Chapter 65: It Doesn’t Matter
Looking at that rolled-up bamboo mat, Huo Beixing fell silent. At this rate, if there weren’t a few bamboo-mat marks left on his hands, it felt like he wouldn’t have much to show for himself.
Since one had to carry an act through to the end, Huo Beixing didn’t go to the company today either. Instead, he stayed in a corner by the classroom, basking in the warm air.
Lowering his eyes, he looked at the materials his assistant had sent to his phone.
It was the information he had asked someone to investigate about An Yi’s past. But because heavy snow had sealed off the mountains, and considering safety concerns, they currently couldn’t go to the place where An Yi had grown up to investigate in person. Huo Beixing was, after all, a boss with some humanity. In this freezing weather, so close to the New Year, he didn’t make life difficult for the people under him. So most of this information had come from the An family side.
Huo Beixing scrolled with his fingers, turning the pages one by one.
There was only one photo of An Yi in the file.
The famous Little White Teeth.
And it had only been taken after he had been brought back to the city. The original of that photo was now sitting in Huo Beixing’s wallet.
Every time he looked at that photo, Huo Beixing would unconsciously smile.
The pure, unguarded quality in An Yi came through in it vividly and completely.
Even in an unfamiliar environment that made him uncomfortable, he still radiated the greatest kindness he could.
His skin was dark, and one eyebrow was broken. The file didn’t go into detail, only mentioned in a few simple lines that it came from a fight after a conflict with someone from the same village.
Huo Beixing read line after line, his brows tightening with every sentence, his heart growing more unhappy and stifled.
Before being taken back, An Yi’s living conditions had been extremely poor. Though there were no photos, the description of that broken-down house in the file was enough that Huo Beixing didn’t even dare imagine it. And yet that was where An Yi had grown up, where he had lived for a full twenty years.
An Yi had never once told him about that hardship. He never spoke of his past. The only time he brought it up was when he used it to scare him while teaching him safety knowledge.
But in truth, An Yi’s heart also carried bitterness. If it hadn’t been suffering, how could it ever have come out of his mouth as a warning?
Huo Beixing’s face darkened. Even after being taken back to the An family, what An Yi went through still made one want to curse.
After being acknowledged by the An family, for the sake of appearances they publicly announced him as an adopted son. Then later, for family interests, he was married off into the Huo family, becoming the first male daughter-in-law in this centuries-old family history and drawing criticism from all sides.
Huo Beixing’s impression of An Shaofeng had sunk to the absolute bottom, and the reason An Yi agreed to the marriage alliance was because the man had played the family-affection card.
Using one year of mother-son affection as leverage, knowing full well An Yi wouldn’t refuse.
Damn it.
Huo Beixing rubbed his fingers together. His nicotine craving was stirring, but it wasn’t appropriate in a public place. Besides, An Yi was coming to pick him up later, and he couldn’t go out reeking of smoke.
This marriage absolutely could not end in divorce.
Huo Beixing thought to himself that he had never planned to divorce in the first place, and now that conviction had only grown firmer.
The affection the An family gave to An Yi was not proportional at all to the affection An Yi gave them.
If in the future some Wang family or Li family wanted some condition of the same sort, then would the An family marry An Yi off again, just like they had married him to Huo Beixing back then?!
—
Before going to pick Huo Beixing up after class, An Yi had arranged to meet Lin Jiu at a café to discuss the competition materials.
An Yi was dressed in layers. The café entrance was a glass door that only allowed one person through at a time, so in order to get through more smoothly, he turned sideways a little when entering.
It was the first time the server had ever seen someone dressed so outrageously.
This was the central prosperous district of the city. People here were very particular about matching their clothes, and the café itself also had an elegant, refined style. His appearance was utterly out of tune with the shop.
The server dared swear there absolutely wouldn’t be a second person dressed like that.
Very quickly, a second chubby figure bundled in thick clothes walked in.
Server: ……
Seeing Lin Jiu wrapped in a down jacket, An Yi awkwardly lifted his arm and waved him over, letting him spot him. Lin Jiu sat down, and the two of them ordered drinks before starting to talk business.
Lin Jiu pulled a tablet out from inside his clothes and showed An Yi the materials he had found. The two of them, in perfect tacit understanding, completely ignored the prices.
After all, looking at them wouldn’t be good for their poor-person personas.
An Yi transferred his own materials to Lin Jiu, and after that they began drafting the sample plan.
Lin Jiu said, “Alright, great success. All that’s left is the initial design draft and the concept write-up.”
An Yi took a sip of his drink and narrowed his eyes from how sour it was.
Looking at An Yi’s gaudy cup, Lin Jiu asked, “Good?”
An Yi’s narrowed eyes immediately flew open. “Good.”
As he spoke, he pushed the cup toward Lin Jiu, recommending it with great enthusiasm.
Good brothers share hardship together.
Lin Jiu squinted.
This brat definitely had bad intentions.
He exposed him on the spot. “You think I’d fall for that?”
As if.
Saying so, he picked up his own cup and took a sip.
“Gah…”
He let out a sound that clearly did not belong to the human species.
An Yi: ……
Got it. That one was nasty too.
Same boat, same boat.
Lin Jiu didn’t touch the drink again. “Gu Lingling said there’s a meeting in January that we need to attend. It’s organized by the international competition side. Everyone attending will be domestic contestants and studios participating in this design competition. In total there are only two slots—one is us, and the other one, I heard, is also participating as a studio. The people there are all very young too, mostly students who just graduated from college, with a few still in their fourth year. But their name in the industry is a bit bigger than ours.”
“Do we need to prepare anything?” An Yi asked.
Lin Jiu replied, “Bring the handwritten concept manuscript and the first-draft sketches. They specifically said they don’t want electronic versions—they want pure handwritten drafts to judge skill. Other than that, there’s nothing.”
“Although they’re personnel from the competition organizers, they’re really just there to teach classes and hold meetings for us. They won’t report how we perform back to the main competition committee, and the main committee won’t listen to their opinions either. That’s to guarantee fairness and prevent bribery. These people also won’t participate in the actual judging afterward.”
To put it plainly, they were just little teachers there to give you some guidance and pass along messages from the competition side.
An Yi nodded after hearing that.
Lin Jiu leaned forward. “An Yi, what do you think—should we design womenswear this time? Don’t you usually have lots of creative ideas for women’s clothing?”
At the very beginning, An Yi had designed menswear all because he had been too embarrassed to measure female models.
In truth, his original dream had always been to design womenswear. Back in the mountains, the happiest thing for him had been when the village girls asked him to buy clothes for them from the market.
He felt girls were like flowers and deserved to wear pretty things.
But after coming to the big city, he had gradually drifted away from that initial idea.
Lin Jiu said, “Let’s try it. Let’s go all in.”
Though hesitant, An Yi still agreed first.
He hadn’t designed womenswear in a long time, and he really didn’t feel fully confident.
Lin Jiu asked, “By the way, what have you been busy with lately? I’ve noticed you leave in a rush every single time.”
Other than weekends, the three of them worked together every day. To maintain the poor-person persona and avoid Gu Lingling, the two of them had chosen to do material selection on weekends instead, so she wouldn’t see the prices.
But every day after work, An Yi always hurried off quickly, as if he still had something else to rush to.
Actually, An Yi himself hadn’t realized how eager he was to leave until Lin Jiu said it. Only then did he feel that, yes, maybe that was true.
Every time he rushed off after work, it was because he wanted to hurry back and see Huo Beixing. His heart was carrying him there. Even if he tried to throw the man out of his mind, he couldn’t set down that concern.
In his heart he said they needed long periods apart every day to make divorce easier, yet at the same time he rushed home eagerly, wanting to see him.
An Yi felt very conflicted.
“I’ve been kind of busy. Recently I’ve been dealing with divorce stuff.”
Lin Jiu nodded like some old sage. “Divorce, huh. Divorce is one of those things—”
Halfway through the sentence, his jaw froze. He slammed the table. “You got married?!”
An Yi nodded. “Mm.”
Lin Jiu said, “When?! How did I not know?!”
An Yi replied, “When you didn’t know.”
Lin Jiu: ……
Lin Jiu was instantly struck dumb. He wanted to ask who An Yi had married, but then thought that since the man was already heading for divorce, asking about that person probably wouldn’t be appropriate.
Still, as a good brother, having missed the wedding made him feel regretful. “Next time you get married, tell me. I’ll come eat at the banquet.”
After confirming everything, the two left the café one after the other.
—
Huo Beixing lifted his head from his phone, saw that class was almost over, and pulled the bamboo mat over so he could press on it and leave a few marks.
An Yi had promised to come pick him up.
When he walked out of the yoga studio, sure enough, he saw An Yi using an icicle to poke at the snow for fun.
“Wife.”
An Yi turned around. It was a brutally cold winter this year, and he was wrapped up so tightly that his upper body looked like it had been inflated. “You’re done with class? The An family just messaged. They want us to come over for dinner. Do you want to go?”
If he didn’t want to, then they’d just go straight home.
An Yi always placed a lot of importance on Huo Beixing’s wishes.
Huo Beixing said, “Let’s go. What are we eating?”
It was only a meal. An Yi was going back mainly because he also had to keep up appearances. Although he had no good feelings toward the An family, he would still put on the proper show.
At the An residence, Chen Lin was preparing to cook a few dishes for the two children herself, while An Shaofeng happily took a sip of tea.
Soon.
In the blink of an eye, the two-year deadline would be up. Time really did pass quickly.
Then he actually let out a laugh.
In just a little over two months, An Yi would be free. He had long found that stupid brat displeasing to the eye.
This time, when the boy came over, he absolutely had to give him a proper warning and straighten out his thinking, so that when the divorce came he wouldn’t make a fuss and would quickly set An Yi free.
The two of them arrived right on time for dinner. The atmosphere around the table was warm and harmonious like one big family, but altogether there were sixteen hundred schemes in play.
Eight hundred belonged to An Shaofeng.
Eight hundred belonged to Huo Beixing.
An Yi had zero.
Chen Lin had zero.
After dinner, An Shaofeng deliberately had Chen Lin distract An Yi so he could speak alone with Huo Beixing.
He stuffed an apple into Huo Beixing’s hand. “Child, eat.”
Huo Beixing said, “I don’t like apples.”
An Shaofeng:?
What do I care what you like?!
But on the surface he still smiled. “So, how has life with An Yi been lately?”
Huo Beixing narrowed his eyes. “Pretty good.”
“Just because it’s good now doesn’t mean it’ll be good forever. Maybe later on you two won’t get along. Or maybe the elders in the family won’t approve of you being together, and you’ll separate, who knows.”
He was circling around the topic, speaking in a more indirect way.
Huo Beixing looked at him. “Would that happen?”
“Of course.” An Shaofeng continued, “If I wanted to take Yiyi back from your side, would you be unhappy?”
Huo Beixing said, “I don’t care.”
An Shaofeng was stunned. This brat really didn’t care about An Yi at all.
The very next moment he heard Huo Beixing continue—
“I’ll just take him back by force.”
