Chapter 7 Huo Yanzhi was abducted as a child
Shen Yu.
Upon hearing the name, Ruan Yao's body instinctively stiffened.
During the days she was imprisoned in Shen Yu's villa in her previous life, that sticky, nauseating tenderness was like damp moss, crawling all over her body, making her feel suffocated even when she was breathing.
Ruan Yao tightened her grip on the umbrella, a wave of nausea rising in her stomach.
She spoke very softly, trying her best not to let Ruan Sheng notice his unusual behavior.
"I don't like him, I only consider him a friend."
"That's terrible." Ruan Sheng clicked his tongue. "My parents, Uncle Shen, Aunt Shen, and I all thought you two liked each other. Watching you grow up together, so innocent and carefree, you seemed like such a perfect match."
He clicked his tongue and continued, "Dad likes Shen Yu so much, saying he has a good temper and is steady in his work. Mom treats him like a son-in-law. And on the Shen family side, Aunt Shen is practically treating you like a daughter-in-law."
“My parents were sadly saying the other day that in two years, our little princess will have to marry into the Shen family,” Ruan Sheng said with a smile. “We never expected that we would have to make the wrong choice in marriage.”
Ruan Yao knew that everything Ruan Sheng said was true.
Both sets of parents were very happy with each other's children.
In her previous life, it was the same. At a family gathering after she graduated from university, the elders jokingly brought up her marriage to Shen Yu.
She didn't object at the time, and Shen Yu, with his usual gentle smile, acquiesced.
She remembers her mother smiling and saying that she wanted to keep her at home and pamper her for two more years.
From then on, her future with Shen Yu became an unspoken matter between the two families.
Even she herself once thought that she would definitely marry Shen Yu in the future.
Who knew that fate would take such a turn?
Ruan Sheng noticed that she didn't respond for a long time, just kept her head down, and her expression was unreadable.
His smile faded slightly, and he asked again as if to confirm, "Yaoyao, you really don't like Shen Yu? I can tell that Shen Yu likes you."
"dislike."
Ruan Yao answered decisively, without the slightest hesitation.
Ruan Sheng was stunned for a moment.
My sister's eyes were serious; she didn't seem to be joking or upset.
He clicked his tongue in slight regret.
"You didn't even like Shen Yu, who's so great. Your standards are too high." He muttered. "I never expected that Shen Yu would have such a one-sided crush on you all these years."
Ruan Sheng seemed to remember something and clicked his tongue again.
"However, I told you before that Huo Yanzhi might have a mental illness, and I wasn't making that up."
Ruan Yao turned her head to look at him.
"You forgot? I heard someone say that Huo Yanzhi was abducted when he was a child," Ruan Sheng said, recalling as he drove.
"It took the Huo family almost a year to find him. After he was found, Huo Yanzhi did not show his face in public for several years. The Huo family also protected him very well and declined all media interviews."
"At the time, some people said that Huo Yanzhi had been abused and developed some kind of mental illness, and that he had been receiving treatment at home for several years."
Ruan Sheng shook his head, increasingly convinced that his guess was correct.
"No wonder he seems so strange and cold. Think about it, how can someone who has experienced that kind of thing since childhood be mentally healthy? You should never marry someone like that; who knows when he might go crazy."
Ruan Yao's mind went blank.
It seems... there is such a thing.
In her past life, she overheard the Huo family's nanny mention that Mr. Huo was afraid of the dark, and that a light had to be left on in the bedroom at all times.
It seems to be related to this matter.
Ruan Yao tried hard to search her memories of her past life, hoping to uncover more traces of Huo Yanzhi's past.
She realized that she was paying far too little attention to Huo Yanzhi.
They had been married for a year, and she knew absolutely nothing about his past.
"When was he abducted?" Ruan Yao's voice was tense. "Where was he taken?"
“I don’t know about that. The Huo family has been keeping this under wraps,” Ruan Sheng said. “It seems he was around ten years old. I heard it wasn’t a simple abduction; it was Huo’s rival who kidnapped him and sold him as revenge to get back at Huo.
"It caused quite a stir back then, and many media outlets reported on it. However, the Huo family later found someone and suppressed the news. Nobody knows what happened after that."
Kidnapping.
Ruan Yao's face turned pale.
A dull ache spread through my chest.
It turns out that he had such an experience in his childhood.
She had always thought Huo Yanzhi was a chosen one, born with everything.
Little did they know that there had been such a dark period in his life.
Ten years old.
He's still a child.
First he was kidnapped, then he was trafficked, and he was found after wandering around for a year.
He... must have suffered a lot.
A scene suddenly flashed through Ruan Yao's mind.
The bedroom was dimly lit, with only a warm yellow nightlight on the bedside table.
Huo Yanzhi's burning body covered her, his breathing heavy and labored.
Her hand wandered unconsciously over his broad back, her fingertips suddenly touching a rough, uneven surface, a network of old scars.
"What is this?" she asked curiously.
He didn't stop burying his face in her neck; he just turned his head very slowly, rubbing his nose against the side of her neck, as if confirming the scent of his prey.
Then, he grabbed her "mischievous" hand.
He answered with a seductive air that seemed to rise from the depths of the abyss.
"Left from when I was a child."
Then, he took her hand and guided it downwards to his chest.
There, too, was an even longer scar, like an ugly crack, marring this perfect body.
He wrapped his hand around hers, as if afraid she would pull it away.
"Don't dislike me."
He pressed his lips against her knuckles and placed a wet, cool kiss on her.
"From now on, if you scratch me hard, all the scars on my body will be yours."
The tide of memories receded abruptly, and Ruan Yao was still sitting in the car, but the dull pain in her heart felt so real.
So that's how it is.
No wonder he never turns on the main light when they're in bed.
It turns out she had touched his wound so early on, but knew nothing about it.
In the year since their marriage, she had overlooked so much, so many truths about him.
A sudden pang of sadness shot through her nose, and tears welled up unexpectedly. Ruan Yao quickly lowered her head, blinked hard, and forced the tears back.
Seeing that she remained silent for a long time, only lowering her head and looking like she was about to cry, Ruan Sheng thought that the story he had told had frightened her.
He freed one hand and patted her head.
"What are you thinking about? Stop pondering it." Ruan Sheng's voice softened a bit. "When Huo Yanzhi was kidnapped, you were only six years old. Our family was still in Nancheng. How would we know anything about the news from Jingbei?"
South City.
Ruan Yao's heart was gently touched by those two words again.
Yes, they were in the south of the city when she was six years old.
The Ruan family started their business in the southern part of the city, but when she was nine years old, the whole family moved to northern Beijing.
"Alright," Ruan Sheng said, seeing that she was still sullen, so he changed the subject. "Let's not think about these things anymore. Where does the little princess want to go? I'll drive you there."
Ruan Yao raised her head, her eyes still a little moist.
"Brother, I'll go to the company with you."
Ruan Sheng was somewhat surprised. "What are you going to the company for? You're not actually interested in those reports, are you?"
“I want to submit a resume,” Ruan Yao said. “I’d like to ask Lin Weiwei for advice on how to write it, and also visit my cousin.”
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
