Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 35

“………”

Yuri silently stroked his hair with the hand covering his eyes. He remained silent for a long time again, as if asleep.

It was a long time ago. Something he had put to rest in his heart. But even as Yuri thought that, perhaps Ling Xinlu recalled them every time he encountered such minor triggers. Even if Ling Xinlu’s voice, as he spoke of them now, was no longer as agitated or trembling as before.

“I think, ‘Taeuihyung must be doing well, then he should be doing well,’ but every time, I get choked up. Because I think if Taeuihyung is doing well, that guy must be doing well too.”

Ling Xinlu murmured languidly, intermittently, as if talking in his sleep. Suddenly, the eyelids that had been obediently closed beneath Yuri’s hand seemed to twitch. His mouth also hardened.

Perhaps his mind wasn’t as calm as his voice, as Ling Xinlu murmured, “Ah, how annoying…” and twisted his body, turning his head away. From beneath Yuri’s hand, which was left hanging in the air, he moved his head higher up on Yuri’s thigh and buried his face tightly in his stomach. He didn’t want to show his expression.

“……”

Yuri lowered his hand, which had been hovering in the air for a moment, and placed it on Ling Xinlu’s head. He kept his hand still and only moved his fingers, stroking his hair.

“You should also live well, Ling Xinlu. So you don’t feel wronged.”

When Yuri spoke curtly, Ling Xinlu, who had buried his face in his stomach, turned his head slightly. His fiercely glaring eyes were visible.

“Is that something I can control?”

His sulky, displeased tone, however, was not as unstable as before. So Yuri said with a little relief,

“It will be soon.”

“………”

“It will.”

It felt less like comfort and more like it would truly happen.

Ling Xinlu, who had been glaring at Yuri with still fierce eyes, as if taking out his frustration, as Yuri calmly repeated his words, sighed, “Hmm,” then turned his head back and buried his face in Yuri’s stomach again.

There was no sound for a moment.

Yuri, with his hand on Ling Xinlu’s head, stared down at him for a while, then raised his head. And looked at the garden, which was being dyed with the yellowish evening light.

It was so peaceful like this. But this man was still struggling.

Yuri gently ran his fingers through his hair.

How long had they been like that, when suddenly.

“It’s 20 minutes from now.”

A muffled voice emerged from his face buried in Yuri’s stomach.

“I was going to take a nap, but Mr. Gable kept talking, so I couldn’t sleep at all.”

“So it’s 20 minutes from now,” Ling Xinlu murmured, pressing his head, which was resting on Yuri’s thigh, more firmly. As if he absolutely wouldn’t move.

“……It was Ling Xinlu who started talking…”

“Ah—really, you keep talking, so I can’t sleep!”

“……”

Yuri stared blankly at him, who was even getting annoyed despite being in the wrong. “My legs are already getting numb, what should I do?” he thought, looking at him helplessly, but eventually his lips, which had twitched a few times, closed quietly without saying anything.

“I’ve had a lot of ‘people-bugs’ clinging to me since I was young.”

Yuri recalled something Ling Xinlu had said once. “Indeed,” he conceded to some extent.

He knew that Ling Xinlu had a way of attracting people. If he were to be precise, wasn’t he one of those drawn to him? He already knew and had felt many times that wherever he went, people’s eyes gathered, and even a light gesture would draw attention. But this was the first time he had witnessed it so clearly, he realized.

“……”

Yuri stood leaning against a pillar in the corner of the corridor. In the spacious area inside the corridor, a countless number of people were gathered, bustling with excitement. And among them, the person who immediately caught his eye without needing to look around for long was Ling Xinlu.

Today was someone’s birthday among that large crowd.

He had vaguely heard who it was when he entered the corridor earlier, and had even seen someone pointing to that person from a distance, but it would be hard to find the protagonist again among that throng.

…No, he knew.

Excluding Ling Xinlu, who was splendidly surrounded by the human throng, he noticed a few people gathered around one person. As people continuously approached to greet and strike up conversations, it seemed that person was the one celebrating their birthday today.

“Wow… looking at it like this, the contrast is really stark. I didn’t realize it when I was there.”

Xiao Qun, who had been standing among the crowd and quickly approached Yuri when their eyes met, stood next to Yuri and whispered admiringly as she looked into the corridor. As she said, from this secluded spot, a little away from the bustling center of people, the center of the corridor was visible at a glance.

She, as Ling Tang-win’s daughter, also tended to attract people’s attention, but as she stood next to Yuri in a secluded corner away from the center of the corridor, while some people occasionally waved in recognition, no one deliberately approached to talk.

“There are many people I haven’t seen before, are they all relatives?”

“No. They probably only invited up to second cousins of similar age. It’s not the eldest grandson’s birthday, so it’s not important enough for the entire family to gather and celebrate. Most of them are probably siblings and their lovers.”

“My boyfriend is here too,” Xiao Qun said, pointing to a neat young man talking to someone near a table. Then, when their eyes met, she waved cutely and smiled.

“Is it an important enough occasion to bring a lover?”

“Oh, no. We’re just using it as an excuse to gather and play. The people who hold significant meaning as ‘birthdays’ among the siblings can be counted on one hand. Like my brother, or even though he’s not a sibling, our youngest uncle—Xinlu—for example. …When it’s the youngest uncle’s birthday, it’s amazing. The corridor gets filled with gifts.”

Indeed, the numerous grandchildren’s birthdays and the birthday of the only beloved son seemed to be regarded with different levels of importance by the guests. Having spent over twenty years like this for every birthday—and most of the siblings probably did too—there was nothing new to compare now. But the man who was the protagonist of today, yet didn’t shine brightly in this place, glanced at Ling Xinlu, who was standing a little distance away.

On the other hand, Ling Xinlu, who was merely a guest, was confidently leading the atmosphere in the center as if he were the host of the event. Even though he had no intention of deliberately dominating the atmosphere, he naturally stood out and attracted people, thus it turned out that way.

“Looking at him like this, our youngest uncle is completely in a flower garden.”

Xiao Qun, who had run to the nearest table, grabbed two drinks, and returned, handed one to Yuri and murmured. As Xiao Qun said, Ling Xinlu was in a flower garden.

Many beautifully dressed young ladies were particularly positioned around Ling Xinlu.

“Our youngest uncle is always very popular. The young ladies who try their best to catch his eye, just thinking about them, there are more than enough to count on two hands. Like the sister in the lemon-colored dress standing next to him now.”

“Yes… in that case, she shouldn’t stand there. She should stand on the right. Otherwise, she won’t be in his line of sight.”

Yuri murmured calmly, as if to himself. Xiao Qun, who had been rolling her eyes as if wondering what he meant, clapped her hands a little later, saying, “Oh, right, Uncle’s eyes.”

“I completely forgot because he’s no different from other people.”

Yuri comforted Xiao Qun, who was whispering an excuse as if embarrassed about forgetting, saying, “I forget sometimes too.” In fact, he rarely forgot, but Ling Xinlu was so natural in everything that it wouldn’t be strange at all if he did forget. So much so that someone who didn’t know his circumstances would never realize he had a disability.

“…But the sister in the white dress standing to the youngest uncle’s right, is she perhaps the youngest uncle’s lover?”

“I’ve never seen the youngest uncle’s lover before,” Xiao Qun said with curious eyes, looking at the young lady standing close beside Ling Xinlu. She was standing so close that their arms touched, and her face was even less than a step away, as she happily chatted with him. From a distance—or perhaps even up close—they truly looked like a loving couple.

“Probably not,” Yuri murmured vaguely, moistening his dry lips with his drink. He hadn’t even touched the food since earlier, having been so focused on watching them that he hadn’t realized he was thirsty.

“Really? They look very close. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the youngest uncle talking to just one person like that. Who is she? Did he meet her here?”

“What if the youngest uncle really gets a lover like that?” Xiao Qun asked, looking at them with great interest. Yuri remained silent beside her. The heavy light in Yuri’s gaze as he watched them wasn’t solely due to his feelings for Ling Xinlu. Nor was it solely because her smiling expression—her eyes and mouth—generally resembled Jung Taeuiui’s.

He wasn’t sure if it was just a feeling, but it seemed that before Ling Xinlu approached her, she had been standing intimately next to today’s birthday protagonist, and Ling Xinlu had stared intently at her for a while without taking his eyes off her. As if they were dating.

“………”

But seeing her quickly move away from that man and go to Ling Xinlu’s side after Ling Xinlu approached and said a few words, Yuri’s worries might have been groundless after all.

Yuri looked at her, talking excitedly with a flushed face next to Ling Xinlu, and then at today’s protagonist, who had been glancing at them with fierce eyes and glaring at Ling Xinlu since earlier, and let out a low sigh. “It’s just a silly thought,” he murmured to himself.

“Speaking of which, did Fei not come?”

Yuri, who had emptied his glass in a few sips, finally realized why something felt missing. He had been so focused on Ling Xinlu that he hadn’t noticed Fei, who usually stuck with Xiao Qun at these kinds of gatherings, was nowhere to be seen.

Since Fei, being her sibling, would naturally be invited to any family-related gathering Xiao Qun was invited to, they often went together, but even after looking around again, Fei was nowhere to be seen.

“My brother is busy learning work from Father these days. He said he’d come after dinner, so he’ll probably be here in a little while.”

“Ah, ah,” Yuri nodded. He remembered Ling Tang-win mentioning it in passing a while ago. That he should start teaching his son the business.

Thinking about it, he had graduated from school and returned, so it was about time for him to start working. Moreover, as Ling Tang-win’s eldest son and the eldest grandson of the Ling family, Fei would have several times more work to learn and responsibilities to shoulder than others.

Especially if he were to inherit the Ling family’s business entirely, that would be even more true.

“I hope it goes well.”

Yuri, who had been silent for a moment, murmured as if to himself.

It wasn’t clear what he hoped would go well. He simply hoped that Fei’s life would go well as he wished.

Xiao Qun also seemed to feel similarly to Yuri, as she only nodded without saying anything.

She couldn’t have been unaware that many of the businesses her family ran were of a kind that some were openly visible, but others were hidden in the shadows and couldn’t be revealed.

She stood on a subtle line where she couldn’t stop Fei from getting involved in those businesses that weren’t entirely just or moral, nor could she bless him and applaud him. Just like Yuri.

However, it was her family’s business, and it had also been something prepared for her since she was very young, so she didn’t seem to have much resistance.

“Speaking of which, it seems like the youngest uncle is also starting to learn the business.”

Xiao Qun looked at Ling Xinlu, who was a distance away, and murmured as if she had vaguely overheard the adults talking. Yuri remained silent.

Like Fei, it was already somewhat predetermined that Ling Xinlu would get involved in the family business. If he had continued on the path he took when he joined UNHRDO, he might have lived a different life, but since he left there and returned to the Ling family, he would eventually help with the family business, sooner or later. Yuri glanced sideways at Xiao Qun.