At weekend, twilight descended heavily.
The ancestral Huo family estate was nestled deep within a tranquil bamboo forest on the outskirts of the city, its traditional Chinese carved gates appearing steady and imposing in the night. Inside the antique living room, orange floor lamps sliced the light and shadow across the ground with a rich, textured quality.
Louis Lu stepped onto the melting warmth of the illuminated floor. Wearing a soft-textured, highly simple gray sweater, he walked through the main doors of the Huo estate with perfect composure.
At this moment, Hunter Huo was sprawled entirely across the leather sofa without a shred of decorum, his long fingers pinching a half-peeled red mandarin. Hearing the commotion at the entryway, he looked up carelessly. The exact millisecond his eyes locked onto Louis's delicate face, his brilliant golden hair nearly erupted into a frizzy mess against the sofa, and the mandarin in his hand slipped with a quiet thud, almost dropping directly onto the floor.
"Brother, th—th—this is Dr. Lu?!"
Hunter sat bolt upright in a single motion. While pointing a finger toward the entrance, he frantically jabbed his elbow into Silas Shen, who was seated right beside him, his puppy eyes entirely brimmed with an unbelievable shock.
"Call him Senior Brother Louis."
Hunter Huo's elder brother, Julian Huo, strode forward from behind Louis expressionless. The CEO, who was historically swift, resolute, and as unyielding as a blade within the business sector, extended his hands exceptionally naturally in this moment. With immense patience, he traced down Louis's shoulders to take the dark overcoat he was stripping off.
His movements were methodical; he even smoothly smoothed out a tiny, faint crease near the collar of the overcoat before turning around to hang the garment securely onto the garment rack on the side. That display of meticulous consideration caused the younger Hunter on the side to thoroughly rub his eyes, wondering if his biological elder brother had been possessed by some bizarre entity.
Silas Shen was currently seated on the opposite side of the sofa. Hearing the noise, he turned his body slightly. Through his gold-rimmed glasses, his clear-as-water phoenix eyes met Louis's gaze dead-center in mid-air.
Neither of them spoke.
Yet in that brief single second where their gazes interlaced, an invisible signal wave seemed to quietly connect within the air. It was a highly marvelous, highly tacit "recognition of the same kind"—
Both were top-tier, brilliant minds who relied on their intellect to make a living, and both had been forcefully pursued and captured by these two relentlessly pestering, excessively clingy Huo brothers. Most importantly, even though both of them had clearly rejected the advances with icy countenances multiple times at the absolute beginning... clearly, it hadn't worked out in the end.
"Professor Shen." Louis broke the silence first, nodding slightly toward Silas. His tone was flat and polite, carrying a doctor's unique rigor.
"Dr. Lu." Silas also nodded lightly, a trace of un-detectable relaxation concealed within his cool voice. He arched an eyebrow slightly, casting a half-smiling glance at the somewhat anxious Julian Huo before looking back at Louis:
"A few days ago, I heard Hunter rambling in the laboratory, mentioning that you recently rescued an orange cat inside your clinic... one with a rather unique temper who specializes in extorting people?"
Hearing the characters for "orange cat," Louis's hand—which was currently unbuttoning his cufflink—paused marginally.
He turned his head slightly, the gaze behind his lenses scraping sluggishly across Julian's handsome, cold face wrapped in a meticulous suit. His tone remained devoid of dramatic fluctuations, yet it carried a textured tug-of-war:
"I did rescue one. However, that cat's temper is only growing; it's currently loitering inside my clinic, and no matter how I try to chase it away, it refuses to leave. — It is identical to a certain someone."
The CEO, who was glaringly implied to be a "scammer cat," did not alter even a single millimeter of his cold, unyielding contours.
Julian extended his long fingers expressionless, pulling out the soft chair boasting the absolute best line of sight and the highest comfort level beside the dining table for Louis. Lowering his eyes slightly, his dark, heavy gaze was brimmed with a profound and serious focus, his voice low and magnetic:
"Then... does a certain someone possess the fortune of being permitted to stay tonight?"
The words were delivered with perfect stability, yet the sticky affection within them was practically spilling out from the seams of the CEO's expensive, straight suit.
Louis did not answer immediately. He merely stood beside the chair, staring quietly into those dark eyes filled to the brim with "seriousness." After two seconds, he arched an eyebrow imperceptibly and remained silent, yet he ultimately lifted the hem of his sweater and sat down exceptionally obediently onto the chair pulled out for him.
Watching this scene, the corners of Julian's tightly set lips finally curved upward into a highly minute angle in secret.
Right at this moment, the steady thud of a cane striking the floor shattered the individual pink bubbles surrounding the two brothers.
The Elder Master Huo, leaning on his cane, slowly descended from the solid wood staircase on the second floor. Though the elder was advanced in years, his eyes remained terribly shrewd. Standing at the landing of the staircase, he looked down from his high vantage point at the two young people who had suddenly appeared inside his living room.
Those were two young people who were customarily used to wearing white lab coats (even though one wore a sweater and the other wore a shirt today). Two individuals possessing equally cool, isolated, and proud temperaments, sitting shoulder to shoulder alongside his two utterly arrogant grandsons—a Beta and an Omega.
Leaning on his cane, Elder Master Huo stared fixatedly from a short distance away for a long duration.
The atmospheric pressure within the living room fell into a subtle, brief silence, and the younger Hunter even straightened his frame with some nervousness.
However, in the next second, Elder Master Huo suddenly let out a hearty laugh. The laughter echoed through the cavernous living room, carrying a sliver of un-speakable comfort and pleasure.
"Good! Exceptional!"
While walking toward the dining table, the elder tapped the tip of his cane against the floor with a touch of exasperation toward his grandsons, laughing as he sighed:
"Every generation within this Huo family has consisted entirely of rough fellows who only know how to slaughter their way through the business sector; this genetic line is finally undergoing a correction in your generation. Two grandsons—one found a scientist, and the other found a doctor. In the future, this household finally possesses genuine, high-level intellectuals who can assist an old fellow like me in understanding the medical examination reports from the hospital!"
"Grandfather!"
Hearing this, the younger Hunter instantly became displeased. He bounced up from the sofa like a large golden retriever whose tail had been stepped on, protesting with some grievance:
"Listen to what you're saying! What do you mean 'finally someone can understand it'? I can understand the indicators on those examination reports perfectly fine, alright?!"
The air fell into a bizarrely quiet second in this exact millisecond.
Silas sat in his original position, lifting the warm water before him with slender fingers to take a light sip. Subsequently, without even lifting his eyelids, he delivered a highly fatal strike from the side with an exceptionally calm yet distinctly lethal cadence:
"If my memory serves me correctly, your comprehensive evaluation for Biochemistry at the end of last semester seemed to rely on a makeup exam to finally secure a passing grade of sixty."
Pfft— Louis, who was currently drinking water, almost failed to restrain himself.
"...Professor! Silas Shen!"
The younger Hunter's handsome face instantly flushed into the color of pig liver. He looked at his cool, proud Omega with a touch of madness, his eyes entirely brimmed with accusation, wishing he could paste his entire person over to beg for mercy:
"In front of Grandfather and Senior Brother Louis, shouldn't you stand unconditionally on my side?! Don't I need to preserve my dignity?!"
Silas methodically set his water glass down, turning his face to reveal a highly faint, cunning amusement dancing within his phoenix eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses. Staring at the large golden dog before him who was so anxious he was practically spinning in circles, he parted his red lips slightly, dropping eight heavy characters with moderate weight:
"I have always stood exclusively on the side of truth."
"Hahaha—"
Julian Huo, who had consistently kept his face tightly set, and Louis Lu, who sat opposite him, broke character at the exact same instant, emitting low-pitched laughs in tandem.
The laughter of the two interlaced in mid-air. The elder Huo laughed until the corners of his eyes bore a few gentle crinkles, while Louis's face—which was perennially as cold as ice—blossomed open like a spring breeze brushing across a surface.
The abrupt laughter caused both of the cool individuals to blank for a brief moment. The elder Huo and Louis's gazes collided in mid-air without a single shred of preparation. Subsequently, as if scorched by the amusement within the other's eyes, they simultaneously shifted their gazes away with extreme rapidity and unnaturalness.
Yet under this bright illumination, the nape of Louis's neck concealed beneath his gray turtleneck sweater, alongside the tips of the perennially cold CEO's ears, quietly bloomed with a highly seductive, thin layer of crimson without anyone realizing it.
The dishes of the banquet radiated a mouth-watering aroma, and warmth and vibrancy slowly flowed through this ancient ancestral estate.