Surrounded by Wolves
“I’m not… upset. It’s not that either…” The moment Jiang Wu said it, everything sounded strange.
She couldn’t find the right words. Claiming it was upsetting felt off, but denying it felt wrong too. Her finger trailed through the foam in the bathwater, drawing circles over and over beside her as that contradictory, struggling feeling filled her entire heart.
Then she heard Huo Qingzhi continue. “You’ll have to get used to it.”
Jiang Wu pressed her lips into a straight line. “Get used to what?”
“Me taking care of you.”
Maybe the bathwater was a little too warm. Jiang Wu felt flushed all over, as though the heat had soaked into every inch of her. “I’m very used to you taking care of me before, but…”
This was completely different from Huo Qingzhi doing things for her in the past. Jiang Wu opened her mouth, then closed it again. She had no idea what to say. She didn’t realize that all her little hums, breaths, and speechless pauses were being picked up clearly by the microphone and transmitted to the other end.
Jiang Wu still couldn’t resist complaining. “But before we got married, you never told me there would be things like this.”
“Never told you what?”
Jiang Wu said awkwardly, “You only said you’d help me get even.” She had thought they only needed to continue the way they had before.
“Mm.” Huo Qingzhi remained perfectly calm. “But aren’t these the most basic things you do after getting married?”
His composure made her wonder if she was overthinking it. He had only helped wash a dirty piece of clothing that had fallen on the floor.
But still! That was…
Jiang Wu simply ended the conversation that was going nowhere. “I’m going to sleep. Good night, Brother.” Then, without giving him any chance to respond, she shut off the camera feed.
On the other side, Bingbing pawed at the device for a long time. When he no longer heard Jiang Wu’s voice, he disappointedly jumped down from the bedside table and wandered away.
Huo Qingzhi smiled faintly, but his eyes held no warmth, only a dark, unsettling chill.
Good night, Brother. She had done that on purpose. Just how far did Ah Wu need him to go before she understood that he was no longer her brother? He wasn’t her brother anymore, and he didn’t want to be.
As expected, washing one piece of clothing was nowhere near enough.
~~
Jiang Wu was very good at throwing difficult problems to Huo Qingzhi. He always managed to find the perfect balance and solution. So, after hanging up and tossing that tangled mess of a relationship aside, Jiang Wu emerged from the bathroom feeling completely refreshed and turned on the movie Liang Xiaoyue had sent her earlier.
While the opening credits rolled, Jiang Wu applied hair oil and body lotion, making sure every strand of hair was carefully tended to. Once she was done, she lazily slipped beneath the covers, her entire body wrapped in fragrance.
The sound of a lecture hall came from the screen, and it drew her attention. The movie opened with a university lecture. People said that this professor only taught at night, one day a week, one class at a time. Whenever he lectured, the tiered classroom was packed. The eccentric old professor spoke about all kinds of cultural relics, delivering his lectures with wit and humor, as though he were telling stories about old friends. The students loved listening to him.
Then one day, he suddenly took an entire month off, much to everyone’s disappointment. That was when someone noticed that his class always happened to fall on the museum’s weekly closing day. Someone else noticed that some of the images of artifacts he showed in class were not even available in official archives. And the month he had taken off also matched exactly the period when the bronze mythical beast from the museum had been sent to the Louvre for exhibition.
Jiang Wu found it strangely familiar. Then she suddenly understood why Liang Xiaoyue had told her to watch this film. The film was about artifacts, laced with fantasy, and it echoed everything she had once shared with Gu Jingsong. Even in many of the artifact stories in the film, in every line of dialogue, she could hear echoes of her own voice.
Jiang Wu couldn’t resist opening her phone to message Liang Xiaoyue.
[Ah Wu: You’ve seen that movie?]
Liang Xiaoyue was busy socializing and didn’t see the message immediately.
The movie continued playing on the screen. The story unfolded from the heroine’s point of view. When the old professor returned, he said he had gone on a business trip to the Louvre and brought back more stories for everyone. Stories about hundreds of cultural relics stolen from China and kept in the Louvre. She listened as the old professor told the class when his old friends had been taken from their homeland, which foreign museums they were now held in, and how they might be brought home.
The professor explained that illegally exported cultural relics could be recovered through three main means: repurchase, donation, and restoration claims. He explained that restitution required historical evidence, documentary records, and support from image restoration.
And that the bronze mythical beast represented justice, propriety, morality, and conscience.
Jiang Wu’s phone vibrated. Liang Xiaoyue had replied.
[LXY: Of course I watched my old classmate’s debut award-winning film. But I thought you weren’t interested in him anymore, so I didn’t mention it. What do you think]
[Ah Wu: It’s pretty good.]
[LXY: Just pretty good? I always thought it was a pity nothing happened between you two. I figured he’d moved on. But he remembered everything you said. Aren’t you curious what he was thinking while he made that movie?]
Jiang Wu slowly typed back.
[Ah Wu: Probably the ideals in his heart.]
[LXY: You’re those ideals.]
The moment Liang Xiaoyue’s message appeared, another chat notification popped up at the top of Jiang Wu’s screen. It was from Gu Jingsong.
[GJS: Are you free tomorrow?]
Jiang Wu’s finger paused. After hesitating, she opened his message.
Gu Jingsong continued.
[GJS: There were too many people tonight. We didn’t get to talk much. Would it be convenient to have dinner alone tomorrow?]
Jiang Wu hugged her pillow and rolled over onto her stomach. Her finger lifted and tapped the screen.
[Ah Wu: I want to rest tomorrow. I’m exhausted from today.]
Gu Jingsong replied,
[GJS: Then the day after tomorrow?]
The day after tomorrow… Jiang Wu counted the days.
[GJS: Or whenever you’re free. You don’t have to prepare anything. I can come see you.]
There was no such thing as Jiang Wu meeting someone without preparing beforehand. No matter who she was going out to see, she still wanted to look her best. So, she gave him a time.
[Ah Wu: The day after that. Tuesday.]
[GJS: Okay.]
Jiang Wu spent the entire next day resting at the hotel. Huo Yingli came by and kept her company for a while. “Once I finish my business meeting tomorrow, where do you want to go afterward? I’ll take you.”
“No need.” Jiang Wu flipped through the fashion magazines that had been circulating over the past two days while biting into her ice cream. “I already made plans with someone.”
Huo Yingli turned to look at her. “With Gu Jingsong?”
Jiang Wu’s eyes immediately brightened. “How’d you guess?”
Huo Yingli hadn’t guessed. He was probing. Testing every potential threat. And unexpectedly, it really was Gu Jingsong.
“You haven’t seen each other in years.” Jealousy and irritation crept into Huo Yingli’s tone. “One evening of reminiscing obviously wouldn’t be enough. Why not meet him today?”
“He did ask to meet today.” Jiang Wu knew Second Brother made the perfect best friend for this kind of thing. “But I thought having dinner plans two days in a row would be exhausting.”
“So, you scheduled it for tomorrow?”
Jiang Wu smiled brightly. “Tuesday.”
Huo Yingli looked at her expression and teased with a smile. “When he saw you off to the car last night, you even told him the time passed too quickly, and you hadn’t gotten to talk enough.”
“We didn’t get to talk enough.” Jiang Wu heard nothing strange in that. “So, I picked a better time.”
Huo Yingli finally understood. She had absolutely no idea that she had already hooked Gu Jingsong’s interest, then casually left him longing for more instead of letting him satisfy that feeling immediately.
Huo Yingli understood that feeling far too well. He had experienced it countless times with Jiang Wu. Just when she aroused his interest, she was already tired. Whenever he wanted to stay with her every moment, she could never completely satisfy that desire.
Her appetite for companionship seemed so small and was easily satisfied. But he was different. His appetite was enormous, and every short meal or conversation only ever lasted long enough to pique his interest.
“You’re not that interested in him either?”
Jiang Wu had no idea how Huo Yingli had reached that conclusion. “Why? We were good friends before. Of course, I still care about him. But that doesn’t mean I have to immediately catch up with him until we’ve talked ourselves sick of it. If I’m meeting a good friend, I should be in my best state. That way, we’re both comfortable.”
Huo Yingli couldn’t argue with that and even thought she was right. Before spending time with someone else, taking care of your own state and feelings first was a kind of responsibility to both people. Who had taught her that…
Huo Yingli thought of someone. Huo Qingzhi. How interesting.
Men and women thought differently. Men had their own flaws, and from their perspective, it was difficult not to interpret things as… She makes me want her, keeps me wanting, and when I ask, she earnestly tells me it’s because she cares about me more.
That only makes a man fall deeper. But once he has fallen in, he starts doubting himself because she isn’t constantly as close as he imagined she would be. Again and again, until he becomes more and more unable to pull himself free.
Huo Qingzhi probably never imagined that the girl he’d taught these principles would one day have him on a leash, turning him into a madman who would find every possible way to cling to her even without her pulling. Huo Yingli found it far too amusing.
When Jiang Wu went to meet Gu Jingsong, Huo Yingli drove them there. As Jiang Wu’s self-proclaimed “best girlfriend,” he readily agreed to her request. He waited in the car, snapping a photo of them together and sending it to Huo Qingzhi.
So even Eldest Brother, who had always taught them what they should do, had a day like this. Huo Yingli didn’t even need to do anything himself; he only needed to let Huo Qingzhi see. Gu Jingsong probably wouldn’t get another chance to see Jiang Wu for quite some time.
From where Huo Yingli sat, he could see through the restaurant’s glass window to the elegant table by the window where the two were talking happily. A message from Huo Qingzhi soon appeared on his phone.
[HQZ: Trying to use the photo to manipulate me? I’ll be collecting interest.]
Huo Yingli replied.
[HYL: I’m just letting you see how popular our little sister is.]
Huo Qingzhi didn’t respond again.
When Jiang Wu came out of the restaurant, she was still beaming. Huo Yingli asked, “You’re that happy? What did you talk about?”
“Nothing much.” Jiang Wu settled into her seat. “He asked me to go see an exhibition with him in a couple of days. Oh, right. He said he’s going back to Hong Kong next month.”
“That’s good.” Huo Yingli agreed first, then added, “Though he doesn’t really need to tell you himself. Gu Jingsong is somewhat famous. When he goes back, the media will probably be waiting around. Once they spot him and publish it, we’ll know anyway.”
The mention of the media made her pause. That was precisely what Jiang Wu cared about most. Sure enough, she fell silent for a moment. Huo Yingli asked, “Are you going out with him in a couple of days?”
Jiang Wu came back to herself. “I haven’t agreed yet. I’ll see what my schedule is like that day.”
Jiang Wu had dinner with Huo Yingli that evening. Now and then, she casually told him what she and Gu Jingsong had talked about that day. From what Huo Yingli heard, their conversation had been perfectly ordinary, more like old friends catching up. He knew a little about Gu Jingsong. He was careful and cautious by nature.
Perhaps because they had only just reunited and were still getting reacquainted, Gu Jingsong wouldn’t recklessly cross the line of their current relationship. For now, he stopped at friendship. But Huo Yingli could still hear, in almost everything Gu Jingsong said and did, a desire to move one step further. For example, inviting her out and mentioning his return to Hong Kong.
Jiang Wu, meanwhile, was completely open about it, as though there was nothing she couldn’t tell Huo Yingli. That actually proved that Gu Jingsong truly occupied only the place of a friend in her heart right now. By comparison, what Huo Yingli was really worried about was the thing Jiang Wu refused to talk about, like that necklace.
Who had given it to her?
~~
The next day, Jiang Wu kept wondering whether she should go to the Louvre with Gu Jingsong, but she was also afraid of being photographed by the media. After all, she was still under observation at the Hong Kong Museum. Stirring up more news now would not be good for her future career.
Fortunately, Gu Jingsong called that evening. He apologized and told her that a collaboration had come up, and he needed to go to the Americas to discuss it. Jiang Wu no longer had to struggle over the decision and naturally felt relieved.
Since Huo Yingli had some free time, he took Jiang Wu to a private jewelry exhibition. He said the organizer was a friend of Onyxaura’s Second Young Master and ran a niche brand. They had been invited to show some support. Jiang Wu naturally agreed. She entered the exhibition hall with Huo Yingli. The man who came to greet them looked only in his twenties. He had short flaxen hair, blue eyes, and sharply defined features. She heard that he was one of the married couple hosting the exhibition. He seemed very familiar with Huo Yingli. After exchanging only a few words, he pulled Huo Yingli aside to discuss business matters.
François’s personal assistant then took Jiang Wu through the exhibition alone, explaining the design concept behind the jewelry on display. It was called Forbidden Paradise. Jiang Wu’s attention was quickly drawn to the red ruby ring in the main display case. The setting took the form of two soaring serpents entwined neck to neck, both biting down on the ruby between them. Their bodies, all the way to their tails, were tightly wrapped around each other. The style was dark and intricate.
Jiang Wu leaned closer to read the description and only then learned that it was Mr. François’s wedding ring. “I didn’t expect your boss to already be married. He looks so young.”
The assistant nodded politely. “Yes. Sir and Madam have always had a very good relationship.”
It was still Jiang Wu’s first time seeing a wedding ring with such a dark aesthetic. “But I’m curious. Why choose this design concept for a wedding ring?”
“Madam used to be the younger sister fostered in Sir’s family. They grew up together. The serpents represent taboo, and the ruby represents the forbidden fruit.”
The smile on Jiang Wu’s face stiffened for a moment. A faint buzzing filled her head. “Younger sister?”
“A foster sister,” the assistant explained with a perfectly courteous smile. Yet somehow, the explanation made Jiang Wu’s skin crawl.
The assistant extended a hand in invitation. “The exhibition begins this way.”
Jiang Wu nodded and followed.
The assistant introduced the design concept behind each piece of jewelry one by one. Together, they formed a complete story. The French really were bold. The assistant didn’t explain too much, but through the jewelry designs, Jiang Wu could piece together the entire sequence of events. A younger foster sister was raised in the same household, with no blood relation. On the day she came of age, she claimed her “brother” as her coming-of-age gift. From then on, they indulged in forbidden pleasure right under the eyes of their parents and siblings; in places both visible and hidden, they tasted the forbidden fruit in secret. Entangled to the point of ruin.
On the surface, they were still harmonious brother and sister. All the madness beneath that surface was poured into the designs. So much so that the necklaces incorporated elements of lock rings and handcuffs. The bracelets carried whip-like patterns, knots that could not be untied, serpents, and watching beast eyes, wild creatures bound and thrown into chaos. People wrapped in taboo rarely had calm hearts. There was always something unhealthy in it, more or less. And yet they had ended up together. They had married.
At the end of the exhibition, Jiang Wu found herself back in front of the wedding ring in the main display case. She looked at it with complicated feelings. When people found themselves doing something even remotely similar, they naturally projected themselves into the story whenever they saw matching traces, especially because she thought of that piece of intimate clothing Huo Qingzhi never should have washed for her.
Jiang Wu heard Huo Yingli’s footsteps approaching. Then she heard him ask, “Well? Do you like it?”
Jiang Wu turned to look at him. “Do you know about the host?”
Huo Yingli thought for a moment before answering, “Know what? I don’t.” He deflected; instead, he asked her another question. “Who gave you that Rose Nebula?”
Jiang Wu’s heart jolted; she pressed her lips together and said nothing.
Huo Yingli smiled and took out a box. “Why are you looking at me like that? You have secrets from your brother now too?”
Calling himself her brother here, inside this Forbidden Paradise, made Jiang Wu think of someone else, and her thoughts stumbled. She seriously suspected Huo Yingli was hinting at something.
Huo Yingli continued naturally, “I saw a beautiful bracelet just now. It suits you, so I bought it from François.” He took out the bracelet, which hadn’t been displayed in the cases. Huo Yingli took hold of her wrist. “The size looks about right. Want to try it?”
Jiang Wu was still pressing him. “You really didn’t know about them?” She didn’t quite believe him.
Huo Yingli looked at her and said half-jokingly, “Try it on, and I’ll tell you.”
Jiang Wu stopped moving and let Huo Yingli fasten the bracelet around her wrist. The craftsmanship was elaborate. It looked like a vine climbing and spreading, blooming with countless diamond flowers that wrapped around her wrist in layer after layer. Every movement made it chime softly. There were little bells too. It really was beautiful.
Jiang Wu admired it for a moment, then gave her wrist a couple of light shakes. “Now can you tell me if you know anything about these things?”
Seeing it on her wrist, Huo Yingli smiled in satisfaction. “I know.”
Jiang Wu’s heart tightened.
Then Huo Yingli asked again, “So, can you tell me now who gave you the Rose Nebula?”
The air around them seemed to freeze for an instant.
Jiang Wu found it even harder to stay there. She turned and walked away, saying, “Just a friend. Why do you keep asking?”
“Jiang Wu.” Huo Yingli’s unhurried voice came from behind her. “The key words in Mr. François’s design concept are entanglement, confinement, and exclusive possession.”
“Most of his designs have one thing in common,” Huo Yingli said. “Once you put them on, you can never take them off for the rest of your life.”
Jiang Wu’s steps abruptly stopped. Behind her, Huo Yingli’s voice drew closer. “Ah Wu used to tell me everything. Now that you’ve grown up, you’re keeping things from your brother. Then how about I leave this bracelet on you for the rest of your life? Let it stay with you, together with the Rose Nebula. He’s a friend, and I’m your brother. You should like us both very much, right?”
Jiang Wu’s body grew even stiffer. Besides Huo Yingli’s words, she also saw someone at the exit of the exhibition hall.
Huo Qingzhi was staring straight at them as he walked in.