Changying's Research On Family Lines

Wang had been gone for almost a week, and Changying sighed and looked at her phone. They spoke to each other several times a day, and she knew he would welcome her call anytime, but at this moment she was tentative. He had told her of Baozhai's fate - that she would leave the farm this morning and not be there for the holidays. Her heart broke for him hearing the guilt and sadness in his voice.

She looked down at the two books sitting on her desk. Newly printed with real leather covers decorated with gold embossed titles. She smiled and ran a finger over the bigger volume of the two books she had done so far. They weren't a hundred percent complete by any means, but she was happy with what she had accomplished. She desperately wanted to call Wang but just couldn't bring herself to disturb him today until he had called her. In his absence, she decided to show Dante and Emilio. They had looked after her as if she was one of their priceless treasures in Wang's absence and she had come to think of them as her brothers as well.

Taking her phone with her just in case Wang called, she gathered the books and went to the large office the brothers shared. She tapped lightly on the door. .

"You don't have to knock, Changying, we have told you that often enough," Emilio smiled and welcomed her in.

"What have you brought us to look at this time? Another dusty old tome for our collection?" Dante chuckled knowing it was the history she had been working on but enjoying her blush when he teased her.

"Something like that," Changying giggled in return. "I need an honest opinion. I have had these made into what I hope the finished books will look like, but as much as I ran a sketchy idea past Wang for the graphics he wasn't here for the final okay, and I am a bit nervous about showing him when we see each other again."

"Well hand it over then," Dante held out his hand.

"This is the main one showing the family line back as far as I have been able to go for now," she placed the book in Dante's hands holding the second volume to her chest as they looked it over.

"This is brilliant," Emilio enthused. "Each table, who sat on it, and where it was located. The only thing I can think to add is a little bit of history of the individual people and what happened to them, as well as anything noteworthy they did aside of being our ancestors."

"I thought of that too and rather than bogging down the lineage side of things with a lot of extra text I thought maybe I could create one of these for each table," she presented the second book which detailed the original table. Taking the table from the lineage volume and creating a story of each member and his or her family. Taking the advice of Bianca and Carmen and cutting out all the cousins had made the whole process more streamlined. The man who sat at the head of the original table of Donati was an amazing man in his own right and Changying had loved researching his life and that of his children.

"So in this volume, you have just got the two diagrams of all of the twelve, the original and the current listed by the heads of the tables only," He flicked back to the front pages of the book. "Then the rest is just our table line through history to present day."

"You did all this in just a little over a month?" Dante sat back and looked at her seriously.

"Oh God! it's bad isn't it," she said grabbing at the books. "I just really wanted something to show your parents what Wang and I had worked on together, and now I have gone and messed it all up because I rushed it too much."

"Did you not hear me say it was brilliant? I said it was brilliant right?" Emilio appealed to Dante.

"You might have mumbled it. It's a bad habit you have," Dante smirked. "The watermarked graphics are genius, it's simple and true and if people want more information about something they can go to the volumes for each table. I would say it's better than anything I have seen in the family histories. Though I think you will have one very large problem." He considered the gold embossed leather of the cover showing the Donati family crest as Changying looked at him with a worried expression.

"Papa will be impressed, I don't see a problem," Emilio seemed to consider where the problem lay.

"Of course, he will. He will be so impressed he will take it with him to the Sitting," Dante chuckled. "She has barely started the histories, and they will be demanding she does the same for each table."

"Just as well Wang is in publishing now, he can get her all the help she needs," Emilio chuckled. "Shit, they will probably fund the whole thing between them. I think Wang's publishing house just took off before he even gets in the door."