Disclaimer: Yuezheng Ling and Yuezheng Longya are owned by Shanghai HENIAN Information Technology Co. Ltd.
For the last eighteen years, Longya had awaited this morning with nothing but dread. In only a few minutes, his little sister would be boarding a plane bound for Beijing, hundreds of miles away from Shanghai. The thought of Ling moving away from home made Longya sick with worry, but he had long since accepted that it was for the best. As a member of the Yuezheng family, Ling practically had the world at her feet, and she deserved the best education possible.
Longya looked at the girl—no, woman—in front of him, and he marvelled at how the years had flown by. He remembered a time when her head barely reached his knee, when she had begged to sleep in his bed on stormy nights. Over the last few months, Ling had become more of an anchor for him than he for her. Even when the stress of running the family business overwhelmed him, she had always been there to welcome him home after a long day, greeting her older brother with a warm smile and open arms.
With Ling, he no longer had to be the CEO of the Yuezheng Corporation. To her, Longya was only a beloved sibling, nothing more. He wondered if Ling would ever realize how much gratitude he felt towards her, how much he owed her. These thoughts had raced through his mind long before this moment, but only now had they moved him so deeply. The little sister he loved so much was growing up—she was leaving him.
"Are you crying again?" Ling's voice snapped him out of his reverie.
"What do you expect me to do? Watch you leave with a straight face?"
"We're in public, Longya."
Longya only chuckled, "I don't care about people staring."
"It's not like I'm going away forever!" Ling swallowed the lump rising in her throat, "Don't be so—"
Longya silenced her with a fierce embrace, "I'm here for you, Ling, even if work gets in the way. Call me whenever you need me. Text me, Skype me, whatever—I'll be there, I promise. Don't you ever forget that."
Ling nodded, her lip quivering. One by one, her tears began to fall on the smooth fabric of Longya's silver tuxedo. He let her go and raised a hand to her face, gently brushing the tears from her reddened cheeks.
Checking his watch, Longya groaned, "I have to go, I'm late for a meeting. Call me when you get to the airport."
"You sure you'll be free in two hours?" Ling asked him.
"Of course," Longya promised her. Bending down, he planted a kiss on his sister's forehead. "I'll be waiting for you."