Chapter 43 Old Master Huo
A few days later was Mr. Huo's 70th birthday.
The Huo family did not hold a grand celebration. They simply invited some relatives and a few old friends to a family banquet at their old house.
The entrance was filled with all kinds of luxury cars, and the guests coming and going were all wealthy and powerful.
When Ruan Yao arrived, Ye Mei was chatting with several ladies. She spotted Ruan Yao and immediately greeted her with a smile.
"Yaoyao, you've finally arrived! Auntie has been waiting for you for so long."
Ye Mei affectionately took her hand and led her to the front of the crowd, her demeanor blatantly declaring her affection for Ruan Yao to everyone.
Many scrutinizing and inquisitive gazes fell upon her from all around, but Ruan Yao, under pressure, greeted them all with grace and poise.
She handed the exquisitely packaged brocade box to Huo Wenbo, who looked gentle and refined.
"Uncle Huo, this is a small token of my appreciation for you."
Huo Wenbo was somewhat surprised, but politely accepted it.
He couldn't open it directly in front of everyone, so he just smiled and nodded.
Ye Mei urged from the side, "Open it quickly and take a look. This child is so thoughtful."
Huo Wenbo then untied the brocade cloth and opened the wooden box.
When he saw the old, well-worn Song Dynasty edition of "Dongshan Ji" inside, his usually calm face revealed a genuine expression of surprise for the first time.
"You...you really found it!" Huo Wenbo's voice was filled with excitement.
"As long as Uncle is happy, that's all that matters." Ruan Yao smiled, her eyes crinkling.
"I love it, I love it so much!" Huo Wenbo carefully closed the box, as if he were holding some rare treasure. "I'll take it to my study to put it away first."
Seeing her husband's overjoyed expression, Ye Mei's smile deepened. She held Ruan Yao's hand, looking at her with increasing satisfaction.
Just then, Ye Mei's phone vibrated.
She glanced down at her phone; it was a message from Huo Jing: "Sister-in-law, Yanzhi and I are on our way, we'll be there soon."
Ye Mei's eyes lit up, and she turned to Ruan Yao with a smile, saying, "Yan Zhi just got off the plane and is on his way. Yao Yao, why don't you accompany Auntie for a walk in the back garden? I had some rare camellias transplanted, and they're in full bloom."
Ruan Yao naturally wouldn't refuse.
The Huo family's back garden was enormous, filled with exotic flowers and rare plants, and meticulously maintained.
Ye Mei, holding Ruan Yao's hand, walked on the cobblestone path, when suddenly she exclaimed "Oh dear!" and stopped.
She raised her hand and touched her earlobe, a look of anxiety on her face.
"Oh no, I think I lost one of my pearl earrings. It was a gift from Yanzhi."
"Don't worry, Auntie, let's try to find it along the same route," Ruan Yao immediately reassured her.
“No need, you don’t know what the earring looks like.” Ye Mei pulled Ruan Yao’s hand, her face pleading. “I’ll go check the pavilion where I was talking to Mrs. Li. Maybe it fell there. Yao Yao, you look at the flowers around here for a bit, I’ll be right back.”
After saying that, without waiting for Ruan Yao's response, he turned and left in a hurry.
Watching her departing figure, Ruan Yao had no choice but to search carefully in the same spot as well.
But the area was deserted, and there was no sign of the earrings.
She stood there, listlessly admiring the flowers, waiting for Ye Mei to return.
After waiting for a long time, Ye Mei still didn't return.
Ruan Yao's gaze was drawn to a semi-open glass conservatory not far away.
It was a small greenhouse filled with all kinds of precious orchids.
However, the Cymbidium ensifolium closest to the door had slightly yellowed leaves and looked somewhat wilted, as if it was lacking water.
Ruan Yao recognized this place.
In her past life, she had been summoned here countless times.
Old Master Huo loved orchids dearly, especially those in this greenhouse, which were all his precious pets that he had personally cared for.
Back then, the stern and unsmiling old Mr. Huo would always have his butler push him to this small garden after afternoon tea.
Then the old man would always have a stern face, sit in his wheelchair, point to this pot and then to that pot, telling her to water it or prune it, without saying anything else.
She was both respectful and fearful at the time, always feeling that this stern and unsmiling patriarch was making things difficult for her. Each time, she mechanically completed the tasks with a feeling of unease.
It wasn't until much later that she understood.
The taciturn old man, Mr. Huo, simply wanted to get closer and closer to the girl his grandson cherished in his heart, in his own way.
That wasn't being difficult, but rather an awkward, silent invitation.
Ruan Yao felt a lump in her throat and her eyes welled up with tears.
She looked around; the greenhouse door was only slightly ajar and not locked.
She composed herself, pushed open the door and went inside. Familiar with the process, she picked up the special long-spouted watering can from the corner, mixed the water, and carefully began to water the somewhat dehydrated Cymbidium goeringii.
Just as she was intently tending to the flowers and plants, a hoarse yet powerful voice, tinged with anger, suddenly rang out behind her.
"What are you doing!"
On the other side, Huo Yanzhi and Huo Jing had just stepped into the old house when Ye Mei, who had been waiting for a long time, caught them red-handed.
"Yanzhi, you're finally back!" Ye Mei grabbed her son's arm and pushed him toward the back garden.
"I had to leave for a bit, leaving Yaoyao alone in the garden. Go quickly, don't let the girl get lost."
Huo Jing watched from the side, suppressing a laugh and shrugging her shoulders.
Huo Yanzhi paused for a moment.
He instinctively wanted to refuse.
But the thought of Ruan Yao's perpetually slightly dazed face, looking completely disoriented in his excessively large, winding garden, made his heart leap into his throat.
Huo Yanzhi followed the direction his mother pointed and walked along the cobblestone path.
He searched around but couldn't find Ruan Yao.
My mother said she was here, but she's nowhere to be found.
Huo Yanzhi's heart sank slightly.
The Huo family mansion was extremely large with many branching paths, so it was easy for her to get lost since it was her first time there.
His gaze swept across the end of the garden and landed on the semi-open glass conservatory.
That was Grandpa's forbidden area.
A thought flashed through his mind, and Huo Yanzhi immediately quickened his pace, heading towards the greenhouse.
He knew his grandfather's temper well; those orchids were more important to him than his own lifeblood, and he never allowed outsiders to touch them easily.
What if Ruan Yao accidentally wanders in...
He dared not think any further.
However, before he even got close, a genuine laugh, unlike anything he had ever heard before, drifted over on the wind.
It was Grandpa's voice.
Huo Yanzhi stopped in his tracks.
In his memory, his grandfather was always the stern and authoritative patriarch, and even during holidays, his expression was mostly just a nod and a smile.
He had almost never heard such hearty laughter before.
He hid behind a clump of lush banana leaves and peered into the greenhouse.
Under the warm yellow light, the old man who he remembered always had a stern face and an imposing presence was now sitting in a wheelchair, his face crinkling with deep wrinkles from smiling.
And standing beside him was Ruan Yao.
The girl was speaking with her eyes crinkling, her expression intimate and natural, without a trace of fear or alienation from her past life.
"...So, Uncle Huo's gentle and refined nature is inherited from you, Grandpa, who was a scholar who loved gardening and cultivating plants!"
"You sweet-talking girl!" Old Master Huo chuckled and pointed at her, his affection for her barely concealed.
Huo Yanzhi stood in the shadows and saw the scene inside through the clear glass.
The warm glow of the setting sun bathed the entire greenhouse, gilding each orchid with a soft golden edge.
His grandfather, the old man he always remembered with a stern face, was now leaning back in his wicker chair with an undisguised smile on his face.
Beside her grandfather, Ruan Yao was smiling and talking, her eyes crinkling like a fairy who had wandered into the mortal world.
An old man and a young boy, one still and one active, create an incredibly heartwarming scene.
Huo Yanzhi stood there, feeling like an outsider.
In her past life, Ruan Yao would always stay far away from her grandfather, like a mouse seeing a cat.
In this life, however, she can make the most dignified and difficult-to-please elder in the family smile so heartily.
Looking at the bright, smiling face in the greenhouse, a hard corner of his heart, caught off guard, quietly crumbled and softened.
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