Stephanie Ruan did not respond to him, and neither did she remove his hands from her waist. Instead, she only looked ahead with complexity in her eyes.
Marriage is about choosing the right partner to spend your entire life with. It is a life-long commitment.
She is also a firm believer in this segment of the vow, 'till death do us apart'. As such, Stephanie Ruan is very strict when it comes to choosing her future husband.
Once she chooses to commit to a marriage, the word 'divorce' would no longer be in her dictionary.*
Yet at the same time, Stephanie Ruan does not believe in dating someone whom she could not see she would marry in the future.
I mean, why waste her precious time and energy to fully commit to such an unpredictable relationship?
It just doesn't make any sense at all!
Surely, Stephanie Ruan is in a huge dilemma right now...
To be honest, she has never once considered Javier Zhong to be her future husband before! Not because he isn't qualified enough to be her ideal candidate, but that...
Argh!!...
How could she dare to marry someone from the Zhong Family??
If her family members were to find out about this, she could not imagine how disappointed they would be in her.
Especially when the Zhong Family is linked to their accident...
Would she then still have the courage to harm her lover's family just to avenge her family members?
What would become of their marriage at that time if she still decides to pursue this matter??
On one side, it is her own biological family members, and on the other side, it is her future husband and their marriage.
Now, everyone could understand why it is simply impossible between the two of them!
Stephanie Ruan took a deep breath and frowned slightly, "I think..."
Sensing that there is nothing good coming out of her mouth, Javier Zhong anxiously interrupted her, "I know what you are thinking about. You don't have to worry about my family and me."
"If they have anything to do with the accident, I will not only sever my ties with them, but I will also fight alongside you to seek revenge for your family. I promise you that I will be on your side no matter what it takes!"
"..."
His firm assurance had caused her decision to waver again...
Seeing that she is still seriously considering what he had just said, Javier Zhong whispered softly into her ears, "Please... give me a chance."
And it was only after a very long silence that Stephanie Ruan finally responded to him. "Give me some time. I'll think about it."
Yes, she is not going to be pressured by him to give a reply now...
After all, such big decisions should not be made hastily.
Meanwhile, Javier Zhong is also relieved to hear what she has said. To him, it is already good enough that she did not immediately reject him!
As long as she is willing to consider, he is optimistic that she would be moved by him and that they would eventually be together one day.
"Mmm okay. I will start to chase you from today onwards. I'm not giving up until I make you my wife." Javier Zhong declared to her confidently.
Hearing this, Stephanie Ruan could not help but chuckle, "That's up to you."
Hais... She really does not know how to deal with this ridiculous and persistent man sometimes...
In fact, he seems almost like a lion who would not stop chasing after his target until he gets his hands on it!
-Ring-
The sudden phone call rudely interrupted this slightly romantic atmosphere in the office.
When Javier Zhong took out the phone from his pocket, Stephanie Ruan happen to be standing close enough to see the name on the screen.
Albert Liu?? Isn't he the guy she met at the mysterious pawnshop previously??
"Speak." Javier Zhong put the phone beside his ear and did not speak another word for at least a minute or so.
It seems as though he is attentively listening to what was being reported to him by the other person.
"Send me the address! Continue to watch over him! I'll be there tomorrow." He ordered.
"This time, we must get him no matter what!" Unknowingly, Javier Zhong's tone of voice had also become much colder.
Seeing that he had ended the call, Stephanie Ruan asked, "What did he say? Is it about the man in the photo?"
Previously, she had found a photo of an unknown man on Javier Zhong's study desk, together with Albert Liu's name card.
She also recalled that a newspaper clipping of her family's accident was also found on his desk...
Judging from what she had observed so far, Albert Liu must be a private investigator and they are hunting down the whereabouts of the man in the photo.
But what Stephanie Ruan did not understand is... why are they even looking for this man??
Is the man related to Javier Zhong’s mother's unnatural death or does the man know something about her family's accident?
With two quick nods, Javier Zhong replied to her. "Yes, they have found the man. I'm flying over to Ping Xi Island tonight."
"Who is this man that you are finding?" She probed further.
"He knows something about my mother's death. We have not been able to locate him for the past eight years. But he has recently resurfaced again." Javier Zhong patiently explained to her.
After which, he slowly added, "And... we suspect that he might have something to do with your family's car accident. Of course, at this point, it is purely our speculation."
"What made you think that way?" Since it involves her family's accident, Stephanie Ruan wanted to hear his rationale behind this 'conclusion'.
"This man goes by the codename 'X'. Eight years ago, we were chasing him down, near the mountainous area. Since we were following 'X' with the GPS tracker tagged to his car, we were only a few minutes away from him."
"When we drove up the two-way road, we spotted your family's accident up ahead. At that time, no other vehicles were coming from the opposite direction."
Javier Zhong then added, "With such a huge impact on your family's car, it could only be made with the collision of another vehicle. Later, we found the car that 'X' was driving, about two kilometres away from the crime scene."
"As expected, it was severely damaged. And he was no longer inside. We lost him." Javier Zhong recounted the details of the incident.
"??!!..."
"Wait... hold on a second... so you were actually there when my family got into an accident?" She was quick to catch on to this information.
Stephanie Ruan then looked at him in disbelief, "And the young man who spoke to me that day... it was you??"
*Author's Note/Disclaimer: This is a fictional novel. If anyone (men or women) finds yourself caught in an abusive marriage, please consider seeking help from your local hotlines (if any), marriage counsellors, or therapists.