To My Dear Mr. Huo

Zhang Yichen’s car was parked outside the house. He was walking toward it at that moment.

Huo Jinyao was driving toward the location of the gathering. He stopped to greet Zhang Yichen when he saw him.

“Uncle, let me give you a ride. The restaurant isn’t far away from here. Also, I’d like to have a chat with you.”

Zhang Yichen stopped walking. Zhang Xinghua and the others had gotten into their own cars. He paused for a second and then got into Huo Jinyao’s car.

Liu Tongjia had already got a ride with her husband, Huo Mingguang. Following behind Huo Jinyao’s car was Huo Yifan’s car.

Su Peizhen was sitting in Huo Yifan’s car. Watching Zhang Yichen get into Huo Jinyao’s car, she smiled a bigger smile.

‘Huo Jinyao, you consider yourself smart, but you can’t even tell when someone has his covetous eyes fixed on your wife,’ she said in her head.

‘What a fool!

‘Never mind, I’ll kindly give you a heads up, so you won’t stay blind and stupid for long.’

In Huo Jinyao’s car, Su Qingsang was sitting in the front seat while Zhang Yichen entered and sat in the backseat.

“Uncle, how many days off do you have this time?”

“Three days,” Zhang Yichen answered simply.

Su Qingsang glanced in the rearview mirror. Somehow, she felt as though Zhang Yichen didn’t seem as happy as he usually was.

She had no particular interest in how Zhang Yichen was feeling, so she turned her eyes away.

Then, she saw a street stall by the roadside selling roasted sweet potatoes. That made her eyes glow.

But she remembered that she was on her way to lunch. There would be no room left in her stomach for lunch if she put a roasted sweet potato into it.

At the traffic light, Huo Jinyao stopped the car and noticed Su Qingsang staring at the stall.

“You’re not wanting a roasted sweet potato again, are you?”

“Why can’t I be?” Su Qingsang glanced at him and retorted. “It’s good.”

“We’re going to have lunch soon. If you eat a roasted sweet potato before lunch, you won’t be eating anything at lunch.”

“I’m aware of that. I’m just looking at it.”

Despite what she said, her eyes expressed a completely different emotion. Huo Jinyao helplessly pulled over when the light turned green and got off the car.

Under Su Qingsang’s doting gaze, he quickly went to the stall and bought the roasted sweet potato. Then, he came back to the car and put the sweet potato in her hands.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

Su Qingsang took the sweet potato from him, grinned like a satisfied cat.

“Don’t thank me. If I find that you are unable to eat anything at lunch because of this, I’ll never let you touch it again.”

Huo Jinyao talked to her like a parent threatening his child. Su Qingsang pulled her tongue and made a face to him.

“I’ll eat half of it and leave the other half to you. That way I’ll still be able to eat something else later.”

Huo Jinyao didn’t bother responding to that. He turned the car away from the curb and started driving again.

“No? It’d be such a waste to throw the other half away.”

Huo Jinyao reached out a hand to rub Su Qingsang’s cheek and said, “Alright, just eat. I’ll eat the other half, okay?”

“Oh Jinyao, you’re so nice,” Su Qingsang cooed and then leaned toward Huo Jinyao, kissing him on his cheek.

Only after that did she remember that Zhang Yichen was sitting in the backseat. She blushed and quickly shrank back with a very chastised expression.

Huo Jinyao noticed her reaction. He didn’t take it to heart though. In his eyes, Zhang Yichen was about the same age as he was, but he considered him an elder to be respected.

He looked at Su Qingsang and said, “Really? Does a simple roasted sweet potato make you that happy?”

Su Qingsang glared at him, as if to say to him, ‘You’ll never understand!’ He would never understand that kind of pure and simple joy.

To be polite, Su Qingsang asked Zhang Yichen if he wanted the roasted sweet potato.

Zhang Yichen looked at her and shook his head with no expression on his face. Su Qingsang found herself feeling silly. Who else would be so eager to have a roasted sweet potato as she did before lunch?

The sweet taste of the roasted sweet potato helped to distract her from the embarrassment. She ate less than half of it and then stopped herself.

Before getting off the car, she lifted the rest of the roasted sweet potato and held it out to Huo Jinyao, calling his name, “Jinyao.”

Huo Jinyao looked at her. Without taking the sweet potato from her hands, he finished it with a few large gulps.

In the meantime, Zhang Yichen got off the car without saying a word to the two of them.

The door was slammed loudly. Su Qingsang’s hands which were holding the sweet potato trembled ever so slightly. She glanced at Zhang Yichen who had begun heading toward the restaurant and couldn’t help but look at Huo Jinyao questioningly.

“Is your uncle angry?”

“Why would he be? He doesn’t get angry that easily.”

Huo Jinyao glanced at Zhang Yichen’s retreating back and had that weird feeling again.

2

In fact, part of the reason he had offered Zhang Yichen a ride earlier was to test him.

Zhang Yichen never wore his heart on his sleeve, but through careful observations, one would notice that he became increasingly sullen every time he saw Su Qingsang with him.

Huo Jinyao grew suspicious. His eyes flickered to Su Qingsang’s face.

She didn’t seem to think much more about Zhang Yichen’s behavior. Realizing that, Huo Jinyao felt slightly relieved.

But still, he wanted to test Zhang Yichen to see if his hunch was right.

There were so many people gathered for lunch that one table couldn’t fit them all. In the end, it took two large tables to settle the entire family.

The elder ones took one table while the young people took the other. Somehow, Zhang Yichen ended up on one side of Huo Jinyao, and Su Qingsang on Huo Jinyao’s other side.

Zhang Yichen and Huo Jinyao were close, so having the two of them sit together didn’t arouse anyone’s suspicions.

Next to Su Qingsang was Su Peizhen and Huo Yifan.

Su Peizhen waited a while before sitting down because she wanted to sit next to Su Qingsang.

Huo Jinyao didn’t plan to drink any alcohol because he needed to drive home. Su Qingsang didn’t like drinking, so she politely declined the alcohol as well.

Su Peizhen didn’t want to give up the opportunity presented to her so easily. She raised her glass, looking at Zhang Yichen.

“Uncle, this is our first meeting. Let’s clink our glasses.”

Su Peizhen raised her glass and made a toast. Zhang Yichen usually refused to drink alcohol, but today, for some reason, he started drinking.

Su Peizhen smiled, drank half of the wine in her glass, and then glanced at Huo Yifan.

“Aren’t you going to offer a toast to your uncle?”

Huo Yifan glanced at her, wondering what she was trying to do. But indeed, he was rather close to Zhang Yichen, even though he was not as close as Huo Jinyao was to Zhang Yichen.

“Uncle, for you,” he said and raised his glass.

Following the two of them, Huo Manzi, Huo Yiyang, Huo Qinghan, Huo Wanqing, and their other cousins each offered a toast to Zhang Yichen, who was their uncle as well.

The younger family members often got together, but Zhang Yichen rarely showed up due to the nature of his job.

Almost every New Year or any other holidays, he had to stay in the army or go on missions, rarely getting the time to attend family gatherings.

Zhang Yichen usually kept himself very strictly disciplined. But today, he drank a shot each time someone offered him a toast. Maybe it was because of the festive atmosphere, or because he hadn’t met up with the family for too long.

Su Qingsang was having a good time with Huo Jinyao. However, seeing Zhang Yichen drink so much, she started to feel a little bit uneasy, like something wasn’t quite right with him.

She glanced at Huo Jinyao and signaled for him to stop Zhang Yichen from drinking.

Zhang Yichen was an uncle of all at the table. He could have reasonably refused to drink like he usually did if he didn’t want to drink so much.

Huo Jinyao turned to Zhang Yichen. He had also sensed the strange atmosphere around Zhang Yichen.

But he didn’t try to stop the man from drinking as Su Qingsang had wanted him too. On the contrary, he glanced at Su Qingsang and signaled for her to pick up her cup.

Neither was he nor Su Qingsang had alcohol in their cups.

“Uncle, we’ve replaced alcohol with tea, but we still want to offer a toast to you.”

Su Qingsang paused briefly with surprise. She didn’t understand why Huo Jinyao wanted Zhang Yichen to drink some more. He had already drunk a lot.

Zhang Yichen raised his glass, looking at Huo Jinyao and Su Qingsang.

His eyes seemed to land on Huo Jinyao, but the one he was actually focusing on was Su Qingsang.

He emptied his glass in one shot when Huo Jinyao raised his cup.

Su Qingsang gently pulled at Huo Jinyao’s sleeve, signaling wildly for him to stop encouraging Zhang Yichen to drink more, and also to stop the others from doing the same.

Zhang Yichen turned his eyes away from her and started drinking again.

Huo Jinyao didn’t offer another toast. He found that although Zhang Yichen was probably drunk, he glanced at him often instead of at Su Qingsang. At that moment, he thought that perhaps he had been overthinking.

Zhang Yichen continued drinking constantly. His behavior shocked the elders who were at the other table. Huo Yangxiu, Huo Yangyuan, and Old Master Huo all told the other young people to stop offering him anymore toasts.

The cousins quieted down, but Zhang Yichen was already drunk.

Luckily, he hadn’t brought his car but took Huo Jinyao’s to the restaurant instead.

Huo Jinyao and Zhang Liangze dragged Zhang Yichen into Zhang Liangze’s car. Zhang Liangze was going to ask Zhang Hanlei to come over to take care of Zhang Yichen, but Huo Jinyao said there was no need. He said it would take only a short while to drive back to the family house and Zhang Yichen could get some rest there.

Su Peizhen was watching Zhang Yichen the whole time, with a smile. The smile on her face was so gloating that it alerted Huo Yifan to the fact that something was probably up.

“I have a hunch that you’re up to something.”

“Yeah.” Su Peizhen didn’t intend to conceal it at all. “Take a guess. Who’s my target this time?”

“Huo Jinyao? Su Qingsang?”

Su Peizhen shook her head and put her arms around Huo Yifan’s neck.

“I really want something now, but I don’t know anyone who’s selling it. However, I believe that you’ll be able to help me.”

“What is it?”

Su Peizhen leaned toward Huo Yifan and whispered a few words into his ear.

Huo Yifan looked at her with confusion.

“What do you want that for?”

“I’m not telling you that now, but you’ll be able to figure it out if you can get that thing delivered to me before we returned to the family house.”

Huo Yifan gave her a meaningful glance and made a call.

After he ended his call, he looked at Su Peizhen and said, “Someone will deliver it to you in fifteen minutes. I still want to know what exactly you are planning to do though.”

Su Peizhen didn’t answer the question. She got into the car and buckled herself up.

“I’ve been with your family a few times and I’ve been observing. I found that the person Aunt Liu dislikes isn’t Su Qingsang but Huo Jinyao. May I ask why?”

If Liu Tongjia disliked Su Qingsang only, she would have told Huo Jinyao about Su Qingsnag and Zhang Yichen as soon as she found that out.

But instead of that, she kept it to herself.

That led to two possibilities. The first possibility was that Liu Tongjia loved her son and wanted to protect him from this cruel fact.

However, judging by Liu Tongjia’s behavior, the truth could very likely lean toward the second possibility: Liu Tongjia did not like Huo Jinyao, so she didn’t care if his wife was cheating on him or not. On the contrary, she would be was happy to see something like this happen to him.

It could even be worse than she thought. Liu Tongjia might be planning on grasping this opportunity to slap Huo Jinyao in the face.

Maybe she wanted him to live a miserable life as a result of refusing to marry the woman that she had chosen for him.

Huo Yifan glanced at her. The curiosity in her eyes didn’t surprise him.

He didn’t answer her question though. “I don’t know why that is,” he said. “I only know that my aunt has been like that towards him for a long time already.”

He used to have an older cousin who was very nice and a younger cousin who was super cute.

But since the year his grandma passed away, both their names became taboo in the family. No one was allowed to mention them again.

Huo Jinyao was probably disliked by his mother since then.

Huo Yifan and his other cousins didn’t know what happened exactly. They were all forbidden from mentioning those two names, so none of them dared to ask any questions about them—must less demand to know the truth.

Su Peizhen looked at Huo Yifan’s face. He really didn’t seem to know the answer.

She wasn’t frustrated at all. Finding out the truth about that might give her another opportunity.

There must be a unique reason that would cause a mother to dislike her own son this much.

That reason, along with what she was planning, could lead to an end result that would be so interesting to see…

Huo Jinyao put Zhang Yichen in a guest room. Liu Tongjia had arranged for the guest rooms to be prepared for the relatives to stay.

The room for Zhang Yichen was usually on the third floor, the same floor as Old Master Huo’s room because he had always been close to Old Master Huo.

Huo Jinyao didn’t know about that. He wanted to go back to his own room quickly, so he conveniently put Zhang Yichen in the room next to his.

Su Qingsang followed Huo Jinyao at a distance and watched him help Zhang Yichen into the room, onto the bed.

“I think he’s really drunk. Should I ask someone to bring him some soup to help him sober up?”

“I’ll make a call and tell Xia to bring him the soup,” Huo Jinyao agreed.

He turned to look at Su Qingsang. There was no excessive concern or worry in her eyes.

She was looking at Zhang Yichen the way normal people look at their relatives. As one of the hosts, she was simply looking after her guest.

“You must be tired. Go back to the room and get some rest. I’ll look after him.”

Su Qingsang did as he suggested. She felt herself feeling embarrassed almost every time she ran into Zhang Yichen. For that reason alone, she did not want to stay.

After she left, Huo Jinyao looked at Zhang Yichen’s face. He was so drunk that his cheeks were scarlet.

Earlier, was he looking at Su Qingsang that way on purpose or not? Huo Jinyao wondered.

Huo Jinyao had grown up together with Zhang Yichen, so he didn’t want to think of him as a bad person.

He stayed in the room for a while. Xia still hadn’t shown up with the soup, so he went out to find Xia and see what was stalling her.

The house had many guests today. Zhang Yichen was the most drunken one, but some others had also gotten themselves drunk as well. Some of the other elders also drank a lot.

Liu Tongjia was busy directing the housekeeping staff to serve these people the hangover soup.

Huo Jinyao stood by the stairs, listening to Liu Tongjia’s commanding voice. Knowing the soup would be delivered soon, he turned and returned to Zhang Yichen’s room to continue waiting.

At that time, Su Peizhen was helping in the kitchen. She had been in the family house only a few times since. When she showed up in the kitchen, Mr. Cheng, Xia, and the other housekeeping staff all found it abhorrent to give her any actual work to do.

“Don’t be nervous. I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m here to help. There’re a lot of guests out there. You guys need to prepare the desserts, drinks, as well as the hangover soup. There’s too much work to do. I saw Aunt Liu just now and asked to come here to help you out.”

Liu Tongjia had thought she wanted to leave a good impression on the family, so she sent her to the kitchen without thinking.

‘She likes people to see her make her contributions, so I’ll give her this chance. Does she think she can earn the Old Master’s favor this way? How naive!’ That was what Liu Tongjia thought.

Xia and Jiang knew that Su Peizhen was a regular guest of the family, so they didn’t think much about her behavior.

Su Peizhen stepped up, pointing to a tray.

“Is this the hangover soup for the guests? Let me bring it to them.”

Jiang and Xia couldn’t talk her out of it. After letting her know whom the soup was for, Xia brought her upstairs.

Su Peizhen was only there to help, but Xia had to do her job.

“Alright, you lead the way and I’ll carry the tray.”

Su Peizhen smiled an extra warm smile which allowed Xia to relax her wary expression.

The Huo Family’s housekeepers were paid higher than average household staff and their workloads weren’t even heavy. Their employers had always been polite to them, but not as nice as Su Peizhen was being.

Xia liked Su Peizhen’s attitude. She walked ahead of Su Peizhen quickly.

Su Peizhen followed behind her, delivering the soup to the people who had gotten drunk.

Soon, only one bowl of soup was left on the tray. Su Peizhen followed Xia to Zhang Yichen’s room which turned out to be empty.

Xia thought for a moment. Zhang Yichen usually stayed at the room next to Huo Jinyao’s so he might be there this time as well.

“He might be at the room next to Young Master Huo. This is the last one. Just let me do it, Ms. Su.”

“Alright.” Su Peizhen smiled and handed the tray to Xia.

“Is this for Uncle Yichen?”

“Yeah, this is the last one. I’ll bring it to him. You should go and get some rest. Thank you for helping me.”

“It’s nothing. Don’t mention it. I’m just glad that I can help to lighten the burden of Aunt Liu and Grandpa.”

Xia nodded. She understood what Su Peizhen meant. Su Peizhen was going to marry Huo Yifan, but in the family, Liu Tongjia and Old Master Huo were the real decision-makers.

She brought the soup to the room next to Huo Jinyao’s. Su Peizhen didn’t hurry to leave but followed along towards the stairs, taking very slow steps.

On her way, she casually made a turn and walked toward Huo Jinyao’s room.

By the time she walked to Zhang Yichen’s room, Xia was already in the room.

She saw the man lying asleep on the bed. She knew the effect of the drug wouldn’t show anytime soon.

She simply wanted to make sure that it was Zhang Yichen who received the soup.