Surrounded by Wolves
Late into the night, the moon shone brightly above a city gone completely still.
Lu Heng waited in the car downstairs for a while, watching as the corridor light outside the elevator on the corresponding floor came on as Huo Qingzhi went up. Then came the sound of the door closing.
On his phone, the messages he’d sent separately to Jiang Wu and Huo Qingzhi received no response. Madam was probably busy.
After years of experience working for Huo Qingzhi, Lu Heng felt perfectly comfortable leaving him in Madam’s care. He started the car and drove away from their neighborhood.
Meanwhile, inside the apartment, Jiang Wu was still completely dazed when she was pushed onto the sofa. She knelt on the carpet beside the sofa; her upper body pressed against it.
Jiang Wu tried to brace herself against the sofa and sit up, only to have a large hand press down on her shoulder and force her back down.
She grabbed at the sofa throw, pulling it askew. Through the trembling tassels, she caught sight of the roses she’d arranged on the table earlier that day.
Jiang Wu wasn’t nearly as skilled as Eldest Brother at coaxing flowers back to life. She wasn’t entirely sure how to coax them open, either. Leaving them in the flower-conditioning vessel overnight didn’t necessarily help much.
Perhaps they still needed to be rubbed, patted, and worked in slow circles, coaxing the tightly closed rose blossoms to unfurl. Only then would they be ready to settle naturally into a vase.
So today, they remained suspended in that delicate moment just before blooming. At the slightest touch, their stems and leaves trembled, instinctively seeming to retreat.
Suddenly, Jiang Wu tightened her grip on the throw draped over the sofa again. The fleece hanging over the back of the sofa slid down with a rustle, covering her disheveled clothes.
Only one smooth, snowy shoulder remained exposed, along with the large, prominent knuckles of the hand resting against it.
Jiang Wu’s calves were trembling badly. And he knelt behind her, between her legs.
Outside the window, the cool moonlight fell across the rose stems that had been coaxed open with careful tending, their blossoms unfurled. The branches swayed, filling the room with the rich fragrance of roses.
Now and then, the sweet dampness of dew followed the carefully tended stems and dripped onto the fleece Huo Qingzhi had spread earlier. The fleece fibers soaked through with dew. Then the man’s large hand wiped it away, covering it again.
Huo Qingzhi was like a professional florist, tending the cool, smooth rose stem in his hands. Opening it inch by inch, searching for any sign that someone else had watered his flower. But the man lost in his drunken dream couldn’t tell. All he could do was draw out all its moisture, then fill it again with fresh water.
Jiang Wu thought Huo Qingzhi was sick.
He really was sick.
He truly wasn’t a good man.
She had no idea what kind of dream he’d been having before. After drinking, he couldn’t even tell the difference between his dreams and reality. No matter what she said, he only chose to respond to the words he wanted to hear.
Before long, soft, broken cries filled the dim room.
She still couldn’t move. Her knees rubbed against the carpet, and all she could do was helplessly lift them or press them against empty air. Every cell in her body was trembling.
In the end, she bit down on the fleece hanging beside her and clawed at the sofa until it creaked, trying to endure the madman’s madness.
She looked unbearably vulnerable.
Huo Qingzhi could feel that faint, fragile trembling beneath his fingertips. His large hand followed her still-shaking shoulder, brushing past the loose strands of hair beside her ear. After pushing it aside, he turned her around and bent to kiss her lips as she struggled to catch her breath.
Jiang Wu’s mind was still completely blank.
He slowly drew the fleece covering her. A chill passed over her body, making her shrink back for a moment, but then the warmth around her began to rise.
Huo Qingzhi kissed her gently. As though he knew he’d been too rough just moments ago and was trying to soothe her.
When he held the bend of her leg, the tie that was still bound in his palm and had been used as a cushion was used to wipe his hand clean before he tossed it aside. His fingers closed around her knee. He gently soothed the place he’d just rubbed raw.
When Jiang Wu was lifted into his arms, her mind was still somewhat hazy. The soft sofa was beneath her, trembling lightly beneath their weight, and then the kiss that had just broken off continued again.
He rested his forehead against her for a moment before undoing the buttons of his neat shirt himself. Then he caught her lips again. The heat radiating from his body seemed to send the temperature of the entire living room higher.
Jiang Wu felt as though his madness was beginning to seep into her, too. She even thought the warmth wasn’t enough. It should be hotter. Higher still. Only then would it feel right.
Jiang Wu came to her senses at the sound of the belt. She opened her eyes uneasily, but he was still right in front of her. His broad frame completely filled her vision, shutting out everything else.
Jiang Wu couldn’t see the ceiling or anything beyond him. The sensation of being completely enveloped was difficult to adjust to. She looked utterly at a loss.
But he, by contrast, was remarkably skilled, as though he had no idea how many times he’d lived through this dream.
When her knee was lifted, Jiang Wu suddenly found herself short of breath. Through misty eyes, she looked at him. “Brother…”
Like a drowning person instinctively calling for the one person—and the one name— that made her feel safest before facing an unknown fear.
But the person she’d called wasn’t there to save her. He was there to drag her down with him.
The man lost in his intoxication didn’t think this time was any different from any of the countless times before in his dreams.
He kissed the corner of her lips. “Relax. You can take it.”
Jiang Wu’s whole body began to climb, clutching his shoulder as she instinctively tried to avoid the unfamiliar touch. “Wait, Brother. Brother, wake up…”
She tilted her head back, trying to escape from beneath the wolf’s claws, but the movement only made things easier for him. A trail of fine, lingering kisses fell along her neck, over skin white and soft as snow.
Just as she relaxed for a moment, his hand suddenly closed around her waist and dragged her down hard. A sharp cry suddenly broke through the room.
The raw sensation made something dark flicker through Huo Qingzhi’s clouded eyes for a moment. He regained his composure, his thoughts slowly returning to him, and saw the woman, a disheveled person, being pressed down onto the sofa.
Jiang Wu was clearly still reeling from the shock.
When their eyes met, the corners of her eyes were flushed red, her lashes trembling continuously.
Huo Qingzhi frowned, realizing something. A heavy, murky breath slowly escaped from deep within his lungs, as though he were finally coming back to himself.
This wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t the effortless, seamless intimacy he’d experienced a thousand times over in his dreams.
She wasn’t ready for it yet.
Huo Qingzhi remained silent for a long time as though trying to determine whether the scene before him was real or an illusion. Perhaps he realized that, real or not, he couldn’t continue.
He pulled the blanket from beside them over her. His dark mixed-race eyes were clouded with murkiness, his voice hoarse like a beast finally returning to consciousness. “Did I hurt you?”
Jiang Wu’s lips moved, but she couldn’t get the words out properly. “Not—not yet. It hasn’t… gone in…”
As soon as she finished speaking, a faint blush visibly spread across her entire body.
Huo Qingzhi’s body stiffened slightly. He pushed himself up, slipped on a jacket, and lifted her into his arms.
Jiang Wu held her breath, unsure whether he was truly awake now, where he was taking her, or what he intended to do. In the end, Huo Qingzhi carried her into her own bedroom, briefly cleaned her up, then closed the door behind her and left.
Only after Jiang Wu watched him leave did her thoughts finally return. She poked her head out from beneath the blanket and slowly propped herself up.
He… just left?
Where is he going?
Jiang Wu clutched the edge of the blanket, listening to the sounds outside.
It was the first time Huo Qingzhi had ever taken her to her own room. The meaning couldn’t have been clearer. They were sleeping separately tonight.
Jiang Wu curled back beneath the covers and lay there for a while.
The lingering sensations in her body hadn’t completely faded. A tingling, electric feeling still ran through her from head to toe.
Because of the difference in size, the contact had happened suddenly, striking directly against a sensitive point above. It had simply startled her.
After all, her brother was mixed-race. His build, his physique, even certain other things about him were somewhat…
Even his manner wasn’t exactly gentle. He had always been somewhat forceful, never particularly willing to reason with anyone.
Jiang Wu let her thoughts wander for a while. Even though she’d been let off, there was still a faint soreness inside her. As though countless ants had begun crawling across her waist and abdomen the moment everything had abruptly stopped.
Images of what had just happened kept appearing in her mind.
She hadn’t been able to see the ceiling at all. Everywhere she looked, there had been nothing but his chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms, the muscles of his body filling her vision, followed by the movement of his Adam’s apple and those deep eyes that seemed capable of devouring her whole.
A dull ache stirred again in Jiang Wu’s lower abdomen, followed by a warm flow that left her feeling sticky and uncomfortable. She got up to take a shower, but when she entered her own bathroom, she remembered that all her usual toiletries were in the other room.
Jiang Wu paced around the room twice before finally opening the door. Huo Qingzhi wasn’t in the living room. As luck would have it, he was in the bathroom in the room next door.
Jiang Wu reached out, then withdrew her hand, not daring to knock. She couldn’t very well go back without taking a shower, so she grabbed a throw pillow and curled up on the sofa in the bedroom.
Jiang Wu listened to the soft pattering water coming from the bathroom. Her mind wandered restlessly. If he came out in a little while, how was she supposed to explain that she’d only come to get something?
But Huo Qingzhi stayed in the bathroom for a very long time. So long that by the time he finally came out, Jiang Wu had not only forgotten the excuse she’d prepared, but she’d also already fallen asleep.
Huo Qingzhi came out, drying his hair. What he saw was Jiang Wu curled into a ball on the sofa, her dress rumpled and disheveled. Her hair was a mess too, probably because she’d been worn out and had simply fallen asleep from exhaustion.
He didn’t even know what she’d come here for. She hadn’t even dared knock on the door to call him. She looked even more pitiful.
He walked toward her and stood beside the sofa for a while, his shadow falling over her. She didn’t wake.
By the time Jiang Wu opened her eyes again, it was already early the next morning. She lazily rolled over. Then, as soon as she recognized the room and its furnishings, she suddenly woke up completely.
She sat up and discovered that the pajamas she was wearing had already been changed. The places that had felt sticky and uncomfortable before felt much fresher now.
It felt as though… someone had cleaned her up.
There was only one pillow on the bed, and the bedding was all hers. Jiang Wu realized that he probably hadn’t slept here either last night. She lazed in bed for a while before finally getting up.
When she stepped outside, she saw the breakfast he’d prepared on the table. He was already gone.
On the sofa were neatly folded blankets and pillows.
It was obvious that Eldest Brother had made do with sleeping on the sofa last night. He must have done quite a bit of housework in the living room too.
The sofa cover had been removed and washed, the carpet had been changed, and the table had been tidied again.
Jiang Wu sat at the dining table, eating breakfast, and saw the roses on the table blooming even more beautifully.
The petals had drunk their fill, glistening with moisture, smooth and translucent. She had no idea how he’d revived the flowers this time.
Jiang Wu lowered her eyes, feeling a little more at ease now that he wasn’t there. Then, unexpectedly, she caught sight of the trash can.
Inside it was a necktie.
Jiang Wu recognized it.
She swallowed a mouthful of toast with some difficulty. She vaguely remembered that at the beginning of the night, he’d used that tie as a barrier beneath his hand.
And then used it… to wipe his hand.
Jiang Wu withdrew her gaze, doing her best to pretend she hadn’t seen the tie she’d stained.
But soon, her phone rang. It was a delivery representative from the boutique calling. “May I ask if this is Ms. Jiang?”
“I am.”
“Hello, Ms. Jiang. The men’s tie you ordered has now gone out for delivery. Please keep your phone available.”
Jiang Wu thought she’d heard wrong. “What has gone out for delivery?”
The representative remained perfectly pleasant. “The men’s tie.”
Unwilling to accept this reality, Jiang Wu took a sip of milk. “Oh. Okay.”
Stupid tie!
Of all the days it could have arrived, why did it have to be today?
Having a tie delivered to Huo Qingzhi today was practically the same as making both of them relive what had happened last night — a direct reminder of exactly what had ruined the last one.
Jiang Wu mumbled an excuse. “I’m not home during the day. Could you deliver it a little later?”
“Of course.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Wu hurried to get ready and head to the restoration studio.
After all, it was Monday. No one could go to work on a Monday and still maintain a perfectly healthy state of mind.
Jiang Wu sat at her workstation in a daze when, out of nowhere, Huo Yingli sent her a photo with the message: [I brought you a gift while I was away on a business trip a couple of days ago. I left it at your place.]
Sleepily, she glanced at it without looking too closely and, as usual, replied with a thank-you sticker. But after closing the photo, Jiang Wu vaguely sensed that something wasn’t right.
She opened it again.
Huo Yingli’s camera was pointed at her cold-storage room. It was the place where she’d previously kept ancient books under low temperatures for preservation. Sitting inside was a brand-new box.
All of her brothers knew what she used that room for, so they normally wouldn’t touch anything in there without a reason.
Jiang Wu asked curiously: [What’s this?]
Huo Yingli sent her a short video of him opening the box and giving it a quick look inside, revealing the somewhat badly corroded cover of a book.
[I don’t really understand it. The collector said it’s the Ming imprint of Record of Ritual Vessels.]
Record of Ritual Vessels!
Jiang Wu snapped fully awake. [Is this a Ming-imprint reproduction of Record of Ritual Vessels?!]
[Yes.]
Jiang Wu exclaimed, “Oh my God, my brother found me a reproduction of Record of Ritual Vessels.”
Not far away, Yao Peixue and Bu Yu, who understood the significance of this kind of book even better, poked their heads out. “Record of Ritual Vessels?!”
Record of Ritual Vessels was a book devoted specifically to ritual vessels. It was extremely important for work involving the tracing and identification of cultural artifacts.
Yao Peixue stood up and came over to Jiang Wu, carefully examining the photo. “It really is.”
“Your brother must have gone to a lot of trouble to find something like this.”
Jiang Wu’s excitement was written all over her face. After a string of [AAAH]s, she typed, on reflex, [Love you so much, brother!]
After typing it, Jiang Wu stared at those words for a moment, hesitating.
She used to say things like that all the time. But now, perhaps because she felt guilty—or for some other reason—she hesitated. After thinking it over again and again, Jiang Wu deleted the message and replaced it with a heart-filled sticker.
[Then tell me what you want. Your little sister will do everything she can for you!]
[Anything I want?]
[Anything. No problem.]
Huo Yingli replied with a pat-on-the-head sticker. [I’ll wait for you to come back.]
[Okay.]
Satisfied, Jiang Wu put down her phone and got back to work.
Given his different role at the group, Huo Yingli traveled constantly, negotiating deals across the world. He was a well-known social butterfly, so his network was even broader.
Whenever he traveled, he often brought things back for her, mostly rare imagery of ancient texts, occasionally the texts themselves, and more often historical photographs and images. In fact, most of the images and photographs she’d previously stored in the cold-storage safe for her collection had also been brought back by her Second Brother.
Huo Yingli would also pass her business card along to those collectors. A fair share of her earlier private restoration commissions had come from exactly that.
Yao Peixue asked, “For the Record of Ritual Vessels, would you still be interested in working together on it?”
“What’s the fun in doing it all by myself?” Jiang Wu was naturally interested. “It just depends on whether we’re fated to work together again.”
“If the results of this project are good, then we’re definitely fated to.”
Jiang Wu thought for a moment. “Who are the experts reviewing the project this time?”
“My advisor should probably avoid any conflict of interest. Ideally, she wanted to ask Professor Li to be the lead reviewer.” Yao Peixue thought for a moment. “But Professor Li has other work recently, so she can’t be a reviewer either. Then there are the others below her, although she might still be sitting in on the observation panel.”
Jiang Wu nodded in understanding and happily continued working.
After all, their project progress report was due the following week. They had specific requirements for how far the work needed to have progressed.
Jiang Wu and Yao Peixue were mainly responsible for the restoration of the ancient books. Bu Yu was responsible for organizing the cataloging information.
The first ancient text had basically been fully organized. Jiang Wu had highlighted the key information and was preparing to submit it. The second was still with them, but they had already reached the middle-to-late stages of the work.
Around five in the afternoon, Jiang Wu received a message from Huo Qingzhi. As usual, he asked what she wanted for dinner.
Jiang Wu actually wasn’t quite ready to face him yet. She picked up her phone and hesitantly typed: [I’m eating out tonight…]
She hadn’t even finished typing the word “eating” when Huo Qingzhi asked: [Plum-sauce spare ribs, salted-egg baked lobster, or crispy black-truffle dry pot?]
Jiang Wu couldn’t bring herself to send her message. After struggling for a moment, she changed it to: [All of them.]
The moment she sent it, Jiang Wu hated herself for being so weak-willed.
Fine, just eat it, then.
Then Jiang Wu quickly resolved that this couldn’t be her fault. Huo Qingzhi normally didn’t use such an extravagant menu to tempt her. It was all his fault.
By this point, there was hardly any atmosphere of work left in the restoration studio. Everyone was simply looking forward to going home.
Bu Yu sat at her workstation playing a little game. Meanwhile, Yao Peixue stretched out her muscles and scrolled through videos of handsome, muscular men, forwarding them to Jiang Wu and Bu Yu as well, telling them, “After working all day, we strong women need to look at this to find the strength to keep living.”
Bu Yu expressed her gratitude. Jiang Wu propped her chin on her hand, scrolling through the videos one after another. Whenever she saw those bronze-colored muscle lines, she couldn’t help thinking of the man waiting at home.
Bu Yu leaned over toward Yao Peixue. “Do you think someone built like this would be… able to make the big tree hang chili peppers?”
Jiang Wu’s eyelid twitched. She hated how quickly she understood what Bu Yu meant.
“I’ll teach you,” Yao Peixue said, counting off the supposed indicators for Bu Yu. “Apparently, when you’re judging a man, you look at his nose, his eyes, his hair, his fingers. You even have to feel whether he’s warm and whether his yang energy is strong…”
Fortunately, there were only the three of them in the room, so the girls could talk about anything without holding back.
Yao Peixue forwarded another video to Bu Yu. “But Western men supposedly have an advantage when it comes to their build. They’re generally pretty similar in that regard. Look at this one.”
“They say they can go straight to the stomach easily.”
Jiang Wu looked incredulous. “Straight to the stomach? That sounds a little terrifying.”
“I’m exaggerating, but this I know,” Bu Yu said, sounding genuinely well-versed. “There are statistics saying East Asian women run smaller on average, and Western men run… larger. Put those two together, and it can definitely be a little difficult.”
Yao Peixue listened for a while. “Promise me, sisters… we are absolutely never letting anyone outside this room know what we talk about, okay?”
Jiang Wu sat there, pressing her lips together lightly. She stared at her phone screen until five-thirty, then immediately grabbed her bag. “I’m heading out first.”
Bu Yu asked, “You’re going home for dinner tonight?”
“Yeah, I’m going home to eat.” Jiang Wu waved. “See you tomorrow.”
Bu Yu watched Jiang Wu’s back as she headed toward the cafeteria with Yao Peixue. “Having brothers around really is nice.”
Jiang Wu wandered over to a nearby supermarket.
She picked up two bottles of sparkling wine, intending to have them with the lobster, but then remembered Huo Qingzhi drinking last night. She immediately put them back. Instead, she picked up a lemon sparkling water and chose a few snacks to keep at home.
Jiang Wu was just about to leave when, at the candy display near the checkout, she suddenly noticed a row of small boxes in various colors.
She stood there staring at them for a while, not entirely sure what came over her. In any case, by the time she checked out, there were two boxes in her shopping bag.
It seemed necessary to keep some at home, just in case.
Like last night.
By the time Jiang Wu got home, Huo Qingzhi had already halfway through cooking. He was carrying one of the plates of crispy black-truffle dry pot to the dining table.
When Jiang Wu came through the door, neither of them said anything for a while. The only sound was the soft click of the plates against the glass tabletop.
The unusual silence made the atmosphere even more uncomfortable.
Jiang Wu deliberately acted calm and first took the sparkling water from her shopping bag. “I got some of this. We can have it later.”
Huo Qingzhi gave a quiet “Mm.”
Jiang Wu set the drinks on the table, then went to the kitchen island for a glass. After hesitating, she asked, “Do you want some?”
“Sure.”
Jiang Wu got another glass for him.
Huo Qingzhi looked at the glass in her hand and walked toward her.
Hearing his footsteps, Jiang Wu tried to break the strange atmosphere. “Um… does the food in the pot need checking?”
“It needs to simmer for a while.”
From across the island, Huo Qingzhi reached out and took the glass of sparkling water she’d poured, his eyes never leaving her.
Jiang Wu pretended to concentrate very carefully on pouring the drinks. But there were only two glasses. Eventually, there was nothing left to pour.
When she finished, his voice came from above her, low and slow, sending a strange warmth straight through her. “You didn’t resist me much last night?”
He’d brought up last night after all.
“I did resist.”
Jiang Wu frowned, still refusing to look at him. “How did I not resist? You were the one…”
“Resisting means you have to hit me, curse at me, tell me you don’t like it, that you hate it.”
“Isn’t it just—‘Brother, wait a moment.’”
Huo Qingzhi looked at her. “I taught you how to make me stop.”
“Did you forget because you were nervous?”
“Or you didn’t want me to stop?”
Jiang Wu tightened her grip on the glass in her hand. “You drank so much last night. You didn’t even know what I was saying.”
“It wasn’t enough to make me completely lose consciousness.” Before this, Huo Qingzhi had always had a clear sense of how much alcohol he could handle.
He stopped as soon as he was slightly tipsy, never going beyond that point.
He knew he’d drunk a little more than that last night, but he had still recognized people, responded to things, and retained the ability to act on his own. At most, the alcohol had numbed his nerves and caused some confusion. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come back to his senses after that single jolt.
That meant Jiang Wu hadn’t given him any stronger stimulation before then. If she’d bitten him, hit him, or cursed at him a few times—anything that caused pain—he would have known.
Huo Qingzhi didn’t continue discussing it. “It’s fine. It won’t happen again.”
For some reason, Jiang Wu asked, “What won’t happen again?”
Huo Qingzhi looked at her. “Drinking until I’m like that. It won’t happen again.”
“What did you think I meant?”
Jiang Wu set the soda she’d poured onto the table. “I thought the same thing.” She quickly shook off the strange awkwardness. “I’m going to wash my hands.” With that, Jiang Wu hurried into the bathroom.
Huo Qingzhi withdrew his gaze and noticed that a shopping bag was still sitting on the entryway cabinet. It was the one Jiang Wu had just brought home, a bag full of snacks. Things that needed to go in the refrigerator.
He’d lost count of how many times he’d stocked her refrigerator for her before.
Out of habit, Huo Qingzhi walked over to the entryway cabinet, picked up the shopping bag, and put the soda and snacks Jiang Wu had bought at the supermarket into the refrigerator.
When he noticed the candy-box-style packaging, all soft pinks and pastels, he casually took those out as well, intending to put the candy in the fridge for her.
Then he saw the words printed on the “candy boxes”:
“Cooling Sensation.”
“Ribbed.”