The Arrogant Young Master Targeted by the Overbearing President - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Unrest in the Heart

4:10 PM…

It was already the afternoon?! He had actually slept for an entire day?!

Fine, it wasn’t a late arrival anymore; it had turned straight into an unexcused absence.

He picked up his phone and sent a WeChat message to Assistant Zhang, taking a rare leave of absence before finally crawling out of bed.

Having slept too long, Lu Siyang felt dizzy the moment he sat up. His head felt like it had been filled with cement, and his whole body was groggy.

When he got out of bed, he couldn’t find his slippers anywhere. Only then did it suddenly occur to him that last night, before he could even change his shoes after entering the door, he and Fang Lv had… at the entrance…

Lu Siyang’s face felt slightly hot. As expected, staying with Fang Lv for too long had made him act absurdly as well.

He splashed his face with cold water and went downstairs to the entryway to find his slippers. Passing the dining table, he saw the breakfast Fang Lv had prepared still sitting there, now completely cold. When Fang Lv was cooking, he probably hadn’t expected Lu Siyang to sleep straight through until evening. This worked out perfectly—he had skipped two meals in one go.

Lu Siyang opened the shoe cabinet. Beside his slippers sat a pair of pure white house slippers. The size was two notches larger than his own.

In his mind, an image suddenly emerged of Fang Lv wearing these white slippers and an apron, standing in front of the kitchen counter. Under the apron was a set of Lu Siyang’s old loungewear; on Fang Lv, the size was a bit small, making him look restricted, and the pant legs were so short they looked like cropped trousers.

At this thought, Lu Siyang’s heart stirred. He hurriedly ate a few bites of the cold breakfast, grabbed his car keys, and rushed out the door.

Throughout the drive, the hand gripping the steering wheel trembled slightly. He knew what he was doing, and he knew what it would signify.

He parked his car in the B2 parking lot of Dongsheng Plaza and went straight into the mall. There was a wide variety of loungewear styles; Lu Siyang spent a long time picking through the racks until his eyes grew blurry. He didn’t even know what size Fang Lv wore… the largest size shouldn’t be wrong, right?

Lu Siyang was looking down in thought when someone suddenly tapped his shoulder.

“Hello, sorry to bother you,” a strange girl said to Lu Siyang, looking a bit embarrassed. “Could I please ask you to try on this jacket for me? I want to buy one for my boyfriend but I don’t know if it fits. He has a similar build to yours, so…”

Lu Siyang nodded: “Sure.”

“Thank you.” The girl smiled gratefully and handed over the men’s top she had selected.

Lu Siyang slipped it on. The girl circled him twice, sizing him up from top to bottom, yet it also felt like she was looking through him at someone else—as if the image of her boyfriend wearing this jacket had already appeared in her mind.

“This one is just right, thank you so much!” The girl thanked him and left. Lu Siyang watched her back in a daze. The excitement nearly overflowing from the girl’s eyes and the shy smile between her brows left him a bit stunned.

He instinctively touched his own face and felt the upward curve of his own lips. He looked at the loungewear he had picked out, his earlobes turning slightly hot. Was his expression right now just like that girl’s…

Lu Siyang was carrying the selected loungewear and about to head out when he saw a sign hanging on the toiletries shelf—”Couple’s Toothbrush Cups, Buy One Get One Free.” Those two huge words, “Couple’s,” stimulated Lu Siyang’s nerves.

He paused in his tracks, his gaze shifting downward. They were ordinary plastic toothbrush cups with ridiculous heart patterns printed on the bodies. The two cups were identical, except one was red and one was blue. Lu Siyang couldn’t help but stop. He stood before the shelf for a long time before raising his arm and quickly tossing the two toothbrush cups into the shopping cart.

As if to cover something up, he muttered to himself: “Buy one get one free. I’d be a fool not to buy it at such a cheap price.”

By the time he finished checking out and drove out of the mall, the sky was completely dark. After arriving home, he hung the loungewear on the rack in the entryway and placed the two toothbrush cups on the bathroom sink. Having finished these tasks, he curled up on the sofa and turned on the television.

He held the remote, mindlessly switching channels, but his ears were constantly alert for any sound at the door. The bar seemed very busy these few days; Fang Lv was coming home later and later.

At a quarter past eight, the sound of the digital lock rang out from the door. Lu Siyang practically sprang up from the sofa.

Fang Lv opened the door and entered. He stood in the entryway changing his slippers, and when he looked up, he saw the coffee-colored loungewear hanging on the rack. His hand taking off his coat suddenly stopped.

Lu Siyang’s heart suddenly raced, waiting for Fang Lv’s next reaction. The lights in the house weren’t on; only the television flickered with a dim, unclear light. Fang Lv had his back turned to him, making his expression unreadable.

After a long while, seeing that Fang Lv hadn’t spoken, Lu Siyang couldn’t help but open his mouth: “…Fang Lv?”

Fang Lv’s brow moved as if he were being woken from a dream. His voice carried a dark rasp: “Is this… bought for me?”

“Who else? Is there anyone else in this house besides you and me?” Lu Siyang thought to himself how stupid the question was, but in the next moment he reacted and asked, “What, you don’t like it?”

Fang Lv was silent for a few seconds, then laughed: “How could I not? I like everything you buy.”

Lu Siyang pursed his lips and didn’t speak.

Fang Lv added: “Why aren’t the lights on? It’s bad for your eyes.” With that, he reached out and turned on the living room light.

Lu Siyang didn’t like those so-called “atmosphere lights”; everything in his home was bright, natural white light. The brilliant illumination suddenly flared up, stinging his eyes and forcing them shut. Lu Siyang squinted and looked over; Fang Lv was standing at the entryway, smiling at him.

For some reason, the normally bright light now seemed to carry a hazy blur, and the smile on Fang Lv’s face at this moment gave him a fleeting sense of unreality. Seeing his expression, Fang Lv let out a light laugh, walked forward, and pinched his chin.

“What are you thinking about?”

Fang Lv leaned down close, his eyes reflecting Lu Siyang’s dazed appearance. Lu Siyang shook his head and shifted his gaze away. Fang Lv raised his arm, instinctively wanting to ruffle Lu Siyang’s hair, but for some unknown reason, he forced himself to pull his hand back halfway.

“I’ll go cook.” Fang Lv didn’t ask further and entered the kitchen without looking back.

Watching the sound of running water in the kitchen, Lu Siyang looked down, staring blankly at the floor. Fang Lv’s reaction left him a bit disappointed. The other man didn’t seem as happy as he had imagined; instead, it felt more like… he felt troubled…

Which part exactly went wrong? Why did he always feel frustrated at moments like this? Facing Fang Lv, that unfathomable feeling always left him feeling uneasy. Thinking of the stranger girl he met at the mall—perhaps, is everyone else’s romance like this too?

After dazing in the living room for half an hour, Fang Lv finished making dinner. The two of them had dinner while chatting as usual, yet with a mutual tacit understanding, neither mentioned what had just happened.

Early the next morning, when Lu Siyang woke up, Fang Lv had gone out again. The coffee-colored loungewear was folded neatly beside Fang Lv’s pillow.

It was a bit eyesore.

He looked away, got out of bed, and went to the bathroom. The eye-catching couple’s cups entered his view; the blue cup had faint traces of water on it, seemingly having been used. Lu Siyang’s eyes lit up, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl up again.

He went downstairs with a light step and finished the breakfast Fang Lv had left for him. The green lights all the way to work even made him start humming a song.

Unfortunately, this rare good mood only lasted until the moment he entered his office. The moment he opened the stock market interface, Lu Siyang’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

Ever since he took over the company, the Lu Corporation’s stock had been sliding. He had managed to stabilize it with great difficulty before, but these past few days it had suddenly dropped again. Today made him even more furious—it hit the limit down right at the opening.

Assistant Zhang observed Lu Siyang’s expression and said cautiously: “President Lu, the Lu Corporation’s stock price has been abnormal these few days. I’ve already conducted an investigation. Actually, a part of it is still due to that previous video incident, which affected the company’s image… so…”

At this point, Assistant Zhang stopped.

Lu Siyang knew what was going on. For that kind of maliciously edited video, any clear-headed person would know what was happening. But a large number of shareholders didn’t know, and some were even happy to consume such gossip. There were even people who made specialized video explanations, analyzing the Lu Corporation’s stock with great authority while labeling him as an arrogant and overbearing “rich second generation,” finally concluding that the Lu Corporation would surely fall apart in his hands.

The spread of these ‘serious-looking nonsense’ videos was incredibly fast. He didn’t bother to deal with it, waving his hand: “What else?”

Assistant Zhang’s expression became serious: “Furthermore, at almost the same time, different accounts have been selling off our stock in large quantities, causing the stock to hit the limit down.”

Lu Siyang’s expression sharpened, his gaze darkening: “Massive sell-offs? When were these accounts bought in?”

Assistant Zhang replied: “They weren’t all bought in large quantities at once. They were all scattered, bought in batches.”

Bought in batches?

In other words, the other party’s actions had been long-premeditated. However, such artificial, massive, and malicious sell-offs were illegal. Anyone who knew even a bit about the law wouldn’t be stupid enough to do this.

“Have you found the location of the account holders?”

Assistant Zhang nodded: “Yes, I found it. But coincidentally, these several people all went abroad at the same time.”

Went abroad at the same time?

Could it be such a coincidence?

Now this was very interesting…

Lu Siyang leaned back in his chair, his finger tapping the desk over and over. After a long while, he said: “I see. You can go back to work.”

Assistant Zhang left, and the large office instantly became quiet. Lu Siyang crossed his hands against his forehead, his brows tightly furrowed. Who exactly was playing tricks behind the scenes, and what did they want with the Lu Corporation…

He suddenly thought of the charity auction that night, the look Wang Hongsheng gave him before leaving, and that sentence that had been bothering him.

“President Lu, you’d better look out for yourself.”

Lu Siyang was convinced that Wang Hongsheng knew something. Therefore, after that day, he had someone keep a constant eye on the Wang father and son. Aside from regular business dealings, there was no abnormality at all, nor were they in contact with anyone suspicious.