"What? What did you say? Lost his memory?" Jia Li asked repeatedly.Wei, who had been overhearing the conversation, took the phone from Jia Li"s hand and asked precise and concise questions. They were walking back to Jia Li"s house from the hospital. He put down the phone after a minute.
At her look of enquiry, he said, "as per the doctor, Tang is suffering from a short term memory loss. He seems to have forgotten the past six years of his life. Apparently he was in a similar accident then."
"Yes, I remember. His car had been hit by another car while he was driving upstate from New York for an end of the year celebration. His car had skidded and banged into a tree, which had ended up saving him from falling off the cliff. I had spent the next twenty four hours in a dreadful waiting period. There was no one except his roommate whom I knew who could keep me posted about his condition. Horrible memories," she s.h.i.+vered involuntarily.
Wei immediately wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"Why aren"t you dressed suitably for the weather? Do you know that there are people in this world who care about your well-being and your careless att.i.tude towards yourself, hurts them every time. For example, your running away in the middle of a call without informing me or anyone else about it. I spent the entire night pacing the room, wondering what has happened. It was finally the caretaker at the inst.i.tute who came to check the incessant ringing of your mobile in your cabin. It was also him who told me that you had dashed out in a hurry. Thankfully you had the sense to tell him that you were going to the hospital, else I would have had to tour the entire length and breadth of Moganshan looking for you. I drove like a maniac to come here," he spoke with reproach evident in his voice.
She turned to face him, "I am really sorry. In that moment, I couldn"t think of anything. I didn"t mean to worry you, yet again."
"I want the right to worry about you. I want to be the one, whom you can rest your weary head on. I want to take responsibility for you. And I will wait till you are ready to give me this right," he held her face in his gloved hands and stared into her eyes.
Jia Li broke the eye lock and looked away in an embarra.s.sed confusion. She didn"t know how to handle his romantic overtures. Her mind was filled with worry over Tang"s health and she couldn"t think beyond it for now. A part of her reminded her ruthlessly that he was a married man and had his entire family to take care of him. But she was feeling uneasy for not being around when he was hurt.
"Are you going back to Shanghai today?" she asked as they reached the entrance to her house.
"In a hurry to get rid of me?" he asked, trying to cover the disappointment by jesting.
"No, you misunderstand. I wanted to know if I should get a room booked for you at the usual place or not," she explained with a smile.
"The house looks the same. You seem to have done a decent job maintaining it. Your parents would be happy sitting up in heaven ," both Jia Li and Wei turned upon hearing this.
Mr. Xie had stepped out of his car and was surveying the place.
"What are you doing here, Uncle? I thought you were at the hospital," Wei frowned.
"I went to the marketplace to buy some congee which Tang has been fond of since childhood. Saw you both walking from a distance, so stopped by," he said neutrally.
"Please excuse me. I am going in now," Jia Li addressed no one in particular, not wis.h.i.+ng to spend even a single minute in that man"s presence.
"Actually, I wanted to have a word with you, if you don"t mind," Mr. Xie looked at her.
Her heart hammering, she was transported back to being the twenty two year old naïve girl. With no choice to extract herself without being rude, she gestured him to follow her inside the house.
"I will see you around, w.a.n.g Wei. Maybe we could go visit the inst.i.tute later, hmm? You could give me a tour," Mr. Xie said to Wei in a dismissive tone.
Much as he wanted to be a part of the conversation, he knew he couldn"t openly defy Uncle Xie.
"Sure, Uncle Xie, whenever you say. Jia Li, I will be at the inst.i.tute. Freshen up and come to work. We"ll have breakfast together. Since your phone is still at the inst.i.tute, make sure to call me from the landline when you leave home," he said, making a point in front of Mr. Xie.