After disconnecting the call when Xu Mey saw Zhou Qi’s crumpled up face, she couldn’t keep her smirk obscure. She felt triumphant for a moment before realizing; that lime bitterness was not even close to one bit of the pain that Zhou Qi had given to Wu Wang.

  She took a deep breath, dropped her phone on the couch and plopped down right beside Azalea.

  Azalea gave her a questioning look and Xu Mey returned a reassuring smile to her saying, "Don’t worry. He won’t tell Jian-Ge anything for now."

  Azalea felt a huge burden lifting off of her shoulders and reclined back in relaxation.

  After reassuring Azalea, Xu Mey turned to look straight at Zhou Qi. She felt like there was no need to hide her hostility for Zhou Qi from Azalea anymore since Azalea was already acquainted with Wu Wang.

  "And may I ask what brought you to our humble abode?" Azalea couldn’t help but cough at the sarcastic remark of Xu Mey.

  "Can’t I come to just meet you? After all, you’re my cousin’s wife." Zhou Qi wasn’t wrong but Xu Mey knew that even in their last meeting, she had made her impression about Zhou Qi very clear by disregarding her presence altogether.

  "Oh, cut it! Just get to the point!" Xu Mey didn’t bother playing around with words and got straight to the business without dilly-dallying.

  "Aren’t you biased towards me?" Zhou Qi asked, elegantly crossing her one leg over the other.

  "Ms. Zhou, do you know that I have four best friends?" Zhou Qi frowned at her question but still shook her head in reply. "In all my best friends, Wu Wang was the only one who never hid his emotions from the world. You can even call him an over-expressive kind of a person."

  "What are you getting at?" Zhou Qi asked trying to maintain the calm and gentle smile on her face but it was getting tough.

  "My point is that now, my Wang-Ge likes to hide behind people’s criticism to avoid facing his own emotions." Xu Mey neither concealed the bitterness in her voice nor the disdain in her eyes. "And the reason for me losing my joyful and expressive brother is; you!" Xu Mey pointed a stern finger at Zhou Qi’s face.

  Zhou Qi’s face went blanch and her heart felt like it was being pricked by Xu Mey’s words but she bit the inside of her lips to keep herself from breaking down before Xu Mey.

  Watching from the sidelines, Azalea could see Xu Mey intentionally hurting Zhou Qi while Zhou Qi clenching her fists making her knuckles pale. If Xu Mey’s sardonic feelings were not concealed from her then Zhou Qi’s painful expressions were also not unnoticed by her.

  "I should take my leave, " Zhou Qi said with much difficulty before sprinting out the door.

  "That was really mean of you, " Azalea commented after Zhou Qi left.

  It wasn’t like Xu Mey didn’t know what she said but what she really didn’t know was that her words were more than just painful for Zhou Qi. Xu Mey didn’t want to say anything to Azalea, so, she went upstairs.

  Thinking about something Azalea stood up and paced up to the door. "I really wish that I’m wrong." She softly said to no one in particular and pulled open the door.

  She looked around for a while and crossed the cobblestone pathway in the front garden to walk out of the main gate.

  She ended up cursing with a sigh, "D*mn!"

  She cursed because her thinking was proved right once again. Zhou Qi was sitting on the ground hugging her knees and burying her face in them.

  When Azalea came closer to her, she saw the way Zhou Qi’s shoulders were shaking giving away the fact that she was indeed sobbing silently. Whoever said that ’The silent tears hold the hardest pain was indeed telling the truth. Azalea shook her head silently and perched right beside her on the ground.

  Noticing someone’s presence, Zhou Qi instantly wiped her tears and stopped her silent sobs. "You can keep crying, I don’t mind," Azalea told her in a soft voice with a reassuring smile.

  Zhou Qi looked at Azalea’s friendly smile through her teary eyes and said, "But I mind showing you my weakness."

  Azalea chuckled making Zhou Qi frown. "Don’t worry, I’m not laughing at you." Azalea started. "I’m laughing that until last week even I believed that tears were a symbol of our weakness."

  "And now, you don’t?" Zhou Qi was perplexed.

  "No, not anymore." Azalea replied and further explained, "Last week I met a weird person who was taking care of me in the hospital. That person taught me, ’Tears are not our weakness. They are our weapons to fight. Not with the world but with the storm brewing inside of us.’" Azalea took a pause to heave a sigh and quoted again, "He also said, ’Let the tears be the raindrops to calm the storm inside of yourself. Because when you don’t let those tears drop. They rot you inside completely with the storm of buried feelings. So, let the tears fall down before they make you fall down’."

  Zhou Qi listened attentively to her words and pondered for a while before asking, "Why are you being nice to me? If you know Wu Wang then you definitely know what I have done to him."

  "As a matter of fact, I do know. I have heard a lot about you from Wang-Ge." She laughed softly at the memory and said, "I call him Ice cream brother. Do you know, why?" Zhou Qi shook her head. "Because when I was younger, I was a pampered girl and I still am. Obviously, Wang-Ge also dotted on me. But I had a habit of crying to make everyone give in to my wishes. Wang-Ge always knew that I was faking my tears but he would still always bring my favorite ice cream behind my mother’s back. And he used to say, ’Zelie, eat as much ice cream as you want and whenever you feel like crying because of the bitterness in life, just remember the taste of this sweet ice cream that Ge has bought for you’."

  Zhou Qi smiled listening about Wu Wang. It was exactly how she remembered him to be; loving. Soon, her smile turned into a sad one. Because no matter what he was now just a memory for her.

  Noticing Zhou Qi’s sad smile, Azalea patted her back lightly and said, "I know what happened back then but only the part that Wang-Ge told me. But you must have your own story to tell."

  "How can you be so considerate? Xu Mey is not like that." Zhou Qi asked.

  "Sis is biased with you because she must love Wang-Ge a lot. To be honest, I’d have been acting exactly like her if we would have met a week earlier." Suddenly, Ru’s green eyes and black hood appeared in her mind as she went on, "Someone said, ’Everyone has a story to tell and a secret to keep. It’s up to us whether we want to believe the story told or the secret left untold.’"

  She encouragingly smiled at Zhou Qi again and added, "I’m not gonna ask anything. But if you ever feel like just talking, you can find me. I’m the daughter of a psychiatrist, I definitely know how to keep a secret or two." With that, she got up from the ground with the help of the wall beside her and dusted off her pants before trudging back indoor.