Unexpected Second Chance at Love

With the sun beginning to rise higher into the early morning, the people of Imperial started making their way to their everyday life. The streets gradually crowd with people walking and cars going about their day.

Inside Imperial Hotel, in one of the luxurious private rooms, Ji Chu Hua awoke from the bed. She sat up, causing the blanket covering her body to fall to her lap and reveal her naked body.

She brushes her hair behind her ear and inhales the smell of cigarette smoke. Her head turns to look in the direction of the balcony. 

When she saw the back figure of the man she spent an entire night with, her cheeks flushed.

The man was smoking a cigarette and leaning against the balcony rail. His blond shoulder-length hair fluttered every so often with the passing wind.

However, she frowns a little when she sees that he has put on his clothes.

Ji Chu Hua reaches for the hotel robe, and she puts it on before getting out of bed.

”Sun, are you leaving already?”

She made the sweetest voice possible, but Choi Li Sun doesn’t turn around to look at her. He stares down at the busy street below and takes a puff of his cigarette.

”I have a new task for you, Hua.”

Despite him ignoring her question, Ji Chu Hua loved how he spoke her name and didn’t get angry. She comes to a stop behind him and hugs his waist.

She rests the side of her face on his back and presses her body against him.

”Anything that’s within my reach.”

A malevolent light flashes across Choi Li Sun’s eyes as the passing wind reveals the long scar on the right side of his face. He takes another puff of his cigarette and tosses it in the ashtray.

He turns around to face Ji Chu Hua and captures her lips.

”This task is within your reach.”

He moves her arms from his waist and walks to the hotel desk in the room. He picks up a thick yellow envelope and throws it onto the messy bed.

”In here is your new task.”

He walks to the couch and puts on his coat. Before leaving, he walks to Ji Chu Hua and gives her another kiss.

”I will call you later to confirm.”

His words end there, and he leaves the room without any care about the woman he left behind.

”Boss.”

The moment Choi Li Sun stepped out into the hotel hallway, a bulky man in a black suit greets him.

He looks at the man then places his hands in the pockets of his coat.

”Any updates?”

The bulky man glanced at the door his boss had walked out. He doesn’t ask for details and follows after the man.

”Our support chain back home is under tight surveillance. Also, we just confirmed. Those people are here in Imperial, and they’re the ones trying to track you down.”

At the mention of those people, Choi Li Sun sneers with maliciousness. 

”So they’ve finally caught on.”

He sounds an evil laugh with a dark expression.

”Once Hua completes this task, I won’t need to hide anymore.”

The two men end their conversation and enter the elevator. As they left Imperial Hotel, Ji Chu Hua remained alone in the room.

She was in a full-on rage that Choi Li Sun had left her. She thought that he would spend another few hours with her since they barely saw one another. 

However, she scoffed and rolled her eyes at the door.

It was always like this with him. He calls her when he feels like it and leaves when he wants. It was like he didn’t care about her feelings at all.

She glares at the door, then at the yellow envelope. She inhales a deep breath and steadies her mind before walking towards it.

Picking up the envelope, she sits down on the edge of the bed and opens it.

She takes out a stack of money and documents, along with a few photos.

”This...”

She stares at the photos and her eyebrows creased. Each image was of the same man but taken at different angles.

He is incredibly handsome and has a faded haircut. However, Choi Li Sun had overlapped the photos with various red markings.

Each one had detailed information of what needed to be done.

She set the photos aside and picked up the documents. Once she finished browsing through them, the corners of her lips arc up.

”I see... So this is the task.”

She picks up one photo of the man smiling with a guitar. His face was one that could win the hearts of many women.

”He’s planning to change his face into this.”

Thinking about the task Choi Li Sun had given her, she smiles with satisfaction. The man was already good-looking, but if he were to look as good as the man in the photo, many would be jealous of her to have him.

She placed everything back inside the yellow envelope and stood up. 

”I should call Gu Ting Fei after I shower. He must be worried about me.”

She put the envelope in her purse and headed for the bathroom to freshen up for the day.

Oblivious to what had happened at Imperial Hotel, Yue Ling and the Liu siblings had finished breakfast and left the house.

Yue Ling brought the three children with her to De L’amour. She had Liu Shan called Liu Jingyin’s school and excused her as they didn’t want Liu Peng to cause a scene.

”Wow! Boss, you look unexpectedly comfortable today.”

Liu Shan exclaimed with surprise when he entered her office and saw her sitting behind the desk. He stares at her from head to toe, and a genuine smile appears on his face.

Usually, she was always stylish when coming in for work. However, today, she was the opposite.

She was wearing a simple grey knitted sweater and wide-leg denim. On her head was a beige-colored baseball cap and on her feet was a pair of white sneakers.

Yue Ling was going over some documents and ignored her assistant’s eyes on her. She puts the papers down only to grab a new one.

”I just felt like dressing like this.”

Liu Shan arches an eyebrow but decides not to continue the topic. He looks around her office then back at her.

”Where are the kids?”

”With the design team.”

Yue Ling answered without taking her eyes off the documents.

After she and the three siblings finished breakfast, she brought them to the company with her.  When they arrived, Ju Suo and Lian Ni Shang came to take them away so that she could work.

She finishes going over all the documents within minutes. She stood up from her seat and picked up the black design book on her desk.

”Shall we go see what they’re doing?”

Liu Shan’s eyes lit up, and he nodded his head with a huge smile. He wasn’t, in any way, related to the Liu siblings, but due to them sharing the same surname as him, he saw them like his younger siblings.

As the boss and assistant made their way to find the design team, inside the design office, all was quiet, like the room was vacant.

However, a few of Yue Ling’s design team members and the Liu siblings were, without a doubt, inside.

Ju Suo stood next to Liu Jingyi in front of a long table. She leans towards the teenage girl and covers her mouth in an attempt to whisper.

”Hey Jingyi, is your little brother alright?”

Liu Jingyi helped out the design team by folding some fabrics on the table. She didn’t know what to do, so this was all she could do.

When she heard the petite Lolita’s words, she looked at Jianan. She ponders for a quick second then continues her task.

”He’s fine, and he looks happy.”

Ju Suo’s eyes grew heavy, as did the twins, Gui Tian Lan and Gui Zhong min, seated at their desks.

All three people glance at one another, then in the direction of the little boy.

”That’s odd...”

Gui Tian Lan touches his chin with a slight frown and Gui Zhongmin chimes in doing the same thing.

”No one ever goes near Qi Li, especially children.”

In the far back of the room, Qi Li sat behind his desk while working on his illustrations for De L’amour. 

His expression held no emotion and the aura around him was so profound that it made others not want to be near him at all.

However, despite his cold appearance, sitting next to him was a smiling Jianan.

The little boy did not look scared, nor did he seem to notice Qi Li’s cold demeanor. He quietly sat and watched Qi Li work.

When he sees something interesting, he points to it and asks what it is while Qi Li answers with a calm, straight face.

This scene truly was one everyone in the design team would never have expected at all.

While the others were confused about this scene, Liu Jingyi was relieved.

She was glad that despite all the cruel things their father had done, Jianan was able to see the good in others.

”Well, would you look at that?”

A man’s laugh sounded from the door, and everyone turned to the person. It was Yue Ling and Liu Shan.

Yue Ling smiled when she saw her illustrator getting along with a child. She looks away at her other subordinates and enters the room.

”How’s everything going?”

Her question is directed at Liu Jingyi. She (Liu Jingyi) stares at Yue Ling, and her posture froze in place.

The moment she first met Yue Ling, she was in doubt. There was no possible way this Han Yue Ling and her idol, Han Yue Ling, were the same person.

She didn’t believe this because she believes a celebrity is too busy to care about people like her and her siblings.

However, after careful observation, it was during breakfast that she came to her senses.

She also confirmed Yue Ling’s identity with Liu Ye.

Watching Yue Ling, her idol, come to a stop next to her, she swallows a nervous gulp and nods her head. Of course, she also tries to remain calm and not squeal like a fangirl.

”Everything is fine. They gave me a simple task to do.”

Yue Ling maintained a smile on her face when she saw Liu Jingyi’s reaction. She looks around the room and arches an eyebrow.

”Oh, where did Liu Ye go?”

Lian Ni Shang was on her way to put some fabric samples on a shelf and answers.

”He’s helping Shan Sinan and Tang Zhonghui.”