Chapter 283: A Mistake Amidst the Chaos – It Turns Out He Just Made One…
"Do you even know what you're saying?!" Although these words stirred up a storm in her heart, Li Sishi forced herself to calm down, looked directly into Uncle Gu's eyes, and asked back almost word by word.
The pain from being gripped so tightly on her wrist seemed to give her the strength to stay awake.
But soon, Rong Juezhang, who had finally found an opportunity, pulled her away—even so, the faint red marks left on her wrist proved that everything at this moment was not just a strange dream...
"If I tell you everything I know... would you consider helping me?" After being pulled away, Uncle Gu's face showed a vague look of awakening from a dream, but his eyes were still fixed on Li Sishi's face.
Li Sishi lowered her eyes, then shook her head firmly: "I cannot and will not agree to anything you do without knowing the details."
Such a large, long-established hotel, even someone like Rong Juezhang, who has a family fortune and is quite good at making money, couldn't help it. So what makes her think she can save it?
Hearing Li Sishi's response, Uncle Gu sighed deeply: "I was too hasty and abrupt... However, since things have come to this, I should tell you everything that happened back then..."
Seeing that he looked almost like someone who was about to die and whose words were kind, Li Sishi subconsciously sat up straight and adopted a listening posture: "Please speak."
Seeing Li Sishi's forced composure, Rong Juezhang silently covered her hand on the table with his own.
The unique warmth of human skin emanated from the back of her hand, a subtle warmth that seemed to carry a strange sense of comfort, instantly dispelling the chaotic emotions of confusion and unease in her heart.
At that moment, Li Sishi felt genuinely grateful to Rong Juezhang for taking the trouble to accompany her on this trip to Citibank.
Uncle Gu gave her a deep look, then glanced around at the surroundings, and suddenly chuckled with a complicated expression: "Speaking of which, this seems to be the same table from back then—and it's been about ten years since then..."
At this point, Uncle Gu paused again, and then asked Li Sishi a question that seemed to have nothing to do with what he was about to say: "How old are you this year?"
"20 years old." Although a little surprised, Li Sishi answered his question honestly, even adding more details under his probing gaze, "My birthday is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which is [date missing] in the Gregorian calendar."
February 14th is the internationally recognized date. The fortune tellers in Liaojie all said my fate was both good and bad; my birth date was auspicious, my destiny was good, but unfortunately, I was prone to extramarital affairs…”
"Has anyone ever told you that, compared to the 'biological father' Li Jinhuai that you think you are, you have a temperament more like someone else?" Uncle Gu slowly revealed a somewhat strange smile.
As he spoke, he took out a wallet from his pocket, opened it, and pointed out a black-and-white photo to Li Sishi: "Look, compared to Li Jinhuai, don't you... look more like him?"
Li Sishi and Rong Juezhang subconsciously looked in the direction Uncle Gu was pointing. They saw a group photo of three teenagers on a lawn. The one on the far left was clearly Uncle Gu when he was young, while the other two were a pair of teenagers whose facial features were quite similar.
However, these similar facial features, clearly indicating a blood relationship, are what distinguish the refined gentleman from the playboy due to their overall demeanor.
Standing somewhat nonchalantly in the middle was her biological father, Li Jinhuai, whom she was reluctant to mention—perhaps now, even the word "biological father" should be questioned…
As for the person standing on the far right who looks scholarly and is clearly an obedient child in the eyes of the elders, it is her current stepfather, Li Jinhao.
The person Uncle Gu was referring to who said she "looks more like him" is Li Jinhao, who is standing on the far right!
“They are cousins, so it’s not surprising that I look like either of them. Strictly speaking, I look more like my mother when she was young.” Li Sishi once again suppressed the complicated emotions in her heart and gently shook her head.
"Yes, if you didn't look so much like your mother when she was young, I wouldn't have been so shocked when I first saw you..." Uncle Gu recalled his earlier loss of composure and, reflecting on his life experiences over the years, couldn't help but sigh with a touch of melancholy.
He didn't really care to investigate Li Sishi's relationship with Li Jinhao: to put it bluntly, the cross-class romance between Li Sishi's mother, Zhou Jiaxian, and Li Jinhao back then caused quite a stir in Hong Kong.
Li Sishi now seems to have returned to Hong Kong with her mother. So even if Zhou Jiaxian doesn't talk to her daughter Li Sishi about her youth, there will inevitably be some ill-intentioned or gossipy people who just want to watch the drama and will find an opportunity to talk to her about those things.
What Uncle Gu didn't know was that the reasons, process, and current relationship between Li Sishi and Li Jinhao were not as "simple" and "complicated" as he had guessed.
"Let's get back to the main point, what exactly happened back then?"
What's going on, and how much do you know? Li Sishi took a breath, her eyes filled with a probing look, "Or rather—UncleKoo, what role did you play in all of this?"
Seeing Li Sishi's expression, which seemed to say, "I'll still call you Uncle Koo now because I'm giving you face, but if you don't know how to respond, I'll turn on you," Rong Juezhang, feeling like he had been unintentionally dragged into a long-standing secret, sighed deeply. The hand that was on the back of her hand became a seemingly light grip, but one that was hard to break free from.
On the surface, Li Sishi seems like a sweet little candy, but the only thing she is deeply averse to is the role of her biological father. But that's understandable, who wouldn't hate a father who abandons his wife and daughter when they are teenagers?
In particular, the boat that Li Sishi and Zhou Jiaxian were on encountered an accident, and the two mother and daughter barely escaped death to return to Hong Kong. Moreover, Li Jinhuai disappeared without a trace afterward. The last time we heard news of him was when he died of a heart attack in a foreign land after his business failed.
Even if one doesn't know that Li Jinhuai committed even more disgusting acts of trafficking Li Sishi, just based on his blatant act of abandoning his wife and daughter and running away alone, any normal person would despise Li Jinhuai.
Therefore, Li Jinhuai is the "dark side" that Li Sishi least wants to face.
Especially since her stepfather, Li Jinhao, dotes on her so much, as does Zhou Jiaxian, her lost first love whom she has regained, and Madam Li also treats her like her own granddaughter with boundless affection—this makes Li Sishi feel all the time that she is the "failure" in a seemingly perfect story.
But now, if someone suddenly says that she might not be the "failure" in this happy story, but rather a jewel whose true nature is obscured by the chaotic past... how could she not go crazy?
If it's true, all her regrets can be fulfilled.
If it's fake—then how cruel is the person who gave her hope and then despair?
In any case, if Rong Juezhang put himself in her shoes, he would have felt a strong urge to teach this person a lesson—which is why he quickly changed from a "comforting stance" to "persuasive" when he noticed Li Sishi's unusual mood.
This is to remind her, lest Li Sishi, in a moment of passion, do something irrational...
"To be honest, this matter has been buried in my heart for so many years, and I'm very happy to have the opportunity to speak about it now..." Uncle Gu gave a wry smile and slowly began to recount everything he knew—
Using Li Sishi's age as the dividing line,
The time point that Uncle Gu recalled was more accurately 21 years ago.
That is, the year that Zhou Jiaxian was deliberately taken to Citibank by Li Jinhuai, who was left in Hong Kong, after she had not received any replies from Li Jinhao, who had gone to study in Citibank for a long time.
Back then, Madam Li and Li Jinhuai conspired to make Zhou Jiaxian mistakenly believe that Li Jinhao, who was studying away from home, had fallen in love with a wealthy heiress who was a good match for him.
What Mrs. Li, who originally only wanted to break up the young lovers, didn't know was that after Li Jinhuai tricked Zhou Jiaxian into seeing Li Jinhao and the rich girl together, he deliberately pretended to be genuinely concerned for the two of them, saying that he would help Zhou Jiaxian secretly meet Li Jinhao to find out the truth. Then he tricked her into going to a friend's house in a hotel to rest.
And this friend was none other than Uncle Gu, who could only be called "Young Master Gu" back then.
Taking advantage of Zhou Jiaxian's unstable emotions, Li Jinhuai deliberately added fuel to the fire, coaxed her to drink to drown her sorrows and got her drunk, and then sent her to the arranged room number 9 on the first floor.
After Gu Shao helped arrange for Li Jinhao to come over, he put on a very brotherly act and told the lovesick Li Jinhao a lot about Zhou Jiaxian. He also said that Zhou Jiaxian was patiently waiting for him to finish his studies and come back in Hong Kong, which moved Li Jinhao to tears. He regarded him as a good brother who was sincerely helping him take care of his girlfriend.
Then, Li Jinhuai arranged for Gu Shao to intervene. He privately told Gu Shao that Madam Li actually intended to break up Li Jinhao and Zhou Jiaxian. So he decided to help his cousin and future cousin's wife by using Gu Shao's house to make their relationship a fait accompli. That way, Madam Li would no longer be able to separate the two lovers.
Back then, Gu Shao was a soft-hearted, kind-hearted person. He had no idea that Li Jinhuai was a cunning and scheming man. He was fooled by Li Jinhuai's sweet talk and agreed with him. This is how he helped Li Jinhao, who had been drunk by Li Jinhuai, upstairs to his room.
What he didn't know was that Li Jinhuai, who claimed he had some urgent business to attend to, had actually gone to a nightclub to add fuel to his evil plan and find a substitute.
His plan was not only "good", but also quite vicious: in addition to taking advantage of Zhou Jiaxian's innocence, he also wanted to bring back a prostitute and ruin Li Jinhao, who had been keeping his chastity for his first love!
Ideally, he should seize the right opportunity to bring Zhou Jiaxian along and catch his cousin, whom he has envied and hated for many years, in bed with another woman, thus eliminating any future troubles.
In this way, he could not only snatch Zhou Jiaxian, the pearl of his humble abode whom he had long coveted, but also ruin Li Jinhao's love and life, and avenge the years of "oppression" he had suffered at the hands of his cousin, who was the one who was the opposite of him in everything!
“At the time, Li Jinhuai actually booked two rooms for me, room number 6 and room number 9, and considering the layout of the first floor, these two rooms were directly opposite each other…” Uncle Gu recalled, and added, “Li Jinhuai gave me the key to room number 6…”
"But I was small and thin at the time, and I couldn't support the heavily drunk Li Jinhao. When we were going up the stairs, I accidentally dropped the key that Li Jinhuai had given me at the corner of the stairs... But I had also started helping to manage the family business at that time, so I actually had spare keys to all the rooms on me..."
“I glanced down and saw that the key tag looked like it was number 9, so I took Li Jinhao to room number 9…”
At this point, Uncle Gu couldn't help but sigh at his own foolishness and naivety back then: "At the time, I even thought that although Li Jinhuai, that good-for-nothing, wasn't a great person, he was still pretty good to his brothers, so sincerely and wholeheartedly helping his cousin fight against that old empress dowager in the family who wanted to break up the couple..."
It turned out that he had simply oversimplified everything.
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