Chà Chà Novel

“They even said you married above your station with that Shang bastard. Above your station how?”

She demanded an answer from Ji Shileng, her voice bordering on hysterical.

“What did marrying above your station get you, for you to end up like this?”

In those few short minutes, countless thoughts passed through Ji Shileng’s mind.

Leaning against the bed, he watched his eldest sister cry herself hoarse, tears streaming down her face. He thought of what people called her: the Iron Rose.

Yet there was nothing of that “rose” in Ji Shiyun now.

Seeing her cry, hearing her swear, Ji Shileng felt as though the pain in his heart might kill him.

He had trampled on himself, on his sister, on the Ji family—and on everyone who cared about him.

After a long while, Ji Shileng lifted his eyes, held back his tears, and gave a faint smile.

“Sis, I’m done marrying above my station. I was already standing at the summit, wasn’t I?”

He touched Ji Shiyun’s face, and his hand came away wet.

The Ji family of the Federation was the sort of family whose members, when out in the world, had to consider whether someone even possessed the standing to address them.

“All right. All right…”

“Sis, I’ll go home with you. I want to go home.”

They would return to the Federation along the Ji family’s private flight route. Ji Shileng was bundled up tightly from head to toe.

A large screen at the starship port happened to be showing footage of Shang Jianli.

Ji Shiyun clicked her tongue, wishing she could cut him down with a look.

Following the security failure at the previous week’s banquet, the Empire’s senior officials had turned their attention to international ports, imposing stringent inspections.

Shang Jianli was stationed at the port with his team. His superiors had informed him that members of the Federation’s Ji family had suddenly visited the Empire for unknown reasons.

The Empire and the Federation could hardly be called close. They merely stayed out of each other’s affairs.

Meanwhile, the Ji family had always kept an exceptionally low profile. Only the younger generation’s recent actions suggested that they seemed to be deliberately targeting the Empire.

The eldest daughter, Ji Shiyun, had cast aside all business courtesies, aggressively acquiring and absorbing a wide range of companies. Most were enterprises backed by investment from the Empire.

A previously agreed military technology exchange had also been abruptly canceled by the second son, Ji Shifeng, who had not even bothered to provide a reason.

Nothing could be allowed to go wrong during the Ji family’s visit to and departure from the Empire.

Ji Shiyun had rarely encountered Shang Jianli. Their professional fields did not overlap.

“Hello, Miss Ji.”

Shang Jianli’s gaze passed over Ji Shiyun and settled on the person beside her, whose entire body was concealed beneath layers of clothing.

The last person she wanted to see had stepped out of the screen and appeared before her. Ji Shiyun’s recently settled mood soured once more. She offered a cold acknowledgment.

“If you still have time, the Empire has quite a few upcoming events…”

Before Shang Jianli could finish, Ji Shiyun interrupted.

“As I recall, isn’t your wife’s funeral being arranged? How can you act as though nothing has happened?”

Silence fell.

Shang Jianli pressed his lips together. He did not understand why an “outsider” was questioning him about his “family affairs.”

“My adjutant is handling it.”

Fighting the moisture gathering in her eyes, Ji Shiyun adjusted her sunglasses.

“Your wife doesn’t even deserve to have you personally arrange his funeral?”

Her tone was rather too confrontational, leaving the people accompanying Shang Jianli bewildered.

An administrative clerk behind him spoke up.

“Miss Ji, first of all, Ji Shileng has already signed a divorce agreement. Second, the general never treated him poorly during their years together.”

“Helping arrange his funeral is a kindness, not an obligation.”

Ji Shiyun looked as though she had heard something absurd. She laughed, and her tears became even harder to hold back.

“Fine. Just fine. A kindness…”

The tears her sunglasses had concealed could no longer be hidden.

Ji Shileng sighed and extended a slender wrist from his loose sleeve. The mark left by years of wearing a ring was clearly visible on his ring finger.

Taking out a handkerchief, he wiped the tears from the corners of his eldest sister’s eyes.

He dared not speak, afraid that opening his mouth would only earn him another scolding.

Even if Shang Jianli might not recognize his voice.

Chapter 4: The Empire Doesn’t Agree with Me

Yet Shang Jianli seemed to know him better than Ji Shileng had imagined.

“Miss Ji, I will arrange the funeral, but my adjutant needs to make the preliminary preparations. And the person beside you is…?”

Ji Shiyun drew a deep breath before answering slowly.

“I forgot to introduce him. This is my younger brother.”

“My biological brother.”

The Imperial delegation looked puzzled.

The Federation’s Ji family truly was discreet—so discreet that people knew only that there were three children.

Their youngest had never appeared in public.

No one had connected the Empire’s Ji Shileng with the Ji family, one of the Federation’s most prestigious clans.

As Ji Shiyun’s party boarded the starship, Shang Jianli frowned slightly, his gaze fixed without blinking on the back of the figure in black.

A faint ache stirred in his heart.

“General, I suppose Ji Shiyun isn’t all that impressive after all. Crying and crying. Ji Shileng had nothing to do with them, so what is she crying about?”

The clerk shook his head.

Shang Jianli’s palms were cold. He stopped the man from continuing.

“Mind your words and conduct.”

“I’ll be taking leave for the next two days.”

He needed some time to collect himself.

Since Ji Shileng’s departure, he had felt an emptiness inside.

He cared about Ji Shileng more than he had realized.

After that call ended, Shang Jianli had, in fact, remembered the watch.

A broken watch did not necessarily mean a broken tracking system.

But he had forgotten how many years had passed. The Empire’s tracking technology had already advanced through several generations.

He had forgotten to instruct Adjutant Chu to update the system in Ji Shileng’s watch.

Later, after painstakingly locating it, they had found only the interstellar terrorists.

Ji Shileng had left the watch aboard the starship where he had been held captive.

——

Everyone aboard the private starship returning to the Federation was one of their own. Once Ji Shiyun had finished crying, she spent the rest of the journey scolding him without mercy.

“I kept wondering why you wouldn’t come home. So you’d already gone and got married—and divorced—while you were away?”

Agitated, Ji Shiyun found her sunglasses irritating. She pulled them off and tossed them onto the sofa.

“Look at yourself. Look at what’s become of you. I never imagined you, Ji Shileng, could end up living so miserably in the Empire.”

Ji Shiyun folded her arms, furious enough to ache.

“Shang Jianli, is it? He can just wait.”

“Say something. Why aren’t you talking now?”

Ji Shiyun had never been one to soften her words.

“You saw him once and realized you still love him, even after ‘dying’ for him?”

Ji Shileng slowly put down his glass of water. After a long pause, he said:

“Sis, I’m not that stubborn.”

Hitting a brick wall once was enough.

“Besides, the Empire doesn’t agree with me.”

He was born and raised in the Federation. Why would working and living in the Empire suit him?

Ji Shiyun fell speechless.

Silence settled over the cabin. The secretary who had worked for Ji Shiyun since her high school days was the first to burst into tears.

They had watched Ji Shileng grow up.

“Ms. Ji, how could they dare treat Xiao Shi like that?” she sobbed. “Heaven will punish them. How could they? Those bastards.”

Ji Shiyun looked away, gritting her teeth.

“Ji Shileng, every one of us treats you so well. How could you bear to do this to us?”

The youngest of the Ji family had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Who in the Federation had not heard his name?

“Didn’t you meet anyone from the Federation that night?” she asked.

The Federation had sent representatives to the banquet celebrating thirty years of diplomatic relations between the Empire and Shaye.

“No.”

Ji Shileng mocked himself.

“I wasn’t important enough to meet the Federation’s distinguished guests.”

Ji Shiyun could no longer hold herself together. When she heard that remark about kindness and obligation, her heart had shattered.

Now, hearing that he was “not important enough,” she felt those broken pieces being ground to dust.

“Enough. Just come home and stay home.”

Ji Shiyun wiped her face.

“You’d better have nothing more to do with him. Don’t keep getting tangled up with him and put your sister in a difficult position.”

“It’s not as though the Ji family can’t afford to support you. You could throw money around for fun every day, and we could still afford it.”

In truth, she did not need to tell him. He already understood.

He should have ended things long ago. He was the one who had insisted on dragging it out until now.

Ji Shileng had offered his heart in exchange for another. If there was nothing in return, there was no reason to keep playing both parts alone.

Just before they disembarked, his second brother, Ji Shifeng, called to ask when they would arrive.

With tear-filled eyes, Ji Shiyun shot Ji Shileng several glares.

“Almost there.”

Ji Shileng had no intention of concealing the mess between himself and Shang Jianli from his family.

Nor could he have hidden it even if he wanted to.

Never mind his family—most prominent figures in the Federation could probably work it out.

The choice between the Imperial general’s spouse and Shaye’s youngest prince had caused an uproar. Rescuing the prince safely was good news. After all, the general’s spouse was supposedly nothing more than a pretty ornament with an empty title.

But taken together with the Ji family’s attitude…

The shrewd figures of the Federation would have little difficulty guessing that the general’s spouse, Ji Shileng, was probably the very same Ji Shileng who had left the Ji family as a teenager.

Over the past few days, all manner of rare and precious gems had poured into the Ji residence. Behind every polite exchange lay an attempt to inquire about the family’s youngest son.