Imperfect Desires

Darren finally got the gist of the situation. Now, he finally could say that Xin Zimen wasn't omnipotent. That man was also scared of something.

He went inside to check up on Ava and Ah-Si and decided to leave only after he was certain that everything was okay. Outside, on the driveway when he was walking towards his car, he heard a feminine voice.

"Tsk tsk tsk. How can you even cry at this age, Zi?"

Darren stopped walking and looked around to find where this voice was coming from. It took him a minute to find the owner of the voice sitting on the grass beside Xin Zimen.

"Your granddaughter is absolutely fine now. So, you can stop worrying," said Ying again since the person beside her was really not paying attention to her. "Zi!!!" she shook his arm violently. "Don't ignore me like your son."

Xin Zimen finally looked up at the girl beside him and said, "I don't even know how to thank you."

"Why don't you?" retorted Yan Ying while she wiped the tears from his face and went on, "Just say thank you, it's that easy."

Seeing her laughing even at this time to cheer him up, he was really lost for words. Perhaps, Brother Kuan was right. This little girl was indeed stronger than him. Or at least, she was better at pretending.

Xin Zimen touched her head gently and said, "Thank you, Ying! If it hadn't been for you… I'd have really lost another person."

Yan Ying sighed dramatically as she blinked her eyes saying, "Don't say such touching words. You'd make me cry."

"Be serious for a minute," warned Xin Zimen seeing her theatrics. "I honestly don't know how to repay you for everything that you do for my family."

"Ying is honestly flattered to hear that but… that's enough for today." She dusted off her jeans as she got up and added, "I might really cry if you kept being like this and Ying is in no mood to shed a tear."

With a flamboyant flip of her hair, she walked away from him towards the driveway and was stunned to her place when she found Darren looking at her inquisitively.

"You heard that, didn't you?" questioned Yan Ying knowing the answer very well. Darren nodded his head honestly. There was no need to lie to her. "Damn it! Why is it that I always find you eavesdropping?"

Darren shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly before he held her from her shoulder and dragged her to a side while she complained, "Hey! It's hurting!" She finally shook off his hand away when they were quite a distance away from their original position as she muttered, "Can't you go easy on me?" She gritted her teeth while she pressed on her shoulder with her other hand.

Darren frowned at her girly reaction but seeing a scarlet liquid dripping down her hand, his eyes widened, "What happened to you?"

"Oh, thanks for noticing!" retorted Yan Ying before cursing her luck.

"Ying?"

"What?!"

"Would you like to enlighten me what's going on or do you want me to go and ask Uncle Zi himself?"

"Ah!" Ying held him back. "Don't! Let him forget this incident. I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything as always."

Darren smiled in satisfaction and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, "Please, start talking then."

She glared at Darren before muttering, "Bloody bastard! Broke my stitches and now want me start talking as if I'm a parrot!"

"What are you muttering to yourself?"

Yan Ying gave him a fake smile. "I was just wondering whether your girlfriend knows that there is a gangster hiding behind that beautiful face of yours?"

Darren tapped his chin thoughtfully before replying, "I don't know about that but I don't mind telling Li that there is a beast hidden behind your white lotus act."

His smile was provocative and it ticked her off. Oh, how badly she wanted to punch him right now. But instead just decided to come clean and end this…

It started from Wednesday when Ah-Si got the news that Ava was nowhere to be found. Originally, Xin Zimen indeed had a plan to teach his sons a lesson and that plan also involved Ava but before he could take any action his granddaughter went missing.

But it wasn't until midnight that Yan Ying received a call from Xin Zimen, "Ying, my granddaughter is missing."

Yan Ying rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Is that your cruel way to teach Ah-Si a lesson? If it is, you're going way too far, Zi."

"Shut up! I wouldn't joke around with my granddaughter's life at stake!" He roared back. "She is really missing."

Yan Ying was finally awake. She abruptly sat up in bed and inquired, "What do you mean? What happened? Wasn't she gonna come to An City this morning?"

That's when Xin Zimen told her that Ava went missing from the airport and he got to know it only after Ah-Si filed a complaint to the police station. Besides, he couldn't contact the people he had hired for his granddaughter's protection in secret. And because he couldn't contact his people he was certain that this was a conspiracy.

"Umm… You stay calm. I'll get my team to work on it. I'll give you an answer as soon as possible!"

"Okay! I'm taking the next flight back home but it'll take time."

"I know. You don't have to hurry. I'm on it!" said Yan Ying and hung up the call. She had already been sleeping at the headquarters because for some reason Uncle Kuan didn't let her go home. She didn't even know that it was Xin Zimen's order and that's why she had to sleep in that bunk bed.

Right after tidying up herself, she got to work. From airport security to traffic security, she had gone through everything. For the rest of the night, she only watched security footage from every possible angle, her eyes almost popped out off the sockets.

It was needless to say that she did everything she could and finally found a lead. Taking the elite of her team when she went to the location that they traced, her team got into a confrontation with the kidnappers. Of course, it wasn't a verbal confrontation. Well, it couldn't possibly be when both parties were holding guns and one even had a hostage in captivity.

"Did you get shot?" Darren interrupted her story and looked at her incredulously. "Really? How come?"

"Will you let me finish?" retorted Yan Ying and continued the rescue tale as she called it…

Well, she indeed got shot on her shoulder because when one of those men threw Ava in the river, she was running towards her and that's why she didn't realize when a bullet pierced through her flesh from behind. Not that it mattered at that time.

The reason why she didn't tell Ah-Si about Ava yesterday after rescuing her was that when she found the little girl, Ava's body was already turning blue. It scared the living daylight out of Yan Ying.

Especially when the doctor said that Ava's condition wasn't very optimistic, she was completely listless. She didn't know what to do at all. Even her subordinates were feeling bad for her. Who knew that such a brave soldier like her would actually pass out after she learned the news.

She left everyone in her team in a frenzy with that turn of events. Only then did they get to know that her wound - she had been so conveniently ignoring - was infected because of the river water. Also, she was burning up with a high fever.  

"Why didn't your team informed anyone?" asked Darren in confusion.

"Ava's birth is a secret even within the Xin family. I didn't dare tell anyone about her identity without Zi's permission. But how would I know that I'd be staying in a coma for 24 hours? If it wasn't that Zi tracked my location and found me right after landing, I guess Ah-Si would have been in an even worse condition."

Darren could tell that she was feeling guilty for almost driving Ah-Si to death with worry but this girl wasn't even realizing that she had also just come back after knocking on the door of the death rather boldly.

"What about Uncle Kuan? Wasn't he with you?"

Yan Ying shook her head in reply. "He had to leave for a distant journey and wasn't in touch with anyone. I wouldn't have to run around so much if he had been around."