Due to his curiosity, Li Xinwen increased the pressure he's exerting. From the pressure of a lower stage one Houtian to middle stage, he could see that Xue Liang was still able to resist and nothing much has changed. But when the pressure entered the peak of stage one Houtian, Xue Liang finally threw out blood and Li Xinwen immediately stopped. 'Just a mere stage one body transformation practitioner and he could already resist the pressure from a mid-stage one Houtian? He have a lot of potential. It's unfortunate that I don't like him,' Li Xinwen thought as he put his hand over Xua Liang's head and proceeded to inject his spiritual energy into him, erasing the things that has happened the moment Xue Liang got into his room.
Then, he proceeded to create a fake memory, making it that after Xue Liang entered his room, the male had an accident and fell down, knocking on his head and falling unconscious.
After he's done, he went over to his table and grabbed his phone that was charging. He scrolled over his contact list, found Xue Rui's number and proceeded to call him. It took him several rings before the phone call was finally answered.
"Hello?" Xue Rui's word were slurred before he continued to speak. "Xinwen... Ah'Wen... I love you so much and I miss you so much~"
Li Xinwen's expression turned dark when he heard this tone. "Rui-ge, are you drunk?" he asked. "Can you drive?"
"Drive1? Of course I can, Xinwen, ah! Just tell me where and I'll go to you. I promise that I can drive all night long and give you the utmost pleasure~"
Li Xinwen: ...
Li Xinwen couldn't say anything. He became speechless at Xue Rui's reply because he didn't understand what the man had meant until he remembered a certain modern slang. His face is immediately covered in black lines and he was just about to scold Xue Rui when he heard another voice from the other line.
"Xiao Rui, you're drunk. Let your big bro answer it," then following that voice, Li Xinwen could hear Xue Rui struggling.
"No! Brother... please don't take Xinwen away from me!!"
Li Xinwen then decided to simply wait for the people on the other side to be done while glancing over at Xue Liang who is out cold on the floor. Not long after, Li Xinwen heard Xue Rui's voice again.
"Xinwen, are you still there?" he asked, his tone sounding very pitiful.
"Here," Li Xinwen replied. "Rui-ge, I won't repeat this so listen carefully... come over quickly and pick up your brother," Li Xinwen said before he cut off the phone call.
* * *
Few hours before Li Xinwen's phone call, 7pm at Fluorescene Club, Xue Rui met with his eldest brother. In this private room, there were only two of them and no one else. Xue Rui sat down opposite of his brother who has a stoic expression. "You look well, Jun-ge. I guess the army is treating you right?" Xue Rui asked as he greeted his brother, Xue Jun.
Xue Jun just nods his head at Xue Rui's question. "Have you eaten?" his brother asked and Xue Rui shook his head.
"I went straight over after work... I finished up quite late so I didn't have time to eat," Xue Rui replied.
"Then, let's eat something first. Pad your stomach before drinking."
They then proceeded to call for the waiter. Because they are frequent customers in this club, they simply ordered the usual and the waiter understood.
"Xiao Rui, tell me what happened with Xue Liang earlier."
Xue Rui was distressed when he remembered what happened earlier. How Xue Liang had said he had taken advantage of Li Xinwen behind his back by impersonating him. Just thinking of it made his heart heavy and caused him a headache from all the stress. He slowly explained to Xue Jun about Xue Liang's matter and the eldest of the triplet also felt a headache coming.
From when they were young, Xue Liang had always been a troublesome child. The reason lay with their parents. Their father, Xue Yunfeng, only focused on raising the eldest to be his successor. On the other hand, their mother only dotted on the youngest and even spoiled Xue Rui. Xue Liang would always felt that he has no place in his own home so his rebellious phase came early.
Things got worse when they entered their teens. Xue Liang was caught in a street fight and when their father was informed of it, the man was livid. It was only then that they found out that Xue Liang had joined the underground organization. Xue Yunfeng was very close to disowning Xue Liang then, but he was stopped by their grandfather. Old Xue tells Xue Yunfeng to let Xue Liang do as he pleased, but at the same time, he also told Xue Liang that he as not allowed to step into their ancestral home until he reached the top of the food chain within the underworld circle.
This was tantamount to Old Xue's wishes to subdue the underworld circle. At that time, Old Xue's rank was that of a General, a rank above Xue Yunfeng who was a Lieutenant General at the time. Then, two years ago, Xue Liang returned to their ancestral home with his head held up high. In just five years, he managed to become the master of the underground organization. But at the same time, Xue Jun had also reached the rank of Brigadier General at the age of 20, making him the youngest to reach the rank in history. Then, a few months after, Xue Rui had also gotten great achievements in the business world, making him the youngest man to become a business tyrant.
All sorts of praise hailed from every direction for the Xue Family. But due to the nature of Xue Liang's business, his achievements were naturally concealed. Feeling that the family is treating him unfairly again, Xue Liang 'ran away' from home. Although he ran away, he still keeps close in touch with his brothers.
"I sent some men to search for Xiao Er but he really knows how to hide. If he didn't want to be found, then he won't be found," Xue Jun said with a heavy sigh. "I should put a tracker on him when we see him again..."
"Ge, that aside, what should I do? Because of Er ge, my relationship with Xinwen became very complicated... Please tell me how to fix this..." Xue Rui said helplessly.
Xue Jun was just about to answer when the waiter came in with their food. "We'll talk later. First, let us eat," Xue Jun said as he picked up his utensil. Xue Jun was raised in a very strict manner and one of the rules he was taught is that one should not speak while eating. Xue Rui understood this so he just quietly ate his food.
After dinner, they ordered a couple of bottles of wine and in just a few hours, Xue Rui was totally spent. He continued to complain about Xue Liang's matter to Xue Jun who only gives out comments every now and then. It wasn't until Li Xinwen called did he feel slightly better. But the final sentence that Li Xinwen told him before cutting off the call made him sobered up. 'Pick up my brother...?'
"Xiao Rui, what's wrong?" Xue Jun asked when he saw the change in his brother's expression.
It took Xue Rui a while to process what happened and once he got it all figured out, his face went dark. "Brother! I'm going to the Li household!" he said as he stood up and grabbed his coat. Though he felt slightly sober, he was still drunk so it was not good for him to drive.
"Driving at this state? If you want to go and meet your maker that quickly, feel free. If not, then wait for a bit. Big bro will pay and then we'll go to the Li household. Big bro has someone waiting for us outside," Xue Jun said as he too stood up. "But you will explain to me what happened in the car."
"En. Thank you, Jun-ge," Xue Rui replied. "And... it's just that, Xinwen said that Xue Liang is there with him... now I'm feeling anxious..."
"We'll go quickly," Xue Jun said, understanding his brother's worry. Deep inside, he was also worried. Though he never told his brother, he had looked up at Li Xinwen's information once out of curiosity and when he learned more about Li Xinwen, he can't help but develop a feeling toward the other. Unfortunately, because Xue Rui fancied him, Xue Jun decided to give up and did not look for the male again so he never found out about Xue Liang's matter until today. 'If I continued to keep an eye on him, I could've kept him safe...' he thought to himself, feeling regretful.
Leave a comment below. Again, if you like the story so far, and wish to support me, you can do so by donating at: ko-fi.com/traita
Reminder:
On February, I plan to have the artist do another character design. The vote will be up in discord on late January. So if you haven't joined the discord server yet, you can do so at: https://discord.me/lxl (it's L, X and L)
Lanyu's character design will be up hopefully mid-february, depending on how busy the artist will be. For the new one, it might be released on mid-march.