What’s Mr. Huo Eating Today

The subtle mood gained from He Yunzhou—let’s call it “pleasure”—continued until Huo Zheng returned to his home.

Just as He Yunzhou guessed before, Huo Zheng indeed lives on the top floor of the building where He Yunzhou is.

It’s just that even if you live in the same building, the living environment between people can be very different.

This top floor is a temporary residence prepared by the assistant for the “private visit in disguise” of Huo Zheng after countless days of careful selection. It used to be a residence prepared by the real estate owner to himself, so the entire floor was opened up to form a huge flat suite. Even the elevator button connected to the top floor requires a magnetic card before it lights up. All the decorations and furnishings were also renovated and rearranged according to Huo Zheng’s previous preferences under the supervision of the assistant, who earns a considerably high annual salary. There are a lot of grays, whites, cold metals, and mirrors together to create a cold, expensive, and inorganic atmosphere. If He Yunzhou could appear here, he would definitely have some kind of self-doubt: Is the ordinary small house he lives in really in the same place as Huo Zheng’s residence?

Huo Zheng calmly walked into his house. His brows furrowed slightly when his gaze touched the slightly lower floor height of the room.

That’s right, no matter how luxurious it is for ordinary people, for Huo Zheng, even such a place is nothing more than just a temporary residence that he can barely live in. If it weren’t for that even somewhat stupid purpose, Huo Zheng would have never wronged himself to stay in such a cramped, small, and densely packed building full of people with terrible cheap reinforced steel and concrete.

The only thing that made him feel a little better is that even in such a place, at least one “thing” is still running smoothly, and seeing it made his journey of “experiencing life” not so unbearable.

[Welcome back, Mr. Huo.]

A soft voice sounded as Huo Zheng passed through the entrance. The voice sounded a bit like a gentle woman but also a bit like a voice of a young male.

But anyway, it was a pleasant and sweet enough voice.

At the same time, the whole house completely “awakened” as if someone cast some magic: The lights in the room gradually lit up and the light was carefully designed with a color temperature, bright enough but never blinding. In a place where Huo Zheng couldn’t see, a special air conditioning system adjusted the air humidity to a percentage that matched Huo Zheng’s preferences within a few seconds. The temperature and hardness of the floor are also adjusted to the state that was most suitable for Huo Zheng’s current physical condition. 

[It has been detected that you1 courteous/respectable way to address someone are in a slightly drunken state. Do you need me to prepare a hangover medicine for you?]

A mass of orange color block bounces slightly on the glass of the French window. Although it was just a mass of color, its voice surprisingly sounded full of human concern as if it really cares about the owner of the room.

Facing this rather sci-fi scene, Huo Zheng’s brows furrowed a little tighter.

“No need.” He said. After pausing for a few seconds, he added, “Disable human mode.”

[Adjusted to initial mode.]

[Calo system at your service.] 2 Should be: “Calo system is sincerely at your service.” Not sure how I can include that ‘sincerely’ word as it didn’t look quite good to the sentence for me, so I’ll just add it in the footnotes. Let me know if this is ok or not. Thank you!

With Huo Zheng’s command, the voice that had been talking to him before quickly changed into a dull and cold electronic voice.

“Prepare the bathroom for me, then help me connect to Li Yu.” Huo Zheng said.

……

“Hey, Young Master Huo, how did you go last night?”

A somewhat cheerful voice rang in Huo Zheng’s ears. Probably because he heard the sound of water while he was bathing, he added some ridicule to his next sentence, “Are you taking a bath? It seems that your nightlife this time looks pretty good. I told you, you need to get out more and get in touch with people to be inspired…”

“That guy put something in my drink.” Huo Zheng coldly interrupted Li Yu’s words.

The latter is a rare person in his life who can be called a “friend”, and the same is also his current work partner. But even so, Huo Zheng never hid his difficult personality when facing him.

“What…” Li Yu’s voice paused for a moment, “Wait, wasn’t it that young master of Dongyi who drank with you yesterday?”

“Heh.” Thinking of the disgusting scenes in the dark last night, Huo Zheng’s mood, which had finally improved a bit, went down sharply and quickly became worse.

“Dongyi has an investment that was blocked by me. They’ve been trying to intervene in the CALO project, intending to get a piece of the pie,” Huo Zheng sneered mockingly, “… Even the young master of the Dongyi Family has times when he sells himself for money. In this day and age, they still thought they can catch something3 fig. information that can be used against someone. Apologies for my limited vocabulary, if anyone knows the word/term for this, feel free to tell me. from me in bed—the reason why his family fell to this point doesn’t seem to be an accident.”

“Wow, congratulations! Another pitfall.” A young man was sloppily sitting in the office of Huo Group building with his feet raised, listening to the voice that seemed to come from the North Pole transmitted through the voice system and made a sound of ridicule without conscience.

“You could have laughed a little more.” Huo Zheng said gloomily.

Li Yu rubbed the tears of laughter from the corner of his eyes before he issued an insincere apology, “Ok, I’m sorry. I saw that that young master with a good appearance before has been persistently pursuing you for so long. I thought he really meant something special to you, otherwise, I wouldn’t have advised you to develop with him. Cough, that, of course, I also received some money la… I thought this was his way of pursuing you…” Speaking of that little extra income, Li Yu spoke with a little short of breath.

“Ai, you see, in fact, this is also for your own good. There are only a few years where men can really use it. By the time when they are in their 30s or 40s, their spirit is there but their flesh is weak. I’m not referring to your good waist and kidney, it can only be used in that kind of idiot with an empty brain body. If one day you meet your true love but can no longer satisfy the other with your body, wouldn’t it be too wasteful…”

True love?

Hearing the words brought by Li Yu with it, Huo Zheng was in a rare trance for a moment.

That little gongzi4son of an official/nobility of the Dongyi family… What was his name again?

Although it was only a night’s work, that person’s name and face were already blurred. Obviously, before this day, Huo Zheng remembers that person’s name.

As Li Yu said, that young man had never concealed his infatuation with Huo Zheng in the circle before. He was so decisive5 lit. to chop the nail and slice the iron(idiom) in declaring that Huo Zheng was his true love and did so many shocking things just to pursue Huo Zheng. If everything that person did can be written in a novel, it will probably be the kind of romance novel that makes people feel cheesy and exaggerated, right? Even Huo Zheng, who has always been calm and only regards his bed partners as one-time replacements for physiological needs solutions, will inevitably add a bit more attention to that person.

That’s why he agreed to have a private meeting with that person at Li Yu’s instigation.

However, in the novel, the protagonists of the story will always live happily together. But in Huo Zheng’s world, all love affairs will turn into ulterior motives and stinky conspiracies.

Without exception.

The moment he drank that glass of wine last night, Huo Zheng had already noticed something wrong. That person tearfully took him to bed saying sorry, but Huo Zheng couldn’t ignore those cameras installed near the hotel bed.

With amazing perseverance and perfect physique, Huo Zheng beat up the person before the drug took effect (he was pretty sure that the other party would be in the hospital by now)6 forgot to mention, those inside the () are also part of the text. and then forced his way out of the hotel.

In the last moments when his consciousness gradually blurred, the only thing he remembered was that he couldn’t go home…

In order to block him, his good mother has placed her people at the doors of his several original residences. If this weren’t the case, Huo Zheng wouldn’t have made up his mind to move to a slum-like garden community in the end.

But at this time, those things were just a chaotic cloud of shadows in his mind, and Huo Zheng knew he had nowhere to go. In the end, he completely relied on his thin will to return to that temporary residence that he could barely tolerate.

And then, he got the wrong door.

“Hey, hey, Huo Zheng? Young Master Huo? Are you listening?” Li Yu yelled out a few words over the voice system.

Huo Zheng finished his bath, put on a bathrobe, and walked out of the bathroom. The dirty clothes thrown on the floor had already been recycled by Calo. But inexplicably, it was as if Huo Zheng could still smell a faint scent of food. 

At this moment, He Yunzhou’s eyes and face suddenly emerged in Huo Zheng’s mind and his mind was a bit confused.

That person probably also has something to ask for, right? It’s just that in terms of methods, it’s much more powerful than the other guy—no, it’s not right to think about it.

In addition, the other person showed such sincere feelings, a deep love that moved the heaven and earth while He Yunzhou was particularly rusty and clumsy in even the most basic seduction.

Only the gentleness at the corners of his eyes and the tip of his eyebrows really seemed lifelike.

……

1 courteous/respectable way to address someone2 Should be: “Calo system is sincerely at your service.” Not sure how I can include that ‘sincerely’ word as it didn’t look quite good to the sentence for me, so I’ll just add it in the footnotes. Let me know if this is ok or not. Thank you!3 fig. information that can be used against someone. Apologies for my limited vocabulary, if anyone knows the word/term for this, feel free to tell me.4son of an official/nobility5 lit. to chop the nail and slice the iron(idiom)6 forgot to mention, those inside the () are also part of the text.