Chapter 442: Chapter 442; Orchid Charity Event

Lu Cheng stepped even closer, his voice dropping but growing heavier with emotion. "Your nephew is seriously ill. Is it too much to ask for you to show a little concern? To at least visit him once?"

For a moment, the air around them seemed to still.

Then Lu Yuze spoke.

"Concern?" he repeated softly, almost as if testing the word on his tongue.

His gaze hardened, the calm surface finally revealing something colder underneath. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"I remember Yuyan lying unconscious in a hospital ward for six months," he said, his voice steady but carrying clear weight. "Unconscious. Not knowing if she would wake up. My daughter fighting for her life while I stayed beside her."

His eyes moved from Lu Cheng to Lu Ting.

"Tell me... how many times did he come to see me?" he asked. "How many times did either of you come?"

Silence answered him.

The question needed no reply.

"What gives you the right," he continued, "to stand here and question me now?"

Lu Cheng’s expression tightened. His anger clashed with something he could not easily deny.

Before he could respond, Lu Ting stepped forward, his tone more controlled.

"Fine," he said. "If that’s how you want to look at it, then answer this instead. Yuyan recovered. Completely. That wasn’t something the hospital could explain."

His eyes narrowed.

"Give us the doctor’s contact."

The request was direct. Calculated.

Lu Yuze looked at him for a moment, then let out a quiet breath, almost amused.

"I climbed a thousand steps at a temple," he said calmly. "I prayed. And somehow, things changed."

His tone remained even, almost indifferent.

"You can ask the hospital. Miracles happen."

The answer hung there, deliberately vague, impossible to verify.

Lu Cheng’s patience finally snapped.

"What do you think we are?" he demanded, his voice rising. "Children? Do you expect us to believe that?"

Before the situation could escalate further, Lu Chen stepped forward and placed a firm hand on Lu Cheng’s shoulder, forcing him to stop.

But Lu Yuze did not move away.

Instead, he stepped closer.

Close enough that the space between them disappeared.

His hand lifted slowly, and in a gesture that was almost casual, he tapped Lu Cheng lightly on the cheek.

Not hard.

Not violent.

But deeply humiliating in its calmness.

"Don’t be so agitated," he said quietly.

Lu Cheng froze, more from shock than from restraint.

Lu Yuze’s gaze remained steady. His voice lowered slightly, but every word carried clearly.

"Have you ever stopped to think," he said, "that perhaps this is not just bad luck?"

His eyes darkened.

"That maybe he has done too many things that should never have been done?"

A faint pause followed.

"Too many innocent people were harmed. Too many consequences were avoided."

His voice stayed calm, but the meaning cut sharply.

"What makes you think he deserves to live without facing any of it?"

The words landed heavily, not only on Lu Cheng, but on Lu Ting and even Lu Chen.

For a brief moment, none of them spoke.

The tension had shifted.

This was no longer just an argument between brothers.

It was something deeper.

Something they had all chosen not to address for a long time.

Lu Yuze straightened and withdrew his hand as if the moment had never happened.

"If you’re looking for answers," he added calmly, "you should start asking the right questions."

He did not wait for a reply.

He turned and walked away, his steps steady and unhurried, leaving behind a heavy silence that felt far more oppressive than any raised voice could have.

Behind him, Lu Cheng stood rigid, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. His anger was now mixed with something far more complicated.

Lu Ting’s expression had darkened, thoughtful, calculating.

And Lu Chen...

Said nothing.

Because for the first time, Lu Yuze had not simply refused them.

He had forced them to think.

After Lu Yuze walked away, the tension he left behind did not vanish. It lingered in the air like smoke, spreading quietly through the men’s hall and settling into every conversation that had caught even a fragment of the exchange.

A small group of influential men gathered a short distance from where Lu Chen and his brothers still stood. Their voices were lowered, but not low enough to escape notice.

"That’s him, isn’t it?" one of them said, his eyes following Lu Yuze’s retreating figure across the room. "The youngest of the Lu family."

"The same," another replied, slowly swirling the deep red wine in his glass. "Though if no one told you, you would never guess he belonged to them at all."

A subtle pause fell over the group as several men exchanged knowing glances.

"It’s the features," a third man added, his voice quiet. "Look at him, that silver hair, those silver eyes. No one else in the Lu family looks like that. Not even remotely close."

"Exactly," the first man continued. "Lu Chen, Lu Ting, Lu Cheng... they all share the same bone structure, the same commanding presence. But him? He looks like he stepped out of an entirely different bloodline."

Another man leaned in slightly, lowering his voice even further, though the curiosity in his tone only grew stronger.

"I’ve heard the old rumors," he said. "That he might not be their biological sibling at all."

The group fell into a brief silence.

Not disbelief.

Consideration.

"It would explain a lot," someone murmured. "The way he operates completely on his own. The empire he built without ever leaning on the Lu name. The distance he keeps from the rest of the family."

"And the attitude," another added. "There’s no sense of attachment there. No obligation. It’s as if he doesn’t see himself as one of them."

A soft chuckle rose, though it carried no real humor.

"Or maybe," one of them said, "it’s not that he isn’t part of the Lu family... but that he has already outgrown them."

That thought hung heavier than the rest.

They all watched as Lu Yuze moved through the hall. His presence drew attention without effort. His expression remained calm and detached, as though none of the whispers or tension around him concerned him in the slightest.

"Whatever the truth is," the first man concluded quietly, "he’s different. And not in a way that should be underestimated."

"Different," another repeated, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Or dangerous."

The conversation gradually faded back into quieter murmurs, but the idea had already taken root, not just among them, but throughout the room itself.

Across the hall, Lu Chen stood motionless, his expression carefully unreadable, though the words had clearly reached him. Lu Ting’s jaw tightened visibly. Lu Cheng turned his face away, his frustration now mixed with something far less comfortable.

Whether the rumors were true or not...

They had always known one thing.

Lu Yuze was not like them.

And perhaps...

He never had been.

The quiet ripple of speculation had barely settled when another man approached Lu Yuze. This one carried himself with more composure, his intentions clear from the start.

"Mr. Lu," he greeted with a polite nod, holding a glass of wine but not drinking from it. "I’ve been meaning to speak with you. There’s a project I believe would interest you. A joint venture. High returns, minimal risk."

Lu Yuze did not answer right away.

He glanced at the man briefly, his silver eyes calm and unreadable, then shifted his gaze away as if the conversation had already lost its value.

"I’m not interested," he said simply.

The man paused, clearly surprised by the direct dismissal. "You haven’t even heard the details yet."

"I don’t need to," Lu Yuze replied, his tone still even, but unmistakably final. "If it involves partnership, negotiation, or shared control, then it already does not interest me."

There was no arrogance in his voice.

Just certainty.

The man forced a small, polite smile, trying to recover. "Perhaps at another time...."

"There won’t be another time," Lu Yuze interrupted, not unkindly, but leaving no room for persistence.

That was the end of it.

Without waiting for any further attempt, Lu Yuze stepped past the man, his movements unhurried and controlled, as if the entire exchange had been nothing more than a minor interruption.

He walked toward the quieter corridor that overlooked the lower level. The noise from the men’s hall gradually faded behind him, becoming distant and unimportant. Reaching the polished railing, he stopped.