Since Xian Guiying was too embarrassed to talk about her feelings, she only watched Qin Gengxin work very meticulously and acutely, and not even once, he noticed the change in her at all.
From the very beginning, Xian Guiying had always been by his side, so he had accustomed to her being with him.
Until a few months later, Qin Corporation held a project collaboration with a multinational finance company in Manhattan. This project had always been one of Qin Corporation's much-needed projects, and after two years of trying, they still couldn't succeed.
It was Xian Guiying who accompanied Qin Gengxin to Manhattan.
The CEO of the corporation loved to drink, and although Qin Gengxin was good at alcohol, he was a little tipsy when they finally settled the contract.
It was on that day that Xian Guiying found out about Qin Gengxin's secret.
At that time, he was lying prone on the busy streets of Manhattan, holding a phone in his hand. However, he kept moving the phone around in his hands and didn't say anything for a long time.
Xian Guiying thought he felt sick from drinking too much or had a headache. While he was still silent, she went to a nearby pharmacy and bought some medicine to relieve the discomfort after drinking too much. She even brought a cup of water she asked from the pharmacy.
"Does your head hurt? Or does your stomach feel uncomfortable?" She placed the cup of water in front of him and brought the medicine to his mouth. "Drink this, you would feel better."
"It's alright. I'm not feeling well because of alcohol." Qin Gengxin seemed to be sober, but he's a little drunk. It wasn't because he couldn't walk, it was just that he was suddenly filled with a kind of sadness that she had never seen from him before.
This wasn't the Qin Gengxin she knew. During these years, although it couldn't be said that she had watched him go through storms and rain, she at least understood his temperament and knew that he wasn't someone who would be sad so easily.
Yet, seeing him leaning against the wall like that, Xian Guiying had no idea what Qin Gengxin was thinking.
"Then where are you unwell?" Qin Gengxin said that he was not feeling well not because of the alcohol, which meant that he really did not feel well.
Xian Guiying stood beside him with a worried expression. She raised her hand to his forehead and then felt the temperature.
His temperature was normal and it didn't appear like he caught a cold.
"My heart is in pain. Because she's still young and her wings aren't fully full, so some things are always limited. I thought to myself that I just need to wait for a year or two, but she's not waiting for me. She's gone. There's been no news about her for half a year. She has left me completely." Qin Gengxin pulled on his shirt collar, looking a little irritated.
"Maybe she'll be happier if she leaves." He raised his head and sighed. "But she's only seventeen and has no parents to take care of her, and she also has a sixteen years old brother with her. How will she live? How does she survive?"
Xian Guiying didn't quite understand what he was talking about. She quietly sat by his side, looking at his tightly knitted eyebrows with a puzzled expression.
In her impression, Qin Gengxin was a man who likes to laugh. Not only did he often made her laugh until her stomach ached, he even made the female employees at his company laughed relentlessly.
When he was serious, it's really scary, but when he was in a good mood, he didn't have the slightest bit of arrogance as the Vice President of Qin Corporation.
No matter how difficult or troublesome something was, he wouldn't frown like this.
But now, what was he talking about? Who made his eyebrows furrowed like this?
Xian Guiying vaguely remembered that two months before the Spring Festival, she heard that Qin Gengxin's father, Qin Xiaowen, was the chairman and president of Qin Corporation in G City. Although the complete power did not fall into Qin Gengxin's own hand, the entire Qin's was his responsibility. This was independent experiential learning that had been given to him by his father since he was eighteen years old.
Qin Gengxin also did very well because in the three years since he took over Qin Corporation, the first step he took was smarter and wiser than his father.
He was called home by Qin Xiaowen at the Spring Festival almost every year, and this year, when he returned from China, he was in a bad mental state for half a month.
Xian Guiying had asked his secretary and found out that Qin Gengxin had lost a lot of weight during that time, and then he rushed back to China for a week and returned to Boston a week later.
When he returned, he suddenly became very quiet. In the span of two months, his temper had become inexplicably irritable.
No one dared to ask what happened to him. Xian Guiying could feel that he seemed to be filled with feelings of helplessness and unwillingness, and whenever she asked him if he was happy when he returned to the Spring Festival, he would always avoid this topic. His expression became very cold.
Since then, she knew that Spring Festival was a sensitive topic for Qin Gengxin. No matter who brought the topic up, he will not look good and become colder. So no one brought it up anymore.
After half a year, even Xian Guiying almost forgot about it.
However, watching him suddenly leaned so sorrowfully against this place, with the body full smell of alcohol, her heart ached. She stood beside him and silently looked at him.
"This, she …" Xian Guiying asked carefully while looking at his expression, "Who is it?"
Even though she's not yet 20 years old, a woman's instincts were too sharp, and her sixth sense too strong. Unconsciously, she felt that this 'she' should be a woman.
Qin Gengxin drank too much that day and had no intention of hiding anything. He didn't answer her question at first but only looked at the passing car silently. After so long, he exhaled and said in a deep voice, "I've wanted to protect someone since I was young."
Xian Guiying's expression gradually tensed. "Is it a girl?"
Qin Gengxin nodded. "Yes, a girl, two years younger than you. The first time I met her, I was eight years old. Being weak and standing alone was not what she wanted, but fate had given her a lot of injustice. Maybe every man has a kind with a sense of sympathy and heart to protect the weak. I once thought that I also felt moderate sympathy for her. Only later did I find out that such care had already exceeded my expectations."
"If it wasn't for the fact that my parents didn't like me interfering in other people's affairs and not wanting to bring disaster upon myself, I would have left with her a long time ago. Before I was sent to America by my parents, I swore that I would save her from the family when my wings were full and I was no longer restrained by my parents. At that time, before I left, I made her wait for me to return."
"I thought that when the time was right, I would definitely bring her out."
"Perhaps it was because I was too confident from the beginning and thought that she would always be harassed by others in the yard, waiting for me to save her. However, I forgot the stubbornness and self-esteem in her bones. I watched she's being bullied for more than ten years. In the end, she resisted, but the result was … She disappeared from everyone's sight. I can't even find her."
"She just left. I don't even know if she's still alive or not." Qin Gengxin taunted himself as he spoke.
At the time, Xian Guiying stood next to him and didn't say anything for a long time, but she faintly heard him saying, "She was called Jiang Ruolan. When I was in school, I always purposely called her a wrong name and she always angrily hit me with her textbook."
"Jiang Ruolan. She is the Jiang Ruolan in my heart. She is here." Qin Gengxin raised his hand and pointed to his own heart before turning to look at the silent Xian Guiying.
He then scoffed. "But I lost her. I'm still late. When I rushed back, she's gone! She's not waiting for me! What should I do?! I've sent so many people to help me find her, but they can't find her! Do you think she's still alive?"
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A/N: In the next few chapters, it will be filled with flashbacks. I used Italic when writing about these flashbacks, but alas, it didn't appear at all in the apps. I wanted you to know how the story between Xian Guiying and Qin Gengxin began. Writing this story made me missed Ruolan and Zihao… ╥﹏╥
