"Do you think some miracle is going to take place, Mr. Shrink? He and I will talk and all our misunderstandings will get cleared. By some magic, his parents shall embrace me, accept me and we shall have a happy ending?" sarcasm dripped from her tongue.Li Jie grinned, "I like your line of thought. It gives me insight to your deepest desires".
She punched him lightly and said, "enough nonsensical sermon has been distributed for the day. I am honestly not hungry, so please count me out of the breakfast plan. If you don"t mind, I would like to go back to sleep now. Its only 6 in the morning! See you in an hour or two".
Xie Chu, Tang"s younger sister, greeted Li Jie on the stairs, "hi big brother, you look lost first thing in the morning".
Li Jie smiled in response and gave an enquiring look towards the foreigner who had his one arm draped around her shoulder and the other carrying a suitcase.
She smiled and introduced, "Big brother, meet Ethan. We work together at the news channel in New York. He is their best investigative journalist".
"It"s very nice to meet you Ethan. Is this your first experience of coming to China?" he asked.
Ethan told him about his numerable trips to China but confessed to this being his first exposure to a glittering upscale Chinese wedding.
They chatted pleasantly for a while before Chu asked a touch nervously, "have you seen brother Tang? Would you know if he is awake already? Also, do you have any idea of what kind of mood is he in?"
Before Li Jie could say something, Chung came up to them and warned, "if you hold your life dear, you would go anywhere near that surly bear you call your brother. He is in the blackest mood I have ever seen him to be in a long long time. Hi, I am Deng Chung".
He continued cheekily, "and especially if you need his approval for something important, this is the wrong most time".
Xie Chu turned crimson before explaining that there was nothing that urgent or significant.
"By the way, where is Jia Li? I have hardly seen her ever since you guys have arrived. I think she left the party early last night. I couldn"t even manage to exchange a single word with her", she mused.
Li Jie and Chung exchanged looks before Li Jie spoke up, "she is actually quite zoned out. She was in Africa for some work last week. She came back and threw herself into working for the next convention, which is taking place in Beijing in the coming month. I think she has worked herself into a state of exhaustion. But she shall surface sooner than later".
Chu turned around and addressed Ethan, who had been taking all this in quietly, "why don"t you head up to your room and catch a nap? I shall come wake you up in a couple of hours".
She waited for Ethan to go up before whispering to both the men whom she had held dear since her childhood, "well, what do you think?"
Both men feigned to not understand her question and got a punch each on their ribs.
"All right, calm down girl! Well I think he is very cute and seems to have a mature head on his shoulders", said Li Jie with a wink.
"I happen to concur with him on this one and I think Tang would agree with us too", smiled Chung, answering her unspoken question.
"I was wondering if I should make him meet Jia Li before I introducing him to brother Tang or Mom. If she approves of him, there is no chance that he would say no", she said excitedly.
Realising her mistake, she hastened to correct herself, "I meant their choices and thought processes used to be quite similar in the past…"
Chung gave her a pat on the shoulder, "you don"t need to watch your words around us. We know exactly what you mean and I think there is no harm if Jia Li gets to know him a bit. He would be relaxed around her and you know she has a knack of getting people to confide their deepest secrets to her. I think it"s part of her charm."
She hugged Chung and walked up towards Jia Li"s room while Li Jie took the moment to tell him about what had transpired with Jia Li a while ago.
"I haven"t seen her this stressed for a really long time. She was in a bad shape when I walked into her room. For a moment I considered calling you up but she somehow reined in her emotions eventually", he recounted.