Chapter 38: A Glorious Return Home
Since she had decided that she might become a knight in shining armor to protect her parents' love, Li Sishi couldn't help but recall the old lady Li with whom she had some interaction before Li Jinhao turned around.
That would probably be the image of a "traditional" wealthy lady: in her early years she was a well-bred lady from a scholarly family, and after marriage she was the head of the household with a firm word. After her husband died early, she raised her son single-handedly and felt that only the best girl in the world was worthy of her perfect son. So when she discovered that her son was in love with a commoner girl from a lower social class, she was naturally furious and wanted to break them up.
To say that Madam Li was bad wouldn't be entirely true. After all, Li Jinhao and Zhou Jiaxian were indeed mismatched in terms of family background at the time. At most, she only used some minor tricks to separate the young lovers in the hope that time would change their minds. But to say that she wasn't bad either, it was indeed because of her that a couple in love missed each other for so many years with such regret and pain...
As for why Li Sishi and Madam Li were connected in her previous life, it wasn't because of her half-paternal bloodline, but because the Zheng family she married into had some dealings with the Li family. As a newly rich family after the war, the Zheng family was desperate to establish a relationship with the old and powerful Li family—which was also a key factor in Li Sishi being "allowed" to enter the family in her previous life.
Even if she is just an orphan of a collateral branch of the Li family, she is much closer to the Li family than their distant cousin who married the adopted son of a collateral branch. Moreover, in their eyes, Li Sishi's mother, who is very good at seducing the Li family, still got involved with the only son of the third branch of the main branch after her husband from the collateral branch died.
As a result, Madam Li from the third branch of the family would often come over to "visit" this future step-granddaughter.
It's quite comical. In her past life, when most people didn't approve of Zhou Jiaxian remarrying Li Jinhao, it was the Zheng family who strongly supported her. After Old Madam Li secretly plotted a new plan to break up the couple with Li Sishi, she even went out of her way to "persuade" and "think of ways" to persuade Li Sishi to ignore what those gossipy rich women outside said about how bad it was for a woman to remarry. They were practically willing to give away their dowry to help Zhou Jiaxian remarry so that they could climb onto the Li family's big tree...
For this reason, the elders of the Zheng family specially suppressed Zheng Suxin, the scumbag ex-husband who was starting to have some wild thoughts at that time, and managed to make him restrain himself for a few more months.
Even when Old Madam Li began to soften her stance, Li Sishi still couldn't get over it—because Zhou Jiaxian hadn't told her about Li Jinhuai's abandonment of his wife and children, leading her to believe that Li Jinhuai was a good father. Therefore, she couldn't help but feel resentment towards Li Jinhao, the "newcomer."
I have objections.
A series of unfortunate coincidences led to the truth being distorted time and time again.
I vaguely remember the day I went to see Madam Li, who planned to retire in the United States and avoid seeing her again. After a brief exchange of pleasantries and some puzzled questions, Madam Li's eyes, already showing signs of aging, looked at me deeply before she spoke a few words, as if answering a question and talking to herself: "If I hadn't separated them back then, or if they had been a little more 'brave,' their children might be as old as you now..."
At the time, she didn't understand the meaning. It wasn't until after the car accident and becoming a wandering ghost that Li Sishi pieced together the truth of why Madam Li ultimately gave in to her son's wishes through fragmented collection: When Li Jinhao, who was about to graduate from the law department with excellent grades, unexpectedly learned that his first love, whom he had cherished for several years, had already married his cousin and had a daughter, he had "gone crazy once."
It's unclear how he escaped from the guards, but when the Li family found him, he had been stabbed multiple times by the assailant while trying to protect a mother and daughter from a robbery. Although his injuries improved after treatment, the doctor delivered devastating news to Mrs. Li—due to the severity of the wounds, current medical technology could only preserve his physical functions; as for his fertility… there was essentially no hope.
This is the real reason why Li Jinhao was able to remain single for many years after losing his first love.
Even though Madam Li frantically searched for doctors and medicine for him, the result was still the same. Later, when Madam Li thought about lowering her requirements to find a wife and having her son adopt a child from a collateral branch of the Li family, Li Jinhao, who had no scruples, finally lost his temper, which made his mother, who was so paranoid that she was almost insane, stop all her fussing.
After that, this once-promising man, who was seen as a fallen star by others, resumed his studies and graduated successfully. He changed his previous ambition to pursue a career in criminal law and instead began providing legal aid to impoverished women and children. He gradually grew into an exceptionally outstanding divorce lawyer, which led to his invitation to the Miss World pageant to be a guest at the event.
Life is always two-sided, and human nature is so complex. While it makes people lament that good people don't always get their due, it also makes them feel fortunate that "misfortune can turn into blessing."
She could remain chaste for a first love that was too unforgettable.
Otherwise, given the Li family's circumstances and the prevailing values of that era, it would have been impossible for Li Jinhao, the only son of the third wife, to remain unmarried for so many years.
As Li Sishi thought of this, Li Jinhao finally adjusted his mindset and turned around.
He apologized to Li Sishi, then returned to his seat and continued talking and chatting, each lost in their own thoughts.
"I plan to return to Hong Kong later." Li Jinhao naturally wouldn't reveal the real reason he wanted to return, so he simply used the excuse of a wanderer longing for home after years of wandering abroad, thinking of giving Li Sishi a heads-up.
So Li Sishi enthusiastically expressed her anticipation for her "uncle's" return, while also displaying the innocent demeanor of a 17-year-old girl, saying that she would like to meet this gentle and kind elder again if she had the chance in the future...
Fortunately, Li Jinhao had a different thought at the time, and her acting skills were barely enough to fool the two of them into thinking they should contact each other again.
After meeting Li Jinhao that night, Li Sishi felt like she was starting another attempt to make amends for her mistakes, so she was in an extremely pleasant mood.
It is foreseeable that the current direction and development of "rekindling the past and making up for the past" is quite good. Therefore, in the next stage of the competition, Li Sishi, who was in a great mood, performed better and better as the competition progressed, allowing the entire conference to see the unlimited potential of this contestant who was not favored because of her age.
An excessive youth mixed with a charm that seems beyond one's years, yet these two seemingly contradictory qualities are so harmonious and coordinated. It's hard to know what will happen in the future, but looking back, it is absolutely unprecedented and unique.
After winning the "Queen of Asian Beauty" award amidst a group of tall and beautiful women with an absolute advantage, Li Sishi immediately continued to participate in the final competition. Finally, on the night of the final, in the moment of great anticipation, she was the first of the top three to be named and walked out from the crowd.
The final three winners of beauty pageants are traditionally announced starting with the third runner-up and working backwards. The first contestant to put on the new crown, the third runner-up, with her youthful appearance and graceful demeanor, even though she has an extremely rare Eastern face, still drew a round of enthusiastic applause!
Although there were some voices afterward saying that this year's Miss World pageant featuring all three colors—black, white, and yellow—was too "correct."
However, at that time, Li Sishi was already on a plane driven by an experienced Russian pilot, and landed safely against the wind at the Hong Kong airport.
The TBL TV crew and the paparazzi who rushed to the scene immediately relayed the news back to Hong Kong as soon as the results of the finals were announced. Therefore, the first thing Li Sishi had to face upon her return was an extremely enthusiastic mob...
The first contestant from Hong Kong to make it into the top three in an international beauty pageant!
Even though she only won the Miss World third runner-up title, at such a young age, her achievements are already...
It made the people of Hong Kong, who had been angry for several days about the Miss Universe pageant's failure to win, feel a sense of pride and relief from the bottom of their hearts!
Look, it's not that the contestants they sent out were bad, it's just that the runner-up who was reassigned to participate in the Miss Universe pageant was too disappointing!
Don't think they know nothing. It's one thing for the runner-up to not perform well in the competition, but their opponents also dug up their old diaries where they complained about how dirty and chaotic mainland China was. In the end, they were asked to leave the competition because "the regional representative did not respect the region"!
Whether in this era or in the future, most Hong Kong people are still normal people. After hearing the rumors about the truth behind Sister Huan's persuasion to leave, all the discussions for the next few days were about condemning such an ungrateful person. As a result, the Immigration Department, which has been extremely busy in recent years, suddenly lost a lot of "business" during those days...
In this era, love and hate are still quite distinct, and Li Sishi, who "redeemed" them, has once again become the hottest topic in Hong Kong overnight.
If Zhuang Menghua hadn't been prepared and sent people to guard the airport to pick her up and hide her in the villa, Li Sishi might have been driven to the brink of collapse by the crowd.
“The school is on summer vacation now, so you can rest first. Then, during this time, you can learn vocal music and performance from the teachers I’ve arranged for you…” Before Li Sishi went abroad, Zhuang Menghua had already contacted the school to let her make up for her final exams when school started, so neither of them needed to worry too much about their studies at this time.
Li Sishi, who had already called her family to arrange to stay away from home for the time being, nodded: "I understand. But Miss Zhuang, may I call home regularly tonight to let them know I'm safe?"
"Of course, just don't say too long. You'll have a lot of classes coming up and you'll be very busy, so you need to balance your studies and your health." Zhuang Menghua readily agreed and gave a few more instructions before gesturing for Li Sishi to open the folder on the coffee table.
"Because you've been juggling your studies and Miss Hong Kong duties this year, I'll try my best not to arrange any film or television projects for you until you step down next year..." Zhuang Menghua tapped on the opened folder, "However, your singing voice is quite good, so during this period, I'll arrange some song recordings and performances for you. They're not as time-consuming as filming, and you can go to the recording studio to record songs on evenings after school starts, so we can release an album as soon as possible..."
Sure enough, although Miss Zhuang understood the importance of early training, the current environment made it difficult to train Huang Qianyan with the same composure and patience she had shown back then.
Thinking this, Li Sishi paused for a moment when her gaze fell on the page of the first song.
Can Huasheng Records, which is already showing signs of decline, still get such good song resources...?
This is a representative work by Wen Huihui, one of the three rising stars of Bao Yi Yin, which is even among her secret little notebooks containing encrypted records of "memories" from later generations!
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