Chapter 6: How Many Times a Day… Did You and Him Do It?

His voice remained indifferent, completely devoid of emotion.

“Yeah. Just do it yourself.”

I murmured an acknowledgment and lowered my head again, rummaging through the mess and organizing everything.

One large wooden crate after another was opened, revealing exquisite jewelry sets and delicate necklaces packed inside. This was exactly the kind of extravagance one would expect from a top-tier heir of a wealthy family. Every piece was encrusted with glittering diamonds, radiating unapologetic luxury.

“Beautiful…”

Noticing how my eyes lingered on the larger diamonds, Huo Xianchi spoke lazily.

“Bring those over here.”

I obediently pushed the crate toward him.

Huo Xianchi curled a long, slender finger around a silver chain necklace with a clasp and said slowly,

“Secretary Shen, help me see if this fits.”

When he noticed me hesitate, he added,

“Relax. It’s just a display sample. It won’t scratch your skin.”

I instinctively took a few centimeters backward to keep some distance between us.

The teasing smile vanished from Huo Xianchi’s face at once. His expression darkened.

“What are you nervous about? Whatever he did to you, I’ll treat you the same way.”

I mocked myself inwardly.

He had a point. There was no reason for me to act like I was afraid of him.

I decisively held out my wrist.

Click.

The clasp snapped shut.

His cool fingertips lightly brushed over the pulse point on my wrist. The touch was feather-light, almost ticklish.

He looked up with a smile, the corners of his eyes lifting slightly, his expression effortlessly charming and flirtatious.

“Well? Does it fit?”

I pressed my lips together and curled my fingers into my palm.

Huo Xianchi released the clasp and pointed to the inside of the bracelet.

“Look. There’s a design engraved on the inside.”

Only then did I notice the tiny cat curled up beneath the gleaming silver surface.

A little embarrassed, I pulled my hand back.

“Mr. Huo, your taste is… certainly unique.”

“Mm.”

He answered casually, his raised brows now carrying nothing but his usual aloof, aristocratic composure—as though he were trying to hide a trace of embarrassment.

We continued cleaning the villa.

I was beginning to suspect that all the properties under Huo Xianchi’s name had been built with nothing but load-bearing walls, while the entire interior space existed solely for storage.

There was jewelry everywhere, from raw gemstones to custom-made finished pieces. Even tucked into one corner of a cabinet were stacks of meticulously sealed real-estate contracts.

Looking at the numbers and specifications, I felt a strange sense of familiarity.

I stood there thinking for a moment before blurting out,

“Are all these things… meant for your fiancée, Song Min?”

Huo Xianchi suddenly appeared right behind me.

His warm breath brushed against the back of my neck.

He nodded.

“Yeah.”

Something tightened inside my chest.

The moment he turned away, I secretly pulled out my phone and sent Song Min a message.

Miss Song, Mr. Huo asked me to send over this season’s custom-made pieces for you. Are your clothing sizes and measurements still the same as before?

I carefully took a photo of the sizing chart and sent it along.

Song Min replied almost instantly, furious.

Is he out of his mind? Send me what? Who does he think he is? My boyfriend would lose his mind if he saw this! Besides, I’m not as skinny as those measurements anymore.

I was just about to reply when another message popped up.

Her tone was suddenly much more suggestive.

Ohhh, wait. I looked more carefully. Come to think of it… please thank your dear fiancé for me! These waist and bust measurements are absolutely spot-on. Not off by a single inch. Funny enough, I put on a little weight this month, and my current measurements happen to match that chart perfectly. Thanks! He really is thoughtful.

So I had been imagining things again.

As it turned out, Song Min’s current measurements after gaining a little weight matched my own body measurements exactly.

Still, I told myself he really ought to cut back on these little tests of his. Keeping things this ambiguous couldn’t possibly be good for anyone’s heart.

A sudden warmth descended from above.

At some point, Huo Xianchi had moved right behind me. His large hand rested lightly on my hair, gently stroking it once.

“Hungry? Let’s eat, then come back and finish cleaning.”

I shook my head slightly and avoided his hand.

“I’m fine. I’m not that hungry yet.”

He ignored my refusal completely, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me along.

“You need to eat if you want enough energy to keep working for me.”

The meal took place in suffocating silence.

Huo Xianchi cut into his steak with an absentminded air, his mind clearly somewhere else.

“Is something wrong, Mr. Huo?”

His tie was slightly crooked. Out of pure habit as his secretary, I instinctively reached out to straighten it.

But before my hand could touch him, he looked up and asked a question that completely froze me.

“In a day… how many times did you and him do it?”

Cough—cough!

The mouthful of fruit juice I hadn’t swallowed yet went straight down the wrong pipe.

Huo Xianchi shot to his feet in alarm, hurried around the table, and began patting my back to help me stop choking.

After a chaotic, utterly ridiculous few moments, I finally sat down again with my face burning.

I desperately focused on cutting my steak, trying to avoid his gaze.

But Huo Xianchi frowned and continued in an incredibly serious tone,

“How was he the first time? Was he any good?”

I sprang out of my chair like a tightly wound spring.

“Mr. Huo, excuse me. I need to use the restroom!”

Inside the women’s restroom, I stood in front of the mirror and washed my hands over and over.

I kept rubbing soap between my fingers, rinsing them, then drying them again—anything to distract myself from my embarrassment.

Unexpectedly, the beautiful woman washing her hands beside me began copying every single movement.

She mimicked me so blatantly that I finally turned to her.

“Hi. Do we… know each other?”

The moment I spoke first, she finally stopped washing her hands and leaned toward me, her face filled with curiosity and excitement.

“Girl, be honest with me. How much money have you spent on him?”

I stared at her blankly.

“What money?”

She raised an eyebrow and excitedly pointed toward the restaurant entrance.

“Who else? Huo Xianchi! The ‘purebred’ heir of the Huo family sitting out there!”

“So many people have tried to cling to him and marry up, but none of them could get close. Men and women alike have all been fooled by that angelic face of his.”

“How much did you pay him before he finally let you touch him? I was watching from outside just now, and your hand almost landed right on his pecs!”

I took a closer look at the beautiful woman.

Then it suddenly clicked.

I had seen her face in a tabloid before.

She was one of Huo Xianchi’s most notorious rumored lovers.

Confused, I asked,

“Weren’t the two of you supposedly involved before? Why would you have to pay just to touch him now?”

At my words, she looked as though she had finally found a kindred spirit.

She immediately pulled out her phone and opened a WeChat group to show me.

The group name was displayed clearly at the top:

Huo Xianchi

Members: 200+

My mouth fell open.

So this was the legendary “Condom King,” the “King of Scandals”—and he actually had an entire high-quality harem like this?

As if she could read my mind, the woman swallowed her jealousy and explained,

“Don’t get the wrong idea. This is actually a group for hired extras!”

“Every handsome man and beautiful woman who’s ever been romantically linked to Mr. Huo in the media is in here. It’s all part of his ‘a sly fox has a hundred hiding places’ strategy. He throws out so many fake rumors that no one can ever figure out who his real lover is.”

I scrolled through the latest messages.

Huo Xianchi himself had posted just last night:

[Huo Xianchi]: “April 18th. Perform a scene at the Huo family estate. Fee: 3 million yuan.”

A flood of replies immediately appeared beneath his message from his various “rumored lovers.”

[Hehehe]: “Brother, last time I only got 500,000 yuan from you, and I thought all I had to do was show up for dinner and play along. But what happened? Your terrifying old lady slapped me so hard I saw stars! Sure, you got slapped too, but I’m a model. What if she ruins the face I make money with?”

[All-In Search]: “I’m in! Three million this time? Even if that woman breaks both my legs, I’ll take it!”

[Huo Xianchi]: “Fine. Then let her break your legs first. We have a professional security team on standby. They’ll carry you onto the scene according to the script.”

[Crispy Dumpling]: “HAHA, I’m dying. Mr. Huo, could you please stop using that serious, icy tone to talk about terrifying things?”

[Hehehe]: “None of you girls have been to the Huo family estate before, have you? Go there once and you’ll understand. The atmosphere is literally ‘eat or be eaten.’ It’s basically the real-life version of Raise the Red Lantern. Everyone walks around wearing fake masks.”

Huo Xianchi remained completely unfazed by their complaints and continued making offers in that same cold tone.

[Huo Xianchi]: “If you perform well, the fee can be increased to 5 million yuan.”

[All-In Search]: “Oh my God, the money is tempting, but this is getting scarier by the second. I’m out. Haven’t you guys heard the gossip? Mr. Huo Sui—the eldest son of the Huo family—secretly brought a pregnant woman back to the family estate a few days ago and demanded to marry her.”

“In the end, she was forced to have an abortion right there and nearly died on the operating table. The news was suppressed and taken down almost immediately, but her older sister told a friend of mine, and the story is already spreading through high society.”

[Hehehe]: “Mr. Huo, with a vicious rumor like that going around, aren’t you going to clarify things for your brother?”

[Huo Xianchi]: “Clarify what? It’s true.”

[All-In Search]: “What?! How can you say that so calmly?”

[Hehehe]: “Actually, our Mr. Huo has been cured of schizophrenia for a long time. He’s perfectly lucid now.”

[Injured Fried Egg]: “Mr. Huo, when we’re pretending to be passionate lovers, could I maybe touch… that part of you just once? I’ve admired it for a long time…”

[Huo Xianchi]: “???”

[All-In Search]: “Holy shit, you damn Fried Egg! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

[Hehehe]: “What the hell? Anyone who doesn’t know the group rules gets kicked out automatically!”

[Huo Xianchi]: “Where are the admins? Have you forgotten your responsibility to screen members? Anyone with intentions of sullying my innocence like this should be kicked out and dealt with immediately. If you can’t handle it, shut the group down!”

The woman beside me pointed at the username glowing on her screen.

“I’m the one called ‘All-In Search’ in this group.”

I silently dried my hands with a paper towel and gave her a complicated look.

“Can I ask you something a little personal…? How many times have you actually managed to touch him?”

A giant question mark might as well have appeared above her head.

She stomped her foot angrily.

“Not even once!”

“I was just about to walk over and touch his shoulder, and he immediately demanded five million yuan in compensation for defamation and damage to his reputation!”

“What the hell!” she continued indignantly.

“We all know the rules. We’re only supposed to pretend for the media cameras. Physical contact is strictly forbidden.”

“But last time, I got carried away by that face of his and tried to sneak a touch while he was drunk.”

“Fuck, you have no idea what he did!”

“He reacted like he was about to be sexually assaulted. He started crying and screaming at the top of his lungs, then threatened to call the police and have my legs broken!”