"Xiao Mey!" Xu Mey heard someone calling out to her as she just stepped into her office building. She looked around to find Zhu Chen walking towards her. Her eyes glinted as she was taken by surprise.
"Uncle Chen, what a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here so early in the morning?" Xu Mey was clearly very surprised to see him but she knew something was amiss. Otherwise, Zhu Chen wouldn"t have sorted her out like this. Not so early in the morning for sure!
"Is there a coffee shop where we can talk?" Zhu Chen asked in his gentle tone.
"Umm... There is actually. Let"s go there," Xu Mey led the way and brought him to a small coffee shop near her office. It was a small shop with a minimalistic interior. Xu Mey took a seat at the window table and Zhu Chen followed suit.
The waitress in her late twenties came up to them to take their order.
"One Espresso!" Xu Mey said without looking at the menu and looked at Zhu Chen for his order.
"I"ll take a Blue Mountain Coffee. Thank You!" The waitress went away after taking their orders.
In the early morning, most of the seats were empty since people were ordering coffee for a take out on their run to the office. Therefore, there was hardly any noise in the shop making it very serene.
"What brought you to me so early in the morning?" Xu Mey asked the question without missing a beat. She didn"t feel the need to dawdle about.
"My sister told me that you"re looking for me when I was in Imperial Capital." Thinking back, Xu Mey realized that the day, she was plotted against by Xu Liqing, she had indeed asked Auntie Qinqin about Zhu Chen. Also, she had decided to see him after he would come back. Who knew that in between so much, she would completely forget about this.
"Ah! I was looking for you actually. I needed to talk to you about something." She said in realization/
"About?" Zhu Chen asked curiously as he surveyed her expressions.
The waitress came back with two cups of coffee with steam gus.h.i.+ng from the cups. She placed their respective coffee, took a small bow, and walked away silently.
"About? Well... I don"t know how to ask anything right now." Xu Mey gave a dry laugh trying to hide her nervousness. She was confident about asking this question before but now, she had a bad premonition that the answer might bring too much of changes in everyone"s lives.
"You can ask me anything." Zhu Chen encouraged her with his signature smile that made Xu Mey feel like looking at Ye Jie. That smile really gave away their relation.
"Um..." Xu Mey played with her cup of coffee before finally asking, "Do you know Zhou Ning?"
Zhu Chen straightened up at that name. The rims of his eyes turned red with fury. That expression was really different for Xu Mey since she had always seen him with an affectionate and gentle look on his face.
"I know her... I know her very well actually." Xu Mey could hear the unmasked hatred in his voice. She could see a muscle in jaw twitching with anger.
She took a sip of her piping hot coffee burning her tongue in the process. Fanning her burnt tongue she remarked, "You don"t seem to like her."
"Like?" Zhu Chen sneered. "I hate that women."
She gave a half smile and queried, "Why?" Xu Mey"s curiosity was piqued to another level.
Zhu Chen gazed into her questioning eyes and sighed. "She tried to take my Susu"s life. What do you expect me to feel about her?"
"What?" Xu Mey choked on her coffee and started coughing profusely. After calming herself, she looked back at Zhu Chen and asked, "What do you mean? You need to clear it up for me."
Zhu Chen languidly took a sip of his coffee and proposed a deal, "If I clear this up then you"ll have to answer one of my questions honestly."
Xu Mey blinked her eyes a few times before nodding, "Okay. Deal!"
Zhu Chen reclined back in his seat as he thought about the old times, "We were senior in high school. Although I never like Su"s friends.h.i.+p with Zhou Ning, I never got to openly oppose it. But in that year, Zhou Ning dropped her facade and actually showed her real side which was as th.o.r.n.y as a rose bush." His voice was laced with venom and his face as stiff as a board.
"What exactly happened?" Xu Mey voiced out patiently letting him take his time to think it through before talking.
Zhu Chen raked a hand through his brown hair. It was a habit that Ye Jie had as well whenever he was frustrated over something. The thought made her smile to herself instinctively.
Zhu Chen took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking again, "There were a lot of things but I noticed quite late. At first, she tried to tear me and Su apart with her lying schemes and when that didn"t work, she actually tried to hit on me. Well, you can imagine how that would have worked out for her." He gave Xu Mey a knowing look who in response nodded. "But to be precise, I slapped her hard. And it felt good!" Well, Xu Mey could see the "good" feeling flowing from his face but she didn"t comment about it. "Anyway, that sl*t moved her game and pushed my Su down the stairs on the graduation day and after that, she vanished from our lives. But I won"t ever forgive her, my Su spent months in the hospital because of her psychotic mind."
Xu Mey"s mind was letting the words sink in. Tearing apart a couple? s.n.a.t.c.hing someone"s boyfriend? Attempted murder? Oddly, these things suit best with when you"re describing a jealous ex-girlfriend. At that thought, Xu Mey immediately asked, "You didn"t date her, did you?" Don"t say, yes! My heart won"t be able to take it! I hold you in high regard! Xu Mey was bellowing in her mind but Zhu Chen was oblivious to her crazy thoughts.
"I have better taste than that," Zhu Chen replied matter-of-factly making Xu Mey heave a sigh of relief and chuckle lightly at the distasteful look on his face.
"So, do you know why she did all of this like a jealous ex-girlfriend?" Xu Mey raised her brows inquiringly.
Zhu Chen knitted his brows saying, "Of course, I know!" Seeing Xu Mey"s eager eyes peering at him, he went on, "Because she is indeed jealous."
"Huh? Jealousy? Of what?"
Zhu Chen flicked her lightly on the head. "Slowpoke! Jealousy of everything. It started after her family went bankrupt. Because of Su"s "kind nature"," he made an air quote gesture making Xu Mey"s lips twitch a bit. "She couldn"t bear to see her friend suffering and that led to Su bringing that Zhou Ning everywhere. Eventually, looking at Su"s loving family and all, she got jealous. Scheming bit*h!"
"Ha! It makes sense now!" Xu Mey mumbled to herself.