C26

TRING! TRING! TRING!

The ringing of the cell phone interrupted Yang Li. He had been speaking for the past 5 hours. It was 3 a.m. in the morning.

Yang Li looked at his phone. It was from Mei. He picked up the call and put it on speaker.

Mei said in a mischievous tone, "You are still not asleep. What are you guys doing so late? Little Brother, I am really impressed by your stamina."

On hearing Mei's words, Xue's face turned red.

Yang Li replied, "Sister you are on speaker. And it's nothing like that, we were just talking."

Mei said giggling, "Just talking! You are useless. What's the use of being young and beautiful if you are just going to talk with a beauty till 3 in the morning?"

Xue's was becoming more flustered by the minute.

Yang Li asked, "Sister are you drunk?"

Mei shouted and said, "YOU are drunk, your whole family is drunk. And Xue you act so fearless when you are alone. Why do you act coy in front of my brother? Just eat him tonight, okay. Y--"

Yang Li quickly cut in and said, "Ok sister GOOD NIGHT. It's very late and you should sleep now."

He then ended the call and looked at Xue. She avoided his gaze as she was still embarrassed by his Mei's call.

Li said, "So, that's enough for today. Now it's very late and you should sleep."

He directed her to a room. Before he left, he said, "As I have said earlier if you become uncomfortable, you should tell me. Although till now there wasn't anything disturbing. However, it may not be so if we continue further. So, remember what I've said. Now go to sleep. GOODNIGHT."

Xue wanted to continue but she realised she could not be impatient. She had learned about his college life tonight. She had to process all the information before going further. She couldn't rush it.

She said, "Goodnight." And went to sleep.

The next morning, she woke up at 9 a.m. Zhou Jin brought her breakfast. She got ready and left the workshop at 10 a.m.

They reached Cinea at noon. Yang Li dropped her at MLH and left for the airport.

Yang Li had received a message in the morning. It was from Mei.

Zhou Shishi was returning from Westphalia today. Her flight would land at 1 p.m. Mei wanted him to pick her up and drop her at his penthouse apartment. She would stay there until she got her own apartment.

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At the airport-

Yang Li had parked his jeep near the exit and waited for Shishi's arrival.

At 1.15 p.m. he saw two girls coming towards him. One of them waved at him. It was Zhou Shishi.

She looked just as beautiful as she did two years ago in Westphalia. She was wearing a yellow T-shirt which was outlining her voluptuous figure. She wore a pair of blue jeans with sneakers.

Yang Li recognized the other girl when he saw her tomboyish look and sandy blonde hair. She was Samantha Ronson, Shishi's colleague. He had met her with Shishi two years ago.

Both the girls greeted Yang Li and Shishi gave him a hug. Then all of them entered the jeep and set off.

On the way, Shishi said to Li, "I see some things haven't changed. You are still hiding your beautiful face."

Yang Li said, "It has just become a habit now. And I heard you will work at MLH."

Shishi giggled and said, "Heheheh…yes I will. Now, sister Mei and you have become my new bosses." Then she animatedly folded her hands and said, "Please take care of me." And then she burst out laughing.

Yang Li grinned. He turned to Samantha and asked her, "So, what about you? Are you here on a holiday?"

Before Samantha could reply Shishi said, "No, she recently resigned from her old hospital. She is looking for a job, so she decided to accompany me. She is open to moving to Colchis. So, she is also going to look for hospitals here."

Yang Li asked Samantha, "So, any particular hospital you are interested in?"

Samantha said with a smile, "Yes, I would like to join Yang Global Hospitals. Sorry, I know they are your competitors but YGH is a global brand and I would love to work in such a hospital."

Yang Li said, "No worries. It's fine. YGH is indeed a very large brand."

They continued to chatter for the rest of the journey. In half an hour they reached the penthouse apartment. After giving Shishi the password to the apartment, Yang Li went back to the workshop.

9 p.m. In Mei's Office-

There were two people sitting on the sofa in Mei's office. One was Mei and the other one was Xue.

Mei had invited Xue for dinner in her office. They had just finished dinner and were having a conversation.

Mei asked, "So, what did you talk about yesterday?"

Xue said, "He continued from where you stopped. He told me about his time in GVSU."

Mei looked her in the eyes and asked, "So, what do you think till now?"

Xue paused a bit and said, "Sister Mei. I think I'm in love with him. I didn't expect to feel this way. I thought that when he tells me about his past, about what he has done, I might feel afraid, disgusted or even repulsed. However, that did not happen. Instead, when I heard him tell his story in such an indifferent manner, I felt a pain in my heart."

"Although he hasn't shown me his worst yet, I believe that whatever he tells me, whatever he shows me, my feelings for him won't change. These are my true feelings."

When Xue looked at Mei, she found that Mei had a beautiful smile on her face. Mei said, "Thank you, Xue. I just hope that your feelings for him remain the same in the future as well."

They continued their conversation.

At 10 p.m. Xue left Mei's office. She still had some work left so she went back to her office. She completed her work by 11.30 p.m. As it was late and she was tired, she decided to stay in her office.

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2 weeks later-

The past 2 weeks had been the busiest for Xue since she had started working. She had surgeries every day and most of them were major operations. In these two weeks, she also had to attend two seminars.

After her first visit to the workshop, she had decided to visit it again in a few days. She wanted to continue her conversation with Yang Li. But because of her schedule and workload, she couldn't do so. However, her conversations with Yang Li had increased in these past 2 weeks. Whenever she was free, she would either talk to him. Yang Li also indulged her all the time. He would send her various snacks and meals every day.

Even Mei was surprised by Yang Li's behavior. When he was with Xue, he was different. However, Mei was happy with this change. He became warmer and more humane.

Soon it was the weekend and Xue let out a sigh of relief. The last two weeks had been very tiring. She had this weekend off. She had already messaged Yang Li that she wanted to visit the workshop again. He told her that he would pick her up in the evening after he finished his work.

It was 9 a.m. and she was still in bed. Suddenly she got a call. When she saw the name, her eyes lit up. It was Qin Ran.

Qin Ran was Bing Xue's only childhood friend. Xue met Qin Ran at the age of 14. She met her in Zijin when she switched schools. Qin Ran was a year junior to Xue. Ran had a weird personality. She was the opposite of Bing Xue. She was a cheery person and was very popular in her class. Despite that she always accompanied Xue. They were as close as real sisters.

After high school, Qin Ran enrolled in GVSU. She did her graduation in Computer Science and her PG in artificial intelligence. She worked in a startup for a year before she left for Uruk's capital Rhone. She worked there for 3 years. Now she was returning to Colchis.

Xue had received a message from her a couple of days ago stating that she would return to Colchis in a month. Since she was young, Qin Ran had always wanted to work for huge corporations like Nexus International or Wang Industries.

Xue picked up the call.

She heard Ran say in a mischievous voice, "Hello my Xue'er!! why did you take so long to pick up my call? Are you with someone??"

Xue said, "STOP talking nonsense early in the morning. You haven't changed at all Huh…. So, when exactly are you coming back?"

Ran giggled and said, "Oh! I know you miss me very much. Don't worry I'll be there in a month."

"So, tell me about the latest gossip, what's new?? Are you dating someone?"

Xue immediately replied, "W-What dating? I'm not."

She heard Ran giggle and say, "You hesitated. So, there is someone…. Tell me about him. Who is it that was finally able to move our stone-cold bitch, Xue??...Hehehehe"

Xue replied bashfully, "There is no one…. not yet." And then as if remembering her words she roared and said, "And who are you calling a stone-cold bitch…you bitch."

The two girls continued to bicker for another 5 minutes before the call ended.

Finally, by 10 a.m. Xue got out of bed and got ready. After she got ready, she didn't go out but lazed around in the house. Yang Li would pick her up at 4 p.m. In the meantime, she decided to cook something for him. Bing Xue was an excellent cook and was proficient in all types of cuisines. She knew Indo and Saian cuisines were Yang Li's favorite. She decided to cook pasta for him. As she had all the ingredients at home, she didn't need to take a trip to the market.

She finished her cooking by 2 p.m. Thereafter, she sat down and watched television while waiting for Yang Li.