Surrounded By Wolves
But Huo Qingzhi could punish someone else.
Huo Yingli never made it home. Halfway back, he received a call from the company saying there was something important that required his attention. He didn’t even need to think about what this so-called important matter could be. His Eldest Brother was angry.
He wasn’t bothered by that realization in the slightest. In fact, he was rather pleased. After all, managing to anger Huo Qingzhi gave him a distinct sense of accomplishment. Huo Qingzhi was an extremely difficult person to find fault with. Even his emotions seemed sealed without a single crack.
Although Huo Lingyi was rebellious and difficult, Huo Yingli understood clearly that while Third Brother’s behavior often earned him reprimands from Eldest Brother, it was actually very difficult to make Huo Qingzhi genuinely angry. Sometimes Huo Qingzhi was so proper that he hardly seemed human.
And yet beneath the skin of someone like that lay the most untouchable kind of swamp, deep, murky, filthy, and shadowed. That was what made it interesting.
The next morning, Huo Qingzhi left half an hour early, bypassing the family driver and sending his own to pick up Jiang Wu.
Although Jiang Wu normally stayed up late and woke up late, she could still get herself out of bed early when there was something important to do. She was simply extra tired.
Unfortunately, she happened to run into Huo Tingshan at breakfast. This was the first time the two of them had been alone together since their last unpleasant parting.
Huo Tingshan looked at her twice over the edge of his newspaper before asking with apparent indifference, “Up this early?”
“You’re up pretty early too.” Jiang Wu was still half asleep, so whatever came out of her mouth was completely unfiltered. “Funny how no matter what time I come down to eat, I always manage to run into you.”
Huo Tingshan lifted his coffee cup as if to conceal something. “I’m retired. It’s normal for me to wake up whenever I want.”
Jiang Wu didn’t reply. She slowly finished breakfast, and by the time her stomach was full, she was much more awake. Getting to her feet, she casually said, “I’m leaving, Daddy.”
Then she picked up her bag and left.
Huo Tingshan’s ears practically twitched. Jiang Wu had only said two things to him the entire time. But both the butler and Huo Tingshan successfully seized on the important part. The butler boldly interpreted it for him. “See? Young Miss still prefers having you as her father. She hasn’t disowned you. Even when she went to Beijing some time ago, she probably didn’t even manage to meet that person.”
Huo Tingshan clicked his tongue and pretended to be magnanimous. “Where she goes and whom she wants to meet are her own business. What does that have to do with me?”
The butler truly didn’t understand how anyone’s mouth could be this stubborn. “Yes. Nothing to do with you. Anyway, Eldest Young Master keeps an eye on her all the time. You don’t need to worry.”
Hearing that, Huo Tingshan agreed. “With Qingzhi watching over her, I’m not worried. He’s a measured and sensible child.”
Two hours later, the very measured and sensible Huo Qingzhi walked out of the Civil Affairs Bureau holding two marriage certificates.
Jiang Wu had already climbed into the car and was complaining that she wanted something to eat before going back to sleep. Huo Qingzhi looked at the names and photographs on the certificates several more times before finally putting them away and getting into the car.
The driver in front hesitated before asking, “Sir, are we going to Kowloon Tong or Coral Palace?”
Jiang Wu answered first. “Just drop me off at Kowloon Tong.”
Huo Qingzhi said nothing. The driver understood immediately and headed toward Kowloon Tong.
Huo Qingzhi’s Rolls-Royce rode so smoothly it felt as though it were gliding over flat ground. Jiang Wu nibbled on a couple of pastries and small bread rolls before drifting off to sleep.
When she woke again, everything around her had changed. Above her was a familiar bedroom ceiling. A familiar plush blanket covered her body. She was still groggy from sleep, but could tell that this was her new bedroom.
The sun was already sinking toward the horizon. Long rays of evening light filtered through the sheer curtains and stretched across the carpet. Jiang Wu didn’t think much of it. She rolled over, intending to go back to sleep.
Then she turned her head… and saw another familiar person leaning against the headboard beside her princess bed, calmly reading a book.
Jiang Wu closed her eyes for two sleepy seconds. Then suddenly came fully awake. Her eyes flew open. She sat upright and stared at the man beside her in visible astonishment.
Compared with her reaction, Huo Qingzhi looked extraordinarily composed. He continued flipping through his book without much response. As though his being there were the most natural thing in the world.
Jiang Wu looked blankly around the room, then back at Huo Qingzhi. Not far away, the sunset spilled a soft dusting of gold across the floor. She felt strangely dazed. She had no idea what to say, but she still had to say something. “This… this is my room.”
Huo Qingzhi didn’t move at all, his attention still on the book. “Your room. Shouldn’t I be here?”
Jiang Wu had never heard Huo Qingzhi say anything like that before. “Bro…”
“Jiang Wu.” Huo Qingzhi closed the book and, for the first time, interrupted her by calling her full name. “I should remind you that we aren’t related by blood. It’s no longer appropriate for you to keep calling me Brother.”
“And besides…” Huo Qingzhi placed one hand down beside hers, the weight of it pressing into the mattress as he reminded her, “We’re husband and wife now.”
The words husband and wife slipped into her ears. Unfamiliar and scorching hot. Jiang Wu was deeply unused to them. She could feel the bedding and mattress dip beneath the pressure of his hand beside hers, and she pulled back instinctively. “We… even if we’re legally husband and wife… Isn’t that only on the surface?”
Jiang Wu assumed he felt restrained by the title and even tried to reassure him. “In private, we can just be the same as before. You don’t have to feel pressured.”
Huo Qingzhi was silent for a moment before answering, calm and unhurried. “If you like calling me Brother the way you used to, I won’t stop you. But after marriage, our identities are different. Some things can’t remain the way they were before.”
He appeared very reasonable as he asked for her understanding. “I hope you can understand that.”
“I understand.”
Jiang Wu was still foggy from sleep and didn’t actually know what exactly she was supposed to understand.
Huo Qingzhi was far too good at speaking in riddles.
But the more Jiang Wu thought about it, the more she felt that some things were not nearly as simple as he made them sound.
“So, we…”
Huo Qingzhi guided her along. “So, there are many things we’ll need to do together unless there’s a special reason not to.”
“What things?”
“For example, eating and sleeping.”
Actually, neither sounded particularly difficult. They used to eat together all the time. As for sleeping together… That counted too, if sleeping in the same bed before she turned nine counted.
“That’s not really a problem either.” Jiang Wu stumbled over her words, trying to find a way to soften things. “It’s just that you already finished preparing Coral Palace. If you stay here with me, I’m mostly worried that it’ll be a downgrade for you.”
Both were nice homes, of course. But there was still a difference between the smaller place she had bought for occasional stays and his estate out on the sea.
“I don’t mind.”
By now, Jiang Wu wasn’t sleepy at all. “Then… then let’s eat. I’m hungry.” She hurriedly climbed out of bed and left the room to order food.
Huo Qingzhi leisurely closed his book, got up, and followed her out. “What do you want to eat?”
Jiang Wu was still scrolling through delivery apps. “I haven’t decided.” She tried very hard to make her voice sound natural. “Don’t you need to go to the company today?”
“I took two days of marriage leave. There’s no rush to go back.” Huo Qingzhi casually took Jiang Wu’s phone out of her hands. “If you haven’t decided, I already reserved somewhere for our first meal as newlyweds.”
The words marriage leave had barely passed through Jiang Wu’s mind when our first meal followed right behind them. More precisely, the latter meant… our first meal as newlyweds.
Jiang Wu’s emotions were tugged back and forth. Ever since she woke up, she hadn’t managed to settle down at all. She couldn’t tell whether it was because their identities had changed and therefore Brother’s attitude toward her had changed too… or whether Huo Qingzhi himself had changed.
Either way, it was different from what Jiang Wu had imagined before. Very different.
Almost at the same moment, Jiang Wu remembered what Wen Ciying had told her not long ago. Actually, I’m not a very good person, baby. And Huo Qingzhi isn’t nearly as much of an upright gentleman as he looks either.
Right then, Huo Qingzhi stood by the door and gestured to her. “Ready.”
And for a moment, he looked no different from before. “Wait for me.” Jiang Wu quickly went into the washroom to freshen up and made sure her makeup was perfect.
The restaurant Huo Qingzhi had reserved was on the top floor of a tower in Central, inside a private room at a revolving restaurant beneath a ceiling of stars. One entire wall was made of floor-to-ceiling glass. It felt as though they were suspended among the clouds, overlooking the whole of Hong Kong Island at night, with a river of earthly stars flowing beneath their feet.
Everything on the table was food Jiang Wu liked. He knew her tastes, her habits. Just like when they were children. Back then, Eldest Brother would drag her out of bed when she overslept. He would have the nanny dress her, and by the time Jiang Wu was truly awake, she would already have slept through breakfast.
Huo Qingzhi would usually carry breakfast in one hand and her little schoolbag in the other as he took her to school. Then he would sit in the car and watch her eat. He even prepared napkins in advance in case she spilled milk on herself. Supposedly, that was experience Eldest Brother had gained from taking care of Third Brother.
Even though Eldest Brother himself had only been a teenager at the time. Jiang Wu hadn’t neglected the way Third Brother had.
But even though Huo Tingshan doted on her, he still wasn’t especially good with children. Jiang Wu had loved sweets when she was little. He would indulge her and let her have some, but once she ate too many, he would become afraid she might get cavities and strictly forbid any more, hiding the sweets away.
Whenever Jiang Wu grew greedy for them, she would secretly rummage through drawers and cabinets, searching everywhere. Most of the jars and containers in the house were kept up high.
Huo Qingzhi was afraid she would knock something over or hurt herself climbing around, so he kept a jar in her room instead. He told her that whenever she wanted some, she could have one.
He also reduced her sugar intake and taught her that she absolutely had to brush her teeth after eating sweets. Huo Qingzhi never restricted what she liked, but he was very strict about checking whether she had brushed her teeth properly.
When Jiang Wu was little and especially happy, she would make grand declarations about staying with Eldest Brother forever. The nannies at home would always tease her. “But what happens when Wenni gets married?”
“Can’t I stay with Brother after I get married?”
“After you get married, you’re supposed to live with the person you like.”
“Huh?” The little girl always sounded disappointed when she heard that, though she also thought it made sense. “Then if Brother marries someone he likes and they live together, he should be really happy.”
Back in the revolving restaurant, they chatted casually for a while and effortlessly slipped into the familiar rhythm they had shared countless times before. Every now and then, Jiang Wu glanced down at the bustling streets below the tower. Looking more closely, she could see colored lights shifting and changing. A vague excitement stirred inside her.
“What day is it today? It looks like there’s even a light show.”
From where they were sitting, they happened to have one of the best views of the display. Crowds had gathered below as well. From time to time, beams of light swept through the floor-to-ceiling windows into their private room, causing the starry ceiling overhead to refract even more dazzling colors.
Huo Qingzhi responded absentmindedly, “Must be a good day.”
Jiang Wu always stopped for anything beautiful. She walked over to the window and watched the Victoria Harbour light show through the glass curtain wall. There were even scattered bursts of fireworks here and there, like tiny flowers continually blooming throughout the city beneath their feet.
“When did you reserve this place? Did you know all of this would be happening today?” She remembered that this revolving restaurant normally had to be booked at least a week in advance. It wasn’t somewhere you could simply decide to visit whenever you pleased.
Huo Qingzhi gave her an ambiguous answer. “It wasn’t difficult. There hasn’t been much of a wait lately.”
The light show over the harbor grew more dazzling, lights weaving and separating like silver threads in the dark, continually weaving together before separating again. Small fireworks burst intermittently among them. Blooming beneath their feet, then faded away.
Jiang Wu watched for a while before giving her assessment. “The fireworks are just a little too small. I can’t see them very clearly.”
As she spoke, she failed to notice Huo Qingzhi rise from the table and walk toward her. The lights inside the room had been turned off to complement the show outside, leaving only the faint glow of the starry ceiling.
Jiang Wu said, “I want to go downstairs and take a look later.”
“To see the fireworks?” Huo Qingzhi’s voice came from directly behind her this time.
Hearing him, Jiang Wu raised her eyes and saw his reflection in the glass. Their silhouettes appeared faintly together in the floor-to-ceiling window. She looked away and focused on the fireworks again. “Yeah.”
Huo Qingzhi took out something glimmering, catching the light. “Wait a little longer.”
Jiang Wu was about to turn and see what he was holding when suddenly… among the tiny sparks far below, a trail of flame snaked upward. It climbed higher and higher through their field of vision, streaking straight toward the clouds.
At its peak, the flame extinguished. Then…
A magnificent firework exploded directly before Jiang Wu’s eyes.
She froze.
And in that brief suspended moment, the sparks that had seemed to fade in midair suddenly burst into life again. Countless fireworks of every color blossomed along all twelve hundred meters of coastline. They swept across the entire night sky in overwhelming brilliance.
Huo Qingzhi fastened the pink-diamond necklace he had prepared as a wedding gift around her neck. Through their reflection in the glass, he idly toyed with the pink diamond.
High above the city in the skyscraper, Jiang Wu couldn’t hear the waves of astonished cries rising from the streets below.
Outside the distant clamor and celebration, everything around her was silent. And in that silence, she heard his voice beside her ear.
“Happy wedding.”
~~
Happy wedding.
Jiang Wu was still overwhelmed by surprise, her heart practically bursting with delight, when she suddenly became conscious of who had said those words to her. She accepted it, though not quite openly. And in that instant, Jiang Wu realized that her brother seemed to no longer be her brother anymore.
When an identity she had been accustomed to for so many years abruptly changed, it inevitably made her uneasy. Jiang Wu realized she had made everything sound far too simple. There were many things she had never considered at all. She had thought that if they simply interacted the same way as before, what difference could it possibly make?
But before, they would never have naturally remained alone together in the same room this late at night. And then… sleep together.
Jiang Wu couldn’t bring herself to go anywhere near the bed. Instead, she sat in the beanbag, watching her space fill with traces of a man. And that man… was her brother she had called Eldest Brother for more than twenty years.
The half of the walk-in closet she had never filled was now completely occupied. One side held all kinds of bright, flamboyant dresses and gowns, bursting with vivid colors. The other half had been swallowed by black, white, and gray.
Cold. Orderly. Unyieldingly taking over her space.
There were now two pairs of slippers. One had a little cat face. The other was plain, dark, and rigidly simple. The bedding hadn’t been changed. It was still in the soft pink tones Jiang Wu liked, except there were now several books by the bedside like Game Theory, The Talmud, and A Global History, things that should never have existed in her world.
Curious, Jiang Wu leaned closer and picked up the history book, A Global History. It was a collector’s edition with a pleasant weight in her hands. As she turned the pages, she could smell the faint scent of printed paper and wood. Mixed with an almost imperceptible trace of fir. Perhaps Huo Qingzhi had handled it often enough that the book had absorbed his scent. Jiang Wu flipped through only a couple of pages before that familiar smell made her strangely unsettled.
Right then, the sound of running water in the bathroom stopped. Jiang Wu hurriedly closed the book, returned it to its place, and curled back into the beanbag chair, pretending to be very busy on her phone.
Huo Qingzhi emerged with a faint veil of steam following him. Even the air seemed damp. He walked over to the bed and asked in the most ordinary tone, “Not sleeping?”
“In a little while.” Jiang Wu stared very seriously at her completely empty phone screen. “I still have something to do.”
Huo Qingzhi studied her briefly, without exposing her. “Alright.”
What could Jiang Wu possibly have to do? She repeatedly opened the Hong Kong Museum’s message page and then repeatedly closed it again. She went through every recent auction notice she could find, then started checking overseas auction houses. Suddenly, she noticed an auction scheduled in Paris next week.
If she remembered correctly, the fashion show was next week too. Originally, the organizers had invited her to attend as a guest. She didn’t know whether the invitation still stood. Jiang Wu opened the invitation again and stared at it for a while.
Huo Qingzhi seemed ready to sleep, turning off the bedside lamp on his side. Jiang Wu seized the opportunity to sneak a couple of glances at him. After confirming that he really seemed to be going to sleep, she let out two quiet breaths of relief.
Considerately, Jiang Wu turned off her own light as well, leaving only the small floor lamp by the window on. She silently prayed that Huo Qingzhi would fall asleep as quickly as possible. For the moment, she didn’t dare climb into bed while he was still awake.
They had just said Happy wedding tonight.
Which meant… technically, tonight was their wedding night.
So strange.
Jiang Wu waited for roughly twenty minutes. Once she felt Huo Qingzhi must have fallen asleep, she quietly switched off the floor lamp and crept over to sit on the edge of the bed. She tried to be unobtrusive, but his presence was overwhelming. Strong enough that even the slightest tug on the blanket made her acutely aware of him. A man much taller and larger than her was lying right beside her.
Even the rise of the blanket over his body was noticeably higher than over hers. If he turned over, he could effortlessly take control of this entire space. This wasn’t Jiang Wu’s first time sharing a bed with Huo Qingzhi. But this time was definitely different.
Jiang Wu lay still and tried to calm herself for a while, yet something continued to feel uncomfortable. Then she turned over and suddenly remembered that she was still wearing her bra.
Earlier, she had been afraid it would feel strange to walk around the room without one, so she had remained properly dressed even before bed, but now she had to take it off.
Under the covers, Jiang Wu fumbled around with her fingers until she managed to undo the clasp. Beside her, the man who appeared to be deeply asleep opened his eyes without making a sound.
Listening to the faint rustling beside him, he knew exactly what she was doing. Once Jiang Wu had taken it off, she pushed it toward the edge of the bed and hid it there. Her entire body finally relaxed.
She shifted into a comfortable position, played on her phone for a little longer, then eventually fell asleep.
In the dark, silent bedroom, Jiang Wu rolled over in her sleep. A soft thud; something had fallen.
A faint sound broke the silence. Something small and lightweight had fallen from beneath the covers onto the floor.
Early the next morning, when Jiang Wu woke, the space beside her was already empty. Still half asleep, she even found herself thinking that if marriage was nothing more than eating and sleeping together like this, there really wasn’t anything particularly difficult to get used to.
She slowly came to her senses, climbed out of bed, and went to wash up. Passing through the sitting area in her room, Jiang Wu saw Huo Qingzhi and lazily greeted him, “Morning, Brother.”
Huo Qingzhi grunted in reply.
Without betraying anything, he listened as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door. Not even ten seconds later, Jiang Wu suddenly flung the door open again. Her previously sleepy, unfocused eyes had instantly widened with the alarm of a startled fawn.
Holding onto the doorframe, she looked first at the item hanging inside the bathroom, then at him. Only half of her body peeked around the doorway. She clearly wanted to ask something but had no idea how to phrase it. “Um, Brother, I…”
Huo Qingzhi seemed to know exactly what she was asking. He lowered his gaze without even looking up and said calmly, “It fell on the floor and got dirty. I washed it while I was at it.”
Author’s Note: Eldest Brother is so domesticated.