Love Began with the First Meeting
Chapter 855 Extra Story 05 of Araon Memory

"The Leng family... is about to step into a new era," Aaron said slowly. His eyes were cold as ever, but the sadness was plain in his eyes.

Ken didn't respond. He simply looked at the logo with a wordless sigh and kept holding the umbrella for Aaron quietly.

Aaron stood still in front of the tall building. No one knew what was going through his mind. Time seemed to have stopped for him at the moment. Eventually, the lonely expression on his face disappeared and was replaced by the usual indifference. As he walked away from the skyscraper, a blood thirsty look flitted over his eyes.

*

When Ximena came out of the bathroom, a silk gown was already laid out on her bed. The sheets had been changed and the wardrobe was filled with different types of clothes in various sizes.

Nothing about this surprised her. She knew how these rich people were; even the moon or the stars would be sent over to them if they demanded it. But she was in no mood to appreciate those fancy items.

She gazed outside. The empty yard was dark and horrifying.

The relentless drizzle looked like a dark garment for the lonely night.

Her thoughts drifted back to the past. "Xim, will you wait for me?" James had asked her. They had been sitting on the grass on one dark night. He was handsome and elegant, and his voice was so hypnotizing. "Will you come back for me?"

she had asked him in response.

"I will," he had answered firmly. "No matter how long it takes, I'll come back for you."

And she had believed him, just because it was him. Her James. That was his promise to her. And so, she waited and waited. It had been more than five years.

Leaning on the window, Ximena looked into the black merciless night, the jade seal tightly secured in her hands. James had left it to her. The only thing he had left behind.

She struggled for her life, she lived believing in his promise, she waited like an idiot, but what was the meaning of it all if he didn't show up? She didn't even know his full name. James... That was all she knew about him.

Her eyes reddened. She closed them painfully. Her belly was growling relentlessly. She hadn't eaten anything for a whole day, but the delicacies which had been delivered to her room didn't appeal to her at all. Before she had come here, food had been the one thing on her mind, something she craved desperately.

"Xim." Uncontrollably, James' voice rang in her mind again. All of a sudden, it felt like she had travelled back to that night again. "This jade seal is very important to me. I want you to have it for a while, because I want you to believe me when I say I will come back for you. I mean it. One day, I will come back and when I do, you can give this back to me."

Ximena had clenched her hands, biting her lips to hold back the tears. Tears were for the weak. She didn't want to be one of the weak, even though she was desperately in need of a shoulder to cry on.

"James, I'll wait for you!" she had also promised, holding the jade seal tightly in her cold hands. "I'll protect it with my life. I'll hold onto it till the day you come back to claim it."

James had smiled gently. That smile had been engraved in her heart, just like his kiss had been imprinted on her memory.

As the memory of that night came flooding back to her, her hands clutching the jade seal shook uncontrollably. She pressed her lips hard to suppress the overflowing sadness. "James, I want to give myself to you," she had told him.

"Why?" he had asked in surprise.

"I want you to remember my scent, so that on the days when we are apart, you will remember me; you will remember the feeling when we were together."

He had gazed at her silently. She had looked so determined in the moonlight.

"I want my first time to be with you," she had added.

That night, she had wanted to give herself to that man so much. Deep down, she was aware that her lowly status might not be good enough for him, even though she didn't know anything about him. But to be with him- that was the only thing she had thought of at that moment. She had wanted it, and she had spoken her mind.

Recalling it, Ximena smiled bitterly. In the end, he had rejected her request. "Save your most precious gift for the day when we meet again. I will take it from you, along with the jade seal."

"James, will we ever meet again?" she asked out loud, as she stood in the lonely room. Expectation and disappointment were mixed in her sad eyes when she thought of how long it had been since their separation. "Will the day ever come when you finally come back for what you had left with me?"

"I don't think..." Aaron's voice rang in the room, "...it ever will."

Ximena's heart tightened into a knot. She opened her eyes and turned to the door. "When did you come in?"

"When you were thinking about that man." Aaron stared at her coldly. He had had doubts about the jade seal in her hands before. Now, after hearing the name "James", what doubts could he possibly have anymore?

Who else coincidentally had that name on QY Island?

Ximena gritted her teeth, but said nothing. She held the jade seal tightly to calm herself down. The man whose presence she was in, was His Highness, someone powerful enough to end a life with a snap of his fingers. She was not afraid of death, but she couldn't die yet; James hadn't fulfilled his promise yet.

Just as Ximena was wondering how to deal with the man in front of her, Aaron stepped towards the sofa and sat down. With his legs crossed elegantly, he lit a cigarette and took a long drag. "Now, I would like to examine the commodity," he demanded as he exhaled the smoke.

He said it so casually, as if he were talking about a bag of tomatoes. His cold stare made her shiver.

"What?" Ximena asked, aghast.

"I never do charity. I only trade." Aaron flicked the ash off the cigarette. "Since this is a trade, I have to examine the commodity to see if it is as good as it was said to be," he replied as he fixed his sharp gaze on her. 000000