Homely

Xiulin looked very normal when she sat in the car, but the wheels were turning at the speed of light in her head as she saw all those boardings of her pictures all around the city.

What is her brother thinking? Indeed the characteristics of the hair and eyes look like any European at first glance, but if you look at it very keenly, you could clearly see it was her. The way there is a small scar right on her forehead even in the picture is a clear giveaway, it's her just in a younger version of 14 and the images are gonna keep changing until they reach age.

When her brother first did it, she joked around asking him if he will do it every birthday, and guess what? He insisted that he will be keeping this messed up tradition going. Every birthday the art starts with pictures of a baby in the morning to it turning into an adult with the tagline, Happy birthday Lennie.

Oh, how she missed her brother. But she is still in shock at how Jun Zixuan has seemed to recognize her. He called her Elena. He knows her. But, how?

The realization hit her like a rock, why he seemed so familiar, he was in the same university as Mu Shen. But she doesn't remember meeting him. Then how come he knew her name? That was a mystery.

She looked at him. He still didn't seem to get out of the shock of seeing her picture earlier. But what is making him give such a strong reaction? It's not like they knew each other even as classmates. This was making her feel uncomfortable. Maybe she should go speak to Mu Shen.

She looked around the city until they reached the mansion owned by Jun Zixuan at London. Calling it a mansion would be wrong because this place looked too homely and ordinary for it. It looked like any other house in London. Not too grand nor was it too simple.

But she loved this. They all went inside as the housekeeper showed them all separate rooms. She had to say even though the house looks homely like a cottage, it was huge on the inside with so much space.

"Brother, can we go exploring after we have lunch?"Bohai asked, catching Zixuan off guard from his thinking.

He could only nod as he looked at Xiulin again and offered her a small apologetic smile for which Xiulin smiled too as he patted her head and went to his study.

They all went to their rooms and Xiulin immediately called Mu Shen sitting on her bed.

"Missed me already?" a lazy voice called out in the empty room.

At first, Mu Shen was only interested in teasing her, but seeing there was no response from the other side, it was obvious that he was joking around with the wrong person.

"Ugh, okay. My bad. What do you want?"

"It's my birthday today," She said as she stared at the ceiling on top of her bed there were these tiny little stars like it was a child's bedroom not that she minded it.

"Oh A very happy birthday Miss Xiulin" he said with a tiny smile.

"But it's my birthday as Elena"

Mu Shen stiffened as he looked at the date. He didn't know that.

"Happy Birthday Elena".

"You are so lucky you know? You are the first one who has wished me today," she said with a sad smile.

Mu Shen was going to make a joke about how her brother forgot her birthday, but hearing her sad voice he finally understood why she called him. He was the only one who knew her. The only one who trusted her was Elena. He sighed worried about her as he heard her soft breathing on the phone.

"I'm sorry," he said as he looked outside his office.

"Does Zixuan know me as well?" she said as she wiped out the tears falling from her eyes.

Mu Shen was so surprised by this question that he couldn't comprehend what she was saying.

"Pardon?"

"Does brother Jun know me as well?" she said repeating herself.

"Um yes. We all were classmates after all"

"But I rarely attended classes. Now it also seems suspicious that you knew me as well. I've seemed to never understand how you recognized me so well. It makes me wonder"

Mu Shen gulped getting ready for the obvious question which is going to be thrown at him next.

"How do you know me, Sean?"