Hu Xiaotian laughed heartily. "Mother, I really admire your imagination. How could you mistake a man for a woman?" He found it strange. Why had Mom asked that? Had Huo Shengnan given something away? That should not have happened. Huo Shengnan had always concealed herself well; no one in the entire Hu Residence had seen through her male disguise. Mom had only met her twice, and both encounters had been fleeting, without any real interaction. Could I have let the cat out of the bag somehow?
Xu Fengyi said, "You needn't lie to me. I'm your mother. I raised you from the time you were little. Do you think I don't know what schemes you're cooking up? Besides, some things simply can't be hidden. The way you and that Huang Feihong look at each other isn't right. It's nothing like the way one man looks at another. Your mother has been through it all. What wouldn't I understand?"
Hu Xiaotian grinned cheekily. "Mother, don't you know there are men in this world who look at other men with more ardor-and find them more pleasing to the eye-than women?"
Xu Fengyi spat in disdain. "You little rascal, still trying to fool me? The day I returned, when those friends of yours came to fetch me, I happened to take her hand. Her skin was like creamy jade, her hand soft and seemingly boneless. How could that possibly be a man's hand? And when I took it, there was a clear flicker of panic in her eyes."
At that, Hu Xiaotian knew there was no hiding it any longer. Smiling, he said, "Nothing your son does ever escapes you, Mother."
Xu Fengyi said, "You and she, an unmarried man and woman, live in the same courtyard with your doors facing each other,