Chapter 640: Chapter 393, Because You Have No Shame!
Lu Dongsheng looked at Tang Fei and asked, “Do you truly think this way? Do you hope for the Lu Family and the Shen Family to cooperate?”
“I’m considering this from the interests of the Lu Family, but as for what decision you make, that’s for you to determine. A matter as big as this isn’t one that an outsider like me should comment on excessively.”
“Outsider?” Lu Dongsheng looked at Tang Fei with an intrigued expression, “What? You still need to keep secrets from me?”
Tang Fei felt a faint perturbation in his heart, yet his face remained expressionless, “What do you mean?”
He wasn’t sure how much Lu Dongsheng knew about his identity, so naturally, he wouldn’t reveal himself by blurting out, ‘Haha, guess what, I’m actually…’
“Your grandpa already told me.”
Lu Dongsheng’s gaze towards Tang Fei became more gentle, as if he were looking at a junior of his own family, speaking softly, “The first time I saw you, I felt a sense of kinship, and it turns out you truly are of our Lu Family’s blood… According to our family hierarchy, you should call me Second Uncle.”
Tang Fei’s face showed ‘astonishment’, and he asked anxiously, “You’ve seen… the old man?”
Tang Fei understood from Lu Dongsheng’s address of him that his nominal grandpa, Lu Qingshan, still firmly believed Tang Fei was his grandson, the flesh and blood of Lu Yu.
Perhaps, in his heart, he had been too eager to see his own grandson?
Then, he had told the secret to his clansman Lu Dongsheng, which is why Lu Dongsheng was recognizing him now.
“Old man?” Lu Dongsheng hesitated briefly, then quickly figured it out, “You mean Lu Yu? He’s your father, don’t speak with such disrespect.”
“He told me to call him that.” Tang Fei casually shifted the blame, since the old man wasn’t there to refute him.
“You also know how it is, a man living outside with two kids and no woman in the house, it would lead to gossip… So he told people outside that Little Fatty and I were orphans he picked up and raised.”
Lu Dongsheng nodded, understanding and said, “You’ve suffered.”
“Yeah,” Tang Fei nodded earnestly, “But after so many years, I’ve gotten used to it.”
How could he not have suffered?
Compared to the lavish and pampered life he was supposed to have, the difference was like heaven and earth.
Whether as the young master of the Tang Family or a blood relative of the Lu Family, he could have enjoyed a blissful life surrounded by flatterers and spending nights at clubs teasing unruly maidens…
Instead, he was thrown into the Hate Mountain, dealing daily with three-eyed wild goats and field rats bigger than rabbits.
“It’s also your father’s fault, if he wanted to leave that’s one thing, but why take you with him? Just thinking about it makes me angry. Our Lu Family saved his life, couldn’t we have kept an infant that wasn’t even weaned?”
Lu Dongsheng glared, saying emphatically, “Fortunately, you grew up without illness or disaster, if anything had happened… would he dare come back? Without me lifting a finger, your grandpa would rise from his wheelchair to break his damned legs.”
“The old man often told us brothers that ‘When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a man, it first exhausts his mind and his body’… Our bodies have been exhausted, our skin has gone hungry, and our will has suffered beyond words… it’s only the great achievements that are missing. You gain some, you lose some, right?”
“You’re still speaking for him?”
“After all, he’s my real dad,” Tang Fei laughed with a ‘hehe’.
Lu Dongsheng nodded, saying, “There’s some logic in what you say, without being sculpted and polished in such a poor and treacherous place, you wouldn’t have formed your character as it is today, nor would you have such abilities…”
“In that sense, Lu Yu harmed you but also made you, and he cultivated a fine talent for our Lu Family… Let’s say his deeds counterbalance each other.”
“That’s how I see it too,” Tang Fei nodded, “He had his compelling reasons.”
Tang Fei was a kind-hearted man, and he didn’t want his father to be disgraced and driven away by his own family.
After all, there were many times when they would need to use the strength of the Lu Family.
Like now, for instance.
Lu Dongsheng looked at Tang Fei with a probing tone, “Your grandpa and I have discussed it, and we want to find an opportunity to bring you back.”
“Bring me back?” Tang Fei looked at Lu Dongsheng with a face full of surprise.
How would they bring him back?
Where would they take him?
With his father’s sensitive identity, wouldn’t his own ‘identity exposure’ cause a huge stir?
At that time, would his old man have any way out?
“Yes,” Lu Dongsheng said, his eyes firm, his voice sure, “It’s said our Lu Family produces talents, but in recent years, they’ve all been technical experts…”
“The previous generation had Lu Yu, this one has Gongsun Wuyu… Lu Yu is unyielding and prone to extremes. Gongshu Wuyu is overly cautious and lacks daring.”
“You’re different; you’re smart, ruthless, ambitious, and you also have skills. Observing you over this period, you have the ability to control the overall situation and can also make localized breakthroughs…”
“If the Lu Family were to be entrusted to you, I believe it would completely overturn our decline after the ‘Demise of the Tang Family’ incident, and we’d once again become the most powerful family in the Empire…”
Tang Fei’s eyes flickered, and he asked Lu Dongsheng, “Why did the Lu Family decline after the ‘Demise of the Tang Family’ incident?”
Lu Dongsheng sighed softly, saying, “It’s a long story, and there are many reasons involved.”
“One is that the Lu Family and the Tang Family were harmonious. During the incident, even though the Lu Family didn’t side with the Tang Family, they also didn’t indulge in the massacre of the Tang Family as other clans did. This naturally displeased the Royal Family, who felt that the Lu Family was not truly loyal.”
“Moreover, your father… his relationship with Tang Li was too close. During the incident, not only did he not side with the Royal Family in attacking the Tang Family, but he also traveled everywhere trying to secure them a chance of survival…”