Chapter 11 I want a drink
Lin Wei forced a smile that looked more like a grimace: "She didn't say anything harsh. She was very polite and invited me to afternoon tea. She praised me for being outstanding and for having a bright future, saying that she could tell I was a good girl."
She paused, looking down at the brown liquid swirling in her glass: "Then she asked me if I knew what kind of family the Huo family was. If I knew what I would face if I were with you."
"She said that being a daughter-in-law of the Huo family isn't just about love. It requires dealing with the media, hosting banquets, managing the family's charitable foundation, and interacting with various parties. She said that all of this requires exposure from a young age, support from family background, and... a kind of 'innate composure'."
Lin Wei looked up, her eyes brimming with tears again: "She said she didn't look down on me, it's just the reality. She said if I insist on being with you, it will be difficult for you in your family in the future, because everyone will think I'm not good enough for you. She said... she said she could help me."
"Help you with what?" Huo Yanli's voice turned cold.
“Help me go abroad.” Lin Wei’s tears finally fell, slamming onto the table. “Oxford or Cambridge, she can arrange it. Full scholarship, the best tutor. She said I’m still young and should pursue a wider world, instead of… being trapped in an unblessed relationship.”
Huo Yanli suddenly stood up, the chair legs scraping loudly on the floor. Everyone in the coffee shop looked over.
"You agreed?" He stared at her.
Lin Wei shook her head, desperately shaking her head: "I didn't! I said I don't want to! I said I can learn, I can work hard, I can—"
"Then what?"
“Then…” Lin Wei’s voice trailed off, almost inaudible, “She showed me a document. It was the equity structure of a subsidiary of the Huo Group, and… a trust fund clause about you. There was a clause that if your spouse is not approved by the family, part of your inheritance rights will be frozen and managed by the family trust until… until you ‘make a choice that is in the family’s best interests’.”
Huo Yanli stood frozen in place.
He knew about these family rules, but he never imagined they would be laid bare so bluntly and cruelly in front of the person he loved.
“She said it wasn’t a threat, just to make me face reality.” Lin Wei covered her face, her shoulders trembling. “She said she didn’t want it to be like this either, but it was a rule set by your grandfather, and no one can change it. She said… if I truly love you, I shouldn’t let you lose everything you should have because of me.”
"I don't care about any of that!" Huo Yanli almost roared.
“But I care!” Lin Wei raised her head, her face streaked with tears. “Yanli, I care! I don’t want you to fight against your entire family because of me! I don’t want you to regret it in the future! I don’t want… I don’t want you to see others easily obtain resources, but lose them because of my existence, and then… and then start to resent me.”
Her voice was broken: "Your mother gave me a check at the end. She said that if I chose to leave, this money would be enough for me to live well abroad. She said... this was the last thing she could do for me as a mother."
Huo Yanli remembered grabbing her wrist tightly at the time: "Give her the money back! Lin Wei, we don't want her money! We can—"
"What can we do?" Lin Wei smiled sadly. "Elope? Cut ties with your family? Yanli, you are Huo Yanli. You have the entire Huo family on your shoulders, how can you just leave?"
They parted on bad terms that day. Huo Yanli went home and had a huge argument with his mother, slamming the door as he stormed out. He thought that as long as he was tough enough and persisted, he would eventually find a way out.
But a week later, Lin Wei sent a text message: "Yanli, let's break up. I'm tired."
He frantically called her, but her phone was off. He went to her dorm, but her roommate said she had taken leave and gone home. He went to her house, where her parents greeted him politely but distantly, saying their daughter had gone out to clear her head and they didn't know when she would be back.
Three days later, he received a text message from Lin Wei's new number, containing only one sentence: "3 PM, Terminal 3, British Airways BA38. If you come, I'll stay."
Huo Yanli dropped everything and rushed to the airport. It was raining heavily that day, and he ran several red lights. When he arrived at the international departure hall, he was soaked to the bone and looked utterly disheveled.
He found the British Airways check-in counter and frantically searched for that familiar figure in the crowd. Not there. He dialed the new number, but it was switched off. He asked the counter staff for flight information—BA38, flying to London Heathrow, departing at 3:10 PM, boarding had already begun.
He rushed to the security checkpoint but was stopped by staff. Without a plane ticket or passport, he couldn't get in.
He could only stand outside the security cordon, separated by the massive glass curtain wall, watching the crowds queuing for security checks inside. The rain lashed down on the dome, the sound deafening. He stared intently at each person passing through security, his eyes stinging with tears.
It's 3:05. Boarding should be almost over.
It was 3:08. His heart sank deeper and deeper.
At 3:10, the announcement that BA38 would take off on time came over the loudspeaker.
Huo Yanli stood in the bustling airport hall, soaked to the bone, watching the huge plane outside the window slowly taxi to the runway, accelerate, look up, and plunge into the leaden gray clouds.
The rain blurred my vision.
It also blurred the last trace of the girl who once shone the brightest in his life.
He later learned that Lin Wei hadn't been waiting for him at the gate at all. She had taken an earlier flight to Hong Kong, from where she would transfer to England. That text message might have been her final test, or perhaps it was just... a dignified farewell.
And she cashed that check. Three million. A drop in the ocean for the Huo family, but for a girl from an ordinary family, it was a fortune that could change her destiny.
Huo Yanli didn't bother to verify whether she had actually used the money. It didn't matter anymore.
From that moment on, something died completely in his heart.
---
The cigarette ash finally fell, spreading out in a small patch of grayish-white on the dark desk surface.
Huo Yanli stubbed out his cigarette in the crystal ashtray, the movement a little forceful.
Five years have passed.
He thought he had long since stopped caring, but those details—her tearful eyes, her trembling voice, the cold glass of the airport, and the image of the plane disappearing into the clouds—were still glaringly clear.
Therefore, he resisted marriage and any arranged intimate relationship.
Because he knew all too well how fragile emotions were in the face of interests, family, and reality.
Therefore, he set a five-year agreement with Song Zhiyi, drawing a clear line between them, and speaking coldly to her.
Because he doesn't want to experience that feeling of being weighed, abandoned, and priced in money again.
Outside the window, the city lights still shone brightly.
Huo Yanli leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
But another face involuntarily surfaced in my mind.
He was handsome and composed, wearing a white shirt and black trousers. After signing the papers, he checked his watch, said, "Sorry, I have to catch a flight," and then turned and left.
He was decisive and efficient, completely different from the person he was back then.
Yet, just as... he couldn't figure her out.
He opened his eyes and looked at the now-cold financial report on the table.
I suddenly have a strong urge to have a drink.
A bit stronger.
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