Not My Brother - Chapter 3

Lu Guanhe was the type to repay every slight.

But I hadn’t expected his revenge to come so quickly.

In the middle of the night, a burst of panting jolted me awake.

I had always lived in the room tucked into the farthest corner of the Lu house. Even after I became “President Lu,” I never moved.

By all rights, it was much too far from Lu Guanhe’s beautifully sunlit room for me to hear anything.

But the young lovers apparently knew how to have fun. They had taken their performance straight to the room next door.

I held my breath, finding the sounds on the other side of the wall extremely strange.

I might never have eaten pork, but that didn’t mean I’d never seen a pig run.

The noises were far too stiff.

I listened for as long as Wei Yan hollered at the top of his lungs.

By the end, he was hoarse. He lowered his voice and asked,

“Young President Lu, is that enough?”

“Keep going.”

From his voice alone, I knew Lu Guanhe’s face had to be black with rage.

“Do you even know how to moan? If you don’t, get the hell out.”

“Lu Mingyuan obviously can’t hear a thing. If he could, how could he not react at all?”

The bullet comments that had vanished during the day floated back into view.

【Big brother, quit pretending to be asleep! Poor Wei Yan has acted until his voice is gone.】

【One look at little brother and you know he’s the type who’s never eaten pork or even seen a pig run. This couldn’t sound faker.】

【Pay some attention to him, big brother. Even I can’t watch this performance anymore.】

…

I listened through the wall for a while, then laughed.

I put in earplugs, rolled over, and went back to sleep.

As for Lu Guanhe, he could make all the trouble he wanted. Why should I humor him?

Li Shuhua had left Lu Guanhe a contingency plan. I had left one for myself inside the company too.

It was only that, on first seeing the paternity test and realizing that all my striving over the years had made me into a joke, I had lost heart and decided to leave.

Now I didn’t see things that way.

I had poured everything I had into propping up Lu Group. I couldn’t stomach watching it fall into the hands of a little bastard like Lu Guanhe.

He had only just driven me out and hadn’t yet had time to bring those old men under control.

The smile curling his lips disappeared the moment he saw me at the shareholders’ meeting.

I sat below the stage, looking at him from across the room.

For once, Lu Guanhe had dressed properly for the occasion. In his crisp suit, with his dark blue hair dyed black again, he looked almost obedient.

He took so long to begin that the old man sitting in front of me finally called out hesitantly.

“Young President Lu?”

“Young President Lu?” Lu Guanhe repeated, nearly grinding his back teeth to dust. “Apart from me, is there another President Lu here?

“If I remember correctly, my father died three years ago.”

The meeting room fell deathly silent.

Lu Guanhe was still too young. He couldn’t keep his temper at all. Striding down from the stage, he stopped in front of me.

“Lu Mingyuan, what right do you have to sit here?”

I gave him a leisurely glance, then spread both hands. “What can I say, Young President Lu?”

My gaze swept over everyone present. Quite a few people hurriedly avoided my eyes.

“I’m sure everyone here knows what right I have.”

The shareholders’ meeting ended on bad terms.

Some of the more perceptive old foxes made excuses and slipped away. What followed was inevitable.

More and more people found reasons to leave.

Eventually, Lu Guanhe and I were the only two left in the cavernous meeting room.

His face was grim.

For a moment, I thought he was about to hit me.

Fortunately, my secretary knocked on the meeting-room door.

“President Lu, are you in there?”

I closed the file, stood, and walked out.

Only when I got to my feet did I notice that the corners of Lu Guanhe’s eyes were a little red.

The spoiled heir had finally tried to be serious, only for me to humiliate him in public.

Lu Guanhe should have been furious. Yet somehow, I saw something almost aggrieved in his eyes.

My hand paused on the file.

Probably my imagination, I thought.

How could this mad dog, who remembered every grudge and wanted to bite everyone he met, possibly feel aggrieved?

The trouble at the company settled for the time being.

After spending the whole afternoon on paperwork, I rubbed my temples and entered the underground parking garage.

My usual driver had something come up at the last minute, and the Lu villa wasn’t far away anyway.

I swung the car keys around one finger and had just reached my car when the door of the black vehicle beside it flew open. Someone grabbed me and dragged me into the back seat without a word.

When I was younger and hot-blooded, newly responsible for keeping the Lu family afloat, I’d offended more than a few people.

Names cycled through my mind. Then I caught the fresh scent of mint from the car’s air freshener.

I didn’t stop struggling. Twisting around, I drove a fist into the man’s stomach.

Lu Guanhe grunted, his grip loosening slightly.

We started fighting right there in the cramped back seat.

Mint really was an excellent stimulant. At least, as I beat Lu Guanhe, memories I’d thought long forgotten came into sharper and sharper focus.

Jiang Xue taking the bank card Lu Jianguo gave her on that snowy day in eighth grade, climbing into a car, and leaving without a backward glance.

That evening in my senior year, when I packed my few possessions and boarded an unfamiliar flight for an unknown country.

And my first birthday abroad, when I stayed awake until midnight and not one person wished me happy birthday. All I received was Lu Guanhe’s taunting message:

【Lu Mingyuan, on a day like today, do you think anyone misses you?】

…

Lu Guanhe and I were evenly matched. After I don’t know how long, I finally gained the upper hand and pinned him against the seat with my hand around his throat.

In those ink-dark eyes, I could see nothing but intense hatred.

In that instant, some of the strength abruptly went out of me.

The bullet comments really were lies. I saw no love in Lu Guanhe’s eyes.

Only our ragged breathing remained inside the car. I turned my face away and pulled my torn collar loosely together.

The driver Lu Guanhe had left waiting outside finally climbed in, and the car slowly pulled away.

I watched the scenery pass, idly wondering where Lu Guanhe meant to dump me.

Before we reached our destination, a call came in.

The caller ID read: Mom.