DLRAS Chapter 21.2

Chapter 21.2

While he was asleep, Huo Niansheng had just returned to his office.

His assistant Amanda gave him a look, indicating that he had a guest.

His younger brother Huo Jingsheng was inside waiting for him and had already been there for some time.

Huo Jingsheng was idly playing with one of the darts from his office set—a small toy of Huo Niansheng’s. The round dartboard hung near the door.

When he saw him, Huo Niansheng walked over. “Been waiting long? If you were coming by, why didn’t you call in advance?”

The two brothers exchanged a hypocritical embrace.

Huo Jingsheng smiled. “I was just passing by and on impulse thought I’d stop in and see you. Big Brother’s office is as impressive as ever.”

Across from them was an enormous floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking half the city. In the distance, the dark expanse of the sea could be seen.

Amanda entered, refilled the tea in front of Huo Jingsheng, and brought Huo Niansheng a cup of espresso.

The warmth Huo Niansheng had shown lasted only that one short burst before he smoothly reined it in. He sat behind the broad solid-wood desk, casually opened a folder, and could not be bothered to pay attention to his guest anymore.

Huo Jingsheng was left stranded on the sofa, his expression a little stiff, his eyes shifting about.

He tossed the dart back onto the coffee table. “Big Brother, actually, Second Uncle sent me.”

“And how is the old gentleman doing?”

“These last two years his health hasn’t been as good as before. He’s getting older and softer-hearted. He asked that, when you aren’t too busy, you go back and visit the family.”

But at this, Huo Niansheng asked, “Not good? How not good?”

“What do you mean?”

“A stroke? A heart attack? A tumor? Half-paralyzed? How many years does he have left?”

“You… he…” Huo Jingsheng inhaled a mouthful of tea into his windpipe and began coughing violently, his face turning red with the effort.

Huo Niansheng laughed out loud. He walked back over, bent down, picked up the dart Huo Jingsheng had thrown aside, and rolled it twice between his fingers.

“I’m joking! Why are you so shocked? It’s not as if this is your first day knowing I’ve got an unpleasant mouth. If his health’s bad, then he should retire. If he needs rest, then he should recuperate. Old people should be fishing, walking birds, and minding less irrelevant nonsense.”

Huo Jingsheng coughed for a long while before recovering. “Big Brother.” He gave a dry laugh or two. “Are you still holding a grudge?”

Huo Niansheng sat down beside him, stretched out his long legs, and propped them on the coffee table. He was all long arms and long legs, so this immediately crowded Huo Jingsheng into one corner of the sofa. Huo Jingsheng clearly did not want to sit so intimately close to him and could only pitifully edge farther away, looking awkward and cramped.

Tentatively, Huo Jingsheng said, “Second Uncle, he…”

With a sharp whoosh, the polished dart flew and embedded itself at the seven-ring mark.

“My hand’s rusty,” Huo Niansheng clicked his tongue, then turned to look at him. “What were you saying just now?”

Huo Jingsheng fell silent.

A few years before, when their father died, the children had fought bitterly over the inheritance. He and Second Uncle had formed an alliance in secret. But hadn’t Huo Niansheng already joined up with Third Uncle too? Second Uncle had wanted to use them to checkmate Huo Niansheng, but in the end, under Third Uncle’s mediation, Huo Niansheng took the shares and went to Zhangcheng in one clean move.

Huo Niansheng was now responsible for Huo Group’s real estate development and venture investment over there. Before Huo Jingsheng came, Second Uncle had told him to feel things out—but not to ask directly about business, only to keep it casual. Yet nothing useful could be drawn out. Huo Niansheng acted every bit like a hands-off boss, and only matters of eating, drinking, and entertainment came to him effortlessly.

Switching strategies, Huo Jingsheng opened his mouth. “Second Uncle hopes you can…”

Again, a whoosh.

The second dart flew from his hand, landing closer to the bullseye than the first, brushing the edge of the nine-ring.

Huo Jingsheng frowned and exclaimed, “Big Brother!”

There were several entertainment tabloids on the tea table in front of him. Before Huo Niansheng arrived, Huo Jingsheng had already flipped through them all out of boredom.

Now he could not help glancing down again.

One mocked how Young Master Ma had invited a whole stack of PR girls to curry favor with Huo Niansheng, only for it to backfire and send him leaving in anger, making the whole thing a joke among insiders. Another exposed how Huo Niansheng had entered and left a hotel late at night the very next day with a currently popular actress, speculating on how fragrant the scene in the room must have been…

Who knew what the assistant had been thinking, leaving them out here so openly. Of course, it was also possible they had simply been brought for the boss himself to look over.

But clearly, their boss had seen them and did not care in the slightest.

Helplessly, Huo Jingsheng said, “Second Uncle also only wants to advise you to restrain yourself a little. In Zhangcheng, where the emperor is far away, fine. But now that you’re back, there are still absurd stories about you every day. You still want to enter the board of directors—how could the shareholders possibly feel reassured? Investor confidence is like grass on a wall. Do the rest of us really have to worry every day on your account, waking up each morning to check the papers and see if your scandal is in them?”

Huo Niansheng smiled without replying. He neither got angry nor seemed to care, as though not a word of it went to heart.

Huo Jingsheng began to lose patience. “Big Brother, these are things you need to think through clearly.”

Huo Niansheng smiled faintly. “I heard your happy occasion is approaching first. Looks like you’ve thought things through clearly?”

Huo Jingsheng forced a smile. “Not quite. It’s just that there’s a suitable match, and we’re still getting to know each other.”

Huo Niansheng lowered his feet from the coffee table and crossed one leg over the other. “Congratulations, congratulations.”

Huo Jingsheng urged, “As for marriage—even though everyone says it’s a besieged city, you still have to enter it when the time comes. The important part is finding the right person. Someone like you is suited for the gentle, virtuous type. Sensible. Not troublesome. Give her a proper name in the family, and in private she won’t interfere with your having fun…”

In the end, men understood men’s thinking. Though Huo Niansheng’s face revealed nothing, something shifted in his gaze.

Amanda knocked on the door just then, reminding Huo Niansheng that a meeting was about to start.

Huo Jingsheng had been just about to press the attack, but seeing that, could only take his leave for the time being.

Amanda escorted him out and came back. The moment she pushed open the door, she saw her boss slouching on the sofa, holding up a dart and seemingly aiming it at her.

Her face did not change.

She only heard a whizz by her ear as the dart’s tail fins spun through the air and struck dead center in the target.

She turned her head to glance at the board and said flatly, “That kind of behavior is dangerous.”

Huo Niansheng accepted the reprimand with perfect ease. “You’re right to scold me. Actually, what I wanted to hit was Huo Jingsheng’s back of the head.”

He strolled over, pulled the three darts out, came back, and dropped them into their storage box.

Amanda lowered her eyes to the tabloids on the tea table and bent to put them back on the nearby magazine rack, but Huo Niansheng moved ahead of her, casually stacking them up. “I’ll take care of it.”

One hand in his pocket, he folded the stack of papers in the other and, with a clang, threw them into the wastebasket.

After she left, Huo Niansheng casually pulled open the desk drawer.

In one corner lay several photographs of Chen Wengang.

The top one had an uneven edge. Looking carefully, one could see it had been cut apart. It had originally been a photo with someone else, but now only Chen Wengang’s half remained.

And yet this was the warmest photograph of them all. In it, the person was looking toward the camera, his gaze lingering and tender, his brows and eyes like drifting sea mist.

Huo Niansheng looked down at it for a moment, then gave a mocking little laugh. He pulled all the photos out, found an empty envelope, packed them away, and then tossed them back into the drawer.

After that, he tidied the drawer a little more, raked out a few invalid receipts, and threw those into the wastebasket as well.

Not long after, Chen Wengang received a phone call from his uncle Chen Zeng complaining bitterly.

The hard troubles of ordinary people were always more or less the same: cars, money, houses.

The family had just changed to a new daily-use car, and the monthly loan payment was several thousand, while gas prices kept rising. They planned to buy a school-district apartment in the new district for Guangzong and Yaozu’s future schooling, but they still had not saved enough for the down payment. Although the two boys were still young, someday they would each need a house of their own too, otherwise it would be hard for them to find wives. But house prices would not wait for them, so they had to start saving now. After buying houses, they would still need bride prices too…

Lawyer Cao’s work had been clean and elegant. Though his uncle complained and complained, neither he nor his wife had dared make a scene.

After calling several times and seeing that Chen Wengang had no intention of softening out of kindness, the matter could only end there.

The house itself had always been registered in Chen Wengang’s name; only the right of use had been in his uncle’s hands. According to the original agreement, it would be returned to him once the tenants were cleared out.

Recently Chen Wengang had not had the time to go back and check, so Chen Xiangling had even voluntarily helped him keep watch, making sure her parents did not secretly rent the house out again.

The inheritance accounting was a bit more complicated, but it still did not drag on for very long.

Lawyer Cao acted with swift precision, calculating every last cent, even adding interest. Chen Wengang trusted him and signed directly.

Everything progressed quickly and smoothly, so quickly that it even felt somewhat unreal.

For Chen Wengang, what his father had left him in the end became nothing more than a sudden bank text one day, informing him that a large sum of money had entered his account.

Looking at that text message, he felt a trace of sadness rise in him.

What lightened that sadness was the secret message Chen Xiangling sent him.

She had secretly bought a full set of high school textbooks and was using her spare time to teach herself. She had no one else she could talk to about this—not even her friends—so she could only discuss it with her older cousin. Chen Wengang had already chosen a cram school, spoken to the admissions teacher, and confirmed that the student registration issue could be handled.

Before he knew it, half a month had passed.

Everyone in the Zheng family was busy.

The Zheng Group’s 120th anniversary had arrived. Round-number anniversaries—tens and hundreds—were always celebrated with particular grandeur. Recently Old Master Zheng had been frequently meeting old friends, and it was obvious that more people than usual were coming to call at the house. Mrs. Zheng, Huo Meijie, meanwhile, spent her time circulating among beauty salons, jewelry boutiques, couture houses, and the like.

The celebration was a formal occasion, and making a glamorous appearance was essential.

When he had come of age, Chen Wengang had commissioned a formal evening outfit for this sort of event. Tailored suits were usually made with extra allowance in the seams, in case the wearer’s figure filled out with time. He himself had always stayed thin, but over these past two years he was still growing and had gotten another three or four centimeters taller.

He went to the shop and had his new measurements taken. The old master tailor tactfully told him that, no matter how much allowance they let out this time, the trouser length would still only barely suffice.

If they wanted everything to be precise down to the last detail, then really the proper solution would be to make an entirely new suit. But a single set of haute couture eveningwear came at a steep price—easily six figures—and completion could take anywhere from two weeks to several months.

After hesitating briefly, Chen Wengang also tactfully said they could leave that for next time, and that this time simply altering the original clothes would be enough.

And yet two or three days later, the shop called him again and invited him over to try on the basted fitting and choose fabrics.

“Wasn’t it me who splashed water all over you last time?” Huo Niansheng explained on the phone. “This counts as an apology gift.”

At school, Chen Wengang met Huo Niansheng’s assistant Amanda. She had waited for his class to end and drove him to the shop.

At this point, the way she looked at Chen Wengang was still the way one looked at a stranger—at most, she assumed this was someone her boss wanted to pursue.

Chen Wengang thanked her gently, and Amanda paused slightly when facing his smile.

She studied him for a moment in some confusion, certain that she had no memory of ever having dealt with this young man before.

The two of them shook hands politely and formally.

This was their first meeting in this lifetime.

There was no doubt that Huo Niansheng had acted on his own initiative.

To be honest, Amanda had also hesitated at first. It was only after seeing Chen Wengang in person that she vaguely sensed things might not be quite what she had imagined. He showed Huo Niansheng a kind of nearly bottomless tolerance, as if there were nothing Huo Niansheng could do that would truly provoke his temper.

If that was the case, then it could only be a matter of one willing to strike and one willing to be struck—a shared private game between them.

What she was seeing now was not the true twenty-year-old Chen Wengang.

When he had been younger, dignity had mattered. All of his self-respect had rested on a delicate point of balance, as if the slightest stain of vulgar money, or one extra accusation of greed from others, would be enough to make it collapse.

Only after weathering a thousand sails, after reaching the end of all roads, had he finally arrived at a place where, when it came to Huo Niansheng, nothing mattered anymore.

Huo Niansheng had already given him everything he was capable of giving. At this point, what was there left to be fussy about?

None of the warnings people had given him were wrong either. Huo Niansheng’s essential nature was a stretch of chaos.

But did Chen Wengang not know what kind of person he was?

Perhaps no one knew more clearly than he did.

Chen Wengang’s formalwear was settled. After that, Zheng Baoqiu grabbed him for an entire afternoon and dragged him along while she tried on a new gown.

Men’s formalwear all looked more or less the same. One set could be worn again and again with different accessories each time.

The worlds of fashion and social circles, however, were far harsher on women.

There was no written rule in etiquette saying a woman could not wear the same dress twice, but it would still be seen as lacking seriousness. The more important the occasion, the wealthier the circle, the stronger the spirit of comparison became. That was simply the way of things, and very few people could step fully outside those boundaries with true ease.

Zheng Baoqiu had chosen a champagne-gold gown, the skirt hem decorated with large satin roses.

By now, Chen Wengang was completely at ease with accompanying her to pick formalwear. From childhood to adulthood, he had done it countless times. These high-end gowns were beautiful, yes, but they were often covered in embroidery, tulle, handmade lace, and all manner of elaborate workmanship, which made cleaning and pressing them a great difficulty.

From the design stage onward, they almost never took future care into account at all. The only thing that mattered was how dazzling they could be.

They were consumables meant to bloom only once.

As they were leaving, however, Zheng Baoqiu quietly said to Chen Wengang, “Actually, the last time I was at this shop, I ran into Big Sister. She…”

She looked around, lowered her voice, and said, “It seemed like she wanted to ask the staff if she could borrow a gown, but they turned her down.”

Chen Wengang also lowered his voice. “Did she tell you why?”

Zheng Baoqiu shook her head. “How would she ever ask me directly? It’s a pity she can’t fit into my dresses, otherwise I could have just given her this one.”

That girl was still as sensitive and thoughtful as ever.

As the Zheng family’s eldest daughter, Zheng Dongqing had married her university classmate several years ago. At the time it had been a love match, and although Zheng Bingyi had not been especially satisfied, he had still yielded to his daughter’s wishes. Her husband Xiang Hao came from a well-off but ordinary family. Later he started his own business and ran a freight forwarding company.

After marriage, Zheng Dongqing’s finances had become separate from her natal family. If she now did not want to spend the considerable amount needed to customize a gown—or at the very least buy a luxury ready-to-wear dress—then perhaps it suggested that she and her husband were not doing especially well financially. Of course, “poor” was far too strong a word.

Most likely they were still living better than ordinary people, but had inevitably slipped outside this social circle.

Yet she still had the family trust, as well as various financial returns and dividends. By all logic she should not have fallen into straits like this.

As the youngest child in the family, it was awkward for Zheng Baoqiu to be the one to bring it up, so she pushed the matter onto Chen Wengang.

Chen Wengang sighed and went to Zheng Bingyi’s study.

It was not that Zheng Bingyi did not care about his eldest daughter at all; he simply would not notice details this small. After hearing it, he said only that he understood.

Just as Chen Wengang was about to leave, Zheng Bingyi called him back. “Your Uncle He has gone abroad, but when the time comes, some of the younger generation of the He family will attend.”

He did not say whether that meant He Wanxin, He Jiajun, or both. Nor did he say what he meant by it.

Chen Wengang did not ask further. He only nodded. “I know what to do.”

Zheng Bingyi was satisfied.

He opened a drawer, rummaged inside, and put a Lexus key into Chen Wengang’s hand. “Maoxun has improved a lot recently, and I can see it. This car is for your own use. It’s already in the garage. Take it out sometime and try it.”

Chen Wengang was about to refuse.

But Zheng Bingyi said, “Take it. You should have had one assigned long ago. Before, you said you had no use for it. But now, going out without any transportation at all is always inconvenient.”

At that point, the butler Old Lin brought over several documents for Chen Wengang to sign. The car had been purchased directly under his name.

At the same time, the evening suit Huo Niansheng had sent also arrived at the Zheng residence from the shop.

Only when he tried it on this time did Chen Wengang discover that there were letters embroidered beneath the collar.

On a custom suit, one usually embroidered either one’s own name or one’s spouse’s name.

But on his suit, what had been embroidered was unmistakably the initials of Huo Niansheng’s name.

At this, Chen Wengang could only smile helplessly.

He pretended not to notice anything and hung it back in the dust cover.

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