The Peak
Lily stared at the hues of green in her eyes. She watched as the trees danced, choreographed by the warm wind of an early summer morning. It wasn’t even eight in the morning and Lily could already feel the heat tingle against her skin.
“August is coming.” She uttered. “The rain will come soon.” August in Hong Kong is known to have at least two or three typhoons. Lily used to have a problem with rains. However now, she is actually excited to spend her time languidly lying in her king-size bed with Zhou Jingren as they listen to the rain outside of the mansion.
“How is London?” Lily turned towards Cathy who was sitting at the wrought-iron chair opposite her.
“As usual.” Cathy shrugged as she sipped her coffee. She turned towards the view outside of the terraces. “This is an exquisite spot.”
“Hmmm. I liked the view the most.” Lily answered, she took one croissant and put it on her plate. “George is recovering pretty well.”
“That is good,” Cathy said. “To be honest, Arison Holdings have a different custom than Facci Group. It is tiring, to say the least.”
“Given that you are managing Arison Holdings and still helping out with Facci Group, it is only natural that you will feel tired.” Lily smiled. “However, with your current schedule… I was not expecting that you will come to Hong Kong just for a visit.”
“I heard that you were asking questions about Lilian.”
Lily pursed her lips in response. She already asked Yang Mi to make inquiries about the letter and flash drive that Jiang Ruo gave her. She already guessed that this was the reason why Cathy is willing to drop everything just to come to see her.
“I am curious,” Lily uttered. “I mean… now that I met someone from my grandfather’s family… I realized that I knew nothing about grandmother and grandfather’s past. Aside from the basic.” She lied. Except for Zhou Jingren, Lily didn’t show that image to anyone else. Not even to Yang Mi.
For now, Lily wanted to keep everything a secret. After all, she does not even know if she has something. However, just like what the flash drive stated, Lily indeed remember the same photo as the one that Yu Helong found. Now… this alone is not really enough to warrant any suspicion. Lilian is a prominent figure, it is only natural that she was invited.
Also, Old Man Yu might be a struggling businessman at that time. However, no one really knows about his connections in Europe. The images are not enough evidence for them to assume that her grandmother and Old Man Yu might be acquainted.
What bother’s Lily is the art in the Old Man’s study. His wedding portrait that had the same stroke and art style as Lilian and her grandfather’s photo. Now that Lily thought about it… a lot of portraits on Lilian’s mansion have the same art style.
“I understand the curiosity. However… Lilian is a very private woman. If you want to know more about her then… you should probably go back to the mansion and try to check her office. Maybe she left something… a safe or something else.” Cathy said.
Lily remove her eyes from the greeneries in front of them as she looked at Cathy. “Surely… you wouldn’t just come here to tell me that, right?” she asked.
“You are always so smart.” Cathy let out a low chuckle. She finished her coffee and smiled at Lily. “I want to tell you that the past belongs to the past. There is no point… looking through it. I think we should focus on the future instead.”
Her statement instantly made Lily lift an eyebrow.
“And before you assume that I know something…. Let me tell you now.” Cathy interrupted the words that she wanted to ask. “I don’t.” She added. “But as I said… your grandmother is very secretive. I just… maybe I deduced some things. That is all.”
Lily nodded. Understanding flashed in her eyes. Her grandmother is indeed a very secretive woman. Lily always feeling so far away from her grandmother. It was as if… she was so near yet so far away from Lily.
She recalled Lilian’s experienced eyes as she looked at Lily. Unlike other people, Lilian’s gaze does not really intimidate Lily. Maybe it was because of the tinge of pity swirling in her orbs every time she looked at Lily. Or maybe because… at that time, Lily had experienced a lot of terrible things to fear a weak old woman like Lilian.
“Well then… do you know someone close to grandmother?” Lily does not really remember her grandmother meeting her friends for coffee or tea. That is, aside from the people who helped Lily. Like George and Mr. Rossi as well as Cathy and Yang Mi. There was also the doctor who helped Lily.
Now that she thought about it, she never actually met someone whom her grandmother was close to. She had not even met anyone from the Facci Family! At first, Lily didn’t bother thinking about this as she does not have the time to do so. She was busy running a company and… scheming against people that she never cared about things like this.
However, now that she is idle, she had all the time to think about the things that she missed before.
“Honestly? No.” Cathy laughed. “It’s weird, right?” Seeing Lily nod at her words, she continued. “Well… she had a driver before. But… I think he already passed before Lilian passed last year. Also… the butler in the mansion. Aside from those two? I can’t think of anyone else.” Cathy let out a sigh.
“Now that I thought about it… Lilian had a lot of acquaintances but I met no one of her friends.” Cathy added, her face devoid of any expression as she met Lily’s eyes that were identical to Lilian’s.
Lily turned silent. In their world, friends are considered a luxury. People that will stand behind your back no matter what happened are rare. She shifted her gaze back to the tress in front of the mansion.
Questions and more questions.
They piled up in her head like a stack of paper, waiting for her to read them. However, the more she read those papers, the more confused she got. The more she asked questions, the more she realized that her grandmother was a very mysterious person… just like Old Man Yu.
….
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