DLRAS Chapter 82

Chapter 82: It wasn’t just for appearance, it was more like branding.

While fetching some water, Chen Wengang looked out from the semi-open kitchen. “Did you already send her off?”

Huo Niansheng didn’t mind at all. “Isn’t there travel allowance? They can enjoy their freedom outside and eat whatever they want.”

Towards Jiang Cai’s arrival, his attitude was one of indifference—unrelated to personal likes or dislikes, simply born out of a lack of trust. Jiang Cai hadn’t yet grasped the situation or adapted to her change in status. In a few years, when she understood everything, she could turn out to be anyone.

Whether she allied with someone, or was used by someone, even if you treated her well, it wasn’t impossible for her to turn around and stab you in the back.

If Chen Wengang wanted to be kind to her for two years, Huo Niansheng didn’t want to stop him either.

But the moment she learned to act recklessly, he would not tolerate her.

Jiang Cai hadn’t yet realized that her instinctual fear stemmed from this Sword of Damocles hanging over her head; Huo Niansheng had already suspended it there.

He changed his shoes, walked up behind Chen Wengang, wrapped both arms around his waist, and rested his chin on his shoulder, watching him sit on the stool and continue wrapping wontons. A bowl of filling wasn’t finished yet. The wrappers were machine-pressed, perfectly square. Lacking a wooden spatula, he used a chopstick instead, with a bowl of clear water placed nearby.

Huo Niansheng lowered his head and played with the ties of his apron, pulling them open and tying them back up again.

Feeling the tension loosen and tighten behind him, Chen Wengang leaned forward slightly. “Don’t mess around.”

Huo Niansheng’s mind was already wandering to crooked thoughts. “You’re wearing too much underneath. You shouldn’t be wearing anything.”

As he spoke, his hand slipped in along the hem of the shirt.

Laughing, Chen Wengang reached back and grabbed his hand, smearing flour all over him.

After fooling around for a bit, Huo Niansheng said, “If you wanted to eat this, why didn’t you just call the housekeeper to make it?”

“It’s not really because of that.” Chen Wengang lowered his eyes, his hands still busy. “I just feel like, occasionally calming down and cooking a meal yourself is quite interesting. If you asked me to do it every day, I wouldn’t have the time, but knowing how to do it is different. Consider it learning a new skill.”

Huo Niansheng let out a chuckle.

He didn’t know if all men harbored fantasies about someone washing their hands and making soup for them, but Huo Niansheng rarely had such straightforward, traditional thoughts. There were plenty of people who wanted to serve him, but that was because everyone had to eat; he felt much more at ease when he exchanged money for it. But of course, money couldn’t buy tenderness. This was an ironclad rule, and even Huo Niansheng wouldn’t harbor such unrealistic delusions.

Yet, looking at Chen Wengang’s hands—hands that looked like they had never touched spring water for chores—a feeling akin to tenderness washed over his heart.

He clung to Chen Wengang’s back, refusing to leave. “Did you go for acupuncture this week?”

Chen Wengang said, “I did. I went by myself.”

“Oh, how was the effect?”

“It’s useful. Every time I walk out of Old Chen’s door, my body feels lighter.”

Huo Niansheng lowered his head, gently sniffing the crook of his neck. “Then keep at it for a while.”

As he said this, his mind was actually filled with a jumbled montage of chaotic fragments.

Huo Niansheng always felt as if he had sought out more than just this one doctor for him. And behind that were dark, cruel experiences they had shared. Whether they were memories or premonitions, it was like a storage room piled high with years of junk—touch anything and your hand comes away covered in dust, unpleasant and impossible to know where to begin cleaning, even knowing that somewhere beneath it all lay the truth.

But on the surface, Huo Niansheng never showed a single sign of anything amiss.

He was accustomed to biding his time, treating himself the same way he treated others.

After Chen Wengang finished wrapping the remaining wonton wrappers and the water in the pot had come to a rolling boil, he only realized the problem when he was about to drop them in.

He asked Huo Niansheng, “How should we season the soup?”

Thinking back to the wontons he had eaten at street stalls, the vendors used a rich broth made from boiling bones.

But naturally, they didn’t have broth at home, and he realized he had forgotten to buy seasoning packets from the supermarket.

Originally, Chen Wengang had just gone by his impression, thinking it wouldn’t be difficult. Only when he started making them himself did he realize he was missing this or lacking that. The more he thought about the necessary ingredients, the more he realized he didn’t have seaweed or shredded chicken either, though there was a bottle of dried baby shrimp.

In the end, Huo Niansheng found a jar of sesame paste from the cabinet, added sesame oil, soy sauce, aged vinegar, and pepper powder, and simply turned them into cold-tossed wontons.

For two grown men, a single bowl of small wontons each for dinner seemed a bit too plain.

Chen Wengang raided the fridge, chopped up a few available vegetables, and tossed a vinaigrette salad.

This was the entirety of his rare cooking experience; there were minor hiccups, but at least he hadn’t blown up the kitchen.

Sitting across from each other at the dining table a full hour later, the scene felt very domestic.

Chen Wengang brought up the friction with He Jiajun earlier that day.

On the way back, Yu Shanding had actually muttered about it too—what started as a happy day ended up feeling like they had run into the God of Plagues; they really ought to go to a temple to pray.

Furthermore, speaking of He Jiajun inevitably brought up He Wanxin. Especially since in two days, the Zheng and He families had booked a table to meet.

Huo Niansheng said casually, “She certainly is very anxious, then.”

Chen Wengang glanced at him. Most people hearing this would think the two families were rushing the marriage progress, but in truth, it was He Wanxin who was the most anxious.

She wasn’t anxious for any other reason than she couldn’t wait for Zheng Yucheng to “establish a career” before “starting a family”; she had to “start a family” with him first, then he could “establish a career.” Taking advantage of Zheng Yucheng’s current youth and incompetence, being the woman behind him now was the best opportunity she had to climb up. In a few years, if Zheng Yucheng grew capable and took charge of the Zheng Group himself, what would that have to do with her? She would just be a rich wife drinking afternoon tea.

That wasn’t what she wanted.

Every large family was a beautiful robe crawling with lice; at most, the places that itched were different. Like the He family, He Jiajun was a rotting pile of flesh, yet in the eyes of his biological father, He Hongchang, he was still the golden boy, the designated successor. No matter how much He Wanxin flipped the heavens, she was still an illegitimate daughter.

A marriage alliance gave her a way out; how could she not be anxious?

Chen Wengang gathered the plates. “I said before that she was ambitious.”

Huo Niansheng rested his elbows on the table. “Having ambition is a good thing; the fear is putting it in the wrong place.”

Chen Wengang thought for a moment, shook his head without speaking, and carried the bowls and plates to the kitchen.

While cooking, he had taken off his watch and placed it on the coffee table. A little while later, however, it was gone.

After circling the living room a few times without finding it, he took a shower and entered the bedroom, only to discover Huo Niansheng playing with it.

Chen Wengang reached out to ask for it back, but Huo Niansheng grabbed his wrist and snapped something on. His movements were fast, like performing a magic trick. Chen Wengang didn’t pay much attention initially, but when he withdrew his wrist, he realized the watch he was wearing had become a Patek Philippe.

This felt a bit heavy on the wrist.

He looked up. Huo Niansheng said lightly, “Wear it. Use it to keep up appearances when you go out.”

Chen Wengang touched the watch face with his fingertips and smiled softly. “I’m just afraid its appearance is bigger than mine.”

This Patek Philippe wasn’t brand new. Looking closely, one could see traces of it having been worn—

Because Huo Niansheng had taken it directly off his own wrist and snapped it onto his.

Naturally, Huo Niansheng collected many watches and didn’t necessarily choose this one for every occasion. But in terms of frequency, this was one he wore very often; it was a beloved item of his. The media had photographed it, and in several pictures circulating online, he was wearing it while swaggering through town.

For it to suddenly appear on someone else’s wrist—in the eyes of those paying attention, how was this keeping up appearances? This was branding him.

Chen Wengang held his wrist, turned the watch strap, and ultimately kept it on without taking it off.

In fact, it didn’t take long at all. Just two days later at the dinner table, He Jiajun asked with a sarcastic tone:

“That’s a nice watch you have there. Who gave it to you this time?”

Suddenly, all attention focused on Chen Wengang.

This dinner between the Zheng and He families was booked at their usual spot, the Crown Grand Hotel. But for this occasion, Chen Wengang’s presence—or lack thereof—was a bit awkward.

If he avoided seeing Zheng Yucheng and He Wanxin, it would seem like he had a guilty conscience; but if he went, it wasn’t like they would be particularly welcoming to him either.

For half the evening, Chen Wengang treated himself as invisible, silently eating his food, until He Jiajun’s universally detested voice rang out.

Chen Wengang looked down at it and said lightly, “A friend.”

Mu Qing, sitting diagonally across from him, suddenly spoke up: “Which friend?”

Both Zheng Yucheng and Zheng Maoxun looked at his face. The former furrowed his brows, while the latter still hadn’t grasped the situation.

Zheng Baoqiu rolled her eyes at Mu Qing. “He has plenty of friends, you don’t necessarily know them all.”

Zheng Bingyi spoke up again to suppress the topic.

When the toasting and mingling were nearly over, Chen Wengang stepped out onto the open-air balcony designated as a smoking area.

He was alone on the balcony, but shortly after, He Wanxin sought him out.

She said, “I didn’t expect you’d have the nerve to come. Zheng Yucheng is mine now; I hope you take the initiative to keep your distance in the future.”

Chen Wengang looked at her, both hands tucked in his pockets. “It’s fine, you don’t need to tell me that. Actually, the reason I came today was to see if there was an opportunity to say a few words to you in passing. If there was, great; if not, I didn’t want to make a special trip to bother you.”

He Wanxin said arrogantly, “Let’s hear it.”

Chen Wengang asked, “I’m just curious, do you yourself feel that you are unscrupulous?”

She glared at him coldly. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“I occasionally asked around about your past,” Chen Wengang said. “And I heard that when you were in school, you bullied classmates. Some girls in your class offended you, and you made their lives miserable. Later, it escalated until someone slit their wrists, and it was exposed in the news. But you didn’t face any consequences; your family probably helped smooth things over. You wouldn’t want these things appearing in the media again now, would you?”

“Are you trying to use this to threaten me?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“This can’t threaten me anyway.” He Wanxin’s brows relaxed, turning disdainful. “I only did that to protect myself. I was coerced into it in the first place; if I didn’t follow the ringleader and do those things, I would have been bullied myself. Even when it hit the news back then, the reports were very clear—the masterminds were other people, it had little to do with me.”

Chen Wengang stared at her. “Right, on the surface you just seemed like a follower, and the ones leading the bullying were other girls in your class with backgrounds. But I also heard that many things were actually instigated by you behind the scenes. You incited her on who to bully and what methods to use, offering her strategies, sowing discord, and stirring up storms in the class, isn’t that right? Did that make you feel good?”

She looked at Chen Wengang. “So what if I did? Bringing this up now, you can’t find any evidence anymore, can you.”

Chen Wengang said lightly, “You’d better hope I can’t find any other evidence of your crimes.”

He Wanxin’s face darkened. She hesitated for a moment, seemingly weighing his words, before finally leaving him behind.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, ended the recording, listened to it once holding it to his ear, and sent it to Lawyer Zhu.

Lawyer Zhu called him back.

Chen Wengang took the initiative to admit, “The recording was done secretly, and she didn’t really confess to anything substantial, so it probably can’t be used as hard evidence.”

Lawyer Zhu said, “It’s fine. At least her reaction tells us the events did happen. She was a minor at the time, so we probably couldn’t hold her overly responsible anyway. But to be honest, a person’s true nature is hard to change. In short, I’ll have people keep a closer eye on her.”

Chen Wengang smiled. “Sorry, I’m practically using you as a detective.”

Lawyer Zhu politely said it was nothing and hung up the phone.

Actually, he didn’t know why Chen Wengang was so certain He Wanxin would commit a crime. Lawyer Zhu had worked for Huo Niansheng for years and held plenty of blackmail material on He Jiajun. But when Chen Wengang came to him, his request was very clear: to catch some evidence on He Wanxin and send her to prison.

Of course, he had to seek his boss’s approval beforehand.

Huo Niansheng’s reaction was merely: “Sure, go ahead and do it then.”

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