Chapter Fourteen

An Xiao Li was consoling Mr Wild at a bar. But Mr Wild was too drunk and called the nine tailed fox prince to come to the bar for a fist fight. An Xiao Li panicked and the first person she thought of was little Bai and she decided to call little Bai.

‘What happened?’ Chen Yu Bai asked in a sleepy voice.

‘Qin Song’s drunk. He called Li Wei Ran to come and have a fist fight with him,’ An Xiao Li explained.

‘Where are you?’ Chen Yu Bai asked coldly.

‘At a bar in the eastern district-’ An Xiao Li said.

‘Don’t run around wildly. I’ll be right there. If they fight each other before I get there, you need to keep your distance from them. You don’t need to dissuade them. Got it?’ Chen Yu Bai advised.

‘Oh…’ An Xiao Li said.

‘Got it?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

‘Got it,’ An Xiao Li said.

Chen Yu Bai rushed to the bar and didn’t care about his two youngest sworn brothers killing each other. He only cared about Xiao Li. ‘An-Xiao-Li! What did you promise me on the phone before?’

An Xiao Li shook her head. ‘Quickly and pull those two apart.’

Chen Yu Bai didn’t hear clearly what Xiao Li said because of the loud music. He checked if she was injured anywhere. ‘Where are you injured?’

‘I’m not injured. Quickly pull those two apart. Mr Wild is about to be beaten to death by Li Wei Ran!’ An Xiao Li said.

‘I just left the hospital. I don’t want them to accidently hit me and send me back to the hospital. I’ve already called the police,’ Chen Yu Bai explained.

Chen Yu Bai was calm but Xiao Li was really worried and wanted to go pull his two youngest sworn brothers apart. He held onto one of her arms to keep her from harm.

Finally Mr Wild and the nine tailed fox prince were dragged outside the bar. An Xiao Li saw a glimpse of their usually handsome faces were swollen and black and blue before she was forced into little Bai’s car.

‘Take me home,’ An Xiao Li said many times in Chen Yu Bai’s car.

Chen Yu Bai gripped the steering wheel and glanced at Xiao Li. ‘Don’t worry. Tonight I need to rest too.’

An Xiao Li glared at little Bai and turned to look out the window.

‘Little Qin Song is hot headed and reckless. Just with our efforts alone won’t be able to dissuade him,’ Chen Yu Bai explained. He was really tired, but he saw Xiao Li sulked and pout her lips so he explained to soothe her. ‘If we interfered and stopped them from fighting, next time they see each other they’ll still fight. It’s better to let them fight once and get it over with.’

‘Then why did you let them be dragged to the police station? For them to be persuaded by the cops?’ An Xiao Li asked.

‘The cops won’t be able to persuade them, but there’s someone that can,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

Chen Yu Bai kept his eyes on the road and smiled.

Chen Yu Bai wasn’t in the hospital anymore and An Xiao Li didn’t have a reason to skip work. For the time being she still needed to go to work, but she received a call from Chu Hao Ran when she was halfway to work. It sounded like an emergency so she had no choice but to go to the hospital.

An Xiao Li arrived at the hospital room that Chu Hao Ran gave her on the phone. She was furious! ‘Chu Hao Ran, are you crazy! Why did you lie to me?’

Chu Hao Ran put the alb.u.m that he was looking at down on the coffee table. His arm that wasn’t in a cast anymore waved her over to sit on the sofa next to him. He gave her his prince charming smile. ‘I just wanted to see for myself if my little princess still has a conscience.’

Little princess… felt like that pet name was too unfamiliar and too beautiful. A few years ago… under moonlight and in front of a rosebush was a happy memory for An Xiao Li. Chu Hao Ran always looked at her tenderly and lovingly called her ‘my little princess.’

Chu Hao Ran wasn’t like the ice glacier who frustrated An Xiao Li when he stroked her hair, smiled condescendingly at her and called her ‘dummy.’

‘Xiao Li?’ Chu Hao Ran called the dazed An Xiao Li.

‘If you’re ok then I’m leaving. Next time don’t lie to me anymore!’ An Xiao Li said.

An Xiao Li wasn’t happy and was ready to leave. She was carrying little Bai’s breakfast in her hand. If little Bai found out she was missing, he’d give her the cold shoulder.

Chu Hao Ran wanted to say something but decided not to. He put his arm out then let his arm fall down. An Xiao Li thought he looked like the male lead who was troubled in a romance movie, whilst he was confronting the female lead that he secretly loved in the past and the love was reignited when he saw her again.

‘I know I wasn’t good. But won’t you wrong a bit? At that time you silently left. You didn’t even call me to breakup. Did you think about what state I was in?’ Chu Hao Ran said. He knew too well what to say to stall An Xiao Li. ‘Xiao Li, can we see that time as us misunderstanding the situation?’

An Xiao Li looked at her first love declaring a deep love, it was effective ten percent. But she pictured in front of her was the ice glacier’s cold face. Mmm… did the ice glacier wanted to drink black soy milk or eat congee with oatmeal?

‘Xiao Li, the reason you’re hesitating is it because of Chen Yu Bai?’ Chu Hao Ran asked.

‘Who says?’ An Xiao Li denied. ‘He doesn’t have any influence over me.’

Chu Hao Ran thought what An Xiao Li denied sounded like contempt toward his rival and he smiled brightly. Whereas, An Xiao Li turned around and rushed back to work.

The first thing An Xiao Li did when she arrived at work was going to the tea room and reheated the black soy bean that was in the Dewar bottle. Then she brought it into little Bai’s office.

An Xiao Li knocked on little Bai’s office door but no one responded. She thought little Bai was angry with her and opened the door herself. But he wasn’t inside his office. She saw a stack of CDs on his work desk and thought he must have went to a meeting… CDs!

An Xiao Li held in her breath. She put little Bai’s breakfast on the coffee table. Then she immediately searched his work desk. She had a revelation – a female’s intuition was the most reliable. There was a CD with the logo of her former IT college that stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the stack of work related CDs.

On the CD logo was also one word written clearly by Chen Yu Bai… ‘An.’ An Xiao Li was deeply moved, she’d found the surveillance evidence!

An Xiao Li untucked her shirt and rolled her shirt up. Then she hid the CD at the back of her pants and ran outside but by the time she reached the door, it was opened.

Chen Yu Bai saw Xiao Li’s mouth gaped open and she looked fl.u.s.tered like she was caught red handed at the scene of the crime. He only smiled and didn’t expose her. ‘It was an urgent meeting. I didn’t have time to tell you.’ He walked around her to his work desk. He tidied his work desk and sat on his chair. He was tired and rubbed his temples. He saw that she didn’t move and smiled warmly. ‘Why are you in a daze? Didn’t sleep well? Mmm… I’ll let you take the afternoon off and take a good rest, ok?’

An Xiao Li heard little Bai’s tone of voice was natural and his smile was gentle. But why was it she felt a cold sweat on her back? There was nothing scarier than someone with a wicked belly pretending to be warm – what did he want to do?

The CD behind An Xiao Li’s back felt cold. She felt uncomfortable and stood straight. ‘Ok… then I’ll go outside.’

‘Um,’ Chen Yu Bai said. He nodded his head and smiled. ‘Go rest at my place and help me tidy my place too.’

An Xiao Li felt a little relieved, because that was more like something the ice glacier would do! Exploiting her, oppressing her… as long as it was something that didn’t let her live in peace, it was more like the ice glacier she knew. In that moment she felt no resentment, because compared to him being gentle she was more familiar with him being rough.

After Chen Yu Bai’s door closed, he followed the direction where he saw Xiao Li disappeared and his warm eyes turned cold.

Chen Yu Bai thought on the inside – ‘An Xiao Li, I do want to learn how to conveniently follow you. But, you’re really not obedient.’

An Xiao Li wondered if others were ever faced with the same situation she found herself in. She knew she shouldn’t look, there was nothing worth looking at and it was best not to look… but finally, she risked everything to look.

So when An Xiao Li suddenly heard little Bai coldly asked her ‘any good?’ from behind her, she was deeply regretful – curiosity killed the cat! It was best to just speculate aimlessly!

Little Bai leaned against his study room and laughed coldly. An Xiao Li’s hand that was holding the computer mouse made the softest clicking sound. But it didn’t click on the X to close the window she wanted to hide before little Bai’s hand was placed on top of her hand and clicked the mouse.

‘You… didn’t you leave already?’ An Xiao Li asked.

Little Bai clearly dropped An Xiao Li off at his place. He changed his clothes and left. Why did he suddenly turn back? Could it be that he knew from the start that she took the CD?

An Xiao Li’s whole body broke out in a cold sweat.

Little Bai knelt down and rubbed his cheek against An Xiao Li’s cheek. ‘I came back to get a few things.’ His voice wasn’t happy. ‘I didn’t go to your graduation day. So I asked your IT college to send me a CD that filmed the graduation ceremony and it was lucky that you were filmed in some scenes.’

Little Bai replayed the scenes that An Xiao Li appeared during the filming of the graduation ceremony. She felt deeply guilty as the deepest ocean on earth.

An Xiao Li thought that little Bai asked her IT college to send him the CD that filmed her crashing into his car that day… she thought that he used that surveillance CD to blackmail her.

An Xiao Li thought that the CD was used to control her… she thought little Bai deliberately put the CD on his work desk to lure her into a trap so he could catch her red handed on the spot.

An Xiao Li thought little Bai was really a wicked guru.

Xiao Li lowered her head, Chen Yu Bai rubbed his cheek against her neck and gently asked in her ear. ‘What’s wrong?’

Little Bai was too gentle, it deeply moved An Xiao Li. In that moment she thought she wanted to be beside him for the rest of her life.

‘Why are you watching this CD?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

An Xiao Li felt an electric shock and was startled from her deeply moved heart. Her tongue was knotted and she didn’t how to explain the CD that was meant to be on little Bai’s office work desk suddenly appeared inside the computer of his study room in his house.

‘Could it be the last time I watched the CD I forgot to take it out?’ Chen Yu Bai mumbled.

An Xiao Li felt like she was given an escape route and nodded her head.

Chen Yu Bai stroked Xiao Li’s long hair. ‘Recently my memory isn’t good. I’m going to work, be good.’

Chen Yu Bai smiled and kissed Xiao Li.

An Xiao Li’s face was bright red from her feeling deeply guilty. ‘Oh, drive carefully.’

End of Chapter Fourteen.