The Arrogant Young Master Targeted by the Overbearing President - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: His Bottom Line

With no fabric left between them, their skin pressed and rubbed tightly together, sending a tingling, numbing sensation straight to the top of his head. Lu Siyang’s entire body trembled as he threw his head back, unable to stop a soft moan from escaping his lips. Gradually, the moans turned into low whimpers, and then into broken cries mixed with a sobbing tone…

An unknown amount of time passed before things finally fell silent. All that remained was Fang Lv’s heavy breathing and the tender whispers pressed against his ear. Lu Siyang lay on the sofa, having already drifted into a muddled sleep.

Fang Lv brushed the stray hairs on Lu Siyang’s forehead back behind his ear. In a daze, he instinctively wanted to lean down and kiss Lu Siyang’s brow, but his eyes suddenly flashed, and he stopped himself. He knelt half-down beside the sofa, gazing with a complex expression at the deeply sleeping Lu Siyang; the younger man’s full lips were slightly swollen, and a trace of crystal moisture—too late to be wiped away—still lingered at the corners of his reddened eyes. Fang Lv stared down for a long while before finally lowering his body to give the corner of Lu Siyang’s eye a light peck.

In the end, he never did get to eat those Oil-Braised Bamboo Shoots Fang Lv made.

By the time the alarm clock woke him, it was already the next morning. Back when his father first brought him into Lu Corporation to learn the business, he had been lazy and inconsistent—late three days and leaving early two days out of a five-day work week. But ever since Lu Minshan passed away and he took over the company, the weight of all the affairs had crashed down on him; the invisible pressure seemed to make him grow up overnight. Lu Siyang had shed his playboy persona; as long as it was a workday, he arrived at the company at nine o’clock sharp without fail.

He saw that the spot beside him was already empty. Fang Lv’s coat was gone from the entryway rack, and a prepared breakfast sat on the dining table. Lu Siyang stood at the table, gulping down the still-warm milk in the glass and hurriedly stuffing a sandwich into his mouth. With his cheeks bulging, he headed out the door.

The road to the company was extremely congested, but Lu Siyang was in a good mood today. His index finger tapped a rhythm on the steering wheel, and a faint, dark glint showed in his eyes. Today, he had an old friend to see.

At a quarter to nine, Lu Siyang arrived early at the office. A few minutes later, Assistant Zhang knocked and entered. Lu Siyang, leaning back in his executive chair, opened his eyes, a trace of ruthlessness flashing between his brows: “Did you bring him?”

“Yes, President Lu,” Assistant Zhang nodded. “He is currently locked in the storage room on the second basement level.”

“Let’s go.” Lu Siyang pushed off the armrests and stood up, his teeth grinding together with a hint of excitement. “Let’s go see our guest.”

Lu Siyang took the private elevator directly to B2. Next to the parking lot was a small storage room used for discarded desks, chairs, and miscellaneous items. The door was ajar, and strange muffled groans could be heard coming from inside.

Lu Siyang kicked the door open and said with a smile, “Long time no see, Young Master Wang.”

Bound to an old sofa directly opposite the door was a man with a fleshy face and big ears, his belly fat nearly bursting his belt. He was currently being pinned down by two bodyguards, wrapped from head to toe in more than a dozen loops of thick hemp rope, with several layers of duct tape pressed firmly over his mouth. The moment he saw Lu Siyang enter, his eyes instantly filled with terror.

“What’s wrong with you guys? Young Master Wang is a guest I invited,” Lu Siyang frowned, feigning anger as he looked at the bodyguards standing with lowered heads. “Hurry up and untie him.”

“Yes, President Lu.” The two bodyguards immediately stepped forward and undid the ropes on Wang Fa.

Lu Siyang walked over and ripped the tape off Wang Fa’s mouth in one ruthless motion. The untied Wang Fa let out a howl of pain and shrank into the corner of the sofa, trembling. Lu Siyang sneered and leaned in; the dim overhead light cast shadows that made his face look as grim as a vengeful ghost.

“What is it, Young Master Wang? Are you afraid of me?”

“P-President Lu…” Wang Fa shuddered, pulling his mouth into a hideous smile. “Why did you… call me here…”

Lu Siyang straightened up, and a quick-witted bodyguard brought over a clean chair. He sat down with his legs crossed and said slowly, “That video slandering Lu Corporation a while back—I wonder if Young Master Wang has seen it?”

Wang Fa’s eyelid twitched as he said, “What… what video are you talking about, President Lu? I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?” Lu Siyang brushed his hair back and raised an eyebrow. “I heard that those troublemaking employees went to see Young Master Wang recently?”

Wang Fa’s face stiffened, and he waved his hands repeatedly: “President Lu! That’s absolutely not true! They… they’re talking nonsense!”

Lu Siyang narrowed his eyes and asked again, “Not true?”

Wang Fa shook his head like a rattle: “No, no! Absolutely not!”

“Fine then.” Lu Siyang took a deep breath and stood up. “Since Young Master Wang refuses to speak, then stay here and sober up for a couple of days.” He turned his head and said leisurely to the bodyguards, “Treat him well; don’t neglect Young Master Wang.”

Hearing this, Wang Fa’s face turned deathly pale: “President Lu! I’m not lying to you, I’m really not lying to you, President Lu, aaaaah—”

Lu Siyang walked out without looking back. Assistant Zhang, following behind, closed the storage room door, cutting off Wang Fa’s miserable wails. Lu Siyang turned to Assistant Zhang and said, “Starve him for two days first, let’s see if his mouth is still this stubborn.”

“Understood.” Assistant Zhang pulled a call record detail from a folder and handed it to Lu Siyang. “President Lu, these are Wang Fa’s call records from when he was abroad. Excluding irrelevant people, there is only one suspicious call.”

Lu Siyang frowned: “Who did you find?”

Assistant Zhang shook his head: “Nothing. The other party seems to have used a voice changer, and the phone number was encrypted, making it untraceable.”

Encrypted calls and a voice changer… the other party was quite vigilant. It seemed he could only start with Wang Fa. “Keep an eye on Wang Fa,” Lu Siyang returned the details to Assistant Zhang, a ruthless look crossing his eyes. “I want to see just how tight this kid’s mouth can be.”

He handled documents in the office all morning, and in the blink of an eye, it was time to get off work. He checked his phone; there were no new messages and no missed calls. In the WeChat chat box, the last message between the two of them was from last Friday, when Fang Lv asked what time he got off work. For the entire morning, the other party hadn’t sent a single message.

In just one minute, Lu Siyang had checked the chat box no less than three times. He toyed with his phone, his gaze drifting back and forth between the window and the screen. It was as if something was missing, or as if he were waiting for something. Lu Siyang stood up and paced back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. On the fourth time he unlocked his phone, he finally dialed Fang Lv’s number.

However, the call wasn’t picked up until it was automatically disconnected. Lu Siyang curled his lip and dialed again. He called three times in a row, but no one answered. He stood by the window for a moment longer, then grabbed his car keys from the desk and walked out quickly.

Fang Lv’s bar only opened for business at three in the afternoon. Lu Siyang parked the car and entered through the small door in the back alley. At this time, there was only one waiter in the bar, standing at the counter wiping glasses. Seeing Lu Siyang, he greeted him eagerly.

“President Lu, how do you have time to come by today?”

Lu Siyang didn’t say much, only asking, “Where is your boss?”

The waiter shook his head: “The boss seems very busy lately; he hasn’t been in at all.”

He hasn’t been in at all? Seeing Lu Siyang’s shocked expression, the waiter asked curiously, “Are you looking for our boss, President Lu? Should I ask for the boss’s number for you?”

“No need.” Lu Siyang waved his hand and walked out quickly, dialing Fang Lv’s number again. Surprisingly, this time it was picked up after just one ring.

Lu Siyang was stunned for a moment, then said irritably, “Where did you go?”

“My phone was accidentally on silent, I didn’t notice the calls,” hearing the urgency in Lu Siyang’s tone, Fang Lv teased, “What, did you miss me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Lu Siyang coughed lightly, as if talking to himself, “I didn’t get to eat those Oil-Braised Bamboo Shoots last night.” Before Fang Lv could respond, he quickly added, “I don’t like the food in the cafeteria this afternoon.”

There was a sudden silence for a few seconds on Fang Lv’s end before he spoke again: “Baby, that’s quite unfortunate. I’ve come to the bar. How about I go back and cook for you tonight?”

Lu Siyang stopped in his tracks abruptly and turned to look at the closed doors of the bar that had yet to open for business. He felt a wave of numbness wash over his body. He crinkled the corners of his eyes, the smile on his lips not reaching his eyes: “Sure.”

After hanging up, Lu Siyang lit a cigarette and leaned against the car door. He watched the white smoke rise gradually, the familiar scent swirling around his nose. He had never liked the smell of smoke, so any friends around him would never smoke in his presence. But since meeting Fang Lv, the choking tobacco scent seemed to have gained a thick filter, becoming less disgusting to him.

No, it was more than that. It seemed that after meeting Fang Lv, his bottom lines were being broken one by one. Lu Siyang didn’t like taking the initiative, he never accommodated others, and he certainly wouldn’t just sleep with someone casually. But because it was Fang Lv, the rules and regulations in his head suddenly didn’t count. Looking at the half-burnt cigarette, Lu Siyang gave a self-deprecating laugh and crushed it out forcefully in the trash can.

He shouldn’t be like this. At least… he shouldn’t keep retreating further and further for Fang Lv.

When he got off work that evening, Lu Siyang made up an excuse and didn’t go back to the villa. It wasn’t just that night; for the next few days, he used the excuse of being busy at the company to stay at the old family manor, which was relatively closer to Lu Corporation. He didn’t know why Fang Lv had lied that day, and he didn’t want to investigate.

From the very beginning, he had thought about it the wrong way. Perhaps to Fang Lv, he was just a physically compatible sex partner. They lived together, ate, bathed, and slept together—that was all. Fang Lv had never made any promises to him, nor had he ever shown his true feelings. It was he who had been filling in the blanks, he who had been conceited.

Lu Siyang occupied all his thinking time with work; perhaps in his heart, he was instinctively evading the task of sorting out their relationship. However, even if he deliberately avoided thinking about it, the moment he had a free second, his mind was still occupied by the other man.