Chapter 25

Huo Junyan got up, and the two of them tacitly moved the toy car on their son's bed a little further away before leaving the room together.

As he turned, the towel wrapped around his hair fell off, his long hair cascading down, releasing a pleasant fragrance. He bent down to pick it up, his fingertips rubbing the damp towel. "What happened?"

Chu Ci took the towel from his hand, glanced at him, and then took it away, drying her hair as she walked.

By the time I got back to my room, I had calmed down.

"It's nothing." With her back to him, she opened the scalp care essence, put two drops on it, and then put one drop on her fingertip. She rubbed it in and massaged her scalp with her fingers spread apart.

Huo Junyan sat on the sofa behind her, staring intently at the pair of eyes in the mirror.

She suddenly looked at him, winked playfully, turned around, and caught a glimpse of his slightly tense yet immediately relaxed expression.

"Hmm...it must have been my mom calling me."

Xu Yunhua called without warning and immediately began questioning her. Chu Ci hung up stiffly, her heart racing and her emotions spiraling out of control. She instinctively ran to find Huo Junyan.

But I didn't know what to say, and then I thought, it's not a big deal.

Xu Yunhua was unaware that she had an accident five years ago.

She only went back once after starting university, and that was around the time of her midterm exams.

Perhaps it was my subconscious that led me to know about these experiences, yet deliberately avoid them and not analyze the reasons in detail.

Huo Junyan understood perfectly. What good things could parents say about their daughter who had been missing for years and hadn't even bothered to look for her?

"You contacted them?"

He discovered that Chu Ci had returned to Shancheng County with the stars, but had never gone home.

If Chu Ci doesn't take the initiative to contact them, even if they want to find her, they will most likely use the contact information from five years ago, and that five-year-old contact information is in his possession.

After handling the "aftermath" that year, he regained her contact information.

In recent years, she has occasionally received wedding invitations from former part-time colleagues of Chu Ci, recommendations from banks to apply for credit card services... all sorts of things, but not a single family member has contacted her.

He thought that her upbringing and family were the main reasons for her complex and changeable personality.

"I haven't contacted them."

Just now, Xu Yunhua said something about how she sent Liu Fengqin to prison and falsely accused her of stealing, and now everyone knows about it, and they have lost all face.

Liu Fengqin is the nanny, Aunt Liu, who injured Xingxing before.

Chu Ci tells Huo Junyan about meeting Liu Fengqin and her aunt on the bus in the mountain city.

The aunt recognized her as Xu Yunhua's daughter, and since she was with Aunt Liu, the two naturally exchanged information.

From what Xu Yunhua said, it was clear that Aunt Liu was completely distorting the truth.

Ha, the first time Xu Yunhua contacted his daughter in five years was to "stand up for justice" for someone else.

"Do you want to go back?" Huo Junyan asked in a rare gentle tone.

When Chu Ci went back last time, she hadn't really decided whether she wanted to go home, and then Xingxing was taken away by Yao Shengjie. When Xingxing saw that it was her grandmother, she ran out of the car on the sidewalk.

She changed to a different serum, warmed it in her palms, and combed her hair through her fingers. "I still need to go back." Otherwise, she would always be thinking about it and feel uneasy.

She doesn't remember how she fell out with her family, but it must have been something like that.

Deep down, I have very complicated feelings about that home and my family.

Then again, who can easily be completely indifferent to their loved ones?

She raised an eyebrow at herself in the mirror and smiled slyly. "Aunt Liu can go around saying that I framed her, so I definitely have to explain. That way, even if no one believes me, someone will question her."

She could disregard those people, but she couldn't let them twist the truth for no reason.

In her eyes, "the innocent will remain innocent" was a helpless statement born of desperation.

Chu Ci (Songs of Chu) lacks the saintly awareness and would not choose to swallow her anger in order to appease the situation.

Huo Junyan watched as she changed her comb again, which looked much the same as the previous ones. "I'll go back with you tomorrow."

"Hmm? Aren't you busy with work lately?"

Although Chu Ci only develops software, he has a general understanding of the entire project.

AI medical software is just the vehicle for the project. The overall plan is to launch AI medical services in all first-tier cities across the country within one year, expand to second- and third-tier cities within three to five years, and extend to Southeast Asian countries.

In short, deploying AI healthcare in first-tier cities is the first step.

The Huo family's database was shut down after only a few hours of operation, while the Zhou family's enterprise has been fully operational for the past few days. The Huo family's database advantage has not yet been realized, and they have already lost the initiative.

The project required a huge initial investment, and now it's burning through cash every minute.

While Chu Ci was hospitalized, he kept an eye on public opinion. The video was only online for a few hours before being taken offline, and people in the industry were pessimistic about the technical issues.

She personally developed both software programs. She knew best that the Huo family's software, which was connected to a database, was their biggest advantage. The software she left behind for the Zhou family's use was lightweight, without a database or port, so it couldn't track users and wouldn't last long.

But she discovered that the Zhou family had purchased the database and upgraded the server.

The purchased database is highly flawed, but the drawbacks will not be apparent in the short term.

Lightweight software simply cannot support such a large user base, nor can it track user statistics. Purchasing databases and servers would not sustain this for long.

Doing this is a complete waste of money.

No, there's another possibility: completely sabotaging the software launch, putting all competing companies back on equal footing.

She suddenly realized that the Huo family hadn't relaunched; instead, several tech companies were competing with the Zhou family's AI healthcare. He had immediately seen through the Zhou family's intentions, decisively abandoned the relaunch, and supported other companies in weakening the Zhou family's business?

Chu Ci was quite surprised.

The difficulty lies not in seeing through things immediately, but in having the courage to make a decisive decision after seeing through them.

"I'm exhausted from having to solve everything." He leaned back, resting his neck on the edge of the sofa, his voice slightly nonchalant.

"What about the losses incurred in the early stages?"

Huo Zixi said that the Huo family is in a bit of a mess right now. Many people are taking advantage of the problems with the AI ​​medical project to target Huo Junyan openly and secretly, and this situation is inextricably linked to her.

She could roughly guess that Huo Junyan's decision to allow the Huo family's shareholders to cause trouble was a deliberate attempt to mislead the Zhou family father and son.

However, the initial investment was huge, and the losses definitely need to be addressed.

"With so many people under your wing, surely a few are capable." The tone was casual, but the demeanor conveyed the air of a superior in control.

Chu Ci was inherently wary: "What if someone betrays you?"

Huo Junyan suddenly stared at the person in the mirror, his eyes direct, as if staring at prey that had already walked into a trap, making no attempt to hide his desire.

It seemed that the slightest movement from her could trigger his hunting instincts.

Her pupils shifted slightly as she tilted her head back, combing her hair. Just as she picked up the hairdryer, her eyes glanced at the mirror, and their gazes met.

He got up and walked behind her, took the hair dryer from her hand, and played with her hair with his slender fingers, smoothing it strand by strand. Then he leaned over and stared at the mirror, "That's perfect, let's clean it all at once."

His tone was casual, and he slowly curled the corners of his lips into a nonchalant smile. His pupils were deep and gloomy, as if looking at him for even a moment would plunge him into endless darkness.

Chu Ci swallowed unconsciously, almost simultaneously sensing a danger signal.

He wanted to take the opportunity to eliminate his rivals.

Or perhaps he had this intention all along.

The Huo family is currently at a critical juncture in the power transition. Huo Junyan is the only heir cultivated by the Huo family, which is the public knowledge. But how many undercurrents are hidden beneath the surface, no one knows.

The alternation of power is often accompanied by the redistribution of resources.

Old Master Huo had once wholeheartedly nurtured Huo Chengxun, but when Huo was 16, he changed course and handed the Huo family over to Huo Chaojiang. During this period, the group experienced turmoil and a reshuffling.

This time, everything was as usual.

The underwater currents were firmly suppressed by the Huo family father and son.

Unexpectedly, a major project failure occurred at a critical moment.

The Huo family can easily afford the project losses, but this is a serious problem at this time. Behind the problem lies Chu Ci, and thinking deeper, the question is whether to choose a marriage alliance to form a powerful alliance, or...

No, still.

In the eyes of the Huo family's higher-ups, who wanted to stabilize the situation, Chu Ci was not an option.

If that were all, Chu Ci wouldn't care; the Huo family's affairs would be their own business.

But at this moment, the little monster in my heart keenly sensed another layer of meaning in his words.

—A warning to her.

He wouldn't allow her to take the stars with her when she left.

Chu Ci raised her eyes, her delicate arms hooked around the back of his neck, her lips parted slightly, and she kissed his Adam's apple. Her body lifted into the air, her long hair gently falling and slowly spreading out on the honey-colored bed.

He gently pried open her lips and teeth, drawing in her oxygen, and with a few quick movements removed the barrier between them. He cupped her slender waist in his hands, pressing their bodies tightly together.

Just as I was about to suffocate from lack of oxygen, I was suddenly released.

Chu Ci's eyes went unfocused, and he gasped for breath.

"Do you love me?" he asked, pressing against her.

The proud and arrogant Mingyue, the chosen one of heaven, the young head of a powerful family, actually asked such a humble question.

A tear fell onto her upper eyelid, flowing down the crease and mingling with the tears at the corner of her eye. She thought she loved him very, very much.

How could I not love it?

Her personality was so picky, and her heart was surrounded by high walls, yet she allowed him to enter easily—no, she actively approached him, "with love."

Huo Junyan didn't hear her speak, but he could see it clearly and could no longer restrain himself.

The hairdryer continued its soft whirring, while rain began to fall outside the window, first tentatively, then suddenly pouring down as if it were about to engulf the earth.

“You love me,” he said, biting her earlobe with a hint of punishment, “but you love freedom more.”

Chu Ci wrapped her arms around his waist without arguing.

The night spread silently, the rain pattering softly, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, but relentlessly persistent, determined to continue all night.

She had always vaguely sensed his repression, like a volcano beneath an iceberg, ready to erupt but suppressed by him.

He resented Chu Ci's abandonment back then, but had nowhere to vent his hatred.

His heart and reason were at odds; too many complex emotions could only hide in the damp night, like a black snake, hiding in the shadows, afraid to see the sunlight.

Chu Ci suddenly bit his shoulder, her voice choked with sobs, "Huo Junyan, let's get married."