you know what you’re doing?!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he began to cough violently—one cough after another, as if he were about to cough up his lungs.

His face turned beet red, one hand clutching his chest, he huddled in the seat, looking utterly pitiful.

Lu Lin frowned.

He reached out and rolled down the window. Cold wind rushed in, dispersing the stale air inside the car.

“Cough one more time, and I’ll throw you out.”

His voice was light, but his tone was as harsh as if he were shooing away a filthy pest.

Old Master Lu’s coughing stopped abruptly. He covered his mouth tightly with his hand, his face flushed red, eyes wide with rage as he stared at Lu Lin.

He nearly ground his teeth to powder, his chest heaving, but he didn’t dare make another sound.

Before Shen Qingci came back, Lu Lin had been behaving himself.

But now, look at him…

Lu Lin crossed his legs, leaned back in his seat, and gazed at the rapidly receding scenery outside the window.

“You old bastard, do you regret not killing me ten years ago?”

He turned to look at Old Master Lu, his face twisted in a terrifyingly ferocious expression, a smile curving his lips but never reaching his eyes.

“Pity… regret won’t change anything.”

He looked away, turning his gaze back out the window, his tone lightening again:

“Lucky you didn’t kill me, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see my brother.”

He paused, tapping his fingers lightly on his knee:

“And also, back then you said my brother only had two years to live. Honestly, I never really cared about that. Whether he lives or dies, as long as I have my brother, it’s all the same to me.”

“But if those two years were man-made…”

He turned back to look at Old Master Lu, giving a smile that sent chills down your spine:

“Then it doesn’t matter either. It just means we all die together.”

Old Master Lu’s face slowly turned pale.

Lu Lin watched him, his smile growing deeper.

“You’re probably curious why I’m telling you all this.”

He didn’t let Old Master Lu answer, continuing without waiting for a reply:

“I can tell you even more. You want to hear about the Shen family and the underground auction? Or about their illegal activities? Or maybe about the research the Shen and Feng families conducted?”

With each topic he brought up, Old Master Lu’s face grew paler. Seeing his increasingly terrible expression, Lu Lin’s smile was almost overflowing.

“For the past ten years…”

“All I’ve thought about is grinding your bones to ashes.”

The car was dead quiet, filled only with the hum of the engine and Old Master Lu’s increasingly rapid breathing.

Before he realized it, the car had driven to the outskirts—barren fields with withered weeds swaying in the wind, and in the distance, a few abandoned factory buildings standing isolated.

Old Master Lu’s face grew even paler. He looked at the desolate scene outside, then at the young man with a terrifying smile beside him, his voice laced with undisguised fear:

“You… what do you plan to do?!”

Lu Lin glanced at him, then curled his lips in a mocking grin:

“I was planning for all of us to go to hell together next year. But now that my brother’s back, I don’t want to die, so I need to rework a few things.”

He paused:

“In the past, it didn’t matter. But now, the Lu family doesn’t need two people running things—whether in reality or just in title.”

With that, he pushed open the car door and got out.

The doctors who had gotten out of the car ahead swarmed around Old Master Lu, encircling him tightly.

Standing outside the car, Lu Lin straightened his cuffs. A black sedan glided to a stop beside him, and the driver got out to open the door for him.

Behind him, Old Master Lu's trembling voice called out:

"Lu Lin! You can't treat me like this! I'm your grandfather!"

"Lu Lin! Lu Lin..."

Lu Lin bent down and got into the car. The door clicked shut, and the car slowly pulled away.

In the rearview mirror, the figures in white coats shrank until they became a faint white speck that disappeared at the end of the barren field.

Lu Lin looked away from the mirror and leaned back in his seat.