These past few days had been extremely unpleasant for Hou Hongchang. His father said he would send him abroad, and even his usually indulgent mother had sided with his father this time.
Hou Hongchang did not want to go overseas. When he was in middle school, he had been sent to the UK for “finishing education,” but after several years he had barely learned any English at all. The arrogant British did not care whose son he was. At a private elite school, he had suffered constant discrimination.
Just parking his car a few times—only slightly out of place—was enough for the school security to chain-lock the wheels of his new sports car. The British were famously rigid and exclusionary. On several occasions when he went to bars and forgot to bring ID proving his age, the overly proper doormen actually dared to block him at the entrance.
What a joke. In Beijing, Young Master Hou had always been surrounded by admiration. Who wouldn’t show respect to his father’s status and bow politely, addressing him as “Young Master Hou”? Wherever he wanted to go, whatever he wanted to play with, who dared stop him?
Rules and laws—those were things for ordinary people. For someone of his status, they meant nothing.
To avoid being sent abroad, Hou Hongchang had a full-blown argument with his father. His father scolded him for making the car accident case so public that even the entire Hou family could no longer contain the fallout. Sending him abroad was the only way to ride out the storm.
But Hou Hongchang believed his father was overreacting. What problem couldn’t the family handle? Public opinion? Just noise on the internet. The courts? Would they dare come knocking on the Hou family’s door? They wouldn’t even have the courage.
After arguing with his father and slamming tables at his mother, he stormed out and went to stay with his mistress, Cheng Xurong.
Cheng Xurong had originally planned to go to a hotel that night, but upon hearing that Hou Hongchang was coming, she immediately changed her plans. She prepared carefully—facial mask, bath, makeup—and waited for him.
She had started as an ordinary woman in Beijing with no money, no backing, no connections. Only after attaching herself to Hou Hongchang did she gradually build her current position. Even now that she had wealth and property of her own, she still lived in the small apartment he had once given her, never moving out—displaying loyalty and nostalgia.
The apartment was an open secret within Hou Hongchang’s circle. His group of princelings often came and went here. Anything inconvenient or dirty was handled in this place. No normal person would tolerate their private life being so exposed—but Cheng Xurong did, willingly. It gave her a special status among them.
She had calculated his arrival time, but that night he arrived ten minutes early. She was still in the bathroom when he entered.
“The food from the hotel is on the table. Eat something first!” she called out. “I’ll be out in a few minutes!”
Hou Hongchang cursed under his breath and wandered into the dining area.
At that moment, the doorbell rang.
“Who is it?” he asked irritably.
“Hotel delivery. One dish was missing. Does Miss Cheng live here?”
He frowned. This apartment really was outdated now. In newer upscale residences, delivery workers were not allowed upstairs at all.
He considered moving Cheng Xurong elsewhere.
As the bathroom water continued to run, he lazily got up and went to the door.
Then, suddenly, his eyelid twitched violently.
In that instant, he was briefly stunned—just like the moment after the drunk driving accident when his eye had also twitched before everything went wrong.
He opened the door.
Outside stood a young man in a hotel uniform, wearing a baseball cap that covered most of his face. For some reason, Hou Hongchang found him vaguely familiar.
“You…”
That was his last word.
A flash of cold, silver light cut across his vision—fast, decisive, like lightning.
His throat was severed.
He felt no pain at first. Only confusion: why couldn’t he speak anymore?
Blood burst out from the severed artery. Air rushed into his airway. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Only then did the cold sensation of the blade climb up his spine and into his brain, taking away the last of his consciousness.
Even as he collapsed with eyes wide open, he could still hear the sound of water running in the bathroom.
In a place no one saw, no one heard, and no one could have predicted, the arrogant young master of the Hou family fell silently to the ground—dead with eyes unclosed.
He never even saw who killed him.
During dinner, Han Yue was distracted, thinking about going out to call Chu Ci—checking whether he had gone home on time, whether he was wandering around outside.
But his father, mother, elder brother, and sister-in-law were all present. His father and mother kept questioning him about military affairs, making it impossible to leave the table.
He could only eat while answering briefly: “Mm,” “Yes,” “Understood.”
His mother had little to talk to him about, only making polite inquiries about his work in general. After a few words, she fell silent.
His father asked about his deployment in Nujiang and said, “When you’re back, don’t run around or contact too many people. Keep to confidentiality rules. Next year there will be troop rotations in Beijing—there will be transfers. I expect you’ll be among them.”
Han Yue nodded.
His sister-in-law suddenly said, “So that means Second Brother can stay in Beijing long-term? Should we prepare a room upstairs for him?”
The table went awkward.
His elder brother Han Qiang quickly interrupted, “She just got married, she doesn’t know the situation. Second Brother doesn’t really stay at home. His unit friends all have their own places nearby.”
Then his mother suddenly remembered something.
“Oh right… I heard you’re living with a man outside. A male engineer?”
The atmosphere froze slightly. The sister-in-law, unfamiliar with the family dynamics, looked even more awkward and kept glancing at Han Yue.
“You’re already at this age. Playing around a bit isn’t impossible, but you must take marriage seriously. Recently, several ladies from lower-tier cities have forwarded me their daughters’ photos. I’ve looked through them one by one; a few are quite good. Take a look sometime as well. If there’s one you like, I’ll have them come to Beijing for you to meet.”
The statement from the Commander’s wife was well-intentioned. Among that generation of “princelings among princelings,” the choice of legal wives was always made in this way. Even if all the daughters of prominent Beijing families had already been married off, they could still select from top-ranking official families in the provinces. In short, two words mattered most: matching social status.
Two years earlier, Han Yue’s sister-in-law Qi Xiaoruo had been chosen in exactly this manner. The entire process was no different from selecting palace concubines.
Han Yue was chewing on a piece of chicken bone, speaking indistinctly: “We’ll see. These things depend on fate.”
“What fate are you talking about? You’ve got fate with that man?” The Commander’s wife poked her finger at her second son’s head. “Useless!”
Han Yue frowned but said nothing. The old Commander could see his son’s displeasure, and also roughly knew what he had done to that engineer, so he promptly stopped his wife: “Enough! Dinner is for eating. Han Yue’s matters can be discussed later.”
The meal left Han Yue in low spirits. The Commander’s wife’s nagging irritated him, and his sister-in-law’s strange scrutiny made him want to lose his temper. Once the meal finally ended, he went alone into the courtyard, lit a cigarette casually, and prepared to call Chu Ci.
Just as he lit it, his sister-in-law hurried out and said, “Second brother, Mom is looking for you.”
Han Yue extinguished the cigarette without a word and turned back inside.
After hesitating for a moment and confirming no one else was nearby, his sister-in-law still couldn’t help asking, “Second brother… are you really together with a man?”
Han Yue turned his head and looked at her for a long moment before replying coldly, “If elder brother had something going on outside, would you dare ask him that?”
His sister-in-law was startled and instinctively stepped back half a step, watching as Han Yue walked straight past her without looking back.
The Commander’s wife had gone to great lengths to have the old Commander call Han Yue home, and as expected, there was a matter to discuss.
It concerned Han Yue’s unreliable elder brother, Han Qiang. Although he had followed his parents’ expectations and gone through school step by step, he ultimately achieved nothing of substance. Later, the Commander’s wife arranged for him to study abroad. He returned with a foreign degree, but shortly after coming back to China, he accidentally hit and killed two people while driving.
The Han family was thrown into chaos over the incident. The old Commander, upright all his life, nearly wanted to beat his eldest son to death with a belt. Han Yue, already distant from the family and hot-tempered by nature, not only did not dissuade his father but even added fuel to the fire.
In order to save their eldest son, the Commander’s wife lost countless strands of hair to worry and even developed high blood pressure. Fortunately, her efforts paid off. Although the old Commander was extremely reluctant, he ultimately used old connections to smooth things over. He also found someone in the High Court through Han Yue’s close friend and arranged favorable testimony and evidence, eventually securing Han Qiang’s acquittal.
But although he was released, his future became uncertain. Han Qiang had originally intended to pursue a political career, but after this incident his promotion prospects were delayed indefinitely. Frustrated and unwilling to endure, he turned to business, like many privileged “princelings” who relied on family influence to enter the commercial world, eager to make a big move.
However, business was not so easy. Having lived a carefree life for over twenty years, Han Qiang had no real understanding of capital flow, nor was he skilled in interpersonal dealings or client relations. His jewelry company fell into trouble within months, accumulating bank debt it could not repay. Fortunately, the Han family had deep reserves; otherwise he would have been in even greater trouble.
This time, the Commander’s wife summoned Han Yue home precisely to ask him to help his elder brother—either to secure him an easy, profitable position through connections, or simply place him in a military procurement department.
After listening to his mother’s long explanation with a furrowed brow, Han Yue remained silent for a long time before finally saying, “The procurement department isn’t easy to get into. You’ve seen how smoothly Hou Yu operates—that’s because he’s shrewd and extremely cautious. Eldest brother’s aloof personality probably won’t work there. If something goes wrong in procurement, I won’t be able to cover for him.”
“Are you really going to just stand by and watch your eldest brother end up with nowhere to turn, without even a decent future?” the Commander’s wife snapped, her temper flaring as her expression hardened. “All of you have turned out well enough, and I’m relieved for that—but your eldest brother is the only one I can’t rest easy about! You’re his own younger brother. If even you refuse to help him, then as his mother, how can I possibly face peace in the afterlife when I die?”
Han Yue listened in silence without saying a word.
“Anyway, whether it works or not, you go and make the contact first! If Han Qiang doesn’t perform well, he still has his father backing him up—and me as well! It won’t drag you down!”
Han Yue shook his head. “Making contact isn’t that simple.”
“What’s not simple about it? Do you think I don’t know anything?” The Commander’s wife flared up again, then forced herself to calm down. “I heard from your father that back when that engineer refused you, you only had to say a word and someone immediately rushed to issue a death certificate for him. Han Yue, I know you have power now. As long as you put in a word in the procurement department, people will be lining up to accommodate you.”
She wiped the corner of her eye, her expression turning sorrowful. “Look, I’ve never asked you for anything all these years, never interfered in your life. Even when you were fooling around with men outside, I didn’t scold you like some narrow-minded parents would, didn’t make things difficult for you. Now I’m only asking you for this one thing, and it’s about your own biological brother—can’t you even do this small favor?”
At this point, there was clearly no room left to refuse. Han Yue frowned, then stood up after a long pause. “We’ll talk about it later. I’ll give you an answer in a couple of days.”
The Commander’s wife knew that this kind of reply was essentially tacit agreement, and her mood brightened immediately. “That’s good, that’s good… After your father and I are gone, who else in this world can you rely on? Only you brothers can support each other…”
Han Yue strode out of the small reception room. His face remained expressionless, but everyone could feel the pressure around him—the unmistakable dark mood of the second young master, whose temper was well known to be volatile, clearly suppressed and simmering.
His sister-in-law was still waiting outside and was about to speak, but one look at Han Yue’s eyes made her immediately shut her mouth and step aside.
Han Yue walked straight out into the courtyard, lit a cigarette, and took a few harsh drags. The nicotine briefly suppressed the agitation in his blood.
Then he took out his phone, wanting to call Chu Ci.
At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to hear Chu Ci’s voice—to confirm that this person was still within his control, still within reach, somewhere he could grab at will.
But after the call connected, the phone rang for a long time and was automatically hung up without anyone answering.
Han Yue called again. Still no answer.
Assuming Chu Ci simply didn’t have his phone with him, he called the landline. After two or three attempts, it still went to voicemail.
“Hello, this is Chu Ci. I’m not at home right now or unable to answer the phone. Please leave your name and number after the beep…”
Han Yue snapped his phone shut with a sharp sound. His expression was so frightening it could make people tremble.
At that moment, the old family nanny happened to walk past carrying a bowl of soup and stopped in concern. “Second Young Master, are you alright?”
“…I’m fine.” Han Yue shook his head, then suddenly strode toward the gate. “Tell the old man I left something at home. I’m going back to get it.”