“Then, how about transferring the ownership of this shopping mall to Lan Su?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the entire dining table fell into silence, as if a heavy object had fallen from the sky, and after a huge crash, smoke engulfed all living things.
Huo Yan’s voice was very strange, much colder than ordinary women, and not just cold, but also carrying a sense of severance. It was like ice being ground into a narrow, sharp blade on a whetstone, then used to cut straw, making the rending sound of plant tissue being severed.
A circle of people sat at the long table.
Huo Yan, Lan Su, Lan Haotian, Chu Meilian, and Lan Shan—every single person stopped using their chopsticks.
Lan Su looked sideways at Huo Yan next to her, always feeling that a pair of man-eating eyes were hidden beneath those gold-rimmed glasses.
Fortunately, it wasn’t her that was being eaten.
After a long while, Lan Haotian reacted, smiling with four layers of wrinkles on his forehead:
“Ms. Huo, you must be joking.”
Chu Meilian also smiled hurriedly: “Exactly, Ms. Huo, these betrothal gifts are for the parents. How can they be kept by the daughter herself?”
Lan Su’s heart felt much colder. She lowered her eyes and looked at her hands placed beneath the tablecloth, feeling that the material of the tablecloth was indeed good; with a light cover, all the filth and obscenity were hidden away.
Beside her, Huo Yan’s eyes moved slightly. She glanced at the anxious hands beneath the tablecloth, then calmly raised her gaze and deliberately asked:
“Then, Mr. Lan, who do you think this building should be given to?”
Lan Haotian rubbed his hands, tentatively leaning his upper body forward, and said: “Well, Ms. Huo, look, we have three daughters in total. In recent years, the antique business has become difficult, and I’m tired and want to hand it over to the next generation sooner. Shan’er is my eldest daughter, and her conditions are so good, we, as parents, can’t hold her back, right? I was thinking of transferring this building to her, so she will have some foundation when she takes over the business later, right? Furthermore, you and Lan Su are already married, and we are all family now. Who it’s given to doesn’t really matter, does it?”
It doesn’t matter who it’s given to, but it definitely cannot be given to Lan Su.
Huo Yan had heard this line of reasoning many times. She stared straight at Lan Haotian, her gaze falling on the top of his head, subtly exerting a condescending pressure. Her thin lips moved slightly, and her tone was flat:
“Using Lan Su’s betrothal gift to pave the way for Lan Shan, and using the Huo family’s assets to do so. Mr. Lan, what do you take me for?”
There was no expression on her face, but the corners of her eyes drooped, and with the refraction of the glasses, her gaze felt like a knife piercing Lan Haotian’s spine.
Seeing her expression change, Lan Haotian quickly explained:
“Ms. Huo, we didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that you also have to understand our feelings as parents! Otherwise, how about this: the shopping mall will be transferred to my name, considering it as a filial gift from Lan Su, your daughter. How does that sound?”
Lan Su sneered internally. Although she was accustomed to Lan Haotian’s face and knew he was completely self-serving, seeing his embarrassed, cowering look under Huo Yan’s coercion was truly laughable.
He wasn’t even willing to pretend anymore.
She knew that in the Lan family’s eyes, she was just a knife, a tool, a bargaining chip.
The corner of her jacket was resting on her lap, and in the pocket was the gold bracelet that Aunt Zhang had just given her.
Her slender fingers clenched the bracelet through the fabric, clutching the only piece of evidence that she had been treated as a person during her more than ten years in the Lan family.
Huo Yan’s voice sounded again, cutting through the dining table like a saw:
“The betrothal gift should be presented. It’s just that, I wonder how much dowry Mr. Lan is willing to prepare in accordance with this betrothal gift?”
Dowry?
The word was very foreign to Lan Su. Since the negotiation of this marriage began, she had never heard those two words.
Equally shocked was Lan Haotian, who looked at Chu Meilian in a panic, forcing a chuckle:
“Well, this, this…”
Huo Yan waited for a moment, waiting to see the calculation on their faces slowly turn into cunning, and then gradually reveal an exposed, flustered look.
It wasn’t until Lan Haotian could no longer squeeze out a single word from his throat that she finally spoke, this time taking complete control of the situation:
“Although both the Lan family and the Huo family are in business, the scale of our operations is fundamentally different. Mr. Lan, you know in your heart which family benefits more from this marriage. However, I still genuinely like Lan Su, and it wouldn’t look right to have a grand wedding without a decent betrothal gift. So, let’s do this: that shopping mall will be transferred to her name. Firstly, it counts as the betrothal gift, and secondly, it will be our token of love.”
After speaking, she raised her chin slightly, slowing down her voice as she asked:
“What do you think, Mr. Lan?”
Lan Haotian held the teacup, his fingers clenched until his knuckles were white. But his throat felt strangled, and he couldn’t utter a single word.
His cunning eyes darted back and forth, unable to find a focus, and in the end, he could only agree.
When the dinner ended, Assistant Jiang Feng received the notification for the transfer of ownership. Her eyes widened, staring blankly at the words on the screen. She knew every word, but putting them together was truly difficult to comprehend.
Beside her, the junior assistant Xu Panpan jumped up:
“Holy cow! No way! How much effort did it take to acquire this shopping mall? And they’re just giving it away?”
Jiang Feng quickly patted her and told her to quiet down.
Xu Panpan’s face wrinkled up. She lowered her voice and leaned in:
“No, Sister Feng, why do you think the boss suddenly spent a fortune? She received the marriage certificate in the daytime, and gave away a building in the evening. That’s a huge shopping mall in the city center! 12 floors! A shopping mall worth nine figures!”
Jiang Feng covered her mouth, hating that she couldn’t learn: “Keep it down! If Ms. Huo hears you, you’ll be fired!”
“Mmm…”
Xu Panpan was completely puzzled. She hugged her briefcase to her chest, stood on her toes, and peered at Lan Su, who hadn’t said much in the room, muttering:
“A vixen must have possessed her and put a spell on our boss…”
As for Lan Su, she also didn’t know why, in the span of one dinner, she had become a femme fatale who ruins nations.
She hadn’t even said a word.
That feeling was somewhat strange.
It was like walking on a suspended fishing net, one foot solid, one foot empty. She walked from one end to the other, from the age of 8 to 19, trembling and treading carefully. Suddenly, a voice came from below and said, ‘I’ve got you.’
Lan Su had nothing of her own.
Her clothes, money, status, and even her life belonged to the Lan family.
But on that day, she, who had nothing, received a building without saying a word.
She wouldn’t say she was overjoyed; after all, she had never valued money much. But, she did gain a sense of security.
She had a fleeting illusion—this legendary Jade Yama seemed, perhaps, not so terrible.
Night fell, and the dinner ended.
Lan Su and Huo Yan stepped out of the Lan family’s gate. Lan Haotian only saw them off at the door. As the two walked into the long garden corridor of the front yard, they finally returned to peace.
Lan Su watched Huo Yan out of the corner of her eye. The person was in a wheelchair, only reaching up to her chest in height, clearly shorter, but there was no sense of being diminished. Instead, a giant seemed to stand invisibly, compelling people to look up.
It was very strange.
Everything that happened to Huo Yan, including everything Huo Yan led, was very strange.
Lan Su took a deep breath of the cold night air, slowly exhaled, and spoke her first words of the evening:
“Thank you, for today.”
Huo Yan didn’t detect any deeper emotion, judging purely from the perspective of interests, this thank you only covered the ownership of the building.
“Don’t thank me too soon. Although the shopping mall is in your name, I will have the final say on how it is managed and how the tenders are handled.”
Tenders?
Lan Su had never thought of this aspect: “Of course. I don’t understand jewelry or business; you can decide in the future. But, still, thank you.”
Thank you for being willing to hold me up in the turbulent river.
Huo Yan didn’t say anything, her mind still seemed to be on business. The two walked forward quietly. Lan Su self-reflected, wondering if she had said something that displeased her or touched a sensitive spot.
When they reached the door, Assistant Jiang Feng had already opened the trunk and lowered the ramp for the wheelchair to enter the car.
It was then that Huo Yan finally spoke:
“If you want to thank me, you drive tonight.”
“Okay.”
Lan Su subconsciously agreed, and even quickened her steps towards the car. It wasn’t until she had walked several steps that she suddenly came to her senses, feeling a heightened sense of alertness. She stopped and turned around:
“I don’t know how to drive.”
It wasn’t that Lan Su didn’t know how to drive, but the Second Miss she was currently impersonating, the delicate flower who had been asleep in the hospital for 11 years, wouldn’t know how to drive.
Huo Yan must know this point.
The question was, why did she say this?
Was she simply trying to test her, or was she reminding her that her identity had been exposed?