Chapter 56 Abrupt

"...Long silence."

Pei Jiayin was just about to hang up the phone when the voice on the other end finally spoke.

"You certainly are confident. Do you really think that after giving up your inheritance, you can still fight with me?"

He raised a long brow. "I have never considered you a match." Pei Jiayin rested a hand on the railing. "I also wanted to ask you, do you like the gift I sent you?"

"You really are a madman."

A faint, gentle smile lingered on Pei Jiayin's face.

"If you like that young lady from the Wen family, go ahead and arrange a marriage with her. I won't stop you."

There was no further response from the other side; listening any longer only yielded a busy tone.

Pei Jiayin put away his phone and turned back to look for Yu Yuchu.

Amidst the swirling crowd of clinking glasses, however, he could no longer find that vibrant splash of green where she had been.

Pei Jiayin pulled out his phone again to call Yu Yuchu. After a few rings, the call was finally connected.

As the line connected, the stone in his heart dropped. "Where are you?"

Yet the voice that answered was not Yu Yuchu's, but that of a strange man. With an official, polite tone, it was clearly a waiter from the Jin yang hotel: "Hello, are you the owner of this phone?"

"No, but I am the owner's boyfriend."

"That's wonderful, sir. You can come directly to the front desk to claim the phone."

Pei Jiayin hung up the phone, a dense wave of anxiety welling up in his heart.

While Pei Jiayin was searching frantically like a man on hot bricks, Yu Yuchu was happily enjoying her dinner in another courtyard room.

Shortly after Pei Jiayin left, Yu Yuchu had suddenly felt the urge to use the restroom. Figuring that Pei Jiayin would take a little while to return, she asked a waiter to guide her to the washroom.

Upon coming out of the restroom, she accidentally left her handbag behind. Furthermore, the completely symmetrical archways easily led Yu Yuchu to walk in the wrong direction, bringing her into a completely opposite courtyard room—which was how this comical mix-up occurred.

"The steak tartare here at Jin yang is quite good; it's worth a try," a gentle voice suddenly sounded beside her, flowing like a clear spring into the noisy banquet hall.

Yu Yuchu looked toward the source of the voice. The man before her had a voice that matched his appearance; looking directly into his eyes gave one the vivid image of a clear stream flowing over smooth stones.

"Thank you for the recommendation. And you are?" Yu Yuchu nodded politely, though she did not reach for the dish he had mentioned.

French cuisine was certainly alluring, but she still preferred to treat her delicate stomach with more care.

"Hello, my surname is Huo, and I am the financial director at Boli."

Yu Yuchu's pupils dilated slightly. If she remembered correctly, her aborted blind-date match also shared the surname Huo and also worked at Boli...

Surely it couldn't be such a coincidence, could it?

"Pardon me, seeing you here by yourself, and you don't seem to be an employee of our company—might we get acquainted?"

Huo Fuzhu took a step back, maintaining a polite, socially acceptable distance from Yu Yuchu.

From the moment Yu Yuchu had stepped into this place, he had noticed her. Such elegance and temperament made it impossible for him to tear his eyes away.

The smile on Yu Yuchu's face stiffened for a fraction of a second, but she quickly maintained her composure.

What on earth was this? Was she being hit on by her own blind-date partner?

"I'm sorry..."

The refusal was unmistakable.

Yet no hint of embarrassment appeared on Huo Fuzhu's face; a soft, gentle smile still lingered there.

"Apologies, it seems I was being too abrupt." He quietly put away the phone he had been holding.

Yu Yuchu's expression shifted as she suddenly realized that the handbag she had been carrying all along had vanished without a trace, leaving only the tray in her hands, upon which colorful delicacies looked deeply enticing under the artistic lighting.

The man across from her was clearly adept at reading subtle expressions. While maintaining a careful sense of propriety, he asked, "Has something happened? Do you need any help?"

Yu Yuchu shook her head; Pei Jiayin should be returning any moment now.

Huo Fuzhu said nothing more. He simply went over to pick up a dining plate, selected a few dishes, and quietly began to taste them nearby.

Yu Yuchu pretended the man beside her didn't exist. All appetite had vanished, and she obediently stayed in the most prominent spot near the archway to wait.

She couldn't let Huo Fuzhu find out she was Yu Yuchu, even though the man didn't look like the type to go spreading it around.

Still, explaining all this to her mother would be a terribly troublesome task.

Yu Yuchu let out a soft, melancholic sigh.

In truth, her heart had constantly been evading a certain question: Were she and Pei Jiayin truly headed for the long haul?

She leaned against a pillar, the sleek curves of her dress outlining her graceful figure. A faint aura of melancholy drifted around her, lingering about her smooth and slender neck.

A ruby pendant gleamed faintly amidst her hair, and against the backdrop of her green dress, it stirred an irresistible curiosity in anyone who looked.

Just standing there, she had already become a scene in her own right.

As Yu Yuchu was lost in these thoughts, a shadow was cast over her.

She looked up in surprise, and Pei Jiayin's face instantly loomed large before her eyes.

A thin layer of sweat slicked his forehead and the tip of his nose, and a lingering panic still smoldered in his eyes.

"Why are you over here?"

Pei Jiayin suppressed the urge to pull the person before him into his arms, simply reaching out to gently take her hand.

Yu Yuchu froze for a moment. Wasn't she supposed to be right here?

"Wasn't I just waiting for you where we were?"

Looking into her bewildered eyes, the last remnants of Pei Jiayin's anxiety melted away, leaving behind only a tender smile.

"I had no idea you were so directionless."

He handed the handbag he had retrieved from the front desk back to Yu Yuchu.

Yu Yuchu accepted it in a daze.

"My bag..."

"It's my fault for coming back too late... You left this in the restroom, and I went to the front desk to get it for you."

Pei Jiayin wanted to rub Yu Yuchu's head, but remembering that she had her hair styled specially for today, he abruptly stopped his hand halfway to avoid ruining it.

A wave of aching sweetness surged through Yu Yuchu's heart.

He must have spent a considerable amount of time searching for her, yet from start to finish he hadn't uttered a single word of blame, even though sweat was still beading on his forehead...

Ever since she was a child, she had been accustomed to shouldering every responsibility herself, yet Pei Jiayin had willingly taken all the blame upon his own shoulders.

"Next time I'll remember to ask a waiter..."

"You don't have to ask," Pei Jiayin said, tucking Yu Yuchu's hand back into the crook of his arm. "I will find you."

His slightly hurried breathing had already evened out, and his deep, affectionate eyes seemed to harbor boundless tenderness.

Yu Yuchu often felt that with Pei Jiayin's charming peach-blossom eyes, even if he looked at a stray dog, he would appear deeply in love.

With a helpless flutter of her heart, Yu Yuchu fell for it. After all, the person standing right now, promising to find her, was her boyfriend.

"Thank you, Pei Jiayin."

"What are you thanking me for?"

Yu Yuchu naturally rested the weight of her arm in the crook of his: "I'm just very grateful to you."

Before Pei Jiayin could reply, someone else came over to greet them, forcing him back into social mode.

As the rounds of toasts passed, even though Yu Yuchu stood quietly to the side without drinking anything, she already felt slightly intoxicated.

She glanced sideways at the man beside her; his breathing remained steady, showing no signs of drunkenness whatsoever.