Chapter 34 You're always so tempting...

Huo Lianjing received an email from Huo Lan informing her that they were getting married soon. Several days earlier, she had mailed them a pair of Patek Philippe Calatrava watches as a wedding gift.

Jiang Shiyuan also reconnected with Huo Lianjing after a long time. Although they only exchanged a few brief greetings in the chat interface, their secrets prevented them from being strangers.

Therefore, Huo Lianjing quickly understood Jiang Shiyuan's thoughts from her silence. She tacitly kept quiet and only said that she would return to China in a few days to attend their engagement banquet.

Huo Lianjing has always been a very insightful person. The reason she was willing to help Jiang Shiyuan contact the hospital for an induced abortion was because she knew that being together unwillingly would only lead to mutual torment in the end.

There are too many resentful couples tormenting each other in Huo Garden; her younger brother Huo Lianqiao and Xu Feixuan are examples.

Their marriage was arranged by their families, and initially it was just a facade. Eventually, the resentment between the two grew so much that her younger brother, unable to bear it any longer, committed suicide to escape his entanglement with Xu Feixuan.

At that time, the burden and responsibility of the Huo family began to fall on Huo Lianqiao's shoulders. However, he was inherently weak and unable to shoulder the heavy responsibility. The complicated affairs of the Huo family, the old man's repeated disappointments, and Xu Feixuan's sarcastic remarks all became the straws that broke him.

Although Huo Lianjing had left Huo Garden, Huo Lan was a child she had watched grow up since childhood, and she did not want to see her family continue like this.

She hoped that Jiang Shiyuan could get what he wanted, and she also hoped that her nephew Huo Lan could restrain his obsessive personality so as not to follow in the footsteps of his mother Xu Feixuan.

Jiang Shiyuan wasn't sure if Huo Lianjing would still help her, but she had no other choice at the moment.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Jiang Shiyuan arrived at Jingyuan on time to carry out the restoration work of calligraphy and painting, and gradually organized the information he had obtained into a short biography.

The restored artifacts and fragmented information gleaned from letters were pieced together, making the regrettable story from a century ago more complete. Jiang Shiyuan always felt this short biography needed a title, and finally wrote the four characters "Jingyuan Youmeng" in large letters on the computer.

The Huo family banquet will officially begin tomorrow night, and the invited guests have basically all arrived.

The studio was asked to suspend its current repair work and was given a three-day leave.

Qiao Wei was afraid of running into her ex-boyfriend at the Huo family home, so she booked her ticket and went home early. The other colleagues, however, wanted to stay at Huo Garden to see the legendary Huo family banquet.

Jiang Shiyuan also had to go back to prepare her outfit for the engagement banquet, so she checked in and left Jingyuan right at six o'clock.

She deliberately avoided Huanhua Water Pavilion to avoid running into the person who secretly took her picture, but unexpectedly, she met a young lady on the way and asked her to help carry her suitcase.

It was already the height of summer. Although the garden was shaded by trees, had a misting system, and had lots of ice in the corridors, it was still unbearably hot after walking around for a while.

A beautiful woman with exquisite makeup was holding a small fan and was followed by three or four maids who were pulling her suitcases, but it still wasn't enough.

"What are you looking at? I'm pointing at you. What are you standing there for? Come and help."

The woman had wavy hair, wore sunglasses, and a tight-fitting off-the-shoulder knit dress. She had a slender, graceful, and stunning figure, but her tone of voice was somewhat bossy.

Jiang Shiyuan was walking past the bushes with his toolbox on his back when he saw the woman pointing at him. He looked to both sides and realized that he was all alone.

Because she was afraid of being secretly photographed and the photos reaching Huo Lan's ears, she dressed down today and simply tied her hair in a low ponytail. Unexpectedly, she was mistaken for a servant who carried luggage.

Jiang Shiyuan quickly waved her hand, "I'm sorry, you've mistaken me for someone else, I'm not..."

Before she could finish speaking, the woman shoved a huge crocodile skin handbag into her hand, assuming she was waving her hand because she thought the luggage was too heavy.

"Alright, alright, seeing how slender you are, I'll let you carry something small."

As she walked by, she couldn't help but push her sunglasses down a few more times and give Jiang Shiyuan a few more glances.

"She is quite pretty, I like her, she'll stay with me for the next few days."

Jiang Shiyuan and the other person were locked in a stalemate, while Shi Teng was following Kristen almost every step of the way, afraid that he would run into Jiang Shiyuan again. But unexpectedly, Jiang Shiyuan deliberately took a different route today and bumped right into the two of them.

Kristen's eyes widened again. She handed the camera to Shi Teng and stepped forward to get to know him.

"We are so lucky to have met this lady today. I must get to know her."

Shi Teng then noticed that Fu Xinyuan, the eldest daughter of the Fu family from Hong Kong, was standing next to Jiang Shiyuan.

He quickly took a few steps and took the handbag from Jiang Shiyuan's hand. "Miss Fu, I will arrange for someone to serve you as soon as possible."

Fu Xinyuan put her sunglasses back on, her hand fan still blowing continuously. "No need, I only want her, I don't like anyone else."

Kristen seemed to understand something and started to try and take over, saying, "Butler Shi, I also need this lady's services."

Shi Teng smiled stiffly, wondering where they got the misconception that Jiang Shiyuan was a servant of Huo Garden. He quickly explained, "She is a cultural relic restorer hired by Huo Garden, not a servant."

Upon hearing Jiang Shiyuan's profession, Fu Xinyuan's interest grew even stronger. "Artifact restorer? I thought all those people did this were old men. How can someone as young as you stay in that profession?"

Kristen clearly didn't understand Jiang Shiyuan's job introduction, and kept inviting her to be her date, but she was always interrupted by Shi Teng's words.

Shi Teng shielded Jiang Shiyuan behind him, fighting against two people at once. He prevented Kristen from trying to talk to Jiang Shiyuan while also stopping Fu Xinyuan from treating Jiang Shiyuan like a servant.

"Shi Teng, take the two guests to the waterside pavilion to rest."

Jiang Shiyuan was silently watching the superhuman butler Shi debate with the group of scholars when he suddenly heard Huo Lan's voice, which carried a hint of intimidation.

She didn't know if he went to work today, but he was wearing a suit and tie without a single wrinkle, which gave people a strong sense of pressure.

Fu Xinyuan was somewhat afraid of Huo Lan. She had heard about Huo Lan's methods and knew that he loved to worship Buddha. She had watched too many movies and always associated him with a refined thug. In addition, he was dressed formally today, was already very tall, had no expression on his face and no warmth in his voice. Just walking towards her like this was really frightening.

However, she had also heard that the head of the Huo family was good-looking and had even been on some list of the top ten most handsome faces in the world.

Fu Xinyuan thought she had seen at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, handsome men and was immune to them, but she didn't expect that she would be overwhelmed by Huo Lan's aura when she saw him up close.

"What a pity, he married so young."

Fu Xinyuan couldn't help but sigh. If this wasn't an engagement party, she would definitely have put in more effort to win him over.

"Um?"

The phrase "impartial and unbiased" reached Jiang Shiyuan's ears.

As if afraid she hadn't heard clearly, Fu Xinyuan leaned closer and repeated, "I said the main problem with the Huo family is that they're not married yet, so I'll definitely pursue him."

Jiang Shiyuan looked at her in surprise, thinking she had said something utterly immoral.

Fu Xinyuan finally took off her sunglasses, her beautiful eyes, painted with pink eyeshadow, looking at her with a puzzled expression. "Is it that shocking? Do you need to look at me like that?"

Before Jiang Shiyuan could answer, Huo Lan took a big step and pulled her out from behind Shi Teng.

"Miss Jiang, are you off work? There are a lot of people around lately, and wandering around might attract unwanted attention."

Jiang Shiyuan was a little frightened when she heard this. She looked up and saw that he had no expression and looked rather cool.

Kristen greeted Huo Lan and congratulated him on his marriage, then turned her attention to Jiang Shiyuan, saying she wanted to invite him to dinner.

At this moment, Huo Lan's calm and composed face began to turn sinister. Whether it was from anger or something else, Huo Lan maintained a polite smile with a slight curve at the corner of his lips. "That's really unfortunate. I've already arranged to meet Miss Jiang tonight to take her measurements and have a dress made for her engagement."

Kristen and Fu Xinyuan were shocked to hear this, and then realized that the woman in front of them was the rumored future wife of the Huo family whose identity had not been revealed.

Kristen then realized her rudeness and quickly apologized to Huo Lan.

Huo Lan didn't say anything, but simply nodded at Shi Teng.

Having received some kind of instruction, Shi Teng extended his arm and escorted Kristen away.

Only when they turned around did they realize that Fu Xinyuan was still looking them up and down.

"I'm not going to stay in the waterside pavilion. I've already had my luggage moved to my room. I want to play outside for a while longer."

However, Fu Xinyuan suddenly felt a little guilty when she suddenly remembered that she had asked Mrs. Huo to carry her bag.

"I don't know anything about it."

Remembering what she had just said to Jiang Shiyuan, she wished she could disappear into the ground. "Miss, please pretend you didn't hear anything."

Jiang Shiyuan nodded obediently, and Huo Lan also nodded politely in response; the two were in sync.

"They do look quite well together. Well then, I wish you both a long and happy marriage and a joyous engagement. And also..."

Fu Xinyuan frowned and looked at Huo Lan. "Mr. Huo, could you please announce your fiancée's identity sooner? Just because I came to the mainland a few days earlier, the media is spreading rumors that you and I have been dating for several years, which is affecting my ability to find a boyfriend."

"Don't worry, Miss Fu. The engagement ceremony will be held three days after the banquet ends, and I will announce my wife's identity then."

Upon hearing the exact time information, Jiang Shiyuan's hand tightened slightly.

Huo Lan sensed Jiang Shiyuan's unusual behavior and tightened his grip on her hand. "Shiyuan is probably a little nervous because she's happy."

He didn't give her a chance to say no, and directly led her back.

Before the two had taken two steps, they heard music coming from a relatively open garden not far away; it was an ancient-style song.

Everyone stopped and looked at the screen standing in the center of the garden.

It was around seven o'clock, and the sky was beginning to darken. Suddenly, a bright white light shone from behind the screen, casting the slender figure of a woman onto it. Her body appeared graceful and swaying, and her waist was so thin that one could pinch it with one hand.

After the intro music finished and the music started playing, the figures behind the screen began to dance to the rhythm, prompting people around to take out their phones to take pictures and videos.

Fu Xinyuan was completely bewildered. "Is this a hidden program at your Huo Garden? It wasn't mentioned on the invitation..."

Fu Xinyuan had no idea what the woman dancing opposite her was up to, but Jiang Shiyuan was used to it.

She just didn't expect that even though the Huo family banquet was already publicly announced as an engagement party, so many people would still come to Huo Garden and go to great lengths to throw themselves at her.

"Mr. Huo, would you like to continue watching or return to Bell Pavilion?"

Sensing a hint of jealousy in Jiang Shiyuan's tone, Huo Lan was secretly pleased, so he deliberately asked, "Shiyuan, what do you think of the person on the other side's dancing?"

Jiang Shiyuan replied nonchalantly, "Beautiful, like a person in a painting."

Huo Lan was somewhat displeased, "Am I prettier than you?"

"ah?"

Jiang Shiyuan had no idea what this had to do with her.

"What do you think this person will do in a little while?"

Jiang Shiyuan replied, "After the dance, the screen is removed, and then she makes an elegant appearance in front of everyone, bows to thank the audience, mainly to make you remember her."

After the song ended, the woman behind the screen, dressed in an apricot-colored gauze dress, did everything Jiang Shiyuan had instructed her to do, and in the end, all she did was try to make her presence known to Huo Lan.

As expected, after scanning everyone present, the woman locked her gaze on Huo Lan, who was standing not far away, and gave a shy smile.

When she looked up again, she found Huo Lan with a gloomy face, staring at her with a cold gaze that made her want to shiver.

Since she had already started, she couldn't just give up halfway. She had to bite the bullet and get involved with Huo Lan, her sugar daddy.

After the woman finished dancing, she walked towards Huo Lan. When she got closer, she noticed that Huo Lan was holding Jiang Shiyuan's hand tightly. Her expression changed slightly as she quickly sized up Jiang Shiyuan. Judging from her clothes, she was probably neither Shen Chuqing nor Fu Xinyuan, who were the hotly discussed prospective wives of the Huo family. Her courage grew even stronger.

As for who he was holding hands with, she didn't care. After all, it wouldn't be surprising for a top tycoon with such a huge fortune to have five or six lovers outside.

What she needs to do is become one of them.

So when she saw Jiang Shiyuan, she was actually happy.

Rumor has it that Huo Lan, the head of the Huo family, is not interested in women. In the past twenty years, apart from his fiancée whom he personally announced, there has been no news of him having any girlfriends or romantic scandals. She thought she was going to fail.

When she saw Jiang Shiyuan, a beautiful young lady from a wealthy family, standing next to him, she felt that she was almost successful.

"Hello Mr. Huo, my name is Xu Yixue. My teacher is the principal dancer of the opera house, and I came here with her. Huo Garden has beautiful scenery, which is perfect for this dance, so I'm just offering my humble performance."

Huo Lan ignored her and turned to Jiang Shiyuan, asking, "Does Mrs. Huo think it looks good?"

When asked out of the blue, Jiang Shiyuan smiled and complimented, "Miss Xu, you danced so beautifully. You clearly have many years of dance experience."

Upon hearing Huo Lan's address to Jiang Shiyuan, Xu Yixue's pretty face twisted slightly. "Mrs. Huo?"

When Huo Lan's tender gaze shifted to Xu Yixue, it turned icy cold, and he called over the staff member waiting for service.

“Remove anything that affects the scenery of Huo Garden. Also, no one other than the person who received the invitation shall be allowed to enter Huo Garden.”

After saying that, he pulled Jiang Shiyuan and walked towards the direction of Lingdang Xiaozhu.