Milady's Fine Gentleman 407 Past, Present, Future 2

"I'm sorry I'm late." Chen Linyun whispered almost inaudibly at the exhausted Xue Jinxu who was lying on the operating table, just after giving birth to the twins. The nurse had laid both of those sweet, tiny, innocent bundles of delight on her chest a few minutes ago. She did not intend it, but tears escaped from her eyes overwhelmingly and freely as she touched her twins for the first time.

And now, her husband had arrived and was by her side.

She couldn't wish for anything more.

At this moment, her world was complete.

She closed her eyes and took in more of the ephemeral but magnificent moment.

Chen Linyun whispered some more words on her ear. "I've seen the twins. They're beautiful. You've done a great job, Misis Chen. I love you…"

"But…"

"I'm not here to stay…"

Abruptly so, Xue Jinxu's tear-filled eyes shot open and searched Chen Linyun's face with the answers to her unspoken questions.

Face scrunched, she locked her gaze onto his.

Just as how it used to, they fell into the trap of their gazes and got drowned to the existence of the other. Just like that night when they were still living in the apartment complex when they were still starting out.

Chen Linyun's eyes, this time, were conversing myriads of love letters he had never written, of thoughts he had never spoken out loud. Those eyes reflected dreams and hopes of the future they intended to make real as a family.

Xue Jinxu's heart ached without understanding the reason behind, and her tears flowed more intensely. This time, her tears were not only of delight for having the twins but of sorrow and grief.

"I will go with you. I am ready." She whispered back, meekly, weakly.

"How about the twins?"

"They can rely on each other just like how I have relied on my twin brother up to this day, and how he had relied on me. And all our family members will love them and take care of them and nurture them."

"And we will look after them, too." Chen Linyun completed the dreamy picture. "From afar."

"En."

Chen Linyun extended his hand and Xue Jinxu took it. She surprisingly felt her body grow a lot lighter.

Together, hand-in-hand, Chen Linyun, and Xue Jinxu walked into the light and disappeared.

It had been five years since the twins were born.

Sadly so, that same day of birth and new life was also a day of grieving and death.

Chen Linyun and Xue Jinxu perished on the same day.

Family members grieved, but they learned to channel their love to the offsprings of the couple whom they hold dear. They showered the twins with such love and affection in the hopes that they would never feel incomplete.

Soon, the knots of the past untangled bit by bit, and everything seemed to fall into place.

Han Fengyu was convicted for attempted murder against the Xue Young Master several years ago, with the evidence found in his previous mobile phone that Chen Linyun had painstakingly retrieved from the telecommunications company and had even put his life in danger before. His sentence had originally been ten years, but due to his apathetic behavior – att.i.tude that he had grown accustomed to after his brother's death – he had earned bail after four years.

During his sentence in prison, he could never forget how piercing Kang Sola's looks were at Chen Linyun's funeral. He also could not forget Chen Linyun's last words to him. "Repent, brother. Live a long life and repent." 

When he was set free from prison, he decided to live as an outcast in a desolate island in the South. 

True enough that regret would come after the deed. After Chen Linyun's pa.s.sing, Han Fengyu had come to detest himself for pulling the trick that he did. 

And so, to compensate, he volunteered to subject himself into a lifetime of suffering without anyone by his side, without hopes and dreams, haunted by Kang Sola's last glares, and Chen Linyun's last words.

As for his mother, Han Lan, she was well-taken care of by Kang Sola and Jiang Biyu until the last moments of her life. She died three years ago when Han Fengyu was still serving his sentence in prison. 

Those who remained in life found strength with each other. Kang Sola who initially thought that he had lost all her family – her father and two brothers, had found another family with the Chens. Chen Lingfang and Jiang Biyu treated her like a real daughter, and the twins brought added joy to her life. Being their aunt, she served as their second mother.

Xue Guangxi went home to pay his respects and say his farewell to his only sister, Xue Jinxu. He had learned what had transpired when he was gone. He knew more than anyone how accepting his sister had been to her husband's background. For the last time, his sister taught him a great life lesson of acceptance. At their funeral, Xue Guangxi vowed to settle his own grudges within himself and to protect Xue Jinxu's twins with his life, the same way his sister did for him.

Regarding the company affairs, Xue Minhe responsibly managed Xue s.h.i.+pping. He also helped oversee operations in Chen Holdings, together with Mo Wenbin. Zhu Li Qiang took over Shuilong Trading. They had covered everything in place, but never forgot that all of these would be pa.s.sed on to the twins at the right time.

After five years, the Xue's and the Chen's and all of their friends reunited and gathered for such a happy occasion – the wedding of the Chen Master and Madame.

Soon, Teng Man Rui and Zhu Li Qiang arrived in Beijing and the old friends – the Chen's and the Xue's, Mo Wenbin, Hw.a.n.g Meilin, and Kang Sola all got together on a happy note.

Life was short and full of shortcomings to still waste on sulking. Chen Lingfang and Jiang Biyu had reconciled over the years, and finally, after almost three decades of spending it apart, they decided to end that phase and spend the rest of their old age together, as husband and wife. They reminisced all their good things together, as well as the sorrows and heartaches that led them to be apart. They constantly thought of their children who left them at a tender age, and their adopted son, Chen Linyun, and be grateful to him for showering them with a life full of love, grat.i.tude and such hopes along with extended family – their in-laws who never cut ties with them, their grandchildren and a daughter.

As for the Chen couple, Xue Jinxu and Chen Linyun, even if they were not here in this world anymore, everyone would want to believe that they were still together elsewhere.

This thought would always brush their sentiments and bring them such bittersweet taste in their mouths.

---

On a cliff somewhere in a parallel world, a bench was planted near the edge overlooking the city and the world, under a Jacaranda tree. The bench was occupied by two love birds, the lady whose head rested on the nook of the gentleman's neck as he held her hands in his.

Behind the bench, there was a plaid picnic cloth of alternating red and white patches laid on the ground. Beside it, a girl of around ten or eleven, with wavy hair and almond eyes played quietly and by herself with pails and flowers and pots.

"Xiao Zhizhi." The woman called out, and the girl hurriedly came over and threw one chubby arm each around Chen Linyun and Xue Jinxu's shoulders. The man and the woman both planted a kiss on the girl's crown and hugged her in return.

"Your siblings are doing great."

The girl nodded and smiled as she returned at the back of the bench, to her play.

"I couldn't ask for more, Chen Linyun. You've never broken any promise you made me."

"Let's grow old together here while we wait to be reunited with the twins." Chen Linyun retorted.

"I'll gladly spend forever and a day with you~" Xue Jinxu, whose love for him never waned with time nor with circ.u.mstance, responded with overflowing affection.

"Likewise. Even if we get reborn, I would certainly find you wherever you may be. I promise to live a lifetime after lifetime with you." Chen Linyun brushed his lips on her cheek.

"And if you don't find me, I'll find you instead." Xue Jinxu, the once mighty Xue G.o.ddess, decreed.

"I'll count on it, then."

"Sure."

Overlooking the world on the top spot on the edge of a cliff, the two lovebirds rested comfortably on the bench, under the shed of the indigo Jacaranda tree and its rain of indigo petals. 

-THE END-