Outside The Law Chapter 7

Luo Yu refused to personally ask. It was a good thing, then, that Lu Yi was surprisingly understanding for once, because the next day, he brought over a piece of paper with eight digits written on it.

Luo Yu asked Lu Yi what the number was for. Lu Yi said, "Su Jiawen's phone number."

He waited until Lu Yi left, then immediately entered the number on the paper into his phone and pressed call. After two or three rings, Su Jiawen picked up. He seemed to be in a very empty and quiet s.p.a.ce. Su Jiawen said, "h.e.l.lo."

"It's me," Luo Yu said as he spun the fountain pen between his fingers. "What are you doing?"

It sounded like Su Jiawen had stopped breathing for a couple seconds before asking in response, "Mr. Luo?"

"Un." Though Luo Yu didn't want to admit it, he truly was a lot more amicable to Su Jiawen now than to anyone else.

"I'm at the library," Su Jiawen said, "Writing my thesis."

"What thesis?" Luo Yu followed up with.

Su Jiawen didn't think Luo Yu would be interested in his studies, but answered honestly anyways. "A paper discussing the relations.h.i.+p between the recent history of Europe and its literary past."

Luo Yu digested his answer for two seconds before saying okay.　

"What about Mr. Luo?" Su Jiawen left the library. The background noise sounded like it came from outside.

If it were anyone else asking Luo Yu what he was doing, the best response they could expect from Luo Yu was no response. If he wasn't in a good mood, he would tell that person to git. Now that it was Su Jiawen asking, though, Luo Yu said, "Working."

"Oh……" Su Jiawen dragged the syllable out.

"You don't believe me?" Luo Yu threw down his pen and stood up. He strode over to his floor-to-ceiling gla.s.s windows and looked outside. The sky was overcast like it was about to rain.

"Of course I do." Su Jiawen hurriedly coaxed him, "Then you do what you need to."

Luo Yu wasn't fooled. He asked Su Jiawen, "Are you very busy?"

"No……" Su Jiawen answered hesitantly.

"I'll need to head out of town tomorrow," Luo Yu said.

Su Jiawen went "oh" and remained silent afterwards. Luo Yu was extremely displeased. "Nothing you want to say?"

"What should I say?" Su Jiawen truly didn't know what Luo Yu was trying to get at. He could only follow his cues and ask, "How many days is Mr. Luo going?"

"Three days," Luo Yu responded. "Two nights. I'll find you when I'm back."

Su Jiawen listened quietly on the other end, then said okay.　

After hanging up, Luo Yu pondered a bit before realizing that there was no difference between before he had sent Su Jiawen away and after. He could still see him when he wanted to and could still take advantage of him if he wanted to. This was a pretty cost-effective transaction.

Luo Yu valued his own life. When he went to Laos, he travelled by private jet and brought a planeful of bodyguards.　

As soon as he landed, the negotiator greeted him and his bodyguards. They all headed to the hotel. He had an expert he brought along examine the goods and determine their quality; they were truly up to standard. However, he was still suspicious about the source of the goods.

The negotiator told him that two important local gangs had argued over this s.h.i.+pment of cargo, then explained the specific details to him. Luo Yu had been cheated by A·L previously so kept an extra eye open this time.

From his periphery, he noticed that the little lackey of the other party standing behind the negotiator was extremely anxious. His hand that was holding the gun kept trembling.　

Luo Yu looked away and slightly smiled at the firearms dealer. He said, "I'm satisfied with the goods, but can we discuss the price some more?"

The translator translated Luo Yu's words for the head dealer. The dealer furrowed his brows and said something back. The translator nodded and relayed to Luo Yu, "We are already offering the lowest price. If you still try to bargain, we'll start to doubt Mr. Luo's sincerity."

Luo Yu didn't remind the other party that they had found him first. He nonchalantly nodded. "Then we'll do this by the regular rules. Deposit first."

The other exhaled in relief. Luo Yu added, "I put the deposit in the safe at the hotel."

The negotiator exchanged glances with the head of the other party. He said, "I'll retrieve it with you."

When they arrived at the hotel, Luo Yu had his bodyguards tackle the negotiator to the ground. He used a metal detector to locate an electronic listening bug on him, then turned on the signal disruption device.　　

"Lao Jue." Luo Yu stepped on his shoulder and eerily loomed above him. "You're f.u.c.king with me?"

This negotiator had worked with Luo Yu several times before, which was a large part of why Luo Yu hadn't been on high alert during this trip to Laos. But he had the habit of bringing as many bodyguards as possible every time he had to travel for work. This, in addition to his sensitive ident.i.ty, made sure that n.o.body in the business dared to touch him. He hadn't felt threatened during this whole fiasco, but did feel that he had wasted a lot of time. He needed to find someone to compensate for that.

At first the negotiator tried to pretend that he didn't know what was going on. After being "treated" by Luo Yu's bodyguards, he finally started being honest. He admitted that the seller had already sold three fourths of the cargo. Their plan was to scam Luo Yu out of the deposit and give him the remaining one fourth.　

Luo Yu laughed after hearing this. He kicked the negotiator and gestured two different numbers with his hands. "Is this sum, the same as this sum?"

The negotiator's expression was horrible as he apologized. Luo Yu glanced at the two bodyguards and they towed him out.　　

Luo Yu sat on the suite's sofa and wondered why his luck had been so terrible recently. He saw the phone by his hand and picked it up. Before he knew what he was doing, he had already called Su Jiawen.　

Su Jiawen answered very quickly. His voice was light. "Mr. Luo."

Luo Yu's mood rose from the depths of the sea with Su Jiawen's tone. He asked Su Jiawen, "You pa.s.sed your defense?"

"How did you know?" Su Jiawen seemed to have stopped in place and was asking in bewilderment.

"I bought your pa.s.s," Luo Yu said.

Su Jiawen was dazed. He didn't know how to respond to that.

"I'm lying," Luo Yu said, "I had Lu Yi ask around."

"Oh……" Su Jiawen answered softly. "Why would you ask around about me?"

Luo Yu turned on the TV and casually flipped through the channels, then lowered the volume. He finally responded, "Cause I was scared you wouldn't pa.s.s."

Someone called Su Jiawen's name on the other end. Su Jiawen suddenly panicked and quietly said goodbye to Luo Yu before hanging up.　

Luo Yu listened to the busy tone coming from the phone before realizing that the voice probably belonged to Jiang Qi.

On his second day back in Ping City, Luo Yu messaged Su Jiawen to ask what time he could leave in the afternoon. Su Jiawen was very conflicted. "But these days I have a curfew. Mr. Jiang said I need to come home by ten every night."

"Then we'll get you home by ten," Luo Yu called and forcefully declared. "I had the chef prepare your favorite dishes."

Su Jiawen thought about it and said he had to ask Jiang Qi. Luo Yu barely managed to keep himself from snapping his phone in half. But he really wanted to see Su Jiawen. He a.s.sumed that Su Jiawen really wanted to see him too, so took a metaphorical step back and said, "Ask him. Tell him I'll pick you up and return you home in the same state. a.s.sure your Mr. Jiang that he doesn't need to worry."

A while later, Su Jiawen called back and said that Jiang Qi had agreed.　

After picking Su Jiawen up from Ping University and getting home, Su Jiawen said he wanted to go see the dog first. As soon as he got out of the car, he took off in the direction of the garden.　

Abel's mood was quite terrible these days. The housekeeper had changed his wooden fence into a webbed steel one. Every day he would viciously b.u.t.t the steel webbing and bite the iron bits.

Su Jiawen walked over. As soon as Abel saw him, he removed his teeth from the fence and started wuwu'ing at Su Jiawen, trying to act cute.

Su Jiawen burst into laughter. He happily opened the gate and let Abel out, then squatted down to pet Abel's back. He asked, "Abel, did you miss me?"

"Are you done?" Luo Yu asked sourly.

The chef was from the south. Her hometown was by the border, but she knew how to make many different kinds of cuisine. She normally cooked to satisfy Luo Yu's tastes. This time, though, Luo Yu had ordered her to make something Su Jiawen liked, which was a challenge for her. She didn't know what Su Jiawen liked to eat. Su Jiawen always ate very fast and wasn't picky at all, so it was hard to tell what he enjoyed and didn't.

After much consideration, she made a table full of her hometown's dishes.　

When Su Jiawen saw the food, his eyes lit up; he ate more than normal. Luo Yu saw that he was happy with the meal, so asked, "Is it good?"

"Yes," Su Jiawen said. "Like how my dad used to make it."

The chef stood off to the side, relieved.

After dinner, Luo Yu took Su Jiawen to the horse stables.　　

The evening breeze in March was already quite warm. The workers on night s.h.i.+ft led the horses out. Su Jiawen rode Lis.h.i.+ again. Luo Yu chose the white horse Shen Qiyin had ridden last time.

The back of the mountain was very vast. Luo Yu rode in the front and Su Jiawen followed behind him. Lis.h.i.+ was eager to overtake the white horse, but Su Jiawen had a firm grip on his reigns. He could only trot along slowly.　

They reached a little gazebo built as a rest area. Su Jiawen stopped and looked up at the sky. "The stars tonight are exceptionally beautiful."

Luo Yu accompanied him in stargazing. A while later, Su Jiawen suddenly asked Luo Yu, "Mr. Luo, is your relations.h.i.+p with Mr. Jiang very bad?"

Luo Yu furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't want to talk about these things with Su Jiawen, so glanced at him and inquired, "Why do you ask?"

Su Jiawen saw that Luo Yu was unhappy, so shook his head.　

They continued up the mountain path. At the top, they gazed at the lights of Ping City. Su Jiawen lifted his arm and looked at his watch, then said, "I think it's time for me to go home."

"You call Jiang Qi's house home?" Luo Yu lightly asked him.

Su Jiawen froze, then said, "He told me to."

"Go back if you want to." Luo Yu looked at Su Jiawen. Su Jiawen's horse was slightly smaller than Luo Yu's. Luo Yu stared down at him as he spoke.

Su Jiawen leaned forward from the waist up. Lis.h.i.+ cantered forward a few steps in Luo Yu's direction. Su Jiawen closely examined Luo Yu's expression and softly said, "Mr. Luo, don't be angry."

Luo Yu didn't respond. He used an even softer voice to tell Luo Yu, "You need to be careful these days."

"Why?" Luo Yu flinched and asked Su Jiawen.

"I……" Su Jiawen's expression was conflicted. He seemed to be arguing with himself, then finally said, "Yesterday Mr. Jiang was making a call in the study and I pa.s.sed by. He didn't close the door. He seemed to be talking about country A, Laos, and you……"

"What about me?" Luo Yu furrowed his brows.

Su Jiawen seemed slightly frightened. He glued himself to Luo Yu's ear and said, "Something about guns, and drugs……I'm scared he'll try to hurt you."

Luo Yu pieced together a general picture. He leaned further away from Su Jiawen and appreciated his worried countenance. Then, he comforted him, "Don't worry about this stuff. It's late, I'll take you back."

Su Jiawen saw that Luo Yu didn't want to dwell too much on this topic, so couldn't continue speaking.　
Luo Yu took Su Jiawen to the garage. He had originally grabbed the keys for a sports car, but switched to a bigger vehicle on second thought.　　

Jiang Qi's house was on the opposite side of Ping City from Luo Yu's. It was late, so even though Luo Yu avoided the downtown area, the trip still took around forty minutes. By the time they reached the gate outside Jiang Qi's abode, there were only ten minutes left until ten.　

Su Jiawen said goodbye to Luo Yu, but couldn't open the car door. He was just about to say something when Luo Yu leaned in and lowered the back of the seat he was in. Luo Yu pinned Su Jiawen down.　

When Luo Yu brought Su Jiawen to Jiang Qi's door, it was already 10:10. Jiang Qi walked out and waited for Su Jiawen by the iron gate.　

Su Jiawen looked at his watch, then looked at Jiang Qi who was standing by the door. He seemed quite uneasy, even a little anxious.

"What are you scared of?" Luo Yu asked him. He held hands with Su Jiawen as they walked. "I'll take you to apologize to your Mr. Jiang."

Su Jiawen yanked his hand out from Luo Yu's grasp. His clothes were very messy and there was a hickey left on his neck by Luo Yu. He truly looked a little frightened, but Luo Yu didn't notice. He arrogantly brought Su Jiawen in front of Jiang Qi and said unapologetically, "Sorry we're late. Hopefully CEO Jiang can understand."

Jiang Qi didn't say anything. He glanced at Su Jiawen; Su Jiawen followed him onto the estate.

Su Jiawen didn't answer Luo Yu's phone calls for over a week. This was extremely unnatural.　

Finally, on one morning, Luo Yu couldn't take it anymore. He called Lu Yi inside and delegated him a bunch of work. He then told Lu Yi to help him check if Su Jiawen had cla.s.ses in the afternoon.

Lu Yi worked fast. Less than half an hour later, he already had Su Jiawen's schedule printed and ready for Luo Yu. Su Jiawen did have cla.s.s in the afternoon at around three.

Luo Yu ignored the plans he originally had for this afternoon and brought Xing Licheng along to perform a surprise inspection on a subsidiary company they owned near Ping University. And then he directly made his way to Ping University, just in time for Su Jiawen to end cla.s.s. 　

Luo Yu waited by the lecture hall for around two minutes, after which Su Jiawen showed up. He appeared to be a lot frailer. When he pa.s.sed Luo Yu, he didn't even notice the other. He only turned his head around after Luo Yu cleared his throat.

Luo Yu finally discovered that he didn't look so great, like he was sick. Before Su Jiawen could say anything, Luo Yu grabbed his wrist and asked, "What's wrong?"

He didn't know if it was something psychological, but Luo Yu thought that the wrist in his hand was skinnier than before.

Su Jiawen's reaction was a little slow. He paused for a moment before saying, "I'm sick."

His voice sounded a bit hoa.r.s.e. His lips were pale. "I think I have a fever."

"Did you see a doctor already?" When Luo Yu was nervous, his expression became quite fierce. It seemed like he was interrogating Su Jiawen.

Su Jiawen shrunk his neck in. He slowly answered, "Yes. I was just heading to get an IV drip at the school hospital."

"……" Luo Yu didn't understand why Su Jiawen was going to the school hospital for treatment. "Is this how Jiang Qi treats you?"

Upon hearing Jiang Qi's name, Su Jiawen's face paled even more, though it was almost unnoticeable. A while later, he responded, "It's just a cold, nothing to worry about."

He bade farewell to Luo Yu and slowly made his way in the direction of the school's hospital.　
Luo Yu stood in place for a few seconds, then caught up. He walked next to Su Jiawen and asked, "You're going to get an IV alone?"

"Un." Su Jiawen bobbed his head up and down.

Luo Yu grabbed his backpack and said, "I have nothing else to do either way. I'll accompany you."

Su Jiawen slowly turned around to look at him. He smiled, then nodded.　　

The conditions in the school hospital weren't that great. There were only a dozen or so seats in the infusion hall. It was a good thing there weren't many people around, meaning Luo Yu managed to take a seat beside Su Jiawen.　

Su Jiawen needed to get two bags of IV drip. After the nurse helped him put the needle in, he told Luo Yu in embarra.s.sment, "Mr. Luo, there's still over an hour left. You can leave first."

Luo Yu ignored him. He unzipped Su Jiawen's backpack and flipped through his books.　

"Your handwriting is nice," Luo Yu praised as he browsed through Su Jiawen's annotations.

Su Jiawen forced out a smile and thanked him.

Su Jiawen's extreme politeness was making Luo Yu feel awkward too, but he didn't want to leave. He wanted to make sure Su Jiawen finished getting his IV, so was adamant about staying with him.　

After finally ending the IV treatment in uncomfortable silence, Su Jiawen's phone rang. He picked it up and listened, then told the other okay.

He hung up and told Luo Yu, "Mr. Jiang is waiting for me outside."

Luo Yu shrugged. "I should still be able to walk you there."

Su Jiawen was very strange today. All his liveliness seemed to have been taken away. He was only reflexively making all these reactions. Upon hearing Luo Yu say this, he stopped trying to keep him from following, only picking up his backpack and silently making his way towards the door.

Jiang Qi's car was parked by the main entrance. His driver stood by the gate. They were quite obvious.
Su Jiawen looked deep into Luo Yu's eyes and waved at him. The white tape used to stop bleeding after removing IV needles was still on his hand. He stood there, almost transparent. "Goodbye Mr. Luo."

Luo Yu's heart felt uncomfortable for some reason because of his gaze. He reflexively bade Su Jiawen farewell, feeling that this scene seemed like goodbye forever.　

Su Jiawen spun on his heels to walk in the direction of the car. Luo Yu watched as he went, but suddenly discovered that his shoes were untied. He immediately called out.

Su Jiawen turned around and looked at Luo Yu, confused.　　

"Jiawen." Luo Yu pointed at his shoes. "Your shoelaces."

Su Jiawen looked down at his feet and went "oh". He bent over to tie his shoelaces. In the instant that he leaned over, his T-s.h.i.+rt collar slid down.　

Luo Yu only casually glanced in that direction, but discovered that there were an innumerous amount of greenish-purple hickeys on Su Jiawen's chest and shoulders. They were the marks left over from making love; marks left by someone who was rough.　

In the past, it had been Luo Yu who left those marks on his body. Now, another person was doing it in his place.

Su Jiawen had slept with someone else.

Su Jiawen was very pale and very flexible. He could maneuver into any position and sounded good in bed. He really liked Luo Yu. At one point, he wanted Luo Yu to keep the vase that he had chosen in his room forever.　

He was Luo Yu's secret possession. A spotlight of wors.h.i.+p that focused on Luo Yu from the corner of the stage. 　

Luo Yu suddenly remembered what Jiang Qi had told him when they had gone out to eat.　　

Something along the lines of, "Perhaps one day he'll be crying in bed and saying he likes me too."　　

Luo Yu couldn't help closing his eyes momentarily. His neck and entire back were so cold he felt numb. All the energy in his limbs redirected into his gaze; he stared at Su Jiawen as he tied his shoelaces and shyly smiled at him, then walked towards Jiang Qi's car.　

Luo Yu's throat was hoa.r.s.e. He tried to call out "Jiawen", but couldn't make a sound. Only the noise of his heart trying to beat out of his chest pounded inside his ears.

It really was goodbye forever. Su Jiawen was bidding farewell to his love. Luo Yu couldn't even try and save him. He had personally given Su Jiawen to Jiang Qi.　　

Xing Licheng stood by his side and observed his expression. He thought, Boss has truly fallen this time.