Chapter 19: After Class, Come Into My Arms (17)

Lu Yu watched as Asi entered the residential complex before turning to head back himself.

He hadn’t planned on going home at noon, but his mother had suddenly fallen ill the night before, and now he needed to return to care for her.

A cool breeze blew against his face, ruffling the fringe on his forehead. The gentle expression he’d worn in front of Asi had vanished, replaced by a cold, brooding darkness.

With his hands shoved into his pockets and his head slightly bowed, he walked ahead.

Before him lay an old, dilapidated neighborhood.

The narrow alley stretched long, with the coarse voices of men and women cursing and shouting seeping through yellowed, crumbling walls.

Garbage was strewn across the street, along with the carcasses of dead animals. Together, they produced a stench that was almost unbearable.

From the moment Lu Yu entered, the chill in his eyes had not faded.

“Back from school, little Yu?” A man sat beside a battered doorway, wearing only a pair of yellowed shorts in the muggy heat, his flabby torso exposed.

Lu Yu was tall and slender, his face pale and clean, utterly out of place in this setting.

That very incongruity made the man at the door narrow his eyes lecherously. He let out a sly chuckle. “Wasting money on some fancy school, eh? Little Yu, you take after your mother—she was the prettiest woman I ever saw. Why not…” He fished twenty yuan out of his shabby shorts, pinched it between his fingers, and squinted up at Lu Yu.

The alley was lined with large trees, which should have freshened the air, but instead only blocked out the sunlight, making this place seem all the more cramped and oppressive.

Lu Yu stopped, walking straight toward the man at the door.

Before the man’s hand could reach him, Lu Yu kicked him hard to the ground, sending his rolls of fat quivering.

Lu Yu bent down, yanked the twenty yuan from the man’s hand, tore it to pieces, and scattered them across the man’s terrified face.

“Watch your damn mouth!”

His white sneakers pressed into the man’s flabby belly. Lu Yu’s lips curled, but his smile was icy and menacing.

“You… you…” The man’s eyes bulged as he looked at Lu Yu’s furious face, his voice trembling. “Am I wrong? Your mother used to sell herself to raise you—why not go back to the family business? What are you so unwilling for?”

With every word, Lu Yu’s gaze grew darker and more unfathomable. His foot ground harder into the man’s stomach, and his hands closed around the man’s throat. Smiling, he said, “Is that so? Well, I nearly killed someone before. Maybe today’s the day…”

His grip tightened, the man’s eyes growing wider, veins bulging at his temples, until a woman’s startled cry rang out nearby.

Lu Yu turned to look, sneering coldly. “You’d better watch your tongues, or else…”

“I’m not afraid to pay for it with my life.”

To pay for murder with one’s life—even death held no fear for him.

The woman, terrified, dragged the man off the ground and hurriedly retreated into the house, slamming the door shut as if afraid for her very life.

“So it really is Lu Yu—not even afraid of killing someone.” Lu Zhouyuan stepped out from behind Lu Yu, his face heavy with mockery. “Just like your shameless mother—one ruins families, the other kills.”

Lu Zhouyuan gave a scornful laugh, his eyes icy as he stared at Lu Yu.

Lu Yu’s eyes were bloodshot, and though he wanted to retort, he simply pressed his lips together, refusing to engage with Lu Zhouyuan.

Because he owed Lu Zhouyuan, Lu Yu would not fight back.

Expressionless, he walked away, his gaze lowered.

The world seemed to blur around him. Asi closed her mirror and slumped onto her desk in frustration.

Poor little Bai, she thought sadly.