Huo Yuan was well into his forties, yet the years had left few traces on him. His features were handsome and severe, and his long legs, encased in suit trousers, carried him forward with vigorous strides.
The male lead, Huo Shu, looked nothing like him. Only the powerful aura around him and those pitch-black eyes—with their depths steeped in cruelty and bloodlust—seemed as though they had been carved from the same mold.
His second son, Huo Ye, followed behind him. His eldest son, Huo Jing, was away on business.
As they drew closer, Qingchan could clearly feel the boy beside her gradually tense up.
Huo Shu had to join the Huo family in dealing with the other families’ people.
Qingchan walked behind him, her attention elsewhere.
At the turn, she saw Huo Jing, the third daughter, approaching with the butler.
According to the information she had, this legitimate daughter of the Huo family had been personally groomed by Huo Yuan from the moment she was born, with the highest hopes placed in her.
After all, she was his biological daughter, and her methods were the most like his.
“Father.” She heard the sixteen-year-old girl call out, her voice cool and respectful.
When Huo Yuan saw her, his expression softened considerably. He nodded for her to walk at his side.
The contrast with how he treated her was stark: when Huo Yuan saw Huo Shu, his gaze darkened, and his disgust was plain to see.
Huo Shu remained expressionless and brought up the rear.
Greetings, toasts…
In less than an hour, they had met nearly all the senior figures from the other families.
Compared with the other heirs, Huo Shu drank the most. Qingchan saw him drink more than ten different kinds of liquor, despite his young age.
“Ugh—”
The moment the boy was out of the Huo family’s sight, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He rushed to the restroom and threw up repeatedly.
The pungent smell of alcohol spread through the air. Qingchan waited until he had finished, then handed him the hangover medicine she had prepared earlier.
“Young Master.”
After vomiting and rinsing his mouth, Huo Shu leaned against the sink. The flush from the alcohol had faded somewhat from his face. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his long lashes trembled almost imperceptibly.
He slowly raised his head. Half his sharply defined, handsome face was lost in shadow, while the other half was bathed in a cold, pale light. His shadowed eyes fixed on her, scrutinizing her without blinking.
Jiang You stayed where she was, eyes lowered, posture perfectly steady. She let him look at her, then respectfully addressed him again.
“Young Master.”
Huo Shu didn’t trust her. He had never trusted anyone—not even by the end of the novel.
He didn’t take the hangover medicine from her hand. Instead, he splashed cold water on his face.
The icy water soaked his hair, and crystal-clear droplets slid down his lean jaw. He took out a handkerchief, gave himself a quick wipe, and walked out of the restroom.
Jiang You’s hand had gone numb. Seeing this, she put away the medicine and followed him, unable to stop herself from grumbling inwardly.
【What an incredibly wary kid.】
They left the banquet hall and went out into the hotel garden. The boy walked straight through a semicircular archway and sat on the edge of a flower bed.
They couldn’t leave yet. They could only go once Huo Yuan had left.
Jiang You sat a short distance away, on the other side of a small flower bed. She had barely had time to rest when she heard hurried footsteps approaching.
It was Chu Muci, the guest of honor at the banquet.
“H-H-Classmate Huo.” Chu Muci had run after him and was panting, her pretty face flushed as she stopped in front of him.
Huo Shu’s pale face still held a trace of an alcohol-induced flush. His dark hair fell loosely over his forehead, and the features it revealed seemed a little less cold than usual. At her words, he lifted his eyelids slightly.
Chu Muci’s eyes curved, and the flush in her cheeks deepened. Almost without thinking, she pinched the edge of her skirt and said, trying to sound casual, “I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Huo Shu stood up. From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the female butler watching him from nearby.
Just like at school last time, whenever someone approached him, a liveliness appeared in her eyes that was entirely at odds with her lifeless exterior. Set in her ordinary, unremarkable face, those long, narrow phoenix eyes made people curious.
Huo Shu turned his attention back to the person in front of him, his gaze icy.
Just as in the banquet hall, where he had no choice but to drink and deal with the other heirs.
No matter how much he hated these things, he still had to do them.
“It’s an honor to attend Miss Chu’s birthday banquet,” Huo Shu said expressionlessly.
He had heard that line over and over in the hall.
At an event like this, only members of the main family branches had the chance to attend; those from collateral branches were excluded.
Chu Muci didn’t sense anything off about his words. She was too excited—being able to speak with him face-to-face had always been a wish she wanted to fulfill.
She awkwardly smoothed the curls resting on her shoulder. Her heart raced, thudding as if it would leap out of her chest.
Before she could speak, the boy got up and walked two steps away from her. He stopped, took a small gift box from his pocket, and held it out to her.
“Happy birthday.”
Chu Muci’s mind went blank with a roar. She looked at the gift box in his hand, overcome with joy.
“F-for me?”
Huo Shu replied tersely, “It’s yours.”
Since he had come to the birthday banquet, naturally he had brought a gift.
Chu Muci accepted the little box. It felt impossibly heavy in her palm. She wanted to open it right then and there, but quickly suppressed the urge.
She pressed her lips together. Hearing her heartbeat thump in her ears, she stepped closer, wanting to tell him how she felt.
“Chu Muci!”
A voice called from a distance.
Chu Muci wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard it. Her lips moved. “I…”
“Chu Muci! Where are you?”
The voice came closer.
Huo Shu’s eyelids lowered briefly. “They’re looking for you.”
Chu Muci bit her lip. After a moment, a sigh escaped her. With obvious reluctance, she waved goodbye to him. “See you next time, Classmate Huo.”
Then she lifted her skirt and disappeared from view.
Huo Shu turned his gaze and met the eyes of the female butler, who was staring openly in their direction.
The latter clearly hadn’t expected him to look at her so suddenly. She immediately lowered her eyes, pretending nothing had happened.
Only after his gaze had left her did she slowly look up. The boy had sat back down by the flower bed and closed his eyes to rest.
It seemed the whole thing had been her imagination.
Jiang You knew he had prepared a gift. It was a glass bead he had bought by the roadside—not cheap, but still worlds apart from the gifts everyone in the banquet hall had given her.
Miss Chu’s feelings for him had reached the point of utter devotion. She would probably threaten to kill herself to make her father change her arranged marriage partner to Huo Shu, if only Huo Shu asked.
But, to Jiang You’s surprise, if Miss Chu hadn’t come to find him, Huo Shu wouldn’t have gone out of his way to give her a gift.
Nor had he meant to use her.
【So what is he trying to do?】Jiang You wondered, resting her chin in her hand, still unable to figure it out.
…
“Tap, tap.”
Before long, footsteps sounded by her ear again—this time, more than one person.
Jiang You counted them. There were at least five or six.
“Young Master Huo, that cheap slut must have seduced Miss Chu.”
“She’s just like his actress Mom. She thinks she can turn from a sparrow into a phoenix[1]A Chinese metaphor for a person of humble status rising into wealth or high society, especially through marriage. The insult reflects the speaker’s class prejudice. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3733395_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3733395_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); just by relying on her face.”
The slanderous, mocking words grew clearer as they reached her ears.
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