"Xiaoye gege!" She threw herself into his arms.
But Lu Tingzhou couldn't muster the slightest smile. When he found her, his whole body was as taut as a drawn bow, barely holding together. His jaw was clenched so tight it hurt, but no matter how angry he was, seeing her safe and sound in that instant quelled all the fear and fury inside him.
He closed his eyes fiercely. When he opened them again, the coldness had mostly faded, leaving only a deep-seated, long-accustomed indulgence and doting, mixed with lingering terror.
Yes, he had indulged her all along. For so many years, what was one more time?
Without a word, he pulled off his own jacket with a roughness uncharacteristic of his usual self, an insistence that allowed no refusal, and wrapped her up tightly from head to toe.
Cheng Buxi was still immersed in joy, completely unaware of the trouble she had caused.
Only when she was held in his arms did she sense something was off through her brother's tightly clenched jaw and silent, brooding demeanor.
When they got into the Rolls-Royce Phantom, the tense atmosphere confirmed her suspicions: Brother was angry.
And it was a particularly severe kind of anger. Terrified, she immediately shrunk into herself and played dead.
"How did you get here? This is utterly ridiculous."
"Was it Lu Siyu—"
"No, it wasn't Siyu jiejie, no!"
"What? Koukou is fine, isn't she?" On the phone, her second sister tried to argue.
Mother Bai cut her off: "Shut up."
Afraid of getting her second sister in trouble, Cheng Buxi apologized profusely, saying several 'sorry's, nearly in tears.
Mother Bai took the phone from her second daughter. The latter rolled her eyes and flopped onto the sofa, thinking, Did they have to be so furious? She had sent a bodyguard, but the guy was an idiot who lost her, and she had informed her brother promptly.
Besides, she didn't actually get lost?
Second sister had always been carefree, this was nothing new.
Mother Bai knew that the most worried person at the moment wasn't her biological children, but her youngest adopted daughter. So she softened her voice and coaxed, "You missed your brother, didn't you? It's okay, but no more willfulness next time."
Lu Tingzhou flatly asked, "Is there going to be a next time?"
Mother Bai choked, feeling more aggrieved: "It's all your fault. You said you'd be gone half a month, but you've been away over two months without coming back. Koukou just missed you too much."
"Besides, it's summer vacation, she's bound to be bored. Don't you dare scold her anymore. Take good care of her, Tingzhou, you hear me?"
Did he need his mother to tell him?
The call went on with more nagging until it was mercilessly cut off, accompanied by the soft sobbing of a little beast in the corner of the Phantom's back seat.
...
Realizing how much trouble she had caused, Cheng Buxi completely changed from her earlier liveliness and joy at seeing her longed-for brother. Instead, she became extremely obsequious and well-behaved in front of him.
Her innocent grape-like eyes were watery, her voice delicate and soft: "Xiaoye gege... wuwu... Koukou knows she was wrong. Please don't be angry, okay?"
Now she knew how to act cute. Where was that earlier? Lu Tingzhou didn't give her a good look.
He ignored her for a while, then, when the time was right, stern-faced he asked how she had come all the way. An underage girl had gone from North City to Macau, and was almost lost.
His heart was still floating in midair, hadn't landed yet. No matter who pleaded, this lesson had to be taught—this was simply too outrageous.
How did she get here? When she was ten, Cheng Buxi had accompanied her foster mother and second sister to a high-society banquet in Hong Kong. That was her first glimpse of the upper echelons of the wealthy. On that trip, they had also visited Macau. She relied on those memories.
But this time, she sneaked away alone, without an adult.
At North City airport, because she was underage, the check-in clerk refused to let her fly. But driven by her longing, she first flew to Zhuhai, where there was no age restriction. At Hengqin Port, which was already very close to Macau Galaxy, she followed the crowd and took the free shuttle bus to Macau.
Hearing this, Lu Tingzhou listened as she said that when she was hungry, she went to a pharmacy; when thirsty, she went to Ruins of St. Paul's, where there was plenty of free samples—tasty dried meat and sweet pastries—so she hadn't starved along the way. There were payphones, and she was scared and wanted to call him, but she had no coins and gave up. By this point, all his anger had faded.
In a strange place, relying only on overheard words, she mistakenly thought he was at a large hotel, so she crossed the sea on the free shuttle bus to Taipa, eventually arriving at MGM.
She had actually stopped by the Grand Lisboa earlier, but didn't recognize the way, so she circled back across the sea to MGM.
The most iconic feature of MGM was the golden lion. When the lights on the building lit up and the golden lion appeared, it meant a big client had arrived. She had been there once as a child with her foster mother and second sister, so she recognized it and ran straight in without hesitation.
Lu Tingzhou had actually been at the Grand Lisboa, near where she had arrived on the first shuttle bus.
Realizing they might have passed each other on some street corner, Big Brother's face darkened further.
Regret, guilt, anger, terror... all turned into an ingrained obsession.
When his gaze landed on her reddened nose and her wet eyes still lingering with fear, reflecting the dim light of the hotel suite like glass beads covered in a film of moisture, that bit of forced hardness suddenly cracked.
His Adam's apple heaved violently, as if forcing something down.
...
"Are you hungry?" He relented in the end, ruffling her hair.
Cheng Buxi was stunned, her rambling narrative abruptly halting. She licked her lips and nodded timidly.
She shifted from her nervous kneeling position to sitting up straight, tentatively grabbing his sleeve. In a pitiful voice, she said, "Xiaoye gege, I missed you... Koukou wanted to see you."
Cautiously, she leaned her head against his chest, her arms circling his neck.
"Now that I've seen you, Koukou is very happy."
This time, Lu Tingzhou was the one left speechless.
...
That day, she rode a boat identical to those at the Venetian Las Vegas, ate her fill, and at night stayed in the five-star Versace hotel, taking a nice bath.
But Lu Tingzhou wasn't so lucky. First, his uncle gave him a harsh scolding, saying all sorts of unpleasant things, then made him kneel in the ancestral hall all night. Cheng Buxi knew nothing about it.
The next day, it was as if nothing had happened. He took his sister to Wynn Palace to play, continuing this 'curtailed' absurd journey.
In the end, love ends in pity.
...
Now, in the spacious, solemn office area, years after that Macau adventure, seeing him covet these two tickets, Cheng Buxi's brain short-circuited and she quickly said, "But I've already promised to give the tickets to someone else. I can't go back on my word, right? Ha, haha..."
After saying that, she gave an awkward laugh to cover her panic.
This so-called 'someone else' could be an acquaintance, a stranger, anyone—but definitely not the person in front of her.
Cheng Buxi knew this very well.
And she had already, very self-consciously, moved to the farthest point from her brother: a small corner of the black leather sofa, clutching her ordinary canvas bag tightly in her arms, not daring to put it down carelessly again.
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Author's Note: (⊙o⊙)… Friendly reminder: here the sister goes to the MGM in Taipa, the one with the illuminated lion! But according to the timeline, the MGM Cotai wasn't open yet (in reality, it opened in 2018). Theoretically, she should have gone to the one on the peninsula, so... I made a slight tweak here, hehe, no big deal.
Also, many place names in this book are made up, so don't think too hard about it. Hope you enjoy the chapter! [Big heart]