Chapter 24 The price is to be forever…
Guoya Elementary School is a public elementary school. The National Children's Go Championship has been held here many times. The auditorium is frequently renovated, but it still retains the layout from more than ten years ago.
Huo Lan received an elite education from a young age; as far back as he can remember, he was taught solely by a team of teachers. He almost never lived in an organization like a school, had very few opportunities to interact with his peers throughout his childhood, and was much more mature than them.
So when he first entered Guoya and saw so many children his age, it was hard not to show a nervous expression that was inconsistent with his usual behavior.
But this subtle tension quickly dissipated.
Because he had never played against peers whose Go skills were below the professional level, his opponents' moves and thoughts were completely exposed to him.
For the opponent, it was an unprecedented experience of being utterly crushed, with no chance of recovery.
It was the first time he had ever seen a child his age cry.
He hadn't cried since he was six years old because his mother said tears were something only the weak had.
To him, his opponent's weeping was the struggle of the weak, an emotion he could not comprehend.
Huo Lan looked at the auditorium, which was almost identical to that of many years ago, bent down slightly, wrapped his arms around Jiang Shiyuan's shoulders from behind, and pulled her into his embrace. He then looked up at the clock hanging on the wall.
Before entering the auditorium, the Huo family had informed Guo Ya in advance to seal off the auditorium.
After the area was cleared, no one else was allowed to enter, so the entire large space was occupied only by Huo Lan and Jiang Shiyuan.
"In that year's Go tournament, I had to beat my opponent within ten squares of the minute hand moving, round after round, until the very end."
"But one person started crying halfway through and hesitated to make a move, wasting ten minutes."
Jiang Shiyuan was held in Huo Lan's arms like a lifeless doll; although obedient, she couldn't give him any of the responses he wanted.
Huo Lan had no choice but to pinch her cheek forcefully, "If you don't speak, I'm going to bite you."
Jiang Shiyuan then raised her eyelids and hummed in agreement.
Although it was a perfunctory response, it was still a reply to him.
Huo Lan let go of Jiang Shiyuan, but still held her hand.
"Because that game of chess lasted more than ten minutes, she heartlessly broke up with me."
Huo Lan looked towards the audience seats in the auditorium, as if seeing that person through time.
"She just sat there quietly, ignoring the certificate I was holding, and didn't say a word to me. It wasn't until everyone in the auditorium had left that she stood up from her seat and ordered me to go to the restroom with her."
“She made me stand there facing the wall and repent. She said that if I was overtime, I was overtime, and there were no excuses. At the time, I took her words as gospel and never thought of going against them.”
Jiang Shiyuan then realized why she had encountered him strangely in the bathroom; it turned out to be because of Xu Feixuan.
From a certain perspective, Xu Feixuan played a crucial role in their meeting.
"But I don't blame her. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have met you and been deceived by you."
Huo Lan looked down at Jiang Shiyuan, who wasn't really listening to him, and felt no displeasure. Instead, he was filled with a sense of satisfaction that his long-cherished wish had finally been firmly grasped.
“We met here fifteen years ago, and I want you here fifteen years later…” He suddenly raised his hand and held Jiang Shiyuan’s chin, forcing her to look up and meet his eyes.
Kiss me.
Jiang Shiyuan glanced at him quietly for a moment, but instead of obediently kissing him as he had imagined, she pushed away his arm that was in front of her.
But the next moment, Huo Lan gripped her wrist tightly. He remained calm, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"Today is a good day. So many people are blessing our marriage. You heard them all, didn't you? Shiyuan, don't make me repeat myself."
Jiang Shiyuan then looked up at him, her tightly furrowed brows never relaxing for a moment. "It's just a blessing that's been paid for; it's all hypocrisy."
Is it fake?
Huo Lan loosened his grip on her wrist, his thumb gently stroking the delicate skin on the inside of her wrist.
"But why do the touch and temperature feel so real?"
“I will never forget that you ran away from me for three years, so you deserve this.”
"Shi Yuan, you should pay the price for your wrong choice. The price is to be locked by my side forever."
Huo Lan grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. He leaned down and his hot breath hit her face, but the expected kiss did not fall.
"I've already regressed a lot in terms of initiating kisses."
"You should think about the people you care about. For example, everyone in Mengkong, and your uncle and aunt, Cheng Yan who helped you transfer your family."
Seeing that Jiang Shiyuan remained unmoved, Huo Lan continued, "I heard that Cheng Yan is doing very well at the Wancheng Museum. It seems she's about to be promoted after only a few years. What if something goes wrong at this time...?"
Jiang Shiyuan finally spoke up, but her voice was muffled with anger, "You're using your power to oppress people again!"
"I didn't want to either, but you forced me to. If you just listen to me, everyone will be fine, and they'll even be better off."
Huo Lan looked at her eyes, which were gradually becoming wet, and felt a heartache so intense that he could hardly breathe. It felt as if a knife was slowly tearing apart every part of his body, making him feel like he was about to fall apart.
He clearly didn't want to threaten her or make her sad, but he still couldn't help but say those harsh words, which made her eyes red with tears.
Almost instantly he regretted it. He subconsciously reached out to wipe the tears from her eyes, but before he could touch her, she stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips.
It was the kiss he had been longing for, yet it was so cold that it chilled him to the bone.
Neither of them closed their eyes, and they simply gazed at each other in the coldness of their kiss.
The tear that had been welling up in his eye for so long finally fell from his eye and landed on the back of his hand, burning him painfully.
Jiang Shiyuan let go of him and went to look at the watch hanging on the wall.
“I only lied to you for half an hour, but you’ve been bothering me for over a decade.”
Huo Lan finally stroked her face and wiped away her tears, with a kind of obsessive care as if she were her own possession.
"If you weren't lying to me for those half hours, you would just be one of the countless losers in my life. I wouldn't even remember that there was such a person after the game."
"But you chose to lie to me, Shi Yuan. It was your own decision, so don't blame me."
Huo Lan pulled Jiang Shiyuan toward the exit of the auditorium.
Only then did she realize that there were many members of the Huo family who had come with her. There were five or six people blocking the hall, and many people in the black cars lined up not far away were watching her intently.
Jiang Shiyuan felt dizzy and unsteady on her feet. She was practically half-carried by Huo Lan into the Bugatti, a top-of-the-line sports car that was already surrounded by many citizens.
This is a limited edition sports car, exclusively for the Huo family, with the Huo family's family totem painted on the rear.
High-profile and flamboyant, it doesn't even need tomorrow; in just one hour, once all sorts of videos about luxury cars are uploaded, the news of the Huo family patriarch's upcoming marriage will spread like wildfire, dominating the top of every website and platform's headlines.
Huo Lan pushed Jiang Shiyuan into the passenger seat, his attitude hardly gentle.
After the car door closed, shutting out all the noise, Jiang Shiyuan finally broke down.
"Huo Lan, I don't have wings, I can't fly away, there's no need for so many people to watch me!"
Huo Lan disagreed, saying only, "What if? You're so smart, you'll always find a way to leave me. So I have to eliminate any possibility of you escaping."
After he started his car, a large number of luxury cars followed closely behind, causing a sensation on any street and drawing all the citizens out to watch.
He always seemed to be a little smarter than her. If Huo Lan hadn't been captivated by her gentleness and obedience back then, she wouldn't have had the chance to escape the Huo family.
In the current situation, it would be extremely difficult for her to escape from his side again, and Huo Lan would no longer be swayed by her gentle advances.
Jiang Shiyuan was almost heartbroken, but still hoped for a chance to turn things around.
"Haven't you considered that we're simply not a good match?"
Huo Lan drove calmly without answering her, but the slight trembling of his hands betrayed his anger.
"Where are you taking me next?"
"Go to hell with your high school. Don't you want to know how I've been bothering you for over a decade? The answer will be revealed soon."
Jiang Shiyuan tried her best to calm herself down and put on a charming smile again.
"Huo Lan, I don't want to know anymore. Let's go home. I'll call my uncle and aunt and tell them to attend our wedding on time."
She placed her hand over his hand, which was gripping the steering wheel tightly, trying to ease his obsessive emotions.
She still wore the 460 million blue diamond he had given her on her finger.
After the convoy traveled through almost half of Wancheng, it finally stopped in front of Jiang Shiyuan's middle school.
She attended the same middle school and high school, which meant that Huo Lan would no longer take her to the next place like a madman.
The school was still in session and students hadn't been dismissed yet, so it was relatively quiet. But ever since their convoy of luxury cars stopped, an uncontrollable murmur of surprise began to rise from the campus.
The students in the classroom all turned their gazes to the window, and the teacher, while managing the students, was also eager to see what was happening outside.
Huo Lan held her hand tightly as he led her through every place she had left her mark on.
Gradually, media outlets began to rush in with their equipment, filming them holding hands. At first, there were only a few, but later more and more people joined in.
The stunning video of the luxury car convoy parading through the streets quickly went viral after it was uploaded. News media outlets, eager to capture firsthand information, rushed to the school.
However, all the media were kept away from the Huo family by their bodyguards, so they could only capture their intimate moment of holding hands tightly through the crowd.
In the eyes of the reporters, they were a couple of vastly different social statuses who broke through worldly constraints and decided to be together, a truly touching story.
But in reality, what they couldn't hear was all of Huo Lan's past, which wasn't a secret to him.
"When you were in the first year of junior high, you got your period. It was a hot and humid summer day. I remember it clearly as July 18th. You thought it was just because of the hot weather, so you didn't pay attention. You didn't expect that you would get your skirt dirty."
"In the second year of junior high, a boy gave you a love letter. It was the first time I started to notice that there were boys of the opposite sex who were showing interest in you."
"In your third year of junior high, you cooked a big dinner for your family and told your uncle that you had decided to board at high school to ease their burden."
Jiang Shiyuan was freezing cold and could barely stand by leaning against Huo Lan.
To reporters in the distance, this gesture appeared to be proof of their deep affection.
"After you went to high school, I found that I would start to miss you if I didn't hear from you for a day. Finding out about your life seemed to have become something I had to do every day."
Huo Lan traced Jiang Shiyuan's face, then lowered his head and leaned closer in an ambiguous manner, "Do I need to say anything more?"
"For example, how did I see everything about your life? What do I do after seeing this information? And why was I in that club during my university years? Don't you want to know?"
-----------------------
Author's Note: This damp, male ghost is giving me goosebumps!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
