Surrounded by Wolves
Jiang Wu stumbled a step and was pressed against his chest. Her shawl slipped aside, revealing the beautiful, graceful lines of her shoulders, neck, and collarbones.
The difference in their sizes left her unable to move, so she could only pat helplessly at his shoulder.
The tie she’d been about to knot was caught on her fingertips. She gripped it with instinct, which only pulled him closer, as though she were asking for more.
He would only give her more in return.
Jiang Wu was overwhelmed by his aggressive intensity, her body bending and arching backward until her back soon met the door.
On the carpet by the entrance, her heels lay scattered in disarray, while the black leather shoes among them looked entirely at ease, holding their ground without effort.
A steady, unrelenting invasion. A confident claim of possession. Until she, too, had gone limp and pliant beneath him.
Lu Heng and Cherry were chatting downstairs, each waiting beside a separate car for their respective boss to come down.
As they talked, they soon caught sight of the man who had always been so restrained and cold, so distant and aloof, appearing before them with an untied necktie in his hand and a faint smear of red at the corner of his lips.
Their conversation came to an abrupt halt. This was so far from Huo Qingzhi’s usual dignified composure, and the sight struck directly at everything they thought they knew about him.
A deathly silence settled around them.
Huo Qingzhi still had the tie wrapped around his hand. He had done no more than fasten the buttons of his shirt that had been pulled open, and if looked closely, there were still slight creases at his collar.
He looked far too much like a man who had just finished having sex!
Cherry, quick to read the room, greeted him and promptly retreated to her own car.
Lu Heng stood respectfully to one side, and only when Huo Qingzhi drew closer did he notice another ambiguous red mark behind his ear. It looked like the kind of mark a woman might leave by accident when caught up in the heat of the moment, her fingers scratching him in her urgency or passion.
Unable to help himself, Lu Heng offered Huo Qingzhi a tissue.
Huo Qingzhi met his gaze. He had always been perfectly frank about such things.
It was Lu Heng who grew uncomfortable, gesturing instead toward the corner of his lips.
Huo Qingzhi had no idea about the red mark there until he caught sight of himself in the car’s mirror.
Against his sharply defined features, with their distinctly mixed-race air of cool severity, his thin lips carried an uneven flush of red. A rose-colored mark lingered at the corner of his mouth. It was indescribably dark and lush, like an aristocratic vampire who had just fed, leaving the evidence of his crime after making a complete mess of his prey.
Even his eyes held the intense excitement of a predator fresh from the hunt.
Seeing the red at the corner of his lips only stirred his appetite. His comment sounded just as suggestive. “Tastes like chocolate.”
Lu Heng pretended not to hear. He had no way of knowing whether Huo Qingzhi was talking about a person or lipstick, anyway.
Jiang Wu hid in her room and reapplied her lipstick before finally coming out. Her makeup and hair were a little mussed, but fortunately, not too badly.
By the time she came downstairs, Huo Qingzhi’s Cullinan had already driven away.
Cherry glanced at Jiang Wu a couple of extra times through the rearview mirror.
Jiang Wu met her eyes…
Then the two of them discreetly looked away from each other.
Jiang Wu took out her compact mirror to check whether her lipstick had smudged again or whether there were any other telltale marks.
Cherry gave a light cough. “Um, shall we get going?”
“Sure. Let’s go.”
Since traffic in Beijing could get congested in the evening, they set off a little early and rested in the tea lounge.
The reception hall was elegantly and understatedly decorated. Rock gardens and flowing water screened the outer area, and the main hall inside was done in a retro new-Chinese style.
Before the evening banquet began, luxury cars carrying prominent guests began arriving one after another in the underground parking garage. Guests stepped out and followed the staff upstairs.
When the time came, Jiang Wu registered with the assistant at the entrance and entered the hall. There were still few guests inside, and the scattered arrivals left the space looking rather empty.
She sat on a sofa in the dessert area and messaged Liang Xiaoyue to let her know she had arrived.
With nothing else to do, she looked through the guest list for the evening; quite a few names were familiar. She paid particular attention to the invited media.
But that column was blank.
She hesitated for a moment, just about to call over a nearby server to ask about it, when a familiar voice spoke beside her.
“Don’t worry. There won’t be any media here tonight.”
Jiang Wu paused and turned to see Li Qing approaching. She stood up in surprise. “Professor Li! You’re here too!”
Li Qing gestured for her to sit. “Go ahead.”
“I wanted to come and say hello a couple of days ago, but you were so busy with work that I never found the chance.”
Li Qing sat down opposite Jiang Wu. “I have some free time today, so I thought I’d come by and see how things were going. From what I can see, your project has been progressing fairly smoothly lately.”
Jiang Wu replied modestly, “That’s because we’ve had enough technical support from your side.”
Li Qing curved her lips into a smile and picked up the sake beside her, taking a small sip. “If this project succeeds… Perhaps you’ll be able to qualify for long-term collaboration in the future.”
Jiang Wu tried to understand what Li Qing meant and ventured to ask a little more. “Could I… work with you long term?”
“Of course.” Li Qing explained, “Not every project involving the tracing of cultural relics’ provenance requires access to confidential information.”
“If your work remains consistently reliable, we’ll certainly consider working with you on related projects.”
Li Qing looked at her. “You’re not the same person you were back then, after all.”
Back then, Jiang Wu had been a student with nothing to her name but her coursework. The only credentials available for evaluating and selecting her were her school records and experience.
Now, things were different.
“Have these past few years been hard on you?”
This was the second time in a short while that someone had said they thought she had struggled.
“Not at all,” Jiang Wu replied.
“Back then, I had to remain in China because of the training program’s requirements. But there are actually some advanced restoration techniques overseas, especially in image restoration, where the technology is more mature than it is here.”
Jiang Wu spoke of the decision she had made later. “Once I realized there was no longer any chance for me, I applied to study abroad and learned some new techniques.”
“I earned several international certifications, met some people along the way, and took on some private restoration work.”
Li Qing lowered her eyes. “The professional connections you’ve built, your relationships with collectors, your technical abilities, and even the influence you have in your own right—all of these can be advantages, provided you steer clear of confidential work. In a way, they can also help people understand just how important this work is.”
Li Qing looked at her. “I’m very happy to see the person you’ve become.”
A warm current, like spring water, seemed to unfurl in Jiang Wu’s chest, and a gentle smile rose naturally to her lips. “Thank you, Professor.”
Li Qing asked her another question. “Do you blame me?”
Jiang Wu had been feeling so happy that the question caught her off guard. For a moment, she thought she must have misheard.
Li Qing explained, “Do you blame me for removing you from the project team?”
Jiang Wu looked into the clear, deep eyes of the woman sitting opposite her. She genuinely couldn’t understand the question. “How could I possibly blame you?”
Jiang Wu had never forgotten that day. She had woken up to find her photos and the trending topics about her flooding the internet. Paparazzi and netizens had joined forces to put every detail of her student life online. They dug into her private life, her studies, her academic results, and everything else.
On her way to the restoration lab, people would recognize her from time to time, openly taking photos or snapping them in secret. Some even stopped her to ask all sorts of pointless questions.
On the surface, public opinion seemed overwhelmingly positive, showering her with praise. In reality, not a single thing about the situation had benefited her; only those close to her could understand the impact it had truly had.
When Jiang Wu arrived at the restoration lab, her classmates looked at her without daring to speak. None of them dared bring anything up with her, either.
Less than an hour later, Li Qing appeared in the lab, called her outside, and told her to go home and rest for the time being. She didn’t need to come in for the next few days.
That day, Jiang Wu had hidden in a corner to call Huo Qingzhi. She asked her brother to come and take her home. She was afraid to go outside alone.
Three days later, Jiang Wu received another message from Li Qing, instructing her to bring all her identification documents and related paperwork to the academy.
She had a vague idea of what was coming. Even now, she couldn’t quite remember how she had felt as she gathered the documents.
She delivered them to the academy, but by the following day, she could no longer hold back. She wanted to go there and ask what was happening.
She remembered standing in the corridor outside the academy offices and overhearing a conversation between Li Qing and the dean at the time.
“Professor Li, you’re a veteran teacher. It’s not as though you’ve only just joined the academy. Are you really unfamiliar with the screening requirements for personnel working on this kind of project?”
“I know the regulations,” Li Qing’s voice came from inside the office. “But we’ve spent six years training her. She truly is a talented and hardworking young woman. She’s so close to…”
The other person cut her off. “Talent and hard work are the least important considerations when screening people for confidential projects. Security is what matters most.”
“Professor Li, I understand what you mean. I know you can’t bear to let her go. You feel for her.”
“But she isn’t the child of anyone here. Even if her family passed the background checks, even if she changed her name and concealed her identity, cutting off certain connections doesn’t prove it’s foolproof… Personally, I never agreed with your decision to select her in the first place.” The man sighed. “If you’d listened to me back then, none of this would have happened.”
“Enough,” he said, handing Li Qing the review checklist. “Finish the assessment as soon as possible, then give her the news.”
“Every extra day she stays here is another day of risk for us.”
On the day Jiang Wu was summoned to the conference room, all the teachers who had trained her were seated opposite her.
Li Qing sat directly across from her and informed her that she was being removed from the project team. She set aside any personal feelings and spoke objectively and fairly.
Jiang Wu could more or less understand why Li Qing was asking her this question today. On the surface, Li Qing had been the one to deliver every piece of bad news to her.
The academy’s teachers had believed that Li Qing, with her mild temperament and gentle manner, was the person best suited to minimize the hurt the decision would cause Jiang Wu, or perhaps no one wanted to be the one to offend Jiang Wu’s family, so they had pushed forward the person with the gentlest disposition instead.
Jiang Wu was clear about one thing. “I’ve never blamed any of my teachers. I accept every decision the academy made about me. And I accept all the considerations the teachers had to make to ensure the security of their work.”
Li Qing looked at her, her expression complicated. Then, without warning, she reached out and gently stroked Jiang Wu’s cheek. “Good girl.”
“As for that photo incident, I’ll do what I can to make sure it never happens again.”
Li Qing’s gesture left Jiang Wu a little at a loss.
Li Qing’s voice was soft. “Enjoy yourself tonight. I’ll be going now.”
Jiang Wu rose to see her out, but Li Qing indicated that it wasn’t necessary. Jiang Wu couldn’t shake the feeling that Li Qing still had something she wanted to say, yet in the end, she said nothing more.
Guests were free to arrive and leave the reception as they pleased, with each invited VIP attending according to their own schedule. At around eight thirty, the number of guests reached its peak.
Li Qing and Liang Xiaoyue nearly passed each other on their way in and out. Seeing Jiang Wu walk over to see someone off, Liang Xiaoyue was surprised and waited nearby for a little while.
The music began as the international orchestra invited to perform at the reception took the stage.
As Jiang Wu explained, Liang Xiaoyue gradually got a sense of who Li Qing was. “She came all this way just to say a couple of words to you, then left?”
Jiang Wu considered it. “Maybe she just doesn’t particularly like coming to places like this.”
Liang Xiaoyue picked up on something else and smiled. “Did she come all this way just to talk to you?”
“How could that be? I’m not important enough for that. Maybe she had other projects to attend to.” After talking with Li Qing, Jiang Wu felt much lighter, both physically and emotionally. Tonight, she just wanted to enjoy herself.
She slipped her arm around Liang Xiaoyue’s and leaned affectionately against her. “It’s been so long, big sis.”
“I thought you’d forgotten all about me.” Liang Xiaoyue took her by the arm. “Come on. A few young starlets are here tonight to negotiate endorsement deals. I’ll take you to see.”
“Sounds good.”
Meanwhile, downstairs in the reception’s underground parking garage, Gu Jingsong’s car pulled in.
His assistant told him, “Director Wang has only just arrived, too. If we head over now, we should be able to catch him.”
“Okay.” Gu Jingsong hesitated before asking, “Is Miss Jiang here tonight?”
The assistant paused, then turned to answer him. “Miss Jiang is here as well.”
Gu Jingsong asked almost casually, “Who did she come with?”
“It seems she came alone, though Mr. Huo is on the invitation list, too.”
Gu Jingsong remembered that night when he had seen Huo Qingzhi going upstairs at Jiang Wu’s apartment building.
“Are the two of them living together now? Did Huo Qingzhi come to Beijing with her?”
The assistant nodded. “I heard he has business to take care of here. Perhaps he’s also keeping an eye on his sister, since she’s here alone.”
Gu Jingsong still felt that something wasn’t quite right, yet he kept telling himself he was overthinking it, that he couldn’t think so poorly of Huo Qingzhi. Then again, the boyfriend Jiang Wu had was less attentive to her than her own older brother. Whatever Jiang Wu was doing, her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, her brother was the one running around taking care of everything. And she was so devoted to the boyfriend anyway, even sending him gifts.
Watching all this day after day, would Huo Qingzhi really be fine with his sister being with someone like that?
No.
Gu Jingsong had always been sensitive by nature. He still felt that something was wrong, as though a knot had formed somewhere in the middle of the whole situation, keeping everything from quite adding up.
Distracted, Gu Jingsong opened the car door and got out.
Just then, Huo Qingzhi stepped out of a Cullinan parked not far away.
Gu Jingsong spotted him from a distance, pushed his thoughts aside, and prepared to go over and greet him. But as he drew closer, his gaze landed on the tie around Huo Qingzhi’s neck, and he came to an abrupt halt!
That familiar, cool, shadowy tie pattern burst into his sight without warning!
It overlapped perfectly with the photograph of the gift he had seen on Jiang Wu’s phone. A strange, subtle feeling surged through his mind, growing rapidly as all the inconsistencies he had noticed over the past few days converged.
Then, with a deafening crash, everything fell into place.
All that remained was the sentence Jiang Wu had used to turn him down: Thank you for choosing a tie for my boyfriend.
In an instant, every puzzle that had once seemed impossible to solve suddenly made sense.
Cold sweat broke out in his palms.
Boyfriend…
Boyfriend?!
Huo Qingzhi?!
Huo Qingzhi passed by him and noticed Gu Jingsong standing not far away, staring at him in a daze. He gave Gu Jingsong no more than a brief, indifferent glance before heading straight for the VIP elevator.
Only when a voice called from behind him did he stop.
“Mr. Huo!”
Gu Jingsong was still looking at him with undisguised shock, unable to regain his composure even after all that time.
Ten minutes later, Huo Qingzhi and Gu Jingsong sat facing each other in a private room with the doors closed, no one else around, just the two of them. In the brief silence, neither spoke.
Huo Qingzhi simply watched the man opposite him, waiting for him to speak with the innate poise of someone used to holding the upper hand.
Gu Jingsong had managed to steady himself by now, but his eyes still lingered on Huo Qingzhi’s tie. “Mr. Huo, that’s a very nice tie. I wonder who has such good taste.”
Huo Qingzhi replied tersely, “I don’t see what that has to do with you.”
“I was only asking. There’s no need to be so hostile, Mr. Huo.”
“You should know that you didn’t go out of your way to bring me here just to ask about a tie.” Huo Qingzhi seemed able to see straight through his thoughts. “What, have you seen it before?”
“I have.” Gu Jingsong lowered his eyes. “Ah Wu is a very straightforward, honest, and sincere girl.”
“That day, she asked me to help her choose a gift for someone. She told me it was for her boyfriend.”
Gu Jingsong looked at Huo Qingzhi and enunciated each word. “Seeing is believing.”
Having so bluntly exposed the hidden relationship between two people who had once been brother and sister and were now lovers, Gu Jingsong had expected Huo Qingzhi to show some sign of guilt, embarrassment, or any of the other reactions one would normally expect.
But Huo Qingzhi merely leaned back against the leather sofa.
A pair of gold-rimmed glasses still rested on the bridge of his nose, the gold-rimmed glasses he’d worn to class still on the bridge of his nose, his slicked-back hair giving off a scholarly elegance, and showed not the slightest extra reaction to what Gu Jingsong had said.
Yet his composure carried immense, intangible pressure.
Instead, he gave a cold scoff and replied with just two words. “Pleased to meet you.”