CHAPTER 273: CHAPTER 273; YOU ALREADY HAVE IT

That dangerous edge in his gaze dulled, drawn inward, as though her warmth had reached him across the crowded room and anchored him again.

He didn’t smile back. He rarely smiled in public.

But she knew, that small, imperceptible lift at the corner of his mouth? That was his version of surrender.

Even when he wanted to cage her, she had always known how to bring him to his knees.

Tang Fei lingered for a moment longer in the ward, letting her smile soothe the sharp tension in his gaze. But she knew it wasn’t enough. Not for him.

Never for him.

She murmured something soft to one of the elderly patients and excused herself gently.

Then, without hesitation, she walked toward the door, her steps quiet but steady, like gravity had shifted and was now pulling her toward the corridor where he stood.

The moment she passed through the doorway, she didn’t speak.

She only glanced up and down the hallway, checking with calm precision.

Two nurses were at the far end of the corridor, and another one was rounding the corner, distracted with files.

Good.

She stepped closer.

And Huo Ting Cheng, who had been standing like an immovable shadow just seconds ago, was no longer cold.

"His hands moved before she even reached him, one went to her waist, the other rested gently on her lower back, pulling her closer."

Her hands lifted to his chest, soft and unhurried, then she rose to her toes smiling mischievously. She didn’t know how to love someone and what loving someone meant but now, she could at least tell it.

And with gentleness, she kissed him openly claiming her possession. It wasn’t like he wasn’t someone she was afraid to show to the public, she was just worried that he wasn’t someone to show such things publicly.

They didn’t need to hide, legally, they were husband and wife and this was the only way to calm him.

The kiss wasn’t rushed and wasn’t hidden.

It was slow, unashamed, and intimate, the kind of kiss that carried months of longing and unspoken feelings.

The kind of kiss that said I’m here. I’m still yours. Even when I walk away, I will never leave you behind.

He responded almost immediately, pressing her tighter to his chest feeling that heartbeat that was jumping wildly out of excitement, his palm splayed firmly against her back as if he was scared she might slip away again.

The tablet he’d been holding? Forgotten, somewhere near the floor.

They might have gone on longer, lost in that quiet corner of a sterile hospital hallway...

If not for the unmistakable sound of a throat being cleared, very loudly.

"Ahem," Huo Wu grumbled from a few steps away, one hand raised in mock horror. "If you two are planning to start a honeymoon, could you at least warn the rest of us first?"

Huo Zheng was next to her, visibly more amused. He looked both resigned and impressed. This was never their way of their Master kissing so openly, "We have officially become human shields. Stand straight, Huo Wu. We are protecting the Chairman’s public affection now."

"Shut up, idiot. You’re blocking the nurses, not protecting anything!" Huo Ting Cheng didn’t even glance at them but he was annoyed that they disturbed him.

He was still gazing at Tang Fei with eyes full of passion, eyes half-lidded, one thumb brushing the edge of her jaw in a possessive, reverent motion, as if kissing her hadn’t been enough.

Tang Fei, breathless but smiling, leaned her forehead against his chest. "You are impossible. Sometimes I feel like I’m dealing with a velcro child!"

"Am I that bad?" He slightly tensed, because he understood her words and what she meant.

"Hehe..." She giggled, kissing his chin. He couldn’t get angry at her no matter what.

His voice was low, rough, almost a growl against her ear. "You smiled at everyone else. But this, this part is mine. Everything should be mine! Smile less, touch less... It’s not a must that you smile and touch them."

"Hehe, that’s being rude! Am yours, and always have been, nothing changes!" she whispered.

His arms tightened again.

And behind them, Huo Wu sighed, dragging Huo Zheng away by the collar.

"Let’s go before we get traumatised. Or worse, he actually smiles in public."

But the two were just teasing and didn’t move. They were his bodyguards.

Tang Fei stayed quietly in his arms, her cheek resting against his chest, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of his heart, which was grounding, constant, and achingly familiar.

Huo Ting Cheng’s fingers slowly ran up the back of her blouse, not in a lustful way, but in that desperate, childlike way of making sure someone was real.

Like if he didn’t hold tight enough, she might disappear again.

"Don’t go back in there just yet," he said, his voice like velvet dragged over gravel. "Let them wait a little. Let me... breathe you in."

Tang Fei didn’t protest.

She stayed quiet for a beat, then reached up, straightened the collar of his shirt, and smoothed her thumb across the space just beneath his jaw, tender, reassuring.

"You’re so dramatic," she whispered. Some people could hate it, but Tang Fei didn’t; probably, she was always yearning for this, and their yearnings were being matched. "But only with me." Yes, only she could see this side of him.

He looked at her then, something turbulent in those deep, obsidian eyes.

"I have never truly had anything just for myself," he spoke up slowly. "Not truly... I have power, yes... Obedience, yes.... But never this... never someone like you. You smile at strangers and I want to claw it all back. That smile. That touch of the hand. That softness. It should belong to me."

"You already have it," she said gently. "You don’t need to fight for what’s already yours. Just assume like, they are borrowing and it’s permanently yours."

There was a sudden pause.