He hadn’t known that she was Su Qingsang’s sister, that she had come from the Su family, or that she had been kicked out of her family.
He didn’t care who she was. However, the knowledge that the Su family had abandoned Su Peizhen in order to fawn on Su Qingsang rested uneasily on him.
“Mr. Huo, why do you say that? I remember specifically asking you if you dared to meet my parents. You told me that you had the guts for it.”
Huo Yifan narrowed his eyes as he looked at Su Peizhen. “Did you get close to me because of Su Qingsang?”
“Haven’t you been making use of me because you want to bring Huo Jinyao down?” said Su Peizhen, neatly turning his question back on him.
She could tell that her flippancy had caused Huo Yifan to get more than a little irritated.
“Woman, I don’t fancy being used,” he said.
“You are being used. All that means is that you are valuable. Besides…”
Su Peizhen put her hands on Huo Yifan’s chest and continued, “You’re not being exploited by me. We’re using each other. Isn’t that right?”
Huo Yifan stayed silent. He still felt uncomfortable.
“Your aunt doesn’t care for my sister, does she?” Su Peizhen said, abruptly changing the subject.
Huo Yifan noticed a foxy glint in her eyes. “And what do you want to do with that?” he asked.
“Mr. Huo, that should really be – what do we want to do with that?”
Su Peizhen moved closer to Huo Yifan and spoke with intent.
“You don’t like Huo Jinyao, and I don’t like Su Qingsang. Do you know what Huo Jinyao’s weakness is? It’s Su Qingsang. If anything happened to Su Qingsang, would he still have the heart to deal with you? Would he still care about being president of the Tianyu Group?”
She didn’t need explicitly spell it out. Huo Yifan was well able to see where she was going with this,
Seeing the look in her eyes, he held her waist tight as he said, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bad woman?”
“No. You’re the first,” Su Peizhen was all smiles as she put her arms around his neck. She asked, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bad man?”
“I don’t think anyone has,” Su Peizhen kissed him on the lips after saying that. “So, you’re a bad man and I’m a bad woman. We’re a perfect match.”
When she tried to move away from him, Huo Yifan grabbed her waist, trapping her in his arms.
“A perfect match?”
“Aren’t we?”
“Yes, we are.” He said nothing more and proceeded to kiss her hard.
He drew out the kiss until Su Peizhen could barely breathe, and even then he still didn’t relinquish his grip on her.
“Since we’re such a perfect match, let’s go and do something wicked together.”
“Great.” Su Peizhen smiled, “Wicked. I like that word.”
“Yeah? Then let’s do something that you’ll like even more.”
Huo Yifan got out of the car as he said that. He walked to the other side of the car, and lifted Su Peizhen out. This time Su Peizhen didn’t shrink away. She let him carry her upstairs.
That night, she did not go home.
…
“Has the workload at your hospital been so heavy lately? Why do you look so awful?”
Li Qianxue was having a video chat with Su Qingsang when she spotted the dark circles under her friend’s eyes on her screen.
“Not really. I guess it’s because I didn’t sleep well last night.”
She thought of Su Peizhen’s sudden appearance at the main Huo family residence last night. Su Qingsang wasn’t afraid of her, but she was struggling to decide whether she ought to tell Li Qianxue and Su Chenghui about it.
Like Huo Jinyao, she knew Su Peizhen was far from harmless.
She had shown up together with Huo Yifan at the Huo family house. She was definitely up to something.
Although Su Qingsang was aware that Su Peizhen was most likely planning on targeting her, she didn’t know what exactly her half-sister was intending to do.
“Last night?” Li Qianxue thought about the date. She knew that Su Qingsang and Huo Jinyao visited the Huo family residence every weekend.
“Did Huo Jinyao’s mother give you a hard time again?”
“No. Mom, what are you talking about?”
Liu Tongjia had been strangely quiet yesterday. Her behavior had been so out of the ordinary that Su Qingsang felt a little unbalanced by it. Keeping so quiet wasn’t like Liu Tongjia at all.
“His mother isn’t an unreasonable person. The most she would do is not talk to me.”
“Good, then don’t talk to her.”
Li Qianxue couldn’t bear seeing her daughter treated badly. Just thinking about Liu Tongjia’s attitude made her angry.
She had only just gotten her daughter back. She only wished that she could spend more time with the girl. Who gave Liu Tongjia the right to be so unkind to her?
“Mom, why are you acting like a child?”
Li Qianxue felt somewhat embarrassed. She ducked her head and fell silent. She had been a little short-tempered lately. It was all Su Chenghui’s fault.
They had finally gotten a divorce, but after that he had come to her and told her that he regretted their split. He told her that he still loved her.
She felt utterly disgusted by that man. She wondered where he had learned to be so shameless.
He always used Su Yuxin as an excuse to visit the family. Her daughter no longer lived at home, but Li Qianxue still needed to take her son’s feelings into consideration.
Su Chenghui thought that he would be able to worm his way back into the family. Little did he know his behavior had only given Li Qianxue cause to dislike him more and more.
Of course, Li Qianxue would not be mentioning any of it to Su Qingsang.
“I’m worried about you, you see. You’re all alone there and I can’t help you. If anything terrible were to happen, you’d be on your own. I’m really worried about you.”
“Mom, don’t worry.” Su Qingsang wasn’t much concerned about it herself. Liu Tongjia’s attitude toward her was not that different to how Li Qianxue used to treat her.
The relatives of Li Family had never been friendly with her either. At least not until they learned the truth about her parentage. Sometimes, Su Qingsang felt fortunate she had experienced such things in her past. Those experiences had shielded her from becoming affected by any of what Liu Tongjia said.
She was far more worried about Huo Jinyao, in fact.
“All that matters is that Jinyao is good to me and that we’re living a happy life together.”
There might be problems in the Huo Family, but things would be fine as long as she and Huo Jinyao stood side by side.
Nothing else mattered to her.
Li Qianxue was aware of her priorities too. Still, she had other concerns. “Qingsang, I hate to say this but, you’re not a little girl anymore,” she said. “I don’t mean to urge you to have children. I’m just thinking that maybe if you have a baby, the people in the Huo family will change their behavior towards you. What do you think?”
In all honesty, Li Qianxue did not want Su Qingsang to have a baby under her current circumstances.
She hated the thought of Su Qingsang trying to improve her relationship with her mother-in-law and gaining a firmer position in the Huo family through having a baby.
Li Qianxue felt bad for Su Qingsang every time the notion had popped into her head.
However, she was of the opinion that it was simply the most efficient way to solve Su Qingsang’s current problems.
Without a doubt, both Huo Mingguang and Liu Tongjia would change their attitudes about Su Qingsang If she gave birth to the next generation of the Huo Family. They would have to do that for the baby’s sake.
When she heard what Li Qianxue had to say, Su Qingsang paused briefly. She thought of Huo Jinyao’s feelings about having children.
“Mom, I’m still young. There’s no rush.”
Li Qianxue wanted to say more but worried that her words might give her daughter cause to resent her. So in the end, she got off the topic.
After ending the video call with Li Qianxue, Su Qingsang put down her phone. Her eyes landed on the empty side of the bed.
She was aware that Li Qianxue was probably right. Having a baby now wouldn’t be the best way to go about it, but it would undoubtedly be the easiest way to better Huo Jinyao’s relationship with Liu Tongjia.
However, she could not make that kind of decision on her own.
She had begun to feel as though Huo Jinyao may not want children at all, her suspicions aroused from the last time they had sex.
He never once forgot about birth control. Based on his actions, she had guessed that he probably did not want to be a father.
At first, she had considered it was her own distaste of having a child that was the reason why Huo Jinyao had been using birth control so assiduously. However over time, she realized that she had been mistaken. She implied a few times that she had become open to the idea, but Huo Jinyao always affected a lack of comprehension at her hints.
She hadn’t been able to figure out why until she learned what Liu Tongjia had done to Huo Jinyao.
Liu Tongjia might be the very reason why Huo Jinyao didn’t want children.
If she could put an end to the issues that lay between Huo Jinyao and his mother, the problem would probably be half solved.
With that in mind, Su Qingsang leaped into action. Huo Jinyao had left home for work, so she decided to use her time alone to have a talk with Old Master Huo.
An hour later, she showed up in the living room of the family house.
Mr. Cheng was surprised to see her. At dinner Huo Jinyao had told the family that he couldn’t stay at the main house for the night, citing an international meeting he had to attend the next morning. Su Qingsang had left with him last night, but surprisingly she had come back the following morning.
“Mrs. Huo, welcome home,” said Mr. Cheng.
“Thanks.” Su Qingsang nodded in acknowledgment and said, “I’m here to see Grandpa. Where is he?”
“He’s in the backyard playing with the parrot,” said Mr. Cheng, with a smile. “He loves that bird. He talks to it whenever he has the time. That parrot is always ignoring other people but to Old Master Huo, it always has a lot to say.”
“I’ll go to the backyard to see him then.”
Su Qingsang suited her action to words and went to the backyard. Mr. Cheng had intended to inform her that there was another guest present, but she left so quickly he didn’t get the opportunity to inform her.
Su Qingsang heard Old Master Huo’s voice on her way to the backyard.
She thought that Old Master Huo was talking to the parrot, so she walked straight into the backyard unannounced.
“Grandpa, are you…” She paused at the sight of the person standing beside Old Master Huo.
“Uncle,” she nodded her greeting to him politely.
Zhang Yichen looked at her.
It was now the end of spring and the weather had begun to grow warm.
Su Qingsang was wearing a red dress with long sleeves. She had an attractive face, and the red complemented her coloring surprisingly well. The vivid shade made her look more energetic than usual. With her long hair tied up at the back of her head, she looked young and healthy.
Zhang Yichen barely responded to Su Qingsang’s greeting. He returned her nod with an aloof, shallow incline of his head even though her presence had affected him greatly.
Old Master Huo turned to Su Qingsang with a smile, greeting her. “Hey, Qingsang. What brings you here?”
He failed to notice the glow which had briefly flared up in Zhang Yichen’s eyes and then disappeared.
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