Zhan takes off his shoes and throws himself on the bed. Yibo didn't recognize him. Has he changed that much in the past three and a half years? But they had met years before their wedding, and he didn't recognize him as Haoxuan's cousin either. So, it boils down to Yibo not being interested in him. Ugly duckling or not.
He took a deep breath and Yibo's face played in his mind. The man he married and whom he was often seen in magazines was different from what he glimpsed tonight. The magazines didn't do Yibo justice. Dark and handsome and dangerous. Charming yet cruel when crossed. The girl he was dancing with took over in Zhan's mind.
Morena Honeyed-skin. That's Wang Yibo's type. Haoxuan once took him to the house of a Mrs. Anna Chao, that was two months after his wedding. On the pretext that the young man was just visiting the old woman as a friend and said hello. But Haoxuan showed him a life-size photo of Chao Yang Mi next to a fair-skin woman whom he found out to be her sister.
"She was my brother's first frustration and heartache, Zhan," he said. To perhaps justify Yibo's abandonment of him.
"She's beautiful!" he exclaimed and stared at Yang Mi's life-size portrait.
"Oh yes." Haoxuan smiled faintly and looked at him. Held him on the chin and
raised. "And so are you, my pet. You're both beautiful in different ways..."
Zhan rolled his eyes. "Don't make fun of me, Ge. You know I am not."
"Do you know what Mark Chao calls him?" Haoxuan continued, ignoring what he said. "Black diamond. She has long straight raven hair, eyes the color of night and a honey-colored skin," he continued to stare at the Zhan. "Your exact opposite."
Zhan sighed. "I can understand Yibo's hatred for me, Ge..."
"I know my brother, Zhan. We grew up together. Yibo didn't hate you... not personally. He hated the circumstances that Wang Quiren put on him and you happened to be the pawn in Quiren's game. Add to that the fact that Yang Mi is still fresh in Yibo's heart and mind.
"And for whatever it is worth, you are not an ugly duckling as you think to yourself." Haoxuan raised his head and smiled at him tenderly. Haoxuan continued. "Have you seen your new filly at the ranch?"
"What about that?" Zhan asked in surprise. "Did you find that filly beautiful?" Haoxuan asked him.
Zhan wrinkled his nose. "No..." he answers.
"Precisely," Haoxuan agreed. "You wouldn't be able to appreciate the
beauty of that filly until it grew into a beautiful stunning mare. Now do you know what I mean?"
Zhan smile widened. "Thank you, Ge, for giving me so much confidence. But I'm sure I won't be as exotic as that woman..." he looked up at Yang Mi's life-size portrait.
"There are many kinds of precious stones, Zhan," Haoxuan said gently.
"Diamond is the most expensive and black diamond is very rare if there were any," Zhan answered with a laugh.
"Perhaps," Haoxuan agreed again, staring into his eyes. "But there are colored diamonds, Zhan, price less than the white ones since they are rare. And you are the bluish one, love..."
Zhan let out a loud laugh. Haoxuan had always been there as his pillar of salt. Haoxuan sighed. It goes without saying that it's Fengmian' fault that Zhan has an inferiority complex when it comes to his own appearance.
"You are a Xiao, Love. You have a soft and forgiving heart like my mother and a fighter like our grandfather." Haoxuan took a deep breath at that point. It saddened him that Xiao Fengmian became weak only because of the loss of material possessions. He smiled faintly and continued: "You have the combination of your mother's beauty and the Xiao's, I want you to put that in your head." he gently ruffled Zhan's hair. "Learn to appreciate yourself, pet."
"I love you, Ge..." Zhan leaned his head against his cousin's chest.
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