Dear Mr. Lu

“Uncle Ding, I’m going out, please tell Mr. Lu.”

Early in the morning on the weekend, Luo Wencheng picked up a sandwich, stroked the big cat’s head, waved to Uncle Ding and went out with a big backpack on his back.

“Do you really not need a driver?” Uncle Ding asked behind him.

“No, no, I’ve made an appointment with my classmates, we’ll take a taxi together.” Luo Wencheng said as he walked out of the door of the villa. His slender, straight back in a down jacket quickly disappeared behind the plants in the garden and then outside the fence.

Uncle Ding smiled and shook his head, turned around and went back to the living room, and saw Lu Chong coming down from upstairs: “Master is up. Ah Cheng made you breakfast, should I serve it now?”

Lu Chong buttoned his sleeves, with no expression on his face. Even though his hair was a little damp from washing, his aura was no less cold and majestic than usual. His face softened a little when he heard about breakfast. He glanced around but only saw the fat cat lying listlessly at the door. The young man was nowhere to be seen. “He went out? What kind of meal was he cooking so early?”

Uncle Ding smiled and said, “He cares about Master. It’s true, Ah Cheng cooks better than anyone else.” His cooking was also more in line with Lu Chong’s taste. If the same thing was made by Luo Wencheng, Lu Chong would often eat a little more.

Lu Chong walked over and bent down to tease the cat. The big girl didn’t bother to pay attention to him as usual, stood up, shook her body and climbed onto the sofa, curling in a ball and falling asleep.

Now Ribs was basically only enthusiastic about Luo Wencheng, and the rest of the time she spent more and more time napping.

There was a trace of worry in Lu Chong’s eyes.

Uncle Ding served breakfast; the nutritious porridge that had been simmered for several hours and the freshly fried thin pancakes seemed very ordinary, even common, but the aroma was very tempting.

Uncle Ding said: “Ribs was more lively when Ah Cheng was there, and the house was also more lively. It’s a pity that he lives at school. Although he comes back on weekends, there are a lot of club activities, so he has to go to school again.”

Uncle Ding was talking about Ribs, but in fact, when Luo Wencheng was there, Lu Chong was also in better spirits. He would talk more, and his face would be more expressive.

After getting familiar with his surroundings, Luo Wencheng was less formal and more and more like a youthful, sunny boy, making those around him feel comfortable, so much so that the atmosphere in the villa would be much different when he was there and when he wasn’t.

Lu Chong paused: “Lao Ding.” His eyes were calm, but there was a hint of warning, and Uncle Ding quickly lowered his head.

Lu Chong looked at the simple but exquisite food on the table and seemed to think about something. After a while, he said, “Take it away and bring ordinary food. From now on it will be this way.”

Uncle Ding sighed and took away the tray.

“Wait. Don’t tell him about it.”

“Yes.” Uncle Ding thought to himself, what was it all about? Willing to be nice to the other party but unwilling to be nice to himself, not accepting being influenced, not accepting any kindness, not giving anyone the opportunity to integrate into his life.

How could it go on like this?

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……

Luo Wencheng didn’t know that the breakfast he had carefully prepared was rejected.

He had already met up with his classmates.

Two were members of his club, and one more was from the press club. His name was Du Taozheng. He was a friend of Zheng Chang. His family had been involved in journalism for several generations, and the editor-in-chief of Haining’s official paper, the Haining Daily, was Du Taozheng’s eldest uncle.

It could be said that the Du family and the Zheng family were in the same camp.

Zheng Chang had placed Du Taozheng on Luo Wencheng’s team so that he could take care of Luo Wencheng, but of course Du Taozheng was also very willing to make friends with Luo Wencheng and was very enthusiastic right away.

They took a taxi to the construction site. The area looked a bit strange. There were high-rise buildings nearby, but there was also an abandoned factory building as well as the unfinished construction site of the Luo family.

“Ten years ago, this land was very hot and subject to speculation. As a result, the Luo family’s project collapsed here, and a human life was lost. Some people said that the feng shui here was not good. It was originally intended to be made into a high-end villa area. But the way it went, even if the houses were built, no one would want to buy them. In addition, when the Luo family gave up on their own project, other developers were also discouraged, resulting in this land remaining abandoned to this day.”

Du Taozheng had obviously done his homework and spoke eloquently about the history as soon as he arrived.

“But what is very puzzling is that the development rights were acquired by the Luo family at a high price. However, it was given up after a single accident. I even heard they had to use some connection in order to prevent the government from pursuing it. Compared to this, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to arrange the house sales after some proper maintenance. It seems the Luo family put the cart before the horse or something?”

Luo Wencheng said without hesitation: “I was young back then, I don’t know much about it.”

Du Taozheng nodded and stopped asking questions.

He was clicking away with his camera, and Luo Wencheng and the others were looking for angles and setting up their drawing boards to sketch.

Luo Wencheng glanced at the two members of the club and then focused his attention on Du Taozheng.

It would be very appropriate for Du Taozheng to reveal this matter. But how could he discover the place?

It would be fine to pretend that he accidentally discovered it. At first, Luo Wencheng even thought about sending an anonymous letter to the major newspapers and media to expose it rudely and simply, but not now.

He had Lu Chong’s backing. This was both a benefit and a disadvantage. His persona in front of Lu Chong couldn’t collapse. A person who did everything possible to retaliate against his former family and had a dark heart would not be liked no matter how much misery he had suffered.

Moreover, this also involved deception.

Once a man like Lu Chong knew that he had been played from beginning to end, it was quite chill-inducing to think how he would react.

Luo Wencheng lowered his eyes, sketching. He quickly finished drawing a picture and kept paying attention to Du Taozheng. When he saw him walking near the place, his heart fluttered. He picked up the drawing board and walked to Du Taozheng’s vicinity, pretending to choose the angle. Suddenly he said loudly: “Senior Du, stand there and don’t move. I’ll draw a picture of you in this scenery, okay?”

“Huh? Like that?” Du Taozhen turned around and thought for a while, “Yes, yes, a person who came to this place to explore the traces of the past and dig up stories, very tasteful. Then you have to draw me looking good, and you have to draw my camera in particular.”

As he said that, he raised his camera and pretended to take a shot: “How about it, can you do this pose?”

Luo Wencheng measured with his fingers and said: “It’s not very coordinated with the background, Senior Du, take two steps back.”

“Like this?”

“A little to the left.”

“Is this okay?”

“Senior Du, be natural, your posture is a bit stiff, forget it, you take your pictures, I’ll find my own feeling.”

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Du Taozheng gave a thumbs up to Luo Wencheng and then resumed taking pictures, however, not allowing himself to step out of the frame or make a less than elegant pose. So he basically had to hover around, shooting repeatedly up and down.

The drawing took a little longer for Luo Wencheng to finish, and soon it was time for lunch. All four of them had brought their own lunch and sat down in a clean area to eat and share the morning’s harvest.

The sketches were almost done, enough photos had been taken, and basically all the scenes had been explored, so they decided to eat and work for a while before leaving.

Suddenly, Du Taozheng let out a “Huh?”

He was flipping through the photos in the camera. Luo Wencheng was sitting next to him, glancing at the pictures with a normal expression, when Du Taozheng suddenly flipped back to stare at a photo. Luo Wencheng leaned closer: “What’s wrong?”

If it was someone who saw this photo for the first time, he would definitely not see anything. But Luo Wencheng was waiting for this, and naturally he could see the clue from the pit in the ground at a glance.

The pit was very deep, with cement blocks, stainless steel, broken wooden boards, and plastic bags piled up in it. It was very messy, but there was something sticking out from under the edge of a cement slab. If you looked closely, you would find that it was a bit like a person’s finger, or rather a white bone.

Du Taozheng originally passed by it but the extraordinary sense of smell for pictures that he had cultivated for many years made him instinctively perceive that something was wrong. Now he lowered his head and looked intently. He was immediately taken aback. Seeing Luo Wencheng leaning over, he quickly pretended to be calm and flipped to the next picture: “It’s nothing. I thought I got a mouse in it, but I thought wrong.”

A member of the club said: “It’s normal to have mice. There is a lot of garbage here.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Du Taozheng’s smiled a little stiffly.

Luo Wencheng glanced at him secretly, exploring his expression and then slightly hooking the corner of his mouth. He sat back and stuffed a sushi he brought with him into his mouth and chewed it slowly. The chef’s cooking was really delicious.

After the break, everyone continued to be busy, while Du Taozheng was clearly distracted. Seeing that no one noticed him, he returned to the edge of the pit to study it, and his face was getting uglier and uglier.

But when he came back, he looked completely normal and said with a smile: “It’s almost time, let’s go.”