The next day
Mo Jingrui covered the breakfast dishes he'd just had delivered and decided to check on Shen Yelan. He slowly opened the door and poked his head inside. His eyes immediately fell on the girl who was sitting on the bed, staring outside the floor-to-ceiling window. Sunlight streamed through the glass, illuminating her profile. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts and had not noticed him.
She still looked pale, and wearing his oversized shirt that practically swallowed her small frame made her appear even more fragile. But at least she looked better than the state she was in yesterday.
He knocked on the door to catch her attention.
Shen Yelan turned her head toward the sound. Her eyes looked confused as if she was lost and did not understand what was happening.
"How are you feeling?" Mo Jingrui asked as he stepped inside.
"Who are you?" Her voice came out slightly rough. It sounded like she had a sore throat, which she did, courtesy of being soaked in cold rain but at least she did not have any fever.
Mo Jingrui walked over to the side table and poured her a glass of water before holding it out to her. Shen Yelan stared at the glass, then up at him, not taking it from him. Her gaze remained fixed on him as if she were waiting for the answer.
Mo Jingrui gave a silent breath and put the glass back on the table. Then, he took a seat and gave her the most gentle smile he could muster.
"My name is Mo Jingrui," he paused for a second before continuing, "I am your biological brother."
Shen Yelan stared at him, startled as if she could not believe him. Seeing his serious expression, which told her that he was not lying, her eyes became glassy with tears.
Seeing her reaction, Mo Jingrui stiffened. He was not good with emotions and had never dealt with a woman before. Now he had to deal with both at once. He was not sure what he was supposed to do.
Seeing his reaction, Shen Yelan wanted to laugh out loud. For some reason, he looked so cute in his confused state. It was hard to imagine him as the aloof CEO people talked about.
But she had to maintain her broken appearance. A lone tear trickled down her face, immediately making Mo Jingrui panic.
What was he supposed to do?
"Why did you come now?" Shen Yelan asked. Her voice was barely audiable but in the silent room, Mo Jinrui heard her loud and clear. The sound of her voice felt like a knife that stabbed his heart, and her words twisted that knife.
He gently grabbed her hands as if he was afraid he would break it. Her hands were so small and pale in his large ones. His whole body trembled slightly as he looked down at their joined hands, then back up to meet her eyes.
"I am sorry for being late. I should have found you sooner."
He should have.
This thought echoed in Shen Yelan's mind. He was a decade late because his sister had long passed away. She was just another soul living in this body.
Perhaps this was another reason why she'd never tried to find this body's biological family. They might be connected by blood, but the soul inside was completely unrelated. It felt wrong living someone else's life.
Shen Yelan didn't respond to his apology. She didn't feel like it was her place to accept it.
Mo Jingrui interpreted her silence as being too hurt and angry to speak.
That was okay. She deserved to be angry with them. He would prove to her with his actions how sorry he was and make up for all those years.
.
.
A few days passed since Shen Yelan began living with Mo Jingrui in his penthouse.
Mo Jingrui was extraordinarily careful with her, as if she were made of glass that might shatter at the slightest touch. He had taken her to the hospital for a full body checkup.
Shen Yelan had to pull many stunts to fabricate the results make her look as sickly as she had shown to the world. This was not easy, given how the hospital was owned by the Mo family and the staff were going above and beyond to make their boss happy. The hardest part had been convincing them that her legs were permanently damaged and she would never walk again.
Thankfully, she was able to fool the whole hospital, which had declared that she had a weak body and could never stand on her feet. But they did say that with proper care, her health would improve. Mo Jingrui had a nutritionist make a diet plan and hired a chef to exclusively prepare her meals.
Through all this, Mo Jingrue had been by her side, never leaving even for a second. He had even cancelled his work and attended the meetings he absolutely couldn't cancel through phone or video call.
For Shen Yelan, it was hard for her to relate this man to the King Yama of the business world that had made even grown men burst into tears.
Yet for some reason, she felt a strange emotion seeing how he cared for her. She had never felt this before. She had never experienced someone caring for her like this either.
In her past life, she was an orphan. The word "family" had been an unknown concept to her. The people who raised her and trained her into an assassin had only ever treated her as a weapon. The people she'd interacted with throughout that life had all been transactional relationships. There was no feeling involved.
In this life, since the moment she'd taken control of this body, the only "family" she'd experienced was the Shen family. And they'd only reinforced her negative impression of what family meant. Later, she found out she was not even related to them.
In the end, family became something that she neither needed nor cared about.
The last thing she expected was to find this body related to the Mo family. And even then, she'd only thought of them as tools to deal with the Shen family.
She never thought of actually forming emotional bonds with them. Yet in just a few days, Mo Jingrui had somehow managed to make her feel things she'd never experienced in either of her lives. This scared her yet at the same time, deep down there was a part of her that she didn't dare look too closely, that looked forward to it.