Since Xia Jinyuan had changed his behavior overnight, he had basically disappeared from the capital; even the families that were on great terms with the Xia family could only hear about him infrequently, let alone the Li family.
Du Jiayi was astonished by the huge change in Xia Jinyuan. Similarly, Madam Li was also quite surprised.
She had seen Xia Jinyuan before New Years’, but he wasn’t wearing his military uniform, he was tall, and buff and indeed had an air around him. Still, because they stood in the courtyard where illumination wasn’t the best, so she didn’t have a good look at him; now that she saw him, she felt like she was looking at someone else.
“Mom, he’s really Xia Jinyuan? Aunty Xiao’s son? Not another son of the Supreme Commander?” Du Jiayi still couldn’t believe it, her delicate willow eyebrows knit together as she sized him up, she shook her head with a face filled with disbelief, “He doesn’t look anything like before, I’ve seen him before a couple of times, very ruffian-looking and was very cynical, he didn’t have such an air around him then.”
An aura as sharp as a freezing blade, as majestic as green pine, just by looking at his rear view, she believed that it wasn’t possible for him to be Xia Jinyuan.
In her memories, Xia Jinyuan was the typical playboy; fighting and causing trouble was his forte, but she didn’t know what happened later that made him slowly disappear from the limelight; at the time, he was still in Grade 9 or 10.
The last time she heard about him was when Aunty Xiao phoned from overseas and told her mother, informing them that her son had managed to get into National University of Defense Technology.
Mother congratulated her; after hanging up the phone, she asked father how a playboy like Xia Jinyuan, who caused trouble and fought everywhere, could get into NUDT.
Old Du answered casually, “How did you get in? That’s how he got in.”
Getting into NUDT with his connections, no matter what happened, he was still the same wastrel who wasn’t hardworking and was only mooching off his family.
Last year, Aunty Xiao requested father to help inquire about Xia Jinyuan’s whereabouts to see where her graduated son, now a soldier, was deployed because she wanted to visit him.
Father looked him up and told her Xia Jinyuan was deployed to some military depot at the borders of Xinjiang because she was coincidentally going to Xinjiang at the same time; she was asked to bring a message and see if he could write some letters to Aunty Xiao.
She had asked several military depots, but none of them had news about Xia Jinyuan.
A graduated military cadet who wasn’t inside the military system, then that means after four years in the military academy, he didn’t manage to get into a good post, or he had made some kind of mistake and was removed from the system.
Big brother had also said what kind of future a playboy like him would have; if it wasn’t because of Supreme Commander Xia’s position, he would’ve been chased out of the military.
That was what she believed as well.
Who knew that after seeing him today, his father actually said he was Xia Jinyuan? How was that possible!
“What nonsense are you rambling about, your Aunty Xiao only had one child, and Old Xia also only has one son.” A layer of haze appeared under Madam Li’s eyes, never had she thought the Xia Jinyuan clothed in his military uniform had completely lost the ruffian look from the past. She thought Xiao Shuman didn’t have the luck to enjoy the wonders of having grandchildren, but from the looks of things… she had been too carried away!
After receiving another confirmation, Du Jiayi would have to believe them even if she didn’t.
“Everyone says girls blossom at eighteen; it seems like guys are the same as well.” She lamented, and her gaze landed onto the back of the man who was walking up the stage: “He must’ve graduated from the military academy for quite a few years, and he’s still a Major, looks like he’s just….”
Before she was done lamenting, the back of the person she was staring at suddenly turned his head around, a gaze that was sharper than a sword pierced straight at her; Du Jiayi felt like her glabella, and her chest was striked by something, her entire body’s blood seemed to have frozen up by the shock, and she seemed to not be able to speak the words that were already hanging on her tongue.
“What’s wrong?” Ye Jian noticed Xia Jinyuan, who was beside her, suddenly turned his head; while she looked at him, she also turned her head to glance behind them, yet she didn’t spot anything.
