Surrounded By Wolves
Upstairs and downstairs were filled with people who had watched the two of them grow up together. Talking about something like this in a room separated from everyone else by only a wall still made Jiang Wu uneasy, as if countless ears might be listening.
Jiang Wu hurriedly pushed Huo Qingzhi farther into the room. “For now, yes. Don’t tell me you want them to know?”
After all, Jiang Wu and Huo Qingzhi had reached an understanding from the beginning. This predetermined partnership between them was, for the time being, to be a secret marriage.
Jiang Wu understood their arrangement this way: Huo Qingzhi would help her vent her anger and deal with those people, while she would serve as Huo Qingzhi’s hidden support while he secured his position within the Group. Before those objectives were achieved, if their secret became known, their advantage would turn into leverage others could use against them.
Huo Qingzhi would never do something that stupid. “No. Have you prepared everything?”
“Don’t we only need our ID cards?” That was the only thing Jiang Wu remembered. “Even if we need the household registration booklet, you already have it.”
There couldn’t possibly be anyone who had a more complete set of her documents than Huo Qingzhi.
Huo Qingzhi said, “Then I’ll keep it safe for you. Don’t forget.”
“You came here just to get my ID card?” Jiang Wu walked over to her cabinet, took out her card holder, and pulled out her ID.
Huo Qingzhi lowered his eyes. For a fleeting moment, even he felt that… he was being far too obvious.
Fortunately, Jiang Wu, as always, was unguarded. She naturally handed him her ID card. “Actually, you can keep it for me. Then I won’t have to worry about it.”
Huo Qingzhi watched as she entrusted the document to him without hesitation. He closed it in his palm. Holding it. Controlling it.
Something like an ID card, as long as it was in his possession… she couldn’t go anywhere. She could only stay right here obediently and wait for him to come take her away to get married.
Huo Qingzhi suppressed that sinister thought. “I’ll be at the company these next two days. The morning after tomorrow, I’ll have someone come pick you up.”
After saying that, he didn’t linger. He left her room and returned next door.
Ever since Huo Qingzhi had taken over affairs within the Group, he frequently ate and slept at the company. No one would find it strange if he wasn’t home.
Only Huo Yingli and Huo Lingyi could clearly sense that something was off. As biological brothers, no matter what the other person did, there was always an extremely subtle instinct between them.
Huo Yingli went up to the rooftop garden. Sure enough, he found Jiang Wu curled up in the swing chair with Bingbing in her arms, staring blankly at the endless sea beyond Repulse Bay.
He walked over. “Isn’t it boring sitting here?”
Jiang Wu returned to her senses and turned to look at him. “Not really.”
Huo Yingli caught hold of the swing chair. “Come on. I’ll take you somewhere fun tonight.”
Jiang Wu immediately perked up.
Because Jiang Wu knew that when Second Brother said something was fun, it was bound to be genuinely fun. “What are we doing?”
“Are you coming or not?”
“I’m coming.” Jiang Wu put the cat down and stood up.
After all, she was getting married tomorrow. She ought to have some fun today.
As dusk fell, the neon lights of Victoria Harbour blazed like a waterfall with brilliance; cascades of light spilled across the skyline, scattering dazzling points of color over the sea.
Huo Qingzhi sat in his top-floor office at Cloud Peak, wisps of mist drifting past the floor-to-ceiling windows beside him. He removed his glasses and pressed his fingers to the space between his brows. In a brief pause between handling company matters, he happened to notice a photo Huo Yingli had just posted to Moments.
Even without enlarging it, the intoxicating haze of lights was obvious. Huo Qingzhi frowned, sensing faintly that something was off. He opened the photo and saw that it had been taken inside a private lounge.
The room was spacious, the booth seating comfortable, and on the private stage, a group of handsome Western men was performing a water dance.
Then, in the lower-left corner of the photo, Huo Qingzhi caught sight of a tiny patch of pale-yellow dress.
Yes.
Just one corner of a dress. One inch of the curve behind a knee, and that was enough for Huo Qingzhi to know exactly who it was.
A darkness as thick as the mist beyond the windows swept through his eyes. He put down his phone and stood.
So perhaps this was how he ought to understand the situation. His bride-to-be, whom he was marrying tomorrow, was young and naïve, and on the eve of their wedding, his own younger brother had taken her out to play with other men.
~~
The private lounge was enormous, nearly the size of a small bar by itself, with its own bar counter, a dedicated bartender, and every amenity one could want. Even the performance onstage had been privately arranged.
But Jiang Wu hadn’t expected Second Brother to bring her here to watch this.
The stage was built over water. A group of muscular Western men, bare-chested, danced across the surface, using their movements to display strength and power.
It wasn’t some borderline erotic performance. It was a proper show. The dancers even belonged to a professional troupe.
Huo Yingli had invited plenty of friends, men and women alike, and screams rose one after another around the room. The atmosphere was so lively that the temperature inside seemed to keep climbing, while every splash of water from the stage pushed the crowd into an even higher frenzy.
Droplets landed on the dancers’ shoulders and back muscles, then slid down the smooth lines of their bodies. It was enough to make anyone blush.
The friends Huo Yingli had brought were all open and enthusiastic. Everyone played along, so the atmosphere never had a chance to cool, making it even easier for Jiang Wu to loosen up. She sat somewhere relatively inconspicuous; her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the stage as she appreciated the art.
Huo Yingli rested one arm along the back of the sofa behind her. At the height of the excitement, he leaned closer and asked softly, “Do you like it?”
Watching this sort of performance with her older brother still made Jiang Wu a little shy. “It’s not bad.”
A faint smile brushed Huo Yingli’s lips. “Don’t be nervous. I know what girls your age like to look at. If you like it, look as much as you want.”
Jiang Wu glanced guiltily at him, but Huo Yingli really did seem completely unconcerned.
Second Brother really gets me, she thought.
Someone in the front row was enthusiastically interacting with the dancers. Water splashed into shimmering curtains, falling like strings of crystal beads. Another burst of screaming erupted.
Caught up in the excitement, Jiang Wu ducked away from a few splashing droplets. “Where did you even find them?”
Their seats were far enough away that the water couldn’t actually reach them.
Huo Yingli took a sip of champagne. “I heard a couple of days ago that they were performing on Hong Kong Island, so I hired them while they were here. Have you seen their theater show?”
Jiang Wu relaxed, swinging her legs. “Not yet.”
Huo Yingli nodded. “The theater seats are too far away. You can’t see clearly. It’s no great loss if you don’t go.”
Jiang Wu caught the implication in his tone. “If you hire them privately like this, can you interact with them up close?”
“They’re a legitimate professional troupe, after all. Non-contact interaction is fine. Anything beyond that wouldn’t be allowed.” Huo Yingli asked with deliberate casualness, “Want to try?”
“I’d better not.” Jiang Wu hugged a plate of fruit to herself and focused intently on the performance. “I’m a proper person, you know.”
The words had barely left her mouth when Huo Yingli said beside her, seemingly offhandedly, soft and suggestive near her ear, “I have what you want to look at too. Want to see mine?”
What was the point of looking at something she couldn’t touch? What mattered was stirring up her instincts and making her realize that there was someone right beside her whom she could touch.
Jiang Wu was still biting into half an apple and hadn’t even had time to figure out what exactly Huo Yingli meant when the sound of a key card suddenly came from outside the lounge, and the room door swung open.
Everyone inside turned toward the entrance at once. The light beyond the dim room was blinding. In that brightness stood a tall, broad-shouldered man, and the edges of his figure were outlined in a ring of golden light. His face blended into the shadows, leaving his expression indistinct.
The moment Huo Yingli saw who it was, he drained the rest of the alcohol in his glass and stood up first. With practiced ease, he gestured for everyone to keep enjoying themselves, then turned and walked toward Huo Qingzhi.
Huo Qingzhi ignored him and headed straight toward Jiang Wu, but Huo Yingli blocked him. “Eldest Brother, join us.”
“Join you in what?”
Huo Yingli tilted his head and lowered his voice beside Huo Qingzhi’s ear. “Helping Ah Wu open her eyes.”
Huo Qingzhi gave him a sidelong glance and was about to step around him when Huo Yingli blocked him again. “Hey. Ah Wu’s having fun right now. If you ruin her mood, she’ll hate you.”
Only then did Huo Qingzhi look directly at him. “You did this on purpose?”
Huo Yingli smiled, knowing he was referring to the Moments post. He handed Huo Qingzhi a glass of alcohol and returned to his seat. Of course, he had done it on purpose. That post had been visible to Huo Qingzhi alone.
Huo Yingli still remembered the way Huo Qingzhi had looked the previous night, completely unmoved no matter what they said. As though none of it affected him. And Huo Yingli hated the way Huo Qingzhi always seemed to have everything effortlessly within his grasp, as though everything remained firmly under his control.
They were biological brothers. Who among them didn’t know what the other was really like underneath? He simply wanted to see this supposed gentleman reveal a crack. To tear away that civilized exterior and make him bare his ugly face in front of Ah Wu.
So, Ah Wu would know who truly suited her… and who was only pretending to.
Jiang Wu watched Huo Yingli return. “Eldest Brother came?”
“Mm.”
“Did he say why?”
Huo Yingli teased, “To appreciate the art, I suppose.”
Jiang Wu really was enjoying herself, so she didn’t think much of it. Besides, she had always known Eldest Brother was open-minded. The last time they were on the private island, he had even agreed to let her go watch male models.
Huo Yingli was waiting for Huo Qingzhi to lose his temper, but Huo Qingzhi would never give him what he wanted. After all, they weren’t married yet. To prevent even the slightest possibility that Jiang Wu might change her mind, Huo Qingzhi would reduce every risk to the absolute minimum.
Losing control would undoubtedly be irrational, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make her repay it later.
Huo Qingzhi sat behind them, slowly turning the pinky ring on his finger as he watched the girl in front of him. Today, she looked like a pale-yellow tulip, bright and delicate, at the age ripe for plucking, every petal stretching freely into bloom. Whenever she became happy, she would sway back and forth without stopping. She was dazzling and pure to the point of seeming utterly out of place in a setting like this. And yet she happened to love anything fresh and novel.
Without question, his own younger brother knew better than anyone where to strike to breach his seemingly impenetrable defenses. Sitting on the sofa, Huo Qingzhi was assaulted again and again by the shifting lights before him, stirring up the darkness he had buried deep inside for far too long.
Whenever Jiang Wu smiled because of another man, that darkness grew wildly… almost enough to swallow him whole. Yet outwardly, he remained perfectly calm.
Everything in Huo Qingzhi’s field of vision seemed to darken. Deep within his eyes, a prison rose from the ground. Everything around it was sealed tightly shut. Only that oblivious little tulip remained trapped inside his territory. Then the cage gained chains. Handcuffs. A leather whip… As time passed, more and more implements appeared within it.
After the performance ended, several young masters who had been enjoying themselves together joked, “What a rare sight. Chairman Huo actually came out to have fun. If we’d known, we should’ve arranged something more exciting.”
“Has something good happened in your family lately? Did you all come out together to celebrate?”
Jiang Wu waved her hands. “No, nothing like that.” She escaped the polite chatter and went outside to get into the car.
Huo Yingli had originally planned to get in from the other side, but Huo Qingzhi’s assistant stopped him. “There isn’t enough room in this car. Please take the other one.”
Huo Yingli raised a brow. He watched Huo Qingzhi’s car drive straight away and laughed in exasperation.
Jiang Wu was already feeling a little tired once she got into the car. Then she remembered something and asked Huo Qingzhi, “Didn’t you say you’d be staying at the company these two days?”
Huo Qingzhi was almost impressed that she remembered. “When did I say I’d be at the company the entire time?”
“That day.” Jiang Wu actually began reciting his own words back to him. “That day you told me you’d be at the company these two days and wouldn’t be coming home.”
Huo Qingzhi continued, “What else did I say?”
“You also said you’d come pick me up tomorrow morning.”
“Pick you up for what?”
“To register our marriage.”
Only then did Huo Qingzhi turn to look at her. “So, you do remember that we’re getting married tomorrow morning.”
Jiang Wu: “…”
“I didn’t forget. And what era are we living in now? Am I supposed to stay shut inside the house for three days before getting married like some old-fashioned bride? This is the modern era. Of course you’re supposed to have fun before getting married. And it’s not like I stayed out that late.” Jiang Wu had clearly seized on the wrong point. She fiddled with the crystals on her skirt. “I’ll definitely be able to wake up tomorrow morning.”
The more Huo Qingzhi listened to her, the tighter the imaginary cage in his mind grew.
A playful little bride. He wanted to punish her.
Huo Qingzhi said nothing more, just drove her home. Only when he escorted her to the door of her room did he remind her, “I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow morning.”
Jiang Wu answered softly, “Got it.” Then she slipped into her room.
She hummed a little tune, still perfectly happy from the night.
Completely unaware that, on the other side of the wall, Huo Qingzhi sat lost in thought on a leather sofa, folding the leather strap from a restraint jacket in his hands. Every so often, he patted it lightly against his palm.
A dull, heavy sound echoed through the room.
What a pity. It still wasn’t time yet. He couldn’t punish her.