Huo Lan had been in charge of the Huo family for ten years and had managed Xingguan for eight. He was a dominant force in the business world, achieving victory wherever he went.
His wealth and assets consistently ranked at the top of major lists.
In his entire life, President Huo had never dealt with a business deal totaling only 300,000 yuan—all prepaid.
The investor even swiped their card on the spot to settle the payment. They hesitated for a moment before finally voicing their concern, cautiously asking if Xingguan’s cash flow might be experiencing some subtle turbulence that outsiders hadn’t noticed.
The butler felt that the other party’s gaze clearly suggested they were worried Xingguan was heading for bankruptcy and liquidation.
President Huo remained calm and composed, not bothering to respond to such baseless doubts. Instead, he provided the list of IP scripts Xingguan had acquired this quarter and their current cash reserves.
The two parties quickly reached a pleasant agreement regarding Liang Xiao’s participation in the reality show On the Road and signed the faxed contract.
After escorting the person out, the butler returned, hesitating. “Mr. Huo, you…”
President Huo sat quietly at his desk and slowly raised his eyes.
“…” The butler promptly shut his mouth, brushed off the snowflakes on his head, bowed, and left to invite Mr. Liang over to discuss the newly signed reality show.
Mr. Liang was very satisfied with the terms.
Liang Xiao, now quite familiar with Huo Lan’s desk, quickly flipped through a few pages of the contract and nodded. “No problem.”
Huo Lan, knowing exactly which pages Liang Xiao had glanced at, pressed his forehead. “…Don’t just look at the price.”
Reality shows vary greatly in direction. While he had indeed chosen the one most suited to Liang Xiao’s current positioning and popularity, whether it was truly appropriate still depended on Liang Xiao himself.
If Liang Xiao genuinely didn’t like it, they’d have to notify Xingguan to pay the breach-of-contract penalty.
“It’s fine,” Liang Xiao said, carefree and content with his fate. “As long as there’s money, I’ll do anything.”
Huo Lan had just asked the head of the resources department to send over information about On the Road and its previous seasons. Hearing this, he paused his mouse and silently frowned.
What Liang Xiao said wasn’t wrong.
Though Liang Xiao appeared carefree and easygoing, he was clear-minded and principled, never doing anything he shouldn’t.
…But as long as it didn’t violate his principles or conscience, he would never miss a chance to make money.
If it weren’t for money, when the butler had approached him with the contract and the advance payment, Liang Xiao wouldn’t have agreed to the temporary marking in the first place.
Huo Lan wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Without showing any emotion, he suppressed the inexplicable thoughts that had surfaced.
Liang Xiao was busy sorting through the snacks, picking and choosing, when he noticed Huo Lan’s gaze. He looked up. “President Huo?”
Huo Lan withdrew his gaze, transferred the materials to a tablet, and handed it over.
With recent upheavals bringing up old matters and involving the ongoing rivalry between Long Tao and Xingguan, their interactions had become more frequent without them realizing it.
He had almost forgotten… that his relationship with Liang Xiao was purely transactional.
Although it didn’t involve the business world, it was still a personal contract—a deal, plain and simple.
A financial arrangement where both parties got what they needed.
…
These were words Huo Lan had said to Liang Xiao himself.
Now, feeling inexplicably annoyed over a single remark, he couldn’t deny he was being unreasonable.
Huo Lan pressed his fingers to his brow, suppressing his chaotic thoughts, and briefly explained the contract to Liang Xiao: “Filming starts next week. Xingguan will coordinate everything. You’ll have two days of rest after wrapping up your current project before heading over.”
Liang Xiao nodded. “That’s not necessary…”
Huo Lan ignored his mindset of finishing work early to save time and earn more money. “On the Road focuses on life reflections. Each guest is given a starting budget of 10,000 yuan and has the freedom to decide how to use it. The guests guide the show’s progression.”
Liang Xiao’s eyes lit up.
Huo Lan: “…”
Having personally negotiated this 300,000-yuan deal, Huo Lan’s patience was already thin. Seeing Liang Xiao’s expression, he had a sudden urge to take him back immediately and notify Xingguan to pay the breach-of-contract penalty if Liang Xiao dared suggest saving the 10,000 yuan in a bank account.
Fortunately, Liang Xiao wasn’t that extreme. Instead, he nodded enthusiastically, put away the tablet, and said, “Got it. Thank you, President Huo.”
Huo Lan frowned unconsciously, let go of the mouse, and watched as Liang Xiao stood up.
Liang Xiao paused, then sat back down. “President Huo?”
“Anything else?” Huo Lan asked.
“No.” Liang Xiao studied his expression carefully. “President Huo, is something wrong with Xingguan?”
Huo Lan, having been asked twice in one evening if Xingguan was in trouble, felt a headache coming on. He pressed his brow. “No.”
Having already prepared a standard response, Huo Lan calmly pulled up the list of IP scripts Xingguan had acquired this quarter and their current cash reserves, showing them to Liang Xiao once again.
Liang Xiao had only meant to show some concern, but Huo Lan’s straightforwardness left him momentarily stunned. “That’s not really necessary…”
Huo Lan took a sip of coffee, his tone calmer now. “Go rest.”
Liang Xiao had been dreading those exact words. His heart sank. “President Huo.”
Huo Lan looked up.
Gritting his teeth, Liang Xiao cleared his throat awkwardly. “…There’s something I need to tell you.”
His manager had practically packed him up with his luggage and thrown him into the suite, even confiscating his room key. No matter what, there was no going back.
But he couldn’t bring himself to admit to Huo Lan that he had ruined the man’s reputation as someone steadfast and unyielding by barging into his room.
Feeling a twinge of guilt towards the hotel, Liang Xiao clumsily made up a story, claiming the heating in his room was broken and he might have to stay upstairs for a few days.
Huo Lan was taken aback. “Heating?”
“Broken,” Liang Xiao quickly added. “I’ll just borrow the side room for a few days. I won’t disturb your work, and I’ll come over whenever you need a temporary mark.”
Huo Lan didn’t respond immediately. He withdrew his gaze and nodded slightly.
Liang Xiao hadn’t expected him to agree so readily. The three-hundred-word explanation he had prepared wasn’t even necessary. He froze for a moment.
Huo Lan asked, “Anything else?”
“No,” Liang Xiao replied quickly. “You’re busy.”
The room suddenly felt warmer than before. Slightly puzzled, Liang Xiao glanced at the perfectly calibrated air conditioning and then at Huo Lan, who was already focused on his work. Without asking further, he gently closed the door.
As soon as he stepped out of the master bedroom, the butler approached him. “Mr. Liang—”
Liang Xiao gestured for silence, pulled him aside, and briefly explained the situation.
“I’ve already told President Huo,” Liang Xiao whispered. “Later, I’ll coordinate with Brother Duan and say the heating in my room broke…”
The butler paused. “But this hotel doesn’t have heating.”
Liang Xiao: “…”
Noticing his expression, the butler quickly corrected himself. “But Mr. Huo probably doesn’t know that, so he believed you.”
Having spent so many years in the capital and rarely returning to Jiangnan, Liang Xiao had forgotten the crucial fact that there was no heating required in the region. The butler’s reminder hit him like a brick.
Taking a deep breath, Liang Xiao muttered, “Let’s hope…”
The butler, thinking further, added, “If Mr. Huo believes it, he’ll probably demand compensation from the hotel.”
“…” Liang Xiao gritted his teeth, thinking about the money he had just earned. Finally, he steeled himself. “I’ll cover it.”
“No need, no need,” the butler said, quickly waving his hand. “I’ll first coordinate with the hotel. If they file a complaint and the two sides compare notes, the truth might slip out.”
Having worked with President Huo for so long, the butler was seasoned and confident as he prepared to handle the situation. Suddenly, he noticed the head of the secretary department rushing out of the elevator.
The butler grabbed him. “What’s going on?”
“No idea.”
The secretary department head, who had come up to assist with Huo Lan’s work, was utterly baffled. “Do you know how to draft ‘A Letter of Thanks to the Hotel Regarding the Unexpected Heating Issue in a Certain Standard Room’?”
Lying on the five-star side room’s massive bed, which was large enough to roll around in for ten laps, Liang Xiao couldn’t figure out why President Huo was writing a letter of gratitude for such a thing.
The butler, however, seemed to understand completely. He looked delighted and relieved, forbidding Liang Xiao from saying more. Grabbing the secretary department head, he cheerfully left.
Liang Xiao continued tossing and turning on the bed, staring blankly into the night.
…One wrong step leads to another.
Once President Huo figured out the whole misunderstanding and realized what his reputation had become, the set might end up buried under a literal snowstorm.
Would an Alpha’s pheromones resonate under such circumstances? If that happened, Su Man would whip her white snow-draped riding crop, Jiang Pingchao would sob frozen tears while gnawing on the manager, and even if Director Song got mad, it might already be too late…
The vast sea freezes into a hundred feet of ice; sorrowful clouds congeal across ten thousand miles.
Liang Xiao was so troubled he almost started reciting the high school literature passages he had been forced to memorize. Hugging the blanket, he rolled over twice, calculated the remaining three days of filming, and sighed faintly as he lay with his arm under his head.
Three more days.
He hoped Butler Huo could hold the line, at least until he finished shooting the finale.
Exhausted from the back-and-forth at the set, Liang Xiao’s mind wandered until he succumbed to drowsiness, burying himself in the soft blankets.
In a haze, he vaguely heard someone knocking on the door.
Liang Xiao forced his eyes open. “Butler Huo?”
No response came from outside.
“The door’s unlocked, you can come in,” Liang Xiao called out, yawning as he reached for the light switch. “What’s the matter? Did President Huo—”
The door opened. Liang Xiao froze, quickly swallowing the second half of his sentence: “finally realize there’s no heating required in the region.”
President Huo stood at the door.
He seemed to be preparing for bed. Unlike his usual formal attire with a tie and suit, Huo Lan was wearing a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the collar slightly dampened with a faint layer of moisture.
Huo Lan had just finished washing up, steam lingering on his brow and temples. He rested one hand on the doorframe, his gaze falling on Liang Xiao.
“What’s wrong?”
Liang Xiao had sensed something off about him tonight and wasn’t quite at ease. He set aside his own thoughts, turned on the light, and moved toward him. “Please come in.”
Huo Lan paused for a moment as Liang Xiao grasped his wrist, then followed him inside.
“Is it the susceptible period again?” Liang Xiao recalled the thank-you letter and vaguely felt it might be a hint. He led Huo Lan to sit down. “Want to take another bite?”
The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Medical Knowledge had stated that after an Alpha’s susceptible period, there could still be several relapses, varying in intensity, but they would only end once the pheromone fluctuations completely stabilized.
Huo Lan’s pheromones were always more active than those of an average Alpha, and even the suppressants couldn’t fully control them. Liang Xiao had been a little worried from the start.
“No need.” Huo Lan stopped him from unbuttoning his collar. “…I’m fine.”
Liang Xiao wanted to remind Huo Lan that it was very normal for him to come knocking on his door in the middle of the night, to enter his bedroom, and to sit on his bed, but not wanting to provoke him, he nodded along. “Alright.”
Huo Lan instinctively disliked the tone of his words, furrowing his brows without offering further explanation.
Liang Xiao, convinced that Huo Lan might be experiencing a relapse, displayed more patience than usual. Sitting on the carpet, he looked up. “So, what’s going on?”
Huo Lan lifted his gaze and met his eyes.
The bedroom was dimly lit by a desk lamp. Liang Xiao had undone a button on his pajama collar, slightly askew. Sitting on the floor like this, he exuded a careless elegance, with no flaws to be found.
Earlier that day, when Huo Lan had seen Liang Xiao on horseback, he had felt that this was how Liang Xiao was always meant to be.
Free-spirited, unrestrained.
The innate charm in his bones couldn’t be hidden, no matter how much one tried to suppress it. No matter how difficult the journey, it couldn’t be stifled.
Had their roles been reversed, Huo Lan thought, he wouldn’t have been able to carry himself with the same effortless grace as Liang Xiao.
“President Huo?” Liang Xiao waved a hand in front of him. “Are you… unable to sleep again?”
Huo Lan indeed couldn’t sleep, but it wasn’t because of that. “Xingguan is planning to provide housing for the signed artists who haven’t yet resolved their accommodation issues.”
Liang Xiao: “…”
Liang Xiao wasn’t sure, so he cautiously asked, “President Huo?”
Huo Lan stopped and waited for him to speak.
“Your company…”
Although changing jobs was inevitable, Liang Xiao still felt that he wasn’t quite yet a part of Xingguan and felt a bit embarrassed to be so bold: “Isn’t the issue of housing for the artists still unresolved?”
Xingguan was a film and television company, not an agency. The artists who were eligible to be signed were either already well-established and looking for a new place to settle, or new rising stars with great momentum.
At the very least, they had made a name for themselves in the industry.
In the years Liang Xiao had been working, almost all his earnings had gone into buying suppressants to sustain his life. He couldn’t save enough money, which was why he had to rent a place. He couldn’t think of any current famous stars who were still living in such dire circumstances.
“…No.” Huo Lan didn’t lie, but was caught off guard by his soul-searching question. “But—”
Liang Xiao waited for the “but.”
Huo Lan looked away and didn’t speak immediately.
Liang Xiao was willing to do anything to make money. It seemed like he had no principles, but in reality, it was quite the opposite.
Liang Xiao’s principles were strict. He knew exactly which jobs he should take and which ones were taking advantage of him.
Even when he raised his price back then, he only asked for ten thousand.
At that time, he didn’t know what Liang Xiao needed the hundred thousand for. Later, after understanding the price of the suppressants from his own pharmaceutical company, he realized the reason.
Huo Lan had thought the entire night about what Liang Xiao needed the money for. Afraid he wouldn’t accept, he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. When Liang Xiao nodded, Xingguan might suddenly want to plan to provide signed artists with cars, uniforms, and assistant teams.
But Liang Xiao raised a question at that point.
“The artists you plan to sign…”
Huo Lan was silent for a while: “Perhaps.”
Seeing him struggle with his words, the thought that had been almost laughable suddenly stopped. Liang Xiao felt a sudden softness in his heart: “President Huo.”
Huo Lan was left with no choice, feeling a rare sense of being cornered. He spoke without thinking: “It’s not me, it’s the general manager’s proposal—”
“President Huo.” Liang Xiao: “Thank you.”
Huo Lan was taken aback and looked up at him.
Liang Xiao took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and smiled at him.
He wasn’t a clueless newcomer to the industry. He had already figured out what he needed to understand long ago. Even the things he shouldn’t have understood, he had learned about five years ago.
When Huo Lan knocked on his door in the middle of the night and talked about buying houses for artists, it couldn’t possibly be because he genuinely needed someone to discuss the company’s future development plans late at night.
“I won’t be polite with you.”
Liang Xiao spoke in a casual tone, lazily sitting, but with an arrogance that couldn’t be suppressed: “Once I join Xingguan, give me three years, and I can earn enough for two apartments. Whether you believe it or not—”
Huo Lan: “I believe it.”
Liang Xiao paused, said no more, and lowered his gaze, smiling faintly.
Huo Lan had come to find him on a whim, and now that he had fully calmed down, he felt it was absurd. He was silent for a while: “…Sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?” Liang Xiao waved his hand, “Is the top floor okay?”
Huo Lan didn’t follow: “What?”
“The condition of the neighborhood doesn’t matter, as long as there are plenty of takeout options nearby.”
Liang Xiao, taking advantage of the situation, leaned in closer, speaking in a mysterious whisper: “It would be best if it’s a two-bedroom apartment, the size doesn’t matter, but it should have good ventilation, north-south facing…”
Huo Lan was confused, bending down as he listened to him for a long while, jotting down each request: “…Alright.”
Liang Xiao saw him nodding blankly and couldn’t hold back a laugh. He quickly composed himself, his expression turning serious: “Thank you.”
Huo Lan, with no energy left to respond, shook his head and walked out, silently repeating the chaotic list of requests in his mind.
Liang Xiao nearly couldn’t hold it together, covering his eyes and forcing himself not to laugh out loud.
To Liang Xiao, Huo Lan seemed like an unusually simple person.
He treated others well, not because of any ulterior motive, but because of a kind of persistence rooted deep within him, something that others might even find unreasonable.
Liang Xiao thought that if it weren’t for his position as president, Huo Lan might very well be the kind of person who, if a stray cat approached him, would end up squatting on the roadside, pouring cat food into his palm and dutifully using it as a food bowl.
Huo Lan, afraid of forgetting, was in a hurry. As he reached the door, he turned back to turn off the lights for Liang Xiao, but suddenly froze.
Liang Xiao was still sitting on the carpet. He moved his hand away from his eyes, placed both hands on the ground, and quietly looked up.
His eyelashes were tightly shut, and the light fell on him, casting a faint reflection of moisture.
![After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Your-paragraph-text-1.png "After losing all his wealth, the ancestor rose from his coffin [BL]")
