"Lily, my parents are coming over this weekend. They will be staying over in my house, I hope you don't mind."
After arranging stuff with my parents, I let Lily Ling know about the appointment. On hindsight, I should have consulted her first before discussing this with my parents, but we had put this off for a bit too long. It was time for them to meet Lily, otherwise things would get awkward.
Honestly, I dreaded the questions. They were going to demand to know why we didn't hold a wedding ceremony or whatever. It was a total waste of money, if you asked me. And I preferred to keep a low profile.
"Um, this is your house, you decide. Why are you asking me for permission?" Lily stared at me weirdly. Now that she mentioned it, she had a point. Rather, that raised even more questions. Why were we still dividing property accordingly after being married? Shouldn't we be sharing a house or something?
Well, it was more practical and cheaper to stay in my current house. Why buy a new place? There were logistics we had to settle with, moving stuff – which was inconvenient and tiring – and other annoying administrative, tax and financial matters.
Besides, this was a great house, it was very new, and it was spacious and very modern. Only a fool would sell it. We would be hard-pressed to find a better place. Also, despite the allowance she received from her father, Lily couldn't afford a new home anyway. Her acting career had only started taking off, but it would take some time before she became financially stable.
Scratch that. She was financially stable at the moment, thanks to her father, but she just couldn't afford a house right now. That was unless she took a housing loan, but there was no point owing the bank money when there was no need to.
So Lily just moved in with me to make things simpler. Nonetheless, I was still uncomfortable with the way things were going.
"Um, now that we are married, what's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. This isn't just my home anymore. It's also your home now. It's our home." I paused and thought for a bit. "My parents aren't just my parents anymore, they are our parents now."
Lily giggled. "Don't worry, I'll definitely treat my in-laws as if they are my own parents. They can't possibly be worse than my parents."
"Your parents aren't that bad," I pointed out. Lily shrugged.
"Yeah, they could be worse. If this was a normal CEO novel and not an awful one, they would be the usual abusive parents, with the scheming stepmother plotting to murder me. As much as I'm relieved that Wendy Lim has no intention of killing me or screwing me over at every opportunity like the stereotypical evil stepmother, it is true that she's far from the ideal parent."
Right…because Wendy Lim undeniably favored Linda Ling over Lily and she did neglect her a bit. She didn't go out of her way to abuse Lily, but she didn't exactly lavish care and concern over Lily the way a real mother would.
I was a little worried about how Lily would get along with my parents. It was the usual worries, you know? How your spouse would reach with the in-laws. A touchy subject often enough, though sometimes they got along well and that would be great. But I wouldn't know until this weekend.
Honestly, I didn't think we would get this far. I thought Lily only suggested the marriage registration to get Riley Rong off her back, but after all was said and done, she just played the role of my wife effectively. She had not brought up the topic of divorce (hinting that the act was over) even once, so I didn't dare to broach it. I personally didn't understand the dynamics of our relationship. It was true that I like her a lot and I was happy to spend time with her, but I didn't know how she felt.
"…are you happy with how things are right now?" I asked. Lily glanced at me and smiled.
"Very."
"That's good. Uh…are you satisfied with the way things are going? I mean our relationship, and all that."
"Yeah." Lily sat up and studied me. "Don't worry, I think we should just take things one step at a time and go at our own pace. Not all married couples behave in the same way. I don't think there are set rules for how a marriage should work, other than staying loyal to each other and sticking through thick and thin, through sickness or health, poverty or wealth, and whatever troubles that may come. I will rely on you on future, and you should rely on me too."
"Is that how…a marriage should work?"
"Yeah. How else?" Lily giggled. "You want to act like newlyweds and flirt? Display large levels of affection? Come on. You've been reading way too many cheesy romance novels. The most important thing in a relationship is mutual respect. We don't need public or private displays of affection. We just need to respect and trust each other…and not do anything to betray each other. That's more important than affection, flirting or whatever."
I understood now. Physical affection was temporary, but emotional affection – in the form of trust and respect – was far more important than physical attraction. Those abusive CEOs who relied on raping women to "earning" their love needed to learn from Lily. Those scumbags abused their wives, looked down them, disrespected them, verbally abused them, insulted them and emotionally scorned them, yet they get all shocked when the female leads leave them for another men. A Hidden Love Marriage/Hidden Marriage: You Are my Best Love/A Hidden Marriage was a great story that showed the real consequences of an overbearing, arrogant and abusive CEO who did not appreciate what he had, drove away his wife who eventually divorced him and left him for a better man (after suffering so much, which included losing her son). More stories should end like that instead of romanticizing rape and having the female lead end up with the abusive and cruel male lead.
"Understood." I did a mock salute, which caused Lily to laugh again. She leaned back on the couch, her smartphone in one hand.
"Don't worry. I don't regret marrying you. I think you're the perfect person to spend the rest of my life with. At least you're better than scumbags like Riley Rong, Benjamin Bo, Tyson Tan or Isaac Bing. Last I heard, Tyson Tan has been sued by his ex-wife for domestic abuse, while Isaac Bing is under suspicion for driving his wife to suicide."
What the fuck? Then again, they were rich and handsome CEOs, so everyone would either forgive them or help them cover up their crimes. Typical. Even in the future, the rich and handsome continued to think they could get away with anything they wanted. I hoped Tyson Tan and Isaac Bing were punished by the law.
If not, then…there was always Bu Fan.
Speaking of which, a few days later, I saw on the news that something major had happened. Roland Rong was initially not in any spotlight after his murder attempt – as a juvenile and only being five years of age, his identity was protected and the media was not allowed to disclose who he was to the public. However, that all changed when he…died.
That was right. Roland Rong died. Even I was shocked.
"The Rong family has been shaken by the traumatic accident that took the life of their grandson. About a month after losing their greatest son, Riley Rong, to a missile attack, his son, Roland Rong, was involved in an accident. The vehicle he was riding in collided with a massive truck, which crushed the car underneath its tires. Despite emergency workers' best attempts to extricate Roland Rong's body, the five-year-old child was found completely pulverized beyond recognition. Police are investigating the motives of the driver, who is said to have been unfairly fired by the Rong Group for speaking out against their former CEO's girlfriend…"
A chill ran down my spine while censored, pixelated images of blood and gore were plastered over the holographic television screen. I couldn't help but quickly call Bu Fan.
"Bu Fan, please don't tell me that you were behind the attack on Roland Rong…that the accident was not something you planned."
There was a brief period of silence on the other end of the phone call, and then Bu Fan finally spoke up in a sheepish tone.
"Oh, so you've just watched the news."
"Alamak, Bu Fan! Roland Rong is just a kid! Children also cannot forgive, you seow ah (crazy)?"
"No, I am Bu Fan."
"Kanina…" I swore colorfully in one of the dialects native to my birth country. "Chao Chibai…"
"What? Are you speaking Hokkien now? But I was pretty sure your native dialect was Cantonese."
"So what? You want me to swear in Cantonese instead, is it? Zhou mie nei kum so (why are you so stupid)?!"
"Okay, okay." Bu Fan was probably holding his hands up, or at least one of them (he needed the other hand to hold his phone). "Sorry. But he stabbed you. He tried to kill you. We can't let that pass."
"Even if that's the case, there was no need to kill him! He's just a kid!"
"That kind of naïve thinking is exactly what will get you killed, Trevor." Bu Fan was icy cold.
"If a kid is able to kill me, then I deserve to be killed," I muttered. That counted the last attempt. Even though Roland Rong was able to stab me, I took that as me deserving to be stabbed. It was my fault that I let my guard down. I was embarrassed that I allowed a kid to get the drop on me. It was my mistake that allowed Roland Rong to stab me, but I wasn't petty to the extent to want revenge on a five-year-old kid.
Did he deserve punishment? Yeah. But death? Seriously?
"What's done is done. Trevor, you're a good guy, but you're too nice for your own good. You'll find out that ideals will get you nowhere. You must be ruthless and merciless if you want to survive."
"Just like Riley Rong?" I scoffed. "Look at where it got him."
There was some silence, and then Bu Fan cleared his throat. "Okay. We'll see who is correct later. But that's not important. The important thing is that there's one less threat to you."
…just how much threat could a five-year-old kid be? Rather, I was more worried that the family members would tie his death to me and want revenge. Now I had to be extra careful…all because Bu Fan's actions placed a huge target on my back.
"Don't worry, they won't trace it back to you," Bu Fan assured me. "After all, you weren't the mastermind behind all this."
With a laugh, he hung up. I stared at the smartphone for a moment, wondering if I had just signed a deal with the devil himself.
This Bu Fan was getting way too extreme…