Chapter 68: Package Delivery

Chapter 68: The Call

During lunch, he browsed other platforms.

People were digging up clips of him and Ji Ziyang in the same frame on the show, freeze-framing and screenshotting:

"He glanced at Ji Ziyang," "He smiled," "He turned sideways to listen to him."

The captions were over the top.

Lu Hechi looked at those screenshots and realized he didn't remember those moments at all.

Some of the shots did happen during filming—he was just talking normally, nothing more.

But once slowed down, screenshotted, and captioned, it looked like there really was something there.

After swiping through a few videos, a clip of Chen Jiadong on a variety show popped up.

He opened the comments.

People were digging up the relationship between Chen Jiadong and Song Jiyao, and had dug up footage of Song Jiyao picking Chen Jiadong up from work.

The photo was blurry, but you could make out two people holding hands.

The vibe in the comments had completely changed. Someone said, "What's up with this show? It's turning into a couple-watching thing."

Someone replied, "Might as well rename it 'A Romantic Getaway with the Husband.'"

Lu Hechi read that comment, screenshotted it, and sent it to Chen Jiadong.

Just before he got off work, he got a phone call.

Lu Hechi picked up his phone, glanced down at the screen—no name saved.

He answered. A man's cold, deep voice came through: "You were on a variety show?"

It took Lu Hechi a few seconds to realize this was his biological father.

"Yeah."

"I've seen some chatter," Lu Tingjun said. "About you and that Chen guy, and that entertainer from your company."

Lu Hechi didn't respond.

Lu Tingjun: "That Chen guy—do you know his background?"

"I know," Lu Hechi said.

"Then why are you hanging around him so much?"

"He's my friend."

There was a two-second silence on the other end. "A kept actor, and you're friends with him?"

Lu Hechi tightened his grip on the phone. "I know exactly what kind of person he is."

"What do you know about anything?" Lu Tingjun's voice deepened. "After losing your memory, you might not even know who you are—how can you talk about knowing anyone else?"

Lu Hechi didn't answer.

Sunlight from the window fell across the desk. His fingers gripped the edge of the desk, then loosened.

Lu Tingjun continued: "You have a family now. You need to know your limits. Don't associate with those shady people. Learn from the one next to you—he knows better than you what's right and what's wrong."

Lu Hechi couldn't help but retort: "Dongzi isn't a bad guy!"

"That's enough." Lu Tingjun frowned, irritated. "I spent money sending you abroad, hoping you'd learn some skills. Instead, you insisted on starting a business. When I said no, you went to your mother for money and lost a big chunk of it."

"Then when you came back, I arranged a marriage for you. You threw a fit, refused to go along with it—and in the end, you married anyway."

"Lu Hechi, I'm your old man. Your old man won't screw you over."

Lu Hechi said nothing.

The line went quiet for a moment, then Lu Tingjun said, "You'd better take my words to heart."

The call ended.

Lu Hechi set the phone down on the desk, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

Out of nowhere, he thought of Lu Yongjun.

Qingcheng was a small town—everyone for miles around knew each other. Lu Hechi had been a little troublemaker growing up, leading a bunch of kids on all sorts of mischief and getting into no shortage of trouble.

But he'd been blessed with a fair, innocent-looking face.

Every time he got into trouble, he'd put on an act and push one of his underlings forward, copying the adults, hands on his hips, scolding them.

He'd gotten away with it several times thanks to his cute act.

Until one day, after catching loaches in the creek with his buddies, he found a soccer ball on the way back.

Soon, that ball became his new prized possession. The moment he got home, he'd toss down his backpack and go out to play with the other kids.

He even kept it by his bed at night, where he could see it.

One weekend, little Lu Hechi, copying the adults on TV, organized a soccer match to see who could kick it the farthest.

All the kids took their turns. Then it was his.

He wound up, kicked it with all his might, and the ball arced smoothly through the air.

Under the watchful eyes of all the kids, the ball smashed straight into Uncle Chen's newly renovated window, shattering it to pieces.

The shards glittered in the sunlight—and turned into little Lu Hechi's tears.

His pants were yanked down to his knees. Lu Yongjun took off his slipper and whacked him hard on the butt.

Before long, his pale butt turned bright red.

Furious, he called Lu Yongjun Granny Rong from *My Fair Princess*, a monster from Ultraman, and the Green Snake Demon from *Calabash Brothers*.

He refused to talk to him for a couple of days.

But just as his butt was about to heal, Lu Yongjun bought him a brand-new soccer ball at the market.

That was a long time ago—so long that Lu Hechi thought he had forgotten it.

But now that he thought of it again, he found the memory still crystal clear in his mind.

That was the first time he'd had any real sense of what a father was supposed to be.

A few minutes later, Lu Hechi picked up his phone and sent a message to Shen Lanxue:

"You done with work?"

Shen Lanxue replied quickly: "Yeah, why?"

Lu Hechi stared at those four characters, typed a message, deleted it, typed another, deleted that too.

Finally, he sent: "Nothing, just wondering if you're coming home for dinner."

Shen Lanxue: "Yeah."

Lu Hechi looked at that single "yeah," and put his phone back on the desk.

He opened his laptop and worked on some files for a while. The sunlight outside shifted from bright white to warm yellow, slowly sliding off the desk.

When he locked his screen and left, the hallway was already quiet.

The front desk girls had already clocked out.

Lu Hechi took a walk by himself for a bit. When he got home, Shen Lanxue was already there in light-colored loungewear, walking Little Star around the garden.

"Daddy!" Little Star pounced over happily, grabbing Lu Hechi's leg and trying to climb him.

Lu Hechi scooped him up, kissed him, then walked over and kissed Shen Lanxue on the cheek.

"Why are you back so late today?" Shen Lanxue asked.

"Just stayed late at the office," Lu Hechi said. "Once that show started getting buzz, I suddenly became a celebrity overnight. Today, some guy on the street asked if I was Lu Hechi and asked for my autograph."

Shen Lanxue asked him, "What, you regret doing it?"

Lu Hechi shook his head. It wasn't regret—making up with Chen Jiadong meant a lot to him.

The show had basically helped him make that wish come true.

The online chatter was annoying, but he'd already asked the production team to put out the news about his marriage.

He figured the rumors would die down on their own soon enough.

Dinner was simple tonight. After they ate, Feng Qi's footsteps came from the entryway. He walked over holding a package.

"Mr. Lu, there's a package for you, delivered to the door this afternoon."

Lu Hechi sat up straight. He couldn't remember buying anything. He took it and looked—a square box, tightly wrapped.

The shipping label even said "confidential delivery."

He grabbed a small knife, sliced it open, and ripped it apart. Then his face went pale.

Shen Lanxue walked over, puzzled. "What did you buy?"