There was no way Jiang Li could tell Ye Xinya about him not being Jing Mo so he only kept his quiet and allowed her to cry all she wanted. It was obvious there were various thoughts running in her head, but he had no way to guess them and address them. Thankfully, no matter what, he knew those that would run in her mind were random thoughts favorable to him. If his guess was correct, she felt that he was too pitiful because of his childhood. Otherwise, why would she refuse to go home even after rea.s.suring her that he was fine?"So did you intentionally fly your car to my penthouse while dressed like that because you"ve planned beforehand to stay all day here? To comfort me?" A corner of his lips went up as he sneered and made fun of her get-up.
Her eyes were red from crying for an hour but she looked so at home as she crossed her legs on the couch wearing that cute footwear. "It"s your fault that I"m worried." Angrily, she spat out.
Used to her fiery temper, he replied, "Well, it"s weird that you"re worried even though you know I"m a grown man."
"Even if you are a grown man, you have to know that even adults are susceptible to depression! I"ll be staying in your house until the ripples created by the news are over!" She declared with finality in her voice.
"Are you sure you want to stay?" Jiang Li"s lips curled into a meaningful smile as he placed down a tray of snacks and cookies on the coffee table in front of the woman who was busy blowing her nose on some tissue.
She nodded innocently. "I"m sure."
"It"s different from when we lived in the same mansion in the western states. There, our maids and butlers were with us and there"s a guard sent by your grandfather ensuring I don"t bully you. This time, it will only be the two of us." He explained, expectantly watching for her next reactions. Would she finally be scared and realized how bad her declaration was?
Betraying his expectations, Ye Xinya looked at him in a solemn manner and replied, "I know what you"re thinking."
He heartily laughed.
Playfulness flashed across her cat-like eyes, "Just so you"ll know, I"m only afraid of you not daring to be a beast."
The girl"s logic was simple. They loved each other and they were formally engaged. Since they were already very very very sure that they would marry each other, it would be okay if they become wife and husband physically in advance. Though of course, if there was a chance, she wanted to have their special night on the day of their wedding
As for Jiang Li, even though he had not many romantic bones in the body, his brain was quite sound so he knew that even if the girl meant what she said, there would be a part of her wis.h.i.+ng for something else. He had already been inconsiderate today, plus he was not truly a l.u.s.tful person.
"I"m okay with you staying here, but let"s talk about beastly matters once we get married." While shaking his head, he replied. A hand of his reached out to grab a cookie which he then brought near her mouth. "Open your mouth."
Though puzzled why he was suddenly feeding her and because this was the third, if not second time in their five years of relations.h.i.+p, that he did this, she instinctively opened her mouth wide. While she was relis.h.i.+ng on the sweet taste of the chocolate, Jiang Li said, "That"s my thanks and sorry for earlier. Enjoy."
Of course, his words elicited a sharp glare from the girl who felt that she was severely wronged. Or not.
As the worried lover that she was, what she actually felt was that she should be the one saying thanks and sorry. Thanks because he survived the real h.e.l.l so she could meet him. And sorry because she felt bad for what he went through.
Seeing the villainess on the verge of crying again, for the first time in this lifetime, Jiang Li wanted to punch himself in the face. He sighed, "Don"t cry alright."
His statement came a bit late. Now he was harboring regret that he didn"t just throw grenades at the Jing mansion. Why did he go this route? The part where he hypnotized a few members of the Jings to backstab, bankrupt and destroy each other internally was okay. But his way of destroying their reputation to the outsiders was not.
"Well, even if I become a thousand year old soul, since I"m still a human in both spirit and mind, I"m sure I"ll still make mistakes occasionally."
While he was busy feeling annoyed at himself a bit, Ye Xinya who was wiping her tears and perhaps, even snot, on his s.h.i.+rt again, was actually also busy organizing her thoughts.
Even when he took her out not only to shop for items and clothes, eat in a cla.s.sy and expensive restaurant, and sightsee all around the city, her mind would most of the time wander, busy formulating plans.
...
Jing Zexi was heavily condemned, alongside the whole Jing family. It was an inevitable result. The people would not care if their image before the issue was clean. The sympathy of the ma.s.ses would always be for the unfortunate, needy, and weak, which was certainly not them, but the little kid in the videos who they had treated mercilessly for years.
In actuality, things would not have been this bad if the issues were simply about the illegitimate son being maltreated.
They had already revealed through the paparazzi that Jing Mo"s mother deceived them about him being Jing Zexi"s son and that he not truly had a Jing"s blood flowing in his vein.
Bullying and bad treatment could be justified by falsifying records.
They could hire somebody to pose as him and the had this person act like he did an uncountable number of crimes and evil deeds which resulted in those punishments. That way at least the people would know that, even though the punishments were very harsh, at least there were many reasons behind them.
They could make it appear as if lenient punishments couldn"t make him straighten his ways, so they were "forced" to employ more extreme methods.
If they said that, at least half of the blame then would s.h.i.+ft to Jing Mo. Little by little, they would be able to clean their image in the citizens" minds.
However, as of now, could they still do that?
Unfortunately, no. Because this afternoon, it was revealed that Jing Mo died in the forest when he tried to escape from the disciplinary school. The death itself was not the real issue. How he got sent to that place was. Whoever was moving against the family was quite thorough since he made sure the reason would also be known to everyone.
So again, what"s the point of employing the plans mentioned above?
All sorts of backstabbing and throwing of blame happened within the Jing family. The stressed family head, Jing Long convened the important members to talk about the issue. Amidst the serious discussion, Jing Yuhan suggested, "Why don"t we have Jing Mo explain everything for us? Or at least make him appear and announce that he did not die?"
The twenty-seven year old almost said to force the person say it was his fault that he got sent to that school. Thankfully, while the past years did not give an increase to his intelligence, it at least made him note what could anger or appear stupid to his relatives, especially the clan head.
A debate ensued after that. Not many of the middle-aged uncles" favored the suggestion since they were wary of Jiang Liuxian, aka James Zuckerberg who was standing behind the person in question. Not only that, it was pretty obvious the person who revealed the dark materials could be very well Jiang Li himself. As the victim, who else would have a strong grudge to drive them into a corner?
As Jiang Li, a prized executive of Facebrick who was also reported to be starting his own brand and IT company, he had nothing to fear. n.o.body would dare, not even the Jings, to link him to Jing Mo since no one would believe them anyway.
"But, are we just going to suffer like this? The people are rallying to remove everyone surnamed Jing from their posts in the government. Our stocks are plummeting down. And our shareholders and partners are backing out of the company. Soon we"ll have to declare bankruptcy. Our downfall will definitely be faster than the Bu family from five years ago because our a.s.sets and power are not as extensive, solid, and deep as them. Are we going to simply wait for our death?" Jing Yuhan impa.s.sionately argued, looking one by one into the eyes of everyone else present.
The retired former head, Jing Zexi"s elder brother looked him in the eyes too, asking, "Then tell me, how are you going to make the enemy that planned all of these to stop adding more attacks or appear to at least say to the world that he is Jing Mo and is alive?"
Eyes fell upon the young man. He went silent because he didn"t know what to reply. The question had caught him off-guard since he only thought of proving his point and not giving a solution. It was his sister who broke the silence after some time.
While sporting a brooding look, she parted her magentcolored lips to say, "I have an idea. But it"s an extreme one which involved somebody important to him."
The old man was already sixty three years old and was older than fifteen years by his younger brother Jing Zexi. Used to the ways of the world, he could already guess what Jing Na, the brighter of his grandchildren from his second son, was having in her mind. A sigh escaped out of his lips. "If you"re planning to suggest that overused plan, to kidnap his fiancee Ye Xinya and threaten Jing Mo with her life to make him help us, how are you going to execute it?"
That was the hard part. Say they did consider stooping that low, how would they execute the plan when there was a high likelihood that Ye Xinya was protected by some skilled bodyguards?
While everyone else was wracking their brains to either think of other solutions or an answer to the old man"s question, some of them were looking downwards, eyes unfocused and glazed.
One of them, the father of Jing Yuhan and Jing Na, raised his hand and resolutely announced, "I"ll take responsibility since it"s my daughter who thought of the plan. Please leave the execution to me."
Looking at the determination from his second brother"s eyes, the current clan head only thought for a minute before nodding in agreement. Their father did not comment on anything and continued sporting the same placid expression he had in his face. Did his second son not say outright what he was planning because he was afraid of leaking from traitors or spies? If so, good. He wouldn"t pry then.
However, what was with this unsettling feeling he was having ever since the matter broke out this morning? Was this what Murphy"s law really meant? Whatever could go wrong would go wrong?
The old man learned of the reason a day later.
His usually smart second son executed the plan and "tried" to kidnap Ye Xinya. Yeah, tried. Because in his mind, he really intended to do so. It was just that Jiang Li already predicted they might turn against Ye Xinya and thus hypnotized Jing Yuhan"s father as a precaution. Due to this while in his quest to abduct the woman, as if possessed, he intentionally left clues to the police so he and his men would be apprehended before they do anything untoward to her.
The worst thing was that the weirdness did not end with just that. Upon hearing what bad plans he had against Ye Xinya, Jiang Li appeared in the police station and said a few words to him. After that, even though he was supposed to wait for his lawyers and deny every charge thrown at him, he found himself voluntarily admitting to the crime and even selling out his own daughter and son as masterminds!
"No, this can"t be happening!" Jing Yuhan"s father kept shaking and denying to himself. But when the angry and heavily protesting Jing Na and Jing Yuhan got escorted into the interrogation room, he had no choice but accept the reality... and faint on the cold tiled floor of the same interrogation room.
...
The culprit behind the Jing family"s misfortune was in a fancy western-styled restaurant he reserved a few miles away, He was with the villainess, meeting a VIP that had just arrived in the country a few hours prior to this meeting.
Ye Xinya was feeling nervous despite calming music created by the world-cla.s.s pianist specially invited for this dinner. Jiang Li was curious and was in a staring contest with the middle-aged dude, the VIP. All in all, the atmosphere the strange.
The girl was feeling antsy, yet couldn"t escape from the place since she felt that it was her responsibility to accompany Jiang Li. They were the only ones at the place because this meet up was not to be made public. But the lack of other people"s presence in the restaurant apart from the staff who had retreated five meters away from their center heightened the awkwardness and uncomfortable sensation in her heart.
She raised her head a bit so she could take a glimpse of their visitor from abroad. It was a person she already met a couple of times in the past, yet every time she saw him, she would involuntarily feel in awe of his imposing air and momentum.
"As expected, he is really somebody who became a living legend under the age of forty."
Ye Xinya noted the difference in the kind of stares James Zuckerberg was giving his adopted son. For a moment she was stunned.
It seemed the tyc.o.o.n made time to see Jiang Li because of that incident.