The next day first thing Su Li did after waking up was to ask the system to tell her how far down the line had the story progressed hence she could make a plan of action accordingly and subsequently clean up any messes made by Yu Yue prior to this. The system informed her that today was Yu Yue"s eighteenth birthday i.e. the day of her coming of age ceremony as well as the day her rose tinted gla.s.ses were removed for once and for all.Su Li thought that being dropped at the starting line to complete the task instead of somewhere down the road in the middle had its own pros and cons respectively. Pros being that she could foreshadow all the events leading upto this body"s death. Also, while Yu Jian and Yu Yan would enact a play in front of her for the next few years she could meanwhile just sit back and watch their histrionics. This could also be considered her free entertainment while she familarized herself with everything else. The cons being that she couldn"t act too out of character or do something which could give others an inkling of anything being wrong or different about Yu Yue . Since the excuse that she was upset about the new interloper in the family would only take her so far before Yu Jian starts suspecting something and lets his imagination run wild. This would also give him a feasible reason to do away with her position at the company.
Due to this being her first task Su Li wanted to plan for all kinds of foreseeable situations meticulously therefore, forming and discarding various responses to when Yu Jian introduces his out of wedlock daughter to her later in the day. She couldn"t come to any concrete decision since any slight deviation from Yu Yue"s behaviour might spell her doom. After pondering about it for a bit she decided on simply listening to Yu Jian, shed some crocodile tears(might as well have a glycerine eye drop ready to help her with that), just go on with the flow, try to catch some clues from their body language or expressions and act accordingly. Later on she could just let off some steam in the party. After all it had been quite sometime since her bed ridden body even allowed her to join such a lively scene and enjoy a sumptuous meal.
Reaching her decision Su Li spent the next half of the day doing what Yu Yue did daily - go for a morning run in the s.p.a.cious garden(to her horror since she used to get tired just after taking a few steps before her untimely death), have an opulent breakfast(to her immense delight), going through Yu Yue"s course books - she was a freshman studying English Literature(thank G.o.d she herself had a good grasp of the language due to her father being a diplomat or it would have been game over for her since she herself has studied Criminal Law in her University).
Miss, the master has called you into the study." A maid informed her while knocking on her bedroom door. Now Su Li didn"t even want to contemplate addressing Yu Jian as her father even nominally because first of all only her biological father had that right and secondly he didn"t fulfill any of his paternal duties towards the original Yu Yue. Even still to keep up appearances she went to see so called "father".
Entering the study she saw a middle - aged pudgy man sitting behind the ornate desk trying to give off an oppressive but benevolent aura. She thought the person failed at it miserably and it felt a bit comical to her. Besides him stood a girl in her late teens wearing a white dress looking up shyly at her. Su Li knew this must be Yu Yan but just to disgust the father - daughter pair she deliberately pa.s.sed a cursory glance at her and didn"t ask any questions. After all Yu Jian"s study was the one area in the whole house where no one could enter when he was not present. Even his only child was prohibited. Therefore, this dismissive glance was indicative of the fact that Yu Yue thought that the unknown girl standing by her father"s side was a new household staff. The duo caught her fleeting look and came to the same obvious conclusion(which was intentional on her part anyway) but their reactions differed - Yu Jian"s face turned dark red in anger which he unsuccessfully tried to suppress whereas Yu Yan clenched her fingers in indignation and her eyes showed deep resentment. Accomplis.h.i.+ng in giving rise to negative emotions in the duo Su Li felt a strange sense of schadenfreude and did a happy little jiggle inside her heart.
She greeted Yu Jian with a shallow bow of her head. Giving her lips a slight downward tilt she started the play, "Father today is my birthday and it is just now that you have called me. Were you busy buying a last minute present for me? Quickly give me my birthday gift. I know your gift would be the best out of all the ones that I recieve today."
Yu Jian hadn"t expected these words to come out of Yu Yue"s mouth when he called her so for a moment his pre prepared speech stuck in his throat and he didn"t know how to reply but then thinking about the rest of the talk and his long term plan he decided to b.u.t.ter Yu Yue up a bit. He had always believed in the carrot and the stick approach . Taking out some doc.u.ments from a nearby drawer he gave them to Yu Yue all the while saying, "Yu Yue you should know it in your heart that Father loves you dearly so here are 18 percent shares of the company that I have transferred to your name on your eighteenth birthday. After you complete your studies you can then join the company and with these shares you can live a comfortable life and just rake in the money."
Yu Yue showed a happy and pleased expression timely(when will the main drama start. Ah get on with it so that it can be done and over with. Don"t dawdle.) Then sighing as if talking about something very painful Yu Jian began, "Yu Yue this is your younger sister Yu Yan. Actually before I married your mother I was friends with her mother but a few things happened during a drunken night. I never put it to mind but who would have thought that the lady became pregnant with child. When she realised she was pregnant with another woman"s man"s child she was too distraught and I had already married your mother. The lady had no intention to disrupt my married life so she left everything behind and gave birth to the child in another city. After birth she put the child in an orphanage and carried on with her life as usual with no one being the wiser. It was just a few months ago she pa.s.sed away and in her will she sent me a letter which had all the sordid details. After realising everything that had happened I was shocked but didn"t dare believe it. I asked someone to first secretly verify the claims. If was just a week ago that the results came back as positive and I couldn"t stop myself from worrying about the child. Therefore, I went to the above mentioned orphanage to find out the current situation. I thought if the child was adopted I wouldn"t interrupt their family life with things that had happened long back but G.o.d willing the child wasn"t adopted. This is the child. This is your blood related younger sister- Yu Yan. I know what I did back then was wrong but Yue you should understand that the child is the most innocent one in this whole debacle so I hope you could give her the same love that I have showered you with since childhood "
If Su Li hadn"t read the complete plot or if she was really an eighteen year old naive girl she would have really believed these words of self - blame and not thought about things deeply. Brus.h.i.+ng up her acting skills Su Li watered her limpid eyes as if she couldn"t believe the words her father was saying, taking shuddering breaths, looking at this new sister she didn"t know anything about with a skittering gaze as if not understanding what to do or say. She tried grasping her clothes but then not knowing where to place her hands or what emotions to feel she stood up abruptly from her chair. Looking at the other two people in the room she took a deep breath as if trying to control her emotion and with a weak voice said, "I understand father. I need sometime to a.s.similate everything said here so I"ll take your leave. Please do forgive me if it takes me sometime to come to terms with everything but I would like Miss Yan not bother me untill that time lest things or actions be done that would hurt all of us."
Saying everything in one breath and not giving the other two any time to say anything else she ran from the study as if running away from the reality of things.