Chapter 659: Memories in the Forest

Xia Ling paused mid-step.

Her manager, bodyguards, and assistant surrounding her stopped together with her.

That man seemed to sense their presence and turned his head to face them, his deep-set eyes falling on her. “Xiao Ling.” His voice was slightly hoarse.

Xia Ling didn’t want to meet him face-to-face.

She lowered her head and hurriedly tried to walk by him.

However, he grabbed onto her arm.

“What are you trying to do?!” She glared angrily at him.

Li Lei said, “We need to talk.”

“We have nothing to talk about.” She tried her best to press down the fire rising within her. They should have cleared all their misunderstandings 4 years ago. Since he didn’t treasure her then, why should she forgive him now?

What had passed, had passed.

Her bodyguards came forward and restricted Li Lei from both sides. “This Mister, please don’t touch Miss Ye.” They tried to pull him away several times but to no avail.

Li Lei ignored the bodyguards and continued to stare at Xia Ling. “Xiao Ling, if you have absolutely no feelings left for me, why are you trying to avoid me?”

“I’m not avoiding you!” She said.

“Then, why can’t you spare me a few moments?” He stared deeply into her eyes. Then, his bodyguards appeared suddenly from behind him and squared off against her bodyguards. Their numbers and force overpowered her team completely.

She had no choice but to relent.

Xia Ling glared at him with apparent hatred in her eyes. She instructed her team. “You guys wait here for me.”

Her manager Lin Yunan said, “Li Lei, don’t be so cocky! I’m going to call the police!”

Li Lei gave a cold huff and replied, “Suit yourself.” He then pulled Xia Ling over to a quieter corner.

There was a cool night breeze blowing.

Under a sprawling old oak tree, Xia Ling swung her arm free from his grip. Her tone was cold as she regarded him. “Speak, what do you want?”

Li Lei looked at her pitifully. They were like strangers after not having seen each other for 4 years. His voice softened and he said carefully, his voice showing his nervousness. “I heard that you adopted a child?”

“Did Big Boss Li come from afar just to ask me this question?” Xia Ling responded coldly.

Li Lei stuttered. “You… I… ” In front of the girl he loved, he was suddenly at a loss for words, the script that he had prepared seeming weak and useless. He seemed to have lost all ability to interact with girls after meeting her. He was like a teenager just discovering puppy love as he dug around in his pocket for a while and produced a gift. “This is for you.”

“I don’t want it.” Xia Ling replied without looking at the item.

“It’s not for you.” He contradicted himself.

Xia Ling didn’t say anything but watched him quietly. Li Lei organized his thoughts with difficulty. “This is for Shaohui… the child you adopted. That’s his name, isn’t it?”

Her expression softened and she felt her nose crinkle a little.

Shaohui…

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Shaohui.

This was the first time that she heard Li Lei say his name.

Unfortunately, this Shaohui was not the same Shaohui…

“This is the first time you adopted a child.” Li Lei spoke up again, his mind now regaining some clarity. “It’ll be difficult for you to care for him alone. I was afraid that you wouldn’t have enough experience, so I picked out a gift for him. A boy should like this.”

“And you have experience?” She suddenly questioned.

“Hm?”

“Oh yes,” She laughed and softly said, “you’ve been caring for Li Rui all these years. You must be a pro at childcare by now.” Regardless of whether Li Rui was his biological son, it was an unrefutable fact that Li Lei was caring for him in the capacity of a father. These few years, she had been tortured by news of their happy family of three, many times turning and tossing in bed unable to sleep. However, it seemed that he was here to brag to her about his “childcare experience.”

Her tone made Li Lei feel uneasy.

“Xiao Ling, I don’t mean anything like that.”

“Then, what is the meaning of this?” She lifted her head and glared at him again. “Li Lei, I will care for my own child. The child is none of your concern. I chose to care for Shaohui because he has no family, unlike you who seem to have the hobby of caring for other people’s children!” Her words were pointed and sharp like a knife.

Li Lei didn’t expect her to react this way and was quiet.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “I should’ve explained the situation to you a long time ago.” 4 years ago, he had returned to the country once to look for her to explain about Li Rui and Su Tang. However, he saw her crying in front of Pei Shaohui’s grave, murmuring about how much she missed the child’s father…

Li Lei was disappointed and crushed and chose to leave the country.

He swore that he would become better than Pei Ziheng and give Xiao Ling a safe and peaceful environment to live in. These 4 years, he had been working relentlessly in this direction, restructuring the Li Family’s forces and overpowering Li Feng in every way. He even started to match the Old Master Li in terms of his influence in the family. Only then did he decide to return to China.

As long as she was willing to return to his side, the Old Master would not be able to break them up like before.

However, now she didn’t want to hear a word of his explanation.

This made him terrified.

Xia Ling stared at him and suddenly laughed. “Should have explained earlier? That’s easy for you to say. Li Lei, since you were unable to do that then don’t pretend to be so remorseful in front of me right now!”

“Su Tang saved my life.” Li Lei blurted out.

Xia Ling was stunned.

Li Lei explained, “4 years ago, the Li family was in a great war with the other gangs. There was a battle that would determine the life and death of the Li family. I led a team in the deep forests of South Africa to battle it out with our enemy and we beat out opposing forces that were several times larger than our team, saving the family. However, our forces were also severely crippled and injured in that battle. Almost everyone died — the mercenaries, our private troops, our allies… The only person that survived was me. However, I was also severely injured and lost all consciousness.”

He didn’t wait for her to react as he continued the terrifying story, fearing that he would be interrupted by her if he gave her the chance… and fearing that she wouldn’t listen to his explanation again.

“Then, Su Tang accompanied the Old Master to helm the back-up forces in the headquarters.

“The battle situation was tense and the enemy troops started to surround the headquarters. Before my team left for battle, trackers were inserted underneath our skin. The trackers would automatically disable if the carrier lost vital signals. Then, all of our trackers disabled, including my own. That was the signal that we had perished.

“They thought I was dead.

“They gave up on me, Grandfather included. He was the head of the Li family and needed to think about the big picture. They had lost contact with me for three days, and he decided that it was time to retreat. This meant that I would be left alone in the forest to face the wild beasts and enemies with no back-up, no medication, and no food. I would have nothing.

“Su Tang was the only one that would not give up.

“She refused to leave with the troops in the headquarters. She requested some resources from Grandfather and entered the forest alone to look for me. Xiao Ling, do you know what that means? That means that she was on a road of no return. It meant that the chances of her dying were much higher than her surviving. Everyone saw her as good as dead…

“But, she came to look for me anyway.”