Chapter 9: Undercurrents and Unseen Eyes

Lu Xiye drove toward Wangxian Hall. The traffic wasn’t particularly smooth, but it didn’t affect his mood in the slightest.

The fingers gripping the steering wheel were long and powerful, yet relaxed in a refined and easygoing manner as he savored the glance that person had cast toward him earlier.

Although he was well aware the youth hadn’t actually seen him, he still felt the joy of having his transmitted signals received.

The signal he sent out had been picked up—this in itself was a remarkably perfect resonance.

It felt like a kiss on a spiritual level: point-to-point, belonging strictly to each other, private beyond measure yet accompanied by a delight so overwhelming he wished the entire world could know.

Upon arriving at Wangxian Hall, he was respectfully escorted to the top floor by a server.

The top floor was a transparent observation restaurant featuring a grand sky garden with stunning views.

However, the moment the restaurant doors opened, the smile on his face dissolved bit by bit, replaced by a cool, distant expression.

A massive round dining table was packed with people. Beyond his parents, his uncle’s and aunt’s families were present as well.

Lu Xiye offered a slight nod before stepping toward his seat.

He didn’t smile, nor was he overtly cold; his movements were elegant and composed, appearing thoroughly polite on the surface.

Yet the oxygen in the restaurant seemed to evaporate all at once, creating an immense, invisible pressure.

This sensation was felt not only by the others, but even his father subtly caught onto it.

Lu Xiye had been exceptionally accomplished from a young age, the stereotypical “ideal child” in the eyes of outsiders. Even during his most impulsive teenage years, he had never been hasty or reckless.

He was consistently steady, holding clear strategy and depth in his mind regarding many matters, while remaining humble and polite. Because of this, Lu Chenming had always felt completely at ease with him.

Yet today’s Lu Xiye made him frown instinctively.

The subconscious aura of authority radiating from his son caused even Lu Chenming—who had occupied a high position for a long time—to feel a faint discomfort.

However, that discomfort lasted only a second, because the moment Lu Xiye sat down beside his mother and offered her a smile, the ice thawed once again.

This made Lu Chenming doubt whether that preceding moment had merely been his own illusion.

Yet it clearly wasn’t.

Because the entire restaurant had fallen unusually quiet, lacking the natural warmth and bustle from moments before.

The conversation was eventually initiated by the elders. Lu Xiye’s uncle, Lu Chenjin, and aunt, Lu Chenyue, both expressed their care toward him.

“Xiao Ye, you must be hungry? Was the traffic bad on the way?”

“They say the temperature is dropping over the next couple of days—are you dressed a bit too light?”

Lu Xiye answered each of them with a polite smile.

The atmosphere finally grew warm again, moving from casual pleasantries to business topics.

This time, the request regarding the promotion of medical devices wasn’t brought up by Lu Kun, but by Lu Xiye’s elder cousin, Lu Feng.

Nor was it proposed directly to Lu Xiye; rather, she brought it up while offering a toast to his father, Lu Chenming.

Lu Chenming didn’t hesitate much, turning to tap the table before Lu Xiye: “Make the arrangements for this matter.”

Lu Xiye cast a half-smile toward his father: “Then why don’t you hand Lu Corporation Pharmaceuticals over to someone else instead?”

These words left no face whatsoever.

Lu Chenming glanced at him from the side. Lu Xiye continued eating unhurriedly, offering his father a slight smile.

Lu Chenming felt displeased in his heart, but he didn’t express dissatisfaction with his son in front of outsiders.

He was barely in his early fifties, but he indeed harbored the desire to step back.

Due to work reasons, Wu Yun spent most of her time abroad, resulting in the couple living apart year-round.

Lu Chenming had long regretted having a child so late in life, which prevented him from passing on the burden earlier.

Now, he was merely waiting for Lu Xiye to graduate from university so he could hand over the Lu Corporation and fly abroad to enjoy a carefree life with his wife.

The atmosphere at the dinner table gradually grew awkward.

The expressions of both Lu Chenjin’s and Lu Chenyue’s families turned rather unsightly.

Lu Xiye smiled faintly, serving a bowl of snow clam soup for his mother and asking if she had undergone regular physical checkups.

He was not a person with strong empathy to begin with, and he despised his uncle and aunt, so he saw no reason to spare their feelings.

Years ago, domestic conditions for new drug research and development were limited, and the pharmaceutical industry largely survived by copying original brand-name drugs from abroad.

As a private pharmaceutical enterprise, Lu Corporation struggled to survive among major pharmaceutical giants.

During the most difficult period for the industry, the most profitable sectors under Lu Corporation—health supplements and medical devices—were split off by Lu Chenyue and Lu Chenming respectively. From then on, the three families went their separate ways.

The health supplement business took the surname of Lu Xiye’s uncle-in-law, named “Kangyi,” while the medical device business retained the Lu family name but drew a clear line of separation from Lu Corporation Pharmaceuticals, named “Lu’an.”

Back when the three siblings split the family business, it ended on a very unpleasant note, leading to a thorough division.

In the first few years, Kangyi and Lu’an indeed enjoyed a period of great prominence by riding on Lu Corporation’s initial capital.

Back then, the domestic health supplement and medical device industries were not yet widely developed, allowing them to coast on market dividends in an environment devoid of fierce competition.

However, as living conditions improved for the general public, demands for health quality grew higher.

Recognizing the business opportunity, similar enterprises sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, covering the nation overnight with endless promotional tactics.

The environment outside had transformed, yet Kangyi and Lu’an had long lost their edge and competitive drive within that lenient setting, quickly getting pushed aside by latecomers.

Lu Corporation Pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, had been the exact opposite.

Taking root and sprouting within the harshest environment, it swam against the current to become a premier pharmaceutical enterprise in the country.

As time passed and Lu Corporation Pharmaceuticals rose to prominence, few people over the years still associated those other companies with them.

It was only in recent years that his uncle and aunt reversed their usual cold stance, beginning to visit his family again in hopes of securing a piece of the pie from Lu Corporation.

Both sides were Lu Chenming’s flesh and blood. Even if he had been heartbroken back then, he had never complained about his younger siblings to anyone, while Wu Yun couldn’t be bothered to care about such matters.

Because of this, Lu Xiye had suffered a fair bit at the hands of these people in his past life.

It was only later—when he stopped caring about saving his father’s face and dealt them a devastating blow—that they finally learned to fear him.

Having gone through everything in his past life, he was even less inclined to waste energy on them now.

His feelings toward Lu Corporation Pharmaceuticals stemmed not merely from the immense profit and prestige it could yield, but from a fundamental respect for life.

After losing Qin Moyan, he had gained a completely different understanding and perspective on life.

In the decades that followed, Lu Corporation had poured all its strength into researching new drugs, lowering medication costs, and delivering the latest treatments to the medical frontlines to save more lives—sparing others from the pain he had once endured.

He was a person with poor empathy, yet on this single point, no one could feel it more deeply than he did.

Compared to those who genuinely needed help, his uncle and aunt’s families were far from struggling; in fact, they still held a modest standing in their social circle.

What right did they have to demand his sympathy?

Not to mention, over all these years, high-tech medical products had expanded rapidly, and bioscience and advanced medicine had never ceased moving forward. Yet what achievements had Kangyi and Lu’an ever made, other than coasting on old capital and plagiarizing industry breakthroughs?

Even after plagiarizing the research results of others, they failed to produce quality products.

Particularly with the health supplements under Kangyi—they merely threw together ingredients to deceive customers, incapable of even creating small-molecule products that the human body could easily absorb.

He was ashamed to be associated with them.

However, there were always plenty of topics when a family gathered, and the conversation soon turned to his elder cousin Lu Feng’s romance.

Lu Feng was currently seeing a young man she had a good relationship with—Chen Huanzhi, the twenty-five-year-old son of a major shareholder in NCC Shipping Company, who possessed good character, talent, and looks.

If it were a decade ago, Lu’an might have looked down on the Chen family. But marrying into the Chen family now was a bit of a step up—which was precisely why Lu Chenjin’s family had been so eager recently to project to the outside world that they were one and the same with Lu Corporation Pharmaceuticals.

Lu Xiye held no interest in other matters, but his attention sharpened slightly at the topic of romance.

Lu Chenyue noticed this immediately, assuming that young men could never escape a romantic streak.

She smiled and asked, “Xiao Ye is almost twenty now—have you met anyone you like?”

She added, “Auntie knows plenty of suitable boys and girls; I can arrange a meeting for you all to get acquainted.”

His aunt-in-law, Liu Yingling, refused to let the aunt take all the credit and immediately chimed in as well.

Lu Xiye had already finished eating.

Dabbing the corners of his lips with a napkin, he smiled: “There’s no need to trouble Auntie and Aunt-in-law. I already have someone I like.”

“Since when?” Lu Chenming was a bit shocked. “How come you haven’t dropped a single hint?”

“They haven’t taken a liking to me yet,” Lu Xiye said.

“How could anyone look down on our Xiao Ye?” Liu Yingling said with dramatic exaggeration, before asking, “Whose child is it? It must be a family of equal social standing, right?”

Lu Xiye let out a brief, quiet chuckle and said, “A child from a small, modest family.”

Wu Yun, who had remained silent all along, finally reacted slightly: “How could that be fine? You’re so outstanding; of course you need to find someone equally outstanding.”

Lu Xiye looked at his mother with nonchalance: “The time you spend with me in a year doesn’t even equal the housekeeper’s. How do you know I’m outstanding?”

When Jiang Suifeng stepped into the bar, he suddenly recalled the gaze from the school gate.

It was just like the gaze that used to come from Room 1 on the second floor—charged with electricity and provoking a tickling sensation that was hard to describe.

Room 1 had been booked long-term, but it hadn’t been opened for days.

Amidst the noise and dim lighting, he raised his eyes to look up; today, it remained dark as well.

As he tilted his head to look upward, someone stroked his cheek from the side.

Jiang Suifeng turned his head to see a half-drunken man standing before him, holding a glass of liquor and offering to buy him a drink.

When Jiang Suifeng turned his face, the man’s hand trembled, causing half the liquid to spill over.

Under the shifting lights, Jiang Suifeng’s eyes resembled multi-colored stained glass, reflecting the colors in constant transformation—yet making the deep, profound black in those eyes all the more striking.

He took the glass of liquor and, without looking back, set it onto the tray of a server passing by.

The drunkard stared blankly, and before he could react, the person before him had vanished.

When Jiang Suifeng arrived backstage, Lin Fang was tuning a guitar.

Seeing him come over, Lin Fang stopped his movement and leaned lazily against the edge of the table, gesturing for him to come over.

Jiang Suifeng didn’t walk over; instead, he went to the cabinet, put his bag inside, and pulled out a pair of drumsticks.

Lin Fang had no choice but to walk over himself, asking, “Have you made huge progress recently?”

“What do you mean?” Jiang Suifeng raised an eyebrow.

“In the past, you’d get into a fight with someone every ten days to two weeks. How come you’ve been so quiet lately?” Lin Fang laughed.

The drumsticks spun fluently between Jiang Suifeng’s fingers as he said casually, “I just find it boring.”

“Is it really boring, or are you pretending?” Lin Fang asked him. “Did you offend someone without realizing it yourself?”

Jiang Suifeng narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Seeing that he truly didn’t know, Lin Fang said, “Someone has been investigating you recently. Today, the investigation reached the bar.”

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