Chapter 24: Opening the Guardian (Part 2)
There was a commotion in the villa, Huo Yan hit his head and Lan Su pierced his shoulder. It was a scandal that happened within the family and should not be made public, but on the day they were discharged from the hospital, the door was surrounded by reporters.
"Mr. Huo, there are bruises on your forehead. Did someone hit you?"
"I heard that Madam Huo was seriously injured. How is she now?"
"Have you found out who did it? Have you called the police?"
"Some industry insiders have analyzed that their purpose is likely to be the design of Mei Ailiya's winter jewelry. Have you thought of this?"
"How are you going to fight back? If the design is lost, it means the loss of the entire winter series. The loss to the company is immeasurable, President Huo!"
"Say a few words, Mr. Huo!"
In front of the microphone surrounded by a crowd, Huo Yan stopped his wheelchair. The gauze wrapped around his forehead was particularly eye-catching on his delicate and aggressive face.
The reporter quickly squatted down, blocking the way ahead, and held the microphone in front of her.
Huo Yan raised his hand and pushed the horizontal frame of his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his index finger, causing the lenses to reflect light.
"We don't know who did it yet, but we have some unfortunate news. Our entire set of jewelry designs for the winter season was indeed stolen."
The reporter kept exclaiming: "What are you going to do next?"
"If I call the police, will there be a chance of recovering it?"
"There is still half a month before the new product launch. Have you considered asking the designer to redesign the new model?"
Huo Yan's answer was very calm: "It may be too late to redesign, but this is the only way."
"Then if the other party plagiarizes your design and launches new products at the press conference first, will President Huo decide to sue?"
"We have not released the design to the public, nor have we shared the design draft, so the chances of winning the lawsuit are slim. However, please believe that in half a month, we will still be able to make a unique product."
The assistant and security came forward to maintain order, and the woman on the screen finally drove the wheelchair away from the camera, stepped onto the barrier-free buffer zone amid the worried voices of the reporters, and entered the car.
After clicking the icon in the upper right corner, the entire screen will exit and the system's built-in water drop desktop will be displayed.
In front of the screen, Mr. Huo pushed his reading glasses, and the assistant beside him hurried forward:
"Mr. Huo, it seems that Huo Yan doesn't have a backup. If we give the design draft to you, we can definitely release it first."
Huo Shouping nodded, "Well, you give it to Ajun first. Please work hard during this period, work overtime to finish it, and publish it before Huo Yan."
The assistant was worried: "But Huo Yan seemed to have guessed that it was done by the fourth room."
The Huo family has an old-fashioned way of addressing people, dividing the older generation into "houses". Huo Yan's father is the second child, so he is called "the second house". Aunt Huo Wenxia is the fourth child, so she and her two children are called "the fourth house".
Relying on the gambling agreement of that year, Huo Yan took the position of general manager of "Meialiya", the largest company in the family business, from the old man.
Huo Jun is not good at business. He often hangs around with Internet celebrities to have fun. Even his smallest subsidiary is struggling. If he fails to recover this winter, he will most likely face bankruptcy after the new year.
This is why Huo Wenxia was willing to break the law to snatch Huo Yan's design draft, and why the old man helped her play Tai Chi with the police and gave the design draft to Huo Jun even though he knew it was Huo Wenxia who did it.
"Mei Ailiya is well-off. Even if she loses this quarter, she still has next year. But if Jun doesn't have this design, he's really gone."
He has been controlling the Huo family in this way for many years.
The eldest son and legitimate grandson always have a higher status than the illegitimate daughter of the second wife.
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Half a month has passed in the blink of an eye, and the jewelry industry held a winter new product conference. The organizer invited 108 corporate CEOs from around the world to showcase their company's main products for the new season.
Huo Yan and Lan Su were naturally also on the invitation list.
In the back seat of a private car, the half-lowered window reveals the delicate profile of a woman. She is wearing an off-shoulder dress with a tulle rose on her shoulder, and her long black hair is half tied into a bun, with the remaining half hanging down behind her. Her elegant temperament is even more eye-catching in the blue-black gradient evening dress, like a gardenia blooming at night.
"I heard that Huo Jun will also be on stage."
As he spoke, Lan Su's eyes passed through the car window and fell on the fountain in the hotel square that was slowly approaching.
"Um."
Beside him, Huo Yan, who was sitting in a wheelchair, was wiping his gold-rimmed glasses with lens paper. His slender fingers had distinct joints and he gently twisted the lenses with his fingertips.
Lan Su didn't understand why she was so indifferent:
"He stole your design and now he's taking it over and releasing it as his own product. Aren't you angry?"
Huo Yan turned his head to look at her: "Do you think I have that kind of emotion?"
"certainly."
"Are you serious?"
"You just don't show it."
Huo Yan blanked her eyes and looked at the man in front of her who was as thin as a piece of paper but had eyes as sharp as a razor. She turned her wrist playfully and put her glasses on the bridge of her nose to block the man's gaze from examining her.
"Lan Su, you are very good at judging people. Don't tell me that you learned this during the eleven years you were sleeping in the hospital bed."
Lan Su realized that he had crossed the line, lowered his eyes, pursed his lips, and explained:
"I just feel that since they beat you up and stole the design of the Blue Rose, we can't just let them go."
Huo Yan smiled lightly, "Who said I'm going to let them go?"
Now, Lan Su was even more confused.
She clearly saw the carefully planned plan on Huo Yan's face, and also saw her ability to control something with certainty of success. However, when Huo Jun went on stage and promoted "Blue Rose" to the industry, this product belonged to him, Huo Jun, not Huo Yan.
"What are you going to do?" Lan Su asked bluntly.
"You'll know when the time comes."
"Can you tell me first?"
"Can."
Huo Yan agreed very readily, which made Lan Su wary. He stared carefully at the profile of this sculpture-like face and finally saw a hint of mystery.
"Tell me what your conditions are."
Huo Yan raised her lips. It was always easy to talk to smart people. So she handed Lan Su a beautifully wrapped candy:
"I don't drink. Jiang Feng used to help me block the drinking. She's not here today, so I'll leave this task to you."
Lan Su was surprised: "I can't drink either."
Huo Yan pointed at the candy with his eyes and said, "You can do it."
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The annual winter new product conference was held in the largest five-star hotel in the south of the city. This was also the first time that Lan Su attended as "Mrs. Huo Yan".
"I heard that he was a vegetative patient who woke up. His health was not good to begin with."
"Wasn't he stabbed last month? I heard he almost died."
"So will she come today? If anything goes wrong, she'll break the record."
"What record?"
"This is a record of Huo Yan's dead wife, hahaha!"
Before the warriors crossed the quagmire, the muddy and sticky road was always full of flies, stinking smell and noise, and they thought they could see through the secrets of heaven and make decisions.
But when the warrior moves forward, the flies will panic, clamoring why she can walk by so easily, and even develop envy and jealousy.
Lan Su walked into the hall amidst all the envious eyes. Her floor-length organza dress highlighted her slender figure, and the gradient blue-black color scheme was low-key yet elegant. She was pretty, dignified, and decent. The moment she entered the door, everyone in the hall paused, not only for her, but also for Huo Yan beside her.
"This, this is Lan Su?"
"When I watched the press conference where she made the official announcement, it didn't seem like that."
"Yes, he looked sick before, how could he suddenly..."
Several people were talking at once, and they retreated quietly like flies, hiding behind the champagne tower, trying to guess which stylist could make such a sickly person so transformed.
Until Huo Jingjing joined.
"No matter how good-looking you are, you are still a vegetable."
Huo Jingjing, the daughter of fourth wife Huo Wenxia and younger sister of Huo Jun, entered the entertainment industry through family connections and is a well-known actress.
As soon as Huo Jingjing opened her mouth, all the men and women came up to her as if they had found their group. They smiled and greeted her, flattering her:
"That's right, all the people in the Huo family combined are not as pretty as Sister Jingjing."
"I don't know what Huo Yan was thinking. He married a person like this for good luck. Aren't you afraid of marrying back the bad luck?"
"No matter how much she tries to get married, a disabled person is still a disabled person, and it's impossible for her to stand up all of a sudden."
"This is the retribution for being an illegitimate daughter. Who made her be born into the wrong family?"
"That's right, she'll have to stay in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Otherwise, how can we expect a medical miracle?"
As soon as the words fell, a cold voice came from the other side of the champagne tower:
"There really are no medical miracles in the world."
Several people were startled and looked in the direction of the sound. They saw a tall figure slowly walking through the gaps between the champagne glasses. Her high heels slowly walked around to the end of the long table. The hem of her skirt moved, and she raised her head slightly, looking down at them indifferently. Her thin lips moved:
"Even if there was, it wouldn't cure your viciousness."
When Lan Su got married, she first played the role of a virtuous wife. But in essence, she was a leopard lurking in the cave, and like Huo Yan, the lion with sharp fangs, she would bite people.