Surrounded by Wolves
After her resistance finally came to an end, Jiang Wu climbed into bed. Wen Ciying returned after washing up and stood beside the bed, looking at her.
There was no need to ask how Jiang Wu’s negotiations had gone. One look at her expression made it obvious that she probably hadn’t even gotten to see the little one.
Wen Ciying lifted the covers and sat down.
Jiang Wu leaned against her, then suddenly said, “You were right.”
“About which part?” Wen Ciying quickly answered her own question and settled beside Jiang Wu. “Although, to be fair, everything I said was pretty much right.”
Jiang Wu smiled silently and slipped beneath the covers.
Then Wen Ciying calmly dropped another bombshell, calm as anything. “So now, you’re living with Huo Qingzhi in Kowloon Tong?”
Jiang Wu instantly stopped smiling and stared at her without moving. She didn’t even bother asking how Wen Ciying knew and simply sat up. “You’re not allowed to tell anyone.”
A smile spread across Wen Ciying’s face. “That depends on my mood.”
The last time Wen Ciying had been to Kowloon Tong, she had already sensed that something was off. Add to that fact that Huo Qingzhi’s cat was staying in Jiang Wu’s house, and someone had even turned off the security cameras. It didn’t take much thought to figure out that Huo Qingzhi was there too.
Jiang Wu took hold of her arm and moved a little closer. “You’re not going to tell anyone, right?”
Knowing Wen Ciying wasn’t one to run her mouth, Jiang Wu hooked an arm through hers. “You definitely won’t tell.”
Wen Ciying lay down beside her. “So, you two are…?”
“Married.” After saying that, Jiang Wu added, “Actually, we got married a long time ago.”
Since Wen Ciying already knew so much, there was no point in hiding this one last thing. Jiang Wu told her the whole story of how she and Huo Qingzhi had ended up together.
Wen Ciying didn’t look particularly surprised and gave a soft little “tsk.” “I warned you to be careful, but you still couldn’t avoid it.”
“When you warned me, everything had already been settled.”
“Then I guess I found out a bit late myself.” Wen Ciying suddenly remembered something and turned to Jiang Wu. “Then let me warn you about something else. Your other two brothers…”
Jiang Wu’s expression froze for a moment. “Huh?”
“I don’t have any solid evidence. It’s just a feeling.”
Jiang Wu was quiet for a while. “Then I’ll keep my distance from them from now on.”
“But they wouldn’t be like him, would they?”
The things written in that diary… One person alone had already been shocking enough. Her Second and Third Brothers did sometimes behave a little differently around her.
But they shouldn’t be as disturbing as what had been written in that diary, secretly harboring feelings they would never openly admit.
Wen Ciying didn’t think Jiang Wu needed to worry too much. “Besides, you’re married now. What could they possibly do?”
“Talk you into an affair?”
“Ahhh, stop, stop!” Jiang Wu pulled the covers over Wen Ciying’s head. “I’ll keep a completely proper brother-sister relationship with them. Just like you and me.”
Wen Ciying suddenly shifted closer to her. “You’re sharing a bed with me right now, and you call this proper?”
“Go away, go away.” Jiang Wu held her in place. “Then I’ll sleep in the room next door.”
Wen Ciying reminded her, “That’s Huo Qingzhi’s room.”
Jiang Wu immediately lay back down.
Seeing her finally settle down, Wen Ciying contentedly and considerately pulled the covers over her. “Go to sleep.”
~~
Early spring in Beijing was even colder than in Hong Kong, and Jiang Wu, already accustomed to the weather, put on her coat, wrapped a scarf around herself, and headed out.
Since she had arrived early, she had also contacted the museum ahead of time to explain her situation and make preparations for the work ahead. However, her transfer paperwork had not yet been fully approved, so she couldn’t officially begin working just yet.
With nothing else to do, Jiang Wu went for a stroll around nearby Jingshan Park. Perhaps because the holiday season had only just ended, the decorations and red lanterns around Jingshan Park had not yet been taken down. The park was filled with elderly locals out for their daily walks, practicing tai chi, and painting.
Halfway through her walk, Jiang Wu stopped when she noticed an elderly man with a painting easel set up nearby. His paints, palette, and water bucket were all neatly arranged beside him. The old man sat there, sweeping his brush across the canvas with practiced ease.
Jiang Wu stood behind him for a while, admiring his skill, until she heard someone call him “Teacher” and ask whether he was retiring this year. That was when she learned that he was actually a senior professor from an art academy.
Jiang Wu walked away even more impressed.
As she turned, she accidentally bumped into an elderly woman beside her who was holding a long-lens DSLR camera. Jiang Wu immediately apologized.
The woman waved it off as nothing and, without missing a beat, reached into her backpack and pulled out one of several DSLR lenses with different focal lengths. Then she turned around, mounted her massive telephoto lens, and began photographing a section of the palace wall and surrounding gardens.
Jiang Wu stood there, stunned.
Not far away, several foreign tourists had gotten lost and stopped a security guard to ask for directions. Jiang Wu then heard the elderly security guard answering them in fluent Russian, calmly telling them where the exit was.
Jiang Wu spent the entire journey marveling inwardly. After making her way up the mountain and into the temple, she crossed the temple’s high terrace and looked out at the old palace buildings in the distance.
This year had been a mild winter. At this time of year, looking down from the mountaintop, a hazy hint of green spread all around the palace grounds.
Jiang Wu leaned against the edge of the temple terrace and watched those palace walls for a while. There was something reassuring about familiar things.
For some reason, Jiang Wu suddenly thought of dinner the night before, when Wen Ciying had briefly told her about her family.
The family Wen Ciying had originally grown up in had been very simple. She was an only child. There weren’t many relatives on either her father’s or her mother’s side. Her father had an older brother, and her mother had a younger brother.
Her paternal uncle worked in sports; unless it was around the Olympics or major competition seasons, she might occasionally get the chance to see him. Her maternal uncle ran a business with her grandmother’s family, spent most of the year abroad, and mostly came back for holidays.
Her paternal uncle had a daughter who was a competitive shooter and had won several world championships and might compete in the Olympics next season. Wen Ciying said that if Jiang Wu followed sports, she might have seen her before.
Her maternal uncle had no children. The original plan had been for Wen Ciying to gradually take over her grandmother’s family business after graduation. But then that incident happened, and she was sent to Hong Kong.
So, when Wen Ciying first arrived in Hong Kong, she had to face a large family of strangers. The family structure was complicated; everyone was divided into their own factions, and everyone had their own agenda. She’d found it exhausting and hard to accept.
Even more absurdly, several of her uncles and older relatives in Hong Kong kept an eye on her, afraid that she might have designs on the few percentage points of shares they held in the family group.
So, Wen Ciying had insisted long ago on signing an agreement voluntarily giving up her inheritance and property rights in Hong Kong. She had her own affairs to deal with and had no intention of getting involved in that mess. She simply hadn’t told the others that the agreement was in Huo Qingzhi’s hands, and he could handle it however he saw fit.
Of course, more than anything, she wanted it to go to Jiang Wu. It was what Jiang Wu deserved. But if her uncles tried to interfere, then Huo Qingzhi would have to figure out a way to transfer that portion to Jiang Wu.
Wen Ciying had saved what little patience she had left for Jiang Wu, who was in much the same situation as herself. In fact, she had felt sorry for Jiang Wu for quite some time.
She just hadn’t expected Jiang Wu to feel sorry for her too, taking her shopping for a whole pile of things because she was afraid Wen Ciying would be mistreated. Even Wen Ciying didn’t know who, exactly, was the one being mistreated.
Sometimes Wen Ciying wondered what she would have been like if she had grown up in that family. Perhaps she would have ended up like Jiang Wu’s brothers, outwardly amiable while constantly calculating beneath the surface. In a family like that, it was practically a necessary survival skill for a child.
Jiang Wu was different. Perhaps because she had been so loved after she was born, she had never needed to put on one face in public and another behind closed doors.
But Wen Ciying actually felt that the foundation of Jiang Wu’s personality was very much like her father’s.
Sincere and straightforward.
Simple and selfless.
Jiang Wu’s professional abilities, meanwhile, were very much like her mother’s.
Wen Ciying believed that if Jiang Wu had been raised in Beijing, those two sides of her would probably have become even more pronounced. Unlike herself, a child raised to think several moves deep.
Wen Ciying often didn’t want to admit it. Around that family, whenever she saw those three brothers, there were often fleeting moments when she sensed something familiar in them.
As for where she herself should have been raised… Jiang Wu had long since stopped dwelling on that question. Wherever she had grown up was where she was meant to be.
Jiang Wu was not the kind of person who would repeatedly torment herself over things that had already happened and could no longer be changed. She loved Hong Kong, and she loved her family now. She had nothing to complain about in her current life, either.
She had said to Wen Ciying, “If none of this had happened, you would never have met me. Aren’t you sorry about that?”
Wen Ciying scoffed. “Not at all.”
Jiang Wu knew she was saying one thing and feeling another, so she simply said, “You’re a lot like my dad too, tough on the outside, soft on the inside.”
Jiang Wu liked Beijing very much, too. Perhaps it was the novelty of wandering through a park and running into all sorts of impressive older men and women.
She wandered among several old courtyard residences near the top of the mountain. Through the thin veil of incense smoke, she stepped into one of the small traditional buildings. Ancient-style furnishings filled both the inside and outside of the room.
Several rows of wooden armchairs stood inside, along with a few desks laid out with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. Beside one of the desks farther inside was an elderly man in a traditional Tang-style suit, his hands clasped behind his back as he practiced calligraphy with a brush. Several classical calligraphy works hung neatly on the walls, interspersed with decorative porcelain pieces and potted plants.
The moment Jiang Wu stepped inside, she was slightly dazed. In the center of the room sat a small jade vessel enclosed beneath a glass case. Surprised, she walked over and studied the vessel carefully through the glass.
The elderly man who had been practicing calligraphy noticed her and put down his brush and ink before walking over. Following her gaze, he looked at the small vessel on the table. “What do you think? Pretty, isn’t it?”
Jiang Wu nodded. “It’s beautiful.”
“How did you come to have this here? Is this some kind of antique collectors’ association?”
“No, I brought it from home.” The old man explained, “I thought it would look right in this room, so I put it here.”
Jiang Wu was a little astonished. “You have Shang-and-Zhou-period jade artifacts at home?”
Instead of being offended, the old man laughed in surprise. “You recognize it?”
Jiang Wu nodded. “And you’ve preserved it really well. Especially considering it’s an excavated artifact from the Shang and Zhou periods…”
The old gentleman was delighted by that. He turned around and picked up another piece of calligraphy. “Then take a look at this for me. What do you think of this one?”
Jiang Wu looked over and gave a small “Ah. This one’s from last week.”
The old man burst out laughing. “I just wrote it last week. What do you think?”
The four large characters were the calm, steady, flowing words: “Spring Harmony, Bright Scenery.” It carried a warm, gentle feeling, along with the ease and composure of someone who had seen much of the world.
“Very good regular script,” Jiang Wu said after studying it for a while. “It would be perfect to hang at home in spring. It makes the whole space feel more harmonious.”
Jiang Wu suddenly thought of the study in the home where she hadn’t lived for a long time. It would be a perfect place for a piece like this, or she could take it back to Hong Kong and hang it beside the study window in that city, where the seasons were warm all year round.
Every time she looked up, she would see sunlight, greenery, and the scholarly atmosphere of books. The thought came to her, and she said it aloud. “Would you mind if I bought this piece?”
“Of course.” The old man was delighted. “If you like it, I’ll give it to you as a gift.”
“That wouldn’t feel right.” Jiang Wu took out her phone, intending to pay him.
The old man waved her off. “I have plenty of these. Besides, I don’t have mobile payment.”
Jiang Wu still felt a little awkward about accepting it, but she didn’t have any cash either. She took out one of her business cards, with her contact information on it. “When you get home, please ask your family to contact me. I can pay the market price. They can reach me anytime.”
The old man took the card, chatted and laughed with her for a while, then walked her outside.
The moment Jiang Wu stepped out of the building, the phone in the pocket of his Tang-style suit began to ring. The old man returned inside, glanced at the caller ID, and answered.
The voice on the other end was respectful. “Professor Wen, the calligraphy you inscribed for the former site of the Academy has already been carved into the plaque. Would you like to come and take a look?”
“Sure.”
“By the way, we’d like to purchase the original work for our collection. Would that be convenient for you…”
“Hahaha.” Looking at the business card Jiang Wu had given him, the old gentleman laughed. “I’m afraid not. A young girl took a liking to it, so I’ve already given it away.”
~~
The study in the small house off campus had been cleared out and reorganized.
Back when both Jiang Wu and Huo Qingzhi had used it heavily for work, the study had been planned out on a large scale, split into an outer and inner section. One bedroom had been knocked through entirely and folded into the layout as a unified space.
The outer section of the study had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and cabinets made of aged wood, almost like a private archive or home library, a shared public space for the two of them.
The inner section was divided into two. One side belonged to Huo Qingzhi and the other to her, separated by a wooden bookshelf partition in the middle. From her side, she could see him next door, as well as the lush branches and foliage outside the window.
The study itself had not changed much from before, and many of the books were her professional references.
Jiang Wu hung the calligraphy in the shared area of the study, where it fit perfectly. Brushwork like that, in a study with this kind of classical character, matched his whole presence rather well too.
“…”
Why was she even thinking about whether it matched his presence?
Jiang Wu shook the thought off, finished hanging the calligraphy, and left the study.
Wen Ciying only stayed there for one night. She had her own affairs to attend to, after all.
The Beijing–Hong Kong collaborative project had finally settled on Old Master Yuan as the person in charge on the Beijing side. Old Master Yuan had his doctoral student coordinate with Jiang Wu.
As it happened, that person had once been Jiang Wu’s roommate. Perhaps that was also why Old Master Yuan had asked Yao Peixue to contact Jiang Wu.
Jiang Wu and Yao Peixue were practically old partners. Once Bu Yu arrived and submitted the materials, the collaborative restoration project got underway very smoothly. There was no adjustment period, and they settled into the work quickly.
Jiang Wu sometimes stayed in the dormitory and sometimes went home. It depended on the restoration progress that day and whether the work during that period was particularly difficult. In any case, she was definitely going home less often than when she had first arrived.
After the project had been underway for a while, Jiang Wu went an entire week without going home, until they finally finished one stage of the work; only then did they temporarily slow the pace.
The main reason was that Yao Peixue had started teaching classes.
Yao Peixue pulled Jiang Wu and Bu Yu over. “Are you two free tonight?”
Bu Yu was telling Yao Peixue about how she was having trouble adjusting to Beijing’s climate. Jiang Wu wasn’t really listening to what they were saying. She was busy replying to messages on her phone.
They were from Gu Jingsong. [No wonder I went by the museum in Hong Kong the other day and they told me you’d transferred.]
[We have an opening ceremony in Beijing soon. It seems like it’s not far from where you are.]
Jiang Wu replied: [Really? Where are you?]
After a while, Gu Jingsong sent her an address.
Jiang Wu was just about to take a closer look when Yao Peixue pulled her over and asked again, “Xiaoyu’s having trouble adjusting to the climate here, so what about you, Xiao Wu? Are you free tonight?”
“Yeah. I just haven’t been home in a long time.” Jiang Wu put her phone away. “I was planning to go home and lie around tonight.”
“Going home to lie around is so boring.” Yao Peixue urged her. “Come on, come with me to see a handsome guy.”
Jiang Wu looked a little confused. “What handsome guy?”
“I heard there’s a visiting professor at the School of Management who came here to provide guidance. Tonight is the opening session for one of his projects.”
“He’s a very young chairman of a company, and he’s good-looking too. Word has already spread all over the School of Management.”
Bu Yu asked, “Who is he?”
Yao Peixue thought seriously for a while before looking at them apologetically. “I forgot. I just remember that he’s really handsome.”
“Doesn’t matter who. We’re just going to admire him a little.” Yao Peixue tried to persuade them. “We’ll know when we get there. There’s no harm in taking a look.”
Bu Yu was a little disappointed that she couldn’t go because she was still adjusting to the local climate. “Then, Ah Wu, take pictures for me, okay?”
“Ah, okay.” Jiang Wu agreed and was pulled away by Yao Peixue.
Since it was only an opening session for a project rather than an official lecture, there were no posters or publicity. Aside from the students involved in the project, everyone else had come by word of mouth, drawn by the rumors about the young entrepreneur’s exceptionally good looks.
Yao Peixue had dragged Jiang Wu there more than half an hour early, yet the tiered lecture hall was already more than half full. Most of them were girls. They sat toward the back, where they still had a decent view of the room.
Jiang Wu took out her phone and continued replying to Gu Jingsong’s messages, while also sending him her current location.
As they chatted, Jiang Wu suddenly heard one of the girls sitting in front of them say, “I heard he’s mixed-race too.”
Jiang Wu raised her eyes slightly. After thinking about it for a moment, she decided that being mixed-race wasn’t all that unusual.
“There are hardly any photos of him online, but my senior saw him in person a couple of days ago. Damn…”
“What was he like?”
“He’s an incredibly good-looking man.”
After a while, the girl in front seemed to remember something. “My senior secretly took a photo of him. Do you want to see it?”
“Hand it over!”
Jiang Wu craned her neck discreetly, curious. But the photo was clearly a candid shot snapped in a crowd, so the angle was off and the image was blurry. At that distance, Jiang Wu couldn’t make out much, just a black overcoat and a dark, imposing presence…
An uneasy feeling started rising in Jiang Wu’s heart. Almost the instant that premonition surfaced, she reached out and tapped the girl in front of her. The girl turned around.
Jiang Wu asked, “Hi, can I take a look at that photo?”
“Of course!” The girl was very enthusiastic and handed her the phone.
Before Jiang Wu could tap the image and enlarge it, a wave of quiet murmuring spread through the lecture hall.
Someone had walked in.
Like a stone tossed into a still, deep lake, it sent faint ripples across the surface.
Jiang Wu’s hand stopped over the man’s face in the photo. She looked up in disbelief, and there he was, Huo Qingzhi, in a black overcoat, gold-rimmed glasses, hair swept back, walking up to the podium and pulling up his lecture material for the day. The man didn’t even lift his head once.
Jiang Wu suddenly drew in a sharp breath; a faint current of electricity shot up along her spine, leaving her scalp tingling and making her feel as though she were sitting on pins and needles.
A soft wave of admiration rippled through the room. The girl in front grabbed her friend. “He really is incredibly good-looking.”
“But what’s that on his hand? Is that a wedding ring?”
“Which lucky girl has been enjoying a life this good without telling the rest of us?”
A life this good?
Jiang Wu didn’t think so.
They could tell her how good it was after he gave her a spanking. Not only did he hit people, but he was also a complete pervert, too.
Just running into Huo Qingzhi like this, her body seemed to remember the feeling of being pinned down and “disciplined” by him before, leaving her tingling and trembling. She was so nervous she felt like crying.
Jiang Wu quickly returned the phone to the girl in front, thanked her quietly, and began gathering her things.
Beside her, Yao Peixue saw Huo Qingzhi’s name and gave Jiang Wu a tap. “Yes, yes, that’s it. His name is Huo Qingzhi.”
“Hmm? Why does that name sound so familiar? I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before.”
“All right, stop talking.” Jiang Wu wanted to cover Yao Peixue’s mouth. Keeping her voice low, she said, “Um, something’s come up. I need to leave first.”
After all, this was a large lecture hall with tiered seating, and each row could fit more than a dozen people. When they had come in, they had deliberately moved toward the center so they could have a better view.
Just as Jiang Wu was about to slip out, she turned her head and discovered that seven or eight students had filled the seats to her left, blocking that side. The same thing had happened on her right.
And sitting in the dead center, standing up now would draw far too much attention. Not to mention that suddenly asking all the students beside her to stand up would make an enormous scene.
Jiang Wu stood up, then sat back down, agonizing over how she could quietly ask the seven or eight people around her to move so she could get out without making a scene that Huo Qingzhi would notice she was there.
While Huo Qingzhi kept his head lowered, absorbed in his phone, Jiang Wu gathered her courage and quietly asked the classmate beside her if they could switch places so she could get out.
The next second, a message popped up on her phone.
Huo Qingzhi: [Hiding again?]