Translator: Sissy That Walk
“Oh.” Lu Feng’s eyes lit up. Feeling like he suddenly understood, Lu Feng snatched away his bath towel, laid himself on bed like a good sacrificial lamb.
He must be thinking that Chen An wanted a tit for tat; and if having him could make Chen An feel better, or atone for Lu Feng’s sins a bit, Lu Feng did not mind in the slightest what Chen An would do to him.
Seeing Lu Feng like this, Chen An was secretly amused; at the same time, it also caused his heart to ache a little: even if he asked for Lu Feng’s life, the latter would probably give it to him in no time.
“After I put the bullet in my temple, I woke up and found myself in the hospital: I turned into a man named Chen An.”
Chen An sat down beside Lu Feng. As he softly spoke thus, his fingers glided through Lu Feng’s shoulders and chest. There were several faint scars on the young man’s body, some left by knives, some by bullets. In the past, no matter what kind of mission impossible Chen An gave Lu Feng, the young man never hesitated.
Be it hell or high water, he would go there without fail.
“I’ve been thinking… why did I come back to life?”
“Do you know why, Lu Feng?” Chen An asked.
Lu Feng’s eyes dimmed for a second, and he replied in a soft voice, “whatever you want me to do, I will do it.”
Power. Money. Position.
These things were now worthless in Lu Feng’s eyes. To see the man he loved alive, that was enough.
If Chen An wanted to cut him slowly into pieces now, Lu Feng would die with no regrets.
“Even if you want to die, you need to ask for my permission first. Think about the things you did to me, isn’t it too easy if you just die? Now tell me, do you love me very much?”
On hearing this, Lu Feng felt as if he saw the gate of paradise slowly opening to him.
“I love you.”
Different people say these same words with different effects. Lu Feng said these words simply and without drama, his clear bright eyes gazing at Chen An; but such plainness carried an affecting weight.
In some respects, love was like a storm: the stronger the intensity, the shorter the duration.
For it to last a lifetime, one has to accept or even enjoy its placidity and its blandness.
The expression on Chen An’s face softened, “do you want me?”
Lu Feng’s eyes widened in surprise and he nodded as if in a daze.
“Uncle——” Lu Feng’s voice trembled.
“You don’t know? Okay, then follow my lead; I don’t want to get hurt.”
Maybe it was because he felt he’d been too hard on Lu Feng before; maybe it was something else. Anyway, that morning, Chen An sat voluntarily on Lu Feng.
It was really a fine morning. Someone is getting a boner, and somehow this morning managed to be more erotic than the movie they saw on TV last night.
…
Lu Feng not only saw the gate of paradise, but also stepped into it.
This must be what it felt like to live in paradise.
“How much longer do you need for you daydreams? Take me to shower!”
The person still on cloud nine got a kick. Morning light fell on an exhausted but satisfied Chen An, indolent, charming and attractive. He was leaning on the bed like a Roman god from a painting, dignified, and giving off a warm, mellow glow.
Seeing him like this, Lu Feng felt, for the first time in his life, that real life can be better than dreams.
“Don’t tell anyone who I truly am for the moment, including Rex Fox. Anyone in the four divisions could be the mole.”
Using Lu Feng as a human cushion, Chen An added, “and just call me by my name. Stopping calling me uncle all day; people might think I’m robbing the cradle.”
“Remember what I said the other day? Though Arafat is head of the eastern division, the one at the center of everything is not him. Arrange a flight as soon as possible; we are going to the Middle East.”
Chen An is taking Lu Feng to a man with the moniker “Dong Xie” (Translator’s note: Dong Xie, literally meaning the “eastern heretic”, is a well-known character in the Chinese popular martial arts fiction Eagle Shooting Heroes. He is a man known for his remarkable martial skills, unconventional moral standing and deep love for his late wife.).
Their destination: Dubai.
Dubai was a country filled to the brim with money. With a small population and a large oil reserve, super-luxury cars can be seen everywhere on the streets. People here needn’t worry about getting starved even if they did not work.
On the other hand, an easy life tended to soften people’s will; oil might run dry one day, or if a new source of energy was discovered, people’s lives in this rich place would also undergo immense changes.
People of Dubai had become aware of this; they are cultivating their tourism while they still had the money. Chinese faces were not uncommon in a place full of tourists, yet the appearance of two tall, handsome men still turned a few heads at the Burj-al-Arab hotel.
“I’m not sure the ‘Dong Xie’ will see me.” Lu Feng confessed.
When he put the old fox under house arrest, he also sent the man’s long-time followers into the periphery, giving them a so-called ‘early retirement’. Among these people was Dong Xie.
In the past few years, Dong Xie had mostly vanished from their sight; it seemed he had been leading a life of quiet retreat.
“If he won’t see you, we’ll go and find him.” so this is the reason they were in Dubai.
Chen An knew Dong Xie well. The old man was mostly like holing up in Dubai, but to find him, one shouldn’t go to the places of glitz and glam. One should go to the tennis court.
Dong Xie loved watching tennis. He played tennis himself in his younger days, only later a bullet he got in a gun fight made it impossible for him to hold a tennis racket in his right hand anymore. So he became a big tennis fan; where there was tennis he would go.
A few days ago, while Chen An was staying in Los Angeles, he discovered that a tennis exhibition game would soon be held in Dubai, so he chose to come here.
Chen An and Lu Feng came to the tennis hall dressed in casual wear. The game today was between a European tennis veteran and a young Chinese athlete. There were barely any empty seats.
“See the Chinese athlete in the court? Mark him. We’ll go and ask for his signature and photo after the game.” Chen An said, pulling his cap lower.
“He will help us find Dong Xie?” As Chen An’s apprentice, Lu Feng grasped Chen An’s intention right away.
“His name is Lin Hao. He is the favorite player of Dong Xie.”
That’s also the reason why Chen An chose to come to Dubai while so many tennis games were going on in the world: Lin Hao was here.