Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I sent out a text. Less than five minutes later, someone pushed the door open and came in.

The newcomer was one of the rich young heirs who often hung around Huo Yanxu. His family’s company survived entirely on whatever business Huo Yanxu let slip through his fingers, so he spent every day shamelessly sucking up to him.

Some time ago, with Huo Yanxu’s introduction, he had also taken on a mid-sized project from my family’s company.

Naturally, he didn’t dare offend me.

I told him to come quietly to the private room next door, and he had no choice but to obediently show up.

I got straight to the point. “What exactly is the relationship between that Jiayin and Huo Yanxu?”

The young heir looked troubled.

I threatened him. “This is going to come out sooner or later. If you tell me the truth, I naturally won’t throw you under the bus. But if you choose to cover for him, whether you’ll still be able to keep hanging around Huo Yanxu will take just one word from me.”

Only then did the young heir stammer out the truth.

That girl had met Huo Yanxu when she was eighteen. The two of them had been together for ten years.

Huo Yanxu knew that if he chose a girl from an ordinary family, it would be the same as being abandoned by his own, so the two of them could only date in secret.

All this time, Huo Yanxu had been looking for a wealthy heiress who could help him get ahead.

But his abilities were mediocre, and he had a mother with a terrible reputation. The truly powerful elite families in Gangcheng would never marry their daughters to him.

He had tried to “fish” for a few capable heiresses, but none of them took the bait. After all that waiting, I was the one who came back.

After saying all this, the young heir grew frightened again. “Miss Ye, you’re not going to call off the wedding, are you? You’re getting married tomorrow.”

I waved a hand, signaling for him to leave. As for what decision I would make, that had nothing to do with him.

His face went deathly pale, and he fled in a flash.

There was one thing Huo Yanxu had been right about. If I backed out of the wedding tomorrow and didn’t show up, the ones who would suffer might be me and the Ye Family.

I had no concrete proof that he had cheated.

If I humiliated the Huo Family by calling off the wedding, Old Master Huo would definitely come after me.

The Ye Family had only just managed to gradually get back on track through Dad and my brother’s desperate efforts. For now, we still couldn’t afford to offend the Huo Family.

I asked the server to bring me a glass of strong liquor.

The moment I swallowed it, my throat burned fiercely. Alcohol didn’t make me muddle-headed. It made my mind even clearer.

I had been defeated as if I’d fallen for a long con.

Someone else had given nothing at all, yet he had moved me enough to make me willing to give him everything.

To be precise, after the college entrance exam, my life and his had already been destined to become two trains heading in different directions.

He knew that perfectly well. I was the only one foolishly drowning in guilt.

My family had been in business for three generations. Since I was little, I had listened to my father talk about all the deceit and scheming in the business world. Influenced by what I saw and heard, I had always kept a measure of suspicion and distance from anyone who approached me on their own. Only with Huo Yanxu had I never once doubted his deep affection.

A fleeting show of affection could be faked. But ten years of feelings? He had actually managed to fake those with such ease.

Maybe I had watched too many tragic dramas about people waiting bitterly for the lovers they missed. After we got back together, whenever I imagined him on countless cold, lonely nights, missing me while enduring the torment of solitude, the guilt would hurt so much my heart ached.

So I spared no effort in helping him.

Huo Yanxu had once told me that his greatest wish was to be valued by his grandfather.

Huo’s Father had married three times and had seven or eight children. Having that many descendants did not win Huo Grandfather’s favor.

What Huo Grandfather wanted to pass down was family values, not sheer numbers of children.

Not one person in Huo’s Father’s generation was capable of shouldering the family. Right now, all Huo Family affairs were still decided by the old master.

The results I achieved in an overseas laboratory had helped my family stage a beautiful comeback. The Ye Family could have swallowed the full benefits of that success on our own, but in order to make Huo Yanxu valued by Old Master Huo, I took the pharmaceutical research results that were about to be completed and arranged a meeting with Old Master Huo myself.

The Huo Family had made its fortune in real estate. Three years ago, real estate regulations had caused the Huo Family’s assets to shrink considerably, and Old Master Huo had also been trying to invest in other industries.

The pharmaceutical industry had the best prospects.

The terms I offered made Old Master Huo beam with delight.

Old Master Huo understood very well that someone like me, a pharmaceutical researcher, was the core of any pharmaceutical company’s growth. If I became the Huo Family’s daughter-in-law, then the Huo Family’s investment in pharmaceuticals would have its anchor.

I didn’t like management, and I didn’t like socializing. I only liked burying myself in the laboratory, facing all those bottles and jars.

But for Huo Yanxu, I forced down what I disliked and worked hard to laugh and talk smoothly in the business world, pulling in resources and building connections for him.

Thinking of all this made my heart twist in pain.

The way I had tried so hard to love him must have looked, in his eyes, like a clown being manipulated and enjoying every second of it.

I was still a little unwilling to let it go, so I called Huo Yanxu.

He picked up. The other end was completely quiet.

In my mind, a scene surfaced of him and Cheng Jiayin in a themed room pasted with red double-happiness characters.

I held my breath. “Ah Xu, I don’t feel very well. I want to see you now.”

“I’m working overtime.” His tone carried a helplessness that said, Don’t make trouble. “You know I’ve always wanted to become strong enough to be your shelter from the storm.”

At the end, he comforted me. “Rest early. I’ll come pick you up tomorrow afternoon.”

As he hung up in obvious haste, the last sliver of hope I had shattered.

After thinking it over again and again, I found a phone number in my contacts that I hadn’t dialed in many years.

When I heard the ringing, my heart leaped into my throat.

After five or six rings, the call connected.

A deep, steady voice sounded from the other end. “Are you calling me for rescue, or for love?”

I answered bluntly, “Rescue.”