Strike Back, Proud Goddess!

Qiao Liang looked up at Lu Li and it had been quite a while before he sighed and said, “How do you know whether I made it or not. Let me tell you, without Tang Xi, I can’t survive. We have been friends since we were kids. Do you think I’m that kind of man who will fall in love with a woman easily? I was living like the walking dead in those past five years. Do you think I will fall for someone else easily after Tang Xi died?”

Lu Li paused and looked at Qiao Liang who looked so serious. Lu Li frowned. Qiao Liang didn’t look like he was lying, but everyone could see that he truly loved Xiao Rou. When Xiao Rou passed out, he was in such a panic. He could tell Qiao Liang cared about Xiao Rou, or to be exact, he was deeply in love with her.

“But you…”

Qiao Liang smiled. “You are confused, right?”

Lu Li nodded. “You took all agents of Long Xiao to search for Tang Xi when she had that air crash. We were worried about you, so we had the agents report to us about your whereabouts. You traveled from the Pacific, to Long Beach, then to the capital and in the end to City A. We could understand that you were trying to find the woman you loved, but what happened next really confused us.”

Looking at Qiao Liang’s expressionless face, Lu Li frowned and said, “Then you went back to City A and fell in love with a stranger, a woman. And to our surprise, you love this woman so much, and… when you are with her, it didn’t seem that you two just knew each other two months ago. You are like long-time lovers, or to be exact, even long-time lovers won’t have the chemistry between the two of you. This really confuses me!”

Qiao Liang looked at Lu Li. “So you’ve had the answer, haven’t you?”

“What answer? I just want you to be happy. I thought perhaps you found your true love and had forgotten Tang Xi, or you figured it out a man can fall in love with more than one woman in his life. Since Tang Xi had gone, you shifted your love to someone else…”

“Can you?” Qiao Liang put aside the files and looked into Lu Li’s eyes. “It has been ten years since you saw Wen Ning last time. Have you managed to shift your love to another woman during the ten years just because she was considerate to you?”

Seeing Lu Li frown, Qiao Liang turned up the corners of his mouth. “You haven’t, have you? So love cannot be shifted. If it is shifted, it means that your love for that person is not true. And the one you fall in love later is your true love. Lu Li, remember, true love cannot be shifted.”

“You don’t love Xiao Rou?” Lu Li narrowed his eyes and looked at Qiao Liang.

Qiao Liang smiled. “Yes, I love her.”

Lu Li frowned and asked again, “Then you don’t love Tang Xi?”

Qiao Liang smiled. “Of course I love her.”

“Then how can you love Xiao Rou when you’re still in love Tang Xi?” Lu Li gazed deeply at Qiao Liang. “If so, you actually don’t love Tang Xi. You are just making excuses for you to shift your love to another woman.”

Qiao Liang shook his head. “Let’s go out for a cup of coffee.”

Lu Li gave him a questioning look and the latter winked at him. Lu Li narrowed his eyes, nodded and stood up. The two of them walked outside. At the gate of the door, Qiao Liang snorted and said, “Someone has been eavesdropping.”

Lu Li asked coldly, “You know why Huo Yun did this.”

“I don’t care what she is thinking of.” Qiao Liang’s face darkened and he said, “She’ll be punished once she breaks Long Xiao’s rules.”

Huo Yun who hid in the darkness turned pale when she heard this. She looked at Qiao Liang in disbelief and clenched her hands. What was so good about that woman?! She could accept that Qiao Liang refused her for Tang Xi. She, as the president of the Empire Group, was better than her. But Xiao Rou was nothing! Why did Young Master fall in love with such a woman after Tang Xi died?

Qiao Liang and Lu Li went to the rooftop where only the three bosses of Long Xiao could stay. Qiao Liang had planned to authorize Chu Ling too, but Chu Ling said he wouldn’t be the slave of Long Xiao when he was working for The Queen.

Qiao Liang looked at the distant scenery and remained silent. Lu Li said, “You’d better let Xiao Rou go if you don’t love her. I know Xiao Jing takes you as his brother. If he knows that you are playing with his sister’s feelings, you two can’t be friends anymore.”

Qiao Liang was cold to people and even a bit eccentric because of his family. It was not easy for him to have a true friend. He didn’t want to see the friendship between Qiao Liang and Xiao Jing ruined.

He, Lin Yuan and Qiao Liang were friends until death. They would never abandon each other in this life. No matter what Qiao Liang did to them, they wouldn’t mind as long as he didn’t kill them.

But Xiao Jing was different.

Qiao Liang turned his eyes to Lu Li and said with a smile. “If Xiao Rou is only Xiao Rou, I wouldn’t even notice her.”

“What do you mean?” Lu Li looked at Qiao Liang with a frown. “If Xiao Rou is only Xiao Rou?”

Qiao Liang smiled. “Do you know why I insist on speaking to you here? Because this secret must not be known by others. Now except the Xiao brothers, Grandpa Tang and I, no one else knows about this secret.”

“What secret?” Lu Li had a hunch that he was going to hear a shocking secret.

Qiao Liang said, “My love will never be shifted to someone else, so the one I’m loving is Tang Xi, not Xiao Rou, or to be exact, I fell in love with Xiao Rou because she is just Tang Xi.”

Lu Li clenched his hands and stared at Qiao Liang in disbelief, “How can this be possible?”

How could Tang Xi become Xiao Rou?!

“That’s why I asked Xiao Rou to disguise as Tang Xi.”

“Disguise?” Lu Li exclaimed, “Yes, you have been asking Xiao Rou to disguise as Tang Xi. I was wondering…”

“That’s not important. What’s important is that it’s a secret to us that Xixi is still alive, so I can only be with Xiao Rou for the rest of my life. Others won’t know her real identity, but you gotta know that the one I love is not Xiao Rou but Tang Xi.”

“So if Xiao Rou is not Tang Xi, you won’t love her.” Lu Li shook his head and murmured.

Qiao Liang nodded. “Yes, so if your heart is Wen Ning, just go find her. You know, I almost committed suicide when I was in Long Beach for losing my true love.”