Days passed, and Samuel continued to stay and comfort Yaorui. He made sure she ate her three meals and had at least one cry a day. Sometimes he'd help her with some of her work to take off a bit of the burden and sometimes he would sit on the couch staring at her like she was an enchanted fairy. Yaorui was beyond thankful for his help and wished nothing more than for them to remain together forever, whether it was as friends or something more.
Hu Angli was still encased in his own house, his father spared no mercy when teaching him, and neither did his other teachers. Sometimes his sisters would come by to check on him, but nothing he did could get rid of the emptiness he felt. Most of the time, he stayed up late at night to train and study for upcoming tests and events to rid himself of the nightmares that plagued him.
Ran Jiexu was able to get Song Guabo's blessing and approval, he has already started to court Song Gebao. There were times when he visited Lu Sheng Rong to ask for help in courting Gebao and times when he spoke to Yaorui, though those times were few. He really admired the Li family princess for being able to carry all that burden, yet, she was still made time for her friends and family, making sure to visit them every day.
Meanwhile, Lu Sheng Rong was already discharged, she had gone to Yaorui to take off a bit of her burden. She used her engineering abilities to assist and run the construction part of the business, she was also able to help improve the technology department, coming up with new designs and products. She still took her classes online with An Samuel and Li Yaorui.
Mu Jian Nu, spent his days alone wandering around the halls of the school. It'd been three days since students were allowed to attend school once again and all of his friends no longer attended it with him. Girls still threw themselves and him and praised him to no end. But, even with all these people surrounding him, he felt lonely, lost, and forgotten. He missed his friends, he missed the way they endlessly talked about the person they love. He couldn't remember the number of times he started daydreaming about the annoying girl. He wished that he had someone to confide in, to share secrets and reach for help.
While others drowned in their sorrows and others learning to live once again. Samuel's plan was set in motion, with his rival out of his way and his future queen vulnerable and weak. He finally had the chance to conquer his future queen's heart and make her his once and for all. With the help of his sister's love advice and google, he had finally earned a spot right next to his beloved.
_____________________
Yaorui's POV
Day after day, week after week passed, and her family still showed no signs of waking up. Yaorui had lost count of how many times she had cried. How many times, had she walked around her family home wishing to hear the sounds of laughter and bickering? How often did she find herself crying her to sleep? She couldn't remember when she started sleeping at the office to avoid the memories of her family, of the past.
There was not a day that went by that she wished for one of her family member's hands to move, even just a twitch. The only thing that told her that they were alive was the heart monitor next to the frail bodies of her family members.
Eventually, she stopped visiting as much, instead drowned herself in work and school. By now, she had already completed several of her classes onto her sixth degree/master.
There were times when she found herself staring at Samuel, wishing to hear his voice and feel the safe feeling he brought along with his perfect looks. No matter how lonely and hurt she felt, he was always there to fill the space. She found herself wishing for something more than just a friendship.
Sheng Rong was also a big help to her. She was able to help gain the company more profit and raise the bar for other competing companies. Sheng Rong was not always around, but when she was, they would spend their nights together being normal thirteen-year-olds going to the mall just to hang out, having sleepovers, and help each other with homework. Sometimes they spent nights pouring their hearts out, some were spent smiling and laughing the whole way through, and some were quiet and peaceful.
When they had gone to the hospital to visit Yaorui's family and Gebao, they found Gebao surrounded in stuff animals happily cuddling them while being fed a bowl of Sweet Taro soup by the one and only Jiexu.
Now imagine tons of hearts and sparkles, then voila!
Now you know what the two friends felt when they walked into the room overflowing with PDA. Imagine the level of PDA when the two actually become lovebirds!
The two girls shuffled to the seats by the end of the bed and waited patiently for one of the two 'friends' to notice them.
"Ahem,"
"Xiao Sheng, Yaorui Jie? When did you get here?" Gebao looked at them confusedly, all she remember was the taste of Jiexu's homemade soup.
"Twenty minutes ago," Sheng Rong coolly replied.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She whined.
"We didn't want to disturb you two's couple time," Yaorui replied, happy to have the chance to tease Gebao.
While Jiexu's face had visibly brightened, Gebao's face had become red, her face was almost as red as a red envelope[1].
Both girls laughed at their friend's shyness while Ran Jiexu marvelled at her adorable expression.
"Bao Bao~ah! Sister is here!"
"Big sister Ming!" Hu Ming Ou entered Song Gebao's hospital room, followed closely by Song Gua Bo and a bodyguard carrying loads of shopping bags.
"What happened here? I was only gone for three days and look at how many stuffies you have! How about you give one to Big Sister one, hmmm?" She had always loved stuffies, especially ones like the ones on Gebao's bed. The stuffies that surrounded Gebao were limited edition ones from her favourite stuffy brand, she had stayed up for three nights in a row to get her hands on at least one of them, but they were sold out the second it came out! She was truly devastated when she learned of this.
"No!" Gebao possessively wrapped her arms around her precious stuffies, "Jiexu got them for me! Mine!" She pouted and hugged her gifts tight.
"If you wanted them, you could have told me," Song Guabo looked at his fiance with a sour face. "So this was why she stayed up three days straight," he thought.
"I was mad at you, remember? You ate the cake that I baked for your sister!"
"Only I can have your food,"
"Hmph," Ming Ou harrumphed and turned away from her dense finance.
"Hello? Lee Chen, get me every single stuffed toy from Serendipity Toys, you have an hour to get it delivered to Ming Ming's place, or I'll cut all of your bonuses for the year." When Song Guabo finished with his call, he looked at a fiance with a look that seemed to say:
"Praise me, love me,"
And Hu Ming Ou did not disappoint, the minute the call ended, she jumped into his arms and kissed Guabo all over his face, leaving several lipstick marks, and a lovesick puppy.
"Thank you, Guabo~ah! I love you!"
"What are the shopping bags for?" Gebao had curiosity written all over her face.
"Ah-right! You are going to be discharged today, so I went out and bought a few clothes that would look adorable on you and your boyfriend," Hu Ming Ou happily clapped and signalled for the guard to bring the shopping bags over.
Gebao blushed again, "We aren't a couple,"
"Not yet, now pick a colour. Blue, pink, or white?" Ming Ou held up three articles of clothing for Gebao to chose from.
The first one was a baby blue knee-length chiffon dress that had both and elegant and playful vibe to it. The second one had a pastel pink sleeveless blouse with white jean shorts. The last one was a white crop top matched with ripped black jeans and a long gray cardigan.
"Pink,"
"Good pick, here, go get changed while I sort out your boyfriend's clothes."
"We're not-,"
"Go!" Gebao pouted and left with Yaorui and Sheng Rong right behind her.
____________________
While Sheng Rong and Gebao went to the bathroom to change, Yaorui made her way towards her family's own private ward.
The first people she visited was her parents, they shared a room together, their heartbeats beating the same rhythm. Her mother, Li Kanghui, was a beautiful woman. She still looked ethereal in her sleep, her mother, like many other daughters' was her idol, the one person they strived to be when they grew up.
Li Fu Ning was a businessman, an amazing one at that. During the times his wife was pregnant, he only spent three of seven days a week working, yet the company still got better! Her father also loved her a lot, she remembered when she was still a toddler, she would steal her mother's phone and call her father. Her words were still unclear and sounded mostly like gibberish. That didn't bother Li Fu Ning though, he stayed on the phone with her for hours, happily cooing at her. Her father was also a very persistent and handsome man, with looks that could only be compared with her uncle and his wife.
Next, she visited her paternal grandparents, Li Feishu and Zhao Huizhong. They were both forced into marriage by their families but had come to love each other as time passed. By the time they had their first son, Li Fu Ning, they were madly in love, and they remain so till this day.
After about ten minutes of waiting by their sides, Li yaorui moved onto her maternal parents.
Her maternal parents met on the battlefield. It wasn't like the classic, "We can't be together because we are supposed to be enemies," it was more of "Hey, you hate this guy? Well, I do too! Let's get married," type of thing.
They were the type to be cutely bickering all the time but get insanely jealous when the other's attention was on someone else, which only led to more bickering. Yaorui always found it amusing when her grandparents were like that, it never failed to make her laugh. She smiled sadly at the memory.
The next couple she visited was her aunt and uncle. They met in the military as regular newbie soldiers. Back then, they had met by accident when both parties were sneaking out. Her aunt had always hated being cooped up in the barracks, so she often snuck out. While her uncle was more on the uptight side and was forced along by his bunkmates.
Their relationship started with a bet, her uncle had to beat her aunt in a series of tests for her aunt, Wang Xiuying, to go on a date with her uncle, Zhou Li Jie. It took him twenty tries for him to win against the enticing woman.
As Yaorui made her way to her next stop, a group of doctors and nurses ran into another room.
Wait.
This was her family ward!.
Panicked, she ran towards the group of medical experts.
"Excuse me!" She grabbed onto a nurse's arm, "What happened? How come you are all rushing towards my brother's room?"
"Miss, the patient has awoken,"