YA Ch13: Alcohol Addiction

Being hugged around the neck like this, Ming Yan didn’t get angry. Instead, he let himself be pulled down by the force.

Lu Yu had never looked so closely at Ming Yan’s eyes before. For some reason, a piece of information he once looked up while writing suddenly popped into his head: “The inner corners of the upper and lower eyelids are called the inner canthus.” Ming Yan’s eyes had a sharp little hook at the inner canthus, looking like a bird’s beak. The double eyelids at the outer corners lifted upward, and the large, bright black pupils made his whole eyes resemble a sparrow about to take flight.

This sparrow, carrying the fresh scent of plants, came straight at him. The hot breath on Lu Yu’s sweaty face made the sweat beads on his cheeks feel like they were boiling.

Lu Yu’s heart pounded like a drum, almost leaping out of his chest, his whole body felt weightless.

Suddenly, Ming Yan propped himself up on the gym equipment, stopping just a few centimeters from Lu Yu, and said slowly, “In your dreams.”

Then, he mercilessly stood up and dragged the limp Lu Yu out.

Lu Yu, stunned by the flirtation, was dazed as he was pulled out of the gym, stumbled into the elevator, out of the company, and finally, when he was shoved into the car, he came to his senses and protested: “You’ve changed; you weren’t like this in school.”

Ming Yan, in a good mood, started the car smoothly: “You’ve never dated me, how do you know what I was like?”

Lu Yu hummed, then suddenly realized something was off. He pondered over the words: “So, you dated Lu Dayu?”

Not knowing how his mind leaped to this, Ming Yan raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer.

Seeing his reaction, Lu Yu got excited, hitting his left fist with his right palm: “You definitely dated. Damn, Lu Dayu had it so good in private and still wasn’t satisfied. What more does he want?”

Ming Yan followed up with, “Exactly,” and then laughed at himself.

“When was this, during university?” Lu Yu looked at the smiling Ming Yan, those pretty sparrows fluttering their wings, brushing against his heart, making it itch and tingle. He couldn’t help but ask.

“Sort of,” Ming Yan’s smile faded slightly. He glanced at Lu Xiaoyu’s eager face, “Why do you want to know so much? If I tell you everything now, there won’t be any surprises when you go back.”

“I like spoilers. When I read novels, I always look at the ending first and pretend I’m the reborn protagonist,” Lu Yu lied, staring at Ming Yan, “Tell me what happened later, maybe I can find a better solution when I go back.”

Ming Yan pursed his lips, remained silent for a few seconds, then sighed lightly: “We dated briefly but broke up later. That was in our younger days, and we haven’t seen each other for many years since. Now we’re just business partners, like you and Lao Yang, don’t overthink it.”

“Like hell, it’s like Lao Yang and me.” Lu Yu imagined Lao Yang in Ming Yan’s role and felt nauseous. If Lao Yang tried to kiss him, he’d definitely beat him up.

Seeing Lu Yu’s disgusted expression, Ming Yan couldn’t help but laugh again. Kids are really amusing.

By the time they reached the home garage, Lu Yu had just managed to shake off the “Lao Yang kiss” shadow.

Ming Yan parked the car a space away from the Bentley, making it easier to get out.

Lu Yu quickly got out of the car, eagerly opening the door for Ming Yan. He didn’t dare ask why they broke up, fearing it would spoil the good conversation atmosphere, so he asked something else: “When you two dated, what did Lu Dayu call you? Baby? Sweetie?”

“He called me senior.” Ming Yan glared at him, reminding him to respect his elders.

“Tsk, that’s so unoriginal.” Lu Yu pouted. But thinking about it, if he had dated Ming Yan in college, he probably wouldn’t have dared to call him something so cheesy. Ming Yan was too aloof back then, “Then, can I call you Yan-ge from now on?”

He needed to differentiate himself from Lu Dayu.

It was the same address Lu Yu had used when he asked for help with his tie in the morning. For some reason, when Lu Xiaoyu said it, it sounded completely different from the usual workplace “X-ge” or “X-jie,” carrying a playful and coy tone, very pleasant to the ear.

Ming Yan, indifferent, responded with a hum and turned to take the elevator.

Lu Yu quickly followed.

There was no one in the elevator, so Lu Yu looked around and suddenly propped one hand against the wall, trapping Ming Yan within his arm: “Yan-ge, I don’t know when I’ll go back. Before that, do you have any wishes that you want me to fulfill? Things that Lu Dayu can’t do, I can do for you.”

Ming Yan looked at the little brat trying to act all grown-up with a wall slam, clumsy and awkward, full of rustic charm, and couldn’t help but chuckle: “Divorce.”

“That’s not possible for now,” Lu Yu shook his head. “I need to figure out what’s going on between you two first. Is there anything else you want?”

Ming Yan looked at the serious Lu Yu and thought for a moment before saying, “I want money, a lot of money.”

Lu Yu was stunned; he hadn’t expected that. He nodded seriously: “I’ll work hard for it.”

Looking at the earnest young boy in front of him, Ming Yan wanted to reach out and ruffle his hair, but seeing it was still wet and stringy from sweat, he withdrew his hand and stepped out of the elevator: “Don’t overthink it. You’re still a patient.”

“I’m not sick!” Lu Yu quickly denied, then felt that saying that made him sound even more like a mental patient. Luckily, there were no neighbors in the elevator. He cleared his throat, “Okay, crossing over is also a sickness. If worse comes to worst, I’ll sign the divorce papers before I leave and give you all the property, leaving Lu Dayu with nothing.”

Ming Yan put the smart brain into the CEO ball: “That won’t do.”

The CEO ball floated up, crossing its arms: “Childish!”

“Hey?” Lu Yu reached out to grab Lao’er, “Kid, I see you’ve got good bones, perfect for working with Dad. Let’s go.”

“Let go of me, you haven’t showered, and your hands are all sweaty and smelly!” Lao’er screamed.

In the end, Lu Yu took a shower and brought both sons to the study to work with him.

He had memorized everything he read this afternoon and had a rough idea of how to transform Hua Wenyuan. But he needed advice from the experienced eldest and second sons. After all, he was a person from ten years ago and didn’t fully understand AI training and smart brain creation.

The previous two children were directly rewritten, their stories imported into the system, simulating the corresponding personalities and bringing them into reality, followed by years of conversational training.

This time, however, the simulator rewriting was directly entering the story world. This actually worked better but was very troublesome. The key was how to get the characters to understand smart brains in the virtual world and agree to come to the real world as a smart brain.

Lu Dayu’s plan had some feasibility but was very poor. His idea was to draw a model of a smart brain, bring it to the ancient world, and pretend it was a divine artifact, letting Hua Wenyuan get used to it. Lu Dayu also didn’t arrange his own role well in the world, some “national advisor from another world.”

Thinking about that incongruous scene, Lu Yu shook his head. This would make the live broadcast very ugly, with Lu Dayu explaining professional terms to Hua Wenyuan all day long, like an online class. Even if the transformation was completed, the audience would have long been gone.

The most important purpose of the simulator live broadcast was not to transform Hua Wenyuan, but to make the audience interested in this new assistant character, leading to big sales.

Throwing Lu Dayu’s plan aside, Lu Yu opened a new document and began writing quickly. After writing two full pages, he got stuck on a plot point and stopped to think.

At this time, he subconsciously felt something was missing, making him uncomfortable. Following muscle memory, his left hand reached out beside him, but there was nothing there, only a dent on the leather desktop.

That dent was deep and round, shallow in the middle, looking like it was made by a wine glass.

Lu Dongdong peeked over the computer screen from behind: “Father, are you craving alcohol?”

Lu Yu frowned: “I have a craving?”

The merman ball wanted to nod but had no neck, so it wobbled back and forth: “Yeah, you always have a couple of drinks when you write, saying you can only write in a tipsy state.”

In the past two years, Lu Dayu hadn’t started any new novels but had tried to write a bit. He wrote some book extras and made a lot of preparations for new projects, but he wasn’t very satisfied with his writing.

Lu Dongdong described his observations, and Shen Baishui added: “Hmph, what good can a drunk write?”

Lu Yu opened a folder prepared for new novels, full of incoherent, meaningless text. There was also a very complex setting table, but it was plain and unoriginal.

“This was written drunk, the logic doesn’t even make sense.” Lu Yu ruffled Lao’er’s head, agreeing with what he said. Lao’er dodged his hand and ran away without looking back.

Alcohol addiction has both physiological and psychological aspects. Lu Yu didn’t have a psychological addiction, but this useless body had a physiological one. He was already exhausted from working out today, and writing at high speed drained his energy, making the physiological reaction of alcohol addiction even more pronounced.

Lu Yu propped himself up on the desk and stood, gritting his teeth: “Lu Dayu, you’re truly evil!”

He felt terrible but absolutely couldn’t drink. Lu Yu wandered around the room, planning to make a strong cup of tea to clear his head.

Walking to the tea counter in the living room, Lu Yu leaned on the counter to rest, turning to see Ming Yan standing by the floor-to-ceiling window with his back to him.

If he couldn’t drink, he could get a whiff of his wife! Feeling enlightened, Lu Yu dragged his sore muscles and staggered over.

He didn’t dare to really hug him, just carefully placed his head on Ming Yan’s shoulder, nuzzling a bit, and said stickily, “Yan-ge, I’m addicted, it’s so uncomfortable, please help me.”

The muscles in Ming Yan’s shoulder instantly tensed, his whole body stiffening.

Lu Yu felt the change and looked up to see what Ming Yan was doing, freezing in place.

Ming Yan was video calling with the CEO ball, and on the other end of the call was a man in his fifties or sixties. Lu Yu had seen this man in the news before, the chairman of Tomorrow Watch Industry—Ming Yan’s father!

Lu Yu: “…”