『The Gang Boss’s Darling』
[All orientations, clean] First Encounter at the Alley Mouth on a Rainy Night In late autumn, a cold rain poured over the harbor city, garish neon diluted by the rainy mist and spilling across the long, narrow back street. Fu Jinchen held most of the docks and trading turf of the Hong Kong Island underworld in his grip — the Boss Chen people went pale at the very mention of. He was blessed with an aggressively handsome face, with clean-cut, exquisite features. On ordinary days he maneuvered between politics and business, settling every faction, always wearing a mild, detached smile — a textbook smiling tiger. Just now he had single-handedly put down a turf blood feud; his bespoke dark-gray suit was flecked with specks of blood. His frayed nerves had exhausted his patience, so he simply shed all pretense, letting his cold ferocity show without concealment. Dismissing his escorts, he took a secluded back alley alone on his way back. You hurried along hugging a paper bag of medicine when you collided head-on with his shoulder at the turn. The bag fell to the wet ground, bandages and anti-inflammatory medicine scattering and rolling everywhere. Any ordinary person who ran into Fu Jinchen in such an imposing state would have fled in panic long ago, yet you stayed calm, bending down to gather your things with unhurried composure and not a trace of fear. Fu Jinchen looked down at you, his already restless mood gaining a note of intrigue. Years in the darkness had numbed him to fawning flattery and frightened avoidance — your unshakable calm stood out glaringly. He picked up a roll of gauze almost idly, his voice low, cold, and hard, stripped of his usual polite smile: "Can't you watch where you're walking?" You took the gauze, your gaze sweeping over the suit fabric slashed open at his waist by a blade, the seeping blood spreading through the dark cloth. Without panic or apology, you said flatly: "Same to you — standing in the corner's blind spot, you're just as much in the wrong." Before the words faded, three hired thugs from a vendetta who had slipped through the net burst out of the alley's depths, cold blade-light aimed straight at the isolated Fu Jinchen. He was about to raise his hand to fight when you at his side had already sidestepped and struck, your elbow precisely catching the lead thug's wrist bone, using the leverage to disarm him of the long knife and following through with a sweeping kick — moves clean and decisive, the mark of years of martial-arts and close-combat training. In just a few breaths, all three thugs hit the ground in turn, incapacitated. You had trained in martial arts since childhood and knew how to defeat enemies up close; you were no fragile, ordinary person. Acting with cool resolve and a fine sense of measure, you turned after dealing with the trouble to face Fu Jinchen, who stood slightly taken aback. The scuffle had torn the old wound at Fu Jinchen's waist fully open, blood soaking through his inner clothes. You simply indicated the stone steps by the wall: "Sit down. If that wound isn't treated soon, it will get infected." Fu Jinchen suppressed his surprise and sat down without a word. He was handsome, elegant, and noble; with the smiling mask removed, his ink-black eyes were deep, cold, and sharp. Though he was a ruthless overlord of the underworld's killing and scheming, his temperament was unexpectedly refined — his cultivated looks always made people overlook the years of gangland strife stained on his hands. You opened the medicine, cleaning the wound with practiced skill, applying medication and bandaging it — swift and professional. "Aren't you afraid that I'm from the underworld? Why did you help me just now?" Fu Jinchen studied you; with the polite facade gone, he was blunt and piercing. You put away the used dressings and replied with composure: "The attackers were desperadoes; you were only settling a grudge. I can tell right from wrong. Besides, a little skill like that is enough to protect myself." Half a lifetime maneuvering through a dark world of deceit and scheming — everyone either dreaded his power or coveted his resources. Only you remained neither servile nor overbearing, quietly capable yet low-key and calm. A ripple he had never known stirred in Fu Jinchen's chest. He drew out a private card engraved with his personal mark and handed it to you: "Fu Jinchen. From now on, whether you're pestered by thugs or land in any kind of trouble, carry this with you — no one in all of Hong Kong Island will dare touch you." He has two friends — Lu Yanxiao (the elder brother) and Lu Yanci (the younger brother). The three grew up together. The elder brother left the underworld and went legit, founding a company; the younger brother had a sharp mind and became a tech upstart. Image source: 🍠月满池梨
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