Empress Of The Lost Kingdom

The whole world was against Lee Tae Sun's and Guan Zi Lin's marriage, but there was one person who supported them with his whole heart.

"Bai Ze, the rebellious young master of the Bai family."

He was their classmate, a man who swore to break all the societal norms set for young masters born in a wealthy family.

He was a rule-breaker.

His family want him to work in the family business, but he wrote the civil servant exam and became a detective.

His family want him to marry a woman from equal status, but he fell in love with an orphan and left his family for her.

Everything was fine their life until Li Qin became pregnant. Even though they were delighted with the happy news, they were equally worried because they had no one to rely upon. Not to mention that Bai Ze's job demanded 24/7 service forcing Li Qin to stay alone.

That's when Guan Zi Lan and her grandmother in law came as their saviours and took Li Qin with them to their home in K country.

In the large mansion in the heart of the soul city, Li Qin found her family.

Little Yangyang, Guan Zi Lan's son, liked uncle Ze and Aunt Li more than his own extended family living in K country and C country.

On his fourth birthday, they promised him that Aunt Li will bring a little friend to play with Yangyang.

While Uncle Ze was away from home, Yangyang was aunt Li's care-taker.

Even though the mansion was filled with maids, he always remained closer to Li Qin like a faithful butler. With his aunt, Yangyang brought toys and decorated the cradle for his friend who is coming with his birthday gift.

One week before the expected date, Li Qin was suddenly hit by a wave of an uncontrollable pain in her abdomen,

"Aunt Li, what happened? Did the baby kicked you again?" Little Yangyang asks in a worried face,

"I think baby can't wait to meet Yangyang," She replied while clenching her jaws in pain.

Without any delay, Li Qin was taken to the hospital,

After two hours, bundled up in a white blanket, Yangyang's gift came out of the labour room,

"Wol Ju," His grandma gave a pet name to the girl who born on a full moon night.

Bai Ze who was dealing on an infamous drug scandal at that time was unable to fly back to soul city and meet his little angel and wife.

After a week, as soon as he finished with work he took the next flight to soul city.

However, neither Bai Ze nor Yangyang's parent's who went to receive their friend at the airport never came back alive,

An accident took their lives on the way back to hospital.

The big mansion fell into sombre silence, only Wol Ju and Yang Yang dared to smile,

As days passed, Wol Ju's hundredth-day of birth came,

His great grandma decided to celebrate it grandly. 

It was supposed to be a happy day, but his grandma Kim, came there and made a ruckus demanding her grandson to leave this house immediately. 

For the first time, Yang Yang saw his kind great-grandma hitting someone,

He got terrified and shrunk towards to baby crib, covering the tiny ears of little Wol Ju who was sleeping,

"She is born with a curse. She is going to kill everyone," he heard his grandma Kim shouting at aunt Li who remained with clueless face,

Thank God, she doesn't know K country's language, 

Next day, Aunt Li woke up earlier, made Yangyang's favourite foods, took him to the amusement park as his mother promised before leaving him alone. In the evening, she even lulled him into sleep,

When Yangyang woke up, aunt Li was nowhere to see and he was back at his paternal house.

He cried and cried but no one took him to aunt Li, 

Every night he went to great grandma's bed and asked to take him to see Wol Ju,

"Wol Ju won't sleep without me...She is going to cry all night, please take me to aunt Li," He begged everyone, but only aunt Soo Hyun was kind enough to give him a baby like Wol Ju,

After his great-grandma's death, no one ever called him Yangyang or talked about Aunt Li or Wol Ju,

When everyone saw him taking care of Minmin, his baby brother, they believed that Yangyang forgot about them.

However, whenever he went outside, he tried to look for Aunt Li.

In his mind, he always tried to draw a picture of Wol Ju, but apart from a pair of big black eyes, he couldn't think of anything else.

"Yaaa, how can you run so fast?" Hao Ren asked Lee Tae Yang who stood dazed beside the bed, while trying to stabilize his breath, "I almost died while trying to catch up with you" 

Li Juan who was asleep, let out a groan when her rest was disturbed,

"Shhh," Lee Tae Yang silenced Hao Ren and gently patted Li Juan's shoulders with moist eyes,

This little girl who is sleeping beside him...it was no one but his Wol Ju...

There is no way he is going to lose her again.

-----------------------------

The next few weeks the doctors in the first hospital witnessed an unbelievable pace of recovery of a patient who had a traumatic head injury.

Once her broken leg was healed, she started to walk around and tried to get along with others.

Lee Tae Yang basically shifted his house to the hospital to take care of Li Juan.

When Li Juan obtained stable physical and mental health, he encouraged her to complete her high school graduation.

He himself took charge of teaching her. Every night he accompanied her until Li Qin comes back from work.

Two and half months spent in the hospital brought Li Juan and Lee Tae Yang closer than anyone.

Though none of them confessed their love, everyone knew that they shared something more than friendship.

One day before her discharge, Luo Ben Cheng and his team came to meet Li Juan to check on her cognitive abilities and brain function,

"This is the first time in the history of the first hospital that, a patient who suffered from TBI recovers so quickly. So, I am obliged to some questions," Luo Ben Cheng took a seat across the table and looked at the girl sitting opposite, with a tensed up face, "You don't have to worry, I am just asking some casual questions about you,"

Li Juan subconsciously glanced at Lee Tae Yang and Chi Yan, who gave her an encouraging smile, to ease up her mind.

"Are you ready?" Luo Ben Cheng initiated the conversation while checking at the sheet in front of him. Some of the questions were based on Li Juan's long term memories, so he already talked to her mother and got the answers.

"Yes," Li Juan answered in a steady voice,

"What is your name?"

"Li Juan,"

"How old are you?"

"I am eighteen,"

"Do you know where this place is?"

"People's first hospital in S City,"

The questions about her family and other basic details were easy for Li Juan to answer. However, once he started asking for questions related to her school life, she couldn't answer any of them due to her lack of solid memory.

"I heard that you are preparing to write the high school graduation exam. Can you tell me about your favourite subject and why you liked it?" Luo Ben Cheng fixed his glasses and asked,

"History," Li Juan replied without any delay, "If you want me to explain in few words then I must say that I am curious about ancient cultures and how people used to live in olden times. To learn more about it, I am planning to become an archaeologist,"

"Archeologist, that is a really good choice." Luo Ben Cheng put a tick mark on the answering column, "Since you said that you want to be an archaeologist, can you tell me about your dreams and future goals, Li Juan?"

"I want to build a house somewhere in the countryside. A farmhouse kind of house with orchard and a room filled with books," Li Juan sounded elated, "I hope I can live there with my mother- ah no, I hope I can live there with a family,"

"A family?" Luo Ben Cheng doesn't want to probe more into it, yet he couldn't help but ask.

"If there is one more person in our family, my mom would be less worried and she will get a moment to breathe. Should I ask my mom to remarry?" Li Juan asked the doctor with a curious face, "Are you married, doctor?"

"Huh?" Luo Ben Cheng was taken aback for a moment, "I was..," he reluctantly said, "Why did you ask?"

"Nothing, I am just thinking I should let my mother enjoy her life a little more,"

"You are a filial daughter, miss Li. So how are you planning to do that?"

"I should find someone who can take care of me so that my mom can stop worrying about me,"

"So do you have anyone in your mind?"

"Yes," Li Juan averted her gaze to the man who was sitting in the corner with a high voltage beam on his face, radiating happiness all across the room,

Luo Ben Cheng followed her line of sight and found Lee Tae Yang's gleeful face.

"You like Dr Lee?" His eyebrows perched up in query,

Li Juan nodded in agreement,

"Li Juan, you are just eighteen. What if it is just an infatuation?"

"But he is elder than me. What if he falls in love with me? She rebutted,

"He is a doctor,"

"Doctors can't fall in love?"

"Of course, but doctors are really busy, they won't get any time to eat or sleep. How is he going to take care of you?"

Li Juan was a loss at words for a moment,

"Let's do something. Now you are in high school and Dr Lee is in his last year of residency. Both of you need to study well. Once you finish your university and still don't find a good guy...you can ask Dr Lee for a date," Luo Ben Cheng purposed with teasing face. He knew that they were already in a relationship, he just wants to check Li Juan's response.

"No, I can't wait for that long. What if he leaves this country and marries some other girl in the meantime?" Li Juan's nose flared in anger, "What will I do then? No, I won't do that," She mumbled and tilted her face towards Lee Tae Yang,

"Dr Lee, would you like to go out on a date with me?" Li Juan asked with an expressionless face,

Lee Tae Yang stared at her in disbelief, 

He was thinking about the same, he was waiting for a perfect moment to ask her out on a date, but he never expected Li Juan would bring the topic of dating so casually, yet courageously

"Dr Lee," Li Juan tried to call him again when she saw him frozen like a statue, "Will you-"

"Yes," He replied, "Yes, let's go on a date on Sunday,"

Li Juan's lips curled into a beguiling smile as she averted her glance towards Luo Ben Cheng and said in a low voice which is only audible to two of them,

"I liked him from my past, past, past life"