Jia froze. She stood unmoved for two long seconds after which she quickly wiped off the tear off her eyelash.
Mingshen leaned back with a playful smile. "Seeing yourself in the kid again?"
"I am not."
"You don’t have to feel so reserved. My arms are always open to embrace you, my dear. Let give you a tight hug and kiss those sneaky culprits away~ You are free to go down the mory lane too if you wish. I am here to console you~"
Jia gave him a dry look. "Is your consolation thod perhaps taking the heart out of my chest?"
He gasped. "Are you a mind reader? See, that’s why I love you so much, Spicy. You know exactly what I am thinking. You don’t need to take the trouble of crying anymore if you don’t have a heart~ Heart is the root cause of all pesky emotions."
"I don’t need to take the trouble of breathing anymore, either."
He sheepishly grinned. "Well, that’s just a teensy tiny side effect. No biggie."
Her eyes remained fixated at him until she chose to walk away. But she traced her steps back and exhaling a small breath, she locked her gaze with him once again. She slightly parted her lips, however took a pause, finding her thoughts in a tussle.
Her struggle aroused Mingshen’s curiosity and he waited for her to speak.
"Thank you for talking to Yun back there..." Eventually she gathered her words.
His brow arched.
"I thought last night about how to answer Yun’s questions today. I was thinking like Mrs. Shen that I will tell him his parents have gone on so long trip, and it will be a while before he can et them again. I thought Yun would eventually learn the truth when he will grow older and understand..."
"How did that fare for you?" He smiled.
"Sorry?"
"Misunderstanding since childhood that your righteous parents got unjustly killed only to learn just a year ago that they were far from righteous in reality. After investing your emotions in your ’good’ parents for so long, how did it feel when the illusion finally shattered?"
Her expression hardened.
"Or should I ask how it still feels?" He smilingly watched her, "with the emphasis on the word ’feel’ in the present tense."
He chuckled, sensing her silence. "It’s not that teens or adults cannot process reality. The problem is that the gap between childhood and the present in which he was spun lies gets filled with betrayal and confusion. Making the teen sit one day for a ’serious conversation’ and suddenly revealing the deep hidden truth to him thinking that he has grown mature enough will wreck his mind because," his eyes narrowed, "Just like how I can see your wrecked mind."
Jia peered at him, expressionless. "My mind is doing just fine. It’s strange you are talking about such things. I thought you were incapable of showing kindness."
Mingshen wished to puke blood, horror in his expression on full display. "Please don’t associate with emotions like kindness. It’s an insult to ."
"Then why did you speak to Yun?"
"Because none of you were intelligent enough to have that simple conversation with the kid. I felt obliged to take over before you all made more of a ss. Also," he cocked his brow, "I don’t show kindness. I hold a decent conversation only when the other person has a functioning brain, which children do."
"..."
Jia looked up at the sky again, whispering "I wanted to tell him a beautiful lie to protect his heart. But you were right. He deserved honesty. Not lies."
Honesty.
Maybe that’s why Yun was so attached to Mingshen because he doesn’t sugarcoat his words in lies, Jia wondered.
She recalled how easily Mingshen had explained the term dick to Danya back when they were trapped. She was fumbling to answer her, whereas it was an effortless maneuver for Mingshen.
He has a knack of answering children’s curiosity because he is very open in that sense...Oh God am I that hopeless adult who cannot talk about stuff like this?
Suddenly, she felt a wide gap between Mingshen and her conversational skills.
"Lies? I think the correct word you are looking for is hope," Mingshen smiled.
Silence.
"The hope which perhaps made you feel that Song Wuying and Song Lan would return one day too but which eventually got crushed. You still miss them, don’t you?"
Her hands at the back began to ball in a fist. "I have no business in missing traitors...who betrayed the law and wanted to kill my sister."
Mingshen bore his keen-edged gaze into hers. "Is that what you are making yourself believe?"
"It’s a fact that they were traitors."
"And equally is the fact that they gave birth to you."
"So? Should I forgive them because of my relationship?"
"No, you should acknowledge that it’s fine to miss them at tis."
"What are you getting at?" She asked impatiently.
"That you are escaping from your emotions which you ought to face and accept~"
Her eyes narrowed. "I am not escaping from anything."
"Hmm, I will give you so more ti to figure that out~" He winked. "My arms will always be open for you. You are free to rush into my embrace as soon as you realize that I am right~"
"You aren’t."
"Yang Mingshen is always right, especially with his diagnosis," his gaze twinkled.
"What that diagnosis might be?"
"You need help, Spicy."
"I don’t."
"Saying that is the first proof that you do."
Mingshen lazily blew his breath over his nails as if he had expected this answer. "I have seen you step in a daze at tis."
Her brows furrowed into a frown.
"When you were studying the cri scene the first ti, when you were absent-mindedly staring at the trash can at the theater, when you suddenly slipped into a trance while talking to that Mo guy in the bureau, and when you were gazing out at the road from the car yesterday. You were out of your zone on four different occasions."
"I am an investigator. My job is to think about the case and find the truth. It’s not a dical abnormality to think," she said with a hint of grimace.
"Not thinking in itself but your reactions AFTER coming out of those stupors were an abnormality. Gasping for air, feeling breathless, sweating on your forehead, having a confused and anxious look - thinking about a case shouldn’t spur these reactions unless..." he bridged the gap between them with a crafty smile, "you weren’t just thinking solely about the case."
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