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CHAPTER 346
"WHAT!" Yin Lifen could not believe the extent to which her friend could go just for….
Well if in her shoes, she could not say she may not have done the same. At least with a contract marriage, she still had the freedom to live her life and not spend it with someone she did not like.
"I know. It sounds crazy."
"Yes, and you were not one to do the crazy things. What has gramps done to you in my absence?"
"Nothing actually, Yin Lifen."
"How can you say nothing when you are clearly in this situation?" Yin Lifen snapped at her friend.
Li Jing took in a deep breath. She wished her friend would understand already.
"I… You need to understand from his own perspective. He feels that he is doing the right thing and securing a better future for me."
"Yes I understand but we are not in the stone age anymore and that is not how to secure a better future for your own grandchild. Can't he learn?"
"Gramps is as stubborn as a mule. That was why when Ye Cheng proposed it, I agreed to it."
"But how is he by the way? Does he still look in love with you?"
"I do not know as most things we did was just for show to the public to act that we are happily married."
0_0
"Damn it, Li Jing. Just kill me. Ye Cheng doesn't love you?"
"This is not a love marriage," Li Jing corrected.
"But you entered it because…"
'It would save me what I do not want," Li Jing cut in quickly.
"Who are you trying to deceive, Li Jing, yourself or me?"
She sighed again before speaking. "Yin Lifen look…"
"No, answer the question. You think I do not know you agreed to this because you are in love with him?"
"Fine. I would rather have a fake marriage with the man I love than enter a real marriage with someone I have no feelings for," Li Jing confessed.
"What are you doing to yourself? Hoping he would fall in love again? Li Jing!"
A few people in the restaurant turned in their direction due to Yin Lifen yelling her name.
"Sorry," she mouthed to the customers and leaned in close on the table to talk quietly this time. "Li Jing, don't get me wrong, I am just afraid you would get hurt by your own ploy."
"If that is the case then let it be. At least I have control of my life in the process."
Yin Lifen was utterly speechless at her friend's words. What was it that Li Jing was doing to herself? She could not fathom what was running through the mind of her friend at that moment.
"For your sake Li Jing, I hope nothing goes wrong."
"Trust me on this, it won't, okay?" Li Jing assured Yin Lifen. She wore her beautiful smile again as though nothing was happening but on a closer look at things, something really was happening to her on the inside.
How quickly had her once a bit peaceful life just gone down the drain?
"By the way, have you told your grandfather?" Yin Lifen suddenly asked out of the blue.
The look in her friend's eyes gave her away that she had not yet spoken to her grandfather.
"Not yet."
"Li Jing."
"What do you want me to say to him? He would be devastated yet again. He would think I am leaving and abandoning him just like what my mother did."
"But then that is nobody's fault but his. He brought all this upon himself. Your auntie did warn him, you know."
Li Jing did not have what to say to that effect. She was tired of the whole thing and just wanted more than anything to be able to live her life in peace.
While both of them stared at each other, not sure of what the next moment was going to bring, Li Jing's phone began to ring.
At the same time, both she and Yin Lifen averted their gaze to the phone to look at the caller.
Slowly Yin Lifen turned her gaze from the phone to her friend. She was so tempted to say, 'Speaking of the devil' but she decided to lock up and watch what her friend wanted to do.
The phone rang the first time but Li Jing failed to answer the call. Still, Yin Lifen refused to say a word. It was when it rang for a third time that she was forced to actually speak about it.
"You might want to answer the call sooner or later and know that the longer you prolong the problem, the more it doesn't go but pile up for you. You said so yourself, you do not want him thinking that you left him just like your mother. What do you call ignoring his calls, change? Face it now and do not procrastinate this further."
"Fine."
She took her phone and answered the call. "Hello, good morning grandpa."
"Li Jing, how could you do this to me too?"
"Grandfather." She felt a bit heartbroken hearing him say those words to her.
"You did not think of consulting me yet you did what you did. Is that how much you hate me? I have been calling you and you also refused to pick your calls, then again you shut me out like this?"
"Grandfather, it is not that I hate you. I just needed to be able to make my own decisions."
"I love you and that is why I did what I did. It was for the betterment of your future. Anyways I am here in Star City. I want to see you today."
"Grandfather, I would come and see you some other time but today is packed full with a lot of things to do," Li Jing lied.
Well, it was not a total lie but it wasn't at all the entire truth either.
"Li Jing!" Lin Zian was surprised by what she was saying.
"Just bear with me. I need to fix a lot of things at the office first."
"Fine then but why did you refuse your wedding with Kim Fan? I do not want you close to that Ye Cheng who had brought so much trouble into your life. What kind of life would you be living? I picked a suitable suitor for you but you just did not appreciate my choice. Do you want to be like your mother?"
Hearing that statement, Li Jing's face darkened. She did not want her mother to be brought into this issue but now he just did. She had kept quiet when she should have spoken since on the matter but now, not anymore.
"Keep mother out of it, grandpa."
"And why should I? Can't you see you are following in her footsteps? Huh? If you still want to see me, you would have to divorce him."
"What!" It was Li Jing's turn to yell. She did not even care about the customers there and what they would think.
Her displeasure and anger were clearly written on her face and no waiter wanted to be the pone to take any query from a customer so they all left her alone.
"You know what I am coming over right now."
With that, she ended the call before he could say anything else. How could he bring her mother into this and classify both situations as the same?
Yes to an extent it was especially when the causal factor was him and the Kims.
But now he blames her and her mother. She could not stand for it or take it anymore. She had told herself be it friend or foe, she was not going to stand for anything like that against her again.
Yin Lifen brows furrowed at her. She may not have heard Li Jing's grandfather's words but from the response and reaction from her friend, she knew that things were indeed going out of hand.
But in all, her instincts told her that Li Jing would be able to handle it nonetheless.
"You good?"
"No."
"I know. He is not approving of the union. He wouldn't actually."
"That is not just the problem. Gramps is linking the incidents like it is the case of De Javu. Unlike my mother that ran away, I am not going to run from this issue anymore and face it head-on."
"That's my girl."
"I need to go, Fen Fen. We would see some other time."
"Just be good and do not let anyone brainwash you or talk to capture your sympathy. Just be you and stand for what you want."
"Noted. Bye, girlfriend."
A magnificent smile appeared on her face and when she got one from Yin Lifen as well, she knew that she was good to go.
Without battling an eyelid, Li Jing took the first step and walked out of the restaurant. Li Jing wasted no time, boarded her car and drove off in the direction of her grandfather's house.
