Surrounded by Wolves
It wasn’t dark yet when Jiang Wu went to take a bath, so she hadn’t turned on the light. But by now, the room was completely dark. Huo Qingzhi walked in while speaking on the phone and switched on the bathroom light. In an instant, the room became brightly lit.
Jiang Wu jumped in fright and instinctively curled inward, squinting against the sudden brightness. She hurried to cover herself, sending water splashing around the tub.
Huo Qingzhi’s voice on the phone abruptly stopped. Jiang Wu stared in horror at the man who had suddenly barged in, instantly losing all ability to react. She felt a chill run down her spine from the cool breeze he brought in, and a slight shiver ran through her body.
His business partner’s voice came through the phone in French. Huo Qingzhi stopped at the doorway. His dark and unreadable gaze lingered for only two seconds before he looked away and stepped back out. The bathroom door clicked shut.
Only then did Jiang Wu seem to come back to herself, taking a deep breath. She lowered her eyes toward the bathwater. Most of the bubbles had already dissolved, leaving only scattered patches. They hadn’t covered her completely.
Jiang Wu had no idea whether Eldest Brother had seen anything, or how much. She couldn’t stay in the bath anymore. After listening for a while and hearing little movement outside, she confirmed he probably wouldn’t come back in anytime soon and climbed out of the tub. Water splashed softly.
Standing outside the door, still gripping the doorknob, Huo Qingzhi’s eyebrows twitched slightly as he pulled himself out of his thoughts. Only then did his expression shift slightly as he pulled himself out of his thoughts.
He walked several steps away, all the way to the bedroom balcony, before answering the question on the phone.
“Sorry. It’s nothing serious, Mr. Huo. What happened just now?”
Standing on the balcony, Huo Qingzhi looked out over Hong Kong as the city lights gradually came alive. In a low voice, he said, “Tout va bien. Rencontré mon amour.” (“Everything’s fine. I ran into my love.”)
His business partner sounded surprised. “I’m very sorry for disturbing you during your private time. I hope I didn’t interrupt you and your loved one.”
At Huo Qingzhi’s age, having a romantic life was perfectly normal. Huo Qingzhi continued, “Elle m’a menti de ne pas revenir ce soir et m’a fait une autre surprise.” (“She lied and told me she wouldn’t be coming back tonight, then gave me another surprise.”)
His business partner laughed. “Then she must be a very lovely girl.”
Huo Qingzhi’s mind was still filled with the image of Jiang Wu being frightened when he accidentally barged in. Her body tensed up, stirring up the pool of foam and getting it all over her body, making her collarbone lines even more defined. She seemed to be trying to hide herself, but he could still vaguely see her shapely legs and slender waist hidden beneath the foam surface…
After a long silence on the balcony, came the man’s eerie praise, which he was suppressing as he spoke, even though everyone was terrified. “She is lovely.”
Their conversation ended with the other man wishing Huo Qingzhi and his partner “a wonderful evening.” Huo Qingzhi hung up. He could hear Jiang Wu moving around hesitantly inside the bathroom.
Because Jiang Wu had thought he wouldn’t come home, she hadn’t brought a change of clothes with her. She stood near the bathroom door wrapped only in a towel, not daring to simply walk out. She hesitated for a long time, unsure of what to call him.
Now every form of address between them seemed strangely ambiguous. In the end, she settled on an even stranger term, saying, “That…”
Huo Qingzhi turned around. Through the narrow gap in the bathroom door, Jiang Wu asked, “Can you get my pajamas for me?”
Huo Qingzhi immediately walked over to the wardrobe. Among Jiang Wu’s entire row of thin-strapped nightdresses, he deliberately chose a long one with a neckline and sleeves. Jiang Wu stood inside, listening to the sounds outside.
Huo Qingzhi’s footsteps drew closer until he stopped at the door and knocked twice. Even though she had been expecting it, Jiang Wu’s heart still tightened at the sound. She opened the door just a little.
Huo Qingzhi passed the clothes through the gap. He behaved properly, standing behind the door without doing anything else. Jiang Wu took the clothes. After hesitating, she suspiciously closed the door again… and locked it.
Huo Qingzhi, who had just been about to leave, immediately caught the faint sound of the lock. He stopped and glanced back at the bathroom door again.
Jiang Wu moved away from the doorway, about to unfold her clothes and change. Then her palm touched a small, soft item tucked inside.
Jiang Wu knew what it was. She took it out, her lips pressing into a straight line. The tiny piece of lace had been neatly folded and hidden inside the clothes, as though he had deliberately tried to spare her embarrassment.
Brother had always been very thoughtful. But that’s precisely why it’s even more unimaginable what happened the moment he held this thing in his palm. Folded up to the size of a palm, small enough for him to hold in one hand. The more thoughtful he was, the more embarrassed she felt.
Jiang Wu took a deep breath, pushing the thoughts away. It was not the first time he had washed her undergarments. He had packed her luggage from Paris too. Huo Qingzhi, at the time, must have been answering her act of avoidance.
By the time Jiang Wu got home again, she found all the undergarments she had taken to Paris washed. He had hand-washed every piece and folded them into the drawers without a flaw out of place. A very contradictory impression. He did reckless things that crossed every line, and yet remained as meticulous and disciplined as ever.
In the end, Jiang Wu gave up struggling. If he had touched one piece, she might have found a way not to wear the ones he had touched, but he had touched every one of her undergarments. She just couldn’t wear any of them. If her brother loved housework this much, then let him have his way. She changed her clothes and came out of the bathroom.
Huo Qingzhi was grooming Bingbing, then carried him out and set him back in his own little cat villa to stay there. Bingbing’s bed had long since been moved over there too.
Huo Qingzhi wouldn’t let him sleep with them. Bingbing had come and scratched at the door a few times before. The meows were hoarse and desperate. Huo Qingzhi remained unmoved and wouldn’t let her open the door either.
Jiang Wu thought to herself, “He really is a strict, ruthless daddy”. With no furry child in the room, Jiang Wu found herself alone with the furry child’s father, her mind drifting back now and then to what had just happened.
The room was extremely quiet. Jiang Wu sat on the edge of the bed and watched Huo Qingzhi come back from the cat’s room next door. When their eyes met, she looked away without meaning to. “They said you’ve been busy lately. I thought you’d be staying at the office.”
Jiang Wu found, somewhere in her head, the perfect excuse. “I was afraid of getting in the way of your work; that’s why I said I’d come back tomorrow.”
Huo Qingzhi listened to her explanation and closed their bedroom door.
Jiang Wu glanced once more at the way he shut it. “I’m so considerate… you, you can’t be angry at me.” As she spoke, she curled herself into the blanket, leaned against the headboard, and hugged a pillow to herself.
A very defensive posture. Huo Qingzhi took off the gold-rimmed glasses from the bridge of his nose. “So, you do know that lying makes me angry?”
Jiang Wu pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
Huo Qingzhi sat on the sofa not far from the bed, his long legs stretched out to one side, showing off the fine proportions of his frame. He simply studied her reaction like this, and then gave his verdict. “Your expression when you’ve done something wrong is the same as when you were little. Just not as good at admitting mistakes as you used to be.”
In the past, whenever she’d made him angry or seen his cold expression, she would sit there obediently just like this. Secretly watching for his reaction. The moment things calmed down a little, she would crawl over, sit on him, and say in a clingy, affectionate tone, “Sorry, Brother. Don’t be angry anymore. Wenni knows wrong. I promise I’ll never do it again. If I do, Brother can hit me.”
Huo Qingzhi would never hit her, which was why she dared to say that. She made herself sound so pitifully that Huo Qingzhi couldn’t be angry with her anymore. But he knew Jiang Wu all too well. She always acts like this: even if she knows she is wrong, she will still do it next time.
Jiang Wu knew exactly what she had been like as a child. So, when Huo Qingzhi said, in a low voice, “Come here,” she understood at once what he meant.
“What do you want?” she refused, steeling herself. “I’m not coming over.” Jiang Wu could no longer sit in his lap and act coquettishly and shamelessly like before. There was a difference between doing that as husband and wife, and doing it as brother and sister.
“I told a small lie by accident. But you came back and barged into my bathroom too, without so much as a word of warning.” Her voice grew smaller the more she spoke. “You’re at fault too.”
Huo Qingzhi sat on the sofa, listening to her. “This bothers you that much?”
“It bothers me.”
Huo Qingzhi’s eyelids lowered slightly. He sat there quietly, thinking of something unknown. The room fell silent for a moment. Then he rose from the sofa. “Fine.”
Jiang Wu watched him walk past her, thinking she had finally managed to shut him up. His return today was too sudden.
Usually, Huo Qingzhi could stay at the office for half a month at a stretch, and rarely came back to Cloud Peak Bay in particular. Whenever she was home, he seemed to avoid her, coming back even less than usual.
Jiang Wu had never imagined that once married, he would come home every single day. The sense of him as a husband ran that deep.
Huo Qingzhi put away the laptop he had left outside, finished the day’s work, and took a change of clothes to go wash up.
Jiang Wu thought the matter had passed, leaned back against the headboard with the pillow in her arms, and began fiddling with her iPad.
About half an hour later, just as Jiang Wu was nearly forgetting the whole incident from earlier that evening, the bathroom door opened.
She did not even lift her head. It was only once Huo Qingzhi had walked over to her side that Jiang Wu realized something was wrong. She was a little confused and looked up at the man standing beside her.
Droplets of water still clung to the hair at Huo Qingzhi’s brow. He simply looked at her like that. He reached out and pulled the pillow away from in front of her. With nothing left in front of her, the iPad too was taken by Huo Qingzhi and tossed aside without ceremony.
Then he climbed onto the bed, and his tall shadow fell over her at once. Jiang Wu began to panic. “Wait.” She shifted, trying to get off the other side of the bed. She’d made it halfway when he caught her wrist and pulled her straight back!
Jiang Wu fell back among the pillows, her wrist still caught in his grip, pinned by her ear. Her hand was a size smaller than his, her fist entirely enclosed, unable to move at all.
Huo Qingzhi held her down with one hand like this, and with the other began undoing the sash of his robe. The oppressive force that always hung about him bore straight down on her.
Jiang Wu’s shoulders tightened, and her still-half-free hand, scrambling in panic, landed against the man’s shoulder. It happened to land right on the skin of his shoulder and arm, just bared by the robe he had shed.
The scorching heat of it made Jiang Wu want to pull her hand away, and yet she had no choice but to press against his shoulder to hold him from pressing further down. She scrambled in panic to try to wake his conscience. “What are you doing? No, don’t!”
Huo Qingzhi simply looked at her like this as he undid the robe.
Without thinking, Jiang Wu bit down hard on the forearm that held her wrist captive. In the next instant, her jaw was seized, and she was pinned down to the bed. That silenced her at once, like a lamb with its lifeline caught in a wolf’s grip,
Jiang Wu could even feel herself trembling slightly in his palm. She looked up, frightened and unsettled, at the man looming over her.
Jiang Wu ran through every possible thing that might happen next in her head. Not daring to move at all, she called him, almost by instinct, by the name that felt safest. “Brother…”
Little did she know that form of address, in this situation… Only added to the sense of taboo.
Huo Qingzhi seemed rather pleased by her reaction, and a faint trace of tenderness surfaced in his eyes.
“What are you afraid of?” He leaned down. “Surely you don’t mind that I saw you, do you?“
Jiang Wu’s chest heaved violently. It took her a long moment to grasp what he meant.
Then Huo Qingzhi’s fathomless gaze held her fast in place, and he said, low and heavy, “Don’t hide. Look at me.” Only if each of them looked would it be fair.
Jiang Wu hardly dared look. She didn’t know where to put her eyes.
Though he still wore his underwear, the heat still rising off him from his bath scorched her all the same, and what filled her sight was a lean, powerful frame, the fine proportions of his mixed Western heritage.
He asked, “Still bothered?”
Jiang Wu sniffed, her voice trembling. “Not bothered anymore.”
Huo Qingzhi suddenly chuckled softly, his expression unreadable. But the hand holding her jaw still didn’t let go.
Jiang Wu struggled faintly, signaling for him to release her. “I’m sleepy. I want to sleep.”
Huo Qingzhi only shifted, very slightly, the fingers pressing her jaw, the calloused pad of his thumb brushing over the corner of her mouth, pressing against her lips.
Jiang Wu’s lashes trembled as she tried to turn away, and she could feel his weight coming down further. His movements were the same as last time, forceful, unyielding, the pressure of his fingers on her lips not light either.
Huo Qingzhi’s thin lips brushed her cheek, and his voice, low and hoarse, soothed her. “Good night.”
Jiang Wu’s ears went numb. Long after he had let go, she still had not come back to herself. The night-light around them was switched off too, and darkness filled her sight. She lay still in bed, her breathing faintly unsteady.
She truly did look as though she had just been thoroughly bullied and ravaged, her eyes unfocused, unable to gather her wits for a long while.
While he was getting dressed, Jiang Wu took quite a while to muster enough of a reaction to sit up and look, in the dark, at the man changing into his sleepwear, getting ready to sleep.
Even though it looked, on the surface, as if he had been the one taking advantage of her, Jiang Wu still understood, all the same, that she had been the one bullied.
Huo Qingzhi stood with his back to her by the bed, having just pulled his shirt on. Suddenly he felt resistance, a pair of hands pressing down on his collar, still half-raised. Pearl-white teeth sank hard into his shoulder!
A sharp stab of pain shot from his shoulder, and Huo Qingzhi drew a hissing breath. But he didn’t stop her. He let her bite.
Even after biting him, Jiang Wu still wasn’t satisfied, and muttered under her breath, “There, I’ve seen it now, nothing special anyway.”
Having said her piece, she meant to throw him off and go back to bed, but the moment she turned, that powerful arm hooked her straight back.
Huo Qingzhi’s large hand closed around the back of her neck, looking down at her from above. For some reason, Jiang Wu felt this gesture looked exactly like the way he handled Bingbing.
And he was in an absolute, effortless position of control, leaning in close in the darkness to warn her softly, “Don’t provoke me.”
His tone was still gentle. Warning her. But it also sounded like he was coaxing her.
Jiang Wu did not feel any intimidation from him. She pushed his hand away, ignored him, and went to sleep on her own.
That provoked him; she would dare to do it again next time. Jiang Wu thought so.
But in fact, there was a certain kind of person. Who, before revealing the worst of themselves, would issue their final warning in the gentlest, most affectionate manner.
Huo Qingzhi was that kind of person.
~~
New hires never had much work on their hands.
Shan Lan assigned Bu Yu, who’d started alongside Jiang Wu, to work with her, restoring paintings and calligraphy brought over from Old Master Su.
The paintings and calligraphy were manageable enough, but the ancient text presented far greater difficulty.
Bu Yu didn’t dare touch the ancient text, so Jiang Wu took on the badly mildewed volume first, examining the extent of the damage and which sections would need restoration.
Determining the condition of the paper, its acidity, and its flexibility.
For restoring paintings, calligraphy, and ancient texts, the choice of paper was crucial — it had to match the fiber quality of the original as closely as possible, ideally old paper, with the colour, thickness, and so on all similar.
Once Bu Yu had finished her inspection notes, she began to worry. “I’m afraid paper for restoring this painting won’t be easy to find.”
Hearing this, Jiang Wu glanced over at her. “What era’s paper?”
“Ming dynasty, Yongle reign.”
Jiang Wu asked, “White mulberry paper?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Wu told her, “Send me the paper specifications you need. I’ll get in touch with someone.”
Bu Yu wanted to ask who, but couldn’t quite bring herself to. Jiang Wu looked over the specifications for a moment, put together the material requirements for her own ancient text alongside them, and sent off a few messages. “Should arrive in a couple of days.”
Bu Yu listened, thoroughly taken aback, and still couldn’t help asking, “Who did you get the material from?”
“A schoolmate of mine.” Jiang Wu kept her head lowered, her long hair pinned up without a strand out of place, a specialized tool in hand as she cleared dust from the ancient pages. “They’ve stocked some old paper similar to white mulberry and other restoration materials for Ming dynasty paintings. The Beijing Library has also been working on new restoration materials, and they’ve been making good progress.”
No matter how lively she usually was, at moments like this she carried a certain distance, an untouchable air, almost aloof.
Although Bu Yu wanted to ask more, she still couldn’t bring herself to. Restoration materials were always precious and scarce. Outside of major national restoration institutions, it was hard to say who else would have any to spare. And those specialized research institutions Jiang Wu mentioned weren’t easy to get materials from; often, even money couldn’t buy them.
Bu Yu could only sigh quietly, “A schoolmate, huh. Your schoolmates are really impressive.” Why didn’t she have schoolmates like that?
Jiang Wu went on clearing dust from the ancient pages, eyes lowered, and gave the praise freely. “They’re all very impressive people.”
The sort who’d entered a gifted youth program in their early teens, finished their undergraduate studies by twenty, been selected into a reserve work group, and then underwent years of specialized training as an elite.
Bu Yu chatted idly during breaks. “So, where do they work now?”
Jiang Wu only smiled and said nothing.
She cleared the dust, mites, and mildew patches from the pages of the ancient text, then began lifting the pages apart. Depending on the paper’s condition and how badly the pages had stuck together, she chose different techniques — dry separation, moisture separation, and so on.
Every step of the process took a long stretch of time. But Jiang Wu’s movements were quick and precise. Bu Yu kept thinking she looked like someone who did this kind of restoration work all the time. New hires were rarely this deft, unless they’d been carefully trained.
While waiting for the pages to dry, Jiang Wu joined in on the painting restoration work Bu Yu had on hand. The paper had, conveniently, just arrived in Hong Kong. With the two of them working together, progress would go faster.
The museum had designated this project as the assessment for their probationary period.
During this, Elder Su called to check on their progress and let them know that once the restoration work was finished, he was considering putting the painting up for auction. Jiang Wu more or less understood.
The museum wasn’t the only one looking at this matter that way. Elder Su was thinking the same thing. Before a painting could be put up for auction, there was a strict process for issuing authentication and restoration reports. The process required a detailed assessment of the painting’s condition both before and after restoration.
After that, the work would be graded and submitted for auction. Once it passed the entire series of pre-auction inspections, that would serve as proof of their restoration skills. The auction result, in turn, would demonstrate the quality of their restoration work and its commercial value. Only after taking all of that into consideration would Elder Su decide whether Jiang Wu was a professional and trustworthy partner worth working with.
As a highly respected senior figure in the collecting world, a single word from Elder Su carried tremendous weight. Shan Lan’s words might have been a little harsh. But she really had seen through all of this from the very beginning.
So, when the authentication results came back satisfactory, Jiang Wu wasn’t surprised. But when the painting was formally submitted, and the bidding was about to begin, she became nervous because the auction house had listed Jiang Wu’s name as the restorer. They had probably done it to attract outside attention. If they hadn’t listed her name, it would have been fine, but now that they had, there were inevitably more people coming just to watch the spectacle.
Jiang Wu was afraid that simply because she had restored the painting, all the gossip surrounding her would overshadow its professional merit. People might think the whole thing was some game she was playing, and no one would want to bid.
So, she secretly brought Liang Xiaoyue along. “If absolutely no one bids on it, help me out.”
Liang Xiaoyue walked beside Jiang Wu through the auction preview, adjusting her sunglasses as she surveyed the room.
“No problem. How much do you think would be appropriate?”
Jiang Wu estimated the painting’s normal market value. “It’s a work by a lesser-known Ming-dynasty artist, so somewhere in the million range. Anything around there is fine. If you bid, keep it around 1.5 million. And as long as you don’t mention that I’m the restorer, I guarantee its collectible value will double in the future.”
Liang Xiaoyue clicked her tongue. “You’re probably the only person who doesn’t want her name mentioned.”
“Sis, look at the people who came today. How many of them look like they’re actually here to buy art?”
Auction previews allowed prospective buyers to examine the lots up close, and quite a crowd had already gathered in front of the painting, including the media. When people came for the spectacle, they tended to overlook the artifact itself and the value it genuinely possessed.
Jiang Wu was getting annoyed. She and Liang Xiaoyue had just turned to leave the crowded area when someone stepped directly into their path.
“Long time no see.”
The man looked familiar, but Jiang Wu couldn’t remember who he was. Liang Xiaoyue, however, recognized him and greeted him on Jiang Wu’s behalf. “Long time no see.”
Zheng Senze smiled. “President Liang is certainly a busy woman. I’ve tried to schedule a meeting with you several times and never managed to pin you down. Yet somehow I run into you here today.”
Liang Xiaoyue’s eyes curved into a smile as she maintained her polished business demeanor. “That’s why they call it coincidence. You’ve only just taken over Zhengda from your father. You should be pretty busy yourself, yet here you are too.”
Jiang Wu remembered now.
Zheng Senze was Zheng Huayi’s older brother and was on fairly good terms with Huo Chengxi. He had also been at the party Huo Chengxi had organized for Jiang Wu’s birthday.
After exchanging a few words with Liang Xiaoyue, Zheng Senze quickly changed the subject. “Since we’re both off the clock, let’s not talk business.” As he spoke, his gaze settled on Jiang Wu with unmistakable interest. “I heard Miss Jiang was the restorer who restored the painting being auctioned today?”
Jiang Wu hadn’t expected him to suddenly bring her into the conversation. She was already uncomfortable with people emphasizing that she was the painting’s restorer. “Who restored it isn’t important. What matters is the artifact itself. Restoration merely returns an artifact to its inherent value.”
Zheng Senze nodded. “Miss Jiang certainly has professional integrity. I just didn’t expect you to know how to do this sort of thing. No wonder you’ve got a bit of pride to you when you handle things worth millions, tens of millions, even hundreds of millions every day.”
Liang Xiaoyue cut him off. “Didn’t you just say we weren’t going to talk about work?”
“Fine. Let’s talk about something else.” Zheng Senze switched topics without missing a beat. “Does Miss Jiang have a boyfriend?”
Jiang Wu could sense something dangerous and playful in the man’s manner. She tactfully shut down his intentions. “Yes.”
Zheng Senze had already asked Huo Chengxi about her beforehand. He knew that this former little princess of the Huo family had impossibly high standards and had never actually dated anyone. “Do you really? Or is that just an excuse because Miss Jiang doesn’t think I’m good enough for her?”
It wasn’t only Jiang Wu who no longer wanted to stay; even Liang Xiaoyue took her by the arm and started to lead her away.
Zheng Senze called after her. “If you really do have a boyfriend, then surely this gentleman would show up to support his girlfriend on such an important occasion.” He walked up behind Jiang Wu. “If he doesn’t, I can support Miss Jiang instead. Then Miss Jiang can think about how she intends to thank me.”