Chapter 26 He Should Hate Her
After hanging up the phone, Ruan Yao turned around and saw Huo Yanzhi still sitting on the bench in the corridor, with his eyes closed, as if he was resting.
She walked over guiltily, her courage to confess earlier almost completely gone, leaving only a little shyness and annoyance at being interrupted by the phone call.
"Um... I have something to take care of at home, so I have to go now."
She stood in front of him, her voice soft.
"Thank you for today."
Huo Yanzhi simply grunted an "Mmm," without even lifting his eyelids.
Seeing him like this, Ruan Yao felt that vague sense of embarrassment and annoyance well up in her heart again.
What does this person mean?
She made herself so clear, yet he didn't respond at all.
Is this an agreement or a rejection?
Ruan Yao was very anxious, but she also remembered to be reserved, which gave Huo Yanzhi time to think it over.
Her cheeks puffed out slightly. "Well... let's talk about what we were just discussing next time we meet."
After saying that, she turned around and ran away quickly, without waiting for Huo Yanzhi's reaction.
The light footsteps disappeared completely at the end of the corridor, and the entire corridor instantly became empty.
Huo Yanzhi slowly stood up from the bench.
Outside the corridor window, the sky had completely darkened, and the city lights were just coming on. The light and shadows filtered through the glass, casting an indistinct shadow on him.
He seemed shrouded in an inescapable gloom, silent and repressed.
He bent down, his pale, slender fingertips precisely pinching up a glint of cold light from the ground.
An earring.
She dropped it in her haste.
A cool sensation came from his fingertips as he held the earring in his palm.
The round pearl shone with a delicate yet alluring luster against his almost bloodless skin.
Huo Yanzhi used his fingertips to stroke the pearl repeatedly and very slowly, with an almost morbid infatuation, as if he were feeling the lingering warmth of her body.
No one could see his expression at that moment; the lingering gloom around him had become even more intense and aggressive.
After a long while, he slowly closed his five fingers, tightly clenching the small earring in his palm, then turned around and silently walked into the darkness at the end of the corridor.
A black Bentley was parked downstairs, and Qin Feng had been waiting in the driver's seat for quite some time.
The car door opened, and Huo Yanzhi, bringing a chill with him, sat down.
The car started smoothly, and Qin Feng glanced at his boss in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
He hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
"Mr. Huo, actually, when I took Miss Ruan home that day..."
Qin Feng carefully considered the wording.
"Miss Ruan asked me a lot of questions about you, and even asked you... if you have a girlfriend."
The people in the back seat didn't react at all, just watching the night view rushing past the window.
Qin Feng tightened his grip on the steering wheel. After following Huo Yanzhi for so many years, this was the first time he felt so confused and bewildered.
"Mr. Huo, I don't understand."
"You've been secretly watching Miss Ruan for over a decade. That time at the bar, you even watched her walk all the way home before leaving. Now she…she's clearly interested in you, why…"
Qin Feng didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was crystal clear.
He didn't understand why the person his boss had been in love with for over a decade, had finally seen him, would push him away instead.
The black Bentley smoothly drove into Huo Yanzhi's private villa and stopped in front of the building.
The villa was completely dark; no lights were on.
Huo Yanzhi pushed open the car door, got out of the car with a chill in his body, and walked straight into the entrance hall without looking back.
Qin Feng watched the heavy door close behind him, shutting everything out, and habitually sighed before driving away.
Inside the door, the motion-sensor light in the entryway turned on in response, casting a lonely, cold glow.
Huo Yanzhi did not change his shoes, but walked straight through the empty and deserted living room and went upstairs.
The study door was pushed open, then locked from the inside.
Without turning on the light, he skillfully walked to a huge mahogany bookshelf, raised his hand, and gently pressed a few times in a specific order on a hardcover copy of "The Republic" on the third shelf.
The bookshelf slid silently to one side, revealing a heavy metal door behind it.
Huo Yanzhi went inside.
As he stepped inside, the lights inside lit up in layers, illuminating this previously unknown secret room.
There is only a single sofa and four walls here.
The walls were covered with photos.
From a little girl with pigtails and a pink princess dress, to a bright-smiling young woman in a school uniform, and now to a graceful young lady.
The subject of every photo is Ruan Yao.
These photos document every moment of her life since she came to northern Beijing, from childhood to adulthood.
It's as if someone used a camera to greedily and obsessively depict her growth trajectory over the past ten years.
Every important moment in her life, every unintentional instant, is captured here, forming a silent and vast wall of memories.
This is Huo Yanzhi's prison, and also his temple.
He walked to the end of the room, where a safe was embedded in the wall.
Enter the password, and the locker door pops open.
There were no gold or silver jewelry inside, only some odds and ends of old objects.
The old fountain pen with the paint worn off was one she accidentally dropped during a competition in junior high school.
The watercolor painting of sunflowers was her entry for the competition.
etc.
Huo Yanzhi put the pearl earring he had picked up from the hospital corridor into a velvet box, and then placed it in the far corner of the safe.
After doing all this, he reached into the deepest part of the safe and took out something that was being carefully kept.
A small, faded pink children's umbrella.
The cartoon rabbit printed on the umbrella has some wear and tear around the ears.
He looked around for a long time before walking to the only single sofa in the center of the room and sitting down.
He picked up a bottle of perfume from the low cabinet next to him and sprayed it lightly twice into the empty air.
The sweet white tea mixed with slightly bitter citrus instantly filled the entire secret room, enveloping him both gently and cruelly.
This was her favorite flavor in her past life.
Huo Yanzhi closed his eyes, leaned back on the sofa, and breathed in the familiar fragrance with all his might, like a drowning person clinging to the last breath of air.
He placed the small pink umbrella beside him, and with his free hand, he very slowly stroked the cool surface of the umbrella with his fingertips, as if he were tracing a face he had longed for for too long.
"Slender and graceful..."
A deep voice echoed in the secret room, filled with bewilderment and pain, reverberating in this sunless "shrine" that he had built with his own hands.
He wanted to possess her completely more than anyone else.
But the tragedy of his past life was still vivid in his mind.
His obsession and insistence earned him her fear and betrayal.
He should hate her.
But she walked towards him step by step, easily causing his carefully constructed defenses to crumble.
He didn't understand.
The person in her heart was clearly Shen Yu.
Huo Yanzhi slowly opened his eyes.
He looked up, his eyes fixed on a spot on the wall.
There was a photograph hanging there.
Ruan Yao stood at the university gate, looking up at Shen Yu beside her with a smile.
Her smile was radiant and bright, unlike anything he had ever seen in his previous marriage.
The wound on my arm was throbbing, but it was nothing compared to the sharp, throbbing pain in my heart.
Like the sharpest knife, it precisely pierced his already rotten heart, and then violently stirred it.
Dark jealousy and a frenzied possessiveness burst forth from the depths of his repressed bones, threatening to devour all his rationality and pretense.
After an unknown amount of time, Huo Yanzhi finally slowly released his grip.
He forcefully suppressed the surging emotions back into his heart, and his face returned to its calm, emotionless expression.
He put the pink umbrella back in the safe and locked it.
Turning around and walking out of the secret room, the study outside remained completely dark.
He took out his phone and made a call.
“Shen Yu has always wanted the Dongchang project. Tell him to go to Dihao now. If he misses tonight, he won’t be able to go.”
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