Chapter 9

Do Any of You Know I Own a Mansion

The First Garden was located close to the suburb; it was considered the most luxury residential area not only due to its design and well-preserved environment, but it was also due to the facilities and security measures it provided to the residents.

Surrounded by towering walls together with 24-hours security patrols, it was managed inclusively, with identification authorization needed for entering cars and people. Taxis were not allowed to enter.

Therefore, Pang Jing Dong got down from the cab at the area's entrance, who nodded at the security and walked into it.

"So, this guy lives here! Everyone who lives here is amazingly wealthy, why would he take a cab then?" said the driver confusingly as he was driving away.

Pang Jing Dong felt the same way. Whenever he saw his female colleagues showing their branded stuff and his male colleagues showing off their luxury lifestyle, regarding themselves as either a Tall-Handsome-Rich or a Fair-Rich-Pretty, Pang Jing Dong would ask in his mind, "Do any of you know I own a mansion?"

TL Note: Tall-Handsome-Rich () and Fair-Rich-Pretty () are some of the common sayings among the younger generations. Tall-Handsome-Rich refers to a male who is tall, handsome and rich at the same time, an ideal boyfriend for ladies. Fair-Rich-Pretty relates to a female who has a fair skin tone, is rich and pretty, anideal girlfriend for men.

The outer circle of The First Garden had ten or more condos in a semicircle surrounding the mansions in the middle. Between them existed some trees, rivers, and buildings for decoration purpose. The mansions were classified as detached villas and townhouses. Pang Jing Dong arrived at a mansion situated in Block A, took out his key card and entered his house.

Block A had the best environment. Every mansion here was a detached villa, with a personal garden. Each of them was priced at least a few millions, with a property management fee of few thousands. This type of properties should not be affordable with Pang Jing Dong's salary worth of two or three thousand, but it was indeed his house.

Pang Jing Dong went to his living room, sank into the couch, took out the little box from Shen Jia Yao and placed it on the coffee table. He stared deeply at the box, before opening it cautiously.

Inside the box was a fragile ring made of a willow twig, which appeared yellow as it aged. However, it still resembled the effort Pang Jing Dong put into when he made it. Looking at the ring, Pang Jing Dong fell into a deep recollection of his past.

Pang Jing Dong and Shen Jia Yao's mothers grew up together, and even though they were not related, they were close like sisters with each other. One after another, they were married to their future husbands, who were Pang Jing Dong and Shen Jia Yao's fathers. Their fathers found each other congenial; thus the two families were extremely close to each other. Eventually, Pang Jing Dong and Shen Jia Yao's parents were more than happy to be the godparents for each other's child.

Unfortunately, the happy days were over soon, as Shen Jia Yao's mother passed away due to illness not long after giving birth to her.

At that time, her dad had just started his business; hence he was busy all the time. It was difficult for a single father to raise his daughter by himself, but he was unwilling to let go of the relationship he had with his deceased wife. As a result, Shen Jia Yao was taken by Pang Jing Dong's family, and they grew up together.

Pang Jing Dong's family was not financially well, but his parents still gave their best to look after the two kids even when they were struggling.

Everything changed in the year in which Pang Jing Dong was sixteen, and Shen Jia Yao was twelve.

Pang Jing Dong was utterly disappointed with his country's finance and planned to make a living overseas. After utilizing all his social relationships, spending most of his savings and asking help from distance cousins who were overseas, their family managed to migrate successfully.

However, the relationship between the two families was not legally acknowledged as directly linked, Pang Jing Dong's parents were unable to take Shen Jia Yao with them.

Pang Jing Dong's mom did consider adopting Shen Jia Yao as her daughter, but she was worried the family's life would be rough overseas at the start, hence giving up on the thought. In her opinion, Pang Jing Dong was his own son who was already a teenage boy, so it was acceptable for him to suffer a bit. However, she was not willing to see Shen Jia Yao who had already lost her mom to suffer with them, not to mention she was still an underaged little girl.

Without any choice, Pang Jing Dong's parents had to send Shen Jia Yao back to her father.

Just like what Pang Jing Dong mentioned, his parents' plan was to carve a niche overseas first, before taking Shen Jia Yao overseas to their family. Despite that, things did not go according to their plans, as his dad's business was a failure, and owed the Mafia a huge sum of money. Not long after, his parents both died after being involved in an accident.

It had only been a month's time since the family migrated overseas.

Aiming to pay his parents debts, Pang Jing Don who was only sixteen years old lived a brutal life for ten years.

Since then, Pang Jing Dong totally lost contact with Shen Jia Yao until today, who had no idea what Pang Jing Dong had experienced in the past ten years.

Before reuniting with Shen Jia Yao today, Pang Jing Dong was feeling anxious to see her again. It has been ten years, surely, we both would have changed a lot, and when we meet each other again, how should I face these changes? The thought was too terrifying for Pang Jing Dong, so he was not willing to meet up with Shen Jia Yao.

Even though the reunion was inevitable, from the conversation he just had with her, it seemed like Shen Jia Yao had seriously misunderstood his parents; she instinctively assumed his parents abandoned her to pursue wealth overseas, treating her like a burden.

It was imaginable that when she returned to her father, she completely lost the warmth from his family she once had. To a certain degree, it was reasonable for her to have resentment toward Pang Jing Dong's family. Despite that, he was pleased that at least Shen Jia Yao's father could now financially compensate what he had owed her after being an irresponsible dad all these years.

Pang Jing Dong was hesitant, should I clarify the truth to her, or should I allow her to discover the truth by herself eventually?

Pang Jing Dong withdrew his focus from his memory of the past and directed it at the ring before him. In that instant, he found a few lines of words at the inner side of box's lid. "My hair had grown pass my forehead, I like playing around at the front gate, plucking flowers. You came riding your bamboo horse, running around while I was plucking the blue plum." The handwriting was beautiful, and Pang Jing Dong instantly recognized it belonged to Shen Jia Yao.

TL Note: The lines mentioned above are from a romantic love poem "The Song of Chang Gan" written by the famous Chinese poet, Li Bai. The first-person view belongs to a girl. Hair growing past the forehead is a hint toward her young age. These lines are mainly illustrating the good memories shared between a little boy and girl, also somehow referring to the time when Shen Jia Yao was growing up and having fun with Pang Jing Dong.

Kids loved to mimic actions from the adult world, even though they could only saw the surface of these actions but had no idea what the meanings were behind these actions; the kids loved to do whatever as they pleased.

Not sure if it was at the age of 10 or older, Pang Jing Dong for whatever reason learned that gifting a ring to someone was a method of expressing love. The youthful Pang Jing Dong made a ring using a willow twig, and put the ring on Shen Jia Yao's index finger with his own hands, and promised to marry her when he grew up.

What Pang Jing Dong did not know was, engagement ring had to be worn on the girl's ring finger, and if he put a ring on a girl's finger, it meant he had made an eternal promise. For the remaining of my life, I swear I would protect this girl at all costs, giving her a happy life. It did not matter if the ring was made of a willow twig or silver, or if the ring has a diamond with a one karat weight on it.