Ying Hui had walked up to Jia Li post the conference and overheard Eric doling out compliments generously. That did nothing to improve his mood. So he told her exactly what he thought of her actions. But he hadn"t expected to feel guilty when she apologised to him humbly. It suddenly seemed as if he was the one who had wrongly scolded her. To top it, Eric gave him a reprimanding glare.
"Never mind. You managed to extract us out of that tough spot early on, so I guess it"s ok," he said, in reply to her apology.
Eric shook his head at him in disappointment.
"What does the guy want? My head on a platter?" Hui looked at Eric and thought savagely.
"I, uh…would you like to join Eric and me for lunch, post sending off the clients to the airport?" he asked reluctantly.
Jia Li and Eric looked at him in shock.
G.o.d! They were making him feel like he was some ogre, not capable of polite gestures.
"There is no compulsion. You are welcome to carry on with whatever your original plan was," he added hastily.
She hesitated and then replied, "Thank you for the invite. But there is a lot of work pending for me at office, more so because I was caught up during the past couple of days with our Chinese counterparts. If you don"t mind, I"ll take a rain check this time around."
Hui experienced a mixture of relief and disappointment. Refusing to explore either of those reactions closely, he simply nodded.
The minute she bid them farewell, Eric launched an attack upon him.
"Is this the way to thank someone who just saved your company"s face? You know very well that, had it not been for her timely intervention, we would have had a nice little controversy blowing in our face, out of nowhere. That reminds me, I need to check out that nasty journalist. He looked like that he had a bone to pick with us. Anyways, back to Jia Li. What is your angst with her? She has been a model employee and a helpful co-worker. If anyone should be holding grudge, it should be her. First you accused her of being a spy. Then you froze her out, so that she couldn"t perform her duties well. And today, instead of being immensely grateful towards her, you scolded her. I can"t understand your behaviour. Why don"t you simply throw her out of the company, if you can"t tolerate her?" Eric didn"t hold back his words this time.
He was used to Hui"s bizarre antics but he had never known him to be a mean guy.
Tang"s cabin, Shanghai
"I am relieved to know the doctor is hopeful after looking at the reports. How did Uncle w.a.n.g react to the news?" Tang asked Wei post his return from London.
"Well, he is stoic about it. I think he had kind of resigned himself to the worst case scenario. I could see the surprise flit across his face when I told him about the doctor"s a.n.a.lysis. I believe that he is scared to hope for too much," Wei replied with a shrug.
"Are you planning to move back into the house to be around him?" Tang asked cautiously.
He was aware of Mrs. w.a.n.g"s unchanged, unapologetic behaviour during this entire period. He had thought that he was unlucky to be born as Mr. Xie"s son. But it had turned out that Wei was worse off than him. She had hardly been around during her husband"s illness. Her life had been carrying on normally for the past month, despite the terrible initial reports about Mr. w.a.n.g"s heart condition. The only thing that she had been concerned about was the fact that her husband needed to make appropriate arrangements for his shares to be transferred in a timely manner to Wei. When Wei had gotten to know of it, he had blown his top. Tang knew it first-hand how badly could a parent"s indifferent att.i.tude hurt a child. Hence, he had tried to be there for Wei in whatever way possible.
"There is no way that I am going to move in where that witch lives. If dad wishes, he can move in with me. There is enough s.p.a.ce for the two of us to coexist without disturbing each other"s daily schedules. This way he and I can spend some quality time together, away from any kind of negativity. But maybe a part of him still hopes that my mother would show some compa.s.sion towards him. I don"t have the heart to burst his bubble. I have asked him to reduce his office hours repeatedly but he refuses to budge. I even contemplated bringing him into our boys" club!" he said.
"Ah! You mean to say that he will join us for our drinking sprees henceforth. Are you sure that"s a good idea?" Tang asked jokingly.