Li Rong waited for Yu Yue while looking around the garden. The clear cut gra.s.s and the nearby fountain gave it a serene quality. He thought back to how he came to be here. He wasn"t the real Li Rong. How could he be when the soul inside the body was of someone else. About a decade ago he had gained consciousnes in this body and had realised that he wasn"t the original but a copy. He didn"t know who he was before his soul occupied this body. He didn"t have any memories of that time. He didn"t even know his original name. The only thing he knew instinctively was that he had been brought here to a.s.sist someone and that someone was very important to the original him.As soon as he had realised that the body he was occupying wasn"t his own, he had panicked, worried that somebody would catch onto his secret. Therefore, he had pleaded to Li Rong"s elder brother to send him oversees for further studies citing the reason that he wanted to see the world and that he would gain better education out there. His brother had dithered for sometime but seeing him sticking to his brother all the time to grant his request, he had given him permission and made all the preparations and sent him off.
In the last ten years he had a.s.similated himself to this world, never returning to the country in fear and had tried to find the one person whom he was supposed to a.s.sist. A few days ago his elder brother had called him and had given him the ultimatum that if he didn"t return and help in the family business, he would not be recognised as a member of the Li family. Somewhat irritated but helpless he had returned to take up his post at the family owned business.
The day he had met Yu Yue, he had been going for a company meeting when he saw a girl making a spectacle of herself on the road. He hadn"t paid the girl much attention at first but when he was about to cross her, he had felt a jolt in his entire being. As if the person he had been waiting for was that girl standing by the roadside. He had abruptly stopped the car and tried to rummage through his mind. He had found the relevant information easily enough, that she was the heiress - apparent of Yu Corporation, that she and the original Li Rong were quite close but what had brought him to a stop was that his own soul was behaving akin to a man who had found his oasis in the dessert after a long stretch of walking.
Later on, he had acted according to the interactions between Li Rong and Yu Yue. She seemed to still be the same little girl. Anyways, since she seemed to evoke something in his heart he had decided to deal with her sincerely. Not unlike Li Rong but also with his own truthfulness. When he had recieved her call in the morning to meet outside, he had readily agreed to her request and when she told him about what was happening behind closed doors of her residence, he had the urge to help her solve her problems. She had said she would deal with it accordingly and just wanted him to be there as a witness. Knowing her nature, she won"t say anything outrageous or really heart pinching but he himself was different. He had never learnt to speak in double - speak, the language most people in their circle prefered. On the other hand, he has always been someone who would say things as he saw them so he told her to let him handle it. He wanted to see what her sister had, to have the confidence to compete with her. The results were disappointing. Yu Yan seemed like every other run - of - the - mill illegitimate child in their circle, who saw the legitimate one as a thorn in their path. She wasn"t different from others in anyway except she had the tact to play pitiful at will. Anyway, that didn"t have anything to do with him, if she tried to be over - clever, he"ll cut her off root and stem.
While he was lost in his thoughts, he saw a guy coming towards where he was seated. This was the guy Yu Yue wanted to save and he had seen him the other day as well and had a good impression of him. He didn"t mind if that guy came to seek him for something since he was Yueyue"s immediate subordinate.
The first words out of the guy"s mouth when he reached him were, "Thank you, Second Young Master Li."
"It"s no trouble. The princess seems to trust you. Make sure never to fall short of the expectations she has of you." He told the person explicitly to not have any other thoughts and remain faithful.
"I a.s.sure you I"ll try my level best."
Before they could continue their conversation he saw Yueyue coming toward them with a tray heaped high of food and beverages.
"Why did you bring it yourself?" Really this girl carrying over stuff as if it was common place for her to do this kind of work.
"It"s all right. I wanted to talk to you and didn"t want others to disturb us." Her reply brought a smile to his face.
"Thank you, Miss" Zixi thanked Yu Yue and these were his heartfelt words.
"It"s all right. You don"t need to pay any mind to what Yu Yan says. The family patriarch and I trust you completely. Everything and everyone else is irrelevant. Don"t take what happened today to heart and if she tries something else, remember I have your back so you can reply to her accordingly and appropriately. But remember the promise you made to me, yeah?"
"Yes, Miss. I"ll do as you say."
"Hmm, you can leave now. Take a day off and i"ll see you tomorrow morning at nine sharp."
"Yes, Good Evening." Zixi left the rear garden. He really didn"t want to see Yueyue being so close to some other guy even though that guy had helped him a few minutes ago. Moreover, he"ll go and pay his respects to his family and not think about things that hurt him at a visceral level.
"What are you waiting for? Just right now you were shouting to high heavens that you were famished so why haven"t you started on with the food." Su Li joked with Li Rong.
"Yeah, yeah, am starting. Don"t get your knickers in a twist. You have some of the food as well."
Afterwards, they talked about a lot of things - from their own experiences abroad to their plans for the future. Both of them pa.s.sed the whole day amicably while chatting and felt a bit closer to each other. It was quite late in the night when Li Rong took his leave of Yueyue.
A few days later Yu Jian returned to the country. The first thing he did after he reached the residence was to call Yu Yue to the study and asked about her well being. When he had recieved the news that she had been kidnapped, his heart had skipped a few beats. Thankfully, before he could reach a full blown panic he had recieved the news from Zixi that she had reached home safely. Now, he asked her to explain the sequence of the relevant happenings to him in a chronological order to see if he could find some clues. After hearing about everything, he was really thankful to Li family"s second son. Though he hadn"t seen that boy for close to a decade but he wouldn"t be too different from the rest of his family members and they all were honest people, at least in their personal relations. Though they were quite ruthless in their business deals. One of these days he"ll go to their residence to give his thanks in person. Had it been not for Li Rong, he shuddered to think about the consequences.
As he was about to ask Yueyue to return to her room, she told him about what Yanyan had tried and almost succeeded in doing. Hearing Yueyue"s words he was so angry that he could flip tables. That girl really was too much. He hadn"t thought she would try to drive away the only living blood of his brother in everything but blood away from his own residence. It looked like she was trying to flex her muscles in his absence but too bad she eyed someone who was akin to his son.
People usually say that someone akin to a child to you wouldn"t matter to you more than your own children but he was different. For him, Yueyue and Zixi occupied the same areas of his heart and were much more important than Yanyan. He asked her when all of this happened and when he was informed it was about three days ago, he had a strong urge to send Yanyan out of the city for her further studies. He was also truthful to himself that if Yueyue had let Zixi leave on that day, he would have been too disappointed in her.
He questioned her about everything related to that day and when once again he learned that it was Li Rong who had helped her to put a stop to that topic, he couldn"t help but want to meet that boy even more. He"ll surely try to cultivate a closer relations.h.i.+p with the boy. Also, he recalled that since young Yueyue had always been close to him. Even after his wife"s unfortunate death, she hadn"t tried to drive away Li Rong like other people who had been close to her prior to that and he had always been able to coax a laugh out of her.
Looking at the smile in Yueyue"s eyes while she tried to extol Li Rong"s virtues, he couldn"t help but think that his daughter had grown up to be a beautiful person inside out and in a few years she would have to get married. Maybe he should start looking into boys her age to make a match.
However, before that he"ll have to sort out Yanyan and also talk to Zixi about what had happened.