Chapter 317 - Your Answer

Qing Lok and Liu Meilien were seated at the corner of a coffee shop. As Liu Meilien was already a known public figure, it was safer to stay in the shadows and spots where they would not be seen. They wanted to be alone.

But it was not that easy as people turned their heads to look at Liu Meilin when they walked in. It did not help that she was wearing pajamas.

"You look beautiful," Qing Lok whispered to her as he steered her to the corner seat. It seemed like the people in the 24-hour coffee shop understood that they didn't want to be disturbed and turned their attention away.

"I don't feel beautiful," Liu Meilien said and covered her face with her bag. "Are they looking? I look so pale. Do I even have eyebrows?!"

Qing Lok smiled at sat down next to her. "You're always beautiful. That's not even a question. As for your eyebrows, yes, they are there."

That seemed to calm her down and she dropped the bag on the seat next to her. "I can live with that."

A waitress came to take their orders and when she left, Qing Lok pulled out a laptop from his bag. Liu Meilien was taking out some papers about YANG when she finally got a good look of her boyfriend. Under the bright lights of the coffee shop, she saw that his eyes were rimmed with red and his nose was still a little pink.

She grabbed his face by the chin. "Did you cry?"

Qing Lok scrunched his nose at her and took his face away from her hand. "I'm fine."

"You're clearly not fine, Lok," she said and her hand found his back. "Why don't we talk first?"

He already turned on his laptop and only groaned. "I'm fine. I just need to do something."

Liu Meilien felt rejected. When her step-father had told her everything about the mafia, she was more than mortified with how things were still happening right under their noses. She didn't think these things happen in real life.

But she gladly accepted it--even did a dangerous mission in The Underground wherein she feared for every second of her life.

However, it was as if it was still not enough. Even though she knew about this world, she still felt like an outsider. It was like Qing Lok was in some other level that she could not get to.

There was this wall between him and her and she didn't understand why. She thought they were going somewhere with this relationship.

She transferred to the seat in front of him, so they would be apart and to give herself a space of her own. Their drinks arrived and neither of them talked so she poured her attention to her work.

With Feng Xuan in The Kingly Empire now, Liu Meilien was doing most of her step-sister's tasks nowadays. Wang Yimin was kind enough to add more money to her salary with all the extra work that she was doing.

It was about an hour before Qing Lok shut his laptop and palmed his face, looking disappointed. "Are you done with your drink?"

She nodded. "Are we good to go?"

"Where else do you want to go?"

"I want to go home, Lok. I'm really tired. I have to go to Wang Yimin's tomorrow. We have lots to plan for the second collection."

Qing Lok already sensed that her mood shifted so he got up. "Let's go."

Liu Meilien hated him for agreeing to leave. But she didn't want to get into an argument with him so she packed her bag and they left the place.

"You missed the turn," she said to him.

"I'm not taking you home. We're going to The Kingly."

"What are we going to do there?!" she was mad but she also wanted to kiss him for making the right decision of not taking her home.

"I'm going to tell you everything you want to know." He already decided that he should tell her about what was really happening right now. He was already tired of keeping things from her, especially on things like this. "Then, we're going to sleep."

"I have work tomorrow."

"I know. I promise, if you still want to go to work tomorrow I'd be the one to bring you there. You can even shop at The Kingly to change your clothes. My treat."

When they got into their room, Liu Meilien did not expect for Qing Lok to actually tell her everything. He started from when they talked to The Zookeeper, the things that they knew about the tattoo, and about his mother not being dead.

Qing Lok was already laying down while he was telling the story but it was as if he sunk lower in the bed when he finished with a sigh.

"Now I don't know if I want to find her. There was nothing about her in ANYWHERE that I tried. That was what I was trying to do in the coffee shop. There is NOTHING about her other than the things that my father made out of thin air."

"Are you sure you don't want to see her?"

"I don't want to find someone who hid themselves in the first place."

"But how are you going to make peace with yourself about that?"

Qing Lok had the strangest idea. "We burn everything. Burn that everything we know about her. Including Qing Chen's back."

Liu Meilien smiled down at him. "What's it with mothers?"

"Mothers are crazy," he sighed and pulled her by the waist. "What do you think I should do?"

Liu Meilien had no advice to give him. Her mother had never went into hiding and left a puzzle to be solved. "Do you think you can sleep at night knowing she was somewhere in this world and you don't know where she is?"

Qing Lok was quiet.

"I think you already have your answer."