Lop-Eared Guard - Chap 49
By: Fel, yukirayu
Lu Shangjin slept, lying on the steering wheel for a while. The back and trouser legs of the suit he hadn’t had time to change out of were crinkled up.
He woke up in a haze and felt his face, the stubble on his chin unshaven for several days. He leaned over to the passenger side to feel around for the spare razor. The little rabbit’s skin was very soft and delicate, so he couldn’t prick him with pain when he coaxed to console him.
Until he felt that his neck and chin was smooth and tidy, Lu Shangjin pulled his necktie loose with one hand. He couldn’t even stand the necktie being out of line before, but now the tie was casually hanging in a loose and disorderly manner.
It was the end of holidays, and the kids were sent in by their parents, one after another.
Outside the school gate, Lu Shangjin’s car was replaced by an ordinary Toyota. Among the many luxury cars staying in front of the school, his was like a small unobtrusive stone. Nobody noticed him.
Lu Shangjin focused on searching for that wisp of devil’s snare pheromones near the school. He suspected that a driver would send that little spider here.
Ten minutes later, Lu Shangjin suddenly froze. He raised his head to carefully feel the familiar scent in the air that was getting closer and closer.
He remembered the milk candy when he was younger. In a large box of milk candy, a small rabbit suddenly jumped out, clinging to him and calling him Jin-ge, and stuffing a piece of sweet milk candy into his mouth.
Lu Shangjin rushed to push the door open and almost missed the step when he got out as his eyes anxiously searched in the dense crowd. A child holding a milk sorbet ran past him, the scent of the milk candy hitting hard on Lu Shangjin’s heart.
All of a sudden, Lu Shangjin’s vision became blurry as hope ignited and extinguished over and over, like a piece of iron that had been repeatedly bent before finally breaking in the middle.
He looked at himself in the rearview mirror, his eyes sorrowfully enveloped in a layer of water.
He suddenly recalled; when he went home one early morning, Yan Yi was wearing an apron as he was washing dishes in the kitchen.
The garbage cans were full of seemingly untouched meals.
Seeing that he came back, Yan Yi hurriedly wiped his hands and walked out. He opened his mouth as if to ask something and hesitated for a long time, but only asked him:
“Are you hungry?”
Thinking about it now, those dull eyes were actually filled with grievances. Lu Shangjin never thought about whether he would be sad when he was preparing a sumptuous dinner only to receive the text “not coming home tonight”.
He couldn’t wait to go back.
To go and eat all the untouched food at the table without even leaving a drop of vegetable soup. How he wished to rub the little rabbit into his arms and love him dearly, making up for all the things he had owed him over the years.
Lu Shangjin silently leaned against the car door, his fingers digging into the sealant lining of the car window frame.
The moment he lifted his gaze, he thought he saw it wrong.
Across the crowded steam of people at the school gate, he saw the tall and charming figure taking off his helmet on the opposite side of the road where the traffic was surging. His grey hair was lifted up by the wind, his two little rabbit ears raising up as he shook off a few creases pressed by the helmet.
“Yan Yan!” Seized with a sudden impulse, Lu Shangjin chased after him. As the flow of people blocked his line of sight one by one, he shouted loudly, “Yan Yan!”
As far as he could see, the thin, warm and soft body was suddenly pulled into a pair of arms.
Lu Shangjin didn’t even react and froze in place.
Wearing a tight leather jacket, Shao Wenjing was sitting on a motorcycle and pulled Yan Yi’s waist from behind. He took off his helmet with one hand and kissed Yan Yi’s little ear affectionately.
Yan Yi didn’t indulge him, but he didn’t refuse him either.
He leaned down to take out a bag of handmade milk-candy from his pocket, carefully putting them into Wenchi’s school bag, instructing him in a soft voice, “Eat them with other kids. You’ll have cavities if you eat all of them yourself.”
The little spider nodded obediently and tenderly hugged Yan Yi’s neck, pleading in a coquettish tone, “Bunny and gege have to pick me up on Friday, okay?”
Yan Yi’s eyes curved as he stroked his finely soft hair. “Okay. Listen carefully at school.”
Shao Wenjing raised a corner of his lips and exposed the tip of one of his canine teeth. “If little alpha devils bully you at school, remember to hit them back. Call other people to hit back if you can’t do it; it’s too meaningless to tell the teacher or whatever.”
Yan Yi turned around and gave him a look that conveyed, “Shut up,” before pushing Wenchi’s little school bag. “Go on then.”
The little spider happily sped away, running to wait for the red light with some classmates on the sidewalk.
Yan Yi watched him with worry. How could he let such a small child cross the road by himself?
Revealing one’s true concern could not deceive others, nor could it be disguised. Shao Wenjing fixed his gaze onto the side of Yan Yi’s face as he unconsciously embraced him, softly murmuring in his ear, “Let’s go back. You can’t stay outside the manor for too long.”
“Yan Yan!”
The urgent shout startled both of them.
Lu Shangjin hurried over this way, bypassing the crowd of people and traffic. His haggard face was as pale as paper, and his hoarse voice seemed to carry extreme anguish.
Strangely yet surprisingly, Yan Yi looked at him. When he turned behind to look, he revealed a confused expression.
“You’re calling me?”
Yan Yi looked sympathetically at Lu Shangjin. What a good-looking alpha, and yet he didn’t seem to be in good spirits.
Shao Wenjing was stunned at first, then gave an odious grin.
In the past, when the name “young master Lu” was mentioned, the first words that came to people’s minds were “strict and serious”, and they were unable to find anything improper about him.
He wanted to take a picture of Lu Shangjin’s current discomfited appearance and let their circle of friends open their eyes.
Soon after, Shao Wenjing kissed Yan Yi’s cheek in front of Lu Shangjin.
He originally wanted to kiss his lips, but Yan Yi avoided it in discomfort. But it didn’t matter, he knew Lu Shangjin couldn’t handle this.
This scene was like a blow to the head, catching Lu Shangjin off guard and having his head broken and bleeding.
Lu Shangjin panted violently, his chest heaving involuntarily. His fierce glare almost tearing the corners of his eyes——
His precious Qing Hua porcelain had been dirtied all over with the touch of someone’s fingerprints and handprints.
Back in the days, Lu Shangjin would rather break his precious porcelain. He would rather destroy than allow others to touch his things.
But now, he was only worried about whether Yan Yi was forced, whether he was threatened, or really hated him to the bone, and got back at him by hurting himself in this way.
“Where are you going?” Lu Shangjin watched Yan Yi mounting onto the back of the motorcycle and was driven mad as he watched Shao Wenjing hold his hands, lifting them up to put them around his waist to make him hug him. The motorcycle roared away with a forceful twist of the throttle.
“Yan Yan! Yan Yan! You don’t recognize me?!” Lu Shangjin chased after the motorcycle riding away, blocked by the flow of traffic as the green light came on.
His vision turned black and his feet turned weak, he staggered two steps and slowly squatted down while holding onto the traffic light.
Yan Yi’s confused and sympathetic gaze lingered in his mind. That expression was detached yet calm. He was like a stranger to him, like they were people from two different worlds who have never crossed paths.
“Oh.”
A small hand stretched out in front of him, a milk candy held in his palm.
Shao Wenchi squatted in front of him, tilting his head as he studied him. Stretching the hand holding the milk candy forward, he blinked a little timidly, “For you.”
Lu Shangjin was taken aback, receiving the milk candy into the palm of his hand as though he was holding a treasure.
He watched Wenchi skip across the road, with four alpha bodyguards following at a distance.
Losing his wits, Lu Shangjin wanted to drive after them, but his trembling hand forgot how to insert the key into the hole.
He found a clean piece of tissue and carefully wrapped the milk candy in his palm one fold at a time, as focused as if he were delicately carving an expensive gemstone.
The scent of milk candy came out through the tissue.
Lu Shangjin couldn’t help but peel open the tissue, swallow the small milk candy into his mouth and chewed hard. He chewed very slowly, afraid he would finish it if he were not careful, yet feeling as if he chewed hard. It was like a wolf tearing at bones, with his cheeks aching.
What’s the matter with this?
His mind buzzed with a dull pain and went blank.
Why didn’t the little rabbit come running in grievance and hug him?
Why did he go with someone else?
Did he not want him anymore?
——
This matter must be made clear.
He would then no longer misunderstand Yan Yi.
But he still couldn’t find which way Shao Wenjing had gone.
Ever since Shao Wenjing left with Yan Yi on his motorcycle, their pheromones had disappeared, like they vanished into thin air. Lu Shangjin dug deep and searched every corner of Nan Qi, yet he couldn’t find even a single trace left by Shao Wenjing.
He wanted to ask that little spider omega.
However, the school was fully closed down with military management, and the little spider was also escorted by bodyguards. He didn’t have a chance to get close.
So for three whole days, he had been keeping an eye on the female teacher that got suspended.
His car didn’t need to be parked in the neighbourhood. The living room and master bedroom where the female teacher lived was faced outside of the neighbourhood and was located on the first floor. With Lu Shangjin’s eyesight, he could easily see any subtle activities from her.
She had a young daughter who was also a beta. Suspended at home, besides spending most of her time with her daughter, she spent the rest of her time outside, and met with Mr Chen once again within those three days.
Lu Shangjin threw away his empty cigarette box. Holding the last cigarette in his mouth, he drew a breath of the light blue flame gathered close to his palm as his eyes followed her out for a few hundred meters.
Jiang Xiaohong deliberately took Mr Chen to the corner where there was no one. She looked around, then stuffed a kraft paper archive file into Mr Chen’s hand.
Mr Chen checked the file and smiled at Jiang Xiaohong, “The return bonus is half for one person.” He turned to get back into his car, stepping on the accelerator and sped away.
“Ai…” Jiang Xiaohong absent-mindedly chased forward for two steps, her trembling fingers holding on to her heart. In the end, she still couldn’t go back on her word.
She took a few deep breaths to calm her uneasy mood, and as soon as she turned around, her view was blocked by a strip of black metal.
Jiang Xiaohong screamed and took two steps back in fear. Looking upwards along the muzzle of the gun, Lu Shangjin was sitting on a low wall two meters high, single-handedly carrying a Souct with the scope removed. The muzzle of the gun held up her chin, the weapon icy-cold against the skin of the neck.
Jiang Xiaohong froze and slowly raised her hands.
She had no conceptions of weapons. When pointed at her neck by the muzzle of the gun, she seemed to be playing a VR version of “Jedi: Survivor”, where the boss of the game was punishing her with the Souct tilted at a 45 degree angle.
With the icy-cold muzzle against her skin, the strong smell of gunpowder entered her nose, only then did she suddenly wake up to the fact that this was not a dream.
Jiang Xiaohong was shoved into the passenger seat. Lu Shangjin put the Souct in the backseat before starting the car. He steadily looked forward, driving toward the direction driver Chen went in.
“Where are you taking me…? Let me off… Do you want money…?” The female teacher cowered in a corner, keeping away from this man.
Under the fierce, knife-like eyelids, the grim and sorrowful eyes looked straight ahead. The smell of tobacco and the aggressive pheromones of an alpha told one how dangerous this man was.
For civilians, and especially for betas, this was a horrific experience that one would never encounter in a lifetime.
Not beating around the bush, Lu Shangjin went directly to the point, “You want that driver to report the clues of high-grade omega glands for you to get back at Shao Wenjing?”
She didn’t dare to report herself, because she knew about the consequences. If Shao Wenjing were to catch a hint, never mind her job, she wouldn’t be able to save eve her life.
Jiang Xiaohong had already become a terribly frightened bird. Being exposed to the face of what she was planning to do, she raised her voice and looked at Lu Shangjin in horror. “No…I only let driver Chen give some clues to them…Shao Wenjing’s background is so strong…those gland hunters could never touch Shao Wenchi…I-I’m just short of money…”
Jiang Xiaohong covered her face as she wept, “You don’t see how scary those debt collectors carrying knives to our door are… My daughter and I can only hide in the toilet and dare not make a sound. I’ve suffered enough…We have to pay the debt that useless man owes…I still have to pay the mortgages, take care of my parents and child…”
At first, she was still able to support the family in the raging storm, but now she felt that her days were too dark to see the end of the tunnel.
She cried until Lu Shangjin felt annoyed and perplexed, his manic episode about to break out.
Lu Shangjin grabbed her by the jaw and covered her mouth. breathing hard. His eyes were so wide that the whites were exposed, as he hysterically whispered a warning through clenched teeth.
“Don’t irritate me, please- AH——!’
