Once Li Lian came back home with Li Jun Wei, he led her to make a call using a different phone then the one he often uses. Pushing the buttons numbers, his eyes met her spry ones to pass the phone toward Li Lian who was standing right beside him.
Li Lian took the phone her face having little worries forming on her eyes. It had been years since she last talked alone with her grandfathers. Although Old Master Ryouma was the head of Ryouma Clan and the title often bring him as a strict and frightening figure in fact, the man was a very gentle person.
She could still remember the first time she met her grandfather. It was when Li Lian was thrown in an unknown place in Japan by her kidnappers to be found by the people who lived not too far from the place where she was abandoned at. With no clue to her origin or family, the people who found her tried to talk to her but Li Lian could not understand the single words they used and was instantly taken in by the orphanage.
Although the people on the orphan were people with best interest to the children without parents, she was always in constant worries and fear. Her fear surged from the kidnapping accident and the sudden change of her environment where she could not find her parents or people she knows. She felt like a child thrown to a dark box with no light and the fear ate the little Li Lian's heart away.
One day as she was unable to keep the fear on her own in deep dark when she dreamt a nightmare, she ran away from the orphanage without being found out by the orphanage caretakers who was also sleeping by the time.
At that time, the Old Master Ryouma had just came after his work in the nearby place when he was attacked by people who wanted to take his life. It was nothing new to him since his earliest age of fifteen he had been hunted by hitmen sent from people from different clans and families that he had somehow expected the attack as his trip was sudden.
The people of his group had finished wrapping the hitmen when he met a girl who was running away from the orphanage. She was alone, her face was delicate but malnourished where her fingers were brittle and her body was full of wounds and scar that came after her kidnapping. When Li Lian glanced up craning her neck to see the old man, she also caught the sight of men being beaten up behind him and shrieked in fear.
The Old Master raised his hand to the little girl but the girl immediately swatted his hand for her to clasp her hand that had slapped the old man's hand away in fear to realize she had done a big mistake. Once when she was kidnapped this happens and she was beaten mercilessly by the man. She recalled the incident of abuses for her eyes to shake in fear and tears flooded out.
The old man reached out his hand again and this time she shut her eyes tight expecting pain that will come across her skin but as time passes, she felt nothing. When she opened her eyes, she took a clear view of the old man's face that was covered by the shadow the whole time.
The Old Master bent his knees to the ground, his smile was gentle and warm as he said, "Don't worry I will not hurt you." The old man said in Chinese language that she understood clearly. The touch of kindness was something she didn't expect. Her tears she held on her eyes finally looses control.
Just then, Li Lian felt a sensation of warm hand covering her fingers. Looking up she found Li Jun Wei adding a smile to his lips. His oval lips which was full and even in the color of dusky red, parted gently to bring her closer. "Are you nervous?"
She nodded, "It's had been years since we last talk alone and the last time we met each other it was not a good time."
"Not a good time?" he questioned her words.
"I decided to go back to China to find my real parents but grandfather said I can live with my family and when I met them he removed my name from Ryouma to his best friend which is my foster mother." she replied, "I didn't want to have my name removed from Ryouma. Grandfather, Shun, Shin, Kei, and everyone in Ryouma Clan has become my family and I oppose his order for the first time and said that I will not find my parents anymore. But grandfather-" Li Lian trailed with sadness on her clear black eyes, "-he wanted me to have a complete family to go back to where I belong."
Li Jun Wei took her fingers closer and his left hand moved to bring her back forward. Li Lian felt him pushing her forward and she placed her right hand on her desk as she stopped in front of him.
"And you are afraid he is disappointed of you?" Li Jun Wei was blunt to his words like the person he was. She pressed a small smile on her lips nodding,
"I can't say I was a great granddaughter. Even though he had done much for me, protecting me with all he could I-" she smiled for her eyes to turn cold, "-instead of choosing a great family who loved me, I chose a family who could cold heartedly rejoice on my death and threw me away."
"It wasn't your fault." he cooed with his gentle tone that made her heart melted. "Your grandfather he would never blame you. I know that you only want to see your family. You said you was kidnapped, didn't you? I know that you went back to China to reassure your real parents that you are still alive." There was a pang that hit her heart. Not a pain pang but a soft and warm one that her tears fell to drop down on Li Jun Wei's trouser, coloring the already dark color deeper like a touch of an ink.