Jianjun did not think about opening the restaurant as his mind continued to wander about.
Ever since he left the brealfast table, he had remained inside his room and stared blankly at the window.
He was tired. Tired of everything. The more he thought about everything, the angrier and sadder he got.
"She did not trust me. She did not trust my feelings." He had been repeating those words since the past night.
No matter how much he thought about it, it all boiled down to that fact— If only she had trusted him, they would not have gone through everything they both went through. None of those things would have happened. But she did not trust him. It was the reason she had easily believed that message.
Now, it was even more difficult to forgive her. He knew she was not to be blamed but he could not bear it. He had to push his 25 years old grudge to someone and it had to be her because everything had been her fault.
But on a second thought, he did not want to do so. He thought she might have suffered a lot so there was no point in blaming her even though he was still angry.
He could not also get angry at Helene. Aside from the fact that she was dead, he had no idea whether she was the real culprit or not.
He sighed deeply and as he continued to stare out the window, he heard a knock on the door, followed by Joreen"s tiny voice asking if she could come in.
"You can come in." He said to her and moved to go sit on the bed.
"Are you okay? Did something happen between you and Pretty Changyu yesterday? You were looking down when she left and looked even worse since this morning. Did something happen when you left the restaurant last night?"
She threw the questions at him after sitting beside him on the bed.
"You can talk to me. I am a good listener" She urged him when he remained quiet.
Jianjun could not help smiling when he heard her. "Jo. I am fine" He a.s.sured her, but with the look she gave him in return, he knew she did buy it.
"Pretty Changyu had tears in her eyes when she was leaving. Besides we heard her shouting at you when you were both in the account room. Is she your enemy?"
"It"s fine. I just have a lot on my mind right now." Her constant use of "pretty Changyu" was beginning to make him feel dizzy.
"Can you please hurry up and take care of whatever is in your mind so you can attend to Big Sis? She has been acting scary and strange since morning."
"Sara?" He suddenly sat up when he heard something was wrong with her.
"Yes. Last night when I was sleeping. I thought I heard her on a call with someone. She said something like "Who are you to mess with my family". I can"t really remember how she said it since I was really sleepy. But she left in a hurry and this morning, she looked like she cried all night." Joreen narrated.
"What?" Jianjun stood up from the seat immediately. "Why did you not tell me about it this morning? Did she say anything else to you?"
Joreen also stood up and shook her head. "I would have said something to you but you looked even worse. She said nothing else. She only asked me one weird question about how I would react if I heard she was a bad person. I tried to play everything as a joke but I think she was actually being serious. Can you please talk to her? I don"t think she is in her right mind."
Jianjun frowned when he heard everything. What a useless father he was. His daughter was going through something and he was busy sulking because of the past?
He searched around his messy bed for his phone but could not find it. He then checked the clothes he had worn the previous night that were hanging on his wardrobe door.
Inside his pants pocket, he found his phone which had been on "silent mode" the entire time.
When he opened it, he was shocked to see over a hundred missed calls and close to forty messages. In fact, his phone"s temperature was very hot and the battery was almost low.
He did not bother with the many missed calls and texts from unidentified numbers. He wanted to call Sara first but a call came in.
When he took the call, he heard a male voice speak.
"Is this w.a.n.g Jianjun from DELIMEAL?"
"Yes. Who is on the line?"
"Thank goodness. I have been calling to the point where I thought it was a wrong number. Why did you not open the restaurant today? I and a group of friends wanted to visit since we did not get the chance to do so yesterday."
"So this was the reason a lot of people had been calling him?" Jianjun asked himself.
After explaining that something came up and he would be available tomorrow, the man went on to ask.
"Alright. No problem at all. But are you really Sara w.a.n.g"s father? Can I have her number?"
Jianjun did not wait for him to ask any more questions, he quickly hung up with a hiss.
He checked a new message that just popped up on the screen and sure enough, the message was really from a customer. It was their mistake for including his number to the flier. He had not expected them to become so popular. There was nothing he could do about it except to live with it.
He was about dialing Sara"s number when they heard the front door open. With the hope that it was Sara, Joreen and Jianjun left the room for the sitting room and both saw a lifeless looking Cixi appear in sight.
"Mum. Thank G.o.d you are back." Joreen embraced Cixi with a sigh of relief.
But something else seem to worry her— the way her mother was looking right now.
It was bad enough that Jianjun and Sara were looking terrible. Her mother had to join also?
What happened on Christmas day? Did any Santa visit their home while bearing gifts of sadness? Then why was she not affected by it? Maybe she was probably in the bathroom when he came?
Cixi hugged Joreen back and looked at Jianjun. They both did not say anything but only stared at each other.
He knew she was probably going through a lot.
Seeing Changyu eating in their restaurant must have annoyed her. And it was understandable.
But he knew he had to explain things to her. He had to tell her everything that had happened and why Changyu sent that letter.
"When you are done freshening up, let"s talk." He finally said to her.
She forced a smile at Joreen when she pulled away from the hug before turning to look at Jianjun again.
"Yes. We really need to. But I have to sleep first." Cixi said in a low voice before heading towards their bedroom.