Volume One, Chapter 14: Huo Chenyuan—Just Passing Through the Library

The Huo Family.

Huo Jianjun, dressed in an army-green vest, was sitting on the sofa, cleaning his fishing rod. Seeing them enter, he asked in a deep voice, "What’s going on?"

Huo Siyue was the quickest to speak, immediately embellishing the story as he recounted it loudly.

Huo Jianjun paused his cleaning, looked up, and his gaze fell on Jiang Yu’s arm, which was bound in bandages.

He asked only one question, "Those people—do they know Jiang Baoguo?"

Jiang Yu nodded.

“Good.” Huo Jianjun picked up the phone from the table and dialed the military district security office directly. "This is Huo Jianjun. Immediately send five men to the city bureau. I want to see who dares to lay a finger on my daughter!"

...

That night, the pain in Jiang Yu’s arm eased somewhat. She stared at the open math and science exercise book in front of her, several difficult problems making her furrow her brows tightly.

She recalled what Huo Siyue had boasted about during the day—his eldest brother was a competition champion.

After much hesitation, she took her notebook and knocked on Huo Chenyuan’s door.

Huo Chenyuan told her to come in without even looking up.

Jiang Yu handed him the book quietly. "Big Brother Huo, could you... help me with a few problems?"

Huo Chenyuan’s eyes shifted from his documents to glance at her and then at the exercise book. He said nothing, yet radiated an aura of “I’m very busy, don’t bother me.” Still, he took the book, pointed with his pen, and said, “Your approach here is wrong.”

He explained briefly, pinpointing the core problem in just a few words, then pushed the book back.

The entire process took less than three minutes—cold and formal, like a report between superior and subordinate.

A few days later, it was the weekend, and Jiang Yu’s injury had mostly healed.

She wanted to go to the library for a final study push. Before leaving, she mustered courage and approached Huo Chenyuan again. "Big Brother Huo, are you free today? Could you accompany me to the library?"

“No,” Huo Chenyuan was putting on his coat, seemingly about to go out. “Military duties.”

Brief and to the point.

Jiang Yu simply said “Oh” and didn’t press further. She slung her backpack, which held a wrench, and left.

...

At the city library, Jiang Yu sat by the window, her notebook and scrap paper spread before her.

Sunlight streamed through the glass, casting a soft golden glow on her focused profile.

A week later, she removed the bandages.

She wrote swiftly, her handwriting delicate yet sharp.

She thought of the previous life—when Jiang Zhenguo was competing.

Back then, when he came home at night, he would toss a pile of disorganized study materials to her, asking her to help organize and take notes.

The tough problems he couldn’t solve, the formulas he didn’t understand, were all worked through by her late at night under the dim light of a kerosene lamp, carefully calculated step by step, then neatly transcribed into clear notes for him.

He took the fruits of her painstaking labor to the stage, proud and confident, to receive his award.

This time, things were finally different.

Lost in thought, a shadow suddenly fell over her.

Jiang Zhenguo had somehow appeared at her desk, his eyes fixed intently on the notebook she had opened.

“I knew it,” he said, his tone softening, even carrying a trace of false leniency.

“I knew you were secretly preparing materials for me. So these days, you’ve been here helping me get ready?”

Though this sister was not much help otherwise, the study materials and notes she organized were indeed useful.

And she was devoted to the Jiang family wholeheartedly.

He was sure she would sneakily prepare everything neatly and then hand it to him as before.

See? Even after leaving the Jiang family, she still cared about her brothers.

Jiang Yu looked at him as if he were a fool.

Jiang Zhenguo didn’t understand her gaze at all. Instead, he sighed to himself and reached out to grab the notebook. “You’re just too jealous and calculating. If you gave these to me sooner, things would be easier. Your body’s weak, you just came to the Huo family—you can’t keep being competitive and attracting attention. From now on, in your studies, you need to yield to us. Don’t ever score better than us again, got it?”

“Also, next time don’t sneakily organize notes and give them to me. What’s the point of pretending? In the end, you’ll just ask me to come back to the Jiang family.”

As he spoke, he naturally reached for the notebook.

Jiang Yu pressed her hand down on the notebook, avoiding his grasp.

In the past life, she had been wholeheartedly devoted and gained nothing.

This time, she wasn’t about to yield to anyone.

Jiang Zhenguo’s hand hovered awkwardly before he stiffened his face and snapped, “Give it here! Don’t be ungrateful!”

“First,” Jiang Yu finally spoke, her voice calm but icy, “this is my notebook. Second, even with your brain, you wouldn’t understand it.”

“You—” Jiang Zhenguo’s face turned red with anger. “Don’t think that just because you used my old notes to get first place once, you’re a genius! Without my stuff, you’re nothing!”

“Is that so?” Jiang Yu smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

She raised her pen and casually pointed to the scrap paper spread before Jiang Zhenguo.

“You got this problem wrong from the start by substituting the wrong initial conditions and kept calculating for ages. With such a stupid chicken-brained mind, you want to compete? Go home and get some sleep.”

Jiang Zhenguo’s expression instantly soured as if he’d swallowed a fly.

He was about to grab Jiang Yu’s arm but was pushed away by a stronger hand.

“You really can’t understand her notes.”

Huo Chenyuan had silently appeared behind them.

He wasn’t in military uniform today but wore a simple white shirt and black trousers, yet his posture was upright and commanding.

...

He glanced casually at Jiang Yu’s notebook, then at Jiang Zhenguo’s scrap paper, his eyes filled with undisguised disdain.

“This is a two-dimensional fluid dynamics problem. You used a three-dimensional model, and you even miscalculated two key parameters,” Huo Chenyuan stated flatly, as if stating facts. “At this level, I suggest you go home now, so you don’t embarrass yourself at the exam.”

Under Huo Chenyuan’s overwhelming presence, Jiang Zhenguo couldn’t utter a word.

In the end, red-faced, he could only flee in humiliation.

Jiang Zhenguo stood at the door, watching them go, feeling bitter inside.

He firmly believed Jiang Yu was just angry now and would obediently come to him again in a few days.

The library fell silent again.

Huo Chenyuan pulled out the chair opposite Jiang Yu and sat down.

Jiang Yu looked at him, a little surprised. “I thought you said... you had military duties?”

Huo Chenyuan’s expression remained unchanged. He picked up her scrap paper. “Military duties are done.” He paused, then added, “Stopped by on the way to check on you.”

His gaze swept over that delicate but stubborn face, though inside he was far less calm than he appeared.

He didn’t know why he had come.

Though he had rejected her, his mind kept flashing images of her thin figure carrying her backpack alone.

Some strange force had made the driver bring him here.

Also, just now—didn’t she know to dodge if her arm was injured?

This stepsister...

As evening fell, most of the library’s visitors had left.

Huo Siyue lounged lazily under the elm tree by the door and immediately spotted Jiang Yu.

“Yu! Over here!” He happily ran over and casually took the bag off her shoulder.

“Brother Siyue, what are you doing here!” Jiang Yu turned her head.

“Studying is too hard and tiring. I’m determined to feed you ten extra pounds!”

At sunset, the golden light outlined the handsome youth’s features, and the little girl beside him smiled brightly.

“Come on, let’s go buy some egg cakes. I saw a long line at the street corner next door!”

“Brother Siyue is so good to me!!”

Behind them, Huo Chenyuan watched his fourth brother and stepsister and sighed.

Why was it that only the one carrying the bag and buying cake got praised, but no one said a word about the one who skipped work to tutor her?