On the dimly lit deck, a figure was seated on the rattan chair. His dark brown tresses danced along the wind, and his pale blue eyes stared at the Wine glass in his hand.
He looked as beautiful as a sculpture, with half of his face shaded by darkness.
The deck was decorated with countless varieties of flower pots. It was well-maintained and seemed to be trimmed regularly.
Han Zhixin was surrounded by a desolate aura.
And that was exactly how the younger brother found him.
"B-big brother, huff-huff-you are here! Huff-huff-I-i searched the entire h-house" He stuttered, gasping for breath.
But there was no response from the said person.
Han Zihao walked towards him and slouched on the rattan chair opposite the man trying to catch his breath.
He looked at his brother, who was in a daze.
"Brother?" He called in worry.
Han Zhixin glanced at his brother and took a sip of his Wine.
"When did you get here?"
Han Zihao sighed and poured himself a glass.
"What's going on with you? I have never seen you this absent-minded." He observed.
The elder brother glanced at him and downed the Wine in one go.
He poured himself another.
"How did you do it? These two years, how did you manage to keep yourself sane?" He asked.
Han Zihao understood what his brother was talking about. He smiled, but that smile didn't reach his eyes. It was full of misery. He drained down all the Wine in his glass as well.
"I don't know. I just told myself tomorrow will be a better day, and maybe she'll have a change of heart." He muttered.
"But sometimes I also felt scared and had second thoughts. Whether she'll realize her feelings for me, whether what I'm doing is enough to prove myself, or what if she falls for someone else?" He voiced it out.
Han Zhixin never realized his younger brother's deep love for the woman. Whenever he spoke to him about this, he would just laugh it off and never share the bad parts of it.
"You are brave, Zihao; I can't even survive a day of being ignored." He praised him and poured him some more Wine.
Han Zihao laughed at his elder brother's sad joke.
"So, what are you going to do?" he asked, sipping his Wine.
"What else? I'm going to chase after her. No matter how long it takes. It wasn't this bad before, but after yesterday, I can't imagine life without those two." He declared it with a smile.
"What about you? What are you going to do?"
Han Zihao sighed and stared into the darkness, trying to clear up his thoughts.
"Well, I'm not going to give up on my feelings only after two years of trying. I'm definitely going to catch up with her and tie her down to me," He announced.
"I just hope our parents will be able to take it." He chuckled.
'They are probably stressed out because of his brother's outburst.'
"Big Brother, don't be angry with Dad; he already feels bad about it." He explained.
"I was never angry at him, just embarrassed at being rejected." The pale blue-eyed man answered.
Han Zihao glanced at him and quietly sipped his wine.
"Now, can you tell me what's actually going on between you two? Maybe I can help you." He slyly asked.
His eyes were basically sparkling for gossip.
Han Zhixin looked at the sly smile on his younger brother's face and whacked him in the head.
"Ahh!!" Han Zhihao cried out, rubbing the back of his head.
"Speak properly." He chided with a cold smile.
When Han Zihao's auburn gaze met the cold, pale blue ones, he raised his hand in fear.
"F-fine I won't ask anymore. Okay?" He gave in.
It was one thing to joke around, but if his elder brother got serious, then that would be the end for the other person.
Suddenly, Han Zihao sat up straight when he remembered something important.
"Big brother, our cousin wants to meet us to talk about Yun Group's future." He conveyed.
Han Zhixin stared at his brother's solemn face.
"Is the Gu family creating trouble again?" he questioned grimly.
The blonde-haired man sighed and nodded.
The Gu family is his cousin's maternal family, and they were very ambitious.
The Gu family's young master had a son and a daughter from his first wife, who passed away due to a serious illness. And Gu Ying was the second wife's daughter. Hence, she and her mother were treated like servants in that family.
Her marriage to the Yun family's young master was all due to her older sister's scheme. The Yun family at that time was just a martial arts family; however, the young master was not interested in martial arts, hence he ventured into business.
Later, Yun Group was established by him, but it was just a small firm at that time. However, after a few years, business started blooming, and the Gu family's first daughter had great regrets about passing the opportunity on to her sister.
The marriage proposal was originally hers; however, she looked down on the Yun family's young master. She always dreamed of marrying into one of the top three aristocratic families. However, her dream never saw the light of day once her schemes against her younger sister spread out.
Once the truth was out, no one wanted to marry their son to her, so she had no choice but to marry whoever her father chose for her. Her father, who had high hopes for her, was greatly disappointed. Since none of the families agreed to marry their son, he had no choice but to marry her to a man in his forties with four children.
Later, she died at the hands of her old husband and his children. The Gu family's master didn't bother about her death when he heard the news. He treated it as retribution for being an unfilial daughter.
A decade after the death of his first daughter, their family faced bankruptcy. In the hope of saving whatever business they could, they blackmailed Gu Ying on the premise of her mother's safety. When her mother found out about this, she hung herself in the hope of not becoming a burden to her daughter, but it was already too late.
By then, Gu's remaining businesses had been saved. And the Gu family's master used the opportunity to send his two grandsons to Yun Group and negotiated for a high position on the premise of a divorce and freedom for his second wife.
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The Gu family was messed up, with one person worse than the other.
"Brother, those old geezers are pressuring Uncle Yun every day to elect a new president for the company, stating that Yun Shun is not up to the mark." He informed him with a grave look.
"Didn't the profits double after Yun Shun took over? What are they not satisfied with?" Han Zhixin questioned
When their cousin came with an offer of an alliance between the Han and Yun families, they were puzzled. Because their family's business was in a completely different area. But when he offered the vice president's position to Han Zihao, they realized what he was trying to do.
Since Han Zihao's mother was his aunt, he too had the right to the shares of the Yun Group.
And because his position as the heir was still not stable with the Gu family constantly targeting him, he had no choice but to bring in the Han family.
Yun Shun had only one thought in mind by bringing the Han family into this, and that was to stabilize his position as an heir in the Yun Group and root out the weeds that were causing a nuisance to him and his father.
The Han brothers gladly agreed to help him to clean up those pests.
The three were already very close from childhood, and Yun Shun was the only cousin they had left after their other cousin from their paternal side passed away,
Yun Shun was always a naughty child with a belly full of bad ideas. He and Han Zihao clicked from the first day they met since one was more mischievous than the other.
When these two came together, there were always a series of disasters that followed.
His mother, Gu Ying, always had a guilty heart for the troubles her maternal family caused. Even when his father assured his mother that none of this was her fault, she couldn't forgive herself and fell sick. Her health was never the same after that.
As time passed, Yun Shun grew up; when he reached that age where he started to understand the things happening around him, he buckled himself and got a lot more serious.
He had only one goal in mind after seeing his stressed-out father and guilt-stricken mother, and that was to take over Yun Group from the hands of those jackals.
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