Lecturing XM
Lecturing XM
"What happened princess?" Mo Zhichan asked seeing Xiu Mei tuck her hands around his elbow, taking him somewhere.
"I want you to meet someone."
"Who?"
"The one who rescued me from Yang Sheng's man and adopted me as his daughter. I was under his care for five years before they transferred my adoption to Kong Da." Mo Zhichan silently heard her but didn't say that he had already met Kong Zhi when they were in the hospital.
"Uncle Zhi…" Kong Zhi looked away from the window hearing Xiu Mei's voice. His gaze lowered down to her hands where she was holding Mo Zhichan. He didn't get the opportunity to feel something like that! "Al, why are you standing there? Take a seat."
Gemie and Roxie instantly left Kong Zhi's side and moved to sit near Xiu Mei's legs.
"Uncle Zhi… I never got the chance to introduce you to each other." The tinge of sadness in Kong Zhi's eyes didn't go unnoticed from either of their eyes.
Mo Zhichan looked at Xiu Mei sideways. "Just now you acknowledged Kong Zhi was your foster father who saved you from Yang Sheng's man." He saw her nod her head and continued. "Then why did you address him as Uncle and not as a father?"
"It's alright, Mr. Mo, Please don't scold her." Kong Zhi wanted her to give him another chance at her own will, not by someone's pressure. "I-I disappointed her as a parent. It was my fault I abandon her. I don't deserve the title."
"Instead of looking at the dark side, I'm paying attention to the bright one. The side which involves your positive involvement in her life." Mo Zhichan said, he felt dejected seeing Kong Zhi's lowered head and felt disappointed at her daughter. "She is mine in a way that she will never be yours yet she is yours in a way that she will be never be mine and no matter how much she pretends to be angry…. She cannot decline the fact that together we are her fathers."
Kong Zhi's eyes teared up when Mo Zhichan addressed him as Xiu Mei's father. It was an honor for him to share the title with the man, but it's meaningless when the daughter they share is not willing to accept him.
Mo Zhichan lifted Xiu Mei's chin who was sitting holding her silence. "Your adopted father, Kong Zhi took care of you for five years while, I, your real father could only do it for fifteen months. So, who exactly disappointed you? If Mr. Kong failed to protect you, then I failed you too. If you compare us, he was a better father. He left his property to you; don't forget it was only because of that Kong Da kept you alive."
He noticed Xiu Mei giving a complicated look. "Can you think of the consequences if Mr. Kong had not saved you that night, and neither had he given you his property?" Mo Zhichan shrugged his shoulder. "He was a stranger after all; it was not his obligation to do any of this."
Kong Zhi raised his palm to stop Mo Zhichan. "Mr. Mo it was…."
"It's okay Mr. Kong. Sometimes it's the parent's duty to teach kids when they had taken a wrong decision. It will only make them a better person." He looked back at Xiu Mei. "Princess, you might have become an assassin standing against me and Mo family, or maybe killed if it was not for Mr. Kong taking you under his care. Just think about the casualties if that had really happened considering how dangerous your intelligence could be if used for wrong means."
"And yes…. how can I forget it!" Mo Zhichan exclaimed. "Isn't he the one who saved us when we were at Yang Sheng's base? Why didn't he think twice before helping us? After all, his thankless adopted daughter had abandoned him long ago; it was a sufficient reason to back off."
Under her father's scrutinizing gaze Xiu Mei didn't answer but got up from her seat and went to Kong Zhi. She opened her mouth to say something but words refused to come out. In the end she holds her ears with both hands.
"Oh, my Al…. You don't have to do this." Kong Zhi pulled her into a hug. "Don't pay attention to your father's words, indeed I failed you as you a father. I wish I could turn back the time and fix the atrocities I've committed against you."
The more he said these words the guiltier she felt and cried.
"Zhichan, are you done lecturing my granddaughter?" Mo Weimin saw everything, he couldn't hold back when Xiu Mei started crying. "She is still young, must you be so brutal? Mr. Kong…." He looked at Kong Zhi askingly. "My son is a brute! Just now he said you both her fathers, so what punishment do you have for making your little girl cry?" By Mo Weimin's words, Kong Zhi realized that Mo family had long accepted him as Xiu Mei's father.
Kong Zhi wiped Xiu Mei's face with the sleeves of his shirt. "I'll keep her exclusively as my daughter." He saw Xiu Mei chuckle as they both looked teasingly at Mo Zhichan.
Xiu Mei: "Okay… I'm ready."
Mo Zhichan "…."
*****
"Xiao Xion…" Zeng Ruo came to sit with Lu Xion while he was enjoying a moment of peace in his own company.
"Aunty Ruo…."
She caressed Xion's head gently. "I've heard that you've been taking care of Qinqin for a long time, my sincere grat…."
"Aunty Ruo, if you're about to thank me, I'm not listening to you." Lu Xion holds Zeng Ruo's hand and makes her sit with him. "As far as this little tomato is concerned, I did it for my own selfish gains. Sh-she reminds me of someone…."….. she is the only link I'm still somehow connected to my Meiying." He kept the last part of the sentence to himself.
"Selfish gains?"
"Cough…." Lu Xion snapped out of his reverie. "Of course, she has helped my company to capture the biggest market share in IT. Her intelligence is unparalleled. I'm sure by now you must have read everything about the legendary President XM."
"En….I've read about President XM, but I'm more interested to know about my daughter and the cordial relation she shares with you. And…." She drew circles on her palm, "….And….And….. how is everyone at home? Brother Chonglin and Sister Moon…. T-Tell me about everyone…." Lu Xion understood the hidden meaning in Zeng Ruo's words.
"Mom is fine, and dad… he-he died when I was eight." Shocked Zeng Ruo looked at Lu Xion's calm face in a daze. She can't believe she had lost her only best friend years back, and it's only now she comes to know about his death. Was she so selfish to never turn back once and look upon the people she left behind?
"M-My condolences. W-will you take me to meet Sister Moon…. In private? I want to catch up on my old relations."