Le Tong, feeling embarrassed, called out "Brother" and desperately signaled Ji Rui with her eyes to let go of her.
But Ji Rui completely ignored Yang Sheng, holding Le Tong as he walked towards his own office.
"Hey, Ji Rui, did you forget? I’m your brother-in-law. Aren’t you afraid I’ll convince Tongtong to move back to her parents’ house and ignore you?"
Ji Rui didn’t even turn his head, "Yang Sheng, you’re overestimating yourself!"
Seeing the sparks fly, Le Tong, to avoid being caught in the crossfire, pushed Ji Rui away with all her might and quickly moved to the side, "I’ll make coffee, you two chat slowly."
Chatting wasn’t quite accurate, it should have been more like sparring.
Ji Rui and Yang Sheng entered the office one after the other. Twenty minutes later, Le Tong ca in with a tray carrying a pot of coffee and a plate of cookies.
"Are you hungry? Do you need to order so takeout for you?"
It was past three in the afternoon, and Le Tong wasn’t sure if the two had lunch.
"Not hungry!" The two n sitting in the lounge room answered in unison. Their faces no longer bore any of the earlier lightheartedness.
Le Tong’s eyelids twitched, sensing sothing was wrong. She bent down to place the tray, poured two cups of coffee, and pushed them in front of the two n.
"What’s going on?"
Their expressions were very serious, yet neither answered Le Tong; instead, they both picked up their coffee at the sa ti.
Le Tong suspected that sothing had changed in Y Country, but seeing them say nothing, she could only watch them silently, waiting for them to speak.
Finally, it was Ji Rui who spoke, "Yang Sheng, you tell her."
Le Tong shifted her gaze to Yang Sheng’s face, "Brother, what’s the matter?"
Yang Sheng put his cup back on the coffee table, took a deep breath, and then asked.
"Tongtong, about your father..." He started but then stopped midway, his scrutinizing gaze falling on Le Tong’s face.
"Hmm?!" Le Tong frowned, was there news about her father?
Yang Sheng hesitated for a mont, took another deep breath, and finally mustered the courage to say, "Your father might not be around anymore."
Le Tong’s vision darkened slightly, and her body swayed. A strong hand quickly supported her waist, and her hand was warmly held by another, prompting Le Tong to instinctively clench her hand tightly, her nails digging deep into Ji Rui’s palm.
"Le Tong..." Ji Rui called out worriedly.
Le Tong bit her lip, steadied herself, and forced a very strained smile towards Ji Rui before turning to Yang Sheng, "Actually, I’ve suspected this possibility over the years. Although I was young then, I rember clearly that my father was very good to . If it wasn’t a last resort, he wouldn’t have abandoned and my mother without a word."
Yang Sheng nodded, "Indeed, the investigation results show that Uncle’s life and death are still uncertain, but the investigators have said that such situations are often not optimistic."
Le Tong lowered her eyes and was silent for a while before looking up at Yang Sheng, "Has everything from those years been uncovered?"
"Everything except his current whereabouts has basically been found out."
Le Tong leaned against Ji Rui, quietly listening to Yang Sheng talk about her father’s life.
Back then, her father, the youngest son of Old Master Yang, left Beijing in a fit of anger after a quarrel with the Old Master and ca to R City.
At that ti, fearing that Old Master would send people to find him, he arrived in R City and began going by the na Le Ming. Le Tong’s mother t him after he had changed his na to Le Ming, and they fell in love at first sight at a friend’s gathering.
Le Tong’s mother did not know he was the son of the prominent Yang family in the north, only thinking he was just an ordinary doctor in a private clinic.
That’s right, Yang Weikang studied abroad but secretly switched majors without telling Old Master. This act sparked their father-son quarrel.
Old Master once told Yang Weikang, who graduated and returned ho, that he could overlook the major he studied, but he must return to the Yang family to inherit the family’s business. If he insisted on being a small doctor, Old Master had ways to prevent him from even being a doctor.
After leaving ho, Yang Weikang stayed in Beijing for a while. During that ti, he indeed used the na Yang Weikang when job hunting, but he was repeatedly rejected. Eventually, he left Beijing and went to R City, where the Yang family’s reach couldn’t touch him.
Later, after establishing a relationship with Mrs. Le, he took her back to Beijing once, which was also when Uncle Jing t Mrs. Le. However, he did not intend to bring Mrs. Le ho that ti but returned to retrieve his passport and all his useful docunts.
Afterward, he arranged to change all his official docuntation to his new na. This is why Old Master Yang could never locate Yang Weikang after sending people to search for him.
Le Ming established a relationship with Mrs. Le, but possibly due to household registration issues or other reasons, they never registered their marriage. No one knows the exact reasons to this day, but at the ti, their relationship was very loving. So even without registration, no one around them doubted their marital status.
After confirming their relationship, they moved into a house Le Ming had specially bought for their marriage. That house is where Le Tong and Mrs. Le lived for years afterward.
From this, it’s evident that Le Ming’s financial situation back then wasn’t very good.
This fact aligns closely with Le Tong’s mories of her childhood life.
As for why Le Tong saw her father so rarely, it was because soon after her father and mother confird their relationship, Le Ming went to third-world countries as a doctor without borders. By the ti he returned two years later, little Le Tong was over a year old.
For Le Ming and Mrs. Le at that ti, Le Tong’s birth was unexpected. When Le Ming returned and saw his adorable daughter, though surprised, he was very happy. He even took half a year’s leave to spend a blissful six months with Mrs. Le and little Le Tong at ho.
However, Le Ming was a key mber of the dical team; leaving for half a year was already a major concession. After six months, Le Ming had to say goodbye to his young wife and his less-than-two-year-old daughter once again. At that ti, little Le Tong probably had no mory of this.
Afterward, Le Ming would return every year to spend so ti with Mrs. Le and little Le Tong. Sotis it was half a month, sotis a full month, and those brief and precious reunions left an indelible mark on little Le Tong’s heart.
Although she doesn’t rember much about the specific tis spent with her father, the warm and happy atmosphere always enchanted Le Tong in her dreams, unwilling to wake up.
Because her parents created a loving, harmonious family atmosphere for her at a young age, Le Tong developed an optimistic and positive character with very few dark facets.
However, such happy days did not last long. When Le Tong was over four years old, like in previous years, Le Ming spent a happy month at ho with his wife and daughter before leaving with the main team to a foreign land. After that departure, he never returned.
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