Chen Feiyu could feel his nerves tingling.
However, he hopes this conversation would end well.
He prays for it.
"Feiyu-ge!" Yue's younger brother, Shen Yang, opened the door.
"Hey Yang! How are you?"
"I'm ok", the younger man led him inside, "You're probably here for Jie, right? I'll call her from her room."
"Thank you", he answered with a polite smile as he sat in their living room.
The Shens have, what one would call, a beautifully warm home.
Feiyu and Zuer have always enjoyed coming here.
However, this visit is different from all others as Feiyu, armed with the best plan he could come up with in his head about how to talk to Yue about the situation they are in, knows that he could lose a friend today if Yue decides to "NOT" listen to him and defend her boyfriend.
Wang He Di can be very convincing when he wants to. He could condition anyone into believing him as an innocent or a victim. The man's almost god-like ability to make anyone believe his words can probably even convince a plant.
If only Feiyu noticed everything sooner and acted on it, things wouldn't come to a head like this.
He heard the patter of feet and looked up to see the one person he's been wanting to talk to for the past days.
"IT REALLY IS YOU!" She looked surprised.
"Yes, Yue. It's me", he answered with a smile and moved to kiss her on the cheek as casually as he could, "Are you busy?"
"Not this morning. I have a dentist's appointment later in the afternoon, though. Have you eaten breakfast?"
There was heaviness in the air despite how normal they greeted each other.
This is the first time they've seen each other since the "incident" they had with Wang He Di and the shock in seeing him here right now is probably adding more to the tension that she obviously feels.
Feiyu has the upper hand here, though, and if it is only possible for them to discuss this without Yue ever feeling like she is being attacked, he would have chosen that course.
But he has no other option but to spring this on her.
He worries that if DiDi gets wind of this, he might wrap Yue tighter around his finger.
"I haven't had breakfast. Coffee would be great" he answers.
IF he gives her time to get her bearings back, this could at least be more comfortable for them.
"Let's head on over the veranda", she pointed to him, "I'll go get us coffee. Wait for me."
***
As Song Zuer swept their house with her eyes one last time to make sure she didn't forget anything as she heads on over her parents with her son, her eyes landed on Feiyu's phone on the side table near their foyer.
It was ringing.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Oh! Zuer? So Feiyu really IS sick."
Han Tao, one of her husband's teammates, sounded relieved at the other end of the line.
HER HUSBAND ISN'T IN THE OFFICE???
It took her a while before she could answer. "Oh... yes, Tao. He is just resting right now."
"That's good. I wanted to check on him because he called our Boss but wasn't able to call any of us. He must be feeling really bad. Anyway, I hope he gets better soon Zuer. He's been looking like a ghost in the office so it's probably because he already had the flu."
Zuer felt her hands go cold.
"Th – Thank you Tao for checking in on him."
"Of course, Zuer. Sorry too since you might have your hands full right now."
She put the phone down, feeling her legs about to give way.
She closed her eyes as all kinds of thought washed through her.
As if willed by forces outside of her control, she checked on Feiyu's phone trying to see any signs of what could possibly be triggering his strange behavior and today's lie.
Could he be cheating on her?
DEAR GOD IF THAT WAS THE REASON -
In all of their time together and despite knowing his phone's password, she has never looked through his phone, BUT she finds herself doing so now without an ounce of guilt building up inside her.
She needs to find out or her head will explode.
Zuer went through his messages like a mad woman, checking, double-checking.
"Yue, we need to talk."
There. Written just this morning and saved on his drafts.
Her eyes popped wide like saucers and instead of the relief she supposed she should feel at the seeming confirmation that he isn't cheating on her, a downpour of dread claimed her heart.
Why is her husband messaging Shen Yue so they could talk? And why didn't he talk to her about this?
Why did he hide THIS from her????
Dear God. Dear God. Dear God.
She immediately ran back the living room to take her baby.
As she backed her car out of the house, she prays that Feiyu has not yet done anything that could potentially destroy the happiness of one of her great friends.
She tried to call Yue's phone while driving but received no response.
"FEIYU WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?", she screamed in frustration at her husband inside her head.
She prayed to the heavens, Yue would answer her phone.
Zueris going to scream at her husband directly if this is something monumentally stupid and possibly damaging to two people that she cares a lot about.
"Don't be stupid Feiyu. Please... please... please don't be stupid."
***
"The last time we saw each other ended on a bad note", Feiyu told the writer now after he sipped on his coffee.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to talk to you after what happened. I should have called you or messaged you at least", she responded sincerely.
"Don't worry about it, Yue. Also... I understand if Wang He Di didn't want you to talk to me after what happened. I am sure he is still very angry with me."
There is no denying the fury the Wang Corp. heir unleashed on him that day. Feiyu still remembers the fire Wang He Di's eyes lit up with when he turned to him.
Yue, however, surprised him now by reaching out for his hand. "I think DiDi was just surprised that day. He has had to go through a lot Feiyu and I know that this is going to be shocking for you to hear but I believe that the next time you see each other, things would turn out differently."
He stopped himself from sighing.
Indeed, she is far deeper into it than he hoped. BUT, this isn't unexpected.
"Yue... the reason why I wanted to see you is to talk about DiDi."
Her brows furrowed.
"Uhmmmm.... OK."
Immediately, her guard came up.
Feiyu felt it as though she had raised the drawbridge of her castle up on him and she had stood on top of the gates to hear out his terms.
Who knew a day would come when one of the first people in his life who he considered a friend after the incident with the Wangs would be like this?
He sucked in his breath.
"Do you remember that first conversation we had when you asked whether you could write about our story?"
She nodded.
"I didn't say yes to you because at that time, Zuer and I just got our feet back up and it's only been two years since I found a steady job after the fiasco I experienced. I was afraid the story would be traced back to us and I would feel Wang He Di's wrath on me again. My wife was pregnant, we were working hard towards a better future, I could lose so much."
"I remember talking to you to convince you..."
He smiled. "You did. You told me that you wanted to write our story because it showed everything about love – how ugly it could be yet how beautiful, how it opens wounds and closes them, how it brings you so much fear yet so much courage, how it could both be so dark yet so full of light all at the same time."
"I told you too how fate could be funny."
"And I told you what if this isn't fate but me going against fate, going against what God destined."
Yue smiled. "I told you that if it felt like heaven, it couldn't have come from the Devil."
"You were very persuasive."
"I had to be. I loved your story."
"We were both lucky that you decided to write OUR story. My gratitude towards you won't ever go because for the longest time, I looked down on myself. I don't regret and I will never regret going all out for love. BUT you and I both know nothing justifies what I did. I stole away another man's fiancée and I left behind a girl who loved me, who went through heaven and hell just to be able to come back to me... I was the shittiest person in the world.
But when we talked, and you asked me if you could write it and let me read it first – your words on your draft reminded me that I wasn't a devil. Yes, I was wrong. Yes, I made a grave mistake BUT I was human. I am human.
And as a human... I have the opportunity to be reborn, I have the chance to still redeem myself, I wasn't a lost cause, and no matter how much damage I brought on DiDi and Zi Wei – I didn't have to continually punish myself because I have endured so much already just to have Zuer by my side.
I fought for the woman I love.
And you told me that continuing to suffer hinders from me totally loving my wife and I have to let all of my pain and guilt go.
I believed you then as I continue to believe you now.
But I am struggling.
I am struggling to continue on in that belief, especially learning about you and DiDi being together, and that you are writing a second book.
You – the person who believed in me, the person who wrote my story, the person who told me to believe in myself, the person who said she would always be by my side. Has your mind changed? Is it possible you were wrong then? That I was wrong? That I AM wrong? Maybe I really shouldn't have believed you? Should I continue to suffer –"
"CHEN FEIYU! Do you hear yourself?!?"
"Tell me, Yue. Are we both wrong??? Now that you've talked to Wang He Di and Zi Wei, do you think we're still right? Or are you discarding EVERYTHING you told me before? Are you discarding me and Zuer that's why you hid your relationship with Wang He Di and that you are writing a second book that talks of their perspective from us?"
She looked at him with her eyes caught in a battle that Feiyu would never really know about. She took her time to answer him.
"I am not going back on what I told you before Feiyu because none of it is wrong. You ARE human, Zuer IS human, I AM human, DiDi IS human, and Zi Wei IS human. We can all make mistakes, we can all fall down, we can all do things we never thought we would do because of love. And everything I told you are the very same things that I continue to hold on to and also believe in for both DiDi and Zi Wei. You do not need to be wrong for them to be right or they do not need to be right for you to be wrong.
Honestly, I think we are already past the point of right and wrong because love is not black and white. There could be different shades of gray in between and in the folds of those grays, we could all find ourselves."
"Does Wang He Di hold the same view as you?"
"HE DOES!"
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Wang He Di is a different man now from who he was years ago. He is a different man now from who he was even a month ago. Feiyu... I won't deny how angry he WAS but he doesn't hold on to that anger anymore. He has let go of it."
He scoffed. "I don't know if I can believe you. You have to admit that you are biased towards him, Yue. And of course, with him now owning shares in the company that prints your books, you ought to be putting in a good word for him."
Her brows furrowed. "WHAT?!?!?!?!"
"You have so much invested on him, right? He's your boyfriend, he apparently now owns at least half of MANTRA and he didn't miss a beat letting me know that. Our company has never serviced any of the businesses Wang He Di holds and then all of a sudden, we get called by MANTRA where I learn that he apparently has 50% of the shares and you are coming out with a second book that is a sequel to the book you wrote about Zuer and I. So... tell me Yue, he really does not hold a grudge against me anymore? Against us? Has he really been able to FINALLY let go of all the rage he has against me that led him to make me unemployable for more than a year and for my residency application to the US to be rejected? He seems to have buttered you up too well that you really cannot say anything bad about him. He has you in his clutches and you dare tell me that he is different. You dare tell me –"
His head almost turned 180 degrees back at the force of Yue's slap.
She looks as angry as he feels.
But he isn't through.
Yue needs to realize that Wang He Di is using her, that he hasn't changed one bit, and that he is much more evil than the first time the two of them fought.
Feiyu will take all of her slaps if it means that Yue will wake up from the "curse" DiDi has her under so she understands that, at the end of all of this, that man's goal is still the same.
He wants Zuer back.
Wang He Di.
The man, the devil, has not changed at all.