A more than a week had passed by but Jia’s eting with Zhuo Zihan remained a distant dream. He was so swamped with his work the currently that couldn’t entertain more etings but he had promised to et Yang Bingqing the soonest.
So now Jia was lying on her bed, rolling back and forth on it, bored. Though she talked with Huojin here and there, she wasn’t allowed to do so beyond a certain extent, courtesy by a particular devil doctor.
He seems to be far more obsessed than before...
Which reminded her that Mingshen had yet to barge in her room. It had beco a ritual by this point.
’Good mooooorninggggg Spicyyyyy!!!’
He would zealously enter her room without any level sha or dignity and with the brightest grin on his face. At one point, he had almost caught her stepping out in a bathrobe that twitched with his face with a certain level of an unspeakable desire.
The result was violently getting kicked out of the room and since then, Jia kept her room locked. But the devil never learned and would continue banging on the door until she was forced to greet him.
Now Jia was expecting his arrival at any given mont but to her surprise, the morning went quiet. An hour passed by but there was no sign of Mingshen anywhere, which was very strange for Jia. Even if he would be working in the lab the entire night before, he always made it a point to et her first thing in the morning. He might skip his breakfast but not her.
Is he sick?
There was no way he would have let her morning go by so peacefully so she decided to step out herself. But as soon as she did, she felt a strange chill in the air pass her. The villa felt oddly silent. Usually it was because the only ones who lived were Yang Cheng and Yang Bingqing. Mingshen spent his day at the lab.
But a feeling nagged her that sothing felt oddly grim today.
She went down and didn’t see anybody at the dining table. To her surprise, not even a single maid road around with work.
Is everybody on a holiday today?
The strangely quiet villa started to get on her nerves. She went back up and passed by Yang Cheng’s study room. Through the slit between the door and room, she saw him seated on his chair as usual but staring outside the window with a bleak look in his eyes.
Uncle seems...depressed.
She bit her lip and wondered if she should ask but also felt if it would be rude to intrude upon his space. It was quite evident that he wanted to be left alone. So she left but his expression stayed back in her mind.
I wonder what’s going on. Uncle always looks serious but it feels different today...
She continued walking along the corridor when she paused in her steps. She didn’t know why but she quickly hid behind a pillar as she watched Yang Bingqing standing in front of a room.
Jia blinked and rembered that that particular room was always kept locked. She had stumbled upon it one ti but Mingshen had stopped her from going in.
Yang Bingqing’s hand was on the door handle but she couldn’t seem to turn it. Or more precisely, she didn’t seem to find the strength to open it. The look on her face was similar to Yang Cheng’s. Bleak and hopeless.
Jia’s heart ached and so did her eyes. She had never seen her so forlorn before. That broken gaze stabbed her imnsely.
What’s wrong with everyone today...? Is Mingshen also...
"Oh, you were here."
She stiffened and a flash of embarrassnt passed her eyes.
"S-Sorry Aunt..." she awkwardly stepped out from her hiding place.
"No, no, you shouldn’t be," Yang Bingqing hopped to her side but her rry smile looked dim.
Once again, she wished she could ask but felt a line between them that she shouldn’t cross. To divert the topic, she quickly said, "Mi-Mingshen! Ah, yes I was looking for Mingshen."
"A-Ah! I-I don’t know honestly..." she chuckled brokenly. "That brat must be in his lab, where else?"
But she observed Yang Bingqing’s gaze wasn’t quite eting her as she said that.
"Haha, yes, yes. No worries, Aunt. I will drop by the lab," she said and quickly left.
—
The result was the sa in the lab as well. Mingshen wasn’t in his office either.
"S-Sis!"
"Bojing."
Jia stared at him and noticed the sa somber gaze that the couple had held. His reddened eyes expressed how he was crying until now. A lot.
"I was wondering if Mingshen was here..."
Bojing visibly stiffened and he looked at a loss as to how to explain to her.
"Bojing...Is everything alright? Back at the mansion, Uncle and Aunt also seem to be quite sad for so reason and it’s strange that I don’t see Mingshen anywhere."
He parted his lips as if to explain but then stopped. Eventually, he said, tears brimming in his eyes once again. "B-Boss...won’t be here today..."
"Where is he then?"
—
The answer to his location had left her speechless and just as at a loss as he was. So here she was where Mingshen was according to Bojing. She walked in through the gates and a gentle breeze brushed past her face. The leaves on the trees swayed gently as if welcoming her.
She looked around for a few minutes and found a lone man’s figure kneeling at a distance, dressed in all black. Jia slowly knelt beside him and followed his gaze that stared at the tombstone in front of him. A bunch of toys lay on the grass, including a toy stethoscope and scalpel.
Only one na was ingrained on that stone and nothing else.
Yang Eu-h.
Yang...?
"She was my sister."
Jia slowly looked at him, who hadn’t turned to face her, nevertheless was aware of her presence.
"Yang Eu-h. She would have turned twelve years old today. Mom had a late pregnancy when I was seventeen, turning eighteen soon. We lost her during her birth. Dad had delivered her still body himself."
User Comments
0 comments from readers