Chapter 60 Part 1

One day earlier, Huo Zhixiao learned from his informant that Huo Boyan had submitted a report against him.

A cooperating official revealed that the evidence this time was ironclad—no amount of money could save him. Moreover, Huo Boyan had disrupted Huo Zhixiao’s cash flow, so he couldn’t scrape together that much money anytime soon.

Huo Zhixiao prepared to flee right then. He didn’t even take his wife and child, only a few of his most trusted confidants knew. He even arranged a body double to mislead Huo Boyan’s bodyguards, who were still staking out his villa without any sign of action. Even after Huo Boyan intercepted him at the dock, Huo Zhixiao couldn’t figure out how he’d been caught.

Huo Boyan didn’t confront Huo Zhixiao. After handing him over to the police, he left calmly.

He had long passed the age of burning with righteous fury, no longer obsessed with making villains weep in remorse or suddenly repent. As long as the culprit faced punishment, that was enough.

Besides, Zhu Ran was waiting at home, and he needed to get back soon.

The typhoon had just passed, leaving roads in chaos with uprooted trees blocking streets everywhere. Huo Boyan was forced to take a detour due to the poor conditions.

His phone buzzed with messages from various uncles and elders—those with keen noses had already started cozying up to him, discussing future collaborations. Huo Boyan ignored them all, replying only to a message from Hyena.

[Hyena]: Congratulations, President Huo, you’ve gotten what you wanted.

[Huo Boyan]: Your mission is complete. I won’t contact you again.

[Hyena]: Thank you for the promotion, President Huo. I owe everything I have today to you. Even after our collaboration ends, please don’t hesitate to call on me whenever you need. As long as I’m in this position for a day, I’ll spare no effort.

At the Huo Family Old Mansion, in front of Huo Tinghua’s sickroom, Anna put away her phone without waiting for Huo Boyan’s reply.

But she didn’t mind. After all, she had achieved her goal—Huo Boyan wouldn’t expose her, and she could keep her position as Huo Tinghua’s fourth wife.

Anna would never forget the first time she met Huo Boyan; it had turned her life upside down.

Anna was born in the countryside to divorced parents. She dropped out of middle school to work and wasn’t called Anna back then—her name was Zhou Pan’nan. Her ordinary parents favored sons over daughters and wanted a boy, but strict family planning policies caught up with them for the second child. Not only did they have another girl, but they were also fined. The couple fought fiercely, leaving one injured and one disabled.

With parents too preoccupied to care for themselves, no one fed Zhou Pan’nan.

At fourteen, Zhou Pan’nan went out to work, drifting through the bottom rungs of society for over a decade. She endured countless scumbags and, nearing thirty, was still washing dishes in a restaurant kitchen, convinced her life would forever reek of grease.

Until one day, returning to her rented room, she encountered a noble-looking underage boy. He offered to fund her studies abroad, on the condition that she followed his arrangements.

Zhou Pan’nan laughed at the time. A middle school dropout who could barely do basic math—someone wanted to send her abroad to study? Was he out of his mind?

But this boy said he’d send her abroad?

Zhou Pan’nan had never even been to the provincial capital; foreign countries felt as alien as another planet to her.

But she could go abroad!

Zhou Pan’nan didn’t know what possessed her then. She felt like a hyena that had caught the scent of blood, willing to risk being deceived. She had nothing to lose anyway—even death abroad beat a lifetime of dishwashing.

She started learning languages and nursing, adopted a new identity and fake parents, and sent money to her underage sister via secret accounts.

Those days were grueling. She cursed English and her textbooks daily, even considering quitting to go back to washing dishes.

But no matter how many times she wanted to give up, she couldn’t. She refused to swallow her pride.

Three years later, she spoke fluent English and enrolled in a community nursing college in M Country. After graduating, she applied to a top medical nursing program.

She studied various subjects and etiquette, took emotional intelligence courses, and shed her foul mouth and hot temper. Carrying textbooks across the university campus, she appeared strikingly beautiful, elegantly poised, and brilliantly talented—no one would connect her to the former dishwashing girl.

She never dared imagine such a life. Turns out, the rich had it so easy and serene.

A full decade passed. Huo Boyan had only funded her education and assigned strict, annoying tutors to oversee her—no further instructions. She thought he’d forgotten her.

Until graduation, when Zhou Pan’nan—now renamed Anna—received her first mission: placement in a private hospital on Hong Kong Island.

A month later, a nearly eighty-year-old Hong Kong tycoon grasped her hand and murmured “Little An” in a daze.

That’s when Anna realized she bore a sixty percent resemblance to Huo Tinghua’s first love. Huo Boyan had schemed for a full ten years for this moment.

That fool Huo Zhixiao thought he’d struck gold and tried bribing her immediately. Anna acted as his inside informant while, through various “coincidental” encounters, ended up by Huo Tinghua’s side as a double agent.

The Huo family’s vast wealth stunned her. In that instant, Anna flashed back to ten years prior, when Huo Boyan offered to send her abroad.

She began infiltrating this wealthy clan, their fortune further fueling her ambitions. Soon, Anna became Huo Tinghua’s fourth wife, and Huo Boyan didn’t interfere.

This time, Anna set her sights on Huo Tinghua’s inheritance. Perhaps out of respect for their long collaboration, Huo Boyan tacitly approved her ambition.

Huo Boyan hurried home to make fresh-boiled congee for Zhu Ran. They’d been intimate too many times these past couple of days, leaving Zhu Ran’s stomach sensitive—he couldn’t eat anything too stimulating. On the detour, he spotted Zhu Ran’s favorite dessert shop open and stopped to buy two portions to bring home.

He sent a photo to Zhu Ran, who replied with a cute emoji and asked when he’d be back.

Huo Boyan said in half an hour, but the roads were worse than expected, so he arrived ten minutes late.

The house was unusually quiet. Huo Boyan’s home had always been quiet, even when he lived alone—Zhu Ran never made much noise after moving in. But somehow, today’s silence carried an ominous undertone.