"Oh, what did you want to ask me?" Xu Mey looked at Zhu Chen with her bright eyes. She had a curious look visible on her face.
Zhu Chen languidly took another sip of his coffee. He had a contemplative look on his face as he thought about whether to ask the question or not? 'She's not the person whom I should be asking about Ye Jie?'
'Why not? She's his wife! Only she can answer your queries.' His conscience retorted.
'Yeah, but I don't think I want to hear the answer from her.'
'At least, you'll have an answer!' His conscience reminded him again.
'And what if my mind is playing games with me and Ye Jie is actually not my son? It'll break me in the worse way than before. Forget it! I will change the question.' Zhu Chen decided in his mind. He was a realistic person and no matter what he didn't want to break his own heart by expecting something which was not possible.
"Erm... Uncle Chen?" Xu Mey called his name to get his attention back to her.
"Oh, right! I-I wanted to ask," he tried to procrastinate. "About Azalea!"
Xu Mey's eyes widened a bit as she avoided his gaze. "What about your daughter?" She didn't think about this possibility at all. As they say, talented people often think that things will go their way but they often forget that they can't play with life. It's always the other way around. Only life gets to play with us.
Zhu Chen noticed her suspicious behavior. "Where was Azalea for the past year?"
Xu Mey dry-coughed a bit before whispering, "I heard she was traveling around."
"Was she?" he challenged making Xu Mey curse under her breath.
'Why the hell did I agree for this questioning deal? I feel like being interrogated!' But she couldn't do anything about this now since she had agreed for it herself.
"You promised not to lie," Zhu Chen reminded her in his gentle voice but Xu Mey could hear the underlying meaning.
He really tricked her this time. His plans were rock solid and so were his aims. Ugh! This surely is not something I should be answering. "Why don't you ask Azalea yourself?" Xu Mey pleaded with her eyes.
"I know my daughter better than you. She won't talk unless she feels the need to talk." He answered without batting an eye.
Xu Mey nibbled on her lower lip and eventually sighed in defeat under his scrutinizing gaze. "Okay! I'll can only tell you a part of it. Not the whole truth since I'm not the one who's supposed to talk here."
"Fine!" He said and gestured her to keep going.
"Well, she was in a hospital."
"What?" Zhu Chen stood up from his chair abruptly with wide eyes staring her down.
Xu Mey smiled meekly and added, "Just sit back down. She's fine now."
Zhu Chen drank another sip of coffee to let the liquid soothe him a bit before saying, "Why was she in a hospital?" He already had a bad feeling about all this. But since Azalea had a habit of keeping her life personal, he didn't try to pry into it. Mostly the fact that she didn't call them during that year also didn't bother them because Azalea liked to vanish on her own.
This was indeed the longest vanishing period but still, knowing her unpredictable nature, they really couldn't have guessed that she'd be in a hospital.
"Mmm... She was in an accident." Zhu Chen closed his eyes as if he was in pain by just listening to her speak about it. "But you really don't have to worry. She's fine now. Trust me!" Xu Mey tried to convince him again.
"I want to see her medical records," Zhu Chen announced not bothering to ask for her opinion at all.
Xu Mey was in an awkward situation now. She really wasn't sure about this anymore. 'Fu*k it! I'm already swimming in the sea of thorns. No, no! More like stuck between a rock and a hard place. At one side is rock, my dear Ah-Jie and on the other side is the hard place, my dear Ah-Jie's father.' Xu Mey made a crying face as she stood up from her seat.
"Come, wait in my office. I'll ask Shen-Ge to send the reports." She could only offer this solution as he followed her silently to her office.
Within 15 minutes, Lin Shen sent all of Azalea's medical reports to Xu Mey through email. She passed the reports to Zhu Chen who was pacing in her office impatiently making her feel fidgety along with himself.
Zhu Chen held the tablet computer as he went through the reports. Xu Mey could see the way his hands were trembling but she couldn't come up with the words to console him. She just didn't know how to?
She could only talk to her inner self at the moment, 'Ah! Such a loving father he is. He must be going through all kinds of feelings at the moment. Guilt. Sadness. Anger. Anguish. Did I forget to add something? Oh, well... Nevermind!'
Zhu Chen sat back on the couch in the corner of the room. More like, fell back on it. He was beyond shocked. His mind and feelings, everything was in agitation. But the only thing that Xu Mey heard from his was, "How did she wake up?" his voice sounded as if he was in disbelief.
"Oh, that!" Xu Mey frowned as she realized that she had no clue about it. "I don't know."
Zhu Chen stared at her, clearly not believing her. "Don't look at me like that... With that look of mistrust. I really don't know." Xu Mey tried to defend herself. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"These reports..." Zhu Chen thought for a minute before speaking again, "She was severely injured. It's weird that the reports from two weeks earlier were like there was only a bleak chance of her waking up and the reports after two weeks showed that she is absolutely fine." He stroked his chin in confusion. "How is that possible? Unless a miracle happened."
"Please, ask the details from Ah-Jie. I have no clue about this stuff." Xu Mey shirked all the responsibility from her shoulders.
"I think I have to ask Ye Jie." Zhu Chen concluded as he stood up to leave.
"Also," he heard Xu Mey's voice from behind and turned to look at her. "My Sensei once said that miracle is another name for faith. The stronger your faith is, the more you can create miracles in this world." Zhu Chen didn't reply to her since he was lost in her words completely.