Chapter 15 - A walk back into history lane.

As they saw them reach halfway through the stair, Li Bai walked up to Delun, sat beside him, and whispered, "Why did he sound like Roulan to me when he was talking? It's like her words were echoing throughout the mansion through him."

Li Delun interrupted the conversation with a brush on her laps as he turned around to check, and silenced the conversation, and said, "Bai, I don't want the peaceful existence of this family to be interrupted by this discussion. Enlai has still neither gotten over the animosity of her betrayal nor forgiven her. Probably, just like footprints on the sand, that are eroded with time by the waves: he has just forgotten the incident with time, or probably, Diu has covered it up with her love and compassion."

Though they had been halfway through the stairs, their whispers clearly fell into their sharp ears.

Jia bent forward and asked Bao, "What kind of a history does your dad share with aunt Roulan, that can't be discussed, and would disturb the peace of this family?"

Bao tilted his head, shook them, and responded, "This is news to me. I will enquire, and inform you."

Li Delun realized, that Li Bao could have eavesdropped into their whispers, and signaled to Li Bai to drop the conversation completely.

The topic was dropped immediately, and there was pin-drop silence as Bao walked into his study, out of their view, and Jia went to her room to pick her bag.

Li Delun shook his head and whispered, "I am relieved, and satisfied, that we were not overhead because it was usually habitual of Bao to be inquisitive in discussions."

Li Bai turned around and replied, "That's true."

As Bao retrieved his steps to his study, to respond to emails, and complete some unfinished businesses, he was disturbed at the conversation, that he had overheard, and his mind wandered wanting to know the truth.

He sighed and pondered, "Is that the reason, mom was so secretive about her friendship with aunt Roulan? Aunt Roulan is a woman worth a million values. Anyone who met her once would cherish their friendship with her for the rest of their lives. There was no turning back, from the joy of knowing aunt Roulan. Her company, and her value systems, keep everyone engrossed and interested, with complete loss of time."

"Why would dad have an animosity towards her, and why can't she be discussed in the family?"

These questions lingered on his mind, and it failed to leave him without an answer.

Bao fiddled with mobile as he thought, "Any attempt on my side, to uncover the truth, through other means, would reach my father's ears within no time as it concerned him. Such is the power, that dad yields in the business circles."

He held his head with his arms and pondered, "I have been very close to aunt Roulan since my childhood. Is this the reason during my childhood, I had always been a mute companion of my mother's secret conversations?"

He got up, stared out through the window as his thoughts lingered, "She was the spark, in my otherwise dull life. When I started actively participating in their secret conversations, I had always wondered, as to how she was so cheerful and joyful always. I was a recluse, that seldom enjoyed a crowd, and she had been my comforter and secret keeper, in my otherwise withdrawn life.

She had become a motherly figure, whom I could approach with all of my concerns, as my own mother had her hands full with the responsibility of the household, and the well-being of my grandparents and father. Aunt Roulan had soon become the first person to approach while in troubled waters, and she had an amicable solution for everything. I was in awe with her, 'Never give up.' attitude."

As he was pondering, Jia walked in with her bag, stood beside him, and said, "Don't give much a thought to it. It must be something like us. The only difference would have been, that uncle would have been head over heels in love with aunt Roulan and must have lost the battle to some Romeo whom she chose."

Bao turned to her, shook his head with stretched arms, and blurted, "What? My dad and fall in love— impossible."

Jia shrugged, pointed her fingers at him, and responded, "You are the investigation bureau of our family. Both of us would be counting on you for letting the cat out of the bag."

Bao smiled and responded, "Wait a minute—Who is the other one?"

Jia giggled, and said, "Liqin of course. Trust and transparency are the pillars of any relationship. Isn't it?"

"Whose trust, and what transparency?" Liqin interrupted, walking into the room, overhearing their conversation.

He sternly turned to Jia and said, "I have been waiting for you, for ages in the car, and my dear Jia is enjoying a philosophical lecture on relationship with Bao here."

"What's up with both of you here?" Liqin asked with a twinkle in his eyes and a dimpled smile.

"Well, we are in the process of unearthing a family secret," Jia responded with a twinkle in her eye,

She bent toward him and questioned in a hushed tone, "Have you heard a kind of a history, that Bao's dad shares with aunt Roulan, that can't be discussed, and would disturb the peace of this family?" Jia blurted only to find anger in the eyes of Bao, for joking on a matter as serious as that.

Liqin and Bao exchanged glances with prying and surprised looks, and Liqin responded, "No wonder—aunt Diu shared such a secretive relationship, with one of her best friends."

Liqin fiddled with the pen on the table and said, "Aunt Diu, was always comfortable, entrusting you into aunt Roulan's hands even though, slowly and steadily, without even your knowledge, the principles, that aunt Roulan stood up for, and believed got deeply engraved into your characteristics."

Li Bao walked to him and added, "With her, mom always believed, that I was in trustworthy hands, though my persona got gradually influenced by her thought-provoking ways. Anyone who met me would believe, that we were mother and son, in character, and nature. As I went to the US for higher studies, the bond, we shared became even stronger."

Before I left for the US, I had taken her contact details from my mother for an emergency. However, this arrangement became a daily routine. There was not a day, I would not call her up, to inform her about my daily routine. I even met her and uncle Zhen several times, when they would visit Boston for medical seminars. Those were the happiest moments of my life."

Liqin looked up with the pen still in his hands and said, "You have developed a deep desire to have a loving and caring family like theirs, engraved, onto your inmost being. Probably, the Xiao's being aware of the painful history, that they shared with the Li family, had kept a safe distance in their relationship with you at all times."

Bao shook his head and said, "I was always quite impressed with the elderly couple, and the love, trust, and passion, that they commonly shared. They are indeed a gem of a couple, whose love only matured and ripened, with time and responsibilities. It is like a rare uncut diamond, that shone more brilliantly, with all the polishing, that it went through in those years of togetherness."

Bao opened his arms and said, "Who wouldn't want a family like theirs? They are brilliant committed doctors, and powerful believers, who not once would compromise on their faith and principles."

Liqin stood up curled his arms around his shoulder and said, "Yeah what a combination! One is a cardio surgeon, and the other a neurologist."

Bao tilted his head and said, "You were the only person, who shared this secret with me, as my closest aide and friend, without ever trespassing into their unknown territory."

Liqin nodded in agreement and said, "I loved the delicacies, that aunt Roulan prepared in our otherwise dull and routine gourmet while studying in the US. She was a chef, sent by God for me, as I was so used to homemade delicacies."

There were times when I had reasoned as to why they never discussed their children; however, I suppressed all my desires to ask, thinking of the oblivious."

Li Bao brushed his hair backward with both his arms and said, "The jigsaw puzzle, somehow, has now started to fall into its places. The reason behind the animosity is the last piece missing."

Liqin walked to the window and said, "There's something I came to know after I came back from the US, and I took over the complete responsibilities from grandpa."

"What is it?"

"My grandpa had been all the while responsible, for maintaining the Wang mansion. I am pretty sure though, that we cannot get any answers for our questions from him, as it concerns the Li household."

"I understand perfectly, that the only person who could help us, with the answers is aunt Roulan herself."

"Why don't you walk into the Wang mansion, and have an indirect conversation with the keeper of the mansion first, as their old keeper still maintains the mansion?"

"That's a better choice. I will approach as someone interested in purchasing the mansion."

"That's better. The only person who can give away this piece of information, in a casual conversation, is the old keeper of that mansion."

"I will give, that angle a try, for finding the answer first. Then, I would wait for the day to dawn in America, to get a confirmation for the answers, for my inquisitive state of mind from aunt Roulan herself."

"You guys have been keeping a lot of secrets from me, though we were always comrades in everything."

Liqin turned around and shrewdly responded with a smile, "I think, this is not the right time for this discussion when we have a car waiting outside for us. We need to respect the time of people working with us as well."

Jia nodded her head ending the conversation and said, "Okay, let us continue en-route. Keep us updated on finding the truth."

She held the hand of Liqin, and led him down the stairs, to the surprise of Liqin and Bao.

Standing near the French window of his bedroom, Bao watched as the limousine drove out of the mansion onto the road.

It was already half-past one in the afternoon, and the butler called in for lunch.

Li Bai had gone to her room, to prepare for the afternoon outing, and checked on the things, that were needed to be purchased.

As she was going through things, preparing her outfit, to be worn for the outing, she came across the heirloom ring of the family, to be handed over to the daughter-in-law of the family.

She looked at it with moist eyes and thought, "I have been long longing, to hand over this ring to the next generation. Hope, that it would at least be adorned by Bao's spouse."

She gazed at the E engraved in a half heart and pondered, "It's time, for the ring to be passed onto the next inheritor."

Her thoughts were interrupted, as Bao walked in, and said, "Grandma, lunch is ready."

He sat down opposite her, held her hand, and said, "Grandma, come let me help you to the dining table."

Li Bai looked up with moist eyes and said, "I have something to pass on to you."

Bao took her hands into his and asked, "What is it, Grandma?"

Li Bai loosened her hands from his hold and said, "I wanted to pass on this heirloom ring, passed on to every daughter-in-law of the household."

Li Bao pried the ring and responded, "Then you should be handing it over to mom, granny."

Li Bai paused, and replied shrewdly, "Diu always loved sapphires, so we had a huge sapphire ring tailor-made for her at the wedding."

Li Bai picked a platinum chain opened it, placed the ring through the chain, got up, and placed the chain around the neck of Li Bao, and said, "This is the heirloom ring, that would be passed onto your loving better half. When you find your better half, gift it to her as a symbol of everlasting love and commitment."

Li Bao hesitated, held her hands, and said, "Grandma, when I find her, I will come to you to get this ring from you. What's the hurry?"

Li Bai shook off his hands, closed the loop of the chain, and replied, "Now is the right time. I know you do not like wearing any kind of jewelry, but this is different. Do not remove it. You may never know when you might need them."

Li Bao smiled, and replied, "I promise, that I would cherish them, close to my heart, to be passed on as a gift from the most loving grandma. Now let us go for lunch, grandpa is waiting."

Li Bao looked at the ring, that now adorned his neck. It had a huge heart-shaped pigeon ruby with several diamonds of the finest cut that shone in brilliance encircling it. The blood-red sparkle of the ruby looked flawless surrounded by the brilliance of the diamonds. Bao smiled and thought, "Wow! Who would not love to adorn this ring with a huge heart-shaped pigeon ruby with several diamonds of the finest cut? It is surely an ornament, that would be desired by every lady in question."

He turned the ring around and found an "E" engraved inside an engraved half heart and pondered, "Why does this have an 'E' engraved inside an engraved half heart at the backside of it?"

Bao stroked his chin and thought, "The engraving 'E' clearly means Enlai. Then, why was it not handed over to my mom? She would never make a fuss, of her love for sapphires over an heirloom ring. Does this ring also hold some history with aunt Roulan? Was it not passed onto my mom, to avoid any untoward feelings between mom and dad? Was it returned by aunt Roulan?"

His thoughts were interrupted, by Bai's question, "It's beautiful. Isn't it?"

She looked above and said, "Hope its glory, matches the glory of the girl, who would be blessed to be the daughter-in-law of this house."

Bao smiled and replied, "Grandma, don't you think it's too early for that?"

Li Bai turned to him, placed her hands on his hands, and replied, "You never know when love comes knocking on the door of your heart. Before you know, your heart does not belong to you anymore, and everything in your life then revolves around the person you love."

Li Bao curled his arms around her shoulders and said with a smile, "As of now you are the only woman, I hold close to my heart. All right you win."

"Now let us go for lunch. Grandpa is waiting for us."

He held her by the hand and walked to the living room for lunch.

Not much was shared at the dining table at lunch, unlike the eventful breakfast they shared.

Post lunch the elders left for a nap, and Bao continued with his work.

Li Bao decided to take a nap. As he lay down, an idea struck him.

He sat with his laptop on the bed and googled for the name of Dr. Xiao Roulan.

Browsing through the pages he found, that her maiden name was Wang Roulan, and she was the daughter of Wang Jiang.

Bao rested his chin on his arms and thought, "Liqin was right. The best way to find out any information would be to pay a visit to their ancestral mansion."

Bao called up Liqin, and asked, "How are you both? Did you have lunch?"

Liqin replied, "It has been four hours already since we left for Zhuhai. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch. We kept it simple, as we needed to travel, on our journey again. We could not afford to waste time en-route to reach on time. As per my calculation, we would reach the resort by ten in the night."

"That's pretty good. You do not need to worry. Everything is arranged for, at the hotel. Just drive safely."

"I found out something."

"What did you find?"

"Wang Jiang was a major stakeholder of the Wang Enterprise, which got merged with the Li Empire thirty years ago. I further found out, that at that time Wang Jiang had sold his complete stake to my dad, and retired."

"This piece of information is a revelation. Did business rivalry create this animosity? How can a broken relationship cause such a huge change overnight?"

"With this newfound piece of the jigsaw puzzle, I have become more disturbed, and confused, and my conviction to find the underlying cause of this has become stronger than ever.

I need to know, what kind of situation would make a man, sell off his complete stake in his company, and retire to seclusion.

I further found out the details of assets, that were held by Wang Jiang, that was later inherited by his wife and daughter. As I browsed through the details of the Wang mansions, I came across their ancestral one, close by to the Li Mansion. I have decided to drive up there, and check my luck out."

"That's the best thing to do now."

"What is Jia doing?"

"Jia is very excited, and has been browsing through the list of activities to do, once we reach Zhuhai."

"Don't mess up this opportunity. It might not come knocking twice on your doorstep."

"Aren't we rushing into things?"

"You might be late afterward."

"Fine, I agree with you. Let me find a way out to confess."

At this point, Jia looked up, and asked, "What are you guys planning?"

Liqin shook his head and replied, "Nothing much, we were talking about Enlai uncle."

Jia tilted her head and asked, "What kind of confession, involves Enlai uncle?"

Liqin turned away, looked outside the window, and said, "A way to confess, that we found out the truth about Enlai uncle and Roulan aunt."

Bao shook his head at the conversation and said, "I'll update you in the evening," and disconnected.