"Wait, wait just wait. Renren. Zhiren. Please tell me I'm mistaken here," Jie looked at Ru for an answer but she shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "You have got to be kidding with me. What kind of fate do you have?"
"Right? It does make one think that this fate is playing with me? Right? I'm not the only one. You also think that." Ru was looking for someone to really understand her inner turmoil. It was no joke that she had met Xiao Zhiren at three junctions of her life. How was she supposed to just accept it as coincidence?
"Coincidence? Fuck the damn coincidence! This doesn't look like coincidence anymore." Jie was agitated more than she was. Or perhaps he knew how to express his emotions better than her. "You first met him when you're ten. Later on, your life changed because you figured out your gender. Then you met him 8 years later. And at that time, your life again changed because you had lost too much. You lost your compassion and whatever made you Young Master Ru." Jie was speaking without a pause and Ru was listening without stopping him.
"And now, you met him again after ten years. I don't even have to say it but your life is changing again. You're learning to look at the world in a new way." He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "What kind of shadow his presence has in your fate?"
Ru thought about it herself. What kind of presence did he really have in her fate now? She held Jie's hand and said, "Jiejie, I don't know. I honestly can't tell what he is in my fate. But now, I can tell you what he is in my life." Jie pressed her hand urging her to continue, "Can you believe that without knowing it himself, he had been keeping our promise of the lifetime? He had been the keeper of our red thread for years. As for what he is in my life... It's weird to say it out loud but I feel like he's becoming everything. My everything."
"Honestly speaking, I don't even know what my fate is. How can I dare to claim what part he plays in that fate? I'll be getting ahead of myself if I said anything on this."
Jie wrapped his one arm around her shoulder and side hugged her saying, "Does his presence makes you forget about everything else?"
She nodded, "As I said, he is becoming my everything. How can I remember anything else besides him?"
Jie smiled at her and kissed her temple. "Then that's enough right? If he makes our Ru'er happy then screw the game fate is playing. I, Zhu Jie, your one and only cousin is right here with you. Believe this brother of yours, I'll be standing right with you no matter what happens."
"I know," she replied.
Their moment of peace was cut short when they heard an angry voice, "Ah-Jie!"
Ru nudged him again saying, "Look, your spitfire is here."
Jie looked at his agitated wife and said, "Before calling my baby spitfire, look at yourself in the mirror. And who's fault is it that she is a spitfire?"
Ru shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as she replied, "No mine for sure."
Jie knocked her head saying, "Say something I can believe." Turning to his wife's side, he said, "Baby, what are you doing here?"
"Ah-Jie, keep a distance from her," Xu Mey glared at Ru hatefully while ordering Jie to move away from her.
Ru smiled at her and when Jie was about to pull away, she pulled him back even closer than before saying, "Where do you think you're going, Jiejie?"
Xu Mey gaped at her while her whole body trembled in anger. "Jiejie? How dare you call my husband so intimately?"
"Why can't I? I think I can do it even better than that. Hmm... How about..." Jie placed his hand over her mouth to stop her from perturbing his wife any more than she already was. From the way Xu Mey's fists were clenched, he could tell that his little spitfire was about to breathe fire at any moment now.
"Baby, let's talk later," Jie tried to calm Xu Mey in a nice way. "This sister of mine has a habit of joking. Don't take it to heart at all."
Ru bit his hand making him yelp. After that, she walked up to Xu Mey and said, "Since Mrs. Zhu is not in favor of giving your husband. I have a better proposition." Xu Mey frowned at her while she added, "How about giving me your son? That little bunny loves me anyway. Just give him to me."
Xu Mey raised her hand to slap her when Ru held her wrist and said, "Why are you getting violent? That's my job. It only suits me as well." Jie shook his head at her not knowing what had gotten into Ru. "For the first time, I'm willing to negotiate with words and you're using force. That's not fair at all."
"Ah-Jie, follow me," Xu Mey gritted out and turned on her heels to leave.
Ru laughed behind and dialed a number from her phone. Not far from her, Xu Mey's phone rang. Seeing the caller id, Xu Mey's face lit up and she immediately attended the call, "Sensei?" Her cheerful and excited voice rang out.
"Dear disciple, if you're not comfortable with my conditions. We can re-negotiate. But I want that son of yours for sure."
"Huh?" Xu Mey gaped as she slowly turned around to look at Ru.
Ru waved the phone at her and winked in her signature way which instantly left Xu Mey dumbstruck.
"You! You! Sensei?" Xu Mey asked in shock and disbelief. Her whole world was shaken up.
"Hi, dear disciple! Long-time no see," was Ru's casual reply.
Meanwhile, Jie was rubbing his forehead which had a headache now. But seeing how Ru actually disclosed her gender to his wife, he couldn't help but smile. It took her a long time to come around, eh?