To My Dear Mr. Huo

“It’s me. I’m the one who caused their death.”

The room fell into an eerie silence after he said that.

Su Qingsang looked at Huo Jinyao. She could not believe it. There was actually such a person in this world?

He thought that he caused the death of his elder brother and younger sister, so he did not explain himself, even though he knew that his mother had misunderstood him, in order to be punished for something that was beyond his control.

He had endured that misunderstanding all this time and suffered alone for so many years. How much pain had he been in his whole life?

Su Qingsang felt a sharp pain in her chest and her heart ached for him. This visceral pain made her realize after he finished telling his story that she had been crying and that her face was streaked with tears.

People always lived hoping that miracles would happen in their lives, but for most people most of the time, there was simply no such thing in this world.

The death of Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang was regrettably painful. The kidnapping incident alone took place when it shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and it was already a tragedy.

No matter how remorseful, upset, and anguished Huo Jinyao had been about his role in their deaths, there was no way to bring his siblings back to life.

He had been unable to let go of his own incompetence and could not forgive his twelve-year-old self for making this daring and impulsive decision.

So, he had tortured himself for the past ten to twenty years.

Wasn’t his suffering in silence just one more tragedy?

Huo Jinyao did not notice that Su Qingsang was crying at first; he had been too caught up in his memories.

To be honest, he rarely recalled the past—almost never. In fact, he had hoped that he would lose all his memories and forget all about those three days he was kidnapped if it was possible.

To him, those three days were the darkest moments of his life.

The torment he suffered and the agony he went through were like nightmares that he could not forget no matter what the rest of his life was like.

Su Qingsang’s face was stained with tears, and her vision of Huo Jinyao became blurred as she cried without making a sound.

She moved her lips as if she wanted to say something, but it was like there was a lump in her throat, and she couldn’t say a single word.

In the end, she hugged Huo Jinyao tightly, with all her strength.

Huo Jinyao stayed still. He was rather tense.

He was completely caught up in the emotions that the memories of the kidnapping had brought back.

For so many years, he had blamed himself and felt guilty alone. There had been no one he could talk to about these feelings.

There was no one who would understand the depth of his pain, not just of losing his family but of being the reason they were lost.

Who could he talk to? The people in the Huo Family?

They were just like him, suffering the pain of loss.

The other person who hurt the most because of this incident was Liu Tongjia.

She had lost two children in a day.

One was her elder son whom she was proud of.

And another was her youngest daughter whom she had always wanted and cherished dearly.

Huo Jinyao understood Liu Tongjia’s pain. So, he couldn’t defend himself even though he knew that Liu Tongjia had misunderstood him.

Huo Jinkai had stopped him that day and they had talked about it.

But he didn’t listen to his older brother and insisted on having it his way.

And it eventually led to such an outcome.

They could have just waited for three days. It would be alright if they just gotten through those three days.

But he couldn’t wait.

And so, his elder brother and younger sister failed to make it out alive.

Huo Jinyao did not cry. He hadn’t shed a single tear since he was twelve years old.

For a very long period of time, he had struggled to suppress his emotions and held himself back desperately.

He had gotten used to the disapproval and cold treatment he received from Liu Tongjia for the past years of his life.

There was even a period of time that he actually relished the treatment he felt he deserved from Liu Tongjia.

It helped to ease the burden of his guilt.

But he never thought that a day would come in which Liu Tongjia would sabotage his relationship with Su Qingsang just because she disliked him.

Tears were streaming down Su Qingsang’s face in torrents. They were indoors, so they were not wearing a lot.

She hugged him tightly again, and very quickly, her tears soaked through his shirt.

He lowered his head when he felt his chest become damp. The pain from the memories had made his eyes turn red.

He seemed to see Su Qingsang clearly only after he blinked a few times.

He reached out his hand and caressed her cheeks with slow and soothing movements.

“Why are you crying?”

Su Qingsang couldn’t speak. She could only hold onto him tightly and shake her head in despair.

So foolish. How could there exist such a foolish person?

“Don’t cry. I’m fine.”

He was already in pain and he had been hurting for a long time.

The regret he felt about the incident kept cutting into him, and his guilt haunted him.

He had no way of releasing his pain, no way to make amends, and that was why he would get nightmares occasionally.

“I’m really alright.”

Su Qingsang did not believe what he said.

If that was the case, he would not have been troubled with the nightmares for so many years.

He wouldn’t have called out for his mother when he was sick.

He was a grown man, but somehow his emotions had stayed trapped in the time when he was twelve years old.

Emotionally, he was still that young boy.

A helpless young boy who had been kidnapped and hurt beyond repair.

He longed for the love of his mother, her forgiveness, and care from his family.

In fact, Liu Tongjia and Huo Mingguang had owed him that much, for all the years that had passed.

How could Liu Tongjia do this to him?

How could she?

Huo Jinyao was clearly a victim as well, and he needed warm words and comfort from Liu Tongjia too. Huo Jinyao needed her as his mother to nurse him out of the pain he was suffering.

But what did Liu Tongjia do to him?

She suspected him. She blamed him.

And her hatred for him remained consistent for every single moment since then.

Su Qingsang was crying uncontrollably. Her heart ached so much that she couldn’t breathe.

She raised her head to look at Huo Jinyao, and she shook her head repeatedly when he insisted that he was alright.

“No, it’s not like that.”

Her voice was trembling and choked with tears.

She shook her head and hugged him tightly.

“No, that’s not it at all.”

It was not over, and he was not okay.

“How could she do that to you?”

“How could she?”

Su Qingsang kept repeating these words.

She wanted to say that Liu Tongjia was wrong, and she wanted to tell Liu Tongjia that she should make it up to Huo Jinyao.

But she couldn’t say it out loud and kept sniffling instead. Finally, she raised her head and saw the pained look on Huo Jinyao’s face.

“I… I’ll go and tell her.”

She let go of his hands, wanting to rush over immediately to Liu Tongjia’s room.

“I’ll go now.”

She had to make this clear to Liu Tongjia.

Liu Tongjia had already lost a son and a daughter.

Does she want to lose her remaining child as well?

It was the easiest thing in the world to hurt somebody’s feelings, but it was not an easy thing to recover after that.

Liu Tongjia had been wrong.

Since she had made a mistake, she should be the one to fix it.

Huo Jinyao grabbed her instinctively and pulled her back into his arms just as she was about to rush out of the room.

“Don’t go!”

“Huo Jinyao?”

“You don’t have to tell her.”

Huo Jinyao looked at her face. He lifted his hands and with his thumbs, wiped her tears away, bit by bit.

He wiped her face slowly, really slowly.

He looked at her until he had returned to his usual calm demeanor.

“There is no need to tell her about it.”

Huo Jinyao pursed his lips determinedly, and his handsome face showed indifference.

“It was difficult for her too.”

Liu Tongjia’s pain was no less than his. If anything, her pain was even more than his.

Throughout all these past years that the nightmares had tortured Huo Jinyao, they did the same to Liu Tongjia.

There was a period of time in which Liu Tongjia was unable to stop getting the nightmares, no matter what she tried to do.

She had insomnia each and every night, and she would wake up with a shock every time.

Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang were the children she gave birth to after ten months of pregnancy.

Her heart ached especially for Huo Wushuang.

The departure of her youngest daughter was the most agonizing tragedy of the entire Huo Family.

When Liu Tongjia misunderstood Huo Jinyao’s role in the deaths of her other children, she found a way to transfer her pain to someone else.

She got better, having someone else to blame, having someone to bear her pain, anger, and hatred of the loss—Huo Jinyao.

Huo Jinyao knew that. He knew all of that.

That was why he was unwilling to explain himself.

Just let it be.

If there must be someone, someone who had to take the blame and be responsible for the losses…

Then, it was better for him to be the one.

He owed that much to Liu Tongjia. He had to pay that much for his faults.

Huo Jinyao had wiped away all of Su Qingsang’s tears, but her eyes were still red.

She just stared at Huo Jinyao, her eyes wide and perplexed.

“Huo Jinyao?”

“I’m really alright.”

Who knew how many times Huo Jinyao had said that he was alright?

Even he knew that Su Qingsang was not going to believe it, even he knew it was just a lie he used to deceive himself and those around him.

But Su Qingsang did not want to argue him about this.

She tiptoed and kissed him gently on his lips.

She carefully outlined the shape of his lips.

His lips were beautiful and sexy. They were not considered full but were slightly thin.

There used to be a saying that people with thin lips had fewer emotions.

But now she felt that his lips were just right.

Soft and bright red in color, just like his warm heart.

As she was kissing him, her tears streamed down her face again.

And then she couldn’t kiss him anymore.

Tears rolled down her face. She blinked a few times and hugged him tightly.

Huo Jinyao hugged her back, and her tears soaked into his shirt once again.

He locked his arms tight around her.

He lowered his head to kiss her forehead, her eyes, and her face, kissing away all her tears.

His final kiss landed on her lip, just a light peck, and he hugged her again.

They did not talk anymore. They just hugged each other.

Time seemed to have come to a standstill. He needed time, and so did she.

She slowly composed herself, and finally stopped crying.

It was just her eyes that remained very swollen.

He lowered his head to look at her and sighed softly.

“There, there. It’s alright. Let’s go wash your face and put a compress over your eyes. If not, you will feel uncomfortable later on.”

They still had to be present at dinner tonight.

She would probably attract a lot of attention if she went with her face like that.

Su Qingsang sniffled and nodded heavily.

Huo Jinyao pulled her in the direction of the bathroom.

Neither of them said anything. Su Qingsang watched him take out a towel, wet it, and wring it out, before gently wiping her face.

His actions were really gentle as if he was cleaning something he treasured dearly.

Su Qingsang blinked and she spoke after Huo Jinyao retracted his hands.

“Huo Jinyao. Have you ever thought about leaving the Huo Family? Or leaving Tianyu Group?”

Huo Jinyao’s hand paused mid-wring.

He glanced at her and nodded.

“Then—”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but I can’t.”

Old Master Huo knew all about the incident and how much it pained him.

He knew about Liu Tongjia’s pain and agony as well.

And because he knew and understood everything, he never said a single word about their relationship throughout all these years.

Old Master Huo had way more life experiences, so he thought about it differently.

He was able to let it go and accept the way things turned out.

But that was not necessarily the case for the others.

Old Master Huo understood that, and although his heart ached for Huo Jinyao, he chose to never be indulgent.

“Be it the Huo Family, or Tianyu Group, they are all my responsibilities.”

If Huo Jinkai was still around, they would have been his responsibilities.

But since he had passed away and Huo Jinyao had played a part in his death, it was the least he could do.

It was of no use for him to persuade himself repeatedly that their deaths were just an accident. He had tried that many times.

“Unless, someday, someone comes along who can really take on these responsibilities. If not, I will continue to shoulder them.”

Su Qingsang stopped talking. She understood why. She understood his decision.

But…

“How about Huo Yifan?”

“Him?”

Huo Jinyao had no bad feelings toward Huo Yifan. And, Huo Jinyao’s relationship with his cousin had even been quite good in the past.

He did not know when it started, but Huo Yifan and his other cousins started to harbor hostile feelings towards him.

It wasn’t just them, but the Wei Family as well. And even the Liu Family.

The main cause of all the changes in their attitudes was Liu Tongjia’s apparent dislike towards him.

Huo Jinyao knew, but because of his tolerance of Liu Tongjia’s treatment of him, he had tolerated all the other opinions of him that came along with it.

“Don’t worry about him. He can’t do much.”

When it came to Huo Jinyao and his elder brother, they were both heirs who had been meticulously nurtured by Old Master Huo.

In this aspect, Old Master Huo was partial. To him, it wasn’t just the eldest son or the eldest grandchild who could take over the family.

He believed that there were different responsibilities for everyone in life.

His way of nurturing and training each grandchild had been different as well.

Huo Yifan’s capabilities were not bad at all, but his shortcoming was that he was often overconfident and would get conceited easily.

With this kind of shortcoming, Tianyu Group would be unable to expand further if it was taken over by him.

So, he could never be Huo Jinyao’s opponent.

“I know that you are better than him.” Su Qingsang was worried about something else. “But now, he is mixing with Su Peizhen. I keep having the feeling that they are coming forward with bad intentions.”

Huo Jinyao leaned forward to kiss her on both cheeks.

“Thank you for your compliments, dear. You just said that your husband is better than him. If that’s the case, so what if Su Peizhen is added into the equation? What can they do?”

Su Qingsang nodded and laughed at herself for thinking too much.

“Anyway, I am not too sure about the things related to your business, so I won’t be able to help you. I just want you to be alright.”

Huo Jinyao reached out and stroked her hair.

“Let’s go out. You need to relax a little, before we have to go and eat dinner in a while.”

Su Qingsang glanced over at the room next door when both of them were about to go down the stairs.

“Is Uncle alright?”

To avoid any misunderstanding, Su Qingsang had left the room after the doctor came to treat Zhang Yichen.

“He’s alright. But he probably won’t be able to get up for dinner.”

It would be better too if he was not there.

Up till now, Su Qingsang still thought that Zhang Yichen did those things to her because he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

But Huo Jinyao knew that it was not entirely the case.

Zhang Yichen’s inner feelings were just augmented by the influence of the drugs and alcohol.

Zhang Yichen had been really interested in Su Qingsang.

But Huo Jinyao would never tell Su Qingsang about that.

He thought about the scene just now where she was crying for him and remembered the moment when she wanted to rush over to Liu Tongjia to explain everything on his behalf.

Qingsang was such a good woman, so it was not surprising that other men liked her as well.

But even then, the fewer love rivals he had, the better it would be.

Su Qingsang nodded. She did feel sympathy, even though Liu Tongjia did something like this, but she really couldn’t understand why.

If Liu Tongjia had succeeded in framing her and told everyone that she had a daughter-in-law who cheated on her husband, how would that make her feel better?

Or did she really hate Huo Jinyao that much?

So, she not only wanted to take away his rights to the company, but she also wanted to ruin him forever?

Su Qingsang sighed internally. It would be cruel if Liu Tongjia really did think like that.

Even so, Huo Jinyao was being stubborn and refusing to clarify the misunderstanding between him and his mother about the kidnapping incident. Who knew what Liu Tongjia would try next?

“Don’t worry.”

Huo Jinyao stopped in his tracks suddenly as if he knew what she was thinking about.

“I have already talked to my mother about it. She will not do something like this again.”

Su Qingsang noticed that he was expressionless when he said this, and she could almost guess the expression Liu Tongjia had on her face when he talked to her about it.

“You mother—”

“I have told her that I draw the line at you, so there will be no more next time.”

Su Qingsang pursed her lips and nodded her head heavily, biting her lower lip.

She was suddenly flooded with the realization that she loved Huo Jinyao more and more with each day.

After today, her heart ached all the more for him, and she also admired him now, in addition to her love.

No one else would have been able to do survive such an ordeal, but Huo Jinyao did it.

He had endured so many things that he shouldn’t have had to.

He also experienced many things that he should not have had to experience.

Frankly, the heavens had been really unfair to him.

During dinner, there were several people at the dining table who didn’t look too happy.

It was obvious, especially to Huo Jinyao and Su Qingsang. Although she was able to compose herself by dinnertime, when she saw Liu Tongjia again, she was still unable to understand her behavior.

Liu Tongjia doesn’t look too good as well. Huo Mingguang did not return to the room in the afternoon.

So, she stayed in the room alone for the entire afternoon.

Huo Jinyao’s words had affected her after all.

She did not cry, but her eyes were a little red and she looked rather haggard.

If one were to look closely, she had put on some makeup to cover up her pained emotions.

Huo Jinyao did not look at Liu Tongjia, and so naturally, he did not notice the change in the look on her face.

Even though Huo Jinyao had made up his mind to tolerate everything his mother did, he just wanted to ignore her now.

Su Qingsang did not take notice of her either. She found herself still unable to forgive Liu Tongjia.

However, Old Master Huo and Huo Mingguang noticed.

But there was no suitable time to talk about it since all of their relatives were around.

Huo Mingguang leaned in towards Liu Tongjia’s ear and he said to her softly, “If you are tired, rest earlier tonight. Pull yourself together since everyone is here.”

They had been a married couple for many years, so he could sense when she was feeling down at any point in time.

Liu Tongjia glanced over at her husband and responded to him softly, with obvious exhaustion on her face.

Su Peizhen and Huo Yifan arrived late. Su Peizhen had an especially rosy complexion on her face.

She looked radiant, glowing blissfully.

Most people who were there simply thought that it was because Su Peizhen and Huo Yifan had a good relationship and were getting along well with each other.

But that was not the case for Nian Chunya. She frowned slightly when she saw Su Peizhen.

As someone who would be marrying her son in the future, Su Peizhen didn’t stick to her boundaries nor did she respect her as a mother-in-law either. Those aspects of Su Peizhen were enough to make Nian Chunya unhappy, even if Old Master Huo really liked her.

Su Peizhen didn’t care if Nian Chunya looked pleased or not. Natural and poised, she walked over arm in arm with Huo Yifan. When she approached the main gathering, she looked around and her eyes landed on Su Qingsang at the back.

With that one glance, she saw that Su Qingsang seemed a little different and the corners of her lips turned up.