Mr and Mrs Huo: Chapter 17

Huo Wei returned to the Huo family mansion late in the evening, around 10 pm. At this time, many of the workers had already retired to bed.

Only Housekeeper Zhong was awake to welcome him. But the housekeeper was an elderly so Huo Wei quickly dismissed him.

The huge mansion became cold and uninviting, but its owner didn't seem to mind.

In his room, Huo Wei took off his jacket and raised his hand to loosen and pull off his tie with his slender fingers. Perhaps it was because he was home. The oppressive atmosphere that always surrounded him seemed a little less.

The phone he had placed on the table slightly vibrated and lit up. Someone was calling.

Huo Wei frowned and glanced at his phone. His expression eased, catching the name on the screen, and he picked up the call.

"President Huo?" Yu Yuan's voice sounded.

"Hmm."

"Am I disturbing anything?"

"No."

"Oh... I was worried President Huo might still be working. Looks like I picked the right timing."

"En," Huo Wei lazily replied

Yu Yuan quickly got to why she called, "Thank you for the gift. I liked it very much."

"It's good if you like it."

"I do. When there's an opportunity, I'll brew some tea for President Huo to enjoy."

This time, a slight smile formed on Huo Wei's lips. "Ok."

Since her purpose had been achieved, Yu Yuan didn't want to impose any longer. "Have a goodnight, President Huo."

"Hmm." Huo Wei paused a little and finally added, "You too."

A brief chuckle could be heard over the line. "Thank you President Huo."

Then the sound of the line disconnecting could be heard.

It was 2 am in the Huo Mansion and all its residents were asleep except one person.

Huo Wei stood in his room next to the window. No one knew what he was watching or thinking.

The room had fallen into the darkness with the moon as its only light source. A dangerous and gloomy atmosphere filled the entire room.

The moonlight fell upon him, casting a long dark shadow behind.

Once it was this time of the night, this part of the Huo Mansion was like a hunted house, and everyone knew to avoid it.

After what seemed like an eternity, Huo Wei finally moved. He left the window to sit in the dark. Next to him was a cigarette and lighter. Without needing light, Huo Wei accurately grasped both and slowly brought the cigarette to his lips before lighting it.

Huo Wei rarely smoked unless he was in a bad mood. But in the past few months, the frequency had increased because of his neverending insomnia.

His lack of sleep worsened his mood and fanned the flames of his violent urges.

Only he knew how much he had to restrain himself. His rigid self-discipline and strong willpower kept him at a very delicate balance. 

His insomnia started after the death of the former Patriarch Huo. At that time, Huo Wei experienced many life-threatening situations. Even the Huo Mansion wasn't safe then. There were many spies among the employees.

During that unsafe period, it was very difficult to find sleep. There were many problems at the Huo Company he had to solve while trying to avoid being killed at the same time. After he gained the upper hand, he dealt with all the problems, but one remained. 

His insomnia.

His previous experience left him in a state of perpetual restlessness. He couldn't let his guard down for a minute, and anytime he closed his eyes, dark, obscure, and distorted images he couldn't make sense of dragged him awake.

A normal person would have collapsed by now. Huo Wei himself knew he wasn't far off from that moment.

He had made several attempts to destress, but he achieved minimal results. Except for one time, Huo Wei recalled. Although that time, he hadn't been trying.

Yu Yuan.

Huo Wei recalled the time they spent conversing today. It was the most relaxed he had ever been for a very long time. 

Huo Wei placed his unfinished cigarette on an ashtray. It seems like he would really have to hold her to that promise.

Yu Yuan didn't have the opportunity to reminisce about her lunch with Huo Wei. The finale of the jewelry design competition finally arrived.

This big event was called the Donovan Jewelry Design Competition. It was organized by the big wigs in the industry in Country A, the National Jewelry Association and it was an opportunity for new companies to gain a firm foothold in the industry.

Individuals couldn't participate. Only companies could.

The process of the competition was fairly simple. All participants would submit their pieces and those pieces would go through different stages of evaluation. Every piece that didn't meet the standard at any stage would lose the right to participate in further stages.

There were 3 stages. At each stage, different calibers of evaluators awaited. The higher the stage the better their qualifications and level of discernment. These professionals would decide which jewelry piece would make it to the next stage.

At the third and final stage, masters were invited from around the world to judge the pieces that made it to the finale. 

Making it this far had many benefits, even if one didn't win. The companies behind the jewelry pieces would gain recognition for their work and have the opportunity to build valuable connections.

Even if one didn't win a collaboration with an overseas partner one could strive to achieve something similar by one's effort with the connections they would gain.

This was an opportunity for rookie companies, and they all flooded the competition. But competitions like this had strict grading standards.

In the first stage, 60% of the contestants wouldn't make it to the next round, and in the second stage, 30% would make it through. Only 10% got to the finale.

This year wasn't much different.

Bejeweled as well as tens of other jewelry companies including their close rival from the Yan family entered this year's competition.

Bejeweled and Lustrous (from the Yan family) passed the first and second stages and qualified for the finals.

Today was the day the winner would be decided.

Yu Yuan arrived at the venue of the competition to support Li Na. Of course, she also wanted to watch the good show that would happen on this day.  

Before the event began, Yu Yuan went to see Li Na. They would be separated by seating arrangements later, so now was the only time they could meet.

"Yu Yuan!" Li Na quickly spotted her once she arrived.

"How has it been?" Yu Yuan asked.

Li Na made an upset face. "I don't want to speak about it. Ever since we arrived, we've run into people from Lustrous multiple times."

Once the designers from Lustrous heard that people from Bejeweled had arrived, they spared no efforts at showing up to anger them. At each meeting, they threw taunts and barbed words. They even made sure to step on Bejeweled's sore spot, the stolen designs.

Bejeweled had been in a tight spot recently. The continued leaks made them unable to launch new jewelry pieces, making people speculate if they had lost their edge or were facing internal problems. This competition was a chance for them to prove themselves. 

Bejeweled had put a lot of effort in protecting the jewelry piece they submitted for this competition. Only a selected few were allowed to take part in the design process and the results were extremely guarded. Very few employees knew what the jewelry piece looked like. But to make it this far into the competition, it must be something special.

But Lustrous went as far as to insinuate that Bejeweled had bribed some evaluators to make it this far. Of course, it was a lie, but it made other participants look at them with strange gazes. The designers from Bejeweled weren't as eloquent, so they couldn't properly refute. The experience was very infuriating.

"I heard that Yan Hui would be here today as well." Li Na gritted her teeth in annoyance, "I can't stand him."

Yan Hui was the second young master of the Yan family and the person in charge of Lustrous. Lustrous grew under his leadership, but there were speculations that he was unscrupulous and made unethical moves for the growth of Lustrous.

There were design companies that had fallen prey to his schemes. The designs plagiarized from Bejeweled were examples. Unfortunately, no evidence that pointed to him as the culprit had been found.

As Li Na continued to rant, a playful voice sounded, "Is that Miss Li?" 

Speak of the devil.

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