Meanwhile, Li Mo had no idea whose approval he had just won. While Huo Jingsi was being called into the study by Huo Chengbi, Li Mo was taken away to the living room by Huo Jingsi’s mother, Fang Zhenlin, to chat.
“You’ve had a hard time lately, haven’t you?” Fang Zhenlin took his hand, her eyes filled with complete heartache. “They always say the camera adds weight, but just looking at the photos in the newspaper, I feel like you’ve lost a whole circle.”
“And Jingsi is really something how could he let you actually live together with those refugees? Taking a picture and coming back should have been enough.”
Her tone carried a hint of reproach toward Huo Jingsi, and with a heart full of pity, she smoothed down Li Mo’s hair. Then, she pulled out her phone and, right in front of Li Mo, tapped away in a flurry of movement, directly transferring five million star coins to him.
“Mom is giving you a little red envelope. Tomorrow, I’ll have someone send over some top-tier health supplements. Have Wu Ma stew them for you and nourish your body properly, you hear me?” After saying this, Fang Zhenlin muttered again, “I’m going to give Jingsi a piece of my mind about this, too. You didn’t marry into our old Huo family just to suffer…”
Holy shit, she transfers money just like that?
Li Mo looked at the arrival notification text message from the Imperial Bank popping up on his phone. Even though this sort of thing happened frequently over the three years he had been married to Huo Jingsi, every time he received money, he still couldn’t help but inwardly let out that exact sentiment.
They were just way too fucking rich.
He didn’t earn a single cent from taking on missions, yet just by being the Huo family’s daughter-in-law, he was passively raking in enough money to keep him from ever worrying about food or clothing for several lifetimes. It almost made him feel a little bad.
In that case, he would simply have to reluctantly go a little easier on Huo Jingsi when the time came to kill him.
Moreover, he was quite honest on the outside, accepting the money without the slightest hint of pretense: “Thank you, Mom.”
“Oh, goodness, what a child. We’re all family here, what’s there to thank?” Fang Zhenlin chided him affectionately, then squeezed his hand and spoke with heartfelt sincerity, “As long as you and Jingsi live your lives well together, Mom will be happy for both of you.”
There was a smile in her eyes, yet it made Li Mo feel a bit guilty.
Living a good life and all that bullshit was just utter nonsense. He honestly wanted to live a good life, but life wouldn’t let him, so there was nothing he could do.
Actually, over all these years, he had seen with his own eyes how well the Huo family treated him, and his heart was moved by it to a greater or lesser degree. He knew that the more gentle and mild-mannered he acted in front of the Huo family, the greater the emotional gap and devastation they would feel later when his true identity was exposed. Yet he was even more clear on the fact that in their line of work as assassins, the absolute taboo was developing personal attachments.
Even though he knew that once the disguise of deception was torn away, it would reveal an even greater cruelty, on the surface he still insincerely promised Fang Zhenlin:
“Mm, we will.”
The two of them didn’t chat for long; Fang Zhenlin’s health was poor, and after taking her medication, she was helped to her room by a domestic helper to rest.
Figuring that idling away time was idling away time all the same, Li Mo decided to head to the Huo family’s garden alone during the gap before lunch.
This area was tended by the empire’s top floral artists. The flowers, plants, and fruit trees of every season grew exceptionally lush, yet this lushness lacked no sense of order. Pruned and organized while preserving the plants’ natural growth to the greatest extent possible, it possessed a dense yet uncluttered beauty.
Li Mo greatly enjoyed appreciating such direct and easy-to-understand art, but assassin training academy hadn’t included floral design as a course. Over the past few years when he had nothing better to do, he had fumbled around and figured out a few things on his own in the small courtyard of Huo Jingsi’s home, but it simply couldn’t compare to the top-tier professionalism of the Huo family’s floral artists.
“Young Madam.”
Upon seeing him, the floral artists stopped what they were doing one after another and greeted him politely.
Li Mo returned a poised smile to them, signaling for them to continue working and not to mind him.
In truth, he was just wandering around aimlessly. Saying he was going to appreciate flowers just made it sound a bit more high-class, but the most important point was that the Huo family’s ancestral estate was massive; by the time he strolled through the entire grounds and came back, it would happen to be lunchtime.
Besides, being alone made it much easier for him to think—
Back then, to prevent his identity from being exposed, the person who assigned him his mission—whom he referred to as the Boss—had demanded that he cut off all contact with them, telling him only that at a suitable opportunity, someone would come out and let him know when to strike.
Aside from that, during the three years he spent by Huo Jingsi’s side, he had never received any news concerning the mission or the Boss’s side.
For a period prior to this, he had actually harbored suspicions in his heart about whether the person arranged to establish contact with him might already be dead. After all, watching time drag on and on—even if they weren’t afraid of his identity being exposed before he made a move, following the classic assassin trope where operatives most easily fall in love with their targets, they should at least have been worried that time might cause him to develop genuine feelings for Huo Jingsi. (Though as it turned out, he currently hadn’t developed any feelings for Huo Jingsi other than wanting to kill him.)
Now, however, he no longer suspected that, because right before his eyes, Huo Jingsi was on the verge of becoming the Imperial Governor. He had a premonition deep down that this suitable opportunity was about to manifest.
Lost in thought, Li Mo wandered all the way to the absolute rear of the ancestral estate, where not a single person was around.
Compared to the flora in the front yard, the backyard was dominated by fruit trees planted at Fang Zhenlin’s request. Lush with dense branches and leaves, it was currently the harvest season.
However, Li Mo felt that the most attractive feature of the backyard wasn’t the fruit trees, but the back wall of the ancestral estate.
Legend had it that when Huo Jingsi’s grandfather was still alive, he had specifically planted several varieties of climbing roses all along the base of the wall, and had always kept someone assigned to tend to them.
The flower vines cascaded from top to bottom. By now, the roses had practically blanketed the entire wall, and right in the middle of their blooming season, a medley of various colors intertwined to make this ancient residence look as though it had stepped straight out of a fairy tale.
It was just that with the roses having overrun an entire wall, maintaining them was becoming a bit troublesome.
Suddenly, Li Mo who had been leisurely admiring the flowers heard a subtle rustling noise.
He raised his head and caught sight of a sneaky-looking Xiao Ai up on the third-floor balcony.
Li Mo remembered that was Huo Jingyan’s room, but wasn’t Huo Jingyan supposed to be resting inside her room and refusing to let anyone disturb her?
Had the relationship between Xiao Ai and Huo Jingyan somehow grown even closer behind his back—so close that casual entry and exit into her room was now permitted?
Xiao Ai stood on the balcony, glancing left and right as if terrified of being discovered. Li Mo sidestepped to conceal his figure within a cluster of bushes. Once Xiao Ai confirmed that the backyard was empty, she squatted down and began rummaging around for something. A moment later, Li Mo saw a rope ladder drop down from the balcony of Huo Jingyan’s room.
The log-colored rope ladder blended right in with the flowers and creeping vines on the wall, making it quite difficult to spot unless one looked closely.
Li Mo: “???”
What on earth were they doing?
In that instant, a myriad of possibilities flashed through his mind as to why Xiao Ai would do this, and he even mentally fabricated a juicy drama about an adulterous affair. Just as he stood immersed in this preset hypothesis, debating whether to leave or stay, Huo Jingyan popped up.
Except she didn’t pop up from inside the room.
Huo Jingyan who ought to have been resting inside her room was at that very moment climbing back up into her own room via the rope ladder Xiao Ai had just lowered.
Li Mo: “???”
Big sis, why do you have to be so sneaky just to return to your own home?
Li Mo narrowed his eyes. Judging from the aging condition of that rope ladder and Huo Jingyan’s practiced movements in climbing it, this definitely wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened.
But…
What was the reason for this?
Li Mo was baffled.
Thus, he slowly and leisurely strolled out from behind the bushes, pretending he had simply wandered here while taking a walk.
“What are you doing here?”
Sure enough, the very moment he took the initiative to step out, that aloof little girl spotted him. Her expression was frosty, her gaze sharp, and her icy tone carried not a shred of emotion.
On the balcony, however, Xiao Ai panicked; after all, she was the one who had told Li Mo that Huo Jingyan was resting in her room.
While Li Mo appeared calm on the outside, inwardly he was already weeping tears of joy:
It’s not easy at all this is the first time in three years this young lady has taken the initiative to speak to me!
“Oh, Jingsi is chatting with Dad in the study, and Mom said the fruit in the backyard is ripe, so I came out here for a walk,” Li Mo replied. Then, a flash of puzzlement crossed his eyes as he pointed toward the rope ladder on the balcony and asked, “Why didn’t you use the front door when going out? That’s awfully dangerous.”
He had neatly prepared an excuse for Huo Jingyan while simultaneously proving that he had genuinely just arrived here and hadn’t witnessed the sneaky Xiao Ai or her climbing movements just moments ago.
Huo Jingyan’s movements froze. Following his cue, she climbed down the ladder, pretending she wasn’t returning home but rather heading out, and said, “None of your business.”
With that, she walked over to a fruit tree and casually plucked two peaches. Regardless of whether they were ripe or not, and suppressing the guilty panic in her heart, she waited until she had picked the peaches before climbing right back up into her room under Li Mo’s watchful gaze.
Li Mo stood at the bottom, chuckling softly to himself before turning to walk back. He had a hunch that Huo Jingyan would definitely come looking for him again.
Meanwhile, inside Huo Jingyan’s room, Xiao Ai anxiously stowed away the rope ladder. Patting her chest with lingering fear, she said, “That scared me to death, Miss! Fortunately, she thought you were just heading out, or we never would have been able to explain that.”
Huo Jingyan didn’t react as intensely as her, but she had indeed been startled just now, given that this was the first time she had ever been caught.
Yet now that she had calmed down, her mind grew much clearer. Reflecting on the scene that had just transpired and her own slightly deliberate demeanor, she sneered inwardly, turning to say to Xiao Ai:
“You think he actually believed that? He was just trying to throw me a lifeline.”
“Then—” Xiao Ai panicked. She had never imagined that someone who appeared so gentle and kind-hearted on weekdays could possess such deep astuteness. “Will he tell Madam and the others about this?”
“He won’t,” Huo Jingyan declared.
She reached out a finger to peel back a small corner of the curtain. Sunlight poured in, yet it failed to pierce the profound depth in her eyes. Gazing down at the spot in the courtyard where Li Mo had just been standing, she stated:
“Do you remember what I told you before?”
“Huh?” Xiao Ai looked toward her, her eyes filled with confusion.
Huo Jingyan withdrew her hand, her gaze terrifyingly deep as she uttered:
“I said before…”
“He doesn’t like my brother even a single bit.”
“He was like that before, and he’s like that now.”