To My Dear Mr. Huo

After they had gone up, Su Qingsang found Huo Jinyao’s skin even more bruised.

Huo Jinyao had strong abdominal muscles, but the skin under his clothes was very fair. The bruises looked especially obvious on his fair skin.

“How did you get bruised so badly?” asked Su Qingsang. Seeing the several bruises on Huo Jinyao’s body, she wasn’t only wearing a look of concern but also showed some discontent on her face. “Your uncle is so over the line, isn’t he? He is a soldier. He’s certainly stronger than you are. How can he hit you so hard?”

She knew that Huo Jinyao couldn’t possibly win, but had still tried his best to hit him very hard. That produced outrageous consequences.

“Darling, I’m fine.” Huo Jinyao liked to see Su Qingsang worry about him. “He didn’t take much advantage of me. I’m telling you, he’s injured too.”

“He can’t be as injured as you are,” said Su Qingsang as she looked at the two bruises on Huo Jinyao’s stomach. Her brows furrowed slightly. “Go and take a shower. I’m going to get the ointment.”

“It’s okay,” said Huo Jinyao carelessly. “It’s nothing. The bruises will be gone tomorrow.”

“No, they won’t.” Merely looking at those bruises made Su Qingsang suffer in agony. “Go and take a shower. I’m going to ask Mr. Cheng to bring the ointment upstairs.”

Huo Jinyao had no other choice but to take a shower as his wife ordered him to. When he came out of the shower, Su Qingsang was already holding the ointment, waiting for him by the bedside.

After the shower, the bruise on his waist grew even darker. The worried look on Su Qingsang’s face became more and more obvious.

“Why did you fight your uncle?”

“That wasn’t a fight. We were battling.”

Su Qingsang didn’t want to argue with him. In her eyes, fighting and battling meant the same thing.

The thermostat was on. Huo Jinyao bared his upper body to let Su Qingsang apply the ointment for him.

Su Qingsang put the ointment on Huo Jinyao’s skin. Huo Jinyao gasped in pain once her fingers touched his skin.

“It hurts, it hurts.”

“You deserve this,” said Su Qingsang as she gave him a piercing glare, but her movement became much gentler than before. “Hopefully this will stop you from battling him again.”

“You may not know this yet, but Yichen and I, we’re always like this.”

In front of Old Master Huo and the other elderships, Huo Jinyao called Zhang Yichen ‘uncle’. In private, they were close to each other, so Huo Jinyao always called him by his name.

Huo Junyao knitted his brows and narrowed his eyes when Su Qingsang applied the ointment for him. Su Qingsang responded to him with a glare.

“Seriously.”

Huo Jinyao recalled the time he had spent in the army. “You know what? I was once in the military camp that my great-aunt lived in. I was with my uncle back then. I admit that I’m not as good a fighter as he is.”

Zhang Yichen practiced every single day. An ordinary person couldn’t possibly become a senior colonel from a soldier within just about ten years as he had managed to.

“He got another promotion when he made new merit, so darling, I lost the fight to him not because I’m bad. It’s because he’s too good.”

Su Qingsand realized that the relationship between people could be unpredictable. Old Master Huo wasn’t the only one who liked Zhang Yichen very much. Huo Jinyao and he were close too. He was closer to Zhang Yichen than he was to Huo Yifan and his brother, and Wei Sihai and his sister.

“Yeah, yeah.” Hearing him talking loquaciously even after getting injured, Su Qingsang couldn’t help but rub the bruises on his skin even harder.

Watching Huo Jinyao’s face twist, she said with satisfaction, “I know you’re good. You don’t need to explain.”

She had seen some videos about how soldiers were trained. Someone who spent most of his days in the office like Huo Jinyao couldn’t possibly be compared to the ones who were serving in the army.

“Darling,” said Huo Jinyao gently. He was really worried that his wife might consider him weak.

“I’m serious. Zhang Yichen is an outstanding fighter, but it’s because of his special family background. If I was in the army, I would definitely be a better fighter than he is. Do you believe me?”

“I do. I believe whatever you say.”

It sounded like she obviously didn’t believe him. How could Huo Jinyao let his wife think of him like that?

As Su Qingsang finished applying the ointment for him, he took away the ointment bottle from her hand and put it aside. Then, he turned to press Su Qingsang down on the bed.

“Do you believe that I’m better than him?” Huo Jinyao squinted at her in a very dangerous way.

“Stop this. I haven’t even washed my hands.” Her hands were covered in the ointment. It was very oily.

“Why do you need to wash your hands? You can wipe it all over me.”

Su Qingsang almost laughed because of what Huo Jinyao’s said. But soon, she wasn’t laughing anymore.

…

In the morning, Su Qingsang woke up feeling tired. She wouldn’t have left the bed if she didn’t have to go to work.

Huo Jinyao got up early to exercise. Su Qingsang quickly put on her clothes and went downstairs. She had limited time, so she moved quickly, or else she could be late for work.

Just as she was around the corner of the staircase, Su Qingsang yawned and didn’t pay attention to the stairs under her feet. As a result, she missed a step.

She gave a sudden movement as if going to slip, automatically reaching her hand towards the guardrail nearby.

However, there was some distance between her and the guardrail. Just as she thought she was going to fall off the stairs, a pair of strong hands held her waist and brought her body away from the edge of the stairstep. She was put in a wider area around the corner.

Su Qingsang patted her chest due to the lingering fear she had even after attaining a firm foothold. Only then did she realize what had happened. Her eyes landed on the muscular chest before her.

Huo Jinyao was in the gym, so who was the one holding her right now?

“Thank you. I’m good,” she said awkwardly, looking at Zhang Yichen’s large eyes and dark brows.

Zhang Yichen looked at Su Qingsang, slowly retracting his hands. He was as tall as Luo Jinyao. Realizing that Su Qingsang’s had a pale face because of what happened earlier on, he felt that he should have taken his hands off her sooner.

“Watch your step next time.”

Su Qingsang pressed her lips together, feeling uneasy upon hearing that.

She had never made such mistakes before. This was the first accident.

She took a step backward, preparing to keep going downstairs.

Zhang Yichen held her again and said, “be careful.”

The stairs were right behind her. She could fall again if she stepped further backward.

“Thank you.” Su Qingsang dropped her head and thanked him. Then, made a step sideways to make sure that she didn’t fall again. She also wanted to free herself from his grip.

Zhang Yichen’s hand had been on her waist just a few seconds ago but now, it was untouched.

He automatically made a fist with his hand, his eyes still fixed on Su Qingsang’s face. “Be careful,” he said.

“I will, thank you.” Su Qingsang had nothing more to say to him. She turned and kept going down the stairs. This time, she had her head lowered, eyes on the stairs.

Zhang Yichen was going downstairs too. He followed closely behind Su Qingsang.

Su Qingsang wanted to move faster, but that would have been too obvious, so she maintained her original pace.

Since she was focusing on the stairs, she didn’t realize that the tall Zhang Yichen who was walking behind her could easily see the marks on her neck.

Zhang Yichen wasn’t very experienced in the area of love. Nevertheless, he recognized those love bites. The one who had left those marks on the back of her neck could only be Huo Jinyao.

That displeasing discovery dimmed the glow in Zhang Yichen’s eyes again.

Around the corner of the stairs on the second floor, Liu Tongjia witnessed everything that had happened just now. She clenched her fist so hard that her fingers turned pale.

…

Zhang Yichen was going to stay in Rong City for three days. He would be living in the family house during those three days.

For that reason, Huo Jinyao drove to pick Su Qingsang up from work every day and then brought her back to the family house.

The third day was a Saturday. Su Qingsang didn’t need to work that day, so she got up early to play Taiji together with Old Master Huo.

She had learned some actual Taiji skills in the past but still lacked strength. Old Master Huo believed that it was because she ate like a bird, so he often told her to eat more.

“Grandpa, I’m a woman. Please stop saying that I eat like a bird. I have a big appetite compared to the other girls.”

“You’re skinny. You need to gain some weight.”

Old Master Huo had been a little unhappy before because Huo Jinyao and Su Qingsang lied to him about wanting to have children. However, after listening to his grandson’s explanation, he wasn’t angry anymore.

He knew that Huo Jinyao was in a strained relationship with his mother. Thus, Huo Jinyao didn’t want children yet, but Liu Tongjia blamed Su Qingsang for it.

All Old Master Huo wanted was his family to be in peace and filled with happiness. He didn’t want to be worrying about small things like that.

Before Su Qingsang could say anything, she heard someone call ‘Grandpa’ from under the eave from a distance away.

It was the parrot. The bird refused to talk at first, but in the last two days, it had become rather talkative as no one had been paying any attention to it.

“What a noisy bird,” Old Master Huo laughed.

He never thought that Su Qingsang would buy him a bird. It was a unique gift.

“It’s noisy indeed.”

Earlier, Su Qingsang had thought that the man who sold her the bird might have lied to her. However, it turned out that she was wrong.

“Uncle.”

The smile on Su Qingsang’s face grew smaller when she heard that voice.

“Uncle,” she said as she turned and nodded slightly to Zhang Yichen.

Seeing Huo Jinyao standing by his side, she immediately grinned again, made a step forward and put her arm around his.

“Have you finished exercising?”

“Yes,” Huo Jinyao nodded and looked at Su Qingsang affectionately.

Zhang Yichen stood on the side, watching the sweet interaction between the young couple. It bothered him that she called him ‘Uncle’. Clearly, in the family, he and the couple didn’t even belong to the same generation.

“Erm,” said Zhang Yichen as he quickly glanced at Su Qingsang, then turned to Old Master Huo. “Uncle, what were you two talking about? You sounded quite happy.”

“We were talking about the bird. I said that it’s noisy.” Old Master Huo now found the parrot rather interesting.

“You’re noisy! You’re noisy!”

The bird had lived in a flower and bird store before. It was well-trained by its previous owners. At that moment, it even picked an oral fight with Old Master Huo.

Su Qingsang wanted to laugh, but she only gave a small smile, as Zhang Yichen was standing right beside her.

“Is it fighting with Grandpa now?” asked Huo Jinyao as he rubbed the top of her head.

“I don’t know.” Su Qingsang looked at the bird under the eave, also finding it interesting. “He never talks to me, but he gets excited every time it hears someone say something bad about him.”

“So it’s probably a stupid bird.” Huo Jinyao glared at the bird while saying, “stupid bird.”

As expected, the parrot was instantly irritated. It flapped its wings in the cage, screaming, “you’re stupid! You’re stupid!”

“Haha!” Both Old Master Huo and Huo Jinyao burst out in laughter.

Zhang Yichen also turned the corners of his mouth up. He turned, glanced at Su Qingsang and said, “uncle, You’ll never feel lonely again as you have the bird now. My niece-in-law has given you such a wonderful gift.”

The words ‘niece-in-law’ sounded weird, coming out of his mouth. Thinking about the brief meetings she had had with him earlier, Qu Qingsang had a feeling that there were some hidden meanings behind the words he had spoken.