Huo Family Villa, Huo Wenxia’s residence.
A large group of people arrived at the door only to find it unlocked. Pushing open the three-panel palace-style door, two bodyguards in black lay in pools of blood.
“Ah!”
Huo Jun shrieked, retreating behind the old man. His normally tall figure curled up like a shrimp:
“Grandpa, something’s happened!”
Almost simultaneously, the men in black following behind, who were originally intended to restrain Huo Yan and Lan Su, quickly moved forward, surrounding the old man and the others.
Grandmother Song Yanjun tugged at her husband’s hand: “Old Man, let’s go back first!”
Huo Shouping leaned on his walking stick with both hands, the earthworm-like blue veins on the back of his hands pulsing with pent-up emotion. His eyelids, covered with age spots, were half-lifted:
“This is the Huo family’s territory. I’d like to see who dares to act recklessly!”
He took a step forward, raising his voice:
“Search the place! I want to see who is bold enough to lay a hand under my nose!”
A dozen men in black, like a flock of crows shaking a valley, scattered and rushed into the mansion. Naturally, they saw Huo Yan and Lan Su lying in a pool of blood in the study at the end of the first floor.
And, the ruthless man in black who had beaten the two of them into that state.
That same afternoon, Huo Family Private Hospital.
The senior ward on the top floor had an expansive view. Looking out the window, one could see the clock tower across the woods.
When she pushed the door open, Huo Yan was sitting with her side facing the wall, on the edge of the arched window, looking sideways at the hour hand on the clock tower two hundred meters away.
The light cut the light and shadow on her face. It was the perfect time for the sunset, but it couldn’t penetrate the cold, frosty look in her eyes.
“CEO Huo.”
Ai Li closed the door, stopped on the other side of the window, and reported the current situation:
“Miss Lan has woken up. Although her internal organs were not injured, the wound is very deep. The doctor said she needs time to recover.”
“Mhm.”
There was no ripple in Huo Yan’s eyes; she seemed to have expected this result. She then asked:
“What about Huo Wen-xia?”
Huo Wen-xia, her aunt who ranked fourth, was the person who called Huo Yan to the villa that day, and she was also the owner of the villa.
Her original plan was to knock Huo Yan unconscious and steal the information about the new jewelry collection from her. Everything had gone smoothly; Huo Yan was knocked down instantly. Just as she was searching Huo Yan’s handbag and had even gotten hold of the hard drive, Lan Su’s shout came from outside the door.
When mentioning Huo Wen-xia, a look of contempt flashed across Ai Li’s face:
“She’s been taken back by the Old Man. She’s going to suffer for acting on the Huo family’s territory.”
She then felt a little regretful:
“However, the hard drive is now in the Old Man’s hands. He will definitely keep it, so it won’t be of any use.”
Huo Yan adjusted her glasses. The golden frame reflected a rich color in the sunset but couldn’t contain her calculating ambition.
“As long as it’s in the hands of someone in the old mansion, it can be used.”
Ai Li paused, then speculated: “Are you saying… the Old Man will hand it over to Huo Jun?”
Huo Yan withdrew her gaze from the clock tower. “A complete set of the autumn jewelry design drafts could revive Huo Jun’s company and also serve as an endorsement for Huo Jingjing. Why wouldn’t he?”
The prerequisite was that they didn’t know the problem with this batch of design drafts.
Ai Li understood immediately, and her face brightened: “I’m a little curious about what they’ll look like when they’re disgraced a month from now.”
“Just wait and see.”
The wheelchair turned and rolled towards the door, the cold voice drifting in the air:
“Let’s go. Let’s go see Lan Su.”
At the door of the ward at the other end of the corridor, a doctor and nurses were preparing to enter.
“CEO Huo.”
Seeing Huo Yan, the hand on the doorknob was withdrawn.
“What’s wrong?” Huo Yan asked.
The doctor explained: “We’re here to change Miss Lan’s dressing. The hemostatic and healing medication has been on for four hours. We need to switch to a repairing ointment to reduce future scarring.”
“Then wait a moment. I have something to say to her.”
“Of course, please go ahead. No rush.”
The door opened and closed, isolating the clinking of bottles and jars on the nurse’s cart in the hallway. There were only two people in the room, and they were the two most taciturn people in the entire Huo and Lan families.
Lan Su was leaning against the headboard. The standard-size blue striped hospital gown hung loosely over her like a prison uniform. Her long hair draped like ink on her chest, and her cheeks and lips were pale from blood loss, making her eyes appear intensely dark, like water-reflecting pebbles by a lake at night.
“CEO Huo.”
Except for the occasional “A-Yan” when they pretended to be affectionate in public, she always called Huo Yan this in private.
The wheelchair stopped by the bedside. Glancing at the apple standing on the bedside table and the fruit knife pulled out of its sheath, Huo Yan asked:
“Want to eat an apple?”
Lan Su’s lips tightened. “Mhm. My hand hurts, I can’t peel it.”
In fact, she was just about to peel it when she heard Huo Yan’s voice at the door.
To thank her lifesaver, Huo Yan naturally picked up the apple, the blade skillfully spiraling from the top.
“Thank you for saving me at the villa earlier.”
Lan Su understood in her heart that Huo Yan’s personality wouldn’t easily say “thank you.” There was only one explanation—she was testing her.
So, she denied it:
“It wasn’t me who saved you.”
The peeling motion was fluid, without the slightest pause. She had anticipated that Lan Su would make an excuse.
“Oh?”
“I went in and saw you collapsed on the floor, but soon I was also hit and knocked unconscious.”
“That’s a rather unconventional assassin. He knocked down two people in a row, yet neither killed them to silence them nor fled. Instead, he knocked himself out by hitting the wall.”
Lan Su had already prepared an excuse: “Someone must have come to save us and dealt with him.”
“Who was it?”
“It was the Huo family’s territory. If you don’t know, how would I?”
The best way to deal with a challenge is to throw the question back at the challenger.
The peeling knife suddenly exerted a little force, and the peel broke, falling into the trash can below.
The first round was a back-and-forth, with Lan Su even having the slight upper hand.
She twisted her wrist and started anew from the break in the peel.
At that time, she pretended to be unconscious, fooling Huo Wen-xia into stealing the hard drive from her bag. Her ear, pressed against the floor, heard the hurried footsteps of Lan Su arriving, and also heard Huo Wen-xia fumbling to jump out the window to escape, and even the earth-shattering bang when the person outside kicked open the door.
Her raven-like eyelashes slightly drooped: “When you saw me passed out, why didn’t you run?”
Lan Su bit the inside of her cheek, her fingers tightening inside the wide cuff of her sleeve, and spoke a fraction of the truth:
“I just wanted to save someone; I didn’t think of anything else.”
“I thought you would run.”
“If something happened to you in the Huo family, as a married couple, they wouldn’t spare me either.”
Huo Yan nodded, praising:
“Not bad, still having the energy to analyze the cause and effect. My previous wife would have been screaming hysterically just seeing me fall down the stairs.”
Lan Su realized she might have exposed herself, so she explained:
“I only thought of it after I woke up.”
“Mhm.” Huo Yan cooperated with an affirmative sound, but only that one. Before Lan Su could relax, the next sentence came—
“Miss Lan’s courage is greater than I imagined. The first time we met, you took a knife for me, and you were also calm in the face of danger. You don’t seem like someone who has been in a coma for eleven years.”
As she spoke, she looked up, presenting the peeled apple, her eyes, however, piercing through the clear lenses, almost seeing through Lan Su:
“How about it? What happened in the past? Would you like to tell me?”
Lan Su didn’t take the apple. In fact, she couldn’t answer Huo Yan’s question either. Her mind raced with several internal storms until a flash of inspiration hit her.
“Hiss…”
She leaned back, forcing out a pained expression. Her slender fingers covered the wound through the gauze, her eyebrows raised, the corners of her lips drooping, and the muscles on her face exaggeratedly crumpled.
“It hurts so much. Please just put the apple down for now; I can’t eat it yet.”
Huo Yan raised the corner of her lips, leaning her upper body forward, and asked playfully:
“Do you really feel pain?”
A person who could stab a knife into her own body without expression should have already developed a cast-iron defense. How could she feel pain?
Who knew that as this light sentence landed, it was like scattering quicklime on a warm, spring meadow. The sprawling green grass instantly withered and turned yellow, the stems and leaves rotted, ground into a smear of dust in the soil.
Lan Su was stunned, suddenly falling into dejection, like a wilting flower with petals shedding one by one.
“I do,” she said.
It hurts.
It’s just that she’s used to being injured, used to digging out bullets from her wounds as easily as scratching an itch. She forgot how to act spoiled and tell others that she was in pain.
A certain similar experience invaded Huo Yan’s mind. The finger on the armrest of the wheelchair trembled violently, and her body was electrified, the current finally lingering in the blood-supplying tubes of her heart, causing a sharp pain.
The wheels rolled across the floor, and she silently opened the door and left. She thought this cold ending would conclude this undecided confrontation, but the arrogant and aloof person said one extra thing as she passed the doctor:
“Excuse me, please be gentle when changing the dressing.”