Resorting to the only recourse left, she composed herself and sat straight, face expressions neutral. "Owww!"
Tang"s voice rang loudly in the open cafeteria. Everyone at the table looked at him in surprise whilst he looked at her in confusion. Taking advantage of everyone"s attention upon him, she quickly picked up her phone and gestured him to take a look at his own.
"Are you alright, brother Tang?" Zheng He was perplexed at his maternal cousin"s behaviour today.
"Yeah, I err… I guess I banged into one of the table"s legs," he replied feebly, rubbing his s.h.i.+n with his fingers.
He picked up his phone causally after everyone"s attention had moved away from him.
"Don"t eat the soup. It contains lotus stem," the message read.
He smiled brightly, enough for his dimple to appear and catch his cousin"s attention. That was a rare sight.
"He has completely gone off the track today. Is he on drugs or something? What is with the polar opposite reactions and that too without any reason. Should I be worried about having him as my business partner," Zheng He wondered.
"Thanks for saving me from turning into a bright red turnip. Lotus stem still gives me a vicious allergic reaction. I am immensely grateful," he wrote back.
Jia Li read the message but didn"t bother replying to it. She ignored him completely during the remaining period.
"If you don"t mind, I would love to visit your much speculated and spoken about laboratory. I have heard that it is state of the art and has few of the most innovative things functional in there," Zheng He gushed to Hui, post the lunch.
Hui obviously couldn"t say no in face of such a request. As a result, both the partners and Hui decided to go for the visit. Jia Li made an excuse about pending work at the office and made an escape from there.
She reached her workstation and breathed in a sigh of relief. She was still recovering from the panic which she had felt when she belatedly remembered his intolerance to lotus stem. When the menu had been prepared, there had been nothing in the brief from Zhen He"s company about food preferences. She thanked her stars that she had recalled it at the right time.
The only time when she had seen him in immense pain, had been many years ago. They had visited a new restaurant in Moganshan and ordered the dishes without paying much attention.
Tang had clutched him stomach within the first fifteen minutes after leaving the place. He had puked his guts out till the time there was nothing left in his stomach. He had to be hospitalised post that, because of severe stomach cramps. She had been scared s.h.i.+t and had made a solemn promise to herself about never forgetting to check the ingredients in his food. Not that she had gotten much chance to do so, since they had hardly dined together, post that.
"I will be waiting in the lane behind your office at 6p.m.. It won"t be good if I caused a traffic jam outside your workplace. Don"t be late," her phone buzzed with the message from him.
"I am busy. Don"t bother waiting," she replied shortly.
"At least give me a chance to explain everything before you get angry," he texted back.
After waiting for a few minutes, he understood that he won"t be receiving any more responses from the other end.
By the time Jia Li finished her work, it was dark outside. She had deliberately delayed her leaving the office.
"Ms. Lin, you are still here?" Hui looked at her in surprise. He had just punched in his card to come inside the office as she was picking up her bag to leave.
She replied that she had wanted to finish few pending things before calling it a day.
"Thank you for helping out today. You did well," he said softly.
Jia Li smiled widely at the unexpected praise. It was a rare occasion when Mr. Ying said these words to anyone. Hui blinked in the brilliance of her smile. Lethal stuff!
"Uh… I was wondering if, that is… is all well with you? You looked slightly out of sorts this morning," he asked hesitatingly.
Jia Li was taken aback. She had been extra cautious about keeping her face impa.s.sive through the day but it seemed that she had slipped somehow somewhere. She told him that she was fine and maybe the stress of things going smoothly would have been on her mind. She bid him a hasty farewell and made her escape.
She went out and was slightly disappointed. A part of her had thought that he would have been at least waiting outside, if not causing a traffic jam. But seemed that he had complied with her wishes.
"Good, that"s good. I didn"t want to meet him as well," she told herself.