Chapter 11: Little Angel

Darkness gradually enveloped the whole world, and the stars in the sky twinkled.

The light shining out of a huge villa was somewhat dazzling.

Inside the villa there was a room where a man in his forties was speaking to a young man in his twenties.

"Ze Yan, how are things?" the man in his forties said, his hair all white.

"Uncle, rest assured, everything is ready." the young man replied, touching the ring on his finger.

"How is the investigation into that woman going?"

"She's just someone Gu Die casually found; they'd been married less than two days when Gu Die brought another woman home, and that woman means nothing to him."

"Is that so? Keep an eye on them; as soon as you know which woman Gu Die cares about, have someone take care of her!" the man said, his words laced with hatred, "Let him taste the feeling of losing everything!"

"Uncle, I will also make sure the Gu family gets the punishment they deserve."

This man in his forties is Chu Feng, chairman of the Chu Corporation; his only daughter was lost fourteen years ago by people sent by the Gu family.

His daughter has been missing for fourteen years, and he and Mrs. Chu have been searching for fourteen years.

Yet all these years, there has been no news of his daughter.

His hair turned white because of this.

So he hates the Gu family, hates everyone in it, and seeing Gu Die reminds him of his daughter.

Gu Die is one year older than her; if she were still alive, she would have grown up just like him, day by day.

So he doesn't want to see Gu Die; it's the Gu family's fault that he lost his daughter.

Over the years he has sent people many times to assassinate Gu Die, but each time Gu Die managed to escape.

He also wants Gu Qing, the old master, to taste the pain of losing a child, for after all the chief culprit of this tragedy is Gu Qing himself!

Actually, it's not Gu Die's fault; Gu Die and Si Yun met by chance and became good friends.

That year, she was six and he was seven.

But while they were cooling off under the tree as usual, two men came and dragged Si Yun away.

He picked up a stone and threw it at the two men.

Though he was so young, he felt no fear, only thinking of saving Si Yun.

"Let go of me!" Si Yun struggled, but she was too small; her strength could not match that of the two men.

Just as Si Yun was about to be taken away, Gu Qing appeared.

"Dad, please help Si Yun!" the boy pleaded, but Gu Qing didn't even glance at him.

"How many times have I warned you not to get too close to girls? You won't listen, so I have no choice but to act! Take her away!"

Hearing Gu Qing's words, the two men ignored the struggling girl, covered her mouth, and tried to put her in the car.

The boy was shocked; these were the men his father had brought, but why?

Why can't he play with girls? Si Yun is his best friend!! He wants to protect her!

"Dad, please release Si Yun! I'll obey you from now on and never approach girls again!" he begged, tears streaming.

Seeing Si Yun about to be shoved into the car, he rushed forward, but the man knocked him out.

Thus the girl was taken away.

Originally, Gu Qing only wanted to scare the boy, hiring two men to act as if they were abducting the girl, without intending them to harm her.

Instead, he planned to find a place for the girl and leave her a large sum of money.

Of course, he also didn't know that the girl was a Miss of the Chu family.

Gu Qing also took a liking to the girl, but he would never allow his son to be that intimate with any other girl, no matter what.

He didn't want his son to follow the path he had taken; although only seven, the boy was born the eldest son of the Gu family, destined to bear its responsibilities.

When he was young, Gu Die's mother abandoned him, ran off with another man, and took away the money he had earned from his business.

Moreover, she sold their marital home, leaving only the infant Gu Die behind.

She said the child would become her burden.

As Gu Qing came to accept all this, he several times felt like not wanting to live.

Betrayed by the one he loved so deeply, only he knows what that feels like.

But seeing Gu Die, he regained hope; this is his son, he must raise him to adulthood and not let him walk the same path he did.

Therefore, he prevents Gu Die from getting close to other girls; since his betrayal, he no longer trusts women at all!

He will absolutely not let his son become like him!

In his view, women will inevitably betray others, no matter how much you love them, they will!!

He brought those two men just to pressure Gu Die.

He only intended to send the girl out of Luohai City.

But he didn't expect that those two greedy men would pocket the money he had set aside for the girl's upkeep.

They simply dumped the girl and went back to split the loot.

Thus Si Yun was thrown by them into the corner of a deserted parking lot.

For two days and nights, her hands and feet were bound, her mouth taped, leaving her no means of escape.

During two days of heavy rain pouring down, she grew cold and fainted.

After that, she began to fear the dark.

An elderly man with a shuffling gait, while scavenging for scrap, happened to pass by the parking lot and saw her.

At that moment she was running a high fever and unconscious.

The old man hesitated not, directly sending her to the hospital; although her money was pitifully little, he still reached out a helping hand to this strange little girl.

A sudden fever, plus two days without food or drink, left her constitution extremely weak, so she remained unconscious.

After much waiting, the old man finally saw her wake, but the girl remembered nothing.

She doesn't remember her own name, nor her parents.

"Grandma..." she called out the moment she saw the old person.

The old man thought this was heaven's arrangement; seeing her all alone, he sent this little angel.

"Hey! Hey!" Grandma heard her cry, quickly responded, her eyes full of tears.

The girl's eyes held not only the old man, but also tears.

Thus, the old man treated the girl as his own granddaughter.

She wore a necklace engraved with the character "Chu" around her neck and a Liuli bracelet on her wrist, so the old man named her Chu Liuli.

These likely related to the girl's background and were important to her, so the old man kept the necklace and bracelet.

He placed them in a box, and also put in a letter.

The girl followed the old man scavenging for a living, yet she lived happily.

The old man thought she would accompany the girl to find her family.

But he never expected to have Alzheimer's disease.

Gradually, he forgot everything.

But he never forgot the girl.

Their dwelling was completely run-down.

The Chu family also came to the Gu family's door many times; Gu Qing didn't expect things to turn out this way, but since he had already taken this wrong path, he might as well see it through.

He told Chu Feng that the girl was no longer in Luohai, though he himself didn't know the details.

Indeed, he also didn't know.

The Chu family had no leverage over the Gu family, no evidence, and given the Gu family's influence, they were powerless against them.

Any girl who had even the slightest connection to Gu Die would be arranged by him to go abroad, never to return.

Most of these girls were fortunate, because the Gu family would give them a large sum of money—enough for an ordinary person to spend several lifetimes.

Externally, however, it was claimed that these girls were dealt with by people sent by the Gu patriarch, including Chu Si Yun.

From then on, Gu Die began to hate him, and also hated himself for failing to protect the person he wanted to protect.

All along, the matter of Si Yun had been his inner demon.

Gu Die had no choice; he hated him, yet he was still his father.

So he disguised himself as a playboy.

Gu Qing saw that he cared for nobody, indulging in a carefree flirtatious manner, and thus stopped worrying about him.

Afterward, no other girls were troubled by Gu Qing.

Because he himself had settled those that needed settling, and also sent them away with money; if he didn't do so, Gu Qing would intervene, and he felt this father's heart had no warmth, capable of anything.

Externally spreading the news also said that those girls had been taken care of.

Thus he earned the reputation of a ruthless playboy.

And the Gu patriarch, in others' mouths, was someone even more ruthless than Gu Die.

The Chu family had searched for years, yet never thoroughly searched Luohai, because Gu Qing said that even if Chu Si Yun were still alive, she could not possibly be in Luohai.

Gu Qing had also been searching for this girl all these years; it was his fault that her whereabouts were unknown, her life or death uncertain, and he was not an extremely cold-blooded person.

He merely used his own way to protect his son, even though it was wrong.

Gu Qing never imagined how greedy those two men were—sending the girl abroad? Impossible!

The cost of sending her abroad was enough for them to live it up for a while.

The girl has always been in Luohai!

Even if they searched in Luohai, they might not find her, because bringing the present Si Yun before them, they would hardly recognize her.

Who would have thought that a girl with dusty face, disheveled hair, tattered clothes, and frail weakness would be the miss they were looking for?

Although the old man suffered himself, he did not let the girl suffer; for her food and clothing, he willingly spent his meager savings.

He also sent her to school; the old man had little education and could write only a few characters, but he knew school was a good place.

So she took all the money earned over many years from scavenging and used it to pay for her schooling.

The girl cried and begged the old man, saying she didn't want to go to school.

The old man knew she didn't not want to go; rather, she didn't want to see the grandmother scavenging alone to pay for her schooling.

She couldn't defy the old man, whose health was poor, and she didn't want to make him angry.

Thus, after school she would go scavenging with the grandmother; on Saturdays and Sundays she wore worn-out clothes, saving the better ones for school.

Naturally, she also often suffered ridicule from classmates, who laughed at her as a dirty little beggar.

She didn't care what others said; she just wanted to stay by the old man's side, and as long as she was with him, she was happy.

Fortunately, she met Cheng Li, who often brought her to his home for meals, his sole aim being to let her eat something good.