The person Xu Mey venerated the most in this world, once adviced her. "Love the one who trusts you. Not the one who wants to trust you."
"Is there a difference, Sensei?" She asked back then.
"There is a huge difference, Mey Ai. The one who trusts you, won't ask for a reason and the one who wants to trust you, will always look for reasons."
From the time, Ye Jie helped her sit in the car, she's been pondering about his utterance. He just believed her. Why? Am I that good at theatrics? And why does he look so troubled? And where are we going?
Xu Mey sniffled. "Where are we going?"
Ye Jie didn't reply to her. But she got her answer in 10 minutes when the car parked in front of the hospital.
"Why are we here?" It was illogical to come to the hospital, right?
"You're hurt. We need to see a doctor." He replied with his hands clutching the steering wheel so tightly that it turned white.
"Hurt?" She furrowed her brows.
Ye Jie didn't look at her. "There is blood on your neck." He replied in a choked up voice. Xu Mey touched her neck and realized there was indeed blood. But it was dry already. "And your whole face is bright red." He continued hastily.
"Mr. Ye!" Xu Mey called out his name calmly in her soft voice but Ye Jie didn't stop.
"This is all my fault. I knew you didn't like Xu Liqing and Fu Lan. But I still took you there." Ye Jie was regretful.
"Mr. Ye Jie!" She called again. A little louder than before but it was like Ye Jie was in his own guilty conscience world.
"I'm not gonna let her be. I'm gonna ruin both-" Before he could finish his resolution, Xu Mey's angry voice startled him.
"Ye Jie!" He turned to look at her glaring at him. "I'm fine. She didn't hit me. I was acting." Ye Jie didn't seem to believe her words. His eyes fell on the blood on the side of her neck. Xu Mey noticing his gaze replied, "I scratched myself."
Ye Jie stayed quiet for a long while. Before the silence thickened, he asked, "Why?"
Understanding his question clearly Xu Mey replied, "I did it because of you." Ye Jie was flabbergasted. "If only Fu Lan and my father had been there, I wouldn't have done anything like that. it wouldn't matter. Because they will always take Liqing's side. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong. For them, Liqing is always right." Ye Jie was listening with the utmost attention. "I wanted to see what would you do in that situation. That's why I orchestrated the whole act."
Ye Jie's eyes were trained outside the windshield as he let those words sink in his mind. All of a sudden, he opened the door and walked out. Xu Mey saw him walking around the car and coming to open her side's door. He held her wrist and pulled her out making her crash into his broad chest.
Xu Mey's body stiffened. But his warm body and his peculiar scent calmed her nerves and she slowly relaxed in his embrace. When we are tired, we look for our safe haven. At that moment in his embrace, Xu Mey felt like coming back home. Like she found her safe haven. She could feel the way Ye Jie's tensed body relaxed when he hugged her. But she didn't know why he was so tensed?
Ye Jie placed his chin on her head as he stroked her hair slowly. "Give me a heads up next time." Xu Mey tilted her head to look at his anxious face. "Please, don't scare me like that again. Okay?" Seeing his agog gaze, Xu My nodded instinctively.
"You believed me? Just like that? Why? I thought you were a rational person. You should have seen through my act." When she asked these questions, she didn't know what answer she was expecting but the answer she received was something that never crossed her mind.
"Because you make me lose my rationality. When I saw you on the floor, I forgot that I was supposed to be a rational person." Ye Jie's tone was so tender that Xu Mey even forgot to breathe. Looking at her adorable face swelling up, Ye Jie went in another fit of anxiousness. "Why are you swelling up? And why is your face so bright red like a ripe tomato?"
Xu Mey touched her face and realized that it was indeed swelled up. "Is it really bad?"
"No... It's so adorable that I want to eat it." The hint of a smile on his face was combined with his coquettish tone. Xu Mey dry coughed to lose her embarrassment.
"You really are a smooth talker." Xu Mey commented under her breath but Ye Jie heard it.
"Thanks for the compliment dear wife but for now, just tell me why is your face like this?"
Xu Mey sighed animatedly. "Do you think my dear step-mother is so loving that she'll feed me with her own hands?" She scoffed. "She was aware that I'm allergic to pineapples. She intentionally fed me that pineapple cake."
After listening up to this point, Ye Jie held her wrist again and pulled her towards the hospital. "I have my allergy medicine at home. I don't need to go to the hospital." Xu Mey tried to reason with Ye Jie but it didn't work.
"Since we are already here. Let's just go in to see if anything else is wrong." Ye Jie had to drag Xu Mey inside the E.R.
Looking around Xu Mey grumbled. "We could have just gone to see a doctor. Isn't coming to E.R. for allergy a bit excessive."
"Stay quiet." Ye Jie turned to look at her sternly. Then he turned to the nurse who was asking, "What's the patient's name?"
"My dear wife!" When the nurse arched her brows, Ye Jie bit his own tongue as he realized his mistake. "Xu Mey... Her name is Xu Mey." He corrected himself.
"You are?" Before he could reply, the nurse answered her own question. "Obviously her husband."
While Ye Jie answered all the questions, Xu Mey was gazing at the back of Ye Jie's head intently. Trying to figure out the person standing before her. All she knew about him through her networks seemed like a lie all of sudden.
What are you Mr. Rain? Or should I ask, who are you?
Sorry for the delay.
I was a bit busy today.
So, our Ye Jie is sweet or what?
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Today's advice from the author:
It's difficult to open someone's heart. But it's quite easy to break that heart.
If you ever feel like breaking someone's heart, just remember; that person might have broken himself a million times just to be with you.
XoXo!
"So, you're allergic to pineapple?" The doctor clad in his white coat asked her professionally.
"I am. But usually, the reaction is not this bad. After eating pineapple, I only have a minor rash and that's about it. This time it's a bit excessive with all the swelling up." Xu Mey explained in detail with a frown on her face.
"Are you allergic to something else?" The short doctor asked again.
"Yeah, I have an allergy to peanuts as well." Xu Mey replied honestly.
Her blood test results came back and the doctor narrowed his eyes at the report in his hand. "Is everything okay, doctor?" Ye Jie who was quiet all this while asked impatiently.
The doctor looked at him and replied, "It's good that you brought her to the hospital. Otherwise, there were chances of anaphylaxis." Ye Jie furrowed his brows at the medical jargon. "In simple words, she could have gone into shock." Ye Jie's eyes widened. "We found traces of peanuts in her blood along with pineapple. She's lucky that the reaction is mild otherwise it could have been life-threatening."
Ye Jie's heart took a blow. And his anxiety slowly turned into fury. 'I'm definitely going to make you pay for this Mrs. Fu Lan.' He thought to himself. Xu Mey's reaction was a lot calmer than him. Saying that she expected it would not be wrong.
The doctor administered an IV and gave some anti-allergy meds to her. She was advised to stay for a few hours for observation. Ye Jie sat right beside her bed as he held her hand in his own. Looking at her bright red face, his heart was breaking. His eyes never left her face and hers couldn't look away from his face.
The nurse who asked for her name before came to clean up her wound on the side of her neck. Xu Mey closed her eyes when the nurse applied the disinfectant. She didn't wince in pain but Ye Jie could feel her body stiffen up. He drew circles at the back of her hand with his thumb to soothe her.
The nurse had short hair with small eyes. Even after cleaning up her wound, she was constantly looking at them. "They seem to be madly in love." The nurse beside her commented with a sigh.
"They match each other perfectly. Both have the features of a top star." She added.
"Don't compare them with stars. They have an air of nobility and supremacy. Stars can't have that." The short-haired nurse commented. The others around her nodded as they watched how Ye Jie's eyes held tenderness while Xu Mey's were blank.
"You should go home. Don't tire yourself. I'll be fine here." Xu Mey told Ye Jie as she saw how worn out he looked.
"No... I don't want to leave you here alone." Ye Jie replied without thinking.
"I can just call Li Qiao." Ye Jie scowled at her suggestion.
"I can't leave my wife's care up to others. You're my responsibility and I still have enough exuberance to take care of my wife." Ye Jie replied controlling his emotions. Xu Mey chose to stay quiet.
Xu Mey quietened up after that. Ye Jie stayed beside her in silence but in silence, there was an assurance that he was there for her. Silence speaks louder than words. It was exactly that silent assurance that let Xu Mey put her guard down. She never liked the smell of disinfectants and medicine in the hospitals but today, she didn't feel that repulsive.
Ye Jie's phone broke that peaceful silence. Seeing the caller id, Ye Jie frowned and rejected the call. The call came again after a minute. "You should pick the call up. It could be important." Xu Mey urged him. Ye Jie stood up and walked out of the E.R. to take the call.
When Ye Jie left the Xu Residence in fury, Fu Lan was seething in wrath. She glared at Xu Liqing. "Why are you so dumb? Why did you do that? I wanted Ye Jie to have a good impression of you. Look what you did."
"Mom... I didn't do anything. It was all that sl*t Xu Mey's doing." Liqing refuted meekly as the tears fell down her face in a stream.
"You want me to believe that the girl I turned into a retard suddenly turned into a cunning witch? Talk with sensibility, Liqing." After chiding her own daughter Fu Lan left Xu Liqing alone.
'I'll turn you into a liar' Xu Mey's words rang in her mind making her dig her nails in her palms.
So what if mom doesn't believe me? Do you think Ye Jie will have a psychotic person like you? Let me show you what I can do. Xu Liqing was smoldered with indignation. She turned her laptop on and drafted an email with a video along with a few photos.
Then she called Ye Jie. Ye Jie wasn't attending the call because it was Xu Liqing's but then he decided to talk to her.
-In the corridor-
Before Ye Jie could say anything, Xu Liqing's voice rang out from the other end. "Before cursing me, Mr. Ye Jie. I realized you don't want to believe my words when I say that my sister is not good enough for you. But you just need proof. Why don't you check your emails? I believe you'll find it very interesting." She disconnected the call after saying her piece.
Ye Jie had no intention of listening to Xu Liqing's words but the title of the email sent a few minutes ago broke his resolve. It read: 'Are you still proud of your psychotic wife?'
Ye Jie scowled and clicked to open the email. The moment he played the video, his mind went blank. Then the photos of some old reports and documents made his whole world shatter in front of his own eyes. He felt like the ground under his feet was slipping away slowly. And he had nothing to hold onto.
Since I was late today, I decided to compensate with an extra chapter.
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I read a comment a few hours ago. One of you said I use facts excessively in my chapters but I should use dialogues instead.
I have a bad habit of relating everything to something else. If you guys find it not relatable or you don't think, it's worth your read. I can stop using it. It'll ease my mind as well. After all, I won't have to spend hours to think about relatable things.
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Moving on, Hope you liked the chapter.