Unexpected Second Chance at Love

At the same time Yue Ling arrived at The Regal, in another part of Imperial, Lu Tian’s black Maserati Levante Trofeo slid to a stop outside a small, family-owned restaurant. He could make out three figures sitting by the window inside his car.

He finishes the cigarette in his hand and steps out of the car, tossing it aside as he walks toward the front of the store, where Jiangyu hid in the shadows.

Upon seeing his boss, Jiangyu steps out, his face hard with a stern expression.

”It’s him. I’m sure of it.”

Lu Tian gives a brief nod before pushing open the door. The bell above the door rings, and the owner, a middle-aged man, looks up from the counter.

”Hello, are you dining in or taking out?”

Lu Tian gives him a passing glance before locking eyes with the three individuals at the table. He doesn’t respond to the owner but strides straight toward their table.

”Sir, I’m sorry, but you can’t go there.”

The owner tries to stop Lu Tian, but Jiangyu quickly steps in his path.

”I wouldn’t stop him if you want your restaurant to stay in business.”

The owner glances nervously between Jiangyu, Lu Tian, and the three men at the table. Each one was someone he knew—people he couldn’t afford to offend.

Reluctantly, he retreats behind the counter, his hands shaking slightly as he prays nothing goes wrong in his restaurant.

Lu Tian strides towards the table, his steps measured and deliberate. As he gets closer, he catches part of the conversation.

”Are you sure it’s him?”

”I’m 100% sure. I followed him. Saw him go in.”

”But why? What’s he planning?”

”I don’t know, but we need to keep an eye on him. We can’t let him slip away again.”

Before they could continue, Lu Tian stopped at the edge of their table. Two men sit on the left, one on the right.

His intimidating presence cuts through the conversation like a blade. The men stop talking immediately, and all three turn to look at him.

Their initial anger flares at the interruption, but when their eyes meet his, all three freeze—panic flickering in their expressions.

Lu Tian didn’t acknowledge the two men on the left. His gaze remained fixed on the man sitting alone across from him.

The man’s eyes widen in shock. His lips open and close, struggling to find his voice. Finally, he lets out a broken chuckle.

”Lu boy… what… what are you doing here?”

Lu Tian briefly glances at the two men on the left. Without a word, they understand his intent and silently rise from their seats, motioning.

The man on the left hesitates, then gestures for Lu Tian to sit. He (Lu Tian) does so, leaning back casually as he folds his arms over his chest, his eyes never leaving the man before him.

”It surprised me to find out the person I’ve been searching for is you, Grandfather Ji.”

He pauses for a beat, his tone turning mocking.

”Or should I say... username ’Imtoosexyformyshirt’?”

Grandfather Ji was beyond shocked when he heard the young man’s words. He hadn’t expected to run into Lu Tian or know he was being followed.

He stared at the boy he had watched grow up, and after a long, heavy silence, he let out a helpless laugh.

”How did you know it was me?”

Lu Tian’s gaze shifted to the scattered reports on the table before looking at the old man.

”It wasn’t hard, considering I was the one who taught you how to hack.”

When Lu Tian began tracking the mysterious figure, he thought it might be his wife. But after hacking into the username, his suspicions changed. Initially, he was skeptical, but as he saw each barrier and move echo his techniques, he realized who it was.

He’d ordered Jiangyu to follow Grandfather Ji just to be sure, and it confirmed his theory.

Shaking off the thought, Lu Tian reached for a photo among the scattered reports. It was an image of a man entering a surgical building, but Lu Tian recognized him instantly. He placed the photo back down, his eyes returning to the old man.

”Why are you also looking for Choi Li Sun?”

Grandfather Ji knew the time had come—there was no more hiding the truth. He glanced at Zhong Yang, silently signaling to him to keep others away.

Zhong Yang nodded, quickly moving to the front of the restaurant and telling the owner to lock the doors.

Once the locks clicked into place and the ”Open” sign flipped to ”Closed,” Grandfather Ji let out a heavy sigh, his gaze drifting to the window as if searching for answers in the fading light.

”Thirteen years…”

His voice was barely a whisper, filled with years of pain. He turned back to meet Lu Tian’s eyes, the weight of those years hanging in the air.

”I’ve been looking for him for thirteen agonizing years.”

Lu Tian listened intently, not interrupting. His silence was an unspoken understanding, a signal for Grandfather Ji to continue, and so he did.

Grandfather Ji closed his eyes, his breath trembling as he steadied himself.

”I’ve been searching for him for thirteen years, but it all began eighteen years ago.”

He opened his eyes, his gaze unfocused as he stared out the window, lost in the past.

”Eighteen years ago, the media reported my daughter and son-in-law’s deaths as a car accident, but the truth... was far from that.”

His voice wavered as the memories flooded back.

”Eighteen years ago, my daughter and son-in-law took Ah Ling on a family trip. It was something they did every year around this time.”

Grandfather Ji stared out the window, his eyes distant as the haunting truth of that fateful day came rushing back.

It had been a day like any other. He had visited City Z, unaware that his daughter and son-in-law had taken Ah Ling on their annual trip. He decided to stay with Old Han until they returned, eager to give his granddaughter the gift he had brought for her.

But on the day they were supposed to come back, misfortune found them.

Old Han received an alert from Han Min Joon’s phone. It was a notification that only came when something dangerous had occurred.

In a frantic panic, they assembled their men and rushed to the scene, desperate to find the three people who meant the world to them. It took what felt like an eternity, but when they finally arrived, everything in him shattered as he reached the car.

The windows were shattered by gunfire. In the back seat, he found his daughter. Her eyes were wide open, unblinking, blood seeping from wounds on her forehead and chest.

She had been shot in the head and heart.

He and Old Han knew instantly they had been ambushed on their way home. The scream that tore from his throat was one he would never forget—filled with pure rage and heartbreak.

Cradling his daughter to his chest, he cried until he thought his heart might shatter. No father should ever have to witness his child in such a devastated state.

Through his anguish, he could hear Old Han’s choked sobs and frantic orders to their men to search for Han Jin Moon and Yue Ling. But all he could think about was what his daughter had endured in those final moments.

He didn’t want to leave her alone—couldn’t imagine walking away from her—but deep down, he knew he had to. There was still a chance his son-in-law and granddaughter had survived, maybe hiding from the attackers.

He ordered his men to seal off all entrances and exits to the mountain, ensuring that his daughter’s body was guarded.

For a while, they held onto hope during the search, but as the first snow began to fall, that hope turned to fear—fear that the snow would bury any tracks that could lead them to Yue Ling and Han Jin Moon, especially in the vastness of the mountain.

By midnight, hope was all but gone. Yet they didn’t give up. Men were scattered across the mountain, from the peak to the base, leaving nothing unsearched.

When the snow finally stopped and the ground was blanketed in white, it was then they found Han Jin Moon.

It was Old Han who discovered his son—lifeless, his body battered and motionless in the snow. He was covered in so much blood that he was barely recognizable.

The scream that tore from Old Han’s throat was the same one Grandfather Ji had let out when he found his daughter.

He watched as Old Han cradled his son’s lifeless body, tears streaming down his face. Their cries for his son-in-law echoed in the stillness before he barked orders for the men to keep searching for Yue Ling.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the sound of rustling.

Turning around, he saw ten-year-old Yue Ling slowly emerge from a bush, her small frame soaked in blood, tears streaming down her pale face. But it was the look in her bluish-green eyes that shattered him.

For a child her age, her gaze was hollow, as if trapped in a nightmare she couldn’t escape from.

She didn’t move after that. She just stood there, staring at her father’s lifeless body, until the freezing cold finally took its toll, and she collapsed.

He was quick to rush to her, catching her just before she hit the ground, his cries for her mingling with the sound of his broken heart.

He was torn between the unbearable loss of his daughter and son-in-law and the strange relief that his granddaughter had survived.

Grandfather Ji took a deep breath, his eyes lingering on the window before shifting back to the young man sitting across from him.

”After we buried my daughter and son-in-law, Ah Ling shut herself off from everyone. She stopped speaking altogether.”

His gaze fell to the scattered report on the table in front of him, his fingers brushing over the edges as if searching for answers.

”I don’t know what happened during that time. She never spoke of it. Then, one day, it was like a switch flipped. She forgot everything. She began to smile and laugh, but there was always something missing. A hollow emptiness in her eyes.”

He paused momentarily, the weight of the memory pressing down on him.

”We decided to give her space, let her heal in her own way. And it was during that time... that’s when we learned who was behind the deaths of my daughter and son-in-law.”

He points to a photo of Choi Li Sun on the desk.

”It was him. Why? I don’t have the answer.”

Grandfather Ji leans back in his chair, letting out a heavy sigh as he collects his thoughts.

”Old Han, with his connections as the leader of Fate, spared no effort. He used every resource at his disposal to track down Choi Li Sun. Meanwhile, I focused on trying to get Yue Ling to remember. But nothing worked. The doctors called it dissociative amnesia. Whatever she went through during that time, she buried it deep. Her mind... her way of coping was to block it all out, convincing herself that her parents had died in a car accident.”

Images of the past replay in his mind, as vivid as if it had all happened yesterday. His hand clenches into a fist, the tension making his body tremble.

”As time passed, Old Han made the call—it was time to start training Ah Ling, even though she was still too young. I wanted to argue, but I knew, just as Old Han did, that she needed to learn to protect herself.”

”Her parents’ killer was still out there, and we knew they would eventually come for her. She never fought us on it. She just trained.”

”When she turned 13, Old Han finally tracked down Choi Li Sun, but when he returned... it was only his lifeless body.”

Grandfather Ji closes his eyes, taking a deep breath to steady himself before opening them again and locking eyes with Lu Tian.

”Someone betrayed him.”

He looks down at the report, the weight of the truth pressing on him.

”I don’t have much time left. Before I leave this world, I need to make sure whatever demon is hunting my family is dealt with.”

His expression softens as his thoughts turn to Yue Ling and Ji Jingxu.

”Both my grandchildren have already endured more than anyone should. But especially Ah Ling. I want her to live without constantly looking over her shoulder. And more than anything, I don’t want her ever to have to remember that day again.”