Luo Li’s nerves were stretched taut. The instant something touched his skin, a jolt ran through him like an electric shock.
He cried out in shame and fury, “Huo Cheng—!”
When he whipped his head around, Huo Cheng’s voice came from the far corner of the room. “What’s wrong?”
Luo Li froze for a moment, a cold sweat instantly breaking out along his spine.
Huo Cheng wasn’t at the bedside.
Whatever had touched him just now wasn’t Huo Cheng.
Then who could it have been?
A bad premonition surged in Luo Li’s heart.
No. Who else could it be but Huo Cheng? There was no one else here. Definitely no one else. It had to be Huo Cheng playing a prank on him.
Clutching the little blanket to his chest, Luo Li fought back the sob rising in his throat from sheer terror and commanded, “Come here!”
Huo Cheng paused, then walked over to the bedside.
He heard the boy say in a soft, sticky voice, “You… come rub my belly for me.”
Huo Cheng was visibly stunned. Luo Li urged him on. “Hurry up. I feel awful.”
He was desperate to confirm whether the thing that had touched him moments ago was really this man.
Huo Cheng spoke in a deep voice. “I don’t know my own strength. I might hurt you.”
“Less talk, more rubbing!” Luo Li snapped, unwilling to admit his fear. With Huo Cheng closer, he’d feel a bit safer.
Huo Cheng fell silent for a long moment before sitting on the edge of the bed.
His palm pressed against Luo Li’s abdomen—it was about as wide as the boy’s slim waist. With both hands together, he could almost encircle it entirely. The spot where his palm met skin was soft and warm.
It felt just like stroking the belly of a small animal—irresistibly addictive.
He recalled how some small animals would expose their bellies like this when they trusted someone. Did Luo Li trust him? Or was the boy just finding new ways to torment him?
At that moment, Luo Li’s little heart had sunk to rock bottom.
It was different.
The feel of the hand was completely different from this one.
Whatever had touched him earlier was icy and clammy, utterly depraved. It reminded him of that thing in the cave.
This was bad…
Huo Cheng was about to press down harder when Luo Li suddenly grabbed his wrist.
The boy’s small hand clutched his wrist tightly, stammering nervously, “You… you can’t sleep on the floor.”
“Then where should I sleep? Do you want me to leave the room?”
“No!” Luo Li’s fingertips pressed against the bone of his wrist. After a long hesitation, he mumbled awkwardly, “I want you… on the bed. It’s cold in here. You have to… um, keep me warm.”
He lowered his eyes guiltily. Truth be told, he just wanted a human shield. If that evil spirit had really followed them, Huo Cheng could fend it off.
But the Eldest Young Master was too upright; he probably wouldn’t agree.
As he wavered, the mattress dipped slightly beneath him. Huo Cheng had lain down beside his pillow.
Luo Li’s breath hitched. He quickly turned his back and scooted toward the inside of the bed.
The warmth from the adult man’s body enveloped him. It felt like he could finally keep that icy evil spirit at bay.
But before he could settle in for sleep, Huo Cheng’s low, husky voice came from behind him again.
“Is humiliating me that amusing, Eldest Miss?”
The man’s scorching breath brushed against the nape of Luo Li’s neck, as if his lips were just a hair’s breadth from the boy’s tender skin.
“I know exactly how you humiliated my younger brother.”
“Couldn’t find a real man to kiss, so even an idiot would do, huh?”
“Making my brother take off your soaked panties—did that give you a real sense of accomplishment?”
He enunciated each word clearly and deliberately.
Luo Li’s slender shoulders trembled. Shame burned from his ears upward. He couldn’t fathom how Huo Cheng could twist the truth like that.
In his panic, words tumbled out unthinkingly. “Yeah, he was willing!”
“And what about me? Eldest Miss, you’ve ordered me around over and over—what’s your game?”
Huo Cheng suddenly pressed closer, wrapping an arm around Luo Li’s slim waist without another word. His bare arm was taut with muscle, heat seeping through the thin fabric of Luo Li’s pajamas.
He kept calling him “Eldest Miss,” but there was no sarcasm in it—just a hint of teasing.
“I… I…” Luo Li struggled to cobble together an excuse. “Who told you to fail at protecting me during the day? That driver threatened me because of you. I just… wanted to teach you a little lesson.”
“Oh? And what did that driver say to you?”
Luo Li’s mind was a jumble. The memory of the knife at his throat felt vivid, terrifying him all over again.
Was Huo Cheng really just using him?
These rich people were so hateful.
Feeling wronged, tears spilled from his eyes unbidden.
“I… I know everything! You just want to use my child to control the Chamber of Commerce! Stop pretending to be nice! You deserve it—I can hit you, yell at you, whatever! All that talk about doing it for me—you just think I’m easy to fool… wah…”
Suddenly, Huo Cheng hugged him from behind.
The man murmured against his earlobe, “You really believe what that spy said?” His thumb gently wiped away the tears. “…I didn’t bring you into the city to deceive you. I promise.”
Luo Li sobbed into his chest. “I didn’t humiliate Huo Lan…”
“I know.”
“Then why—”
“I don’t want to see it. All right?”
Huo Cheng stopped short. He didn’t know why those words had slipped out. Clearing his throat, he pivoted. “What I mean is, as his older brother, I don’t want to see him like that.”
The boy in his arms seemed oblivious, completely missing the thick jealousy churning in his earlier words.
Of course. He didn’t understand anything.
After a long silence, Huo Cheng spoke again. “Just now… did you mistake me for my father?”
Luo Li’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t reply.
“It was here, wasn’t it? Where he got you pregnant.”
Luo Li flushed hot all over, embarrassment flooding him.
Huo Cheng’s hand rested near his abdomen, his voice growing heavier. “If you need anything, you can treat me like my father. I’ll do my best to satisfy you. If you want to humiliate me, go ahead.”
“I… wouldn’t! You’re nowhere near as good as your dad!”
Huo Cheng paused, but his breathing quickened. “…So the humiliation has already begun? Eldest Miss?”
That bastard!
Luo Li was mortified and furious. He struggled to wrench free of Huo Cheng’s grasp.
But Huo Cheng had already captured his earlobe between his lips, kissing him fiercely from behind.
~~~
In the darkness, an icy dampness crept up the walls but couldn’t come within inches of the bed.
Tendrils wrapped in chilly mist coiled around the bedposts, lingering greedily and resentfully at the edge. They slithered inch by inch onto the mirror.
The mirror reflected faint silhouettes: a sturdy, tall young man pinning the boy into the corner of the bed, his arms encircling the boy’s slender waist, chin resting in the hollow of his shoulder.
Luo Li couldn’t move a muscle. Huo Cheng could tell he wasn’t cold anymore—the boy was warm like a little furnace, his whole body limp like a rag doll in his arms.
Not a shred of wariness.
The evil spirit’s tendrils snaked out from under the bed, their suckers dripping wet as they strained toward the boy countless times. The black tips oozed translucent slime, inching hungrily toward Luo Li but halting just short of his body. Threads of mucus stretched and dripped, pattering onto the sheets.
Huo Cheng opened his eyes in the dark. One arm held Luo Li tight while the other seized the tendril.
“Get out.”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
The evil spirit hissed in furious frustration, its body creaking with tension, yet it couldn’t defy Huo Cheng.
In the end, it slunk away grudgingly, melting into the shadows beneath the bed and vanishing.
~~~
The Jinzhou Grand Hotel had been built in 18xx and remained the most opulent establishment north of the Yangtze.
That day, it was decked out in lights and decorations, every waiter bustling to serve the banquet guests.
“Sir, good day. May I see your invitation letter, please?”
He laid the gold-embossed invitation on the front desk. The waiter smiled warmly. “Very good, sir. Your room is Suite 206.”
Glancing up, the waiter noted the young man sporting the latest soft felt top hat with a long brim that shadowed his brows. His outfit was thoroughly Western and stylish—clearly some overseas-educated young master.
This was Huo Yin. He’d rushed here from the Huo Mansion, tailing them all the way to infiltrate the banquet.
Getting the invitation letter had been easy enough; the black market sold them to anyone with cash. But what came next wouldn’t be so simple.
Huo Yin repeated to himself over and over: This was a mission. Attend the banquet, seize control of the Chamber of Commerce, claim the inheritance—all part of the game.
He definitely wasn’t here for that cowardly, dim-witted little fool.
He’d barely stepped into the hotel when his contact, who’d been waiting ahead, approached.
“Young Master, there was a little hiccup with that matter you discussed with Mr. Bern.”
The contact recounted the shooting incident.
Huo Yin’s eyes widened in shock. “That lunatic! I told him to restrain Huo Cheng, not to start shooting!”
“Don’t worry, Young Master. Huo Cheng was already suspicious, so Bern’s plan fell through. It’s just…”
The contact hesitated. “That driver we planted near Huo Cheng seems to have gotten the wrong idea. He nearly went after Luo Li, but Huo Cheng shot him dead.”
With such a major incident, neither Huo Cheng nor Luo Li had returned to the hotel last night. Whether they’d show for the banquet today was anyone’s guess.
He overheard murmurs rippling through the crowd nearby.
“I heard the Huo Family’s Eldest Young Master ran into trouble.”
“I knew something like this would happen. The Huo Family has made so many enemies—not just the foreigners, but that Chu fellow in town, always eyeing that juicy Chamber of Commerce position.”
“That’s right. Besides, doesn’t the Huo Family have that creepy curse? With Master Huo dead, who would dare deal with them now?”
“I’m telling you, is that widow Huo Cheng’s talking about—Huo Jieqi’s supposed widow—even real? I don’t buy it. Huo Jieqi was cautious his whole life and never married precisely to avoid giving anyone leverage over him.”
“What wife? It’s just that he knocked her up and had no choice but to say that.”
The group exchanged knowing smiles.
Then someone else chimed in. “I hear Huo Cheng’s been groveling to keep that vain, shrewish little concubine happy—taking bullets for her, holding her shoes, the works. Heh, the mighty Eldest Young Master reduced to a lapdog.”
Someone spat on the ground. “What a spineless creep.”
Huo Yin was growing thoroughly fed up with all this chatter.
Hearing that his big brother had been reduced to a lapdog should have made him gleeful.
So why did his teeth ache and a surge of hatred well up inside him?
He shouldn’t have had Bern’s men make a move in the first place.
Not only had they failed to take down Huo Cheng, but they’d handed him a perfect hero-save-the-beauty moment.
No.
What “beauty” was Luo Li? Just a simpering, pretentious little twink who blushed like a tomato when kissing a man. His looks were only so-so anyway.
Huo Yin tugged his hat brim lower and slipped out of the crowd on his own, his fingers brushing his burning earlobe.
But just as he rounded the stairwell corner, a familiar, soft and sweetly lilting voice floated down. “Has the Eldest Young Master not arrived yet? I’ve been waiting for ages.”
Huo Yin quickly ducked into the shadowed recess.
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the little beauty under the lights. Luo Li’s long hair was braided into a neat fishtail that draped over his chest, adorned with sparkling jewels that made him gleam like a translucent glass doll from a music box.
Huo Yin’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
So…
So pretty.
