Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 62

And until they arrived home, he didn’t say a single word to Yuri. He didn’t even give him a glance.

‘Swimming? Go and do it. I’ll go if I feel like it.’

With that terse remark, Ling Xinlu turned his expressionless face back to his book and didn’t look at him again.

On evenings when there was nothing special to do or when they were free, Yuri would usually go to the pool and enjoy an evening swim, and whenever he did, Ling Xinlu—ever since he started swimming again—almost always went with him.

However, recently, Ling Xinlu had only gone to the pool with Yuri a handful of times. Although they often went together in the early morning, even then he would just swim mechanically, as if exercising, without a word, and then return.

After silently watching him for a moment, Yuri, saying, “Yes, alright,” stepped back and came to the pool alone. He was already several laps in, submerged beneath the water, swimming. Occasionally, he would surface like a whale to breathe, lingering for a short while before diving back into the water.

He didn’t plan to stay long. After all, Xiao Qun had said he would drop by this evening to bring food at the request of the youngest grandmother—Ling Xinlu’s mother—so he had intended to return quickly.

…In that case, would it have been better not to come to the water today?

Somehow, even after being submerged in the water for a long time, his mind didn’t feel light as usual. It was because his thoughts wouldn’t be empty.

No, it wasn’t just today. For some time now, even when he came to immerse himself in the water every morning, his mind never felt truly refreshed until he left. Yuri himself knew the reason.

Yuri had been thinking about it all along. He wondered when was the last time he had seen Ling Xinlu’s face light up with a bright smile.

Starting this week, Ling Xinlu began going out to learn the business. His youngest uncle seemed to have firmly decided on retirement, so he started learning the ropes under his third uncle.

It wasn’t much different from what Ling Tangyun had described as ‘a company with quite a lot of work.’ The only difference was that this was a company with ‘excessively’ much work, and things detached from legal or moral codes flowed as commonly as everyday occurrences.

Ling Xinlu’s job was to follow his uncle like a shadow, observing his work over his shoulder. Every night, he had to read, memorize, and master decades of past records that his uncle handed over, and during the day, he had to interact with people who casually disregarded the most basic morals of people living and forming society.

However, Ling Xinlu, despite not having associated with them for long, was surprisingly well-adapted. He dealt with them with a pleasant and cheerful face, and easily completed the tasks his uncle assigned him in little time.

He wasn’t forcing himself. He didn’t smile in front of them during the day and struggle at night. He blended in with them naturally, as if he were exactly where he was meant to be. To the extent that Yuri’s worried gaze, which had watched him with concern, vanished futilely.

‘What are you looking at so much? You knew I was this kind of person all along.’

Betraying his third uncle’s expectation—who had probably intended to shock and disorient his naive and irritating nephew, who had sauntered in cluelessly, by immediately throwing him headfirst into the gruesome reality of the business where terrible violence was calmly perpetrated from day one—Ling Xinlu, after observing the whole process with calm and cold eyes, had asked back, ‘To what extent can things be smoothly settled without incident?’ He had said this to Yuri later that evening, when he returned to the mansion late from work.

He told him not to look at him with such a fresh perspective.

As if he had never assisted with administration at UNHRDO, Ling Xinlu immersed himself in the work effortlessly, as if this line of work had been his aptitude from the very beginning. Even though the sheer volume of work was sometimes overwhelming for Ling Xinlu, he was at least not mentally strained.

Then, that was enough. Yuri accepted this and followed Ling Xinlu.

And all this time, Yuri hadn’t seen Ling Xinlu smile, except for the smiles he showed to his uncle or work-related people during the day.

It wasn’t a problem with the work.

Ling Xinlu was clearly upset with Yuri. There was no need to count back to when it started. It was from that night, when they returned from the main family residence.

Yuri, swimming slowly underwater, surfaced like a whale needing oxygen. As he suddenly rose from below and took a deep breath, the person sitting on a nearby chair by the pool, drinking water, seemingly unaware that someone could stay underwater for so long, was startled and almost choked, spitting out water.

Yuri gave an apologetic look and calmly continued to swim.

Indeed, there were people in the pool in the evening. Not many, perhaps three or four at most, but Yuri, accustomed to submerging himself in the always-empty pool at dawn, felt even three or four was a crowd.

Should I go back?

He hadn’t been in the pool for very long, but he didn’t particularly enjoy being submerged in a crowded place—though calling three or four people a crowd might be a luxurious overstatement.

Should I do one more lap and go back, or leave now? Yuri was looking at the wall clock when he saw Ling Xinlu just entering the pool area from the showers. It seemed he had finally decided to swim after Yuri had left the house.

Before Yuri could properly look around, Ling Xinlu immediately spotted him, and when their eyes met, he instinctively frowned slightly. Yuri, who had just been raising his hand to greet him, slowly lowered it.

Ling Xinlu turned his gaze away, ignored Yuri, and dove into the pool. Then, like any other person who came to exercise, he began swimming laps. It was clear he had no intention of talking to Yuri or having a conversation with him.

Yuri silently watched him disappear into the distance, then put aside his intention to leave and submerged himself again. Even the deepest part of the pool wasn’t very deep, but he sank all the way to the bottom, almost clinging to it. As if imitating a deep-sea fish, calmly breathing in the depths, undisturbed by anything—any worries, thoughts, or emotions.

Even though Yuri was generally unflappable and not much affected by others, this situation was undeniably heavy. The situation where Ling Xinlu had been treating him with near-contempt, which had been going on for several days now.

It wasn’t that he completely ignored him. Since Yuri accompanied Ling Xinlu when he went out with his uncle to learn the business during the day, complete disregard was impossible. However, he only used the bare minimum of words and rarely met his gaze.

No, perhaps he looked quite often. Sometimes, when Yuri felt a gaze and looked back, Ling Xinlu would glaring at him before turning his head away.

When was the last time they had even exchanged words?

Yuri closed his eyes underwater and rummaged through his mind. Even thoughts seemed to slow down underwater, and it took a moment of tracing back to remember.

There had been an incident a few days ago where they had “exchanged words”—though it had been accompanied by emotions far too sharp to be called a mere exchange.

It was a day when Ling Xinlu had finally returned home late at night after finishing work.

As usual, as soon as he returned, Ling Xinlu went into the bathroom. Yuri was tidying up the house, which didn’t need much attention, and neatly arranging the day’s documents and the records Ling Xinlu needed to familiarize himself with overnight on the table.

The phone rang, and when he answered, it was Ling Tangyun.

『How are you doing? And Xinlu?』

‘He’s in the bathroom right now. Would you like me to tell him you called, or ask him to call you back later?’

Yuri spoke, glancing towards the bathroom where the sound of water had just stopped. He seemed to have finished showering. He would be out shortly.

However, Ling Tangyun didn’t seem to have called for any particular reason. “No, that’s alright,” he said genially.

『Your third uncle just visited my father a little while ago. I exchanged greetings with him then, and it just made me wonder how things were going.』

Saying he called to check in, Ling Tangyun belatedly asked about Yuri, ‘You’re doing well too, aren’t you?’

Yuri had been getting along well with Ling Tangyun ever since, with no problems. He hadn’t expected any problems either.

The day after he encountered Ling Tangyun at the main family residence and returned, Yuri immediately called him and formally apologized. Ling Tangyun laughed heartily and said, 『No, I found it quite interesting to see a new side of you. But, well, since you’re calling me back about it, it must be bothering you, so let’s just forget it. Don’t worry about it anymore. A person without mistakes and a relationship without mistakes are quite unappealing, aren’t they?』 He accepted Yuri’s apology so genially, concisely concluding that the matter no longer needed to be mentioned. Ling Tangyun was not the type of person to hold a grudge about something he had spoken openly about, and Yuri knew that.

Thus, the minor friction with Ling Tangyun—though too subtle to be called friction—concluded smoothly.

And this was their first phone call since then.

Yuri replied to Ling Tangyun, who was asking about his younger brother, ‘There are no particular problems.’

‘The amount of work, though more than I expected, doesn’t seem overwhelming. There’s nothing to worry about at the moment.’

『Right? I told you. There’s nothing to worry about with Xinlu. Well, he’ll have to see more unpleasant things little by little in the future, but he’ll be fine. Even your third uncle said, ‘He’s more useful than I thought. He’s doing his part.’ He complimented him before he left.』

Ling Tangyun chuckled bitterly, saying that coming from such a picky old man, it was a great compliment indeed. Yuri nodded, saying, “That’s a relief.”

Ling Xinlu’s third uncle, whom he would be accompanying for some time, was not a well-regarded person. Indeed, the kind of gruesome work he dealt with meant that those under him were almost like butchers, so it was impossible for his reputation to be good. No one liked a sharp-eyed, stubborn old man.

Moreover, the third uncle had never taken kindly to Ling Hwirung’s youngest son, whom he cherished as if he would break if held too tightly or fly away if blown on. Yuri had thought that working under him wouldn’t be easy. And it truly wasn’t easy; Ling Xinlu never heard a single word of praise during the day, no matter how well he handled the work. Yet, he showed no sign of it—in fact, looking as if he didn’t care at all—and casually smiled as he processed the tasks his uncle pushed onto him.

Yuri felt relieved that the uncle, at least when out of sight, offered a compliment or two. It seemed he wouldn’t simply overwork someone without reason.

『Oh, he also mentioned you. He said, ‘That fellow—Xinlu—seems to have good luck with people, he chose his subordinate well.’ He also said that you must be having a hard time getting overworked alongside him, but it looks like you’re enduring well.』

‘No, I wasn’t particularly overworked.’

Yuri replied curtly. In fact, Ling Xinlu rarely left even minor preliminary tasks that he didn’t strictly have to do to Yuri, often handling them himself. He’d even say surprisingly orthodox things like, ‘Shouldn’t you learn by doing every single detail yourself when you’re first learning a job?’

Yuri had thought Ling Xinlu would probably employ some tricks, not being lazy but definitely cutting corners on auxiliary tasks, only thoroughly handling essential matters that absolutely had to pass through his own hands. But he was unexpectedly diligent.

Even so, the sheer volume of work meant that even the small portion Yuri took on was no easy amount.

…However.