Chapter 24 - You Can Think of Me Like An Older Brother (1)

Li WangJin sat across from He Ming. His voice became more serious. "You have already completed the 'Snow by the River'?"

"Snow by the River" was Xu FangWeng's most famous painting. Rumor had it that a secret magnate bought it at an auction for $560M. A magnate from Hong Kong wanted to buy it once for $1B but failed.

Li WangJin had dropped his work to rush over precisely for this today. He had been working with He Ming for years but something of this magnitude was the very first time.

He Ming nodded and said, "It will be done in the next few days. Do you want it? If not, I am going to sell it to someone else. I have others reaching out to me already."

He Ming had not only helped Li WangJin transfer his wealth over the years; he had also sold his forged works to others for money as well.

Li WangJin sat up. The most he had taken out of the company's account in the past was only tens of millions, and he had slowly built up the amount. If he wanted $1B all at once... he wondered if Fang JunRong would agree to it.

He recalled how Fang JunRong had been colder and colder to him as of late. And, she had further tried to insert her nephew into the company in the last couple of days. It was obvious that she had already started to move in and tried to take over some control of the company. He made a split-second decision. "Okay. On top of this 'Snow by the River', what else have you got? Let's make it an even $1.5B."

The reason he trusted He Ming so much and knew that he wouldn't betray him was because he has He Ming's only son in his hand, and He Ming's son was very important to him. There was a shareholder of the company who wanted to sell some of his stocks recently. Once he got this money, he could buy the stock from the shareholder, then his ownership would way surpass that of Fang JunRong's.

He Ming hesitated for a while and said, "Let me see what I can do."

$1.5B, from what he was told, if all went well, she would not only send him and his son overseas, she would give him $10M on top of that. She was way more generous than Li WangJin. All these years that he had been painting for Li WangJin, he had only made several millions of dollars. Plus...

He remembered another friend of his who also used to paint for Li WangJin and he just disappeared like that one day. He Ming didn't want the same thing happening to him.

Hearing that, Li WangJin smiled lightly and said, "Don't worry. I will arrange for your son to get into the best school and help send him overseas in the future."

He Ming lowered his head, his voice filled with gratitude when he said, "Thank you so much."

Under the table, his hands were balled into fists.

He looked up suddenly and said, "Oh, right. A friend of mine saw a woman that looked a lot like Wang SiEr overseas. He swung by my place a few days ago and recognized her from my pictures."

Li WangJin had taken Wang SiEr's pictures and had He Ming painted a few of them in the past. There were still a few inside the studio, so He Ming was not unfamiliar with Wang SiEr.

Li WangJin's eyes widened in shock. The muscle of his cheeks twitched a little, making him look somewhat vicious. "Are you serious? How is that possible?" As thought remembering something, he asked, "Where was she?"

"In Country R."

That's right. SiEr has a twin sister. He heard that she had left the country a few years ago. That could very well be her.

Chapter 25 - You Can Think of Me Like An Older Brother (2)

"How is she doing" He let out a slight sigh. She was, after all, SiEr's sister. Before she passed away, SiEr missed her the most other than YaGe. He was willing to help her out if she needed any help.

He Ming said to him, "She lives next door to my friend. Things haven't been going well for her. Words had it that her husband has a lot of debt and cheated on her. She jumped through a lot of hoops to finally divorced him. But she's quite good looking and single, so she was bullied by the natives a lot."

Having heard that, Li WangJin got even more worried. He said solemnly, "Give me her address. I will have someone go pick her up."

For SiEr, perhaps he could keep her sister close to him and look after her some.

He Ming handed Li WangJin a piece of paper.

Li WangJin took the piece of paper from him and added, "Starting today, each of your paintings will go from $50,000 to $60,000."

His tone was condescending like he was doing him a favor.

"Thank you, Boss Li."

***

Li WangJin quickly had someone go and bring Wang SiXian, sister of Wang SiEr back. Country R was only a few hours of plane ride from City S. Li WangJin was able to meet up with Wang SiXian the very next day

Wang SiXian and Wang SiEr, being twins, looked a lot alike. So much that Li WangJin felt that Wang SiEr had risen from the dead when he met her.

When Wang SiXian saw him, tears rolled down her face and she walked up and put her arms around him.

Li WangJin felt slightly embarrassed. His first reaction was wanting to push her away, but when her tears fell on his neck, he felt how hot they were. It was like they had fallen directly onto his heart. He didn't push her away after all, but patted her gently on her back.

"It's alright. You are back. I will protect you for your sister.

"You can think of me like an older brother."

"Thank you. Really, thank you so much." Wang SiXian breathed into his neck and gave him an odd sensation.

She told him everything that had happened to her over the years and they were truly tear-jerking stories. Coming from her directly, it was so much worse than how He Ming had mentioned them. Wang SiXian's ex-husband was not only addicted to gambling and cheated on her, there was also domestic violence. So much that she had two miscarriages.

"Why didn't you get a divorce sooner?" Li WangJin blurted out. When Wang SiXian was crying, she looked exactly like her sister, making it impossible for him to pretend he hadn't seen it.

Wang SiXian just bit her lower lips and refused to elaborate on it, as though there were something there that she didn't want to touch upon.

Li WangJin did not pry. He took her to a 3-bedroom house. Lao Suen, the one who drove, has been working for Li WangJin for years. He was very good at keeping secrets, even when it came to keeping them from Fang JunRong. Li WangJin trusted him a lot.

He sat in the backseat with Wang SiXian.

After they arrived at their destination, Wang SiXian dropped her purse when she was getting out of the car. Her wallet fell out and flipped open when it hit the ground. Li WangJin bent over to pick it up for her and saw the pictures inside her wallet.

There was a picture on each side. One of them was young Li WangJin. He was handsome back then in a very intelligent way. He was standing under a tree with his laboratory report in hand.

The other one was Wang SiXian and a man. The man looked similar to Li WangJin.

Wang SiXian quickly took her purse from Li WangJin and looked away, even her neck was flustered. Whether that was from the weather or something else, nobody knew.

"Was that your husband?"

Wang SiXian's voice was very soft, "..... yes."

Li WangJin wasn't an idiot, and he was especially sharp when it came to stuff like this. The two pictures pointed toward one truth...

No wonder. No wonder it had taken her so long to get a divorce.

His speculation made him look at her reflexively, his look complicated.

Chapter 26 - You Can Think of Me Like An Older Brother (3)

When Li WangJin returned home, his steps were more relaxed and cheerful than usual. Today, he almost felt that he had travelled back in time to when he was still young. That was a wonderful feeling like he had some nice wine. It was an enveloping and light-headed sensation.

As soon as he walked inside, he saw his wife sitting on the couch, leafing through a magazine with their other adopted daughter, Zhong Yi. Even though Zhong Yi had already been there for a few days, she spent most of her time inside her room and never had a strong sense of presence. Most of the time, Li WangJin had forgotten that he has another adopted daughter other than YaGe.

"Are you guys looking at a magazine?" He scanned over there and it seemed to be some sort of a fashion magazine.

Fang JunRong looked up, the corners of her mouth lifted, and she said to him, "Zhong Yi and I are picking out a few dresses that she likes. When the samples arrive, I'll have her try it on and then custom fit it to her size."

Li WangJin immediately thought of Jiang YaGe. "Is YaGe not home? Did you ask her if she wants any?" He said in a joking tone, "I know you like Zhong Yi better, but they are both our kids, you should be fair to both of them and not play any favoritism."

He didn't like Zhong Yi. Probably because Zhong Yi was the cause of Jiang YaGe being embarrassed the first day she was there. Plus, he felt that the closer his wife was to her, the more distant his wife was to him. That made him dislike her even more.

Fang JunRong said to herself; oh yeah, you are the last person who should be saying that.

The smile on her was still perfect. She said in a very suggestive tone, "It's not appropriate for YaGe."

"And why not?" Seeing that she was really going to give YaGe the shorter end of the stick, Li WangJin felt that he needed to step in and do something about it.

Fang JunRong said slowly, "I planned to introduce Zhong Yi at XinYun's birthday banquet. That's why we need her to dress up nicely."

"Wouldn't YaGe need that too?"

Fang JunRong chuckled as though she was laughing at how childish he was. The way she looked at him like she was looking at a fool made him feel very uneasy.

"Don't you remember? That was the anniversary of her parents' death. It has only been a year. YaGe should show some respect to her parents. I don't think it will be appropriate for her to attend the banquet.

"We wouldn't want her to be sad at the banquet. Which is why I have decided to have her stay elsewhere that day. I am just trying to be mindful of her feelings." She took everything that Li WangJin had said before and flung them right back at his face.

Li WangJin's face turned beet red, then from red to green. Except that Fang JunRong used everything that he had said before. If he rebutted it now, he'd be slapping his own face.

Instead, all he could do was to squeeze out an awkward smile and said, "Oh, yeah, you are right. I have also forgotten. You are so thoughtful."

He even said to Zhong Yi, "Pick all the ones that you like. We can always just buy them all."

Hearing his words, Zhong Yi looked up and smiled at him."Thank you, Dad." She looked back down and continued leafing through the magazine.

Li WangJin watched the two of them discussing which style of dresses were pretty and felt that it was very unfortunate for YaGe. Many guests would be here on XinYun's birthday, and it would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce YaGe. Now he'd have to plan something else in the future.

His dampened mood improved when he thought about Wang SiXian again. Now that Wang SiXian was back in the country, she could meet up with YaGe more often and help comfort YaGe.