ADTCP Ch56part2

Tao Zhen blinked.

A moment later, his phone buzzed, connected. The phone inside also fell silent, replaced by Zhu Wensheng’s slightly hoarse, low voice: “Hello, Zhenbao?”

Tao Zhen answered blankly.

“I’ve got a few things to handle here. Let me finish up and I’ll call you back, okay?”

“Okay…”

“I’ll swing by the supermarket on the way. Tell me what you want for dinner and I’ll make it.”

Tao Zhen pressed his lips together, saying nothing for a while.

He was nearly certain the voice had come from right inside, just a wall away.

But he hesitated to tell Zhu Wensheng he was at the door. After all, Lei Min had cleared out the fighters and left the space to Zhu Wensheng for a reason.
Besides… from Zhu Wensheng’s tone just now, Tao Zhen could tell something was wrong.

Zhu Wensheng didn’t sound happy.

His voice was gentle as usual, but it dropped slightly at the ends, like he’d just pulled himself away from something aggravating, shadowed by a hard-to-name gloom.

He was suppressing what he really felt and deliberately softening his tone. “Zhenbao, text me what you want. I’ll get back to it, mm?”

Tao Zhen snapped to attention and agreed.

The call ended, but he didn’t leave. Lips pressed tight, he stood and scanned the area until he spotted a vent in a corner.

The vent sat up high, too high to reach under normal circumstances. Luckily, due to renovations, a ladder was propped along the wall, a meter or two tall.

Tao Zhen thought for a second, then gritted his teeth and hauled the heavy ladder under the vent. After a furtive glance at the noisy crowd in the distance, he tiptoed up.

His field of view was sliced into narrow bands by the grill, but it was enough to make out what was inside.

Zhu Wensheng was there, sure enough.

His face was dark and severe, and opposite him stood a middle-aged man Tao Zhen didn’t recognize.

The man wore a luxury-brand suit, a gleaming watch, probably a Patek Philippe. Tall, decent-looking, but steeped in the stink of money and booze. Next to Zhu Wensheng, his aura was worlds apart.

Tao Zhen guessed the Rolls-Royce outside was his. He couldn’t help speculating about the man’s relationship to Zhu Wensheng.

Rich, a bit of a resemblance… Could he be Zhu Wensheng’s relative?
Or, to be more precise, Zhu Wensheng’s father?

Peering through a vent wasn’t ideal. Curiosity clawed at Tao Zhen’s insides, but he could only see lips moving, no way to hear exactly what they said.

He could tell the man seemed very displeased with something Zhu Wensheng had done, scolding him sharply with a furrowed brow. Zhu Wensheng, however, didn’t care in the slightest, stone-faced as always.

After a while, the man let out a cold laugh, seemingly recalled something, and spat out a curse word. At that, Zhu Wensheng finally reacted, his expression dropped several shades, and he glared at the man and said two words.

The man looked incredulous, then swore again. Zhu Wensheng stared him down and repeated himself.

At last the man flew into a rage, chest heaving, face turned liver-purple, and he raised his hand high to strike Zhu Wensheng!

“Don’t you dare touch him!!”

Before Tao Zhen knew it, he’d grabbed the edge of the vent and shouted furiously into the room.

The two inside froze. The man stared around in shock for the source of the voice; Zhu Wensheng’s face turned suddenly pale as he snapped his head up toward the vent. He didn’t bother arguing anymore, he rushed out the door:

“Careful!”

Careful?

Careful of what?

As Tao Zhen wondered, the ladder under his feet obligingly began to wobble. The metal grille groaned as it was yanked, and he swayed in midair, heart pounding, legs going weak.

It wasn’t that high; he was about to grit his teeth, shut his eyes, and jump when a figure flashed at the edge of his vision, Zhu Wensheng lunged straight at him and tumbled with him to the side, holding him tight.

The ladder crashed to the floor with a bang.

Tao Zhen ended up shielded in Zhu Wensheng’s arms, face buried in his chest, seeing only the dust puff up from the fallen ladder.

His heart hammered; after a few seconds he scrambled up and, like a starving lech, patted down Zhu Wensheng’s forearm and back in a panic, breathless: “Did it hit you? Why did you run over like that? From that height I wouldn’t have been hurt, but you, if I’d fallen on you, ”

Zhu Wensheng didn’t answer.

He sat up slowly, carefully checked Tao Zhen’s limbs, then lifted his eyes and looked at him seriously. “Then why did you just shout ‘Don’t you dare touch him’?”

Now it was Tao Zhen’s turn to go blank.

Right, why had he blurted that out?

He knew Zhu Wensheng was a once-in-ten-thousand pro fighter; a middle-aged man like that, ten of him wouldn’t be a match… But in that split second, Tao Zhen hadn’t been able to hold back.

Of course he knew Zhu Wensheng could win. He just couldn’t bear the thought of Zhu Wensheng being hit.

Zhu Wensheng was the same with him.

“…”

They got up together. Tao Zhen couldn’t help curling his lips into a smile.
He didn’t ask why Zhu Wensheng had been alone inside arguing with that man, and Zhu Wensheng didn’t ask how long Tao Zhen had been watching. They both tacitly kept quiet, brushing the dust from each other’s clothes.

They were shoulder to shoulder and about to leave and talk elsewhere when Zhu Guanqing seemed to reach the end of his patience.

He took a deep breath, eyes bulging, and stormed over. He glanced at Zhu Wensheng, then jabbed a finger at Tao Zhen behind him and gave a cold laugh: “Looks like you two are very close. I suppose this is your ‘boyfriend,’ then?”

The gentleness Zhu Wensheng had shown Tao Zhen vanished. He lifted his eyes and stared icily at the man, voice calm and frigid: “Move.”

Zhu Guanqing’s face went iron-blue, but he planted himself in front of Zhu Wensheng, dripping with sarcasm. “Close now doesn’t mean close later. You think you’re noble, sacrificing for love, but you don’t realize you’re just a fool…”

“…”
Zhu Wensheng had no desire to talk to him. He simply took Tao Zhen by the wrist and led him past.

Knowing that once Zhu Wensheng left, it would be hard to see him again, Zhu Guanqing’s head rang. He went for broke, laughing coldly: “Fine! Get out, then. You’re on your own now, don’t you dare use a single cent of the Zhu family’s money again!”

“You think it’s true love, huh? Do you know you’re a joke in other people’s eyes? When you really have no money, let’s see if your little boyfriend still wants you! Who do you think you are! Without the Zhu family, you are nothing! And you still dare talk back to me… I am your father! Even if I beat you to death, I’m still your father!”

Zhu Wensheng’s whole body went taut.

The hand holding Tao Zhen’s tightened in restraint, knuckles turning paper-white. He didn’t dare look back at Tao Zhen.

With it said so plainly, Tao Zhen would guess, would doubt him.

It felt like someone had ripped away his last fig leaf, leaving him a rattling skeleton on the spot, touch him and he’d shatter to pieces.

Behind them, Zhu Guanqing kept raving, nothing but mad insults.
Zhu Wensheng stood rigid for a long moment, then tentatively tugged Tao Zhen forward.

They pushed through the crowd and walked out of the club.

Outside, spring sunlight was rare and bright, the grass green and birdsong lively, but Zhu Wensheng felt like he’d fallen into an ice cellar. After a long time, he finally let go, not daring to hold Tao Zhen’s hand too tight.

After a while, Tao Zhen was the one who spoke: “Ah-Sheng.”

Zhu Wensheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “…Mm.”

“Just now, what your… dad said, what did he mean?”
Tao Zhen took a deep breath. “For me, what exactly have you given up?”