Sharing a Bed

Huo Mingfei had lived in the sanatorium for several years, Huo Zhongchen was so suppressed he couldn't hold his head high, and even Old Master Huo was helpless against Huo Mingjun. All these changes finally made some of the more perceptive members of the Huo family realize that Huo Mingjun's power was growing, and the power structure of Hengrui had quietly shifted.

"After the Pingcheng incident not long ago, Huo Zhongchen was kicked off the board of directors," Huo Mingjun said. "He had had enough of me, this 'unfilial son,' and remembered he had another son, so he went to Huo Mingfei for comfort."

The guards told him that Huo Zhongchen had visited the sanatorium twice, and each visit lasted more than an hour. It looked like Huo Mingfei was playing the role of the sweet, considerate son very well, and Huo Zhongchen had finally rediscovered the sense of accomplishment that comes with being a father.

After watching the surveillance footage from the sanatorium, Zhong Heguang asked him, "Sir, do we need to take measures to restrict Mr. Huo's contact with Kong Fei?"

"Let him be, don't bother with it," Huo Mingjun said unhurriedly. "It doesn't take a genius to know the two of them are surely plotting how to get back at me. Just wait and see what changes crop up in my schedule. It's perfect, actually. I can't be bothered to waste any more time on Kong Fei."

Huo Mingjun: "The Group wants to buy the plot of land with the lumber processing plant for development, but we've been in talks with the factory for a long time without reaching an agreement. Yesterday, they suddenly changed their tune and said they wanted to talk with me in person before deciding whether to sell. I'd bet that Huo Zhongchen and Kong Fei are lying in wait for me there."

Hearing this, Xie Guan felt the urge to hit someone. "You knew someone was lying in wait for you, and you still went running right to them?"

Huo Mingjun coughed. "At the time, it was just a suspicion, I wasn't certain. While it was a trap, it was also an opportunity to follow the clues."

Xie Guan understood. "Oh, and the clue led to you, the big fool."

"You brought a handful of bodyguards, thinking they were just going to throw a sack over your head and beat you up—didn't expect them to use their ultimate move right off the bat, did you? Now you're dumbfounded." Xie Guan typed furiously, the sarcasm practically leaping off the screen and hitting Huo Mingjun in the face. If not for his inability to speak limiting his performance, he would be laughing in Huo Mingjun's face right now: "Kong Fei dared to kidnap you in his twenties, so in his thirties, he's only going to throw a sack over your head? This bizarre line of thinking, has he regressed or have you?"

"I've discovered," Huo Mingjun avoided the question, looking at him thoughtfully instead, "that you seem to be less and less afraid of me."

Xie Guan's paws holding the phone froze.

"You belong to me now," he said, leaning in to kiss him as quick as lightning, then added righteously, "What are you doing? We're discussing serious matters. Stop messing around."

Huo Mingjun: "..."

Heavens above, just who was the one not attending to proper business?

"Alright, back to business," Huo Mingjun temporarily suppressed the fire that had been stirred up by his teasing. "After we entered through the front door, the bodyguards who were tailing us immediately followed and tied up a few people in the warehouse behind the factory. The 'factory manager' in charge of receiving us said that someone had told him to lead me to the second-floor workshop. So I had two bodyguards disguise themselves as me and Zhong Heguang and follow the 'manager' upstairs. Less than ten minutes later, the second floor suddenly exploded."

Xie Guan's body flinched slightly at the word "explosion," as if the gut-wrenching shock and fear had not yet been fully purged from his memory.

"Scared now, are you?" Seeing him like this, a trace of anger, long suppressed, finally appeared on Huo Mingjun's face. "Who gave you the guts to rush into an explosion site? Weren't you afraid—"

Xie Guan seamlessly sealed his mouth, and the words came to an abrupt halt.

The anger, before it could truly ignite, was doused by this single, cherished kiss.

"You were in there. Let alone an explosion, I would have charged into a mountain of knives and a sea of fire," Xie Guan added another kiss on top of the mark on his lips, saying in a hoarse voice, "If you don't want me to risk my life, then stop doing these dangerous things yourself in the future."

Huo Mingjun was mindful of his injuries. Except for when he couldn't control his emotions in the car, he hadn't dared to make any big moves on him afterward. He didn't expect that Xie Guan, the patient, would be so audacious as to tease him again and again. Huo Mingjun couldn't bear it anymore. He grabbed the back of Xie Guan's neck, moved him off his chest, and warned, "Behave. You're already injured and still not settling down! If you keep teasing me, I'll..."

Xie Guan's romantic feelings were just beginning to bloom. He felt that the few small blisters on his back were a bit of a mood-killer, but not a big deal. He was in the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" stage of selective blindness. Seeing Huo Mingjun annoyed, he actually found it quite cute and thus asked with great interest, "You'll what?"

Huo Mingjun said, trying to look fierce but feeling timid inside, "I'll take you."

Xie Guan raised an eyebrow in surprise, then laughed teasingly. He scanned Huo Mingjun from head to toe with an "I didn't think you were that kind of person" look, and whistled. "A beast in human clothing, President Huo?"

"If you don't believe me, you can try," Huo Mingjun gave his waist a pinch that was neither light nor heavy. "It'll be too late to cry then."

Xie Guan was a giant with his words but a dwarf in his actions. Suddenly being touched on a sensitive spot on his waist, he was startled and his hair stood on end, twitching like a live fish on a cutting board.

President Huo was a man of action, not words. With great difficulty, he maintained his shaky self-control and put on the calm and composed expression of an old pro, "Get back on the bed and lie on your stomach."

The commotion from the explosion in the suburbs caused a city-wide storm. By the time the police arrived, Huo Mingjun's men had already finished the interrogation and withdrawn.

No matter how dissatisfied Huo Zhongchen was with Huo Mingjun, he wouldn't go so far as to kill him. And with Huo Mingfei in the sanatorium, his every move exposed by surveillance, the only person who could deal with Huo Mingjun for him, besides Huo Zhongchen, was Kong Ni.

"Go investigate Kong Ni, see who she's been meeting with recently," Huo Mingjun instructed the person on the other end of the phone. "Seal off the sanatorium for now. Don't let Huo Mingfei know anything before the investigation is complete."

Huo Mingjun had already outlined the key steps of the behind-the-scenes plot in his mind. Huo Mingfei had been in contact with Kong Ni. Knowing that Huo Zhongchen was disillusioned, he planned to use him to get revenge on Huo Mingjun. Egged on by Kong Ni, Huo Zhongchen went to the sanatorium to see Huo Mingfei and was persuaded by him. Thus, he used the factory to lure Huo Mingjun to the suburbs, arranged for men to be there, and planned to teach him a "lesson."

The moment Huo Zhongchen left, Huo Mingfei contacted Kong Ni. On his instructions, the workshop on the second floor of the factory was converted into a giant, remote-controlled bomb.

With another layer on top of years of accumulated dust, and the already aging wiring a little more frayed, no one would be able to spot anything amiss.

As for the investigation that would inevitably follow the incident, his dear father would naturally step forward to smooth things over.

Huo Mingjun sneered inwardly.

He picked up his phone and dialed another number.

"Leak a word to the Old Master, tell him about Huo Zhongchen visiting Huo Mingfei. If he looks for me, just say I'm at home recuperating."

"What illness? An old injury relapsing, a lung ailment."