The lady noticed that Lu Xia’s face had turned pale and she asked out of concern. “Are you okay?”
Lu Xia forcibly composed herself before she shook her head. “I’m fine. Thank you for telling me the way.”
“You are welcome.” The lady waved and left.
Lu Xia stood where she was and did not know whether to go on walking.
Lu Xia did not know what Huo Yulin was doing here. She wondered if he had heard her claiming to be a distant relative of her grandmother.
Lu Xia felt a little flustered. She was afraid to look at him. Every time she looked at him, she felt scared.
Huo Yulin took a few steps forward with the bottle of soy sauce in his hand. He looked at Lu Xia coldly as though she was a stranger. “Leopards never change their spots. Even after all these years, you are still as vain.”
Lu Xia’s face became even paler.
He had heard the conversation earlier. She inhaled deeply and said, “B-brother Yulin, when did you come home?”
“Who said that you can call me your brother?” Huo Yulin’s voice turned absolutely cold and he narrowed his eyes.
Lu Xia instinctively trembled and retreated by a step. “I…”
Lu Xia wanted to speak, but she was so intimidated by his gaze that she became speechless.
She could still remember the abduction incident. After Huo Yulin had regained consciousness, his eyes became filled with hate towards her. She could never forget the look in his eyes even to this day.
After all these years, the gaze seemed to have disappeared, but there was something even more intimidating about Huo Yulin now.
“Have you forgotten how heartless you were?” Cold wind swept across Huo Yulin’s face, making his voice seem absolutely cold.
The moment Lu Xia heard what he said, old long-forgotten memories quickly came to mind.
She recalled getting abducted at knifepoint when she was a kid. The kidnappers threatened to cut every piece of flesh off her with the knife.
Lu Xia was terrified back then. Huo Yulin happened to show up just when she was caught. She could remember keenly how he attempted to save her, but she could not remember what happened after she escaped.
She did not dare to tell her parents about the abduction out of fear. By the time they realized Huo Yulin was kidnapped, a lot of time had already passed.
She was completely oblivious regarding how they managed to find Huo Yulin. In any case, Lu Xia and Huo Yulin’s relationship went downhill and became completely non-existent after the kidnapping.
Fortunately, Huo Yulin seemed to become autistic ever since the abduction. Every day, he would sit in a daze without saying a word and did not tell anyone about what truly happened during the abduction.
Lu Xia was very young when it happened, so she only had a vague memory of the incident. The Huo family eventually moved and Huo Yulin was sent abroad to study. After that, he never came back.
Lu Xia did her utmost to throw away the memories surging through her mind.
She shook her head as she muttered unintelligibly. “S-sorry… I was just scared. I know I shouldn’t have pushed you to them, but I had no choice. I just… I didn’t want to die.”
It was human instinct to survive. Despite her sense of guilt, she never once thought that she was in the wrong.
Huo Yulin looked at Lu Xia coldly. Even though she was apologizing, he could tell from the look on her face that she did not feel any remorse about what she did and was evil to the core.
Lu Xia bit her lip and continued. “I was just a kid. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but it happened a long time ago. In any case, aren’t you standing here perfectly fine now?”
