He wasn't hiding or telling them tales.

There was going to be no wedding. Sooner or later, everyone was going to find their dirty laundry. He wasn't beating around the bush or making hazy statements, he had his fill for life by that woman.

Well, it did happen when your bride turns out to be someone you hold a vendetta against for life.

Standing with his back on the wall, his left leg bend so his foot was on the pristine beige wall of the Li Ancestral House, he spoke coldly, "Fled, abducted." He shrugged in a rugged way, "She is gone."

Li Yuan wanted to be anywhere but here. He would rather but the people guarding or in authentic words 'spying' on his supposed 'fiance' reported what took place yesterday night to Master Lu and Old Master Li and they were swish-quick to bang his phone.

He was expressing an annoyed yet bored face at being here. 

Old Madam Li and Madam Li were antsy. More than the girl disappearance Li Yuan's appearance freaked them out. His hairs were messed and clothes dusted as if he had been in the air far too late. The exhaustion was dripping from his eyes but nothing was more prominent than the hard clench in his jaw.

Madam Li looked at his expression and her heart ached for her son, her lip wobbled and a tear escaped her eye which wasn't seen by anyone.

Even if she was a.s.sumed a Gorgon, she was a woman, who had suffered heartache over and over by her love at a tender age, then became a widow of a husband who was never really a husband.

She had lost her pillar and roof even then, though it was flimsy. She cried at everything but couldn't do a thing, she just bore. With hard eyes and chin lifted up, like a graceful lady she was.

Even a woman made of stone was a woman at the end of the day. But looking at her son in this state broke her, her heart clenched.

As a mother would, she could fight heavens for her baby. Her dear son... who was her only salvation and sanctuary.

She put a weak smile on her lips and spoke in soft voice, "Li Yuan, my boy, did she have a fight with you? Is that why you are so bitter?"

Old Madam Li who was at a loss for words at once leaned on the idea, "Li Yuan, it's totally normal for couples to fight. And the state she is in, she just has her emotions in overdrive. Just tell us where is she and we will find common grounds for you two. Ok?"

It was a stupid proposition altogether. His Mansion was blasted and his 'fiance' wasn't to be found but then again, in a place filled with a hundred guards, there was no way they took her by force.

Li Yuan shook his head and chuckled at the understatement it was, "That woman is n.o.body's else business but mine. Besides...she ran away."

Everybody looked at him in exasperation and gasped. It was too big of an accusation on a woman who was to wed in a week. it was directly calling her a corrupt woman.

But what Li Yuan said was true. I was just they didn't know how.

The woman was clever and cunning! She had his team tracking and hunting a truck that was crossing border half the night.

When his team saw the bugged phone tracker moving, they followed it for two hours and thirty minutes thinking that the girl was an over-smart girl who didn't know that she was traced.

They underestimated her! She even took the phone in the first place to distract them.

Like a phantom, she disappeared off the face of the Earth. She didn't cross the border nor did she use the port. She just evaporated like she was a phantom.

No lead, no tracks. It was like she wasn't even there.

There was no evidence of her existence, no record. The Yu's who monitored her for years knew nothing but sc.r.a.pes about her, even Jiang Cheng who was her so-called brother knew her name and that she loved seafood and hated flowers.

In fact, he knew more than any of them.

If he didn't have a blasted Mansion back home, he would say she was a fragment of his imagination. Alluring like a Succubus who sucked the life out of him for her one night pleasure.

He didn't even look at any of them, he was gazing at the ceiling like it was the most profound of arts. It was getting tiring, this drama. He wanted for it to be over with.

Master Lu and his two sons were glaring at him, he could feel their intensified glares.

They will thank him later.

Master Lu who was bristling had enough of the blurry answers, "How can you say this like that about your pregnant fiance?! And why aren't you telling us where is my daughter?"

Now, where was 'She' and where was his daughter were two different questions.

'She' was probably darkening his name somewhere while his daughter was probably making his name 'colourful' by practising new tricks on his cousin's bed.

How he was so sure? Well, now they couldn't be playing monopoly for almost eight months. Who knows the princess may bring even a 'good-news' with her too. Li Yuan smirked in disdain at the thought.

Just the level of diplomacy!

"I don't know." He averted his eyes from the ceiling and looked at the people present, "All of you are welcome to investigate."

His comment brought a dreading silence in the room. He held power over the Li Family's force. If he couldn't find her, none of them could!

It wasn't his business what his daughter did. His 'business' was currently on a run playing volleyball with his ego and temper, not knowing it was a ticking bomb.

"Li Yuan, is it some kinds of joke? Where is she? You are really stressing us out." Madam Lu pa.s.sed a weak smile that was faltering, her eyes were shouting her fear. 

The woman sure had maternal ties with that serpent of woman. He could see what she had done affected her all the Lu family but Madam Lu was the most affected, emotionally.

He pa.s.sed her a bitter smile which was almost apologetic, telling her what his words couldn't. A failing bitter smile, they had different wounds from the same war. Madam Lu shoulders hunched and her faltering expression fell.

It was sinking in.

Lei Xinyi really had a heart of stone. The woman didn't even look back. Didn't even write a letter. Guess she couldn't succ.u.mb this much of decency from her devil clawed heart.

His smile that didn't reach his eyes or any notch of glee had killed something in them.

Master Lu looked at him with vulnerable eyes before averting his gaze. He wasn't in denial any more.

Lu Sheng looked at him in disbelief and then shook his head. His sister would never do that! "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

He stood up to jump him when Master and Lu Han at once grabbed him, "Look Mom!" He called to Madam Lu who was looking at the floor and wiping her misty eyes. He pointed his finger in his direction and shouted, "He isn't even bothered that Lu Xinyi is missing!"

Heaving heavy breaths he glared at him in disdain, "How could you?! You said you would protect her! What the f*ck have you done to my sister?!"

He was enraged to the point that the nerves were visible on his head, after all, it was about a sister. A woman and many things could happen to a woman. Horrible things!

While Lu Sheng was not in his sanity Lu Han looked at Li Yuan with pleading eyes, "Please, Brother Li tell us where Lu Xinyi is and we will go." He looked at his family who was wrecked and added in desperation, "Please."

Li Yuna looked at the people and their sorrow but his heart was too filled to feel anything, the only person who seemed like he was watching a repeated commercial was Old Master Li.

He shrugged and heaved a breath, "I don't know. I wasn't at the mansion."

Saying that he didn't say anymore. It was too much. They believed him , they were just in denial but they should come around the truth.

He put his clenched fists in his pockets and pushed away from the wall, heading to the door. He couldn't take it anymore. 

"Li Yuan!" His grandfather shouted when he saw him walking out, "What do you mean you weren't there at YOUR Mansion?! You took the responsibility of the girl and your child!"

The girl was insignificant but she had their great-grandchild! They had to find her and he would do it with everything in him!

Li Yuan halted and whispered under his breath, "A Blunder." Taking a deep breath he said it out loud "It was a blunder!"

That's what his sanity was shouting out to him. It was a blunder, a mistake, a terrible mistake he paid for.

But the temptation of committing a mistake was something he understood at that moment because he was still going to find her. Knowing it is a mistake.