Surrounded by Wolves
[OMG! Did you all see? Jiang Wu actually isn’t Huo Tingshan’s biological daughter!]
[You only just found out, bb? It’s been all over the internet for a day now. The Huo family’s precious little princess is a fake.]
[I’ve disliked her for ages. Showing off all day long, looks like her luck ran out.]
[Exactly. At the auction the other day, Jiang Wu spent tens of millions to outbid Sister Yue for that rose-quartz gold-inlaid covered box. If she can’t settle the auction payment, there’ll be a good show to watch.]
The phone vibrating incessantly on the kitchen island suddenly went silent.
Jiang Wu sat on a high stool, watching the chat messages stop. Her well-proportioned legs were crossed, the tip of one foot hooked into a pair of cat-head slippers, swinging idly back and forth.
Until a line appeared on the screen:
[XX recalled a message.]
[XXX recalled a message.]
…
Jiang Wu lifted her brows slightly and scooped up the last spoonful of sea-salt cheesecake.
Oh, they finally remembered she was in the group chat too.
In any case, it was not a serious “sister circle” anyway. It was nothing more than a group formed at a cocktail party last month, right after she had graduated and returned to the country, when a few young socialites had come over enthusiastically to invite her to Paris for the fashion shows.
Jiang Wu could barely remember what they looked like. She had not saved their names either. She only remembered that when they first met, they had been extremely warm.
Within two minutes, all the group chat messages that had popped up were recalled. The message box returned to silence.
A full day had already passed since Jiang Wu learned that she was not the Huo family’s biological daughter.
When the news broke, she had been happily holding her offer letter and completing onboarding procedures at the museum.
Only after she finished did she hear her colleagues whispering about something like, “switched at birth,” “she isn’t biological,” “fake heiress of a wealthy family,” all sorts of fantastical words.
Jiang Wu had even perked up excitedly and leaned over to join the conversation. “Ah?” “Really?” “Is it a novel or a TV drama?”
Then the moment she stepped outside, she was blocked at the entrance by a swarm of reporters.
The news had been exposed directly online.
She was the last one to know. And she learned it beneath countless cameras.
Over the course of the day, she had already vented so many emotions that she was exhausted. Now, other than hunger, she felt nothing.
Jiang Wu reluctantly bit into the final mouthful of sea-salt cheese.
At first, in a fit of anger, she had locked herself in her room and cried her heart out. No matter how her parents knocked, she refused to open the door, planning to worry them to death.
After all, they had made such an enormous mistake as mixing up children. They deserved some punishment.
But now, Jiang Wu felt that they did not seem very worried. Whereas she truly was about to starve to death.
Jiang Wu opened the walk-in refrigerator again, went inside, circled around, and dispiritedly took out a bottle of lemon soda.
She did not like cooking. The fridge only contained drinks and snacks, while the rest was face masks and skincare products. After shutting herself in for a whole day, she had only eaten one small cake.
Jiang Wu checked her phone.
Even the housekeeper had not sent her a message telling her about dinner.
It had never been like this before.
In the past, even for ordinary daily meals, someone would ask her what she wanted to eat.
For more than twenty years, she had never needed to ask first. Anything she needed would always be brought to her.
Jiang Wu thought it was probably because today, Huo Tingshan and Jiang Yaping had decided to bring their biological daughter back and avoid the media.
So, the entire Huo household was busy today, busy preparing a new room to welcome the new mistress of the house.
Inside and outside her room, everything was exceptionally quiet. It was as though they had forgotten she still existed.
Jiang Wu then thought that if her brothers were here, it definitely would not be like this.
But her eldest brother was in the capital, serving as a visiting professor for entrepreneurs, her second brother was in America attending a business summit, and her third brother was in Europe, competing for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.
None of them could come back anytime soon.
And even if they came back, what then? Jiang Wu did not dare think too deeply about what would happen after they returned.
What if, after seeing her, they no longer treated her as their real little sister?
Restless and irritated, Jiang Wu swallowed down a breath, poured the lemon soda into a glass, and sat back at the kitchen island to fill her stomach.
She lit up her phone screen again. Her porcelain-white fingertip tapped the screen, and she idly swiped over to a media app.
After fermenting for an entire day, there were not many ugly comments left from this explosive scandal, but the hashtag #TheStolenLife still stung.
Helpful netizens had first dug up the family trust Jiang Wu had inherited from birth, then the hundred-million-yuan blue diamond her grandmother had given her at her hundred-day banquet. They also thoughtfully fabricated a few luxury mansions and yachts that were not under her name, along with a list of supposed luxury expenditures worth tens of billions from no one knew where.
Following the trail, they then found the bitter victim whose life had been stolen in a certain scholarship defense notice from the University of Hong Kong, along with photos of her dressed simply and working part-time as a waitress in a small restaurant.
Under the comparison, everyone began feeling indignant on behalf of the Huo family’s hardworking, brave, and intelligent biological daughter.
They cursed Jiang Wu as a thief who had occupied another’s nest.
Jiang Wu could not understand why so many people blamed her, and no one understood her feelings either. Everyone thought she ought to be frightened, uneasy, guilty.
Guilty of what?
The love was fake. The family was fake.
More than twenty years of her parents’ utmost care and devotion could be greatly discounted in an instant, and the reason was their own mistake.
She had clearly been deceived too, yet now she was being blamed.
No one was willing to be accused of being a thief. Especially the proud Jiang Wu.
Jiang Wu told herself she should close the app, as she usually did, to avoid sinking too deeply into emotions crushed by public opinion, but in the end, she could not help swiping her finger again.
She zoomed in on the screen and saw that name: Wen Ciying.
She gently pressed her lips together. After hesitating for a moment, she tapped open the photo of her working part-time.
The large room was dark, with no lights on. Night had fallen; only the cold glow of the phone screen fell across Jiang Wu’s clear, delicate face, smooth and translucent as jade porcelain.
The girl on her phone screen wore a simple baseball jacket and long pants, her sleeves rolled up, her long hair tied into a neat ponytail.
The dirty dishes in her hands did not affect her striking features. She clearly resembled her mother in her youth, carrying a hint of Slavic mixed-blood coolness and those enviably deep contours.
Jiang Wu felt a little melancholy.
She looked so much like her brothers.
Their maternal grandfather had been of Slavic descent. No wonder the whole family had bold, striking features, while only Jiang Wu herself had a soft, pale sort of beauty.
Jiang Wu flipped through the photos one by one. Under the descriptions in those posts, she was almost about to start feeling sorry for Wen Ciying together with the enthusiastic netizens.
But when her stomach soon began growling, she started feeling sorry for herself again.
If she was not biological, then she was not biological. But she still could not starve to death.
Heaven and earth were vast, but eating was the greatest matter of all.
Still, Jiang Wu did not want to go downstairs and see that group of people welcoming another mistress of the house.
She glanced in the direction of the walk-in closet and struggled for a while before finally getting up and walking over.
The Huo family’s Cloud Peak Bay main residence had five floors in total. Jiang Wu and Huo Qingzhi’s rooms were adjacent, each occupying half of the third floor.
But the partition between them was not completely sealed. There was a hidden passage that led to his room without needing to go outside, and it was located inside her walk-in closet.
Aside from Jiang Wu and Huo Qingzhi, no one knew their rooms were connected.
Although her eldest brother was not here, Jiang Wu knew that he usually cooked, so there was plenty to eat in his fridge.
Jiang Wu walked into the walk-in closet. The lights flickered on, illuminating rows of haute couture gowns, accessories, and jewelry arranged on both sides.
A snow-white little cat, Bingbing, was lying asleep on the trailing hem of a water-blue shimmering brocade gown. Hearing the door open, he woke and looked toward the entrance.
Seeing that it was her, he stood up and meowed at her, looking very anxious.
Bingbing was a little stray male cat Huo Qingzhi had brought home a few years ago. Last night, when she had returned to her room after arguing with her parents, she had occasionally heard Bingbing calling for her from the walk-in closet.
She had not expected him to stay there all this time.
Jiang Wu picked him up. “You’re still here.”
“I’m going to your daddy’s room to find something to eat.”
Jiang Wu walked to the end of the walk-in closet and saw that the rotating wardrobe door had been pushed open a crack by Bingbing. She pushed it aside and entered Huo Qingzhi’s room.
Though only a wall separated them, Huo Qingzhi’s room was entirely different in style from hers.
Just like him.
Jiang Wu carried Bingbing inside, and in an instant, she was enveloped by a clean, cold palette of black and gray, pressing down from all sides.
Jiang Wu could not help holding her breath. Perhaps because Huo Qingzhi had not returned for so long, the room was cold and detached, devoid of human warmth, which made it seem even more imposing and distant.
Her eldest brother had been on a business trip to the capital for nearly a month, starting just after she had graduated and returned home.
She had only been back a few days when Huo Qingzhi received the invitation from Peking University to serve as a visiting professor, asking him to oversee university-enterprise cooperation while also expanding the group’s presence in the capital.
Who knew when he would come back. But she was not in any hurry for him to return either. So long as he did not come back while she was stealing his food.
Jiang Wu walked to the small kitchen in Huo Qingzhi’s bedroom suite and casually set Bingbing down beside her. She carefully selected a box of instant pasta from his refrigerator, then happily rolled up her sleeves to cook the noodles and heat the sauce packet.
At that same moment, downstairs, a black Phantom drove into Cloud Peak Bay without warning and stopped at the entrance of the main residence. The assistant got out of the passenger seat and respectfully opened the car door.
When the servants in the courtyard saw the car with both Hong Kong and mainland license plates, they were all extremely surprised and hurried forward to stand in welcome on both sides.
Custom leather shoes touched the ground. The tailored trousers were crisp and straight, bringing with them a faintly cool, clean breeze.
The butler was not there, and the group of servants had no backbone. They pushed forward Aunt Zhang, who could still speak somewhat in front of the masters, to tell Huo Qingzhi, who had just gotten out of the car, that the Master and Madam had not yet brought the person back.
By “the person,” she meant the biological daughter they had found.
They were all somewhat afraid of this eldest grandson of the Huo family.
Among the Huo grandchildren, he was the one whose temperament most resembled Old Master Huo.
And unlike Old Master Huo’s gentle appearance, Huo Qingzhi had prominent bone structure from his Slavic bloodline. His brows and eyes were deep, his nose bridge high, and his black eyes carried an even colder quality. That aura of absolute authority and thunderous decisiveness was even more apparent on him.
Huo Qingzhi looked as though he had known about all this long ago. As he entered and went upstairs, he asked directly, “Have the media been investigated?”
“Ah?” Aunt Zhang did not understand these things and stammered, “Master… should be investigating the media involved.”
“Tell him not to bother,” Huo Qingzhi said simply and directly. “I’ve already caught them. Have him come find me when he returns.”
Aunt Zhang nodded ambiguously.
The elevator’s metallic mirror reflected Huo Qingzhi’s exquisitely tailored suit jacket.
Then the elevator gave a soft ding.
Aunt Zhang looked up and, the instant she saw the floor the elevator had reached, felt as though thorns were pricking her back.
The third floor was not only Huo Qingzhi’s floor, but was also Jiang Wu’s.
They had spent the whole day preparing a room for Wen Ciying and had completely forgotten that Jiang Wu was still in the house.
But Jiang Wu had not cried or caused trouble today. She had only shut herself inside her room.
Aunt Zhang first found an excuse and cleared herself of blame. “Young Miss was very upset and locked herself in her room. No matter how we called, she wouldn’t come out. She hasn’t eaten or drunk anything all day. We were all very worried.”
Huo Qingzhi held the handle of his own room door and lifted his gaze, his brows dark as ink.
The sound from the kitchen inside was loud, so Jiang Wu did not hear the faint beeps of the fingerprint lock outside at all.
Bingbing heard them.
He poked his head out, then came trotting back with his tail upright.
Jiang Wu was fully focused in the kitchen, wearing her cat-head slippers as she rummaged out many snacks and arranged them across the table, preparing to bring them back later. Then she pattered back, took out the cooked noodles, and twirled up two strands to taste them first.
Bingbing jumped beside her and pawed at her arm.
Jiang Wu misunderstood him and immediately pulled him away. “Human food. Kitties can’t eat this.”
Jiang Wu protectively bit down on the fork and turned around, only for the room door to open without warning.
She suddenly met the gaze of the man who entered.
The person who, in her impression, should have been far away at the ends of the earth now appeared before her eyes. Jiang Wu froze in place, goosebumps rising over her skin in a daze of confusion and guilt.
Huo Qingzhi looked at the “Young Miss who had not eaten or drunk anything” appearing in his room, occupying his kitchen and dining area, and raided his refrigerator.
Huo Qingzhi lifted his brows slightly.
Then, with a click, he locked her inside his room.
Jiang Wu’s heart trembled with the sound of the door closing.
Looking at the man who had suddenly returned, she almost thought she was hallucinating.
The room was steeped in the agarwood scent Huo Qingzhi had brought in with him, dark and woody, intensely invasive. In only a moment, Jiang Wu felt as though even her own body had been covered in that scent.
Sure enough, when a person was unlucky, even drinking cold water got stuck between their teeth. The first time she stole his food, she was caught on the spot.
Jiang Wu bit the fork, her brows knotting together.
Huo Qingzhi walked forward slowly. The sound of his leather shoes stepping on the marble floor was faintly heavy, each step seeming to land on Jiang Wu’s heart.
He walked up to her and reached out, his long fingers gripping the lower end of the fork she was biting.
His voice was warm and low. “Open your mouth.”
As he spoke, he applied a little force, and Jiang Wu felt the pull against her teeth pry her mouth open. She had no choice but to loosen her bite.
The fork slid past her lips and teeth and was taken away by Huo Qingzhi. His gaze swept over the moist red tip of Jiang Wu’s tongue before he withdrew his eyes. “You can’t bite a fork like that.”
“I know,” Jiang Wu dragged out the ending softly and reached to take it back.
Huo Qingzhi lifted his hand, and she grabbed at empty air.
Huo Qingzhi glanced at her, then took the noodles from her hand and placed them back in the kitchen.
Jiang Wu casually made up an excuse for stealing food. “Bingbing was hungry. He ran over to my side, so I came with him to find food.”
Bingbing: “?”
Huo Qingzhi briefly tidied up the kitchen scene. “Cat food isn’t in the refrigerator.”
“How would I know?”
“He probably can’t eat noodles either.”
Jiang Wu had never thought her lame excuses were particularly convincing. It was simply that no matter what she said, her brothers would accept these messy, nonsensical reasons.
If it were before, she would have simply muddled through. But today, Jiang Wu suddenly cared about this very much.
Jiang Wu lowered her eyes. “How would I know what he can or can’t eat?”
“You know him so well, yet you still left for so long.” Jiang Wu lowered her head and stroked Bingbing’s fur, her voice growing softer and softer as she spoke. “Those people outside all serve dishes according to who they’re facing. You don’t take care of him, so even if he’s wronged, you wouldn’t know. He ran to me, but I…”
Halfway through, Jiang Wu’s throat became dry and hoarse, and she could not continue.
Before long, a large hand with distinct knuckles extended into her line of sight and gently held Bingbing’s chin in her arms, rubbing it lightly.
The white, long fur covered the veins and wrist bones on the back of his hand. One could tell that Bingbing was very comfortable being rubbed by him. He narrowed his eyes, and a low purr rumbled from his throat.
The man’s unusually low, gentle, magnetic voice came from above her head. “Have you been wronged?”
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