Little Ling Yue
Chapter 78: Little Ling Yue.
Li Wei never knew his mother had met Ling Yue before. Wasn't her first meet with Ling Yue on her wedding anniversary? If no, then why didn't mother recognize her. Ling Yue's doe like emerald eyes were too hard for one to forget. Not to mention rare.
And this was not the only thing running in his mind. He was little back then, but he remembered his mother told him and his sister that she would take them to hospital to make a friend of their age. He followed her since it was his mother asking him, and also his little sister wanted to go. Though he didn't remember everything that happened on that, he can recollect that he didn't meet anyone and there was a ruckus in the whole hospital because a little girl was kidnapped, or ran away.
His heart ran wild and crazy thinking how Ling Yue was always around. Just if, if they had reached the hospital a little earlier, a little earlier, might be he would have met her back then. Just if, if he had went with his uncle to military camps, might be he would have met her earlier. The military base was near Ji Jing. Just if, if he had cared to go and check on that Barcelona villa while under construction might be he would have caught a glimpse of her. Just if, -- if.
Li Wei sighed internally feeling how mysterious their encounter was. Even with so many opportunities before, they never met each other. But they met each other when he willing drove into the Ji Jing and stepped into her mansion. His eyes softened when he saw her messaging Li Mei on her phone. Whatever it was in the past, it didn't matter anymore. He couldn't change it. But this present was beautiful, and he would preserve this.
"Why did my mother not recognize you?" Ling Yue spotted texting Li Mei hearing Li Wei's question. She smiled at his question. Li Wei still didn't get her situation back then.
"Hand me my laptop." And Li Wei did as she did. He handed her laptop from her bag and Ling Yue started opening some of the protected files. Just looking at her typing speed and the efficiency, he can tell this was something Ling Yue do often.
Soon she got the file, rather a video and handed the laptop with the video player on to him. She signalled him to watch it and he focused his attention to the laptop. The whole video was of more than 16 hours but Ling Yue started it from second hour.
Watching the screen, he saw a hospital room with an empty bed but soon two nurses wheeled a bed into the ward and later his mother entered the ward too. Then he looked at the nurse who moved aside from the side of the CCTV cam and finally caught the little body lying on the bed. Little Ling Yue's body was completely covered in blood, enough to shake his whole being. But that wasn't the horror to watch. Later when the nurse started to clean her body, it was then he understood why his mother couldn't recognize her.
That little girl lying there was nothing like the glorious lady sharing the car with him. The little girl's body was covered in scars, and she was practically a skeleton. There was not even a little muscle anywhere on her body. No one could ever recognize her, nor could imagine his girl would grow into a dazzling beauty that would cause empires to fall.
Little Ling Yue didn't look like she was six years old, she looked much smaller than that. Mostly because of chronic malnutrition. Later the doctor came and bandaged her wounds and she was steered out of the room. Probably to get some scans done. He fast forwarded the video. In between he saw how she covered whenever someone entered the room. She would squeeze into some corner hoping that they would not notice and leave. When they didn't, she would either start crying and thrashing around, or end up hurt them.
He looked at his side and found Ling Yue looking at the video with blank look. As if it wasn't her in the video. The girl in the video and the girl sitting beside him were completely different. The little hid whenever someone approached her, but the majestic personality sitting beside him bore an aura that would put anyone away from her with just a glance at them. Li Wei was well aware of how dominant her aura and command were. It was just that with the Li family around, she wouldn't bring out that front. She respected them too much for that, and might be connected too.
He had seen how dirty the world could be. But this kind of cruelty towards a little girl was something that cold even let the demons tremble. He moved the video to the then when he found Ling Yue breaking the window and jumping out of it, getting hurt by a glass shard in the process but she didn't even flinch at that. Because she was already used to pain. This was nothing. Few minutes after Ling Yue absconded, two bulky figures entered the hospital room and looked out of the window.
One man collected the bloodied glass piece and the other the other called someone before leaving the room. The video ended at that creating a dark void filled with blazing hatred for all those who made her like that. Though she had now recovered herself pretty well from those emotional and mental trauma's, her entire childhood was spent on recovering and by the time she was fine, she started working harder and harder to make sure she would be safe and capable of protecting herself without needing anyone.
Now that he thought about it, Ling Yue was someone who had trained her mind to fight back anything that was there to break her. He remembered how she would shiver and faint off whenever Nicholas was mentioned, but that didn't happen when she faced him in Ji Jing. She didn't cover behind him, but rather riled him up and challenged him back. She wasn't someone who can be preyed on. She was a hunter. Prey or predator, she was the one who would hunt them, not the other way around. Whether be it life or business, this was her principle to protect herself.
She chuckled and looked at Li Wei who had closed the laptop and had a solemn expression. It was not her intention to broadcast her pitiful past to him. But just that she believed him, trusted him as if it was not some stranger but another version of herself. And for reason, she wanted to show him her entire self, not just this confident ruling side of her. Probably she knew that reason. Just that she had many other things to consider before she says it out.
"Now you know why your mother or the Su family don't recognize me. It was a bad luck that Su Rui saw me few years ago and guessed right. Tch" She clicked her tongue remembering the day when she attended a mental health seminar after getting cured of dengue. Might be that weak frame of hers back then resembled her little self a little and the ever so concerned-about-her-position Su Rui identified her.
"Ling Yue.. Don't laugh like this was nothing. You don't have put on that strong facade all the time. It is okay if you complain about others. It is okay if you hate others. It is okay if you fall weak sometimes." Li Wei said seriously looking straight into her eyes. How can she be so lively to light up his soul even after the world tried to break her again and again? Just from where did she get this bravery and patience to not surrender to anyone? It was the same when she was Xenxi or Min Hua. She didn't surrender to except herself. Never.
"Don't think my personality as a facade Wei. It is not. It is what I actually. That .." she pointed out to the laptop on his lap and continued again. "That thing what you saw just now is not the real me. It is just a fragment of my past, where other's made me like that. But I am not someone who would let someone scar me for life. I know I lost many things. And never experienced a beautiful phase of my life. But that doesn't make me empty. I won't say that my past doesn't have any effect on me at all. It surely has. But it is only till I let it influence me. So don't think I have something bottled up inside me. No. In fact, these days I am happy. Very happy. And that is all thanks to you and your family." Ling Yue smiled looking at his stunned and proud look in his eyes.
"The hospital is here. Let's go now."