Empress Of The Lost Kingdom

Li Juan's name always belonged to the school topper's list. 

She was never a prodigy, but an extremely hardworking student who managed to achieve good grades without any extra coaching classes. With the financial situation at her home, going to school itself was a luxury. 

Thanks to her extraordinary grades in Junior high school, Li Juan got selected for the Silverbell scholarship 

A high-end scholarship to study at Jing city's one of the best schools- Silver Oak high school. Also an educational institution where children of highly privileged families used to attend. 

Li Juan was someone who preferred to remain silent, however, within the first term itself, she became the hot topic of the Silver Oak. 

There were many reasons for her popularity.

The record-breaker of the school toppers.

An all-kill 100% marks in every exam.

The youngest champion in the history of the national quiz competition.

Well, the title of the championship was the hard-earned fruit of Li Juan's commitment and hard work. Especially, when the competition was arranged between the genius brains all across the nation. Almost every day, Li Juan spent her evenings in the school library, preparing for the competition.

And, one of those evenings brought Tang Wei Sheng into her life, like a destiny.

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10 years ago, Silver Oak high school compound.

The sky appeared dark as huge rain clouds gathered around and in a flash of a moment, it started to drizzle. 

Li Juan who lost track of the time while studying in the library, stood worried in the corridor, looking at the unexpected rain. 

Since she had no umbrella, there weren't any other options but to wait until the downpour ends.

However, as time went by, the situation got worse when the overwhelmed sky started roaring with thunders and lightning.

Li Juan kept glancing at her wristwatch to check the time,

7.30 pm.

It was already late. If she waits any longer, it will definitely make her mother anxious.

"It is better to leave now," 

Li Juan made her mind and lowered her gaze at the thick books she held in her hands. It was some reference books that she borrowed from library and unfortunately, there wasn't enough space in her bag to keep them. 

Getting her uniform wet in rain was tolerable for Li Juan, but the costly library books that are soaked in rain won't be the same. Not to mention that she has to pay the damage fee if something happens to the books. 

"No, no, can't afford that much money."

Li Juan stuck her foot out in the rain and retracted back as she checked the intensity of the rain only to get her shoes soaked. 

"It is better to keep the books in the locker and go home," Li Juan let out a sigh and headed towards the locker room for the students. 

All of sudden, faint footsteps echoed in the poorly lit empty corridor beside the locker room. 

Who is staying at the school grounds at this late hour?" Li Juan wondered as she fixed her gaze at the corridor.

After few seconds, a tall and extremely striking figure strode towards her in a lazy yet poise manner.

Even though he wore the school uniform, there was an overbearing air of authority and power shrouded over him. 

It was him.

The renowned Tang Wei Sheng, the uncrowned King of Silver Oak High school.

The heir of Tang Corporation, the main benefactor of the school. 

He was a model student who was perfect in everything- studies, sports, extracurricular activities and obviously, his incomparably stunning looks – These qualities were enough to make him famous among students and staff.

Tang Wei Sheng's astonishingly charismatic looks alone, earned him a huge number of fans, even from other schools.

Fortunately, Tang Wei Sheng also caught the sight of a petite and fragile girl who stood in the lonely corridor.

The girl was looking at him as if she has found a saviour.

"What is she doing here, at this time?" He ruminated and almost walked over. 

However, Before Tang Wei Sheng could make a move, a luxurious car entered the school compound, with beaming lights. 

He averted his gaze towards the car that came to pick him.

As soon as the engine ceased, the Chauffer got down and ran towards the corridor holding an umbrella.

"Young master, sorry for the delay, there was heavy traffic and I couldn't-" Chauffer tried to explain in an apologetic voice.

"It's okay uncle Jing," Tang Wei Sheng said calmly and stepped into the rain.

The chauffeur quickly held the umbrella over his head and accompanied him towards the car without any delay.

When Tang Wei Sheng reached out to open the car's door–his eyes stuck upon the vague reflection of a petite figure on the window pane.

The girl in the corridor was eagerly looking at him.

It was raining heavily and the view was quite blurry, yet he could sense disappointment and sadness in her demeanour. 

Tang Wei Sheng let out a sigh as if he is ignoring her entire existence and got on to the car. 

The engine started to growl and the car began to move, 

Li Juan saw it clearly,

Tang Wei Sheng didn't even look at her, let alone offer a help. 

When she realised that he had abandoned her in the pouring rain, Li Juan felt a pang of sadness struck her over. 

In a school, where children from rich families used to attend, a student like her was an outcast and bullied by everyone. 

It was painful for her to be a bullying victim, despite the fact that she was a meritorious student.

However, when she realised that none of her complaints worked in favour for her, she ended up enduring it and remained in her own world.

But showing a little humanity to your fellow student on a rainy evening won't be that bad, na?

Li Juan's eyes followed the car that slowly moving away from her 

After all, Tang Wei Sheng has also belonged to the gang of affluent students and why would he care about a random girl who stuck in the rain, when his parents send a car to pick him from school? 

What about her parents? Li Juan thinked for a moment, 

Right now, her mother will be working hard in the restaurant to make money to meet their daily needs.

If her father was still alive, maybe both of her parents would've came to pick her from school on a rainy day. 

The memory of her lost father made Li Juan's heart ache and turned her eyes teary. 

Her father passed away when she was just one week old in an accident. 

If her father was still alive, their lives would've been different. Nobody would have been dared to bully her or neither her mother was forced to work to feed them. 

A small bead of tear rolled down her cheeks as she thought about the void left by her father in life.

Li Juan wiped the continuous trails of tears with her palm and walked into the rain, without any reluctance. 

Creek!!! Suddenly the car that was about to leave the school compound, hit the brake and halted. 

Tang Wei Sheng pushed open the car's door and got down without any second thoughts. 

The pouring rain or the roaring thunder, he didn't care about anything else as his feet moved towards the girl, 

Li Juan was left speechless when she saw Tang Wei Sheng running at her. She never imagined that he will come back to get her.

"Hey, you want to come with me?" Tang Wei Sheng asked as he stood before her, soaked in rain.

Li Juan nodded with a faint smile as she wiped her tears .

"Young master," His Chauffer came running with two umbrellas.

"Uncle Jing let's give this girl a trip home," Tang Wei Sheng smilingly suggested.

"Sure young master," His driver gave an umbrella to Li Juan and held the other over his youngmaster's head. 

When Tang Wei Sheng saw her struggling to open the umbrella, he took it from her hands and helped to open.

However rather than giving it to Li Juan, he held the umbrella for her and directed her towards the car.

"Let's go," 

As soon as they got into the backseat of the car, the chauffeur immediately handed over towels to Tang Wei Sheng.

If the young master gets a cold, then that's it–he will be kicked out of his job.

As the car began to move, Li Juan gave a not so obvious side long glance at Tang Wei Sheng who was busy drying his wet hair. 

The water droplets trickling from his hair made its way down to his perfectly chiseled face.

She gaped at the marvellous view and forgot to blink her eyes for a while.

When Tang Wei Sheng felt an attentive gaze on him, gently tilted his head and met with Li Juan's sparkling eyes.

Her big ink-black eyes had a unique charm that made his heart flutter as they locked their gazes. 

For a moment, her curious face reminded him of a cute kitten who has found a new home and unknowingly, the corners of his lips curled into tender smile as he handed over the towel.

Li Juan hesitated for a second, before reaching out to take the towel from him and wiped her face with it,

When an addictive scent of an exotic cologne entered her senses, Li Juan embarrassingly realised that instead of drying her hair she wiped her face on it.

Since she didn't dare to ask for a dry towel, Li Juan dried herself with the wet towel and sat hugging her school bag, silently. 

When Tang Wei Sheng accidentally noticed a soaked black bunny key chain attached to her bag, he made a stupid comment,

"Your bunny must be cold."

"Huh?" Li Juan stared at him in confusion and followed his line of sight to the keychain. She quickly removed the toy and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Haha, it won't get dry if you do it like that. Give it to me." Tang Wei Sheng chortled and took the plushie toy from her. 

"Oh, it is a wolf! I thought it was a bunny." He remarked as he squeezed the water out of the toy.

"Let me keep this near to the heater vent so that it will dry quickly." Tang Wei Sheng gave the plushie toy to the chauffeur and turned to face at the girl. 

"Your bag is soaked, why don't you check your things out of the bag?" He suggested. 

Li Juan wobbled her head in agreement and opened her bag to take out her belongings one by one. Fortunately, the damage on her books was not negligible. 

Tang Wei Sheng took one of her notebooks and casually opened it as he initiated a conversation.

"You are in which year?"

"The first year of senior high, " Li Juan replied in a low voice.

"Oh, you must be Wei Lan's classmate. Do you know Tang Wei Lan?" He inquired about his sister who is in the same class. 

"Yes," Li Juan replied, of course, she knows Tang Wei Lan, the young miss of Tang family, 

"Where do you live sweetheart?" Tang Wei Sheng asked her as the car entered into the m

Sweetheart! It was the first time a boy addressed Li Juan by such an endearing title. 

"In downtown," The sweetheart answered in a flustered voice. 

Tang Wei Sheng knew about Downtown. It was a place where poor people in the city lived. He assumed that she attends Silver Oak high school only because of s scholarship.

"Oh, then you must be a nerd," Tang Wei Sheng commented.

"Huh?"

"You give me the vibes of a studious person. Are you a friend of Wei Lan?"

"I got transferred here recently,"

"Oh, she is my sister, that kid doesn't know how to do calculations-teach her something." Tang Wei Sheng told and helped her to arrange the books.

Why would she teach maths to the young mistress of Tang corporations? Is she is that bad at maths? Li Juan thought.

"She is too bad at maths," Tang Wei Sheng replied as if he heard her mind voice. "That kid only likes to play the piano. Do you like to play?"

Even before she replied, Tang Wei Sheng looked at the books and answered himself.

"Oh, I forgot...you are a nerd." He smiled. "So what do you want to major in?"

"History." Li Juan said calmly.

"What?? I thought you will say medicine or something like that,"

"Anyway, that's great." Tang Wei Sheng smiled.

"Young master, we have reached downtown," the chauffer notified them.

They have reached Li Juan's neighbourhood. Li Juan quickly put her things back into the bag and opened the door. A gush of cold wind passed onto them.

"Thank you for the ride." She bowed her head in gratitude.

The rain has stopped but the coldness of the rain still lingered in the atmosphere.

"Here, take this," Tang Wei Sheng gave his jacket to Li Juan.

"No, it is okay."

"Hey, keep it. It is cold outside; you are still in your wet clothes. I don't want you to get sick tomorrow." Tang Wei Sheng put his jacket over Li Juan's shoulder.

"And don't forget what I have asked, to teach my sister."

Li Juan smiled in agreement as she opened the car's door and got down.

"Thank you,"

"Then, goodbye sweetheart," a doting smile gleamed in his deep eyes.

"Bye." Li Juan closed the door.

The driver started the car and drove away from the alley, Li Juan stood there with a smile on her lips. She couldn't sleep that night. It was the first time in her life when some stranger has shown concern to her. Especially after transferring to Silver Oak High school, her life was nothing but hell.

Some children purposefully made everything difficult for Li Juan, only because she was from a poor family. There wasn't a single soul to empathize with her.

But everything changed today; Tang Wei Sheng gave her a ride to her home. He held an umbrella for her.

Yes, finally a little bit of humanity.

Li Juan took the Jacket which Tang Wei Sheng gave her. She held it in her hands and smiled like an idiot.

She had a misconception that Tang Wei Sheng was like those kids in her school, who don't care about anything but bully the weaker ones. But today he proved that he was different from others.

That one Kind and humble senior we all have.

Maybe that was the moment when Li Juan started to like Tang Wei Sheng.

On the next day, when Li Juan reached the classroom, Tang Wei Lan was waiting for her.

"Hi, Li Juan, " She smiled cheerfully. "My brother told me that from today onwards you will help me with my calculations. Is that true?" Tang Wei Lan asked with her iconic "crescent moon eye smile

Li Juan looked at Tang Wei Lan in surprise. It seems like whatever Tang Wei Sheng said was true.

"Please help me," She held Li Juan's arm and smiled adoringly.

Tang Wei Lan was pretty, but her smile added an adorable charm to her.

It was the first time when Li Juan realized that the term "Fairy" applies to human beings also.

Li Juan smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Promise," Tang Wei Lan held her pinkie finger and crossed with Li Juan's pinkie finger.

That was the beginning of their friendship.

Tang Wei Lan was different from other rich girls in the school. She never discriminated others and neither behaved like a rich spoiled brat. She never showed off her money and power to others. She was friendly to everyone but on the other hand, most of the girls in the class befriended Tang Wei Lan only because of her social status.

Though they were different, Li Juan and Tang Wei Lan were like perfect partners in crime. Together they explored new things and sometimes they argued like sisters. Li Juan helped Wei Lan with her studies and Wei Lan became a piano teacher for her.

The silent cat Lily and toy poodle Lanlan was made for each other and their relationship made others jealous.

To become a friend of the Tang family's young miss was a boon for Li Juan. Nobody dared to bully her again. Everyone in the school knew about how much Tang Wei Sheng cherishes his little sister. No one dared to go against him.

During the second year of their friendship, it was Tang Wei Lan who asked Li Juan to marry her brother. So that Li Juan can officially become the part of her family

Though Li Juan laughed off it as a joke, deep in her heart she knew that she has already fallen for her senior Tang. 

The moment he ran towards her ignoring the heavy downpour, it was the moment when Li Juan started to like the boy who was loved by everyone.

Li Juan took a deep sigh and kept the photograph back into the diary. There was an overwhelming feeling in her mind. She lied down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. 

Finally, she is going to meet Tang Wei Sheng after seven years.