CH 3

The Lu family’s reception was set in their home’s garden. Even though it was a private event hosted by the Lu Family, many guests at the reception did not personally know Lu Bai. Lu Bai didn’t like socializing much, if it wasn’t for the important plot point that needed to happen here later, then no matter how his father would have scolded him for being unsatisfactory, he would never have come out of hiding.

“Xiao1 Bai has really grown up, and every year becomes more handsome. Lao2 Lu, he’s old enough now. You should have him join the company to help you.” Qin Jing sighed with a smile. The Lu and the Qin families have been friends and allies in business for a long time. Qin Jing is Qin Gu’s father and a good friend of Father Lu for many years.

Father Lu patted Lu Bai on the shoulder, “This kid is still too young, he is not ready yet”, there is a rare genuine smile on his face despite the harsh words. Father Lu then silently urged Lu Bai to continue meeting the guests. Seeing his father’s smile, the corners of Lu Bai’s mouth twitched anxiously, fearing that his father would really bring him along to work in the company on a whim.

Catching Lu Bai’s expression out of the corner of his eyes Father Lu scoffed. Taking advantage of a gap when there were no guests in front of them to say in a low voice, “It’s useless protesting. Even if I wanted to accommodate you, your grandfather wouldn’t.”

Lu Bai could not find the words to refute that, but after a moment of silence asked, “Dad, when I say that I want to get rid of our family’s halo and struggle for self-reliance to realize my own value in life, do you and grandpa not believe me?”

Father Lu has always presented himself as a serious and upright person, but after hearing these words his brows couldn’t help but twitch. He looked at his son in his slightly messy formal wear with a deadpan expression, “Do you think that your Grandfather and I are fools?”

Lu Bai, “…”

~~~~

After the majority of the important guests had been met, seeing Lu Bai’s wandering attention Father Lu knew that his son was bored. With a bit of fatherly impatience, he lightly slapped Lu Bai on the back of the head and sent him off, “Get lost. Watch how much you drink, don’t overindulge.”

Only when Lu Bai heard this did he finally breathe a sigh of relief. Smiling brightly, he revealed a mouthful of white teeth, with a small dimple faintly appearing on his cheek: “Don’t worry Dad.” He only planned to drink that one cup of spiked wine that was in the plot today.

Watching the back of his son scampering away, Father Lu sighed, but there was a helpless smile in his eyes. Sheng Mei came over to stand next to Father Lu in place of Lu Bai. She was beautiful in an elegant floor-length dress, and a gentle smile on her face, “Relax, I already asked Uncle Liu to look out for Xiao Bai and won’t let him drink too much tonight. I also asked the kitchen staff to prepare a late-night snack for the two children, and when it’s ready I can send them over to fill their stomachs.” 

The focus of this reception was on Father Lu. His children, Lu Bai and Lu Guanguan, were still too young for business or political dealings, so not many people would pay attention to them. When the food is ready they could just have Uncle Liu call them to eat in the greenhouse. Their two children don’t like to eat the western food being served at the party, and she doesn’t want them to be like the adults, with only wine in their stomachs overnight.

Father Lu put down his wine glass, “We’ll eat some as well when this is over.”

Sheng Mei softly chuckled and nodded.

~~~~

Lu Bai leaned in a corner of the garden, swirling the glass of red wine in his hand while lost in his thoughts, the deep red color of the wine was reflected in his honey-colored eyes3, casting strange shadows.

This is the glass of wine that has been spiked in keeping with the plot. It is said that no matter how much self-restraint one has, after ingesting the drug, one would become like an animal in heat. Lu Bai had gotten this drug from his group of plastic friends who were all equally willful and ignorant as well. In the original book, Lu Bai had wanted to use this glass of wine to sleep with Qin Gu, but instead, he only got himself into trouble.

The end results will be the same drinking it sooner or later tonight. With this thought in mind, Lu Bai took a deep breath and searched around, finally finding Qin Gu’s figure. Birds of a feather flock together and people naturally divided into groups of people similar to themselves. Like how Lu Bai has his own circle of fox and dog friends, Qin Gu naturally has his own circle of ‘good kids’ that others were often compared with and found lacking in some way.

Lu Bai approached holding two glasses of red wine and stopped in front of Qin Gu. He glanced at the barely hidden disdain and contempt in the eyes of Qin Gu’s friends, pasting an overly bright smile onto his face. He handed over the glass with the additional ingredient, “Brother Qin, a toast to you.” Lu Bai’s plan in the original book was for Qin Gu to drink this cup of wine, then he would help Qin Gu to his room so he could ‘rest’, and everything would fall nicely into place.

Qin Gu’s facial features were so handsome and profound under the garden lighting that they looked like a chiseled statue. Qin Gu observed Lu Bai with a fading half-smile on his face as he accepted the glass of spiked wine just like in the original book. He held onto the glass while giving it a light swirl, but didn’t drink from it. His eyes became darker and darker in the light reflected off the wine, containing complex emotions that Lu Bai didn’t understand. Lu Bai shivered slightly, his free hand not holding his own wine glass up lightly clenched: The scene’s climax is coming.

In the original book, one of Lu Bai’s fake friends had already snitched and informed Qin Gu. So Qin Gu and his group of friends had long known that Lu Bai would come to make a toast. So they planned at that time, a friend of Qin Gu would step forward and “accidentally” overturn the wine in Lu Bai’s hand, Qin Gu would then take that opportunity to turn around and get a new glass of wine for Lu Bai, and while doing so exchange his glass of spiked wine with the new one for Lu Bai. Lu Bai would only blindly see the rare moment of Qin Gu getting wine for himself, and there is no doubt in their minds that he would drink it quite happily.

Sure enough, a young man beside Qin Gu quickly glanced at Lu Bai and took a few steps forward as if unintentionally bumping him while he was leaving. Afterward, the cuffs of Lu Bai’s white shirt were soaked in a deep red, as dazzling as blood. Lu Bai frowned in disgust like in the original book, but he cared about how Qin Gu thought of him and didn’t want to say anything in front of him.

Qin Gu glanced at the now wet cuffs of the young man’s that was stained red, and under the twinkling garden lights in the night air, looked at the guilty conscience and nervousness in the young man’s light honey eyes, and a strange feeling flashed across his heart. But in the end, as planned, he turned around and picked up a new glass of red wine from the table, then quickly switched glasses. He raised his chin at Lu Bai and handed over the spiked glass, but didn’t say a word. This is Lu Bai’s home, he will be fine. If this guy dares to plot something like this against him, he should be taught a lesson and suffer a bit, not to mention, he should know that none of his friends are good or sincere to him.

Lu Bai smiled and took it. He looked at Qin Gu, his honey brown and white eyes were bright, and then he drank the glass of wine without hesitation—the red wine at the reception should be savored slowly not downed like a shot, but there was nothing Lu Bai could do about it since he was just following the events from the Original book. Qin Gu looked at the bobbing throat of the young man as he swallowed, desperately suppressing his desire to stop the other party, and drank the wine in his own hand.

The important plot point was finished and did not go wrong, Lu Bai finally let out a sigh of relief. Before the drug could even kick in, Lu Bai felt the hot rush of alcohol muffling his brain. He felt his cheeks becoming a little hot and was a little dizzy, but the scene had to go on.

“Brother Qin,” he pinched his palms to stay focused, “You must be tired? Do you want to go to my room to sober up and have a rest?” Lu Bai thought that this vicious male supporting role was too stupid. If you say such super deliberate words in a super deliberate tone, even if no one had informed Qin Gu already, it would be easy to see through, okay?

Qin Gu looked at the young man’s misty and wet eyes, his cheeks which were already flushed with alcohol, and he couldn’t say anything like refusal. He looked at Lu Bai expressionlessly for a while, and then grasped Lu Bai’s arm, “I’ll help you to rest.” Before the medicine could even take effect, this guy was already drunk, and he was the one who should rest. Qin Gu’s friends were a little surprised when they heard this, but they didn’t speak up.

Lu Bai had a very poor capacity for alcohol, and he drank too fast just now. At this time, his mind was blurred, and he couldn’t hear what Qin Gu was saying at all. Qin Gu was suppose to reject him, so he subconsciously opened Qin Gu’s hand that was holding him, showing a sad and vicious expression, and spoke his lines from the original book, “Brother Qin, do you hate me that much? Refusing to even go to my room to rest? You like that Qu Xueyu, right? Just you wait, I won’t let him go!” After saying that, he stumbled back a step, turned around, and left with quick strides.

Perfect. Lu Bai walked away dizzily while giving himself a thumbs up in his heart.

Qin Gu, “…”

Qin Gu watched Lu Bai’s unsteady posture as he walked away, he hesitated for a moment and was about to chase after him when a sleazy-looking man came out of a nearby shadow. It was the snitch from earlier. He looked at Qin Gu with a flattering smile on his face, “Brother Qin Gu, I knew that kid Lu Bai could never best you.” Thinking of what he saw while hiding in the shadowy corner, the flattery on his face became more and more obvious, “He will only make a fool of himself. Don’t worry, if he plans to act like a demon again in the future, I will definitely give you a heads up.”

Qin Gu’s heart was crossed with irritability, he looked straight at the other party with a cold face, and every word filled with disgust, “You are not worthy of calling me that.”

The other party was stunned by the coldness on Qin’s face and subconsciously took a step back. The frigidity on Qin’s face only intensified, and his eyebrows even overflowed with some dark hostility: “You were only able to get into the Lu family’s reception because of Lu Bai.” Only because of Lu Bai’s invitation, this was how all of these unworthy guys could enter the Lu house.

“Stay away from Lu Bai. If I see you around him again in the future -” Qin Gu put down his empty wine glass on the table with a dull clang: “I will have you ruined.”

“Now get the hell out of the Lu’s house.”

The man had never seen Qin Gu like this and was now so scared that his hands and feet were weak, but immediately turned around and stumbled away.

After that person left, the people around Qin Gu looked at each other, a good friend who had known Qin Gu for many years only sighed and patted him on the shoulder: “You are always like this. To be honest, after so many years I still can’t figure out how you actually feel about Lu Bai.”

Qin Gu frowned as he picked up a new glass of wine, and drank it down while saying with a sneer, “Of course I hate him.”