Chapter 45 - Letting go of the past bitterness.

29th December 2010

In the morning Liqin brought them breakfast and coffee, just as they had completed their morning routines. He poured out a cup of coffee and asked, "How is he doing?"

Li Enlai picked the cup from his hand and said, "They are planning to put him off sedatives by fifth. So, he should be conscious, thereafter."

Liqin sighed, a sense of relief, and said, "That's great news, but we need to prepare to help him embrace the reality."

Li Enlai sat down, sipped a cup of coffee with his gaze fixed on Bao's innocent face, and replied, "This too shall pass. We will leave for the Wu residence after breakfast."

"I'll accompany you both to their place. If it takes time then we will have lunch together as a family at a nearby restaurant. I'll choose the one close by, and inform Jia to come over to the restaurant."

"We can do that even if it does not take time. I think we all need a nice break. We need to get back on our feet."

After breakfast, the winding roads opened to the gates of the Wu residence. As the gates of the Wu residence opened, Enlai looked around and recollected their school and high school days, when five carefree friends, Diu, Abigail, Roulan, Fan, and Enlai frolicked around with laughter in innocence and sincere affection for each other.

He visualized him seated with Dr. Wu as a young high school student. gathering pearls of wisdom through hours of affectionate discussion. The garden echoed with him and Roulan arguing over his fierce competitive nature.

He envisaged the tea parties spent with the Wu, Wang, Chang families in the garden. It also opened up the memories of Abigail and Paul weeping at the burial of Mrs. Wu as the four friends comforted them.

As Enlai stood still looking around and piecing together the broken pieces of his cherished childhood memoirs, Dr. Wu Boqin, who was in the garden, with his books, as usual, greeted them with a smile. Henry who had been on the terrace sipping coffee, walked down to greet them as he saw them enter.

Li Enlai walked ahead, greeted, and said, "Good morning uncle."

As Dr. Wu Boqin adjusted his spectacles and pried at him carefully, trying to recollect the guest, Li Enlai added, "It's me Enlai, the classmate of Abigail, and the friend of Fan, Diu, and Roulan."

Dr. Wu Boqin got up, walked up to him hugged him, and said with moist eyes, "It's been a long time Enlai. I have missed all those intellectual discussions all these years. I thought I would never see you again."

As he completed the sentence, Dr. Henry Wu walked in. Immediately Enlai gestured him to not recognize, and asked Dr. Boqin, "Who is this gentleman?"

His gesture did not escape the attention of Dr. Wu Boqin though, but he still ignored it, and held out his hand to Henry, and said, "This is my grandson, Henry, the son of Paul."

Dr. Wu Boqin looked at Liqin, and asked, "Is this your son?"

Li Enlai looked at Liqin and replied, "Emotionally yes, but he is the grandson of the Chang family, and son of Diu's first cousin, Chang Wei."

"I had seen a family picture of yours earlier at his wedding. If I am not wrong, he had recently got married."

Li Enlai smiled and replied, "Uncle you have a strong memory."

"Did you guys have breakfast? Diu was a regular to our kitchen earlier, and she was a very good cook."

Diu turned around and replied, "We just had breakfast before leaving the hospital."

Li Enlai immediately added, "We had a routine health checkup, which involved some tests with fasting. Hence we had breakfast before we left the hospital."

As they were talking Dr. Jones walked in, and accidentally greeted, and said, "Good morning, Mr. Li."

As soon as the words were uttered Henry's expression changed. He immediately got up, turned to her, and gestured to refrain from speaking.

Li Enlai pointed to her and replied, "You have a strong memory, Miss. We just met once yesterday in a crowd at the burial, yet you remember my name."

Dr. Wu Boqin shook his head and asked, "I had seen you guys at the burial, but you were not present after the burial."

"We saw the obituary and decided to attend. We did not want any unwanted attention with our presence, hence we sat in the last row, and left before the crowd disbursed."

Diu smiled and asked, "How are you doing uncle?"

"We are going to miss her a lot. With her loss, all my memories of Abigail have been buried. She had inherited her smile, and thick black long hair. She and Roulan's daughter were best friends since they were toddlers like you both were. She was the fragrance of our household along with Roulan's daughter who was bright and cheerful always. Together they were like a garden of lavender that shone in the morning sunshine spreading its fragrance and bright morning sunrays. She had a polished smile, while Roulan's daughter was bubbling with laughter. They were a part of each other like butter and bread."

Diu bent forward, held his hands, as his moist eyes spoke volumes of affectionate grief, and said, "I have no words to comfort you, uncle."

"Why don't you, Diu go, and visit her room? It is the same room that once belonged to Abigail, where you spent hours, and hours after school. It will take you down memory lane. In the meanwhile, I will have a man-to-man talk with my old friend."

"Diu you go ahead and pay a visit to your friend's childhood room. Liqin will accompany you, while I speak to Dr. Wu."

Dr. Wu Boqin turned to Henry and Julian and said, "Henry, you and Dr. Jones, go along with them. Show them around the house."

As they walked towards the villa, Dr. Wu Boqin, turned to Enlai asked, "Is your son out of danger?"

"My son! How did you figure that out?"

"Ann's body was placed in the morgue of your hospital. We received special attention on our visits. I was informed, that they were transported in chartered flights. I had my suspicions early on, but your visit and the conversation and expressions of Henry and Julian confirmed them. Henry had earlier informed, that he was brain dead."

Li Enlai shook his head and replied, "He is not brain-dead. We spread the rumor of him being brain-dead to avoid any further attacks while we were investigating. Kindly do not disclose this matter to anyone, not even Henry and Julian. We are hoping for a miracle, and have not lost our hope. The reason we did not want to disclose the truth, was to ensure the safety of your family. The culprit is still at large, and is probably vengeful, maybe due to some past bitter history with us. It was a well-planned assault. We did not want you guys to become the target of the assailant. I have a request to make."

"What is it, Enlai? If I can grant your requests, I will surely promise."

"Kindly do not divulge the information of our family to Ann's, and Esther's parents."

"You are aware, that Ann is my granddaughter, but do you know the parents of Esther?"

"No, we had left before their arrival, and we did not want them involved in any risk, hence, we kept our identity a secret. Who are they?"

"She is the daughter of Roulan."

For a moment Li Enlai became dumbfounded and then replied, "I had neither imagined, nor desired for our paths to cross each other, in this fashion. Back then, I had decided, that my friend Abigail, and Roulan was a closed chapter in my life, and never again would my path cross with theirs."

Dr. Wu Boqin shook his head and replied, "After all these years, do you still hold grudge against both of them?"

Li Enlai replied, "Am I not the victim in this case. Yet everyone expects me to forgive. I felt like tissue paper, used, and thrown. She did not even have the courtesy to inform me while walking out of a marriage. just weeks before the wedding. All these years, I have bottled up all the pain, and bitterness without having shed a single tear, as the head of the Li Empire, could not be an emotional wreck."

Dr. Wu Boqin replied, "Was she ever consulted before the announcement. One fine day at a family gathering, Li Delun, and Wang Jiang, went ahead and announced their intent to get you guys married as a surprise. Since when did engagements become surprise gifts."

"I had asked her."

"When did you ask her? How come she is not aware of the fact that you had popped up the question of asking her hand in marriage?"

"It was all a confusion."

"Confusion! How could there be confusion on such a serious matter?"

"It's a long story."