In the living room before her, Ye Jie was sitting with an awkward smile on his face while He Susu kept asking him all sorts of questions.
"Are you comfortable?"
"Do you need anything?"
"You must be really tired."
"Aiyo! You should take care of yourself. How can you be so careless with your health?"
"I should make some soup for you as well."
At this point, the only person doing the talking was He Susu herself. The sight was very beautiful and warm for Xu Mey. 'Mothers really have a thing for worrying.' She thought to herself and kept looking at the mother-son pair before her. 'Aiyo! Ah-Jie, if only you stop being such a coward than I think this mother would gladly give her life to you.' But she could only shake her head in disappointment.
"Oh, Ah-Jie, let's go home now!" Xu Mey announced as she walked up to both of them.
"O-" Ye Jie's 'okay' was still in his mouth when Zhu Chen's voice rang out. "No-one's leaving tonight. Ye Jie needs plenty of rest. I have made the arrangements, he'll be staying for the night."
Xu Mey stared at him with her mouth agape and darted her eyes towards Ye Jie as if asking, 'When was this decided?'
And Ye Jie seemed to be replying, 'No comments!'
"Uncle Chen, we don't want to disturb you guys at all," Xu Mey tried to speak but it didn't seem to work at all.
"Don't worry at all! No-one's disturbing anyone here. Both of you go upstairs to the room. No more discussion." Zhu Chen was adamant on his decision.
"Chen is right! You both are staying. Just go upstairs." Even He Susu was taking his side but then again one can't possibly blame her, she's a wife and a wife should always be by her husband's side.
Xu Mey and Ye Jie shared a look and groaned defeatedly. Why are these old people so intimidating?
Xu Mey helped Ye Jie to the room upstairs and sat down on the bed beside him.
"How did they know about my fever?" Ye Jie asked.
"It just slipped from my tongue, how would I know that they'd react like this." Xu Mey answered exasperatedly.
Ye Jie was kneading his temples when the voice came, "Do you have a headache? Chen, go and get some painkiller for him." Zhu Qinyang shouted to get her brother's attention.
"No, no... It's not a headache. I'm fine." Ye Jie was even getting tired of saying 'I'm fine' at the moment.
"Relax! Just eat this porridge then take the painkillers and take plenty of rest." Zhu Qinyang spoke to him like she was coaxing a little kid.
Xu Mey decided to stay quiet before Zhu Qinyang. She definitely didn't want her to burst up, on her right before Ah-Jie.
"Here's the painkillers." Zhu Chen gave the painkillers to his sister and stood at a side. Under the scrutinizing gazes of all these people, Ye Jie barely could swallow the porridge but he had to. None of them left the room until they were sure that he was comfortable in the bed.
"Phew!" Ye Jie and Xu Mey heaved a sigh of relief simultaneously when they left.
"Ah-Jie, have you seen how much they care about you? Imagine this will get to ten-folds if they got to know that you're their son." Xu Mey tried to convince Ye Jie since she had nothing better to do at the moment.
"Baby, don't try to coax me. I have already decided to tell them everything about two weeks ago." Ye Jie told her with a smile.
"Ah? Then the stress? Was it because of this?" Xu Mey questioned him and he nodded his head in reply making Xu Mey facepalm herself. "If you have already decided then what's the stress all about?"
"Baby, it's not like I can get up and walk up to them to come clean. I don't even know what to say." Ye Jie raked his fingers through his hair in exasperation.
"Seriously? Just come clean straightforwardly." Xu Mey retorted earning an 'Are-you-even-serious?' look from him.
"Right, I should go and say, Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Zhu! You see, apparently, I have your blood running through my veins. Weird, right? I mean my name is Ye Jie but I'm not even sure myself about why I have a Ye in my name when I don't even have a single drop of blood from that family. Also, did I mention that I'd known it from a long time that you both are my parents and yet I chose to hide it because I was scared that you would either not like me or you won't want me." Ye Jie spoke the whole thing in one go. "I can't come clean like this."
"Why not?" Xu Mey questioned. She found this very reasonable. There was no way around it. Beating around the bush would only waste the time. It was better to say it face-to-face without any fear. Matter solved!
"And do you think that if I say it like this, they'd listen to me? Why would they believe me? This is ridiculous that after 30 years a stranger comes to your door to knock to say that I'm your son, and you'd just believe him." Ye Jie was going crazy thinking about this all. And now, he really had a headache coming.
"Why wouldn't they?" When Xu Mey asked this question, at the same time, another voice came from the door.
"Why wouldn't we?" Hearing that voice both Xu Mey and Ye Jie froze. They both looked at the door to see Zhu Chen and He Susu looking at them with an odd gaze.
"Oh, Fu*k!" Xu Mey and Ye Jie cursed out loud simultaneously. 'Fate sure is a schemer!' Ye Jie thought to himself.