198 The Charming CEO Huo

"Huo Yanxi, I must have been a complete idiot before."

How could she possibly think that Huo Yanxi didn't like her and that he only married her to repay a debt of gratitude?

Huo Yanxi sighed helplessly, "Why are you cursing yourself?"

"I always thought you didn't like me, trying to figure out your true feelings, but I never asked you directly whether you loved me or not."

If she hadn't been so awkward and had asked him directly, perhaps none of this would have happened.

Huo Yanxi would not be locked up in Xiaojian Mountain to suffer.

Thinking of this, Xie Yaoyao felt extremely guilty.

Huo Yanxi said, "Manman, do you know why, of all the relationships—family, friendship, and love—only love is so lingering and makes people anxious and insecure all the time?"

Xie Yaoyao was taken aback, then shook her head. "I don't know."

"Because of love, there is sorrow; because of love, there is fear. Because we care, we are afraid that the other person's feelings are not in sync with ours. Because we do not know the other person's feelings, we are fearful and uneasy."

Xie Yaoyao: "It sounds like love is really not a good thing."

"But it is also the most fascinating thing, because loving someone is itself beyond the control of reason."

Xie Yaoyao felt that Huo Yanxi was truly shining at that moment.

He is truly charismatic and captivating when he is thinking rationally.

"So I love you, even if you take my heart out, my memory will still be filled with the details of loving you."

Xie Yaoyao's eyes reddened, and she threw herself into Huo Yanxi's arms. "Huo Yanxi, how can you be so good at this?"

A single love confession stirred her heart.

Huo Yanxi put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "Because you taught me how to love someone."

He wandered for three years, fighting with stray dogs for food and getting into fights with beggars.

He squatted by the roadside asking people for a coin, just wanting to survive.

He walked alone for an unknown amount of time, believing he would eventually die on that bitterly cold winter night.

Her appearance was like a ray of light that redeemed him.

Over the years that followed, she warmed his cold heart with her passion.

He lived his whole life for her.

Xie Yaoyao hugged him tightly, her eyes welling up with tears again. "If you keep getting sentimental, I'll cry for you."

Huo Yanxi lowered his head and gently wiped away the tear stains under her eyelids with the pad of his thumb.

Why are you always so sentimental?

Xie Yaoyao sniffed. "It's probably because it's the place where we grew up. Just thinking about how we missed five years makes me very sad."

Huo Yanxi lowered his head and kissed her forehead. "Don't be sad, we have many more five-year periods ahead of us."

"Um."

They have many more five-year periods ahead of them, enough to make up for the five years they were apart.

From today onward, she will love him more each day than the day before.

"Let's go, my little crybaby." Huo Yanxi took her hand, and the two continued walking towards home.

As soon as I got to my doorstep, I saw bodyguards blocking a group of people. They were dressed in suits and ties, but looked a bit travel-worn.

Xie Yaoyao immediately recognized one of the ladies; she had seen her at Huo Yanxi's company.

It is Madam Chi.

When Madam Chi saw her, she immediately stood up to greet her, but was stopped by the bodyguards.

"My little girl, my little girl!" Madam Chi couldn't get over and called out anxiously to Xie Yaoyao.

Xie Yaoyao looked up.

Standing next to Madam Chi was a handsome middle-aged man whom she had seen in a magazine; he was the current head of the Chi family.

Standing next to them was a young man in his early thirties, dressed in a custom-made suit, handsome and refined.

The whole family is here.

As she sized him up, he was also sizing her up, and a glint of light flickered in Chi's father's eyes.

Seeing her holding hands with Huo Yanxi, Chi's father's expression softened a little.

He said, "My child, you've suffered all these years wandering outside. Your father and mother have come to take you home."

Xie Yaoyao wasn't stupid; she knew they would come today, and she must have weighed the pros and cons.

They only came because they knew that Huo Yanxi was her backer.

If she were just an ordinary person with nothing, she probably wouldn't be so keen on recognizing him.

Xie Yaoyao instinctively moved closer to Huo Yanxi.

Huo Yanxi grasped her hand, glancing indifferently at the Chi family of three, "How did you find your way here?"

When Madam Chi saw that Xie Yaoyao was deliberately avoiding them, her eyes reddened and she choked out a sob.

"My dear, it's Mommy. I'm so sorry, it's my fault for losing you."

Xie Yaoyao pursed her lips, neither showing any intimacy nor speaking.

When Chi Mu saw Madam Chi crying with tears streaming down her face, while Xie Yaoyao remained unmoved, he was furious.

He said coldly, "Mom is crying like this because of you, and you're not even moved? How could I have such a cold-blooded sister?"

Huo Yanxi's eyes suddenly turned cold. "Watch your attitude."

Chi Mu said, "Xie Yaoyao, I heard you're a teacher. With your narrow-minded and vicious heart, how can you be qualified to teach and educate people?"

Huo Yanxi was about to speak when Xie Yaoyao grabbed him.

She looked at Chi Mu coldly, "To me, you are all strangers."

Chi Mu was so angry he felt like his blood vessels were about to burst. "You say we're strangers? Fine, then you'd better not acknowledge us."

"I really didn't intend to acknowledge you as my relatives, so didn't you come all this way here? Did I invite you?"

Chi Mu's expression changed drastically. "Xie Yaoyao, stop acting so high and mighty. And Wanwan, what did you do to her?"

"Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're backing President Huo now."

Xie Yaoyao found it ironic to see Chi Mu's powerless rage.

"So what if I can do whatever I want because of my boss, Mr. Huo? All you can do is bark here and go get your good sister out of here."

"you!"

Chi Mu was about to scold her again when his father interrupted him, "Alright, Wanwan brought this on herself. Why are you blaming your sister?"

Mrs. Chi said, "Nannan, don't listen to your brother's nonsense. We really want to take you home."

When Xie Yaoyao saw Madam Chi, she could not empathize with her pain.

Or rather, from the first time she met Madam Chi, she never felt the same closeness she had towards her biological mother.

Perhaps they were never meant to be mother and daughter.

Or perhaps Madam Chi doesn't feel guilty or indebted to her as she appears.

They don't even love her unconditionally like real parents do.

Otherwise, Huo Yanxi said that if they sent Chi Wanwan abroad, he would tell them the whereabouts of their biological daughter.

They did not want to send their adopted daughter away.

That only shows that their biological daughter is not important to them.

"No need, I won't go back with you, and I don't want to acknowledge you as my family."

Madam Chi paused in her sobs, then began to weep even more bitterly.

"Darling, why? We're family. How can family members not recognize each other?"

Xie Yaoyao wanted to say that you didn't really want to acknowledge me, but she also felt that if she said that, they would think she was resentful.

Actually, she didn't.

“When I was a child, I longed for my father’s and mother’s love, but at that time, you spoiled me rotten and didn’t even know I existed. Now, I don’t need my father’s or mother’s love anymore, so I don’t want to acknowledge you and I don’t want to have anything to do with you.”