The first gift Lan Su received from the Huo family’s old manor was a listening device.
It was poison that drew blood, wrapped in the saccharine paper of kind and affectionate concern.
She found it terrifying, even more so than the Lan family.
When Lan Haotian whipped her, at least he would tell her, “I’m going to beat you.” But Jiang Dan would not; she would gently give you a poisoned apple, and after you succumbed to the poison, she would still come to mourn, dignified and considerate, personally escorting you to hell.
The steam in the bathroom condensed into water droplets, hanging on the surface of objects. Fine water vapor connected the droplets, resembling tiny cobwebs, aggressively stretching across the surface of the marble tiles, like an old, dusty, web-covered ceiling.
In the bathtub, the two were soaking. Huo Yan leaned against the pool wall, and Lan Su faced the pool wall, staring at the golden, rice-sized listening device in front of her.
Her teeth bit the inner lining of her cheek, and a metallic taste of blood gradually emerged.
“A Bodhisattva’s mouth and a snake’s heart.”
She cursed the person on the other side of the listening device. She only felt a little better imagining the alternating red and green expressions on Jiang Dan’s face when she secretly eavesdropped and only heard this one sentence.
Huo Yan was startled, vaguely seeing a young leopard fighting, clawing wildly but with limited attack power.
The bathroom was equipped with a signal blocker, so the listening device was useless. Of course, this included what they had just said, and the vicious curse Lan Su had uttered.
Should she tell her?
Huo Yan thought about it, deciding not to dampen Lan Su’s fighting spirit, so she didn’t speak.
A few minutes later, Jiang Dan knocked on the bathroom door:
“Xiao Yan, I’ve prepared two drinks.”
When the knock came, Lan Su quickly moved closer to Huo Yan, pressing tightly against her. The person outside the door didn’t wait for Huo Yan to answer but pushed the handle and entered. The two cups of milky-white drink on the tray had fine particles suspended in them, looking somewhat cloudy.
“I had them specially mixed by the family nutritionist. They’re meant to be drunk after a bath; they’re good for the skin.”
She smiled casually, her eyes scanning the bathroom interior—
The two were naked, soaking in the same tub, bodies touching. Moreover, Huo Yan, who had always been a germaphobe and disliked physical contact with others, had her arm around Lan Su’s shoulder.
Huo Yan didn’t move, still facing away from Jiang Dan, her hands resting on the edge of the tub, one arm bent, one stretched straight, always keeping Lan Su within the range of her arm’s activity.
But one of the wives had to be polite, so Lan Su turned around, placed both hands on the edge of the bathtub, and looked up at Jiang Dan from below.
“Aunt Dan, thank you. You’re too thoughtful.”
Jiang Dan cautiously squatted down, placing the tray next to the wine glass tray, smiling kindly:
“It’s nothing. I’ve always treated Xiao Yan as my own daughter, and now that you’re married, you’re half my daughter too.”
Lan Su examined her expression. Neither the fine lines at the corner of her eyes nor the curve of her lips showed any flaw. It seemed this Jiang Dan was indeed a thousand-year-old fox. If Lan Su hadn’t seen the listening device in the jade pendant with her own eyes, she would have been fooled by this trick.
Using all her acting skills, she tried hard to squeeze out a sweet and obedient expression, her beautiful lips curving:
“Yes, thank you, Aunt Dan.”
Jiang Dan smiled, looking at her, but when her eyes fell on Lan Su’s neck, her smile finally stiffened:
“Miss Lan, where is the jade pendant I gave you? Don’t you like it?”
Lan Su wasn’t very good at lying, and the hand hidden in the water gradually clenched. “No, because I’m taking a bath, I was afraid of damaging it, so I took it off and put it aside.”
Jiang Dan’s eyes moved, landing on the scattered jade fragments next to the tray. Knowing that the jade pendant might have been discovered, she pressed further:
“Where exactly did you put it?”
This time, Lan Su had no excuse. She wondered if she should lie and say she put it in the bedroom. But tomorrow, Jiang Dan would surely ask again, and then half-coercively, half-kindly, put another necklace containing a listening device on her.
It felt as if her head was being pushed underwater. Lan Su was annoyed—nothing was more troublesome than something that couldn’t be solved with force.
Fortunately, someone specialized in verbal warfare.
“Aunt Dan.”
In the silence, Huo Yan, with her back to Jiang Dan, slowly spoke. After saying the name, she turned in the water, also looking up at Jiang Dan from a lower position, yet seemingly crushing the person in front of her underfoot, looking down on her with contempt, like a giant elephant looking down on an ant.
“If you want to find out what I’m doing, at least use some real money.”
She spoke slowly, her sharp eyes fixed straight on Jiang Dan’s face, like a hook tearing away the well-maintained skin inch by inch. As she spoke, a water droplet slid from her prominent brow bone, a cold glint suddenly flashing across her sharply chiseled face, and her tone dropped:
“Throwing a piece of trash at me is a bit too much underestimation.”
Clang—
Jiang Dan’s eyes widened. It felt as if a nail had pierced her eyeball, stabbed through the eye socket, and dug out from the back of her head.
Throughout the Huo family, there was one person everyone dared not provoke, and that was Old Master Huo.
The second person was Huo Yan.
Like the Old Master, Huo Yan displayed the terror of a ferocious beast, like a black panther, regardless of her age or location. At first glance, she seemed to be smiling, but when she smiled, her eyes slightly narrowed and slanted upwards. It seemed everyone was nothing more than an ant that she could crush with one finger.
“Xiao Yan…”
Jiang Dan’s momentum was already weak. With Huo Yan’s light, pointed remark, all her pretense collapsed:
“Aunt Dan is wrong. But, but this was the Old Master’s idea. I couldn’t disobey him.”
Looking at the entire Huo family, the only person who could put pressure on Huo Yan was the Old Master.
Huo Yan maintained her composure and said coldly, “Then please tell Grandpa that I will bring someone back tomorrow, and ask him not to worry.”
Jiang Dan let out half a sigh of relief, seeing that she wasn’t pursuing the matter. “Okay, I’ll tell him.”
Splash…
The sound of water faintly echoed. Huo Yan picked up the ceramic ladle and poured a scoop of hot water over her head. The warm current flowed down her sharp facial contours, but it looked like the red blood dripping down a face after a bloody massacre in an ancient arena.
“We are finished with our bath. If you don’t want to watch a live peep show, Aunt Dan, please leave.”
After Jiang Dan left, the spacious bathroom finally returned to peaceful harmony. Lan Su let out a long sigh of relief. She felt that being alone with Huo Yan was not as difficult as she had imagined.
Especially compared to Jiang Dan, Huo Yan occupied a position of absolute honesty and openness.
Glancing at the wheelchair not far from the edge of the tub, Lan Su asked:
“Do you need my help?”
For example, when she was getting out of the tub, helping her dry off or helping her put on clothes.
Lan Su didn’t know if Huo Yan’s disability was in one leg or both, if she had no feeling below the hips or only the knees. She was curious, but she was also worried that this curiosity would hurt Huo Yan’s self-esteem. She only thought to herself that having sat in a wheelchair for years, the muscles in those legs must have atrophied, and the skin might be sagging, perhaps looking unsightly.
She warned herself in her heart to look at those legs with a normal mindset.
Huo Yan’s answer was naturally negative.
“You go out first and ask Ai Li to come in.”
“Okay.”
This answer was within Lan Su’s expectations. She didn’t insist, only touched the edge of the tub and walked to the steps. Before getting up, she hesitated, wondering if she should ask Huo Yan to turn around.
Although the two were legally married, they weren’t even considered ordinary friends. Being stared at by Huo Yan with that kind of gaze while dressing felt like the shame of performing an explicit dance at an adult nightclub; every cell wished to find a hole to crawl into.
The foot stepping onto the stairs paused. She turned around:
“You—”
As soon as she said one word, she stopped—Huo Yan had already turned her back. Furthermore, she was entirely focused on dealing with the remaining liquid in the wine glass.
For a moment, Lan Su mistakenly thought that this person was drinking to spare her embarrassment.
But then she thought again, the self-willed Huo Yan was certainly not that considerate. Being able to turn her back before Lan Su spoke was already an immense kindness.
This person is quite good.
“You’ll sleep in my room tonight.”
Huo Yan said.
This person is quite bad.