Chapter 4

“Finish your greens, and you can watch Mulan for a little while.” Ling coaxed Yue at the dinner table, who was pushing her broccoli around her plate with dramatic sighing and doe eyeing her mother beside her. Hoping for a sympathy excusal. Meilei was too lost in her head to notice, and Suying frowned and batted Ling on the arm.

“Mulan is the reason she keeps beating up her classmate.” She frowned at her friend.

“I don’t like them…and don’t want to grow big and strong. I want to stay little forever.” Yue had heard every reason for eating her greens under the sun and didn’t care for any of them. She pouted out her bottom lip, fluttering her lashes in a sad show for her godmother, full stubborn on show, and they all knew they would never bend her will but still tried.

“Baby girl, eating your greens will help you grow smarter so you can have a good job like me one day.” Ling smiled indulgently, leaning over to spear a vegetable with her fork and holding it out in front of Yue’s delicate little mouth.

“I want to be a princess and stay home.” She sulked petulantly and crossed her arms across the little pink sparkly dress she had worn for dinner. Yue was a lover of all things sparkle and royal and had a closet of dress-up gowns from her aunts. She would never take it off if she could wear a tiara to school to complete the look. They had instilled that she was a princess from a young age, and it was now biting them in the ass.

“Be a good girl and do what Auntie Ling says.” Meilei finally interjected, somewhat distractedly and half-hearted, sighing as she tried to push her thoughts away and caught Suying watching her.

“How about … you eat three more greens, and I will take you for ice cream after school tomorrow?” Suying was more of a briber than a dictator.

“Or I could eat no greens and not have ice cream. Mommy says it’s bad for my teeth.” Yue perked up one eyebrow in a comedic fashion that had all three women stifling a giggle. Breaking Meilei's mood finally and softening her.

“This kid..” Suying muttered under her breath, knowing Yue never turned down ice cream any other time, but she was stubborn and would sacrifice it to avoid her greens.

“She takes after you.” Ling prodded Suying in the face. “Too smart sometimes.”

Yue pulled out her best method and turned sad but sweet eyes towards her mother. Her bottom lip trembled with a slight pout, and she cocked her head to one side. It was a tied and tested ‘in for the kill’ expression.

“Mommy, I’m really full, and my tummy will hurt if I eat one more bite. Feel…my tummy is big and round and has no more room… Do you want me to burst?” She fluttered and blinked expertly, feigning real innocence and hurt that her mother would inflict such cruel punishment. Meilei knew she was done for. Since she could stand upright on her own, this child had been successfully wrapping her mother around her finger in this manner.

“Your tummy is not round; I can prod it and see. I’m a doctor!” Suying jested, reaching out with claw-like grabby hands that threatened tickles rather than pokes, and Yue squealed. She jumped out of her seat with a feigned terror and took off towards the couch as Suying followed.

Meieli let them run off to play and turned her attention back to Ling, sitting with an almost untouched plate of food. They hadn’t had a chance to talk yet, as Yue always came first in this house. Collecting her from school, feeding her, and ensuring she was content before they sat down to discuss other matters.

The squeals of a dramatic child being tickled invaded the house's quiet, but Ling didn’t break a smile. Instead, she leaned in and slid a hand over Meilei.

“I think we can do this….. let Yue go watch TV, and we can talk.”

Meilei nodded. The tension in the air was prickly as she had been waiting for input.

“Suying… let her go watch TV in her room.” Ling gestured to Suying over the room, and the hysterics ceased instantly. Yue’s panting laughter echoed for a minute more as she calmed down and steadily sat up. Suying didn’t need to be told twice as she knew what was happening.

“I don’t like Mulan anymore… I want to watch The Lion King… I like Scar.”

Suying was instantly horrified, her face dissolving into wide-eyed shock, and Ling burst out laughing.

“Please don’t….. pushing that classmate off a cliff will be more than a parent meeting to resolve it.” Suying was almost serious. Her face was somber as she patted down Yue’s clothes and set her on her feet.

“Let my princess watch it if she wants to.” Ling encouraged, and even Meilei gave her a serious ‘Are you mad’ look.

“Wouldn’t hurt to see certain men pushed off a cliff,” Ling muttered for Meilei’s ears only and pulled a tiny twitch of a smile from the edge of Meilei’s lips.

“She clearly knows who Scar is and therefore has already seen it… the damage is already done. Shoo shoo and let her watch it.” Ling shrugged, ever dismissive of her goddaughter's mischief. “Besides, our princess would never push a boy from a cliff… princesses don’t like hiking, and pushing a human is a lot of effort.” She smirked, always with a smart-ass response to defend her mini demon.

“Yue, go with Auntie Suying and let her pick a movie for you… something nice and calm… no dying.” Meilei encouraged and received a feisty, furrowed brown and half glare from her child as she nestled dainty hands on her nonexistent hips. Standing like a haughty little Miss, she melted the hearts of all three women.

“I don’t like Scar because he pushes Mufasa down… I like him because he talks nice and has a scar right down….” She motioned down her face in a line from forehead to nose, then turned and danced off the couch with a mini jump into Suying’s unprepared arms, almost sending her reeling backward.

“Ooof,” Suying grunted out with the collision. “Princesses should steer clear of thugs, scarred faces, and sociopaths with a tendency to push siblings down mountains.” Suying threw wide eyes Meilei’s way as though somehow she was to blame for their girl’s choice of ‘hero.’

“There is something wrong with that child.” Meilei grimaced at her daughter’s reasoning and then batted at Ling, who was grinning with obvious pride. If there was one between them who would be fine with Yue pushing mean boys off cliffs, they all knew where it stemmed from.

“Liking villains is not all that bad…. It means she at least doesn’t like boring people.” Ling raised a brow as though a sudden afterthought hit her. “ And look. She likes a man…. So not a manhater after all. Just a mean boy hater. I would say that is some successful parenting right there… Our child won’t be bullied.”

“You know we’re ruining her, and the future Yue will be hellish for any man to handle.”

“Isn’t that the goal?” Ling laughed at Meilei’s concerned, startled expression and nodded behind her to indicate that Suying had taken Yue to another room. The quiet behind them was returned with the departure of a child.

“Let’s talk while clearing the table and give her time to settle.” Meilei offered and got up to start piling up the dishes from their meal. Wanting Yue completely out of earshot. Leaving the Scar chat behind, they had to grab their chance of peace while Yue played.

Ling nodded, lowering her tone and settling back into business mode. Serious at once.

“I spent all afternoon digging up info on our new CEO.” Ling kept her tone hushed while collecting the cutlery and working easily with her friend. They had a companionable ability to coexist and fluidly collected everything between them. A relationship born of cohabiting and lifelong friendship. “I think we can get through this…… Yanhue has a pattern of sending him to their new acquisitions to get the company in order and running smoothly. From what I read, he has been the CEO to hit first for over ten of their companies, spending no more than four months there before leaving it to the management he puts in place. The chairwoman is a non-permanent presence because she leads from afar and won’t be in OTS after this week.”

Ling had come home happier and more optimistic, knowing this was not as bad as it first seemed. She had dug a lot into Yanhue Corp and found that they operated under a completely different name back when Meilei was dating Kai. It belonged to his family; he was their golden boy, a hot shot at sorting dying businesses out. No wonder the name had not rung a bell. She wasn't sure she should tell Meilei their parent company belonged to his family and left it for now.

“Wait… he’s not our CEO?” Meilei was surprised but had never understood what was happening in the upper running of things.

“For now, he is. But that assistant everyone is mooning over is the CEO he will leave behind. The financial director was very open with his information with a little gentle flirting.” Ling winked, moving her handful of dishes to the sink, and seemed brighter in mood since she came home.

Ling had spent so much energy extracting what she could from the older man, milking him for information with well-placed touches and sexy smiles. He had been a huge help in tracking down more information online about their current problem man. A wealth of information about Kai’s last few years as he grew within their ranks.

“So I only have to avoid him for a few months, and then he’s gone?”

“Uhuh…and after his walkabout today, he will be too busy dealing with his role upstairs to waste time with the lower floors….This is not a problem. We just need to dodge him til he leaves.” Ling wasn't telling her the whole truth, but she figured it was enough for now. With Kai gone, Meilei may never find out that Yanhue was run by the family who all played a part in destroying her.

“Really? Are you serious? You’re not wrong about this, and he’ll really leave after such a short time?” Meilei was so happy she could almost cry. Although, in reality, four months was not short, it was better than permanence. It brought back a tiny ray of hopeful light to what had been a dark day.

“I did a lot of digging on our Mr Xuchen…. He has skills. I’ll give him that. Seems any company he touches turns to gold, and the chairwoman… is his older sister.” She hesitated with that detail, knowing that maybe that would alert Meilei to who owned the company. It was not normal for siblings to be in higher roles without family money. But she would find out soon enough when they updated the Managerial notice boards across the company with pictures of their superiors.

Ling had been shocked to learn more about the connection and Yanhue Corp in its entirety. They were not a name she had been familiar with before OTS was bought, as they were largely operated overseas.

“Wait, what….” Meilei stopped in her tracks while putting the dishes in the sink, splashing water from the tap as it hit the surface of the top plate. A flutter of panic in her chest rose slightly as Minhui’s face flashed across her mind’s eye. She had met her on more than one occasion when Kai took her to family parties or dinners. She was a very serious and professional woman who was older than him by almost a decade. They had seemed close back then despite their age gap. One thing she knew for sure was that Minhui was high up in their own family business. A company called X-Yan. Even back then, she had an important role.

“How can that be…she runs his parent's business, and Kai was always destined to be a part of that, unless…?” Meilei’s skin visibly paled as she put two and two together, and Ling exhaled with defeat, knowing she should have guessed Meilei was not that dumb. She wanted to shield her from more anxiety, but she was also not someone to lie when asked.

“The Yanhue Corp belongs to the Xuchen family, and the siblings seem very hands-on. They changed their name when they expanded overseas to Yanhue.” Ling tried not to sound impressed, but after reading so much about Yanhue Corp and Kai Xuchen all afternoon, she couldn’t help but envy his accomplishments. The family seemed talented, having more than those two in management positions. It seemed extended family were also involved. It was fast becoming a super power corporation owning major names across the globe.

“I knew they had money…I just didn’t know….” Meilei trailed off. Her thoughts slipped backward and conjured up images from the past.

After a full year of dating Kai Xuchen, she never learned much about his family company. Back then, a changed company name or what it did would have been a detail she didn’t pay attention to. She had dated him because she liked him, not his family company, and the name Yanhue never came up.

He was a postgraduate with a focus on business. The subject wasn't one they dwelled on, given her love of technology and coding. She knew he intended to work in his father’s company, but that was it. Each had their interests, which they didn't need to discuss. They were too caught up in the here and now, being young and in love and putting all their energy into that.

“Seems he played abroad for many years, gaining experience in the international market before coming home and getting down to business….I don’t know what he was like in college, but Kai Xuchen is our stereotypical hot, rich guy. He seems to be all about a fast pace, flashy lifestyle, and endless admiring women.” Ling said it before thinking and mentally cursed herself for the last sentence as Meilei’s face crumpled. Obvious pain in her eyes as her bottom lip trembled.

Ling had told herself she would keep his very public dating life a secret from Meilei because she knew it might still hurt her. Her damn mouth sometimes had a mind of its own. She was a straight shooter who sometimes spoke impulsively.

“So parties and dates…… he was like that when we met. I guess he returned to that lifestyle to scrape me out of his heart.” Meilei’s voice wavered, betraying some deeply buried emotion, and she shook it away. Knowing she shouldn’t still harbor heart pain over him moving on with life. “I don’t care…. All I care about is that he goes. That we don’t cross paths, and he never meets Yue.”

It wasn't entirely true. The inner pang and slicing bellyache hinted that his dating habits still wounded her. Even though she knew she still had no reason to feel something for him. They were over a long time ago. He was her first love and the man she thought she would marry. This was only that; there was some immature heartache for its sentimentality.

Ling quickly changed the subject.

“There is one tiny detail I need to take care of to ensure he never knows you are in OTS.” Ling chewed on her lip for a second, turning over the issue in her head because she still hadn’t considered a way to counteract the problem. Or if it was even a problem at all.

“Which is?” Meilei was more hopeful, knowing this issue was something they could ride out and maybe solve. Despite her mood dying and her heart throbbing. Talking about him was not helping her…. he was a subject they had tried to avoid all these years. A taboo that only caused her considerable pain back then, and now they were ripping old wounds apart because they had no other choice.

“The employee evaluations… I don’t know if our CEO is part of the process and sees the employee files. If he sees your name…”

Both women fell quiet. Meilei silently began to wash the dishes and stack them on the dryer in a robotic manner, blood draining and leaving her skin pale again. Internalizing as she tried to digest this. Ling picked them up individually and did a half-assed job drying them with a towel.

“There are so many employees…and a whole team up in HR working on the process…maybe the CEO has better things to do,” Ling added in afterthought, trying to be positive on this issue.

“Maybe.” Meilei's voice had dropped to that tone that signaled her being lost in thought and overthinking every detail. Letting her worry consume her. She was still stuck on the image of him and other women…. disappointed at herself that it was the detail her brain wanted to cling to the most. More than his maybe finding out she was there after all.

Hadn’t he been that way when she met him? He was too good-looking, and he knew it. He had a string of girls chasing him, able to pick and choose, and he liked the attention and fun. Yet he had proved to be a loyal boyfriend she had trusted completely when they became official despite her reservations that he might play with her and leave her heartbroken. Kai had never made her feel anything but secure and adored at that time.

“Try not to worry…. This is a big city. The chances of meeting him out on the street are so tiny they are almost impossible. At work… we have to be careful. It’s only four months. He has a lot to do and will be focused on that…we can get through this.” Ling moved behind her friend and loosely slid her arms around her shoulders to hug her while Meilei continued washing the plates.

Meilei had been trying to stay calm and rational since she got home. Yue in the house meant she wouldn’t let herself break down and cry as she did at work, and she was in a state of surreal disbelief. Unbelieving this was even happening.

Seeing him after all this time had opened up a can of worms she couldn’t begin to wade through and sort out. Of course, there was fear, panic…, and maybe even shame and guilt. Definitely an intense emotional response to seeing him again.

But there was also that residual pain of heartbreak. Seeing the man she thought she would marry one day standing there after so long. The father of her child. She had loved him so much it had been the most painful loss.

It had plagued her ever since she got home, turning it over in her head on repeat. She couldn’t get the image of him standing there out of her head. How handsome he still was, how tall and strong, and how that air of command and confidence he always had seemed to have grown stronger. He had not changed physically, even in so many years. He seemed older, colder, and now a stranger she no longer had any connection to.

The boy she fell in love with at first sight back when Yulein took her home for her birthday to meet her family…. And she het her brother. The man who became her everything in a whirlwind romance that lasted almost a year.

Kai had been the kind of boyfriend she had always dreamed of, and even though there were times they fought and it wasn’t always perfect smiles and roses….she had loved him. They had been happy.

And then ….. Yuelin died. San fled…. Kai turned on her. Meilei was left alone, and no one would listen to what she had to say.

One night was all it took…one moment.

Everything she had was taken in the blink of an eye, leaving her with a lifetime of regret and scars.