Think Of Me
Li WangJin sat across from He Ming, his voice serious. "You have already completed the 'Snow by the River'?"
"Snow by the River" was Xu FangWeng's most famous painting. Rumor had it that a secret magnate bought it at an auction for ¥560M. A magnate from Hong Kong wanted to buy it once for ¥1B but failed.
Li WangJin had dropped his work to rush over precisely for this today. He had been working with He Ming for years, but something of this magnitude was the first time.
He Ming nodded and said, "It will be done in the next few days. Do you want it? If not, I am going to sell it to someone else. I have others reaching out to me already."
He Ming had helped Li WangJin transfer his wealth over the years but also sold his forged works to others.
Li WangJin sat up. The most he had taken out of the company's account in the past was only tens of millions, and he had slowly built up the amount. If he wanted ¥1B all at once… he wondered if Fang JunRong would agree.
He recalled how Fang JunRong had been colder and colder to him as of late. She had further tried to insert her nephew into the company in the last couple of days. It was obvious that she had already started to move in and tried to take over some control of the company. He made a split-second decision. "Okay. On top of this 'Snow by the River,' what else have you got? Let's make it an even ¥1.5B."
Li WangJin trusted He Ming not to betray him because he had He Ming's only son under his control, and He Ming's son was important to him. A shareholder wanted to sell some of his stocks…once he got this money, he could buy the stock from the shareholder. Then his ownership would way surpass that of Fang JunRong's.
He Ming hesitated for a while and said, "Let me see what I can do."
¥1.5B, from what he was told, if all went well, she would not only send him and his son overseas, she would give him ¥10M. She was way more generous than Li WangJin. All these years that he had been painting for Li WangJin, he had only made several million yuan. Plus…he remembered a friend who also used to paint for Li WangJin; but he disappeared one day. He Ming didn't want the same thing to happen to him.
Li WangJin smiled and said, "Don't worry. I will arrange for your son to get into the best school and help send him overseas."
He Ming lowered his head, his voice filled with gratitude when he said, "Thank you so much."
Under the table, he balled his hands into fists.
He looked up suddenly and said, "Oh, right. A friend of mine saw a woman that looked a lot like Wang SiEr overseas. He swung by my place a few days ago and recognized her from my pictures."
Li WangJin had taken Wang SiEr's pictures and had He Ming paint a few of them in the past. There were still a few in the studio, so He Ming was not unfamiliar with Wang SiEr.
Li WangJin's eyes widened in shock. The muscles in his cheeks twitched a little, making him look somewhat vicious. "Are you serious? How is that possible?" As though remembering something, he asked, "Where was she?"
"In Country R."
That's right. SiEr had a twin sister. He heard she had left the country a few years ago. That could very well be her.
"How is she doing?" He let out a slight sigh. She was, after all, SiEr's sister. Before she passed away, SiEr missed her the most. He was willing to help her out if she needed any help.
He Ming said to him, "She lives next door to my friend. Things haven't been going well for her. Word had it that her husband had a lot of debt and cheated on her. She jumped through hoops to finally divorce him; since she's pretty she was bullied by the natives."
Having heard that, Li WangJin got even more worried. He said solemnly, "Give me her address. I will have someone go pick her up."
For SiEr, he could keep her sister close to him and look after her.
He Ming handed Li WangJin a piece of paper.
Li WangJin took the paper from him and added, "Starting today, each of your paintings will go from ¥50,000 to ¥60,000."
His tone was condescending like he was doing him a favor.
"Thank you, Boss Li."
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Li WangJin quickly had someone go and bring Wang SiXian, the sister of Wang SiEr, back to China. Country R was only a few hours of plane ride from City S. Li WangJin decided to meet with Wang SiXian the next day.
Wang SiXian and Wang SiEr, being twins, looked a lot alike. So much so that Li WangJin felt that Wang SiEr had risen from the dead when he met her.
When Wang SiXian saw him, tears rolled down her face as she walked up and put her arms around him.
Li WangJin felt slightly embarrassed. His first reaction was to push her away, but when her tears fell on his neck, he felt how hot they were. It was like they had fallen directly onto his heart. He didn't push her away but patted her gently on her back.
"It's alright. You are back. I will protect you, for your sister. You can think of me like an older brother."
"Thank you. Thank you so much." Wang SiXian breathed into his neck and gave him an odd sensation.
She told him everything that had happened to her over the years; they were truly tear-jerking stories. Coming from her directly, it was so much worse than how He Ming had mentioned them. Wang SiXian's ex-husband was not only addicted to gambling and cheated on her, there was also domestic violence, leading to two miscarriages.
"Why didn't you get a divorce sooner?" Li WangJin blurted out. When Wang SiXian was crying, she looked exactly like her sister, making it impossible for him to pretend he hadn't seen it.
Wang SiXian just bit her lower lips and refused to elaborate on it, as though there was something there that she didn't want to touch upon.
Li WangJin did not pry. He took her to a 3-bedroom house. Lao Suen, Li WangJin's chauffeur, had been working for Li WangJin for years. He was very good at keeping secrets, even from Fang JunRong. Li WangJin trusted him a lot.
After arriving at their destination, Wang SiXian dropped her purse as she stepped out of the car. Her wallet fell out and flipped open when it hit the ground. Li WangJin bent over to pick it up for her and saw the pictures inside.
There was a picture on each side. One was young Li WangJin. He was handsome back then in an intelligent way. He was standing under a tree with a report in hand.
The other one was Wang SiXian and a man. The man looked similar to Li WangJin.
Wang SiXian quickly took her purse from Li WangJin and looked away, face and neck flustered. Whether that was from the weather or something else, nobody knew.
"Was that your husband?"
Wang SiXian's voice was very soft, "…yes."
Li WangJin wasn't an idiot, and he was especially sharp when it came to stuff like this. The two pictures pointed toward
No wonder. No wonder it had taken her so long to get a divorce.
His speculation made him look at her reflexively, his look was complicated.
When Li WangJin returned home, his steps were more relaxed and cheerful than usual. Today, he felt like he had traveled to when he was young. That was a wonderful feeling, warm and bubbly like he had too much wine. It was an enveloping and light-headed sensation.
Once he stepped inside, he saw his wife sitting on the couch, leafing through a magazine with their other adopted daughter, Zhong Yi. Even though Zhong Yi had already been there for a few days, she spent most of her time inside her room and never had a strong sense of presence. Most of the time, Li WangJin had forgotten that he had another adopted daughter other than YaGe.
"Are you guys looking at a magazine?" He scanned them over; it seemed to be a fashion magazine.
Fang JunRong looked up, the corners of her mouth lifted, and she said to him, "Zhong Yi and I are picking out a few dresses that she likes. When the samples arrive, I'll have her try it on, then custom fit it to her size."
Li WangJin immediately thought of Jiang YaGe. "Is YaGe not home? Did you ask her if she wants any?" He said in a joking tone, "I know you like Zhong Yi better, but they are both our kids. You should be fair to both of them and not play favorites."
He didn't like Zhong Yi. Probably because Zhong Yi was the cause of Jiang YaGe being embarrassed the first day she was there. Plus, he felt that the closer his wife was to her, the more distant his wife was to him. That made him dislike her even more.
Fang JunRong thought, oh yeah, you are the last person who should be saying that.
The smile on her was perfect, tone suggestive, "It's not appropriate for YaGe."
"And why not?" Seeing that JunRong was giving YaGe the shorter end of the stick, Li WangJin assumed he needed to step in and do something about it.
Fang JunRong said slowly, "I planned to introduce Zhong Yi at XinYun's birthday banquet. That's why we need her to dress up nicely."
"Wouldn't YaGe need that too?"
Fang JunRong chuckled as though she was laughing at how childish he was. The way she looked at him like he was a fool made him uneasy.
"Don't you remember? That was the anniversary of her parents' death. It has only been a year. YaGe should show some respect to her parents. I don't think it will be appropriate for her to attend the banquet. We wouldn't want her to be sad at the banquet, so I have decided to have her stay elsewhere that day. I am just trying to be mindful of her feelings." She took everything that Li WangJin had said before and flung them right back at his face.
Li WangJin's face turned beet red, then from red to green. Except that Fang JunRong used everything that he had said before. If he contradicted it now, he'd be slapping his own face.
Instead, he forced on a strained smile, "Oh, yeah, I completely forgot. You're so thoughtful."
He even said to Zhong Yi, "Pick all the ones you like. We can always just buy them all."
Hearing his words, Zhong Yi looked up and smiled at him."Thank you, Dad." She looked back down and continued leafing through the magazine.
Li WangJin watched the two of them discussing which style of dresses were pretty and felt that it was very unfortunate for YaGe. Many guests would be here on XinYun's birthday, so it would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce YaGe. Now he would have to plan something else in the future.
His dampened mood improved when he thought about Wang SiXian again. Now that Wang SiXian was back in the country, she could meet up with YaGe more often and help comfort YaGe.