“Do you think I’ll go soft on you because of this?!” Lu Lianning’s hair was disheveled, falling over his eyes as his brows furrowed in anger. Hungover and deprived of proper rest, his temples throbbed. Besides, he’d never been patient with Li Yan. “Stop dreaming. This is stupid and pointless.”
With that, he reached down and pulled Li Yan up.
Li Yan stared blankly at him, as if still half-asleep.
Damn it. He couldn’t hear what Lu Lianning was saying again.
His mind echoed with the roar of an oncoming train and the rumbling of collapsing mountains. Against the harsh light, Lu Lianning’s face started to blur.
Only when Lu Lianning grabbed him did Li Yan begin to resist, suddenly aware of the situation. His lower body had gone numb, likely from sleeping in an awkward position, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
Both of his arms gripped the toilet tightly. As Lu Lianning yanked one arm away, Li Yan clung even harder with the other.
Lu Lianning glared at Li Yan, who clung to the toilet as if he were embracing a long-lost lover. Seething with anger, he cursed, “What the hell is wrong with you!”
Li Yan saw the rage on Lu Lianning’s face as his lips moved, but he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. His eyes darted toward the dark bedroom behind Lu Lianning, uncertain of where he was being dragged.
Panic flooded his face as he muttered uncontrollably, “It’s so dark… so dark… too quiet…”
It was like a silent abyss—nothing but darkness and unbearable heat.
That kind of silence was enough to drive anyone insane.
Seemingly recalling something, Li Yan clung even more stubbornly to the toilet.
In the small bathroom, with only the two of them, Lu Lianning was close enough to hear his incoherent muttering. His movements stopped, and Li Yan took the chance to pull his other arm free, hugging the toilet even tighter and showing Lu Lianning only the tense, pale back of his head.
Li Yan had pulled the “useless tricks” fewer than three times when Lu Lianning, muttering curses under his breath, plugged in the nightlight in the bedroom.
Only then did Li Yan agree to sleep obediently in the master bedroom.
Lu Lianning had recently returned to the Lu family and had a lot on his plate. He was rarely home during the day, and even at night, he often didn’t return until late.
During this time, the pressure on him was immense. He was forced to play the role of the flawless and inscrutable young master. Following Lu Anling’s orders, he attended social events, took on the responsibilities of the family business, attended frequent meetings, and made key decisions.
When he came home, he would shed his public facade, revealing a cruel side to Li Yan. He treated Li Yan with harshness and spite, lashing out with insults or dragging him to bed to torment him whenever he showed the slightest disobedience.
When Li Yan was clear-headed, he managed to placate Lu Lianning’s foul temper, easing his anger. But when his mind was foggy, he had no choice but to endure the abuse.
Fearing he might say something wrong, Li Yan began retreating into silence.
In the house, neither the bodyguards nor the servants spoke to him. It wasn’t clear if this was under Lu Lianning’s orders or if they simply held him in low regard and chose not to engage.
Over time, Li Yan started living like a lonely ghost, drifting through the large house.
If Lu Lianning didn’t cause trouble for him or vent his anger on him after coming home at night, the silence in Li Yan’s world would be so profound that he could almost hear echoes.
One afternoon, just as spring began, the butler was outside watering the flowers.
When he turned around, he noticed the young man with slightly dark skin standing in the living room, watching him through the open door.
The light that once filled Li Yan’s eyes seemed to have been extinguished by Lu Lianning.
Still holding the hose, the butler turned and asked, “Do you want to come over and help water the flowers?”
To his surprise, as soon as Li Yan heard his voice, he turned and hurried up the stairs, his footsteps thudding loudly with each step.
On another day, the butler was in the second-floor study, having a conversation with Lu Lianning.
Flipping through a book, Lu Lianning asked how Li Yan had been doing at home recently.
The butler reported everything. Lu Lianning stood up and walked to the window, where he noticed Li Yan bent over in the garden, holding a small shovel, poking at the roots of a blooming flower.
“What’s he doing?” Lu Lianning suddenly interrupted the butler’s otherwise routine report.
Following his gaze, the butler also looked down. At that moment, Li Yan stood up to reach for the hose, which was now sputtering water.
The butler replied, “Watering the flowers.” There was no further explanation.
“He volunteered to do that?”
The butler’s emotionless face softened slightly. “No, I invited him.” After a brief pause, he added, “He seems to dislike me a little. He only tends the garden when I’m not around.”
Lu Lianning’s gaze shifted back to the butler’s face.
The butler was an elderly man who had served the Lu family for many years, working alongside Lu Anling for much of his life. When he first arrived, Li Yan had held a knife to Lu Lianning’s neck, demanding to leave. Lu Lianning’s face ended up bruised, and his neck was wrapped in bandages. Upon seeing the injuries, Lu Anling was filled with disappointment, wondering if the butler had been away from the family for too long and had forgotten the kind of person he was supposed to be.
Lu Anling tolerated keeping someone like Li Yan around, believing he posed no real threat to Lu Lianning. As long as Lu Lianning stayed on course, Lu Anling was willing to make some compromises for the sake of maintaining the appearance of a father-son bond.
But that tolerance did not extend to allowing Lu Lianning to end up in a humiliating situation.
He had once asked Lu Lianning if he wanted him to intervene, but Lu Lianning had refused with a vicious tone and eyes filled with hatred. He insisted on handling things himself.
From the moment the butler sedated Li Yan, knocking him to the ground, to the more than thirty days Li Yan spent locked away, Lu Anling never mentioned it again. It was clear to Lu Lianning that the butler had already reported everything to Lu Anling, and his father had been satisfied with the methods he used. Lu Anling had an excellent memory and wasn’t one to forget so easily.
Lu Lianning looked at the butler with a faint smile, this man who had watched him grow up. He snorted. “He only dislikes you, but he must hate me to death.” Turning back to his desk, he added indifferently, “Not that it matters. I don’t care either way.”
The temperature dropped unexpectedly in the following days, and Li Yan’s health took a sudden turn for the worse. Just stepping outside for some air and to water the flowers left him with a fever.
At first, Lu Lianning thought Li Yan was faking it. After all, the old Li Yan had once been kicked out of a tent into deep mountain snow, wrapped in a wet blanket for hours, and hadn’t even gotten sick. How could he be so weak now?
But Li Yan truly did have a high fever that lasted for two days, and Lu Lianning lost his temper over it.
Li Yan ended up bedridden for an entire week, losing so much weight that he looked frail.
When he finally got out of bed, he noticed a greenhouse had appeared outside, filled with lush, vibrant flowers. Inside, the temperature always felt like spring.
However, Lu Lianning no longer allowed him to go out, not even into the garden.
Blaming Li Yan’s fragile health on how thin he’d become, Lu Lianning hired several nutritionists to create special meal plans, and the butler was tasked with supervising his meals.
Li Yan hardly noticed these changes. He only observed that the food tasted slightly strange and that Lu Lianning had become even more stingy, refusing to let him spend any time in the garden.
As for Lu Lianning, his sharp tongue toward Li Yan remained unchanged.
And yet, the flowers in Li Yan’s greenhouse always thrived.
Lu Lianning never allowed a single one to wilt in Li Yan’s presence.
