"Ishen!"
Lii’s eyes were sparkling, giggling as she rolled back and forth on his lap. Her twin brother, Weiyun was staring at his sister, patiently waiting for his turn on the lap ride.
Mingshen grimaced at the Mafia King. "Your daughter has still not learned to say my na correctly."
"Isn’t she cute?" Wei’s mind was off track in a completely different direction.
"You have completely lost it, haven’t you?" He threw him a dry look.
"You will understand once you have a daughter."
His expression twisted. "The woman I want to have a daughter with is off with another man."
Wei arched a brow. "So you like her?"
"I want to explore my bodily functions with her. Let’s not get into that familiar black hole now, shall we?"
A series of footsteps thudded across the floor and Lihua stord in. "The evil doctor is here!"
Mingshen smiled. "Yes, little chilli, it’s . Did you miss ? Do you need a special appointnt in my lab for a thorough body checkup? I will especially pay attention to the top part of your body."
She glared and stomped her feet towards him.
"Why is sis living with you?"
He spread his hands sideways. "What can I say? Spicy finally realized how she cannot live without . Her passionate feelings towards are very strong."
Her eyes narrowed. "No joking around. I’m asking you seriously!"
"I’m also answering you very seriously."
"There is no way sis would ever agree to live in the Yang mansion with you. She can barely tolerate you as her work colleague, much less live with you like a roommate."
He smiled. "You have always ignored my charm. That’s not my fault."
Lihua pursed her lips. "Tell the truth, Mingshen. Leaving our ho is not sothing sis would have done without any reason. At first I thought the house got into so kind of an accident, but it’s all fine. So why did she suddenly decide to move out? And even if she did, why not live with here?"
Mingshen felt a headache coming. Jia didn’t wish for Lihua to know the real reasons behind her decision. He wasn’t sure how ready Lihua was to understand the situation behind Jia’s ntal health. But he had a feeling from her tone that Lihua might already have an inkling as to what the real reason was.
He rested his elbow on the chair’s armrest and squinted his eyes at her.
"Jia will tell you herself when that ti cos."
Her eyes widened, taken aback by his countenance. It was also the first ti she thought she was hearing him addressing her sister by her na.
"Asking her all these questions and forcing her to answer you is not what she is ready for yet. I won’t let you bug her either so let her be. She will co to you when she wants to co to you."
"Y-You..." her shoulders dropped. "I’m her sister...She can share everything with !"
A flicker of his unborn sister’s mory passed through his mind. A dry, faint smile stretched his lips.
"It’s actually harder to share your feelings with your own family."
Wei stared at him and though he always had trouble understanding others’ emotions, he strangely felt he could discern about whom Mingshen might be thinking about. The stillbirth of Yang Bingqing’s daughter was known to the Zhao family too.
Lii and Weiyun rolled together on his lap and clutched his shirt.
"Mishen!" She laughed heartily and flailed her chubby arms up.
"Mishen..." Weiyun slowly followed his sister’s enthusiasm.
Mingshen dropped his gaze to the two.
"Mishen huh? Finally you are getting there. How about you add an ’ng’ after the ’i’?"
"Mishen!" Her eyes sparkled.
"Well, considering the genetics of your parents, progress will be slow."
"Hey!" Lihua felt wrongly attacked. "That’s rude!"
All of a sudden, Mingshen felt a pat on his head, whose source was none other than Wei.
"...You want to give horror dreams at night? What are you doing?"
"You are sad."
Mingshen’s eyes dangerously narrowed.
"I will ask the maid to bring so macaron cookies. Mom made it. You will feel better," he nodded.
His eyes widened. "Wow, you seem to have taken...quite a big leap in a certain departnt. But no thanks."
"You have to eat them."
"Are you forcing ?"
"Yes."
He smiled. "I take my earlier words back."
For the entire day, Mingshen had nothing much to do other than chatting with Wei and his cousins and playing to death with the kids. As evening dawned closer, he was ready to zap out of the Zhao villa to return to his ho and wait for Jia’s return.
But to his surprise, he heard that very voice he wanted to wait for.
"Weiyun! Lii! Look, who’s here!"
Jia entered the Zhao villa, followed by Huojin who was carrying a bunch of shopping bags in both of his hands. An overjoyed Lihua ran to her side and rushed to hug her.
"Sis! I missed you!"
She laughed. " too!"
The twins ecstatically trotted over to her side and hugged her legs. "Jiaaa!"
"Aiyaaaa my dearest niece and nephew!" Her eyes shone and she pulled their little bodies against her chest.
"Oh my, Jia is here?" Yang Bingqing brightened.
"Aunt?" Jia was surprised. "You are here too?"
"Hehe, Just wanted to catch up with Yubi~ I dragged Mingshen here too! I’m sure his bond with Wei is much stronger now," she nodded.
She eyed Mingshen and felt that bond was close to snapping out.
"Ohh you brought gifts for us!"
"Hehe, yes."
Huojin grimaced. "Praise too. I was the muscle power the entire ti."
Jia rolled her eyes. As Huojin put down the bags, everybody got busy exploring it like it was a treasure chest. She let them and walked to Mingshen, who looked as if he was horribly wronged.
"You seed to have a lot of fun with him while I was stuck here with an idiot Mafia King."
Jia chuckled. "Didn’t you form a strong bond with him?"
"It’s tilting towards the murderous side for now."
She shook her head and then took out a long but narrow rectangular box.
"This for you."
Mingshen blinked twice. He slowly took the box and stared at it front and back. From the looks of it, he couldn’t guess what it was. Or maybe he did.
"Are these sexy handcuffs-"
"Just open it."
He cleared his throat and unwrapped the gift paper. Lifting the top part of the box, it revealed a beautiful crimson tie with diagonally darker crimson stripes on it neatly tucked under a velvet pillow.
Jia scratched her chin, slightly embarrassed.
"I want to thank you for everything. If you hadn’t been there that evening beside , I think..." she clasped her slightly cold fingers together, "I would have completely lost myself sowhere in the dark. That evening was truly a breaking point for . But you flew to my side and I...didn’t feel so broken anymore. You have no idea how relieved I felt that night when you were there."
She quickly wiped her tears off the corner of her eye for she didn’t want anybody to catch her crying.
"It’s just a little gift from to appreciate the good friend you have been to . Thank you very much for pulling out of that house, Mingshen... Really. Thank you very much."
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