Chapter 38: The Background

Next day Wu Lina came with a laptop. But she hid it in the cupboard so that no office staff would see it and complain about her to the director.

Yang Xinyu smiled at her scheme.

When everything was done including getting instructions from Dr. Zhou and giving breakfast and medicine to Yang Xinyu, Wu Lina patiently waited for him to sleep. She was so eager to see him sleep and be on her laptop that she couldn't hold her excitement. Yang Xinyu understood her eagerness and feigned sleeping grinning inwards.

As soon as she saw that he had slept Wu Lina fetched her laptop, powered it on and started doing her assignment. She had to finish that assignment and submit it to the professor coming Sunday.

She was so absorbed in it that she didn't look up for the next two hours. She hadn't noticed that he was looking towards her all the time… admiring her tenacity… drinking her beauty in…

Yang Xinyu felt hungry in the afternoon but he did not disturb her. Yet another hour passed and there was no sign of her budging from the laptop. He was more concerned about her than him now.

He shifted and coughed slightly to catch her attention. She immediately looked at him. "CEO Yang! I'll get water."

She saved her work and switched off the computer. She was surprised to see that it was past two in the afternoon. She was guilty for not serving him food in time. She made a mental check of putting an alarm on her phone for main tasks of the day from now on.

Two days later when her duty hours had finished, Bo Xilai came with a file in his hand. It contained details about Wu Lina.

Yang Xinyu took the file from him and asked him never to reveal this information to anyone.

After dinner he read her file.

Wu Lina was the daughter of Wu Yi-Zheng and Wenqian.

Her father Wu Yi-Zheng was a state government officer getting fair salary. He was very senior to his mother with an age gap of twelve years. His first wife had divorced him taking away their only child with her.

Her mother got married at a young age of nineteen. She was a volunteer with Red Cross for a very short time of about five months. Her first posting was at Bulgaria. She had been deported from there for reasons unknown. After coming back to China she had been hurriedly married to Wu Yi-Zheng.

Wu Yi-Zheng was an average man running between his home and office. He was not sociable and did not have too many friends. There was a rumor that he was in fact a government agent working discreetly. However, since there was no evidence, the rumor died down gradually. Because of him Wenqian also never really had many friends.

After seven years of marriage Wenqian gave birth to their son.

Once the son was born, Wu Yi-Zheng stopped paying whatever little attention he did to their daughter Wu Lina. In order to impart good education and make his son study in a good school and college he and started saving money. It was a strange decision according to his friends. They said that he was of the opinion that if he died who would look after his son. His friends thought that Wu Yi-Zheng was eccentric but they never questioned him because other than this issue he behaved rationally. Wu Yi-Zheng's disparity between his children was a matter of concern.

This decision had an adverse effect on Wu Lina's education, which manifested later in her life.

Wu Lina was a brilliant child and was always on the top of her class rankings right from the kindergarten. Her maturity and intelligence was way higher than the other kids of her age. She skipped two classes in her middle school becoming the youngest child in her batch at high school.

She had taken up science subjects in her high school, computers and math being her favorite. Her teachers had full faith in her that one day she would surely become a great scientist. She had taken science much to her father's annoyance. He knew that pursuing science would mean that Wu Lina would like to join engineering or medical courses, and all the money he had saved for his son would be spent on her. He had warned her that he would not help her in anyway if she decided to take up those courses after school. Nonetheless, Wu Lina continued with her choice.

When Wu Lina graduated from her high school she had topped in all the subjects. Proudly she went to her father with her mark sheet. She knew in her heart that after seeing her superb results father would definitely support her in her future endeavors. She wanted to give medical exam of the top universities. She was sure that she would qualify the test.

She was in for a surprise when her father literally threw her mark sheet on the floor telling her that he can't support her any more. He reminded her of his warning. He asked her to manage on her own if she wanted to do graduation.

"Father, please give me a chance. I will try to get a scholarship in my first year," she pleaded.

"I don't have money to spend," Wu Yi-Zheng barked.

"Please father. I just need help for the first year. I will take loans from the bank," she was now begging him.

"And who would be your collateral at the bank?" he mocked at her.

"Father I have full confidence that once I am admitted to a medical school, I will get scholarship based on my grades," she tried to convince.

But no argument worked on him. Wu Lina went to her mother, upset and crying over her father's decision. Her mother tried to reason with her father, but things got so bad between them that during one of the quarrels he slapped his mother hard on the face sending her flying to the floor near the center table of the living room.

Wu Lina ran to her mother and saw that she had sustained a cut on her forehead as her head had hit the corner of the table. The tender heart of Wu Lina couldn't take this abuse and she surrendered. She helped her mother and vowed that she will never ever put her mother in this kind of grave danger again. She decided she would never be the one who would make her mother suffer.

Following the incident Wu Lina was very disturbed. Slowly over the next few days she came to terms with the fact that her father would never support her. If she had to continue with her education, she would have to help herself. She envied her brother but she knew that it wasn't his fault.