“Lingyu, I don’t want to die yet,” Huang Shenghao laughed as he took a peek from his dashboard mirror, only to see Lu Xinyi sleeping peacefully at the backseat of his car. He was behind the wheel, driving to wherever Tian Lingyu was planning to bring his little sister.
“You think I want to?” Tian Lingyu replied, making Huang Shenghao’s smile falter.
Meanwhile, at the backseat, Lu Xinyi’s senses were returning. She was aware that she was inside the car, and they were going somewhere. However, her body refused to move an inch from her lying position.
She heard voices of men talking in the front seat but couldn’t stay awake for too long until she was sent back to the land of slumber.
“Then why did you just abducted Miss Lu just to piss off President Shen?” Huang Shenghao laughed. “Should we get something to eat on the next top? I bet your sister will be hungry once she wakes up.”
“Her hunger would be forgotten. She will surely try to kill me for abducting her.”
“Right. I really felt bad for giving the Tangs a good scare. I hope they wouldn’t hold a grudge against us.”
Tian Lingyu shrugged his shoulder. The streetlight outside gave his face a menacing aura.
“I don’t care as long as they delivered my message to President Shen.”
For the next two hours, no one said a word not until Lu Xinyi’s eyes flew open and sat up. She then glared at her brother who was sitting on the front passenger seat.
“Bloody hell, Yu Gege! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Lu Xinyi pounced on him and pulled his left ear.
The two men at the front seat jumped at her loud voice. Huang Shenghao almost hit the side barricade at the road and was thankful that he was able to avoid the collision.
“Wait! Xinxin! Let me explain…”
“Don’t Xinxin me, Yu Gege! You scared the hell out of me!” Lu Xinyi pulled on his ear harder.
Huang Shenghao sweatdropped and felt out of place between two siblings. When Tian Lingyu told him that morning that he would be meeting with his sister that day, he wasn’t aware that Tian Lingyu meant that he was abducting Lu Xinyi within the school premises.
“Okay, I’m sorry, alright! I didn’t mean to scare you that badly.” Tian Lingyu conceded. Lu Xinyi huffed and sat back at the backseat, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Jerk! You meanie! I hate you!”
Tian Lingyu winced at her words. Such a happy reunion that they had.
“Where are you taking me?” Lu Xinyi demanded. She needed to know where she was. At this time, her husband probably knew what had happened to her and would surely flip the city just to find her.
“Somewhere where President Shen wouldn’t get you so easily,” Tian Lingyu replied.
“You are the worst, Yu Gege! Why are you trying to piss off Shen Yi?” Lu Xinyi was tempted to slap this brother of hers.
“Hey, the Lus can’t just hand over our Baby Girl to someone like him,” her brother countered.
“You… are impossible!”
“I’m only doing this to protect you, Xinxin, and why are you dating such a man?” Tian Lingyu asked back.
He only agreed to become the Li family’s sponsored student at Silver Leaf, and in return, they’d arrange a marriage between his sister and Young Master Li.
“What dating? Shen Yi is my husband, you jerk!”
At that revelation, the usually composed and unmovable expression on Tian Lingyu’s face came crashing down. His eyes wide, jaws dropped, as he tried to see if his little sister was joking but found nothing.
“Lu Xinyi! What the hell are you talking about? What kind of nonsense are you saying?! That couldn’t be! I will not allow it.”
Lu Xinyi’s eyes were filled with anger.
“You think I’m joking? Ha! Just wait until my husband finds you. This sort of thing you just did will really anger him!”
“Baby Girl, are seriously siding with that demon than me, your own brother?” Her brother feigned being hurt, “You didn’t even tell me you were getting married.”
“I’ve been calling your number, but it was already out of service. I emailed you several times before our wedding day, and I didn’t hear a single word from you!” Lu Xinyi said in defense.
“That couldn’t be…” Tian Lingyu said in disbelief.
He pulled out his phone and checked the spam box of his email account, and there, he found her missing email. Damn it, why did her email end up on spam anyway? The date was over four months ago.
Lu Xinyi stared outside the window and watched the light zipped through as they pass by. It was already dark. Checking her phone, it was already nine in the evening.
She heard his brother cursed under his breath.
“So did you find what you were looking for?” she taunted.
“You win this time.” Tian Lingyu admitted his loss.
“Do you really have to kidnap me? Don’t blame me if my husband decided to beat you senseless after what you’ve done.”
“And you’ll just let him do it?”
It was Lu Xinyi’s time to shrug her shoulders and look away. Someone needed to get a good beating anyway.
Tian Lingyu was speechless. This sister of his had changed! When they were younger, he was the hero in her eyes. Now, she revered her husband more than anyone else.
“Did he really mean that much to you?” His voice was cold and serious. He had to know what she really felt about the demon king or would there still be a chance to take his sister away from Shen Yi.
“He’s everything for me, Yu Gege.” Lu Xinyi said in a low voice. “Please don’t make it hard for us. I’m not a little girl who constantly needs your protection.”
All of the thoughts and reasoning that Tian Lingyu prepared earlier had vanished from those simple words from his sister.
An hour later, Huang Shenghao parked his car at a local restaurant, and he and Tian Lingyu watched Lu Xinyi’s back retreating to go inside the establishment to find something to eat.
“Bit your own tongue?” Huang Shenghao teased his friend.
Tian Lingyu leaned his back at the car and watched his little sister order food for herself.
“She had changed.”
“Everyone is susceptible to change,”—Huang Shenghao nodded—”so do you want to back out now?”
“You wish. I will never give up my little sister to Shen Yi that easily.”
Before Lu Sibai passed away, Tian Lingyu swore that he would try his best to protect his little sister from the Sun family, and that also included any male that would dare to take her hand for marriage.
After their father’s passing, it was Tian Lingyu’s duty to protect and to provide for her. He was the one who worked hard as a kitchen assistant for different restaurants abroad just to send her to school.
Once Lu Xinyi graduated from high school and after Grandma Lu’s passing, she started to get part-time jobs to sustain herself and asked her brother to save up some money for himself. Tian Lingyu refused. He still kept sending her monthly allowances, but Lu Xinyi insisted not to take his money and let it accumulate in her bank account.
Who would have thought that his sister would sell herself to President Shen, marrying him for the unlimited supply of burgers and steaks? If Tian Lingyu found this out, he might kill himself and followed their parents at the afterlife.
“Do you think Shen Yi will send his private army to track us down? You’ve basically abducted his bride.”
“She is my sister.” Like it was the most obvious reason he could come up.
“And she’s his wife.”
Tian Lingyu glared at his friend.
“Shenghao, on what side are you on, huh? Are you forgetting that I’m also your sworn brother?”
“Hey, calm down, Lingyu. I’m with you here. If President Shen really loves her, then he would have moved heaven and earth to prove her importance in his life. Lingyu, you might have just started a war against him?”
“So?” Tian Lingyu raised a brow. He was oblivious that both of them were starting to get the attention of the diners of the restaurant.
“Nothing. Just think that you’ll have to get through with it. Think, your sister will forgive you, now?”
“I sure do hope so. Come on, I’m also starving. Can’t let that shorty eat all the food by herself.”