At first, when Huo Xingchao brought Gu Zhi home to meet his father, Marshal Huo did not approve.
His son was the legitimate son of a great marshal. How could he possibly marry the daughter of a rice shop owner as his principal wife?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible!
Then Huo Xingchao glanced at Gu Zhi, who was sitting obediently to the side with her head lowered. He turned back, his tone indifferent.
“Gu Zhi is pregnant.”
…..
Those words dealt quite a blow to the old man.
After all, everyone in the Huo family knew how much he longed for and cared about having a grandson.
Marshal Huo froze, his gaze instinctively falling on Gu Zhi’s stomach. After looking carefully for a moment, he could not help asking,
“How many months?”
Gu Zhi curved her brows, her eyes clear. “A little over two months.”
Her attitude was very good.
Just now, no matter how much Marshal Huo objected, even when some of the things he said were unpleasant, she neither argued nor tried to curry favor with him. She simply sat beside Huo Xingchao, looking obedient and well-behaved.
Faced with a girl like this, coupled with the fact that she was carrying his only grandson, Marshal Huo suddenly found himself unable to vent the anger he had been holding onto.
But if he really had to accept a rice shop owner as an in-law, he truly could not bring himself to agree.
He could only frown as he sat on the sofa blowing smoke rings, deep, stern wrinkles creasing his forehead.
However, his son probably had no intention of giving him the chance to think it over carefully.
“Old man, there’s something I’ve never told you. I think, now that things have reached this point, it’s better to let you know.”
Huo Xingchao turned his head, his tone calm. “Gu Zhi, go downstairs and chat with Eldest Sister for a while.”
Eldest Miss Huo was his full-blooded elder sister. She had a forceful personality and handled things swiftly and decisively. Today, she had come at her younger brother’s request to look after her nephew, and, just in case, she could also step in and salvage the situation if necessary.
So Gu Zhi was relatively safe staying with her.
Gu Zhi nodded, turned around, and left.
She closed the study door and headed downstairs, sighing gloomily as she walked.
Oh, love.
Love really was a cage of freedom.
Qinglin said that she might have to live in the Huo family residence from now on, until she gave birth.
That would be safer for both her and the child.
The Huo residence was very spacious, a mansion combining Chinese and Western styles. As soon as one entered, several smaller buildings could be seen. The dining table in the main building was as large as a bed she had once had in the Gu household.
But Gu Zhi would rather move back into the small courtyard where she had previously lived alone.
At the very least, there were not so many people there who disliked her, nor so many people who disliked the child in her belly.
……
She was still thinking about this when she suddenly heard familiar yet unfamiliar voices coming from the sitting room.
Just now, only Eldest Miss Huo had been drinking tea in the sitting room. But now, several familiar faces had appeared on the sofas, smiling as they chatted with her.
……Mm, to call them familiar, they really were familiar.
Her aunt.
Her former fiancé, along with her two younger female cousins.
When they heard the sound coming from the staircase, they all raised their heads. Seeing that it was her, they froze slightly, and the conversation immediately stopped. The emotions in everyone’s eyes were complicated.
At that moment, Gu Zhi felt very puzzled.
As for everyone else, He Xun, Lu Shuyi, and even the aunt who had once schemed to anger Grandmother into falling ill, Gu Zhi did not experience any particularly strong emotional reaction toward them.
Only when she met the eyes of another cousin with whom she had hardly interacted did a strange feeling suddenly well up in her heart.
She was a very beautiful girl, dressed in a plain blue qipao, her black hair loosely pinned up, her features delicate, and a cup of tea held in her left hand.
Seeing Gu Zhi approach, she set down her teacup, curved her lips into a smile, and said in a soft, sweet voice, “Cousin.”
…..
Later, little by little, Gu Zhi finally understood why such a strange feeling had welled up inside her when she saw Lu Shuyuan.
Because this girl was far too much like her.
Whether it was the way she dressed, the tone and cadence of her speech, or even the smallest expressions and movements, it was as though they had been carved from the same mold.
If their appearances had not been so different, she would practically have been another Gu Zhi.
For the time being, Huo Xingchao knew nothing about the undercurrents surging through the sitting room.
He was currently being “honest” with his father about a certain “truth.”
“You should know that when I went to Zhejiang Province a few days ago, a bullet grazed my arm. But what I never told you was that this actually wasn’t the most serious injury.”
An ominous premonition arose in Marshal Huo’s heart. His hawk-like eyes stared at him, his tone hesitant. “Where were you hurt the worst?”
Huo Xingchao was silent for a while.
Then he raised his head, his tone indifferent. Only the darkness in his eyes revealed the turmoil within him.
“In any case, the child in Gu Zhi’s belly is very likely to be my only descendant. No matter what, I have to give the child a proper and respectable status.”
……His only descendant?
Marshal Huo was unable to speak for quite some time. His gaze swept over his son, and only after a long while did he say, “You’re not trying to fool your old man, are you?”
“Would I really use something like this to fool you?”
……
That was true.
The old man knitted his brows, genuinely unsure how he was supposed to react to the fact that his son had injured his ability to produce descendants.
He waved his hand. Whether he had been dealt too heavy a blow or his feelings were simply too complicated, he could not say. In any case, he was extremely irritated.
“Hurry up and get lost. Let me think about it some more.”
Think about it some more.
What else was there to think about?
His son had already been injured to this extent. Basically, whoever married him in the future would be living like a widow despite having a husband.
Even Marshal Huo himself did not know whether, if he really arranged another match with a daughter from a family of equal status, he would be making an alliance through marriage or making an enemy.
Of course, later, little by little, when Gu Zhi became pregnant for the second time, Marshal Huo nearly died from anger when he heard the news.
He charged in carrying a gun, pointed it at Huo Xingchao, and shouted furiously,
“Oh, weren’t you injured? What, you’re all better now? Want your old man to put another bullet in you?!”
……
But in any case, at least for now, Gu Zhi and Huo Xingchao’s marriage was hurriedly settled just like that.
Since Gu Zhi was pregnant, all the procedures were kept simple.
Although the guests found it unusual, and countless versions of the rumors had circulated before they came to attend the banquet, with practically all of Wancheng buzzing with stories of Fourth Young Master Huo’s romantic entanglements, the moment they saw the bride’s appearance, most of them suddenly found it much less surprising.
With a beauty like this, it was no wonder Fourth Young Master Huo was in such a hurry to marry her. After all, he was twenty-three this year, already at the age when he ought to marry and establish himself.
Although the wedding banquet had been arranged in a hurry, how could anyone possibly refuse to give Huo Guanghui face? The place was still packed with guests and extremely lively.
Once Huo Xingchao had made most of his rounds offering toasts, he left the guests and headed toward the rear courtyard.
The moonlight was cold. As he passed the corner of a pavilion, the figure of a young girl suddenly appeared ahead.
She wore a red Western-style dress, her gaze bright and innocent. When she saw him, the corners of her eyes lifted slightly, and she revealed a sweet smile.
“Cousin-in-law.”
Huo Xingchao gave her an indifferent glance, nodded slightly, and raised his foot to leave.
“Cousin-in-law!”
But the girl called out to stop him directly. She walked over in a few quick steps, grabbed his sleeve, and raised her head. “Are you free right now? There’s something very important I want to tell you.”
When she spoke, just like Gu Zhi, she would unconsciously blink her eyes.
The ends of her sentences lifted with a trace of lilting charm, and even the curve of her lips was exactly the same.
It was just that she was standing too close, and the scent that reached his nose felt somewhat unfamiliar.
Mm, and a little unpleasant.
Huo Xingchao gently pulled his sleeve free, his expression indifferent. “What is it?”
“There is something.”
She nodded, seeming somewhat troubled. After hesitating for a while, she sighed. “There’s something I’ve kept buried in my heart for a long time. In the end, I still feel that it isn’t right. I think Cousin is innocent. I can’t keep hiding this and let her be harmed because of it.”
“Actually, before, when Uncle was reported for selling fake rice and arrested by the police……it was my mother and my elder sister who did it.” She paused. “My brother-in-law, you should know as well, used to be Cousin’s fiancé. Later, he broke off the engagement and married my elder sister, hurting Cousin’s heart.”
“My mother was probably afraid she would take revenge, so she……”
“So she simply decided to strike first?”
The man raised his brows. The curve of his lips made it impossible to tell whether he was smiling or mocking her. “Then now that you’ve decided to sacrifice your family for the sake of righteousness and tell me all this, what exactly do you want me to do?”
“Have your mother and your elder sister arrested too, or simply have them all killed?”
“No. I just wanted to confess, and then plead with you. I hope you can let them go……”
“Then you shouldn’t have told me.”
Huo Xingchao interrupted her indifferently, no emotion visible in his dark eyes. “If you didn’t confess, I wouldn’t know about this. They would only be safer.”
The girl lowered her eyes, looking somewhat dejected. “But I don’t want Cousin to continue being hurt either. I’m afraid they might do something else in the future. By then, it’ll be too late to undo it.”
……
“Oh, I see.”
Huo Xingchao responded indifferently, his tone careless. “Then in that case, you go keep an eye on them.”
“If they really do something that can’t be undone, you’ll bear the main responsibility.”
Then he lifted his long legs and walked straight past her.
As he climbed the stairs, he casually asked the subordinate beside him, “Did I seem very vicious just now?”
The subordinate froze for a moment, then respectfully lowered his head.
“Of course not. Fourth Young Master must have your own reasons for doing that.”
“Tell the truth.”
“……A little.”
Good.
With him acting this viciously, surely Lu Shuyuan would not develop any improper thoughts about him.
Unless she really was a masochist.
Meanwhile, after Huo Xingchao left, Lu Shuyuan stood alone in place, staring at his retreating back in silence for a long time.
The man was tall and upright, and every step he took carried an imposing presence that ordinary people simply could not imitate.
Even his appearance was far more handsome than the actor who played Fourth Young Master Huo in the television drama.
He had power and influence, was exceptionally handsome, and was devoted in love. In this era, a man like him was truly one in a hundred.
Lu Shuyuan stared at his back. As she continued staring, her thoughts unconsciously drifted in another direction.
……
And just like that, wicked thoughts successfully took root in her mind.
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