章 13: Her Annoyed Stare Was Better Than Her Tears

October 25, 20XX (Thursday)

Eiffel Tower

Mei Li stared at the view with fascination. If only she could take her canvas and paint with her and she would have made a masterpiece with such views. She had climbed the stairs from the ground to the 1st floor of the tower. It was a ridiculous amount of stairs that made her huff and puff for more air, but the glorious thing about traveling solo was she controlled her time. In fact, it took her more than 2 hours to climb the 1st floor. She had cursed herself for not taking the elevator but slowly enjoying the view with every step had also been satisfying.

It was with a bittersweet smile she watches the view also reminiscing of the time when she and Chen Zhong had planned to visit Paris. They had intended to do so when they have their honeymoon. The Eiffel Tower was one of their adamant places to visit yet here she was alone as she partakes upon a romantic view.

She would have loved to lean into Zhong's shoulder at this time. She could only watch in jealousy as couples romantically lean into each other's embrace, others holding hands, some staring into each other's eyes, and the most hurtful thing to witness for the broken-hearted woman was when couples stole kisses with each other, thinking nobody else was looking.

Tears unexpectedly fell from her eyes, which she quickly wiped away with her hands. She allowed herself to be hurt by Chen Zhong twice because she loves him.

Her heart was heavy yet her mind was full. Her hands itching to paint the words she can't say out-loud nor the emotions she couldn't explain. Was there something she could do to forget these memories?

"Do men like short relief than long-term loyalty?" she muttered to herself aloud. Mei Li thought nobody had noticed her, but she was.

In fact, CEO Zhao Yang had been behind her as she lined the queue to buy tickets, he was behind her as she climbed the stairs, he was behind her as she started panting air, he was just behind her when she stopped to watch the view, and he was just behind her when she began muttering to herself like a fool.

Yang, in mischief, hacked into her phone to know her location like he usually does with Yue when she sneaks out to party. He was merely trying to get to know the woman. To him, she was interesting, and it was the first time he is interested and so invested in wanting to know more about a woman; he had the plan to drag her in the restaurant for lunch as a reward for scaling the steep stairs, yet he never expected to see tears on her lovely face. He mentally noted to make a certain Chen Zhong suffer. As Yue said, she was blunt and insensitive at times, but she was soft-hearted. She had dared to ask leniency for her cheating ex when other women would have to ask Yang's help for revenge.

Both his mother and sister had been adamant in introducing them before, and he knew they had been trying to match them together too. If he had agreed to meet her then, maybe she wouldn't be crying now.

The first time he saw her was on the pictures his sister and mother send him daily, almost like a status report. He did not think more about those, he just read it and replied just because they were his family and he loved them dearly no matter how annoying they were to try and set him up with a stranger.

Yet, when he watched on a small 13 inches monitor as she broke up with her cheating boyfriend, when she had noticed him watching with the use of the cameras, when she had asked him to be lenient with Chen Zhong, He had never expected to be attracted to a lady as much as he was then. She was an elegant and classy woman.

The first time he meets her face to face was the most treasured time he had in Paris. The thoughts she had implanted with her words had shaken him. She was successful in making him stop drinking his wine even when his mother couldn't by rebuking him how much he had taken for granted his mother's worry and love, by reminding him how unfilial he had been.

'Too late to regret your actions, Yang. You've wasted your chance before, but you will not waste them now.' A Zhao knows how to differentiate between a rock and a diamond and this diamond; he knew he would not share to anybody else especially not an ex.

He blinked the anger out from his face. The need for vengeance was not forgotten, merely filed at the side of his mind, for now, the most important thing to do was erase that ugly sadness plastered on her face. Even her annoyed stare was better than her tears.

He could still remember her face as she giggled when he had savagely torn the saleslady's confidence yesterday night.

'Maybe I can get you to giggle again… probably not today.'

He cannot comfort her as Yue could, but he could mock, tease, banter, annoy, or anything else as long as those tears don't come back. He snorted to himself, horrified for a while at the realization; he was young, handsome, rich, talented, and plenty of ladies had tried to court his favor but here he was weakened by the tears of a heartbroken woman who happened to be his sister's best friend.

Her back was too lonely for him to leave alone and the fact that she most probably is thinking of her cheating Ex made him want to disrupt her thoughts. She should stop thinking about worthless people.

"Join me for Lunch?" He whispered in her ears, disclosing his presence.

"… you again?" Mei Li jumped in surprise.

Yang had to try his best to refrain himself from audibly groaning tensely as her bosom jumped with her.

It's official; he had become a pervert.

"It seems you can't get enough of me?" Yang couldn't help but tease the already fuming woman, happy to see the sadness in her face gone. Although he didn't know the reason why but he was interested in every emotion she had, every word she says, and in every action she did. Something was addicting about her. Maybe it was the contradiction of her attitudes to the gentleness of her body, or it could be the lethargic voice that was enticing to his ears even when she was cursing him to hell and back. Her beauty was a bonus too.

"How did you know I was here? I didn't tell your sister!"

"Seems like we're fated to meet." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Fated to meed yet never to be. Goodbye!" She walked away from him and, with the same playful grin that he knew annoyed her, he chased. His stride was more massive than hers, based on their different lengths of legs. Naturally, the taller Yang could quickly overtake the petite Mei Li especially as Mei Li sucked at anything that had to do with physical activities.

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves."

"Wrong!" Mei Li grumbled, "The Line is: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but ourselves that we are underlings. If you want to quote, then quote properly."

"A woman who knows her poems is a woman after my heart." Yang dramatically swooned.

"The only one I'm after would be your family. I can't believe you're related to them!"

"You can easily have my family by marrying me…"

Yang couldn't help but grin wider when she turned towards him, face to face. The fact that she had tried to run away from Yang but failed was evident in her large intake of air. She glared hard with arms crossed in the front and her bosom heaving as she tried to gasp for air.

'… wonder what size those are.' Yang wondered, trying subtly to look at the D cup breast the woman had.

Mei Li still noticed that hungry look, though.

To add to her annoyance, for the rest of the day Yang had bantered with her all the way to the top of the Eiffel tower then back again as he followed her back to her hotel.

That night, Mei Li laid in bed at her hotel room thinking more of annoying smiling CEOs than cheating Exs.

That night, Mei Li slept without tears of a broken heart but with a smile.