Chapter 214: Accidental discovery
Chen Liling tried to pacify him. “Jianyu, please calm down first.”
“I cannot calm down, Mom.” His voice sounded weak and frightened.
Naturally, she understood he must be facing some grave matter. She decided. “I want to see you, Jianyu. Meet me at XX café in fifteen minutes.”
“…En.”
—
Yukito just stepped outside his school when a lavish Lamborghini stopped in front of him.
The windows rolled down, and Jing greeted his love with a cheeky smile. “Hey.”
Other students standing near the gate looked wide-eyed at such an expensive car, especially boys. It was a dream car of every guy. The girls were squealing when they saw Jing come out. He looked dashing with his casual shirt and jeans, and a scarf wound around his neck.
“Hey, hey, who is that hot guy?”
“I have never seen him before.”
“Gosh, he is so handsome! I think I’m in love…”
“Hey, hold your horses. You already have a boyfriend.”
“He looks a little older than us. Wait! Is his girlfriend studying here?”
“That must be it! Tch, he is already taken. That must be one lucky girl.”
Some girls were courageous enough to approach him, but Jing shot a cold glance, halting them in their steps.
Yukito silently observed, and his eyebrows twitched.
Everybody was eager to know the girl to whom he came to meet here. Their sight was following his every step. But to their shock, he stopped in front of a boy.
Jing flashed a wide grin. “How was school today?”
Yukito sensed everybody’s dumbfounded gazes. He sighed internally.
“Usual,” Yukito commented. “Why are you here?”
“To pick you up. Shouldn’t I take some effort to impress you?”
Huh? Impress? Who? Yukito?
Did they hear it, right?
Jing pouted. “There were so many things going on for the last few days, and we didn’t get to spend much time together. So, I thought we can go for a movie.”
So, is this a date? Yukito wondered.
Jing smiled. “Yes, it’s a date.”
Yukito coughed.
Is he a mind reader or something?
Jing said, “If it’s you, then yes, I can read you like an open book.”
The girls got the biggest shock of their lives.
He is gay!!?
So he came to meet his…boyfriend?
All the girls felt a terrible loss finding out that such a handsome man likes a boy.
In particular, one girl furrowed her delicate brows. She stepped forward and asked, “Yukito, do you know that, man?”
Yukito froze. He had a complicated expression on his face. He didn’t want to respond, but he cannot not give a face to her in front of everyone. She would be embarrassed.
“He-“
Jing noticed it and dangerously glared at the girl. He sneered at her. “Yes, he does. I’m pursuing Yukito as his future lover.”
—
In the dark, cold place, the woman heard a man say, “She is Nana.”
She looked at the girl; her eyes were gentle, her smile was warm, and her skin was milky white. She was undoubtedly a beautiful girl.
She saw how the woman in the memories looked a little uncomfortable meeting Nana for the first time.
The woman understood.
A sense of crisis…
Then at their wedding anniversary, her husband and Nana had the last dance, everyone praising them as the perfect couple.
She saw the anger the woman tried to mask in her smile.
Soon, the resentment began to grow for Nana. The jealousy, the hatred took its form when she slapped Nana in a fit of rage.
The woman faintly mumbled as she saw Nana’s painful expression being accused as a homewrecker. “I know you are angry, but you shouldn’t have done that. Why didn’t you give her a chance to speak?”
She apologized later on, but the woman couldn’t see any sincerity in it. She sadly shook her head.
Days passed by and then came the night when she, Suyin, and Nana were kidnapped.
The woman didn’t understand why, but as this memory was taking its form, she felt a strange restlessness grow inside her. She felt like this was the turning point that she had to realize.
An important key was in this incident that could free her from this cold, isolated place if she could figure it out.
The five men grabbed her and Suyin and trapped in a shed. She saw Nana tumbling down a slope. The woman in the memories heard Suyin’s screams as she was getting brutally violated. She fainted, and the memory blacked out.
—
Exactly fifteen minutes later, Chen Liling opened the door to the private room of XX café.
Jianyu raised his head to look at the incoming figure. His eyes rimmed in tears, meeting his mother after so long. He sadly smiled. There were faint lines under her eyes that said she probably had not slept well for many days.
Chen Liling quickly took him in her embrace. Her heart ached to see a sense of loneliness and helplessness in his smile. Her eyes turned slightly red.
“Jianyu…How are you?”
“I’m… somewhat fine. But look at you. You have turned so ugly. In which sea did you dump your grace and elegance? Keep this up, and Dad will divorce you one day.”
Chen Liling twisted his ear.
“Ouch!” But he laughed. He missed her so much.
She sat beside him and softly asked, “What have you been, upto?”
There was a moment of silence. She didn’t urge him and waited patiently.
“I…” Jianyu held her hands in his. “I have fallen in love with a girl, Mom.”
Chen Liling was stunned. She hadn’t expected this. “What? Love?”
“Yes.”
She was a little enthusiastic at first but then got on guard.
Jianyu noticed her reaction and said dryly, “Mom, I know I made a mistake being with Suyin all those years, but that doesn’t mean I will make the same mistake twice.”
She said indignantly. “Well, you cannot blame me for being skeptical.”
“So, who is she? Where did you meet?”
“Mom, she…” Jianyu slowly told her about everything regarding Serena.
She was shocked. “Serena?”
“…Yes.”
“I remember her. I mean, I have never met her, but she was the one who did Nana’s makeup and hairdo before the banquet night.”
Jianyu felt heartbroken. “Mom, what will I do now? Nana is her best friend. I…she would hate me.”
“Jianyu…” she patted his head. There was only one way. “You have to tell her the truth.”
“Mom, she would leave me. She would never forgive me for hurting Nana. I… don’t want to lose her, Mom.” A tear trickled down his cheek. “I really love her.”
“She will be angry for sure. She would need some time to accept it. Maybe she won’t talk to you. But she also loves you. You…just have not to give up chasing after her. One day, your love will surely melt her heart.”
“I…”
He already knew the answer that he had to tell the truth.
But he was scared to face her. Her disappointment, her anger…what if she fell out of love? What if she never gave him another chance?
He had already lost everybody’s trust. Would his one mistake haunt his new life with her too?
“Jianyu. You are already suffering because you once chose to hide the truth.”
He froze.
“You disappointed Nana. Don’t do the same thing with Serena. We make mistakes so that we learn from them. Don’t repeat it that caused you and others so much pain.”
She smiled. “Even if you hid it from her, it would never make you happy. You will get peace of mind only when you know that Serena has wholeheartedly accepted you with your past, your faults, and your imperfections. Until then, you would feel nothing but insecurity.”
—
Nana tiredly made her way to her room when she reached Liu villa.
“Jinhai is such a bully.” She muttered. She was caressing her sore waist. “Can’t I even joke with him? He is a devil. Why does he always punish me?”
Now that she realized her face blushed furiously when she thought back to how she continuously screamed his name in pleasure and cried and begged him to let her go. But, Jinhai simply ignored her pleas.
She was wondering if somebody outside heard her moans.
S-so shameful!
She covered her face in embarrassment.
She now only wanted to take a nice, warm bath and collapse on the bed. She entered the room and found some of his office files scattered on the bed.
She sighed.
They forgot to clean it up when he took her to the hospital. Before he loses any important papers, she quickly thought to clean the mess. She picked them up and opened the cupboard.
There was one drawer at the side where Jinhai kept his files. As she kept the last one back in place, it knocked out something, and it fell.
Nana bent down to pick it up, and as she saw closely the thing that fell, she furrowed her brows.
She held the bunch of it in her hands.
They were small size colorful papers with a light floral design.