To My Dear Mr. Huo - Chapter 43: - Suspicion

What will happen if your ordinary life becomes not so ordinary? What will happen if your old existence becomes anew? What will happen if the world that you know is changing?

Our heroine, Anne, is a 40 year old librarian, that got entangled in mythical magic, inside a mysterious fairytale book. When the disaster happened, she got thrown into another world, the kingdom of Valorian, where magic and lore are coming alive. A world where she becomes younger again, but with a wisdom and knowledge of a forty-year-old woman.

"There was a time in my life where I struggled to breathe. A time where I felt suffocated everyday, but then I met you."

-Turning the gears of fate.

A drop of ink can penetrate the walls, even the walls you took too long to build.

After losing her first love due to a traffic accident, Ibuki Sumire transfers to Tokyo. She wanted to escape, to run away from everything that happened. To start over in a place that didn't have him. But a series of clues lead her to investigating the case behind the accident.

In that place she learns about the masks people wear. The masks people wear to disgui se their feelings. Sometimes you have to look past what you see on the surface.

There she meets him, the person who helps her move forward. But Sumire quickly learns how alike they are. His cold personality is different than the kindness she is used to. However, he is the only one who understands her feelings.

It keeps going around in circles, like a drop of paint. Round and round - an endless stream of pain and lies. But, that stream ended the moment she laid her eyes on his paintings.

Such rich and vibrant colors, it felt like his emotions exploded. Yet, in the corner of his studio, she found it. The real him, a sakura painting of two people walking hand in hand.

A gentle and sweet feeling, something she has never felt before.

[Commissioned Cover by: Vatarison]

The aristocratic Lu family has produced a joke, a beautiful one, but a joke nonetheless. The daughter they have been rearing all this while turns out to be an imposter! With the real heiress returning to take her rightful place, everyone is eager to know the outcome of the imposter…Will she be able to survive in poverty after living a life of riches?Having just transmigrated, Huo Yao imagines that this experience will be pretty interesting. However, imagination and reality are always so different!Dad: “Daughter! Take this black card. It has no limit! Use it freely.”Mom: “My dear Yao Yao! If you don’t like this jewelry, I’ll get them to change it immediately.”Huo Yao: “…”Weren’t they supposed to be poor and ordinary? What is with this hidden lavish behavior?Her eldest brother, an investment company’s CEO: “Sis, inherit my company!”Her second brother, a top lawyer: “Whoever dares slander my sis will face the full brunt of the law!”The third brother, an international genius doctor: “Bullying my sister? Should I display the prowess of my scalpel?”Mysterious fourth brother: “My sis is the cutest!”Huo Yao: “…”What happened to being a good-for-nothing person who lives off her parents?A top aristocrat secretly changes into his cheap clothes and drives his crappy old car to her. “Baby, my heart is yours. Why don’t we get married to test if I’m telling the truth or not?”Everyone who knows about it, doesn’t dare say it out loud.All they can do is curse inwardly: “Bah! Keep acting! No one believes it!”

The Shao and Cheng families have been sworn enemies for generations, though few outsiders know the exact details of their feud.

What is known to all is the Shao family’s three cardinal rules:

The Shao family must not cooperate with the Chengs, must not intermarry with the Chengs, and must never appear with the Chengs at any public event.

One day, an adorable little girl looking like a doll, wearing a puffy pink dress, pink hair clip, and pink backpack, walked into the lobby on the first floor of the Shao Group building.

The receptionist thought she was some child who had wandered away from home. But the little girl solemnly said, “I want to see your Shao Group CEO, Shao Chengze.”

Seeing the girl’s pink outfit, the receptionist knew she must be from a wealthy and noble family to dare to address their CEO by his full name. She couldn’t be the daughter of some high-ranking Shao Group executive?

Smiling warmly, she asked, “Little one, could you tell me your parents’ names?”

The girl tilted her head. “My mommy is Cheng Jinlan.”

Cheng…Jinlan?!

Second Miss Cheng Jinlan of the Cheng family?! She never thought she’d see the day a Cheng would set foot in the Shao Group building. What a miracle!

“As for my dad, I’ve come today to get some of Shao Chengze’s hair for a DNA test. Once I have his hair, I’ll know if he’s my dad or not.”

The girl’s crisp words rippled outwards from the front desk through the bustling first floor lobby. Everyone who heard froze in shock, jaws dropping.

Everyone except Shao Chengze, who had just stepped out of the elevator surrounded by a group.

He looked at the girl in pink through narrowed, fox-like eyes.

Cheng Liqi recognized Shao Chengze and covered her mouth in an “ah-oh”.

She decided that even if Shao Chengze wasn’t her dad, she’d have to help Cheng Jinlan get this man. She liked his eyes.

They were just like hers.

So pretty.