Chapter 59 - Lin's Lost Memories (1)

Shao Lin ran fast.

Long Yat-sen lost her, but he was determined to catch up to her.​​

He has to tell her. He has to tell her everything.

But he'd never imagine that Shao Lin would blurt it out. He was planning to confess to her after he finished doing something for her. It wasn't ready, and she outright said it without waiting for his answer.

Damn, his wife was more unpredictable than he thought, but it was part of what he loved about her.

It began to rain, but still, he ran through the pouring city, searching for her.

…

Many years ago:

'Yat-sen is the eldest. He will fill in his father's shoes.'

'But he's small compared to his siblings, leaner. Weak.'

'He's only a child!' the other voice countered. 'He has plenty of time to grow. You'll see.'

Long Yat-sen was merely a child. But he had already felt the weight of living up to the expectations of being like his father.

It was his destiny, but what if he couldn't live up to being like him?

His siblings had just as much potential like him, even more so.

Long Xiatian was better than him, even though she aspired to be something else. Something people wouldn't normally dream of. It should have been her, Long Yat-sen thought.

"Again," Long Xiatian said, giving him a hand to help him to his feet.

"What's the point?" he countered, not accepting her help. "You always beat me."

She narrowed her eyes. "Is that a reason to give up? You do realize we have to be as good as the Shi family, not to mention the Niu family."

Long Yat-sen sucked in a breath.

The Shi family was impressive, but the Niu's incited fear and chaos. He never met any of the children. But he had already feared them. Being raised in a brutal environment would often mould children to become beasts.

"We'll try again later," she said, looking at him pointedly. "But don't give up!"

Long Yat-sen remained defeated on the ground. Long Xiatian was younger than him, but she was already taller. Stronger. Fiercer. She was everything he was expected to be, and yet he wasn't.

He looked up at the sky, watching the clouds pass by. He was so tired, he closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

When he woke up, he sat up and noticed the scratch on his knee he took from a fall, and there was a Band-Aid over it. A flower fell from his hair. What the…?

He looked around.

The Long estate was so big and private he could hardly see his neighbours. Where did this come from?

He glanced at the small forest that separated the Long estate from the rest of the gated community.

It could have been a bud from a tree, but it was a fully bloomed daisy. He found it odd, but he ignored it.

The next day, Long Yat-sen trained with his sister again.

"Xia. I need you to hurt me as much as you can, but not in a way that ends me up hospitalized."

Her eyes glinted. "I think you're crazy, but this is good practice for me," she lifted her fists. "After all, I've always been holding back."

His sister gave him a black eye.

Swollen, bruised, and in pain, Long Yat-sen stayed on the ground, watching the sky, following the clouds, closing his eyes.

He felt something warm over his leg. A hand. It was small and gentle. The person worked slowly and carefully to help him. Was it Xia? No, she wasn't that sympathetic. Was it his mother? But she wasn't home.

He felt the hand withdraw from his leg, and then the person touched his face, looking to see what they could do about it.

He grasped the person's wrist, opening his eyes. His eyes felt blinded by the sun, but as he adjusted to the light, he saw a scared girl kneeling before him. He looked at her from head to feet. She was younger, and she wore a white floral dress, and her hair was half-braided up with small flowers adorned on the crown of her head.

Her eyes were wide, and he could not tell if she was afraid of him or afraid that she was caught.

He kept the grip on her wrist tight. "Who are you?"

Her face flushed. She only looked down, her mouth lip-tight. She wasn't talking.

"This is private property. How did you get here?"

She kept staring down.

"If you answer my questions. I won't tell anyone you were here," Long Yat-sen said.

She looked up at him with big doe brown eyes. "Promise?"

He sighed. "I promise. I have nothing to gain from telling anyone you were here."

She looked scared. "B-but I'm not supposed to be here. I'm sorry for coming, but I'm more afraid of my father finding out I was here than yours."

"Why?" he questioned curiously.

She swallowed nervously. "I'm not allowed to talk to you, to any of your family. I don't know why. My father always visits this house, but he says I can't. But I'm curious."

"Who's your father?"

The girl pointed at the Niu house on the other side of the small forest. "Oh," he breathed.

The Niu family were allegedly even more ruthless, treacherous, and brutal than the Long and Shi's family combined. And this girl who looked like sunshine and flowers is related to them? He couldn't believe it. But from the look on her face, he knew she wasn't lying.

"I'm Niu Xiaolin," she said, her voice shook as if she was afraid of saying the words. "Sole heir of the Niu family."

Long Yat-sen looked at her astonishingly. "But you're…not what I expected?"

She titled her head to the side. "What did you expect?"

He imagined her to be like Long Xiatian only ten times worse, with fangs and possibly, another head on her shoulders. But she looked like an angel.

Long Yat-sen shook his head. "Never mind." Standing to his feet. He then stretched his hand to offer it to her. She took it.