No reconciliation, no forgiveness! Mr. Pei leaves with nothing.

Huo Ling was also afraid that her sister-in-law and elder brother would have another unnecessary misunderstanding, so she explained, "My elder brother rarely cares about my mother's affairs. I only found out about this when I visited her in the hospital last time."

"I feel like Song Qingran holds a bigger place in my mother's heart than I do. My older brother doesn't know about this yet, and I don't know how to tell him."

Jiang Hua chuckled and said, "There's nothing to say. Your mother and I have never gotten along, and I don't intend to indulge her. She only recognized Song Qingran as her goddaughter because she wanted to push her towards your older brother."

Shen Bao'er: "No way, didn't Song Qingran and her fiancé Lu Yuanzhou already book a room and sleep together at the Royal Dynasty Hotel last time?"

"Your mother really isn't picky at all, how come she puts just anyone around your brother?"

Huo Ling: "Fiancé? I didn't know about that. Otherwise, Song Qingran might be hiding something from my mother. If my mother knew, she probably wouldn't have done such a thing."

Xia He is a rather traditional person who values ​​chastity. If Song Qingran had really been with other men, she would probably give up on the idea.

The three of them strolled around the mall and sat in a coffee shop for the afternoon. At 4:30 pm, the driver from Jinsha Shallow Bay picked up Jiang Hua and the other two to go back together.

Jiang Hua and Huo Ling had dinner together that evening.

At the dinner table, feeling somewhat remorseful, he told his sister-in-law about his mother and Song Qingran. His sister-in-law has a heart condition and had been arguing with his older brother because of Song Qingran.

She continues to haunt them, and the sister-in-law is bound to feel uneasy about it.

"Sister-in-law, you don't need to worry too much about Song Qingran. If my brother really liked Song Qingran, he wouldn't have pushed her away."

Jiang Hua sipped her soup. "When did I say I cared? I don't think it's surprising that Song Qingran is still hung up on Pei Zhan. Besides, your brother is now the head of the Huo family, and he calls the shots in the entire capital."

"The fact that Song Qingran is gone doesn't mean there won't be another, a third, Song Qingran..."

"I can't find fault with Pei Zhan right now. He does have another family outside, but they're divorced. As for your brother... I can only say I have some feelings for him, but not much..."

She didn't only have Pei Zhan as an option, but among all her choices, Pei Zhan's background and family status were impeccable, making him a member of the upper class.

Huo Ling suddenly fell silent.

She believed that her elder brother would never have a family outside the home behind his sister-in-law's back.

Apart from... the Zhou family.

The Zhou family was destroyed. Zhou's mother, unable to accept Zhou Xu's death, went insane. Zhou Yan, because of her father, was sent to an entertainment venue and forced to sell her body to survive. Now, because of this, Zhou Yan has become increasingly extreme, constantly wanting her brother to take them back. To atone for his past mistakes, her brother arranged for them to be kept in a villa, with no intention of letting them return to China.

Aside from matters concerning the Zhou family, my elder brother has never done anything wrong or wrong to my sister-in-law.

Because of what happened before, my brother has been trying to make amends. If my sister-in-law finds out one day, I hope it will lessen some of the resentment she feels towards him.

He knew his brother. If his brother had wanted revenge back then, he could have used the Huo family's resources to wipe out the Jiang family in the entire capital city the year he took over the Jiang Group. But in the end, his brother didn't. He was too soft-hearted.

On one side is the kindness of the Zhou family from back then, and on the other side is her sister-in-law. Huo Ling has seen all the choices her brother is making now.

"By the way, don't worry about the wedding, sister-in-law. Uncle Huo and the others are already making new preparations. The previous preparations were a bit too rushed. Now that Third Uncle is personally handling it, he will definitely not let you down."

If the wedding hadn't been mentioned, Jiang Hua would have almost forgotten about it. Suddenly, she remembered something and asked curiously, "Huo Ling."

"What's wrong, sister-in-law?"

"When I went to the Huo family last time, there were Third Master Huo and Fourth Master Huo. I remember Huo Tingshan was the second son in the Huo family. Where are you... Uncle Huo?"

Huo Ling: "Uncle Huo died in a car accident a long time ago."

Jiang Hua: "What's going on with Huo Qianxue?"

Huo Ling: "Aunt Qianxue was originally betrothed to my uncle by my great-grandfather, but... Aunt Qianxue liked my father. But my uncle also liked Aunt Qianxue. However, this happened decades ago, and I only heard about it by chance."

"The original heir of the Huo family was my eldest uncle, but because of his status as heir, he forced Aunt Qianxue, which forced my father to take action and get rid of him."

hmm~

The Huo family is really something...

Defection and succession struggles have become traditions.

Pei Zhan was no exception.

These words came out of Huo Ling's mouth so lightly, which was not the mindset of an eighteen-year-old girl. She was more mature and composed than her peers. Moreover, she was the founder of the Qianhua Century brand, which made her quite extraordinary.

She founded Qianhua Century at the age of sixteen, and with the support of the Huo family, such achievements are already a glory for the family.

“I know it’s like how my older brother treats my father.”

Jiang Hua: "You... know quite a lot. Aren't you sad? Something happened to him."

Huo Ling bit her spoon and thought for a while. "It's alright. Although my dad adopted me from the orphanage, I rarely see him and don't have much of a relationship with him. My mom... doesn't really like me either."

"Brother, let's make an exception."

"My older brother is more humane than I thought, and he's the only one who treats me like family... Compared to my parents, my older brother is different to me."

Jiang Hua put down her spoon and listened quietly.

Huo Ling: "When my eldest brother first reunited with my father, I was by his side. I was only fourteen or fifteen years old at that time."

Four years ago? At that time, she and Pei Zhan were not yet married, but Pei Zhan had completely taken over the Jiang family business. However, he was only in the position of vice president. The company was officially handed over to Pei Zhan when her father had the idea of ​​having Pei Zhan marry her.

No wonder he has so much money to buy a seaside villa!

“My father wasn’t home often, so there weren’t many servants at home. It was mostly just my mother and me at home. I happened to be sick at the time, with a high fever. On that very day, my mother’s illness flared up, and all the servants were at the hospital taking care of her, so no one was looking after me.”

“I was home alone. I went downstairs at night and fainted in the lobby. My older brother happened to come home tonight and took me to the hospital.”

"He took care of me when I was sick and hospitalized."

Jiang Hua thought of something.

Four years ago, she was still clinging to Pei Zhan. It was Christmas Day, and she wanted to spend the holiday with him.

He was probably annoyed by her, and when she went to the company to find him, she learned that Pei Zhan had gone abroad on a business trip.

On a snowy day, she stood downstairs at the Jiang Group building. Cars drove past her, crunching through the snow. Under the streetlights, her skin appeared even whiter. She dialed Pei Zhan's number, and as soon as he answered, she heard a woman's voice, "I feel so awful~"

Jiang Hua believed that he had been keeping a lover behind her back and had gone abroad for the holidays.

That night, she didn't say a word, hung up the phone, deleted and blocked all his contact information, smashed her phone, and then stomped on it several times. "Pei Zhan, you bastard, you son of a bitch, you country bumpkin, you country bumpkin. Go to hell! If I ever speak to you again, I'll be a dog!"

This wasn't the first time she and Pei Zhan had spent a holiday together.

She just felt she couldn't be so pathetic, having Wang Xueying on one side and secretly going abroad to spend Christmas with her lover behind her back. She made up her mind then and there that she would never have any contact with him again, and so... that's how Rong Xingzhi came about.

That period was the longest time she and Pei Zhan had been in a cold war. She didn't contact him anymore, and Pei Zhan never contacted her either. It was as if Jiang Hua had really succeeded in disappearing from his life.

Unless it's an unavoidable situation, if they meet again at a banquet, Jiang Hua will simply ignore him as if he were invisible.

Looking back now, the voice Jiang Hua heard back then was probably that of the ailing Huo Ling.

The first time she and Pei Zhan celebrated a festival together was actually on the first day of the Lunar New Year when she was seventeen.

When he brought him beef vermicelli to his home.

After he put it down, he turned and left.

Jiang Hua stopped him: "Stop right there. Did I say you could leave?"

Pei Zhan: "Miss Jiang, haven't you had enough?"

Jiang Hua was wearing a black, knee-length knitted sweater dress. "I don't want to stand up. Bring it to me."

Pei Zhan stood outside the room without moving. Jiang Hua glanced at the dirty mud and snow on his shoes, then stood up, walked to the bedside, and put on her shoes. "Come in, Uncle Pei."

She sat at her desk. When Pei Zhan brought her the vermicelli soup, he stood behind her. Jiang Hua opened the lid, took a sip, and frowned: "It's cold. It doesn't taste good at all."

"Go cook for me, the ingredients are all in the fridge. I don't eat spicy food, but you can eat whatever you want."

Pei Zhan frowned: "I am not a servant of your Jiang family."

Jiang Hua put down her chopsticks and looked at him with a smile. "You're not a servant, but you're Dad's lackey. You're both paid, so what's the difference?"

"Sigh, there's no one at home. I'm very delicate, what if I starve?"

"If you accidentally get some kind of illness that costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and end up in the hospital, you won't be able to afford to pay for it."

"Then I'll have Dad fire you, dock your year-end bonus, and make you work for nothing..."

Jiang Hua deliberately said those things to provoke him, but even though he was very angry, he didn't dare to do anything to her. Even when he was angry, he just turned away with a dark face and cold eyes.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Pei Zhan still cooked a table full of dishes, while Jiang Hua played on her phone downstairs, listening to the TV.

...

Pei Zhan returned at 8:30 p.m., before Jiang Hua went to bed. She had just finished writing her thesis, taken a shower, and came out of the bathroom to find him in the room, having taken off his suit jacket.

Jiang Hua had her hair wrapped in a pink towel and was wearing only a bathrobe with a belt around her waist. She stopped and applied body lotion to her neck. She looked at him for a while, and Pei Zhan met her gaze. He stopped unbuttoning his shirt and asked, "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Jiang Hua was too lazy to pay attention to him, so she went to blow-dry her hair.

"Xiaoling told me that such a thing would not happen."

“Kagher will step in and compensate her for what she did in other ways.”

"I won't be back very early tomorrow, don't wait for me, remember to come early..."

Before he could finish speaking, the whooshing sound of a hairdryer drowned out his words.

Pei Zhan paused what he was doing and went to the bathroom. Seeing her drying her hair, he took the hairdryer from her and dried it for her.

After drying her hair, Jiang Hua didn't even glance at the man behind her. She crossed her arms and left, lifting the covers and sitting on the bed. She replied to Fang Liang's message, which was to ask her to sign an electronic document to apply for expensive and special materials for jewelry repair. She needed to sign it, and then Pei Zhan's people would hand the materials to him.

Jiang Hua only owns 3% of the studio's shares. He manages almost everything else on his own. Except for a few decisions he can't make, Jiang Hua will step in. Pei Zhan takes on most of the tasks that are hers to do. Jiang Hua is like a lazy, hands-off manager.

I occasionally write my graduation thesis, and there's not much else to do.

Pei Zhan clung to him as soon as he got into bed, asking, "What are you looking at?"

Jiang Hua: "..."

I finished replying to a message and then turned off the bedside lamp.

Jiang Hua covered her chest with the blanket, lay on her side, and closed her eyes, about to fall asleep. Pei Zhan stepped forward and hugged her, but she didn't push him away.

Pei Zhan simply assumed she was tired from shopping and didn't bother her much.

Close your eyes and go...

one second.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds…

"I can't take it anymore," Jiang Hua said. "You're stepping on my hair."

Pei Zhan reached out and brushed her long hair aside, and the two adjusted their positions: "Like this?"

When are you finally going to send your mother away?

Pei Zhan: "Three days."

“Xiaoling’s transfer procedures haven’t been completed yet. Once the school in France is confirmed, I will arrange a private plane for Xiaoling to go back with her.”

Jiang Hua was somewhat satisfied with the definite answer.

"Weren't you telling him not to see Xu Zhoulan? Why did he suddenly agree?" Pei Zhan opened his eyes, his gaze meeting the one beside him in the darkness. "A deal..."

"If seeing her one last time can make her give up and go back to her studies, then seeing her one last time is not a bad thing."

Jiang Hua: "Aren't you afraid that she'll really fall for Xu Zhoulan?"

"I'll break his legs."

It doesn't sound like a joke.

In a secluded mountain, surrounded by walls and iron bars, lies a private prison.

With his hands shackled, Xu Zhoulan was brought before Huo Ling, who had been waiting in the room for over half an hour. Upon seeing the girl, Xu Zhoulan approached step by step, and in the next second, he somehow managed to break free of the chains, picked up the girl, placed her on a table against the wall, and forcefully kissed her.

Huo Ling didn't struggle, letting him undress her and kiss her for a while. Breathless, her lips were being bitten by him, their foreheads pressed together, noses touching, their lips glistening with saliva, filled with desire. Each of his movements was forceful, and Huo Ling murmured softly, unable to utter a word, "Do you miss your brother? Hmm?"

He wanted her so badly, again and again…