After his mother passed away, Huo Shu’s chest filled with hatred. He cast everything else aside—including his dreams.
……
His memory returned to a distant childhood.
His mother had asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.
He remembered what he’d said.
“I want to be a police officer someday, punishing evil and upholding justice. I want to be a great hero.”
……
Now, he had no aspirations left in his heart. He only wanted to grow stronger. Only by becoming stronger could he avenge his mother.
Huo Shu had always kept to himself. He lowered his head and gazed at his fingers curled on his knees. Deep inside, something had shifted.
If he had to choose a butler to stay by his side for the rest of his life, having it be her wouldn’t be so hard to accept.
“Young Master, let me tell you, when you’re in a bad mood, going to the movies is just the thing…” Once Jiang You got started, she chattered on enthusiastically without stopping.
She wasn’t just making conversation. She was too relaxed and had accidentally let her talkative nature show. Before, she’d had to play a taciturn butler, so naturally she couldn’t talk this much.
Whether Huo Shu responded or not, she kept talking to herself, thoroughly absorbed.
By the time she realized it, they had reached the cinema entrance. She scratched her head and apologized a little sheepishly. “Sorry, Young Master. I’ve been bothering you.”
Huo Shu’s long, slender fingers tightened slightly around the wheelchair’s armrest. His tone was as cold as ever. “Don’t speak to me so formally.”
Jiang You blinked. “Huh?”
For once, Huo Shu repeated himself.
He didn’t like her calling him “you” so formally.
It made her sound distant.
Jiang You didn’t understand what the Young Master was thinking, but she nodded at once, without a second thought.
“Okay. I promise I won’t.”
Then she scanned the lobby, stopping when she spotted the ticket machines. She wheeled him to a quiet corner and said, “Young Master, wait here a moment. I’ll go get the tickets.”
Huo Shu nodded and waited quietly in his wheelchair. From beginning to end, his cool, dark eyes stayed fixed on her retreating figure.
He watched her queue for tickets, watched her look around, and watched the ordinary face light up with a radiance that seemed out of place.
“Classmate Huo?”
A woman’s voice from beside him interrupted his thoughts.
A figure approached. Once she was certain the person in the wheelchair was him, she smiled brightly, looking both surprised and delighted.
“It really is you, Classmate Huo!”
Huo Shu’s view was blocked. His deep-set eyes shifted to the unfamiliar young woman standing in front of him.
She chattered on and on. Unlike Butler Jiang, she didn’t put him at ease; instead, she made him feel annoyed.
“Classmate Huo, what happened to your legs? Are you hurt? Have you seen a doctor? The doctor—” Chu Muci had come to the cinema with her friends. She came back to herself when she noticed the young man in the wheelchair, and suddenly grew so flustered she could barely get her words out.
Huo Shu lifted his chin slightly, his eyes narrowing. Without warning, he cut her off. “I’m fine.”
Chu Muci was about to say more when her friends, waiting nearby, called out to hurry her along.
“Muci, the movie’s about to start.”
Chu Muci fell silent, biting her lip. Her feet remained rooted to the spot.
“Muci? One minute left!”
The young man in the wheelchair reminded her without expression, “You should go.”
Chu Muci had no choice but to tear her gaze away. She said goodbye softly, then left with her friends.
They were neither close nor far away.
Their conversation reached Huo Shu’s ears.
“Muci, why are you even talking to him? Don’t you know he’s the Huo family’s illegitimate son?”
“Someone with his background isn’t worthy of you.”
“…”
Their figures receded until they entered the screening room. Their voices faded beyond hearing, leaving only the endless din of the surrounding crowd.
This wasn’t the first time Huo Shu had heard words like that.
Almost every day, someone came along to remind him how lowly he was.
Someone like him didn’t even deserve the chance to breathe in the Huo family. He’d become the heir only because half of Huo Yuan’s blood ran through his veins.
……
“Young Master, I’ve got the tickets.”
Her bright, gentle voice cut through the surrounding noise, easily melting the chill that had settled in his eyes.
Jiang You came over with a Coke in one hand and a bucket of popcorn in the other. With both hands full, she couldn’t push his wheelchair, so she made a cautious request.
“Young Master, could you hold this for me?”
Huo Shu abruptly raised his head. His expression visibly froze for a second. Hesitantly, he asked, drawing the words out, “Hold… what?” Her?
Jiang You’s attention was fixed on the popcorn in her arms. Its rich, milky aroma filled her nostrils, making her mouth water. She swallowed again and again before answering, “The popcorn.”
Huo Shu: “…………”
Realizing he’d misunderstood, the tips of the young man’s ears, hidden beneath his hair, suddenly turned red. He looked away, avoiding her gaze, and gave an awkward little “Oh.”
[Pacifying Ghosts]
Two blood-red characters appeared on the enormous cinema screen.
The next moment, an eerie, spine-chilling operatic tune began to play as the names of the actors, director, and screenwriter appeared one by one.
Huo Shu, seated in his wheelchair, glanced around. In the vast screening room, there was no one else besides him and Jiang You.
The young butler sat in a soft seat beside him, never stopping as she grabbed popcorn and tossed it into her mouth. Her cheeks bulged, and the crisp crunching filled the room.
Throughout the two-hour horror movie, her eyes never left the screen. She was utterly absorbed.
Only after the film ended did she wheel him out of the theater.
“It was really good, wasn’t it, Young Master?”
Maybe she was just too happy; her words came out a little jumbled. She was radiating a joy and ease unlike anything he’d seen from her before.
Huo Shu glanced at the undisguised delight on her face, raised an eyebrow, and asked, “You like movies like this?”
Jiang You nodded emphatically. Popcorn crumbs still clung to the corner of her mouth, but they did nothing to slow her down. “Yeah! I love them. I used to watch horror movies whenever I was stressed. I always felt a lot better afterward.”
Huo Shu was at a loss for words.
He couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to watch horror movies when stressed. Besides, near the end of the film, she’d been sobbing so hard that her tears pattered into the popcorn bucket, which she’d already emptied.
It was clearly a terrible movie, with awful special effects and a plot that was complete crap.
Before he could figure it out, she tilted her head and leaned in close to him. “Young Master, you’re feeling a lot better now too, aren’t you?”
When he met her phoenix eyes, slightly red-rimmed as if freshly washed with clear water, Huo Shu felt inexplicably nervous. Pretending she was bothering him, he pushed her face away and said coldly, “So-so.”
Jiang You straightened up, the corners of her eyes lifting as she smiled. “So-so is still pretty good. At least you feel a little better, right, Young Master?”
Perhaps her mood had rubbed off on him. A trace of feeling stirred on the young man’s usually expressionless face, and beneath his thin eyelids, a glimmer of amusement flickered in his dark eyes.
He himself didn’t even notice it.
Happy times always passed quickly.
Afterward, Huo Shu returned to his busy studies.
That day was like a beautiful dream, preserved deep in his memories.