Surrounded by Wolves
Huo Qingzhi looked into her innocent eyes, his hand clenched around the watch and ring; the metal bit into his palm until it left red marks. He forced the surging tide of desire back down, his mind racing with images of all the ways he could punish her. He’d played them over and over.
She didn’t understand. He held himself still, letting the silence stretch.
Finally, he gave her a mundane answer. “I’m going to take a shower.”
He walked past Jiang Wu and entered the master bedroom bathroom. She stood there, glancing at the clock. She knew he showered every night before bed. Did he have to shower in the middle of the day too? She murmured to herself as she went back to her meal. “He sure loves showering.”
What a meticulous, proper person he was.
While eating, Jiang Wu replied to all the messages on her phone. She also accepted Slyvia’s invitation to treat her to dinner the next day as thanks.
At that moment, Huo Yingli had already gotten into the car. A video conference with the PR department was open on his tablet. This counted as the first emergency meeting since Huo Qingzhi had placed him into Third Uncle’s public relations department.
On the video call, Third Uncle Huo Tingkun chaired the meeting as usual. “That child Jiang Wu is nothing but trouble,” he complained. “But at least we anticipated this. The chairman had her removed from the group, so our risk is minimal now.”
His assistant occasionally praised several shareholders for their foresight in anticipating the risk. “Still,” Huo Tingkun warned, “all departments need to pay attention and respond promptly to anything involving the Group. Don’t let her keep tying herself to us. Keep all of the impact from her personal affairs limited to her personally. Ignore everything else.”
Huo Tingkun turned to Huo Yingli and specifically asked, “Yingli, do you have any suggestions?”
Huo Yingli agreed with him. “Your arrangements are excellent.”
“You’ve only just joined this department, so you need time to familiarize yourself with it. For this one, just watch how they handle things.” Huo Tingkun wasn’t going to voluntarily give him authority. Huo Yingli knew that and had no objections. Huo Qingzhi hadn’t put him there to take power anyway. He was there as eyes and ears.
Huo Yingli turned off the video conference. Then he lowered his head and looked at the message Huo Qingzhi had sent him. It contained project details and identification numbers for two foundations.
Huo Yingli instructed his assistant, “Have our private PR team keep an eye on this. They don’t need to do anything else. Just add ‘Bamboo Slips Foundation’ and ‘Bronze Coin Foundation’ after the relevant trending terms.”
“All right.”
~~
Jiang Wu went to the embassy twice more to verify documents. She also brought over the recordings, photographs, and other evidence she had collected on the day of the auction. The evidence-gathering process went fairly smoothly. The remaining matters could be left to the embassy to pursue through legal procedures and investigation. She no longer needed to worry about them.
While Cherry waited outside the embassy for Jiang Wu, she handled several work documents. To be fair, since she had started working for Jiang Wu, she had never had this much work before. Ms. Jiang’s career really was picking up.
Just as Cherry was enthusiastically typing away, the car door opened. Jiang Wu greeted her. “Thanks for working so hard, bb. Double salary for you this month.”
“Not at all.” Cherry put away her laptop.
She had no idea where Jiang Wu had picked up this nice habit of giving people raises at the drop of a hat.
Cherry sent Jiang Wu several files. “Bamboo Slips has a few investment collaborations that need your approval over the next couple of days.”
“There are still investment collaborations?” Jiang Wu had assumed that with her current reputation, most capital would have pulled back after her split from the Huo Group.
“There are.”
Jiang Wu opened the files Cherry had sent. “Did Daddy start managing this for me?”
After all, these two foundations were financial investment divisions Huo Tingshan had set up separately for her many years ago. They were also, in a way, compensation left to her after her separation from the Huo family. Their funds had always operated without much activity. For people to suddenly come looking for partnerships, Jiang Wu couldn’t think of any possibility other than Huo Tingshan helping her.
Hearing the direction of Jiang Wu’s thoughts, Cherry felt like she might be missing some information. “Have you checked the news lately?”
“I’m not looking.” Jiang Wu had no interest in making herself miserable. She even reminded Cherry, “You shouldn’t either. It’ll ruin your mood.” Cherry was about to say something when Jiang Wu cut her off again. “If you do see anything, definitely don’t tell me.”
Jiang Wu said lazily, “Let’s go. We’re going to the Michelin restaurant. I’ve already stood Slyvia up for several days. Oh, right, I booked you a small private room too.”
Even though Cherry had been trying hard to learn how to stay calm no matter what happened, she still widened her eyes in surprise before driving to the restaurant.
They met at the Michelin-starred restaurant.
Slyvia couldn’t help sighing. “You’re so busy. Getting a reservation with you is practically like booking a celebrity.”
Jiang Wu sat down. “Not really.”
“How is it not? When our family books celebrities, they’re the ones rushing over and letting us choose the time.” Slyvia asked, “How’s everything going?”
“More or less settled. Once the procedures are complete, the painting will be sent back.” Jiang Wu picked up her knife and fork. “But the Su family from Hai City has also been contacting the embassy and museum recently. I just don’t know whether it’ll stay in the museum afterward or be taken back into their family collection.”
“Anywhere is fine as long as it doesn’t end up in my hands.” Slyvia shook her head. “If this had eventually been traced back to me, it would’ve been so embarrassing. My dad would’ve killed me.”
Families like theirs didn’t lack valuable collectibles. What mattered more was reputation. They could get whatever good things they wanted. Why would they want something tainted?
Slyvia sighed. “If you’d told me you were there that day, I definitely would’ve asked you to check things for me first.”
Jiang Wu put on airs. “I’m hard to book, too. You’d have to get in line.”
“Yes, yes, I know you’re difficult to book. Who told you to be the professional one?” Slyvia suddenly remembered something. “I remember you didn’t only do this before. Wasn’t it something like cultural relic provenance… something?” She couldn’t remember clearly. She only remembered it was a complicated profession. “You don’t do that anymore? Only authentication and restoration?”
Jiang Wu jokingly brushed past the topic. “Why? Want to hire me as your family’s personal restorer?”
“We’ll definitely need your help sooner or later. Some family photographs from over a hundred years ago are deteriorating badly, and my dad has been trying to find someone.” Slyvia pulled up some photos for Jiang Wu. “So, I remember your work before wasn’t just cultural relics. It also had something to do with images. Do you think anything can be done?”
Jiang Wu looked at the image on Slyvia’s phone. After more than a century of wear, only the original outlines could still be made out. She knew that old European families like Slyvia’s, descended from titled nobility, placed special importance on photographs like these. It required great care. “I haven’t done this in a long time.”
“That’s okay. Next time you have time, come to my house.” Slyvia asked casually, “By the way, does the Hong Kong Museum allow you to take private commissions?”
“Who knows,” Jiang Wu said with a wry smile. “The Hong Kong Museum probably won’t want me much longer.”
“Really? No way!” Slyvia was shocked.
There really wasn’t anything surprising about it. Jiang Wu had already been in a one-month probationary observation period. And she had gotten into another incident before it even ended.
Slyvia nudged her. “Didn’t you also get invitations from several major European museums? I’m sure they’d love to have you. Otherwise, I can help ask the Louvre for you.” At the thought, Slyvia sounded pleased. “That Chinese director Gu Jingsong’s family has settled here too.”
Jiang Wu stirred her spoon. “Really?”
As Slyvia spoke, she suddenly thought of something else. “Oh, right. I saw your Eldest Brother there that day too?”
Jiang Wu nodded. “He was.”
Slyvia leaned a little closer. “Does your brother have a girlfriend?”
The sudden question made Jiang Wu burn herself slightly on the soup in her hand. Slyvia quickly passed her a napkin.
Jiang Wu answered vaguely, “I don’t know about his personal life.”
“Ask him for me. Your Eldest Brother spoils you so much. Just act cute like you used to and ask him. He’ll definitely tell you everything.”
Jiang Wu lowered her head. Whether from guilt or something else, she didn’t dare act cute with him the way she used to anymore. “He doesn’t tell me everything.”
Slyvia muttered to herself, “If Huo Qingzhi hasn’t even told you, then he probably doesn’t have a girlfriend.” Then she brightened. “Then can you do me a favor?”
Jiang Wu felt uneasy. “What favor?”
Slyvia said directly, “Help me pursue him.”
For one instant, Jiang Wu felt a subtle sense of guilt, as though she were deceiving a friend who trusted her. Yet she couldn’t say anything. After a long while, she only asked, “You like him?”
“Of course.” Slyvia was very direct. “Why do you ask? I thought there must be a lot of women pursuing your Eldest Brother. He looks like he’d be great at having kids.”
Jiang Wu still wasn’t quite used to how openly Western girls expressed themselves.
Slyvia had already prepared something. “You don’t really need to do anything.” She took out a rose with a card tucked inside. “Just give this to him for me.”
A very simple and straightforward confession.
For a moment, Jiang Wu was caught in an awkward position. Accepting it felt inappropriate. Refusing it also felt inappropriate. She couldn’t accept on Huo Qingzhi’s behalf, and she certainly couldn’t reject a warm, open Western girl who liked him on his behalf.
Two hours later, Jiang Wu returned to the hotel with the rose in hand, completely helpless. As usual, Huo Qingzhi was sitting in the living room reviewing reports. When he heard her come back, he only asked a couple of simple questions.
Jiang Wu lingered by the door for a while, then deliberately walked over as though it meant nothing and placed the rose on the table in front of him. Then she walked away, busying herself with the documents she’d brought from the embassy.
From the corner of his eye, Huo Qingzhi noticed what she had placed on the table. His gaze lingered on her back. “Who gave this to you?”
Jiang Wu pretended to be busy to hide the strange feeling inside her. “It’s for you.”
Huo Qingzhi paused. “From you?”
Jiang Wu didn’t know why he would think that. But hearing him ask made it feel even stranger. “It’s from Slyvia.”
Huo Qingzhi put down the report in his hand. Jiang Wu explained everything, recounting the day’s conversation. “She said today that she likes you and wants me to help her pursue you.”
The moment she said it, Jiang Wu felt as though ants were crawling all over her. The unease she had felt lately surged back, reminding her of what she and Huo Qingzhi really were.
“I-I-I didn’t mean to agree, but she didn’t actually ask me to do anything. She’s my friend. She just asked me to bring this to you.” Jiang Wu rubbed her fingertips together and stammered, “I thought… well, what if you like her?”
Huo Qingzhi said nothing. He stood and walked over, picking up the rose.
Jiang Wu watched as he pulled the card from the bouquet and glanced at it. It probably contained Slyvia’s confession and contact information. For a long time, there was no other sound in the living room. The silence finally made Jiang Wu speak to break it. She tried to put in a good word for her friend. “Actually… Slyvia is a very generous and warm person. The first time I came to Paris as a child, her family hosted me. She took very good care of me.”
Huo Qingzhi caught the implication in her tone. “You think I should accept her?”
“If you want to, sure. Why not?” Jiang Wu said considerately. “Our marriage is a cooperation anyway. If you really meet someone you like, then of course you’ll eventually be with her. And if I ever meet someone I like in the future, you’d agree too.”
After Huo Qingzhi sent a message, he heard those words and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his brow. “Ah Wu, come here.”
Jiang Wu walked toward him. “What is it?”
The moment she stopped in front of him, her wrist was suddenly caught. Jiang Wu froze and lowered her eyes. Huo Qingzhi’s strong, well-defined hand easily encircled her wrist. Before she could react, that hand exerted a slight force. Jiang Wu instantly lost her balance and fell over the armrest of the sofa. But it was a single-seat sofa. By the time Jiang Wu realized where she was sitting, it was already too late.
Goosebumps erupted all over her body. She instinctively tried to get off him, but another large hand closed around her waist. Her legs dangled across his thighs without touching the floor. She was wearing a short skirt, barely covering her, and even through his suit trousers, she could clearly feel the solid tension of the muscles in his thighs.
Every time Jiang Wu moved, the hand around her waist tightened a little more. The soft flesh of her thigh rubbed against him, and where they touched, he only grew firmer and harder.
“Bro…”
Huo Qingzhi drew her waist closer again, pulling her toward him. Whatever Jiang Wu was about to say caught in her throat at the suddenly shortened distance, along with his words, “I’m not your brother.”
As he spoke, Huo Qingzhi handed her his phone. Jiang Wu saw the message he had sent Slyvia.
[Sorry, I have someone I love.]
In French, the word for “lover” did not specifically mean husband and wife, but it clearly meant a romantic partner. Jiang Wu’s mind went blank for a moment when she saw those words.
Huo Qingzhi placed the phone in her hand. “Delete her contact information for me.”
Jiang Wu felt as though she were sitting on needles, with another hot potato now in her hands. “Delete it yourself.”
Huo Qingzhi didn’t take the phone back, nor did he let her get up. He simply looked at her.
Jiang Wu found it even stranger. “I’m not your… lover.”
“Then what are you?” Huo Qingzhi guided her along. “My younger sister?”
His voice slipped into her ears, and for a moment Jiang Wu couldn’t bear hearing the words younger sister. Yet he only pushed further. “So, this is how a younger sister sits on her brother’s lap?”
Jiang Wu flushed all over and hurriedly covered Huo Qingzhi’s mouth in embarrassment. “Don’t say that! You’re the one who won’t let me get down! I’ve never…” Jiang Wu briefly lost the ability to organize her words. Her rosy lips opened and closed, even the corners of her eyes turning red. “Let me down.”
Huo Qingzhi didn’t move, simply looking at her. When Jiang Wu let go of him, he still said the same thing. “Delete it.”
Jiang Wu was probably too agitated, her chest rising and falling sharply. “I’m not deleting it.”
Huo Qingzhi raised a brow and simply waited. Jiang Wu struggled on top of him, trying to get down, but his six-foot-three mixed-race build gave him too much of an advantage. Her feet couldn’t reach the floor, her waist was pinned, and her arm was held. The more she shifted and struggled, the more clearly she could feel the unshakable strength in the man beneath her. It only heightened every sensation where their bodies touched.
Jiang Wu had never been touched like this by one of her brothers. Never restrained. Never controlled. And this was Eldest Brother. The meticulous, refined Eldest Brother who valued rules above everything. The same Eldest Brother who wouldn’t even allow her to spend the night in his room. She had never imagined that one day she would be held down on his body and unable to get off.
Jiang Wu didn’t know what was happening. The overload of physical and emotional stimulation made her want to cry a little. She tried to pry away the hand restraining her. “Y-you can’t touch me like this.”
Huo Qingzhi was doing something harsher than he ever had before, yet his tone remained as gentle as the older brother he used to be. “Delete it.”
The tip of Jiang Wu’s nose had already turned red. Maybe because she wasn’t used to it, maybe because she felt guilty, or maybe because she had no way out, her fingers trembled slightly when she reached out. It took her several tries before she finally selected the message thread and deleted the contact information.
After deleting it, Jiang Wu spoke in a sticky, aggrieved tone, as though she had been bullied. “I deleted it. Let go.”
Huo Qingzhi kept his word and released her. Jiang Wu tossed his phone back at him and fled to her room, slamming the door. He sat where he was for a while, then placed the phone on the coffee table and stood. He walked to the bedroom door and tried to open it, only to find that Jiang Wu had locked it from inside.
Jiang Wu didn’t want to see him for the moment. She had locked the door and was just about to calm herself when she suddenly heard the sound of the lock being opened.
Jiang Wu looked around and saw only the bathroom beside her. She ran inside, but before she could shut the door, Huo Qingzhi stopped it with his hand.
Jiang Wu wanted to close it, but she was afraid of catching her brother’s hand, so she had no choice but to retreat as he forced his way in. Her eyes were red.
Looking at her now, Huo Qingzhi thought she resembled a little lamb with nowhere left to run. So thoroughly bullied that she couldn’t even speak. Or perhaps didn’t dare.
Huo Qingzhi didn’t think it was that serious. “I only had you sit on me for a while. When you were little, you always sat on your brother’s lap to watch TV.”
Jiang Wu cut him off. “Don’t say the word brother anymore.”
Huo Qingzhi’s expression remained dark and deep. “So, you finally realize I’m not your brother.”
Jiang Wu fell silent. It was like an airtight net had been waiting for her all along. And she had finally fallen into it.
Huo Qingzhi stepped toward her again, his tone more serious than gentle. “Then tell me what I am to you.” He emphasized it again. “I’m your husband. You can’t push your husband toward someone else. Just as I won’t allow my wife to leave me.”