Surrounded by Wolves
Jiang Wu’s heart trembled.
After he spoke, he gave her a light kiss on the cheek. Jiang Wu hardly dared to breathe. It was brief and gentle. But the way he held her still made her tense. For a moment, Jiang Wu had the mistaken feeling that he might ask for more. But he didn’t. That was all.
When he let her go, Jiang Wu was still somewhat dazed. Huo Qingzhi saw the surprise he had wanted in her eyes. His shadow moved closer again, covering her. Jiang Wu instinctively backed away beneath it. When she had nowhere left to retreat, he moved closer.
But at that exact moment, someone outside suddenly turned the door handle and said in confusion, “Who locked the door? Is Sister in there?”
Jiang Wu recognized the voice as their aunt’s younger daughter. She immediately came back to herself and answered instinctively, “I’m here.”
Without thinking much about it, she turned around and went to open the door. Their aunt’s daughter immediately began chattering, pulling Jiang Wu away to play board games. Halfway through, she finally noticed someone else inside. “Eldest Brother is here too. Then we’re going to play first.”
With that, she quickly pulled Jiang Wu away. Huo Qingzhi also came out of the lounge. Before he even raised his head, he heard footsteps nearby. Huo Yingli was leaning against the side, though no one knew how long he had been standing there.
“Eldest Brother, why were you locking the door?” He looked delighted to stir up trouble. “Why were you keeping our Ah Wu locked inside?”
Huo Qingzhi didn’t care about the accusation. “What are you worried about? She wasn’t calling for help. Come accuse me when she actually does.”
The corner of Huo Yingli’s mouth curled up. “What should we do then? What I want to do would probably make Ah Wu scream for help too.”
“Speaking of which,” he slowly stepped closer, “Eldest Brother, why are you always so wary of me? You know what I’m like.”
Huo Yingli tried to draw Huo Qingzhi to his side, saying, “Although I mind you keeping everything to yourself. But if we fight each other to the bitter end, it only makes things difficult for Ah Wu. I’ve always been willing for the three of us to love her together. You should be more honest with me.”
One deck below, Jiang Wu was sitting at the table playing games with everyone. They were all familiar friends, so everyone was relaxed. The loser had to take a punishment, either by drawing a slip or drinking.
Half an hour later, Jiang Wu looked at the punishment slip she had drawn and happily showed it to everyone. “Read the fourth post on your social media account out loud.”
Someone immediately started cheering, but Liang Xiaoyue stopped them. “You don’t understand. Her account is full of cultural-relic posts.” Liang Xiaoyue looked regretful. “That won’t punish her at all.”
Jiang Wu happily accepted the challenge and opened her social media app. “Maybe I’m just lucky today.” But once the post appeared, Jiang Wu stopped smiling. The recommendation algorithm seemed to have mistakenly decided that she loved pseudo-sibling romance stories. It had filled her feed with them… and had apparently labeled her as someone constantly searching for that kind of content.
For half a minute, everyone stared at Jiang Wu while Jiang Wu stared at the screen. Under everyone’s gaze, she was once again forced to encounter a very inappropriate romance post. Beside her, Huo Lingyi was also waiting for her to read it aloud. Jiang Wu put down her phone. “I’ll drink instead.”
The moment she said that, the table exploded.
“What happened?”
“No way!”
“What did you see? Hand it over.”
Jiang Wu held onto her phone tightly, afraid someone would take it, and reached for her glass. “I’ll drink.”
Amid everyone’s teasing and protests, the light beside her dimmed. Huo Lingyi pressed down on the glass in her hand and took it away. “All right. We’ll let her off this time. I’ll drink for her.” As he took the glass, his fingers brushed lightly against hers.
“You’re cheating. That doesn’t count.”
“If you drink for her, it has to be three glasses.”
Huo Lingyi accepted readily. He picked up the glass, catching Jiang Wu secretly looking relieved from the corner of his eye. Of course, he knew what kind of recommendations she would get after he coaxed her into searching those terms. Because he had searched them too. He knew exactly what she would see.
Just then, Huo Lingyi felt something lightly brush the back of his hand. He looked down and realized Jiang Wu had nudged his wrist beneath the table. Then she leaned closer and whispered, “Thank you, Brother.”
Huo Lingyi looked at her. There was something almost wickedly ironic about it. The little lamb being teased was thanking the wolf responsible. His hand tightened almost instinctively. Before Jiang Wu realized anything was wrong, he caught her wrist briefly and drew her a little closer, finding an excuse. “Help me get some hangover medicine.”
“Oh, okay.” Jiang Wu called for a server. The moment she moved away, Huo Lingyi’s palm was empty again.
Jiang Wu got some hangover medicine for herself too. Her alcohol tolerance really wasn’t good, and after only a few glasses of champagne, she was already starting to feel dizzy. Fortunately, her brother was there; that was what Jiang Wu thought.
No matter which brother sat beside her at the table, she always felt at ease. And Huo Lingyi really did help her drink quite a bit that night. After all, everyone was also going easy on her because it was her birthday. Jiang Wu had a wonderful time.
During a break in the festivities, the gifts arranged beside the birthday tree were sent to her room by the staff. Jiang Wu went along to open them. The two largest gift boxes were from Daddy and Mommy; she knew at a glance. She walked over and looked through them briefly. Then she unexpectedly came across a gray gift box. It was completely different from the others, just a plain box wrapped in fine gray glitter paper. There wasn’t even a ribbon.
Her friends probably all knew she liked pretty things, so this one looked so cold and plain that it stood out immediately. Jiang Wu picked it up and opened it first. Inside was a newly released pet companion robot. It was only palm-sized, but this time it was a chibi little figure with arms and legs. There was no name attached. But Jiang Wu knew who it was from.
She switched the robot on. A cute little voice came from it. “Hello, Master. I am the GOVLA Generation 3 Pet Companion Robot. Please set me according to your preferences.”
Two crescent-shaped eyes appeared on the screen that formed its face. Jiang Wu called out, “Wen Ciying?”
The little figure immediately displayed a shocked expression. “Oh, that is the name of God, the Creator. You must not address God directly.”
Jiang Wu laughed and carried it over to sit on the sofa. She adjusted it according to her preferences until it looked and behaved the way she liked. It really was much more capable than her own little robot that only knew how to roll around.
After finishing the setup, Jiang Wu connected it to her phone. But then a message suddenly popped up at the top of her screen.
[Professor Li: Happy birthday, Ah Wu.]
Jiang Wu froze when she saw it. Her heart immediately started pounding. She quickly opened the conversation and replied:
[Ah Wu: Thank you, Professor!!]
Li Qing had been one of the key mentors during Jiang Wu’s three years of secret training. She didn’t talk much and was gentle and quiet. She also wasn’t particularly close to people, so she often gave off a distant feeling. She was famously beautiful and aloof at the Institute of Cultural Heritage, with an air that seemed almost like one of the ancient paintings hanging in a museum.
Any student at the institute who received even a word of praise from her would be happy for a long time. Jiang Wu was especially delighted now. She muttered to herself, “Professor Li… It’s actually her. She really sent me birthday wishes.”
Jiang Wu thought perhaps the Snow Over the Northern Frontier incident had reminded her former teachers of her. After all, she still remembered that Professor Li had been listed first among the main writers behind the official post praising her a few days ago.
Jiang Wu immediately took a screenshot and posted it to a restricted Moments group for her former classmates. A reply soon appeared. It was from her former roommate.
[? Why do you get that? Look at you doing well now, Xiao Wu.]
Jiang Wu had caught someone. She immediately pulled her into a private chat.
~~
In another part of Hong Kong, Wen Ciying was used to keeping a low profile. She didn’t like crowds and wasn’t particularly used to people arranging celebrations specifically for her. In truth, eating with Huo Tingshan and Jiang Yaping was still inevitably awkward. To make things easier for everyone, she had simply eaten lunch with them and spent the rest of the day separately. That was better for everyone.
Knowing they wanted her to be happy was already enough for Wen Ciying. She had never been an especially lively child to begin with. Her room was filled with gift trees from the family and people outside, but she wasn’t particularly interested in opening them.
At dinnertime, the bell sounded at the door as the housekeeper brought her meal. Wen Ciying was on the phone with her mother in Beijing. The housekeeper quietly left the food and slipped away.
Wen Ciying walked over while asking, “When will Dad’s assignment end?”
“I don’t know, but it should be soon,” her mother said simply. “It depends on their unit’s arrangements. He’ll retire after this assignment. Are you adjusting well over there?”
“I studied here for six years. There’s nothing I can’t adjust to.” Wen Ciying asked, “What about you?”
“I still go to the university every day. There’s some work I need to follow up on recently.”
Wen Ciying pulled the cart closer. Only then did she notice a gift box sitting on top. It was beautifully wrapped with a pretty ribbon. But she didn’t remember ordering anything like that from the kitchen.
Wen Ciying opened the wrapping. When the box opened, she stared at what was inside. At that exact moment, her mother hesitantly asked over the phone, “So… how is Ah Wu?”
Wen Ciying didn’t answer immediately. A line of golden lettering came into view.
Happy Birthday
Signed, Ah-Wu.
It was a caviar cake from Berko. For a moment, Wen Ciying remembered a few months ago, when she and Jiang Wu had been sitting in a café inside a Central shopping mall. Her clumsy excuse for changing the subject had been to put a booklet in front of her and ask her to choose a cake.
Wen Ciying had chosen the caviar one. So back then, Jiang Wu had actually been choosing her birthday cake. Only now did Wen Ciying realize it. A quiet laugh escaped her.
On the other end of the call, her mother called uncertainly, “Yingying? Can you hear me?”
“I can.” Wen Ciying picked up the card and answered her mother’s earlier question.
“She’s doing very well.”
“You’ll like her.”
After a long silence, her mother answered softly, “I know.”
I know I’ll like her.
~~
After Elder Su arrived in Hong Kong from Hai City, Jiang Wu accompanied him throughout the process. The old man checked the information on each painting and calligraphy piece one by one. Once everything was confirmed, the relevant department took the works away for unified registration, allocation, and preservation.
Jiang Wu showed him around the Hong Kong Museum, introducing the origins and basic information of the cultural relics. The museum housed a Qing-dynasty bronze seal carved with a xiezhi. Elder Su was very interested and took several photos, narrowing his eyes as he enlarged them.
“Ancient texts describe the xiezhi as a divine ram capable of distinguishing right from wrong, resembling both deer and qilin. It represents justice. But this one is only a Qing-dynasty bronze seal. There’s also an Eastern Han xiezhi judgment seal overseas, with a jade beast body and ruby-carved eyes. It was an official state object.”
“Yes.” Elder Su nodded. “I saw that one in Britain. It was astonishing. But I heard it has been damaged and wasn’t displayed again last year.” He sighed. “What a pity. If there were some way to bring it back like Snow Over the Northern Frontier, would you be able to restore it?”
Jiang Wu pressed her lips together. “In theory, yes. But bringing it back would require ancient texts proving ownership of the relic, supporting evidence and image restoration, and an international court case.”
Elder Su turned toward Jiang Wu with a smile. “So, if you want to restore it, you first need to restore other ancient texts?”
Jiang Wu nodded. “Yes.”
Elder Su laughed and shook his head. “There’s a lot to your profession too. “I actually have several old books myself. They’ve been passed down through the family, but they’ve been stored for so long that we can hardly touch them anymore. Some pages crumble if you touch them.”
Elder Su said helplessly, “Our family has always debated whether we should donate them to a museum for preservation. That would be better than letting them rot in our hands. But we’re also afraid they might not be anything important, and if we can’t find good restoration techniques, we might as well keep them ourselves.”
He looked at her. “Do you have any ideas?”
Jiang Wu couldn’t say yet whether she did. “Why don’t I go take a look for you?”
Elder Su laughed. “If it isn’t too much trouble.”
“It’s no trouble.” Jiang Wu filed a business-trip request with the museum.
She made a trip to Hai City and returned with two pieces of calligraphy and painting, along with one severely damaged ancient book. The things she brought back caused quite a stir inside the museum.
The Su family was renowned for collecting calligraphy and paintings. Most of their old books dated to the Ming dynasty or earlier, recording the culture, etiquette, art, or medicine of those eras. The paintings and calligraphy went without saying.
A young woman who had joined the museum at the same time as Jiang Wu followed behind her, asking repeatedly, “How did you convince Elder Su to give these to you?”
“I didn’t convince him.” Jiang Wu answered honestly. “I told him I could restore them.”
The young woman looked shocked. “That’s enough?”
Jiang Wu gestured toward the things in her hands. “Why wouldn’t it be? If they aren’t restored, none of them will survive.”
Jiang Wu had just put everything away and was about to leave when the director of the restoration department came in. She had a basic understanding of the staff structure here. The restoration director was a woman in her thirties named Shan Lan. She was usually very strict.
So, the moment she entered, everyone in the room quieted down. Shan Lan briefly examined the things Jiang Wu had brought back.
Jiang Wu remembered to explain, “I told Mr. Su we’d first use the museum’s public restoration-service channel. These weren’t directly donated to the museum.”
Shan Lan didn’t beat around the bush. “Whether he donates them to the museum doesn’t matter.” Immediate gain wasn’t the most important thing to the museum. What they had always valued was lasting reputation and long-term value. And value didn’t necessarily mean money alone. Just like cultural relics.
“What matters is that you don’t get happy too early. Mr. Su was willing to give you these things for two reasons. One, their value isn’t especially high. Two, they’re already damaged badly enough that they have to be restored. He’s testing you. If you can’t do it, tell the museum as soon as possible. Otherwise, if you damage them further, you may be liable for compensation.”
After saying that, Shan Lan took the cultural-relic information forms and went to report to the museum. The young woman beside Jiang Wu frowned and muttered quietly, “Did she really have to pour cold water on you like that?”
“It’s fine.” Jiang Wu didn’t particularly care what Shan Lan said. After all, she was telling the truth.
Jiang Wu was practically radiating excitement after being away from her old specialty for so long and suddenly getting a chance to work on it again. She put the items down and went with her colleague to the conference room for the briefing. Besides them, there were two veteran employees in the restoration room who had also helped authenticate Snow Over the Northern Frontier last time.
Once Jiang Wu left, the two finally spoke. “She’s still young. Mr. Su gives her a few things, and she gets that excited. Even added together, these pieces aren’t worth a fraction of Snow Over the Northern Frontier, yet she treats them like treasures. And ancient-book restoration is already one of the hardest kinds of restoration. These pieces are damaged this badly, and she just graduated, yet she dares to take on the job.”
“It’s fine. Once she ruins something, she’ll understand this work isn’t so easy.”
After the meeting, Jiang Wu had just returned from her business trip and was allowed to leave work early. She certainly didn’t refuse. She leisurely made her way back to Kowloon Tong. First, she secretly checked the courtyard for Huo Qingzhi’s car. After confirming it wasn’t there, she entered the house much more confidently.
Jiang Wu had been away for several days. The moment she opened the door, Bingbing came racing down from the second floor with its tail upright, meowing all the way. It rubbed against her legs and purred loudly.
Without realizing it, Jiang Wu’s voice immediately went high and sweet as she picked it up. “Bb! Did you miss me?”
Several housekeepers heard her and came out to take her suitcase. One asked what she wanted for dinner.
Jiang Wu answered simply, “I already ate.”
Then she carried Bingbing upstairs. Halfway up, she suddenly remembered something and turned around. But she couldn’t bring herself to call Huo Qingzhi anything unusual in front of other people.
After stumbling over her words for a while, she finally asked, “Um… is he coming back for dinner?”
The housekeepers all paused. They quickly understood who she meant.
“Sir has a business engagement tonight. He hasn’t said whether he’ll be coming back. Why don’t we tell him…”
“No need!” Jiang Wu said considerately. “Let him focus on work. You don’t need to tell him I’m back from my trip.”
The housekeepers nodded. “All right.”
Jiang Wu went upstairs in an excellent mood.
Downstairs, the women exchanged looks. They all saw the same interest in one another’s eyes.
“Madam still gets shy when she mentions Sir.”
“They’re newlyweds.”
Huo Qingzhi didn’t know Jiang Wu had returned from her trip. She hadn’t told him.
Jiang Wu thought that if he didn’t come back tonight, she could finally sleep comfortably by herself. After all, lately every time she opened her social media app, it recommended questionable romance posts. Sleeping beside Huo Qingzhi sometimes made those inappropriate scenes pop into her head again.
After playing with Bingbing for a while, Jiang Wu received a message from Huo Qingzhi.
[HQZ: Coming home tonight?]
Jiang Wu answered seriously,
[Ah Wu: Probably not until tomorrow. Very unfortunate.jpg]
Huo Qingzhi was silent for a moment.
[HQZ: All right. Rest early.]
Jiang Wu put down her phone. She figured Huo Qingzhi probably wouldn’t come back tonight. She stretched comfortably, put Bingbing down, and went to shower and rest.
Jiang Wu went into the bathroom and started running the bath. While the water filled, she changed out of the clothes she had worn on her business trip. Steam gradually filled the bathroom and fogged the mirror.
Tired after several days away, Jiang Wu sank into the bathtub and immediately felt her body begin to relax. The tension in her nerves eased along with it. She tied her hair into a neat bun, leaned back against the tub, and closed her eyes. Before she knew it, she fell asleep.
By the time evening deepened and night fell, a car drove into the courtyard and came to a steady stop. Huo Qingzhi got out. The gold-rimmed glasses he wore for work were still resting on the bridge of his nose.
“Finish the evaluation for that project and bring it to Friday’s meeting,” he told his assistant.
“Yes.”
Huo Qingzhi entered the house. A housekeeper waiting by the entrance saw him and was about to say something when his phone suddenly rang. It was a business call. They had no choice but to remain silent.
Huo Qingzhi answered, speaking in slightly broken French as he went directly upstairs.
Jiang Wu vaguely heard a man’s voice in a daze. She opened her eyes. The bathwater had already begun to cool, and most of the bubbles had dispersed.
Jiang Wu propped herself up slowly. Before she could process anything else, the bathroom door suddenly opened without warning.
~~
Author’s Note:
Ahhh, sorry, babies. I didn’t expect everyone to be looking forward to the kiss this much.
Since it was Ah Wu’s birthday, Eldest Brother believes the gift he gives her should outweigh anything he asks from her. He wants to make her happy first while gradually breaking through her psychological defenses.
A kiss on the cheek still counts as a kiss, right? (Trying to argue my case.) But other kisses aren’t far off.