BL - One Night In Pingjing

He placed the wallet, his business card and the piece of paper with the address on it on the pa.s.senger seat of his car. He then picked up his phone and texted Qiu Dawei, "I"m outside the house Su Yang said my birth parents live."

Qiu Dawei"s reply came very quickly. Like he had been expecting a text from Hua Zhendan. "Really? Where"s the place?"

"On the outskirts of Tianjin. The apartments around here are all so cozy and small. I kinda like it."

"Are they home?"

"I"m not sure. But Su Yang said they should be by this time."

"What do you plan to do?"

"I don"t know. I"m nervous. But I think I"ll just go in and tell them who I am. Then watch what happens next."

This time around, Qiu Dawei"s reply was a lot slower than before. Like he was contemplating what to say. When he finally replied, his text said, "Good luck."

Hua Zhendan sighed. He placed the phone on the pa.s.senger seat as well and pinned down the car. He rubbed his palms together to calm himself down before alighting from the car.

With small, cautious steps, he walked towards the green painted house that matched the address on the piece of paper. He looked around but there wasn"t a bell he could ring. He knocked on the door casually.

No one replied.

Hua Zhendan took a step back and stared at the windows and door. They were all locked. No-one was home. He sighed and thought of texting Qiu Dawei to let him know the latest development.

Hua Zhendan searched his pocket for his phone and immediately realized he had left it in his car. That wasn"t the only thing that occurred to him at that moment, he also realized that he hadn"t pulled his car key out of the ignition.

In a moment of pain, Hua Zhendan frantically searched his pocket for either his phone, wallet or car key. None were there. He hurried to the car and desperately tugged on the door. Almost begging it to open. The door refused to budge. Just then, he heard the soft voice of a female teenager talking to him.

The voice asked, "Sir, is there a problem?"

Hua Zhendan turned around with a start, but was immediately stunned into silence. That female teenager was the girl in the picture Su Yang had sent him. It was his sister. His panic rose to a new level as he stared at the girl. His head couldn"t think of the right thing to say to her. He wanted to introduce himself to her, as her brother. But he knew that that was both instinctive and stupid. So, he kept quiet and tried to maintain his calm.

"Sir," the girl called. "Do you have a problem with your car?"

Hua Zhendan smiled and immediately felt like an idiot because the girl withdrew from him. Like his smile had freaked her out. He cleared his throat and maintained his calm. It wasn"t like him to be this nervous. "No, the car doesn"t have a problem. But, I locked my wallet, phone and keys inside."

The girl moved closer to the car, put her face to the window and peered into the car. With concern in her voice, she asked, "How did that happen?"

"I..." Hua Zhendan scratched his head. "I don"t know. I"ve never made this kind of mistake before."

"Maybe you were thinking about someone special." The girl pointed an accusing finger in his face.

Hua Zhendan stared at the finger. Not sure about how to respond. He didn"t feel like this girl was very respectful.

Dreamily, she said, "I"m in love with a boy in my cla.s.s. He"s very handsome."

Hua Zhendan raised a brow. Just what did this little girl know about love?

Frowning, she continued, "Sadly, I don"t think we"ll ever be together."

With an amused grin on his face, he asked, "Why not?"

"Well, he doesn"t know I exist. There are so many other girls in the cla.s.s who are a lot more beautiful than I am. Why would he spare me a glance?"

Hua Zhendan"s amused grin was gone. This girl was so full of life. But her self-esteem, it just reminded her of the stupid man he"s in love with. The one who could never see the good in himself. And this girl, she was cute to him; if she were taller, she could even get a modelling job at Shenhua Corporations. Having learnt from his experience with Xuan Tianyi not to try talk people out of their insecurities, he didn"t do that. Instead, he asked a different question. "If he doesn"t notice you, why don"t you make him notice you? You know, sometimes, it"s not outer beauty that attracts people to you, it"s your inner beauty. And I can already tell you are beautiful on the inside."

The girl blushed. Peering at Hua Zhendan, she asked, "How can I possibly make him notice me?"

"Why don"t you ask him out yourself?"

The girl"s mouth fell open in surprise. Like she hadn"t expected him to say that. Regaining her senses, she shook her head and said, "Mother won"t approve of that. She"ll think that"s improper behavior for a woman."

Hua Zhendan frowned at the backwardness of the thought. He said, "There isn"t such a thing as "improper behavior for a woman." At least, I don"t think there is. If it"s proper behavior for a man, then it should be proper behavior for a woman."

"You don"t really think that way, do you?" The girl asked, excitement slowly creeping back into her face.

Hua Zhendan nodded. "Of course, I think that way. And I think it"s very harmful to think that there"s something you shouldn"t be able to do because you are a woman.

"My mother, for example. She started a company many years ago. It"s now one of the biggest companies in the whole of China. Among the top ten. That"s a lot more than most men can achieve in their lifetime."

The girl smiled. "Even the mother of my elder brother did the same."

Hua Zhendan was at a loss for words hearing the girl talk about someone who was probably him. He decided to let her continue talking. Although he had known her for less than ten minutes, he believed he knew her quite well enough to know she"ll continue talking.

True to Hua Zhendan"s thoughts, the girl continued speaking. "You see, my elder brother was adopted by this lady when he was little. My parents said they did it to give him a better life because she was wealthy and could take care of him. She started her own company some weeks before she adopted him. Maybe after, I"m not really sure. But it"s now so big, it"s among the top ten companies in China."

Hua Zhendan stared at the girl. Apparently, her parents had told her about her elder brother, but they hadn"t told her they had abandoned him. That was still part of Shen Rui"s evil traits, wasn"t it? Concealing some truths. The road to manipulation and deception usually starts from here. Maybe he had made the wrong decision coming to look for these people after all. Maybe these aren"t the kind people he was looking for.

"My elder brother is a billionaire," The girl smiled. "But mother and father said I can"t talk about that. It"s our family secret."

Hua Zhendan couldn"t help but smile. "You just revealed your family secret to a complete stranger, didn"t you?"

The girl scratched her head. "You won"t tell mother and father, will you?"

Hua Zhendan shook his head.

The girl continued talking. "So, if a girl asks you out, you won"t think less of her?"

Hua Zhendan smiled. He had just given this girl a talk about feminism. He wasn"t sure if a talk about the LGBTQ community should come right after. Smartly, he replied, "If a girl asks a guy out, I won"t think less of her. I would actually think more of her instead."

The girl smiled. "In that case, I"ll ask him out then."

Hua Zhendan raised a finger to object. Not because he didn"t want her to ask out the boy she liked, but because he thought she was too young to do that.

"What"s the matter? You don"t think I should?"

Hua Zhendan dropped the finger. Again, he didn"t think that topic was the next either. "That"s not it. I"m just worried about my car."

"Oh!" The girl replied. She had totally forgotten about that. "Don"t worry about it. My father will know what to do. For now, you should come inside and sit." The girl pointed to the apartment Hua Zhendan had previously visited.

Hua Zhendan stretched his neck to look at house. "Who"s in there?"

"No one."

"So, you just want to bring an adult male stranger into your house to sit?"

The girl nodded. "Why not?"

Hua Zhendan sighed. This girl has so much to learn.

"What"s the matter? My parents won"t object to it."

"Your parents won"t object to what?" A woman asked from behind the girl.

Hua Zhendan raised his head to look at the woman and the girl turned around.

The girl smiled broadly at the woman and said, "Mother, come meet my new friend."