Chapter 122 - I Turned Into A Wife

Feng Lizhao arrived at his daughter's house first. He had been too calm about everything that was happening that it was also making him panic a little.

He had no doubt that Qing Chen would return his daughter back to him—in one piece, he hoped. Feng Lizhao was certain that this was the event that would make his daughter come back to him. After all that she had been to, especially with what happened with her accident just recently, he was not really hoping anymore for his daughter to stay hidden in the dark. Qing Chen was right. Feng Xuan had to know the truth now that there was a man after their lives.

It had been six years ago when Feng Xuan had been first kidnapped. She and her mother had been taken to a cabin in the woods. He did not even bother to know how many of the men there his daughter put to grave.

It was as if his whole world fell apart when he saw his dead wife on the floor and his daughter half-crying and half-laughing while all that madness were happening around them. But he knew one thing, he had turned Feng Xuan into a murderer and his wife a corpse. He had been too late.

Technology weren't as great before as it was nowadays. Tracing them took a lot of time, especially because he didn't know who among their enemies had finally got a nerve to attack one of the pillars of Enigma. He immediately called Qing Zihao the moment he knew that his wife and daughter had been abducted.

"It'll be alright," said the other mafia lord.

But it hadn't been alright. He thought his daughter had gone crazy. And she had for a short while.

He had consulted a psychiatrist about the horror he had witnessed, his daughter laughing while the body of dead men lay in her wake. The psychiatrist had told him that the laughter was Feng Xuan's way of telling herself that not everything was bed even though it was THAT bad.

Something inside of his daughter snapped. The first few times she had woken up, thinking she was still to save her already dead mother, she almost drove herself to her own death. 

He breathed out. Hopefully, this time she would be in a better condition. What he was most worried about, was for his daughter to choose to leave. 

The door opened and came in Feng Xuan wearing Qing Chen's coat and his son-in-law was in a blood-covered white shirt. "Ah!" he stood up. "There you are."

"Father," her daughter sighed in relief and hugged him with both arms. She smelled of sweat and metal and she was dirty.

His eyes surveyed her and found that she was not injured as much as he thought she would be. "You look great."

"I know right?" Feng Xuan laughed. "I think I was in a way worse condition during my first time."

That shut him up. His daughter shrugged the coat off and he and Qing Chen exchanged a knowing look.

"You two," said Feng Xuan, "are going to sit down and tell me eve-ry-thing. But first, I need a drink." She disappeared into the kitchen.

"She had her first whiskey when she was ten. Told me she wanted to celebrate now that her age was in double digits."

Qing Chen smiled and tiredly plopped down the couch on the other end from his father-in-law. "You were right. She remembers everything. She didn't want to talk on the way here."

"Yeah, well, a kidnapping is the last straw for her to remember. I would be shocked if she came back with still no memories."

Feng Xuan was carrying three squat glasses and a bottle of golden liquid. She messily poured themselves a shot and raised her glass. "To my memories," she said and tilted her head. She let out a groan and shiver crawled through her body. "That's better. Now, talk."

Qing Chen sipped on his glass as Feng Lizhao fill in what Feng Xuan had missed during the years that she was not 'completely' herself.

"I turned into a wife," she said with her eyes wide, she was staring off into space like it was the worst nightmare. "I can't believe I enrolled in a cooking academy and made my own bakeshop." She shivered again and Qing Chen could not help but silently laugh at her reaction. "In the end my mom won, huh?"

She had badly wanted to save her mother and failed. It was her only way of keeping her mother close—even if it meant losing herself and being the daughter her mom had always wanted her to be.

"It was not that bad," said Feng Lizhao and turned to Qing Chen. "It was pretty great, wasn't it?"

Qing Chen nodded and spoke for the first time. "You were doing a really great job and you looked like you were having a good time."

Feng Xuan only looked mortified and put her fingertips to her lips. "I cannot believe I did all this. Holy f.u.c.k."

Both men went silent as Feng Xuan seemed to process the life she had lived for the past six years. She turned to Qing Chen and he felt like his heart leaped from nervousness. "Tell me more about what happened in the mafia."

There was not much to say about the mafia. Those days of immense trouble were long gone. He told her about what they knew about The Zookeeper.

"Yeah," she nodded slowly. "They said it was The Keeper—from when I was first kidnapped. Same person, I guess?"

"I believe so."

Feng Xuan stood up and stretched with a yawn, arcing her back like a cat. "It's getting late. Let's talk more about this tomorrow. You should head home, Father."

After they said goodbye, Qing Chen was now alone with his "new" wife. 

Feng Xuan looked at him with a smile. "You and I are going to talk."