Chapter 281: Pleading
But now, when everyone around him had fallen and he had to hold on, his son’s innocent concern made him feel that being reborn still had meaning.
Lu Weiyi reached out to rub Zhuang Ai Yi’s fuzzy hair. “Dad’s fine. You just take care of your little brother.”
Zhuang Ai Yi looked back at Taotao staggering toward them and asked a bystander for help, “Uncle Xu, can you help Ai Yi take care of my little dad? Ai Yi will give you a big kiss.”
“Tch, who cares,” Xu Yi crossed his arms and said as if unwilling, but his legs moved quickly toward them despite himself. He grumbled, “You got my face all slobbered on. It’s disgusting.”
“Ai Yi brushed his teeth,” Zhuang Ai Yi said, shocked to hear “disgusting,” covering his little mouth and puffing air. “Doesn’t stink. Is Ai Yi really dirty?”
“Cough, it’s nothing. I don’t mind you,” Xu Yi said casually, lifting his chin as he walked beside Lu Weiyi. “Let’s go, Young Master Lu. I’m not here to serve just anyone.”
Lu Weiyi ignored his awkward attitude and slowly walked upstairs, with Xu Yi half a step behind, making sure he didn’t stumble and fall.
The forced upgrade had definitely put a certain burden on his body. The painkillers only dulled the pain, not the injury itself.
Just climbing one flight of stairs caused Lu Weiyi to break out in sweat again.
After greeting the guards upstairs, Lu Weiyi was the first to enter Antonio’s room.
Xu Yi conscientiously stood by the door and kindly helped close it behind them.
Even though Antonio had been tortured for days, his innate vigilance remained. As Lu Weiyi approached the bed, Antonio tightened his grip on Dean’s arm and looked sharply over.
Even just waking up, there was no hint of sleepiness in his eyes. His dark gaze was cold enough to devour everything, but upon seeing Lu Weiyi, it gradually softened.
“Is he still not awake?” Lu Weiyi lowered his voice and asked.
Dean looked like an octopus, his hands and feet all tangled around Antonio, half his body pressing on him, forehead hot and sweaty, not letting go at all.
Antonio shook his head.
“I’m asking the Zhuang family for fourteen ability users, to make them experience what you all have gone through again. How about that?” Lu Weiyi got straight to the point.
Antonio didn’t reply but his eyes noticeably grew colder.
“Dean’s father hunted you countless times. You clearly could have killed him but didn’t. Why?” Lu Weiyi asked.
This was something Dean once told him during their boring days at the trading house in the last life.
Antonio raised an eyebrow, “Dean told you that?”
Lu Weiyi didn’t answer and went straight to his bottom line: “I can’t let you kill them. Or if you want something else, you can ask.”
Maybe Lu Weiyi’s question sparked a moment of empathy in Antonio; his gaze wasn’t so cold anymore.
“Leave the lab people to me.” When Antonio was tied to the test bench, he vowed countless times that he would make them die in the most painful way.
Lu Weiyi shook his head and explained before Antonio could speak, “I’m bringing them back to the base. Our base needs talents.”
Their base’s defenses were as good as any, but they never had enough people, so talents were in great demand.
Zhuang Mobai was able to develop ability transplantation within a year, proving how skilled he was. Losing people like him would be a real loss.
Antonio was also a member of the base, so Lu Weiyi’s arrangement was impartial, and Antonio couldn’t argue.
But just letting them go so lightly…
Antonio glanced at Dean, who was holding him tightly even in sleep, unwilling to accept it.
“But if they fail their tasks, I can hand them over to you to… supervise,” Lu Weiyi said, choosing a euphemism.
Antonio’s interest immediately piqued. Smiling sinisterly, he said, “Deal.”
“However, I won’t go easy on the ability users you hand over. Their life or death depends entirely on their fate,” Antonio warned.
They had just been released and hadn’t had time to discuss what happened inside. Antonio guessed Lu Weiyi only knew the general situation.
Compared to others, he was given a larger dose of drugs and believed not everyone could handle it.
If they died because they couldn’t endure it…
That would have nothing to do with him.
Lu Weiyi nodded, “Thanks.”
“No need. You’ve already saved us once,” Antonio saw Lu Weiyi was weak and figured he must have paid some price to save them, so he didn’t insist.
After all, if Lu Weiyi hadn’t come, he and Dean might really have died there.
Thinking of this, Antonio instinctively hugged Dean tighter but felt unhappy. Looking toward the door being opened, he said, “I’ll still fight Zhuang Mingxu.”
Lu Weiyi neither agreed nor disagreed. He opened the door and left, then turned toward Li Zhuang’s room nearby.
Compared to Antonio, Li Zhuang was more direct when he saw him enter. He gave a half-smile and glanced at Xu Yi, who was peeking in. “Xu, you’re the healer. A guest came to visit us—aren’t you going to move a stool for the guest?”
Xu Yi, who was about to leave upon seeing Li Zhuang awake, stopped immediately when he heard that and without a word, efficiently moved a stool to the bedside. He then light-footedly jogged out of the room, looking like a wolfdog following closely behind.
“What did you do to him?” Lu Weiyi asked. He hadn’t let anyone push him this far and yet Xu Yi kept coming over acting all high and mighty.
“What could I do? Just team spirit and unity,” Li Zhuang laughed, then handed Lu Weiyi a water cup that was by the bed. “Haven’t drunk this yet.”
“Thanks,” Lu Weiyi took it and sipped, feeling unsure how to start talking.
Li Zhuang had always been a reliable person in the team. His personality was easygoing and he was loyal. Many times when Lu Weiyi acted impulsively or irrationally in decisions, Li Zhuang silently supported him and cleaned up the mess afterward.
Though they were usually busy with their own things, compared to Gu Qingyue and the others, Lu Weiyi felt freer with Li Zhuang.
Waiting for Lu Weiyi to speak, Li Zhuang smiled and offered an opening: “Weren’t you here to plead? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“…” Lu Weiyi felt even more at a loss.
He looked like a child who’d done something wrong, holding the cup with both hands, head bowed, silent.
Li Zhuang reached out as if to flick his forehead but hesitated—he realized just lifting the cup must have drained all the little strength Lu Weiyi had left.
“I’ve always wanted to ask—do you love Zhuang Mingxu?” Li Zhuang asked.
Lu Weiyi’s big deer-like eyes looked up, clear and puzzled, as if he didn’t understand what that had to do with anything.
“If you don’t love him, why have you never given up helping him through all the hardships? But if you do love him, it’s hard to see any special feelings from you normally,” Li Zhuang said what most of the team was thinking.
Zhuang Mingxu wasn’t stingy with his feelings; his eyes were almost always on Lu Weiyi, even paying more attention to him than to Zhuang Ai Yi.
He guarded against anyone who might take Lu Weiyi away. Even awkwardly trying to soften his tone—someone so high-ranking and used to giving orders could really put his pride aside without hesitation.
That could only mean this person was far more important to him than anyone else realized.
But Lu Weiyi was completely different. He was quiet, showed even fewer emotions, and his tolerance seemed more like indifference. He never made any active intimate moves—instead of lover, he looked more like a sense of responsibility.
“…” Lu Weiyi blinked a couple of times and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
He was passive. When he was young and isolated in his own world, Zhuang Mingxu brought him along as his lover. He defined their relationship. That relationship was like an invisible cage, enclosing the already desireless Lu Weiyi within.
He had little curiosity to explore, so the cage seemed spacious to him. He was comfortable inside and unwilling to look at people outside the cage.
“Then what is your relationship?” Li Zhuang recalled that at first Lu Weiyi had told everyone he was a “patron.”
That was a bitterly ironic word.
Lu Weiyi pondered again. After a long while, he still shook his head but finally said uncertainly, “Probably lovers. Or maybe… family?”
He didn’t like thinking about these vague things. If his brain was free, he’d rather think about what was next.
Pulling back his scattered thoughts, Lu Weiyi looked at Li Zhuang. “My previous world was too small, so I can’t give you a definite answer. If I had to define it…”
He paused, then continued, “I’m willing to live through these times with him, no matter how hard things might get.”
Li Zhuang stared at him for a while, then said, “Even if he drugs us and conspires with the enemy?”
“He wouldn’t drug us,” Lu Weiyi answered firmly.
Since Xu Yi once drugged him before, Zhuang Mingxu hated anyone doing that to him the most. Anyone who crossed that line, whether partner or close person, never had a good ending.
Zhuang Mingxu might do such things to others, but never if he knew Lu Weiyi was around!
Li Zhuang shrugged, waiting for him to answer the earlier question.
“If…” Lu Weiyi didn’t make excuses for Zhuang Mingxu, just stated the verdict. “If he really got involved, I won’t let him take part in anything in the team anymore.”
Along the way, Lu Weiyi’s tacit approval allowed Zhuang Mingxu—who initially had no combat power—to go unchallenged, moving from logistics to eventually becoming the team strategist.
If this time he really turned against them for his own sake, in these times, he would lose the team’s trust, and leaving the team would be the best choice.
