Chapter 21: Yao Xing Academy 21 Part 3

Lu Zhou was momentarily speechless but soon shook his head. “If the house is gone, what about you and Grandma?”

“We’re used to hardship; we can live anywhere.” His grandmother wiped her tears and patted his hand lovingly. “As long as the debt isn’t paid, you and Xiao Ting won’t have peaceful days.”

“His debts are a bottomless pit. Even if we sell the house to pay some, it’ll just leak bigger later.” Lu Zhou pushed the Property Deed back to his grandfather.

“Grandpa, Grandma, don’t worry. I will definitely take good care of Xiao Ting.” Lu Zhou’s expression was serious. “So please don’t suffer for him. This house can’t be sold, and not a single cent of your money should go to him anymore.”

Seeing he wouldn’t accept it, his grandmother grew anxious, tears falling again. She gripped Lu Zhou’s hand tightly. “My dear child, you’re still studying, and Xiao Ting is so young. What if those people come knocking and no one’s there to protect you?”

“Someone protects me.” Lu Zhou grasped those rough hands, his voice soft and low. “At school, someone protects me. Although he…”

“I’d like to see who can protect you today!”

Lu Jianming kicked open the door, disheveled and wild-eyed with bloodshot eyes. Like a vicious ghost, he lunged hatefully at Lu Zhou, swinging a thick, long, menacing Wooden Stick straight at Lu Zhou’s face.

Lu Zhou instinctively shielded his grandmother. His head was struck hard by the Wooden Stick, and fresh red blood instantly poured down his neck. He raised his hand to fight back but felt dizzy and weak. Lu Jianming kicked him to the ground, and the Wooden Stick rained down like a storm, thudding relentlessly on his body.

“I’ll beat you to death, you unfilial thing!” Lu Jianming still bore the injuries Lu Zhou had inflicted, grimacing as he hit. “Damn it, daring to hit your own father! Heartless little beast—how did I spawn something like you!”

He kept cursing from his mouth while hitting harder and harder.

“Lu Jianming! Stop this instant!” His grandfather shouted angrily and stepped forward to stop him, but the man, who had completely lost his reason, shoved him to the ground.

“Old man!” His grandmother wailed, shakily going to help her husband up, tears flowing nonstop. “Jianming, don’t hit the child, don’t hit the child!”

“Jianming, have you made enough trouble?!” His uncle led a group of relatives rushing in hurriedly, pulling away the frenzied man. “We’re family—what can’t be said properly!”

The man panted roughly, waving the bloodstained Wooden Stick to force back those around him, then snatched the Property Deed from the table and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Family? Pfft!” The man spat viciously. “Stop the fake sympathy! What kind of family lets someone die?!”

Ventilating his rage, the man threw the Wooden Stick onto Lu Zhou, who lay prone on the ground, then shoved open the door and vanished into the night.

Chaos reigned inside the house. Lu Zhou lay motionless on the floor amid the elders’ sorrowful cries, the relatives’ angry denunciations, and the grown-ups’ concerned questions—all vying to flood into his ears.

He somewhat missed the days when his ears couldn’t hear.

Lu Zhou struggled to stand, blood dripping from his body and making the floor slippery where it stuck. He pushed away the relatives surrounding him with their mouths flapping nonstop and staggered out the door.

The deep winter night brought cold sea winds, but Lu Zhou felt utterly numb to it.

He stumbled along, not knowing how long he walked, until he reached an abandoned pier. On the empty pier, only a few dilapidated fishing boats bobbed against the shore with the waves.

Lu Zhou crawled into one of the fishing boats and hid himself in a corner of the cabin. His mouth and nose felt blocked; he coughed heavily a few times and spat out some sticky clotted blood. His breathing eased a bit, and a salty, fishy taste flooded in. For a moment, Lu Zhou couldn’t tell if it was the fishy smell from the boat or the blood from his own body.

His head spun badly, and the waves rocking the boat made him dizzier. He somewhat regretted boarding the boat, but now he couldn’t muster the strength to move.

He drifted into a hazy sleep—or perhaps he didn’t sleep at all. His consciousness blurred and cleared in turns. He didn’t know where on his body he was injured; no matter how he shifted position, pain gnawed relentlessly.

Fortunately, as midnight approached, the temperature dropped lower. Gradually, he stopped feeling the pain. Not just the pain—his limbs and body slowly lost all sensation.

The winter night stretched long, and the youth’s breath faded into the endless darkness.

Until a ringtone sounded.

The Mobile Phone rang persistently. Lu Zhou took a good while to struggle out of the deep darkness, regaining a sliver of awareness.

But only a sliver.

He lay numbly on the rotten wooden boards of the cabin, letting the phone in his pocket ring. The sea horizon turned fish-belly white; the black night had quietly receded, and dawn was about to break.

The phone’s ring echoed across the empty pier, unceasing, like a spider silk connecting darkness and light.

Then the ringing stopped.

Lu Zhou closed his eyes again. The silk snapped; he could continue sleeping.

“Phew, why are you hiding in a place like this? It was so hard to find you.”