See? She's such a greedy and selfish person.
Li Shenghuan opened the door and saw Song Yunxi standing outside, so he smiled. "Yunxi, you're back!"
He knew that Song Yunxi had gone to discuss cooperation with Chi Li that morning, so he had been waiting for her to come back.
“Sheng Huan…”
Before Song Yunxi could finish speaking, Li Shenghuan interrupted her. "I brought you a gift, come and see."
Lee Sung-hwan closed the door and then led Song Yoon-hee by the hand to the wardrobe in the bedroom. Inside was a neatly hung floral dress, a dress that seemed to evoke the feeling of wearing an English garden.
Before Li Shenghuan went to France, he said he would buy this dress and give it to her.
So, either Peiqi bought a knock-off because of her vanity, or she was cheated by a friend who did the buying. Anyway, Song Yunxi knew that the one Li Shenghuan gave her was the real runway piece.
Unfortunately, she never had the chance to wear even the most beautiful dress.
“I saw someone else wearing this dress at a party not long ago, so I won’t wear it again. Because it no longer belongs to me. At least in the eyes of the world, it is not mine. If I wear it, then it is stolen or robbed, because I don’t deserve to have it.”
“It will always be yours as long as you want it.” After saying that, Li Shenghuan reached out and pulled Song Yunxi into his arms. “Yunxi, shall we go to France? Or you can go to any country you want.”
Song Yunxi patted Li Shenghuan on the back and said softly, "Let's go home, okay?"
A long silence followed.
The doorbell rang. Li Shenghuan smiled and pushed Song Yunxi aside. "My lunch has arrived. Let's eat, I'm hungry." With that, he ran to open the door as if he were escaping.
The waiter pushed in a food cart and then helped them set the dishes on the table one by one. Song Yunxi stood aside watching Li Shenghuan attentively help the waiter arrange each dish at the most perfect angle.
Lee Sung-hwan pulled out a chair and said to Song Yoon-hee with a smile, "Sit down."
Song Yunxi walked over and sat down. Then she saw Li Shenghuan pick up a napkin and neatly place it on her lap.
"President Mu said you like this dish." Li Shenghuan placed some eggplant fritters on Song Yunxi's plate. "You should try this too."
Lee Sung-hwan kept putting food into Song Yoon-hee's plate until it was completely full, then he put down his chopsticks.
When she looked up again, her eyes were already red.
Actually, he had known all along that this would be the outcome. From the moment he returned to Korea and discovered that Song Yoon-hee had already left, he knew that he would never be a part of her life again.
But he didn't give up. So he tried every means to get information about Song Yoon-hee in China from Jung Eun-ah.
He thought that if Song Yunxi was willing, he could abandon everything, take her far away, and never come back.
But she refused.
Now she's urging him to return to South Korea, just as she did when she went to France to bring him back—persistent and determined.
But this time, she only let him go back alone, and never stayed with him again.
*
A year ago, Song Yunxi accepted the terms of exchange from Chairman Lee, which were conveyed to her by Secretary Wu: if she could bring Lee Sung-hwan back from France, she could officially join ST Group as an agent instead of just an intern.
Lee Sung-hwan started modeling while studying in France, and at that time he was already the most sought-after Asian male model on the Paris runways.
That day, he had just finished walking in a big show. When he came out of the show, he saw Song Yunxi standing in the square in the sunset, tilting her head slightly and smiling at him.
Song Yoon-hee made no attempt to hide her purpose: "I accepted the chairman's request to take you back to Korea."
What conditions did he offer you?
"Formal employee of ST Group".
Li Shenghuan smiled. Although he yearned for freedom and didn't want to be bound by the ST Group, this was the second time he had felt happy about being the son of the ST Group's chairman.
The first time was in high school, when he saw others bullying Song Yunxi. He silently stood up for her and warned everyone: anyone who dares to bully Song Yunxi is going against him.
Li Shenghuan asked, "Am I only worth a full-time employee?"
"Of course not. After you return to South Korea, you can pave the way for me to rise to the top in the ST Group."
Lee Sung-hwan admitted that Song Yoon-hee's reasoning convinced him.
"Come on, I'll take you out to play." Li Shenghuan grabbed Song Yunxi's hand and ran into the bustling crowd.
For the next two weeks, he took her to eat the most authentic foie gras, cheese, and onion soup. He took her to the Louvre, the Seine, and the Champ de Mars. They even took the high-speed train from Paris to Provence.
Lee Sung-hwan felt that it was the happiest time of his life. Because the whole world consisted only of him and Song Yoon-hee, they ate, drank, and played without restraint, without Chairman Lee or the ST Group.
That day, at an open-air café in Nice, Lee Sung-hwan asked Song Yoon-hee for the nth time, "Yoon-hee, shall we live here forever?"
Song Yunxi smiled and looked at him: "I don't have the luxury of living a willful life, so I have to submit to reality. I'm going back to Korea tomorrow afternoon. Can I wait for you at the airport?"
As it turned out, she got what she was waiting for.
At the French Riviera airport, Lee Sung-hwan, dragging his suitcase, stood in front of Song Yoon-hee and hugged her tightly: "Okay, let's go back to Korea."
Actually, if it weren't for Chairman Lee's opposition, Song Yoon-hee had also considered that being with Lee Sung-hwan might have been a good choice.
Because he is rich, has status, and has things she could never obtain no matter how hard she tried.
More importantly, he loved her as if she were a precious treasure.
For her, Li Shenghuan was willing to give up everything in France and join the ST Group to protect her from the storms of life.
When her mother was seriously ill, it was Li Shenghuan who arranged for her to go to the best hospital and find the best doctors. When her mother passed away, Li Shenghuan even wore mourning clothes and an armband to accompany her in receiving guests who came to pay their respects.
But in the end, they still couldn't be together. Because she wasn't good enough; she wasn't Cinderella at all.
*
With tears in his eyes, Li Shenghuan finished eating the food on the table, bite by bite. Then, smiling, he looked up at her and said, "Yunxi, I want to say goodbye to President Mu."
Mu Chen was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, looking at the bright but scorching sunlight outside. When his secretary knocked on the door to tell him that Executive Director Li and Miss Song had come to visit, he felt his heart skip a beat.
When they returned to the hotel, Song Yunxi said she was going to find Li Shenghuan. Mu Chen wondered if Li Shenghuan and Song Yunxi were now coming to tell him that they were leaving together.
Lee Sung-hwan turned to Song Yoon-hee and said something in Korean, at which point Song Yoon-hee stopped at the door. She bowed slightly to the two people in the room, then left the room and closed the door behind her.
Li Shenghuan said to Mu Chen in Chinese, "I've come to say goodbye to President Mu and thank you for your hospitality these past two days."
His pronunciation was clear and accurate.
Mu Chen was taken aback for a moment, then understood. Yes, Li Shenghuan had never said he couldn't speak Chinese.
Lee Sung-hwan proactively explained, "It was Yoon-hee who taught me. I hired her as my teacher under the pretext of wanting to learn Chinese."
At that time, Song Yoon-hee's mother needed money for medical treatment, and Lee Sung-hwan wanted to provide her with that money in a way that Song Yoon-hee wouldn't refuse. So, he came up with the excuse of learning Chinese.
"Is Executive Director Li returning to China?"
Because Li Shenghuan had just said he was there to say goodbye. Actually, what Mu Chen really wanted to ask was whether Li Shenghuan would take Song Yunxi with him as well?
“Yes. I’m going back to my country. So, I’m entrusting Yunxi to you from now on.” Lee Sung-hwan finished speaking and smiled again, his expression filled with undisguised sorrow. “You know what? I’ve loved Yunxi for as long as I’ve known her. But unfortunately, she still doesn’t love me.”
Lee Sung-hwan first met Song Yoon-hee in the last semester of high school. A few days after the start of the semester, a teacher brought in a girl, saying she was a new transfer student.
Song Yunxi stood on the stage, bowed deeply to her classmates, and introduced herself with only one sentence: "Hello everyone, I am Song Yunxi." Her expression was indifferent, and her gaze did not fall on anyone.
But Li Shenghuan felt that she was shining, and that light illuminated his eyes and his heart.
He knew nothing about her except that her name was Song Yunxi. She never spoke to anyone and never attended gym class. She spent the entire semester alone.
Many times, Li Shenghuan refused to ride in the driver's car after school, instead silently following behind Song Yunxi, accompanying her on the three-stop bus ride home. But she never turned around to look at him even once.
They didn't exchange a single word throughout the entire semester.
Some classmates were dissatisfied with Song Yunxi's arrogant attitude and tried to cause trouble and tease her. However, they were all scared off by Li Shenghuan's words: "Anyone who dares to bully Song Yunxi is going against me."
As the only son of a chaebol family, and with his father being the largest shareholder in the school, he was naturally a tyrant whom no one dared to mess with.
From then on, everyone knew that Song Yunxi was the person Li Shenghuan was going to protect, and no one dared to bully her anymore.
But throughout the entire semester, she was the only one unaware that he was protecting her.
After graduating from high school, Li Shenghuan accepted his father's arrangement and went to study in France.
Lee Sung-hwan saw Song Yoon-hee again during the summer vacation of his junior year of college. He had returned to Korea and saw Song Yoon-hee pushing a linen cart as she passed by downstairs in a hotel owned by the ST Group.
At that time, Li Shenghuan was on the second floor. He couldn't even wait for the elevator, so he rushed down the stairs, taking two or three steps at a time.
But looking at Song Yunxi's smiling yet unfamiliar eyes, Li Shenghuan knew she didn't recognize him at all. Because she asked him with a professional smile, "Sir, how can I help you?"
Three years later, Song Yunxi had learned to smile and interact with people. She was no longer like she was in her senior year of high school, always indifferent as if nothing in the world concerned her.
Li Shenghuan smiled and told her, "We were high school classmates. My name is Li Shenghuan."
From then on, intern Song Yoon-hee became good friends with Chairman Lee Sung-hwan, and Song Yoon-hee became the only reason for Lee Sung-hwan to fly all the way back to Korea from France.
“I know she doesn’t have any feelings for me other than friendship; it was all my own doing,” Li Shenghuan said, then turned to look at Mu Chen. “But you are different from others in her eyes. So, Mr. Mu, please take good care of her from now on.” With that, he extended his hand to Mu Chen.
Mu Chen reached out and shook hands with Li Shenghuan, nodding emphatically. "I will."
Li Shenghuan walked to the door, then turned back again. "By the way, she didn't deliberately ignore you at the KTV yesterday; it's just that I didn't tell her you were there. Because Yunxi can't see things clearly in dim light." Li Shenghuan chuckled. "Yesterday, she couldn't even see the dice in front of her, let alone President Mu sitting in the corner."
Mu Chen personally drove Li Shenghuan to the airport with Song Yunxi. Then he watched as the nearly 1.9-meter-tall man hugged Song Yunxi tightly, buried his head in her shoulder, and cried silently for a long time.
On the way back, neither of them spoke. Mu Chen focused on driving, while Song Yunxi kept looking out the window.
In truth, Song Yoon-hee had always known that even if it weren't for her, Lee Sung-hwan would eventually return to the ST Group for other reasons. This was the inescapable fate of being the only son of a wealthy family.
Since that's the case, let's just let her be the reason; at least she can get what she wants.
See? She's such a greedy and selfish person. That's how she took advantage of Li Shenghuan's love.
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