Page 131 of He Is My Bride

Huang Xiang glanced back at Hanjun, whose face was a brewing storm cloud not unlike his uncle’s.

“Sir Hanjun, you seem to know more than I do. Why keep us in the shade?”

“Hanjun?” Li Ying looked at the man as well, but Hanjun still said nothing.

“Oh!” Huang Xiang’s face was overcome by realization. “Could it have been…” he pressed a finger across his lips, obviously relishing in his own dramatics, “a counter threat?”

Li Ying’s gaze was now darting frantically between the two.

“Miss Li of course remembers the Huang’s field of business?” Huang Xiang asked.

Li Ying blinked. “Your family owns a meat-packing company?”

“Correct.” Huang Xiang was still looking at Hanjun. “Head of a hog and two sucklings? On New Year’s Day?” He smiled knowingly. “I know you traditionalists don’t eat meat on the first day, and I doubt a decadent craving for pork was the reason you requested these of me so discreetly, Sir Hanjun. And right after the family event of the year, too, where the Wus and the Wangs had reunited, surely in perfect harmony? Whatever may have been your need? Surely nothing that would have irked Wang Guosheng and his two sons?”

“Hanjun,what the fuck?!What have you done?” Li Ying stared at Hanjun, whose face was eerily expressionless now.

“Now I just wonder what the Wangs had to do to provoke the ‘impassioned’ young Mister Wu into threatening them in such a way?” Huang Xiang led on.

“Sir Xiang is very intelligent,” Hanjun spoke, deadly calm. “He understands how mine and Li Ying’s marriage is a perceived threat to the Wangs’ future stakes in the company.”

“I see.” Huang Xiang tapped his chin thoughtfully. “They threatened you and Miss Li first. That would explain this whole scenario. Wang Guosheng recruited Tang Xiuxiu to exact revenge on his behalf. I suspect a sum of money or other carrot has been offered to make Tang Xiuxiu think it was worth her reputation.”

“I told you not to escalate!” Li Ying scolded Hanjun.

Hanjun hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry you were put in danger as a result of my actions.”

“I wasn’t in any danger, you idiot, I keep telling you it was just some blood. But why are you so stupid!” Li Ying weakly hit Hanjun’s shoulder with his fist. “Idiot husband! Head of a hog and—Aiya, was it because I said Wang Guosheng is a swine?! Oh, Hanjun, I didn’t know you were so wicked! I love it!” Li Ying threw himself around Hanjun’s neck, climbing halfway onto his lap. He turned to look at Huang Xiang. “And thank you for looking out for me, Big Brother Huang, you’re my hero.”

Huang Xiang paled before Hanjun’s cold stare. “Please, Miss Li, don’t call me that, or I fear Sir Hanjun will sendmyhead to my family next!”

“You will do no such thing to my friend, Junjun!” Li Ying pouted at Hanjun and pinched his cheek. “Naughty man!”

“Um, I will leave you to it and rejoin the party, see you there?” Huang Xiang scooted away and stood up to leave.

“See you!”

After Huang Xiang had left, Li Ying said, “I can’t believe you’d pull such a stunt. Should we expect more trouble from the Wangs?”

“Not for now. It’s our move, so let’s call it even, if this was all Wang Guosheng had to say.”

“Very well. His plan was foiled anyway, by none other than Lin Yong. I should thank him later, I guess. Oh, about Lin Yong!” Li Ying looked at Hanjun. “Promise me not to get mad at him, seeing as he saved Huang Xiang’s and Anne’s dress from getting ruined back there?”

Hanjun’s eyes narrowed.

“Promise me!”

“Mm.”

“You’re not convincing. Anyway, he almost confessed his, uh, feelings for me, I guess, back at the party just now. But I stopped him before he could say anything stupid. I told him I can’t return his feelings, whatever they were, and that I’m marrying you for love. Even if he still seemed to think otherwise.”

Hanjun was eerily quiet again, and Li Ying could swear there were a thousand terrible things going on behind those cold eyes.

“Hanjun?”

“Can’t let you out of the house.”

“Huh?”