Tang woke up and slept with the image of two of them laughing and holding onto each other. It was an image full of hope and yearning, for the now grown-up Tang. He reached for his phone.
City Hospital, York
"G.o.d, are you alright?" Eric found Hui sitting, holding his head in his hands.
"Oh! You are here. Yes, I am fine. Did you the get the doctor?" Hui asked him, referring to his personal physician whom Eric had woken up rudely in the middle of the night and brought here.
"Yes, Dr Adams is speaking with the person in charge of the situation. How is Jia Li? What happened, though? You were so spa.r.s.e with the details on the phone," Eric"s voice held slight reproach.
He had been worried sick ever since he received Hui"s call. Looking at his friend"s near ashen face right now, he wasn"t much a.s.sured, except that he seemed physically fine.
"It was entirely my fault. In my usual state of self-absorption, I insisted that we head back to London tonight itself. In fact, Jia Li had tried to question me whether I was too tired to drive back or was I too sleepy. I didn"t pay heed to her words. I should have stayed back as per the original plan or at least should have called the driver. But I was in a hurry to get back to my lab," he said, guilt evident in his words.
Continuing his narrative, "the first half of the drive went alright and we were on track. I didn"t even realise when my tiredness crept over my senses and I stopped being vigilant about the road. Eric, I can"t forget the pain on her face when I pulled her out. Her skin was ghostly white and she wouldn"t respond to me. I felt like dying at that moment. I was the one who did that to her."
Eric hadn"t seen Hui break down like this EVER. He had stopped for a minute with Dr Adams to hear the diagnosis of the local doctor about Lin Jia Li and Hui. Apart from a mild concussion, she seemed to be fine and Hui had escaped completely unharmed. But looking at him describing the chain of events, he felt as if Jia Li was in a critical condition.
Wait, was this the guilt of a man who was starting to feel responsible for a woman"s well-being?
Despite the circ.u.mstances, a smile crept on Eric"s face. It seemed Hui was on a fast track as far as his feelings for the woman inside the room were concerned. Hui raised his head to look at him at that moment.
"What is amusing about any of what I have told you? I can"t believe that you are smiling at this point in time," he said, hurt and perplexed.
"I, uh…I wasn"t smiling. I am just happy," Eric said cryptically.
Hui looked at him as if he had grown two horns on his head.
"You are happy that your friend and your colleague have been in an accident? You have a weird sense of humour," he remarked caustically.
Hui had always been straight forward with Eric, starting from the time when he hired him. Eric decided to return that favour tonight.
"I am happy that my friend has finally found someone worthy of his emotions. I am happy that you are sitting here, waiting for her and going through the turmoil of feeling her pain rather than leaving her in the care of strangers and sending her a "get well soon" card. I am really really happy…" he said bluntly but kindly.
Ying Hui"s shocked expressions were nearly comical. He went absolutely still. Anyone knowing him would recognise this being the time when he was completely inwardly focussed. His brain worked at such a fast speed in such moments, that most of the other body functions simply stood still, not willing to cause any distraction to his thought process!
Eric knew that he had given a jolt to his friend but looking at the emotions flitting across his face when he had been describing his guilt about causing pain to Jia Li, he knew that the guy was completely smitten with her.
Eric had been in a long distance relations.h.i.+p for the past seven years successfully. His girlfriend was on the verge of finis.h.i.+ng her PhD in the field of Stem Cells. When Eric had left the sh.o.r.es of New York, he had asked her to come along but she had insisted upon completing her studies there. His worried heart had palpitated when he thought of long distance love and its challenges. It had needed a lot of effort and willingness to make it work, but they had done so. For the past year or so, he had marriage on his mind and was just waiting for his girl, Melissa to finish her doctorate.
So, yes, he knew all about love and its trials, tribulations and pitfalls.