Where the Moon meets the Sun

Chapter Twenty-Three

           

Huei An wanted to tell him that he should have seen it coming.

He was not just stubborn but was also high and mighty about it (even going as far as insulting her in her own office) that when word got around on weibo, she smirked at the news.

However, seeing him now, still wearing the same outfit he had on when he proposed, his hair in disarray, bags under his eyes, lying down his bedroom floor staring emptily up the ceiling, while beer bottles are scattered all over the place, and it just stinks of cigarette smoke, she recognized just how broken Nian Zhen had become.

Her mother's panicked voice over the phone and the incessant begging until she had said yes to coming home to help made a lot of sense to her now.

Although she does wonder whether he is this dejected over losing Yue or just having his humongous ego hurt.

"Nian...", she called out to him.

He raised his eyes to her direction and just shrugged. "You've seen me. You can leave now."

Well...

He's still feisty.

"I still haven't taken a picture", she responded and sat down the floor near him, "I have to take one and share it on weibo. We could further milk your popularity."

He scoffed. "You must be laughing at me. Everyone must be laughing at me."

"Well... I did laugh. But seeing you like this sort of made me feel bad about that. Although with your current attitude, I think I should continue laughing."

"Go ahead. I really don't care anymore."

"By the way you stink, I really believe you don't care anymore", she made an act of scrunching up her nose.

"You said, she'd reject me... why were you so confident about that?"

WOW. OK. MOOD SWINGS.

She considered him for a little bit.

He looked like he'd be more receptive to what she would say about this now rather than the last time they talked.

Huei An chose her next words carefully. "Yue has always talked about everything she still wants to do. She wants to eventually direct her own movie, she wants to write her own script, she dreams of being able to shoot outside of the country... those are really big dreams Nian Zhen. She didn't sound like someone who's ready to already settle down."

"Then why didn't she tell me that?", he countered and then he closed his eyes, maybe recalling what happened, "She just kept on apologizing while saying she could not marry me and that this wasn't meant to happen... out of everything she told me THAT one is what haunts me until now. What did she mean by this not being meant to happen? Did she mean the proposal? Did she mean us?"

His voice did not sound like it belonged to him.

"Maybe she meant the proposal...", she offered.

There was a tsssk. "The thing about that woman is... you can see everything reflected in her eyes. Do you know she lied to me?"

Huei An raised a brow. "Lied to you?"

That does not sound right.

Her brother let out a bitter laugh. "I asked her if there was anyone and she said no."

He's probably just seeing what he wants to see. "Nian Zhen, how could she lie about that?"

"I don't know but I saw it in her eyes. There was a flicker of hesitation in them... I know I was not imagining that. And now I want to find out who that guy is."