20th wedding anniversary

Anna and Hou Yi awoke in each other’s arms, knowing so they could have the morning to themselves Jang, Ting, Zhi and Ning had spent the night out. Ting, Zhi and Ning at the Ancestral home with Hou YI’s parents.  They all said that they wanted to spend as much time with their grandfather as possible as the doctors now only gave him weeks to live with his cancer.

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Jang, while having spent the early part of the evening there, had gone to spend the rest of the night with his fiancée, the youngest of Lu Jinhu’s twins, Grace.

As Anna looked at Hou Yi, she said “What a wonderful twenty years we have had. Did you ever expect we would be here?”

“Sweetheart, dreamed yes, but I never thought it would be possible. Do you regret anything?”

“No, we have four lovely children, you have continued to maintain a great family company.  The more surprising thing is that my career charge after Ting’s birth has been even mor fulfilling that I dreamed possible.  I never thought shaping the law, rather than practicing it would be as exciting.” Anna leant over and gave Hou Yi a brief kiss before, leaning back.

“What are you thinking about my love?”

Laughing, Anna responded “You know me too well.  I just was thinking about Jang and Grace’s engagement dinner the other night.”

“What did that b*stard do?”

“You still thing he is like that?”

“Absolutely.  I will never forgive him for what he did to you.”

“Yi, you have to get over the past.  I will never forgive him, but remember when Tang, Grace, he and I disappeared for about twenty minutes?”

“I wondered where you had all gone.”

“Lu Jinhu and I had spoken, and we decided you and his wife would not be involved in the conversation we had to have with them.  The two of us told them about our past.  Lu Jinhu held nothing back about how he treated me.  After they got over the surprise of all of that, I thought Jang would have hit him, but he was calm.  I think that is because he knows I am happy and have you the love of my life to be with until the end of our days.  Grace on the other hand launched into her father about his treatment of me, and then into me about keeping much of our not so hidden past from them.”

“Well, I always thought our daughter-in-law to be was smart, she has demonstrated it.”

“You know, I am not really happy about their engagement but …”

“You are not going to stand in their way.  I know, how many times have you said that ever since they commenced their relationship.  They made the decision as they wanted my father to at least celebrate their engagement before he died with them, but they both have said they do not want to get married for a couple of years.  They want to complete their studies.  Trust our son, we have brought him up, and before you say anything it has been with the help of staff, to do the right thing.”

“I know, but you know how much, despite everything I still worry about him hurting my family given what he did in the past.”

“Anna, regardless of what happens in the future between Jang and Grace, do you believe Grace will allow he father to hurt you or our family?”

“No, Grace when we told her everything turned and outright told Lu Jinhu if he ever did anything to hurt me or Alecia in any way, not only would she cut him our of her life, she would publicly denounce her father.  She did not think about speaking for her twin Lin…”

“As Lin has fallen for the tricks of her mother.  I know.  She is aggressive and abusive to almost everyone.  Jing told me the other day, that apparently Lin demands so much from her father, and he and Grace have seen her hand it over immediately to Yang Lin.”

“I just pity that girl.  She does not realise how much abuse Yang Lin put her through as a baby, and why she was protected from her …”

“But the b*tch plays on the fact she has little and uses her to get everything.  She deserved what happened to her, and if I have heard the rumours right, she is blaming you for that.”

“She is, but I do not think that the situation is helped by the fact that Lin have never gotten along with her stepmother, as she sees her, her step-siblings and siblings from her father’s second marriage as the reason why her mother has been abandoned by everyone, not that she caused that to happen.”

“Anna, we need to stop dwelling on that.  Jang knows he can talk to us if there are problems, and he will.  Trust him and trust his choices.  Grace is that choice, and we should not interfere with his life…”

“Yi, but…”

“No buts my love.  We have taught out children to be independent thinkers and trust their judgement, so why would we not do that with their personal life.”

Before Anna could respond, Hou Yi quickly moved and stripped her of her pyjamas and soon had her screaming in ecstasy from his attentions.

A couple of hours later, when they finally came down from their pleasure high, Hou Yi turned and asked “You have been hiding something from me.  What did those colleagues of yours want with you yesterday?”

“Yi, is there people in the company you can trust to run if for a number of years, if you remain chairman?” asked Anna quietly.

“Anna, you are worrying me, what have they planned?”

“You know the vice-president has cancer and intends to step down in the next couple of weeks?”

“Yes …” responded a quizzical Hou Yi.

“And that we had agreed that whatever is the next post I take with the government will be my last, to allow you to train whoever of the children want to take over the company, so you can retire.”

“Yes, now stop delaying what you want to ask me…”

“Well, the president and parliament want me to take the position as Vice-President once the resignation is made.  That means, making you step away from the company, as it will be the potential for a conflict of interest.”

“But the Vice-president role should not really have that much of an impact on policy, and even with all your posts to date is has never been a problem.”

“Yi…”

Hearing the tone of Anna’s voice, Hou Yi said “I suspect I am not going to like what you are about to tell me?”

“It depends.  But let me just say that when I finish, it will be the end of my career in politics here, and I will be totally grateful for that as I can spend the time with you and the children.”

“Quit stalling, you know I know you too well.”

Giving him a kiss on the cheek, Anna said “We both know there have bee rumours about the president being involved in illegal activities?”

“Mmm…”

“Damn it, I should know that you would know all about that…”

“You forget Anna, I am ruthless when it comes to my family and the business, but everything I do remains legal at all times.  I keep an eye on politicians simply because their actions can cause business risks.  And who do you think…”

“Damn it Yi, you make things challenging for me.”

“I have said nothing, and that is the truth.”

Shaking her head Anna retorted “True, you play it close to the line at times.  But if those rumours are true and the evidence comes out…”

“Parliament will ask him to resign with immediate effect.  That will happen, as you know no one trusts him, even his political allies.”

“Meaning, if I take the role, I would become president…”

“From immigrant to president within a little over twenty years, my love you can achieve anything.”

Pausing Hou Yi said “And of course that means that I cannot be seen to have a role in the company, to protect the office as president.  The worst thing, is that you would have to serve out the remaining part of his term, which currently is just over another four years…”

“True.”

“I get it, you need me to start the work to get in place a new CEO now, to cover that time.  We are just lucky that the company charter does not require us to have a family member as CEO.  It simply has that of the thirteen-person board, the family control six seats, six are from internal divisions and the remaining board member is an independent person.

“Yi, what about Alecia stepping in. Yao Tan is years away from being ready to retire at XF International, and we both know from talking to her and James that she is getting frustrated to the point they are ready to return to Australia on a permanent basis. You have a team of capable senior management to assist her …”

“And your sister-in-law loves you that she would be unlikely to say no if you ask her. More importantly your brother is so grateful for everything you have done that he will not stand in her way. Do you think I really want to mess up the relationship between Yao Tan and myself, given what happened.”

“Yi, Jasmine’s accident was not your fault. Yao Tan failed to put boundaries on her. She always believed she could do what she wanted, and when we told her that she could not come and visit us, she ignored everyone and manipulated the bodyguards to allow her to head to our Villa on her own. Who could have guessed that a car would run a red light and smash into the taxi she was in. It could have been anyone in that car, you, me or one of our children. It just happened to be Jasmine. Given how lucky she was not only to survive but escape without brain injury or serious long-term complications, she learnt her lesson.”

“But he still blames me for what happened, and you know that led to the ending of the joint venture.”

“Yi, that lasted twelve years, and achieved a lot in that time, not only for the artists but Hou Enterprises. What about, we firstly talk to Alecia, and if she says yes we have an open and honest discussion with Yao Tan. By then we should know what is happening politically.”

After a brief pause, Hou Yi leaned over and gave Anna a kiss before saying “Yes my love. You know I will never be able to say no to you.”

“And I you.  My crashing into you twenty years ago, has given us the life we have.  Yes it has had its ups and downs, the loss of Aaron, the birth of our other children, but neither of us regret anything.”

“True.  The only thing I would change, is as soon as I met you I would have pushed into your life to prevent you from being hurt any more than Lu Jinhu did.”

“Let us not think about what we cannot change, but what we have.  That is the most important thing.”

“I know, and our life is the better for having each other.”

“You smooth talker.  But, I do love you so much.”

“And I you.”