Chapter 374 - Worst of it All

Liu Meilien was braced against her seat as Qing Lok kept on speeding on the highway. She was sure that they were not going to crash into anything but she could not help but clutch on her seatbelt, praying.

"Where are we going?" she asked. Her voice came out like she was choking.

Qing Lok took a peek at her and slowed down a little. "Relax, we're not going to die."

"I know!" she defended. When she saw that the speedometer's needle was finally in a reasonable angle, she let go of the seatbelt.

She had ridden with Qing Lok a lot of times already. It seemed like he was just really used to driving fast because most of the time that he was out of the house, the roads were already empty.

But knowing that he was frustrated about his mother's return from the dead, she didn't want to take chances. She didn't want to die yet!

"Where are we going?" she asked again. She really had to stop this boy from dragging her to places—or she should stop herself from going along with him everywhere. But unfortunately, that was a skill she had yet to attain.

"I don't know," he said. "I grabbed an envelope on the way out from father's office. Can you check it?" his thumb jutted to the backseat.

Liu Meilien reached for it and noticed that something jingled inside. There was a sticker attached to the front. It was a name of a property and an address.

"What does it say?" Qing Lok asked.

Liu Meilien told him the address and he took the nearest exit off the freeway. "You said these keys were in your father's office?"

"Yeah, in a file cabinet."

Liu Meilien's jaw almost dropped. She knew that the Qings were rich. But not rich enough that their properties would be in a filing cabinet! 

Qing Lok must have seen her expression because he added, "Most of it came from inheritance. The other ones were because of sister-in-law's father. He's a good real estate man."

Liu Meilien nodded. "So we're going to stay there?"

"At least for tonight. I don't want to be anywhere near home."

They spent hours in that living room trying to find the very woman Qing Lok was running away from. "I thought you wanted to find her."

"I did!" Qing Lok said, his voice stressed. "But I didn't think that we would really see her again." He shook his head. "And alive at that."

Liu Meilien made no more comment because it didn't look like Qing Lok wanted to talk about it. She stayed in her seat and got quiet. She should really let Wang Yimin know what was going on with her lately. She had been missing too much work.

Maybe she would be able to get back to it as the person that they were searching for resurfaced on her own.

She could not even say that she understood Qing Lok. Her mother did not rise out of the dead. Her mother was alive and well… and still ignoring her.

Qing Lok didn't go straight to the house and went through a drive-thru first. She was chewing on her food when he finally broke the silence. She was thankful.

"What's going on in your mind?" he asked, driving with a hand, a burger in the other.

"I'm thinking about what's going on in YOUR mind."

He shook his head like he didn't want to explain—or that he didn't know how to explain. "It was surreal. For a second there, I thought I was dreaming when I saw her on the table. She got old but it was her."

In Qing Lok's mind, her mother's blue eyes flashed. It was rounded with slightly withered skin, just like his father's. But it remained the same. There was uncertainty in her eyes when they entered the room. 

It hit him right in the chest to find her there that he was convinced that his heart had stopped beating for a few seconds. Or a minute.

He even fainted!

When they were finally around the table, he could not help but keep glancing on her. He was sure she was just an apparition or a ghost. Sadly, she was too engrossed with the way Wuming had been burning her with his words to notice him.

As he listened to them bicker, Qing Lok realized all the points of Wuming. Their mother didn't have to leave. She hated them when she was exactly the same as they were.

"I think I'm being too narrow minded with everything that was happening," he told Liu Meilien. "Do you think I should've listened her side of the things?"

Liu Meilien nodded. "You really should've. She must dying to talk to you."

At the mention of dying, Qing Lok could not help but laugh. "She must like that… to die for the second time."

Liu Meilien smiled at him. It was good to see him smiling again. "We should go back tomorrow. I'd love to meet your mother."

"Let's see," Qing Lok nodded.

**

"Boss, she's home," said the voice from the doorway.

"Of course she is," Checks said. "Where else would she go?" he laughed. "She had been chasing our tails for the past years. Now, the tables turned."

Checks shook his head. "She shouldn't have gone there. We got her cornered! What was she thinking?"

"Her sons were spotted leaving the property earlier this morning."

"What does she expect? That they would throw a party for her?" Checks sighed and looked at the picture on top of his table. It had been framed in the same frame that it had been since it was developed around thirty years ago.

It was a picture of him and Christina, or Hao Suyin as she liked to go as nowadays, in the training camp. "Leaving your home in the first place was a wrong decision. But returning to it was the worst of it all."