"Recently? I don't think there's much." Auntie Ping thought for a moment. "Oh, yesterday she asked what brand your pajamas are."
"…"
"Who told you to always wander around the house in pajamas? You got her curious."
"So what?" In front of this auntie who had watched him grow up, he occasionally still showed a rare bit of childishness. "Are my pajamas too embarrassing to be seen?"
Auntie Ping laughed and patted his shoulder. After a moment, she asked again, "Yuxi hasn't come over for a meal in a while. I don't see her on Saturdays or Sundays either. What's she busy with?"
"She started a clothing brand with a friend. A startup will be busier at first. Once she gets familiar with the process, it'll be fine."
"Oh, I see." Auntie Ping smiled. "Your little sister wants to start a business—shouldn't you support her?"
"I can't get involved," Huo Zhenyan said. "She won't let me."
In fact, Huo Yuxi hadn't even told him about starting a business with her friend. He had found out on his own.
At worst she'd lose everything. Huo Zhenyan didn't think it was a big problem. Wanting to try building something wasn't a bad thing. Taking that first step always meant paying a steep learning curve. It wasn't as if the family couldn't afford it.
What worried him more was that Huo Yuxi was hiding something else.
He had heard a little about Huo Yuxi dating, and he knew who the other person was. But out of respect for his sister's privacy, he could only stop there and not investigate further.
He wasn't opposed to the children in the family dating while in school. However, some things were different for girls and boys, and the price of making a mistake was different too. If Huo Yuxi wasn't willing to talk to him about it, there was no way for him to bring it up.
Fortunately, there was now another girl in the house. Perhaps it would be easier for girls their age to open up to each other. Huo Zhenyan thought there might be a chance to have someone talk to her, and then offer a little bribe with some pocket money.
"It's really not easy for you, having to worry about so many people in the family." Auntie Ping urged, "Good thing your father is back, so at least he can share some of the business at the company. You need to make sure you rest more. Don't rely on your youth and neglect your health."
"Okay." Huo Zhenyan said, "I know my limits."
His current situation was actually not as Ji Jie imagined—burning the candle at both ends, under enormous pressure. After all, having taken over for many years, his efforts had already been enough to bring the group into a stage of steady development.
Most projects now he only looked at when he was bored, not because he was forced by the grind of survival.
Auntie Ping said this only because she was used to worrying about him.
**
After dinner, Ji Jie's energy was completely spent.
Because she had had a full day of classes and then gone shopping, and now she was full from eating, all she wanted was to collapse onto the bed and doze off.
Qiao Ling understood her completely. The two gave up on the idea of going to a livehouse to see a band perform, parted in front of the mall, and each went to find their own bed.
The driver had already arrived nearby to wait for her. Before getting in the car, Ji Jie casually glanced across the street.
Perhaps it was the protagonist's aura shining, but she recognized Huo Yuxi at a glance.
But there was also an older man beside the girl, and the two were tugging at each other on the main road. Huo Yuxi was so angry she hit him with her schoolbag. Only then did the man step back, point at her, curse a few times, and leave resentfully.
In the brief moment Ji Jie hesitated, she also looked over. The two gazed at each other across the busy street, and those few seconds felt like a classic time-lapse shot.
Huo Yuxi was the first to look away, walking into the 7-Eleven behind her to buy a soda and an onigiri before sitting down by the entrance. She seemed to intend to pretend she hadn't seen her.
This was simply a storyline that didn't require her participation.
The driver urged her once. Ji Jie thought it over and said, "Go park the car first. Wait for me for half an hour."
She also went into the store, bought a hot drink and a box of medical disinfectant swabs, then sat down in front of the 7-Eleven. "Use this to clean your eyebrow."
Huo Yuxi, clutching her onigiri, silently looked up at her.
Ji Jie sighed, told her not to move, stood up and tore open the swab package, gently sweeping the iodine-soaked end across the bloodstained mark at the edge of her brow.
Huo Yuxi sat stiffly in place. Compared to her unease, the faint cool sting was negligible. She wasn't used to anyone being this close—close enough to see her trembling eyelashes.
"Did you have a fight with Wei Chao?" Ji Jie said.
She immediately grew wary. "How do you know?"
From the novel, of course. Calculating the plot progression, it was about time for this to happen.
It also made sense. Although Huo Yuxi didn't have her biological parents around, she had a good older brother—ultimately, she was a child raised with familial love. As for Wei Chao, his family could be said to have nothing but money.
With different upbringings, the two were bound to have conflicting values.
Of course, Ji Jie couldn't say that directly. After a brief thought, she casually found a reason. "Because you were just on a date with another man, weren't you? He looked a bit older, didn't he? From a distance, I could tell he wasn't Wei Chao."
"…Mm." Huo Yuxi didn't refute it. After hesitating for a moment, she said to her, "Can you not tell anyone that you saw me here tonight—me and him?"
Ji Jie nodded, tossed the used swab into the trash can, and promised to keep her secret.
No unnecessary follow-up questions. Huo Yuxi felt considerably relieved and continued biting into her onigiri in silence. Stubbornness showed in her brows and eyes.
Melancholy. Sorrow.
Such a painful youth.
Actually, even from across the street, Ji Jie could guess who that man was.
Huo Yuxi had a melodramatic backstory.
She wasn't Huo Jinge's biological daughter. Her mother had been forced to part with her lover and married into the family while pregnant with her—in a sense, it was also a marriage of convenience, meant to secure working capital for her family's business.
Her mother's family had a severe preference for sons over daughters. Already given little regard, the daughter who was treated as a sacrifice then gave birth to a daughter of her own. Huo Yuxi had been abandoned since childhood and rarely visited her maternal grandparents' home.
This meant that only this year, when her biological father found her and tried to extort her, did she discover her true origins. After verifying it was true, she nearly broke down and her personality became much more withdrawn.
Her biological father was a gambling addict who had accidentally stumbled upon this shortcut to easy money. Recently, he had been threatening her—if she didn't pay up, he would expose her background to the Huo Family.
—"Let's see if the Huo Family will still take in a bastard like you. Let's see what happens when a young lady like you falls into the mud."
Thinking of the harsh words in the original text, Ji Jie sighed again.
Actually, in the novel, Huo Zhenyan and Huo Jinge had known about her background all along—they'd known since she was born. And given their temperaments and dispositions, they weren't the kind of people who would kick out a child they'd raised for years.
Even Duan Baoni, who had done so many foolish things, was ultimately just sent abroad.
But so-called "blinded by one's own circumstances." Huo Yuxi didn't think her father and brother were unreliable—it was just that fate had her by the throat, making it impossible for her to think objectively.
It was also fear born of love. Because she had feelings for her family, she didn't dare bear that one-in-ten-million worst-case possibility.
This extremely private matter—theoretically speaking, Ji Jie had no way of knowing about it. And of course Huo Yuxi didn't want anyone else to know either.
So she pretended to misunderstand that the man was a new date Huo Yuxi had met.
Huo Yuxi would rather be misunderstood this way—it actually put her more at ease.
Recently she'd been modeling at a friend's company, and almost all the money she earned from her part-time job and her allowance had been taken by her biological father. Her financial situation was currently terrible.
Fortunately, though, this situation wouldn't last too long.
Ji Jie knew that the storyline where her background was exposed would happen next semester, and when it did, it would cause a firestorm of controversy.
For her personally, wasn't it also a kind of release?
"Have you heard of the band Dawn?" Ji Jie spoke up first, breaking the awkward silence.
Huo Yuxi nodded.
"I saw them busking on the street the other day. They were pretty good." Ji Jie found a video on her phone to show her. "I heard they're recording a show, but I don't know when it'll air."
"I heard about that too—it's a band variety show." Huo Yuxi took the phone and watched the two-minute video very carefully.
She always wore headphones when she went out. Ji Jie guessed she liked music, so she pointed at the screen. "The drummer is from our school. His name is Lin Shu—do you know him? This one."
"He looks kind of familiar." Huo Yuxi's brow smoothed out. Even though the audio quality from the phone speaker wasn't great, "He's really good at singing."
"Perfect timing—I have two tickets to a music venue. They're performing live tonight." Ji Jie went with the flow and took out the tickets to give her. "Other bands will be playing too. Maybe there'll even be someone you know."
The place wasn't far, and it wasn't too late yet. After her surprise, Huo Yuxi accepted the invitation. She was just about to ask where the tickets came from when she saw Ji Jie call her driver, saying she wanted to go home.
"You're not going?"
"I'm tired from shopping. I want to go back and lie down." She said it matter-of-factly.
She had no intention of forcing herself to sacrifice rest time to accompany Huo Yuxi and help her relax. "Or you could call a friend to watch it with you. There's an extra ticket anyway."
"…"
"Oh, and this too."
She picked up the unopened hot milk tea and gave it to Huo Yuxi as well. "It has caffeine in it. I'm too old to drink it or I won't be able to sleep. You drink it—or just hold it to warm your hands."
"…Okay."
Huo Yuxi watched her get into the car with a look of wonder the whole way.
Just like that—appearing out of nowhere, dropping off a bunch of drinks and things to use and play with, then patting herself on the back and sauntering off?
Like a reward falling from the sky. But it wasn't like she'd done anything right.
By the logic of those people at school, the two of them should even be enemies. What she should be receiving was hostility, not concern.
Huo Yuxi opened the milk tea and took a sip. Still hot, not sweet—no extra sugar added. But after sitting and drinking for a while, it felt very sweet.
Her phone vibrated. Holding the hot milk tea, she looked at the incoming call screen. It was Wei Chao calling.
Huo Yuxi didn't answer.
**
Ji Jie was a bit dying to get home.
Because at the dinner table earlier, when she'd decided not to watch the band performance, she happened to be checking in with Huo Zhenyan, saying she'd be home soon.
That gave her arrival time a concrete window. With this delay, she'd get scolded again when she got home.
Ji Jie was a bit conflicted. If she got interrogated, she didn't plan to mention running into Huo Yuxi—but should she bring up going to pick out a gift for him?
She still wanted to keep some element of surprise. Clutching the school bag with the gift inside as she got out of the car, she peered cautiously around the entrance. Good—the living room was empty.
"What are you looking for?" Unexpectedly, Huo Zhenyan called out to her from the courtyard.
"…"
Ji Jie felt a chill run down the back of her neck and turned around with a strained smile.
"Why do you always look at me as if facing a formidable enemy every time we meet?"
Like one of his subordinates reporting work progress at a meeting, trembling with apprehension after finishing, waiting for him to raise questions.
Huo Zhenyan said, "Do I seem that harsh?"
"No way." She said immediately.
How could you badmouth the boss right to his face?
"It's still early. You could've played a bit longer before coming home, that's fine too."
Huo Zhenyan noticed the way she was clutching her school bag, as if it contained something extraordinary. He guessed, "Did you buy something? Running short on money?"
"No, I have enough."
She seriously changed the subject. "I've discovered that on school days, I can't go out shopping and eating. Studying and having fun—I can only do one thing in a single day."
Huo Zhenyan laughed. "So?"
"I'm exhausted." She made a miserable face. "I can't keep up the fun anymore. I need to rest."
Her body had become an eighteen-year-old's body. But her energy was still her one-bar-battery energy.
The household actually had someone who didn't love going out to play. Huo Zhenyan could hardly say whether his current mood was pleased or satisfied. "Alright then, no need to force yourself."
Back when school first started, she'd forced herself to stay out until midnight because she'd just made new friends, to fit in.
Now that she'd found more suitable friends, she no longer had to push herself to keep going to clubs.
Huo Zhenyan didn't see any problem with that. He had someone heat up a glass of milk and bring it up to her.
The next morning, Huo Yuxi came to the main house for breakfast for the first time in ages.
That scared He Lingfeng, who rarely got up early, half to death—he forgot to spread jam on two slices of toast in a row.
"What are you looking at me for?" Huo Yuxi said.
"The sun must be rising from the west." He Lingfeng was passive-aggressive. "I thought the road back here was eighty thousand miles long and you'd forgotten how to get here."
Huo Yuxi poured a glass of juice and set it beside Ji Jie's plate. "Don't like talking to idiots."
"…"
Ji Jie took the juice and said thanks. He Lingfeng refused to back down, picked up a huge boiled egg and cracked it with a loud clatter, then after peeling it, tossed it into her bowl too.
Ji Jie tried to control her expression and produced a question mark.
"What are you looking at me for? Eat it!"
Huo Yuxi sneered. "What's in it for you if she chokes to death?"
"…"
Huo Zhenyan didn't say anything, watching his younger brother and sister bicker, wondering when the last time he'd seen this scene was. After a long while, he still couldn't recall.
It had never happened.
Even when Huo Yuxi and He Lingfeng had gotten along well, it hadn't been like this.
He looked at the girl who was diligently trying to split the egg in half with her chopsticks.
"I don't like boiled eggs." Ji Jie said honestly. "I really can't swallow them."
"Dip them in some soy sauce." Huo Yuxi poured her a small dish.
He Lingfeng added, "A bit of ketchup tastes even better!"
"Is that even Earthling taste?"
"What! Dipping it in ketchup is obviously awesome!"
"…"
Ji Jie was hesitating to speak, but ultimately dared to give it a try. "Alright, then I'll dip half in this and half in that and see how it goes."
Huo Zhenyan picked up his coffee and laughed out loud behind the cup.
It really was different.
Because there was one more person now.
Huo Zhenyan's birthday happened to fall on the first day of final exams.
Ji Jie got up early in the morning, but unexpectedly, the other two had gotten up even earlier than her. The four of them ate breakfast together again.
Because of the exams, it was only natural for students to feel a bit nervous, and Huo Zhenyan asked a few questions too.
The entire morning, no one mentioned "birthday" or "gift." She didn't bring it up at the breakfast table either, lest she seem like an attention-seeker.
But with exams today, she didn't want to have it on her mind all day and let it affect her performance.
The gift was already packed in her backpack. When the three of them were about to get in the car to go to school, she finally found her chance and made the excuse that she'd forgotten something to run back inside.
Huo Zhenyan didn't need to clock in for work, so he wasn't in a rush to get to the office in the morning. She hurriedly opened her backpack, the zipper even got stuck for a moment, and after finally fishing it out, she hastily stuffed it into his hand, muttering to herself to speed things up. "Quick, quick. Take it."
Huo Zhenyan: "…"
It was a glasses case.
No fancy packaging, not even an extra bag. The case bore a minimalist brand logo, the same brand as the glasses she was wearing today.
She had gotten new glasses, and Huo Zhenyan had noticed a few days ago. But he hadn't expected to receive a pair himself.
He was momentarily speechless, then asked a pointless question. "For me?"
"Of course it's for you!"
The nanny van downstairs honked twice, the drawn-out sound echoing the beat of their hearts.
Ji Jie raced against the clock to tell him, "Happy birthday."