Chapter 209: Chapter 89: Top Star of the 1960s Cultural Troupe (28)

"Brother Huo, it really is you!"

She came running from a distance, about to throw herself into the man’s arms right in front of Xia Zhaoyun.

Xia Zhaoyun bit her lip, grabbed the man’s clothes, and, with a touch of malice, waited until the woman’s momentum was unstoppable before yanking him sharply to the side.

The man’s expression had already returned to its usual icy calm. He cooperated perfectly, sidestepping and using Xia Zhaoyun’s pull to flawlessly dodge the woman just half a second before impact.

Unable to stop, her face a mask of shock and mortification, the woman crashed to the ground with a THUD. This was bound to become a moment she’d never live down, and to make matters worse, Xia Zhaoyun let out an amused snort.

"Brother Tianhao," Xia Zhaoyun’s voice was more cloyingly sweet than ever, her green-tea vibe wafting off her. "It’s a good thing I pulled you away. Otherwise, after someone performed a full kowtow to you, wouldn’t you have had to give them a big red envelope?"

Huo Tianhao chuckled, unable to resist ruffling her hair a couple of times. He only drew his hand back sheepishly after earning an angry glare.

The woman gritted her teeth and got to her feet, covered in dust. She could still smell the acrid funk of what seemed to be some stray animal’s diarrhea nearby.

The older woman froze for a moment before snapping back to reality. She stepped forward with a handkerchief to wipe the girl’s face and dust off her clothes, but she didn’t forget to look at Huo Tianhao, her voice filled with joyful tears:

"Tianhao, it really is you! Your aunt isn’t dreaming, is she?"

"Your Aunt Xue told me you came to the family courtyard this morning. I thought she was joking. I know the dead can’t be resurrected, but I still came to see, holding onto a sliver of hope."

"My dear boy, where have you been these past two years?"

"Because of you, your father’s hair turned white from worry in just half a month..."

Such a heart-stirring scene of a family reunion had long since attracted a crowd of gawkers. Moved by Tong Yuxiang’s seemingly heartfelt joy, they looked at Huo Tianhao with tears in their eyes, anticipating a response that would meet everyone’s expectations.

Huo Tianhao raised an eyebrow and sneered. "Oh? Didn’t Director Huo already have white hair and was just too busy to dye it? The factory barber can attest to that. How can you pin his white hair on me?"

"Stepmother, you still love pinning baseless accusations on me."

A crack appeared in Tong Yuxiang’s expression, but she kept smiling. "Tianhao, I know you used to have many misunderstandings about your father and me, but no matter how big the grudges were, they mean nothing in the face of death."

"The whole family is surely so happy you’re alive that we don’t know what to do."

"I don’t know what you’ve been through these past two years, but why can’t you just get along peacefully with your family?"

Huo Tianhao’s lips curled. "Of course. While Director Huo and you, Stepmother, were living the high life, my mind was a blank. All I remembered was my name and my maternal grandparents’ home as I wandered the country, surviving on scraps."

"Oh, right. Stepmother, it’s a good thing you’re here. This morning, I promised everyone that all the benefits the Huo Family took from the work unit over the past two years would be paid back in one lump sum."

"In the Huo Family, Director Huo handles outside affairs while you manage the home. You should know exactly how much you received in goods and compensation money, right?"

"It’s fine if you don’t remember. I trust that the people have sharp eyes."

Tong Yuxiang couldn’t help but grit her teeth. ’Why is he as detestable as ever?’

’Ever since he was a child, he’s been like a rock in an outhouse—stinky and stubborn. And yet, he was the most capable of all the juniors in the family.’

’Now he’s returned with the reputation of a hero. He’s no longer that stiff-necked young punk who could only glare when I accused him of being unfilial.’

Over the past two years, Tong Yuxiang had obtained countless benefits for herself and her children, both openly and secretly.

At first, Huo Xunchang had told her to be more discreet, but as time went on, like a frog in slowly boiling water, he just began to turn a blind eye.

’Now he wants her to return everything. Never mind all the other things; just the compensation payment alone was enough to rip her heart out. The union had held a factory workers’ representative meeting and decided to issue a lump sum payment for three years, calculated at the standard of a grade-eight worker’s monthly salary of one hundred and twenty yuan.’

’The bloody, still-beating kind. This was about more than four thousand three hundred yuan!’

’She remembered how, when the money first came into her hands, she’d held onto it for half a year before spending it all in one go with particular extravagance—to get her eldest son a wife from a prestigious family.’

To this day, Tong Yuxiang still remembered the feeling. Spending the money that belonged to her husband’s dead son from a previous wife... the vindication was so sweet, she felt like she was walking on air.

She had even made a special trip to Huo Tianhao and his mother’s graves to gloat. ’If they could actually hear me,’ she thought, ’they’d probably be angry enough to die a second time, right?’

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