"So your family never found out?" he asked as he munched on his popcorn. He had taken her piece of advice quite seriously.
"Well, she was quite good at it. My second brother saw through her only because I had already told him about my plans beforehand.
Everything was going on perfectly until she decided to leave the country. I had been avoiding her for months and made her trapped in my life. It's all my fault, actually." she sighed.
"It happened after her divorce with Lu Aotian. At first she tried to convince my parents to let her leave the country for a year or two, to move on after getting divorced. She was going to use the chance to leave and never return." Yun Xuan didn't mention that the girl wanted to leave because she was pregnant. She was going to keep her promise of never mentioning her pregnancy all the way to the grave.
"Well, as you know my parents, always being protective and all, they rejected the suggestion and would only allow it if she returned home once every month and if she went with some arranged servants and bodyguards. Urgh, too much 'protection'
Anyway, she knew that would never work as she only wanted to escape so she asked my brother to call me. She said that if I didn't appear within a week she was going to tell the family the truth.
I thought it was one of those paper-tiger threats of hers. Sigh, I didn't take it seriously, so she really told my mother the truth."
"Only your mother?"
"That was the only safe way to leave. If my father and other brothers knew about it then the consequences would have been unimaginable. Especially my father, he would skin her alive."
Yun Xuan was not aware that her father found out ages ago.
"So not even your father knew?"
"He found out eventually. The consequences were extreme. Actually she was just lucky that my mother took a liking to her kindness and gentleness so she begged my father to let her live. Otherwise she would have died on that day."
Tyler held his chin. It seemed really dramatic. He could picture how Yun Xuan was found wherever she was and dragged home to be welcomed by punishment and lecture.
"Oh, by the way, why did she and Lu Aotian divorce? Didn't you say she liked him? And did he ever find out? How did he react?" He rattled off questions.
"From what she told me later, Lu Aotian found out long before they divorced but he had fallen in love with her already so they stayed together...and their reason for divorcing, she said it was personal and didn't tell me."
Tyler sighed. "You guys have quite a dramatic life story. You should turn it into a tv series or novel. It would have quite some views."
"Silly" she smacked his head.
"Oh right, how did the two of you even end up as friends after all that?"
"How did you know we ended as friends?" she raised an eyebrow.
He chuckled." Isn't that quite obvious? You seemed quite worked up when you thought she betrayed you. Goes to say you trusted her words. Besides the issue ended years ago, you wouldn't be keeping such close contact if you weren't in good terms."
"Oh, right" he made so much sense, again. He was just too observant she was finding it hard to catch up.
"I helped her keep a secret so she trusted me. As for why I trust her, she's just so kind and wouldn't even hurt a fly." she said guiltily. Although she had indeed never told anyone, it was due to her carelessness that Lu Aotian found out Wan Jia was pregnant. found out Wan Jia was pregnant. She had gone to buy baby dresses on the night after the baby's gender was revealed, intending to surprise her friend. However, she was too excited to notice Lu Aotian tailing her. The man had followed her after seeing her from a distance and thinking she was Wan Jia. Even after seeing that that was Yun Xuan, his instincts made him want to find out where she was going. Shockingly, he saw her enter the baby clothes store. He had a strong hunch Yun Xuan was not pregnant so he began investigating.
Yun Xuan snapped from her thoughts as she looked into space and sighed. "All this happened because I didn't trust my parents' judgement on Qin Zhifan. Turned out they were right." She shrugged.
"You wish you trusted them?" he frowned.
"Naturally. But then if I trusted them then I would have married Lu Aotian and who knows, perhaps he wouldn't like me and spoil me like he did with her. After all it was her that he fell in love with, not me.
Most importantly, if I married him, I wouldn't have run off with Qin Zhifan then I wouldn't have met you." she wrapped her arms around his neck. She already knew how to placate him. He looked jealous when she mentioned marrying Lu Aotian.
"Mmh, thinking about it, I should really thank him. He let me meet you." he replied and pecked her lips. "So when do I get to meet that hard to please future father in law?" he asked as he tickled her waist.
"He should be coming home next week. Also, he's nothing close to being hard to please. You're outstanding. He'll like you. " she said amidst laughter.