Volume One, Chapter 56: Settling the Score with You

Throughout the meal, Ye Sheng barely touched her food, her appetite clearly dampened by the presence of her ex-husband.

She couldn’t help but miss Lin’s cooking.

By the time they left the restaurant, dusk had fallen. Huo Mingtian asked, “Shall I take you to the hospital or home?”

Ye Sheng glanced at the car parked by the curb with its hazard lights blinking.

“No need, I have a ride.”

She waved goodbye to the Li family and got into Huo Lindong’s black Bentley.

Huo Mingtian’s expression darkened noticeably.

Li Mo watched secretly. After witnessing the evening’s drama, the three members of the Li family actually felt a bit sorry for President Huo. Not once tonight had he managed to get the upper hand with Ye Sheng. It made them wonder if, in his last marriage, President Huo had perhaps been completely under his wife’s thumb.

—

As soon as Ye Sheng stepped out of the elevator, she saw Huo Lindong standing in the hallway.

“Lin,” she called to him, a smile unconsciously lighting up her face. “Why are you standing here?”

“Waiting for you. I need to settle some scores,” Huo Lindong replied.

His words sounded stern, but dressed in white loungewear and standing there so refined and gentle, he was hardly intimidating.

“The gym equipment arrived, didn’t it?” Ye Sheng smiled, hoping to change the subject.

There were two identical sets: a white one for herself, a black one for Huo Lindong. The technicians had already set them up.

She’d given them a brief trial and nodded in satisfaction. “Third Brother recommended this brand—it can’t go wrong. Don’t you like it?”

Huo Lindong knew she was being deliberately evasive.

“I like it,” he said, shaking his head in resignation. “But you’re still being too polite.”

Little Huo Bei, chewing on her milk straw, tugged at Ye Sheng’s hand and winked. “You’d better appease Old Huo. When Uncle called this afternoon, Dad scolded him so fiercely, Uncle almost cried from the injustice.”

“Really?” Ye Sheng widened her eyes, playing along perfectly as she looked at Huo Lindong. “How about I stay for dinner tonight?”

Huo Lindong gazed at her quietly.

Ye Sheng patted her stomach and smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t eat enough earlier. Food outside never compares to home, and nothing matches your cooking.”

Her words were sweet and flattering, hitting just the right note.

Huo Lindong let the matter drop, tapped her gently on the head, and headed straight for the kitchen.

Successfully off the hook, Ye Sheng and Huo Bei exchanged a secret high-five. “Yes!”

—

Huo Mingtian didn’t go home; instead, he returned to the office.

The driver had picked up Huo Cong from school and taken him straight to the CEO’s office.

Inside, there were two desks: one large, where Huo Mingtian worked, and a smaller one for Huo Cong’s homework.

First grade assignments weren’t too demanding, so Huo Cong finished quickly, but his real focus each day was the homework set by his tutor.

Just as he was about to put his books into his bag, a flash of blue inside caught Huo Mingtian’s eye.

Huo Cong panicked a little and shoved the hat further inside.

“What are you hiding in there? Let me see,” Huo Mingtian said.

Children’s little tricks were always transparent to adults.

Reluctantly, Huo Cong pulled the blue knit hat from his bag.

Huo Mingtian paused in surprise, stood up, and took the hat. The soft warmth in his hand was unmistakable.

Both the stitching and the pattern were familiar.

“Where did this come from?” he asked.

Huo Cong never lied. “She gave it to me.”

“Your mother knitted this for you?” The moment he saw the hat, Huo Mingtian had his suspicions, but confirmation still surprised him. “Did she come to school to see you?”

Huo Cong shook his head. “She had someone else give it to me.”

Huo Mingtian wasn’t familiar with the details of his son’s school life, nor did he know who his deskmate was. Hearing this, he assumed Ye Sheng had asked the homeroom teacher, Cheng Xiao, to deliver the hat.

Ye Sheng knew Cheng Xiao, and she had chosen this school for Huo Cong long ago.

“Just one hat?” Huo Mingtian asked.

Huo Cong looked up in confusion, unsure what his father meant. “Yes.”

Huo Mingtian pinched the hat between his fingers, lips pressed tightly together. The temper he’d tried so hard to suppress began to rise again.

She’d gone to the trouble of knitting a hat—couldn’t she have made one for him too?