Nervousness was the huge pit forming at the bottom of your stomach. It caused the sweatiness of your hands. It gave you a light head, unable to think straight. It was the very thing Lu Han hated, especially now. He would have been freaking out, but Yi Xing’s natural annoying presence required him to remain quiet and calm. Otherwise, he was a twitchy mess on the inside.

“Wuah, my best friend looks so handsome!” Yi Xing excitedly pinched Lu Han’s right cheek. They were both in fancy tuxes, all dressed up, turning heads the whole way to the hotel. Lu Han rolled his eyes even though, inside, he was thankful that Yi Xing was trying to relieve some of the tension.  Still, if he didn’t get Yi Xing off him right now, the pinch was sure to leave a mark.

“Stop,” Lu Han swatted away Yi Xing’s hand from his face, “We’re almost there.”

“Boo you.” Yi Xing stuck out his tongue, tentatively patting his hair that was now gelled back. Lu Han understood his discomfort. It has been forever since he had to gel his hair to the side, out of his face too.

They both watched as the red digits on top of the elevator slowly got higher and higher. 32 . . . 34 . . . 36 . . . With each floor, they were getting closer and closer to hell. Either wise known as their ‘families’. 

“Ready?” Yi Xing asked as they stepped out of the elevator, the door closing behind them. Lu Han gave a little nod, his calm exterior slowly wearing away.

“Where have you been?! Do you not see the time?!” was the first thing that greeted the two even before they managed to utter a hello.

“Nice to see you again too, mom.” Lu Han was unable to keep the contempt in his voice from being too obvious, but the sight of her just made his blood boil.

“Do not call me mom!” She pointed a shaking finger at him, “Hurry inside, we have instructions to make sure you are clear of before we leave for the party!”

“I see you haven’t changed much, Lu Han’s mom.” Yi Xing smiled toothily, skipping on into the hotel room.

Lu Han really couldn’t believe that his mom was yelling at them for being late even though Yi Xing’s mom, Mrs. Zhang and his was still getting their makeup down. 

Sitting in a chair getting her hair ironed into doll curls on top of her head was Lu Han’s older sister, Lu Hee. The moment she saw him, her eye narrowed into angry slits. Her hands balled into fists, but Lu Han guess her will power kept her from lunging at him.

His dad just sat at the dining table, reading the afternoon paper, completely ignoring his son’s presence, probably too ashamed to even look at him.

“Hey, mom.” Yi Xing casually greeted the tall woman, who slightly frowned at the sight of her third son. At least she wasn’t displaying outright hatred like Lu Han’s mom did. Her face was just tired when she saw him, almost blaming herself for the turnout of her son.

“Your brothers and father will meet us at the party. Just make sure to stay out of trouble.” Mrs. Zhang warned her son. “You two know the story if anyone asks, right?”

The two nodded. How could they? They repeated the stories so many times that they could recite it in their sleep. The lies have been told over and over.

They supposedly go to a very prestige college somewhere on the west coast in America. Lu Han wanted to become a lawyer and Yi Xing wanted to be an accountant, well at least that’s what everyone in their family’s social circle believed. It was just a cover up so that they wouldn’t find out the real reason why the boys didn’t want anything to do with the family business.   

Lu Han and Yi Xing’s families were close, running small factories that produced plastic and made cheap fabrics. They weren’t uber rich, but they had money.  Still, where there was money, there had to be a successor. Naturally, Lu Han was the heir to their small factory business but he fell in love with dance in middle school, singing in high school. Yi Xing shared his love for dance, but it didn’t matter as much in his situation since he had two older brothers*.

Lu Han’s parents went crazy when he declared that he didn’t want to get involved with the business. They were even more enraged when he made it clear that he wanted to perform instead. Yi Xing’s parents strongly disapproved of it but they weren’t surprised, seeing that Yi Xing was always the wild one.  But Lu Han was always obedient; he broke out of the mold when he decided that he wanted to do something he loved, not something his family would love. 

To save face, the families decide to forge acceptance letters from the college in the US, tricking everyone into believing that the boys were actually do something that the elite wouldn’t scrunch their noses at. After that, Yi Xing and Lu Han were told to go somewhere far from Shanghai and make sure that they didn’t draw too much attention to themselves.

Yi Xing’s cousin heard about what he was doing and instead of being disgusted at what his little cousin, he was impressed and offered them a place by where he lived. He even pulled some strings at the Academy so that they and the dancer friends they made could practice. But their parents didn’t know that Yi Xing’s cousin was helping them though.

Suddenly, Lu Han remembered something. He ran into MiMi last week didn’t he? He wasn’t afraid that she would babble, seeing that she had the hugest crush on him. But he remember about how Lu Hee got an offer teaching ballet in Beijing and that MiMi was squealing with excitement to find that she got Lu Hee as a teacher.  So that meant she must teach Ke Xin too!

 Lu Hee sat on the couch, staring out at the window. Her posture was always on point, not even a centimeter out of place. She looked like a more mature, girl version of Lu Han. Her eyes looked colder than his and was always set in an unhappy line. She was undeniably pretty but a smile could make her look a thousand times better.

“Hi.” Lu Han muttered cautiously.

She gave him one long, hateful glare before quickly turning away. Her frown lines were getting deeper and deeper.  Despite her cold font, she didn’t exactly tell him to go away either so Lu Han took this as a chance to ask what he needed to.

“You teach Mimi ballet, right?”

Lu Hee’s eyes flickered over in surprise that he was bringing this up. She didn’t know that he lived in Beijing, but must have thought that he was just recalling the time when MiMi spazzed about being her pupil.

“Why are you asking? You suddenly want to accept her childish affection?”  Lu Hee’s voice was humorless, more accusing than anything.

“No. Just wondering.” Lu Han tried to respond as nonchalance as he could. His sister didn’t say no, which meant that she really did teach Ke Xin too. But now just watch his sister tell MiMi that he brought up her name, that’ll surely send her into a fuss. While Lu Hee and MiMi might think that he was asking for MiMi, he wondered how they’d react if they knew the real reason his head’s been up on Cloud 9.

***

Ke Xin really disliked Shanghai’s air. It had way more factories and business than Beijing and because of that, the air was not as crisp and fresh.  She found it more tiresome to breathe but maybe it was just her bad mood that was getting to her.  

Usually, she was OCD when it came to getting to places on time. But since it was a social gathering  combined with the fact that they were going to bring up more marriage discussions, Ke Xin was in the opposite of hurry, Her bodyguards, Yi Mu’s sons, Justin and Austin, seemed to notice this but didn’t say anything. They just smiled to themselves, knowing what disgruntled her.

These two were American-born but their father had died a year after they were born, resulting in Yi Mu coming back to work for Ke Xin’s family. That’s why they had non-Chinese names. They were like brothers to her. They had become her bodyguards when she was ten years old. And because of that, she could trust them with anything.

“Where’s this place again?” Austin asked as he started up the sleek, black rental car.

“Here.” Justin handed him the invitation where the addresses was printed clearly, “Shouldn’t be too hard to find since you know, those filthy rich people just have to show off how much more money they have.”

He and Ke Xin exchanged a look and laughed. They loved making fun of how much the rich liked to emphasis their importance. It was ridiculous, all the money going into useless matters. You would think that it’s pretty ironic since Justin worked for a rich family himself. But whenever he did make fun of the rich, he doesn’t mean to direct his jokes towards Ke Xin’s family. In fact, the twins really looked up to her father.

Just like Justin predicted, it wasn’t too hard to find the Yuans’ home. It was a huge villa, located somewhere in the outskirts of Shanghai. It was pretty impressive looking with its cherubic fountains and pretty exotic plants. Still, Ke Xin was dreading this party.

“Your dad said he was meeting you inside?”

“Yeah,” Ke Xin nodded, “I have my phone with me so don’t worry about it.” She lifted up her striped Tory Burch clutch as proof.

“Wear this and we won’t worry.” Justin told her as he held out what looked like a white-stoned pendant necklace. “It may look like a necklace, but if you press the stone, we’ll be right there. And plus it goes with your dress.” He added playfully with a wink.

“I’m not even going to ask.” Ke Xin laughed as she put the necklace around her neck.

“We’ll be . . . around the place.” Austin smiled and they drove off. Ke Xin shook her head; those two were at it again, acting like the CIA or something. Comical.

So after all these attendants bowed and showed her to the ball room, she greeted by the dreaded Yuans.

“Oh my!” A really, really high pitched Mrs. Yuan screeched. “Ke Xin, you are looking more and more gorgeous every time we see you!”

Ke Xin gave the cruel looking lady a weak, insincere smile. “I could say the same for you, Mrs. Yuan.” Ke Xin was really lying. The woman looked like the Asian version of Cruella Deville. Sharp looking eyes, blood red lips, and a sinister looking smile.

“You are too kind, just like your father.” Mr. Yuan suddenly appeared behind his wife. He looked just as evil as his wife.  His hair was slicked back and he had the same greedy glint in his eyes.

Mr. Cai appeared just in the nick of time, rescuing his daughter having to be alone with the Yuans. He didn’t look the least shaken by them while there was a slicker of fear in Ke Xin’s heart just being in their presence. They were like wild animals, once they smell fear, they’ll prance. She made sure to stay as passive as she could.

“I believe she got her kindness from her mother, not me.” Her father laughed.  Ke Xin faked a laugh too.  Please let this be over soon she thought to herself.

To make things worse, the devils’ son choose to come in at that moment.

“Mom, Dad I was looking for you two everywhere.” He then noticed that they had company, “I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” In her head Ke Xin grunted, this guy needs some acting course. This couldn’t be more planned out than a reality show.

He was tall, and had definitely inherited his parents’ dangerous aura. He looked curiously (in a non-innocence way) at Ke Xin with a playful head tilt and a little smirk. Leon was, with no argument handsome but something about him made a shiver run down her spine. His eyes scanned Ke Xin from head to toe, already sizing her up.

“Oh no, of course you weren’t!” His mother laughed (or more like crackled), “Actually your father and I were going to discuss some business matters with Mr. Cai, you kids just go enjoy yourselves and get to know each other.”

Ke Xin began to panic inside but outside, she smiled calmly. She really thought her dad was going to do something to prevent her being alone with Leon but all he did was give her a confident, knowing look, like he was telling her she was going to be fine. Sometimes, she really hated his parenting methods.

She was totally aware of all the hateful glares she getting from the other girls but she had much more important things to worry about. Like being left alone with the Yuan heir.

“We have a very pretty garden, would you like to see it?” He asked so smoothly, his words alluring but had hints of dangers lying in there somewhere. Leon held out his hand.  

At first her mind screamed for her to refuse and run to the bathroom or something. But by accident, her hands brushed the white-stoned pendant. If Justin and Austin said there were around and they would come right away, they would do just that. There was nothing to fear. She wasn’t about to show any fear either.

“Why not?” She smiled, allowing him to take her hand.  No fear, no fear, she chanted to herself.

The garden was pretty. They even had Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in the garden. Flowers of all kind, of all colors sprung up from everywhere. Yet, Leon kept looking at her, making it were ever so difficult to appreciate the garden’s beauty.

“Very pretty.” Ke Xin commented, and smiled genuinely the first time that night.

“But you know what else is quite pretty?” Leon plucked a nearby white flower.

When she asked what it was, he just smiled and tucked the flower behind her ear, though her hair didn’t need any more of them, “You are.”  

She didn’t know how to respond politely. It sounded so corny, and she was getting uncomfortable because he was inching closer and closer to her.

“ I —.” She began but got cut off.

But then, out of nowhere, Leon had her pushed up on a stone wall. The look his face was filled with lust.

“I don’t think you’re pretty,” He whispered, his voice sultry. “You’re hot.”

“Please let go of me.” She signaled to his hands that had her arms pinned to the wall. For some reason she was growing angry, her fear disappearing.

His smirk grew larger at her indignant expression. “Feisty one, aren’t you? You’ll mother the next Yuan heir just fine.” His invading hand continued onto her chest.

“Let me go!” She tried to shove him off but it was just useless. His hand kept her two arms up, keeping her from pressing the white stone.

But just as she thought she was doomed, someone had shoved Leon off of her. Leon grunted as he landed on the dirt walkway.  

“I believe the lady said to let go of her.” The figure cracked his fingers, anger evidently in his voice.

“Oh my God.” Ke Xin gasped when she realized that she recognized the person. It was Lu Han?   

*In China, there is a child limitation rule. It varies depending where you are. but the general rule is if your first born is a boy, you aren't allowed to have another one, if it's a girl, you are allowed to try once more for a boy. But that's it. If you pay a certain amount you can have more children that's why the more wealthy usually can have more than one male child (or female). 

Woot! chapter 5 out of the way :D Oh my God, did I ever tell you guys just how much I love your comments and support? TT^TT

Oh and I think a lot of you misunderstood, Se Hun will be part of this fic, but he isn't making an appearance until much later.  But watch me have to swallow my words later on =__=.