While hugging him, Xu Mey thought to herself. ’Now, more than being alone and needle pricks, I’m even more scared to lose you.’


  It’s weird how someone invades into your life and heart one day and alters your belief…… makes you question your own feelings. And they give you a sense that they love you fiercely and so completely that even if one day they left, you won’t be able to survive and you won’t be to forget them as well. They make you believe not only in themselves but also in your own self.

  K. Towne Jr. once said, ’Sometimes a heart must be broken to slip through the bars of its cage.’ For Ye Jie, it wasn’t much different as well. How his heart was broken didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was simple; it gave him a way to escape from his own comfortable love that he was used to. And escaping from that cage made him stumble upon the girl in his arms who wasn’t just invading his heart anymore. She had become a part of him. An essential part he couldn’t live without anymore.

  When Xu Mey let him go, she saw Alice and Zhu Qinyang looking at her with a smile. She wanted to bury herself in the ground at that moment.

  "Woah! What’s with this PDA?" Xu Mey heard Dr. Zhu Chen’s voice and turned to see him also smiling at her.

  "He’s my husband. Can’t I hug him?" Xu Mey stubbornly replied making everyone chuckle.

  "Of course you can. Just like I can hug my wife." Dr. Zhu Chen said as he moved closer to his wife who crossed her arms before her chest.

  "Chen! Behave!" That’s all Alice had to say and Dr. Zhu Chen straightened up.

  It was Xu Mey’s turn to chuckle. "Auntie Qin-Qin, you should leave now." She said.

  "This early?"

  "Don’t you have to work today?" Zhu Qinyang sighed sadly and nodded.

  She turned to Dr. Zhu Chen and Alice. "Uncle Chen, you can keep us company right?"

  Dr. Zhu Chen smiled at her and replied, "Of course, I can!" All of a sudden, a thought invaded his mind making appear a bit sad. "Gosh! I wish our Azalea was here. She would have loved you." He commented making both Ye Jie and Xu Mey stiffen up.

  "Azalea?" Xu Mey couldn’t help asking.

  "Azalea is our daughter. She’s been traveling for more than a year now." Alice replied instead of Dr. Zhu Chen. "This girl really knows how to worry us to death. We haven’t heard her voice or seen her all this time."

  Ye Jie went blanched. He was completely lost. Alice’ last statement made everything even more clear to him. His body was trembling terribly but he had to bit the inside of his mouth to keep his calm. Xu Mey turned to see him. He smiled with force. "I’ll be back in a while baby." He said and left a kiss at the top of her head before leaving abruptly.

  He drove faster than usual and arrived at the Star Emperor Hospital where Lin Shen had transferred Azalea 4 days ago. He walked into her room and sat beside her bedside. He held his head in his hands and took deep breaths. But when he couldn’t stop his mind from running wild, he made a call.

  Before anyone could speak, he said in a choked up voice, "Ru, why is life so unfair?"

  "Unfair?" He didn’t hear the voice from the phone but rather he heard it right behind him. He instantly turned to see. There she was in dark gray button-up shirt with black pant. Her red hair swept sideways and her green eyes staring back at him.

  "Ru?" He was really surprised to see her here right in front of him. "What are you doing here? You didn’t like coming back to the country. You haven’t been back for a decade."

  "Dear friend, I came because you asked me to. And as for life," She sighed heavily. "Life has never been unfair. We only like to think that life is unfair."

  "How is this life not unfair, Ru? This life is tearing me into ribbons right now." He raised his voice in exasperation.

  Ru placed her hand on his shoulder and said, "If life is tearing you into ribbons. Then pick those ribbons and make a beautiful bow with them." She smiled at him as he was stared at her.

  "You are the one who once said that life is a nightmare in itself. And it’s a nightmare that doesn’t end just because we opened our eyes." Ye Jie reminded her with his slightly red eyes.

  "Look at her," She turned towards Azalea on the bed. "Is she a nightmare?" She asked.

  Ye Jie frowned. Was she? Was Azalea really a nightmare for him? No! She wasn’t. She was that beautiful breath of fresh air, he needed in his life. Because she liked talking and laughing all the time making it seem like everything was alright in the world.

  "No…… She’s not a nightmare." He replied still looking at that frail girl.

  "Then how can your life be a nightmare? She’s not your nightmare. She’s your truth. She’s the truth you have to embrace."

  "You’re not understanding, Ru. Today, I met her parents and they are so nice. And the worst part is they are waiting for their daughter. How am I supposed to face them?" Tears were pooling into his eyes.

  "Look at me, Jie." Ye Jie looked up at her face. "Your fear is not that you don’t need parents in your life anymore. Your fear is that you have made yourself believe that they don’t want you or they don’t need you."

  "What if they really don’t need me and that’s why I’m ’Ye Jie’?" He asked biting his bottom lip.

  "And how would you know that?" She raised her brows. "Just like you have to fall in order to grow, you also have to ask in order to know. The answers won’t come to knock at your door. You’ll have to knock at their door."

  "You really have changed." He commented looking into her eyes.

  "Change is inevitable. Isn’t it? I just learned to choose between staying and fading away." She smiled sadly.

  "You’ve also learned to smile." He added.

  "Smiles are often like a mask. The masks we don’t want to take off. You’re the only person who knows what lies behind my smile, and yet you like asking me weird questions."

  "When did you come back?"

  "The same night you asked me to." She smiled again and said, "Stop asking questions now. Your sister is awake." She said and looked at Azalea.