Chapter 229: Long time

The maid was getting anxious.

Oh no! Master will be so angry with me! The transmitter is ruined now. How will I listen to any conversation.

Nana saw the maid in panic mode and faintly smiled. Her eyes were continuously darting towards the fallen vase.

Now I will spy on you.

Liu Chunhua asked, “You are not hurt anywhere, right?”

Nana said, “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m fine. I will clean this up.” She bent down.

The maid shouted. “No!”

If Nana finds out about the transmitter, then she will get alert. She can plan a different way to defeat us.

Liu Chunhua frowned. “We can hear you.”

She bowed. “Madam, apologies. I was just saying that Lady Liu doesn’t have to take the trouble. I will clean everything.”

Liu Chunhua nodded. “Yes, dear. Leave this to the maid. Don’t touch the broken shards.”

Nana smiled and nodded. She looked at the maid and said, “I’m sorry for adding to your work.”

The maid forced herself to smile. Internally, she was spitting fire. “It’s our job, Lady Liu.”

After the mess was over, the maid quickly ran into her room and locked the door. She took her phone and nervously dialed a number.

—

Nana opened the app that connected her phone to the device. It got connected and she was able to hear faint noises in the background.

Then she heard feminine voice talking to somebody. Nana keenly listened in.

She must be definitely talking to her master.

“I’m sorry master. The transmitter got ruined. It was all because of my carelessness.”

There was a period of silence.

Suddenly, she heard a strange voice. “Are you having fun playing spy-spy, Nana?”

Nana froze. Her eyes widened in shock.

“You must be having one wonderful expression on your face, right?” Nana heard the person laughing.

“You must be wondering how I got to know your plan, right? Nana dear, my eyes and ears are everywhere. You can’t escape from me.”

Nana was dumbstruck.

So was there someone in Natsukashi too who was spying on me?

“You should stop with these tricks now, Nana. Although I should admit that you are observant. You quickly realized that there was a hidden recorder in your room. You are not dumb.”

Nana narrowed her eyes. “Do you think you are so great, hiding in a room somewhere and threatening me?”

The other voice chuckled. “You are very eager to meet me, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I will fulfill your wish soon. But right now if you don’t start behaving yourself, then your will leave me with no choice but to make you a widow.”

Nana clutched her dress hard in panic. “You will do no such thing!”

“Why not? I think this would be much effective. You should also feel the pain of losing your beloved. The kind of loss where you can never see him again, because he is not in this world anymore.” There was now a hint of coldness and hatred in that voice.

“Now within three days you have to escalate your differences with Liu Jinhai. So much so that you both cannot even stand in the same room, or your husband won’t be alive to see the next day.”

“You…”

“Wait for my instructions tomorrow. You will exactly do as I say.”

The person hung up the call and then she heard the cracking sound of something break, which she was sure was the recorder she had fixed.

Nana was frustrated. She didn’t know that that master was so sly that he will keep another person other than the maid to keep an eye on her.

But who was that other spy? Other than the teenagers there was an elderly man sitting at the corner table, and a young man sitting two tables ahead.

Was that young man the spy?

Now she was sure that there was no use going to Liu Corps too. There must be another spy planted there as well.

Nana tiredly sat down. She looked at her ring and softly mumbled, “What should I do Jinhai?”

—

Jinhai had returned a little earlier than usual tonight. He thought he would sort out the tension between them and make up with Nana.

But when he entered the room, he found Nana already asleep.

Jinhai looked at the time. It was only nine in the evening.

He quietly went to her side and saw that she was indeed sleeping soundly.

Jinhai sighed.

Why do I feel a sense of distance from Nana?

He wanted to talk to her but guess she was too tired. He softly kissed her forehead.

Nana heard the sound of door closing and her eyelids softly fluttered open. She silently laid there, thinking of him.

—

Jinhai called out the traitor maid outside.

“Did Nana have dinner?” His voice was plain and cold.

The maid’s cheeks flushed a little red. “First young master, yes Lady Liu had her dinner.”

“Hm.”

“First young master, should I set your dinner as well?”

Jinhai shot her a deadly glance. The maid trembled a little.

“No.” He went away.

The maid longingly looked at his retreating back.

—

The next morning, Nana’s phone buzzed a message.

“Come at SuperX mall by twelve pm. And tell Jinhai that you would be at Natsukashi as usual.”

Nana furrowed her brows.

Suddenly, she felt a pair of warm ends embrace her. She stiffened.

“Nana.” Jinhai softly said.

“E-en.”

“You are not mad at me, right? I will apologize a hundred, no, a thousand times but please don’t ignore me.”

Nana bit her lips.

“O-okay.” She gently got out of his hug. Jinhai stared at her as she looked back at him.

Nana faintly smiled. “You must be getting late for office. I will also head to Natsukashi.”

His gaze on her was penetrating as if he wanted to see right through her.

“Why don’t you come to the office with me? We can spend some time together.”

She had to be at SuperX mall at twelve so…

“Sorry Jinhai. Some other time. Today I am busy in Natsukashi.”

Jinhai lowered his gaze and pursed his lips.

“Okay. Take care.”

Nana avoided his eyes and left. Her heart felt as if a knife had stabbed it seeing his lonely expression.

—

When Nana reached the mall, she got another message to go up to the sixth floor. She didn’t understand what was going on but she had no choice.

She was aimlessly roaming around and her attention was on the phone when she bumped into someone. The phone fell from her hands.

“Oh I’m so sorry.” The man quickly apologized and picked up the phone. He said, “I wasn’t looking where I was-“

Nana saw the man and was stunned. The man also had a similar reaction.

Both were momentarily speechless.

“Nana…”

“C-Chen Jianyu?”

Both looked at each other, dazed. It was such a long time after they were meeting each other.

So many things happened since they had to part that banquet night. They remembered the bitter note at which their friendship broke apart. Both of them felt a sense of loneliness surge inside.

Even though they didn’t have feelings for each other, but they had become very good friends. It was a kind of a friendship that both of them never had with the opposite sex.

It was warm and comfortable. The happy memories flashed past their mind like it was just yesterday.

Jianyu wanted to say a lot to her. There were a lot of things in his mind that he wanted to share with her. He would open his mouth in a slight ‘O’ but then would shut it again as he didn’t know from to begin.

How was she those days?

Did she suffer after their engagement broke?

Did she…forgive him?

After a long silence, he finally uttered in a choked voice. “L-long time.”

Nana absent-mindedly nodded. Meeting him after two months did invoke some emotions within her but then thinking back to the banquet night, she turned solemn.

“Yeah…it’s a long time. What have you been up to?” She spoke in a low and soft voice.

They felt the same awkwardness they had when they were starting out as friends.

Jianyu thought of Serena and remembered that she was Nana’s best friend. He felt anxious. He had come with Serena today for a shopping date.

“I…I am doing good.”

Nana nodded. She thought that if she ever saw Jianyu again then most probably she would still be angry at him. Maybe she would have refused to talk to him, or said things like how he disappointed her.

But nothing like she expected came out of her mouth.

She was shocked at this revelation the more and more she thought about it.

So does that mean I have forgiven him?

Everything that happened already seemed so distant in the past. She was married now, she was going to become a mother in seven months time. She had moved on way forward in her life.

As she was lost in her thoughts, someone walked past her and slightly pushed her from the back. She tripped on her foot.

She softly gasped, startled.

Jianyu was quick and he immediately held out his hand and caught her waist. Nana clutched onto his shoulder for support.

As they were in each other’s arms, two figures from opposite ends were watching silently at them.