IN LOVE WITH A SOLDIER - SEASON 9 EPISODE 16

It was eight o’clock in the evening.

A waiter walked towards Greg as soon as he entered the bar.

“Good evening, Mr. Xiao,” the waiter greeted politely.

Greg simply nodded. He already guessed that Lawrence sent this waiter since he was in charge of this bar.

“Mr. Lawrence Chu is waiting for you in the room. Please follow me,” said the waiter while guiding him to VIP area. Without any question, Greg followed the waiter into the VIP room.

The flickering neon lights and the noisy music played by the DJ in the bar did not bother Greg at all. Nothing even seemed to catch his attention.

There were only a few people in the VIP area especially in the corridor. The waiter didn’t say much while they were heading to Lawrence’s room.

As they reached the door, the waiter stopped. He turned to Greg and said,”Mr. Chu is inside waiting for you. Since my duty is done, I shall take my leave now.” As soon as he finished his words, the waiter strode back to the bar.

Greg waited until the waiter was out of his sight. Then he knocked at the door. No one responded so he pushed the door and walked in.

When he was inside, he saw Lawrence sitting on the sofa. There was a glass of wine in his hand. Beside him was Mike who caught Greg’s attention. Greg couldn’t help but stare at him.

Mike, with a cigarette in his hand, felt Greg’s presence. He looked up and greeted Greg when he recognized who he was,”Hello. I’m Mike Chu.”

As Mike introduced himself, Greg had confirmed that his guess was right when he for the first time saw the man sitting beside Lawrence. So he greeted him back,”Hi. I’m Greg Xiao.”

Greg then turned to Lawrence and called out his name in a low voice,”Lawrence.” However, Lawrence just ignored him and kept on drinking his wine. His gaze was in somewhere not in Greg’s direction.

Greg who was still standing, hopelessly had no idea what to do next because of Lawrence’s silence and neglect. He sensed an air of a king from Lawrence who just quietly sat on the sofa.

Mike was suddenly became aware of the awkward situation. He glimpsed at Lawrence only to find out that he was still indifferent. So he just said to Greg,”Please sit down, Greg. Take your time.”

Greg once heard from Violet that Mike was her brother’s closest friend and the two always shared unanimous views about everything.

Greg sat down on the sofa next to them but still looking at Lawrence.

Mike knew that Greg came to Lawrence for some private matters so he said to him,”Greg, please feel free to tell Lawrence anything you want to say as if I’m not here.”

Greg nodded to him in response. In fact, Mike’s presence didn’t really bother him because obviously, Mike already had full knowledge about all the issues.

Lawrence turned to Mike and asked,”Did you bring the man here?”

“Of course, I did. Do you want him to be here now?” Mike asked. He immediately got the answer from Lawrence’s grave expression so he took out his phone and called his men.

When the line got through, Mike said to the man in the other line,”Take him here.”
Mike hung up the moment he finished his order.

Greg was quiet upset to see Lawrence and Mike’s actions. ‘What’s going on? Who else is coming?’ he thought.

Before Greg could get any answers from them, two men in black opened the door and dragged a middle-aged man in.

“Boss, here he is,” one of the two men said to Mike.

“Okay, you can go now,” Mike answered while glaring at the middle-aged man. As soon as they heard their boss’ order, the men let go of the man and turned to walk out of the room.

The middle-aged man just stood there, trembling. His head was lowered but he occasionally glimpsed at the three men in front of him. Based on his impression, the man sitting in the middle seemed to be cruel and cold. Despite his quietness, the middle-aged man roughly guessed that he was the leader among the three.
“What are you doing now?” Mike asked impatiently. “Do you want me to introduce you to them so you can be friends with them?” He added harshly with his brutal eyes glaring at the man.

“Of course not!” the man immediately answered.

Then he looked at Mike with pleading eyes,”Sir, please let me go. I haven’t done any illegal deeds for years. You can check into that if you want.”

“You know what I want to ask you,” Mike directly got down to business as he was impatient to continue their conversation.
“Yes, yes, I know, I know,” the middle-aged replied with esteem.

“You are not here to confess to me. You are here to confess to him,” Mike said as he pointed towards Greg’s direction.

Greg was surprised by Mike’s words. He shifted his gaze from Mike to the man who was obviously from a lower class. His hands, though clinging tightly together, apparently showed that he did some laborious jobs.

The man looked at Greg and immediately recognized the latter when he saw him clearly. “You are the young master from the Xiao family,” he mumbled.

“You know me?” asked Greg. He looked at the middle-aged man and wondered, ‘Does he really recognize me?’

The man was obviously frightened when he recognized Greg so he turned his gaze away from him. He then realized that what he exactly need to tell next was about the Xiao family. Although it didn’t involve Greg, he was still related to it.

The man fell into silence for a moment.

Now it was Lawrence who glared at him and threatened him in a cold voice,”What’s the silence for? Would you rather die than confess?”

His words intensified the atmosphere in the room and terrified the man more. He knelt down, looked at Lawrence, and said,”I’m sorry, I was wrong… I was wrong!”

The middle-aged man suddenly realized who this man was. If he was not mistakenly, this man was no other than the president of the JC Group, Lawrence Chu. No one except him seemed to be this powerful. The middle-aged man who had been in the field for many years kept the names of Lawrence and Mike in his mind. Although the two were in abroad for a long time, many remembered them as celebrities.

Mike became angrier. He put his cigarette off in the ashtray and stood up. He walked to the man, grasped his tie and asked,”Didn’t you catch Lawrence’s words? Or you just want to die with your dirty secrets?”

“No! Please don’t!” the man who was already trembling in fear replied at once. “I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you everything!” he added.

Mike then let go of him forcefully.

He fell on the floor but he didn’t mind it. He turned his eyes on Greg’s.

“My friends and I earned a living on peddlers’ protection fees in the past. One day, the mistress of the Xiao family, who is called Sharon, came to me,” the middle-aged man started to tell slowly. Greg became very curious upon hearing the man mentioned Sharon. ‘What on earth had happened?’ he thought.

The middle-aged man continued,”That woman told me that if we follow her orders to besiege and attack a girl, she would give us one million. That was already a huge amount of money for us who were only getting not more than ten thousand from protection fees. So… so I said yes to her.”

“What did she ask you to do?” Greg asked in vexation. He didn’t know that something like this happened. What on earth did Sharon do?

“As far as we knew, that girl was your girlfriend,” the man answered Greg in fear. “She was the daughter of the Chu family. But believe me, we didn’t have any idea who she was at that time.”

The man insisted that they didn’t mean to hurt Violet. He had to make such a lame excuse in order to save his own life.

Greg continued to listen intently to the man.

“She wanted us to take… to take the girl’s clothes off,” the man finally said in a trembling voice. Then he raised his head and peered at Lawrence and Greg.

He was so scared that his life would end here because of these three men in front of him.

Greg’s eyes popped upon hearing the man’s words. He remembered Violet telling him the same thing in a sad voice before. Now he fully understood everything.

The middle-aged man didn’t get any response from his listeners so he continued,”It seemed that Sharon wanted to force her to receive a sum of money in leaving you. The girl resisted but finally failed when we did what Sharon told us to. She then had no choice but to accept Sharon’s terms.”

Greg’s eyes popped upon hearing the man’s words. He remembered Violet telling him the same thing in a sad voice before. Now he fully understood everything.

The middle-aged man didn’t get any response from his listeners so he continued,”It seemed that Sharon wanted to force her to receive a sum of money in leaving you. The girl resisted but finally failed when we did what Sharon told us to. She then had no choice but to accept Sharon’s terms.”

“Where’s the money then?” Mike finally asked. This was what he and Lawrence wanted to do. They wanted Greg to know that Violet was forced to take Sharon money and in fact she did nothing wrong.

“The money…” the man seemed to recall his memory. Then he continued,”One of my friends took the money from the girl when she fainted and gave it back to Sharon. Then Sharon gave us two million instead of one million That was the end of our deal.” The man would never dare to lie in fear of losing his life.

Greg’s heart beat so rapidly that he almost couldn’t breath. His eyes became dull. Only now that he figured out Sharon’s scheming. He had hated Violet because he thought she sold their love for money. But the truth was, she did nothing wrong. Now he felt sorry for her because he misunderstood things. She was innocent. Sharon, she was behind all these. “I would rather have her taken the money as long as she was safe, ‘ he thought.

Greg’s heart beat so rapidly that he almost couldn’t breath. His eyes became dull. Only now that he figured out Sharon’s scheming. He had hated Violet because he thought she sold their love for money. But the truth was, she did nothing wrong. Now he felt sorry for her because he misunderstood things. She was innocent. Sharon, she was behind all these. “I would rather have her taken the money as long as she was safe, ‘ he thought.

From Greg’s panic and emotional expression, Lawrence and Mike could tell that Greg was already awakened by truth.

Mike gave the middle-aged man a savage look and shouted, ‘Get out of here!”

“Okay, okay, okay,” the middle-aged man answered at once.

He hurriedly stood up and was about to leave when Lawrence stopped him,”Wait a minute.”

Shaking the glass of wine, Lawrence said in a cold voice,”Don’t you think you haven’t paid a price after you mistreated a member of my family?”

Everyone knew what he exactly meant.

The frightened middle-aged man wanted to crawl back to Lawrence and plead for his forgiveness. But before he could make a move, Mike stopped him.

“Please, please, forgive me! I didn’t know that she was your sister. I really didn’t know!” the middle-aged man begged.