Chapter 109: The reminder of her promise

“Grandma…”, Huian said sadly.

“Jing!”, Grandma Liu raised her voice. “Enough! It’s been already two years to their marriage. Accept it already. Just stop your childish behavior.”

Jing smiled sadly, “Childish, huh? Whatever you say.”

Liu Hai and Mother Chen said nothing.

Mother Liu sighed. I still don’t understand why Jing can’t seem to accept Huian.

She quickly tried to divert the subject, “Okay, let’s stop here. Jing, when did you return?”

He spoke indifferently, “Last night.”

She frowned, “But you didn’t come back home.”

“Hotel.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Felt like it.”

“O-oh…”, she felt a little sad with his maximum three-word responses. He returned after two years but there was not even a proper conversation.

Liu Hai shook his head. He patted Jing’s shoulders. Jing looked at him but didn’t say anything.

“Where are you coming from now?”, Mother Chen asked.

Finally, the light in his eyes came back. “Aunt. Well, I met the person who dad was talking so on and on about since the last whole month and a half.”

“You were with Nana!?”

“Yup.”

Mother and Grandma Liu were surprised as well as Father Liu and Mother Chen.

Huian stiffened. What? He comes back and the first person he meets is her?

Liu Hai got excited like a child who got his favorite candy, “So tell me! What did you two talk about? Do you like her? Did you impress her enough so that she breaks up with Jianyu?”

“Brother!”, Chen Liling exclaimed.

He rolled his eyes. “No, dad. On the contrary, I chose to call her Sister. But…”, he gave a quick glance to Huian and said, “I think somebody else is impressed by her too.”

Huian felt the chills.

Liu Hai raised his brows, “Who?”

“Juuuust kidding. Well, we talked about general stuff. But I know now why you like her so much. It’s really not that hard not to. She is very calm and collected. She is dedicated. Her ankle was injured, and she could hardly walk properly, but she was still going around the whole of Natsukashi cleaning it.”

Huian twitched in annoyance. Why does everybody like her?

Liu Hai sighed. “That child. She should just rest all day.” Mother Chen felt the same way.

He smiled, “She genuinely looked happy and excited to meet me. She has twin brothers, right? But from her face, I gathered as if she got a third brother. She fed me a delicious breakfast with an extra of all toppings I really like. She really spoilt me.”

“What!? I also wanted to eat.”, he sulked. “But you traitor. How could you let her make food for you!? She is injured.”

“That was wrong Jing”, Mother Chen scolded.

He shrugged. “I tried telling her. But she insisted. I visited the first time and she didn’t allow me to leave without eating anything. Ah the food…I really wished to settle there and eat her delicacies everyday.”

Jing gave a twisted smile to Huian. “Now, I wouldn’t mind if she had been my sister-in-law.”

He never bothered to give Huian any face.

“Jing!!”, both Mother and Grandma Liu shouted.

Huian stood rooted. “Jing, you are going too far!”

“Heh. Like I care. I love to see your face distorted in anger. You look more hideous. The more hideous you look, the more my brother will be tempted to divorce you. Good riddance.”

Before she could retort, Jing asked, “What were you all talking about?”

How dare you change the subject!

Mother Chen sighed. It’s best to drop it. “We were discussing Chen’s banquet.”

Grandma Liu also remembered. “Yes. But you will have to listen to me.”, she said sternly, “It will be held on the seventh. So many people secretly want to drag us down. At such time, only good luck and days help us in foiling their plans.”

She got a headache. Now everything will be pushed back. There is so much work to do!

“Fine…”, she gave up.

Grandma Liu was satisfied.

—

After dinner, Jinhai was in the balcony taking a smoke. Huian came and hugged him from behind.

He stiffened. He slowly removed her hands.

She pursed her lips noticing his slight avoidance.

“Jinhai. I want to talk about something important to you.”

“Hm?”

She was fidgeting a lot. After a few moments of silence, she finally looked at him and asked, “Jinhai, don’t you think it’s time for us to…think about having our own family now?”

He froze.

“It’s been two years and I think we are ready for it.” She blushed, “I-I want to have your child.”

Silence.

Jinhai didn’t say anything for a long, long time.

The silence was killing her. His no response gave a bad feeling.

“I don’t want a child, Huian.”

Huian couldn’t believe it. It was like the whole earth shook from under her feet. She slowly raised her head to look at him, “W-what…?”

“Yes. I don’t want a child.”

Her head was spinning. Her mind was completely devoid of any thoughts.

She then suddenly laughed softly…more like she was crazy, “Oh! Now I understood. You must mean that you don’t want a child right now, right? Is it still early for you? It’s okay. If you want we can still wait for some more time. There is no-“

“I mean that I don’t want a child…for the rest of our lives.”

She kept blankly staring at him. “No…this cannot be true.”

“Huian”, he looked at her dead seriously, “You do remember what we decided two years back, right?”

She slowly widened her eyes.

Yes. Now she remembered every word that he had said.