Milady's Fine Gentleman

At first he got bored easily, and was only trying to complete the task as part of his responsibility. But as soon as he opened clip after clip, he found himself immensely enjoying the task.

Xue Guangxi was in his room, in his own flat. After his sister got married, he decided to get his own flat near the university, making proximity to the school as his main argument to his parents. The elders obliged, considering the situation Xue Guangxi was in – he was studying and working at the same time.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

He bellowed. Good thing that he was alone or else anyone that would have witnessed his laugh would have questioned his mental stability.

"This girl is too funny! HAHAHAHA!" He closed his eyes involuntarily, the corner of his eyes already shedding tears from too much laughter. His hand was on his tummy, cradling his aching tummy from laughing too hard.

He was laughing at Kang Sola"s videos.

"She even sent the bloopers! Hilarious!"

"How many takes did she do for this single scene? It"s so funny, she"s so funny!"

He had forgotten the real reason why he was doing what he was doing.

If Kang Sola had known about his reaction, she would have erupted like a volcano. Well, she would never know.

There was a clip wherein she was comparing the doneness of the steaks, and tried for the first time the most raw of all the choices – the rare sirloin steak. Her face and reaction were undeniably funny. He could not fathom how a person – a girl – could be so comical.

Suddenly, the seemingly boring task at first became too enjoyable that he looked forward into checking all her videos. He even decided to subscribe to her vlog channel. He had become a believer and a follower of Kang Sola, the vlogger.

In the end, he was able to capture something useful from one of the videos. It captured the Captain giving the instructions to the crew. It was during the last day of the cruise. They were discussing on the deck of what should be done while docking and undocking. Kang Sola was there capturing the view. They were only on the background, and the sound was barely audible, but with the help of technology, it could be amplified.

"This is it. I got it. Great!" Xue Guangxi had been able to obtain the evidence. They could be able to clear Xue s.h.i.+pping"s name from the incident.

He headed straight to Apartment 301 to share the news with his sister and brother-in-law.

---

Meanwhile, Zhu Li Qiang dialed in Xue Jinxu"s number.

Her phone rang. She stared at the screen for a few more seconds before she answered it.

"Mr. Zhu…" She started the awkward conversation. "I heard you helped our team in righting our capsized vessel. Thanks for the help, but you don"t have to."

Xue Jinxu was on the attack mode. She did not even allow the man to share his thoughts. After all, it was Zhi Li Qiang who called.

"No worries. I"m glad to be of help. It"s just a friendly gesture promoting camaraderie between our companies. You don"t have to feel burdened by it."

"However, we don"t need your help." She asked straightforwardly.

"Come on now, Jinxu." Her mouth slightly twitched at him casually addressing her by her first name only. "It"s nothing, you shouldn"t reject our help. If you want you can return the favor if, in the future, our Zhu s.h.i.+pping Lines will need the help. On the business level, that"s it."

"But." There came the caveat. She was expecting it from the start. "On a personal note, you know very well what my heart yearns for the most…" Zhu Li Qiang"s voice was sincere. It was deep with implied meaning. Xue Jinxu understood completely. He did not need to spell it out for her.

"That"s the very reason why I rejected your offer, Mr Zhu." Xue Jinxu mercilessly killed any hope. There really wasn"t any hope to start with. She could not quite understand where and how on earth the man had gotten his hopes up.

"Zhu Li Qiang…" She trailed off because she was still undecided whether or not to disclose to him that she already got married, because her family had not known about it yet. She had to control the spreading of this news.

"I told you I"m not available anymore. I had told you many times before. I sincerely request you to drop your pursuit…" She said in a begging tone. She believed that Zhu Li Qiang was a good man with sincere intentions. It was simply unfortunate that her heart did not beat for him.

"There are other eligible young ladies out there who are more deserving of your attention, other than me. I am grateful that you regard me dearly, I really do… but… my heart belongs to someone else… I belong to someone else…" She completed what she had to say.

"I really wish you well, Zhu Li Qiang…"

"Xue Jinxu." He called her name, his tone, defeated. "Am I really too late?" He sighed.

"Remember this, if an opportunity will present itself to me, for me to be closer to you in the future, you can expect that I will certainly grab it - of course given that it is within the proper decorum and integrity that I highly value. For now, I will step aside and quietly wait for my opportunity to come. It"s not the end yet. I"m asking you to allow me to simply wait for my turn."

"It will never come." She said, her voice getting tired of their conversation.

"We"ll never know, Xue Jinxu." He said, at the very end, still being persistent. "That"s all I ask of you. We never know what the future brings. I"ll always be here for you. You can always expect that."

"Zhu Li Qiang… I"m married. You have to stop right here." In the end, she decided to simply admit to it, just to close this issue.

There was silence from the other end of the line. "Really? You don"t have to lie."

"I"m not lying. Why would I lie with something like that?"

"I don"t believe you." With that he bid his farewell and hung the phone.

It was an extremely tiring conversation for Xue Jinxu. It certainly had drained all the energy she had in her system.