Volume 11: The Lingering Warmth of Melting Snow
Chapter 28: The One Who Doesn’t Dream
The two of them fought from two in the afternoon until seven in the evening. Zhu Xi only ordered dinner for herself and didn’t untie Lu Li. She just sat beside him, feasting in front of the starving Lu Li. Lu Li wanted to spit out the silk stocking in his mouth, but Zhu Xi sealed it again with tape.
“You’d better not talk. I’ll talk, you just listen.” Zhu Xi couldn’t be bothered to get dressed, just letting Lu Li’s gaze roam over her fiery body. “I don’t want to hear you get angry at me for that little girl Chu Jingyi again.”
“First, the bad news. My grandmother already knows you’re still alive,” Zhu Xi said, taking a bite of a chicken leg. “If I’m not mistaken, for the next month, you will face an endless pursuit. Incidents similar to the shooting in Chuanhai will continue to occur. The good news is that all the responsible parties from the Yan family who were involved in your assassination back then have been held accountable by my grandmother, including the assassin who personally shot at you. They have all received the most severe punishment you can imagine. The reason is that they lied about the outcome of the battle, which is why you’re alive today.” Zhu Xi’s tone was somewhat nonchalant, as if she weren’t the main culprit behind all this.
Lu Li looked at the shiny, big chicken leg, and his stomach rumbled in protest. Zhu Xi laughed so hard her body shook. She clearly enjoyed watching Lu Li in such an awkward state. Lu Li felt this bad woman must have sadistic tendencies. Zhu Xi bit off a piece of chicken and then untaped his mouth, removing the completely soaked silk stocking and feeding Lu Li mouth-to-mouth. Although Lu Li was dissatisfied with her, he had to eat to have the strength to resist, so he could only eat that piece of chicken amidst the clash of their lips and tongues. When Zhu Xi lifted her head, a few crystalline threads were drawn between their lips. Sweat, saliva—their lovemaking had always been indecent, filled with the scent of primitive hormones. If the lovemaking between Lu Li and the other girls was a grand harmony after bathing and changing, then his and Zhu Xi’s was a pure release of lust.
“You with the surname Lu, if you ever fall on hard times in the future, how about coming to my house to be my pet? I can at least guarantee you won’t starve,” Zhu Xi said, appraising him with interest. “I think it wouldn’t be bad to raise you as my pet.”
Lu Li shot her a fierce look. “When are you going to untie me?”
“Don’t even think about it.” Zhu Xi smiled happily. She took out her phone and, with a series of clicks, took pictures of the naked Lu Li tied to the bed. In the end, feeling the pictures weren’t good enough, she leaned in close to little Lu Li and took a selfie with him, not forgetting to make a V-sign with her hand.
A bad premonition arose in Lu Li’s heart. “Don’t just take random pictures!”
“Tell me, what do you think would happen if Chu Jingyi saw these photos?” Zhu Xi said with a smile. “I’m going to print them out and give them to that little girl. She’ll surely be very surprised.”
Lu Li knew that if he showed a panicked expression, he would be playing right into this bad woman’s hands. So he just remained silent, quietly watching Zhu Xi. Zhu Xi felt a little bored, huffed, and continued the topic. “So, to save your little life, I applied for the talent selection program for you. You should know that this talent selection is just for choosing a husband for me. This way, you’ll be exposed to the public eye. At the very least, my grandmother’s people won’t be able to act against you too rashly, and you can buy yourself a little time to live. Maybe a month, maybe only a week. Who knows?”
No wonder the husband selection was moved up so much. So it was because of him… Lu Li thought calmly for a moment. “I don’t think this can stop your grandmother’s people from making a move on me.”
“Of course it can’t. It’s just to delay time,” Zhu Xi said, taking another bite of the chicken leg and feeding it to Lu Li mouth-to-mouth. She said indistinctly, “At least you’ll have time to run abroad with that group of wives and concubines of yours, won’t you? You with the surname Lu, this is my way of repaying your kindness for not abandoning me when we were in trouble. After this matter is over, the score between us will be settled. Understand?”
Although Zhu Xi was usually frighteningly rational and cold-blooded, in a place like this, she was as naive as a little girl who had just fallen in love. The two of them had already had such an intense physical relationship. Could they really just simply settle the score?
Lu Li said, “Have you ever thought about… resisting your grandmother?”
Zhu Xi suddenly fell silent, speechless for a long time.
“I’m a little thirsty.” Lu Li’s mouth was dry. He hadn’t had a sip of water all afternoon, yet his body had been constantly outputting fluids.
Zhu Xi took the water bottle and was about to pour it into her own mouth. Lu Li quickly said, “I’ll drink it myself.” Zhu Xi ignored him, took a mouthful of mineral water, leaned over to Lu Li, and mixed her saliva with the water to feed him. The young girl’s saliva didn’t have a bad smell; it was more the taste of passion and ambiguity. Perhaps she just wanted to use this method to achieve her desire to dominate Lu Li. After all, back in the snow, Lu Li had fiercely defeated her pride.
After Lu Li had taken a few sips of water, Zhu Xi finally said, “Resist my grandmother, and then what? Without my grandmother, the Yan family would have collapsed long ago. Without my grandmother at the helm, how could the Yan family hold on while surrounded by a pack of wolves? Can you replace my grandmother and revitalize the Yan family?” It wasn’t a question, but a rhetorical one.
“What would I do then? You with the surname Lu, you don’t really think that after the Yan family loses power, I can just retire safely and then foolishly go find you, do you? Just like that woman Wen Hupo, who’s been blinded by love?” Zhu Xi looked into his eyes. “My fate, you wouldn’t be willing to imagine it. I’d rather kill myself before the Yan family collapses than fall into the depths of hell.”
This seemed to be an unsolvable problem. Lu Li fell into deep thought. His interests, the Yan family’s interests, the interests of the aristocratic families—they were irreconcilable contradictions. The Chu family was also a member of the aristocratic families, even their leader, and Chu Xiaodong had also clearly expressed his hostility toward the Yan family. And amidst the major conflicts of interest, his personal relationship with Zhu Xi, and Chu Jingyi’s personal relationship, were as complex as a dozen overlapping spider webs. In such a complex vortex, finding a perfect solution was no different from a fool’s dream—as fantastical as his decision to surpass the Yan family and the Chu family.
Zhu Xi continued, “Resisting my grandmother isn’t a very difficult thing. She’s not well-versed in the internet, and her connections with the middle management aren’t strong enough. In comparison, I have a higher exposure in the Yan family, and I’m also the sole heir. The middle and lower levels are also more willing to see a younger leader take the stage. But what about after that? You with the surname Lu, what will I use to take over the connections from my grandmother? Can I really fight against the other aristocratic families just by relying on the middle and lower levels?”
“There must be a way.” A flash of inspiration went through Lu Li’s mind. He felt that in such a complex relationship, there must be a point of intersection.
Almost everything was a constant, and the only variable was he, Lu Li, this insignificant little pawn who had broken into the upper echelons of Shenzhou, a nameless nobody who had been unknown in his past life.
Lu Li felt that he had always been very good at dreaming. If a person doesn’t dream, what difference is there between them and a walking corpse?
