Chapter 25 Old House and Jiuying
——＜An ancient dividing line＞
In the evening, a black car drove out of the city center and headed towards the outskirts. The scenery outside the window gradually changed from bustling and noisy to quiet and clear, and finally stopped in front of an old manor-style house nestled in the mountains and beside the water.
Su Yan followed Huo Shen out of the car and looked at the building in front of him, which was covered with ivy and had obvious signs of the old times. He was full of doubts. This was completely different from the extremely modern and cold style he had imagined Huo Shen would live in.
The old house was very quiet. Only an elderly butler in plain clothes came out to greet them. He bowed respectfully to Huo Shen and said, "Sir, you are back." When his eyes swept over Su Yan, there was a hint of subtle scrutiny and... surprise?
Huo Shen just said "hmm" lightly and walked straight in. Su Yan hurriedly followed.
The interior of the house was decorated in an antique style, with the furniture mostly made of dark solid wood, bearing the marks of time. The air was filled with the faint scent of sandalwood and old books. Everything here exuded a sense of tranquility and... sadness, which was incompatible with Huo Shen's fierce aura.
A family dinner? Who were they inviting? Su Yan's gaze swept across the empty dining room, which only had two sets of tableware, and his doubts reached a peak.
Huo Shen did not go to the restaurant, but took him through the corridor and walked deep into the house. Finally, they stopped in front of a closed door.
The old butler retreated silently.
Huo Shen stood in front of the door, silent for a moment. Su Yan could even feel that the aura around him had changed a little. It was a kind of silence that had restrained all sharpness and was almost solemn. Then, he pushed the door open.
There was no main light in the room, only a floor lamp in the corner emitting a soft, dim glow. This seemed to be... a studio?
The air was filled with the smell of turpentine and paint. The room was large, and the walls were covered with picture frames covered with white cloth. Only the one facing the door was uncovered.
When Su Yan's eyes fell on the painting, his breathing suddenly stopped.
It was a half-length oil painting of a young man, wearing a clean white shirt, sitting by the window in the sunlight, with a bright smile and clear features - it was exactly the young man in the photo he had seen in Huo Shen's safe!
But the impact of the oil painting is far beyond that of the photograph. The artist used his brushstrokes to imbue the boy with vivid vitality, his smile pure without a trace of impurities, his eyes bright as if filled with starlight.
What nearly made Su Yan's heart stop was a clear signature and date in the lower right corner of the painting. The signature was Shen Huo in cursive script. The date was eleven years ago.
Huo Shen can draw? And he draws so well? Eleven years ago... Huo Shen should still be a teenager at that time.
Su Yan suddenly turned his head to look at Huo Shen. He saw Huo Shen staring quietly at the painting. The dim light outlined the outline of his profile. His eyes, always filled with calculation and coldness, now revealed a deep, almost overflowing sadness and tenderness.
This emotion on Huo Shen's face shocked Su Yan more than any rage. For the first time, he felt so clearly that deep down in Huo Shen's heart, there really was a soul completely different from the cold-blooded businessman he was now, and that soul was closely connected to the boy in the painting.
"His name is Ah Xi." Huo Shen suddenly spoke, his voice low and hoarse, as if he was talking to Su Yan, but also as if he was talking to himself, "It means light."
Su Yan held his breath and didn't dare to answer.
"Today is his birthday." Huo Shen stretched out his hand, his fingertips almost touching the boy's cheek on the canvas, but stopped at the last moment and slowly clenched his fist. "Every year on this day, I come here to have a meal with him."
So... this is what's called a "family dinner." A commemoration of the deceased by the living, a birthday party for just two people...
A huge sense of absurdity and an indescribable sadness surged into Su Yan's heart. He had always believed that he was a substitute for Bai Yueguang, but he had never expected that the "shadow" itself was actually a ghost that had been treasured for more than ten years.
Is Huo Shen's obsession with him based on his longing for "A Xi", or is it because Su Yan, to some extent, really touched his frozen emotions?
Huo Shen turned around and looked back at Su Yan. The sadness in his eyes had not yet completely faded, intertwined with his usual desire for control, forming an extremely complex and difficult to understand emotion.
"Don't you think," Huo Shen stepped closer, gently lifted Su Yan's chin with his fingers, and forced him to look into his eyes, "that it's ridiculous to argue with a dead person?"
Su Yan opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He looked at Huo Shen's face so close to him, at his eyes that reflected the light and his own terrified reflection. For the first time, he felt a complex emotion towards this man that went beyond fear.
Is it pity? Or... a resonance of fellow "trapped" souls?
At this moment, the old butler's hurried footsteps sounded outside the door, interrupting the strange atmosphere between the two.
"Sir," the butler's voice was a little nervous, "Assistant Zhou called and said there's an emergency, about... about Mr. Zhao from Starlight Technology."
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