Chapter 75 - A Story Of True Love By Long Ken

Long Xia stepped through the emergency wing when her head began to spin, her feet gave way, and her exhaustion pulled her down, but someone had caught her before she could fall. 

…

Her eyes fluttered open later, and she saw faces—many faces—hovering over her. Her mother showed her a small smile before she began to rub her forehead with her thumb. "How are you feeling, darling?" Song Luli questioned. 

"Like Shit. Because Xia looks like it," Long Ken interrupted as he pulled a cigarette to his mouth. 

"You can't smoke in here," Long Mei scolded him. 

Long Ken rolled his eyes before he opened a window and ignored what their sister warned him. 

"I'm fine," Long Xia said dryly. She tried to speak normally but her throat was sore, and it nearly hurt to speak. She tried to move, but she felt thoroughly bruised and battered. She grunted. 

"Easy," Long Yat-sen said. "You've fought like hell, so it will take at least a week to recover." 

Long Xia glanced at him, then at how Shao Lin was glued to his side; a look of worry was etched on her face. 

"We're glad you're alive," Shao Lin began. "We all you knew you could do it. Yat-sen and I didn't place any bets, but we knew you'd win." 

"Well, that was a missed opportunity," Jin Qing inserted himself. 

Long Mei elbowed him hard, and he winced, looking at her. "What?"

"You placed bets on my sister?"

He smiled, looking from Long Mei to Long Xia. "Thank you for making a rich man richer." 

Long Mei rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I can't believe you." 

"My dear Mei," he began, "sometimes you have to take what's given to you. Everyone was placing bets, and she was my best one." He smiled broadly again. "You saw the look on my old man's face. He was so sure of that Ox warrior candidate winning, believing a woman couldn't. It was like a slap to his face." 

Long Mei pursed her lips, her expression softening. 

Long Xia observed them. She didn't know how and why they spoke like old friends, like people who had known each other for years. But she could see in the expression on her sister's face—she was flustered and abashed by him, almost as if she felt an attraction to him and didn't understand why. 

It stunned her. 

Not that Long Xia minded if her sister liked him, but Jin Qing was still mysterious. Everyone was cautious of him and Long Mei was not someone he was looking for. Why? Because Long Xia knew that Jin Qing was looking for someone without strings attached. And Lone Mei was a romantic. She was perfect. Sweet. Everything that Jin Qing avoided. 

She still wondered what made Jin Qing so cynical. Why he was so desperate to marry someone that wouldn't love him. He didn't even call off the engagement, even though she knew he was well suspicious of her affair. But he didn't care. 

Speaking of affair…

Long Xia was too afraid to ask the question, which is why she didn't immediately say it. But it was killing her now. "How's Bojing?" She swallowed thickly. 

Her family was silent, but then Shi Yen stepped out from the curtain that divided the room, pushing it aside, revealing the occupied bed Yuan Bojing was sleeping on. 

Long Xia exhaled a breath of relief. Tears brimmed in her eyes. "Is he okay?"

Shi Yen grinned. "He is. He's just resting now." 

Long Xia smiled through dry lips. 

"And by the way," Long Ken interrupted, "now the whole world is aware that you two are fucking." He pushed himself from the window as he tossed a tablet on her lap. An article was on the screen. Long Xia gaped. It was a censored photo of her and Yuan Bojing in the back of the car--

"Oh god," she said. 

"I know," Long Ken retorted. "When I find the bastard that took the indecent and private photo of my sister and her boyfriend, I'm going to sue the shit out of them." 

Long Xia chuckled, despite herself. 

Her older brother narrowed his eyes. "What's so funny?"

Long Xia shook her head. "Nothing." It was fucked up whoever exposed her, but she felt airy and light. Her relationship with Yuan Bojing was no longer something she had to hide. To be afraid of. 

"Well, it's not funny," Long Ken deadpanned, "because this photo was taken before you and Jin Qing called off your engagement." 

Long Xia chewed down her lower lip. "We were influenced—"

Long Ken raised a hand to signal her to stop speaking. "You don't need to explain yourselves. But it makes the Long family look bad, not to mention everyone now pity's the Jin family for this affair." 

Long Xia frowned, facing Jin Qing. "I'm sorry I got you involved." 

Jin Qing shook his head. "I honestly don't see what the big deal is. It's not like we were actually together." 

Long Ken then interrupted, "But I have a solution to fix this." 

Both Long Xia and Jin Qing's attention snapped to him. "What do you have in mind?" they both questioned curiously, not liking the fact that Long Ken already had a plan.

Long Ken's lips curved upward in an unfriendly smile. When it came to tough decisions, Long Ken always made them. But he glanced at Long Mei. 

"Mei can be engaged to Mr. Jin Qing now." 

The youngest of the Long siblings stilled at his words while Jin Qing and Long Xia's mouths fell open, "What?"

Long Ken looked between the three of them. "We can change the narrative right from the beginning," he began to explain. "It began as an engagement between two people who were friends, who thought being together was the most convenient for them, the right choice. It was good at first. They had everything they could have hoped for. But it wasn't enough. There were other people who were important to them as they were to each other. People who gave them what they needed. Affection, intimacy, love…" he paused. 

"Jin Qing was engaged to the eldest Miss Long, but he couldn't help but want the younger, softer, and gentle one that gave him incredible happiness. He longed for her but didn't act on it. And Long Xia spent years suppressing her love for her childhood friend because she was too afraid to shatter the bond they had for a very long time, but then they couldn't help but fall together in the heat of passion." 

He looked at everyone in the room, who were all listening to him now. "Thus, Long Xia and Jin Qing realized they were wrong for each other. They're still good friends now, but they mutually agreed to part with their true loves." 

Shao Lin's eyes widened as saucers when she asked, "Then what happens next?"

Long Yat-sen chuckled at her side. "He's not telling a story, love. He's stating what they should tell the press." 

Shao Lin gaped. "Oh right…"

Long Yat-sen kissed her cheek, collecting her in his arms. She fell into his embrace.

Long Ken interjected. "That is my solution. But if Jin Qing and Long Mei don't want to marry, then they can at least pretend for now if they're up for it," he said with a charming smile. 

He looked between Long Mei and Jin Qing who were silent.