"Little squirrel, meet Lilith. From today onwards, she'll be your mentor."
As Ru's words registered in Xiao Zhi Yuan's mind, he was dumbfounded. He eyed the girl of an average height before him. There wasn't anything outstanding about her except for the fact that there seemed to be a glow and novelty on her small face.
"Mentor?" Xiao Zhi Yuan looked at Ru with raised brows.
Ru patted Lilith's skittish shoulder and said, "Yup! This young lady will help you in building up your internal strength. Her training will definitely help you." She omitted the part that the training was actually to teach him self-defense. In these years of adolescents, scuffles were common but Xiao Zhi Yuan was too lanky for her liking. She just wanted him to be a bit dandy in practical life as well.
After all, being a bookworm or a topper won't really come in handy when he'll have to face this world of conniving and wily adults.
Ru already had a discussion with Xiao Zhi Ren about this topic which had gone a bit like,
"You're definitely a martial art practitioner, why are you keeping your brother in the dark?" She had asked while they sat together to share a drink as officially sworn brothers.
"I want Yuan to stay as my innocent and pure little brother." He had answered plainly.
There was nothing wrong with that wish of his except that it was too... impractical. Or to put it bluntly, it was a half-baked wish of his.
Perhaps that's why Ru spurted out the liquor in her mouth and snorted. "Innocent? Pure?" She laughed out loud in amusement. "Life is not a fairytale, Zhi. You can't keep him guarded for life. And if you really want to, he'd just be like a caged bird who doesn't have the right to fly freely."
"I'm not taking his freedom from him." Xiao Zhi Ren insisted but found his own words not very convincing.
"You are giving him everything except for the knowledge he requires to deal with this world. Isn't that like taking his freedom?" Xiao Zhi Ren fell in deep thought.
"But I'm afraid he will be hurt to learn that this world is not a beautiful place."
"Isn't that's what he needs to learn at this point? He is in adolescent years, what he needs is a reality check." Taking another sip of her drink, she added, "In simple words, someone needs to tell him that if you lose your shoe at midnight, it means you're drunk. Chapter close! Don't expect otherwise."
Xiao Zhi Ren pursed his lips at her statement and rolled his eyes. "You really have something against fairytales." He remarked.
"Can't help it." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
Coming back to the present, Ru decided to choose someone inconspicuous to teach Xiao Zhi Yuan and also to protect him. While she needed Lilith to spend some time with someone close to her age group. So, she decided to shot two birds with one stone.
Taking Xiao Zhi Yuan a bit farther from Lilith, Ru whispered, "Little squirrel, Lilith is a special case. She can't talk and that's why she's a bit sensitive to the environment. You better do as she shows you to."
"She's mute?" Xiao Zhi Yuan was startled as he turned back to look at Lilith who was standing upright without any concern in the world.
"You can say that." Ru didn't think it was necessary to tell him that from her recent examination, she learned that Lilith was actually not a mute by birth. It was psychological. Perhaps, some trauma in her early life had made her lose her voice. However, Lilith's mind did believe that she's a mute. It was hard to solve issues related to the brain.
Ru had planned for them to train in her own apartment. While she was going to leave these two alone, she stopped beside Lilith to remind her, "As I instructed before, no offensive moves. Teach him how to defend himself." Lilith bowed her head slightly to acknowledge her order.
While she was gonna waste her time pacing around in the apartment, she received a call from Xiao Zhi Ren telling her to come downstairs.
Without thinking, Ru took the elevator to his apartment. While she entered the apartment, Qin Qu was discussing something with Xiao Zhi Ren. Seeing Ru enter, he greeted her politely, "Hi, Chairman Xie! What's up?"
Before Ru could retort with her own sarcastic remark, Xiao Zhi Ren spoke up on her behalf, "Your time is up." Ru quirked her brow in amusement but that's the only reaction one could see. "Go and prepare for the sponsorship event." Xiao Zhi Ren shooed Qin Qu away who was not pleased by Xiao Zhi Ren's earlier remark.
"Have a nice day, Chairman Xie." Qin Qu didn't forget to greet Ru on his way out. If there was a list of people one can't offend, Qin Qu knew that Ru's name would definitely be in that list in a bold and capitalized letter. Therefore, he always tried to act amiable and humble before her.
"Yuan is at your place?" Xiao Zhi Ren was typing something on his laptop as he asked without lifting his eyes from the screen.
"Yes... I gave him an instructor today." Ru didn't hide this fact from him since he was the Xiao Zhi Yuan's brother. How could she lie to him?
Xiao Zhi Ren's finger's paused for a split second before he went back to typing away. "Why did you call for me?" asked Ru.
"I have to discuss something with you," Xiao Zhi Yuan answered while Ru sat down on a couch. "I just heard about your company's resort project."
Ru wasn't surprised to hear that after all, by now everyone would know that Metrix Consortium won the bidding for the land development project. Like there was any doubt about that to begin that?
"What about it?"
Xiao Zhi Ren placed his laptop aside and said, "I want to become an investor in that project."