So he smiled and answered her question ,"Xinghe... I had a younger sister when I was twelve. She wan't Ying. She was my sworn sister. Actually , she was one of my school friend's biological kin. Since I was living alone without Ying , Fang and Wei , I had developed a liking towards her when I had once visited my friend's house.

"I used to visit her everyday. She was just 2 months old. That is how I know how to handle babies. My friend or his family didn't knew that I was the heir of Xi family back then. Maybe if they knew , it wouldn't have happened.", the man clenched his fists regretfully.

"What wouldn't have happened , Yuan ?", Rong Xinghe asked , slightly worried.

Xi Yuan held the girl's hands tightly and replied ,"One day , when I visited my friend's house , I was informed that his sister was no more. Apparently , she was burned down and couldn't be saved. I had my suspicions about his family , so I quickly went to the cemetery where the child was to be buried.

"I requested to be allowed to see my sworn sister for the last time before she was buried. After appealing for roughly half an hour , the family allowed me to see the child. And as soon as I saw the cut marks on the tiny body , I called the police officers standing outside the cemetery. How could there be fresh cuts on a dead body if the person had died due to being caught in fire ?

"The police took the body away for postmortem and after waiting for around 15 days , I was informed that the baby was deliberately killed by her parents because they didn't wanted to keep a useless daughter around. Can you believe that ? A life was lost just like that because of some people with narrow-mindset !

"Xinghe... I... ", the man's voice choked as he remembered the past.

Unable to see the man in so much pain , Rong Xinghe kissed his forehead before hugging him gently as tears rolled down her cheeks,"Shhhh. Its all okay. I am here. Calm down. I am sorry for asking you about that."

Xi Yuan simply shook his head and wiped the girl's tears ,"Don't be sorry. I am glad I was able to talk about it. No one in my family knows about it. Not even Ying or Fang. Even my grandfather had no idea that I once had a sworn sister. I was alone and this two month old baby was a pure company for me. When I lost her , I was adversely impacted by the incident.

"My psychologists had also requested me to not bottle up my feelings inside me. But I wasn't truly able to talk about it to any of my closed ones. You are the only exception."

Rong Xinghe looked confusedly at the man. How and why was she an exception ?

Xi Yuan pinched the girl's nose as he let out a gentle laugh ,"For some unknown reason , whenever you ask me anything , I don't feel like hiding it from you. I want to tell you everything about the real Xi Yuan. I want my Xinghe to know about the man who is head over heels in love with her. Ma'jolie , you are the only person who can liberate me from my pain and sufferings. Always remember that."

After saying these words , Xi Yuan took a deep breath and buried his face into the girl's shoulder as he inhaled her unique scent.

Rong Xinghe was so touched by his words and confession that she felt her heart race rapidly. She just smiled and ran her hands through his hair as she allowed him to calm down the way he wanted to.

Most importantly , she hadn't expected Xi Yuan to have experienced something as awful as this when he was just twelve. Indeed , the business king Xi Yuan had been through a lot to reach where he was today. This made her heart ache for him.

Most importantly , her brothers had told her , not too long ago , that he had suffered a lot because of his family too. From the looks of it , he respected and admired his grandparents a lot and had lost them when he was 15 years old. So was it possible that his parents and his uncle and aunt had caused him to go through these sufferings ? But how ?

Whatever it was , she wasn't going to ask him about that right away. She would give him his s.p.a.ce and would wait patiently until he was ready for that. After all , he had also never pushed her to open up about Country I's train incident...

But moments like these were what brought them even more closer. The fact that the both of them were trying their best to talk about their pain , fears and sufferings to each other was the most beautiful part of their relations.h.i.+p. They respected each other's boundaries and they allowed each other to enter their inner sh.e.l.l as well.

The way they interacted with each other couldn't be explained by mere words as their relations.h.i.+p had never been about two bodies. It had always been about the intertwining of two souls.

_________________________

Meanwhile , In Zhou Family Mansion :

Mother Zhou finally got her consciousness back after being unconscious for so many days. And the first thing she said after looking at Father Lu was ,"Mr. Zhou ! Please take me to meet that girl. I need to apologize to Xinghe. I... I will beg her for her forgiveness. I wronged her Mr. Zhou.

"Please take me... to her. I have committed a sin. I sl... slapped an angel like her. I.. I am worse than an animal. I... "

As he saw his mother trying to exit the room , Zhou Che quickly rushed to help her sit down ,"Mother ! Control yourself. Take your health into consideration please."

When she looked at Zhou Che's tensed expression , Mother Zhou couldn't help but break down in his arms ,"Che , we were wrong. We... disappointed Zhichen. He... he said that he wouldn't forgive anyone who h... hurt his to be sister-in-law. Che , let's apologize to her together."

Mother Zhou then caressed her son's face and sighed ,"Che , my child , my actions broke you two kids apart. She loved you. You loved her. And I.... I failed you two. I couldn't become a good mom. I destroyed my child's life with my own two hands.

"That day , she kept begging and requesting us to listen to her once. She kept screaming and crying that she didn't hurt Zhichen. And what did we do ? We kept blaming her. We never thought that why our Zhichen trusted her more than us. We never thought that why we couldn't be as close to our own Zhichen as she could. All we did was to accuse her for something she never did!

"She had favored us. Only when she came , did you acknowledged both of us as your parents. How could we judge her so wrongly ?! How could we be so ungrateful ?

"Lets go. If I kneel down to her , she will accept you back , right ? She will still love you , won't she ? After all , she loved you so much back then. She won't be my daughter-in-law if she comes back to us. She will be more than my daughter to me. I will never hurt her again. Let's go and get back our Xinghe."

Only if Zhou family knew how much pain Rong Xinghe had suffered...

Her pain over those years was way more than the pain of regret and guilt they were feeling now.