[Leilu Modern AU] Scarlet World

"Hi." Louis said first.

His openness in the past made him feel a little unnatural now. After all, for so many years, Lester was the first person to see him cry. ——It’s not considered to be seen. Didn’t he bury his head on his shoulder for a long time in the end?

"Hi." Lester walked towards Louis, he had a kind of worry in his heart based on the problem of clothing, he tried his best to control himself, not to show a distressed expression, "Come in."

Louis walked into the room obediently, and Lester closed the door smoothly.

"Would you like something to drink?" said the man in a suit and tie. "Water? Coffee?"

"Water will do."

"You sit here," Lester guided Louis to sit on a long sofa, "wait for me."

Louis nodded, and put the man's handbag on the table.

Lester opened the door and went out, disappearing for a while.With this little effort, Louis looked at the room. It was really big, with relatively modern decoration, a row of bookcases against the wall, a desk, a computer, and a relatively large reception area. Louis sat down This large sofa is one of its members.It looks like a standard office here.There is also an inner door here, which may be a compartment for changing clothes and resting.

Louis glanced at the small cabinet next to him. It was a glass cabinet, and the items inside were unobstructed. There were several bottles of mineral water, a pair of coffee cups, a can of coffee beans, and some transparently packaged cookies.

At this moment, Lester came back, holding a plate in his hand, and there were two glasses of water in it.But it was his clothing that really caught Louie's attention, which he has now changed to a burgundy sweater and black trousers.

Louie decided not to think about the embarrassing question of clothing.Coincidentally, Leicester thought so too.

"Do you think it's okay here?" Lester put the plate on the table, sat down beside Louis, and turned to ask him, "Continue with the previous topic?"

"Ah."

"What did you bring?" Lester found a conversation starter

"Here," Louis opened his handbag and pulled out a not-so-thick photo album, "I want you to see it."

Louie turned to the first page. On it were some pictures of him as a child.Lester could see the adult Louie in the little boy with the long black hair, and there was a younger boy who looked like him beside him.

"I had a younger brother... Once." Louis pointed to an old photo, which was a photo of him standing side by side with his younger brother. Both children have very beautiful facial features and the same calm expression, " His name is Vanna."

"You have a good relationship."

"Yes. Vanner is my only relative." Lu Yi rubbed the boy's face with his fingertips, "He is five years younger than me. Our mother died of dystocia while giving birth to him. Our father died in childbirth. A few years later, I also left due to illness. At that time, I was nine years old and Fan Na was only four years old."

"Have you had a hard time?"

"Indeed, life has become difficult. Our parents have left us a company and a lot of money, and we are never short of materials. In terms of life, Ms. Payne has also given us meticulous care and guidance. We live in Pudula Manor, where It's our home."

"Ah."

"But, you know, no matter how rich you are, no matter how much Ms. Payne takes care of you, the two children who have lost their parents are destined to lack a lot of things when they grow up."

"Ah."

"Vanna and I are very close. We eat together, go to school together, and learn how to shoot and ride horses together. Because I am older, I do better than Vanna. Vanna always looks at me with admiration. When I tried When I went to college, I wanted to leave home to study, and Fan Na was still in middle school, when he was only 13 years old. He begged me not to leave, he hoped that I would stay at home and not go out of town.”

"How would you choose?"

"I refused. I'm such a jerk. At that time, I only wanted to study in college, I wanted to experience the outside world, and I felt that Vanner was as clingy as a five-year-old child. He secretly put away my ID, thinking This will keep me."

"And what happened?"

"I had a big fight with him, and I told him not to cling to me like a child. Early the next morning, I packed my luggage and set off early. I got in the car, and Vanner was watching me from the window sill. That morning there was There was a very thick fog, the car slowly left the manor, and Vanner's figure slowly disappeared into the fog. This is my impression of that day."

"and after?"

"Ms. Payne called me often. She told me that after I left, Vanner often wandered around. It didn't take long for him to find a new refuge. He became a very devout Catholic. He went to mass almost every day, and even abandoned his studies, and he would not listen to anyone's advice.

"Out of concern for my younger brother, I suggested that we build a church for him in the manor. After all, we have enough space, but Ms. Payne told me that Faner refused and was furious. He was determined to go to that church, although It wasn't close to the manor. We had to obey. But since then, Vanner's temper has become worse and worse. He seems to be a little depressed. He often curses the servants in a rage, or breaks things in the room, and sometimes weeps nervously. .

"But if it's just like this, the matter is still not irreversible. Everything happened about half a year after I left. At the end of the first semester, I received a call from Ms. Payne, who said that Vanner beat a She struggled to bail him out after being locked up by a passer-by. Importantly, she discovered that Vanner seemed to be addicted to drugs, as the maid who disturbed the room found a lot of used needles under his pillow , and Fanna is getting thinner and thinner, with a hunched body, and often tears. She dare not speak out, because this is a great scandal for the Pudula family and the company. She secretly took a needle for testing, It turned out to be highly toxic heroin. It was a bolt from the blue for her, and she called me immediately."

"Ah."

"I was very shocked. I planned to go back immediately to find out about Fan Na's situation, and I agreed to her. However, I was preparing for the final exam at that time. I asked my tutor for leave because of family affairs. He suggested that I come back a few days later. Departure. As long as I am a few days late, I don’t have to give up the results of the whole semester. So I retreated, and I was a week late, and I didn’t leave until after the exam. This is... this is the most regretful thing in my life.” Louis’s His voice choked up. "I'm not a good brother. I'm a big bastard, Lester. I'm an idiot for procrastinating home because of ridiculous schoolwork."

"Do you know what greeted me when I went back? It was Van'er's body. My brother's body. He sucked too much at once, ran to the top floor, and fell from upstairs... He was unrecognizable, torn apart . . . he was so fond of tidiness . . . he was . . . "

Great pain engulfed Louis like a sea wave.His eyes were red and he was choking with sobs, and finally he couldn't say a word.He covered his face with his hands, and a dull sob came from under his palms.His crying was suppressed and low, tearing Lester's heart desperately.

Lester didn't know how to comfort Louis, he could only wrap his arms around Louis' body, and let this crying man be completely surrounded by his arms.The latter moved his hands away from his face, put his arms around Lester's shoulders, and buried his face on Lester's neck.

Soon, Lester felt a wetness on his shoulders.He was in a bad mood because it was all Louis's tears.Lester didn't do anything, neither comforted nor touched Louis, he just hugged Louis quietly, allowing Louis to express his sorrow to his heart's content.

Louis lay on Lester's shoulder for a long time, until he had cried enough, then raised his head, put his chin on Lester's shoulder, sucked his nose, and let out a few breaths from time to time.

For a long time after Vanner died, Louis was like a walking corpse, he hardly ate, and he was unwilling to talk. He would definitely not go back to school, but luckily he could still keep his student status.During that time, Ms. Payne was like a frightened bird, wishing to follow him 24 hours a day, just in case he couldn't think about following Vanner.

The cause of Vanner's death was simple, because of a hallucination caused by a drug overdose, he fell from the height of the manor, like a bloody rag bag.According to the gardener of the garden, he saw their little master standing on the roof blowing the wind, so he greeted him friendly, but Vanner ignored him, and then he found that something was wrong, Vanner seemed to be in a trance, and stood still. The position was far outside, and he might fall at any time, which reminded him of the rumors in the manor about Mr. Vanner taking drugs.While persuading his master that it was very dangerous, he wanted to call for someone but dared not leave.

At this moment, he heard Vanner shout: "Forgive me, my God, I'm guilty!" and jumped up.Before he could react, that beautiful body just fell to a place less than three meters away from him, his eyes were lifeless and stared at him, blood mixed with brains sprayed his face, and then he burst out The scariest scream of my life...

For the reputation of the company and the family, Ms. Payne went around everywhere, and it took a lot of effort to suppress the real cause of Vanna's death, so that the outside world believed that the young chaebol fell because of drunkenness, not because of drugs.

And poor Louis, just in time for Vanner's funeral when he came home.He was so devastated at the funeral that he nearly fainted.

In fact, Lester's knowledge is roughly the same as Louis's statement, except for some more subjective details.But he didn't mention this in front of Louis, because Louis knew nothing about him, but he knew exactly what courses the other party had taken, which was a bit unfair.

Louis' desire for death was precisely because of the death of his poor brother.It seemed that Louis blamed himself for all the reasons why Vanner went astray.He believes that if he hadn't insisted on leaving home, Vanner would not have turned to religion because of loneliness and despair, nor would he have tried hard drugs to seek pleasure and excitement, and eventually went to the point of no return.

After Vanner's death, Louis lost his last blood relative. Since then, he has lived in regret and self-blame for many years.Vanner was 14 when he died and Louis was 19.Now Louie is 25 years old.That is to say, he has been living in this depressed and painful emotion for six full years, and he still cannot let go of it, and as time goes by, he wants to seek death more and more.

"Lester..." Louis said in a heavily nasal tone, "please, please, please finish me."

"...Louis."

"You promised me, Lester, you promised me." Louis' voice became lower and lower, and finally turned into a whisper that seemed to be talking to himself. He was in a trance, and seemed to be caught in the horror of self-conception , "You promised me that you would end my suffering... we agreed..."

"Louis, Louie!"

Lester's call seemed to come and go, knocking on Louie's eardrums in an absurd way, but Louie didn't hear it at all.

Lester felt something was wrong.The thing he was most worried about happened, that is, when Louis recounted those sad past events, he would be wrapped in a huge self-condemnation again, producing an extraordinarily strong and firm intention to die.

"Louis!" Lester pushed Louis away from his shoulders, and he shook the poor man's shoulders vigorously, as if intending to wring Louis out of that surreal world of thinking, "Listen to me, Louie, listen to me! "

The violent shaking of the body made Louis wake up from the terrifying madness, even though he was still in a half-dead state.

Lester breathed a sigh of relief, he was really afraid that Louis would suddenly go crazy.

"Listen to me, Louie," he repeated, asking cautiously, "can you understand what I'm saying now?"

Louie's eyes didn't blink, they were fixed, and his head slowly shook up and down.

"Listen to me," Lester held Louis's face and forced him to look at himself. "It doesn't take much effort for me to kill someone. If you really want to, I can make you die without any pain."

"But about your brother," said Lestat tentatively, "I have a different idea from you."

Louis was attracted by the meaning of Lester's words, his eyes gradually focused, and he looked at the worried man in front of him.

"Perhaps there is something wrong with your brother's death."

Lester saw Louis' eyes widen in horror.

TBC.